It's a skeleton crew at City Council today – Sheryl Cole's off the dais all day, Mike Martinez has been coming and going, and Will Wynn is nowhere to be found as of this writing. So as you might guess, no major or contentious items are up for discussion today.

The bulk of this morning was spent discussing the city's decommission of the Green Water Treatment Plant Downtown, proposed future site of the new central library. The discussion gave council the opportunity to riff on ideas for the site. Brewster McCracken sounded like he was in favor of pushing the library site a block farther west, on the electrical substation block in between Green and the Seaholm site, and wanted developers to propose two models for the library: one free standing and the other incorporating – you guessed it – a vertical mixed-use design. Lee Leffingwell, noting the $90 million in bond bucks allocated for the library doesn't cover a complete build out, suggested future expansion and dictated it should be free-standing – drawing scattered applause from the library boosters in the room. Wynn talked parking; suggesting one massive, underground parking plain could cover the expanse of the entire four-block radius of Green; and serve as a base for development on the site – stopping short of a race of CHUDs or similarly superhuman underground molemen to punch your parking ticket.

But there was one unwelcome surprise: Due to the complexity and environmental challenges of the decommission project, it's going to take an additional 15 months, from November 2008 to February 2010.

Just four games into a 16-game season, a very young Austin Lightning squad faces a big test this weekend, hosting the top two teams in their PDL Mid-South Division. A tough loss last weekend in Dallas knocked the Lightning out of U.S. Open Cup qualifying; now it's time to concentrate on the league race, as they host the Laredo Heat on Friday, and the El Paso Patriots on Saturday, both games at 7:30pm at House Park, Lamar & 12th, $5, $3 kids (free for children under 8).

Austin Anarchist Soccer is having a benefit Saturday to establish a scholarship fund to send players to the Anti-Racist World Cup in Italy in July.

And there are European results below, as well …

Two years isn't a very long time, unless you're waiting for the next Harry Potter book or the Texas Longhorns to get back to the College World Series. Luckily, the Horns are as loaded as I was the other night.

Expectations were high Monday night in San Antonio for the long-awaited return of Tool, who canceled two previous gigs due to a band injury and illness. My anticipation for the performance stretched back more than a year to the quartet’s warm-up gig at SMU’s McFarlin Auditorium, which a former collegiate associate of mine failed to acquire tickets for.

The rules for the evening were displayed like tombstones every 20 yards in the quarter mile stretch from the parking lot to the AT&T Center: No moshing. No crowd surfing. No cameras or recording devices. No matter.

The Sonic Youth-inspired instrumental noise from openers, Seattle’s Kinski, might as well have been elevator music. We wanted Tool. With the intermission music and the house lights on, Maynard James Keenan and company appeared nonchalantly on the stage. The normally cryptic lead singer, dressed like an urban outfitter with cowboy boots, a belt buckle, and cowboy hat atop his mohawk, addressed the apprehensive audience: “San Antonio, I swear you people have the worst luck. I’m not sure how to put this … I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is there is no bad news.”

Of course, he was lying.

Congratulations are at hand for Mary Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, for the birth of their first baby son, Samuel David Cheney.

Under Virginia law, Mary’s partner of 15 years “will have no legal relationship with the child, can not adopt as a second parent, and her name will not be anywhere on the birth certificate."

Sheesh. Harsh.

The question now is this: Will Dick Cheney continue to support homophobic legislature, denying the same rights from homosexual families that "normal" families enjoy ... when it's his own grandson?

I guess we'll see.

Where were we in Houston when the poster for Foghat appeared, outside the Astrodome? I don't remember but I do remember Raoul and I were on our way to see the Stones. Once I saw the poster, I pitched a fit. "Fuck the Stones! I wanna see Foghat!" I can still see Raoul wincing at the wheel.

I was joking, of course. "Wild Horses" couldn't have gotten me away from my beloved Stones, not with backstage passes waiting for us. But somewhere in the back of my mind, the guitar crunch of "Slow Ride," with its corny oompah-oompah bass, began to compete with the strains of "Satisfaction." What do you do when you're a band whose hit-making years are at least a couple of decades behind you?

Bryan Bassett wasn't an original member of Foghat but he was a founder of Wild Cherry, whose "Play That Funky Music, White Boy" was a massive hit in 1976. Bassett played for Lonesome Dave's Foghat 1989-93 and rejoined them in 1999 as a permanent member. "Hired gun," he joked about his early status with the English band spun off from Savoy Brown and who produced a string of heavy blues-rock hits in the Seventies including "Fool for the City," "Slow Ride," and "I Just Wanna Make Love to You." More recently, Bassett stepped up as producer of Foghat's recent recordings and DVD.

Small Business Group leader Carl Tepper is steamed. Here's his latest letter to City Council:

Well, it’s finally happened. Yesterday a transient took a crap in the stairwell of our brand new buildings on the MoPac frontage road. I can't tell you how embarrassed I am that we called a day porter, who works hard and who has amazing dignity, to take care of it. A doctors wife (another person of amazing class and dignity) didn't want it to linger and cleaned it before the day porter arrived. The day porter cleaned up the remnants. I can’t tell you the pain and anger of hearing this!

If my staff would have told me first I would have collected it myself and shown it to you at City Hall; cameras rolling. NEXT TIME I WILL. If it happens again they have strict orders to let me know first! I am prepared for any consequences.

When the office manager at that building described the situation to me this morning she also vented about her employees having to pass through the intersection of 2222 & MoPac, where the homeless camp grows, and how the transients there now drop their pants and crap in front of everyone waiting in traffic. As if dodging the panhandlers wasn't enough.

As of Tuesday, May 22, Astros great Larry Dierker has officially entered the blogosphere with his Dishin' With Dierker weekly blog hosted on the Round Rock Express Web site.

Dierker's resume is more than impressive. He's an ex-MLB pitcher (with a no-hitter to his credit) signed by the Houston Colt .45s in 1964, two-time All-Star, was a beloved broadcaster for the Astros, and successfully coached Houston during some of their most productive and playoff-reaching years garnering Manager of the Year in 1998. His career pitching stats include a 139-123 record, 3.31 ERA, and 1,493 strikeouts to 711 walks. He pitched all but 11 of his 356 games for Houston. He is also the author of two books, It Ain't Brain Surgery and My Team.

We watched the House until midnight yesterday, waiting for the anti-Craddick revolution to materialize. But the house cameras sure didn't pick this up – a near-knuckleduster between GOP leprosy lover and all around asshole Leo Berman and Houston Rep. Garnet Coleman.

Berman accused Coleman of axing a budget bill on a point of order. KEYE has the video here, and a sanitized version of their exchange:

Coleman: Leo, why are you talking to me? Leo, I don't have anything to do with that. You know what? No, no, no. Because you know what the problem is with you, you're making an assumption that I had something to do with that. No, yes you did. And I think you're full of s**t.

Berman: I did not.

Coleman: Yes you did. You made an assumption that I killed that bill.

Berman: No, I don't give a s**t.

Coleman: Then why did you say it to me, Leo? Why? Why don't you tell me? You're full of s**t, son of a b****.

Less than 30 seconds later, they were at it again. This time requiring other members and the House Sergeant at Arms to break it all up.

Garnet Coleman: the gulliest man in the House.