Back, and just in time

Sorta lost my train of thought there. Last time I posted, it was in the nineties and uncomfortable. Right now it's 41º and a lot has happened that I let pass without comment.

First off, I got stung in the hand by a bee on Monday. I'm not allergic, but damn that hurt. I couldn't work again until Wednesday (since my job involves thinking and typing - both were impaired). So to pass the time, I sat in front of the TV all day Tuesday without guilt. Luckily, Sci-Fi was showing a Firefly marathon starting at noon. So I watched nine consecutive 1 hour episodes. I should add that I did take some breaks, since I have Tivo to help me out. Good show. M and I are going to see Serenity tonight, which is a movie based on the same story/characters as Firefly.

For those of you that don't know, Firefly was a "space western" written and produced by Joss Whedon (of Buffy and Angel fame). Ten or eleven of the episodes ran on Fox a few years ago before they cancelled it. As per network tradition, it wasn't given a chance to develop into anything, even though the characters are great, the stories interesting, and the writing superb. After the cancellation, the fans organized a letter writing campaign that resulted in green-lighting a movie. The weird part is, Fox isn't the studio, it's being done by Universal. I've heard great things, so go see it.

The space western concept isn't as weird as it sounds. The idea is that 500 years in the future, the Earth's resources have been used up, so we moved onto different planets. The story is set in the frontier of this future, where there isn't much money or technology - just people trying to live off the local resources and trade. There are quite a few tongue in cheek references to traditional westerns (in one episode, the crew of Serenity (the ship's name is Serenity) moved some cattle. In another, they rob a futuristic train). Clever. Of course, there is also a big bad guy (the Alliance) that controls the central planets. Go see the movie. I've been told that prior knowledge of Firefly isn't necessary. And if you like it, the entire series is available on DVD, plus 3 episodes that never aired on TV. My copy was shipped by Amazon yesterday.

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Ok, onto Baseball. Red Sox are tied with the Indians for the Wild Card, and are one game back of the Yanks with three to go (against the Yanks at Fenway). So a sweep means they win the AL East. 2/3 is a tie, forcing a one game playoff in the Bronx on Monday. 1/3 and we hope the White Sox take care of business against the Indians. Since the White Sox have clinched the AL Central, I'm worried. We have Wells pitching tonight, then Wakefield (yay!), and finally Schilling on Sunday. So who knows. Yankees are due for some losses - they've been hot lately. And the Red Sox offense should be well rested, they haven't produced much this month.

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J started kindergarden. Seems to like it. He comes home from school excited every day. E's trying to say a bunch of words, but having trouble getting her point across. She understands a lot though.

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Tom Delay was indicted a few days ago. And Bill Frist is in some trouble - the same sort Martha Stewart had. Maybe Frist will go to jail for awhile, then come back and host a cheesy reality show. Add those two to the Iraq and Katrina debacles, and maybe the Democrats have something going into the mid-terms. Maybe. Of course, being Democrats, I'm sure we will find a way to squander any opportunity. Not that I'm suggesting politicizing Katrina is a good thing, but this President has made the case OVER AND OVER AND OVER with a blunt object to our collective foreheads that we are living in a "post 9/11 world." Exactly. So being prepared to respond to disasters is a big piece of that. So what happens when we can't see the disaster coming in advance (as we could with Katrina)? I'm thinking trouble.

Say what you want about Clinton, but one thing he did right was put somebody in charge of FEMA that had experience with emergency management. FEMA, under James Lee Witt, was almost universally praised as a model of how a Federal agency should operate. In fairness to Bush, FEMA has traditionally been a dumping ground for political patronage. Clinton was really the first President to do this one right. But then again, we are now living in a post 9/11 world, as Bush keeps reminding me.

Ok, time to go to work...