Monthly Archives: July 2008

It's a Dodger Weekend

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Many of you know, and others have suspected, but Nancy and I are a mixed marriage. Baseball didn’t mean much to me growing up as the Washington Senators moved out of town in 1971, but I’ve rediscovered the game since moving to San Diego and I’m a Padres fan. Alas, even though Nancy grew up in San Diego she has always been a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. I have a hard time rooting for a team I can’t see play often and Nancy can’t buck all the years of bleeding Dodger blue.

Most of the time she has to resign herself to watching the Padres play but this weekend we are in Los Angeles and have just come home from seeing the Dodgers resoundingly beat the Washington Nationals. It was a terrific game on many levels. Our seats were wonderful, the people around us were fun, and best of all, the Dodgers won. Their starting pitcher Derek Lowe can run hot or cold depending on the day but tonight he was hot. He pitched 8 innings and allowed only one hit and one walk. His sinker was sinking like crazy and he was almost unhittable. This was combined with strong hitting by the Dodgers and it made for a game that was not ever really in contention.

It’s also fun being in LA for the weekend. Work has been crazy for the both of us but I can’t take any time off right now; this quick trip was the best we can do. But it’s a nice break from the routine.

Final Score: Skunk 1, Cat 0

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As many of you know, Nancy and I are supervised by an 18 year old cat, Kirby. Lately he’s been showing his age and now every morning I have to give him blood pressure medication. Lovely. Anyway, last night he decided to “make friends” with a skunk who had gotten into the backyard. It didn’t go well for anyone, except perhaps, the skunk.

If anyone is interested, the old standby, tomato juice, does not work. The recipe for getting rid of the smell is not, as you may think, tomato juice. Here’s what you do: 4 cups Hydrogen Peroxide, 1 cup Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon dish soap. Now for the fun part: mix them together and rub them into the cat’s fur. That’s right: mix a liquid into the cat’s fur. It combines all the fun of giving the cat a bath with the added benefit of using a liquid that burns his eyes. Fortunately the skunk did most of his damage on Kirby’s paw and we didn’t need to do much to his face.

Now to get the smell out of the house….