Having swept the Rockies, the Boston Red Sox are the 2007 World Series Champions. I think two in four seasons officially proves the "curse of Babe" is broken, the 2004 season wasn't a fluke, and the Cleveland Indians--the only team to win any games against Boston in the post season--are officially the second best team in baseball.
What does this all mean? Nothing, other than I have to wait until April (or March 31, as the case may be), to see Grady in his baseball pants again.
Of course, perhaps the off season will give me some chances to spot him in "street" clothes, similar to what he wore to Travis Hafner's wedding last year:
I'd be OK with that...
Happy Halloweekend! (Man, I totally bought into the marketing campaign on that term, huh?)
So, fall is without a doubt my favorite season, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. The leaves, the air... The candy. The potential for a slutty costume. You know, the usual. Though I'm not (technically) dressing up this year, I've still been incorporating Halloween-related activities into my schedule, particularly this weekend.
Friday night I saw the Weakerthans at the Grog. This isn't really Halloween-centric in any way, but it was an awesome show. I highly recommend them to anyone--they're super fun and good and Canadian. Oh yeah, the frontman used to be in this little band called Propagandhi. No big deal.
Saturday morning, I was able to convince Chris to drag himself out of bed super early (i.e. 7 a.m.) and join me at the Lakewood Great Pumpkin 5K--running in costume optional. We decided we didn't want to be the only ones without getup, so I ended up running with a big pair of black wings made out of fabric with a spider web pattern, and Chris ran with demon horns and a spear. Turns out, the most popular costume was that of a 5K runner. Oh, well. I think we had more fun...
Later that day we went down to the West Side Market and picked out pumpkins to carve. I'd found those awesome patterns where you carve a big picture on the front and a small one on the back, and the back ends up casting the shadow of the shape on the wall behind the pumpkin. My dad had found them one year when I was in high school, and I had never seen them again, so I was fairly excited.
While carving pumpkins, I watched the Nebraska v. Texas game which fortunately was on ABC in Ohio. Though not directly Halloween-y, I'm pretty sure the Huskers gave the Longhorns quite the scare--at one point we were leading 17-3. In the end, Texas pulled it off, but the final score was only 28-25. Considering the way we've been playing this season, I'm basically putting this one in the "W" column. At least I wasn't feeling completely defeated for the fourth Saturday in a row...
After the football game, I went to see Ryan Adams play at the Lakewood Auditorium with my friend Brigit. The Lakewood Auditorium is literally the auditorium in the high school, so the setting was interesting, but the music was great. Crowd was weird--but definitely not as bas the at the meat-head frat jocks who kept pushing my mom and I around when we saw him at the Avalon in Boston... And though most people were at costume parties last night, I'm counting this as a Halloween-related activity as there's a song on his new album called "Halloweenhead."
Today I roasted pumpkin seeds (some with sea salt and some with my dad's homemade "magic BBQ dust"). I also made another "adult" purchase. No, not that kind of adult purchase. I finally got an upright vacuum. My handheld Dust Buster thing just wasn't getting the cat hair out of my rugs anymore. Gross, right? Anyway, say hello to my new Shark:
She's a beaut, eh?
Yeah, this is my exciting life, but actually, this was a really great weekend. The first in awhile were I haven't had work-work to get done, which was really nice, especially considering we're starting production tomorrow. And though Halloweekend is over, there's still two days before Halloween. Pretty sure that gives me time to carve at least one more pumpkin and hit up a haunted house. And I get to display my pumpkins/help distribute candy to the trick-or-treaters at John and Brigit's, which I'm really excited about. I think it's been six years since I've lived in a house that got trick-or-treaters, so that will be fun.
There's only one thing that could make my Halloween better: Sugar Daddy's (the mini ones). They're my favorite Halloween candy of all time, and NO ONE seems to be carrying them this year. The last couple years I've only been able to find them at Target, and even they let me down this year... If anyone's seen these things, puh-lease let me know!
Well, the ALCS starts tomorrow at Fenway, and all week I've been fielding this question: "For whom are you going to root?"
It would be feasible that I would root for either team, having lived in Boston (including during the infamous 2004 ALCS come back of the century and anticlimactic World Series victory). I am a big fan of captain Jason Varitek, owning a shirt with his name and number. And when I first moved to Boston, I empathized immediately with Red Sox fans, having had the Cubs be my default baseball team for as long as I was old enough to understand following sports teams (which is pretty long, considering I'm a Husker and they teach 'em young in Nebraska). Plus, the history and legend alone is enough for anyone who enjoys the sport of baseball to cheer for the Red Sox.
Now, having moved to Cleveland mid-summer 2006, I've experience about a season and a half of Tribe baseball. The Jake is a great field, and Cleveland supports its sports teams with unbelievable tenacity considering the general success(or lack thereof) of most recent teams. You get the feeling that everyone's sort of holding their collective breath, waiting for it to be like the "good ol days" (aka 1990s) when the Indians were a challenging foe on the diamond. However, like the Cleveland Cavs appearance in last season's NBA Championship, a sports renaissance may be dawning in Cleveland, and that's an exciting thing to be a part of.
But my real reason for choosing a team to root for is a lot simpler than that. This guy was on my fantasy team in 2005, well before I moved to Cleveland (or knew too many players who weren't Cubs or Red Sox). This fact alone I believe disqualifies me from any "band-wagoning" accusations. You need look no further than center field... (
Grady Sizemore. *le sigh*
GO TRIBE!
