Irene's Reading List for September

The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartwright
Devils in the Sugar Shop by Timothy Schaffert
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Am I bothered?

Work has been a grind the last few days. My energy level is really lagging, but I have a hard time getting enough rest. I don't nap nor go to bed early. I get on average 7 hours of sleep a night, which isn't more than I wasn't pregnant. I've been scolded by my doctor more than once to get more rest. She's concerned that my blood pressure is alittle too high, but I try to explain to her that it's because I'm usually running late and rushing to my doctor appointments. She told me to get a blood pressure gauge to test my blood pressure until my next appointment. If it stays high, she's threatened me with bed rest. I can't imagine it'll be any fun except I get to hang out with Fred and I'll have time to actually go to the gym.

Countdown to the last 10 weeks of work begins

No, it's not JJ; this is just a 3-D ultrasound of what a baby looks like at 28 weeks.

Woohoo!! Now that I'm in my third trimester of pregnancy, I'm looking forward to the last day of work. I plan to work till Thanksgiving, which is less than 2 weeks before my delivery date of December 5. Work has been hectic for the last few months, and I have quite a few projects to wrap up before leaving. Let's hope the baby doesn't decide to come early or cause any trouble.

I still can't believe that Jim and I are a having a baby together. The last 3 months seems like an eternity, but I'm sure it'll pass quickly. We haven't even prepared the baby's room yet. We'll be sure to post our progress along with photos.

JJ's 3rd trimester & Sox playoff tickets

Irene and JJ (and me too I guess) officially entered their 3rd trimester last Wednesday. That's right--less than 3 months to go! It's starting to feel real now--we even bought a car seat and some onesies on Saturday. I'll post a picture of Irene in the near future if I can get her to let me.

Also - The Red Sox emailed me today about signing up for a chance to buy Fenway playoff tix here. I love the picture in the email--it really captures the Fenway experience in full: an overweight, drunk, bearded white guy in a red tshirt leaning/sweating over you for 3 and a half or 4 hours.
Good times!Speaking of baseball, very very funny Onion article here.
(Warning: Contains beaucoup f-bombs)

Scary!

I saw this on my Amazon homepage today &
it almost made me shriek from the horror if it:

Note: that's just a snapshot of the image.

If you must watch the video, here's the link

Excellent Analysis here

I wish I could take credit for writing this breakdown of the Mariners recent meltdown, but it's from the Seattlest.com blog:

The Mariners. WTF?

Well, that was spectacular. From the heady days of August 25th, when the M's were three up in the wild card and only one back in the division, had won two straight in Texas, when we were all excited about Blue-za-palooza or whatever the fuck it was...to now, after 11 losses in 12 games, when we're all pretty much in wait 'till next year mode.

You've all seen the boat sink, here are the numbers.

August 25th-September 5th

Team pitching:
100 2/3 IP, 138 H, 20 HR (!), 5.81 ERA. Opp BA .334, Opp SLG .550

Team batting:
400 AB, 41 R, 6 HR, 22 BB, 70 K, OBP .309. 3.4 runs per game.

For a little perspective, no team's had an ERA that bad since the 109-loss, 1996 Detroit Tigers, and no team's averaged so few runs per game since the 107-loss, 1988 Baltimore Orioles.

So, in the midst of a pennant race, the M's reverted to being an epochally bad hitting and pitching team. Nice!

Reporters asked John McLaren what has to change after yesterday's game.

"We'll see what we're made out of, how about that? We'll see who steps to the plate."

Who has to step up?

"We'll start with the manager and work our way through the whole team."

The M's clamber up onto the shores of Detroit tomorrow, where they'll throw Miguel Batista against Justin Verlander. The Yankees, meanwhile, fly to the friendly town of Kansas City, where Gil Meche stands between them and reducing their magic number to 20.