Dominating Performance

Last night's game, Royals vs. Canmore, went very, very well. Despite a first inning error-fest on our part, giving up three runs, we had our bats to compensate and made short work of the Canmore team, 15-3 in 4.5 innings.

In the top half of the first, an errant throw from right field allowed a runner from second to score. Then with two outs, runners on first and second against a very weak batter, strike three was a passed ball from Alan to Jesse, which sent the runners going. Jesse picked up the ball and didn't know where to throw it, until the calls for the throw to first were heard. He then missed Aaron with the throw down, causing the other two runners on the base paths to score. Then confusion rained down whether or not the runner could run with first occupied, but after consultation of the umpires, the play was allowed to stand because there were two outs. Ugh.

That was alright though, we managed to claw back a couple runs in the home half of the inning. When we all arrived back in the dugout, it was odd to see my name down in the 7th spot in the order. I had only been batting in the 2nd slot all season, except for the one game that I was lead off. Nevertheless, it didn't hurt my play at all... maybe even improved my batting position.

Inning after inning, we managed to knock in a few runs here and a ton of runs there. I think we scored six in the fourth inning, including a monster home run from Alan, that may have left the enclosure of Shouldice Park and into the parking lot. What a towering shot that was. Munden also homered in the second, while I was on third base.

I went 2-for-2, 2 singles, 2 runs scored and had a sacrifice bunt. The pitcher wasn't very fast and was lit up by just about everyone. There were some pretty sweet hits all night into the outfield, that were not fielded too cleanly, which allowed for extra bases, especially in that big fourth inning. Defensively, we tightened up quite well after the first inning. I didn't get any groundballs to second, a throw from Jesse to get a runner was a little late and that was pretty much it for me.

We finished the game in what was probably just less than an hour, due to the 12-run mercy rule. It was the fastest game we've played, getting on and coming off the field... looked pretty professional doing it. It was one of those games you would have loved to be on the team for.

After the game, Munden rushed over to the liquor store, picked up a 15-pack and most of the team stuck around for a beer. After a couple, with the taste fresh in my mouth, I headed home and called up Chris. He hadn't eaten anything, so the idea of going to the Yardhouse for Wing Night was awfully appealing to him. I got home, changed and then we went over for a couple or three and some wings.

There, I do believe it was Nick & Erin working behind the bar, Asian girl (who I now know is Lisa) and Mini-Karly (who I now know is Nicole) out serving. A smaller workforce for a busy Wing Night in the Yardhouse. We sat up at the bar and had a pretty good evening that was discounted again by some good bartending on the part of Nick. Sah-weet. 6 beers, 2 martinis and wings we were only charged for 3 beers and some wings. Wicked. It's great being a regular.

At the bar though, I got out of my chair to go "club the seal," there was a twinge in the groinal area. Now, it's still there this morning. It's just a nuissance more than dibilitating. With the game tonight, hopefully I won't have to go very far and tweak it any further. It'll have to be a good stretching regime tonight before the game, I'm thinking.

The wings were another story last night as well. The Yardhouse does 100 wings on a platter for like 15 cents a wing or something like that. It's ridiculous. Since I only had a couple small sandwiches before ball I thought I was a tad peckish. I know Chris can eat and eat and eat... so we decided to go for the 100. Chris ordered half of the platter hot and the other half salt & pepper... well, the hot killed us. It sort of went without saying that we didn't finish them. Chris would be quoted as saying "I ordered half hot, but I didn't know that there'd be this many." "I didn't know what 100 looked like." We got through most of the salt & pepper fine, but there were quite a few hot left over and Nick was good enough to wrap them up for us.

We finished up and was home just before midnight... right to bed and was asleep in absolutely no time. 6:15am came pretty quickly and without too many dreams. I got up once or twice before then, I think the fan in my window either died or the breaker for that plugin is gone... but the latter seems less likely, since my alarm clock was still working this morning. Not only does the fan cool down the room, but it provides this great level of white noise that drowns out the outside world. This morning, those little bugger kids who are staying next door were up early this morning and I could hear them... I think they were even playing outside and it wasn't even 7am yet. Choked. I had a shower, went back into my room and thought... yawn, I could sleep for another 15 minutes. So, I set the alarm on my phone for 7:10am and shut my eyes. I must have slept a bit between screams, 'cuz it went pretty quick.

Up and at it I went... grabbed the leftover chicken wings for lunch today... into the car... wiped the fresh rainfall off the windows... and I was off.

I have been listening to that Be Your Own Pet in the car and I've gotta say it's pretty good. It's certainly got a lot of the traditional punk rhythm and feel to it and the vocals are pretty decent. It's a quick ride through the disc, but quite entertaining.

Into the office, there was nothing new in from when I left in the evening yesterday, so I looked ahead and thought it was gonna be pretty easy to do. There was only three left and a bunch of e-mails for proofs that needed to be sent out, so that was all done before 9:30am this morning. Now, there is a trouble client who sent in a quarterly report to have done for Monday. Their lawyers are calling me all the way from Israel. If I have any questions, I should just give him a jingle. Yeah, I can see how that'll go down with the boss when he looks at the phone bill. "Who phoned Israel?"

So, here I am... procrastinating on this new filing. I'll get it done, just 'cuz I can. I've felt a little bit more motivated at work the last week or so. I don't know what's wrong with me... I'm not putting off these filings like I was through June and July. What gives?

The Royals are playing the late game tonight, as part of a make-up outing. It's supposed to be overcast and rainy all day in Calgary... so I'm a tad skeptical of whether or not we'll actually play tonight. I'm sure we'll get through it. Something tells me, this is the game that we were halfway through, so we'll probably just continue it from there... hoping, hoping, hoping.

The weekend is looking more and more busy. Friday night, the group from the office will be going down to Ernest's place for a BBQ. That should be a good gathering, especially since the big news broke, which I'll post about a little later. Saturday night is the evening at Schank's with the boys from the team. That should be a disaster. Sunday, I'll probably have to go out to Langdon to do all those forms for the Street Hockey Tournament, since they're all on my PC at the house there. Great. I'm really looking forward to that job.

There ya have it. The Thursday morning post is complete.