Dobrindts dot com...again

Hello. My name is David and I have a problem. I hate the Red Sox.

<i>Hello David. </i>

I remember the exact date and time I started having this problem. It was May 4, 1998, at 9:07 AM, two days after I moved up from NY to start a new job in Boston. I was sitting in a training class in a building in downtown Boston when I overheard these two jerks mouthing off about how the Yankees suck and this was the Red Sox year and they were so freakin� wrong it made me want to throw up in my�

<i>David, speak of positive things, not hateful things. </i>

Ok, sorry. Like I was saying, it all started within a few days after moving up from NY to start a new job. And each day it gets worse and worse. Even after 6 pennants and 4 World Series rings, it continues every day. Red Sox fans just don�t get. They just don�t get. And I know I have a problem and need help.

<i>Tell us more David.</i>

The time I realized Red Sox fans were out of control and had lost all contact with reality was this Yankees/Red Sox series in May 1998. I had only been here a couple of weeks and I was in another training class and it was the Monday after the series. Pedro had pitched a gem and the Yanks lost all three games or something. There was a real idiot�

<i>Watch the language David.</i>

�in the class going off on how the Sox were DEFINITELY a better team than the Yanks. His only point to prove this was that the Sox won all three games. Now that I think about it, it might have been only two games. So he was going on and on and not listening or even had an ounce of willingness to accept the fact that the Sox might not be the best team in the history of the world. All he would say is �three games in a row, three games in a row�. Even the other people in the class were uncomfortable about his attitude.

<i>What did you do?</i>

One thing I wanted to do was stick a pen through the guy�s skull. But I just let it go and the Yankees went on to win 114 games, go undefeated in the playoffs, sweep San Diego in the World Series and were considered one of the greatest teams to ever play major league baseball.

<i>And how are you doing today?</i>

How do you think? I have a website up just for the purpose of putting the Red Sox fans in their place. And I spend a lot of time maintaining it. I listen to sports radio and read sports all day long. That is what living and working with Red Sox fans has done to me. It has turned a bright, visceral, outgoing, positive young man into ME. And my buddy Jay from Somerville is to blame. You know WHY?? Because JAY PERSONIFIES ALL THAT IS EVIL AROUND HERE. He thinks only one thing � the Yankees suck. Now Jay might not be the tallest mast on the ship, but he knows his sports. And Jay was one of my first friends when I moved here and is still a good buddy, so I spent a lot of time with him. And he has made my heart as black as the inside of Mary Kate Olsen�s fridge. But he is not to blame, because it is the culture in this town to think this way.

<i>What are you going to do to get better?</i>

Nada. At this point, I have too much invested in my campaign to do anything except continue down my destructive path. So for all of you Red Sox fans out there, kiss my�

<i>David, we need to push peace. </i>

Sorry. I will try to take the high road and be a better person and enjoy the wonderful game of professional baseball.

Posted by David at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I finally put together some pictures of Ethan. <a href="http://www.moveyourasana.com/David/Ethan/Gallery-1/Ethan-1.1.htm" target=_blank>Click here for pictures. </a>

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.moveyourasana.com/David/Ethan/Gallery-1/Ethan-1.1.htm"><img src=" http://www.moveyourasana.com/David/Ethan/Gallery-1/Ethan-Firstw.jpg" title="Ethan" name="Ethan" alt="Ethan" name="Ethan" width="200" height="250" border="1</a>

Posted by David at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got back to my hotel room last night around 11:15 and turned on the TV. For some strange reason, PBS-Orlando had a recent Cyndi Lauper concert on. Sitting there for 15 minutes, I realized I was glued to the TV. And I also found myself strangely attracted to her. To Cyndi Lauper. And I am not sure why. When she was popular in the 80s, I kind of liked her but was more into Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead and new age stuff like Depeche Mode and Erasure. She was more pop like Culture Club and the Thompson Twins (remember them? Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, Lay Your Hands On Me. Totally underrated and under appreciated. Good stuff). Good music but nothing I really got into much.

So there I was, watching her concert and totally fascinated. She was in the middle of some song that seemed like it was recent. I have no idea if she has a new album or not, but it was definitely not 80s stuff. Then she did Money Changes Everything, followed by Girls Just Want To Have Fun, a home run with the ladies in the crowd, and closed with Time After Time. The cool thing was she looked good in a kind of nice suit outfit and her hair was very modern and adult. She didn�t look like Debbie Harry in her comeback nonsense. She really looked good and put on a pretty cool stage show. She was jumping around and getting into things. She still sings most of her songs like she is shouting, but her voice sounded great. I guess I missed the other classics like She Bop and True Colors but actually stayed up to watch the ending even though I had to get up at 4:30 this morning. As I was watching the crowd and thinking to myself that they were a bunch of 30 and 40-something year old geeks awkwardly dancing and clapping hands, I realized they all looked like me, like my friends, like my neighbors and siblings. They were casually dressed with conservative hair cuts and looked like they all had small children at home being watched by relatives or nervous baby sitters from the neighborhood.

Anyway, it was a good time and she put on a good show. It wasn�t Ray Charles or anything, but worth watching.

Posted by David at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There is this Wendy?s commercial with this guy who is about to get married and his friends convince him to go get food at Wendy?s. They are all sitting in Wendy?s and one guy asked the groom something and he says ?I do? and he realizes he is missing his own wedding and then they take off. It?s hilarious. Anyway, I know the guy who plays the groom. He is good friends with my buddy from NY, Sean. He has been in some other commercials I think. He also does this comedy troop off off Broadway stuff. One time I went to a taping of the Conan O?Brien show with my friends Sean, Rich and Chris and after the taping we went to this guy?s play. The only skit I remember was this one where the guy I am talking about played Judas right before Judas turned Jesus in. The twist was that Judas was mentally handicapped and did not realize he turned Jesus in. There was this one scene where Jesus walks up to Judas and says something really profound and inspiring and Judas, with his hands in his pockets, looks at Jesus and says ?I like pizza?.

Posted by David at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Thursday morning we had our second child, Ethan David Dobrindt. A couple of quick things.

- I am going to work on posting some pictures tomorrow. If you are really curious, just log onto any site with new born pictures and that is him. Swollen, odd shape, angry looking, puffy eyes. Wait, I just described myself. I do have some great pictures I will post soon but he looks like almost every other baby.

- Picking out his name was very very difficult. As you can imagine, I wanted to call him David Jr. My friends Peter, Billy and Joe Didio all had boys as their second child and named them after themselves. I liked David Jr. But my wife, my sisters and my parents all expressed their opinions, God bless them, and David Junior died on the vine. So then we went with the cool names. Spencer, Cooper, Pierce. None of those worked. Then we went with the classics. Thomas, William, James. Nope. So then we tried a combo of our fathers? names. Lawrence (after my father) James (after Patti?s) for Lawrence James Dobrindt, or LJ. But nope. Then one day Patti said she liked Ethan David and I went along. So now he is Ethan David Dobrindt.

- For those who had a tough time with their first child (like we did with Emily, 36 hours of labor, bad stuff happening that required doctors to rush in, Emily not getting the feeding thing), the second go-around is a million times easier. It?s kind of like building something. You cut your teeth the first time, the second time is much easier.

- My parents were able to fly up the morning he was born and Patti?s folks came up to help the first full day we were home. Both provided invaluable help and we could not have done it without them.

- Our friends Chuck and Danielle Slate, who have two little girls, took Emily the night we went into the hospital and our friends Claire and Mark, who have two little boys, watched her the morning we had Ethan until my parents got here. We owe both a ton of gratitude.

- The night Ethan was born, 17 other babies were born too. One of the risks of using a highly regarded city hospital is that a lot of other people do the same. But because so many were born, a bunch of moms had to double up on rooms. So for the first night Patti had to share a room with another mom. It was not a huge deal except that as you know, Patti has been through this before, and the other mom was a first timer. The other mom had a tough time with the newborn and required much more attention. Patti just wanted to be left alone and people were constantly coming in and out of the room to help the other mom. But the second night and last two days we had a great private room with a really nice view. Another strange thing. The other mom and her own mother who was there were both German decent but were from Zimbabwe. The father was American but the other two spoke with German accents and were white folks from Africa, just like me. That is not the strange thing. The strange thing is that the family were all ?Jews for Jesus?, or as I like to call them, Christians. They prayed a lot which was kind of nice because I just assume Patti and Junior got some of the prayer overflow.

- Now we are home and things are going well so far. Of course I have not gone back to work and we have had friends and family helping out. I am taking off this entire week and hopefully Patti will be more rested and physically feeling better by the time I go back to work. We?ll see.

That is about it. I will post some pictures when I get them web-enabled and you can see how handsome our boy is.

Posted by David at 08:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That?s it. Nomar is gone. A friend from Chicago sent me this email.

Subject: Thank you.. Thank you. Thank you

Body of Message: Please pass along our thanks to your Boston neighbors, friends, cab drivers, anyone you meet on the street.. from Cub fans everywhere! See you and the Yankees in October!

I could not have said it better myself. Reading the Chicago Tribune online Sunday morning was like listening to someone discover a Rembrandt in their attic. The Cubs got one of the best shortstops TO EVER PLAY THE GAME in return for two minor leaguers and a useless shortstop. And not even their best minor leaguers. The Red Sox gave up one of the best shortstops TO EVER PLAY THE GAME and got some malcontent and angry mediocre first baseman and a shortstop that looks like an ewok in a baseball uniform. Hell, they could have gotten Manischewitz WITHOUT giving up Nomar.

One article had this to say.

?The trade that is bringing the 31-year-old Garciaparra, a five-time All-Star and .386 hitter this July, isn't just too good to be true. It's so good that Cubs general manager Jim Hendry needs your prayers. He must have sold his soul to beat the curse.

Hendry should feel guilty about taking advantage of the young Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein. For whatever reason, the most likely being the lingering bad feelings from Epstein's and team President Larry Lucchino's pursuit of Alex Rodriguez last winter, the Red Sox seemed determined to deal the Boston icon, who has been featured in "Saturday Night Live" skits.?

But they had to do something. Nomar was miserable here and was making everyone else miserable. He was treated like crap, whined like a baby, played sick to make a point, and things were getting worse and worse. If reports are true, he was telling the Sox that he might have to go back on the DL to nurse his bruised ego, I mean take care of his leg or heel or something. But now that he is in Chicago word is that he is all better. Funny how getting your way makes things better. Hell, when my daughter is throwing a harry in a store and I finally give in to stop the embarrassment and give her a lollipop, she stops crying too.

This might go down as one of those ?on my watch? things like the fact that people keep bring up that Clemens was lost on Duquette?s watch. Theo is a young GM who traded Nomar to try to make a run at the playoffs and World Series. There was little chance they would have made it with the way things were going, so he gambled. Not sure if it will work out but I will surely miss the ass-kicking Nomar got in the press day after day. I wonder who the next punching bag will be.

Posted by David at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

That?s it. It?s over. The democrats left the city last Friday and things have returned to normal. There were no terrorist attacks (thank God), no real protests (too bad), no traffic problems (who cares) and nothing of any significance said by the speakers (no surprise). Oh sure, Hillary and Ted bored everyone to death with their monotone speeches about absolutely nothing, Bill was his usual coy self with his smug smirk, Howard Dean kept his cool and tried not to look pissed off the shindig was not about him, Barack Obama or whatever his freakin name is was kind of cool, Tereeeeeza Heinz put her foot in her mouth, John Edwards gave a fast past speech about hope or some kind of crap, and then there was John.

Oh John, John John John John John John. John ?F? Kerry. Johny. John, why do you mock me so? Why? First of all, next time remember to tell them to turn down the heat. You were sweating like David Duke at a Black Panther rally (thank you Dennis Miller, I use that one about once a week, not kidding). You even broke the rule and wiped your sweat soaked sculpture-gone-bad head like you just spilled a bottle of beer on your mother?s diamond studded oak floor. And why do you continue to speak like that? Huh? John Edwards showed you how to keep things moving. But you had to resort to the standard Hillary-Kennedy-everyone-else monotone way of speaking. I didn?t think it was possible to speak for 55 minutes and not have a single inflection in your voice. It was amazing. You were like some sound machine that people speak through with its batteries running out.

And DO NOT give us that crap about working for US, middle America. Just once I would like you, or any politician for that matter, because let?s be honest, almost everyone running for a high level office has more money than I could ever think of having in ten lifetimes, so be honest for once. How about this speach.

?I will fight for better health care where (make sure you read this slowly, in a inflectionless voice) there are not two classes of people and the rich and famous will not get better health care because they can afford it. Middle America will be able to get the same treatment as those of us, I mean those who are wealthy. Make no mistake, I fall into the ?wealthy class? and trust me, if me or mine ever had a problem I would not hesitate to call on the best doctor my wife?s money could buy. Do you think I would go through some book sent to me by a poorly run HMO trying to find a med school moron to misdiagnose me. NO effing way.

And (make sure you still keep that voice) the privileged will not get a better education and go to Yale or nice schools like that just because their parents can afford to send them to some 50 thousand dollar a year place that the teachers get paid to give them great grades and get them into the Ivys. Again, not me because my moms, a Forbes, had more trust funds than kids and I got to burn 100 dollar bills to keep my imaginary friend warm on chilly fall evenings, got to send me to the best schools around. But I feel bad for you, living in some second rate town with a poor school system and hell, this world needs janitors so why should I care about equal schools. But I WILL. FIGHT. FOR. YOU.

And why should someone struggle to pay their bills and loose their 90 thousand dollar house because your husband is gambling your money away at a casino boat. I will fight for you. It was just last week that I had a hard time locating a 20 dollar bill to tip the guy who keeps dust off my wine collection in my 6 million dollar Beacon Hill house. And I TOO struggled last year when my daughter?s boyfriend broke a crystal cigar cutter at our 9 million dollar Nantucket home. I know how it is to barely make your mortgage on some 700 square foot run down home next to a freeway. It was just last fall that my yacht took on a lot of water and I had to pay someone to clean it up with an eye dropper and a piece of silk cloth.

BUT I AM HERE FOR YOU. I will fight for the growing middle class of this country because the wealthy just keep getting richer. Me included. After all, Tereeeeezzaa and I are worth over a billion dollar. Most of you couldn?t imagine making a percentage of that in 100 lifetimes. I bet I spend more in one year on hair spray then most of you spend on food. And it?s just not fair. YEEEHAAA. I learned that one from Dean. Kerry OUT?

To spread my cynicism, the same comments apply to Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Arnold, and most every politician out there. These guys have millions and millions and they are doing this to make themselves and their Harvard Club buddies feel good. They should quit their disingenuous BS about healthcare and schools and tell us how they will keep the economy going and protect us from being blown up by terrorists. John Forbes Kerry should stop making his point by trying to divide this country (two classes) and stop playing ?fear? politics (if you don?t elect me terrorist will blow up your double wide) and try to make a salient point for once.

Posted by David at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)