September 11, 2008

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, I stayed up late watching the Rays beat the Red Sox (Go Rays!) and was too tired to write. But, the coolest thing about yesterday is that I got a package from Cheryl! It was awesome. She sent me a couple framed photos from our wedding day, a few ESPN Magazines, some great candy, some wiffle balls and a cute card.

Today was a great day at work. After my morning blogging, I finally got the player I'm writing my next article about on the phone. He's been a little tough to track down, so it was nice to talk to him. He didn't have a game today, so we were able to chat for about 40 minutes and he was a kick in the pants. Very SoCal — awesome guy and I think the article is coming along nicely. I'll finish it up tomorrow. I've also been calling around to NL front offices, asking the player development departments for their Fall Instructional League rosters, so that's been fun too.

After work I went grocery shopping because I'm out of pretty much everything. I got some good stuff, including some collard greens and ham hocks that I'm going to try and cook. Hopefully my pot is big enough. I also got a little muffin tin and some cornbread mix. Should be an adventure! Here are some of the other cool things I found at the grocery store...



From left to right, you're looking at a coconut soda I found on the Mexican aisle, these really easy steamed broccoli things I found in the produce section, next to the bags of salad (you just throw them in the microwave for three minutes and ... voila! ... steamed broccoli with cheese sauce!), the easiest Easy Mac ever (these will be nice because I can take them to work if I don't feel like making a sandwich. I've been coming home for lunch, but I realized that I'm missing a great opportunity for camaraderie in the break room. Everyone pretty much eats lunch together and it always sounds like they're having a blast), new blackberry Nutri Grain bars, these little salsa cups (no more wasted salsa down the drain and they were the same price per ounce as the jars), peanut butter and honey crackers (you always see peanut butter and cheese, but honey? Too awesome to pass up), and a big jug of sweet tea (mmm ... sweet tea!).

After that I came home, made some dinner and surfed the web a little bit before Brandon Morrow and the M's came on. Brandon looked okay—this is more what I was expecting last time out. I turned it off when it was 6-0 because I'm tired and about to hit the sack. The best baseball news of the night, though, was that Durham won, meaning they lived to play another game tomorrow. It's an awesome pitching match-up too—Phil Hughes vs. Wade Davis. For those of you that aren't prospect junkies, Baseball America ranked Phil Hughes as the fourth-best prospect in baseball in 2007. He's been in the majors, but has had some injury problems, which is why he's still in AAA right now. Wade Davis was ranked the 15th-best prospect coming into this season so, yeah, it's going to be a treat! It's been a very anticipated game around the office and I'm really looking forward to it! On Saturday I'm going to try and an oil change and then I have an eye exam at 5:15. The exam is at the mall I've mentioned before, so maybe I'll go up there a little earlier in the day and walk around a bit, maybe catch a movie. That new Coen Brothers flick (Burn After Reading) looks pretty good. Sunday = football.