YOUR 2005 AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL CHAMPIONS

THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX!!!!!!!!

40 Days and 40 Nights

Its wild to thing how far we have come, and how close we are... According to the due date of November 5th, we are exactly 40 days away from having a baby. Its pretty mind blowing to think of how much things have changed, and how much more things are going to change again. The baby is getting big, and you can see her moving around like crazy now. It isn't quite to the point of being able to see a foot or an arm, but you can see whole sections of my wife stomach move all at once. It almost looks like Alien at times.

We are getting pretty well settled into the new house. The baby's room just got done being painted yesterday, so that is looking really nice. The next big step is building all of the baby's new furniture, so I need to bring my full assortment of curse words for that one.

On the White Sox front, they finally seem to have awoken from their nap, and are now on a 3 game winning streak. The magic number sits at 5 to eliminate Cleveland, and in reality, they only need 3 more wins to be guarenteed a spot in the playoffs. The Sox have 7 more games to go, with a 2.5 game lead (3 in the loss column). Hopefully we can get it and win a postseason series for the first time since 1917.

The Rally Crede

Well being the message board geek that I am, we started whole new trend on Soxtalk.com trying to awaken the Sox out of their slide towards infamy. We all started sporting these pictures of the Rally Crede to try to spur the team to victory.



Sure enough the Sox own Joe Crede hit two home runs, including a walk off blast in the 10th inning to propell the Sox to a 7-6 victory over Cleveland and give them a 3 1/2 game (4 in the loss column) lead with only 12 games to go.

This was the scene at home plate



A splendid time was had by all. I love playoff baseball.

The Negligent Blogger

Yeah so I have been pretty well slacking lately, and haven't been keeping up with either here or Purgatory, but here is an update.

To say it shortly, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

The baby shower went about as well as it could have. We were very well showered, with tons of stuff. That baby isn't going to want for anything. We got every piece of furnature and expensive stuff that we pretty much needed. The only things we did not get were assorted little things, that aren't going to be too difficult to pick up on our own. Right now our biggest problem is figuring out where to put everything. We even got bought a sweet digital camera, which has already a lot of pictures taken with it.

The party after the shower went just as well. Plenty of people came over and partook in plenty of revelry. Much beer and food was consumed, and a splendid time was had by all. It was great to see lots of people that we don't often get the chance to see anymore, and it was made even better that it was all in honor of such a happy occasion.

Then there was the final bit of good news, my best friend and his new wife are pregnant. It is very early on, but we are thrilled to death for them as well. Their due date is in May, so we are hoping to be able to make it down there for their shower.

Then on the downside is my Chicago White Sox. After sweeping the Cleveland Indians after the all-star break to go up 15 games, the Indians have gone 33-11 to gain back 12 1/2 games and get to within 2 1/2 games of the AL Central lead. Currently the Sox are in the middle of a key 3 game set with the Tribe, after dropping the first game of the series. It was a winnable one, as they blew a lead late. They did have a good showing rallying from down 4-0 to lead 5-4, but couldn't hold on. This is such a huge series for the Sox, as they cannot be swept.

Patio Party

The patio party was a great time, and I definately recommend it for any and all who have not done it. You get about 2 1/2 hours or so of food and drink while sitting either beneath the RF stands or up against a section of the RF fence. Of course the food is awesome, and the beer flows freely, so that always helps. I got to meet some new people from Soxtalk, which is always nice. Plus I got to hang out with lots of my favorite Sox fans, which is always a bonus.

I did also get over to see Soxtalk protegy Jeff Bajenaru, who was kind enough to chace off the overbearing security guard, and sit and talk for a few minutes before the game. He also signed a couple of baseballs for me, which will go right into the Rec Room and the other will get given away as a prize for a Soxtalk.com contest.

The game was a little disappointing as the Sox could only muster two stinking hits off a crappy rookie from Kansas City. The bright spot was the steal of home by Pablo Ozuna, as the KC pitcher threw over to first trying to keep Scott Podsednik close to the base. It was the first steal of home in 2 1/2 years for a White Sox player, and only the 2nd in the last 10 years. The Sox did end up losing 4-2 to halt their 7 game winning streak. So their magic number stays at 15 for at least one more night.

BACK to the future!

Well I guess the moving in is official. We now have the cable, telephone, and internet hooked up. I was starting to go through withdrawl, but listening to the White Sox on the radio, gave me a fix similar to an alcoholic with a bottle of Listerine.

Tonight is the big "core of the core" patio party for White Sox fans from the two biggest message boards. It should be a lot of fun, and does include free food and alcohol, so that is a big bonus. We also have very good seats, and I got ahold of both Brooks Boyer and Jeff Bajenaru and am going to try to stop by and see them before the game. Amazingly enough, this will be the first time I have been to a patio party, and I am really looking forward to that.

All moved in

Well we spent the whole weekend doing house projects and moving in. Saturday we got the convoy together and throwing all of our stuff onto trucks and trailers for the long 12 block move. It actually went pretty quick, as someone brought a trailer used for towing cars, so we had a ton of space, and used it. After Saturday we spent most of the time unpacking and arranging rooms the way we wanted. We did things like hanging a door, changing the locks, and picking out colors and schemes. I've got my rec. room that I am quickly filling up and decorating as we speak. So far I have picked out where I am going to put my collection of Beatles posters and my baseball stuff. I still have to figure out where to mount my hockey sticks.

The wierd thing has been not having cable, phone, or internet while the services all transfer over. After being obsessed with the coverage in New Orleans it was strange not to have any coverage for 4 days. The only media I got all weekend was listening to the White Sox games on AM-1000. Starting today all of our services start to move over to the new place.

Just in case...

If anyone wondered what kind of house we got, ask this guy ^

The Happy Homeowners

Well we have finally done it. We closed on the house yesterday, and this is the soon to be three of us, opening the door to OUR house for the first time. Incredibly the closing was probably the easiest part of the process. All of the things people told us about the finding a house being fun, and the loan process/closing being the pain the ass, were 180 degrees the opposite for us. It took us forever to find a place, which included getting rid of a horrible liar of a realtor. Yet once we found the place, everything was incredibly easy. We had a great realtor who I would recommend to anyone, a great lender, and an easy quick closing. We waited longer for the copies of everything, than we did actually signing paperwork.

We plan to move this weekend, and are going to have a party to celebrate the new house the 17th of September. It will start the same time as the baby shower and go until whenever. Pretty much if you are reading this you are invited!