MY MORNING CUP OF CATCH-UP

YOWSERS! That's some strong coffee this morning. Seriously packing a punch.

Okay, it's 5:00am. I'm up. And the sick thing is I've already had breakfast, checked all my sites and already became bored. It's 5 o'clock in the morning and I'm already bored. But I refuse to go to work this early so, as the my backup to work, The Root Down is getting a nice news update. I'll just go until the coffee's gone.

Last week, I detected a lump in Jax's neck. I alerted my lovely wife to it and we decided it was best to get him to a vet as soon as we could. Turns out that the lump is a swollen lymphnode. I love the word "node" as a sidenote.

Jackson did surprisingly well with the vet. It's kinda like taking your old ride in for an inspection. You know it has to be done, but you don't want someone else to look at your car and say, "Geez, this thing shouldn't even be on the road." Well, as seemingly healthy as our dog is, we haven't taken him to a vet. I mean, we've taken him for some routine procedures at PetSmart (nail clipping, toothbrushing, anal glands emptied--you know, just the standard package). I was afraid we were gonna get the "How come you didn't come earlier!? This dog is dying a cruel death. Please have a seat here. I'm gonna make a few phone calls." And then, I'm walking out of there in cuffs. Well, that wasn't the case. The vet said he was as healthy as could be. The lymph node wasn't a reason to worry right now, however, if it gets bigger we would need to bring him back in. I asked about his "ungodly" breath and the vet checked out his teeth and said they were quite healthy for a three year old--even the back teeth. Must be that chicken-flavored toothpaste. Man, dogs get all the good products.

I ate a bacon-flavored treat one day and it was the most awful thing I've ever eaten. I'll retract that statement about dogs getting all the good products. It's not true.

So, Jackson's fine. And you know he's fine because he got me up at 4:15 this morning because he was thirsty. Punk. But we'll keep an eye on the node. It actually appears this morning to be smaller.

Speaking of Jackson, thanks to all who voted on his Jones Soda picture. He received a whopping 29 votes with an average of 8.41. Now, I'd like to really thank those who voted for Jackson with an appropriate score of 10. However, with the average being 8.41, that would mean that, obviously, not everyone was playing as a team here. I take anything less than 10 as a direct slam on Jackson and it will be taken quite seriously. We'll see if ol' boy can land a label. I guess it's in their hands now. I'm sure it's quite unlikely.

Heat laid it on the Mavs last night to win their first championship. Can't really blame Nowitzki the Wookie. Dude straight got down last night, but Heat played like, well, what they are. A team of aging allstars with nothing to lose and not a single championship to their name. I'm speaking of Mourning, Payton and, my boy, (I never turned on you, don't forget that!) former Celtic Antoine Walker. Walker was killin' it last night. Amazing performance and clutch. Sorry, Mavs. Sorry, Nowitzki. Every wookie has his day. Here was yours. Draft day, 1998.

And here's a still from his True Hollywood Stories episode when he experienced his fallout with the bottle. And with reigning MVP and former Mavs teammate Steve Nash.

Let's just get one more sports note out of the way. Sox maintain a one-game lead on the Yankees. Granted, it's not spectacular, but the Yanks bullpen has been proven completely unreliable. Yes, even ol' Mo. And Paplebon continues to mow down hitters for the Sox. Still have some issues in middle relief, but I'm trusting the front office will fix those before the trade deadline.

On a sad note, in a Vibe Magazine readers' poll, Bone Thugs N Harmony was voted the best rap group ever. Even more surprisingly, it was a landslide with Bone receiving 81.5% of the votes (approximately 495,000 votes). Wu Tang came in second with 9.6% of the votes and NWA received 2.3% of the votes. Man, at least Wu Tang came in second, but geez, with only 9.6% up against Bone's 82%, I don't know if it even matters. De La Soul came in 6th. Outkast 8th. Run DMC (yeah, the Kings of Rock) came in 9th with .2% of the votes. Public Enemy received even less votes with only 541. Tribe Called Quest received 180 votes. Black Moon, EPMD and the Beasties didn't even crack 100 votes. Shameful. Think I'm gonna be sick.

I finished a painting of Rakim that I'll be hanging in the Boom Boom Tomb hopefully tonight. At that point, I'll throw an image of it up here on The Root Down. If you don't know who Rakim is, I'm sorry. But you really have no one else to blame, but yourself. Recognize.

And lastly, I present to you a picture of MF Doom when he was Zev Luv X of KMD fame. And, yes, KMD freaking kicked major ass. Seek out their material. Even if it's the very comprehensive greatest hits package that was put out by Nature Sounds a few years back. Todd, do you have my copy of KMD's hits? Anyway, here's MF Doom before he was Doom.

It's drier than a muddah here in the Yellow. Apparently the new big story here in town is the lake levels are so low that "treasures" are being exposed at the lakes' bottoms. Like sunken boats, cars and other crap. Hopefully, it doesn't get so low we start finding bodies, but with this weather of late (or lack thereof), we might be closer than we'd want to be. One upside they've been reporting is the fishing is fantastic. Yeah, because those poor guys ain't got nowhere to go. Now would be a good time to start drinking bottled water heavily because I'm not about to take my chances with the tap with lake levels so low. That's when you get the sea monkeys in your glass singing "It's a Small World." You don't want that. And yes, I do normally drink tap. And I still have my teeth. And, yes ladies, I'm taken.

Time for a refill.

Just saw Fox News' headline for the Heat winning the championship reads "Flame On." Interesting choice of words there.

Already starting to plan the Second Somewhat Annual j3 Ski Extravaganza for next March/April. Also planning on making my triumphant return to SXSW in Austin so, needless to say, I'll need some vacation hours for that. Hopefully, I can get my lovely wife out on the slopes this next year. I'd consider it a wash if I can't accomplish that. 2007 is going to be the year she learns.

Well, that's it for now. Have a good Wednesday everyone. I'm gonna let Earth Wind and Fire send me off to work this morning. Wolfmother has experienced their third straight week of increased scans at Soundscan which, of course, means they sold out.

But I still love them. And you should too. Buy their self-titled record at any neighborhood Hastings.