Before I get to the meat of the blog, I thought I'd add some color to the ol' profile. After my wife and I went out for dinner and mini-golf, I took the following pictures at Pere Marquette Beach last Friday, June 29.

Lake Michigan just before sunset (sun is off camera to the right).

The actual sunset; there are some boats off in the distance as well as a lighthouse to the right of the sun.

This is just after the sunset and farther down the beach where Muskegon Lake meets Lake Michigan.

Lighthouse at the end of Muskegon Channel with dune grass in the foreground. (Flash on)

FlyingHellfish News: Life has been a little hectic and busy lately in the FlyingHellfish household this past month or so. I've been faced with a few new employment developments and car problems which have caused a little stress.

This past winter an ad was placed in the local paper about a law enforcement position for the county opening up that I am qualified for. I applied and was called in to take a written test, and based upon the results of the test I would be considered for an interview. I passed the test with flying colors and finished with the 4th highest score out of the 70 some applicants. Then for a long time I heard nothing from the county about the job.

Fast forward to April, when I was approached by my employers with the proposition of purchasing a percentage of the business; I was offered a good deal, and along with partial ownership I would have a louder and more powerful voice in the decision making department, as well as a raise and a few other monetary perks that come from owning a business. So my wife and I looked around for another bank to refinance our house, (didn't care for our current bank) and help us come up with sufficient funds to buy-in to the business.

I was set to officially take part as an owner on the start of the 3rd quarter, July 1st, when a few weeks ago, I received a call from the county asking me to come in for an interview. They had finally gotten around to making a list of 5 candidates to interview, one of which was me. I went in for the interview and thought I did fairly well, considering I have never before interviewed for a job, due to the fact that I've been fabricating sheet metal with the same company since I was a sophomore in high school. Now while all of this was happening, the engine in my wife's Monte Carlo decided to take a crap. Trying to coordinate bank meetings, an upcoming interview and the constant commute to both of our jobs with only my Cavalier between my wife and I was a pain.

Well, this past weekend everything seemed to come together and hopefully change for the better. First, my wife's car was repaired by a friend of a friend, who is a certified mechanic and deals specifically in swapping out motors on the side. It ended up costing significantly cheaper than the quotes I had received from a few other auto mechanics in town. Then I received a letter from the county, with the standard line of "thanks for applying...yada, yada, yada...we've gone in a different direction." Fine. No biggie. I wasn't hinging my future on getting the job anyway. At the time I originally applied, the field of work I am currently in was starting to really slow down and the possibility of being laid off for a while was looming, so I decided to apply for other jobs set up a parachute for myself, should I lose my job.

In the past month residential construction has picked up in our area and most of our heating and cooling contractors have turned to doing more and more light commercial projects which has also helped our business really pick up. The bank came through with the money and I am now officially a part owner at my sheet metal shop.

To top everything off and make life a lot more exciting, my wife's sister gave birth to twin girls on Tuesday. Kylee and Gracie are almost 5 weeks early, but are in good health and weigh 5 lbs 1 ounce and 5 lbs 2 ounces respectively. So for the first time in my life, my wife and I are Aunt and Uncle (x2) and we can't wait to spoil our new nieces. Also I just got a letter from my best friend, who is out in San Diego finishing up his 13-week boot camp for the Marines. The good news is, he'll be home in a week and a half, but less than a week later, he'll have to ship back out to San Diego for 3 more weeks of training and then be shipped out to wherever the Marines decide to station him for some more schooling and additional training. He has indicated that while he won't have a lot of time to spend back home, he definitely wants to make the most of it. Translated: I need to get my liver in tip-top shape, 'cause it'll be busy few days with lots of "vitamin B." :D

TV.com News: The new submission system continues to be a thorn in the side of contributors and editors everywhere. I've asked submitters for The Simpsons to cease until most or all of the kinks are worked out. One of the big problems is that when I approve a valid submission, it doesn't show up in the guide. I don't know if these subs will just float around for a while before going live on the site or if they have disappeared forever. Either way, I'd rather not take the chance and have all the hard work from submitters be for nothing.

Additional note to submitters for The Simpsons: I will be in Traverse City for the weekend without access to a computer, so if by some miracle the "new submission system" is up and running without any bugs, I won't be moderating any subs until Sunday evening at the soonest. And for the tiny number of submitters who continue to submit items despite my requests to stop which I have posted here and in the forum: STOP. I will not moderate these subs until the "new submission system" is online and even then there is no guarantee that if I approve your sub, that it will even show up in the guide. So please, everyone, hold on to your subs and wait to submit until I give some kind of all clear or until a staff member makes some kind of official announcement regarding the (hopefully soon) solving of all the bugs.

And, I'm done. Take it easy fellow TV.commers.

Go Tigers!!

UPDATED--10:47AM July 4 In case anyone missed it, the following is pinned in The Simpsons forum: I just thought I would offer an update this morning on the situation. It looks like some, but not all of the bugs have been worked out of the "new submission system." Today is a national holiday in the States, so I can't imagine that staff will be working today. I am asking that all submitters continue to wait this out until staff can fix all of the bugs or until I give some kind of cautionary all clear. I know this is frustrating, but remember we are all in the same boat and even I am not submitting to the guide during this time. Thanks for your continuing patience and cooperation. FlyingHellfish EDIT--The very small amount of submissions that have trickled in from users who obviously aren't aware of the this situation have been moderated, and the few that I approved are not showing up in the guide. Yet another good reason to not submit anything, because even if I approve a submission it's not showing up in the guide.

...or Arby's as it is more commonly referred to, is once again offering breakfast at its Muskegon area restaurants. To some this might not seem like a big deal but, oh, believe me, it is. Allow me to explain: It used to be that Arby's breakfast was the only fast-food breakfast that I would be willing to purchase. McDonald's breakfast is way too greasy, and Burger King's, while not as greasy, just doesn't have much in the way of taste. Taste, mind you, being a very key component to an enjoyable breakfast. Arby's breakfast was priced in the same range as McDonald's and Burger King's, but their food was far more superior and came in larger portions. A few comparisons: McDonald's breakfast sandwiches are barely the size of a hockey puck and can quickly render a person incapacitated and cause one to seek refuge in the bathroom (If you know what I mean). Burger King's breakfast sandwiches, again, and I can't emphasize this enough, are simply too bland. At Arby's you could get some egg, melted cheese and a healthy portion of thinly sliced ham between two big, thick slices of soft sourdough bread. McDonald's serves those thin, rinky-dink, stale hash-browns, and Burger King's little tater-tot wannabes are all crunch and no flavor. Arby's, on the other hand, served two large, crispy on the outside, perfect potato consistency on the inside, potato cakes. All that being said, you can imagine my disdain and severe bought of depression that came about; after learning, some 5-6 years ago, that Arby's had taken breakfast off their menu. I learned of this terrifying news while in the drive-thru line, so it wasn't like I could plan one big last breakfast at Arby's and offer a proper goodbye. I was left to drive to work reeling from the bad news and I had an empty stomach to boot. Now back to the good news: I don't eat fast-food breakfast everyday, on average once or twice a week. And after suffering through McDonald's and Burger King’s breakfasts for nearly all of my adult life, you can imagine my surprise when the following happened to me on Tuesday morning. On my way to work, I passed the nearby Arby's restaurant and noticed the Arby's mascot, "Oven Mitt," who was cheerily dancing around and holding a sign. I didn't get a chance to read the sign, but instantly a warm feeling of excitement and hope washed over me. No, I wasn't peeing my pants; I was just realizing that the improbable was happening. Breakfast was returning to Arby's! I could have slammed on my brakes, jumped out of the car and tackled "Oven Mitt" in joy, but alas, I was running a little late to work and did not have the time to spare. This morning, my hopes from the previous day were confirmed. There it was, on the brightly lit drive-thru menu. A mouth-watering photo of a sourdough breakfast sandwich piled high with ham, egg and melted cheese. Priced at a very modest $3.19, I nearly ordered two of the #4 combos that come with the aforementioned sandwich, two potato cakes and small Pepsi. (I would have gotten OJ, but it always tastes terrible after you've brushed your teeth.) I was placed in such a good mood by the fact that Arby's breakfast would now once again be my fast-food breakfast staple and decided to share my joy with you all. That's it for now. I'm thinking Arb--I mean, Take it easy. EDIT--Any user who plans on making submissions to The Simpsons show guide should read the following: This news is a bit old, but in case you haven't heard: Staff is retooling the submission system this weekend. Details Staff has asked all editors to clear out their queues before 3:00 EST today (June 30). My queue is currently empty and I won't be on the computer later today to be able to process subs before the 3:00 EST deadline. So please do not submit anything to The Simpsons guide until after the new submission system is up and running, which will hopefully be Monday, July 2. Thank you for your cooperation on this matter. FlyingHellfish

First off, Happy Father’s Day to any Dads out there in TV.com land. On Friday night my brother and I took my Dad out for dinner and drinks, and this morning the three of us went golfing along with a family friend. I brought up the rear with a 51; our family friend shot 49; my brother shot 47, and my Dad finished with 41. I think he ended by shooting par on the last 4 holes. Things have continued to be busy for me here, as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t written a blog in almost 3 weeks. I cut the time I spend moderating the queue in half by making CFlovesLF a Trusted User. He was consistently submitting quality items and helping to clean up the guide, so once he had enough points, it really was a no-brainer for me to appoint him. Yesterday, I had a good chunk of time to work on the guide after I cleaned out the queue and lo and behold a site-wide Level 1 bug has hit. And of course the normal work around procedure isn’t working to fix the bug, so I couldn’t submit a darn thing because I was stuck at 4% of Level 1. Sheesh. Surprisingly the levels ran today, albeit they are still incorrect. But now at least I’m a Level 2 and can submit again. The weather continues to be hot here in Muskegon, we haven’t had any rain for about a week and my lawn is starting to burn up. We don’t have underground sprinkling and some nights we forget to set up and manually turn on our sprinklers. I think we’re supposed to get some rain here in the beginning of next week, I hope so, we need it. We do have a window air conditioning unit, but I’m trying to tough it out and I haven’t installed it yet this summer. Luckily we live in a very shady neighborhood, so our house doesn’t cook all day in the sun. I keep telling myself that I haven’t put the window unit in yet because we’re saving money on our electric bill, but really it’s because I just don’t want to lug it out of the garage. It gets cool enough at night that a fan in the window works just fine. My wife’s aunt opened her pool up last weekend and we’ve taken advantage of it three times already this week. And we plan on going back today. We’ve haven’t been down to Lake Michigan yet, I’m waiting for the water temps to get a little warmer down there, but I’m sure by the time summer is over, we’ll have played our share of volleyball and done plenty of swimming. I’ll be sure to grab my camera when we go; Pere Marquette Beach is just 15 minutes from my house and I think sometimes my wife and I take for granted that one of the nicest beaches on the Great Lakes is right here in Muskegon. This webpage has a few pictures, you can click to enlarge them. I haven’t really had a lot of time to play Wii lately. Right now I’m in the middle of Chapter 4 on Super Paper Mario and I play a round of golf on Tiger Woods about once a week. I have to play golf when I am alone though, as it often seems to bring out the foul mouth hidden inside me. How about the Tigers? They’re playing decent ball. I still follow them as much as I ever have, but I just don’t have the time to write about them as much as I would like to. Ordonez and Sheffield continue to keep driving the runs in. Starting pitching has been fairly good. You can always count on a good if not great outing from Bonderman and Verlander. Durbin is much more reliable than he was at the start of the year. Maroth isn’t pitching up to the standard he set in early 2006, but he usually makes it the 6th inning. Hopefully, Robertson will get things straightened out and Rogers could be in the rotation as soon as Friday. I went over to my brother’s house on Tuesday night to catch the 7th, 8th and 9th innings of Verlander’s No-No on FSD. (I don’t have cable or a dish.) Since it was his house, I didn’t say anything, but I wanted to tell him to put Mario and Rod on mute and put Dan Dickerson on. As soon as the Ordonez caught the last out, we switched to the radio and on Friday, my brother told me I should have insisted on turning the radio on sooner; the thought just hadn’t occurred to him. I listened to the highlights of the game and hearing Dickerson with the double play ball in the 8th, the strikeouts in the 9th and the final out gave me goose bumps. Ok that’s it for me. Take it easy fellow TV.commers.

No, I'm not talking about the delicacies they sell at the airport Cinnabon stand. I'm talking about the weather. Summer is here which means the bombardment of reality TV shows and reruns galore. It also means the bittersweet return of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I almost think that NBC was hoping this show would fail. Granted it is one of the more expensive shows to produce, but it has a great ensemble cast, excellent writing, and interesting characters. NBC threw this one into the 10:00 Monday night slot and just didn't promote enough or give a chance in another time slot. Ugh. And now for some rambling: The Tigers are in a funk lately, aside from the 14-2 pasting of the Devil Rays a couple days ago, they just seem out of it. Not to mention the injury bug is biting and stinging at the same time. Good news though Kenny Rogers' return seems to be ahead of schedule and the Tigers still have a hold of the wild card spot. If you are highly observant, you will have noticed that my age in the "About Me" box changed from 23 to 24. May 27th 1983, the date the whole world stopped and said..."Man, that's an ugly baby!" Just kidding, however, I was a bit of a bruiser at 10 pounds 6 ounces. Anyway, I share the same birthday as future baseball Hall of Famers: Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell, as well as Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Wild Bill Hickok and legendary golfer Sam Snead. Check and see which famous or notable people you share your birthday with this website. My wife's family insists on having monthly birthday parties, complete with gifts, even for the adults in the family. This year I told her to put the word out that I'd prefer Best Buy gift cards over anything else and lo and behold everyone came through. I purchased Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 and Super Paper Mario for my Wii, as well as a LAN connection, and also I spotted a good deal on the MacGyver Season 1 DVD set. Ah, memories. MacGyver was my favorite show growing up and I haven't seen it in quite a while. I don't think that as a kid I realized how corny this show really is, but I still enjoy it now. Gotta love the theme song. Being an editor has surely changed the way I spend time on this site. There are usually plenty of submissions in my queue and so far I think I've done a good job staying on top of them. I love the satisfaction of seeing "Your Queue Is Empty!" after moderating a batch of subs. All right that's it for now. Take it easy, fellow TV.commers.

Things are looking to be a little more busy for me at TV.com now. On Tuesday I took over as editor for The Simpsons show guide. In doing so I think I have lost the dubious distinction of being one of the highest leveled users on this site that didn't have an editorship of any kind. As far as I can tell, in all my travels here over the past year I haven't run across anyone without an editorship and a higher level than me. Well, anyway, I'm off to the queue! Here are the ratings:

Rank	Show			Network/Date	Viewers    1	American Idol		Fox/Wed 9:00	28.1  2	American Idol		Fox/Tue 8:00	24.2  3	Grey's Anatomy		ABC/Thu 9:00	22.6  4	House			Fox/Tue 9:02	21.2  5	CSI			CBS/Thu 9:00	20.4  6	Dancing With the Stars	ABC/Mon 8:00	19.6  7	Desperate Housewives	ABC/Sun 9:00	18.8  8	Dancing w/Stars Results	ABC/Tue 9:00	18.4  9	CSI: Miami		CBS/Mon 10:00	16.6  10	Bob Barker: 50 Yrs (s)	CBS/Thu 8:00	14.3    11	The Price is Right (s)	CBS/Wed 8:00	14.0  12	King of Queens		CBS/Mon 9:00	13.6  13	CSI (s)(r)		CBS/Thu 10:01	13.3  14	Criminal Minds		CBS/Wed 9:00	13.2  15	CSI: NY			CBS/Wed 10:00	13.1  16	Law & Order: SVU	NBC/Tue 10:00	12.8  17	Ext. Makeover: Home	ABC/Sun 8:00	12.6  18	Brothers & Sisters	ABC/Sun 10:02	12.3  18	Lost			ABC/Wed 10:00	12.3  20	Heroes			NBC/Mon 9:00	11.5    21	60 Minutes		CBS/Sun 7:00	10.9  21	Bones			Fox/Wed 8:00	10.9  23	24			Fox/Mon 9:00	10.6  23	The Bachelor		ABC/Mon 9:31	10.6  25	Ugly Betty		ABC/Thu 8:00	10.5  26	Boston Legal		ABC/Tue 10:01	10.3  27	Numb3rs                 CBS/Fri 10:00	10.2  27	Two and a Half Men	CBS/Mon 8:30	10.2  29	The Simpsons		Fox/Sun 7:59	9.9  30	ER			NBC/Thu 10:01	9.5    31	ACM Awards (s)		CBS/Tue 8:00	9.3  32	Family Guy		Fox/Sun 9:00	9.2  32	Law & Order		NBC/Fri 10:00	9.2  34	Dancing w/Stars (s)(r)	ABC/Tue 8:00	9.1  34	Lost: The Answers (s)	ABC/Thu 10:15	9.1  36	Deal or No Deal		NBC/Mon 8:00	8.8  37	The Office		NBC/Thu 8:00	7.9  38	Dr. Phil: Caged (s)	CBS/Fri 9:00	7.8  38	Medium			NBC/Wed 10:00	7.8  40	How I Met Your Mother	CBS/Mon 8:00	7.7    41	American Dad		Fox/Sun 9:31	7.6  42	Ext. Makeover: Home	ABC/Sun 7:00	7.4  43	House (r)		Fox/Mon 8:00	7.2  43	Law & Order: CI	(s)	NBC/Mon 10:00	7.2  45	Law & Order: CI (r)	NBC/Tue 9:00	6.9  45	Million Dollar Baby (s)	CBS/Sun 8:00	6.9  47	AFV			ABC/Fri 8:00	6.6  47	Dateline		NBC/Fri 8:00	6.6  49	America's Top Model	CW/Wed 8:00	6.4  49	Crossing Jordan		NBC/Wed 9:00	6.4    49	National Treasure (s)	ABC/Sun 8:00	6.4  52	20/20			ABC/Fri 10:01	6.3  53	48 Hours Mystery	NBC/Sat 10:00	6.2  53	National Bingo Night	ABC/Fri 9:00	6.2  55	The Pacifier            ABC/Sat 9:00	6.1  56	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 8:00	5.8  56	Law & Order (r)		NBC/Sat 10:00	5.8  58      Cronkite at 90 (s)	CBS/Fri 8:00	5.7  59	Dateline		NBC/Tue 8:00	5.5  60	According to Jim	ABC/Wed 8:00	5.4    60	Destilando Amor         Uni/Wed 9:02	5.4  62	Scrubs			NBC/Thu 9:00	5.3  63	America's Most Wanted	Fox/Sat 9:00	5.2  63	Bones (r)		Fox/Fri 9:00	5.2  63	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 9:00	5.2  63	Destilando Amor         Uni/Tue 9:02	5.2  63	King of the Hill	Fox/Sun 7:29	5.2  68	Destilando Amor         Uni/Thu 9:02	5.0  68	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Wed 8:01	5.0  70	Destilando Amor         Uni/Mon 9:02	4.9    70	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Tue 8:01	4.9  70	Gilmore Girls		CW/Tue 8:00	4.9  70	House (r)		Fox/Fri 8:00	4.9  74	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Mon 8:01	4.8  75	Cops			Fox/Sat 8:30	4.7  75	Law & Order: SVU (r)	NBC/Sat 9:00	4.7  77	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Thu 8:01	4.6  77	Notes From/Underbelly	ABC/Wed 8:30	4.6  77	Thank God You're Here	NBC/Wed 8:00	4.6  80	Dateline		NBC/Sun 7:00	4.5    80	Destilando Amor         Uni/Fri 9:02	4.5  82	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Fri 8:01	4.3  83	According to Jim (r)	ABC/Wed 9:00	4.2  83	Day After Tomorrow      Fox/Thu 8:00	4.2  85	Smallville		CW/Thu 8:00	4.1  85	WWE: Smackdown          CW/Fri 8:00	4.1  87	Cops			Fox/Sat 8:00	4.0  87	King of the Hill	Fox/Sun 7:00	4.0  89	AFV (s)(r)		ABC/Sat 8:00	3.9  89	Bailando por la Boda	Uni/Sun 9:00	3.9    89	Dateline		NBC/Sat 8:00	3.9  89	Notes From/Underbelly	ABC/Wed 9:30	3.9  93	Nuestra Belleza		Uni/Tie 10:03	3.6  94	Cristina		Uni/Mon 10:03	3.5  95	Don Francisco Presenta	Uni/Wed 10:03	3.4  95	Futbol Liga Mexicana	Uni/Sun 7:00	3.4  97	Aqui y Ahora		Uni/Thu 10:03	2.9  98	Casos de la Vida Real	Uni/Fri 10:03	2.8  99	One Tree Hill		CW/Wed 9:00	2.7  99	Supernatural		CW/Thu 9:00	2.7    101	All of Us		CW/Mon 8:30	2.5  101	The Game		CW/Mon 9:00	2.5  103	Everybody Hates Chris	CW/Mon 8:00	2.3  103	Sábado Gigante		Uni/Sat 8:00	2.3  105	Veronica Mars		CW/Tue 9:00	2.1  106	America's Top Model (r)	CW/Sun 9:00	1.4  106	Gilmore Girls (s)(r)	CW/Sun 8:00	1.4  108	7th Heaven (r)		CW/Sun 7:00	1.2
           

Well the Tigers defeated the Cardinals 6-3 today and I was there. Great game. Justin Verlander pitched 8 solid innings and allowed only 5 hits and 2 runs. One of the hits was an impressive home run by Chris Duncan of the Cardinals, he hit a rocket straight over the center field wall, 420 feet from home plate. Also Brandon Inge is now two for two in hitting home runs in games that I've attended this year. Maybe I should grab season tickets for the rest of the games to continue the trend and give Inge a chance at breaking the single season home run record held by a certain unfriendly someone. Anyway here are some pics from today.

We had lunch at Hockey Town Cafe and I took this picture from our table on the second level. The restaurant down on the right is Johnny Rockets.


Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa is in the red and he is having a friendly chat with Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski.


Curtis Granderson signing autographs at the other end of the dugout. He is facing away from the camera.


Pitcher Kenny Rogers talks with pitching coach Chuck Hernandez as they make their way from the bullpen to the dugout.


Justin Verlander with the first pitch of the game. Adam Kennedy is at the plate and he hit the first pitch for a ground ball to Brandon Inge, who scooped it up and threw Kennedy out at first.


After Bobby Seay records the last out, the Tigers come together on the mound to handshake and congratulate each other.

The weather wasn't the greatest, cloudy and 62 degrees. But it was by no means uncomfortable. I love spending a day at the ballpark and it is great to see the stadium packed with enthusiastic fans. I'll be for sure going to a game again in August, but I'd like to try and catch a game or two before then.

All right that's it for now. Take it easy fellow TV.commers.

A few things to note: The following ratings are for the Prime-time period of Monday May 7th – Sunday May 13th, (r) stands for repeat episode, (s) stands for special broadcast, and the number of viewers is in millions.

Rank	Show			Network/Date	Viewers    1	American Idol		Fox/Wed 9:00	28.2  2	American Idol		Fox/Tue 8:00	25.5  3	House			Fox/Tue 9:01	21.4  4	Grey's Anatomy		ABC/Thu 9:00	19.6  5	Dancing With the Stars	ABC/Mon 8:00	19.4  6	CSI			CBS/Thu 9:00	18.8  7	CSI: Miami		CBS/Mon 10:00	17.2  8	Dancing Stars Results	ABC/Tue 9:00	16.9  9	Desperate Housewives	ABC/Sun 9:00	16.1  10	Without a Trace		CBS/Thu 10:01	14.3    11	NCIS			CBS/Tue 8:00	13.9  12	Survivor: Fiji		CBS/Thu 8:00	13.8  13	Survivor: Finale (s)	CBS/Sun 8:00	13.6  14	King of Queens		CBS/Mon 9:30	13.4  15	Two and a Half Men	CBS/Mon 9:00	13.3  16	Criminal Minds		CBS/Wed 9:00	12.9  17	CSI: NY			CBS/Wed 10:00	12.8  18	Lost			ABC/Wed 10:00	12.1  19	Brothers & Sisters	ABC/Sun 10:02	11.6  20	Survivor: Reunion (s)	CBS/Sun 10:09	11.4    21	Heroes			NBC/Mon 9:00	11.1  22	24			Fox/Mon 9:00	10.9  22	Law & Order: SVU	NBC/Tue 10:00	10.9  24	The Unit		CBS/Tue 9:00	10.7  25	Deal or No Deal		NBC/Mon 8:00	10.4  25	Ext. Makeover: Home	ABC/Sun 8:00	10.4  25	The Bachelor		ABC/Mon 9:31	10.4  28	Close to Home		CBS/Fri 9:00	10.3  29	Bones			Fox/Wed 8:00	10.2  30	Boston Legal		ABC/Tue 10:01	10.0    30	Numb3rs                 CBS/Fri	10:00	10.0  32	Ugly Betty		ABC/Thu 8:00	9.6  33	60 Minutes		CBS/Sun 7:00	9.5  34	ER			NBC/Thu 10:01	9.4  35	Smarter/5th Grader?	Fox/Thu 8:00	9.3  36	Ghost Whisperer         CBS/Fri 8:00	9.1  37	Smarter/5th Grader? (s)	Fox/Thu 9:00	8.7  38	Traveler		ABC/Thu 10:00	8.6  39	Law & Order		NBC/Fri 10:00	8.3  40	Without a Trace (s)(r)	CBS/Tue 10:00	8.2    41	Medium			NBC/Wed 10:00	7.9  42	New/Old Christine	CBS/Mon 8:30	7.8  43	How I Met Your Mother	CBS/Mon 8:00	7.7  43	Jericho			CBS/Wed 8:00	7.7  45	House (r)		Fox/Mon 8:00	7.5  46	Law & Order (r)		NBC/Sat 10:00	7.4  47	Family Guy		Fox/Sun 9:00	7.2  47	The Office		NBC/Thu 8:42	7.2  49	48 Hours Mystery	CBS/Sat 10:00	7.0  49	AFV			ABC/Sun 7:00	7.0    51	Law & Order: CI		NBC/Tue 9:00	6.9  51	My Name is Earl         NBC/Thu 8:00	6.9  51	The Simpsons (r)	Fox/Sun 8:29	6.9  54	Dateline		NBC/Fri 8:00	6.8  55	The Simpsons		Fox/Sun 7:59	6.5  56	According to Jim	ABC/Wed 8:00	6.4  56	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 9:00	6.4  56	Shrek (s)(r)            NBC/Sun 8:00	6.4  59	20/20			ABC/Fri 10:02	6.1  60	Law & Order: SVU (r)	NBC/Sat 9:00	6.0    61	American Dad		Fox/Sun 9:31	5.7  61	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 8:00	5.7  61	Notes From Underbelly	ABC/Wed 8:30	5.7  64	Crossing Jordan		NBC/Wed 9:00	5.3  64	Thank God You're Here	NBC/Wed 8:00	5.3  64	Scrubs			NBC/Thu 9:23	5.3  67	Dateline		NBC/Tue 8:00	5.0  67	Destilando Amor         Uni/Mon 9:02	5.0  67	Destilando Amor         Uni/Thu 9:02	5.0  70	America's Top Model	CW/Wed 8:00	4.9    70	Destilando Amor         Uni/Tue 9:02	4.9  70	Destilando Amor         Uni/Wed 9:02	4.9  70	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Mon 8:01	4.9  70	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Wed 8:01	4.9  70	NBA Playoffs (s)	ABC/Sat 8:12	4.9  76	Dateline		NBC/Sat 8:00	4.8  76	Real Wedding Crashers	NBC/Mon 10:01	4.8  78	NASCAR Racing (s)	Fox/Sat 8:04	4.7  79	According to Jim (s)(r)	ABC/Wed 9:00	4.6  79	Destilando Amor         Uni/Fri 9:02	4.6    79	George Lopez		ABC/Tue 8:00	4.6  79	WWE: Smackdown          CW/Fri 8:00	4.6  83	Cristina		Uni/Mon 10:03	4.4  83	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Tue 8:01	4.4  83	George Lopez (s)(r)	ABC/Wed 9:30	4.4  86	20/20 (s)		ABC/Fri 9:01	4.3  86	Grey's Anatomy (r)	ABC/Fri 8:00	4.3  88	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Fri 8:01	4.2  89	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Thu 8:01	4.1  90	Gilmore Girls		CW/Tue 8:00	4.0    91	Cops (r)		Fox/Sat 8:31	3.9  92	Dateline		NBC/Sun 7:20	3.7  92	King of the Hill	Fox/Sun 7:29	3.7  92	Thank God/Here (s)(r)	NBC/Sun 10:00	3.7		  95	Cops (s)(r)		Fox/Sat 9:32	3.6  95	Daddy Day Care (s)(r)	Fox/Fri 8:00	3.6  97	Cops (s)(r)		Fox/Sat 9:02	3.5  98	Aqui y Ahora		Uni/Thu 10:03	3.4  98	Nuestra Belleza		Uni/Tue 10:03	3.4  98	Smallville		CW/Thu 8:00	3.4    101	7th Heaven		CW/Sun 8:00	3.3  101	Don Francisco Presenta	Uni/Wed 10:03	3.3  103	Bailando por la Boda	Uni/Sun 8:00	3.2  104	Girlfriends		CW/Mon 9:00	2.9  104	King of the Hill (r)	Fox/Sun 7:00	2.9  104	One Tree Hill		CW/Wed 9:00	2.9  104	Supernatural		CW/Thu 9:00	2.9  108	Casos de la Vida Real	Uni/Fri 10:03	2.7  109	NBA Playoffs (s)	ABC/Sat 8:00	2.5  109	Everybody Hates Chris	CW/Mon 8:00	2.5    111	All of Us		CW/Mon 8:30	2.3  112	Sábado Gigante		Uni/Sat 7:58	2.0  113	Veronica Mars		CW/Tue 9:00	1.9  114	America's Top Model (r)	CW/Sun 9:00	1.7  114	Futbol Liga Mexicana	Uni/Sun 6:00	1.7  116	7th Heaven (r)		CW/Sun 7:00	1.4

How goes it, everyone? First off I'd like to send out an early "Happy Mother's Day!" to IndianaMom and any other mothers out there in TV.com land. I hope you gals enjoy your day.

My wife tells me that the following story isn't that funny and that she has heard of antics like this before, but I am not cell phone savvy (I do not own one) and I thought it was hilarious. Anyway, here goes: On Thursday I was at my brother-in-law's JV baseball game. As I was sitting in the bleachers I hear to my left "Hey, Grandma! Hurry up! Someone's on the phone!" I looked over and saw an elderly lady quickly grab her cell phone and start talking into it. I simply thought that the lady had a Nextel phone and that instead of simply beeping or alerting her, the grandson just yelled into the phone to let his grandma know he needed to talk to her. About 30 minutes later the same thing happened: "Hey, Grandma! Hurry up! Someone's on the phone!" People in the bleachers started chuckling and the grandma sighed loudly as she frantically reached for her phone. I leaned over to my wife and told her, "Man, somebody's a little impatient." She, knowing a lot more about the situation than me, turned to me and said that the kid on the phone is one of her brother's teammates: Gus. She explained that Gus got hold of his grandmother's phone and changed the ringer on it, so that anytime anybody called she would hear: "Hey, Grandma! Hurry up! Someone's on the phone!" I had never heard of a novelty like this before and now understanding that it wasn't somebody on the walkie-talkie, but that it was the actual ringer on the phone, I started laughing my head off. My wife went on to explain that the grandmother is as cell phone savvy as I am, meaning that she has no idea how to change the ringer to a different setting, and that if the grandmother's phone rings more than twice, the ringer changes to: "C'mon, Grandma! The phone is in your purse!" Sorry for the diversion, but I thought it was funny.

Baseball Card Memories

Every once a while I'd like to take some time out to showcase some of the baseball cards from my collection and tell a little story behind the card or cards featured. So, without further ado, here is my first subject in this feature:

1991 Topps #170 Carlton Fisk

This is one of my favorite Tiger cards in my collection and it isn't even officially a Tigers card. The official subject of this card is Hall-of-Fame catcher Carlton Fisk. 1991 was Topps 40th anniversary year and they really tried to go all out in terms of the photography in this set. They did quite a few landscape layouts as opposed to the traditional portrait layout, this card being one of them. I love how this card captures the many things taking place. As you can see someone must have just gotten a base hit, Dave Bergman has already scored and big ol' Cecil Fielder is rounding 3rd base and is lumbering home. This card always makes me smile, I don't know what transpired after this split second in time, but I can only imagine that Cecil is a dead duck at home plate if he doesn't stop and turn back to 3rd base, and Dave Bergman is doing his darnedest to warn Cecil that he ain't gonna make it. The ball is clearly on its way to Carlton Fisk's mitt and you can almost see the worry on his face, because he knows if big Cecil does decide to continue down to home plate the collision isn't going to be pretty.

Next time on Baseball Card Memories: Mr Cub's John Hancock.

Tigers Update

Tuesday May 8--Seattle 7 @ Detroit 9 Recap & Boxscore
Wednesday May 9--Seattle 9 @ Detroit 2 Recap & Boxscore
Thursday May 10--Seattle 3 @ Detroit 7 Recap & Boxscore

Friday May 11--Detroit 7 @ Minnesota 3 Recap & Boxscore

Comments: As I write this the Tigers are crushing the Twins 8-0 in the 5th inning and Chad Durbin is looking really good. Jeremy Bonderman has had some trouble with a blister on his pitching hand and as a precaution to allow the blister to heal Bonderman will be skipping his scheduled start on Sunday. Virgil Vasquez from AAA Toledo will be called up to make a spot start in Bonderman's place. The Tigers' bats keep on swinging and the pitching seems to be on cruise control. As of right now the outlook has to be great for the rest of the season. The Tigers aren't even at full strength, with Kenny Rogers, Joel Zumaya and Vance Wilson all on the DL, and they now have a better record than they did at this point last year. Crazy.

Links

Curtis Granderson Blog (Newest Entry: Friday May 11)
Nate Robertson's Gum Time (Newest Entry: Monday April 30)
Detroit Tigers Stats
MLB Standings

Take it easy, fellow TV.commers.

A few things to note: The following ratings are for the Prime-time period of Monday April 30th – Sunday May 6th, (r) stands for repeat episode, (s) stands for special broadcast, and the number of viewers is in millions.

Rank	Show			Network/Date   Viewers    1	American Idol		Fox/Wed 9:00	28.8  2	American Idol		Fox/Tue 8:00	26.7  3	Grey's Anatomy		ABC/Thu 9:00	21.2  4	House			Fox/Tue 9:00	21.1  5	CSI			CBS/Thu 9:00	19.0  5	Dancing With the Stars	ABC/Mon 8:00	19.0  7	CSI: Miami		CBS/Mon 10:00	17.2  7	Desperate Housewives	ABC/Sun 9:00	17.2  9	Dancing Stars Results	ABC/Tue 9:00	16.3  10	Without a Trace		CBS/Sun 10:00	14.7    11	NCIS			CBS/Tue 8:00	13.8  12	Cold Case		CBS/Sun 9:00	13.7  12	Survivor: Fiji		CBS/Thu 8:00	13.7  12	Two and a Half Men	CBS/Mon 9:00	13.7  15	Criminal Minds		CBS/Wed 9:00	13.3  16	CSI: NY			CBS/Wed 10:00	13.0  16	King of Queens		CBS/Mon 9:30	13.0  18	Shark			CBS/Thu 10:01	12.5  19	Lost			ABC/Wed 10:00	12.3  20	Deal or No Deal		NBC/Mon 8:00	12.1    21	Ext. Makeover: Home	ABC/Sun 8:00	11.9  21	Heroes			NBC/Mon 9:00	11.9  23	60 Minutes		CBS/Sun 7:00	11.5  24	Law & Order: SVU	NBC/Tue 10:00	11.4  25	24			Fox/Mon 9:00	10.9  26	Brothers & Sisters	ABC/Sun 10:02	10.8  27	Ugly Betty		ABC/Thu 8:00	10.7  28	Bones			Fox/Wed 8:00	10.6  29	Amazing Race 11         CBS/Sun 8:00	10.3  30	Boston Legal		ABC/Tue 10:01	9.9    31	The Bachelor		ABC/Mon 9:45	9.8  32	The Unit		CBS/Tue 9:00	9.7  33	Numb3rs                 CBS/Fri 10:00	9.5  34	Close to Home		CBS/Fri 9:00	9.2  34	Ghost Whisperer         CBS/Fri 8:00	9.2  36	Deal or No Deal		NBC/Sun 8:00	9.0  36	Smarter/5th Grader?	Fox/Thu 8:00	9.0  38	Law & Order		NBC/Fri 10:00	8.9  39	The Simpsons (r)	Fox/Sun 8:30	8.1  40	20/20			ABC/Fri 10:00	8.0    40	Jericho			CBS/Wed 8:00	8.0  42	Family Guy		Fox/Sun 9:00	7.9  42	SNL in the 90's (s)	NBC/Sun 9:00	7.9  44	ER			NBC/Thu 9:53	7.8  44	The Simpsons		Fox/Sun 7:59	7.8  46	AFV			ABC/Sun 7:00	7.7  46	CSI: NY (s)(r)		CBS/Tue 10:00	7.7  46	Medium			NBC/Wed 10:00	7.7  49	Dateline		NBC/Fri 8:00	7.6  49	My Name is Earl         NBC/Thu 8:00	7.6    51	Law & Order: CI		NBC/Tue 9:00	7.4  52	House (r)		Fox/Mon 8:00	7.3  52	New/Old Christine	CBS/Mon 8:30	7.3  54	How I Met Your Mother	CBS/Mon 8:00	7.2  55	48 Hours Mystery	CBS/Sat 10:00	7.1  56	The Office		NBC/Thu 8:36	7.0  57	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 9:00	6.8  58	Dateline		NBC/Sun 7:00	6.6  59	Crimetime (r)		CBS/Sat 8:00	6.5  60	According to Jim	ABC/Wed 8:00	6.4    60	Meet the Fockers        ABC/Sat 9:00	6.4  62	American Dad		Fox/Sun 9:30	6.3  62	Law & Order (r)		NBC/Sat 10:00	6.3  64	Thank God You're Here	NBC/Wed 8:00	6.2  65	Notes From/Underbelly	ABC/Wed 8:30	6.0  66	Crossing Jordan		NBC/Wed 9:00	5.9  67	Real Wedding Crashers	NBC/Mon 10:03	5.6  68	AFV (s)(r)		ABC/Sat 8:00	5.4  68	Dateline		NBC/Tue 8:00	5.4  70	America's Top Model	CW/Wed 8:00	5.2    71	Grey's Anatomy (r)	ABC/Fri 8:00	4.9  71	Scrubs			NBC/Thu 9:19	4.9  73	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Thu 8:01	4.8  73	Law & Order: SVU (r)	NBC/Sat 9:00	4.8  75	Destilando Amor         Uni/Mon 9:02	4.7  75	Destilando Amor         Uni/Wed 9:02	4.7  75	Destilando Amor         Uni/Thu 9:02	4.7  75	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Mon 8:01	4.7  75	Nextel Cup (s)		Fox/Sat 7:48	4.7  80	George Lopez		ABC/Tue 8:30	4.6    81	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Tue 8:01	4.5  81	George Lopez (r)	ABC/Tue 8:00	4.5  83	Destilando Amor         Uni/Fri 9:02	4.4  84	Destilando Amor         Uni/Tue 9:02	4.3  84	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Wed 8:01	4.3  86	Fea Más Bella		Uni/Fri 8:01	4.2  86	King of the Hill	Fox/Sun 7:29	4.2  86	Trading Spouses         Fox/Thu 9:00	4.2  89	Gilmore Girls		CW/Tue 8:00	4.1  90	Cops (s)(r)		Fox/Sat 9:33	4.0    90	Lost (r)		ABC/Wed 9:00	4.0  90	WWE: Smackdown          CW/Fri 8:00	4.0  93	Cops (s)(r)		Fox/Sat 9:05	3.9  94	Bones (r)		Fox/Fri 9:00	3.6  94	Cops (r)		Fox/Sat 8:49	3.6  94	Cristina		Uni/Mon 10:03	3.6  94	Smallville		CW/Thu 8:00	3.6  98	Nuestra Belleza		Uni/Tue 10:03	3.4  99	Bailando por la Boda	Uni/Sun 7:59	3.3  99	Barbaro (s)		NBC/Sat 8:00	3.3    99	One Tree Hill		CW/Wed 9:00	3.3  102	Aqui y Ahora		Uni/Thu 10:03	3.1  102	King of the Hill (r)	Fox/Sun 7:00	3.1  102	Supernatural		CW/Thu 9:00	3.1  105	Don Francisco Presenta	Uni/Wed 10:03	3.0  106	7th Heaven		CW/Sun 8:00	2.9  107	Casos de la Vida Real	Uni/Fri 10:03	2.8  107	Nanny 911 (r)		Fox/Fri 8:00	2.8  109	Girlfriends		CW/Mon 9:00	2.5  110	Everybody Hates Chris	CW/Mon 8:00	2.4    110	The Game		CW/Mon 9:30	2.4  112	Veronica Mars		CW/Tue 9:00	2.3  113	All of Us		CW/Mon 8:30	2.2  114	Hora Pico		Uni/Sun 7:00	1.9  115	America's Top Model (r)	CW/Sun 9:00	1.8  116	Sábado Gigante		Uni/Sat 8:00	1.7  117	7th Heaven (r)		CW/Sun 7:00	1.2