Thank You

 Dear Veterans:

I would just like to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you to the men who died for our freedom from tyranny in the Revolutionary War. Thank you to those of you who died protecting the United States of America in the Civil War. Thank you even more to those of you who fought in WWI and WWII. I've met some of you and am proud that I have. Thank you to those of you who fought in Viet Nam, Grenada, The Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and all the other skirmishes that have never been recognized.

Thank you to each and every one of you who have ever volunteered to defend our country whether you were in a war or not. Thank you for offering your very life so my family and I can go to sleep at night knowing the bravest, most selfless, determined, resourceful, people in the world are standing guard against those that would do us harm. 

Thank you to those of you who represented our country well in foreign lands. Thank you to each of you who were not only willing to die for your country, but who were also willing to smile at a foreign child. To those of you who offered to help a woman in a far away place carry her bags I say thank you. For anyone who offered assistance to any person who needed it whether American or not; thank you.

I would also like to take a moment to thank those of you who were ever held prisoner during wartime. We will never know what you endured, but we should all know enough to offer our undying gratitude. I hope you hear this not only on Veteran's Day, but every day.

I would also like to thank those of you who came home wounded. Some of you will never walk again, some of you will never see again, but to all of you I offer my thanks. It will not make up for your injuries, nor is it meant to, but thank you so very much for all you have given to the rest of us.

Lastly I would like to thank my father who served in Viet Nam. He is gone now, passed away too soon, but I like to think that he will see me typing this and be proud. Not because I am writing a word of thanks to people who deserve it, but because of the man I have grown to be. I'll never know how our relationship would have turned out as he died when I was a boy, but I like to think not only would he be proud of me he would want to be my friend. 

To my father, and to every other man and woman, who has ever worn the uniform of a branch of the armed services I say thank you. My family says thank you. God Bless you all.

Sincerely, 

Jerry Kelly

Jimmy Fund Walk

Last Sunday, 9/21/08, I participated in the twentieth annual Jimmy Fund Marathon Walk.
(http://www.jimmyfundwalk.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=265752). The Jimmy fund is part of the Dana Farber Cancer center and is dedicated to eradicating cancer in children. I had always wanted to walk the Boston Marathon route (http://www.bostonmarathon.org/) and the Jimmy Fund walk gave me the motivation I needed to do so.

The walk started out perfectly. It was nice and cool, the registration people were super helpful, and I didn't even get lost in Hopkinton. I've never walked 26 miles and change before, but I figured if eight thousand other people could do it I could too.

I started off great. I was walking at a nice even pace. The ipod was fully charged. The Patriots hadn't gotten smooshed by the Dolphins yet. I fell in with a group of kids from Wellesley College. One of the girls had a button on her backpack that said "I'm living proof!" which was pretty inspirational. We walked along for a while and then I realized we weren't even close to Boston yet and had my first "oh crap" moment of the day. As in, "oh crap, how the hell am I going to walk to Copley Square?!" I think we were in Natick at the time.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention that Framingham is the biggest city in North America. I walked into Framingham feeling pretty good. When I left Framingham I felt like fire ants were eating my calves while evil little leprechauns were hitting the balls of my feet with very small iron hammers. I never really thought of stopping though, mostly due to the gentleman I met who was pushing his obviously ill child in a carriage. He looked pretty winded, but if he could do it so could I.

Wellesley is the mid-point of the Walk. I collapsed on a bench near the Red Cross tent and just zoned for a little bit. I drank lots of water and then got back to it after a lovely stranger gave me a couple of Motrin. I walked by a sporting goods store and bought a nice pair of soft socks and that was my fifth and final wind.

I was pretty much in last place at this point so I picked up the pace and breezed through most of Newton. Boston College was a tough place to walk by because if I took a left I would have been home in about ten minutes. By now I had a blister the size of a UFO on one of my feet. Six miles to go.

I seriously considered quitting in Cleveland Circle with only five miles to go. Every step felt a little bit worse than the last. I was sitting on a rock trying to psych myself up for the final push to the finish when I made eye contact with a couple in their fifties. The wife gave me a thumbs up and mouthed, "you can make it." to me. I'd like to thank her for that because I was done if I didn't see her. I painfully got up and started walking again.

Near Kenmore Square I met a couple of women who worked for a jewelry design firm who were nice enough to let me latch onto their little group for some moral support. One of them mentioned her friend decided to run the thing so he could watch the Patriots game while he waited for her at the finish. I was secretly glad they got pummeled when she told me this. They were great though and the three of us sort of ambled, limped, and scuffled toward the finish line. It's funny, but after walking 26 miles I figured the last three blocks would be a piece of cake. Like every other part of the walk I badly misjudged that. Every step was absolute torture. In no particular order my back, shoulders, calves, ankles, feet, and head hurt. I also had a sunburn.

The finish line was like a mirage. I thought I saw it twice before I actually did. It was getting closer. A detail cop stopped traffic and let us cross the street. I was actually going to finish. As I crossed the finish line I felt terrible. Truly and completely terrible. They gave me a turkey sub and sent me on my way.

I called my wife for a ride, ate my sub, and promptly threw up all over my new Jimmy Fund Walk t-shirt. At least they gave us a hat too. It only took three days for me to be able to walk without pain. At the end of the first day I was certain I would never do this again. At the end of the second I was pretty sure I wouldn't. By day three I was pretty sure I would.

Special thanks to all the folks that donated money to the Walk:
Maureen Kelly, Paula Vernon, Trish Wright, Elaine Thorpe, Amanda Mercier (I'll learn your married name soon I promise!, Nancy Adams, Mark Haigh, Tina Gosselin, Cheryl Wright, I know there is one more and as soon as I get home I'll find my book and write you in. Thanks Guys!!!

Painitng a Room

Sorry I haven't posted in few days, but if the counter is accurate then only one or two of you have noticed. I haven't had a lot of time to keep up with this lately, but will do better. I've spent the last two days painting a room in my house in preparation for the new addition to the clan. He's due in December and my wife's nesting instincts are demanding everything be done now which is why I've spent every waking, nonworking, moment painting rooms in my house.

My daughter currently has the smallest room in the house and since she and baby brother will be sharing a room for a while we decided to let them share the living room room which is the biggest room in the house and make her current bedroom into the living room. Lots of things to do in preparation for the move which led to my new career as a painter. As I was painting I realized that it was one of those things that looks a whole hell of a lot easier than it is. Which made me think of other things that look easy to do, but in reality are best left to professionals.

1) Giving someone a haircut. Looks easy enough. Cut where it's long, leave the rest alone, and presto...a new haircut. In reality you'd be most likely to make someone look like they were attacked by carnivorous birds. then they'd cry.

2) Driving looks easy. Most of us do it every day. However, there are literally thousands of people who have no business behind the wheel of a car. On my way to work the other day a car swerved into my lane to go around another car that was double parked in their lane. I had to stand on my brake pedal with both feet to avoid a head on collision. The person who had swerved into my lane gave me the finger. If you're reading this I followed you home and now know where you live. Or do I? Makes you wonder doesn't it?

3) Anything technical. I don't know about you, but I have never been able to set up anything at all and have it work as it's supposed to. A great example of this is my new wifi router. I got all excited because I'd be able to use my laptop in any room of my house. The kid at Best Buy told me all I had to do was put the installation CD in my laptop and do what the instructions told me. Piece of cake he said. Everything went fine until the thing asked me for some numbers and I had no idea what it meant. I now have a router, but no wifi.

4)Cooking. On TV they show some chef throw together a three course meal in forty-five minutes. If I try this every pot, pan, utensil, plate, and bowl in my house are on every flat surface in my kitchen. The entree is done before the appetizer, the desert burns, and it takes longer to clean up than Chernobyl.

5)Painting. The inspiration for this column and one of the most aggravating exercises any human has ever invented. It looks easy. How hard can it be? the wall is one color, I want it to be another color, so I'll paint it. Seems logical enough, but no one takes into account the fact that walls meet ceilings and floors which means the paint needs to stop at a certain, exact, point. Since this is harder to do than split atoms it is best left to professionals.

Until Tomorrow--JK

fifteen things that make me happy

1) Fall. I think I officially hate the other three seasons. Summers too hot, Winters too cold, and spring doesn't really exist anymore.

2) Toddlers. Babies are too much work, older kids are great, but don't have that goofiness toddlers have that is so much fun to be around.

3) The elderly using electronics. There is someting cool about seeing a WWII vet bopping down the street listening to his ipod.

4) video games. I know that by definition this makes me a loser, but I'm OK with it. Madden 09 came out today and if you don't think I'm picking one up in the morning and playing for fifteen straight hours you're crazy.

5) Being on a boat. I can be having the worst day ever and somehow being on a boat makes it better.

6) The Olympics. When the National Anthem is played for the whole world to see it might be getting a little dusty in here.

7) The Patriots and by extension Tom Brady. Brady has become that old SNL bears skit. OK who would win in a fight, Brady or a puma being ridden by Kimbo Slice? Tom Brady eats the puma and beats Kimbo over the head with it's skull.

8) Totally un-pc of me, but midgets always put a little hop in my step.

9) Kids selling lemonade. Is there anything more American?

10) random music from any of the Rocky movies. I don't want a second chance I just wanna know whyyyyy!

11) Seeing a buddy you haven't hung out with in a while. Happened to me at a wedding recently and it's good times.

12) Finding a new author who has already written a bunch of good books. I never read anything by Nelson Demille until a couple of weeks ago. It's a good feeling knowing he has written about ten more books I want to read. Also takes the guess work out of going to the book store.

13) Catching a movie on TV that I loved when I was a kid and haven't seen in fifteen years. Hello Red Dawn, Big Trouble in Little China.

14) Listening to the Red Sox on the radio. Especially while sitting at Walden or someplace.

15) Pulling an idea for a daily blog out of my arse. Like, oh say, a list of things I like.

Until tomorrow--JK

People who should get mad cow disease...

The guy who holds up the line at the store buying scratch tickets. Double Mad Cow to the ones who think they have a system and ask the clerk for serial numbers before buying them.

clerks, toll takers, public servant types who don't say you're welcome after I thank them for some menial task they've performed.

Anyone and everyone who feels the need to pound on their horn every time you are a tenth of a second late after the light turns green.

bicyclists who complain about cars not sharing the road and then break every road rule in existence. I'm more than happy to share the road with you, but if you blow through an intersection and I hit you, it's your fault.

Anyone in a convenience store who uses more than one form of payment. If you buy three scratch tickets and give the guy six bucks and then take out your debit card to buy your basic 100's you're a jerk.

people who boo hometown athletes for legitimately struggling. It's not like they're not trying. If they are, in fact, not trying please feel free to boo. (Hi Manny, I remember you!).

Anyone who ever accuses anyone of being unpatriotic for questioning our leaders.

People in ridiculous places that fear terrorism. Be real people unless you live in a major city the terrorists don't care about you. Most Americans can't find Idaho and you think someone who grew up ten thousand miles from here in a desert could?

Pedestrians who walk SLOWER when they walk in front of your car. It's like a ridiculous old west challenge. Inner city kids almost dare you to look annoyed while they slow to a crawl in front of your car. It's amazing these kids ever get anywhere...ever.

Everyone who complains about how much money athletes and entertainers make. Don't you understand that they are the product that enables the owners to make money and not the other way around?

People who spit on ducks. Enough said.

This is going to be an ever expanding list of people/situations that drive me to the point of throwing a half finished hot dog at someone. Tomorrow I'm going to go through some everyday things that make life more enjoyable.

Also on a personal note I'm becoming a big brother this week. I realized that every thing I've ever done has basically been for me or my family and I'd like to do something for someone else. I'll let you know how it turns out. If anyone is actually reading this then try to remember the weei (www.weei.com/) Jimmython is this Thursday and Friday. It's basically a two day event where weei raises money for the Dana Farber Cancer institute.

Until tomorrow---JK

My imaginary interview with Manny Ramirez

As you've probably figured out by the title this interview didn't happen. On the other hand I have heard every rumor, innuendo, thought, premise, idea, belief, opinion, sentiment, view, notion, impression, and feeling ( http://www.visualthesaurus.com) regarding Manny's recent departure from the Red Sox (http://boston.redsox.mlb.com). After assimilating all of that information I basically decided to assemble it in a mock interview.

Me: So Manny, you've spent eight years in Boston, won two World Series, hit your five-hundredth home run here, and basically became a no doubt, first ballot hall of famer (http://www.baseballhalloffame.org). Are you going to miss Boston?
Manny: Boston been good to me until now. They want to trade Manny? Manny going to make them sorry for that. The fans been good to me though you know?

Me: You seem angry that Boston traded you. Didn't you, in fact, do everything short of giving general manager Theo Epstein a wedgie to force a trade?
Manny: Just Manny being Manny man. It's my thing.

Me: Your thing? You assaulted a 64 year old man. You slapped a teammate in the face. You tried to fake an injury.
Manny: Well I know some things. They didn't want to give me a hundred million dollars no more and Manny like hundred million dollars. I'm gonna retire a Dodger now man.

Me: So reports of you wanting to play for the Yankees next year are false?
Manny: I grew up there man it would be like going home to play for the Yankees.

Me:Do you have any idea what you're saying?
Manny: Just Manny being Manny. You know?

Me:For the most part, people in Boston rooted for you, do you find it strange that no one really ever called you on not running the bases hard or being a horrible left fielder?
Manny:Nah man the fans know I don't like to field, or run, or pay attention too much. I just hit the ball. you know?

Me: Many people believe that this trade was orchestrated by your agent, Scott Boras, is there any truth to that?
Manny:No man. My agent is cool he just lets Manny be Manny, you know?

Me:Well the fact he is basically representing you for free made people wonder I think. Any comment?
Manny:See, people don't know nothing. My agent gets four percent of my deal. I made one-hundred and eighty million dollars. That means Scott got like ninety-thousand bucks or something.

Me:Manny, your old agent, Jeff Moorad, got that money. Remember Jeff? Moorad? Made you insanely wealthy once? Ring a bell?
Manny: (smiling) Just Manny being...

Me: (Interrupting) If you say Manny being Manny again I'm going to stick a pencil in your eye.
Manny:Oh!

Me:You do of course realize you aren't getting better as you age correct? I mean why would someone pay you more now than they would when you were 26 for example?
Manny:If people like Manny they give Manny one-hundred million. If not I'll go play baseball in Japan. Scott told me I'm big in Japan.

Me:Last Question. Do you feel like you broke your word as a man by signing a huge contract and then being an incredible arse and forcing a trade so you could be a free agent at the end of the year?
Manny:No. I'm Manny Ramirez man. I'm a big kid just playing baseball man. No one be mad at at Manny right? Yo man you got a PSP or something? I'm bored.

Me: No.
Manny: Manny's out of here don't like to be bored man.

Editors Note: Since being traded to the Dodgers (http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com) Manny's batting average is roughly .439. He has four home runs and 17 RBI. It is downright scary to think of what a motivated Manny Ramirez could have done in Boston as they made a playoff run. If Manny had played this well in Boston and then informed the team of his plan to blow up the clubhouse if they brought him back he would have gotten his huge contract and been able to shoot his way out of town after the playoffs. Unfortunately, Manny...being Manny, did the borderline mentally challenged thing and proved to every GM in baseball he is the whining, petulant, quitter, we always argued a bit too loudly he wasn't.

Until Tomorrow---JK

John Edwards (The politician, not the psychic)

The bizarre story of John Edwards extra-marital affair with documentary film maker Rielle Hunter is far from over. John admitted he was an egomaniacial narcissist who figured since he was a big shot he could cheat on his terminally ill wife while running for vice-president and no one would figure it out. He further made a mess of his entire life and career by later running for President. I guess he assumed as President no one would look into any past indiscretions.

He should spend the next year personally calling every person who supported him and apologizing. Thank God he didn't win the nomination. Imagine another sitting Democratic President in the midst of a sex scandal? This is actually a much more interesting dalliance than former President Clinton's. It is more like a John Grisham (http://www.randomhouse.com/features/grisham/) novel than something that actually happened. If you've been living in a cave in Afghanistan you might have missed much of this story so I'll recap briefly.

In 2006 then Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards had an affair with a woman named Rielle Hunter. By all accounts they met at a bar in NY and proceeded to have an affair. In retrospect I imagine John would agree that this was a poor choice. The rumors were first reported in the National Enquirer (www.nationalenquirer.com), and in a stunning turn of events, turned out to be true.

Last week John was caught by Enquirer reporters leaving a Beverly Hills hotel at three o'clock in the morning after meeting with Ms. Hunter in the hotel.

Ms. Hunter currently has a baby girl and the paternity of the child is certainly in question. John Edwards insists he cannot be the father of the child and wishes to take a paternity test to prove conclusively that the child is not his. Whether the baby is his or not is almost irrelevant. If he is not the father then it simply because the timing was wrong. If he is the father the adamant denial of paternity coupled with the admission that he did not love Ms. Hunter is an indictment into the character of John Edwards.

Instead of admitting the affair and going away for a few years he said, "I would welcome participating in a paternity test," Edwards told ABC's Bob Woodruff on Friday. "Be happy to participate in one. I know that it's not possible that this child could be mine because of the timing of events. . . . Happy to take a paternity test and would love to see it happen." Why? If he proves he isn't the father does he somehow think it makes it better?

Andrew Young, another Edwards staffer, has claimed he is the father of the baby. He would have us believe he was sleeping with his bosses girlfriend at a time when it was entirely possible that his boss could wind up as President of the United States of America. Talk about poor career choices.

Since the baby was born the former head fund raise for John Edwards campaign, Fred Baron, has been assisting Ms. Hunter financially. Some reports have the amounts as high as fifteen-thousand dollars a month. Mr. Baron claims all funds were from his personal fortune and no campaign related money was used to assist Ms. Hunter.

John Edwards is a creep. I am morally certain anyone who cheats on their terminally ill wife is not someone to be admired. The worst part about it is it seems that Elizabeth Edwards has to deal with this as well as her illness.

As always the lesson to be learned here is that if you want to live in the public eye then everything you do is for public consumption. I don't understand why politicians, of all people, don't understand this. They take a poll to see what color tie to wear at a breakfast meeting, but somehow still haven't figured out to only sleep with the woman they married.

In other news the Olympics started and some swimmer won a gold medal, a nutcase Chinese citizen randomly attacked two Americans, killing one, and seriously wounding the other before killing himself. The US Women's basketball team beat some eleventh world country by six hundred. Their counterparts on the men's basketball team are getting ready to beat someone else by fifty-eight. I love the United States, but have to admit I've been actively rooting against the men's basketball team since Larry, Magic, and Jordan led the one and only true Dream Team to a gold medal. I wish they'd let the college kids play again., even at the expense of winning every year.

Until tomorrow---JK

Day 2. Pats Preseason, So bad it was good movie

I began my blogging career yesterday and was excited to sign in today and see the comments, rave reviews, and general buzz about my blog. Unfortunately none of those things happened and I am fairly certain I am the only one who has read it so far.

Yesterday I watched some of the Patriots first preseason game. There really isn't much to take away from a preseason game as most of the players will be selling insurance or working in the athletic department of various high schools once the season starts. The one thing I can say with absolute certainly is that if tom Brady goes down the Patriots would have trouble beating St. John's Prep this year. Cassell is a the prototypical guy you don't ever, ever, want to see in a game. from all accounts he works hard and is a good guy to have around practice, but the cold hard football fact (great website by the way, http://coldhardfootballfacts.com/) is that he isn't good enough to keep a team afloat while the starter gets healthy.

Matt Gutierrez is our current third string QB and I fully expect him to supplant Cassell as the backup before the season starts. He is younger, has more upside, and at least he played in college. Cassell was a backup in college. I know that college was USC, but wouldn't a more talented, competitive guy, have transferred someplace to get some playing time? Gutierrez started at Michigan, saw he wasn't going to get any run and transferred to Idaho where he played well. At least we know he can play if called upon. Something which is in serious doubt with Cassell.

At least Cassll has a bigger career than either of the Corey's who were brought back to star in;
Lost Boys: The Tribe, http://lostboysthetribe.warnerbros.com/ This is a remake of a pretty good movie done in 1987 with the Corey's (Haim and Feldman) and Kiefer Sutherland. The lead Vampire in the Tribe is a kid named Angus Sutherland. He takes the reigns from half brother Kiefer and if history is any example he will star in a huge hit show for FOX in about twenty years.

Basically the highlight of the flick is Corey Haim reprising his classic portrayal of Edgar Frog, Vampire Hunter. For some reason he speaks in this "I just smoked thirty butts and drank scotch all night voice" which is truly annoying. Other than that the movie has everything. Obligatory nude scene with cute vampire gal. Huge vampire party, which was awesome and proves a theory that I have that all vampire parties and clubs are incredibly cool. And the big finale where the girl is saved and the vampire defeated. Also the vampires are all surfers. How Owen Wilson didn't wind up in this is beyond me. Anyway if you ever have ninety minutes to kill there are worse ways.

Lastly, on a personal note, I have been trying to quit smoking over the last week or so and it is going OK. I am completely mediocre at quitting smoking. I'm like the Baltimore Orioles of the stop smoking movement(www.stopsmoking.org). So if you want to receive a somewhat abrupt or cranky email feel free to send in your questions or comments.

Until tomorrow,

JK

First Blog

I decided to begin writing a blog today. I have a l0t going on in my life right now and felt it would help me keep some things in order if I were to put them down on paper, or whatever. If you're sitting there reading this you're probably wondering what makes my life or experiences any more interesting to read about than any of the other twenty million blogs out there and the short answer is I don't know. It's certainly more interesting to me, but that is to be expected.


I am a thirty two year old guy who has spent way too much time in his life watching, thinking about, and talking about sports. I love baseball (Red Sox), Football (Patriots), and Basketball (World Champion Boston Celtics) http://www.nba.com/celtics/ , When I was a kid I also liked hockey, but since the Bruins started paying minimum wage they have been kind of tough to follow. That being said I did watch them in the playoffs last year and am sort of excited to see what they do this year.

Other than sports I am very interested in politics. Expect to see a lot of liberal leanings on this site. I am not so liberal that I believe more in the rights of criminals than I believe in the rights of the victims of their crimes. If the Presidential election were held right now I'd vote for Obama. On the other hand if John McCain won I would be proud to call him the President of the United States of America. He seems like an honorable man who has served his country in both war and peace.

Sports are easier to write about and in many ways easier to think about than anything else. Red Sox good Yankees bad. It is also much easier to look back on and see who was better. The Giants won the Super Bowl. That day they were a better football team than the Patriots. If Gore were elected, I mean actually got to be President after he was elected, it is easy to say we would be in a better place as a country right now. It's hard to imagine he would have fumbled as badly as old GW has over the last seven years, but he could have. I think that's one of the many things I like about sports, the fact that when the game is over someone won and someone lost. This is probably the main reason soccer has never really caught on with adults in America. We don't like spending two hours rooting for our team and having the game end in a tie. The games themselves are incredible, the athletes top notch, but if it's getting late in the game and there is no score a nagging voice starts asking why we bothered to watch at all.

The last thing I want to in my first ever blog is introduce my self to you. I was born at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Brighton MA. I now work at a different hospital fairly close to St. E's. In between I went to Don Bosco, then BC, had a daughter, got married, and am now expecting number 2. My wife and I haven't decided on a name yet and I think we're stuck. She loves the name Andrew and I am having trouble getting behind it. The kid would either be called Andy and sound like he was thirteen for the rest of his life, or Drew and remind me of the star qb for the Pat's who always broke my heart in the end. I'm no help whenever she asks me for input I look at the name book and throw something like Manfredo at her. I liked Brady for a first name, but she's against it because Tm Brady broke up with Bridgette Moynihan while she was pregnant. We're reliving the QB controversy that ignited a Patriot's dynasty in my own home. I'll have to remind her Brady beat out Drew for the job once and they won three Super Bowls.

Until Tomorrow:

JK