I’m sorry that the A’s don’t seem to be a very good baseball team this season, David.

I'm really not trying to one-up anyone here, but the Reds gave up 9 runs to the Phillies in THE FIRST INNING yesterday. That's so spectacularly bad that there should be a new category for it.

I’m sorry that the A’s don’t seem to be a very good baseball team this season, David.

Pshaw! If we had a semi-competent bullpen we would've beaten the Mets 2 out of 3 this weekend.

I'm not worried about the A's because they've already done some stellar bargain bin hunting in collecting guys like Brent Rooker and Ryan Noda for practically nothing. Guys they targeted in trades like Ruiz and Langeliers are looking like long term solutions up the middle - strong on defense and offense.

We haven't even started bringing up our top prospects yet: Soderstrom, Gelof and Miller are all in Triple-A. Speaking of Mason Miller, he just struck out 11 in 5 IP with no walks or hits allowed.

That's like Jacob deGrom in his prime. Mason Miller throws 102mph, with a filthy slider and an unhittable cutter.

And we've been stashing a shit-ton of high ceiling pitching while we traded off the major league team, so we're going to be returning to .500 by next season, and competitive again in 2025.

Whether they'll still be in Oakland in 2025 is a different question.

Right now I'm being amused by the Lansing Lugnuts (our High-A affiliate) who run out a lineup with Trenkle and Winkler at the top of the order, which you have to admit would be great names for Keebler elves.

Intrinsic to kitchens' nature is that, as soon as you're in there, your spouse will suddenly need to be in there too and get underfoot. (This is not [solely] a complaint about Tim, because I do the same thing to him. There's just a magnetic pull to a kitchen occupied by one's spouse.)

See also, kids and party guests. (This is why we knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the living room almost as soon as we moved in.)

Belated happy birthday, ND!

Happy birthday, Sheryl!

I usually work from home on Mondays, but maintenance is updating the smoke detectors/fire alarms in my building today and I decided I didn't need to be present for the auditory chaos.

Had a really hard weekend. The old house renovation is taking longer than expected for various reasons, and I made some mistakes which made things worse relationship-wise. Really feeling bad physically and mentally.

The house is looking very different now even in it's incomplete state.

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Beautiful, Gud. House renovation ALWAYS takes longer than expected. It ain't you. Also, in case you forgot, no one should make you feel bad about being a human being.

Timelies all!

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

My MIL took us out for dinner yesterday, and Gary took me out tonight. I have had alcohol and red meat two days in a row. How decadent!

(I did have to work today, though)

I am skipping and skimming to pop up and say that I am listening to a podcast about social media use by kids on Slate. They just said “Adults would never understand this, but kids now have online friends that they might never meet. And they are important relationships”. I wanted to break in and say that I am 50 and I have internet friends. This is not so new, because I feel like a late adopter, because I didn’t really use BBS or IRC.

Munching on fruit after a 3-hour nap. I am spoiled with living in a city in which blackberry brambles run wild, and at certain bus stops the right time of the year you can spend your wait for the bus just stuffing yourself with ripe soft sun-warmed berries; I regret to report that these store-bought berries are ass.

I imagine they are like like store-bought tomatoes -- bred for durability rather than flavor.