I'm sorry, I can't help it.

But I love Manny Ramirez.

The photo that he held up in the dugout last night – is hysterical. I can’t possibly be the only one who laughed?

His quotes to the Press though – not so funny; there’s clearly a major league pissing contest going on here, and the real unfortunate aspect of it all is that it’s happening in the forum of the media – rather than behind closed doors, player to organization. You know, “Manny-a-mano” so to speak.

Manny makes it abundantly clear that he has a great sense of humor – even when things are turned against him. Call it not caring --- if that’s what works for him, so be it. I think it’s better to have a few laughs at your own expense, than to be a hot head and/or a mope – ala Nomar Garciaparra. However, Nomahhh (of whom I never was a fan) – didn’t perform well towards the end. There’s very little similarity to this situation outside of the fact that the Owners and Management clearly were disenchanted with both players in question, because Manny isn’t struggling.

So while my gut thinks that all this trade talk is posturing, because I truly feel that the team would get more for him after this season than at the trade deadline – and didn’t I read somewhere that his “no trade clause” needed to be signed by 3pm yesterday in order to have a trade happen today – I could very well be wrong; and come 4pm, it may very well be “Manny being Manny as a Marlin”…as the rumors are suggesting.

And I will be a very sad girl.

Because the truth of the matter is --- the Red Sox won two World Series with this player – and whether he’s a diva or not, he’s worth it to a team that wants to win. And after all is said and done, the dust has settled and the drama has cleared, when looking back on video clips of “Manny being Manny” in the dugout or hitting home runs out of the park – he is going to go down as one of the most beloved Red Sox players by Red Sox Nation.

Say what you want now…but we all know that time heals all wounds, and that we look back on past relationships with rose colored glasses.

And our love affair with Manny Ramirez – will be reflected upon no differently.

Sox fans, be careful what you wish for --- because you just may get it.

If given a choice -- I'd prefer not to play games....

I’m pretty much a straight shooter. I’ve never believed in being insincere or thinly veiled in my intentions.

As a child, my Mom always said I “wore my heart on my sleeve”. I didn’t believe in playing “hard to get”. If I like you – I like you, and I don’t know how to hide it.

(I did try playing “hard to get once” – and it almost backfired on me. Therefore proving my theory. Clearly, I was wise beyond my tender years!)

While that’s not a bad thing, there is something to be said about that changing somewhat as you get older. As much as people claim they “don’t like drama” or like “games” in aspect of their life – that isn’t necessarily the truth. Especially when it comes to business.

I definitely understand that there’s a need for not always stating your intentions or desired end state at the beginning, because sometimes you need to get a feel for situations and circumstances – as well as size up the integrity of those whom you’re dealing with. There are many people who aren’t honest and looking to take advantage of someone else’s trust, so I’m all for poker faces and chess matches in the beginning.

But when you’re at a particular juncture with people and are past that point --– it’s frustrating to find out that those who claimed to have “laid their cards out on the table”, really haven’t.

It just frustrates me that I have to play hardball in a situation that I shouldn’t have to.

“You’ve got to know when to hold’em – know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away…..”

My gut says that throwing all the chips on the table and saying “I’m walking away” is going to give the desired end state that I want. Bluff – but meant it.

At the same time – is it worth the risk of the gamble, if I’m wrong.

And this my friends is why I’d never make a good poker player.

Musically speaking...

Oh look at how she listens

She says nothing of what she thinks…

She just goes stumbling through her memories

Staring out on to Grey Street.

She thinks, "Hey, how did I come to this?"

I dream myself a thousand times around the world

But I can't get out of this place.

There's an emptiness inside her

And she'll do anything to fill it in

But all the colors mix together - to grey

And it breaks her heart

How she wishes it was different

She prays to God most every night

And though she swears it doesn't listen

There's still a hope in her it might

She says "I pray oh But they fall on deaf ears,

am I supposed to take it on myself?

To get out of this place? "

Oh There's a loneliness inside her

And she'll do anything to fill it in

And though it's red blood bleeding from her now

It feels like cold blue ice in her heart

When all the colors mix together - to grey

And it breaks her heart

There's a stranger speaks outside her door

Says take what you can from your dreams

Make them as real as anything

Oh It'd take the work out of the courage

But she says "Please

There's a crazy man that's creeping outside my door,

I live on the corner of Grey Street

and the end of the world."

Oh there's an emptiness inside her

And she'll do anything to fill it in

And though it's red blood bleeding from her now

It's more like cold blue ice in her heart

She feels like kicking out all the windows

And setting fire to this life

She could change everything about her

Using colors bold and bright

But all the colors mix together - to grey

And it breaks her heart

It breaks her heart

To Grey

n       Dave Matthews, “Grey Street”

It's gut check time Red Sox Nation...

For all you people jumping on the “trade Manny” bandwagon – here’s a little “something something” to think about.

The Manny drama is a complete and total creation of the media. They frenzy on this issue every opportunity that they get. They did this two years ago right up until the closing hour on the trade deadline - and they've been doing it this year for the last month now.

Manny is a baseball player -- he's not a well spoken political figure, politician, world leader, or even business man. He's an athlete - and we pay him to be just that. We all know that he's a loose cannon when it comes to speaking his mind. And the media preys upon that, knowing that if you can catch Manny on a bad day, he’s say something that will drum great controversy and provide things to talk about.

The problem with that though, is that it causes problems potentially within the clubhouse and management -- because he's reacting to the media -- not to his organization directly.

Listening to Dennis & Callahan, and the Zone this morning really drove me crazy. One of the big “we hate Manny now because…” conversations was about his not visiting the wounded soldiers the hospital. Do I care that he didn’t go visit the wounded troops? Truthfully? No. Every member of that organization donates their time and money in a variety of ways to many charitable organizations. Should he have gone? Maybe… but maybe he had a reason as to why he didn’t. Did everyone go? Was he the only player who didn’t? Or is it just something else to sort of say, “see, here’s why we need to trade him….”.

Manny’s made his intentions to want to stay in a Red Sox abundantly clear. If he and the Red Sox organization can work it out – then great. If not, then that would suck quite honestly.

But either way – it is not something that should be discussed, tried or determined in the court of public opinion and/or the media.

Everyone bitched that he didn’t play Friday….and how his bat would’ve, could’ve, should’ve made a difference. And so that’s a point of contention.

Saturday – everyone was ineffective at bat.

Sunday – his bat came up huge and truthfully, there have been many a game including this one – that if it wasn’t for him, maybe we wouldn’t have come out on top.

So what do you want Red Sox Nation? What is it to you if there’s drama? Do you want to win? Or don’t you.

And ask yourself this – are the Red Sox a better team with or without Manny Ramirez. That my friends, is a valid question.

And if the answer is better without – then I’d love to hear who you think would be a viable option for replacement. Because I cannot think of one player that would be worthy of a one to one trade. And I can’t even think of a combination of players that would be worth it.

We pay him crazy money to be a ball player....we created the diva. Why should we expect him to behave differently now???

This issue of whether he stays or goes should not be brought up at this juncture of the season. Period. End of discussion. The media needs to MOVE ON.

And if a trade isn’t made (which I sincerely hope doesn’t happen) by Thursday, then this girl doesn’t want to hear “boo” about it anymore.

Indulgence doesn't HAVE to be decadent...

As I was making my son dinner last night, I looked in the cabinet – and had to catch my breath. Staring back at me was a can of food that is not good for you, but wow does it taste good. I fought back the temptation to heat it up and devour it like a vulture that’s just caught a glimpse of road kill up ahead…but I managed to keep my composure and not eat it. “Walk away from the can….Walk. Away. From. The. Can.”

Right, I know what you’re thinking. Canned food? Yup, I have to admit that sometimes this Mom is too lazy to make pasta fresh or soup from scratch so sometimes a can will come to the rescue for the kiddies. It’s called “quick, easy emergency food”. But truthfully, I won’t buy them anything that I don’t love myself. It’s gotta be tried and true of course.

We all have guilty pleasures – who doesn’t? The foods we don’t like to admit that we love because they’re not healthy…or the television shows that are just so horribly put together, you feel like your intelligence quota dropped 100 points by watching them.

So while I’ve got many more, here’s a few of the things I truly enjoy – while I’m not always so proud to admit them!

1. Dinty Moore Beef Stew: LOVE LOVE LOVE Dinty Moore Beef Stew. It’s salty, and and the potatoes are so soft – and if you doctor it up just a bit sometimes with a little garlic, it tastes even better. But plain or garlicky – it’s so flipping delicious that I don’t even care that the beef is sort of mystery meat.

2. Chef Boyardee: Chef Boyardee ravioli’s are delish. I can take or leave the rest of their product line, although the chili-mac is pretty decent too – but the beef raviolis are so good! Again, mystery meat inside but seriously, the pasta is the perfect mushy consistency and the sodium laced spaghetti sauce just sends my tastebuds aflutter. When I was younger I used to joke and say that Chef Boyardee came from all the little kids saying “Chef, Boy are dees ravioli’s good!” (Yes, I’m a geek- I know.)

3. Hormel Corned Beef Hash: Now listen – I make a mean home made corn beef hash, but I’m sorry – nothing screams Sunday morning breakfast louder than a can of Hormel Corned Beef Hash. I like it crispy….I like it not crispy. I just like it no matter how you serve it!!

And here’s an interesting footnote. I was just surfing the web to find the name of the company that makes the corned beef hash – because I haven’t bought it in ages and needed to recognize the label – and I found the following site:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.spanalaskasales.com/media/Hormel-Corned-Beef-Hash.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.spanalaskasales.com/shop/basic-cfood.html&h=136&w=252&sz=10&hl=en&start=35&um=1&tbnid=1oboLYT4o1kYCM:&tbnh=60&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcanned%2Bcorned%2Bbeef%2Bhash%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

How bizarre that all three brands are distributed by the same company?!?!? Who knew?

Moving on…..

The Spice Girls: “Wannabe” has got to be one of my favorite, feel good, “fun to run to” kind of songs. I used to coach cheerleading back in the day – and if this song had been out at the time, oh yeah – this would’ve been our competition song.

Britney Spears: While I don’t find her to be exceptionally talented – her producers are pretty darn good. Pre-breakdown Britney’s music, starting from “Baby, One more time” to “I’m a Slave 4 U” (excluding the sappy love songs that she can’t sing worth a dime on) are hot. No doubt about it.

Denise Richards “It’s Complicated”: You know, I started watching this show On Demand out of sheer boredom of finding anything else to watch – and I have to tell you, I really like it. I think I really like her. She’s not perfect, she doesn’t pretend to be – and she seems like a relatively normal down to earth kind of girl, and I like that about her. And her dad is really a sweetheart…

The Two Coreys: Seriously, this is like watching “Breaking Bonaduce” for me, it’s a total car wreck. I’m hoping to see Corey Haim on Dr. Pinsky’s next “Celebrity Rehab”.

Coyote Ugly: Okay so this clearly was never meant to be Academy Award material – who cares. But it’s a cute movie about a nice girl trying to make it in the music industry. Who doesn’t want to see the nice girl come out ahead and win in the end?

So, what are some of your guilty pleasures?

Poor little chickie....

So my Princess Petunia is going to need to see the doctor tonight. Unfortunately since my pediatrician is on vacation -- and his "backup" is on vacation as well - it looks like it will be a trip to Children's. Which, though it isn't an emergency (hopefully!) if there's anyplace that I don't mind taking my kids to because kids are their specialty -- it's Childrens. Well worth the trip.

And considering that I've gotten little or no sleep over the past two nights due to her stomach aches, I'm definitely thinking it's a wise investment of my time to take her.

My concern is that while she's holding down food and fluids - she's still vomiting occaisionally and has a stomach ache that makes her uncomfortable even staying still. She's got a low grade fever and her stomach ache she says is at her bellybutton - which is sometimes indicative of appendicitis. Now, while I'm not suggesting that's what she has - I am pretty convinced that this is different than a traditional stomach virus. I could be wrong, and maybe this is just some crazy virus taking a course - but it just doesn't seem right to me.

So unless she has something short of a miracle recovery between now and bedtime -- I'll be faring through these torrential downpours and heading into Boston.

Inquiring minds want to know....

1. Why is it that I don’t have a job on NESN or WEEI? This was all I could think about as I was watching last night’s game. I’m sorry, but am I the only person who doesn’t love Heidi Watney? Where’s Tina Cervasio when we need her. We lost Hazel and Tina all at once?! And who are these other Sports Desk folks who just don’t convince me that they’re loving the games they’re reporting on. It’s all so stiff and awkward. Who is this girl Jamie that is filling in for Meter on the Sports Flash? I know she’s new…but hey, I can do at least as good as she’s doing right now. And I’m not one dimensional – I know about all sports. The original game plan in life was to be a sportscaster, hockey play by play no less… C’mon, if you’re going to give a girl shot – give THIS girl one! Just because I’m not in the field now doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be great at it….

2. Why would you put up a sign about construction being done on the days after the work is completed? Fortunately today the traffic getting onto the base wasn’t horrible – but for the last two days, it was. Literally added an extra 45 minutes to the commute just getting from the exit to the gates. So today, traffic was very light and there was no holdup getting to the gate. Funny enough this morning, as I was heading towards the gate there was a sign that said “Warning: Traffic delays due to paving, July 21 & July 22d”. Oddly enough that wasn’t there yesterday and guess what? Today is July 23^rd. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

3. Why do celebrities whine and complain when they receive exactly everything they’ve been looking for? Latest to complain about her appearance and attention is the gorgeous Megan Fox. She “hates being called hot” and doesn’t leave her house unless it’s to go to KFC because she doesn’t like being “stalked” by the paparazzi. Hmm. Okay Ms. Fox. Bet you wouldn’t be thinking that way if no one paid attention to you. Bet you’d be concerned that you weren’t pretty enough if you weren’t getting roles or being photographed in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, the mere fact that you are where you are now is because of your appearance, so seriously – get over yourself. You can’t possibly think that you’re the B list celebrity that you are as a result of your “talent”. (Well, maybe her “talents”, all 34 C+ of them). Here’s the thing: there’s nothing wrong with being an attractive girl, and knowing that doors in life have opened to you as a result. (otherwise, you wouldn’t be flaunting your “talents” everywhere if you didn’t think that they helped you any, or were really that modest.) And you know what, you’re right – all that whining about the undue attention and inconvenience of being who and where you are today – truly does make you not that hot. Take a lesson from those who are A-listers, and don’t’ say a thing…. Just this girl’s opinion.

4. Speaking of celebrities… I’ve gotta say I love, love, love the name Angelina Jolie picked out for her daughter. Vivienne Marcheline. Not only does it sound beautiful – but it looks beautiful. And trust me, us girls always practice writing the names of our future daughters on paper several times before deciding the final name. But I do have this one question to pose to the new Mom: What’s up with all the “x” at the end of the boys’ names? Is that a secret “Lara Croft” type code? Or is it symbolic of the female chromosome….you know, all things Mother Earth?

5. And finally…why is it when a person verbally agrees to something, and asks for it submitted in writing – do they wait days before responding? Isn’t there an etiquette rule on what is an acceptable time frame to wait before calling the person and saying “um, hello…?”

And these are the burning questions in my mind for today.