Hello again

Hey kids! Long time no see!

Life has been a tad crazy lately, what with work, school, kickball, skeeball and the like. I'll try to update more often now that kickball's over for two months.

Anyway, a quick note to get people off my back ;) And a reminder to cheer on the Phillies!

RIP, Harry

A great voice was silenced today. Like most Phillies fans of my generation, I grew up listening to Harry Kalas and Richie Ashburn do the play-by-play and color. Even though the team was horrible for most of those years, it was always worth tuning in just to hear them call the game. My first Phillies-related memory is Mike Schmidt's retirement at the Vet, and hearing Harry do a home-run call for him for the last time. When I was about eight, I used to use the remote as a microphone and pretend to be calling the game in the booth with them. Everything was better when he was the announcer: baseball, NFL documentaries, the Puppy Bowl, Campbells soup commercials.

A sad day for Philadelphia. As David Montgomery said, "We lost our voice today."

WARNING: LANGUAGE

On live TV:

AMEN, Chase. Amen.

One more!

Damn straight!

Some people like Keith Olbermann for his liberal views and anger at the Bush administration. I like him for what he just said, "Major League Baseball has said they are willing to delay game 6 of the World Series - the Phillies-Rays series, I might add..."

Prove him right, guys!

In related news, I have learned that the city of Philadelphia has gotten rid of all metal trash cans in favor of mesh baskets, for fear of what its citizens will do if the team wins.

Ha-HA!

Jeopardy! tonight has proven that I'm not up on my "shires".

I had a good weekend in South Bend, except that I left my coat there, so it's a good thing it's supposed to be in the 70s and 80s this week. I won a dollar from a gentleman foolish enough to bet against me concerning knowledge of Philadelphia sports. Now, I don't claim to be a master of this subject, but he was arguing that the Phillies have only been in existence since the late 1940s AT THE EARLIEST. I immediately countered that they are one of MLB's oldest franchises, and have been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century. He refused to believe me, saying that I was thinking of the As. Apparently it's hard to believe that Philadelphia could have once had two baseball teams. Anyway, I asked if he wanted to put some money where his mouth was, as I was rather confident that I was right. After we agreed on a dollar (lame, yes, but I think someone knew he was going to lose!) I went straight to the Wikipedia entry which states the Phillies were founded in 1883. A dollar richer was I!

That was perhaps the highlight of my trip, along with the sign outside of Bob Evans that said:
"KNIFE FORKS
STARTING AT $5.99"
If you have any idea what this might mean, please enlighten me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for the Phillies to suck.

Yes!

If you'll allow me to indulge myself for a moment:


GO PHILLIES!

Offended

I was in the elevator yesterday with two men, one of whom was on the elderly side, who were talking baseball. The younger one commented that at least a pitcher on his losing team won 20 games, so he'll take that silver lining. He got off first, and the older one looked at me and said, "You probably have no idea what we're talking about, do you?"

Yes.

I looked at him for a second, and said, "No, not really. I'm a Phillies fan, so I got to cheer for a winning team this year."

Seriously, let's not make assumptions in this day and age, people.

And: Go Phillies!

I am a joiner

I wore three different wristbands this weekend for three different events. This was a highlight of my month.

Beerfest at Victory was a good time, as I got both a keepsake mug AND a t-shirt. Also, the whole place erupted when they announced the Phillies were division champs. I love being in the Philadelphia area for such things. After we left, two of us bored everyone else by spending an hour playing the American Idol video game. Note: "More Than a Feeling" is a surprisingly difficult choice.

The height of awesome

As part of my ongoing quest to be the coolest person you know, I got home last night at 6, cooked myself some bacon, eggs and toast, and then went to sleep for 2 hours. I woke up long enough to watch the finale of The Office that I missed last spring and to make sure the Phillies won (woot!), and then promptly went back to bed. And by "bed" I mean the futon in my living room I've been sleeping on these past three weeks as my bedroom is still a work in progress. Actually, my entire apartment is still a work in progress, but I've now got one of the chairs from IKEA put together, so the number of people who can sit comfortably when visiting has increased by 33.3%. I hope to raise it at least another 25% this weekend, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Are you near Dutch Wonderland?!?

One of my trivia opponents informed me, rather adamantly, that "Solutions Architect" is a valid job title. I would like to explain that, while I don't doubt the importance of such a position, I find the name of it ridiculous. He also had some strong feelings about blogs, not so much about the people who right about the little things in life, but about those who read and comment about them. He thinks they have too much time on their hands. Never fear, faithful readers, I stuck up for you!

Moving on.

Trivia night was a good time, as we had a nice showing for there only being three of us. I made friends with a very nice team called the Phillies, who were unfortunately playing like the Phillies circa 1997. There was actually a good-sized contingent of people from the Philadelphia area, and I realized how nice it is to be around others who know how to pronounce "Lancaster."

A message to Jimmy Rollins

Dear J-Roll,
If you want be more well-received in Philadelphia, it would behoove you not to take two strikes looking and then pop out to third with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th against a team .5 games ahead of you for first place.
Yours,
M Slash