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Recently, Obama got slammed for “flying” a pizza chef to Washington DC to bake some pizza. Ha-larious!

How much does Obama love his pizza? So much that he is willing to fly a chef 860 miles to Washington D.C. to make him a personal pizza.

When you’re the president of the United States, only the best pizza will do – even if that means flying a chef 860 miles.Chris Sommers, 33, jetted into Washington from St Louis, Missouri, on Thursday with a suitcase of dough, cheese and pans to to prepare food for the Obamas and their staff.

He had apparently been handpicked after the President had tasted his pizzas on the campaign trail last autumn.

Hey, you guys know what says you are really sincere about this whole Global Warming thing that you want to use to justify an economy crushing cap and trade program? Jetting a dude across the country to make you a freaking pie.

Ok, now for the rebuttal!

He goes on to suggest that Obama is flouting the recession with this extravagance, and suggests a local pizzeria for the President to use.

This is stupid on its face, but when I actually called Chris Sommers’ restaurant, Pi, it got so much worse for Ace’s scandal.
I spoke with the restaurant’s manager, John Fitzgerald, and he gave me some things that we call “facts,” ones that cast Sommers’ trip in an entirely different light.

The best one is the first: Ace of Spades slammed Obama’s environmental cred for “jetting in” Pi’s chef, making it seem as though the guy was hopping a private gulfstream, or worse, partying down on Air Force One .

• In fact, Chris Sommers flew commercial.
• Not only that, he flew coach.
• Not only that, he had already planned a business trip to DC, so the restaurant paid for his travel!

John also told me that Chris Sommers is one of the most dedicated people he knows to the environmental cause.

• In fact, his restaurant buys carbon credits from a wind farm in Colorado.
• Not only that, they recycle about 75% of their waste.
• Not only that, John himself is going into the green building business. You couldn’t find a worse case for environmental hypocrisy.

Finally, Barack Obama isn’t saddling the American taxpayer with the tab for this feast. He’s picking up the tab, for local ingredients, out of his own pocket.

Zing! To be honest though, I’d still be okay if he flew in a chef to make him a pizza.

If you’re not a baseball fan, this probably wont mean anything to you. But if you are, it’s pretty funny.

At 35 and 39, respectively, Ichiro and Junior are old enough that neither is likely to change much at this stage. But they might rub off just a little on each other. Griffey could draw out Ichiro’s personality a bit more. And who knows, maybe Ichiro will teach Junior the importance and joy of pregame stretching.

We’ll see, but Thursday was a decent start.

“I’ll be ready for you to take me to dinner in an hour,” Griffey shouted at his new teammate.

Ichiro replied, “Bring a tie.”

Estimated return date: 3/31/2009.

I’m too sick to work, and feel terrible. So, what do I do with my day? Good question. I watch “judge” shows on TV (People’s Court & Judge Judy) while refreshing MLB.com to see if my favorite payer is coming back home, and he is!

PEORIA, Ariz. — Ken Griffey Jr. is coming home.

The future Hall of Fame outfielder who began his Major League career with the Mariners 20 years ago has decided to return to Seattle.

“I can’t begin to tell you how ecstatic all of us are,” general manager Jack Zduriencik said after announcing the deal in the press room at the Peoria Sports Complex about 6:30 p.m. MT. “He is as well. I spoke to [Griffey's agent, Brian Goldberg] a few minutes ago and he said that Ken is relieved and he is excited about coming back to Seattle.”

He has accepted the Mariners’ one-year contract offer that includes a $2 million base salary and around $2.5 million in incentives based on at-bats and attendance. His return to Safeco Field is expected to lure an additional 200,000 fans this season.

His arrival to Spring Training had not been determined as of Wednesday night.

But the mere fact Griffey decided to return to his MLB roots had the organization on cloud nine.

“This means a lot for this franchise,” Zduriencik said. “It means a lot from a baseball standpoint. We’ve talked all along about coming up with a left-handed hitter, and we have an opportunity to do that in bringing back Ken Griffey Jr. His leadership, his experience and him coming back is a tremendous, tremendous thing for this organization. From top to bottom, were very excited about him coming here.”

The final decision came mid-afternoon, ending a sometimes bizarre saga.

Griffey’s negotiations with the Braves were moving at a steady pace until Tuesday afternoon, when the veteran outfielder learned of a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution which indicated he’d already decided to play in Atlanta.

But Griffey told MLB.com in a telephone interview that he had not made his decision.

Since then, Griffey had limited contact with the Braves.

He continued to wrestle with his decision and finally, when his family agreed that signing with the Mariners was the best way to go, Goldberg called officials from both organizations and informed them.

“About an hour ago, Brian called me and Ken was calling [club president Chuck Armstrong]. His relationship with Chuck was critical in this whole decision. He looks at Chuck as an uncle.

“Immediately after that, the phone calls were going back and forth between Chuck, myself, [CEO Howard Lincoln] and all of our baseball people.”

Griffey began his storied career in Seattle 20 years ago and his return to the Mariners organization would provide a unique nostalgic opportunity. But before the realization of this extended delay in the decision process, it seemed the geographic advantages provided by the Braves outweighed the nostalgic emotions that would be felt with Griffey’s return to Seattle.

Griffey’s Orlando-area home is located 20 minutes from where the Braves stage Spring Training and just a one-hour flight from Atlanta. While in Seattle, he’s a six-hour flight away from his family.

At no point did the Mariners give in to their pursuit, despite the “done deal” reports out of Orlando.

“This is the one player, at the end of the day, that we thought we needed to bring home,” Zduriencik said.

I don’t think my question was all that confusing. Customer Service like this does not make me want to switch from Comcast to Verizon.

Me: Does Verizon offer voip?

Jimmy: Well FiOS compatible with the VOIP

Jimmy: We are not offering Voip.

Me: What’s Verizon “voicewing” then?

Jimmy: Yes that is a VOIP but that is not available online you need to call Verizon for that.

Me: You just said you’re not offering VOIP, but now you do–but only if I call?

Jimmy: That is not offering online.

Jimmy: You will get that from the Verizon office.

It’s just one of those days when I want to throw my hands in the air and give up– when all I have left is hope.

“Hope is not blind optimism.” Pause. “Hope is not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight.” Pause. “Hope is that thing inside of us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that there is something greater inside of us.”

As some of you may know, last week I had to do one of the hardest things in my life–give up my beloved dog. For those of you that don’t own a dog, I can’t articulate what it means to have a bond with an animal. For those of you that do, you can only imagine what it’s like to give up a loved pet.

I could spend pages talking about how much I loved him, but that would only make this post that much harder to type. Just know this, he’s been by my side for every important moment in my life (divorce, death, sickness, first home, etc.). When I couldn’t afford to turn on the heat, he’d sleep on my feet, and keep me warm in bed. He was attached to me at the hip, and went everywhere I did. I know people say dogs are man’s best friend, but my dog was my best friend. :’(

Probably tomorrow–since I’m unable to leave the house due to snow.