The Mets were on ESPN last night, si O had to stay up to watch the game -- don't get to see too many of those these days (and I'm tired of watching them play Atlanta every other week).

What a game. Their bats were quiet through most of it, and when it went into extra innings I had to ask myself if it was worth staying up past my bedtime. I stuck it out. What a strange way to end, though. I really thought the game was over going into the bottom of the 12th down by one. They'd gotten the bases loaded the prior inning but couldn't bring in a run -- I thought for sure the Mets were down and out.

But then the Giants brought in their closer, former-Mat Armando Benitez. I always liked him when he was a Met -- he did some great pitching back then. Of course, he also did some lousy pitching back then too -- so the crowd was on him big time. Got him to walk Reyes. Then got him to balk Reyes to second. And with Reyes on third, he blaked him home. Never saw that before. The solo homer at the next at bat finished off the strange game, happily enough for me. But I felt a little bad for Benitez (though not as bad as I felt for the Yankees last night -- having home stolen in the middle of a game -- wow).

Clearly seeking to burnish a reputation for mischief, Andre and his family presented Da Chimpz with a birthday present that consisted of waterguns and... wait for it... a Slip-And-Slide.

After a long day of parades, family BBQ and hot sun, we decided to unfurl the thing this evening.



We even figured out how to make a contest out of it.

I took a drive over to Target this morning. Not as event-rich as trips to Wal-Mart, but a nice clean shop nonetheless. Got myself a big cup of black coffee on my way out. Slurping coffee and pushing my cart I saw in front of me a man walking with his kid, also heading for the exit. He wore a shirt that looked like a team jersey. Across the front it said:

Souvlaki.

I was wildly impressed -- it's almost impossible to get a decent gyro around here, let alone souvlaki. I instantly coveted that man's shirt -- even considered asking him where he got such fantastic fan-wear.

Then he turned to hold the door and I saw his soccer shirt actually said Slovakia; I was painfully reminded that I was still in Ohio.

Long weekends rock. I called Bazzukajoe earlier to wish him a Habby Bort-day and to listen to Ellexa climb on things she shouldn't be climbing on. Ha! Serves him right.

The weather is warm here at Berea-Rose, though there should be some thunder-storms rolling past throughout the weekend -- I say, bring it on. I got a jug of Fortissimo at the ready and the grill is in a somewhat more sheltered part of the backyard now that I've rearranged everything by the back door. I should post some photographic documentation -- maybe at the end of the weekend I'll have some.

And as for this blog, I described it to Frylock this week as a stray strand of spaghetti that somehow misses the pot of boiling water, gets scorched a bit by the burner, gets pushed to the back of the stove, and slowly gathers grease, dust and little hairs until someone finally cleans the kitchen.

Yeah, this blog needs help.

Temps dipped into the 30s last night around here -- might we be in for one more snowfall? Yesterday was a hectic day and night, so tonight we might finally get around to eating some birthday cake.

And speaking of hectic weather, check out the headline on this Florida news article. Will we have gas during a hurricane? With all the roast beef, potato chips, and cans of warm soda you're damned right we'll have gas!

Good thing I put the sprinkler out on the front and back grass yesterday -- it attracted a deluge of rain throughout the night. Yesterday was rather warm; this morning is rather chilly.

It's already Wednesday and Alane still hasn't worn her Mother's Day gear to the office.

So on Friday Da Chimpz were out of school. Still not sure why, but they were. I decided to take the day off myself -- I already had an eye exam scheduled for the afternoon, so I figured I may as well hang with the boys for the rest of the day.

One of our adventures was a trip to Dollar Paradise (right near the Giant Beagle). It was time to do some serious Mother's Day shopping. I said to them:

"Okay, gorillas, you each have ten dollars to spend to get presents, a card and a gift bag for delivering your loot. Let's go in there and choose wisely."

And choose they did. Wooden fork? Check. Tiny throw-pillow? Check. Multi-colored dusting wand? Check. And of course the patriotic star-shaped beads, the giant sunglasses and the straw sun-hat.

What a haul!

I still gotta get my new eyeglass prescription filled. My old glasses are hopelessly scratched up and mis-shapen. That eye exam was some adventure: I left the doctor's office with fully dilated pupils and walking out into the parking lot was like stepping onto the surface of the sun. I drove only a short distance, dodging the giant fireballs that hurled about me (may have been other cars), and hid out in the aisles of BJ's until I felt up to driving back home. You buy lots of stuff that way. Guess I could've gotten new glasses there but I couldn't see the samples on the shelves very well so I thought the better of it.

Play ball! It's opening day for Cookie's baseball league. What a morning! His team, the Reds, had a big win over the Cubs. Cookie went 2 for 2. On his first trip to the plate (see clip), he reached first on a squib grounder; his second at bat was a more solid line drive.



Right now we're hanging out, watching a monster truck competition (Monster Mutt is on now), awaiting Cookie's Cub Scout meeting.

Y'know, if we sit around and wait long enough maybe Frylock will blog about his latest dream. Or his weekend in L.A.

Still waiting...

This week's spelling words for Cookie: the -ow family. Words like cow, grow, and know. Alane drilled him with these words last night; Cookie rattled off the spellings while Mojo listened and schemed. Finally, he shared his scheming thought:

"How do you spell unibrow?"

The kid is evil.

Bad weather in Cleveland had me sitting in the grimy corridors of LaGuardia Airport an extra two hours last night -- an altogether crappy wait for an altogether crappy flight (can those seats be any tighter? can the lumbar configuration be any more wrong?).

On Monday night we watched Broadway Joe razzle-dazzle the competition on Dancing With Cigars. Caught glimpses of Frylock and Marloofa; when they showed Bazzukajoe giving a huge round of applause I couldn't help but suggest to Guido that he get a wider-screen television.