Moonlit Jazz

“All the Way” by Bobby Caldwell
Oakland 1, NY Yankees 5 at Yankee Stadium

Winning Pitcher – Kevin Brown (9-1)
Losing Pitcher – Barry Zito (7-8)

OAK Runs: 1, Hits: 4, Errors: 1
NYY Runs: 5, Hits: 12, Errors: 2

Oakland Record: (60-47)

Alas. Zito, you’re killin’ me.

Some love

• Sharon – Did you get a new URL?! I must update my links. 😉 Good to see you! I never really thought Byrnesie was cute, but I love the way he plays. He’s a big ball of energy!… Oh, and don’t say 27 is old! (Poor Mulder.) It makes me feel ancient!
• Wah – The whole former work thing still riles me a bit. When I was there (and not even thinking of leaving), I suggested on a more than a few occasions that training should be done. But why should they listen to a lowly civilian chick like me? So if following procedure and giving two weeks’ notice is considered “blindsiding,” then I think they need to look up that definition… And I didn’t send my ballboy (I love how you call him that!) a bday card. Maybe next year. 😉
• Olivia – Last night’s game was totally annoying. And today’s wasn’t much better. Bah!

The weekend starts at 5pm Friday…

I still find is a bit strange that I’m now working a “normal” schedule. I worked swing shift for so long that my body has definitely grown accustomed to that kind of day. I still have a tiring time getting up in the morning. But I do love seeing the morning sun across the valley. At least I have a beautiful view on the way to work.

After work tomorrow I get to hang out with my friends and the weekend is blessedly unplanned at this point. Well, I do need to put some pictures up for my Greg site. Must remember to do that!

And once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mark Mulder! 😀

from the game on Tuesday, a tv shot…

MARK MULDER! He’s 27 today. Hope he has a good one. 😉

And a slightly belated Happy Anniversary to my friends in Southern Cali. Hope you two had a lovely anniversary!

Oakland 6, NY Yankees 8 at Yankee Stadium

Winning Pitcher – Mariano Rivera (3-1)
Losing Pitcher – Justin Duchscherer (4-3)

OAK Runs: 6, Hits: 12, Errors: 1
NYY Runs: 8, Hits: 15, Errors: 0

HR: OAK: E. Chavez (20), J. Dye (18), E. Byrnes (17). NYY: A. Rodriguez (29), H.
Matsui (20), G. Sheffield (25).
Oakland Record: (60-46)

BAH!!! Dotel blew the save (giving up the game-tying homer ) and Duchscherer gave up a home run in extra innings. And so it goes.

I can’t wait until the weekend is here! 😛

Oakland 13, NY Yankees 4 at Yankee Stadium

Winning Pitcher – Mark Mulder (15-3)
Losing Pitcher – Jon Lieber (7-7)

OAK Runs: 13, Hits: 15, Errors: 0
NYY Runs: 4, Hits: 8, Errors: 1

HR: OAK: S. Hatteberg 2 (13), A. Melhuse (6). NYY: J. Posada (14), G. Sheffield (24).
Oakland Record: (60-45)

I started watching this game a little after 5pm and the A’s were trailing 4-1. Soon after I started watching, the boys started scoring and all was right in the world. 😉 Mulder did not have his best stuff, but the fellas picked him quite nicely. Gotta love it.

My appointment this afternoon…

I think I wanted to cry after my unemployment hearing. But I didn’t. It’s just one of those things I had to deal with. I had to appear in person, but the county’s reps were on speakerphone. It ended up being the Lt. who gave me my exit interview and one of the sergeants. The judge got impatient with both of us at certain points, but I hope she realized what finally drove me to turn in my notice and quit my job.

One of the things that really bothered me was the sergeant’s anger about my resignation. He apparently felt that I blindsided them by quitting. I was just a piece of the puzzle and by all accounts a dispensible piece, so why feel blindsided by my resignation? I gave the appropriate two weeks’ notice. Is it my fault that they didn’t have a plan? I know that I asked on many occasions about training. And they had absolutely more than two weeks to get someone trained on dispos. But they didn’t do it.

Part of me wants to reason that the sergeant is just doing what he’s told to do. I don’t want to think unfairly of him, but I do. I thought I did a good job. I took pride in my work and I know that the way I did things made a difference.

And the thing that bothered me the most was this: someone I confided in told the sergeant my plans. My co-worker, someone I considered my friend, was the one who told the sergeant that I was going to leave because, as the sergeant said, “she didn’t want us blindsided.”

So I’m sad. It’s stupid really. I know I should have known better. And yet I cannot quell the disappointment.

Alas.

But hey, the A’s won! 😉

Byrnes is AL Player of Week – Burn baby burn. LOL! Congrats to Eric Byrnes! He totally deserves it. The article has some great quotes. I especially like:

Byrnes, whom A’s general manager Billy Beane has said plays the game “like his hair is on fire,” set the AL ablaze in a big way last week…

“Byrnesie has always been a superstar in his own mind,” said A’s lefty Barry Zito, one of Byrnes’ closest friends on the team. “Not in an arrogant way at all, either. He’s just always had this belief in himself that he was going to be a superstar in the big leagues, even when he was kind of buried on the bench when he first came up…”

“Whenever he isn’t in the lineup, the fans get all over me,” said Macha. “They love the guy. They love the way he plays the game. And they should.”

And I agree with Macha. I love the way Byrnes plays the game. He’s got such a crazy enthusiasm and he so excited to be there. I love the way he loves playing the game. He has JOY in his work. How many people can say that? And how many can instill that same joy in the fans?

Dreams…

I had a dream about Chris Conrad and Ryan Gosling.

from the Young Hercules episode “Con Ares”

I think Greg Lee was also in the dream, but he wasn’t actually there. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. It was more like he was also working with Ryan, but he wasn’t in the scene. He was around though and I knew it. Okay, so maybe that doesn’t make sense either. LOL!

I dreamt that Chris, who hasn’t been seen in “the Industry” for awhile (at least, I haven’t heard anything in the fandom), made an appearance with Ryan somewhere. And I was there! I think it was a work thing, but I don’t know what. Anyhoo, Chris was there and Ryan was there and for some reason I was there. But was I just watching it on tv in my dream? No, I distinctly remember Chris in a leather jacket and blue jeans.

Don’t you just love how dreams don’t follow any kind of plot? LOL!

Today I’m home because…

My dog Meggie had to go to the vet this morning. She has an infection and she needs her ear done, so we took her in. The husband went to work and now I’m dealing with my psycho little dog. She’s quiet right now but in a few minutes she’ll yelp about something. I think Saffy thinks that the husband is going to get Meggie and that they’ll be back home anytime now. She’s so mistaken. And she’s so traumatized right now. Poor little dog.

“Put Me in the Car” by Ryan Gosling

The other reason I’m home is that I have my unemployment hearing today in Modesto. I’m a bit anxious about it. What goes on at these hearings?

I’m appealing their decision to reject my unemployment bid because the reason EDD came up with was that I left my job because I “did not enjoy or like my job.” Now there’s an utter lie. I probably wouldn’t have appealed if they had come up with a more decent reason for rejecting me. As it is, I did not leave my job for the lame ass reason they came up with, so I’m appealing. If I “win,” I get all the weeks that I claimed. If I “lose” then I’m in the exact same place.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to say. But I think the fact that I was approached about my departure BEFORE I turned in my resignation should have some kind of bearing. Remember that? I wrote about it back in March. (I checked to get my dates and facts right.) I called in sick that Tuesday and came in the next day and the dayshift crew came up to me and asked me if it was true that I was leaving. I asked when/where they heard and I was told that dayshift discussed my departure in their muster.

It still makes me angry. I had NOT turned in my notice yet. As far as they were concerned, I was content with my job. I was basically forced to turn in my resignation. The even more horrible thing is that the supervisor brought up the topic and when I asked him about it later, he said that the others brought it up. So I asked a couple of people how it all happened and they all said that he, the supervisor, brought it up. Am I supposed to believe him just because he was a sergeant? Or do I believe my co-workers, who have nothing to gain by telling lies?

And I won’t even talk about the whole payroll thing, which was the beginning of the end for me. I made copies of that memo. Just in case I can use it today.

“I Don’t Wanna Be” by Gavin DeGraw

And I started reading…

Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton. I really like Wil’s way of writing. And I like the way he’s opened himself up to his fans and his critics. It’s rather brave of him. My favorite parts are the stuff about Star Trek, of course. But it’s also very cool to read about his life now. He’s a good guy.

I always appreciate the comments…

I am so behind with plugs! Can we say that I totally suck? But really, I do appreciate all the comments and TAGs (which I don’t get a lot of these days, but that’s fine). So let’s see if I can get everyone.

• Olivia – I didn’t get to see much of Matt Morris this past weekend. He was out before the last out of the 1st. Totally sucky!
• Wah – The Jamie Cullum CD is pretty cool. I am buying way too much music. And I need to play around with my hair. I wonder what it’ll look like curly. Hmmm.
• Val – I like “watching” the games on MLB or whatever because I can just hit the player’s name and check out his game stats. Plus the pictures are funny! LOL! But I don’t like when my computer stalls and suddenly I’ve missed two innings. Blah!
• Kristine – I know you don’t like taking pictures of yourself, but I wanna see your hair! 😀 And I’m always happy to swing Zito pics your way.
• Luz – Normally I could give a flying fig about the ASG, but I cared this year because Mulder got the start. 😉 And Miguel Tejada won the HR derby! Sweetness.
• Vikkicar – Thanks for the website anniversary wishes. 🙂 I can’t believe my personal domain has been around for two whole years already!
• Jen – I don’t care how scary those babooshkas are, I want one! LOL! And maybe I’ll just snag one for myself. If I had known how easy it was to get it on game day, I would have just ventured to Oakland. Oh well. 😛
• Cecilia – I’ve added you to my blogs of note. I love reading you and Olivia go back and forth. 😉
• Irish – Thanks for stopping by! I just checked out your site the other day and didn’t comment. Bad me! It’s good to “see” you again. 🙂

Quick Meggie update…

She has really bad bacteria in her ear and they want to culture it to figure out what kind of antibiotic would be best for it. My poor baby! 🙁 I’m picking her up later today. That way I don’t have to worry about Saffy bugging her too much

Back to baseball…

Mark Mulder pitches tonight! 😀

Oakland 4, Texas 1 at Ameriquest Field in Arlington

Winning Pitcher – Mark Redman (8-8)
Losing Pitcher – Nick Regilio (0-2)
SV – Octavio Dotel(22)

OAK Runs: 4, Hits: 9, Errors: 0
TEX Runs: 1, Hits: 6, Errors: 1

HR: OAK: E. Chavez (19), M. Kotsay (9).
Oakland Record: (59-45)

I got to watch one half inning of this game. I think. Woohoo for the A’s win! 🙂

Yes, so we got haircuts today. The husband’s usual hair gal left to manage another store so now he has to go to my guy. I like my hair guy! He’s awesome! He does a great job. At least, I think so:

Not so bad, eh?

More on last night’s adventure to SBC Park:

I forgot to mention that I wore my Giant’s cap to the ballgame. Yes, I own a Giants cap. I wore a black sweatshirt last night and I wanted to wear a baseball cap. The only black caps I have are the Giants and the Modesto A’s. I thought I might as well wear the Giants cap. I wish I had a Cardinals cap! Oh well. In the 9th inning, I was cheering for the Cards because they scored and I confused the little boy in front of me. I think I might have traumatized him. Sorry kid!

We had seats in the AAA Club level. GREAT SEATS! Actually, the whole area is great. We were in the back row, so we had no one kicking our chairs and the like. And the bathrooms were right inside! It very nice and clean. I hope we can get tickets like that again.

in the hall of the club level…

Outside of Borders, the ballpark looks very lovely.

The Giants/Cardinals game is on right now on ESPN. HD rocks! 😀

Oakland 9, Texas 4 at Ameriquest Field in Arlington
(Saturday’s game)

Winning Pitcher – Barry Zito (7-7)
Losing Pitcher – Ryan Drese (7-6)

OAK Runs: 9, Hits: 11, Errors: 0
TEX Runs: 4, Hits: 6, Errors: 2

HR: TEX: B. Jordan (1), R. Barajas (13).
Oakland Record: (58-45)

We just came home from our night in San Francisco. The Giants managed to win against the Cardinals. Matt Morris got ROCKED and only pitched 2/3 an inning. Yeah, that’s right. The Giants scored 8 in that first, but scored no more after that. The Cards made it interesting and kept chipping away. The end result was the Giants over the Cards 8-7. Ah well, the Cardinals are still the best in baseball, eh? 😉

After the game we wandered into the new Borders across the street from the ballpark. With less than ten minutes to closing, I remembered that I wanted Wil Wheaton’s book, Just a Geek. And oh my gosh, they had it!!! 🙂

And woohoo to MY BOYS! 🙂 Back in first place with a win from ZITO. Wow.

Zito on the mound in the groovin’ yello…

And now I must sleep…