Leno's loss is Conan's gain

I read in the AP news feeds that Jay Leno's last "Tonight" is May 29 and O'Brien takes over the slot June 1. From what I read, I might not miss out on him for long, though. It appears that he may jump ship to another network.

While I prefer his intros over all the other late-night shows and will miss his wit, I think he'll land on his feet... or possibly on his wheels, considering the number of cars he owns.

But what will he do in a role where he might not be one of late-night's kings? Who knows? Possibly make cameo appearances elsewhere? Maybe help out with scripts somewhere? That seems beneath him, so it's hard to tell where he'll be. Anyone want to venture a guess?

All of it seems a little strange, though, because Conan's numbers are being eroded by Craig Ferguson (whose intros are also better than Conan's in my opinion). Plus, Ferguson's accent and self-deprecation only add to his charm. Meanwhile, Conan's hair is still atrocious.

All this is based on NBC's four-year-old promise that O'Brien would succeed Leno. Sounds to me like NBC put all their eggs in the same Conan basket.

But all the switchings don't end there. Jimmy Fallon may take over O'Brien's former spot. I seriously doubt I'll be checking that one out.

What I'd like to see is a Leno-Jimmy Kimmel combo. I might actually watch past the intro jokes if that were the case.

What are your thoughts on all the late-night comedy drama?

Belated Father's Day present

My sisters and I finally were able to celebrate Father's Day for real with my dad this Sunday. We bought four tickets (one for each of us and one for my father) to a Braves game and gave them to him on Father's Day.

So we trekked to Atlanta Sunday morning, shot through the World of Coke, discovered Barg's red cream soda (now my new favorite) in the tasting room there, then headed to Turner Field for what turned out to be an ugly loss for the Braves (my dad's favorite team). The score ended up being 15-6. Clearly, the Nationals won.

Overall, I think my dad had a good time even though he missed catching a foul ball by only a few inches. He would have had it if he hadn't accidentally hit Olivia's head while trying to snag it away from Erin's head. It turned out that the guy sitting directly behind me (with an infant in his arms) got it... but only after it bounced off dad's hand.

Here are a few photos from our seats. We were sitting fourth row from the bottom, just past the visitor's dugout. Erin is on the left, Olivia is in the middle and my dad is on the right. It was the hottest and possibly sweatiest I've ever been, but a lot of fun for the Killian clan.

All-Star game

I caught the last few minutes of the All-Star game Tuesday night by accident as I waited for a peach cobbler to finish in the oven.

I caught the 13th inning at a 3-3 tie.

Sounds to me like a pretty evenly matched team.

It finally ended in the 15th inning with a sliding play at home plate.

Too bad my fantasy catcher, Brian McCann, couldn't get the guy out.

Actually, that might not have been so bad. My cobbler was done in the 14th.

Movie blogs continued

Thought I'd continue my last post with tidbits on the last few we've seen.

"Sex and the City" (There's enough estrogen on this one to last about a year and a half.)

"Don't Mess with the Zohan" (a lot better than we thought it would be, although some things were played up a little too much. It would have been better when I was in high school.)

"The Hulk" (surprisingly good for a dude-fest, but it's a little too obvious that you're being set up for a sequel)

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Indiana Jones + aliens = Major bomb)

"The Love Guru" (It's a good thing the movie was free. It's on the list of top 5 worst movies I've seen. It doesn't even stand a chance for getting a cult following.)

Movie binge

I think an apology is in order for my recent lapse in blog posts. I've been extra busy with planning for our coverage of the American Legion World Series that's coming up in August.

I've actually been meaning to blog about our recent movie binge for the past two weeks. Over the past few months, I've been going with a friend to the movies (she gets tickets for free, so we're not out of anything if they're bombs.)

We saw "Baby Mama" (Passable, but I probably wouldn't watch it again), "Made of Honor" (chick flick, but it had Patrick Dempsey in it, so I couldn't complain too much), "What Happens in Vegas" (Pretty good. I like Cameron Diaz, but don't particularly care for Ashton Kitcher, so it was a wash), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (A fre bits were a little shocking, but it was an OK film).

(Continued in next post.)

Sunday afternoon entertainment

I've been meaning to post these photos all week, but just now got a chance. They're of our "wagon train" Sunday evening. After I got off work, my family called and asked me to ride along in my cousin's new toy. Here it is:






The little girl in the photo is my cousin's girlfriend's daughter. And in an interesting sidenote, her name is Emily Renee like mine. She was surprisingly OK as far as kids go.

Flamingo update

The Flamingoes continue to bite the dust at 10th place in our league, thanks to the aid of yet another sub-par pitcher. Brett Myers, a first-round draft pick in 1999 by the Phillies, was remanded to the minor leagues.

His win-loss record is 3-9.

Boo, hiss.

So we've now picked up Mark Buehrle, who is 6-6.

We'll see what happens.

Fantasy baseball update

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I blogged last week about my fantasy baseball team - the Flamingoes. They've been in the dumps lately, but had an amazing surge on Sunday. They jumped 3.5 points, which was great news for me, but it still secures my spot at glorious No. 10. Jon Jimison blogged about how bad his team is doing a few days ago, and Randy Capps, also in our league, is hovering below the halfway mark in standings. Perhaps it's some kind of Star-affiliation curse. (I'm just glad it doesn't involve a goat.)

But it did give me the idea of putting my roster on here and solicit advice on who to cut, move, etc.

So here ya go. Any advice is appreciated. (And as far as I know, it's not against league rules.)

Catcher = Brian McCann (Atlanta)
1B = James Loney (LA Dodgers)
2B = Orlando Hudson (Arizona)
3B = Garrett Atkins (Colorado)
SS = Derek Jeter (Yankees)
Outfield = Carlos Beltran (Mets), Jermaine Dye (CWS), Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston), Vernon Wells (Toronto)
Utility = Stephen Drew (SS, Arizona), Dustin Pedroia (2B, Boston), Joey Votto (1B, OF, Cin), Adrian Beltre (1B, Seattle)
Pitchers = Bobby Jenks (Chicago), Brett Myers (Philadelphia), Tom Gorzelanny (Pittsburgh), Hideki Okajima (Boston), Aaron Cook (Colorado), Jesse Litsch (Toronto), Jake Peavy (Padres), Dave Bush (Brewers)
Pitcher benched for fighting = Edwin Jackson (TP)
Pitchers on DL = Chien-Ming Wang (Yankees), Rafael Soriano (Atlanta)

Silly when wet

I don't know how many of you have dogs - or how many of you bathe them for that matter, but I like to keep mine pretty clean. They're normally bathed every two to three weeks, depending on how long it takes them to get stinky.

So Sunday I donned shorts and a T-shirt, broke out the doggie shampoo and set to work with Gracie and Lulu in the shower.

Once I finished toweling them off, they each did their post-bath crazy runs.

Don't bathe your dog? You probably have no idea what the crazy runs are. Have one? I'm sure you've seen them take off like a bullet, bouncing and shaking, running into furniture, playing with each other and being silly. The crazy runs usually entail barking, someone inevitably skidding across the floor on wet feet and a lot of general silliness.

Here they are after a pause in the crazy runs (encouraged via cookie bribery). Lulu's the blonde and Gracie is the black and white one.

Baseball hates me

I agreed to join a fantasy baseball league in a moment of weakness earlier this year. Randy Capps, a former sportswriter here, was begging for more people to join. So before knowing the work - and now the angst - it entails, I agreed.

It sounded logical. I like baseball. I played softball for years, so I know the rules. It's a solid sport. I like the uniforms. I'm competitive.

So I joined.

I've regretted it ever since.

My team, which I dubbed the Flamingoes, hovered in fourth place through May in a league of all males - many former or current sportswriters. I was proud of my little pink buddies.

Since then, I have plummeted to a solid 10th place. I'm 10 points behind the guy in 9th place and more points than I can admit behind the league leader.

And it's all because of injuries. I've had a total of 8 guys on the disabled list in the past three
weeks. One guy has even been on it twice. I also had a pitcher suspended for fighting.

The guys call it fantasy baseball, but that's a misnomer. It's really nightmare baseball.

So here's hoping for a healthy few weeks.

I'd really like to say that one random chick (get it, Flamingoes, chick) from lifestyles beat at least one sports writer.