No "Acts of God" are going to come between us and our practice, so while the dregs of Hurricane Francis hit us tomorrow, you'll be snug indoors at Jokers for practice. 6:30pm to 8:30pm, make sure you're there, so you can represent this weekend against Hartford. Take that, Jebus.

For those of you who weren't there last weekend, Amoeskeag roughed us up like a bunch of Russian hostage negotiators. As usual for this game it was about 90 degrees, and the scoreline was less than favorable. I don't know what it was exactly, but it was a pretty one-sided affair. Nevertheless, we saw some encouraging performances by our newer players, and didn't pick up too many injuries amongst the older ones.

In advance of our first league game this coming weekend, practice will be moving to 6pm, at the usual Fox Street location. For some of you that means you'll have to phone in your lame-ass excuses half an hour earlier. For the rest of us, let's be there and ready to go promptly.

Why weren't you at practice last night? Fine...whatever.

Well, there's a game this weekend, against Amoskeag, so you'd better make it to that, and we'll say no more about it. Be at Fox Street at 12:30pm. Bring plenty of water, and cook a lot of something and bring it to the drink up.

As you were.

Lads, apparently CIPP eligibility is going to be scrutinized more closely than ever this Fall, so if you are not already registered, you need to get on and do it now! It cost $25, and get's you a cool sticker and card. Here's the sorry list of who we have registered so far. Many of you claim to not remember if you registered in the Spring, so if your name is not on this list, your not registered - geddit? Here's the form - just fax it in with a credit card number and you're all set. If you prefer, just fax me your credit card, and I'll take care of it, and a few other things.

Many of you have still to show your face at practice. I don't get this. You must be in great shape already....

Well, I just witnessed the dismantiling of Team USA by mighty, mighty Puerto Rico. My encyclopedia tells me that Puerto Rico is "a self-governing, unincorporated, organized territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean". Puerto Rico was invaded by the U.S. in 1898, and they have pretty much run the show since then, although stopping short of annexing the country entirely and making it another state. Seems like it might be time to re-think that, since the only way to stop this from happening again will be to re-invade and take away all their basketballs of mass destruction. Peurto Rico, consider yourself on warning!

So it turns out that all that bling doesn't make you a better basketball player. I'm guessing that it has a bit more to do with practice. In that vein, practice for the fall season starts in earnest this Tuesday. So, like Lebron James, you can rely on your bling and your complete lack of activity over the summer, or like Carlos Arroyo you can work your butt off and pull off a few upsets this fall....

6:30 pm at Fox Street, unless you hear otherwise.

Practice tonight at the Fox, at half-past six. I got lots of stickers, so come on down.

In case you haven't heard, Leo has 2-3 extra tickets to next week's Patriots pre-season run around with the Eagles. 15 yard line, second row, third level, since you asked. Wot, no seat numbers? Like the stand-up guy that he is, he's only asking face value for these tickets, which is only $65. But wait...this also includes a ride down, but I'm guessing it will be in the Civic, not the Envoy.

Anyway, Leo loves to get lots of e-mail, so if you recon that face value is a little steep for these tickets, e-mail him here with your best offer. Or failing that you can just go round his house and watch the game on his 50" plasma set while he's not there.