The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of

Wow, what to write about today?  I’ve already talked about the Cards’ game from last night (though I can talk a bit about Matt Morris), nothing exciting has happened today (though I did get the mower into the shop), so maybe it’ll just be about me.  I can feel broswers shutting down right now!

Morris.  Matt Morris came up through the Cardinal organization, making the majors in 1997 and has been the only upper-level pitcher the system has produced in the past 15 years or so.  Matty Mo has had a very good Cardinal career, putting up stellar numbers in most of his 8 years wearing the Birds on the Bat, including recently winning his 100th game as a Cardinal.  Before last year, the highest ERA he put up was 3.76, which was pretty good especially considering the era he pitched in.

Last year, however, he got hurt and tried to pitch through it, leading to an ugly 4.72 ERA and 35 home runs allowed, which was 15 more than the year before.  While he partly redeemed himself with a stellar outing in the NLDS against the Dodgers (which he lost), it really looked like he’d be elsewhere in 2005.

He had offseason surgery, though, and decided to sign a one-year, incentive-filled contract with the Cardinals.  It looked like a great deal for the Birds when he started off 8-0 and was keeping the ERA around 3.00.  Today, however, his ERA stands at 3.91 and his record at a still-respectible 14-6.

I believe the Cardinals should say, “Thanks for the memories” and let Morris go at the end of the season.  Well, let me qualify that—if they can get him to come back at a reasonable price, maybe you give him a two or three year deal.  But if the Yankees or other teams get into a bidding war over him, that needs to be avoided entirely.  Morris can be a good pitcher, but it’s more and more looking like his days as a #1 or #2 are likely behind him.

OK, let’s see.  What character facet should I share today?  Probably the fact that I’m a huge Humphrey Bogart fan.

Most people that know me are aware of my fondness for Bogie.  In fact, an almost life-size standup of him is in my den at this very moment.  (Not sure Benjamin knows what to make of it, but at least it doesn’t scare him.)  I list Casablanca as one of my favorite three movies of all-time (with Field of Dreams and Star Wars).  The Maltese Falcon is a classic as well, one that I can rewatch lots of times.  His work with Lauren Bacall (Key Largo, To Have and Have Not, Dark Passage, The Big Sleep) was amazing and their chemistry was astounding given the disparity in their ages.  I have probably 15 or so Bogie movies on tape, with Casablanca being the only one I’ve gotten on DVD so far.  

So, here’s looking at you, kid!

Glitches

"They told me they fixed it! It's not my fault!" (Lando Calrissian)

My back yard is still a jungle, but this time, it's not really my fault. I went out yesterday right after work like I stated I would in my last entry. I got the mower started up and got about three swipes made when it quit. Figuring it just got clogged in the high grass, I tried to restart it. After about 10 or so pulls (it usually only takes one), I got it started up again, but after another pass, it died again and would not restart. So I'm going to have to do the mower switch with my father tomorrow and then take this one in and see what is really wrong with it.

Since the mowing thing didn't come off, we wound up trying a family photo shoot. We had borrowed my mother's digital camera this weekend so we could try to get a good shot of Benjamin to blow up and hang on the wall. Meron's pretty good about setting up things like this, so we got a sheet out, covered up the couch, got dressed in the proper outfits and started taking some pictures. The problem is, Benjamin is way too fond of being mobile, and it was extremely tough getting him to stay still, look at the camera, smile, etc. Those that have taken baby pictures know what I am talking about! Still, we got a few decent ones. I'll try to put one up soon.

Tonight we grilled hamburgers--well, turkeyburgers; Meron doesn't eat beef--out on our grill. The weather, though still warm today, wasn't quite as oppressive as it was last week. Looking at the 10-day forecast, it looks like the temperature spikes tomorrow (of course, when I need to mow.....) and then starts easing down. Last time I checked, it was supposed to be in the upper 80s come Tuesday. Could fall actually arrive?

Anyway, I do enjoy grilling, and I've been told I do a decent burger, though Meron fixed up the meat with some Italian seasoning, so I can't take much credit--I just didn't let them burn.

Cards let one get away tonight. They came back and broke a 4-4, 8th inning tie with a run, but then immediately let the Marlins score 3 in the bottom of that inning. They got one in the ninth to make it close, but couldn't pull it out. There haven't been a whole lot of those type of games this year, which is why they have the 14 game lead that they have.

Carpenter pitched another gem last night to get his 19th win. He's in the top 5 in so many pitching categories, I still think it's his Cy Young to win. My friend Robert is still arguing Clemens, so we've been going back and forth on that score.

August wraps up tomorrow!

Another Monday

Since I wrote so late yesterday, there's really not much to say today. Benjamin has been sleeping somewhat better the last few nights. He might have done very well last night, but something must have made some noise outside about 12:30 or so and it got Dax to barking, which woke him up. Still, we were only up with him a time or two after that, which was nice. Unfortunately, he and I took a nap yesterday afternoon, and anytime I take a nap, I have the worst time getting to sleep. So between that and everything else, I wound up with probably about 5 hours of sleep last night, a little less than normal, but not all that much.

Katrina has caused a lot of destruction down in the Louisiana/Mississippi way, but up here, all we are getting is a little cloud cover. That's keeping the temps down into the upper 80s today, so I'm guessing that after work, it's mowing time. Fighting that jungle should be enough to wear me out and make me collapse about 10:00 or so this evening. Thankfully for my worn out state, we don't have PK tonight. We're off until the 12th, with next week being Labor Day.

Meron has found my Christmas ornament for the year. She went out window-shopping with Benjamin since the weather was so (relatively) nice and went by the local Hallmark. There, she found my Christmas ornament for the year. They always have one in a series of baseball players, and this year, it's Albert Pujols. You can guarantee that will be on my tree, right next to the Mark McGwire and the Cardinal logo ones I have!

Cards took two of three from Washington this weekend. Jason Marquis apparently got the memo from pitching coach Dave Duncan, because he went out and threw a two-hit shutout, relying on his sinking fastball more than his slider. Then, because Mark Mulder had (instead of was) a pain in the neck, he was scratched Saturday (when Marquis moved up to win that game) and Sunday. Sunday was a bullpen game. Reliever Cal Eldred started and went into the 4th, where it was handed over to Brad Thompson and the rest of the bullpen crew. They shut out the Nationals as well, which apparently didn't sit well with the Washington GM, who went and had a loud discussion with his team afterwards.

Cardinals go into Florida tonight. Should be some good pitching in this series, though the Cards do miss Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis this time around. Tonight it's Chris Carpenter against A.J. Burnett, who is from LR. I used to see Burnett when we went down to watch the minor league hockey team around Thanksgiving every year. He even won the turkey bowling contest between periods once. Sadly, the team folded, which was too bad because going to the games was always a lot of fun.

That'll do it for now. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Richard and Barbara

I said in my other post that I wanted to talk about Richard and Barbara. They have been at Wesley for as long as I can remember. I believe Richard said they moved down to Russellville a few months before my family moved up there from Little Rock. They are an amazing couple, through and through.

One of the things they are famous for is their large family. When Easter or Christmas comes around, if the kids are home, they are filling a couple of pews. They had 5 kids and four months ago welcomed their 16th grandchild. Their kids are scattered to the four winds now, with one in Little Rock, one in New York, one in Colorado and one in China, but they keep the close family ties regardless.

Proverbs 16:31 states "Gray hair is like a crown of honor; it is earned by living a good life." When I first heard of this saying, it was phrased as "whitehaired gained in righteousness" or something similar to that. This always made me think of Richard, one because a distinctive feature of his is the head of bright white hair he has, but also because he lived the righteous life. Now that he is in PK with me, it comes through even more so. Richard seems to know everyone and has a story about them all, but he's one to make you feel like you've known him forever even if you just met him. I don't think there's a factory standard bone left in his body, as over the years he's broken most of them and had some replaced, but that just adds to the wealth of stories the man has. He's just a remarkable guy.

As for Mrs. Barbara, well, if you looked up the word "gracious" in the dictionary, I'm fairly sure that her picture would be next to it. She's soft-spoken to Richard's gregariousness, but she also lets you know that she cares about what's going on and how you are doing. Richard said that when he announced their reception to his Rotary club, six different people all at the same time said, "God bless her!" She's been known to hold up fingers indicating the number of times she's heard the story Richard's relating right now. You won't find a sweeter, gentler person.

Their 50 years haven't been without tragedy and heartbreak. They've lost both a son and an infant granddaughter. Their example of faith in these tragic times, though, has been an inspiration and example to those that know them. They are an amazing couple whose love for each other shines through even today. Richard, indicating the high school pictures on the wall at their reception, said "You can tell what caught my eye." Barbara, later talking about the same pictures, said "I was sure to keep a hold of him."

Here's to many more wonderful years to both of you!

Opening the Eyes

"You once wrote, 'there comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place and the universe opens itself up for a few seconds to show you what's possible.'" (Ray Kinsella)

OK, so it's not exactly on the level of that kind of enlightenment, but two things conspired this weekend to make me understand something I hadn't before, and since it was baseball-related, you have to toss in the good ole Field of Dreams quotes.

Yesterday, I happened to catch some of "This Week in Baseball", more specifically, a trivia note they put up on the screen. Seems the first baseball-related hit song was from Chuck Berry. "Brown-eyed Handsome Man" was about Willie Mays, who of course played centerfield for the New York (and then San Francisco) Giants.

Tonight, I'm trying to put Benjamin to sleep and doing it in baseball-related ways. I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" a few times, but, while he enjoyed it, that wasn't enough. So I pulled out of my musical inventory John Fogerty's "Centerfield."

As I started in, the lyrics in the first verse that I had never understood suddenly became so much clearer:

"Rounding third, and heading for home,
it's a brown-eyed handsome man."

I always thought that was a strange lyric in the midst of the song, but now that I know that 1) it refers to possibly the greatest centerfielder ever and 2) is a homage of sorts to another baseball song, it makes loads more sense.

OK, so all of those who figured I wouldn't mow my lawn this weekend, raise your hands. Lots of them out there. I'd say I'm offended by your lack of faith, but since you were right, it kinda defeats the purpose. I got up to do it Saturday morning, but the storms had rolled through around 2-3 AM, so the grass was still way too wet to do anything with. Of course, that makes it even more of a jungle and I'll probably jam the mower trying to do it, but I'm going to have to make an attempt tomorrow after work, I think.

Saturday afternoon, all of us went to Richard and Barbara's 50th wedding anniversery reception. I plan on making another blog post about the two of them, so I'll just talk about the reception. They had asked Meron to take pictures, so she was in her element. She posed family members, took candids, came up with picture ideas, everything. She wound up taking about 7 rolls of film in the 4 hours she worked, and I think she had a great time. She's a little worried about how they'll come out, but I have a feeling they are going to be wonderful and the whole family will be pleased.

Lots of people turned out and there was a fairly steady stream of people coming in. They had some old pictures of their wedding and themselves blown up on the wall, which were great to see. They also had a computer slide show of pictures running. To see Richard in his high school football outfit or Barbara in one of those long flowing dresses really took you back to a much earlier time, and it was great to see. Their whole family was there, as well, which made the day even that much more special.

Saturday night was poker, which was another waste of $15. Never got a whole lot of strong hands, and when I did, I either was priced out of the hand or beaten anyway. I pulled pocket aces once and tried not to overplay them, but the $2000 bet (which was just one bet over the minimum at the time) ran everybody out. I wound up 5th out of 7, which has been my typical placement lately.

This afternoon we visited my parents, who of course were glad to see Benjamin. I think they knew we were there too. :) It's tough on Meron somewhat because her parents are up in Ohio and only get to see him once or twice a year, while my parents get to see him once or twice a week. I'm glad that they get the chance to spend some time with him, though, and I think he will be too as he grows up.

By the way, I think I left out the most important ingredient in Meron's nachos--the cheese! It gets put on right after the beans and baked on as well. I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking by leaving that out!

Hard to believe this is the last week of August and that September will be here Thursday. This year has just flown by!

No False Advertising

I sent out an e-mail today to most of my friends, letting them know about this blog (I've not made a big announcement because 1) it didn't seem to warrent it and 2) I wanted to see if I would keep it up fairly regularly) and using the hook of a picture of Benjamin. Then I got over here and realized that the picture I used a few days ago is a little farther down the page, so I didn't want them not to see a picture and leave in a huff. So everyone gets blessed with another recent picture of my son. We are borrowing my parents' digital this weekend, so if any of those turn out to be keepers, I'll post another soon.

Cards go to Washington today for the first time since 1899. That's a long time between series! It'll be interesting to see RFK Stadium. I don't think I've watched any Nationals home games this year, so I'm not sure what it looks like. Washington is in a tight race with four other teams for the NL Wild Card, so I'm guessing there will be some good baseball played this weekend. The Nats are throwing a rookie tonight or tomorrow (I can't remember which) and the Cards always have trouble with pitchers they haven't seen before, especially lefties. We'll see if that holds true.

My lawnmower is now fixed and I picked it up today at lunch. Turned out it was just the flywheel and it didn't cost all that much to fix. Of course, that means I'll have to get up early tomorrow and get my back yard mowed. It's nuts that I have to get up and out by 7:00 AM to have the temperatures below 85. We are supposed to get rain tonight, as well, which means it will be even harder to mow. I'm going to do my best not to talk myself out of doing this, but I doubt many will be surprised if I don't succeed.

Meron's told me we are having nachos tonight. She makes a great plate of nachos, starting with the tortilla chips, spreading on the refried beans, then baking them. After that, we add the lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream--plenty of sour cream! Looking forward to dinner tonight!

For those of you new to the blog, feel free to dig through the archives. There's only about 25 days of posts, give or take a couple, and they should be fairly quick reads. Assuming you can stay awake to read them, of course!

Bucking the Trend

Cards won tonight 6-3 behind another strong performance by Matt Morris. I was starting to try to trade Morris off since he'd hit an inconsistant string, but that's back-to-back good starts by him. Hopefully he'll keep that up, because the Cards are going to need three strong starters in the post-season, especially with the iffy health of the lineup.

That bucked the trend of Thursday games the Cardinals have going. Counting tonight, they are 4-11 in games on Thursday, the only day of the week they have a losing record. To help test out the new article feature at the Clubhouse, I researched and wrote up an article that broke down some stats by the day of the week. The Cardinals seem to like Monday and Friday, for some reason. You can read the whole article over at the Clubhouse site.

Found the second season of Law & Order at Hastings today, so I picked that up. Still need to go through the second half of the first season, so this should keep me occupied for a while. Meron is insisting that we pick up Lost when it comes out in a little over a week. I didn't get to watch that when it was being aired, but it sounded fairly interesting. Maybe we can get that watched in time for me to catch the second season when it comes out. Also, season 4 of Alias is not too far away, October, I believe.

Not much going on around here today. Poker this weekend, moved to Saturday from its normal Friday time slot. And there is also the 50th wedding anniversery reception for a couple from our church. I'll write more on that and them later on this weekend.

A Tale of Two Pitchers

Last night, Jason Marquis continued his long losing streak by getting trounced by the Pirates, which has spurred much debate about his fate on the Cardinal message boards. I was one of those that hoped he'd get traded in the offseason last year, because some of the supporting numbers indicated that he'd gotten lucky to post the ERA and wins that he did. He was able to work out of trouble a lot last year, which was helpful. Unfortunately, it's caught up to him this year.

The knee-jerk reaction is to put Marquis in the bullpen and call Anthony Reyes back up to take his spot in the rotation. While interesting in theory, Reyes has a history of injury problems and has already thrown more innings this year than ever before in his career. I'm not sure that you want to bring him up and have him pitch every 5th day. A spot start here and there in September? Fine. But a regular rotation slot? I don't think that's wise.

And if Marquis isn't getting anyone out as a starter, why do you think he would in the bullpen? That's actually a bit unfair--a few of the starts in his losing streak, he's pitched well but not gotten much support. But his ERA for August is closing in on double-digits, so he's got to shoulder some of the blame for the lack of success as well. Some of the quotes coming from management last night indicated that LaRussa and Duncan weren't happy with him, but that might blow over some. I figure they'll give him at least one more start, then perhaps skip him occasionally in September. If his bat wasn't so handy (he's hitting around .375, which is amazing for a pitcher), I'd say he wouldn't be on the post-season roster. I'm still not so sure he will be.

Then tonight Chris Carpenter pitches the Redbirds to a victory. Carp is putting together a Cy Young-like season. Robert, Andy and I have debated Clemens vs. Carpenter for the award, and it's a tough call in my mind. Clemens's ERA is astounding and the run support issue is strong, but pitchers have had that combination in the past and not garnered much support. The new statistical age we are in may mitigate that somewhat, but I still think Carpenter's 18 wins and low-2 ERA with (almost) the league lead in strikeouts will make for a close race. If Clemens's ERA climbs up to 2, I think Carpenter's a lock. But with it sitting at 1.53 or so, getting it to 2 is going to be a tough chore. Plus, I just traded for Clemens to help my ERA, so I don't want him to get shelled too often.

Pujols homered tonight, breaking a string of 9 games without a long ball. It'd be nice to see him get on a hot streak, though he's still keeping the average up. And Tony LaRussa tied Cincinnati and Detroit icon Sparky Anderson for third all-time in wins by a manager. That's a lot of wins! Tony's never gone through a long stretch with uncompetitive teams. A couple, three years is about all. He gets a lot of criticism, but I'm glad he's in Cardinal red.

On the personal front, got my front yard mowed today, using the borrowed mower still. I took mine into the shop today (finally) and we'll see what they come up with. Hopefully it's not something terribly tragic. It was nice to get some cloud cover while I was mowing. I hope to do some more tomorrow, but last I looked the heat index was supposed to close in on 110, so I may sit that one out.

Benjamin is still doing great. Last night I grilled some chicken out in our back yard. The door leading from the den out there is mainly glass, so he stood up using it as a brace and watched me. I'd tap on the glass and he'd laugh and start smacking his side. It was a lot of fun, except when I needed to come inside. He hasn't figured out how to get out of the way yet!

That's plenty for today. Maybe something deep and meaningful tomorrow, but I wouldn't count on it.

Fall's Not Here, But We Can Almost See It

Slightly hard to fathom, given the scorching temperatures outside, that it is a little over a week until September, which at least to me is a "fall" month as the temperatures start to transition to cool, the skies are a nice blue, it rains occasionally, and there is a whole different feel to the day. When the heat index is still reaching around 100, you long for those kind of days. With colleges starting this week after public school beginning last Friday, it won't be long before there will be football talk in the air. Personally, I'm not a football person. I will watch occasionally and I generally know what teams are doing well and stuff like that, but I can definitely take it or leave it. (Which is good since Meron hates it and forbids it on our TV!) But, while I'm not looking forward to football season that much, I am very excited about football weather.

All this talk of fall came to mind because last night we had a meeting of the Finance and Nurture committees at church. We started planning our fall stewardship drive, which will culminate in November. Blake is very excited about this model of getting our pledges in and it seems to be a very effective program. We are still a little ways out on really going full bore on it, but there are lots of good ideas in the program, including a catered meal on Committment Sunday. Meron surprised me by volunteering to organize that, but I'm sure that she'll be able to get it all arranged, especially with others at the church helping her find a caterer, etc.

We wrapped up the book we were doing at PK last night. While Dr. Stanley had a lot of interesting things to say, he seemed to say them often, so we skipped a few chapters and went straight for the big finish. Now we are trying to decide what to do next. We have read a number of Max Lucado's books and have enjoyed them. Max has a very good writing style where he keeps it simple, has good illustrations, and makes the most out of both. We also considered reading one of Chuck Swindoll's Great Lives of the Bible. I've read the Moses one and it was a fascinating read. If we don't do that one, I may have to go pick up Paul or Job, two that I think would be very good to read.

Cards won again last night, but since they were playing Pittsburgh, that was almost automatic. St. Louis has beaten them 15 times in the last 17 meetings, and since 2002, they are an astounding 41-20 vs. the Bucs. The Pirates have a pretty good shot tonight, though, as Jason Marquis, who has lost his last nine decisions (I believe) goes up against hot-shot (and undefeated) rookie Zach Duke. I'd like to think Marquis could turn it around, but I'm not so sure. I personally thought he should have been traded in the off-season, but he's had some success this year with the Cards, just not recently.

Random song from my computer: "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" by Billy Joel, off of his Greatest Hits, Vol. I. I've always enjoyed "story songs" (like "American Pie" for example), so that's probably why I'm so fond of this one.

What It's All About

Busy day yesterday. Of course, church in the morning. It was our turn to have the Children's Church, which is where the kids from 3-4 to 2nd grade come down to the children's wing during the sermon and have their own lesson, games, snack, etc. Small group since a number of our kids moved up to third grade this week, but we enjoyed learning about Peter and John using the power of Christ to heal the man that couldn't walk.

Afterwards, we had lunch with the usual suspects at Las Palmas. I became a Tex-Mex food fan a number of years back and we had a place called Cafe Santa Fe that moved into Russellville, which quickly became my favorite place. However, it went out of business, so now we usually hit Las Palmas for our Mexican craving.

Then we had a get-together with Meron's mommy group. She started attending this group over at First United Methodist when she was just a few months pregnant. About 4 kids (including Benjamin) were all born within a couple of weeks of each other, so the women still get together for fellowship and a lesson. Last night was just a social thing, and I missed some of the time we were there giving Benjamin a bottle, after which he fell asleep on me.

Meron had another Tastefully Simple party last night, so it was up to me to get Benjamin fed and put to bed. Which would probably sound much more heroic and in touch if I hadn't had to have the food left out for me with instructions, and the fact that I forgot his cereal as well doesn't bode well for me. But he ate enough (apparently) and got to sleep. In fact, he slept better last night than he has probably since we returned from Ohio two+ months ago.

The best part of the evening, though, was before dinner. I was watching Law & Order (of course) on DVD and Benjamin was crawling around the room playing with his toys. He had a stuffed frog in his hand as he climbed up on me (I was sitting on the floor). As he did (I believe accidentally), he put the frog in my face. I shook my head, rubbing it with my nose. That, apparently, was the best thing I could have done because he started laughing very hard. So, of course, I kept doing it. I think we played like that for a good 5-10 minutes with him laughing the whole time. All the parents reading this will know, there's nothing like the laughter of your child. I remember a radio commercial I once heard, "The only thing better than the smile of your child is knowing that you put it there."

Before I wrap this up, a personal message. My very good friend Robert got married back in March to a woman who lives in the Philippines. She is still over there as they go through all the legal wrangling that goes with immigration these days (unless you are in Mexico, but that's a whole 'nother story) but should be in the States by the end of the year, at the latest. Anyway, Robert has given her this blog address and she's read it. She then asked him, "Are you as much of a sports nut as Daniel?"

Wendy, I think Bob might be even more so. He knows football (probably at least to the same extent as I know baseball), plus hockey, some basketball and baseball. There will be times where you will ask him (as my wife does) what he just spent two hours on the phone with me about and he'll say, "Oh, baseball stuff." We do this all the time. Meron rolls her eyes a lot, as well. Y'all will have to form a support group! :)

Playing Nine

That's Tony LaRussa's motto, and it definitely paid off last night for the Cardinals. Their ace, Chris Carpenter, left in the ninth after giving up 4 runs and getting no support at all. However, the Cards rallied and scored 5 in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Giants. While Edmonds drove in the last two, it was names like Molina, Taguchi and Nunez that kept the game going. That's what happens when you play the entire game. You just never know.

The Cards then extended their streak by winning 4-2 today. Matt Morris pitched better than he has in probably a month. If he could keep that up, the Cards would be even that more dangerous. Plus they got Larry Walker back today, which could be a shot in the arm to the offense. At least it got Mike Mahoney back to AAA.

Meron just came back in from running errands and she had bought Benjamin a new toy. He has a lot of the Fisher Price blocks that have things in them (I'm forgetting the name at the moment) and she got him the Gobblin' Hippo walker/riding toy that goes with them. He's shown an interest in pushing things around, so he should enjoy playing with this. He'll be ramming it into the walls in no time, I'm sure of it!

Other than that, not too eventful of a day. Way too hot to do any yard work (even if I wanted to, which I didn't, though it'll have to be done soon). Watched some Law & Order as I got up early with Benjamin through him taking a nap on me. I'm about halfway through Season 1, so I need to go see if I can find a used copy of Season 2.

Kansas City leads Oakland 2-1 after 6 innings. Will the streak stop tonight? 19 is a long one, but 20 would seem even longer. My bet is they hold on and celebrate this evening.

Random song from my computer: "The Nearness of You" by Norah Jones off the Come Away With Me CD. I love listening to Norah and am anxiously awaiting her third CD. This was a lovely slow ballad that I can listen to over and over. Then again, that's most of the songs on both of her CDs!

Church tomorrow and a busy day, but I may get a blog entry in tomorrow evening.

Miss Me?

Sorry for the delay. Between CPE and other things, I didn't get much of a chance to write an entry. And there wasn't just that much to say.

Never stopped you before, windbag!

Isn't it sad when you get heckled in your own blog? Ah, well, moving on.....

At the CardsClubhouse site, I was made a Co-Admin back a few months ago. Today, I got a couple of new bells and whistles to play with. I found the word censor and replaced all the #### with various phrases. So now if someone says the word for solid waste, that's what will show up--"solid waste". Should be a little more fun and at least make people think about what the word was than almost blatenly show it. (Any of you that are reading from CCH, go ahead, try it out!)

Benjamin is trying new foods almost daily now. Meron called just a bit ago to say that he seems to like tuna, which is pretty much a necessity in our household. I was raised eating tuna. In fact, if I go visit my grandmother, she still will make tuna sandwiches and have strawberries and angel food cake. I didn't have much of a eating variety when I was growing up (by my own pickiness) and Grandma knew what I liked. Still does, since that is one good meal right there!

Cards weren't able to finish off the sweep of Arizona last night, but 1) they won two of three, which is always good and 2) Chris Carpenter goes tonight, so the losing streak should be short-lived. But it's baseball--you never know just what can happen! It's nice being 12 up on Houston, though, especially as it appears more and more likely Scott Rolen will have season-ending shoulder surgery. Whether we'll miss that bat in the postseason is to be determined.

Cards and Giants tonight, as Mike Matheny comes back to St. Louis for the first time since leaving as a free agent. He will get one heck of a standing ovation, I'm sure! Matheny was a good player while he was here, but I'm glad that the Cards have let Molina take the starting job. Yadier returned last night, the first of the injury brigade to do so. Hopefully Walker and Sanders won't be too far behind.

New Tricks

Benjamin’s got a new trick that always makes his daddy smile. When I come home at lunch or after work, if he’s on the floor of the den, he gets a big smile and then crawls at top speed over to me. After he gets there, he gets up on his knees and puts his arms up, wanting me to pick him up.

Yesterday, Meron picked me up at the client’s office that I was working at and took me back to the office. Benjamin was asleep, and she was able to get him out of the car seat and inside without waking him up.

He finally did wake up, though, and looked at me. He got that big grin, then started squirming against his mother until she put him on the floor, at which time he crawled right over to me. This kid is getting too cute and adorable for his own good!

Not sure there is much else to write. Had a good PK meeting last night, though we found out in the middle of it that one of our members was having surgery right at that moment. Hopefully he’s doing better today and will continue on a swift recovery.

Anthony Reyes went back down to Memphis and struck out 15 batters in his first start. He must have enjoyed the big leagues and wants to get back ASAP!

Felix Hernandez struck out 11 last night, again flashing the potential that he has. Then again, it was against Kansas City, who now own a 16-game losing streak, longest in the majors since the Orioles opened up 1988 with 21 losses in a row. I remember that streak—Cal Ripken Sr. was fired in the middle of it and Frank Robinson brought in, a big “0-18” was on the front of Sports Illustrated, and the Orioles were on their way to losing over 100 games. In 1989, though, they led the division for a lot of the year before Toronto eliminated them.

Let’s see, anything else? Cards were off yesterday, so not much on that front. Maybe the day off helped shake off the bad taste of losing three to the Cubs.

Random song stored on my computer: “Every Heartbeat”, by Amy Grant off the Heart in Motion CD. That’s the first CD she released as a pop artist instead of a strictly Christian one. I’ve been an Amy fan since well before that album and have most of her albums, though a couple of the newer ones I still need to get.

I’ve got more CPE tomorrow, this time down in Little Rock. I’m sure I’ll sketch out an entry while I’m down there, and hopefully I’ll have time to post it tomorrow evening.

Not What I Wanted

Given the choice between the Cardinals winning the World Series and beating the Cubs every time out, obviously I’d take the Series. However, that didn’t make losing 3 of 4 to the little bears this weekend any more palatable. It’s easy enough to say that the Memphis team was out there, but still, a split would have been nice.

Watched some of last night’s game, enough to be frustrated. The Cards get down 3-1 to Mark Prior and then come back and tie it up against him in the 6th, thanks to a questionable decision by Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who tried for the touch-third-and-throw-to-first double play instead of the 5-4-3, which looked easier. The runner was safe at first and the tying run scored.

However, Matt Morris went back out there and gave up 2 runs while only getting one out. That sealed the game, though the Cards got one in the ninth and had a runner on 2nd with 2 outs and Pujols up, but the man seems to have some Cubitis. It was the third time this year that he’d ended a game against Chicago by making the last out when there was a runner on.

The Cards have a needed day off tonight and then host Arizona starting tomorrow evening. Hopefully the offense can get on track. There is talk that Larry Walker could be back by this weekend and Yadier Molina not far behind, so that’s a hopeful sign.

Apparently I’m watching too much Law & Order. I started watching it probably a couple of months ago on TNT. They run at least one a day, and I try to catch some of it. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but being that I was a fan of Perry Mason and other legal thrillers, I thought I’d check it out and got hooked. As I noted in another entry, I got the first season on DVD for my birthday, and I’ve gone through 8-9 episodes of that as well.

Anyway, I’ve noticed recently that when the show comes on and they say the intro about cops and prosecutors and “these are their stories,” Benjamin seems to be fascinated by the TV. And when they do the theme song, he bounces and won’t take his eyes off the TV. I was in the kitchen for the beginning of one episode, and he was watching me at the baby gate. When the music kicked on, he crawled away from the gate so he could see the TV. I even hunted up a CD with theme songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and L&O was on there. We played it in the CD player and he just grinned. He’s an amazing kid, there’s no doubt about it.

Not much happened this weekend. We were the “babysitters” for our church’s Parents Night Out. All the parents with kids take turns watching all the kids once a month so the other parents can go out to dinner, a movie, etc. The kids weren’t too bad, though I was a bit on the tired side and probably was a little less patient with them than I should have been. We’re done for the year, so now we can just go and drop Benjamin off next month.

TV Land ran a Night Court marathon this weekend, which I wound up watching way too much of. Of course, I’d seen Night Court, but not a lot of them. It holds up pretty well, especially since it’s been 20 years since the first season and over 10 since the last.

Enough for now. More tomorrow, unless you are really lucky!

Not a Good Start

The Cardinals dropped the first game at Wrigley 11-4 yesterday, with only a Pujols HR much consolation. Mark Mulder turned in another bad outing, though those had started becoming a bit more rare. Mulder is the flashpoint of the most talked about issue in 2005 for Cardinal fans.

Last December, GM Walt Jocketty traded Dan Haren (a young starting pitcher), Kiko Calero (a fairly effective reliever) and Daric Barton (a catching prospect) to Oakland for Mulder. The idea was the Cardinals were getting a top of the line pitcher and making a push to have better pitching in postseason play, which is what undid them in the Series last year.

Barton was the key to the deal from the A’s point of view. He’d only completed one year of the lowest minor league, but he was showing himself to be an exceptional hitter. Haren and Calero were nice, but Barton is what got the deal done.

Now we are here into August, and looking back, well, it might not have been Jocketty’s finest moment. Haren has pitched pretty well for Oakland and has comparable if not better numbers than Mulder. Calero has been a non-factor—he’s been hurt most of the year. And Barton is in AA and doing well.

Mulder has been an enigma. Is he the guy that matched zeros with Roger Clemens earlier in the year, throwing a 10-inning shutout? Or is he the guy that gives up 4-6 runs in a single frame? Lately he’d been on a streak where he’d pitched effectively and had gotten his ERA down below 4 before yesterday’s blowup. For some reason (save the shutout referenced above), he’s not been able to pitch during day games very well. Thankfully most playoff games are at night.

Mulder has an option for next year at around $7 million. That makes for a tough decision in Cardinal land. Do you pick that up and hope after once around the league he’ll pitch better? Or do you let him go and watch Oakland reap the benefits of the trade for years to come? It’s a tough choice. I expect that, with the new stadium and the move from KMOX to the Cardinal-owned KTRS, the payroll will go up enough for them to pick up that option. Hopefully something will click and Mulder can get back to the form he showed in Oakland, when he was one of the top starters in the American League.

Cards were trailing today’s game 1-0 in the third. Saw some at lunch and listened on the radio coming back to work. Sounds like there’d been a number of mental mistakes already by the Redbirds. Hopefully they can overcome that.

And I am so ready for Yadier Molina to come back and do the catching. Mike Mahoney can handle pitchers, but can’t hit. LaRussa keeps bunting him or doing the hit and run so that he’ll stay out of double plays. The other catcher, Einar Diaz, isn’t much better. Molina should be back soon, but that’s what they said before the All-Star Game as well.

Not much going on here in the real world. It’s a PPT tournament tonight, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve done much better this year, winning a couple of times and finishing in the money 4 times, but it’s been a little while since I’ve brought home some cash, and I’d like that to stop tonight.

Quote from tonight’s Firefly episode “Bushwhacked”, airing at 6:00 CDT on the Sci-Fi Channel:

Alliance Commander: "Seems odd you'd name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of."

Mal: "May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Renewing the Rivalry

The debut of Anthony Reyes was probably even better than expected. 6 1/3 innings, 2 earned runs (he left a fastball up that Bill Hall hit out for a two-run shot), 5 strikeouts and a walk. While he returned to Memphis right after the game, I can’t believe he won’t be back up on the Cardinal roster when they expand September 1. Whether he’ll make the post-season roster, that’s a different story. I’d be a little surprised if he did, though he can make people swing and miss, which was something that was missing during the 2004 postseason that really caught up to the Cardinals in the World Series. ‘Course, Chris Carpenter was missing, and he gives the rotation that strikeout ability. Since the St. Louis braintrust has been saying that Reyes is a starter only, I think they’ll probably leave him off the postseason roster for him to get some rest, but he’ll be part of the Cardinal rotation in 2006.

Then the Cardinals, figuring that they are making it too easy having four regulars on the DL and the Memphis brigade, for the most part, starting games, sit Mr. Pujols on Wednesday afternoon as they take on Ben Sheets. Sheets is hard enough to beat when the regulars are in there, but the JV didn’t have a chance, right? Nope, they pulled out a 3-0 win as Jeff Suppan pitched probably the game of the season for him. What is up with this team? They are really embodying LaRussa’s favorite saying, “Play nine.”

And this weekend they take on those lovable (to some) losers (to all), the Cubs. The Cardinal/Cub rivalry is a wonderful thing that doesn’t require police ringing the field as it does in certain Northeast venues. I got to go to a Cardinal/Cub game a couple of years ago in Busch. It was a great game, except for the outcome. Mark Prior made a 1-0 lead stand up until the top of the 8th, when Pujols went deep to tie it up. Unfortunately the Cubs scored in the 9th to win it, but it still was a great experience.

No matter where they play, the stadium is about 35-40% full of the other team’s fans, which makes it tough when you are listening to the game to determine what has happened by the crowd noise. The Cubs come into today 19 games behind the Cardinals and owners of an 8 game losing streak. It’d be great if it was 12 by Sunday, but it’s always tough to sweep the Cubs, especially with their pitching. There are at least 2 Cub fans in the PPT, though, so I may have to do some talking, especially if the Cards win tomorrow. Today’s game is in jeopardy by rain, though, at least as I write this. (EDIT: Wish it had been rained out. Bad guys lead 10-4 in the 6th.)

More baseball: The other young pitcher, King Felix, had a spectacular home debut on Tuesday. No earned runs in 8 innings and got the win. That’s probably just a flash of what he can be. After he makes it around the league once or twice and still can put up those kind of games regularly, he’ll have arrived.

Kenny Rogers had his 20-game suspension reduced by a week when an arbitrator decided that Commissioner Selig had overstepped his authority in assigning one of that length. There have been numerous times that I’ve disagreed with Selig and I’ve found him basically a substandard commissioner, but this was one thing he did get right. From the video, there wasn’t much if any provocation, and 20 games for a pitcher is basically like 4 for a starting player, since that is how many starts that he’d miss. Seemed fairly reasonable to me, and I’m not really sure why it didn’t to the arbitrator.

The rotisserie league is starting to heat up. Both Matt and I made some trades this week to strengthen our teams, though they won’t take affect until Monday’s games. The gap was a measly 0.5 points this morning, though I think it’ll probably expand back up today. It should be an interesting run to the pennant, as it were.

Unfortunately, there’s even odds that it’ll be the last one. Out of the nine owners in the league, four are undecided about returning next year. I’m hopeful of bringing them all back or filling their slots with new blood, but I’m not sure I can replace four if they all leave. We probably need at least 7 (what we had before this year’s expansion) to have a competitive league.

I guess that’s enough for today. Tomorrow’s Friday!

Good and Healthy

Benjamin had his nine-month doctor's visit today. He's 21 lbs, 6 ozs. and doing very well. He didn't even cry when the doctor came into the room, something he's done the last few visits. One of the things about the nine-month visit is there are no shots involved, which is always good. He's just a remarkable kid and he amazes his mother and I on a daily basis. His smile can light up anything, and he uses it often, which is great!

The big news in Cardinal country is that the top prospect in the system, Anthony Reyes, will be making his major league debut tonight. It's a one-shot thing--he's scheduled to go back to Memphis after the game, but it gives the starters a little breather since they are in the middle of a 30-games-in-31-days stretch and none of them have missed a turn yet this year. The last team that only used 5 starters in a year was way back in 1914, though the Cards made a run at it a couple of years ago, only to have a spot start in July or August stop that streak as well.

Anyway, Reyes is supposed to be pretty darn good and should be in the rotation next year, so this gives him a chance to get his feet wet. I'd expect he'd be up for good when the rosters expand September 1, so this probably won't be the last time we see him with the Birds on the Bat on. Helps add excitement to a mid-August game when you have a 10.5 game lead, though. All the Cardinal fans on the net are buzzing about this one.

Finance committee meeting at the church tonight. Up until this year, I was church treasurer and had to have all the reports ready for this meeting. It's much nicer to just show up and look at someone else's numbers for a change!

A Slammin' Good Time

First off, you have to recognize David Eckstein's walk-off grand slam that sent the Cardinals to victory yesterday afternoon. That's why baseball is so great. If it was football, basketball, even that sport they call hockey (or did--market groups may force them into a new name to compensate for the lockout!), the star players would be involved at that moment. You think the third-string QB will be in a game when Payton Manning's perfectly healthy? That anyone would get the ball besides Shaq with time winding down?

Baseball, though, requires all to make a contribution. You have to make do with what you have. The Cards probably would have preferred someone like Pujols or Edmonds up in that situation, but they weren't allowed to do so. All the players have to make contributions. When it's your turn, there's no getting out of it (save for pinch-hitters or relievers, but often those are of lesser quality than your starter, and they can only be used once).

Which means that baseball, more than any other sport, I think, has the "defy the odds" moments so regularly. A guy with the limited power of Eckstein hits a home run to win the game. A pitcher with a 7 ERA shuts down a powerful lineup. In baseball, you never know what you are going to get. Which is why we watch.

And, if you want to get theological, it's a good representation of how God is with us. He picks the least likely to make the biggest splash, and expects us all to take our turn at bat. But that's another blog (assuming we can get it started up!)

Good weekend all the way around, though still had a "joy in every situation" moment. We had gone over to our friends Jon and Jennifer's after church for a potluck meal. Apparently the group of friends we hang out with from church had started this idea of rotating houses the first Sunday of every month. They did it first in June when we were gone and didn't do it in July, so we didn't know about it 'til they called and invited us Saturday.

As we got there and were taking Benjamin out of the car, one side of the bolster (or overhead shield) of the car seat popped off. It had done this earlier in the weekend so I didn't worry too much about it, and when we got back to the car, I tried to fix it. Thought I had it, but then it popped off again.

When I tried again, part of the plastic tore off, which rendered the car seat unusable. Thankfully we were only three blocks away from our house and we had a stroller in the car, so I just walked Benjamin back home, albeit in the 95+ heat. Meron then went out and got a new car seat, which my parents paid for since they were thinking about getting one for their car anyway.

(Postscript: Meron was on the phone with the company this morning, of course. Turns out they'll send us the parts to fix it, but we have to do the fixing. That should be a lot of fun.)

Saturday's party went fairly well. Had about 12 people show up, not counting Robert. We took all the orders and everything and were doing fine until the women left at the end of the party started talking about having their husbands fixed and the procedure for that. Needless to say we didn't care too much for the turn in conversation.

After the party our friend Andy came over and the three of us hung out, watched TV, talked about the rotisserie league and made some trades. Hadn't seen either of them in a while so we had a good time. I've already started making plans for our friends to get together over Thanksgiving, mainly because it's like pulling teeth to get anyone to respond and commit. I figure I need the 3+ months of lead time!

Should have PK tonight. Didn't last night since one person had already said he wouldn't make it and another came down with some back problems. But we should be good to go tonight!

Preparing for a Party

I took off work this afternoon so I could help my wife with her Tastefully Simple open house that she is having tomorrow. Not that I did a lot--a run to the grocery store and trying to keep a handle on the little terror--but it helped some. She did a lot of baking and fixing, so there is going to be a lot of food around here tomorrow. If any of you reading this are in the area, it's from 4-6, so come by, sample, and order something! Lots of great products out there. I personally recommend highly the Twisty Grahams (I always wind up calling them Tasty Grahams!), which are a snack cookie with cinnamon and graham cracker. It's very, very nice. I could eat a ton of them!

Cards are winning 3-1 (update: actually 6-1 now) at last glance, which is pretty good considering the makeshift lineup that I've referred to before and the fact that they were going up against John Smoltz, who can make even good lineups wish they had the day off. Lots of Braves fans in this area (due to the ever-present TBS when we were growing up, mainly) so it's always fun when the two teams match up. They lost last night to Arkansas product A.J. Burnett, though they did rally from down 4-0 to make it interesting before falling 4-3.

Speaking of yesterday, King Felix's debut wasn't too bad. 5 innings, 1 earned run, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts. The two walks came in the first, as he loaded the bases with nobody out, then gave up a single to let a run in. I'm guessing some of that was nerves, because after getting a double play and a strikeout to end the inning, it was much smoother after that. Looking forward to his next start on Tuesday.

Trying to make up some ground in my fantasy league. Started the day 7 points back of Matt, but lots of categories are pretty close. As of right now I'm 5 back, and I've got some trades brewing to help boost that offense, which is what I need the most right now. Of course, I will have no good draft picks next year if I keep this up, but hey, it's all about this year right now!

An Anxiously Awaited Debut

A couple of weeks ago, I made a deal with Chad in our rotisserie league that, as a side benefit, brought me the rights to a pitcher named Felix Hernandez. Most of the prospect rankings around the Net have him as either #1 or #2, and if there is anything that can be said of my rotisserie tendencies, it's that I love the young pitchers. Hernandez was in the minors at the time, which didn't bother me since I had all starters and no one was catching me in categories like wins and strikeouts, anyway.

However, Hernandez will make his major league debut today, in just a few minutes in fact. I am quite excited to see what he'll do. There have been a lot of people raving over him, so if he's as good as they say, I'll have me a keeper for the next 10 years or so. Which will make the loss of Jake Peavy (who went in that trade) a little easier to take.

Played poker last night. Turned out to be more like our tournament game with a ton of chips to start with ($1.5 million!) but faster blinds. I was actually pretty lucky most of the night, catching a straight and a flush and winning a couple of hands I had no business staying in on. Luck ran out later in the evening, though, when I went all-in and looked good with my two pair--until Ken got a straight with the river card. Painful! Plus I was in trouble at home since we went later than I had said, so Wednesday night poker may be a very rare occurance.

Don't know if I'll get to blogging tomorrow or not. My wife is having an open house Saturday to help sell some of her Tastefully Simple products, and I'll be helping getting the house in order, etc. for that. My friend Robert is coming in this weekend as well, which will be great because it's been a while since he's made the trip up from Texas.

Talkin' Baseball

Not much going on in my world today, at least not at the moment, so I thought I'd do a little recap of some baseball, since we've not done that the last few days.

What really brought this up was my friend Robert talking some about the steroid suspension of Rafael Palmerio. As you may know, Palmerio was at one time the spokesperson for Viagra, which led to Robert's line that I liked so much I had to get it in here, "Either way, you know his bat is corked."

If the news coming out is true, that the steroid is one of those that is pretty strong and not found in dietary supplements, etc., then this is a huge blow to Palmerio, and a boost to Jose Canseco's claims in his book. I mean, who starts using steroids after a new, tougher testing policy has been put into place AND you've famously denied using steriods in well-publicized remarks to Congres? After all that, you are going to go, "Hmm, never used them before, but maybe there's something to all of this hype" and start? Don't think so, which means he's probably used them in the past, which means a lot of his numbers are questionable.

I think this really damages Palmerio's Hall of Fame chances. He just recently hit the 3000 hits plateau, and that made him only the fourth player to get 3000 hits and 500 HR. However, he's never won an MVP, never been a dominant player, and usually he's not even been the best (or most feared) player on his own team. There were some HOF questions before the steroid issue came up, and I think that's just another cloud that he's going to have to deal with.

Interestingly enough, though, MLB has known about this for a while. Apparently Palmerio flunked the test in May and appealed to a secret grievance committee. That helped MLB keep the spotlight on him while he was going for #3000 without the surrounding steroid questions being part of that chase. Should they have come out sooner? I don't know, but I can understand them not wanting the negative publicity around what should be a great moment in the game's history.

The Cards have split the first two with the Marlins. Marquis, I think, was suffering from the effects of the 132-pitch outing he had against the Padres last week, and still almost managed to hold off the Marlins. Florida's a tough team, though with Delgado out of the lineup at the moment, they're a little damaged as well. But that pitching staff is tough, and the Cards have not seen even the half of it yet--Beckett and Burnett are scheduled for tonight and tomorrow night, which could give the makeshift Cardinal lineup some problems.

Last night, though, they showed why they've been winning--pitching, most especially, Chris Carpenter. It's almost an upset now when he gives up a run. I believe he has a 0.83 ERA in his last 9 starts or so, and that's including the 3 runs he gave up to San Diego last time out. He's got to be the front-runner for the Cy Young award. I know Clemens has been quite outstanding, but 16 wins, among the leaders in Ks, and a 2.26 ERA on a team that's winning their division and is the best team in the NL? I'd give it to him.

Going to play poker tonight. Our "league", which we call the Pottsville Poker Tour (PPT), has tournament-style games every two weeks (on Friday or Saturday), and "ring games" on the off-weeks (on Wednesday). The ring games are cheaper, you get fewer chips, and have a time limit of an hour and a half, so that we can get two in on one night. I've never done a ring game before but I think I'm going to go for the first game tonight. We'll see how it turns out!

3-0

Today's my birthday, and I leave behind the ranks of the twenty-somethings to join those old geezers that are 30. I'm still not quite sure the mind has grasped that. I'm trying to get a handle on the fact that I've been around 30 years. That 1/3 of my life is gone by (assuming I hit 90). That I'm no longer a "young adult" but an actual adult.

That's the thing, I guess. I think I'd be more accepting of this milestone, more likely to shrug it off, if I felt like I should be 30. But I don't think I've necessarily hit the full maturity level a thirty-year-old should have. I mean, I don't want clothes and lawn gadgets for my birthday, I want books and DVDs and Star Wars toys. How the heck could I be 30?

You're probably thinking, "You have a job, a wife, a son. Didn't you kinda notice the age thing getting to you?" And that's a valid point. I'm glad that I'm at the point of my life that I am. I wouldn't trade Benjamin for anything, and I'm still quite happily married. Even that, though, doesn't seem to break through this wall of denial that I've constructed in my mind.

I know most of you that have passed this milestone (some of you well past, depending on who's reading this) are probably laughing, saying "30 is still pretty darn young. Just wait until you hit X." I know this is a little self-absorbent as well, but I've never had a birthday (not even 20 or 21, I don't think) that I've really focused on the age. Usually it's "just another day", but it hasn't quite been that today. I'm sure I'll get used to it soon, but it seems very foreign to me right now.

It was a good day on the whole, though. Didn't go to work, which meant some loafing around the house. The wife got me Law and Order, Season 1 on DVD, the book Moneyball, and a Cardinals shirt. Got to watch some of L&O as well, which made the afternoon go by. Met with Blake at the church to go over some things for our committment cards, which are going to go out in October. As I said about the weekend meeting, it's great to have a pastor with all these ideas and a plan for what he wants to do.

Anyway, that's about it. Tomorrow, the grind picks back up. And I'll still be 30.

Back In the Saddle

I'm guessing that weekends could be a slow time for this blog. I don't always get away to the computer, especially in the daytime. This weekend was fairly busy, which kept me away from this section of cyberspace. Well, busy might not be the right word. Occupied, maybe?

Saturday, I spent most of the day taking care of Benjamin so my wife could go do some scrapbooking with her mommy group. She's an avid scrapbooker, or at least was until the baby came along. Now she doesn't have too much time to do it, which is a shame because she's very talented at it and has some great pages made up. (Plus she has a lot of supplies in her scrapbook room that need to be used! :D) Anyway, so Benjamin and I played on the floor while I watched some Alias. It's always a lot of fun to watch him crawling all around the house.

Saturday night we went out to eat with my parents since my dad's birthday was Sunday and we weren't going to be able to go out with them then. Benjamin got to try a bite or two of catfish, which didn't seem to impress him that much. He's not had much real table food, so the whole texture of real food probably throws him off as much as the taste does.

He actually slept almost entirely through the night Saturday night, so the wife and I got some good sleep for once. It's newsworthy enough that you have to note it when it happens!

Sunday after church we had a potluck, which is always a fun time. The food didn't last too long this time! Our attendance has been probably 20-30 people higher than it had been the last few years since Blake arrived, and I think more people stayed for the potluck than normal. We'll have to make sure everyone fixes more food next time around!

Benjamin fell asleep on the way home from church, so he slept on my wife while we watch some Arrested Development, then she got sleepy and passed him over to me so that she could go take a nap. I didn't expect that he'd stay asleep much longer, but when she woke up at 4:30, he'd only been up for about 10 minutes, giving him around a 3 hour nap, which is unheard of for our little guy! That let me finish my third season of Alias DVDs. Agonizing cliffhanger! Should have known--every season has been like that. Glad that Season 4 comes out on DVD soon!

To wrap up the weekend, we had a neighborhood church meeting. Blake has organized these to have some small group discussions on how people came to the church, what is good about it, what should we change, etc. The meeting went very well. Blake had some good ideas and the discussion was fruitful. The organization and purpose of the church leadership was a bit lacking in the last pastor, so it's nice to see that kind of dedication.

Benjamin had to be the star of the meeting as well, though, crawling around on the floor, chasing the cat, etc. He pulled himself up on his mom's leg and stood without aid for probably his longest time ever--maybe 20 seconds. He's continuing to work on that and it's getting longer and longer. By this time next month I bet he's at least standing. Don't know about walking--if he's got his mother and father's coordination, that could be aways off!

So another work week has begun. I'm taking tomorrow off for my birthday--I still can't believe I'll be 30! You'll probably get my "I'm so old" breakdown in tomorrow's edition! PK tonight, which will be fun as well.

Cards take on the Marlins for 4 games in Busch. Should be some good pitching with Carpenter, Mulder, and Morris along with Willis, Beckett and Arkansas boy A.J. Burnett. Hopefully the beat-up Cardinal lineup can hold their own!

Had to trade Scott Rolen last night in my fantasy league. That just about killed me, trading off one of my favorite players like that. But I got back Jim Edmonds, another Cardinal, and I saw a phrase that has summed up my season recently: Flags Fly Forever. If it'll help me get over the top (I'm 4 points back, and I'm starting to get concerned about Robert catching up to me), then I'll do it. And try to get him back somehow next year!

That's enough for now. Maybe more later, if not, I'm sure I'll sneak a post in tomorrow.