Doggie diaries: The story of Rosie and Sophie An afternoon nap after an afternoon walk

We finally had our backyard regraded to address a flooding problem we’ve been dealing with — parts of the yard would become lakes. And while that will be good in the long run, it makes for a bit of a hassle now because it means we can’t let the dogs back there. So, that means we have to walk them and walk them frequently.

With the good weather we’ve had the last few days, that is not a problem — except at midnight when it’s a bit dark and foreboding. In fact, it’s been nice, getting out for the trek around the neighborhood. Today we walked 2.4 miles — a record for the dogs (Rosie, top; Sophie, bottom) — and the pooches are now asleep and likely will be for quite some time.

That should give me some time to get some work done and watch the game (working from home).

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Pitching, pitching, pitching: Opening day post, No. 2

An infield pop-up, a strikeout and an easy flyball — Johan Santana looks good so far. The Mets are going to need to pitch like this every inning of every game to stay in this race.

No score as the Mets come to the plate in the bottom of the first.

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Lineup contends for mediocrity: Opening day post, No. 1

They just announced the Mets lineup for opening day, and it is not a pretty one:

  1. Alex Cora, SS
  2. Luis Castillo, 2B
  3. David Wright, 3B
  4. Mike Jacobs, 1B
  5. Jason Bay, LF
  6. Garry Matthews, CF
  7. Jeff Francouer, RF
  8. Rod Barajas, C
  9. Johan Santana, P

I know Cora and Matthews are supposed to be temporary fixes, but the fact that both are in the opening day lineup should dispel any optimism those of us rooting for this might have had. Cora is a career backup and Matthews — his lone good year in the big leagues came under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs. Throw in Jacobs, Barajas and Catillo, and you can see why I think this team will be lucky to compete for third.

Division prediction: Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Mets, National. And that is sad, indeed.

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Employment numbers are more a blip than a surge

I don’t mean to be a downer, but the 163,000 jobs created last month — which includes people working for the Census Bureau — barely covers what is needed to offset the number of new workers entering the work force. That’s just not good enough, given that we’ve lost about half a million jobs a month for the last 15 months.

We need a far more aggressive jobs plan, one that will create 750,000 to 1 million jobs a month for the next year to 18 months.

Anything less will leave too many people out of the economy.

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