I have blown off the season-ending Cubs game at Wrigley Field in favor of doing all the things I needed to do at home today. This was probably a good choice overall. :)

Update: And since I've now gotten everything off to quadrivium for the GAFilk songbook and continued to debug my procedures for recording directly to Cubase without requiring help in the studio, I'd say that makes it a productive afternoon.

It also meant that I could get a nice lunch at Red Robin with daisy_knotwise, Katie, and Julie (any place that will give them balloons is always good) and got a couple of new pairs of jeans and a new shirt before heading off to ConClave next weekend.

If you had two innings in the "How long will Bill and Katie stay at the baseball game?" pool, you're a winner!

It actually wasn't too cold, as the wind wasn't in our faces, but Katie started wanting to leave her seat in the top of the first inning. Substantially aerobic exercise ensued before I gave up after two inning, fervently hoping that there would be a bus to take us back to the parking lot.

After about 15 minutes, there was. Fortunately.

Katie wants to go to a Cubs game. I had planned to blow off the Cubs game tonight, because it's cold and I have things that I could be doing. But I'm running out of Cubs games this season and they're giving away Fergie Jenkins bobblehead dolls tonight. And the tickets are a dead loss if I don't use them.

So we're going to bundle up and head down to Wrigley Field. And if Katie wants to leave earlier, well, I really won't mind.

Wish us luck.

daisy_knotwise has spent most of the afternoon in the hotel room with a variable number of napping children. The count of children was constant at two, but the number napping seems to have been variable. The Dealers' Room is going to close in a few minutes, at which time I'll go rescue her and we can get some dinner.

I'm thinking that an afternoon in the room with the girls wasn't the most exciting way to spend it.

*sigh*

On the other hand, I was able to watch the Cubs/Cards game reports on ESPN GameCast. Cards won 2-1. :)

shsilver left tonight's Cubs game after the seventh inning stretch. Absent his conversation, I only made it to the end of the inning before heading home. I didn't miss much.

daisy_knotwise had asked me to pick up some Tilex on the way home, so I ran by the Jewel. I also picked up a few containers of yogurt and some rice pudding that was on sale. And since soda was still on sale and the sales tax rate goes from the food rate to the general merchandise rate tomorrow, I decided it was an opportune time to fill 'er up.

I went to the self-checkout. The woman next to the register suggested that I should use the other self-checkout lane with the belt, because it would be "easier". I pointed out that it would not be easier, because I intended to scan one carton of soda five times, rather than removing each of the identical cartons from the cart and replacing them. She said, "But then I have to press a button."

I said, "Yes, that's correct," and proceeded to use the self-checkout lane that I'd intended to use in the way that I'd intended to use it. And she did press the button in reasonably good time.

Easier for who, I wonder. Well, no, I don't actually.

Anyway, I carefully studied the receipt and the amount of sales tax on it was way too large for what I'd just bought. So off I went to the Service Desk, where I mentioned to the nice lady there that the amount of tax was clearly wrong, because the sales tax rate doesn't go up until tomorrow, She agreed that was true and we spent five minutes futzing around with it before she finally decided to just scan a pack of soda and see what came up for tax.

It was clearly ten percent, which was clearly wrong. Apparently someone had decided to enter the new rate and go home.

They finally ended up giving me all of the tax on the purchase back.

Which was nice of them. I would have settled for what I didn't owe the State of Illinois.

I wandered down to Wrigley Field today to watch the Cubs/Mets game, meeting the Donats there. Sadly, Carlos Zambrano melted down completely under a barrage of singles (and the occasional triple), going 3 1/3 innings and giving up four runs. Since the Cubs only scored one run, four runs were more than enough to produce another Cub loss.

Now, the good news from my point of view is that the Cardinals are now up by ten games in the Central. :)

But the Cubs have morphed into a pretty ugly team this year.

Assuming that it's not rained out -- which is always a possibility, given what I see out the window -- I'll shortly be heading down to Wrigley Field with Steve Green, this year's TAFF delegate, to meet Sam and Bonnie and watch the Cubs play the Nationals.

Yesterday, the weather was fine. The Cubs, however, sucked, losing to the Nats 15-6.

Today, the weather sucks.

We'll see about the Cubs.

bedlamhouse and ladyat came up to visit today, go to the Cubs / Cards game with me, and pick up Gordy's guitar. Sadly, the Cards lost, but Bill and Brenda liked it better that way, so it wasn't a total loss. :)

Tomorrow, we'll all head up to Picnicon.

So as I was standing on the concourse eating my dinner at one of the condiment stands -- dinner consisting of a foot-long hot dog with everything except peppers and a pepperoni calzone, the dinner that nutrition forgot! -- I was more than a bit surprised to see someone walk up to the dispenser and squirt ketchup onto his Connie's deep-dish pizza.

I don't eat ketchup on pizza. Katie -- who eats ketchup on Katie -- doesn't eat ketchup on pizza.

This guy, well...

Well, just as I picked up the phone to call daisy_knotwise at abour 7:15 to tell her that I was just about to give up and come home, because there was no way they were going to start this game before 9 PM, they announced that the game had been called on account of rain.

Up until then, I was dry. After standing in the rain for half an hour waiting for a bus, not so much.

*sigh*

I'd planned for some time to try to take daisy_knotwise, Katie, and Julie to the Cubs game today, because it was the game where they're giving the kids stuffed Cubs bears from the Build-a-Bear Workshop. The forecast had been for good weather, so waking up to dark skies and cool temperatures was unnerving. But it was a 3:10 PM start time for TV, so by the time we actually got to the park about 1:30 PM, the weather had turned gorgeous.

What I'd underestimated was the degree of difficulty of dealing with two children under 3 years old. Katie decided she wanted to go exploring before the game, so she headed out with me trailing behind. I saw parts of the ballpark I'd not seen in years. I also now know where to buy snow cones and kettle corn should the need arise. (It didn't today.)

I got Katie back to our seats and then discovered that I'd forgotten my pen. This resulted in a trip down to the now-crowded concourse to buy a pen to keep score with. Katie was rather cowed by the crowd and was happy to hold my hand. And back to the seats we went for the opening pitch.

Gretchen had bought popcorn and a pretzel for the girls, both of which were quite popular. Unfortunately, Katie didn't want to stay in her seat, while Julie really wanted to fall asleep, but wasn't able to manage it in the general tumult. After three and a half innings of bipartisan squirming, I decided that it was time to give up. We were walking down the stairs on the way out just as Fontenot hit a triple to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

It was a beautiful day for a ballgame. But I think we'll wait until the girls are just a wee bit older before we try this again. :)

daisy_knotwise and I headed down to Wrigley Field today to meet Sam and Bonnie for brunch in the Stadium Club (courtesy of our friend, Bob) followed by the Cubs / Astros game. Gretchen had to head home early to rescue our babysitter who had a softball game late in the day, but the remaining three of us stuck it out in the face (literally) of a chilly breeze.

Whenever Sam left his seat, the Astros would score. Whenever Bonnie left her seat, the Cubs would score. So with the Cubs trailing 6-3 going to the bottom of the ninth, Bonnie went to the ladies room.

The Cubs scored two runs and had runners on second and third with two out when Geovany Soto lined out to the third baseman to end the game.

Well, it almost worked.

Well, if they hadn't delayed the start of last night's Cubs game by 35 minutes waiting for a phantom thunderstorm that apparently missed the ballpark -- we had about two minutes of rain and they covered the field at about 6:55 PM -- they might have finished the game on schedule. As it was, the rain arrived in earnest after the seventh inning and I left. They played another half-inning before covering the field for the final time. But the Cubs won and my fantasy first baseman hit two homers, so I did ok. :)

The official messiest food at the park has to be the chili dog nachos that are new this year. Burp.

My changes to the initialization for our tab control all seem to be working fine, so I've checked them into ClearCase. Yay!

I have, I think, successfully preserved my about-to-expire United Mileage Plus miles by having lunch at the pizzeria across the street and paying for it with my Discover Card that's linked to the Mileage Plus dining plan. We'll see if the miles show up in my account. And it was pretty decent pizza.

jeff_duntemann is joining us for dinner tonight. He must like us, because the menu for tonight is "leftovers". :)

Yesterday, I had planned to go to the Cubs game. The weather was beautiful, the pitching matchup was excellent, and I discovered I had a Capricon meeting. Oops.

So I swapped my plans around to go to the game tonight.

Are you surprised to hear that it's been raining all day? And that thunderstorms are predicted this evening?

As far as I know, they're still planning to try to play the game tonight. We'll see how this goes.

And I'll shortly be off to the ballpark to see tonight's Cubs / Giants game. Games two days in a row is a bit much, but it's the only time that the Marlins and the Giants are in town.

Also, I'm going to one game in the entire month of June, so...

I went off to the Cubs game today, leaving daisy_knotwise and the girls at home. It was a gorgeous day for a ballgame, which was especially nice as the Cubs retired Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux's number 31 today. The Cubs beat the Marlins in a game where Lou Piniella looked about as disgusted as I've ever seen him. That was after he had to take Zambrano out because he'd tweaked his hamstring beating out a bunt for a hit. Since he was leading off, I'm going to assume he was bunting for a hit, not exactly what Piniella had in mind. It did turn out to be the lead run after Derrek Lee's grand slam, but I think Piniella would rather have a healthy Zambrano.

I hurried back from the game so Gretchen and I could pack up Katie and Julie and take them to the park. Because there's something really nice about two little girls happily giggling as Daddy pushes them in the swing.

The Cubs cleverly canceled Sunday night's Cubs / Cardinals game, because it's hard to play in a lake. Today, it's not raining steadily so I'm guessing the game will go on tonight.

I plan to be there. This may make me dumber than the Cubs, given the expected temperature.

Maybe the wind will be blowing out.

Or, at least, almost away we go. But I'm packed, daisy_knotwise is almost packed, and we're almost ready to get on the road to ConClave.

Stupid 8:37 start time for the Cubs playoff game. Mutter...

daisy_knotwise stayed at home tonight with Katie and Julie while I braved Wrigley Field for tonight's 8:37 PM game against the Dodgers. The Dodgers won by a score of 10 to 3 in a game that was not as close as the score indicates. More random thoughts follow:

It's not often that you see each infielder for a team commit an error in the same game.

It's even less often that you see that team win the game. We didn't.

I now know what disease NLDS is campaigning against. It's the National Lousy Defense Society.

Amazingly, Zambrano didn't actually kill any of his infielders who helped the Cubs cough up five runs in the second inning. Four were unearned. All of them could have been prevented had they actually turned a double play on a double play grounder.

Manny Ramirez can hit a baseball a long way.

I suppose that Piniella figured the game was lost already, but I'm not sure sending Fukudome to the plate again after his first two at bats -- both strikeouts -- was the best idea unless you really like to hear the home team fans boo your players.

And sending Fukudome to the plate in the ninth inning was just pretty much incomprehensible.

Most major league hitters do not spin around like a top after failing to connect with the third strike. Maybe this amuses Japanese fans. Cubs fans, not so much.

Overall, I blame Mayor Daley. He was the one who had the city "negotiate" with the Wrigleyville bars so that they'd stop serving beer after the seventh inning in any potential clinching game. (Nice liquor license you've got there. Shame if anything should happen to it.) It looks like that won't be necessary.

The Cubs have now lost eight consecutive playoff games. Five of those were at Wrigley Field. I was there for all five of them.

You get home much faster when half of the fans have already left the park by the end of the game.

Cubs lose to the Dodgers by a final score of 7 to 2. Random thoughts follow:

Doesn't seeing NLDS stenciled on the field make you think that this is a fundraiser for some dread disease? "Give generously to the National Leuko-Dystrophy Society!"

The time to have someone up and warming in the bullpen is sometime before your pitcher walks the bases loaded. Again. (Ok, that's not quite fair, the bases were loaded the first time on two walks and an infield single. Even so.)

If you do have someone warmed up in your bullpen, you have an option other than letting your starter -- who has looked pretty bad and had no control all evening -- give up a grand slam. Well, I suppose you did have an option -- four pitches thrown very slowly wide of the plate while getting a pitcher warmed up. Or faking an injury. Or something.

You'd think that the Zimmer Rays would have dispersed by now.

The Miller Lite billboard out in right field said "Win." After DeRosa's apparently wind-aided home run to right, I thought of how amusing it would be for an extension to slide out with a "d" on it.

Why exactly is Jason Marquis on the postseason roster? Are you that much smarter than Tony LaRussa? Do you have no competent relievers available?

The official scorer seemed pretty brutal to me tonight. He gave at least two errors (one to each team) where I'd have given the fielder a break.

Yes, the strike zone had its apparently random moments tonight. However, you still need to get the ball within a foot of where it should be to have a hope of having it called a strike.

The Dodgers were probably the team that would be worst for the Cubs to encounter. The best chance they had was to catch them in a five game series and overwhelm them with superior starting pitching.

Now, it's time for Plan B.

Plan B involves winning tomorrow.

You don't want to see Plan C.

The Cubs and the White Sox are both in the postseason.

Cool!

It was the last day of summer, so after breakfast at Charcoal Delights -- where Katie was determined to steal Mommy's eggs -- we dropped Katie and Julie off at a friend's house and went down to Wrigley Field for the last game of the regular season. Unfortunately, the Cardinals lost which, in combination with the Phillies victory tonight, eliminated them from the playoff picture. Mind you, the odds were pretty long by this point anyway, but now I can root for the Cubs for the rest of the season with a clear conscience. :)

After we picked up Katie (who had skipped her nap) and Julie (who hadn't), we ran up to RAM for dinner. Katie was being moderately badly behaved, running away around the edges of the parking lot. This has been getting worse lately and is behavior we need to discourage right now. By the time we got home, Katie had worked herself up into persona non grata mode.

But first, she needed a bath, if for no other reason than to get the caramel from the apple dippers out of her hair. She was actually pretty well-behaved in the bath -- I suspect she realized that the limits of parental patience had arrived. We even managed to use the special bucket to rinse shampoo out of her hair without getting water in her eyes.

And then it was time to bathe baby sister. And the entertainment began.
( Pictures taken by husband with no survival instinct inside... )

We left Katie and Julie in the care of the girl next door as daisy_knotwise and I headed off to meet samwinolj and then to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play the Cardinals. I wore the red pocket-tee and Cardinals jersey that Gretchen had bought me for my birthday and apparently it brought the Cards some luck, as they beat the Cubs 12-3.

The conversation was good too. :)

I'm off to Milwaukee this evening to watch the Cubs play the Brewers. And from my point of view as a Cardinals fan first and a Cubs fan second, I'm happy to root for the Brewers to lose this game.

Since CC Sabathia, the Brewers' starter, is on my fantasy team though, I'm reduced to hoping that the damage to him is minimized.

It's a sad thing. :)

Well, it was an interesting game. daisy_knotwise and I left Katie and Julie with our sitter-next-door and headed down to Wrigley Field with bedlamhouse and ladyat to watch the Cubs play the Marlins. Rich Harden made another fine, but short, start for the Cubs, striking out 10 in 5 innings of work. Unfortunately, he left with a 2-1 lead that the bullpen couldn't hold and the Cubs eventually lost in 13 innings, not too long after Piniella was ejected in the top of the ninth for arguing a call at first base.

So it was definitely interesting.

After the game, we picked up the kids and headed over to Sweet Baby Ray's for dinner. And now everyone's getting ready to crash out.

It was a long day.