Dave's Thoughts of the Day: December 19th

California is a very difficult place to find grape soda.   Over the years I took it for granted, and lately I went looking for some to drink.  It's impossible.  Sometimes I see it someplace, like a CVS Pharmacy, or a random liquor store and I don't even think twice.  Last night, after six hours of producing podcast clips, I was at the local Ralphs Grocery Store at 1am and no dice.

I'm not sure why it's so hard to find except for one factor: Grape soda has an unusually high number of calories.   Much higher than comparable sodas of other flavors.  So odd.  

WHY does grape soda have such a high number of calories?  Anyone know?  This is going to drive me crazy for the rest of my life.

A mocha or hot chocolate sounds tremendous today, but knowing my family's history with diabetes and my current age, I need to settle down with the sweets.   However, one key difference between me and most of my family members is that I exercise regularly.  Thank goodness.

I know, what was I doing looking for soda last night then?  I have no idea, but I did, and I barely ate anything for dinner.

It is *really* cold today here in LA.  I love it!   A little swirling wind to boot.  

Pau Gasol is just not going to fit long term *with* Dwight Howard on the court.  I'm not sure why but on the Lakers you can only have one 7 foot post up player on the court at a time.  It never seems to work as well when you try two of them at once.   Believe it or not, the same problem occurred when Bynum started to pick it up offensively with the Lakers a year ago.   Gasol's numbers have been going down a lot the last three seasons.   I can only imagine how difficult it is for him to find a rhythm.   Plus, he's soft.

The best D'antoni could do, according to many, was use Pau on the court while Dwight Howard was on the bench.   It's a tough situation to be sure.

Ethier had better not be traded by the Dodgers.  Do the Dodgers even care about baseball?   For many years, including this one, Ethier was easily one of the three most productive hitters on the team.  In what universe does it make sense to trade him?   Even if it was a trade for prospects, Ethier is not so good that he'll get Grade A Choice talent from the minors.  Trading him for Nick Swisher is even worse!  Swisher is a dope!  I really hope the Dodgers start thinking smartly and not thinking with stupid stars in their eyes.

Although, the irony of him getting traded, as a prospect, to LA for Milton Bradley is not lost on me.

I could use a cookie too... boy this is not going to end well for my health, I'm telling you!

There's an office holiday party today then the podcast, but in a twist, the podcast tonight will feature best-of clips that did not make the cut for the official best of podcast tomorrow.   It was a convenient way to use clips that otherwise did not have a home.  Goes to show you how many highlights we had this year.

The office party is a meh to me.   It's really not an office party... or if it is, it's the worst kind of party where you have to pretend to care about managers and uppers you have no connection to.  There's a whole lot of butt kissing going on which I think is the ulterior motive of this "party."  This is not a party!  It's an excuse for the managers to curry favor with other units at UCLA.   A true party would be just our staff and only our staff as is the case for my employed departments (it's a long story but three units manage my services each with their own staff).

In most years we just break off into groups to keep the awkward moments to a minimum.   It's good strategy.  I hear of other people I know having really WILD office parties with babes and lots of drinking and I go "I would love that."  Instead I get this stodgy affair with big wigs who are equally stodgy.  A little too rigid for my taste, imho.

But, with that said, this is definitely the week I look forward to most all year!  The lightest work week of the year and a prelude to Christmas Day.  It doesn't get any better than this!  

I should mention that I've toned down the holiday tunes this year, and honestly, when I do hear the songs it's the same 26 songs I've heard before so I think I have the balance just right.

Celebrate everyone!  See you back here soon.