Games 44 & 45 - Red Sox v. Phillies (@Citizens)

I was saying to my wife over breakfast today that there would be a lot of disappointed readers today since I didn't get a post in last night about the Saturday night game against the Phillies. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "There will be alot of disappointed readers on my blog today"
Her: "Mmm hmm, and why is that?"
Me: "Because I didn't blog last night, and I had promised a movie review"
Her: "Mmm, hmm"
Me: "But don't worry, I've got a backup plan"
Her: "Mmm, hmm"

At that point I could take the hint so I moved back to eating my waffles.

So yeah, I didn't get a post in last night after Dice-K's near no-hitter, no excuse other than just too tired to get on the computer. We had gone out for pizza with the kids after watching a little of the Celtics game at my in-laws house and over dinner I checked the Red Sox score on my phone. It was the 6th and the Phillies didn't have a hit yet. Being the naturally superstitious baseball fan, I didn't say anything other than show my wife the box score and point at the hits column for the Phillies. I guess my finger was too fat or pointing in the wrong place because she said "is there something special about Placido Polanco?". I recalibrated my pointing and then she caught on and gave me the good advice of putting my phone away during dinner so I wouldn't jinx it. Dice-K may have lost the no-hitter in the 8th, but at least it isn't hanging over my head today.

The performance overall put me back into the well-maybe-he-CAN-contribute-something-this-year camp after all. I was pretty disgusted with him after the start in New York last week, but throwing a 1-hitter against a good Phillies offense isn't anything to sneeze at, so I'll hold out some hope, I guess we'll need to give it a month or so to see what he's really got this year.

Today's game was even more encouraging. The game was on TBS so I watched most of it, and while Roy Halladay clearly didn't have his best stuff today (lots of pitches out over the middle of the plate), the Red Sox offense looked very good in taking advantage of all the mistakes. Youk in particular hit some rockets, which reminded me of the way he was hitting the ball in 2008 (everything was hard, even outs), and having Ellsbury back at the top of the order makes the lineup tougher because Scutaro is a reasonably tough out in the bottom third. So they did what I was hoping for (take 2 out of 3 against the Phillies), and now head to Tampa Bay for another 'must win 2 out of 3' series (at least in my mind). I look at the need to win games more to show themselves (and fans of course) that this actually is a good team more than to make up ground in the standings, there's plenty of time left in the season for the latter, not as much for the former.

Now the really tough news, no movie review. After we dropped off the kids at the in-laws we realized we didn't have enough time to make any of the three movies we had talked about, so decided to get some lunch instead. The food was good, but the place (Cactus in Alki) had one problem for me, slow service getting water refills. To be fair, I do drink alot of water with my meals, but the combination of small-ish water glasses and slow rounds by the waitress to refill left me thirsty...and sparked an idea. In addition to reviewing restaurants on food (with stars), cost (with dollar signs), how about rating a place based on the size of the water glasses? Sure it would only be of interest to the handful of other thirsty diners like myself, but I would absolutely pick a restaurant based on this criteria if all other things were equal. The larger water glass makes my meal more enjoyable because I don't have to be on the lookout for a waitress while I'm eating, rationing out my water so I don't run out before I get a refill.

So there you have it, hopefully the brilliant water glass restaurant review metric idea makes up for the lack of post yesterday!