(in the dark) the shine of small things

+ It was so warm here last night! Meanwhile, half my f-list drowns in snow. I'm so jealous!

+ The Office was hilarious yesterday ^_______^ Well, Michael was a little much at the very beginning, but the rest of the ep was fun times. I'm so happy! I've really been kinda blah about the show recently.

+ This summer's trip to OK City came up a couple of days ago while chatting with [Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com]. And with the news coming out of Arizona, I suspect Mark might be dead to me by next week, so if I was ever gonna post pics from the not-so-impromptu roadtrip, I suppose now's the time.

08.17.06 - Oklahommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmma

For the record, the whole 'randomly traversing various state lines to see a guy on a rehab start' thing went down like so: I remember Bri being all "so....what're we doing Thursday?" (my flight got in early on Thursday, and the A's didn't play in KC until 5pm on Friday) and she suggested the Negro League museum but also threw out that Mark was starting in OK but 5 hours was a bit much of a drive. And I said, whatever you want to do, dude. Then when we met up at the KC airport, we kinda had a Jungle Book moment ("So what're we gonna do?" "I don't know, what'cha wanna do?"). Technically, I was the one who said of course we're going to see Mulder pitch. But only because she waited me out. I mean, we both knew we were going; she'd seen his other two rehab starts. I just don't think either one of us wanted to be the one who actually said it out loud first. Or something. But in the car she had mapquested directions to the ballpark from the airport already, so at the end of the day, clearly her plan and fault ^_~

+ Have y'all seen Huston's new hair? How about no, Street. That look barely works on Timberlake (I still miss the white boy 'fro!) and it most certainly does not work on you, freaky dollboy.

(And that link is courtesy [Bad username or site: acroarcs / @ livejournal.com], btw. Don't think I go around googling alkie closer related stuff in my spare time.)

Like [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com], I'm sad and worried about the fact that Jake won't be with the Marlins for the final three games. I pray it's nothing to do with his mom, and that whatever it is gets taken care of, soon.

By losing last night, the Fish lost their shot at a .500 season. **sniff** Apparently their goal this weekend is to keep Philly from making the playoffs, since Philly pretty much "knocked [them] out" of the postseason hunt ("At this point that's our only motivation, to not let the Phillies get in," reliever Taylor Tankersley said. "I don't like them. I don't want to see them get in.") I'd say your craptacular play in the last 3 weeks is what knocked you out of the postseason hunt, but whatever helps you sleep at night, boys. I don't think I'll be watching the last three games of the season. I kinda know too many people from Philly.

For [Bad username or site: catslash / @ livejournal.com], I suppose, if she hasn't seen it already - some FSN footage of the Tigers celebration from 9/24: wmv. Or you can stream it at msn video by going here and doing a search for Motown bubble bath.

I went to the game last night, or rather, the rain delay last night, and accomplished nothing. Well, I did come to the realization that the nosebleeds at RFK actually aren't that bad (we wandered around the ballpark sitting in all the different sections for the first hour of the rain delay) and I did get to hang out with said friend of a friend for a while. We talked about baseball fandomy stuff. So that was nice. I think I brought my cold back though - it had been headed into remission. TPTB put the Braves/Mets on the jumbotron for us -- cutting out to New York for the 8th and 9th innings of Cabrera's no-no bid. Watched him lose it in the 9th, a collective aww man of sorts rising up from the mixed Phillies/Nats crowd. Danny's such an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, flavored with conundrum. Also, when did he start wearing those glasses?

We called it quits at 10:45, because, we said to ourselves, no one in their right MINDS would start an east coast baseball game after 11pm on a get-away day for one of the clubs. Shows how much we know. But we couldn't possibly have stayed til the game ended anyway, so it's just as well. (But we'd had great seats! Nine back of the Nats dugout. We were gonna call Chase Utley mean things! Alas.)

On the drive back, we found a 7-Eleven with gas for $1.99/gallon and a delicious little hold-me-over called the Pumpkin Cheesecake Latte. Yay.

From Mychael's newest column on mlb.com:

[D]on't read anything untoward into this, but know that it's true: I wish I knew how to quit Joe Torre.

And Mark Mulder. And Barry Zito. Oh Mychael Urban. We know about you. You're down. We know.

In that same mind dump, Mychael writes Speaking of actors, I'm with A's third baseman Eric Chavez, who took issue with A-Rod bringing his name into that recent Sports Illustrated piece by the fine and finely groomed Tommy Verducci. "Sleep in the bed you make," Chavez told the equally fine Pablo Gutierrez of the Sacramento Bee. Amen, Chavvy. You're good people. Kids trust you.

I <3 Chavvy. Btw, this was Chavvy's response to Alex's comment. Are Barry Zito's ears burning? Cause they should be.

"...but not for him to get hurt. And I still wanted Oakland to win. Why can't everything happen like I want it to?"

The eternal question, as posed by [Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com].

Okay, obviously this whole situation is funnier if Huston isn't out for the season or something, but yes, Bri and I actually got to see Huston blow a save, live and in person. I totally called it, from the moment the bullpen gate opened. Right down to Sweeney, who hadn't done shit all day, being the one to deliver the big blow. I need to stop doing that. Of course, I'd been on edge since about the second pitch of the game, because you could pretty much smell the impending loss in the air before anyone had even scored. Though that might have been less a sixth sense, and more the fact I had no faith in Esteban. (Who, admittedly, didn't even pitch that poorly.) I've seen both Lidge and Street blow games this year. The baseball gods, they spoil me.

Also, me and Mark Teahen are in a fight.

Redman and Z tomorrow! If I can get Bri to set foot in the ballpark ^_~ She thinks it's her fault the A's streak of wins at Kansas City is over. She is probably right.

[Bad username or site: owllover711 / @ livejournal.com], Doug's hurt, or something? He didn't come out, for warmups so I didn't have much luck getting pics. I didn't get any decent shots of DeJesus either, [Bad username or site: belle1446 / @ livejournal.com], but I'll try again tomorrow.

Rich Harden threw during warm-ups! And something like five balls landed in the stands. I shit you not. Let's all presume overthrowing balls like that was part of his routine >.> Even though he could have easily decapitated some kids. Yep. (That vid's just a few minutes of him doing long tosses. I apologize for the jumpiness of the footage, I got the shakes something awful when he came out during warm-ups; it was fairly weird. I will hate you all if I am developing a thing for Rich Harden.)

Tonight, I feel for y'all that follow both the A's and Boston, my friends.

(By the by, we saw Mulder in OK City. Which was also a shitload of fun; for me anyway ^_~ Despite pitching not so great, it looks like he's coming back into the Cards rotation.)

Fish lost to the Braves today :( But Huddy pitched for Atl, so I can't find it in me to be toooo upset.

On Friday, however, he broke form a bit when asked if he had a gut feeling on whether he'd be moved before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.

"My gut says no, and I hope it's right," Zito said before the second game of a four-game series against the visiting Blue Jays. "My gut's said no all along -- for the past couple years -- and it's been right so far. Hopefully, it'll be right for a few more days." -- Zito steadfast amid rumors

[Bad username or site: candle_beck / @ livejournal.com], if you haven't already heard it: [Bad username or site: roxybritain / @ livejournal.com] linked to a KNBR interview with Barry the other day. I haven't listened to it, because I'm not trying to have it be The Last Zito Interview I Heard Before He Got Traded. But Bri tells me he takes another of his thinly veiled shots at Mark. That old line about guys that get hurt and aren't able to get out of their own heads because they're stuck in dumbjock mode. Oh, Barry. Stop being a biggity bitch.

Marlins on TWIB today. Because I am a nutjob dedicated, I'll be in Philly for the double-header tomorrow with [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com]. And the day game on Monday, where I should finally, despite his every effort to avoid my jinxing ass, get to see Josh Johnson pitch ^____^ My brother says he'll be looking to trade JJ, because he knows the effect I have on guys who are having career years. lol. The Marlins are in DC again August 8-10, and I...just really need to not be in the tri-state area at that time. The temptation is too much. But I might go on the 8th, because Scotty 'Hulk' Olsen looks like the probable to pitch.

An Astros cycle? I don't know anything about you, Luke Scott, but way to be.

Lastly - the MLB Outlet, which is clearly, clearly out to get me, is running a Buy One, Get One 50% off deal. I plan to get a Lidge WBC shirt, but I don't care to get anything else. SO, if you want me to place an order for something for you, and you can paypal me for your share, let me know and I will. I think shipping from the mlb outlet starts at $5, so if you just want one shirt, I'll add it to my order and then when it gets here, I can ship it regular first class to you. The WBC shirts (all national teams) are $9.97 before the reduction, and there are some other neat shirts in the team outlet stores. FYI, [Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com] - those hideous Oakland Your Girlfriend Likes My Team shirts are part of the sale also.

-> I'm just gonna confess this one thing, and then we're not gonna talk about it, okay? Okay. Whenever I'm in my car, and that Public Affair song comes on? I totally blast that shit. Yeah. Also, I own that Jessica Simpson cd that had Irresistible on it. And my favorite song on the album wasn't even one of the singles (**coughs** Hot Like Fire **coughs** And yes, I have the opening dialogue memorized). I know. I know. 20 laps. In my defense, I still don't like anything by those Pussycat Dolls people. Hope for me yet?

-> Yesterday, I got my lab order in of The Pool of Tears, Tweedledum, and Mouse's Long & Sad Tale. Today, I got my click and ship notice for that order, lol. Happily, I was able to unload the 5mls of PoT and Tweedledum right away (of course, the day after I placed my order, I got an offer for imps of all three scents, so I'd already tried them and known they weren't keepers by the time my order got here); I shipped those out this morning. Hopefully ML&ST is soon to follow. All the frimps were oils I'd tried, too. But I got a new postcard! Sunnyside ^_~ And there's always my Hungry Ghost Moon order to look forward to.

-> I'm really proud of me; I got on the phone and called some people I hadn't spoken to in months. Well, actually, 'proud' is the wrong word. Because both of them had left me messages over a month or so ago. But I was glad I finally got around to doing it? I hate talking on the phone.

-> LOL, so much for that potentially stellar pitching matchup in Florida tonight. Pettitte showed up, but oh, Josh. He gave up 4 earned in 5 innings, to balloon his era to a completely shameful 2.48. Go to your room, and think about what you've done. It's like 243-0 now, because the bullpen came in and decided to be all "oh, what the hell, runs for EVERYONE!" Don't forget to tip your hostess, Houston. Series split tomorrow? Hope springs eternal. Oh, btw, heads up [Bad username or site: acroarcs / @ livejournal.com]! Marlins' Johnson to chat Tuesday @ 2pm on MLB.com. And this is welcome news: Backe nears return.

-> On the plus side, the A's FINALLY set out their pitching probables for the Baltimore series. Rookie v. Rookie on Monday night, and maybe, maaaaaybe Adam Loewen gets his first freakin' win already? Or maybe the Orioles lose 1-0. Tuesday, Loaiza v. Russ Ortiz and Wednesday, it's Zito v. Benson. Whoo.

And the Cubs won! Yay. I'm thinking, kinda, maybe, sorta, probably not gonna happen, about going to see the Cubs when they come to RFK next weekend. Maybe. I dunno. Damn you, [Bad username or site: lovingthecubs / @ livejournal.com], and [Bad username or site: owllover711 / @ livejournal.com]. I'm all stocked up on heartbreakers and soulcrushers!

-> It warmed my dorky little heart to see Mike Jacobs (far left) has helped lead the Marlins out of obscurity in the NL East captioning a photo in a story about the Marlins playing better than most people expected. Yay, Jake.

Also, [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com] sent me a sketch! The focus is on Dan and Jake at the railing, inspired by the fact that they are dugout railing buddies, but there's an appearance by Hermida (who cracks me up), and Joe, and a shoutout to the dugout dancers. ♥

([Bad username or site: offspeed / @ livejournal.com], on the subway, I saw a brother in a pink and white striped polo shirt, and a pink Tigers hat. Congratulations. You guys have officially arrived.)

Man, what a game. A good game to see play out if pitching turns you on, even if the end result wasn't terribly fun. Nolasco and Bedard were going at it mano-a-mano for a time before things fell apart for Ricky and the O's went up on him. Then when Bedard put Wes and Hermida on and proceeded strike out Olivo, Aguila and Reggie? So intense, and I have to say, as someone who really was never keen on Bedard, I was really expecting him to start looking over his shoulder at the bullpen. Instead, he handled it himself, and how. For one inning, OPCY was completely in love with him. A career night in strikeouts for him - 12, I think, was the final tally. He fuckin' owned Cabrera, 0-4 with three strikeouts, and it pissed Cabrera off to no end. I really missed Jake and Uggla in the lineup tonight, and I think the rest of the lineup did, too. Also, in two consecutive nights, I've seen Wes Helms botch plays at first, SO PLZ TO NOT BE BENCHING JAKE FOR HIM EVER THNX.

OH, and [Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com], you're gonna be so mad at me, lol. Yesterday, MelMo got hit in the kneecap and left the game. Today, Ricky hit him in the side, and MelMo, who is seriously a sweetheart, seemed to start jawing at him halfway up the line to first, and started towards him and the benches emptied. I heard on the radio coming home that when MelMo looked at Nolasco, Nolasco was like "0-2, man" (as in OBVIOUSLY I wasn't trying to hit you, yo), and we know it doesn't take much to set a guy off when he's been hit. Normally, I'm all BRAWLS YAY, but I was really, really glad it dissipated quickly and no punches were thrown or purses flung.

Surprised to see Ray come in for the 9th, though it was kind of neat, seeing him for the first time as an official closer. After the game was over, and the Marlins had filed into the clubhouse, Hanley was still in the Marlins dugout, hanging over the railing, watching the Orioles highlights play on the jumbotron. He had a crap night, a couple neat defensive plays but didn't get one out that could have curtailed the big inning, and he did nothing at the plate. Keeping in mind that he just recently busted an 0-29 slump, I'm sure he was pressing. Kiss, pookie.

Haven't uploaded today's pics yet, and I really need to get to bed so I can get up and out of here and back to VA tomorrow morning, so that will probably be done sometime tomorrow.

I don't have a ticket for tomorrow's game, since I got outbid on ebay (LAMENESS), so I don't know if I'm still gonna take the half day and go. On the one hand, I'd like to see this series play out, and I'd love to see them start their new streak...but on the other, I'm REALLY not feeling OPCY on the picture taking front, and I hope to see the boys week after next in DC, anyway. I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Oh, and for the record, if you've thought Ozzie Guillen was amusing in the past, that's one thing, but after this whole hullabaloo with Jay Mariotti, and the other dumb shit that's gone down in the last week, if you still find him and his bullshit to be fun times, I really don't even want to know you. "I don't have anything against those people"? Fuck off, Ozzie. He's an embarassment, and I wish MLB would grow some balls and start regulating on this kind of stuff.

On a tangentially related note, Bri has decided she hates the White Sox way more than she ever hated the Red Sox. I feel a corner has been turned.

Gallery of some of the pics I took at the game last night. I really need curb my shakes, or invest in an image stablizer already. All my Willy T pics from when he was signing came out blurry, as did all my stalkeriffic pics of Munson in the bullpen. ALAS. But a gold star to the person could can explain to me what the hell is wrong with Ryan Zimmerman.

Before uploading, I dropped the resolution on my pics from 230 pixels/inch to 96; if you want the original higher res image of any of the pics for some reason, just let me know.

What is with MLB.com and all this performance and music related crap now? What makes TPTB think I go to mlb.com to hear the latest in music releases? This kind of pollution of my sports fandom annoys me. Someone make it stop.

Is it "Sar-los", "Sar-lose", "Sar-loose", or none of the above?

Being an evil person, [Bad username or site: cruzalicious / @ livejournal.com] emailed me yesterday about DVDempire's Paramount sale. Bunch of movies on sale for $5.99, three or more gets you free shipping. I personally recommend this, this, and this. Classics of modern cinema. Yes :P

This was linked to on [Bad username or site: athleticsphotos / @ livejournal.com] and I'd never seen it so: Z on At Home With Lisa Guerrero (YSI). Lemme know if you have trouble with the YSI; it's also up on sendspace. Fairly fun clip, once I got past putting a face to Scott Erickson's wife. I'd be curious to know if Beck had seen this when she wrote Artists & Pitchers. He's very on here, which makes me wonder if he really did just roll out of bed for the other piece with the local ABC crew ^_~ Also, when Guerrero makes that comment about him happily trading in his Cy Young for a Grammy, just...breathe. I'm sure that was a joke.

Scott Olsen, meanwhile, can't seem to keep the guys off him:

In a tense scene caught by television cameras, Girardi grabbed starting pitcher Scott Olsen by the jersey after the third inning and pulled the left-hander to a corner of the Marlins' dugout.

Girardi could be seen chewing out Olsen, who appeared to shout back and wave his arms. The confrontation was nowhere near the physical spat Olsen had three nights earlier with reliever Randy Messenger, who socked him in the eye during a disagreement away from the ballpark after Saturday's game in St. Petersburg against Tampa Bay. -- Marlins win on Jacobs' hit in the ninth

[The Marlins hadn't] won in 24 previous tries when trailing after seven innings. It was ... just their third win in their past 15 games at home and, coupled with Monday's victory over the Cubs, gave them their first series win at home this season. -- Music to the Marlins' ears.

Oh man, it sounds so...futile...when you put it like that >.>

Cubs and Marlins play a day game today, and we're not leaving for the Astros/Nats til 4, so I should be able to catch the game (on WGN! Yay!), much to Florida's chagrin. I'm so nervous about the Astros game, lol. I don't know why.

So The Da Vinci Code is getting pannnnnnnned. I'm kind of weird about reviews; sometimes I pay attention to them and sometimes I don't. If it's an action movie, I pretty much expect critics to pan it, and I'll go see it anyway, because usually I adore it beyond measure (Doom). Of course sometimes the critics are actually right (Ultraviolet) and then I just feel like a dumbass.

But when it's a movie like The Da Vinci Code with people like Ron Howard and Tom Hanks aboard, I figure critics are gonna give it a fair shake, because I am hardpressed to think of any two people who just can't do any wrong in the eyes of movie critics. But despite their involvement in this effort, the film has gotten a pretty rough reception. So, to tell you the truth, I don't think I'd go see it at this point, I tend to need Joel, Servo and Crow along to make a poorly executed movie worthwhile, but [Bad username or site: johnnybvo / @ livejournal.com] seems only encouraged by the bad reviews ^_~ (11:45am screening at Owings Mills okay?)

Bought tickets for the game Sunday with Josh. Almost went with Loge seats in M31, since I've never sat in the Loge seats and I seemed to remember [Bad username or site: acroarcs / @ livejournal.com] saying he liked the view from there, but I punked out at the last minute and went with seats in section 220 that were only going for 10 bucks more.

Not much planned for today; I spent yesterday reading, so today will be tv I think. Yesterday I read some more of Three Nights in August, decided I'd take a little break from that to read a few chapters of School Days, and ended up finishing School Days in - well, not one sitting, I stopped for lunch, but I'd finished it by the afternoon. I do kind of miss the days when the Spenser stories were more involved, a great many storylines and characters and you never knew who was up to what. With Parker writing more in his other series, I feel like the Spenser stories have gotten streamlined so there's usually just one storyline, Spenser solves the mystery, you get a few cameos from older characters along the way, and that's that. I still like these streamlined stories, but I do sometimes miss the weighter plots. There was no Hawk in this one, sadly, but on the plus side, there was minimal Susan, so I suppose it evens out ^_~

I have to do some chores - vacuuming, yay. The old-fashioned way, Andie ^_~ No scary self-directed vacuums here. But then Life on Mars and a couple eps of Veronica Mars. Well, technically, I'll watch those tonight. It's get-away day, and almost all the games are day games ^_^

The Mountain Goats, The Unicorns, and Rocky Votolato showed up on [Bad username or site: ysi_leftovers / @ livejournal.com] which seemed to me a sign that I should check them out already. Well, a sign where The Mountain Goats are concerned. I'm already kinda sweet on Rocky Votolato from the time [Bad username or site: shadow_shimmer / @ livejournal.com] pimped him.

eta: OH, and I will get off my ass and upload those pics, [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com]. Yes. That's second on my list, after vacuuming.

[Bad username or site: rickenbacker / @ livejournal.com] thinks I should come down for the four game A's/Royals weekend series in KC in August. She's being a v. bad influence. I'd be more seriously considering it if I didn't already have quasi-plans in the air for an early July trip to New York, and I can't really justify doing both. I may not even be here, because my mom keeps mentioning me going to Morocco for some part of the summer, but I don't know how serious she is about that. She talks about it every summer.

Don't want anything from the new bpal update, though And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt caught my eye (from the new Salon collection). But I'm definitely priced out at $23 a bottle (plus shipping so, hello $30 bottle, I think not). Yesterday I was quite ready to order a bottle of Yemaya, but I've talked myself down since; yay team me.

Read some story on how there was supposed to be a TWW tribute show before the series finale this Sunday, but squabbling over pay led to NBC axing it. So NBC won't be doing any kind of sendoff at all, which is kinda...wow. I knew things had gotten bad, and the show was struggling, but wow. It's all very "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out," you know? Then again, I haven't decided if I'm even gonna watch the finale, so I can't really talk.

Quelle surpris! Kinda hurt my heart to read, even though you could see it coming from a mile away. Garner's sweet, though, all He's still my closer, when. Come on. 109 (and counting!) newspaper headlines to the contrary, my friend.

Other things getting me all emotional early this morning - the Mother's Day player postcards.

I was having trouble watching the games online yesterday and it was really pissing me off. As were other things. I'm feeling very Tar baby sit still and don't say nothing all at once.

And you know what else? There should be a way for you to force journals to defriend you, for fuck's sake. Like, a cyber crowbar. Work with me, Eljay. For the most part, I don't mind if people keep my journal friended when we aren't mutual friends, but dead journals? serial adders? rp journals? I just want them to go away. I should be able to make them go away, Eljay. Thank you to the handful of RP handlers who did remove me when asked.