Christmas has always held a special place in my heart for many reasons, and most of those reasons involve candy. I mentioned it before around Halloween but it bears repeating: holidays are defined by their candy selection. Holloween is the easy one, sure, but please don't dismiss Christmas too quickly. Between all the varieties of candy cane and all the chewy peppermint thingies, Christmas is a close second (with Valentines day jogging along in third). Christmas is the mint holiday. This is the only season that brings about the odd juxtapostion of minty fresh breath and filmy teeth. In short, there is nothing wrong with Christmas candy.

Nothing.

But this Christmas is extra special. This Christmas The Wife and I will be taking a road trip (ROAD TRIP WOO!!!) down to Florida to see the family. What does this have to do with candy? Well, what's a road trip (ROAD TRIP WOO!!!!) without a four pound bag of gummi candy from Mr. Bulky? Nothing. A road trip (ROAD TR- nevermind, this is getting silly) is nothing without candy.

Nothing.

Mr. Bulky (or whatever Mr. Bulky-esque store we actually found) is sort of a wonderland of candy. Nowhere else will one find gummi alligators. Or sharks. Or gummi-filled turtles.

Now, you might think that a gummi catterpillar tastes the same as a gummi dinosaur...but that's just you revealing your ignorance. Much like pasta, the different shapes are essential to the candy. After all, if you bite the head off a gummi army man, you are just partaking in sugary goodness. If you bite off the head of a real army man, and you're just an insurgent. And, as always, nobody likes and insurgent.

Nobody.

So I guess you can consider this my holiday post.

Christmas Candy = good

Gummi Candy = even better

road trip = ROAD TRIP WOO!!!!!!!!!

All signs point to "yes"

(no really, I'll post some day. I'm adjusting to my new "absurdly busy working 14 hour days" schedule)

I posted a little piece yesterday regarding the Cubs's outfield over at Goatriders, so I don't want to get into that issue. Suffice to say, we are short one right fielder and speculation is rampant as to who the Cubs might get.

I'm sure this issue has been addressed on dozens of other blogs and websites, but one more time can't hurt. The Cubs' lineup to date (as construsted by Jason):

Pierre
Walker
DLee
Aramis
Murton
Barrett
Patterson
Cedeno/Neifi

The first four are pretty solid, but things get a bit bleak after that...shades of 1998.

We need a right fielder, that much I'm sure of. I don't really care if he is a power hitter or not, I'd just like him to be a *good* hitter. In fact, if we could get one of the solid OBP types, like Wilkerson or Bradley, I would really be happiest. I like my bases clogged.

Then there is the issue of Shortstop. I'd really be happiest with Tejada, but that is probably a pipe dream. On the other hand, I never thought they would get Nomar, either. If not Tejeda, the options begin to get pretty lame. Lugo? No thanks.

There wasn't much content to this post, I know, but I really just wanted to get Dubya off the top of my page. I'm sure at some point I'll follow this up with a more in depth look at the Cubs team as a whole. Consider this a mere summary with more to follow.