Ha ha ha!

You never can trust a pirate...

Note that it took more than one....

So we lost our playoff game tonight. It was wild, long, very cold, fraught, not-very-close loss. The fraught came from various of my pitchers melting down on the mound - largely because the home plate ump had a strike zone the size of a teacup.

This is ruinous to any good Little League game. You've got to have a generous strike zone or it's lots of walks and then it gets horrible.

Which it did.

But Emmett played very well and acquitted himself even better.

When I began the season he asked me if he could be the captain of the team (thinking of Varitek on the Red Sox). I said there were no captains, but he could be a leader on the team. He could show the younger players (and we have the youngest team) how to behave, how to deal with the game stress and disappointments and show them how to play the game right.

He said, "I hate being a role model!"

But with Emmett the thing you say to his face will get batted away, and yet still find its way into his ear. And he did take up that role. And he was very big brotherly to all of the younger players on the team. And he'd throw his arm around their shoulders when they were crying on the bench and say, "It's okay. We'll get 'em next time. It's just a game." And he never lost it on the field all season, even when he was having a tough time pitching.

The game got out of hand and we were down 17-5. We had our last ups. And with two outs, we loaded the bases and Emmett came up. And he faced one of his friends and teammates from the tournament team. And he crushed it off the fence with one bounce and cleared the bases. Not enough to win, but enough to salve the team's pride.

And he pitched two strong innings (only gave up one run), and he was fantastic behind the plate, and he threw somebody out from deep in the hole at shortstop. He played well. But all the stuff he's learned from being Matilda's big brother was even cooler to see on the field.

Oh, and Jordan on our team hit a home run! Gorgeous, gorgeous hit. And it brought us to within one early in the game. Of course Jordan's night ended with him crying on the mound, so it was about as big a roller coaster as a 9 year old boy could have in one game.

We've got another game in the loser's bracket on Sunday. Emmett pitched 41 pitches tonight. If he had pitched one less pitch, he'd be available for Sunday's game. As it is we'll go into Sunday's game with just about zero pitching and no chance. That's okay. It's a been a good season and now the tournament stuff starts up anyway.

That post right there could be its own whole story in a book about sons or Little League.

Yeah, it's 3:00am and I am up. Blame the fact that I actually got to socialize with Buffistas tonight and my batteries are all charged up.

I give up. I googled F C M and the best I can come up with is the Fellowship of Christian Magicians. Somebody please to splain me?

Fuck/Chuck/Marry. You choose one bloke who's good for a fuck, one bloke you toss off a cliff, and one nice bloke to settle down with (in the variation I learned, marrying does not include the fucking, fucking does not include talking, and it was called Marry/Fuck/Kill).

Where is the picture of Cindy's new haircut?! Come on, Scott! We want pictures of your hot wife.

We went to our elementary school's block party, last night. Many naughty parents were spiking their own punch. Not me, though. I spiked myself (a.k.a Ativan-ed up), before I went, which was a darned good thing, because there were plenty of times I could not find Mr. Christopher. There were also a few times I could not find Miss Julia. Toward the end of the party, she was easy to find, because she was dancing on the DJ's table. Ahem.

But so anyhow...there are no pictures, yet. We're supposed to go to a family cookout today (Scott's brother & fam are up from Georgia), so there will likely be pictures from that.

Ben was Mr. Big Stuff, last night. A boy from his class called him to join in a game of pick-up baseball, so he walked to the park. Alone. And met them. Then he went to the friend's house. Then he and a pack of kids (who, like Ben, are all in the middle school, but from our elementary school) showed up at the block party about an hour and a half into it.

A curious thing happened. He left our house in a baseball cap, but showed up at the party without it. A kid had taken it and when Ben tried to get it back, the kids threw it in the bushes, and he couldn't find it.

A Girl shaped kid. o _0

A completely other girl shaped kid was waving her slush around in his face, telling him she got a new flavor, then pulling it away.

The girl shaped kids and the boy shaped kids seemed to spend their entire time at the block party casing one another. Like packs of animals.

Ben stayed at the party later than we did. A friend's mom brought him home. He did return with his hat.

Ahem.

(I really need a few more years before this starts up full force.)

Waves to Cindy and the mom-insomnia shift!

11, huh? Sixth grade? I think it's brief innocent crushing before the roiling ugliness of middle school/puberty is upon them. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Fifth grade! (We do middle school a year early in our town, because they built these teeny tiny elementary schools, and there's no room for our fifth graders).

I think it's brief innocent crushing before the roiling ugliness of middle school/puberty is upon them. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Puberty is already upon my son. There are outward manifestations, and his pediatrician confirmed it at his most recent check up. Still, he's very much in the innocent crush phase and judging by his personality, I suspect he'll stay there for quite some time, still. We had a good time watching them. The pack-like casing was rather amusing.

Were you woken up by a child, flea, or are you just up because your body doesn't remember sleep? I fell asleep really early on the couch. I blame the Ativan. I don't even think I saw the kids to bed. I suspect Scott tried to rouse me to bring me to bed, but I don't remember a thing. He seems to have covered me and left me there. I woke up around 4:45. If I had been in my bed, I suspect I'd still be asleep.

The baby woke and nursed at about 4:45. If I'm up at 5 I tend to be up for the day, unless I'm unusually destroyed. I could probably get back to sleep right now, but the baby will be up for the day in the next half-hour, so it's not worth it.