With RHM out in La La Land and having sporadic connection to Reds games, I thought I'd put up a short post.

I tried to stay up and watch last night's game, I really did. It was different than the night before when they were down ∞ to 0 so early. But last night was different. The Reds had a lead! And Aaron Harang was cruising.

But I fell asleep sometime before the balk that allowed the tying run in the 8th. Is that inning cursed, or what?

Boy was I delighted to see this when I woke up.

Go Griffey! And go Reds!

I understand the Reds lost last night. Not much of a surprise, I suppose, but I still had to find out about it second hand because I'm on business in San Bruno, CA.

San Bruno is near San Fransisco, but I still expected to be able to catch the game because the Reds are playing the Padres. Despite it's large size, frequent earthquakes, and regular attention in the media over immigration issues, in my imagination, California is one big friendly beach where everyone is leggy and bleach-blond and does everything, I mean everything while wearing bikinis and roller blades.

I tried to find the game in my hotel room, but the best I was getting here was the Cubs on ESPN. I headed out with my boss (hi Tom!) to the local TGIFridays, but they didn't have it either. After watching a little of the pitching duel between the Royals and the A's, I came back to the room to try to get it online. However, not only could I not stream the audio, but I couldn't even see the GameDay because they both required Flash, which I'm not allowed to install on my company laptop. So big boo to my company for not installing Flash (hello, welcome to 2001) but even bigger boo to MLB for not having a lo-fi option for Internet users who'd like to bear some kind of witness to the game while having limited technology.

Lucky for me, Greg Maddux had a perfect game going into the sixth inning, so ESPN was breaking in with regular updates of how much the Reds were sucking. And even though it stopped the ESPN updates, I was pleased to see that it was Javy to break it up.

Here's hoping I have better luck tracking down the game action tonight, though I'm not counting on it. Oh, I'd better get going; the workday is about to begin here on the beach and I haven't even put on my rollerblades yet.

Good morning, reading public. I'd like to take the opportunity this morning to talk about the Reds. On a beautiful morning like this, it's easy to be optimistic and want to start the day off right. I started my day off with a whole-wheat English muffin sandwich with an egg and a piece of American cheese. Normally I would have put spinach on it, too, but we ran out of spinach the other night.

I don't normally have such a big breakfast; my weekday fare is a packet of instant oatmeal and low-fat cottage cheese with fruit. Of course, on most days I sit at a computer most of the day, so my caloric needs are not high.

But that's not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about the Reds. Boy, they're having their share of troubles, so much so that's it's getting difficult to really want to pay attention. After all, we've got enough of our own problems without assuming those of our team as well.

Today, for instance, I need to take my kid to the library, to get a haircut, and to play miniature golf before he spends the night at his grandma's house. All of these activities sort of take the “relaxing” out of the weekend, but I sure do love my boy. He's just so sweet. This year for Mother's Day his class decorated flower pots, and his was the most beautiful one. He had covered the entire thing in words and pictures and had obviously put so much time and effort into it. In fact, he was upset that his teacher wouldn't let him take even more time on it so that he could finish decorating the inside. I told him about how we wouldn't be able to see those pictures anyway, once we put the flower inside, but he just wanted it to be perfect.

But again I digress. I'm sure I was talking about something before. Oh well, it'll come to me.

After we drop the kid off at Maw-maw's we'll go bowling with my sister-in-law for her birthday (Happy birthday, Amber!) We sent her something from The Popcorn Factory called a “Diva Bag” which looked like it would suit her nicely. I also sent my mother and my mother-in-law something from The Popcorn Factory, so I was surprised when something arrive for me at work yesterday from The Popcorn Factory. I thought I must have put the wrong shipping address in, but actually Jon had sent me something. What a sweetie pie.

Plus, we need to pack for our big move next weekend, especially since I'll be out of town most of the week on business, and there's ALWAYS house cleaning and yard work that need to be done. And it seems like there's something else, like something I want to watch on t.v. that starts really late and I might not be able to stay awake all the way through because it gets so boring at the end…

Oh yeah, it's Saturday Night Live. Molly Shannon is hosting tonight.

Enjoy your Saturday everyone!

This week on the podcast the CTS and I chat about the Reds recent horrible play. We discuss whether it will help the team more to have sent down Edwin Encarnaci´n or to have DL’d Eric Milton. We’ll talk about how the rest of the NLC is faring.Oh, and cat vomit makes an appearance in this episode.

Episode 57: Edwin, and Milton, and the Bullpen–oh my! (12.2MB, 17:52)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Oh happy day! The Reds have finally taken care of the bullpen!

From C. Trent:

Edwin Encarnacion has been optioned to Louisville and the Reds called up Jeff Keppinger.
….
Wayne said Eddie was initially shocked, but left knowing that it was a chance for him to get better. Wayne also said, “he's still a big part of our future.”

Freel will get much of the playing time at third, with Keppinger playing second and third as well.

Edwin wasn't in the clubhouse. Keppinger was. He said he was called last night and was ready to be here today. They'd been on a 10-day roadtrip, so his bags were already packed. He's wearing No. 27, which is better than the 74 he wore in spring training.