It's so nice to know that when my cat came over minutes ago, rubbing up against my legs, purring, then pushing his head in to my hand when I dropped it down, it was all so that when I picked him up, he could use me as a ladder to get to the top of the high-back chair I'm sitting in. And for this, I scoop the litter.

So I'm hearing that the shortened name for the Washington Nationals is "Nats." Does this not strike anyone else with negative connotations? It has already resulted in the obvious references to swatting.

Because that so-and-so Tom publicly foisted this meme upon me, and Michael tagged me, too, here goes: Total size of music files on my computer: Tunaphisch is loaded with 25.72 GB of music, exactly 5,000 songs at the moment. Only one of those is a purchase from the iTunes Music Store, and "purchase" may be stretching it, since I redeemed a Pepsi cap to get the song. Last CD I Bought: Where Angels Fear to Tread by Matt Redman. Most people know Matt's work from the worship hit "Blessed Be Your Name," and this is the album it's on. Song playing in iTunes: "Come Down " from the Vineyard Music album Just Like Heaven, the second-to-last CD I bought. Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me: There are a lot of songs that I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me, so here's what you could call the current batch of such songs, and since I couldn't decide which one to give up, you get six. "Callin' Baton Rouge" by Garth Brooks - it's not often a song contains the name of your hometown, and it was while at LSU I met my wife. "Love of a Lifetime " by Firehouse - the song we danced to at our wedding. I wish the slower acoustic version had been available then. "May Your Wonders Never Cease " by Third Day - this song became incredibly important to me when our son was born, nine weeks early, and he spent the first seven weeks of his life in the hospital. Today, you would never know our toddler was a preemie, and God's wonders do indeed never cease. "Barely Stay Inside of My Own Skin" by Ceili Rain - like the song says, "Can't believe the life I get to live." Despite being unemployed, despite all of the other bad things that have happened to my family over the past two years, I still have a really great life. This is a great pick-me-up song. "Be Unto Your Name " by Robin Mark - this is one of my favorite worship songs, and I come back to it again and again. "A Living Prayer " by Alison Krauss & Union Station - I saw them perform this on Leno during the Christmas 2004 season, and Ms. Krauss' vocals cut right to the bone. The five victims I'm cursing with this meme: Since Michael stole the bulk of the ATPM bloggers, and most of the other bloggers with whom I am friends have already gone through this torture, here's my hit list. Wes Meltzer, because he needs to blog about something other than interning at Popular Mechanics.
Jim Riggs, because he always has something I like, but may not know about.
Brian Borden, because the SuperToad needs to blog about something other than politics.
Tiffany Baxendell, because Tom foisted it on me, babe, so you get to suffer, too. (And I like what Tiff has previously recommended.)
Damien Barrett, because while we don't always agree on things, he's a good guy to hang out with, and he gave me my Newton 2100.

Radical Left falls over itself volunteering packing help. Soros confirms he will cover all moving expenses. Bill Maher "despondent." News at 11.

Jim Geraghty, via Tom:

I’m being warned about the dangers of capitalism from a man who made perhaps more money from merchandising than any other man in history. I’m getting lectured about the dangers of greed from the man who authorized, “C-3POs” breakfast cereal, “The Star Wars Christmas Special” featuring Bea Arthur’s musical number, and not one but two Ewoks made-for-TV movies.

I’m being warned about the dangers of technology, and the glory of primitive cultures like the Ewoks, who are able to defeat the ‘technological terror’ of the Empire, in what is supposedly an allegory of Vietnam. Technology is bad, soulless, dangerous, and dehumanizing. Mmm-hmm. This from a man who replaced a tall man in a hairy suit, a projecting the human-eyed loyalty and sadness of Chewbacca, with the CGI cinematic war crime that is Jar-Jar Binks. A man who tossed aside the Yoda puppet, the spaceship models, the stop-motion animation of the Imperial walkers to go all-computer-animation-and-green-screen, all-the-time. Having been an ardent Star Wars fan since seeing Episode IV at the age of six, I simply choose to ignore Mr. Lucas's attempts to inject a little of his political philosophy in to the prequel eye-candy. Sometimes, you've just got to enjoy the movie for what it is and not read too much in to it.

When did Chuq visit my house?

BEDTIME: Always sleep on the human at night so he/she cannot move around.

LITTER BOX: When using the litter box, be sure to kick as much litter out of the box as possible. Humans love the feel of kitty litter between their toes. [Via Lee and myriad past e-mails.]

John Stossel ran an unscientific, blind taste test of six different brands of coffee, ranging from $12 a pound to $4 a pound. The result was, at least for me, not surprising: the more expensive brands were not necessarily the better tasting coffees. I am not a coffee drinker. I've tasted various coffees scores of times, but it is not something that is regularly brewed in our house. I do love the smell of coffee beans, and of coffee brewing, but don't care for the beverage. When my wife and I visited the big island of Hawai'i in 2001, we purchased some Kona coffee from one of the local growers, Country Samurai. While there, we learned that coffee is a lot like scotch. Most of the coffee one finds is a blend of beans, much like the inexpensive scotches one finds are a blend of malts. The best scotch is single malt, and the longer it's aged, the better. Likewise, the best coffee is from a single batch of beans. Country Samurai sells that kind of coffee, and it was the first I remember really liking. Of course, at $25 a pound, my taste for coffee runs about as expensive as my taste for scotch, which explains why either is a rare find in our home.

Courtesy of Brother Spikey Mace of Loving Kindness, according to the Unitarian Jihad Name Assignment Committee, you may now refer to me as The Gatling Gun of Compassion.

So at this past Sunday's game, we learned that Faith Lutheran--the team which handed us our only loss--lost their game earlier in the day. A win on our part would put us in a tie with them at the top of the league. Our game was called after the top of the 5th inning, due to our 11-0 score over the opposition. I played all five innings, the first two at third, the remaining three behind the plate. I was much more comfortable on defense this game, and got in a good catch and a good throw to first during my two innings at third. Offensively, I was a wee bit off. Only at the plate twice, and the first time up I struck out looking. The second at-bat was a single, right up the middle, which advanced a runner. So in the past three games, I am now seven of eight at the plate. I'm really pleased with the way my hitting has picked up, and I'm convinced it's because I'm choking up on the bat more. I really need to get to the cages for some workout with the new grip. My season average slipped to .667, and lifetime dipped to .583. All games for this coming Sunday have been rescheduled, due to it being Mother's Day. This means our second-game showdown with Faith Lutheran will now be the last game of the season. Depending on what happens in two weeks, it could be the game for all the marbles of the spring season.

Apparently, the higher-ups at Honda in the mother country love soybeans. A lot.

Lawson has a blow-by-blow review of CBS's made-for-television Locusts:

2135: Three commercial breaks already and not one Ortho commercial? Someone at CBS missed a Golden Opportunity™.

The team improved to 6-1 today, as we lost to our friends at Flower Mound UMC, 14-10. Yes, that's right, we won, but we lost. FM UMC didn't have enough players to start the game, and had to forfeit. A couple of players from Trietsch UMC, who had just finished the game before ours, volunteered to play for FM UMC, so our two teams could play. This was, however, unbeknown to our entire team, with the exception of our coach. I'm glad we got to play, and equally glad that we technically won by forfeit, because as the game wore on, our play got worse, and we relinquished the lead. As for myself, I'll chalk up my poor fielding to the two-week layoff: a Texas Rangers game last Sunday, and out of town the week before that. I switched off with Dave between third and catcher, and I really didn't have a good day at either position. It seemed I could never get the ball down quick enough to tag a runner out (I never saw a forced play the entire game), and I made critical throwing errors which oftentimes meant an extra bag for the runner. I just plain sucked. I did have one great grab in the 3d inning, as I leapt to snag a high line drive that was going to drop in to shallow left center before it met my glove. One could say that I redeemed myself at the plate, but I didn't feel it. I like playing a solid, complete game. Offensively, this was my best game of the year. I went three for three, two singles and a triple, with two RBIs. The triple felt soooooo good coming off the bat. If I could have kept it about four feet flatter, it might have made it out of the park. As high as it was, it fooled the outfielder and got behind her, rolling to the fence. If it weren't for her strong-armed counterpart who got to the ball first, I might have had a chance at an in-the-park home run. A long shot, to be sure, but interesting and fun to think about. So after seven games, five of which I've played in, I'm 11 of 16, for an average of .687, with a walk and three RBIs for the season. Not bad, but still much room for improvement. Even more improvement is required on defense. This may come through more field time, should I start playing for the men's team on Thursday nights...

Being the incredibly lame Star Wars geek that I am--I was six when Episode IV came out, and have been hooked ever since--I have made it a tradition to see the prequels at the midnight showing on release day. The first episode was a quiet affair, just my spouse and I. For Attack of the Clones, we organized a small gathering of our friends to go with us. Many things have changed in many of the lives that were with us that night of the last movie, including ours. We have a toddler now, and so my wife will not be making the midnight show of the last Star Wars film ever with me. Jeff has failed to respond to my inquiries. Michael isn't interested in the series enough to go. FranX doesn't do midnight shows for any movie. So how about it, Jim? Ricky? Brian? Dear God, who is the pathetic nerd typing this post?

For those of you with a Hipster PDA like mine, you can now have a docking station. [Via the 43 Folders del.icio.us page.]

So much for my idea of making a few bucks. This is one reason why he's my best online bud: he won't b.s. me. I guess my copy editing will continue to act as a public service.

So the team suffered its first loss of the season today, dropping to 3-1. Against an old competitor, the team collectively couldn't get much going on offense. Our defense was fairly solid when we got to handle the ball. It was the getting-to-handle-the-ball part which proved to be the problem, as the final score was 13-4. As the old adage goes, "Hit the ball to where they ain't," and our opponents proved quite adept at just that. Personally, it was a pretty good day, though that doesn't mean much in the end. I was 3-3 at the plate, all singles. No RBIs this game. Batting clean-up, you'd think I would have been able to drive someone in, but that goes back to the team collectively not doing much on offense. I had little to do on defense during the first two innings. I actually found myself thinking at one point, I wish someone would hit something this way. Be careful what you wish for... I did have this great play in the 4th inning that I was proud of. One of their power hitters drove the ball right to me on the ground, a hard smack that didn't require me to move laterally much. I corralled the ball and fired it across the infield to first, getting the out while the hitter was still a couple of feet from the bag. That felt really good, certainly the personal highlight of the day. This was one of the teams I thought we'd have problems against, and I was right. This church used to field two teams, and it appears that this year, for myriad reasons I'm sure, they've consolidated in to one. The week off didn't help much, either, at least in terms of keeping us in a playing groove, but last week was Easter, so that's perfectly understandable for a church league. (All the leagues that play on the weekend had last weekend off.) Nothing left to do now but shake it off and get ready for next week, though the team will have to do it without yours truly. I'll be coming back from New Orleans next Sunday. We're heading down to visit my wife's family, and attend a 10-year law school reunion.

This is exactly the sort of thing dot-coms would have been blowing venture capital on for their lobbies and any worker who wanted one.

So our local Fox station has been advertising that they're bringing back King of the Hill to its late-night comedy line-up, following Seinfeld. Great, I thought. I like KotH, too, though I don't watch it nearly as much as Seinfeld. What I've been missing from all of these little ads was the decision to move my favorite television show from its spot at 10:30 PM CST, to 11. In its place? A Current Affair. Or as I like to call it, A Current Who Cares? Now to dash a letter off to the station manager...

The team went 3-0 this Sunday with a resounding 19-0 defeat of our opponent, another rookie outing by a new church. The bats were certainly mighty for us this week, as the team was able to put together great strings of singles and doubles to mount scoring opportunities. I fielded from third the entire game, as we only had five guys this week. There was one error on my part, which was saved on the next play by Gary at short, when he turned a double play. That was one of four doubles we turned this game, and I was in on the last one. My time at the plate was the worst yet, as I went one for three. The first time at bat, I hit in to a fielder's choice to end the inning. The second time was worse, as I struck out looking. (In this league, you step up to the plate starting with a 1-1 count.) The called strike looked exactly like the previous pitch, which was called a ball. It was low and outside. I guess this strike just crossed the edge of the plate. The third time was a single right up the middle, which advanced runners and got me my first RBI of the year. My overall average for the still-young season dropped to an even .500. The team looked really good. After we turned the fourth double, I heard from the opposing bench, "We've got to get the ball past the infield. These guys are stopping everything." Quite the compliment, and much appreciated. We're off for Easter Sunday, then it's in to the meat of the schedule, as we pick up games against teams that have been traditionally tough. It will be fun to see if we can maintain what has become consistent play on both sides of the ball.

It's nice to know I was able to contribute to the sales of five million DVD and video units of The Incredibles on the first day of its release.

This IM conversation, which I had very early this morning, has been edited for brevity and comedy.

I can see the value in a service like Peerflix. I've got some DVDs that I'd like to get rid of, but don't feel like wasting time with eBay or Craigslist. Peerflix would be an ideal way to dump these discs, while picking up one or two others.

An example of "practice what you preach"?

So as the boys of summer gear up for another season of America's game, we dreamers suited up for game two of our spring season. I only fielded 2 of the 5 innings, but felt much better this time around. I didn't handle the ball as much as I would have liked, but simply felt more comfortable back in the position. There was this great play in the second inning. The batter put a shot in to center left, and the runner on first came around second, heading to third. A great throw by Keith, the center-left fielder, combined with a second great throw by Gary, playing shortstop and acting as the cutoff man, nailed the runner while she was still two steps from the bag. It felt really good. Except for the knee she put in the side of my right leg, just below my knee. I didn't know until about an hour later how big of a bruise I had. I know she didn't do it intentionally, it's just one of those breaks of the game, and my first injury of the season. At the plate, I had a better day, going 2 for 3. No RBIs again, but that's what happens when for one of those at-bats you're the first man at the plate for the inning. The second injury of the season came during the fifth, and last, inning, when I scraped up my right shin while mis-sliding in to second. Still beat the tag, and it's just that top layer or two of skin, which will scab over relatively quickly, so it's a small price to pay. The team we played is probably our favorite team to play against. I don't mean that in any sort of insulting way, like they're an easy win or anything. It's the team from Flower Mound UMC, and they're just a fun group of folks to play against. I see similar affections amongst the teammates, and we enjoy a certain good-natured ribbing and conversation with them during and after the game that we just don't have with any of the other teams. I see them as kindred spirits; it's great to win, and you play to win, but you really just want to have a good time playing ball. Truth be told, so long as they're not playing us, I root for these guys and gals. In the end, we managed to outlast them. After we went up huge in the third, FM UMC began a comeback, and looked to be on the verge of pulling it off in the bottom of the fifth. Our defense held and the final score was 15-11, putting us at 2-0 with 10 games left to play. Still a lot of season to go...