I have finished packing for ten days away for myself and the rugrats.

I have determined that my wardrobe is one of extremes. Lots of sweats and t-shirts, many of them with logos/sayings/Stewie Griffin on them on one end, Sparkly! Formal! Wear! on the other.

Also, I need to do the Big Closet Purge. Big time. You may hear wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I ask you: What could be hotter than George Clooney in a black suit, posing with a black electric car?

OK, I'm sure there are some things, but still....

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I'm sorry for your loss, Tamara.

What could be hotter than George Clooney

Damn that man is hot. And that car is ugly (ok, probably very good and green, but ugly). Let's get back to Clooney...hot, hot, hot.

That picture may make the Cabana Boy cut. In fact, I'm sensing a potential theme-- Cabana Boys and cars. Hmmm...

Thanks all.

And can someone please explain to me how Sheryl Crow gets more and more beautiful every year? Seriously. Did she make some kind of deal and where can I sign up?

Hey Vortex: upon first listen, the new Motley Crue album is okay, but nothing really amazing.. "Saints Of Los Angeles" is by far the best track.

good to know!

I'm sorry for your loss, Tamara, but I'm glad she was with people she loved.

Sorry to hear about your aunt, Tamara.

Happy B-day, sarameg.

Glad to hear the job search seems to be going along well, shrift--pushy recruiters aside.

Seriously!! That's amazing.

The time, she has flown. I look at pictures from just after he was born and am amazed at how little he was. And he's still not that big in the grand scheme of things.

My fucking upstairs neighbor is flooding his bathroom again, and I'm already late for work. Ugh.

That's sucktastic, Jesse. As much of a headache homeownership can be, I most certainly don't miss having obnoxious/irresponsible upstairs neighbors. Judging by the phrasing, is this a chronic thing with that guy? Yikes!

Most A's fans feel like the Cubs got the better part of the deal. Harden is quite simply the most dominating pitcher in baseball when he's healthy. I think he's better than Peavy or Webb. But he's rarely healthy (cf., Prior, Woods).

That's good to hear (well, as a Cubs' fan). Outside of interleague play, I don't see or hear much about the AL and its players. Though the Cubs finally letting Prior go this season, and then trading for someone who could be his redux worries quite me a bit. And there's some grumbling among Cubs' fans that they suspect the only reason the A's were willing to part with Harden was they feel like his arm is about to fall off and they're dumping him while they can.

I think the big shocker for A's fans is losing Gaudin as well. He's an excellent pitcher who can be a very good #3 starter, or a shut down middle relief guy. Gaudin's already better than Marquis.

I like Marquis because he takes pride in being a complete baseball player. He's okay swinging the bat, runs the bases pretty well and does a decent job at defense. It would be really nice if he could be more consistant on the mound, though, since that's kind of his job.

Gaudin definitely makes me feel better about the deal, though. If Harden does end up taking another ride on the injury train, we're only down a backup OF and backup 2nd baseman, since, as you mentioned, Gaudin and Gallagher are practically an even swap, so Gaudin can always go into the rotation if we need him, plus we've still got Sean Marshall who's put up a couple of decent outings since coming back up and there's still the vain hope Rich Hill will manage to get his head together in the minors and start finding the plate again.

Our top draft pick this year is a speedy second baseman whose defense might not keep him in the infield. If that sounds like Patterson then you can feel our shrug.

I can't even recall if I've seen Patterson actually play second base. Maybe once? He kind of got jammed into the outfield with the major league club because that's where he was needed (the Cubs already had Derosa, Fonteno and Cedeno who could play 2nd, but with Soriano and Johnson on the DL and Edmonds fighting a bad foot, there were desperate for outfielders and Pinella has always seemed reluctant to play Murton for some reason) and it obviously wasn't his thing. I think there were two games in a row where Patterson committed errors that may have changed the outcome of the game. Shortly thereafter Lou promised the media that the Eric Patterson outfield experiment was officially over. So I can definitely see where A's fans are going "Why did we need another one of those?" He may actually do a good job at his native position, though.

It's a gamble for the Cubs. Forget the regular season starts, if they can have a healthy Zambrano, Harden, Dempster rotation going into the post-season I'd bet my money on them.

Dempster has been the most pleasant surprise of the season for the Cubs, IMO. I think he had an unfair rap as a closer, but I never expected him to be so dominating (at least at Wrigley) after moving back to the rotation.

One constant with the A's trades of the last year is nabbing top prospects who had fallen out of favor. We just got Wes Bankston, and Murton falls into that category. Ditto Ryan Sweeney (who we got for Swisher, and is playing very well for us.) I think (continued...)