Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Do you ever fall asleep on the couch when you sit down to watch TV as it gets later, only to wake up an hour later, completely groggy and unaware of what time it is?

After a few seconds, it becomes apparent that it's not morning. In fact, it's actually bedtime, except that getting off the couch and into bed seems like a completely daunting task.

What about insomnia? That's even worse.

TigerBlog hates when he has to get up for something really early and yet can't fall asleep. He looks at the clock and then calculates how much time he has before he has to get up. Then he looks back at the clock and some more time has gone off, so he recalculates.

And the worst part is that he can't remember if he's been asleep during that time or not. That's even more frustrating.

Then there's no way to know exactly how much sleep TB actually has gotten. Has he been asleep? Has he dreamed he was awake?

When TB first graduated college, he worked in the newspaper business, which meant never having to wake up early. It meant working past midnight, sleeping really late and having it start again the next day.

As a result, TB became used to getting a lot of sleep.

Then he started working here, with a more regimented schedule. Then he had kids.

If you've ever tried to navigate the world of your average baby, it didn't take you long to figure out that they aren't exactly concerned with how much rest their parents get. Not in the least.

On the bright side, once babies get old enough to sleep through the night and then grow into little kids who can get themselves to bed - and ultimately to teenagers who sleep til noon or beyond if you let them - their parents realize that they didn't need nearly the amount of sleep each night that they thought they did.

These days, TB almost never sleeps past 7 am, if that. The idea of sleeping to 10, 11 or beyond? Hilarious.

Last night was a good night for insomnia, what with Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals drifting late into the third overtime. It was right at 1 a.m. Eastern time when the Blackhawks finally scored.

The most impressive performance of the night might have been Mike Emrick's, who at the age of 66 was still going strong into the third OT.

Not that TB is a huge hockey fan but he's rooting for the Blackhawks, largely because he hates the Bruins, who seem to come across as a bit smug as an organization.

The big stories in sports right now are the NBA finals, the Stanley Cup finals, World Cup qualifying and the U.S. Open golf tournament, which is being held in Ardmore, Pa. According to Mapquest, that would be 47 miles from Princeton, which means that the same gigantic rain/thunder/hail/wind/possible tornado storm that is bearing down on this area has the golf in a rain delay.

Lost in all of this right now is Major League Baseball. TB hasn't looked at the standings much this year and hasn't watched any games on TV yet.

His lone interest in baseball so far has been Will Venable, who began the year as the only Princeton grad in the Majors. Venable is hitting .228 with eight home runs, 24 RBIs, nine stolen bases, some really good defense and a .720 OPS.

Venable's team, the Padres, were supposed to be awful, but they are actually hanging in there at 32-34.

Another Princetonian, Ross Ohlendorf, returned to the Majors last night when he started for the Nationals against the Rockies in Denver. It was a great night for Ohlendorf, who apparently has reworked his wind-up.

The result was a line of six innings, two hits, one run, two walks, two strikeouts and 89 pitches. He left with a 4-1 lead that ended up being a 5-1 victory, making Ohlendorf 1-0 on the year.

It wasn't until TB read the box score that he saw that Washington has the same number of wins as San Diego, 32, though the Nats are at .500 at 32-32.

TB would have guessed that Washington was way better than that.

When he looked further, he saw that the Yankees were three games back, though they're also closer to fourth than first, which is good.

Like the Bruins, TB doesn't root for the Yankees.