Vacation - day 4.

My stay-at-home vacation is coming to an end on Thursday. The first round of the Women's U.S. Open gets going and Paula Creamer is due to tee off at 7:55am, which means I'll have to be out the door and on the road by 6:00am. Quite the attitude adjustment.

The upside is that her tee time on Friday will be in the afternoon, since they flip-flop the morning and afternoon in the second round. I can sleep-in on Friday and decide whether I want to stay the night and go back on Saturday. Paula is fighting a thumb injury, so it's likely that (a) she'll not be in contention on Saturday (b) she'll withdraw or (c) she'll miss the cut. That's sad.

The other upside (can there be two upsides?) is that a 7:55 tee time means that she'll be finished her round by 12:30, and if I want, I can get home at a reasonable hour.

Strangely, it's only 10 more miles to the Saucon Valley course than it is to Bulle Rock, but the travel time is a half hour more - primarily because of the direction - which will take me through and around Philadelphia on a work day. I think the early start will get me through the battleground before the heavy commuter traffic starts. That's the plan anyway. The wild card is the endless construction work on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. If that's an issue, staying the night on Friday is a no-brainer.

That's an odd expression - no brainer. It's supposed to mean that the decision is easy, but to me it sounds like a decision that is made without a brain.

Meanwhile, if you're looking to piss people off, here's the latest gimmick. Start talking (or writing) about Michael Jackson in a disparaging way, and bring up the child molestation charges and what a strange character he was. It's bound to piss off a few people, but we all need a hobby.

The gang at Rolling Stone magazine is capping on the dead celebrity deal with a special edition of the magazine that's coming out on July 10. They're planning to "bring together his life, music and legend." Wowie-Zowie. Lucky me - I'm a subscriber and they'll send it to me whether I want it or not. Send me your address and I'll mail it to you unread.

The other thing I'm not so thrilled about is the constant attention being paid to Manny Ramirez and his return from his substance suspension. Television is treating him like he's coming off the disabled list as a hero, but he's more or less on probation after violating the league's substance abuse policy. Fox interrupted the Phillies game on Saturday to show his at-bats and tonight, ESPN is showing the Dodgers/Mets game with constant references to Manny and his return to baseball. I think it makes a suspension seem like a party, and the returning player is made to be a celebrity, which is probably what baseball wants.

It doesn't seem to matter what kind of person you are or what laws or rules you've violated, if the organization you work for wants you in front, you're there. Sometimes people don't care and other times they do. It's hard to figure.