Today was the last day of my job. A few weeks ago I was offered a promotional opportunity within the same company and I will begin the new job next week. Although it felt sad to say goodbye to my co-workers, we all knew that it wasn't really goodbye as I'll be seeing them on plenty of occasions at events and work functions. Hence the cake that said "See You Later!" It was a very nice last day as they took me to lunch and had a party later in the afternoon in our conference room. Some pictures are posted below!

Ack! Baseball season starts on Monday and I haven't made my predictions yet on this blog. In the past I've done pretty well as last year I picked 6 out of the 8 playoff teams. So I'll look over the baseball preview section in today's Daily News and get back to you on this one.

In yesterday's blog post, the picture of the SUV stuck in the crater was taken from NY1's website. At noon yesterday, the SUV was removed. Later that afternoon I went to the site (2 blocks from my apartment) and took some of my own pictures. Pretty big hole, no? Hope they fix it by November - this is part of the marathon route!

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes. I wish I could say that I was feeling all better. I'll say though that I'm better in some ways! C'est la vie.

There was a huge water main break in Bay Ridge. I turned on NY1 this morning and they were showing a picture of an area just a few blocks away from me (4th Avenue & 73rd Street). There was a van that had partially fallen through a crater in the ground. The water main break was all underground, knocking out subway service in that area. Fortunately, I was still able to get to the subway by walking 10 short street blocks. Here is an article about the situation.

Ugh. Being sick is no fun. I came down with a fever yesterday and last night was one of the worst that I've ever had. Fortunately, as daybreak hit, my fever started to break and I'm feeling much better today.

Tonight, watch Jeopardy! at 7:00 as Jess is going to be on it. Go, Jess!

I feel like I should say something witty about the Central Park Coyote but nothing comes to mind. Except that it was nabbed by the New York Road Runners. (Well, not really. The police nabbed it. But coyote... road runner... too easy)

Final Score from Friday Night at the Prospect Park Tennis Center... Boss & his partner 8, me & my partner 6. Which is in keeping with my strategy of "let the boss win." Seriously though, I didn't even have to try to let him win. Boss is an amazing tennis player! My partner and I got out to an early 4-0 lead before Boss rallied, eventually tying it up at 6-6. We then pondered whether to play a tiebreaker or do it the old fashioned way, where you have to win by two. We chose the latter and 8 to 6 was the final. After that, Boss and Bob played each other one-on-one with Boss winning that set by a score of 6-4. Knee surgery and age hasn't affected his abilities at all! After their game, Portia and I hit the ball to each other for a half hour but didn't keep score as each of us didn't want to suffer the potential embarrasment of losing.

Saturday was Tracey's birthday party, which consisted of dinner at the Yaffa Cafe and drinks at an East Village bar whose name I forget. At one point, Ben and I got bored and started mixing the leftovers of people's drinks together. That and various other food items that were strewn on an abandoned table. Then we stirred it to see what sort of nasty combination would result. (Sort of like what I used to do when I was 6 years old at Seniors Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay) Anyway our activities caught the attention of a female bar patron who chose to strike up a conversation with an opening line of "Did you just spit in that drink?" At first I thought she was pissed because we had messed with one of her drinks, but I later learned that this was just her attempt at an opening line. For the record, there was no spitting involved!!! And although we engaged in some polite conversation, that is as far as it went because she was nearly as nasty as the drink combo we had just created.

Finally, congrats to Tamara for her 5:14 performance at the L.A. Marathon and to all of those who participated in Saturday's Brooklyn Half Marathon. My race debut is three weeks away!

It hasn't even been 24 hours and my old URL has already been taken by someone else. By a guy involved with the International Aerobatic Club.

Please note the brand new URL of this blog : philsspinzone.blogspot.com. Update your links and bookmarks!

I have a huge tennis game coming up this evening. I'm playing against one of my bosses who plays regularly. He's under the assumption that he's going to lose to me but he is so wrong. I am the one who is going down. Just to be safe, he's asked me to submit a urine sample so I can be tested for steroids.

Sunday is the Los Angeles Marathon. I want to wish all the best to Tamara who is running it for the very first time! Tamara has impressively trained over the past few months and I know that she'll do great.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (and Happy Belated Purim)

Happy Ides of March! It was one year ago on this date that I signed my lease. Fortunately I have a two-year lease so no rent hikes this year!

Dwight Gooden - how sad your life has become. I idolized thee back in the 80s when you were a star pitcher with the Mets. But now you've gone and messed up your probation (again) by taking cocaine. This year, the Mets will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their 1986 championship and while several events are scheduled featuring all the members of that team, Gooden will be sadly absent. A shame.

MySpace has been getting lots of attention in the media. So I thought I'd make a profile and see what all the fuss was about. Seems like a glorified version of Friendster to me. Still, I got to reconnect with a very good friend of mine from Vassar (Dave!) who I haven't seen in 7 years! Check out The Boondocks comic strip for a funny story line about the grandfather who joins MySpace in the hope of meeting women.

Uncle Junior! What did you do? What did you do?!?!

Observed some funny things this weekend :

Was doing laundry on Saturday. The cat who lives in the basement decided to take a nap on top of the drying machine. The fact that I was using the dryer didn't deter it. He just looked at me without the slightest amount of interest.

Then I took the train into Manhattan on Saturday night. On the train was a family of four - a 60something man, a 50something woman, a 20something woman and a 20something man with a mohawk. And they were having a picnic. Literally. The older man distributed paper plates and then he gave each of them a home-made sandwich. Then he took out a bottle of juice, poured it into 4 paper cups and gave those out. After that, they gave him their paper plates and paper cups and he put it in a garbage bag that he brought. Then he handed out cartons of Jello and spoons. It just looked so... out of place... especially being that it was on the D-train going from Brooklyn to Manhattan at 11:00 at night!

Loving this weather. Took advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures by going for a run in Prospect Park. Not long after I started running, I noticed a couple of middle aged men running ahead of me at a slow pace. I decided to pace myself by running behind them. That lasted all of two minutes until I decided that they were going too slow and I was going to pass them. So pass them I did and pretty soon I couldn't even see them behind me. I thought, "So long, suckers." Then I instantly felt bad for calling them suckers - even though it was only in my own mind. Halfway around the park, I started feeling winded so it was a good thing that I was carrying a bottle of water. Still, I slowed down considerably to the point that it resembled more of a fast walk. Then I looked behind me and the two middle aged men were back in view. Uh oh. Better pick up the pace! The potential embarrasment of being passed by people who I had previously passed was enough motivation to kick it into gear. I finished my full rotation of the park (3.35 miles) a full minute ahead of them. And my total time was EXACTLY the same as when I ran around the park three weeks ago. Not that I'm very interested in my total time though. I think the lesson learned is to run at a slow, deliberate pace so that I don't get winded. Only after I'm able to do that, should I concern myself with speed and how I'm doing compared to the people around me.

Today is the one-year anniversary of me getting my current apartment! Well, it was one year ago today that I settled on it and had the broker hold it for me. Upcoming anniversaries will include March 15 when I signed the lease and got the keys, and April 10 when I actually moved into it. I think about all the hecticness and craziness that was going on this time last year and think... boy am I glad I don't have to go through that again this year!

This blog has been quiet these past few days as I'm busy working on Let's Go Mets. It's current emphasis is on the World Baseball Classic. Go Canada!

It is a sad day for baseball fans. Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett has passed away. I cheered for Kirby back in 1987 when he led the Minnesota Twins to their World Series Championship. Granted, my motivation in rooting for the Twins was my hatred of the St. Louis Cardinals. But it was impossible not to like Kirby. And then in 1991 he led the Twins to another World Series Championship. He was forced to retire because glaucoma caused him to lose vision in one of his eyes. His weight then ballooned to over 300 pounds. The last time I remember seeing Kirby was 2001 when he was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The man had such an infectious smile. Yesterday, he passed away at the young age of 45, after having suffered a stroke over the weekend.

I will close by singing to the tune of "Davey, Davey Crockett"... "Kirby, Kirby Puckett!"

"It's hard out here for a pimp..."

Oh yeah, you know that song is stuck in my head this morning. That was an Oscar surprise last night but not as much of a surprise as Crash. Crash?! Don't get me wrong - I liked Crash. But Best Picture? Over Brokeback? I don't know about that!

All in all, I got 15 of my predictions right last night. Just down from last year when I got 16 right. I blame Crash for that. But now that the winners have been announced, I realize that there are many many movies that I have to catch up on via Netflix. They include Walk the Line, Capote, Syriana, The Constant Gardener, Wallace & Gromit and Hustle & Flow.

Went to a fun Oscar party last night where I watched the awards with a great group of people on my friend's new flat-screen, 32-inch HDTV. Then on Saturday, I ventured to Astoria to work out with Ben at The Rock. Did the treadmill, elliptical bike, some light weight training and boxing. I have a pretty mean left jab, if I do say so myself.

Last summer I launched a blog about the New York Mets. It lasted about two weeks. This year, I am giving it another shot. Hopefully it will last three weeks!

Check out ... Let's Go Mets! ... mets101.blogspot.com

TV Observations -

The scene in "24" when President Logan asks Mike to kneel on the ground and pray with him is taken right out of history. Richard Nixon did the same with Henry Kissinger. And the more we see how paranoid Logan is, the more he reminds me of Nixon.

"Lost" has its good weeks and bad weeks but last night's episode was amazing. We finally saw what happened to Claire back when she was taken by The Others in the first season. I've always hated when characters come down with amnesia so it was satisfying to finally fill in those blanks.

And the Academy Awards are on Sunday, to be hosted by one of my favorites - Jon Stewart! Last year I offered my predictions as to who would win and I got 16 out of 24 categories correct. That was good enough to win my own Oscar Pool. I'm not doing an Oscar Pool this year but I am offering my predictions below. Keep in mind that I still haven't seen many of these movies and I'm basing many of these picks on the buzz I've been hearing.

Picture : "Brokeback Mountain"
Director : Ang Lee "Brokeback Mountain"
Actor : Philip Seymour Hoffman "Capote"
Actress : Reese Witherspoon "Walk the Line"
Supporting Actor : George Clooney "Syriana"
Supporting Actress : Michelle Williams "Brokeback Mountain"
Adapted Screenplay : "Brokeback Mountain"
Original Screenplay : "Crash"
Animated Feature : "Wallace & Gromit"
Original Song : Travelin' Thru "Transamerica"
Original Score : "Brokeback Mountain"
Cinematography : "Brokeback Mountain"
Art Direction : "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Film Editing : "Crash"
Costumes : "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Visual Effects : "King Kong"
Sound Mixing : "Walk the Line"
Sound Editing : "King Kong"
Makeup : "The Chronicles of Narnia"
Foreign Language Film : "Tsotsi"
Documentary Feature : "March of the Penguins"
Documentary Short : "God Sleeps in Rwanda"
Live Action Short : "Our Time is Up"
Animated Short : "9"