the agony of defeat

The past two ALCS games have been brutal and horrible to witness. What the hell happened to my team? Not only have they lost, but they have lost BADLY. The score was 13-4 last night and by the sixth inning I was practically pulling my hair out in frustration!

I really wasn't expecting them to make it this far, but on the other hand, this has been a train wreck.

On the other hand, they came back last year against the Cleveland Indians who were ahead 3 games in the series and went on to win the World Series.

Anyway, I'm glad for a night off from baseball tonight.

victory!

So, the Boston Red Sox are going to the playoffs. For awhile there I really wasn't sure it was going to happen. Depending on their performance the rest of this week (and the Tampa Bay Rays), they will either win the AL East and play either the White Sox or the Twins first OR they will get the Wild Card slot and play the Angels.

I would prefer that they get the division not only for bragging rights, but because of insane baseball blackout rules means that if they play Anaheim, the game will likely be blacked out for me because of the Twins/White Sox and Rays game.

I love baseball, but sometimes I really hate it too.

It is kind of sad to realize that for the first time in 15 years the Yankees are not going to be playing in the post season. What an amazing club they are and I look forward to renewing the rivalry next year.

you're here, there's nothing i fear

I stayed up really late last night, watching Craig Ferguson because one of my favorite British comics, Russell Brand, was on his show. The CBS affiliate here repeats Oprah after Craig Ferguson, and I was about to go to bed when I saw/heard HER. She is amazing and made me actually kind of like the song "My Heart Will Go On" again. It's odd because my favorite blog, Jezebel, happened to have a feature on the little girl with amazing voice on Oprah today. I hardly ever watch Oprah, and Jezebel very rarely mentions her, but the fact that they mention her the day after I happen to watch it is kind of neat. Listen to her sing and tell me you don't get chills, even if you can't stand the song!

I'm currently watching hour 500 of the Red Sox/Rays game. It's the fourteenth inning and the Rays just scored 3 runs to break the tie. We still have a chance to win, but it may finally be over in the next 20 minutes, which is a relief. Nearly 5 hours for a baseball game is insanity.

get miles away

It's official. I am going to Chicago to see Gomez play October 2. I have purchased my ticket through Ticketmaster and publicly acknowledged my intention to go so unless I am dead or severely maimed in the next 30 odd days, I will be in the audience at the Vic Theater to see the most amazing band EVER play their first album in its entirety. There's quite a number of people from the Gomez forum who are all going to be there, and there's still a month before the show. I hope others will decide to come as well. I'm looking forward to meeting many of these people with whom I have spent countless hours over the past year.

Tonight I just realized that this likely means Gomez will open the show with the song "Get Miles" (the first track off of the album "Bring It On") which will be AMAZING. I know I will completely lose my shit when that song starts.

I'm feeling pretty excited about it, especially since I might meet up in Chicago with my best friend Kristy on Friday, the day after the show. We're going to talk details this weekend and it will be so nice to see her. We haven't seen each other in over three years. If she can't come, then maybe some friends from Centre will be convinced to come instead. If neither scenario works out, I'll probably come home Friday afternoon. If someone comes to meet me in Chicago, then I'll come home Saturday and have Sunday to recover. I have no idea how I will be able to get through the week leading up to the concert. I will be so freaked out the sooner the date of the trip comes! But in a good way.

I have to comment on the past two Red Sox games....they have been playing the Yankees and there's one more game to the series. The games have been very exciting, with some amazing plays from both teams. I think the umpires behind home plate have been a bit off on some of their calls (which show up on the replays they show on tv). I don't know if this is necessarily a bias, but the calls have mostly been off in favor of Boston. Despite being a die-hard Boston fan, I don't want my team to win on a technicality. I prefer the wins (and losses) to be fair and square.

I'm looking forward to the use of instant replay starting tomorrow. I wonder how it will change baseball. Tomorrow's game is a day game, which annoys me because I have to work. If I'm lucky and it's slow at work, I can probably follow the game online, much to the chagrin of the guys at work. I wish, for their sake, that I could get as excited about the Twins, but it's just NOT the same for me. I don't dislike the Twins, I don't want them to lose or anything. I just have no real desire to learn the names, study the stats, etc of the Twins players like I do the Red Sox players. Maybe as I immerse myself more into professional baseball (I've even watched SportsCenter last week once!), I'll get to know the other teams and their players more. Maybe I'll even watch two other teams play a game.

You never know, it could happen.

There's an amazing rain storm coming through the Twin Cities right now. Thunder and lightening crashing all around, rain pouring down. Perfect weather to stay in bed. I should probably get there now, seeing as how I don't get to stay in bed tomorrow morning.

I can't believe I'm going to be in the same ROOM (albeit a very large room) as Gomez in a little over a month!!!!!!!!

random rantings

So the puppy goes to the vet tomorrow all day. They want to monitor him and check to see if we need to give him more or less insulin. This takes all day and costs over $200. And we get to do it again and again over the next month. Same cost each time.

When I go over to my parents' house, I notice that he is a lot less energetic than the other dog, choosing to lay in his bed or on the couch rather than hang out with people. He has his moments of energy, but they are few and far between. Poor puppy. I know how he feels.

I love it when I go over there and both dogs are so happy to see me and they both want to be held and petted like mad. They may weigh under 20 pounds each, but they are very persistant in demanding affection if you make the mistake of not greeting them right away when you walk in the door. Harry gives in to the other dog, Rudy, every time, lets him go first in the receiving of affection. Then he (kind of shyly) will cuddle up to me with an attitude like "I know you love Rudy best [NOT TRUE], but do you think you could give me a belly rub too? If it's not too much trouble."

Yes, my dog has low self-esteem. We were obviously made for each other.

In other news, I have been calling for the ouster of Clay Buchholz for the past month and FINALLY Terry Francona has heard me. Tonight's Red Sox loss to Baltimore was ridiculous. I feel bad for the guy, I really hope that the no-hitter he pitched last year is not the peak of his professional career, he's too immature yet. Compare him to Jon Lester and you see who is the pro baseball player and who is not.

Not like the Red Sox can afford to lose any more pitchers. Beckett is resting, he has something going on with his hand, Tim Wakefield and Bartolo Colon are both on the disabled list, Lester and Dice-K are the only ones keeping it together lately. As for the relief staff, tonight Timlin threw over 60 pitches for the first time in SIX YEARS but that was in only TWO INNINGS, Del Carmen and Okajima are either perfect or all over the place, Papelbon is just not being his usual ice-cold strike-throwing machine....it's like the shit has hit the fan since the all-star break. The only really good relief pitching I've seen in the past 10 days has been Justin Masterson and they're hardly using him! The whole pitching staff seems to be in a tail-spin. I think this is going to require some band practice (just ignore the Manny Ramirez part of that article, he IS dead to me, after all).

And don't get me started about Mike Lowell getting injured and the revolving door that is first base over the past few games. GET WELL SOON MIKEY!

Also, congrats to Jason Varitek on his two-game home run hitting streak. Thanks a lot, Terry, for giving him the NIGHT OFF tonight. Sheesh!

I have resigned myself to the idea that the Red Sox will probably not make the playoffs. I hope to be pleasantly proven wrong.

c-o-n-t-r-a-c-t spells relief

Thankfully my company and my union have reached a tentative agreement. It was announced at 3 am this morning. I had finally gone to sleep around 2 but it was not a peaceful night of sleep. I was exhausted but so worried. I was so relieved to find that message this morning that there is an agreement. You have no idea.

Now I can go to work in peace and struggle to keep my eyes open all day. Yay!

Since the work issue is out of the way, I suppose I have to start worrying about my beloved Red Sox and their embarrassing losses to the Blue Jays the past two days. God, those were horrible.

manny being manny

I am so glad I don't live in Boston.

I can avoid all the tempest in a teapot that is the Manny scandal du jour.

He played a pretty good game tonight so maybe people will shut up about the whole thing.

Maybe not.

I'm still glad I can avoid the talk (for the most part).

Can't we all just get along?

lesson in futility

Last night's Red Sox/Yankees game was excellent. Yes, my team lost 1-0 at the hands of their arch rivals. Yes, this means they dropped out of the top spot in the AL East (had been tied for first with the Tampa Bay Rays) and yes, this means the Yankees are that much closer to potentially overtaking the Sox. But that's OK, because it was Damn Good Baseball.

Both teams played really well, both offensively and defensively. The umpiring staff, however, was completely BLIND. Mike Lowell, the gorgeous third baseman for the Sox (formerly of the Yankees, I like him much better with facial hair, personally), had a completely insane strike called on a ball that was so far inside he had a better chance of hitting it with his penis than the bat. Lowell did NOT respond to this well as you can imagine. He was thrown out of the game (it was the bottom of the ninth) but not before jumping up and down and yelling some great epithets at the umpire. It was awesome, the unleashing of that passion. Mikey usually comes across as very cool and calm. When he throws from third base to first for the out, he makes such smooth, graceful throws that he makes it look like a simple toss of ten feet and not a rocket covering 90 feet or more in half a second. Last night, he had had ENOUGH of the crappy calls (this was not the first one of the evening. Including the near hit in the HEAD by batter Kevin Youkilis at the hands of pitcher Joba Chamberlain) and he lost control. Despite its futility, it was just great to see.

So despite the loss, especially a loss to the Yankees, I enjoyed the game immensely.

Right now I'm watching another match up of the Red Sox and the Yankees. This time nationally televised. I at least STARTED on cleaning my kitchen and I INTENDED to just listen to the game while I finished. But, I should have known better. Like Mike arguing with the umpire, my being outside the room while a game is being televised is an exercise in futility.

on m'appelle Zobi. oui c'est moi la mouche

One of the things I did on my old myspace blog was include a youtube video of the song of the moment for me. This song is "Zobi La Mouche" by the group Les Negresses Vertes. I can't believe this song is nearly twenty years old, to me it sounds timeless. The singer's voice reminded me so much of the lead singer of Gogol Bordello, Eugene Hütz, I was quite surprised to find no apparent connection between the two. Of course I adore the song "Start Wearing Purple" which was featured prominently in an excellent movie I saw about six months ago, "Everything is Illuminated" (also featuring Eugene, as a matter of fact). Anyway, I enjoy sharing random music with people, and maybe someone out there might find a new favorite song for my efforts.

I've also discovered here that I enjoy the ease of linking text on this blog, even if I have to go under the Html editor and make it so that links pop up a new window/tab. It makes things way too easy!

Today was an excellent day at work. I still have a grin on my face even now, three hours after leaving. Nasty customers? What nasty customers? I don't recall a single one. Nothing in particular happened, it was just a great day in general.

Another guy at work has decided that if his Twins lose, then the Red Sox must lose as well. It's the only way his grief over a Twins loss can be assuaged. Considering it's a late game tonight for the Red Sox and the Twins are currently down 12-4 to the Yankees, I don't like this plan he has.

I have become a complete facebook addict. I resisted so long, now I find myself accessing it multiple times per day on my cell phone, and it being the second site I go to when logging onto my computer at night. It's insane! At first I thought I would just connect with people I already know from college and people from the Gomez forum. I took a leap, though, and friended someone from high school, which opened up a bit of a floodgate. I don't know yet how I feel about that. I haven't been in contact with any of these people since the day I went to college, and I didn't really regret it. Now, of course, it's been so long I think that I've mellowed a bit. Maybe. Old hurts do run deep after all. So far nothing awkward has occured, so I think I need to just chill the hell out.