Magic Number Countdown

Okay so baseball season is drawing to an end (sniff, sniff- tearing up at the mention of this sad fact) and the Cardinals appear to win the Central Division for the 3rd consecutive time. The magic number (which when it reaches zero is when the Cards clinch their division) stands at 5. It has been this for two days. They have dropped the last three games; one to the Brewers, which allowed the Brew crew to win the series, and two to the rotten Astros. I can't stand the 'stros! David Eckstien was in the lineup last night for the first time since exiting the game hurt on August 18th. He hit a game opening homerun. The Cards held a 5-2 lead until the eigth inning. Thats where it started going downhill. Marquis was scratched and will start tonight, which explains my confusion last night at seeing a pitcher I've never seen before pitching. Emergency starting pitcher Chris Narveson, who did well for his debut. The rookie left-hander pitched four innings, aquiring six strikeouts and allowing two runs on two hits. Closer Braden Looper lost the game by allowing the game winning hit, very unusual for Looper who is very reliable and is known as 'the vulture' according to FSN broadcasters. The Cards go at it again, Marquis is on the mound and will hopefully bring the magic number down to 4. It could even go down to three, granted the stupid Cinnci Reds lose.
So boo Reds and Let's Go Cardinals!!

Loki Tales

This past Tuesday, we had Loki spayed. Poor puppy was all bewildered when she came home, she didn't understand why she was all drugged up and was hurting. She was so excited when she got home she jumped out of the car and promptly whimpered b/c it hurt. Poor baby didn't know what to do, she kept looking at us all forlorn and didn't want to lay down. So we finally had to put her on command and make her lay down b/c her legs were going bowlegged. She was so docile and sweet all night, it was quite the culture shock to us. We are used to Loki running around the house like crazy living up to her name. She spent the majority of the night laying in my lap....well half in and half out of my lap. I will post pics of that later. The next day Loki was back to normal. Loki is herself once againn, driving the family batty. The vet told my dad that the surgery went beautifully and that Loki's hips (which he x-rayed for us to see if we could expect hip probs in the future) and told us that her hips are in the top ten of all the dogs he has x-rayed in the past eight years!! Her hips are perfect! And what do we do...we spay her-she would have been perfect for breeding. Which is what we would have done w/ Shadow had her hips been perfect. But we are happy w/ Loki and stand by our decision. I can't imagine having more than one Loki running around the house, chasing the cat, and creating chaos. Having a puppy in the house has made looking at puppies easier-we no longer want one-as we have one. Wheras when we had Shadow, we wanted a puppy to play with and go on walks w/. So Loki is all better after her surgery and the family is great. There is a pet day coming up at the People Pictures place at Crestwood, so we are going to take Loki w/ us on that day to get a family pic- b/c Loki is a very important part of the family! So finally mom gets the family pic taht she has been asking for - for about a year now.

Breaking News: Baby Abby Woods has been found!!!

As I am writing this, they are saying on the news that baby Abby Woods and the suspect have been found alive. Woods was taken from her home on Friday, after a female suspect entered at gunpoint and slit the mothers throat. The mother survived the wound (Thank God) and ran over to her neighbors house w/ her one year old son and called police. Abby Woods was found about five miles from her house, with the female suspect. I am sooooo happy and relieved that baby Abby is home safe!! God has answered several hundered prayers in returning Abby home, especially that of her mother and father's! So I am happy for them and their family. Personally, I hope the woman that took Abby gets the chair. Normally I don't believe in that but this is a special case. It's really brave kidnapping a poor defenseless baby, oh so brave (major sarcasm here if you can't tell). If it had been my baby taken, I woulda told the sherrif to get the woman who took her as far away from me as possible, I'm not talking 20 or so miles, I'm talking two states, or the other side of the country or even better out of the country. My instinct would be to cuddle the baby and then hurt the witch that took her. To take a child from its parents is one of the worst things that someone could do. Doesn't matter what age, it isn't right. If someone did that to my family, the person who dared to take or hurt one of my family members would be in serious pain! I hope that Abby Woods is 100% okay, and I wish her and her family the best. My thoughts and prayers have been with you the entire time. I hope everything turns out the way it should. Congrats to the hard working sherriff and police officers and countless volunteers who searched and found baby Abby. Good work! More miracles like this should happen. I seriously hope they do!!

Remembering 9/11

*Several articles were available to read all over the web today( on 9/11-on the attack and the repercussions). On msn.com you could watch a clip that replayed those horrible happenings. I got into 2 seconds of it and had to stop it...I saw the second plane crash into the towers and saw both towers fall once, I can't bear to see it again...unfortunately I did see the second plane crash again and relieved the awful memories. On my way home from work, riding w/ Dad, and listening to the radio, The Big 550, they began to play a song "Have You Forgotten?"-thankfully they didn't play the entire version...it is a great song, very moving, but it always makes me cry...the vivid images the words present set me off every time. We must never forget what happened that day- we must never allow it to happen again. I stand behind Bush in his war against Terrorism- I have from day one and I will continue to do so. Terrorism has no place in this world. I had a moment of silence for the victims of the towers and flight 93 today, and I hope that many people did the same. God bless...and yes I am blogging that...and stay safe!

The Chris Carpenter Show

Carpenter was on fire tonight! He showed everyone why he won the Cy Young Award and why he should win it again. His victory tonight is his third complete game shut out, as the Cardinals blanked the Astros 7-0! The first inning went by uneventful and boring. Things got interesting after that. Carpenter improved his record to 14-6 making him the pitcher w/ the most wins on the Cards, and lowered his ERA. The fun began in the third when second baseman Ronnie Belliard hit a 2 out single up the middle to score left fielder, Chris Duncan. Belliard came thru again in the following inning, hitting a triple to clear the bases. Cards also scored on a basehit by Duncan, and a walk delivered to Juan Encarnacion w/ the bases loaded! The Cards magic number is 15 over Cinnci and 14 over the stupid 'Stros!
Let's Go Cardinals!!
*Also of note, a middle school band played God Bless America and it was awesome. It was the best performance by a band that I've heard all season. Then a choir from the same school ruined the moment by screeching their way thru the National Anthem.
*The St. Louis Police and Fire Depts were represented on field tonight in rememberance of 9/11. They stood at attention and either held the giant flag in the outfield or saluted it. A fan in the seats had a flag of his own...not a mini one-a full flag-how the heck did he get that past security?! They also replayed the late great Jack Buck's moving speech from 9-17-2001 in response to the acts of terrorism on 9/11.

Hello Movin' 101.1

Okay so apparently the radio station, The River, has bit the dust. And Movin' 101.1 has emerged! And I am loving it!!!! Today there are no commercials!!! None, nada, nil, zero! It is so cool! Its all music, and its a really good mix of hits from now and hits from the 80's and 90's! I have heard some songs today that I haven't heard in years!! As of this moment this is my fave station. We will see how things change on Monday....hopefully Steve and DC are gone and Vic and Trish in the morning are back! That would be sweet. OMG! They are playing Men In Black by Will Smith right now!! Awesome!!! In other news, Loki is chewing on my computers cords and the door stopper so I will have to get her out of this room soon. Loki turned 7 months yesterday!! She is getting so big! Her training is really coming along...today we went on a walk and she heeled beautifully, listening to me and behaving like a little lady! Even tho we did play hookey from class today...long story short- I was tired, allergies are driving me nuts, Loki and I haven't worked together in a while so she woulda been a goober brain anyways-so it was a smart thing to do. End of Story. Anyways.....if you haven't checked out Movin' 101.1- Do it!

Cleaning does the body good

So I got into a cleaning frenzy this evening. I blame Froggiegirl...she and Gimlet have Gimlet's friend, Gary, visiting this weekend, and she has had to do a lot of cleaning (and laundry for Gimlet) this week. So first I started innocently enough with my bathroom. First I clean the sink, then I decide to tackle my bathtub/shower (something I haven't done in years b/c I can't kneel b/c of my stupid knees). I really scrubbed that (if you want something done right, do it yourself). Then I decided to vaccum... but first I decided to give more time to the clothes in the dryer, then I febrezed the living room, then I dusted the living room. Then I tackled my room. I dusted everything...well not everything- I didn't get the topmost shelf of my tall book shelf or my high shelves b/c I'm too short to do them w/o standing on a chair(which I refuse to do as I am petrified of heights). This meant moving and rearranging stuff on my desk and bookshelves. I finally cleaned out the little printer holder (or whatever its called) and I put my lotions(stocked up ones that is) on the top and all my b-day/thank you/graduation cards in a ducky bag I found. So my desk is clean- dusted and de-junked. I started dusting my room w/ dusting my bed. After dusting, I decided it was time to change my sheets, so I did that, thew the blue checked ones in the washer, and put on the sheets that match my comforter. Then I made my bed all nice and neat. Then after all this dusting, I vaccumed first my room, and then the living room. I even washed my puppy's food and water dish. I stayed hydrated by drinking Lemonlime Gatorade. Then I was done, or at least I thought I was done.
My back was spazing and I was tired, figured I'd tackle my desk in the office Sat. Nope, after watching the rest of the game (which I watched throughout my cleaning frenzy) and the post game and some stupid show on tv. I decided to go online. However, in my cleaning frenzy, this meant I had to dust and de-junk my desk. Which I did, it looks great now. So whoever messes it up (besides me that is) is gonna get hurt. My comp is the only comp upstairs that gets the internet, so mom and dad use it. Mom is not allowed to drink while on my computer (after leaving a soda can and then later a water glass near my comp- I paid a lot of hard earned money for this comp and I'm not about to have it get fried b/c somebody else was careless). Dad is not allowed to eat at my comp after getting crumbs all over the desk and keyboard.
So my living room, office and room are nice and clean. Loki and the parents are camping so it will stay tidy until Monday afternoon when they come home. Until then, I'm going to enjoy my hard work and revel in the tidieness of the house.

Carpenter shows why he is a Cy Young winner

Chris Carpenter, our ace, got the start tonight, the win, and the complete game. Carpenter was amazing, everything was dead on. According to catcher Yadier Molina after the game in an interview on FSN- Carpenter's fastball was the pitch that was the best. Yadier Molina was hitless again, but his defense alone keeps him in the lineup. Manager Tony LaRussa has said many times that Molina could have a .000 batting average and he would stay in the lineup b/c of his defense. Molina has a cannon for an arm and has thrown out 44% of runners who have attempted to steal (that's the hightest %age in the league!!). With Giants catcher (former Cards catcher) Mike Mattheny out for the rest of the year due to concussion syndrome, Molina seems to be a likely canidate for gold glove. I think he deserves it, he has been outstanding and the guy is tough as nails, he took a head on collision a season or two ago that was scary...his mask and hat flew off and he was knocked to the ground but he held on to the ball to get the out at homeplate...he remained in the game too! Okay back to tonights game.... Preston Wilson homered and scored two runs. Carpenter got his 3rd complete game of the season and number 23 total career. Carpenter has a 13-6 record, and is one game shy of leading the league. He is in the running for the Cy Young Award again. He deserves it, the guy is flat out amazing. He spent his first year w/ the Red Birds on the bench (all season), the next season he comes back from Tommy John surgery and gets 20 wins and wins the coveted Cy Young Award. According to the St. Louis Cardinals website, Carpenter has issued only one walk since the beginning of August! Now that's impressive. Click here for the full story and more details. I was cleaning while I was watching the game. I missed some of the game, but I did see Wilson's HR-that was cool. The Birds on the Bat now have a 5 game lead over the Cincinnati Red's who have been having a rough road trip (yay for us). Those annoying and pesky Astros are 7 games back, so they are still a worry...we have to face them 7 more times. Don't count them out until the division champs and wild cards are official. These guys went to the playoffs and the World Series for the first time in a really long time last year and are hungry for another chance at being the World Champs.
As always, Go Cardinals!!!

Take that Marlins!

As you can guess from the title; this posting is about baseball. Suprise, suprise. I was talking w/ Froggiegirl the other day (whom I had lunch w/ on Thurs.- I ventured the new metrolink in Shrewsberry- very clean and slow at that station, the others are great) and I started talking about my fave baseball team (Cardinals, duh!) and she said "I really don't pay attention to it, if I want to know whats going on I read your blog." That was an awesome compliment! I love sharing my view of baseball and hope that I'm doing a good job. Okay now to the point.
Thursday night, the entire family (mom, dad, me and golum) went to Busch Stadium to see the Cards rough up the Marlins ( Cards beat them 5-1). This was mom's first time to Busch, so we got there early so she could explore. As we pull into our friends lot (we don't have to pay for parking ;)) it starts to rain. These tickets were purchased way back in March- I spent five and a half hours trying to get tickets, and dad walks in and takes over...20 min later he has ticktes...and asks "why did you have trouble?" Grrr. So we were not pleased when it started to rain. Luckily it slowed down, and stopped by the time we entered the stadium. Mom wanted to see the Build-A-Bear Workshop there, as well as the view from the main entrance to the stadium (the diamond). Mom and I go looking at the ppl taking off the tarp, and Dad and golum disapeer...they went to get beer already! Mom and I looked in the Team Store (Dad and golum outside w/ their beers). Finally, we were ready to go to our seats. Well Daniel Boone (golum) (who has only been to the stadium twice) decided that he would lead us to our seats...Dad and I have been there 4 times and know the layout...but nooo Daniel Boone insisist that he knows where he's going. So we venture up to the top level (we had to go up to go down- wierd I know), and then Daniel Boone sees the stairs and says we have to take them. We go down four flights before I start to balk...the stairs only open to three sections- the top most level, the private section, and the bottom level- they don't go to where we want to go- the Loge level. So Dad and I decide to go back up the stairs to the top level and take the ramps to our seats. We got to our seats first, a few min later mom and Daniel Boone show up. They "claimed" that they stopped to look at a store first...yea right.
The begining of the game wasn't good..the Marlins struck first. Their pitcher, Dontrelle Willis, was giving our guys a hard time. Finally we tied it up, then they got a run. In the 7th inning, Chris Duncan pinch hits for So Taguchi. He hits a homerun to tie the game. Pujols walks and goes to third on throwing error, so one on, nobody out. Rolen comes up and gets a base hit, Pujols scores. Encarnacion smacks a double, then Belliard gets a basehit, Rolen and Encarnacion score. Score is now 5-2. Suppan was the starting pitcher, but like Willis he didn't get the win. Braden Looper got the win, and Izzy (the same Izzy who almost blew it w/ bases loaded in the ninth- Pujols and Rolen saved him when the guy-Dan Uggla- on third ventured away and Pujols shot the ball to Rolen who tagged the guy out for the final out- bet Uggla got chewed out when he got to the dugout) got the save. The game was great! The atmosphere was electric, everytime Pujols comes to the plate, the place goes nuts. Fireworks went off for Duncan's 15 HR, and when the game concluded w/a Cards victory. Molina and Suppan were the only Cardinals (not counting pinch hitter Vizciano or Spiezio) w/o hits. Molina's defense speaks for itself. He nailed a runner (Hanley Ramirez- shortstop) trying to steal second base- guy was stupid...he actually thought he could steal w/ Molina behind the plate! Haha, yeah right! Suppan pitched a great game...he is shapping up to be the number 2 ace for the Cards (pitching wise that is).