Baseball weekend

We (she proudly writes) have a minor league team in Brooklyn since 2001, the Brooklyn Cyclones an affiliate of the Mets. The stadium is in Coney Island, right on the ocean. We went to a game Fri night (there are fireworks every Friday night in the summer) with Barbara and her friend Robin. It was muggy but not too hot and there was a full moon. It was a great night but a dull game, scoreless until the 10th when the Vermont Lake Monsters ( I'm not making up that name) scored a run. Then the Cyclones 2nd baseman came up to bat and was hit with a pitch. As he was writhing on the ground in agony, the fireworks commenced and continued till they bandaged him and took him away on a stretcher. Kinda put a damper on the pyrotechnics. The was no mention of him in the paper so I guess he's OK.
As serendipity would have it, we were given 4 tickets for the Met game on Sun afternoon. We asked Jeanette and Lew to come too, then drove to them in Queens and then took the famed #7 subway line a few stops (it's actually elevated, isn't it) to Shea. They are building a new stadium in the parking lot at Shea stadium and there isn't much parking. The entire train was packed with Mets fans. I sat next to a young woman who was loudly discoursing about her fiancee's desire for her to take his name and her vehement refusal to do so.
As I was in her face anyway, I gave her my vote of confidence. She was gratified and yelled across the car to let her other friends know that I kept my name too, goodness, many years ago. She didn't say many years ago but it was implied.
The conversation turned to going back to school. This woman is a student at college in Virginia where the horrible shootings took place, she actually lives in the same dorm as the shooter did but was in class at the time of the tragedy.
It was chilling to hear her talk about people that she didn't know but must have seen around campus.
So we got to Shea just as the rain started. We had seats under the overhang, so it was like sitting on the front porch, it was nice and dry and this game had all the excitement missing from Fri. The Mets scored 5 runs, John Maine gave up 1 hit but in the middle of the 5th inning after 90 minutes of torrential rain, the the mound started to dissolve and they stopped play. So we went back to Jeanette's and had a altogether lovely day.
Steve and I are reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows simultaneously; we lie in bed at night reading and gasping but can't discuss anything till we know that we are at the same point. It's almost too much fun, I swear.
Today Sheila and I went for a pedicure at a nail salon run and staffed by Mandarin-speaking Chinese people. It took me a few minutes to realize that the radio was tuned to a gospel station. Only in Brooklyn!

Cherry season 2007

Since my last post I've been eating cherries, (Sweet Jesus, I love cherries) doing garden work, chillin' with the dog. It has come to my surprised attention that people actually read this blog. Despite the fact that virtually no one comments here, many have remarked that I have been remiss, if not truant in my posting. Well, this damn laptop is a pain in the ass and has not brought the pleasure and convenience I expected, should I be so inclined or equipped to put thoughts into words. The laptop disconnects from the Web constantly (like right now, for instance) and will not connect while on the front porch which was where I had envisioned using the cursed machine in the first place. Ehhh, I'm grumpy. There are too many things I want to do but the Stamina&Energy bank is overdrawn.
The front porch looks great though, my Mandevilla is blooming like crazy!
We get the late afternoon sun, so the porch is cool and shady in the AM, when I can be found on my glider reading the paper (accompanied by much bitching, moaning, cursing and teeth gnashing) eating grape-nuts (with home-grown blueberries!) and drinking iced coffee while Caramel peruses the dog traffic in an effort to ascertain who is friend or foe, a very arbitrary process which baffles me completely.
I also spend many hours in the garden, of course. It's been all about the weeding. Due to the construction last year, the yard was overrun with striped morning glory, wild asters and oh my god, nut sedge which I swear grows 2" overnight. We finally got our wonderful 6' wood fence enclosing the backyard. Our soil is really bad and in the process of digging holes for the fence posts they dug up tons of clay which we had so strenously covered with good soil. We had to practically start all over again. Poor Steve has already shlepped a ton of new soil. Sadly, many lives, er, plants were lost. I have planted 21 new ones, all young perennials. I also have 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, chives and basil some new strawberries and the aforementioned, source of great pride, blueberry bush which has in it's 9 or so years been ravaged and broken, by telephone company workers countless times. Rat bastards! I found an old picture of one of them STANDING on our old cyclone fence, which over the years broke from such abuse.
I am proud and happy to report that we filed a claim, and filed it again and after 6 years and much persistence Verizon finally reimbursed us for the trampled plants and helped pay for the new fence. Yay.
Another highlight of the season, Morgana, tore herself away from new grandson and came East to visit! We had a fun sleepover with Barbara, Morgana's cousin, my ex-cousin. We did not howl at the moon this time, in fact we had 1/2 drink each and could barely stay awake, but a good time was had by all.These 2 are my very oldest friends. It's shocking to think we met over 40 years ago.
B came over to meet us for lunch one day and brought Andree! Quelle surprise! Andree is a great-grandmother, twice! And her grandson is a professional skydiver!
It was so good to see them, my honeys! I was re-charged with Women Power! We missed you, DJ dear, the other sister of my heart.
I took some really terrible pix, luckily Steve came home for these. If B can ever figure out how to release the pix from her camera, I will post those.
I started Harry Potter and the Deathly Harrows yesterday. It's very exciting and scary, don't know if I will survive the suspense.
Caramelly is doing well and we are starting to walk a little further every day.
I really need the exercise- I have a big cherry belly.