Manuel and Beltran Ejected

MLB.com's Gameday thing is great, but it can't possibly convey what the TV showed:



Whatever. The Mets lost to the Mariners, the worst team in all of Baseball, 11-0. They've been outscored 16-2 in the two games of this series so far. The Mets are now 37-39.

Maybe I should listen to my buddy Doug when he says, "This team just isn't good."

Gas Update

The one right by my house... It's stayed the same for the past few days.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

On the Minne-Ha-Ha

Uncle Eric's friend Emmet is in this band called The Electric Dudes and they're playing on Lake George's Minne-Ha-Ha steamboat. the name means "Laughing Waters" in a Native American language.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

On the Beach

My phone's camera doesn't really do this justice at all but Uncle Eric and I are sitting on the beach at Brant Lake by the boat and we're looking at an almost full moon on this first night of summer. Life is good.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Willie Fired: Front and Back Pages

The Mets Turn a New Page

I'm mixed about what happened with the Mets. I went to bed last night with an 8-3 lead and woke up to find out that Willie was fired. We've been talking about it for weeks but I was still surprised that it finally happened. They've been so indecisive that I thought it might never happen. A few weeks ago, I thought that he had to go, but lately I've been hoping that they could turn it around and that no one would have to be fired.

Most fans, though, wanted Willie gone but now everyone feels bad for him and is criticizing the team. Way to go. They couldn't even pull off making a decision that the consensus wanted. That takes a major screw-up.

I think Omar Minaya has to start fearing his own job security and, if they Mets don't turn it around, he could be gone before next season. He loaded up the Mets with so many aging players and relied way too much on Alou being healthy. There was no backup plan until now that he's on the DL for the third time before the first three months were done.

I've got to wonder if what happened at the beginning of tonight's game (with Reyes showing that he was slightly hurt, Manuel deciding to replace him with Easley, and Reyes storming off the field and throwing down his helmet) was possibly a stunt to show that he's boss and that he's not Randolph. But I'm probably being too cynical.

Still, I'm kind of excited about this. We needed something. It almost feels like a new season and I'm curious to see how different Manuel's managing style will be.

Stewart's Stop

Ice cream before the four-and-a-half-hour ride home.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Here Comes the Rain

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Live from Brant Lake

Okay, so maybe the videos won't work but these pictures should.

Life is good.

Though it looks like rain could be on the way.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Live from Brant Lake

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Boating on Land

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Putting the Boat in the Lake

I'm e-mailing this from the middle of Brant Lake.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Raking the Leaves

We have to get it all done before the rain comes!

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Live from Brant Lake

Just a little ceiling collapse in the kitchen...

Yes, I do have mobile internet access here in the trailer! It's nice.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Live from Valero in Mahwah, NJ

Uncle Eric likes to stop in New Jersey on the way upstate to find "cheap" gas. Places here range from $3.89 (one lone LukeOil) to $3.93 to $3.97 and $3.99. Haven't spotted anything at or above $4 yet here.

Uncle Eric paid $95.60 to fill up the truck and the boat (24.27 gallons).

By the way, the station near my house yesterday had it at $4.27 all day but was up to $4.33 today.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Back of the Head

I'm heading upstate and will be posting updates along the way... I might not get mobile internet access up there.

Anyway, I thought this on the back of a tractor trailer was interesting. Does it make me want to use MJ's colgone?

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Rest in Peace, Tim Russert

I was getting ready to head upstate when I heard that Tim Russert had passed away. The news shocked me. I watched MSNBC's broadcast of the NBC News Special Report. Tom Brokaw anchored from New York and Brian Williams contributed from Afghanistan. David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell offered their thoughts from the network's Washington bureau, where Russert suffered his heart attack. Keith Olbermann looked devastated when he came on.

The world of Journalism lost a great one.

Sent from my Palm Centro smartphone.

Live from Shea Stadium's Field Box

Mets up 2-0 after 4.

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Sign in the Parking Lot Near Shea

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Snake in a Crib

This is pretty scary: A mother in Brentwood woke up the other night to her baby crying. She went to see what was wrong and found a foot-long California king snake wrapped around her daughter's leg. The mom picked up her daughter and luckily the snake fell off while a relative put it in a bucket until animal control could get there. More from wcbstv.com.

No Trans Fat?

As always?



As you can see, the finer print on this bottle of Skippy peanut butter says "per serving."

Per serving?!?

So basically, if you have the serving size of 2 tablespoons (or 32 grams), you're going to consume next to zero trans fat. I get that. But when you say "As always, no trans fat," you're saying that there's no trans fat. When you add the "per serving," it ceases to make any sense. Even if it has .0001 grams of trans fat per serving, that doesn't actually round down to "no."

No means no, or at least it used to.

Live from Quality Gas

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Haircut

Originally written Wednesday, May 28th...

I've been going to the same person for haircuts since I was around three years old. Barbara. She used to have this children's hair place and I'd sit on the lion or whatever. She moved later and her new place was a salon that was mostly for adults but it had a pony chair. I used that a lot, I think, and I remember it was a big deal when I eventually moved up to the regular adult chairs.

People have made fun of me for having the same haircut forever. Back in the day, they told me that it always stayed perfect (but wind would always mess it up right away as I never put gel or spray in it) or that I looked like an anchorman.

Sometime around February 2006, I started getting some gray hairs and I've gotten some more since then. There were days when I looked like I had a ton of grays and there were days when they were barely visible (I think it had to do with randomness.. sometimes the grays would find their way to the top when I brushed and sometimes they were almost totally covered by the other brown hairs).

Barbara has moved a few times over the years. For a long time, she was about 15 minutes away (I'd take Jericho down and then turn right onto Commack and go down a little bit more). A few months ago, she moved closer, maybe only about 10-12 minutes away (just down Jericho). It was apparently a temporary location. My mom called to make an appointment for me the other week and found out that she had moved yet again, now at least 20 minutes away. That seemed to be just too far and it wasn't even nearly as direct. Maybe it wasn't worth it. So my mom canceled my appointment (which was for last Tuesday).

"I need to find a new place," I kept saying. I started talking to people. I knew about this place called Five Barbers or something on 110. Seems pretty close, maybe like 7 minutes away. Then some other people told me about this place called Supercuts in the village. A bit farther away. I kept procrastinating. But I spoke with Chris this morning and he said he found a new place on Jericho that's closer and better. I trust him. So I finally worked up the nerve to check it out (the sign outside says just "Barber Shop"). I was nervous about finding it, then walking in and announcing my presence, and then telling the person what I wanted. Yes, minor things, but I worry about them. I try to limit my public awkwardness as much as possible (with varying degrees of failure).

I was also worried about what to get. Should I use this as an opportunity to change it up? I've always thought about getting much shorter hair so that I wouldn't have to brush it. The closest I came to that was when I told Barbara to make it "extra short," which ended up being the same thing in a week anyway. And if I did want to change it, how would I tell them what to do?

So I walked in to Barber Shop and some guy was ready to take me right there. I didn't have to sign in or wait or anything. Nice. I told him I wanted it shorter. (No duh, Geoffrey.) He asked me how short. So then I told him that it was my first time there and that I wanted to try something very different but didn't know how to ask for it. He pointed to numbered photos on the wall with different looks. Hmmmm. I think it took me too long to decide but I eventually said, "Ummm, number one, maybe?" (I always speak with great confidence, of course.) He said something to the effect of, "Really?" He kept reminding me that I had a lot of hair and that it would be a big change. Yes, I said, I know. So he started with the sides and made them short but it was hard to see much of a difference. Then came the top, the main attraction. Twice he asked me, "Are you sure?" I think he was afraid of doing something that I was going to hate and being blamed for it. But he was cool about it. He's from Russia, moved when he was 7, and has been here for 13 years (that's funny, I only just now realized that he's younger than me... weird).

I think it turned out well. It's very different. It'll take time for me to get used to the new me but I'm pretty happy with it.

What a big day in my life this was.

The Candidates Have Been Chosen

John McCain "clinched" the Republican nomination a few months ago and the last few months have been all about Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton. Last night, Obama earned enough delegates to push him over the top, making him the first African American to be a major party's candidate for president. We've witnessed history and we will continue to witness history. The infighting that's been going on with the Democrats will likely subside now... the only real issue now is whether the posters have the words "Obama/Clinton '08" on them.

It's been a very exciting presidential primary season. On November 19th, the Commission on Presidential Debates made its picks for debate sites: three presidential, one vice presidential. They chose my school Hofstra University to host the final presidential debate, which will be held on October 15th. Back then, it was looking like two New Yorkers would be at Hofstra this fall: Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton.

My how things change.

Live Blog: Pedro Martinez's Return

It's a New Blog

This is a new blog but this is far from a new blogger. In fact, I've been blogging before we had ever heard that word.

On July 4, 1999, I launched a website on GeoCities all about WCBS-TV in New York (I was quite the nerd... and I still am). I had all sorts of information about the station but the centerpiece was "NewsByte2," a page that had regular news updates: anchors coming and going, new graphics, new studios, special programming, etc. Through the website, I met other fans (hard to believe, I know) and eventually even some station insiders who gave me some tips so that I could beat the Daily News and the Post to reporting some things. It was pretty exciting.

I took a break sometime in the spring of 2005 but brought NewsByte2 back in official blog form on Blogger at newsbyte2.blogspot.com. Updating was easier and I no longer needed the HTML. I could also take comments from visitors and I found out that some high-profile people at CBS 2 were among my readers (thanks, in part, to my internship there last summer). I still have that blog but I figured it was time for me to try out a more personal one to go with GeoffreySorensen.com, which I'm still working on designing.