So hopefully tonight is the last time we’ll have to see this blog in this format. Starting tomorrow (assuming my fearless webmaster can get it all done overnight), you’ll see a completely different LOHO; one that will probably be much more familiar to many of us. Most importantly, it will allow everyone to post and recommend diaries, which I really believe is an intergral part of growing a community. (steps down off soapbox)

Two things that you guys aren’t going to like, though:

1) You’re all going to have to re-register (PITA, I know); and

2) We’re going to lose all our comments (ducks and covers head). All together now. . . BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! But just think, the frequent-poster contest can start all over. A fresh start! This is a good thing! Right? Guys? Hello?

Now then. Let us proceed.

Turns out that The Heckler hates AJ as much as the rest of us:

A.J. Pierzynski annoys 25 people at Tucson-area Olive Garden
 

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has a phrase that sums up his catcher’s relationship with others: “If A.J. is not on your team, you hate him. If A.J. is on your team, you hate him less.” While it’s not obvious whether or not the patrons of the Tucson, Ariz., Olive Garden were Sox fans, after Monday’s tirade accompanied his soup, salad and breadsticks lunch, the restaurant-goers certainly do hate Pierzynski. 

“I could tell he was going to be trouble the moment he walked in,” said Megan Harmel, a 17-year old waitress for the Italian eatery. “He had this fake, wrestling championship belt flung over his shoulder and demanded a table for eight, even though he was alone. I tried to get him to sit at a smaller table, but he kept insisting ‘A.J.’s entourage is on their way.’” 

Once seated, Pierzynski continued to cause a scene.  

“Every time he took a bite out of a breadstick he would punch himself in the jaw, screaming ‘A.J.’s tough. Don’t mess with A.J.,’” said Dottie McNeal, a retiree who meets her bridge club at the restaurant weekly. “He seemed like a bit of a smart aleck.” 

Pierzynski eventually had to be escorted out of the restaurant after he kneed a busboy in the groin for failing promptly to refresh his water.

From the “Even John Le Carre couldn’t make this stuff up” files:

WASHINGTON - FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert — a man who spoke out on “Dateline NBC” last weekend and strongly suggested that remnants of the KGB were responsible for the bizarre poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian expert, Paul Joyal, was shot Thursday night as he got out of his car in front of his house in Adelphi, Md. Investigators in Prince Georges County say a witness claims to have seen two men running away after the shooting. Joyal remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the midsection. Authorities have not said whether they’ve been able to talk to him.

Whoa. I don’t know about you guys, but my dad (who I know reads this. . .hi daddy) instilled in me a great appreciation for John Le Carre and Ian Fleming, so I LIVE for spy stuff. Plus, in an era of always having to worry about Al Qaeda blowing something up, it’s kind of reassuring to know that there are still people being poisoned in sushi joints and shot with shot with umbrella darts by guys from Russia. It’s kind of quaint, actually.  Takes me back to my childhood.
Oh for crying out loud.  .  .

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts are always on guard against toxic spills that could contaminate the international space station.

But there is nothing in their training manuals about how to clean up flying wasabi.

The spicy greenish condiment was squirted out of a tube while astronaut Sunita Williams was trying to make a pretend sushi meal with bag-packaged salmon. The three space station crew members are given a certain number of bonus packs of their favorite foods to help endure their months in space where most meals are the equivalent of military MREs.

Seriously? This is what’s going on up there? Can I pay less taxes?

Eww. Eww. Ewww.

A brother-sister duo who lives together and has four children have filed an urgent suit with Germany’s constitutional court demanding the “right” to incest, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.

Eww. Eww. Eww. Ewww. Ewww. My brothers are pretty gross. Actually, I’m kind of fascinated with the women who chose to date them, and have been tempted more than once to throw them into some kind of plexiglass enclosure and try to figure out what makes them tick. Perhaps they could even be saved. Like, I could post photos of my brothers nearby, and every time they look at one of the photos, I could shock them. That might work.  Preventing my brothers from spawning is really the best thing I could do for mankind. (No swirlies! No noogies! No snakebites! I’m kidding!)

5 songs on my iPod:

• This Ain’t A Scene, It’s an Arms Race: Fall Out Boy
• Feeling Good: Nina Simone
• Virtual Insanity: Jamiroquai
• Trouble: Ray Lamontagne (I’ve been listening to this non-stop lately, no clue why)
• He Don’t Care About Me: Kelly Willis

QOTD: You can only bring one item with you to the new site, what do you chose?