The Sox have just done the Amazing: Pulled together to win Game 5 of the ALCS.
Tuesday and Wednesday, they must do the impossible: Beat the Yankees twice, at Yankee Stadium. The stats tell us that no team in major league baseball has come back from a three game deficit to win a seven game series. The odds insist that Boston doesn’t have a chance.
The Red Sox Faithful will just keep watching.
CBD has some surprisingly nice hiking trails winding around in the wooded area behind it, so today on my lunch break I went for a walk and took some photos of the fall foliage.
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I might make another pass later this month, as the foliage isn’t quite at its peak.
I turned off the radio last night after ALCS Game 4 entered extra innings. The Sox and Yanks were tied 4-4, I was tired, and I figured, “Either they’ll win or they’ll lose. I’ll find out tomorrow.”
Much to my surprise this morning, I discovered that they had, in fact, won the game! The winning homer was hit by David Ortiz:
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He brought in two runs for a 6-4 win over the Yankees. So Red Sox fans everywhere are still clinging to a thread of hope… a thin thread, to be sure. No team in baseball has ever come back to win a seven-game series after a three-game deficit. No team in basketball for that matter. Only in hockey has such a feat occurred. In 1975 with the New York Islanders (who came back against Pittsburgh) and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs (vs. Detroit).
Not to be superstitious or anything (ok, well, a little), but when I was chatting with my parents on the phone last night, before the game, I discovered that my dad had not been wearing his Red Sox hat during the first three games of the series! Last I made sure he had it on, and guess what? The Sox won! Coincidence? You decide: last year, my dad wore his Red Sox cap throughout the whole series, but in the crucial Game 7, he forgot – and the Sox lost!
Dad: Wear your hat tonight! The numbers say the Sox don’t have much hope, but any little thing helps.
I was surfing around the web this evening while watching the Sox (who FINALLY have a lead here at 10:14pm). While surfing, I accidentally discovered something fantastic built into the ‘Safari’ web browser.
What I found was that if you highlight and ‘ctrl’ click on text you have the option to automatically run a google search. WOW! I thought that was pretty cool. Especially if you’re reading a website and you come across a word that you don’t know, you can just highlight and click and get the defination from several different sources!
I guess something that would make it a little better is if the google site would open up in a new window or tab. That way I wouldn’t lose the original site while checking out Google.
So, to wrap up: I think that Google feature in Safari is cool. If you don’t use a Mac or use something inferior to Safari for browsing the web, you have my sympathies.
(this post has nothing to do with the Red Sox or Fenway Park)
Peter and I had dinner on Friday with my long, lost childhood friend, ***Laura Finizio|http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Laura_Finizio*** and her brand new fiance, Johnny. I’d say it’s been 7ish years since we’ve seen each other, but we have kept in touch through IM and email. The four of us met at our local Applebees and had a nice dinner… it was great to catch up and chat. A good time was had by all.
The jealousy comes into play when you hear what Laura and Johnny are up to. Both have left their unsatisfying jobs in Maryland, have bought an RV trailer and a truck and are spending a year driving around the US of A. Man o Man do I wish I had the guts/confidence/money/time to do that! They have plans to stop along the way and work in exchange for lodging and food… and are sure to meet a ton of cool people along the way.
I have been lucky enough to have traveled quite a bit in my life, but a trip like this would really take the cake. Someday….someday!
Attention All Authors; How to get me to pick your book off the library shelf:
First, make sure that the title on the spine is nice and easy to read. If I can’t tell what book it is or who wrote it it’s unlikely that I’ll want to read it. Second, a nice, unobtrusive color could be helpful. Third, it doesn’t hurt to be an author I’ve heard of and/or alphabetically next to and author I (or Oprah) have heard of. I know it sounds shallow…but sometimes I do pick a book by its cover!
My latest read, aaa|Ray in Reverse|0142000094|aaa, by Daniel Wallace, was chosen because, a) it was in a spot where I could see the front cover, and b) was billed as, “by the author of Big Fish“. I loved the movie Big Fish and figured that another story by the same author would be just as good.
It was good. An easy read, it only took me one day (two train rides) to finish it. The novel tells the story of Ray’s life, you got it, in reverse. The first chapter starts in Heaven and you gradually work backwards through his life back to his childhood.
Ray’s life is not spectacular. The events that are highlighted throughout his life could have happened to anyone. They may have happened to you. What makes this book special is the way that Wallace takes these mundane events and adds in fanciful details. At one point Ray is suffering from Cancer and as he deals with the fact that he will die he comments that he is growing wings. He can even feel them poking out from behind his shoulders.
There may be nothing extra special about Ray or his life, but Wallace has turned him into an interesting character.
To one of the few men who is comfortable wearing a paper bowl as a hat.
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Happy Birthday, Dad!
Last night I had the pleasure of driving down to Hyannis to help Jeremy and Angela kick start their website design. I had given them some homework, and they had started to come up with ideas for the site – colors, layout, content, etc. I gave them a few pointers, answered some questions, and gave them more homework. They have registered a really clever domain name which I can’t wait to post on our blog, but their site isn’t quite ready for prime time yet… so it will have to wait.
I spent 2.5 hours driving down to Hyannis, 3 hours there, and another 2 hours driving back – almost the same amount of time as a normal day at work. But you know what? When I’m doing something I love — helping people with technology, and hanging out with good friends — it really doesn’t matter. I’ll drive as far as I have to drive. It helps that the drive down to Cape Cod is actually pretty nice. Except for the part where I sat in traffic underneath the city of Boston for almost 40 minutes. True, I did paint a rosy picture of the tunnel in the driving video… but it isn’t always like that!
I was looking up some information in my Yahoo! address book this morning, when I noticed a little ad to the side of the page – “Enter the Address Book Sweepstakes”. Intrigued, I clicked through. Apparently, Yahoo! is running a contest where if you add at least three new people to your Address Book, you will be entered for a chance to win one of three adventure vacations. So I thought I’d sign up, because hey, who wouldn’t want a free vacation?
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