Vanessa arrives, and Monkey is now S-C-R-E-W-E-D!!!

The gauntlet has been lowered. And its been lowered by this little chick pictured above. Yep, she finallly arrived today, and did her GoDaddy.com commercial or promo or whatever, then boogied over to the stadium for our game. We were playing a good team, so I knew I wouldn't get to play much. So it became a fun little night of goofing around with 'Nessa on the bench while also supporting my new buddies...and some of my old buddies.

We got out to an early lead...things were looking good...but then the wheels fell off. Lotsa walks. And lots of hard hit balls later, and it was 10-3. Yikes. But that also meant Senor Monkey had a realistic shot at playing. After all, we start the playoff round tomorrow, so might as well rest our 'good' players for that, right? Stick the Monkey in there.

SO...the moment arrived. Coach Rick decided to put me in at 2nd base. Really? Second base? Well...okay. And on the first of my three innings, a grounder was hit between 1st and 2nd...and I made a diving attempt at it, just missing, and once again blowing up my knee. Yeah...its about three times the size of my right knee as I lay here...but I'll live, no big deal. Vanessa looked at it and says "Monkey, are you one of those guys who just ignores injury? That looks terrrible!" Ahhh...it looks a lot worse than it is.

Then....it happened. The BET! Which, yes....is captured on videotape and is currently uploading here...hoping it makes it. I was feeling especially confident tonight. Had a good round of swings in the cage pre-game with Chad. Have been making good contact all week. Was wearing my new glasses and really seeing well. And I historically hit well at night. So I told Vanessa I was going to get a hit for her. Promised it.

"If I get a chance to play in this game Vanessa...I will, I repeat...WILL, get a hit just for you!"

So...my chance arrived. If I DID get a hit, she was going to have to wear my 'MONKEY' Pokerstars jersey to the 1st day of the WSOP next summer. And if I did NOT get a hit? A little worse. I would be forced to wear a dress...with "Vanessa Rousso's #1 Fan/Stalker". Yes. I agreed to this.

First pitch...outside fastball. I swing, I miss. Second pitch...I swing, I pull the ball, hard grounder...down the 3rd base line....FOUL BALL! Dammit. Third pitch...high, and outside, ball one. Fourth pitch...fastball, chest high....I swing....I MISS! Ohhhhh noooooooooooooooo!!!!! I took it like a good sport. If this video ever loads you can watch for yourself. Another blonde moment for Vanessa, even thought she isn't a 'real' blonde...she was completely convinced that no matter which direction she turns the camera, that it will always be playing in the UPRIGHT position. Well...she was wrong. So...enjoy watching this action sideways.

So..yeah, assuming (or hoping?) Jack Effel takes me off the Physically Unable to Perform (P.U.P.) list next summer, and my Monkey ass is allowed to walk into the Rio...plunk down $10,000 hard won dollars, and play in the world's biggest poker tourney...you will see me stroll in looking fabulous, decked out in a dress, with the afformentioned title posted on the back. I can't promise that I will be looking fierce...but I will give it a full effort. I also plan to burn about 50 c.d.'s to hand out to people when they approach me with the inevitable WTF request.

"Yeah...um...just watch this. Gotta g0! [as I hand them a disk]"

Not sure who left the message on here about Matt Hillis...but I took another excellent video featuring Matt, and he is hilarious. He is also a helluva ballplayer. I would post the video but it is extremely long...and thus, too big to upload.

Our next loss will be our last, and this will be over. But we had some pitchers fly in today who, after warming them up in the bullpen during the game...have me feeling like something special might just happen tomorrow...and we could find ourselves in the Championship game Saturday morning. I hope so, that would be a lot of fun. And my plane leaves for Chicago at 3:30pm...so it would be perfect. Even if I never play another inning on this trip, it was worth it. It was great to see a lot of these guys again. And a nice little wake up call physically...and more motivation to get myself back in good shape, and maybe even find a team to play on next season.

As for the comments from the person about the new layout...and the font. Here's the problem, the font in the text is the same font as that in the title that you see on the monkey logo on top...and that color for that is perfect. I don't know...I aim to please y'all...so I will tinker with it some more. What do you all think of the new picture of the 3 monkeys? Better than the monkey and the other animals assembled around the poker table from before?

Part of me wants to play a couple SNG's in my favorite online poker room before I fall asleep, however, I took a pain killer and then a flexoril, the muscle relaxer that also makes you very sleepy. So I might be out any second. I know its working cuz the throbbing in my knee has stopped.

Okay...big day tomorrow. And in 14h37m I find out if I won my eBay bidding war for the 4 tickets for the Seahawks/Bears game that I am bidding on for me, my lovely wife...and my sister and her friend that are coming down from Milwaukee. I tradionally run very bad in these bidding wars...so I fully expect to lead an army of about 15 of you to Soldier Field on game day, where we will find some 'street brokers' to provide us with an entertaining experience!

And don't forget....at 10pm'ish, I will be coming to check out the Horseshoe in Hammond with Squirrel and Kai Landry...and we will be taking whoever wants to join us down to Rush Street for a hardcore night of Chicago partying to kick off MonkToberFest! And of course...if you're coming to the football game in the morning...even better!

the Desert Scorpion Monkey