Congratulations and Best Wishes, Maria and Rob (4eva!!!)

And yet I bet Maria is going to go off on her honeymoon without fulfilling her clear duty to get us pictures.

Nookie now. Pictures later. But not of the nookie, because that would just be awkward.

Given that Blanton was absolutely terrible his first 6-7 starts, it's remarkable that he's even being mentioned as a ROY candidate.

I'd still vote for Huston Street or Tadahito Iguchi over him, though.

Unless Jay Witasick comes in and throws ten perfect innings, I'm going to finish fifth in roto league this year. OTOH, it's the first time I've won money since 2001.

And since this is the last day of the season, it's time to revisit A. Bartlett Giamatti's "Green Fields of the Mind":

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

[link]

(For you baseball non-likers, that would be Paul Giamatti's late father.)

In fact, DCJ, I think you need this: [link]

Nah, too restrictive for the cat. And I don't like the idea of getting steel pitons dug ito my body when Harvey struggled out of that.

Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

Some of us still have the post-season.

Best wishes to Maria and her new DH.

Maidengurl, in case you are still around, I sent you an email about tomorrow. Even if we can't work out the logistics for dinner tomorrow, Can I come another night?

Gosh, I don't know. Without Nicole, Sail, Bev....

Geesh woman, you have an open invite. And when baseball season starts next year, you ARE coming to a game with me.

Given that Blanton was absolutely terrible his first 6-7 starts, it's remarkable that he's even being mentioned as a ROY candidate.

He really only had thow two terrible starts in May. He's been incredibly consistent since June 1, only very rarely allowing more than 2 runs a game.

I'd still vote for Huston Street or Tadahito Iguchi over him, though.

Street! Unprecedented rookie performance in a pennant race. Ice cold on the mind, warm and friendly in person.

Padres finish over .500. Congratulations to the Red Sox for fighting their way back to the post-season. Congrats too for the Astros who had a comeback not dissimilar to the A's, except they made their way to the playoffs.

Trudy I'll take your advise reagarding the collection notice.

I planned to spend today cooking, but I fooled around and only made one of the things I wanted to. It's in the oven and it doesn't look promising.

It's a recipe from The Enchanted Brocolli Forest, a bean and veggie casserole with a cornbread topping. sounds good but I did something wrong with the cornbread "batter" because it came out like a sticky dough and wouldn't smooth over the veggies. I followed the recipe exactly but it just wasn't wet enough. I ended up with clumps of batter on top, I hope that it tastes good.

The other thing I wanted to make was Spinach Kugel. That will wait until tomorrow though.

At the grocery store I had a coupon so I got one of those new Warm Delights microwave desserts. I didn't pay attention to the price, $1.99 regular. It's one serving and nowhere near the price. I would have been much happier buying a piece of cake or a brownie from the bakery counter.

Padres finish over .500. Congratulations to the Red Sox for fighting their way back to the post-season. Congrats too for the Astros who had a comeback not dissimilar to the A's, except they made their way to the playoffs.

It was a bizarre baseball weekend, here. Yesterday, the Yankees won our division, despite the fact that they were only one game ahead, and we still had today's left, to play. Today, we beat them, and tied them for the season, but they're the winners, and we're the wild card. Today's game hardly mattered, though. Once we knew Cleveland lost, we knew we had the Wild Card, regardless of whether we lost or won. We were well ahead of the Yankees by then, but still.

It was just all so...mathy.