Take me out to the playoffs

I have been afraid to mention this, lest I anger the baseball gods in some way.  But I think it’s safe to say this now:

I AM GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!

Sorry for shouting but I just can’t help myself.

Never in a million years did I even dream I would have this opportunity.  Tickets to regular season games at Wrigley Field are almost impossible to get.  Post season tickets are that hard times ten.  I have been a Cubs fan for a long, long, loooong time.  We don’t make it this far very often.  I never thought I would get the chance to see my boys play in October Live and In Person.

You may remember, this year the Cubs held a drawing to see who could try to buy playoff tickets.  My name wasn’t chosen so I thought I was just out of luck, as usual.  But my sister and my best friend both got lucky, and both of them had a chance to get tickets.  As if that wasn’t lucky enough, both of them actually got tickets!  Can you believe it?  And then, the best part of all, they both invited me to go with them.  I have the best sister and the best best friend in the whole entire world.

As a result of this incredible stroke of luck, I have a ticket to Game 2 on Thursday night, and a ticket to Game 5 (if necessary).  I cannot tell you how much I am hoping and praying to the baseball gods that Game 5 will not be necessary.  Of course, if things end up not going our way, I could be hoping and praying that Game 5 will be necessary.  But I prefer not to dwell on that possibility.

Unfortunately, Tom is out of town so childcare is an issue.  I am pulling the kids out of school for Thursday and Friday.  We will get up Thursday morning, get ready and hit the road.  That should put us in Chicago by mid to late afternoon.  Plenty of time since the game starts at 8:30.  Then Friday morning we will get up and drive home.  That’s a lot of time in the car for the Princess and the C-man but they are being good sports about it.  I’m sure this wins me some kind of bad, selfish mommy award.

I had suggested we stay in town on Friday and go to the Museum of Science and Industry or something, but they want to come home.  The Princess has her riding lesson on Friday afternoon, and the C-Man has a birthday party on Saturday.  So much for that idea. 

My 2008 National League Central Champions T-shirt arrived today.  Just in time!  I can wear it to the game on Thursday.  It can’t possibly be unlucky because I just took it out of the plastic. 

This is going to be so great. 

Come on boys let’s do this thing!

 

Go Cubs

The Singapore Grand Prix Report

I can’t believe it.  I haven’t stopped smiling since I watched the race last night.  Fernando Alonso in his great big steaming pile of garbage Renault won the first ever Singapore Grand Prix.  And it wasn’t just any old first Grand Prix either, it was the first GP in Singapore and it was the first F1 race held at night.

Alonso’s weekend started out on a real high note.  He was fastest in the second practice session on Friday, and fastest by more than half a second in the final practice session Saturday before Qualifying.  Unfortunately, in qualifying things went horribly wrong when his engine stopped at the beginning of the second session, relegating him to the 15^th spot on the starting grid.  I figured his race was over before it had even started.  I was not happy.

But Sunday, everything just fell into place.

The one advantage he had starting so far back on the grid was he didn’t have to declare how much fuel he would be carrying at the start of the race. I had guessed he would go with a one-stop drive it like you stole it strategy.  But instead he ran a super-short first stint on the softer, faster tires, and made his first pit stop on lap 12. 

This was an incredibly wise move because on lap 15 his teammate, Nelsinho Piquet (or Nelson Jr. as I prefer to call him) put his Renault in the wall and the safety car came out.

Now, there are rules about going into the pits during the safety car.  Once the safety car is deployed the pits are closed until race control opens them.  They made this rule so cars wouldn’t drive like hell around to the pits when the safety car came out, potentially driving right through the scene of whatever accident caused the safety car in the first place.

Unfortunately for some of the drivers, this time Nelson Jr. put his car in the wall just when they were getting ready for their first pit stops.  But since Alonso had already pitted he was sitting pretty. 

Once the pits were open almost everybody at the front of the pack dove in for fuel and tires.  Alonso didn’t have to and made up a lot of places.  And then, two of the cars in front of him had penalties for pitting while the pit lane was closed.  That was two more places gained.

Jarno Trulli was ahead of him in the Toyota but he was on a one-stop strategy, so once he pitted Alonso took the lead.  Sweet cracker sandwiches.  I was so excited and so nervous.  I kept waiting for his engine to go like it had in qualifying.

And then when he came back out in the lead after his second pit stop I was so excited I could hardly stand it.  I was so afraid something horrible would happen.  I think I watched the last 20 laps holding my breath, and the last ten with my hands over my eyes.

And he won!  Happy happy happy. It has been a long season watching him struggle in the middle of the pack, but yesterday helped make up for some of that.

In other news, Hamilton finished 3^rd.  And Nico Rosberg drove his Williams to second place, and that was with a penalty.  That is Rosberg’s best finish to date.  Congratulations to him.

It was a horrible day for Ferrari.  Felipe Massa was actually leading the race until the safety car period, but he pulled out of the pits too soon, taking part of the fuel rig with him.  He lost all kinds of time waiting at the end of the pit lane for the Ferrari mechanics to detach the fuel hose from the car.  And then he had to serve a stop and go penalty for an unsafe entry from the pits.

Kimi Raikonnen, meanwhile, was hanging in there until the very end of the race.  And then, with only four laps to go he lost the car and put it in the wall. 

There are only three races left this season. That makes me kind of sad.  

More post season musings

There will probably be a lot of this in the next few days.

And so the regular season comes to an end.  And the Cubs won 97 games.  And the Cubs are the National League Central Champions.  And now comes the part I hate.  The part where we actually have to play the playoff games.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will arrive in Chicago on Wednesday, October 1 to start the best of five NLDS series.  I was afraid this might happen.  Since the Cubs have the best record in the National League we should be playing the Wild Card team.  But the Milwaukee Brewers are the Wild Card, and they are from our division.  So instead we play the league champion with the worst record.  That would be the Dodgers.

This year the Dodgers have acquired a player from the Red Sox called Manny Ramirez.  Manny can hit the ball a mile.  For the last week I have been professing that the only way I want to see Manny hitting in Wrigley Field is in a Cubs uniform.  That seems unlikely at this late date.

Since I was obsessing about how badly Manny could hurt us, I decided to find out how much damage he has done in the past.  This may be the one and only good thing about interleague play; the ability to do things like find out just how well Manny hits in the Friendly Confines.

First of all, a disclaimer: I compiled these stats myself, and I may have missed something.  Please feel free to correct any mistakes I have made, or to add anything I missed.

Now, on to the cold hard facts:

Manny has played two different series in Wrigley Field.  One in 1999 when he was with the Cleveland Indians, and one with the Red Sox in 2005.  In those five games Manny had 23 official at-bats and got six hits.  According to my calculations that gives him a batting average of .260 on the North Side of Chicago.  He had two doubles and only one home run.  He also had three RBI’s, two bases on balls and six, count em, six strikeouts.   So he may not be as dangerous as I thought.

Of course, this is the playoffs and none of that means anything.  I sure wouldn’t give him anything good to hit.

Post season musings

The Cubs have announced their pitching rotation for the NLDS.  They will start with Ryan Dempster.  That’s exactly who I would have chosen.  He has pitched so well at Wrigley Field.  And if you put him first, you can use him at Wrigley again in a game five situation.  I like Dempster.  I think this will be good.

Then, the bad news, Carlos Zambrano is pitching game two.  Now, if I were the manager, I’m not sure I would want him out there at all, given how his last two outings have gone.  But I guess you can’t really bench him, and game 2 is where he can do the least damage.  It’s not a must-win situation especially if we win the first game.  I certainly wouldn’t want him out there in a game four or five.  He’s just too inconsistent and unpredictable.  Better to have him here, where he can potentially really help the team, but can’t hurt them too much either.

Rich Harden and Ted Lilly will round things out.  Jason Marquis goes to the bullpen.  Good, I don’t like him much.

I wish the NL East and the Wild Card race would wrap up because I would really like to know who the Cubs will be facing.  I suppose all will be revealed this weekend.

And why oh why do we always get stuck on FOX for the NLCS?  Why can’t the American League have a turn? FOX always has Tim McCarver calling games in the post season, and I cannot stand him.  He has to be one of the most annoying play by play people out there right now.

Yay!  Mark Grace is calling the Cubs/Brewers game on Fox today.  That makes me happy.  I love Gracie.

My day off

I didn’t do a damn thing today.  Not one.  Okay, maybe that isn’t entirely true.  I did get the children to and from school and feed them, and get The Princess to her riding lesson. And I emptied the dishwasher and loaded the dishwasher.   And I cleaned up the breakfast mess in the dining room.  You know, the bare minimum.  Oh, and I also put a new piece of weather stripping on the side door to cover up the hole where our little chipmunk friend got into the house.  Wow I did more than I thought.

But, there were a lot more things I didn’t do.  I didn’t do any laundry.  I didn’t sort through any of the junk in the office or work on the plans for the Halloween party.  I was taking the day off. 

Those of you who know me might be wondering how a stay-at-home mom (or as Tom prefers to call me, a Kept Woman) can take the day off?  I mean it’s not like I’m actually working, right?  Wrong! But that’s probably fodder for another day.  It’s easy.  To take a day off you just decide you are not going to do anything you don’t want to do, unless you absolutely have to do it.

So instead of cleaning or doing laundry or cooking I did what I think most people secretly suspect stay-at-home moms do all day while the kids are at school.  I spent the day lying on the couch reading a book and eating Doritos. So there!

And what wonderful Doritos they were too.  I bought a new flavor called Spicy Sweet Chili.  They are so good.  They are so good, in fact, that I must never buy them again.

The book I was reading was very good too.  It is called The Night Villa and the author is Carol Goodman.  I like her books very much.  She has a real talent for creating atmosphere.  And I like a book where you can get swept up in the mood of the thing and forget your real life for a few minutes.  I finishd the book, but not the Doritos.

Now, tonight I will eat Taco Pie (Tom is out of town) and watch the second Formula 1 practice session from Singapore.  They are racing at night this time.  I am not sure how I feel about this.  I just hope the race doesn’t turn out to be a complete disaster.  It’s supposed to rain.  I have to think racing in the rain in the dark (and yes I know the track is lit) is a very very bad idea.  But, I am sure I will have more about that later this weekend. 

Tomorrow I am back on the clock.

Odds and ends

The children are getting ready to put on a play of some sort.  They are making their stuffed animals audition for parts.  Sometimes I wonder if they really understand that their stuffies are not, in fact, sentient beings.

***

Survivor starts tonight.  I love Survivor.  I know it is stupid, and manipulative and horrible.  But there is just something about the sight of Jeff Probst in those baggy shorts.

I have always thought that on Survivor,  you either have to win it all, or be the first one voted out.  If you are the first one to go you still get three days of the Survivor experience and then you get 36 days in the camp or resort or wherever it is that they deposit all the castaways until they stop shooting.  And of course if you win you get a million dollars.  That might make eating all those bugs and other slimy thigs worth it.  Or it might not.

So if I were on Survivor, I would want to be the first one voted off.  I think that would be ideal.  But I will never be on Survivor, because…well there probably isn’t enough room on the internet to list all the reasons why I will never be on Survivor.

***

I made myself an iced coffee with the stovetop espresso maker.  It’s good, but Starbucks is better.

The best sandwiches ever

You may think I am exaggerating, but these really are the best sandwiches ever.  I love them.  So will you.  You will have to make rules for yourself about how often you can prepare them because you will want to eat them every day.

I originally got this recipe from Rachel Ray Magazine.  I think I have only made one real change to them.  The original recipe says to fry up a skirt steak and then slice the meat.  But that seems like more work than it’s worth so I just use deli meat.  I’m lazy that way.  Rachel calls them Gaucho Cheesesteaks but we just call them nirvana.

The first time I made them Tom and I were silent during dinner enjoying their deliciousness.  Tom looked up at me and asked; “are these hard to make?”   When I told him no his relief was visible.  It was one of the first dinners I made when we got home from Rome.

Trust me, you will love them.  Get your car keys and go get this stuff right now.

• 1 cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
• ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1-cup extra virgin olive oil (no that’s not a typo.  It really is one cup.  Don’t bother using your best stuff-get the store brand.  I keep some handy just to make these).
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 small red onion thinly sliced (I never put this in)
• 3 plum tomatoes cut into small wedges (use whatever tomatoes you have handy I’ve used everything from beefsteak to grape tomatoes with equally yummy results)
• 2 lbs sliced deli roast beef
• 4 sub rolls split
• 1 package of crumbled feta cheese

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put the garlic, jalapeño and parsley in your food processor and pulse until everything is finely chopped.  Add the red pepper flakes, lime juice, vinegar and oil and a little salt and pepper if you think of it.
3. Put the tomatoes, onions (if you are using them) and beef in a bowl.  Pour the sauce over it all and let it marinate for a few minutes.
4. Put the sub rolls on a cookie sheet.  Use a spoon and spoon some of the sauce onto the bread.  Put some of the beef mixture on each half. 
5. Top with the feta cheese. 
6. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melty and the bread has browned a little at the edges

We eat them as open-faced sandwiches with a knife and fork.  We also never get a full 2 pounds of beef.  If it’s just Tom and I eating them I get a half-pound.  If I want leftovers (and I always want leftovers) I get a pound. If you are serving a crowd get 2 pounds.

Oh they are so good.  You will thank me for this.

The great chipmunk hunt

So I am in the office today, fooling around on the computer when I hear a funny noise.  I wonder what it is (and hope it isn’t a bat) and when I turn around, there is a chipmunk in the office looking at me.  What the -?  When did my house become the Holiday Inn for all the local fauna?  There is far too much nature in my house.  And I don’t even like it all that much when it’s outside. 

I screamed, not because he had really scared me, but because I wasn’t expecting guests.  So I called Tom, then animal control.  Animal control said come in at noon and get a trap.  That wasn’t really what I wanted to hear.  I wanted them to say, “We’ll be right over”.  But no, apparently I am on my own with this one.

The chipmunk was a pretty good guest really.  He mostly stayed in the basement, but every once in a while he would come upstairs and peek under the basement door at me.  Every time I tried to chase him outside he would just go back into the basement and hide.  We seemed to have reached some sort of accord, with him claiming the basement and me getting the rest of the house but really, I didn’t want him to stay.

At noon I went to Animal Control and got a trap.  It’s downstairs in the basement with a delicious piece of apple covered in peanut butter in it.  So far our little visitor has resisted temptation though.

When I picked the children up from school I told them; “there’s a chipmunk in the house, isn’t that hilarious?”  Of course their first question was “what is its name?”  I said he doesn’t have one he’s not staying.  When we got home he was in the kitchen.  But he ran away as soon as we came to the door.  Little stinker.

We think he finally ran out the open side door a bit after that.  We haven’t seen or heard from him in a couple hours now.  I’m hoping he’s gone, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he were just hiding in the old coal room waiting for things to quiet down.  Stupid chipmunk.  I suppose we will find out tomorrow.

My biggest worry now is what to do with the thing if it does go into the trap.  I will have to pick up the trap, with the chipmunk in it and take it outside.  Then I will have to let him go, which will require a certain proximity to the chipmunk that I am really not comfortable with.  Maybe he’s gone.  I hope so.  He was cute and all, really, there are limits.

Odds and Ends – baseball edition

Well, I have been obsessively checking my email all day (even more than usual) but I did not get an email from the Cubs.  So it looks like I have not won the opportunity to try to buy tickets for the first round of the postseason.  Nuts.

To be honest though, I am not sure I would have known what to do with the tickets if I had managed to get any.  There would definitely have been a humorous dog catches car kind of slant to it.  You can only buy two tickets.  So how was I supposed to choose who to take?  I guess I would have had to put all the names in a hat and draw one.

Or maybe, if I get a chance to get tickets to the next round (knock on wood) I should just give the second ticket to whoever gives me the biggest present. 

***

I love this video

 

I know I am an emotional fan.  Probably more than most.  But this video had me weeping in front of my computer.

***

Jason Marquis hit a grand slam home run tonight.  He’s the pitcher.  Can you believe it?  Pitchers are not supposed to hit grand slams.  

Foam fingers vs. marble fingers

I bought the children foam fingers while I was at Wrigley Field.  (I promise this is the last time I will bring that up).  They were thrilled.  Of course they have already been converted into some sort of bizarre fencing weapon but that’s fine.  How much damage can they do with a piece of foam? The C-man has now announced that wants a foam finger from every Major League Baseball team.  Fabulous.

We have been on a foam finger mission since our return from Rome.  We tried to get them in Kansas City but the Royals had already sold out of them for the season.  In August!  Apparently these are a very popular souvenir item.

Why the obsession with foam fingers?  Well, I will tell you.

When we were in Rome we took the children to the Capitoline Museum.  The courtyard of that museum is filled with fragments of very large statues including this one of a giant marlble hand:

 

Princess O asked Tom why there was a giant marble hand in the museum.  And Tom, without even blinking explained it to her.

He said back in Ancient Rome people would go to the Colosseum to root for their favorite gladiators.  And since foam fingers hadn’t been invented yet they had to use marble fingers.  He went on to tell the children that this was a marble finger.  He explained that they were very heavy and you needed a lot of people to help hold them up and that is why the foam finger was invented.  So you wouldn’t have to worry about dropping a marble finger on your head.

The Princess gave Tom her best hairy eyeball and said “Daddy!” in her mad voice. The story stuck though and we have been looking for the foam version ever since.  The Princess suggested carving our own out of white foam so they would look like marble.  I like the way that girl thinks.