Catchy Name Needed

We went to a baseball game Saturday night, and it's probably the only game we'll go to all year (although we still watch on TV all the time), but boy, did we pick a gem of a game to go to. The funny thing is that it didn't feel that much like a gem, and I'm not sure why. If we hadn't been sitting where we could see the strikeout count, I'm not sure I would have even noticed how many Pirates were going down. The starting pitcher struck out 14, and I think there were 17, altogether. And Bud Norris (who? yeah, I said Bud Norris) had a single and a double of his own, besides the 14 K's, so he had a really good day, overall. One reason it didn't feel too utterly gem-like was that it started off badly - the first batter tripled, and the second one homered, so we were down 2-0 before a lot of people ever got to their seats. And I think probably the other reason was because it was Bud Norris, and not some guy that anybody's much in awe of, normally. I've seen a 14-strikeout game before, but that one was Nolan Ryan, and it was 1986 and the Astros were on the verge of winning the division - I'm pretty sure it was the day before they clinched, and also the day before Mike Scott's no-hitter - and the atmosphere was really, really electric. This one just didn't feel much like that. But Bud pulled his shit together after the bad start, obviously, and the Astros battled back and scored three runs late, so the crowd got back into it, and the Astros won, and life was good. Especially for this guy named Bud.

No, we're still not evacuating. Yet. The damn thing is going to be awfully close, though - the E-word is not completely off the table.

Gawd, the "Fringe" pilot cost $10 million to make? Hmm, well, I failed to get full value out of it, considering I thought the face-melty introduction was silly and turned baseball on instead. We didn't even make it to the credits.

Have we discussed baseball lately? Like the fact that the Astros have the best record in baseball since the All-Star break? Like the fact that they called a guy up from Round Rock on Monday, who showed up too late for batting practice but still hit a homer on his first pitch in the majors? Things like that have been happening right and left - well, ok, maybe not exactly like that one. But it's been fun to watch, lately.

Obligatory link about That Woman (the one whose name I am tired of hearing already): Gender? No, Culture

Here's where Ike is supposed to be going - right in a half-circle around us, practically:

(Also, I keep typing "Iko" instead of Ike. Hi iko!)

I would like to point out something important about the allure of minor-league baseball. This is the view from the $12 seats at the AAA game:

(Dell Diamond, Round Rock vs New Orleans, April 08)

vs the $12 seats at a major-league game:

(Minute Maid Park, Houston, Astros vs Dodgers, July 2005)

I am feeling terribly foggy-brained the last few days. Not that it's unusual for me to have trouble concentrating, but it seems like it's unusually bad. Maybe because I haven't been sleeping too well. I don't know why that is either, though. New house? I don't know why that'd bother me but it's possible. It's not the thumping I was talking about yesterday - that's not audible at all from the bedroom, only the living room.

I subscribed (well, I haven't actually paid yet, but I committed to subscribe) to a year ofelisem 's Beads of the Month program (akabotmo ). I suspect that Rob would not approve, but, well, frankly I'm just not going to tell him for a while. The beads won't start coming until February or so anyway! Is that a terrible thing to do? I've been admiring from afar for a good long while and they were starting a new year and it just seemed like time. I have this jewelrymaking jones that I obviously need to work out of my system. (I suspect that "working it out of my system" could get very, very expensive, but oh well.)





In case anybody is hard up for reading material:

(Although I warn you, the quality of the posts is... well, let's call it somewhat spotty. There are 6000 or so people signed up for this thing, after all. Also the randomizer doesn't actually seem to be very random, considering I got more than one repeat in twenty or so total clicks.)

(I took the word "blog" out of that last sentence in deference tocolumbina , who loathes it. I hope you appreciate it, Col!)

"They just build and build, like nothing else in baseball. The way that Justin Verlander struck out the first two Milwaukee batters of the game Tuesday night, you could think: That would be no-hit stuff if he could sustain it for nine innings. When Verlander struck out seven in the first four innings, you could think: This might be the best he's ever looked. And when he wheeled into the seventh, you could think: He's gone from not allowing any hits to seriously working on a no-hitter. From there, the adrenaline and the bedlam and the Tigers' defense took over."

From here (I'm pretty sure that's a page you can get to without having a subscription) - scroll down past the NBA stuff and there's a pretty good round-up of pieces about Verlander and his stuff.*


* "Stuff" being a technical term in baseball, you understand.

One thing I forgot to say about the baseball game - apparently the builders of Enron FieldMinute Maid Park never anticipated the need for installing heat in there. Air conditioning, sure, but heat? On the Gulf Coast from April through (possibly) October, you do not normally need heat, let's face it. So it was freaking cold in there. The roof was closed - it was raining, after all - but I put my coat back on after a while, it was that chilly.

(I do remember being cold one other time, but that was another early April game where the weather was pretty and sunny, and the roof was open. That time it was just that our seats happened to be in the shade, and I didn't think to bring a jacket. -- That was in 2000, when the idea of having a roof that would open was still very much a novelty. On the other hand, a game that starts with the roof open is still pretty much of a novelty. They don't do it all that much. They do open it toward the end of games in the summer, after it gets dark.)

I am at my desk and I have coffee and I am still half-asleep. Well, maybe one-quarter. Not quite completely awake, anyway.

It's finally baseball season, yay! (No, I am not going today - I have already been asked that this morning - but we are going Saturday.)

I am sorta kinda in the Christmas spirit. Our little white fake tree is up and decorated (we pull the cushion off our ottoman and set it on the wooden base, so it doesn't look so small). I will have to see if I can get a decent picture of it. It has white lights and ornaments of many colors - although if I thought I had enough orange stuff to do it I might try to emulate the tree in lucy's office building. I doubt that I could find enough small orange ornaments in all of Galveston to do that, though.

I've got a good many online people still to send cards to and I'm running out of cards that don't say "Christmas" on them. I know I have some more, somewhere. I don't mind sending the Christmas ones to my relatives (who are pretty uniformly Baptist) but I don't usually send those to other people. Next year I'm avoiding buying any at all that mention Christmas. It's not about Christmas at all to me, anyway, it's about the whole holiday season. I'm half-tempted to make my own cards next year - then I can say what I want! (But lord, if I do that I'd better start early. Really, really early. Like maybe July or so.)

Incidentally, while I'm on the subject, I will renew my offer I made once before - if you would like a card from me, let me know. Don't put your address in the comments since this post isn't locked - instead, e-mail it to mel(dot)crv(at)gmail(dot)com. You do not have to swear to reciprocate but I will give you my address on request, also. (Bear in mind that if I don't find that other box of cards, you may get wished a Merry Christmas whether you like it or not!)


At work, we took down the autumn decorations we had up, but we haven't got much in the way of Christmas yet. We had a nice big poinsettia courtesy of Administration, and I brought my tabletop ornament tree from home, and a basket of ball ornaments. It looks very pretty - another thing I will have to take a picture of - but we need some garland or something, at least. Everything looks bare overall.



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Well, the Astros not only didn't get the new pitcher, they lost an old one. (Although actually it sounds like the proposed Garland trade was a factor in Pettitte's negotiations.)

Actually, you know what upsets me most about losing Pettitte? No more of those goofy HEB commercials with Clemens, Pettitte and David Carr. Seriously, they were funny. (Uh, not to slam Pettitte there by implying that his loss is nothing to me - I just never did think it was very likely he'd be back.)

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Meme of the day (fromiko):

Some grad students are doing an experiment to see how fast memes travel through the Internet and how willing people are to "sign up" for a game. In order to 'play', you need to get an invite.

Consider yourself officially invited!

If you follow the link, I gain points and the points trickle up to the person that invited me and so on. I'm not so interested in the points as to seeing what these researchers come up with. They don't require an email address (no chance to receive spam) and if you 'sign up' and update your own profile with a location, I will be able to see it on a map... and people who get invited by you and put their locations up, you'll see them on your map.

OMG. Half a game. That's what St. Louis' lead is down to.