Spitting Out the Demons

Spring hath sprung, although it reserves the right to dump a snowstorm on us at a moment's notice. So far, so good. I wish I could run right now, but I won't spend this time whining about that. I'm resting and hopefully healing, so we'll see where things stand in another week or so.

We're getting ready for a visit from my mom and my brother and his family, all to mark the 10th anniversary of my dad's death on Friday. It's hard to believe so much time has passed already. I'm not going to get into the details of it here, but suffice it to say the man had diabetes, didn't take care of himself, and died young. He was 55 but he looked 20 years older. I'd like to think I've learned from his mistakes.

Anyhoo...

• The baseball season is right around the corner, and that means I've got my fantasy baseball draft on Saturday. Haven't really done much reading about who's on what team, etc., but I will be doing so in the next few days.
• Apple has released software that will let owners of the Nano and video iPod to set a limit on how loud the volume can go on the devices. A good idea, I suppose. I use my iPod throughout the day, but most of that time it's either plugged into my PC speakers at work or my car stereo, so I don't have those earbuds blasting away directly into my skull. And at work, I have to keep my volume pretty low. I've done plenty of damage to my ears over the years by going to rock shows, so I'm trying to care of them now.
• The NFL is the best-run professional sports league by far, but those dudes have got to lighten up. The owners voted today to ban end zone celebrations such as those popularized by Chad Johnson of the Bengals and Terrell Owens. Who is harmed by these celebrations, anyway? As long as the guy's not dropping trou, what's the big deal? This is entertainment, after all.
• In the rock reunion department, it was nice to see that the Replacements got back together to record a few songs for a greatest hits CD. Now if they could get a tour together, that would be the icing on the proverbial cake.
• The infamously named show "Love Monkey," which CBS dumped after three episodes, will return on VH1, sort of. Tom Cavanaugh of "Ed" fame starred on the show, which focused on a music label talent scout; I watched one episode and thought it was pretty good. At any rate, VH1 plans to air the eight episodes that were filmed starting next month.
• Inaccurate death rumors happen all the time, especially these days what with the InterWeb and all that. Apparently, there was a Will Ferrell death rumor making the rounds, although I never heard it until two minutes ago. Some of the more notable rumors I heard as a kid were that Mikey from the Life cereal commercials had died after consuming Pop Rocks and Coke (a lethal combination if ever I heard one), Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott had died, that there were spider eggs in Bubble Yum bubble gum, and one about Elton John and Rod Stewart that I won't elaborate on. I heard all these rumors in the 70s and 80s, well before kids were spending half their time on the Web reading all sorts of crap on message boards.
• Well, well: MLB plans to investigate Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use. Way to step up to the plate, you nitwits. Do you think they would have bothered if that new book hadn't come out covering the story in painstaking detail? Yeah, me neither.