Recap, BoSox, Baby Names

Okay, Tuesday and things are going okay. The weekend was pretty staid: We saw Shrek 2 on Friday night, did some lawn work and errands on Saturday, and then woke up very early to drive to New Jersey for K---'s christening on Sunday morning.

Shrek 2 was really cute. I think I liked it better than Shrek, but I don't remember what I liked/didn't like about Shrek to say for certain.

Saturday, I started off on the roof because storms were forecast for that night and all day Sunday. I wanted to make sure the gutters were clean so that I wouldn't come home Sunday night to any surprises. I also decided to remove the screens I'd added at the top of the downspouts. I think they might work in other areas, but with all the squirrels around us, the bits of broken leaves, nut halves, etc., that end up on the roof and in the gutters end up creating a dam around the edge of the guard that probably causes the gutter to fill up more quickly and to drain more slowly than it should. I probably should look into somesort of gutter cap or something.

The rest of the day was pretty calm: cut the grass/ogräs, run some errands, dinner at the 94th Aero Squadron. The dinner place was because I was hungry and started throwing names of places out that were near where we were. I like the WWI airfield theme, but it would work better if the College Park Airport weren't suffering under post-9/11 security restrictions on D.C. area airspace that make flying in/out of the airport very difficult. One plane landed during our dinner and that was it. Plus, they really could use at least one vegetarian option on the menu. We went in with Evelin wanting a steak and me knowing I'd get a salad and potato, but still ... it'd be nice if there were something on offer to tempt me.

The trip up to New Jersey on Sunday was pretty clean. We drove out of most of the rain before getting to Delaware, and traffic was easy (as one would hope, considering we left D.C. at 5:00 a.m.). The christening itself was nice; K--- slept through the whole ceremony and waited until after the service to get fussy. The christening was at an Episcopal church, and, as far as I can remember, it was the first Episcopal service I've ever attended: All in all it wasn't bad, just a middle ground between Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant services. Some word choices in the Apostle's Creed, Lord's Prayer, etc., were different, causing me to stumble, however.

Evelin went back to New England with her family. She wants to spend a few days visiting friends and family up there and I couldn't get away from work, so this works out well. She's flying back tomorrow.

The drive home was not as smooth as the drive up. Not only did I not have Evelin to talk to, traffic from the Jersey shore had the Turnpike backed up, forcing me to take smaller roads to get to I-295. Once in Delaware, I-95 was backed up five miles before the tolls, so I bailed and headed to Route 40. 40 wasn't bad, but the stoplights convinced me to try getting back on to I-95 somewhere around Aberdeen. Big mistake; I should have run by Ripkin Statium to see if there were any tickets for the IronBirds game. Construction on the overpass blocked my view of the interstate and once I was far enough down the ramp to see the backups on I-95, I was already committed. Things loosened up far enough before the next exit for me to risk continuing on I-95, which was a big mistake. The road slammed back to a stop just past the exit, so it was another seven miles or so before I could bail and head back to Route 40. All in all, the three-and-a-half-hour drive took about five. Blaugh.

Since I was home alone, I stopped at Potomac Video and rented Still We Believe: The Boston Red Sox Movie. Man, that was great: the entire 2003 season compressed into nearly two hours -- the highs, the lows, Game 7 of the ACLS ... I found myself at more than one point sitting on the edge of my seat. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I thought for a moment that Grady was going to pull Pedro.

Which segues into last night, with the other Boone's hit in extra innings to steal a game the BoSox should have won. (To be fair, Boone should get less credit for the hit than Foulke does for blowing the save, but still ...) It also rankles me that Arroyo's last two showings have been very good, but they ended up being thrown away. But, unlike 2003, last night's Boone hit doesn't end anything. This afternoon is the rubber match with Seattle and then its back to Fenway for a few games against Baltimore.

The baby name bit in the entry title is baseball related: Seth Stevenson had a great open letter to Roger Clemens [ Slate NPR ] that included a side comment about how Clemens and his wife named their children:

Speaking of your kids, their names all start with K. Because K is the symbol for strikeout. That's lame, dude. If I named my kids after something I'm really good at, they'd all be named "Calling-Roger-Clemens-Fat Stevenson." And that's just too unwieldy.

The Clemens kids are named Koby, Kory, Kacy, and Kody -- that's just plain mean and not just for the K thing. All four names also end in y, are four letters long, and Kody and Koby are the same name with the third letter flipped on its axis. And Kory's not far off from Kody and Koby. (Via King Kaufman in Salon)