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June 12, 2000 |
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I was reading an baseball article today. It had something to do with having to build a team around a player. Naturally, there were many good players mentioned, among them Vladimir Gerrerro and Alex Rodrigez. It was here where I saw a number of references to the term five tool player.
Five Tool Player?!Actually, it is a term I have heard before. Andruw Jones, the Braves' center fielder has been referred to as a five tool player, but for the life of me, I could not remember what the five tools referred to. Many afternoons while I'm at work I listen to the game broadcast on the web. During each game the broadcasters read a question on the air; this question is submitted by the listeners and can even be submitted by e-mail. They read the e-mail of the radio station on the air and encourage people to submit questions. I figured why not? It would be fun to hear the question read in the air.
Today, I would have Virtual Sunday Dinner with Len™ since it is not actually Sunday. Len has been given notice that he has to leave his apartment. It's not like he's a bad tenant, because I'm sure he isn't. He has just been going month to month for a while and the apartment complex finally figured that they wanted the place back. So he's a little stressed.
We had made plans to get dinner at about 6:30pm to 7pm, which is pretty typical for us. I was listening to the Braves' game at the time, and they still hadn't read the question for the day. Bummer. No big deal, what are the chances they picked my question? I wander downstairs to meet him at the parking lot. We chat about where we want to go for dinner. I was in the mood to pick up a computer game, so I asked if he was interested in going to CompUSA. He agreed, but said that he needed to stop by Eagle Hardware. We rationalized that we should go to a quick place for dinner. We agreed on Arby's.
I'm not beyond fast food. Not at all. I happen to like Arby's, though every time I go to a fast food place I fear how many days I'll have to spend working it off at the gym. I can't imagine that Arby's is that bad since the roast beef is fairly lean, still I would hate to see the actual nutritional numbers for them. I'd rather simply know that it is bad for me and be ignorant about how bad it happens to be.
I made this mistake before. I like Jack-in-the-Box's Ultimate Cheeseburger. It's a very good burger. I remember it must've been about a couple of years ago when I was out with Ted that I was curious enough about how bad this burger was for me. I asked the cashier for one of their pamphlets on nutrititional information. Now, I'm one who doesn't monitor so much my caloric intake or my carbohydrates, I watch mostly my fat intake. Just for a reference, the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of fat for the average adult male is about 67 grams of fat. A Whopper from Burger King has 39 grams of fat. Would you care to guess how much fat happens to be in an Ultimate Cheeseburger? 79 grams of fat! Or 89 grams if you order it with bacon. Ever since I only have one of these burgers about once each year.
Len and I talked about what his immediate plans were for dealing with this apartment and moving. Naturally, I offered to help… for reasonable rates. Although Len and I see each other quite frequently, most of the time it is he who does the driving, so I don't see his place very often. Still, it would be a bit strange to know that he's no longer going to be in the same place. He's been debating a number of moves… does he move to another apartment? Does he buy a place? Does he pack everything up and go on an extended road trip? Go on safari? The options are endless…
What about CompUSA? We stopped by and I started to look around. I found the game Dungeon Keeper 2, which has been out for a while, but it was tagged for $20. I like $20 games. I'm not one of these folks who have to have whatever is the latest and greatest game. I'm easy. The game involves tormenting people. I like games like this; anything that counters the trend of the religious majority I'm bound to like. And if you're getting upset and feel you need to send me mail to put me in my place… Get a life! It's only a game!
I also saw this wireless keyboard and mouse combination. Truth be told I had been looking for this for some time about a year ago. I had given up thinking that the demand wasn't high enough for people to put one together, and told myself that I'll simply keep an eye out for it. Now here it is. I'm such a gadget freak, it is not even funny. You're not wondering if I got it, are you?
Next was Eagle Hardware. I had been here only a couple of days ago with Pam looking for a replacement bolt for some of her furniture, so I didn't need anything. Still, the store is layed out nicely and I always like walking through here. No, it's not the stereotypical male thing about hardware, because I'm not adept at hardware really. Magic is adept at carpentry, at least. Although for the life of me I can't figure out how he manages to get the lumber since he still doesn't have a license to drive. Curious.
Len needed a padlock. Naturally, he got a Master padlock. He wants a secure padlock for one of his storage rentals, and always buys whatever is largest. He tells me it is his second padlock today, since the first padlock he bought was too large for the storage place… and that lock was a replacement for an even larger padlock. Uhmm… yeah, Len. And you don't have a padlock fetish. I only hope this latest one fits.
He drove me back to my office where I continued to work. Otherwise, it is just a lazy Monday.
June 12, 2000