This entry almost didn't happen. When I lose at tennis, I don't like to write or remember about it. Yesterday we only played 2 sets, despite it being a great but too windy day with a rare strong and weird northeast wind. Having not played since Memorial Day, I was a bit rusty. We had a 'record' 5 consecutive service games until I screwed up and lost the 6th game played in the set, I ended up losing 6-4. I was serving way too hard and my accuracy was way off. 2nd set I eased up midway and after being down 4-1, I came back and won 6-4. I didn't get sunburned except for my nose & face despite wearing a cap & used some of that anti-stinging / anti-greasy blue bottled athletic DNA-altering sunscreen that CNN hates. My friend got pissed that I eased up, because he was waiting so much farther back and ended up with these softer shots, but I keep telling him, "pitchers don't throw fastballs every time. They throw changeups and curveballs as well."

As for the 4th of July, I will be doing nothing. I'm too sore from tennis. Illinois has a ban on fireworks, probably since at least the mid 1980s, probably so all those stupid little kids in Chicago don't blow their hands off or stick a lit firecracker in their mouths. People here go to either Wisconsin or Indiana for their (illegal) fireworks. Here, everything but sparklers and smoke bombs are banned, especially anything that can go up a few feet in the air. And if you do want to shoot off fireworks, you have to obtain a special and extremely hard-to-get permit. Illinois could make a lot of money selling fireworks if they put a fireworks tax on them. My favorite growing up were Moon Traveler Bottle Rockets. Cheap, loud, plentiful and you can use them at anytime of the day. I remember my dad loved these red mini-sticks of dynamite, where he'd like, in the backyard, put it in a soup can, light it, and then put the garage oil changing collecting pan upside down over it, and the can would shoot up 30 to 40 feet in the air.

Never again: I followed a Rachael Ray recipe. Oven baked onion rings. Sounds simple enough; idiot proof. But no. Recipe took twice as long, was gritty and was essentially the equivalent of eating sand. You also shouldn't follow her recipes because they are extremely high in calories. No Rachael Ray, not "everything in moderation".... instead "eat like you're not an idiot". And everybody knows you have an unhealthy fetish with bacon.

Interleague Play and its idiot 18 games finally ended this earlier this week. I noticed Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't like Interleague Play either, and he's given up fighting it. I sent an email to the White Sox Vice President of Communications Scott Reifert, telling him that Interleague Play is flawed by design, the old system was better and let Reinsdorf know not all fans like it. Scott replied and said (or at least humoring me) that he'd forward my email to Reinsdorf, which I thought was pretty cool. Nobody I know personally likes Interleague Play; especially N.L. fans, and I don't want to see crummy teams from the other league at the ballpark. And before I start to sound like Bob Sirott and complain about everything that is not old, I'll end this blog post.