Sunday reading

... Here it is another Sunday. And I'm wondering where the weekend went ...

... On Friday, we grilled out and shared a night on our deck with good friends Laura and Kevin. The conversation was so good, the sun set without us barely noticing ...

... On Saturday, I soaked up the sun and worked in our yard. And then we went off to see Mom and Pops, who were camping not far out of the city ... It seemed like a good idea -- until we got out of the car were mowed down by a buzz kill of mosquitoes. We rushed Phoebe inside the camper ... and all of joined in shortly after. Instead of an ideal night around a campfire, we spend it inside playing Uno ... Pops played a buzz kill of his own; he won six of the eight hands we played ...

Today, we did church (Phoebs slept the whole service again ... ). I did a baseball practice ... And Mom and Pops came to our place. But the thunder and rain chased us inside once more, and we settled for watching the Brewers finish of the Orioles ...

And how 'bout those Cubs ... After becoming the victims of a hard-fought sweep in Tampa Bay last week ( ... Dang, Tampa is good this year; that series was every bit as tough as I figured it might be ...), the Cubbies came out swinging this weekend. Aramis won it in the ninth on Friday ... Then I got to catch that rocking fourth inning and yesterday's thriller ... And now they're blasting the Sox again tonight as I write this ... But let's not talk about September until we get there, OK?

Here's two weeks worth of stories that caught my eyes ...

But first, this one says it all: Is everything spinning out of control? Can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in American psyche is under assault

Sports & Baseball ...
a Cubs documents: Wrigley condition not dire
a The Bringer Of The Big Heat ... A good one from the SI archives about Nolan Ryan.
a A Jones For Hitting: Chipper Jones, the baddest switch-hitter since Mickey Mantle
a Spirit of '77 for White Sox, Cubs
a Guillen swap sides? No way
a Met fan squawks about Willie Randolph firing, sends Wilpons chickens
a The Catch: Super Bowl moment small part of Tyree's journey
a Rodgers savoring honeymoon as Packers' starting QB ... A good one from my friend Raechel.
a Verdict still out on Kobe's legacy ... Compare him to Michael Jordan all you want, but they'll never be equals.
a Watching Tiger, Kobe compete on same day

Music ...
a Alanis Morissette continues channeling her anger
a Another Somebody Sung Somebody's Song Wrong

Politics ...
a Obama, or Osama? Hotmail glitch
a In Her Own Time

TV ...
a 'Big Bird' Caroll Spinney Still Flocking to Sesame Street

The Internet ...
a 'Geek girl' helps keep Mozilla safe in scary times
a The Fate of The Sentence: Is the Writing On the Wall? ... Interesting.
a The Web makes us antsy readers, not deep thinkers ... Also quite interesting.

The media ...
a The L.A. Times's Human Wrecking Ball
a Katie Couric shows her ‘nerd’ side ... Quite amusing.
a Will Viacom nuke the YouTube clip of CBS' Lara Logan ... Also quite amusing.
a Tom Brokaw: 'Meet the Press' til Nov. 4
a Tim Russert: the details about what caused his death

The Onion ...
a Mariners Fire Whiffing Coach
a Cricket Located
a Fantasy Baseball Owner Rips Team In Media
a Falling Down Laundry Chute And Breaking Neck Remains America's No. 548,221 Killer

Travel ...
a America's Unkempt Front Yard
a Fake But Fun Destinations

Life & other stuff ...
a How a lake went down the drain
a Men fillet Charlie the Tuna statue in Oregon
a Nike sneaks logo onto the lakefront path ... Not cool.
a More Schools Trying Separation of the Sexes
a Looking to Avoid Aggressive Drivers? Check Those Bumpers
a Your friends? They're dead.