The Bid is in

First of all screw the real estate industry for having the wrong terminology. You don't put an offer out to buy something, you bid on it. You offer to sell something. Having worked in trading for 7 years now, it is a pet peeve of mine.

[/rant]

Anyway, we did end up putting a bid on the house on Elston Street. It is low and optimistic at best, but I am more interested in seeing what/if we get for a counter offer to see if we are in the ballpark with this place.

Friday July 1st is when the seller has until to reject, accept, or counter our proposal. Now the waiting begins. Personally I wish it was more like my industry where I could be face to face and pound out terms and price in seconds instead of days... yawn.

Oh what a web we weave...

I came across this while surfing the news sites today

David Souter is a big fat idiot

To summerize, within a week of casting the deciding vote in favor of empowering eminent domain seizures by communities for businesses at the expense of home owners, a developer in New Hampshire has filed a request to have the house of Supreme Court Justice David Souter seized, destroyed, and turned into a hotel development. The developer is using all of the sounding points, that Souder used to write his majority statement in favor of this interpretation of law.

This just gets filed under "You reap what you sow"

8-3, with a doubledip

Last night was a fun night as the LBC machine continues to roll on. We scored 9 runs in the top of the 7th inning, to comeback and win 17-15. It was a great team effort, as we managed to bat around plus 5 batters after entering the last inning with only 8 runs scored, and desperation on the plate. It was another win against a good team, this time in Grace.

I was 3-4 with a walk, and didn't get many plays in the field. I had a line drive hit right at me, and the 2nd basemen snuck into second base to double off the runner with a solid throw.

Then I decided to have some fun and rush to Michigan City and play in a second game. I got there in the 4th inning, and got into the game right away. I had a nice leaping catch to end an inning and went 1-2 at the plate with a nice gapper double the other way to get their offense going.

Luckily I get sometime to recover as our next game isn't until the Friday after the 4th of July.

Good News on the house

Well the house we like on Elston Street was cleared by the inspectors today, that it is not in a flood plain according to their assessment.

So now the fun of bidding and negotiating begins. The wife and I are going to sit down and talk a little "strategery", and then will head into the realtors office tommorrow and make an opening bid. Hopefully this doesn't drag out, and we can get a little bit of a bargin.

Sox lose, split with Cubs

So after killing the Cubs 12-2 in game one of the 3 game set, the Sox offense went to sleep against two quality pitchers in Maddox and Prior. They ended up losing the last two games at Comiskey, along with this series, and they split the overall season series at 3 game each. This series was also on the 5th series that the Sox have lost all year.

Currently the Sox stand at 50-24, still with the best record in baseball. So far in 2005 they have been the first team to win 20, 30, 40, and 50 games in all of baseball. They are also sitting at the best record ever in franchise history, at this point in the season. Right now they are looking at a 9 1/2 game lead over the 3 time defending AL Central champion Twins. The Twins are already starting to look at the much easier road to the Wild Card.

Pods Squad

I have been a little negligent lately in updating the old blog lately, so here we go. (then again what is more boring than old news?)

First update is that we did end up adopting the kitten. His name is Pods, after the Sox speedy left fielder. Pods is somewhere around 7 weeks old, and is a tiny little puffball right now. He seems to live up to his name as he is a hyper little dude that you have to pay attention to all of the time, before he takes off again.

So far he is settling in OK. He doesn't mind the other cats, but they seem to mind him, especially the alpha-female of the bunch. She will follow him around just to yell at him, and tell him that she is the boss.

Another update on the house front... We have pretty much decided that we want to bid on the house on Elston Street that we liked, but we are waiting for the credit union to do a flood plain assessment to decide whether we should bid or not. The flood insurance alone on a place in that area would be the equivilant of buying at least another $10,000 worth of a house. If it comes back bad, we are going to go back to the place we looked at on Chestnut that is our second choice. Updates will follow as needed...

Father's Day

Well I sort of celebrated my first Father's Day. It is a little strange for me, because the baby isn't actually here yet, but the family all got together and had a nice little cookout, at which I gourged myself pretty well. I got a bunch of baby stuff from both the in-laws and the wife.

Also on the same note, we are going to see 4 more houses on Wednesday, including a 2nd tour of the place on Elston St. This time through Elston will be a much more indepth look to see if the place is worth getting serious about. The other 3 places will be first looks, and not nearly as series.

Another new family member?

Well it looks as if we might have another kitten to adopt here soon. The in-laws had a cat have kittens under their shed, and we might end up adopting one if he comes back with a clean bill of health. He is a cute little grey kitten, and is only 6 weeks old. We'll know more after they go to the vet today.

7-3

The LBC machine rolls on with a victory over Immanuel 18-16. We had a solid game again, rallying late to win again. This makes 4 wins in a row for us. After a defensive switch in the 6th inning, we got them out 6 up and 6 down to end the game.

Personally I went 4-5 including a triple and an RBI while leading off again. I was stellar in the field as well, making a couple of sweet plays in the field.

next game is Monday at Duneland

Not much closer to home yet...

Well we went out and looked at 4 more houses last night, and out of that we got 3 no's and a meh. I think we are going to go through and give a second look at a place we looked at last week over on Elston St. It is a nice little place on a dead end street. It is a one story, with a full basement, which has a wetbar in a it(BONUS!). It has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 baths. The yard is pretty decent sized and it has an older one car garage.

Here is a link

2517 Elston St

Sweeney reinstated

Well the MCAS school board did the unthinkable and reinstanted Sweeney. I guess all of the crap they have up on the wall that they call a mission statement is just that, crap. Only in Michigan City can this happen.

MCAS assistant superintendent now on medical leave


He might have been back to work today but Gene Sweeney has broken his ankle and is awaiting surgery.

Without discussion, the board of the Michigan City Area Schools on Tuesday approved a personnel recommendation agreeing to change the assistant superintendent's employment status from paid administrative leave to suspension without pay, retroactive to May 9 and ending June 10. The board approved the matter unanimously. Board member Adrienne Gottlieb introduced the motion.

School Superintendent Michael Harding said Sweeney was placed on medical leave on Monday and will return to work when he is well enough.

On May 4, Sweeney angered teachers when he accused educators and the Michigan City Education Association of creating roadblocks to academic progress.

In a discussion about whether he would move his family into the Michigan City Area Schools district, Sweeney said he would not trust his children to some teachers he has met.

Teachers reacted swiftly and demanded his termination.

On May 5, Sweeney was placed on administrative leave.

"We fully intend to look into the situation thoroughly," Carla Iacona, assistant superintendent for personnel and labor relations, said on that day.

Sweeney issued an apology that same day - an apology sent to every teacher via e-mail. He also asked for it to be published in The News-Dispatch.

Phyllis Stark, now president of the Michigan City Education Association, said at that time an apology was not enough, "whether it's written or verbal or even if he buys a billboard."

Mary Junglas, director of UniServ, the business agent for the Indiana State Teacher's Association, understood the anger of the teachers, who walked with picket signs at a May 10 school board meeting.

Nevertheless, she said, "We can't demand what (the board) can't legally give." She said Sweeney is entitled to due process.

The board had met in executive session to discuss a personnel matter last Thursday. Although he would not say whether the meeting was about Sweeney, board president Jim Kintzele said Thursday the board likely would have some news about Sweeney's status at Tuesday's meeting.

Harding said the administration and the board "looked at many considerations. The final determination was made by the administration, following due process."

After the board meeting, Kintzele also spoke to the due process issues. According to Indiana law, he said, Sweeney's remarks did not rise to the level of an offense for which he could be discharged.

If a board does not intend to renew an administrator's contract, that administrator must be notified in December, he said.

"(Sweeney's) contract does not expire until June 30, 2006," Kintzele noted. The board would have been required to pay Sweeney's salary until that time even if Sweeney were to be relieved of his responsibilities. "We didn't want to pay him for doing nothing," Kintzele added.

"I also want to make it clear that the board is responsible for hiring only one employee, and that's the superintendent," he said. "The superintendent is responsible for everyone else."

Harding said he would be considering the "next steps" in the process of Sweeney's reintegration into the school corporation when he comes back to work.

For now, at least while Sweeney remains on medical leave, he will be in "his present position," Harding said.

Stark would not discuss how the union might react to the decision about bringing Sweeney back to the central office.

In reaction to Sweeney's statements in May, the union engaged in a work-to-rule job action. During that time, teachers worked only to the letter of the contract requirement and no more.

Sweeney was not available for comment on Tuesday.

Asked how Sweeney had broken his ankle, whether it might have been related to an athletic pursuit or perhaps his running regimen, Harding smiled and gave a guess.

"He was probably acting like he's 15 when he's really 45."

The measure of Jose Contreras

I have commented a few times that during the season, I think AJ Pierzynski is the BIG difference in the way that Jose Contreras has been pitching this year. Now after watching that disaster last night, it inspired me to do some research. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues this year but here are the starts were AJ has caught Contreras, in order.

6 IP 1 ER
6.2 IP 4 ER
4.2 IP 4 ER
3.1 IP 1 ER
6 IP 1 ER
8 IP 1 ER
7 IP 1 ER
7 IP 3 ER
6 IP 2 ER
6 IP 2 ER

Now Widger's three starts with Contreras

5 IP 4 ER
6.1 IP 4 ER
6 IP 8 ER

For totals of...

AJ 60.2 IP 16 ER 2.52 ERA
Widger 17.1 IP 16 ER 8.30 ERA

Its not even close right now. Now it will be interesting to see if this is an aberration, or if AJ literally makes Contreras a better pitcher.

6-3

Well the LBC machine is rolling again, as am I. Last night we took out Real Life 14-8 in a water-logged game on a terrible field. The team played a real solid game, and outside of one 6 run inning, we really shut them down. The offense spread out through the game pretty evenly.

Myself I was 5-5 after making a slight adjustment and moving about 3 inches towards homeplate in the box. I hit my first extra-basehits of the season getting two doubles, also collecting 4 RBI in the process. This was also my second game out of my usual leadoff spot, and in the two hole. The field went flawlessly as well, but I only had a couple of chances.

Next game is next Monday again.

62 games down, 100 to go

Well the juggernaut that is the Chicago White Sox keep on steamrolling forward. The Sox went 5-1 on their little West Coast interleague trip. They demolished the Rockies and had a chance to sweep the first place Padres, except for Hermanson's first blown save as a member of the Sox. The Sox currently sit at 42-20, still sporting the best record in baseball. They have a 5 1/2 game cushion over their rival Twins, who are sitting in the Wild Card lead as the standings are today.

The hero yesterday was Aaron Rowand who came off of the bench to hit a monster 3 run bomb off of uber-closer Trevor Hoffman in the top of the 10th inning to give the Sox an 8-5 win. Carl Everett was also huge as he went 3-6 including an HR. Everett gets harder and harder to bench with every big preformance he puts up.

Sweeney situation to be decided soon

This was in the Michigan City News Dispatch today.

The board of the Michigan City Area Schools met in executive session Thursday to discuss a personnel matter.

Board President Jim Kintzele would not say whether the discussion was about assistant superintendent Eugene Sweeney, who is on administrative leave.

But he indicated the Sweeney situation will likely be on the next school board agenda.

"I think we'll have an announcement (about Sweeney) at the (school) board meeting Tuesday."

Sweeney was placed on leave after he angered teachers during a May 4 meeting. He criticized the Michigan City Education Association for erecting what he saw as road blocks to educational progress. He also said he would not trust his children to some teachers in the system.

The board meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the board room of the administration center. The meeting is open to the public, but the Tuesday meeting likely will not include a public forum. According to board rules, the meeting on the fourth Tuesday of the month includes a public forum, but not the meeting on the second Tuesday.

Hopefully this mean his paid vacation while he is on leave, turns into a permanent vacation. He has disgraced an entire town, and everyone in it. There is no way he should have a job still.

5-3

Another tough win against Duneland last night... We only had 9 players show up, but they only had 8 so it made for a wide open night, with lots of running around to cover bases. The final ended up being 13-12 with me scoring the winning run in the bottom of the seventh. It seems like I have my stroke back at the plate as I went 5-5, including getting throwing out at second, trying to stretch a single and a bad bounce. The game was rough, as the combo of heat, humidity, and a terrible field made for a long, long night.

Next game is next Monday.

It's (probably) a girl!!!

Well we had the big ultrasound appointment last night, and everything went pretty well. The baby didn't feel much like cooperating, as it was facing backwards towards the wifes spine, which made it real hard to get in and check out sex. All of the measurements and checks went well, as all of the body systems are developing and growing the way that they should be at this age. (Right now we are a couple of days short of 19 weeks) The sex isn't for sure, but as the tech moved the baby around a little bit, nothing dropped that would show a boy, and it looked like a labia was developing. It is too early to be 100% sure, but it seems pretty likely we will have a girl. Now the fun part of picking a name starts...

One of the neat measurements we got taken was the length of the femur. In one of our first ultrasounds a couple of months ago, the baby's entire length was about 2.9 cms. Last night the length of the femur alone was 2.97 cms. The growth is amazing. Right now the baby is about 9 ounces. What an exciting time.

Couple of new Blogs

Some commuter buddies and I are going to try to make a run at a South Shore Blog. It is going to be similar to the CTA Tattler and Overheard in NY, but I think we are going to go for a little more raw approach to it. Commuting is a bitch, and you do what you can to get by. Here are our stories.

Purgatory with Pantagraphs

Also this is a great new blog, from a very funny guy. This is all about a self-nicknamed schmo named "Porkchop" The posts are hilarious, and the pictures are just as good. Enjoy the Chronicles of Porkchop

The Chronicles of Porkchop

Big week ahead

Well this is the week that hopefully we find out if the baby is a boy or girl. We will be just short of week 19 when we get the ultrasound, and it will also take the cooperation of the baby being willing to show off the goods (or lack there of) to us. We are still scheduled with a November 4th or 5th due date, so this weekend made us about 4 months along.

Also the Sox travel out to the west coast for NL stops in Denver and San Diego. It ought to be interesting to see the Sox take on Coors Field and then go out to its exact opposite in Petco Park. The Sox went 4-2 last week in taking two out of three from both the Angels and Indians

And on the softball front, if the weather cooperates, I should have at least two games, including a new league I just started playing in this year. Hopefully I can break out of my mini-hitting slump.

Another day, another publishing

This is my third publishing in the Rapid Response section of the Michigan City News Dispatch. This letter was in regards to a letter written in asking for another stop light south of Highway 20 on Highway 421.

In response to the letter about the traffic light situation on Franklin Street, south of U.S. 20, the ideal solution would be a raised barrier down the middle of the street, much like Merrillville, preventing traffic from crossing except at fixed points. There are already tons of problems from people who treat the center turn lane as an extra lane to try to enter the traffic flow from, and cars obstructing traffic trying to cross into establishments such as the Speedway at U.S. 20 and Franklin. On weekends traffic already gets backed up from 20 south all of the way through the Meijer/Wal-Mart stop light, so another light isn't the solution. Preventing people from breaking traffic rules and further regulating traffic flow with a barrier would work best.

Musical realtors

Well we did end up switching to someone different for a realtor. The wife actually worked for him while he did mainly appraisals back when the wife was in college. We probably should have went with them originally but we didn't know about doing that, but after almost getting screwed by our original agent, we decided to go with someone that we knew we could trust.

On the softball front we got rained out last night, so we stay at 3-3 with my new league starting next week. It ought to be fun, if my old bones can stand up to the abuse.

BECAUSE I AM THE [BLEEP]ING BLOGGER, THAT'S WHY!

Oh yes, the hot topic of the day, one Oswaldo Guillen Senior.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Timo Perez listed at first base, and I couldn't believe it when I saw Kevin Walker trotted out there in the 7th inning with the Sox nursing a one run lead. Normally I am not one for second guessing managers (usually I first guess them when the move happens) but these moves call for some shock. These two moves cost the Sox a winnable game, despite the attempts of the offense to play the heros late.

Timo Perez in his first career MLB game at first base, missed a low throw that most first basemen would have at least knocked down, if not caught easily, which ended up leading to two runs, 22 extra pitches, and the unraveling of Jose Contreras.


Kevin Walker coming into the game was just about as baffeling, and as costly. Walker came in in the 7th inning of a one run game, and couldn't find the strike zone at all. He ended up being charged with 4 runs after Jose Vizcaino gave up the remainder of his runs. For his efforts Walker recieved a bus pass to Charlotte after the game, thankfully.

It sucks that today is an off-day, as after losses like this it is nice to play again ASAP. On the bright side the Sox do still have the major leagues best record to make themselves feel a little better, at 35-18.

More City stuff to be proud of...

Our wonderful City Council President decides to drive home drunk, with a .24 BAC.

"City Council president says what he did was "dumb"


Michigan City Common Council President Chuck Lungren was arrested early Tuesday on a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, Michigan City police said they stopped Lungren on Ninth Street after the car he was driving was spotted moving erratically.

After Lungren failed three field sobriety tests, Officer Robert Grant took Lungren, 54, who listed his address as 505 E. Ninth St., to the city lockup, where he spent the night.

During the traffic stop, Lungren cooperated fully with police. He agreed to take a portable breath test, which measured his blood-alcohol level at .24 percent, three times Indiana's legal limit of .08 percent, according to police.

Grant said he read Lungren the implied consent law, and Lungren responded that he understood it and agreed to take a chemical test to get a more accurate reading of his blood-alcohol level.

The test results measured .22 percent at the Michigan City Police Department.

According to police, Lungren was advised at the station that he was being arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He was also issued a warning ticket for improper lane usage.

Lungren stated later Tuesday morning that he knows what he did was "dumb."

"I have just moved into a new home and had been painting and working around the house most of the weekend," Lungren told The News-Dispatch. "It was late and I decided to stop. Then I went out to meet some friends and we had a few drinks."

According to Grant's report, he observed a white 2000 Lincoln at about 1:45 a.m. after it left Matey's Restaurant and Bar, headed south on Washington Street.

Grant said the car was swerving from one lane to another and that at one point was driving down the middle of the lane markers painted on the street.

After following the car for several blocks, Grant said, the Lincoln turned east onto Seventh Street, then to Spring Street, where it turned south. For a time on Spring Street, Grant said, the Lincoln drove in the oncoming lane of traffic.

The Lincoln then turned east onto Ninth Street, where Grant stopped it half a block from Lungren's home.

"I know I was not using the signals for the lane changes," Lungren said. "I know no one is above the law."

Lungren added that he would have his day in court and will face what is due him for acting irresponsibly.

Recently, Lungren has spearhead the campaign against the proposed waste transfer station planned for County Line Road.

In January 2004, his former wife, Cindy Rose Lungren, was arrested when Lungren filed a domestic battery charge against her.

In September 2004, shortly before the Lungrens' divorce was final, the councilman was involved in an investigation of a prowler around his wife's home and with making harassing telephone calls to her residence.

No charges were filed, and later all charges were dropped against his wife in the domestic violence incident."