First Thing to Go....

...apparently is your blogging ability. Hard for me to believe I've not blogged since my birthday three weeks ago, but then again, it's not like earth-shaking things are going on around here.

What is going on? Let's see. The Cardinals continue to slip and slide their way toward a possible October playoff watching party at Pujols's house. Last night's game was especially frustrating, after the Ruthian Albert hits a three-run HR and a grand slam, giving the Cards a 7-1 lead, and then they lose it, giving up a game winning 2-run HR in the 9th. Lot of people are on Jason Isringhausen today, and his body of work makes it hard to defend him. The closer is supposed to get the other team out in a close game. Doesn't matter what player X did earlier in the game to give up a run, doesn't matter that player Y was thrown out and that would have added a run, when you get into the game, all that goes out the window and it's just you and the other team. Last night, and way too frequently this season, it's been the other team. Doesn't mean all the blame goes on Izzy for the loss, but he definitely didn't do his job last night.

So the Cardinals have a game lead over the Reds, no one in the NL looks like they can compete with an AL team (the media is hammering that point home repeatedly, which means there's a good chance for the underdog NL team in the World Series to jump up and bite someone, if only for the irony), and we're heading into September. Some Cards fans in the past couple of years have wished for a pennant race to "keep the team sharp" going into October. Be careful what you wish for.

Other news: The Clubhouse has started a project that, I believe, will be a huge benefit to Cardinal fans and be one of the places Internet-savvy Redbird faithful will have bookmarked. We're not quite to the unveiling stage of it yet, but it's coming, and I know I'm quite excited about it.

Our church has proposed some large changes in how we do things, which has gotten me worked up. I'm trying not to come at this as my normal, reactionary, "let's don't change" persona and be rational about this, but the changes, in my mind, have very little upside and a large portion of downside and risk. I've been at the church 28 years now, so I guess I can get a little passionate about things that are going on there. Note to any vision team members that might actually be reading this: I trust you know that I think y'all did great work and that you feel this is the best plan for the church. You've put a lot more time into it than I have. That said, right now I just don't know that it's worth it.

Lighter note: Looks like I will make the poker game this Friday, which is good. I know I'll miss the next one because Meron has a Tastefully Simple party, so it'd be late September before I played if I couldn't make this one. My friend Shively is possibly coming in this weekend, so I'm hoping he will and he'll join us at the PPT Shed.

Benjamin is doing great. He can get out a very close approximation of "Cardinal", which is good, and loves to wear his Cardinal hat. We've not been able to go outside and play with the ball and bat much lately since the temps have been upper 90s-low 100s. Today's a washout too, though thankfully it's because of a day-long rain. Can never have too much rain this time of year, I don't think. He starts back up at TLC (a "Mommy's Day Out" type program they have at my parents' church) right after Labor Day, going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He already knows a lot of the kids that will be in his class, so I'm sure he'll have fun at it.

Hard to believe September is almost here. I'm not a huge football fan, but I do enjoy the weather when it gets here. I've got the Pigskin Pick'Em for my friends organized and ready to go, and I'm working on NFL Survivor over at the Clubhouse. Of course, what really has me excited is getting closer to the free agency portion of the URL. THAT'S going to be a blast, I'm sure of it.

Pulled off one deal in my rotisserie league this week (Harden/N. Johnson/Quentin for A. Ramirez) and am working to do another. Can't keep a Cub on my roster too long, can I? Our trading deadline is coming up in a week and a half, so we'll see if the close race at the top produces some moves.

That should pretty much catch you up, I think. Hopefully I'll be back here before another three weeks pass!