-it ends-

the twins lost 1 to 0 . one to frikin zero. argh. blackburn pitched the game of his career but made ONE MISTAKE to jim thome and thome hit it about 500 feet. as for the offense?: 2 hits. thats it, 2 hits. one chance to score, but cuddyer was thrown out by griffey while trying to score on a fly out to center. what a game. but what a disappointment. i am now bummed. i will go to sleep. tomorrow ill wake up and realize its only baseball. so...goodnight all.

-B and S-

the MN twins have to play one extra game tomorrow night against the white sox due to the 2 teams finishing the exact same regular season record. 162 games played and theyre going to decide who goes into the playoffs with 1 game. seems to me that home field should be determined by the season series which the twins have a 10-8 advantage in. but MLB is so advanced here in 2008 that they use a more high-tech method that makes a lot more sense: a coin flip. a frickin coin flip. lets give home field advantage (which is a huge advantage in baseball...just see the twins and the white sox stats for proof of that-(the twins have won 8 and lost 1 to the sox at the metrodome while the sox have beat the twins 7 times and lost twice to them in chicago)) to the team that gets lucky enough to win a coin flip. what a joke. and just so were clear, even if the twins had won this coin flip, i still would think its a joke.

and just to be clear...this twins team is not good enough to go anywhere in the playoffs (i have serious doubts about this one game in chicago)...it might be best if they just go ahead and lose this game in chicago...but, i think its time MLB comes up with a better method of determining this kind of thing. a coin flip? a frickin coin flip?

and another thing...get the new lagwagon album. i cant stop listening to it.

-baby k-

-finally done-

i stayed up good and late last night...i got reading the last chapter of "a prayer for owen meany"...and its the chapter in the book that once started, must be finished. so i finished it. the last chapter: over 100 and some pages. i got about 30 pages into it, realized how tired i really was, and wanted to kick myself for starting it...cause like i said, it had to be finished. my opinion of the book: great. even better than i expected it to be. i think that some of the lines in 'goodbye sky harbor' by jimmy eat world will hit me even harder now. i generally dont have the attention span for fiction. but this book really sucked me in and made me want to keep reading. my only complaint...the foreshadowing...big events were just made too plain, too early. i felt like there were no real surprises at the end. BUT, it was still very moving to read as the events happened.

so its saturday today. i woke up around 8, which was way too early considering how late i was up last night. i just couldnt get chloe to go back to sleep. my grandpa is going to change my oil later so im going to waste that time away watching the twins game at my dads. the twins just swept a 3 game series against the white sox. what a huge series. the twins started that series 2 1/2 games out of 1st with only 6 games left in the season...by the time the series was over the twins were in 1st by a half game with only 3 games to go. crazy. game 3 was insane. the twins went down 6-1 after 4 and seemed to be self destructing. so badly even that i gave up on the game, and the season. my dad called later that evening. "they tied it up!". they finally won it in 10. one the greatest comebacks ive seen in a long time. click here for the game tying triple. the twins players are going nuts, its so fun to watch...but my favorite part of this clip: ozzie guilens reaction at the 20 second mark. hes the coach for the white sox. he looks like he just watched his mom get hit by a bus. click here for the game winner. good times. sadly the twins managed to kill their own buzz the very next day by getting kicked by the royals. but the white sox lost too. so with 2 games to go, the twins cling to that half game lead. i have a bad feeling that they will not be able to hold it. but...at least they made the end of the season very exciting.

my mom took chloe over to st peter for a bit...and from there they are going up to new prague. my cousin luke just had some scar tissue removed from his... ... his ...wee willy wonka. it had blocked his ability to pee. so, they had to go in and take it out. yes, i am squirming in my seat as i type that. i hope all is better with wee willy wonka lukey! anyways...i have the entire house to myself until i go over to peter town for an oil change and baseball. what to do? what to do? i will probably clean. exciting huh? thats what my life has come to...an empty house is a chance to get some cleaning done.

-wagon de lag-

i finally saw lagwagon last night. first time in like 15 years of being a fan. so it was just kinda set up to be a bit of a let down. it was fun, they were very good, but their live goal seems to be silliness, which just doesnt go well with the songs and lyrics. it kind of takes something away from the seriousness of the songs. they played so many songs i wasnt excited to hear, and they left out so many songs i really wanted to hear. overall grade? probably a B, which is still very good. ive just always expected them to be an easy A.

i spent most of the day in st paul with ross. which was a lot of fun. we ate at a really good pizza place for lunch where we caught some of the vikings game and some of the twins game. overall i think we ate about 4 pounds of cheese throughout the day. sound right? about 4 pounds a piece?

on our way to the show we stopped at a stop sign about 2 or 3 blocks from the venue. a group of guys walked out in front of ross's vehicle so we sat at the stop sign waiting for them to cross. when they got directly in the front of the vehicle i realized who it was...it was joey cape and some of the other members of lagwagon. my heart started pounding and my stomach turned to knots. its joey! i never really get star struck. somewhere along the way i realized band members, actors, whatever, are still just people and theyre nothing to get all excited about. so it was strange for me to get all worked up about it...but sadly, i did. and so did ross. it was kind of funny in a really embarrassing way. long story short...joey cape can apparantly turn me into a dork really quick.

we were early for the show...so we drove around st paul a lot trying to decide what to do. after a lot of driving we stopped at a park in st paul. it was a few blocks away from the excel and right on the mississippi river over looking harriot island. ross parked on the side of the road and i got out first. i closed the door and looked towards where i would be walking. in front of me was an older couple making out...right in the middle of the park...dozens of people all around, including children. not only were they making out, the woman was...ummm....hmmm..."manually expressing her love" to the man. following me? yeah...right in the middle of the park...in broad day light. within easy sight of a fairly busy st paul street. so...the "annual display of class in a public place award" goes to these 2. good job guys.

today. i am off of work. i am also off tomorrow. my plans? as much laziness as possible. i slept until noon today. Mmmmm. extra sleep.

-it was the best of days-

i went to menards about 2 weeks ago and bought myself a brand new paint gun. my house has 2 decks. (and 2 decks has my house.) a smaller one in the front, and a bigger one in the back. every 2 years or so they need to be stained. the front one can be done in 2 or so hours...but the back one, god i hate the back one, it takes more like 616 days. and thats just the 1st coat. its 2008, we should have come up with a deck stain that looks fantastic after one coat...but we have not. which proves my theory that humans are not very good at making deck stains.

anyways...i bought a handy dandy paint gun...at menards. got it home thinking "this will be so much easier than staining with a brush." turns out it was not. did you know that paint guns need different tips for different types of paints, stains, etc? yeah, cause i didnt either...so back to menards i went to get a stain tip. another 12 bucks. i tried it out...it works great. the problem? it comes with a container that hooks on to the bottom of the gun...it holds enough paint/stain to cover about 10 square feet. so you unscrew it, refill it...and youre on your way again...for 10 square feet, and then you refill it AGAIN. it gets old quick.

all this leads up to today. i finished the 2nd coat on the front deck. (using a brush...good ole reliable brush...which only cost me like 2 bucks) woo hoo. it looks good. i decided to go ahead and get the gun out to put the 2nd coat on the back. but this time instead of using that annoying little container, i wanted to try out the duel hose hook up it came with. just hook one end up to the gun...and stick the other end in the container and youre good to go. what possible problems could i have? welp...i had about a half a can of stain left. "just enough to finish up", i figured. i starting spraying, everything was going fine until i took one step to my right...the hose knocked over the can of stain! my half a can of stain spilled all over the middle of the deck, and splattered all over my jeans. i had to quickly grab a brush and spread it out as quickly as i could. argh. said jeans are now in the laundry.

long story short: i will need to go back to menards. i will buy another can of stain. and then i will hit the man who runs the paint department...i will hit him with my paint gun. and i will spray paint his trousers. its not his fault at all, but i think it might make me feel a little bit better. and if not, oh well, i did my best. sometimes thats just all you can do.

ps...chloe is napping behind me right now...she is fast asleep, but whimpering like a puppy. it would be cute if it wasnt so creepy.

-friday-

nope..its not friday yet. but i am about to go to bed. so, very soon it will be friday. and a woo and a hoo to that. what am i going to do with my long weekend? hey...have i mentioned that i do not have to work on monday or tuesday? (at praxair anyways...thank you snot faced sarah for pointing that out).

sunday...i am excited about this one. i am going to see lagwagon up in st paul. lagwagon has been one of my favorites bands for a long time, yet somehow i have never seen them live. somehow i have always had something else going on every frickin time theyve been in the area. but this weekend...i get to go. thanks neely for getting the tickets. you did get the tickets right? neely?

speaking of neely...i will be going up early to spend some time with neely...should be good times.

other then sundays plans i really dont have anything planned for the long weekend. which is exactly the way i wanted it to be. the important thing is that i will be getting away from what i am now calling "that f-ing place".

my mini softball slump seems to be over. fall ball has not been going as well as i hoped...for me or the team. we started 0-4 and i was not hitting the ball the way ive been hitting the ball for the past few years. 0 homeruns...and just a lot of singles. my confidence must have just run away for a few weeks cause i did not even want to play. i was worried that i had peaked...and generally when i peak at something i just lose interest and move on to a new hobby. but i love playing softball and did not want to just give it up. tonight felt good. i was 7 for 8 and i finally ended the home run drought. my 1st at bat of tonights 2nd game i hit a no-doubter to straight away center. a 3 run blast...in a game we ended up winning. our first win. and the 1st game in awhile that we actually seemed to have fun playing. somehow this season weve all started taking the game so seriously that it just isnt as fun as it once was. when its not fun, we dont play as well...when we dont play as well, its not as fun...etc etc. weve been in this cycle for months. i need the game to be fun again!

i finally gave in and bought "a prayer for owen meany"... lagwagon has a song called "owen meany" (i recently posted the lyrics- this song has been hitting me hard lately)...and "goodbye sky harbor" by jimmy eat world is written about this book. i love both of these songs...bit ive always been worried that the book would not live up to the songs written about it. ive only gotten through 2 chapters so far, they are very long. but so far i really like it. im not much for reading...especially long books...but i felt like maybe i was missing something in these songs since i hadnt read the book that inspired them.

random thought of the evening: i am NOT looking forward to winter at all this year. i used to love it. now i dread it. more and more every year. thats a sign of old age isnt it?

-Ike-

i was just checking out foxnews.com to see whats going on in this wonderful world of ours and i noticed this picture and story. apparently some people arent evacuating ahead of the storm. the caption to this picture?: "Citing faith and fate, some choose to ride out Hurricane Ike — despite being warned they 'may face certain death.'"

citing faith and fate? im going to go ahead and cite that all 3 of them are drinking.

-oh george-

this may be my new favorite picture of W.

owen meany

uncertainty, a foundation built on nothing i could see.

secure in your immaculate perception.

the last resort id ever thought id exercise,

now all that i have to stand on.

grieving, from a different point on view.

ive learned its meaning from you.

in life and death, and continue.

if faith is just a silent tribute

mine is just a desperate act.

give him back.

i owe him.

throw me a line, ill suspend my disbelief

and concede

following your lead faithfully.

led into this concession with hope and doubt.

a seemingly futile gesture.

if faith is just a silent tribute,

mine is just a desperate act,

holding on.

its just the desperation that takes me home.

-joey cape-

-top 5 daily angerings-

5. spent 2 1/2 hours watching the twins play some good baseball. then i spent 2 minutes watching the bullpen blow the lead. how many leads can you guys blow? its getting old. the playoff hopes are slowly dying and i may be giving up completely on this squad. starting pitching=great. offense=above average. relief pitching=garbage. 100% garbage. its starting to make me mad that these guys make more money in one year than i will in my entire lifetime. i could blow a game just as well as them. can i have 5 million a year?

4. its saturday night. that means tomorrow is sunday. sunday is the last day of the weekend. work will begin again on monday. i will spend my week looking forward to friday. friday will come and lead back into another monday. so the cycle goes. im just getting older and older...always looking to the next weekend.

3. kids, whether they are 3 or 13, male or female do not like to listen. sometimes they even like to do the opposite of what you just got done telling them to do. it makes me all happy inside. (sometimes 3 year olds just bite their grandma...even though their grandma was nice enough to take them to the park)

2. can we just get the election over with? politics make me want to puke. maybe we can just move things up a month? please?

1. i spent $265 on groceries today. the cart was overflowing. the back of the jeep was jam packed with goodies. got it all home and put it away. it looks like i spent $100.

-accidental naps-

friday...ahhh friday. what a long friday it was. worked a 10 hour day without a break. ran over to peter the saint after work to get the wee one. came home...fell asleep on the couch just about instantly. so very tired.

last night was the fall ball softball opener. our game was scheduled for 9:15. it was almost 10 by the time it finally got going. we lost 21 to 17 or 18 or so. we played a really good team. they took a 19 to 6 lead pretty quick, but we fought back nicely to make it interesting. would have liked to win of course, but it was a fun game. i went 3 for 4 with get this, 3 singles. im happy about the 3-4. but 3 singles? huh. i almost always mix in an extra base hit of some sort. oh well. anyways, i think i finally fell asleep sometime around 1 am. the 5:30 am alarm made me want to punch necks. and thats the story leading up to accidental friday nap.

while all you youngins are making your fancy plans for friday evenings, us old folk are accidently napping on our couches. what of it?

i woke up to chloe (the daughter formally known as kleigh...symbol to come) being a brat. i went to have a daddy to daughter talk with her about her being mean to people only to have her slam my bedroom door in my face...and nearly on my naked toes. so...i told her she needed to lay down for a little bit until she was ready to be nice. about 30 seconds later she was out cold. so if i have taught her anything, i have taught her the magic of the accidental nap.

"what are your plans for the weekend pablo?" you may be wondering. sloth and gluttony my friends. maybe a little bit of envy in there too.

-the end of a long weekend-

i hate waking up on the last day of a "long" weekend. its depressing. back to work tomorrow already?! are you kiddin me?! 4 days to play catch up now. still a full day ahead today though. i guess i should save the complaining until tonight.

gotta get the house cleaned up a little bit for company later on. were celebrating my grandmas birthday here today. my grandpa called yesterday saying he didnt want the party at his house. so...its at mine. 1 pm softball practice today. gonna be hot...gonna be windy. 1st game of fall ball will probably be 30 degrees cooler or more. funny.

speaking of fall ball, i just found out yesterday that demarini is no longer making the juggernaut. (aka gunnar). our league is regulated by something called ASA. they determine what kind of bats and balls we can use. there have been pitchers and infielders seriously hurt and even killed in the past by balls coming off the bat so fast that they had zero chance of protecting themselves. so, the balls are softer then they once were and the bats dont hit as hard as they used to. every year they review all the bats out there. this year demarini was told that gunnar would no longer be ASA certifiable. so...no more gunnar. i will still be able to use the one i have. but once the stores sell them out, they are gone. i read online that people are stocking up on them. if i had more money i think i would too. long story short...if gunnar breaks again, theyll be no bringing him back to life.