mike

The weekend started Friday at 5 when I left work and started on my adventure on the subway to get to the Vet. I didn’t expect it to be too difficult. I was, however, concerned with the weather. It had been pouring all day and looked like it would continue. I checked all day and even right before I left to make sure the game wasn’t canceled. I found the subway stop at 15th & Market as it said on the schedule online. Reading all the signs going in it looked to be a stop for both the Market-Frankford and Broad Street Lines. I followed the signs for the Broad Street ‘Free Interchange,’ whatever that was. I waited for a few minutes as two trains came through but neither had any signs of this free interchange. I decided to walk down a little and see if there were any more signs that were any clearer. As I got further down arrows for the Broad Street line started showing up on the walls and I found myself going down a narrow hallway which opened up to some stairs that led down to the Broad Street line. I found it. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I had plenty of time to kill. The subway goes right up to in front of the Vet. When I arrived it was not looking good. There were not many people and a few people were walking back down the ramps not looking very happy. I walked up and sure enough they had canceled the game before the gates were supposed to open at 5:05. There were boxes and boxes of bobble heads right on the other side of the gate. They were announcing that the game and the bobble head were rescheduled for September 1st, which is no good for me. I finally got a hold of Buck who was supposed to be my ride home but he heard on the radio so he turned around. I decided to head back to the subway but on my way I spotted Mr. Kobasa. What are the odds? I walked up with him as he wanted to see if the Phillies were as stupid as I had told him. We went down to the ticket counters where one of the guys he was with wanted to get tickets for Sunday’s game. I wanted to go to that one too, but I thought I had a game at 1 (more on that later). Mr. K said that he would get me a bobble head if I bought a ticket for Sunday’s game and also since I would be at school he would take care of the Schmidt bobble head. I also bought tickets for August 15th when Evan and I will begin our mini stadium tour. We hopped back on the subway to Fern Rock. We arrived there just in time for me to catch the train back home. A minute later and I might have been stuck there for an hour. The evening was spent watching what the ReplayTV had recorded from the few nights before.

Saturday – Game 2. This plan had not been looking good all week. It was my Mom’s work outing, we go to a game every year. Things weren’t shaping up well. Rick got called into work, Stef had to work, and Mom needed to stay home since Liz was going to be there all day. Buck jumped on board right away, but I had a total of five tickets. There was no interest and no return phone calls so Buck and I went with a bunch of extra tickets. The big deal for this game was a bunch of 80s Phillies having a hitting contest an hour before the game. We left around 11:20 so that we could at least catch some of it. It was smooth sailing until we got to the Mid-County exit of the turnpike. It was a parking lot. Cars everywhere and only two toll booths open. It took about 25 minutes to get through that mess. While we were sitting there my car decided to start heating up and alert me that I was low on coolant. Once we got through the toll we got off to stop at a gas station. It wasn’t a major hassle to reload on anti-freeze but it still took some time. We got back on the Blue Route which went well for a short while until we came to a standstill as we neared 76. This happens on occasion and since it was a Saturday afternoon we figured 95 would be clear if 76 was jammed. We got through the mess at 76 and went a little further before we came to another standstill before the Blue Route merges to two lanes. We inched along all the way to 95. When we got there it was empty. We flew the rest of the way. By the time we got to our seats it was two hours after we originally left home and we had missed the first two innings. Not to worry, that was made up for. The game was incredible. Thome hit game tying homers in the 8th and again in the 12th after everyone thought the game was over. The Red Sox scored two more in the top of the 13th. In the bottom of the inning we got one back and with a man on second Todd Pratt, the last guy on the bench came up and hit a walk off home run. The place went nuts. The only other walk off home run I remember seeing was Scott Brocius at Yankee Stadium. The ride home was much better, less than 45 minutes. For the evening it was more ReplayTV and the first disc of Sports Night arrived from Wal Mart DVD rentals.

Sunday not nearly as exciting. We were supposed to have a baseball game which I thought was at 1 but turned out to be at 4. So that threw off my day somewhat. It wound up being canceled anyway because the field was still wet. So I mowed the lawn then watched the rest of the Sports Night disc. Surprisingly it had 8 episodes on it. Quality stuff. I never gave the show much of a chance when it was on. I was expecting something completely different. After watching enough West Wing and giving it a second chance it’s a really good show.

So that’s the weekend. A lot of activity but very few results. At least it will finally be warm and sunny this week so I can hopefully jump in the pool after work.

The first nice weekend since I’ve been home, and how did I spend it? Inside, on the sofa mostly, with a box of tissues in hand. I was sick all weekend, it actually started Thursday, making the end of the week at work almost unbearable. On Sunday I missed our baseball game. I’m back in work today feeling a little better, I can at least function. My nose is raw from the constant blowing but other than the blowing of the nose and a little coughing I’m doing alright. Tonight is Stef’s graduation which will definitely be a little weird. Didn’t I just graduate? And Stef isn’t old enough to be graduating and going off to college so soon.

This post was written this past Thursday but due to computer problems and sickness I haven’t been able to post it until today.

Last night the road to back-to-back national championships began, we are assuming we are the only Senior Connie Mack league in the country therefore we are the current national champions by default. We defeated one of the many Nor-Gwyn teams 7-2. We started off slow with the bats and on the mound/in the field. Fick only went 2 innings and gave up both runs, unearned. In the bottom of the second a ground ball was hit between third and short which Joe backhanded and made an ill advised throw to first (there was no way he was going to get an out). The kid who was on second tried to score. Dallas threw home and had him by a mile. Juice went for the easy tag out when the kid plowed into him. The bench erupted, Juice and the kid had words and Juice gave him a little shove. The benches cleared. Joe tried to hold Juice back, and for some reason I thought I should help out. I quickly realized my mistake when I found myself in the middle of a quickly developing crowd. Keath got shoved from behind by two kids and Lewis was throwing some bodies around. All settled down, they claimed they didn’t know the rule, and the kid got tossed. I led off the third with a single to right, my first swing since the championship game last year. I got out when Keath hit into a fielder’s choice. We wound up scoring seven runs that inning. A few walks combined with some clutch 2-out hitting. Childs threw some solid innings and Joe came in for the 7th to finish it off. It was good to get back out onto the field. We return to action on Sunday.

The train was a little too packed to get any typing in. Kate and I were so close to sitting together on the ride home. I was standing in the right spot to get in the 2nd to last car. The train pulled up and there was no door. The train today was two cars short. I ran up to get into the second to last car but didn’t see Kate anywhere. With the shortage of seats the aisle as packed, a lot of people just decided to wait for the next train. When we got back to North Wales Kate taps me on the shoulder after she gets up. She was three seats away. I didn’t recognize the back of her head getting on and the seat next to her was taken anyway. Maybe Thursday.

Coming at ya from the train. Yeah, that whole update thing really worked out. It only took a month but I finally figured out a plan. Write updates on the train ride. Genius, right? So I have a loaner laptop that I can bring back and forth everyday. As long as I don’t feel like too much of a dork on the train with my laptop and headphones on. So, yeah, work … It’s going great so far. I get to play with all sorts of neat gadgets. I picked out the new monitor I’m going to get and found a lot of stuff that I want if I could afford it all. The train ride isn’t too bad either, but I guess that all changes with this little idea. At the beginning it was nothing but my CDs both ways. Then Kate started her summer job at UPenn so now I get a ride from her in the morning and ride the train in. In the afternoons we are usually done at the same time but we have yet to find each other on the train. We’re still working on it. Besides work there isn’t a whole lot going on. Baseball was supposed to start yesterday but it got rained out. Surprise, rain! I’ve seen five movies so far, you can see which ones below in my very cool ‘Top 5 Summer Movies’ section. Nothing has really blown me away yet this summer, but you know how picky I am. Otherwise its sitting at home and watching TV. We just got Comcast HD which is pretty sweet even with the limited number of channels. ABC has been sweet with the Stanley Cup Finals and NBA Finals. NBC doesn’t have a whole lot going on with HD. The Phillies are on CSN HD on occasion. We also get PBS, which carries nothing, just pictures of random stuff that is supposed to show off how awesome HD is. Coming up next week is Stef’s graduation. Next weekend I’m going to two Phillies games, I would have gone to a third if I didn’t have a baseball game. Hopefully I can still swing getting the Carlton bobble-head doll. Vacation planning has begun for Evan coming up to visit in August. So far scheduled is a Phillies game at the Vet, a Mets game at Shea, and a Red Sox game at Fenway. Also in the works is a middle-school pool party. We’ll see if we can manage to find everyone that we were friends with back then since we aren’t in contact with most of them anymore. Phew, now I wrote too much and I won’t have anything to talk about tomorrow. So I’ll talk to ya then.