The dreaded vote of confidence

So the headlines today say "Ryan expects Daniels, Washington back with Rangers."

From reading the story and his quotes, though, I don't know just how expectant he sounds to see those two back next year:

"In my mind, as of today, they are going to be back," Ryan said after the Rangers closed out the home schedule with a 14-4 win over Oakland that gave them a 1½ game lead on the A's for second place in the AL West. Both clubs have three games remaining. "I don't have any reason to think differently. Right now, we're talking about pitching and off-season issues like that. [Making management changes] isn't something that I'm even thinking about. As of today, that's how I feel."

By my count, that's two as-of-todays, one right-now, an in-my-mind, and a big old I-don't-see-why-not.

And as the article points out, both of these guys are still under contract next year, so if Nolan's really so sure they're coming back he shouldn't have to say anything at all.

I don't know enough to evaluate whether Ron Washington is a good game-day manager, but I'd kind of like to see him stick around. I do know his press conferences are funnier than Buck Showalter's were, and Buck's were pretty entertaining.

Jon Daniels, I don't know about. He's made some moves I didn't like, but he's made a few I liked, and at least one that would have worked out well if Brandon McCarthy's arm didn't suddenly fall off.

I'm going out on a limb and saying we'll see Washington back next year, but not the young Mr. Daniels. I was kind of surprised Daniels was able to do anything himself with Tom Hicks pulling the puppet strings, but now with Nolan Ryan in charge, I kind of think three's going to be a crowd in that front office.

We need your vote!

I need a favor. As you all know, I am a frequent attendee at Baylor football games, and I always tailgate pre-game with the same rag-tag group of BU alums, well-wishers, hangers-on and malcontents. Recently, a Fox Sports Net TV crew visited our tailgate and shot some footage for their online "Ultimate Tailgater of the Week" contest.

You'd be doing me a solid if you would visit this web page and cast a vote for the Robert Little tailgate. You can click to view the video, then scroll down just a little bit and on the right hand side there is a form to cast your vote.

Voting only lasts until noon tomorrow, and our man is currently sitting in third place out of three competitors. If you have a moment, help us put Robert over the top (and get a glimpse into how I spend my Saturdays).

They run tight

I'm going to buck the prevailing internet sentiment and tell you I can't get enough of this Seinfeld/Bill Gates commercial.

It has so many ingredients for comedy gold: Bill Gates acting like a weird crazy guy (which we all suspect he is anyway), Jerry Seinfeld going all Seinfeld on us in a way he hasn't in about a decade, and of course, making fun of Shoe Carnival.

This commercial joins the Sonic Guys as an ad I will stop my TiVo to watch every single time.

Rainy Day

We're finally getting some more rain today. It was drizzling lightly when I parked my car after lunch, and I looked at my umbrella and thought "Nah, I won't need that." Now that I'm back in the office, it is absolutely pouring down rain.

This always happens to me. I leave my umbrella somewhere and it rains and I walk in somewhere all wet and someone asks "Where's your umbrella?"

It's locked in my car, thanks, one parking lot away.

I think my problem is that growing up in Amarillo, an umbrella was not something people regularly carried with them. I can remember watching Sesame Street and thinking it was so weird that they would have bits about remembering to bring your umbrella because it might rain.

The few times it did rain in Amarillo were always at night during thunderstorms, so the idea of needing protection from the rain when you were out and about during the day seemed really foreign.

I guess I still think of an umbrella as something you keep in your hall closet or the trunk of your car...

Tax-free weekend

Back when I worked in retail, the annual "Sales Tax Holiday" was my least favorite weekend of the year. People would mob our store like we were giving away free gold bars, ignoring the fact that they were actually not even getting a discount since the regular weekend sales were always curtailed for tax-free weekend. I guess the thrill of not having to pay tax made people so crazy they didn't realize they were paying full retail price for the first time in their lives.

There was also a lot of conflict during the tax-free weekend because of a mistaken belief on the part of some customers that every purchase they make should be free of taxes because, of course, "It's tax-free weekend." I can't even count how many times I was accused of trying to rip someone off by "illegally" charging them sales tax for a candy bar.

To help you avoid such unpleasantness, I present the following list of items which are and are not exempt from sales tax this weekend:

Pants: Exempt
Watches: Not Exempt

Gloves (generally): Exempt
Gloves (baseball): Not Exempt

Shoes: Exempt
Shoe Shines: Not Exempt

Vests (generally): Exempt
Vests (bullet-proof): Not Exempt

(Source)