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Giants Clinch!Syd wrangled some tickets to see Saturday's Giants game, hosting his own Houston Astros. With the final day of the season looming (on Sunday) it was my last chance to see the Giants this year - somehow, I don't think I saw them any other time. Obviously I just haven't seen much of Ceej in a while. Since CalTrain has stopped running trains on weekends so they can install new track for express trains, Deb and I drove to Daly City, and took BART and MUNI to get there. It took longer than usual, but was not really hard. And, you know, it underscored again how much I hate riding CalTrain: Slow, uncomfortable seats, just kind of blecch. The Giants opened the day 2-1/2 games ahead of Los Angeles in the NL Wild Card race, and 2-1/2 games behind Arizona for the NL West title. A win by the Giants or a loss by the Dodgers would clinch the former, while a win by Arizona or a loss by the Giants would leave the latter out of reach. Real September baseball! Well, not to keep you in suspense, but all three teams won, leaving Arizona the West champs, and the Giants the Wild Card team. The Dodgers won big, but to no avail. The game seemed like classic SF Giants baseball, too: Kirk Reuter struggling out of jams, Barry Bonds hitting a home run into the bay, scratch-'em-out hitting by the likes of Tom Goodwin, and the bullpen holding things together until Tim Worrell and Robb Nen could nail down the 5-2 victory. Sadly, I was in the bathroom when Bonds launched his moon shot, so I missed the only "splash hit" at Pac Bell I've been in the park for. Grr. Must pay more attention in the future, but when nature calls, nature calls, y'know? Less excitingly, I probably saw more pitchers in this game than in any other I've seen: Eight for the Giants and eight more for Houston! Sheesh! No wonder the game took over three hours! Anyway, it was cool to see them put the icing on their regular season cake; it's the second time I've seen a team clinch a postseason berth in person, the first being the A's in 2000. Pacific Bell Park was packed. Packed, I tell you!
 So the Giants face the Braves and the Cardinals take on the Diamondbacks in the first round of the NL playoffs. In the NL, the Angels visit the Yankees, and the Athletics take on the Twins. It's a tough field to call this year; I guess I'm inclined to bet against the Giants and Angels, but everyone else seems like they have a legitimate shot. The A's and Yankees seem best poised to grab the brass ring this year, and as always I'll be happy as long as someone can take down the Yankees. And if the Yankees do make it to the World Series, I probably won't bother to watch it. (The last time I watched a World Series was 1997 - the last time the Yankees weren't in it.) The Red Sox didn't make it. They played better than I'd expected them to, finishing well over .500, but I still feel they mostly did it with smoke and mirrors. They have a lot of holes to fill for the 2003 season. Until they get their farm system in shape and start producing real prospects, they're going to be a patched-together team every year. It's hard to believe it was eight years ago that Dan Duquette came on board with expectations of rebuilding the farm system and building a winner for the long haul. How'd that plan turn out, Dan? Ah well. Personally, I'm rooting for the A's.
Debbi and I mostly had a quiet weekend otherwise, watching football yesterday. I also grilled pork chops and made some cream cheese brownies, which required some grocery shopping. Debbi says she had a great weekend, which is great, because she had a pretty rough week last week for various reasons. I think she was just about ready to strangle something Friday evening. I also finished reading Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead. I was perhaps too harsh towards it in my review, but I feel pretty disappointed that it turned out to be a pretty generic novel consider the hype that's been built up around it over the last 15-plus years. Certainly it doesn't come anywhere close to cracking my list of my favorite SF novels. Anyway, it and its predecessors are the only two books I've read this month, which seems really weird. I usually read three or four books in a month, at least. But, I've been quite busy this month, I know, and I'm also trying to plow through a bunch of TV I have on tape, which takes time. (Unlike Subrata, I find it really hard to read and watch TV at the same time.) I have two more episodes of 24 to go, by the way. I did indeed bike to work four times last week, and I plan to do so three times this week. I sure am enjoying it, but it's definitely getting dark earlier in the evening, making the ride home a little less fun. It's nice to feel my metabolism humming along during the day, though. Oh! And I finally received my refund check from the State of Wisconsin for my 1999 taxes. They lost my first amendment (or it never arrived there), so I sent them a second one and they finally processed it. Turns out they paid me 9% per year interest on the money they owed me. That's better than my bank gives me! You think I could give them some more of my money to hold for me at those rates? Anyway, it's good to have the cash; it's basically paying for my bicycle. Or the couch I want to buy. But not both. Gotta keep that in mind!
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