It's that magical time of year, when Cubs' fans hearts turn to jelly at the thought of getting to sit on Keith Moreland's lap. Yep, we're nearing the Cubs Convention, and the list of attendees has been announced!

Carlos Silva performs with a baseball modern dance troupe

Once upon a time, someone thought it a good idea to give Carlos Silva $8 million more than Ted Lilly over the course of a four year contract. That someone (Bill Bavasi) is no longer employed in the job he held at the time. So what are we facing with Carlos Silva, and what should we expect? I'm sure we're all familiar with his situation, but since there's nothing else going on today, we'll turn to Dave Van Dyck for all the answers.

My BFF is SO much fun!

Since the Cubs announced the Marlon Byrd signing, there has been discussion of Marlon's hitting, fielding, age, eye color and favorite food. There's one thing we missed. All the old standby media outlets have talked to Rudy Jaramillo, and Rudy is happy to be back together with his BFF.

Join us in the parlor for birthday cake!

Today is a very special day in LOHO land: it's the birthday of one Max Powers. Please be sure to wish him a super duper day.

In honor of Max's birthday, the Sun-Times was so kind as to run a piece on his favorite hitting coach, Rudy Jaramillo. Did you know that Rudy has overcome adversity?

There is exactly jack for Cubs news to report today. This might have something to do with the fact that it's 6 AM on the Monday after the holiday weekend. I prefer to blame Jim Hendry's inaction.

So today, dear LOHOers, I'm turning to the bleacher report, whose Padres guy spent all weekend dreaming up trades. He managed to imagine a three-way between the Padres, Red Sox and Cubs, with it looking something like this:

So assuming what we know (again, this may all be purely fiction, though fiction can sometimes be fun), here's what this possible blockbuster trade may look like.

To Boston:

Adrian Gonzalez (from San Diego), Ryan Theriot (from Chicago)

To San Diego:

Clay Buchholz (from Boston), Ryan Westmoreland (from Boston) plus another mid level prospect or two

To Chicago: