Day 246/365 - No Beer Goggles Needed

The Nats actually won! It had been so long since that happened that I had forgotten what it was like to be happy at the end of a game. And there wasn't even a rain delay. Go figure.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 224/365 - Driving Me to Drink

The Nats dropped their seventh straight game tonight in a 2-1 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates and their record now stands at 11-28. It's looking like another 100+ loss season is in store for them (and thus, by extension, for me). Fannnnnnnnntastic.

I went to the game but I had to leave after the fifth inning with the score knotted at 1 because my allergies were making me miserable. Like an idiot, I forgot to take any allergy medicine to work with me today. I had gotten pretty lucky thus far this spring with my hayfever, but today it caught up to me. I must have sneezed a dozen times just on the short walk from the ballpark to the Metro. With the way my eyes were puffy and red and watery and my nose was running I must have looked as though I'd been bawling. The way the Nats are playing is certainly enough to make a grown man cry.

As you can see from the photo, I always take a book on baseball to the ballpark with me. Usually it's a book on DC baseball history. There are a surprising number of them out there. There are even a couple DC baseball novels. I like to read before the game starts and then in between innings. I'm also one of those nerd boys who brings a portable radio to the ballpark with him to listen to the broadcast of the game. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

I got home tonight in time to catch the ninth inning and hear the Nats let the Pirates score the go-ahead run and then fail to even things up in their half of the final frame. I turned off the radio, fixed myself a rather stout bloody mary, and put on some Billie Holiday. It's good to remember at times like this that even the blues can be beautiful.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)

Day 187/365 - Home, Bittersweet Home

Today was Opening Day for the 2009 baseball season at Nationals Park in DC. The hometown Washington Nationals played host to the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies. I wish the hosts had been a little less accommodating to their out of town guests. The Nats lost to the Phillies 9-8. They're now 0-7 on the season and were once again done in by poor pitching and shoddy defense. Ugh.

At least they made it close, though, with a two run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning. Plus I got to leave work early today, sit outside in the occasional sunshine, buy some new swag at the team store, and eat a hot dog and pretzel and drink a beer (followed six innings later by a Coke and an order of chili cheese fries). So in the final accounting I'd still say there were more entries on the plus side of the day's ledger than on the minus side.

Nothing breaks your heart and torments you with renewed hope like love and baseball.

Go Nats!

(Taken with my Nikon D80)

Day 154/365 - Weary Wednesday

Today was my follow-up appointment at the dentist's office. She drilled out and replaced three old fillings and then filled two new cavities. Plus they took a mold of my teeth for a mouthpiece thing I have to wear at night. Apparently I grind my teeth. It took about two and-a-half hours all together. My jaw is sore from being pried open that long and my gums are sore from all the pressure that was placed on my teeth.

My teeth themselves feel fine and they certainly look a lot better. The dentist used tooth-colored filling material and it seems weird now to open my mouth and not see my old silver fillings at the back. Plus she was able to spackle over the tooth toward the front of my mouth that was missing a sizeable chunk off the side, so now I shouldn't have to worry about any more bits of it crumbling away. No more food getting caught in the gap, either.

Evidently I have a good tolerance for pain. The dentist said she could count on one hand the number of male patients she's had who didn't flinch or squint when she shoved the needle into their gums to benumb their mouths (and that was after she'd already deadened the surface of the gums a bit with a topical anesthetic). Women patients hardly ever flinch at that, she said. I didn't react when she jabbed me with the hypo, so she told me I could take a shot like a woman. I did grunt a couple times though when she was using the drill and she got fairly deep in the tooth. She just backed out, gave me a couple more shots, waited a sec for it to kick in, and then went back to work.

The photo above is from the centerfield gate at Nationals Park. I was a bit early for my dental appointment, so I stopped by the ballpark on the way and peered through the gate (there were some men working on the centerfield restaurant) and pressed my face against the glass of the team store (it was completely empty) like a hungry man searching for a morsel of food. Less than a month left now until the home opener! To make things even better, the word is that President Obama has agreed to throw out the first pitch. I'm betting I'll enjoy that much more than the two times I saw his predecessor throw out the first pitch, and astronomically more than the year Vice President Cheney filled in.

(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)