Justin's No Hitter!

I'm a little tired today. I stayed up way too late watching all the hype on Fox Sports Detroit and ESPN after Justin Verlander got his no-hitter last night. The game was over quickly (before 9:30), but I love me some hype, especially when ESPN is actually talking about the Tigers and saying good things. Just two years ago I was watching a day game where the Tigers were playing the Red Sox and the announcers only talked about the team from Boston. I realise we were sucking but if you were only listening to the game, you wouldn't have had a clue who the Red Sox were playing. When the Tigers were up to bat, they only talked about Boston's pitching and defense. When the Tigers were in the field, they only talked about the Boston hitters. The best part? The Tigers won.

I had been out for drinks and nachos with Pamela and Michelle, as they were trying to cheer me up after being dumped by The Libertarian on Sunday night, but got home with only one out in the 1st. I was busily reading blogs and commenting, while watching the game. In fact, I almost left a comment at MyUtopia's blog telling her how well Justin was pitching, but didn't for some reason. Around quarter to nine, my phone rang (it was in the bedroom for some reason) and it was my best baseball buddy asking if I were watching. "Yes." "Good, because you know we can't talk about it." He threw me for a second because I hadn't cottoned on to what was happening until right that second. "Oh! Yes, we can't talk about it." "I just wanted to make sure you were watching." And we hung up.

Rod Allen and Mario Impemba, the Tigers' TV announcers, didn't say the words "no-hitter" until the last out was in Magglio's glove. Coming back from commercial breaks Fox Sports Detroit would just show the scoreboard, so you knew what was happening without a word having to be said. I was very glad they didn't say anything. I'm superstitious about things like that. I've watched too many races with Mario leading and then stupid-ass Sam Posey would say something about the Andretti Curse and sure enough within a few laps, Mario's car would start to slow on the backstretch. Fucking Sam Posey. I was never so glad as when he stopped providing "color" for my races. Bloody idiot.

The much maligned Neifi Perez made a fabulous play at short to initiate a double play in the 8th to keep the No Hitter going. I like Neifi, for purely girl-type reasons: 1) he wears his socks high, 2) his number is 8 (same as My Igor's), and 3) I think he has a cool name; so him making a sweet play made me very happy as I take a lot of shit for liking Neifi (he's not my favorite player or anything, but I like him). Justin came in to the 9th inning to a standing ovation. The crowd was LOUD! I was a little worried that they might disrupt his rhythm, but he struck out the first two batters from the top of the Brewers order. The final batter he got to fly out to Magglio in rightfield. I was crying like an idiot.

The winning run was My Brandon's solo home run in the 3rd which was awfully sweet, too!

DWD called as we have a tendency to call each other during momentous Detroit sporting moments. He laughed at me for crying, but I didn't care. Detroit's last no-hitter was 23 years ago, and it didn't happen in Detroit. The last time a Tigers pitched a no-hitter in Detroit was 1952! Last year Justin was Rookie of the Year…this year a no-hitter. Let's hope it's capped off with a World Series win in October. Hey, I like to dream big!!!

And being tired today? Totally worth it!

Prednisone sucks.

I'm sitting at home on my couch right now (love my MacBook) when I'm supposed to be at the Tigers game cheering them on to their fourth straight win and sweep of the Orioles (fingers crossed), but no! My stupid bronchitis is back and bad enough that I went to the doctor on Monday and finally agreed to take the hated and despised prednisone even though I hate looking like Jason Giambi. I even got a steroid shot in my gluteus maximus to help things along. Fucker hurt, not when the nurse gave me the shot. Didn't hurt at all, but within 30 seconds my right cheek was making me cry, if I weren't an adult who doesn't generally cry in public over a little thing like a shot.

Doctor also gave me a prescription for an antiobitic, as expected. Yesterday I noticed that my face was red and thought it was a little odd, but didn't really put two and two together. Then last night when I went to bed I noticed my heart was just pounding out of my chest and generally felt like shit. This morning all seemed fine, so off to work I went wearing my lucky Detroit Tigers t-shirt (it's so cute and I get tons of compliments every time I wear it - all the women want one) and carrying my bag with my Tigers chucks, jeans and just in case, my Tigers scarf. Stuff I wouldn't need, sadly.

I noticed when I went to the Ladies room that my face was a bit red. A few people mentioned to me that my face was red, and since I'm a redhead and hadn't been in the sun, this is unusual. I had a meeting at 8:30 and while in there noticed that my heart rate seemed a bit elevated. While sitting there listening to a jackass discussing stuff he should have discussed in his one-on-one instead of wasting four other people's time, I took my pulse. It was 100bpm which didn't make me happy. I kept waiting for Jackass to stop talking, so I could call the doctor. I should have probably just walked out as I was getting nothing out of the meeting at that point, but I'm just too damned polite. Although Jackass did get glared at, and I might have sighed a little bit when he started his third topic. Friggin' idiot.

When I got to my desk I immediately called the doctor and left a message. I thought I would hear back quickly since 100bpm is a tad high. A few more people commented on the color of my face and although I was working I just felt worse and worse. (Todd Jones just got the save on three straight outs in the ninth! Wooohoo! My Tigers got the sweep!)

I was supposed to be at Building A (my beloved old building where I didn't have bronchitis for four straight months) at 11:00 to carpool to lunch at Hockeytown before heading to the game, but instead I called my doctor again and got through to his nurse who said Come on in right away. I called the woman in Building A and said that I was not going. By this point I'm genuinely scared and was near tears (it's okay to cry if you feel like you're dying, even though you know you're not). I closed up my desk and stopped to tell a supervisor that I was heading to the doctor. She immediately offered to drive me, but I said, "No, it's 40 minutes away. I can drive." Then I passed another co-worker who took one look at me and said, "You're even redder than you were." I made it to the doctor's office in less than 30 minutes (40 minutes is when there's construction or bad traffic - I was lucky) and other than the Southfield I didn't speed at all.

They took me in right away, weighed me (gained 7 lbs. since Monday - damned steroids) and took my blood pressure (140/82 - which is very high for me). Doctor came in and asked questions and said, "It's the prednisone." "That's what I thought." He took my bp twice more and it dropped a little - bottom number made it to 74. He told me to stop taking the steroids immediately. I didn't need to be told twice. He also said to take a break from the antibiotics until at least tomorrow, depending on how I feel. I had told him when I got there that I was supposed to be at the baseball game - he's a big Tigers fan too. In fact, when I saw him on Monday, his first words were, "Did you see Your Brandon's home run yesterday?" Oh yeah! Walk-off home run for My Brandon. That's either an indication that I see my doctor too much or he just has a good memory - or both.

Anyway, when taking my bp the first time he asked, "Are you still planning on going to the game?" "No, I feel too awful. Should I go to the game?" "No, I was going to tell you not to go." ;-( He did say that he owes me a baseball game, though. He told me to go home and lay low for the day. He gave me a note for work to get out of the rest of the day and told me not to go tomorrow if I don't feel well then.

My face isn't as red, but my heart is still pounding a bit, although I am feeling better, at least in that regard. I'm still hacking up a lung which is better than feeling like I'm dying. The doctor did make a note not to give me prednisone anymore, although I'm sure I would have remembered.

If you haven't read my last post, please do so, it's a tad more important than reading about me bitching about my presnisone side effect issues.

Brian Bluhm - Tigers Fan - RIP

I know, I still owe you a Vegas entry but I want to upload my pictures to flickr.com first and I haven’t gotten that far. I read Mr Schprock tonight and he reminded me that I wanted to write about one of the VTA victims, not because he’s more deserving than the others, but because I’m hoping to, maybe, help people to name someone other than “Murderer #12” as Schprockie called him. I will refuse to call him by name in a completely worthless effort to keep his desired infamy from him.

The person I have chosen to tell you about is Brian Bluhm, mostly because he was a big Detroit Tigers fan, so I feel some connection to him, even though I never frequented the on-line chat sites on which he regularly posted. I read about him in the local papers where his on-line friends talked about how they frantically tried to reach him on Monday with exhortations to please post to let them know he was okay. That Tuesday night at the start of the Tigers game, they had a moment of silence for him and the other victims, as he had even befriended a number of Tigers players via the Internet.

He lived in the Detroit as a child, but never lost his love of the Tigers. He was to have graduated two weeks after his death with a graduate degree in water resources and had already accepted a job in a nice American League city – Baltimore - so he could have caught his beloved Tigers at least once a year.

Does it really matter that the Tigers did well last year in the greater scheme of things? Not really, probably, but at least he got to see them get to the World Series one last time before his life was taken from him so uselessly.

Now that I’ve written this, I realize it’s not the best effort and is probably even a little lame, but I hope all of you at least remember Brian Bluhm’s name for a little while longer…or even feel like remembering another victim who deserves/deserved more than they got.

Night Boat to Cairo

I have more fun new projects which need my attention, but sadly, I don't have permission to access the information that I need and won't get it until tomorrow. How handy is that?

Yesterday I was reading an article on the latest airline quality report and saw that starting in June Spirit Airlines is going to charge people $5 per checked bag, if the trip was booked on-line. If you did it some other way (???), it's $10 per checked bag. My issue here is that because of the new regulations designed to keep me safe from people needing more than 3 oz of contact solution (oh wait, that's me), it's damned near impossible to fly anywhere and NOT check a bag, if you wear contacts. If I had gone on my trip to BWI/VA two weekends ago, the only way I could have done it without checking a bag was to wait until I got there to buy my contact solutions. And then I was going to have the YS bring the contraband back with her when she moved back to MI. That’s not going to work tomorrow for my Vegas trip, so I have to check a bag. Thankfully I'm not flying Spirit and won't ever be again, thank you very much.

As if flying weren't horrendous enough to begin with, they've now made it even more hideous and I've reached the point where I simply don't want to fly anymore. I was going to say that after Vegas, I won't have to fly again this year as I'm only going to Cleveland (and hopefully, Road America), but I just remembered I have a wedding in Austin, TX in June. Shit, more flying.

The Tigers lost their home opener yesterday in the 10th inning. Now, I don't want to second guess the skipper, Jim Leyland, but I do not understand why he put Joel Zumaya in to pitch the 7th inning for two innings and then Todd Jones, our saver, in the 9th when the game was tied. Okay, maybe I am second guessing him, but wouldn't it have made more sense to put in a middle reliever, say Jason Grilli?, in the 7th and possibly the 8th, then Joel in the 9th and 10th, and if need be, Todd Jones after that. Fernando Rodney did a great job for us in the playoffs, but he's normally a bit erratic and that's the Fernando that showed up yesterday (single, walk, hit batter to fill the bases). Ah well, it's one game, but it didn't stop HRH from calling me as soon as the game was over. I answered the phone "What? You called to gloat already?" as she lives in the GTA. She just laughed as she doesn't actually care about baseball, but simply enjoys giving me a hard time.

I did a load of laundry yesterday while watching the game (and since I didn't go to the gym, I lifted my hand weights and did crunches and leg lifts), because I wore a few shirts last week which I wanted to take with me to Vegas. Tonight I will be packing as I'm leaving right after work tomorrow. For once, I've planned my trip well, as the weather here is supposed to turn wintry tomorrow. Today it's going to be 70F with a 30-degree drop for tomorrow with a "wintry mix." And it's going to be 80-90F in Vegas. Yes, I'm taking my sunblock, but I fear that I'll be blinding people with my winter white legs, particularly the drivers.

Is there an age when a woman should stop wearing shorts? Because I'm feeling like shorts are inappropriate for a woman of my age, but if you think I'm wearing pants or jeans when it's 90F, you've lost your mind. Should I stop at Target today and see if they have some slightly longer shorts (not that my shorts are short short or anything), but if I'm uncomfortable in them, that probably means something, eh?

Another stolen book survey follows:

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
I don't care, although certain books have to be hardover – Harry Potter, for one. I do like trade paperbacks, but won't go out of my way to get them.

Amazon or brick and mortar? Borders, generally, but will buy from amazon.

Barnes & Noble or Borders? Borders, it's a Michigan original.

Bookmark or dogear? Bookmark. I remember back in the day I never needed to bookmark because I always knew where I was in a book. Now that I’m old, I need to bookmark. I despise dog-earing, and hate it when I lend my books out and people do that. So rude!

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random? I put authors together, but other than that, it's mostly by genre or size. I know where most of the books are, though, and even when I move I try to put the books exactly where they were before.

Keep, throw away, or sell? Are you kidding? Have you seen my house? Books are everywhere. I can't even imagine throwing away a book! I have traded ones I hated back to the used bookstore so I could get more books, however. And I only trade in ones I hated (The Red Tent comes to mind).

Keep dustjacket or toss it? I definitely keep them.

Read with dustjacket or remove it? I read with the dustcover, but have learned to remove it when I lend them out because they've come back sans dustcover or with a ruined dustcover. Again, this pisses me off.

Short story or novel? Novels, I'm not a fan of the short story – except for Poe's.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)? Neither, I can't stand short stories.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket? Hard to say as I love them both. I, however, wasn't totally thrilled with the ending to Lemony Snicket, and since I don't know how HP ends yet (July 21), I will reserve judgement. If she kills off Harry, I will be severely PISSED OFF.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks? As I do my reading generally while eating or at the gym, I stop when I'm done eating or when the hour is up on the elliptical.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”? Both, I love fairy tales.

Buy or Borrow? Oh, buy, but will borrow if it's something I’m not sure I'm going to want to keep.

New or used? Both, I'm not picky, but have a tendency to buy new more often, just because it's easier.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse? All three, including the blurb on the jacket cover.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger? Tidy ending. Lemony Snicket almost killed me as I had to wait for each new book.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading? ANY time I can get a minute.

Stand-alone or series? Both.

Favorite series? There are so many!!! Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone series, Karen Kijewski's Kat Colorado series, Christian Jacq's Egyptian series.

Favorite children's book? Pokey Little Puppy

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard? Queen of Freedom Trilogy by Christian Jacq

Favorite books read last year? The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter and The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury

Favorite books of all time? The Eight by Katherine Neville

Least favorite book you finished last year? I know I’m going to be taken to task for this one, but it was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

What are you reading right now? The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What are you reading next? Either V for Vendetta or Vanity Fair