Spring is coming !!

And that means baseball here in the Boston area The Red Sox in spring training now have all 40 players on their roster signed to a contract for 2008. That's good management. Their first regular season game will be in Oakland on April 1st and their Home Opener will be April 8th at historic Fenway Park, pictured below.



That Tuesday afternoon the World Champs will be introduced for the first time in Fenway since beating the Rockies in the 2007 World Champinship Series...

Can they do it again??

Who will win the World Series in 2008 ??

I'm going with the Red Sox...what about you??

Less than a month away and we are supposed to get snow tonight and over the weekend!!

How Smart Are You??

I've set up Tom's Trivia Challenge Tournament at the Fun Trivia site. You can sign up and play against other visitors to Tom's Hideaway...The first step of course is signing up, so follow the link above and warm up...The first week of the challenge will be to get people signed up and Next Week I will erase the stats and we will begin a weekly points challenge..

Of course if you don't sign up then it won't be any fun, I'll just have to post my name every week as being the smartest one out there..

At the ended of every week I will list the Top Point Getter and post there names and web site if they would like me to and....Even though this is sign-up week..I will include this week as well..

Next Sunday will be the first posting of winners

SIGN UP and we will see who will win Tom's Trivia Challenge

Eating lots of food and getting fat, It's FUN !!

Despite what the medical community, dating services and friends will tell you, eating lots of food and getting fat is kinda fun!!

It's like living without restrictions, taking everything that comes at you and just eating it.

Sometimes I feel like a LION after a kill, of course I didn't kill anything but sometimes I think I would kill for chocolate or even really good onion rings!!

I spent the weekend cooking...We fed a party of 30 here at Tom's Hideaway Manor and it was a Italian Festivus I'll tell ya.

I made Manicotti, even the shells were from scratch, Chicken Cacciatore, Beef Bracciole and lots of Italian Sausage, Salad, cookies, cakes, candy and plethora wine.



The Manicotti (top) Cacciatore (Bottom)

My extremely Easy Going Assistant (Lil Sister) helped by assembling a great Salad and chopping parsley among other things.

It was great to see people could just lounge on the couch and nap after the feed.

Another great thing was to have so many people that when the eating was done there were plenty of cleaners to go round..I don't think I washed a dish!!

I realized though that with all this consumption...I've put on a few pounds...but it was fun!! It was a party I don't eat like this every day...but I could and it would be fun!!

Music, Deezer a new Music Playground, Mahjongg

I don't know about you but I like having music playing when I am writing a new post or playing endless games of Mahjong...So I found a new place to listen to about any kind of music you want...There are some songs that you cannot listen too, but I understand Deezer is trying to reach an agreement with those Artists and Labels.

Now I have had a Pandora Radio account for quite awhile..That's the Music Genome project where you plug in the Artists you like and then it builds a radio station based around the music you tell them you like...It works and I listen to it a lot...but Deezer is different in that you can pick a favorite, say, Bob Dylan: and get just about every song he ever wrote. Then you just click on a song you want and it just starts playing and keeps playing one after another.

I did this with The Beatles and it just gives you page after page of their songs.

You can also create your own playlists from their extensive catalogs. I have started a few like this one

Girl Songs

Girl appears in every Title

What was I thinking About??

So if you like to have some tunes playing in the background while you are playing solitaire, writing your next post or constructing a witty comment to leave here visit Deezer ...if you like to make your own playlists.

I will continue to use Pandora as well because they offer up a lot of music I've never heard before. Plus they do a lot of the work for me.

Now if I could just figure out how to get these things to work in the Shower!!

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM....and a Video

Well I just saw the total eclipse of the moon....I could hear Pink Floyd music playing too...weird!

Another strange thing is the SPAM I've been receiving lately.

I don't know about you but I use Gmail and it's pretty good about keeping spam out of my inbox...I have to look though...It's just amazing to me all the work these freakin' spammers put into their nefarious undertakings. Imagine if they directed their efforts to better society rather than just being pains in ass...Yes the world would be a better place!! Here's a sample of what I've been getting:

Arlington Smole ?? What kinda name is that and I'm sorry Arl but the girls are already going wild I don't know where you are getting your info!!

Patty Griffith...YOU SHOULD KNOW Better..I'm tellin your MOM!!

Skin Repair?? What's wrong with my skin???

Elbert Buck!! That's a funny name too and I didn't order any drugs AND IF I wanted them I'd just call Patty Griffith anyway smartass!

The strangest one..from Kristin Neal : Subject RIBSPARE

I've heard of spareribs, maybe he or she is dyslexic, but then I get a little preview of what's written in the email and it says

" thinking of your abiding spirit Appendices Bronze the sky, with no"

That's it! All I can read...oh and that particular email comes with an attachment. It's tempting, I really kinda wonder how to finish that sentence, but I resisted and just deleted the crap.

I mean we're having a total eclipse of the moon.....odds are something would have come out of that attachment and eaten my hard drive.

VIDEO BLAST FROM THE PAST

Beatles LIVE on the Roof of Apple Records
January 30, 1969



Watch the show, enjoy a break maybe tell me your spam stories just don't send me any!!

King Tom, Getting Ahead of Myself

Note the Red Sox Crown!!

I was so certain my Mega Millions numbers were due that I commissioned a picture of my noble self for the new diggs I was set to close on this Saturday !

Now I am going to have to find a way to pay for that!!



My future dining room and the stairway to my bedroom......

I like to call it the Stairway to Heaven!!

Anyway the good news is that no one won and that my numbers will now come up for sure on the next Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday....I'll just have to close this deal on the Castle on Wednesday or Thursday... No problem!

On my last post I asked if any blogosphere Hotties wanted to Be My Valentine..they would share in my future fortune!!

While I didn't get the response I was expecting...there were a few interested in sharing my wild optimism even if their willingness to be my Valentine was tied to an actual win...

Alas there was one wonderful creature out there willing to jump on my Luck Train and when I win she will have her Royal Portrait done as well !!

Until the next time, I bid you all a Royal FAREWELL!!

Eternally Optimistic, Happy Valentine's Day

Despite having played the same numbers for the last 4 or 5 drawings of the Mega-Millions Lottery and not getting even 1 of my numbers to come out does not dampen my spirits.

The fact that no one else won only makes each drawing that much more exciting!!

I think it was around 30 Million when I started playing and now the Jackpot is at 179 Million dollars..

I like to say "Million Dollars" like Austin Powers does...it's so much more fun!!

I got a lucky Email" yesterday that I was supposed to forward to 20 friends and I would receive good luck...I am pretty sure sending those stupid chain letters on just spreads bad Karma...I didn't do it!! I am proud that I was able to resist the lure of getting good luck by putting the burden of sending that stupid letter out to 20 people who would then either do it or live with the guilt of not doing it...either way I've saved a potential 400 people by just deleting that dumb thing.

I am Eternally Optimistic that I will win Mega Millions...Friday it's gonna be big!

I have BIG plans, but I can change them if it doesn't work out.

I figure the longer my numbers don't get picked raises their chance of coming out all at once!!

I am not sure if that is a proven statistic but I like to think it is.

Plus I have a good luck charm in Chicago !!

So, while the drawing won't be until the day after Valentine's Day....maybe someone will want to jump on my lucky train and claim me as their Valentine??

Who knows....I'm feeling very lucky!!

My reflections on the 50th Grammy Award Show

Too many damn commercials including the Grammy Guys selling a book

Kanye West....what an ASS ! Getting mad cause they are playing music behind him during his acceptance speech..he was taking too long trying to put a sentence together....He loves his momma which was about the most redeeming quality that he showed and his attitude made him the butt of a couple one liners later..

My Favorite, Vince Gill getting his Grammy handed to him by Ringo Starr and then saying, "I just got an award from a Beatle!" then he looked at Kanye and said "That ever happen to you??"

Everyone in the place got a chuckle out of that one.

Brad Paisley singing, I Wanna Check You For Ticks.....That'll be my new pick up line. "Hey honey, you just cut across the lawn there, you better let me check you for ticks" What a stupid song.

Kanye I love my momma too but I don't think she could have pulled off what Tina Turner did ..hell she ended her performance with a high kick, well medium kick..Good for her.

I like the Foo Fighters and Amy Whinehouse getting their Grammy's and putting out good performances too.

Show stopper, in this case ender..Herbie Hancock getting "Album of the Year" He rightly beat out Kanye...but there was also Amy W. and the Foo's who I am sure had more sales then Herbie....He's a true musician and it is huge that the Grammy guys stepped up and gave him this Award.

Well anyone else have any thoughts..this was all off the top of my head. I'm going to bed, all in all the show kept me awake but I've seen better.