Well, the polar vortex returned, keeping me home on Monday, which kept the days total down. Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday all managed to surpass the 5000 step plateau. More snow over the weekend mostly kept me at home, so another weekend of poor totals capped off the week.
Total steps: 24,928
Weekly average: 3561.1
Labor day weekend of 1996 brought what seemed like half of the people in my major up to the New World Music Theatre for a scheduled performance by Alanis Morissette. If I remember correctly, I attended with Joe, Tina, and their younger siblings. I don’t recall there being an opening act, or, if there was, we showed up after their performance.
I don’t remember much of the show itself, but I’m pretty sure the setlist consisted of the first album on shuffle. I do seem to remember a post-show visit to the Dennys in Orland, because what is more classy than that.
We enter February with a photo of Angelina from her last junior high band concert from May of last year. If her clarinet see’s it’s shadow, then there will be 6 more weeks of winter.
Name: Scott Schoeneweis
Rank: 253
Position: P
Years With White Sox: 2003-2004
With the White Sox in contention for a division crown at the trade deadline in 2003, they swung a deal with the Angels to bolster their bullpen, getting Scott Schoeneweis, along with Doug Nickle, in exchange for Tim Bittner, Scott Dunn, and Gary Glover. Schoeneweis appeared in 20 games for the White Sox down the stretch, putting up a 4.50 ERA as the team faltered.
In 2004, he moved into the starting rotation, but success was hard to find. In 20 appearances, 19 of them starts, his ERA jumped to 5.59. After the season, he was allowed to leave as a free agent.
In 2007, Schoeneweis found himself in the Mitchell Report, with claims that he received six shipments of steroids at US Cellular Field while a member of the White Sox. He denied the allegations and the commissioner’s office decided not to suspend him.
Schoeneweis’ numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:
The Jigsaw Man – Gord Rollo
A homeless man strikes a deal to trade his right arm for $2 million, but quickly finds out that the whole thing is a rouse and is slowly turned in to a modern day Frankenstein’s monster. Gord Rollo spins a tale that starts with the desperation of the homeless to make better lives for themselves and/or their loved ones and shows how a deal with the devil, in this case, a crazy doctor hellbent on rebuilding his son’s body, rarely works out as intended. Mike Fox, the protagonist, signed up to give away an arm and ended up as a patchwork of many different pieces, with only his original head and spinal column in place.
I had never heard of Rollo before coming across this book, which I assume was available for free from the Kindle store. It was an interesting tale, and I’m glad that I ended up reading it, but I don’t know that I’ll be checking out any of his other works. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the book, but I haven’t really spent much time delving into the horror genre lately. Maybe some day in the future.
In the spring of 1996, Bush brought their headlining tour to the campus of Purdue University to perform at the Elliott Hall of Music. Their opening acts were No Doubt, who hadn’t become No Doubt yet, and the Goo Goo Dolls.
No Doubt kicked off the show and, while they turned out to be my favorite band on this bill, I hadn’t heard of them yet. Their first hit, Just A Girl, had just come out and this was my first exposure to it. If there was any show I could relive later in life, this would likely be it.
After No Doubt came the Goo Goo Dolls, who probably played a few songs other than Name, but I think anyone would be hard pressed to tell you what they were.
Finally, Bush came out and played all of the hits from their debut album. I don’t really remember much about their performance, but I’m sure it was a perfectly fine show. At worst, it was a decent way to waste away a night with about a month to go before finals.
Name: Wilson Valdez
Rank: 254
Position: SS
Year With White Sox: 2004
On June 17, 2004, the White Sox finally found a sucker, namely the Marlins, to take Billy Koch off their hands, in exchange for Wilson Valdez. Valdez was assigned to Triple A Charlotte, where he earned himself a September call-up. He made his major league debut on September 7th, going 0 for 3 in the White Sox 10-3 loss to the Rangers.
Out of options, he was placed on waivers following spring training in 2005, but was claimed by the Mets, ending his time with the South Siders.
Valdez’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were:
It’s time to wrap up our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season’s slate of Friday shows.
8:00
Hawaii Five-0 – The show is a huge hit overseas for CBS, so it gets relegated to Fridays where it won’t cause much damage here at home.
Maternity leave has kept Grace Park’s Kono separated from the rest of the team for most of the season, but she was recently reunited with the rest of the Five-0 team.
9:00
Blue Bloods – Year 4 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.
Honestly, I don’t know if I would bother watching this show if it aired any other night.
Closing out the week with the new shows debuting this winter:
Enlisted – The new comedy features three brothers who wind up in the same platoon in the army. Early returns have been good.
Helix – Syfy’s latest series features an outbreak in a remote base and the CDC researchers sent to investigate.
Thursday night is traditionally the busiest night of the television week. Here’s our look back at my pre-season thoughts on what’s on the slate for this season.
7:00
The Big Bang Theory – Entering its 7th season, the show’s ratings continue to grow. Everyone is in a relationship now, so we’ll see how the show handles that.
The continues to be a ratings juggernaut while still being a good comedy.
Once Upon A Time In Wonderland – Originally conceived as a mini-series to air while Once Upon A Time was in hiatus, ABC execs were so enamored with this spinoff show that they moved it to the fall and gave it its own timeslot. Will 2 hours of weekly fairy tales prove to be too much? Only time will tell.
I made it through about 2 episodes of this train wreck before I had to drop out. Turns out there is a limit to the amount of fairy tales I can handle in a week.
8:00
The Crazy Ones – Robin Williams returns to television for the first time since Mork & Mindy, which is not something I would ordinarily be interested in. Add in David E. Kelley, who has been more miss than hit lately, and this would likely get a pass from me. However, the inclusion of one Sarah Michelle Gellar has guaranteed that I will at least check it out.
The show has done a tremendous job of toning down the Robin Williams factor to a reasonable level and has been one of the surprises of the new season.
Grey’s Anatomy – Back for a 10th season, the show was revitalized a bit last season with the addition of a new group of interns. Hopefully they can keep it up this year.
The show continues to entertain, even if it isn’t the ratings hit it was in its earlier days. Continue reading →
It’s Hump Day. Time to take a look back at my thoughts on the midweek offerings for the fall season.
7:00
Revolution – NBC’s lone hit from last fall moves to Wednesdays. This show struggled mightily once it returned from the winter hiatus, and it will need to start strong if I’m going to stick around for long.
Well, this one didn’t even make it to the second season premiere. Once again, bad reviews and a need to clear room off the DVR helped me realize once again that life is too short to watch shows I am not really enjoying.
Arrow – Surprisingly, the CW kind of hit it out of the park with this tale of Green Arrow. Season 2 will be offering an arc featuring Summer Glau, so I, for one, am excited to see where things go.
Arrow has basically turned itself in to the anti-Smallville, learning from the mistakes of its DC-based predecessor.
8:00
Criminal Minds – Another show heading into its ninth season. This one is getting a little tired, but it is still good more often than not.
No surprises here, but the show continues to be mostly entertaining.
Modern Family – This continues to be a funny show, even if most of the characters have become caricatures of themselves at this point. But that is to be expected in comedies entering their fifth season.
The show continues to chug along, although puberty has not really been kind to the youngest member of the Dunphy clan. Continue reading →