Natural Tan

What up? We're back from our vacation none the worse for wear. A little sunburned, but not much. Sorry for the lack of posts. I had expected to check in once or twice from the Shore because I had access to my bro-in-law's laptop, but turns out it's a work machine and I didn't want to veer too far off the beaten path with my InterWeb ramblings.

Our car woes continued as we drove down to the Shore last Saturday when we heard a whining noise from the front wheels. We stopped at a garage and it turns out the front brakes needed to be replaced; of course, we had just had the rear brakes done a few days earlier. Why the guy never bothered to check on the front brakes, I'll never know. We drove down and had the work done on Wednesday and the drive back was uneventful, aside from hitting every torrential thunderstorm on the East Coast. The week was fun and tiring, what with eight kids running rampant the whole time (our two girls, Matt and Tricia's two boys, and Tricia's sister's four kids). Other than the regular crying jags from the three 2-year-olds, the kids were actually really well behaved for the most part. We went to Brigantine Beach a few times and spent a lot of time out by the pool at the golf resort we stayed at. It was scorchingly hot the whole week, hitting 100 once or twice. It was a pretty mellow week for the most part, which is fine by me.

Matt and I got three runs in, including some speedwork at the local high school. I wasn't able to get a long run in last weekend (it was supposed to be 15 miles), so I'm just shooting to do that total today; I've been kind of dragging and lazy all day, so I'm hoping to head out in an hour or two. It's cloudy and a little cooler today, so it shouldn't be too awful.

Is that Freedom Rock? Well, turn it up, man:

• Crazy shite going on with the Blue Jays, what with Shea Hillenbrand getting himself traded out of town after stirring up his patented brand of team dissension. He came into the season unhappy because the Jays picked up third baseman Troy Glaus and first baseman Lyle Overbay, which meant Hillenbrand would primarily be a DH. Never shy to voice his opinion, the Shea Hey Kid allegedly wrote "This is a sinking ship" on a board in the clubhouse, which led manager John Gibbons to challenge him to a fight before throwing him off the team. This is nothing new, since he did the same thing when he was with the Red Sox in 2003. Ultimately, he made the wise choice of calling Sox GM Theo Epstein a "faggot" during a radio interview and was dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks; he was replaced at third base by Bill Mueller and his trade also created a full-time spot for David Ortiz. We all know how that deal turned out: Mueller won the AL batting title, Ortiz became one of the most dominant power hitters in baseball and the Sox won the World Series the next year. As for the Jays, they've managed to ignore the turmoil and take the first two games of their huge four-game set with the Yankees, keeping them in the AL East and Wild Card hunt. Hopefully, they can keep their eyes on the prize and keep on winning.
• Although I've been out of touch in this venue, I've been keeping up on my sports news and the latest craziness out of Long Island is unbelievable. The Islanders, who in early June had named former Rangers GM Neil Smith as their new general manager, last week abruptly fired Smith and named backup goalie Garth Snow as his replacement. This once-proud franchise had dominated the NHL in the early '80s but had fallen on hard times lately, as former GM Mike Milbury made some of the dumbest trades imaginable and fired coach after coach. Team owner Charles Wang cleaned house and installed Smith as GM and Ted Nolan as the team's new coach, along with former Isles greats Pat Lafontaine and Bryan Trottier as part of the braintrust. Apparently, Wang and Smith didn't see eye to eye and Wang fired him, which I suppose is understandable, but to then make a guy who has zero managerial experience in any capacity (and who was preparing to start the new season as a goalie) the head of your team just makes no sense whatsoever. Wow.