Something I enjoy

I love to explore cities. OK, I also like to explore towns, suburbs, rural areas, and places in general, but since I've lived my life and spent most of my time in cities, that's where I tend to ramble around. When I was in college, some of my favorite classes were in urban geography. Whenever I see a road, I want to know where it goes, and see what things look like along the way. Why do they put stores where they do? My urban geography professor was often hired as a consultant by companies trying to decide where to expand. I'm always interested to see what businesses end up where.

One of the things I do when I have time is drive around different parts of Tucson. It's certainly not the most interesting city I've visited, but I'm constantly amazed at the neighborhoods that I see in this town. The diversity can be quite striking. I find myself wondering how so many people can afford the really expensive houses, and then I'm sad about how many people live in depressing, dingy trailer parks & run-down neighborhoods. Inevitably after one of my drives around town I'm really glad to get home, and thankful for all that I have.

Preggers

Almost as beautiful as my gorgeous niece Dani:

What a game!

Mr. Beisbolfan and I watched part of the Rockies game last night, then went outside to enjoy a beautiful cloudy, breezy August evening. When we came back inside, the game was still going, tied 1-1 in the 9th. I can't resist an extra inning game, because you never know what you might see. This time we saw last year's Cy Young award winning pitcher, Tim Lincecum, used as a pinch runner. Then we saw the Giants (boo) go ahead 4-1 in the top of the 14th. Things didn't look so good for our Rockies, until Ryan Spillborghs came up with 1 out in the bottom of the 14th, and the bases loaded. I wouldn't be writing this post if he hadn't hit a walk-off grand slam home run. That's my boy!

Minor rant

I try to be positive, but I have to get a couple of gripes off my chest.

I'm really tired of walking into a store, and having somebody yell "Hi! Howya doing today?" the second I set foot inside the door. Usually I'm fumbling to get my clip-on sunglasses off & safely into my purse without dropping or scratching them, and on more than one occasion I've jumped when I'm startled by overeager store clerks. They don't make me want to shop and spend in their stores -- in fact, quite the opposite. I feel like telling them what I tell our overenthusiastic puppy -- dial it down a notch.

And why is it when people give out a web address, they insist on pronouncing "/" as "backslash"? / is a regular slash, or forward slash. \ is a backslash, and is not used in web addresses. Get it straight, people!

Perfection

Mr. Beisbolfan thought this box score was pretty cool -- a whole lotta 0 for 3s. We saw most of Randy Johnson's perfect game on May 18, 2004 on TV. Actually, I missed the first part, but heard it on the radio driving home from chemotherapy with my mom. Then we stopped at Diana Madaras' gallery to get a wedding gift for Ann & Spike. I got home to see the end of Randy's perfecto, along with Mr. Beisbolfan. Conga-rats to Mark Buehrle. He's in an elite group of 18.

Vote for Mark!

We have a chance to vote for the final baseball all-star in each league. Mark Reynolds of the Arizona Diamondbacks is deserving of your vote! His 24 home runs are 2nd in the National League, and his 61 RBI put him 3rd in the NL. Sounds like an all-star to me.

Vote early and often!

http://tinyurl.com/voteformarkreynolds

You can also vote for Tucson boy Ian Kinsler (CDO High School) to be an American League all-star.

Proud to be a Husky