That was one of the best game I've ever seen.

I turned on the Phillies Mets game last night at 7. I told Kim that she could watch her recorded shows (Making the Band 4 and Greek, both abominable) after the game, which would probably be at 10:30 or so.

Kim: 10:30!?!?

The game started out awfully. When the Phils were down 3-0 and with two men on, Mets RF Fernando Tatis was up. He hit a ground ball that actually hit Carlos Beltran, who was on third base at the time. The 3rd base ump ruled a foul ball, even though:

1) It was not his call to make
2) Beltran was in fair territory when he was hit

Of course, Tatis homered later in that at bat, making it 6-0. Another run later, and the Phillies were down 7-0 before they could blink. All looked lost. Moyer was out of the game rather quickly, and Pedro was crusing through our lineup.

But then we began to peck away. Victorino scored in the fourth to cut it to 7-1. Then the big blows - Rollins and Howard 2 run homers in the fifth. One of the crucial plays in that inning? Manuel let Clay Condrey lead off the inning, and he managed to squeeze a double down the line past David Wright. Rollins immediately homered, and the Phils were back in the game. Howard then made the game much more interesting.

After that point, there were just a ton of ups and downs. The Phillies manage to get the tying run on third in the 8th with Utley up... and Utley strikes out against Feliciano. The Phillies have nobody on in the 9th with two outs, and Werth hits a broken bat single up the middle. Then, Eric Bruntlett, the last man off the bench, hits a double into the gap. Werth is fast, but Church has a good arm in right and he quickly gets the relay to the Mets second baseman. The throw beats Werth to the plate, but the Mets catcher can't handle the throw and it skips past him.

Tie game. Incredible.

The Mets broadcasters kept showing this funny looking Mets fan. He was young and hand this weird long head. He was in utter despair, just holding his hands on top of his head and looking up. It was awesome and even Kim got a laugh out of it.

There were so many false finishes that you thought you were watching a WWE championship match. Every time the Phils looked like they had won the game, the Mets saved it. Ruiz hits one up the middle in the ninth with Bruntlett on 2nd, and Reyes makes a diving stop up the middle and throws him out (If you watch the Sportscenter highlight of this play, the anchor says, "Some shortstops in NY can do this." This is an awesome dig at Derek Jeter, whose defensive range is awful. But it is quite refreshing to see someone in the traditional media admit to this.) Howard crushes a one hopper to first in the 10th (with a runner on third) and Delgado luckily makes the play. Rollins, 5-5 at this point, comes up with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th, and he pops out to third.

Finally, it ended in the 13th, but not without more drama. Victorino lead off with a triple down the right field line, and the Mets appeared goosed. However, after intentional walks to Werth and Bruntlett to load the bases, the pitchers spot was due up. The Phils were out of position players, and they had already used Cole Hamels in an earlier inning. So Manuel sent up 2-44 on the season Brett Myers. Why him?

Because he is an imposing figure, and he wasn't going to swing. Myers got in the box and did everything he could to distract the Mets pitcher. Jumping out of the way of pitches on the outside corner, crowding the box, etc. It almost worked. The count got to 3-2 before Schoeneweis guided one into the strike zone to punch out Myers.

Finally, the continuing feel good story of baseball Chris Coste showed up. If you don't know who he is... well you owe it to yourself to click that link. With the outfield drawn in, Coste lined one to deep center over Beltran's head, and the game was over. Almost 5.5 hours after it started, Kim was finally able to watch her shows.

Past Evan is quite the wily foe.

We all have our past selves. They do stuff that absolutely kills you right now. They drill multiple large holes into walls. They put together furniture with basically no regard to directions. They organize dinners or trips that you definitely do not want to go on. And they apparently paint parts of an apartment that seem impossible to get to.

Past Evan painted our old apartment around 2.5 years ago. And I entered our old apartment today to paint it back to its original white.

I discovered today that Past Evan must have been approximately a foot taller than current Evan. I know this because the only thing he used to stand on last time was an orange homer paint bucket. Yet this time, using a step stool that is taller than the paint bucket, I find myself unable to reach the top of the wall. Perfect.

The solution will have to be an old rickety ladder that is waiting for me in the laundry room. It looks like it is actually made of wood. Who on earth still has a ladder that is made of wood? Anyway, if blog updates abruptly stop after this one, it is probably due to some form of ladder accident.

Past Evan was also quite nimble. He balanced on the space between the sink and the front of the counter in order to paint a small area above the kitchen cabinets. Why he wanted to paint above the cabinets is not exactly clear, but he sure did a good job of it. I was not quite as nimble, but after some faltering I did manage to copy his feat.

He also did a much neater job than I'm doing right now, although since I'm moving out all I'm doing is throwing up a single coat of white paint. But its almost as if he's mocking me with his straight lines (I think he used tape) and even paint distribution. You think you're better than me!?!?

Moving has been exhausting.

This apartment is basically the opposite of our old apartment. While the last apartment was small and kind of run down, this one is new and shiny. The old building didn't have an elevator or doorman, while we now have both of those luxuries.

On the downside, nothing about this apartment has been easy. Everything went smoothly with the old apartment - cable and internet, putting up curtain rods, getting furniture delivered, etc. No muss, no fuss. But here, good lord. Nothing is easy.

The biggest problem was Time Warner Cable. They sent over a technician to give us a new box, but of course there was some problem with our cable outlets. He thought that the wires in the wall were damaged when the apartment was renovated, and that he had "no idea" what we could do about it. He then said that he would call a foreman to figure out what the solution. I asked him when the foreman would come by, and he said he didn't know. Could be ten minutes, could be the end of the day at 7 PM.

This was at 1 PM.

So I waited. Its not like I have a job right now, so it wasn't the end of the world. Kim came home from work at 5:30 or so, and a comedy of horrendous customer service ensued. She called Time Warner and asked them when the foreman was coming by. They said in a half hour. An hour after that, she called again and they said he's coming soon. And of course, an hour after that, she called and they said no foreman was coming tonight.

Angered, she demanded that a foreman show up at 8 AM the following day, and the Time Warner person agreed. We then went off to Home Depot to look for some blinds.

A half hour into our trip up to Home Depot, we got a call from our doorman.

The cable guy had arrived.

After another angry exchange, we were again assured that a foreman would be at our apartment at 8 AM the following day.

Of course, at 8:30 AM, there was still no foreman.

What followed was basically Kim screaming and cursing on the phone for about an hour or so at various Time Warner people. After much yelling, she gave them my phone number and told them to call me. And someone did call me at 10 AM or so, telling me that someone would show up before 12.

A few minutes after that, someone called Kim and told her that someone would show up at 12:30.

Great.

At 1 PM a foreman arrived. I explained to him the situation and he actively ignored me. After running a few tests, told me what I earlier explained to him. He told me we'd have to run an exposed line because the wires inside the walls are screwed up for whatever reason. Fine, whatever. Just give me my friggin cable and internet! A half hour later, we had a coaxial cable running from the hallway into our home (stapled along various walls), and I was up and running.

Cable was only one thing. Our windows are apparently surrounded by metal and concrete, which makes it almost impossible to put up any curtain rods or blinds. We had to hire a handyman who has a super high powered drill to take care of that. Delivery companies may or may not need liability insurance to deliver furniture - it has never been exactly clear. While we do have almost all of our new stuff in here, I'm somewhat worried as to what will happen when some dressers and bookcases are delivered from Ikea. And I haven't even begun to try to hang up our paintings and other wall decorations.

But my next two days are focused on the old apartment. I have to paint it back to white and find a buyer for our gigantic Ikea wardrobe that we bought for it. Good times.

I've done so much grassroots Chuggler marketing that I should get some form of bonus. Or at least, a free extra chuggler.

It started with the night of the bar. I brought it out and everyone loved it. Sarah then got Gibbs one for his birthday, and I'm bringing one down for Ben's cousin for his party this weekend. This will enable us to play beer pong with chuggler side cups, which is an extra addition to beer pong that makes it even better.

Ben, of course, has chuggler envy, so Kate is now ordering one for him. I suggested pink, but Ben put up a fuss about that. I think he's getting orange. However, Kate is getting her brother a pink one. Limited edition!

At around 5 AM this morning, after gambling for the last 7 hours with Ben at the Borgata, Tropicana, and the Hilton (we headed there at 3 AM looking for a 10 or 15 dollar craps table), I hatched a brilliant plan.

Instead of going up to the room to sleep for a few hours, we would just stay awake. We'll catch the 6:30 AM bus out of AC to NYC, and avoid all the hubbub and commotion if we were to catch the 10:30 AM bus as we originally planned. We could then sleep on the bus and in our apartments until our 2 PM fantasy football draft.

What could go wrong?

We got to the bus transportation center at Caesars at 10 after 6. There were an amazing amount of people already in line, so we got to the back. Ben did a quick count and estimated that we had 55 people in front of us, so we probably weren't going to get on the bus, but we stood around anyway. There were many people behind us, and it would only take a a half hour or so to find out if we could get on.

Ben brought up the possibility of having a cab take us to NYC. He said it would be around $200, and since he was up a fair amount, he would pay $150. I declined his offer. We then called his parents to see if they were up early and possibly driving through Trenton on their way back to PA. They were not awake when the call was made, and little progress was made on that front.

In the meantime, numerous Greyhound and a red Chinatown bus came and went. At 6:45, people started wondering where the bus was, and a drunk / possibly homeless man kept rambling how the expressway must have an accident on it. Eventually, at 7 or so, a guy came out from the casino and said that for some reason or another that I missed, the bus wasn't coming.

The next bus was scheduled for 8:30 AM at Trump Plaza.

We quickly ran over to the Trump, which was thankfully next door. We got in line before most of the other people, and hence were in good position to get on the 8:30 bus. The obvious problem was that we still had 1.5 hours of waiting to go, we had no sleep in us, and we smelled horribly from an all night gambling and drinking bender.

Ben walked off to McDonalds and came back with a couple chicken sandwiches and four hash browns. I wasn't hungry at all, but Ben kept forcing a chicken biscuit on me, saying it was almost exactly like Chic-fil-a. I agreed, and said that I had eaten it before, but he was strangely relentless. And for some reason he decided to feed a pigeon with some of the biscuit leftovers, which only encouraged the pigeon to bother us more as we sat and waited in line. Suffice to say, this hour and a half was among the most awful I've had in quite awhile.

We got on the bus with little difficulty. I tried to get comfortable and fall asleep, but I was in a strange window seat. I also was dead tired, and at least 4 times I just nodded off without leaning my head on anything, which led to me ramming my head into the glass window, waking me up in considerable pain.

I got back in to the apartment at 11 or so, showered, and took a short nap before our draft. I took Calvin Johnson way too early due to a sleep-deprived brain fart. I also have stupid Reggie Bush. I hate my team other than Braylon Edwards, who I took over Randy Moss. I mean, how can you root for Moss?

I have a dilemma. But its a dilemma I'm happy to have.

A couple of days ago, I cashed in 500 frequent player points (the equivalent of $7.50) to start on Step 1 of the "steps" tournament qualifiers for the World Championship of Online Poker. I don't know why I did it, as in the past it has basically just been throwing my money away. You can't ever get your money back out unless you make it to one of the ends of the ladder, because you are only issued tickets except for the end. It is entertaining, at the least.

I made it through to step 2 (27 dollar buy in) on the first try. I stalled on step 2 for one tourney, winning back another step 2 ticket, but on my second try I miraculously made it on to step 3 (82 dollar buy in). And last night, I crushinated my way through step 3 to make it to step 4 (215 dollar buy in).

Step 4 is a decision point. There are four options:

1) I can directly buy into any $215 dollar buy-in event of the WCOOP. For example, I could enter into Event 7, which is pot limit omaha (6-max per table) with a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000. Or I could try to do HORSE or a short handed NL hold'em event. It would also be neat to say I played in a WCOOP event. Its no World Series of Poker, but I'm an online player anyway.

2) I can do a 9 person sit and go, where the top 3 people earn a $530 entry into one of the WCOOP events. 4th place wins $210, while everyone else is a loser. The upside of this is that I am much better in sit and goes than big tourneys, and I would be pretty happy with getting 4th anyway.

3) I can do an 18 person sit and go, where the top 3 people earn a $1050 entry into a WCOOP event, while 4th and 5th each earn $225. I'm leaning towards this because 18 person sit and goes are my bread and butter. They are the main reason I'm a profitable online poker player, and also I've recently been running pretty good in these, although granted that is at the 10 dollar level.

4) I can try to make it to step 5 and 6, which lead to the $5200 buy-in to the WCOOP NL hold'em main event, with a $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. There is virtually no chance of me doing this.

Thus, I'm torn between options 1 and 3. Option 3 gives me the best chance of getting actual cash in my pocket (I don't have a large bankroll right now because of a cash out and a cold streak in cash games). But it would be pretty cool to play in an actual WCOOP event, even if it would be like playing in a $1,500 WSOP donkey fest.

Thoughts anyone?

Last night we trekked up to Harlem to go to Dinosaur BBQ for Gibbs' birthday. A 50 minute commute in NYC is obnoxiously long, but Gibbs declared that this was his favorite restaurant in the city, with apparently the best ribs he's ever had. Ben agreed. The place could not have been built up any more.

We started dinner off with two plates of thirteen wings, one "hot" wango tango, and one "hotter" garlic chipotle. I had one of each, and given my natural aversion to hot / spicy foods, it was only sort of a mistake. However, despite my profuse sweating and mouth being on fire, the wings were both large and tasty.

I ordered the "sweatheart dinner for two" for me and Kim, which drew jeers and mocking from the crowd. Whatever. A full rack of ribs and four sides strongly indicated that it was the correct call. Plus, it was a reaffirmation of our commitment to each other! We chose our sides to be two orders of the mac and cheese, bbq fried rice, and fries.

Kim declared the fries to be the weak link. Other people at the table echoed her sentiment. However, I found them to be of a nice consistency, and a good change of pace from the very flavorful other items.

The bbq fried rice was a hit at the table, as everyone tried a bite. I admit, it was very good, but at the end of the meal it was pretty much the only thing left on the plate. So I guess results speak louder than words.

The mac and cheese was awesome. It had a slight jalapeño kick, but it was faint enough to stress the mac and cheese and not turn it into something else. I could not decide if it was better than the famous truffled mac and cheese at Smith and Wollys. Gibbs declared that the two dishes are different things entirely and thus incomparable. I'll say the truffled mac is a bit richer and flavorful, but that is no slight to Dinosaur's mac.

Ben told me I made a huge mistake by not ordering the salt potatoes. He gave me one of his, and after I put it in my mouth the look on my face expressed both delight and despair. Delight in the taste, despair in that Ben was right and I had not ordered it. Salt potatoes were the way to go.

The ribs were great. They did not come out with much sauce on them, which I prefer. Dinosaur gives you numerous bottles of BBQ sauce to do up your ribs however you want, which keeps everyone happy. The ribs were both meaty and flavorful. I wouldn't say they were tender, but thats not always what you are looking for. I ended up eating 3/4 of the rack while Kim had 1/4, and I could have eaten more.

The birthday boy did have one big moment at the end of the night. Kate had tried to give him one of her shrimp, but she accidentally dropped it in our last pitcher of beer, which was 1/3 full. After much taunting, Gibbs chugged the shrimp beer. He said it tasted very shrimpy at the end.

Overall, Dinosaur BBQ is a nice little excursion. You definitely will need reservations, as it was incredibly crowded in there and we were there on a Tuesday night. I recommend it for any BBQ enthusiast looking for a good BBQ joint in NYC.

It hasn't taken me very long to get reacclimated to life in NYC. Last summer was the longest amount of time I've ever spent here (2.5 months), but now we're in for the long haul, and I'm trying to fit in.

For example, I have become rather impervious to the fear of a car actually hitting me. Cars zoom by a couple feet away, yet my bigger concern is being in position to kick or hit a car if it angers me in some way.

Striking back at things that irritate me has also extended to the subway. If I'm trying to get of a subway car and there is someone who is trying to get on without waiting a reasonable amount of time for people to exit the car, I almost intentionally try to throw a little shoulder into them. Out before in! I've found that it is usually women who for some reason think that they are entitled to get into the car before people get out, but don't worry - I'm an equal opportunity bumper.

I've also started walking even faster. I already am a relatively fast walker, but now I'm almost in a trot when I'm trying to get somewhere. I had to walk a couple blocks with all my Bar/Bri books in a box, and I was still passing people. I don't think I'll ever get why people don't want to get to their destination quickly. Its not like being on the streets of NYC is a pleasant experience.

Weaving in and out of pedestrians is an art, even moreso when you have a bag or some luggage. I've started using bags more offensively. The normal inclination is to think that you don't want people banging into your stuff - but the proper way to think is that other people don't want to run into your bag! Making them avoid me and my stuff makes walking much easier.

For something entertaining, take a look at the "registry incentives," at Bad, Bath, and Beyond. If you register for a certain amount of goods from a particular manufacturer, you get something for free! Anolon will give you a 5" Santoku knife, as if I have any friggin clue what that is. Circulon gives you a butter warmer! Although, I think I already have one (its called the room). And it appears that Gingko gives you a single fork.

Most people on their wedding websites tell you where they are registered.

I want ours to say that we are registered at Wachovia. And Bank of America too, just as a backup, in case Wachovia runs out of money.

Now I've heard that in some cultures, people really abhor giving money as a gift. BUT, in most Asian cultures, money is the norm. For example, at Kim's cousin's wedding, the bride and groom just walked around table to table and collected money in a bag with a dollar sign on it (okay there wasn't a dollar sign on it). Similar things happen at Chinese weddings. So for us culturally, its not only acceptable, its the norm. You wouldn't take a Hindu out to a steak dinner, right?

Even if we weren't Asian, I'd want money. I don't need plates. What do you think I've been eating off of the last 3 years? I don't need glasses. What do you think I've been drinking out of the last 3 years? I don't need a gravy boat, a butter warmer, or a wine decanter. Oh wait, you know what I do need? Money to help pay off our honeymoon and various debts!

Even if I did want these things, we don't have the room!!! In about two weeks, we will be moving into a new bigger apartment in NYC. This apartment is 724 square feet. We don't have room for any stuff! It will just go into storage and rot if / until we actually get a house of our own, which seems like it will occur on approximately Nevuary 32nd. Practicality rules the day!

Even after this well reasoned analysis by yours truly, some people may still want to give a physical gift. And to this I say, we may actually register at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. And then they can buy stuff to your heart's content! And then we will return their stuff and get cash for it. Check and mate.

Man, I just saw a commercial for "Hole in the Wall," and it looks awesome! Of course, it will probably get old after like two episodes, but the video entertained me a lot.

Of course, this is from someone who watched a ton of Ninja Warrior and other random shows the past two years.

This column more or less sums up my feelings towards the Brett Favre situation.

And I'm going to draft Aaron Rodgers in my league.

I think I'm addicted to craigslist.

It all started back in Charlottesville. Charles and Jesse had left a ton of casebooks from school behind. I posted an ad on craigslist asking for $20 a book. Most of them were in "like-new" condition due to Charles and Jesse's study habits.

There weren't any takers. I guess selling legal casebooks in May isn't such a good idea. I was somewhat discouraged.

I went down to the basement and took a look at what I had to do to clean up the house before I moved out. There was a mess of stuff - air conditioners, dog crates, speakers, and a bunch of other stuff that ordinarily would go in the trash. Instead... I came up with a bold plan.

I would sell this leftover stuff on craigslist!

First went three window AC units. They went almost immediately because Charlottesville was in the midst of a high 90s heat wave. Next went the mini-fridge that was in the VIP room, with the legendary ad that Kim and I came up with. I was on a roll.

Video game chair? Gone to a scary looking guy who had to get a friend to drive him over. He saw Guitar Hero stuff in the house and said he really wants to get that. I offered him Guitar Hero 2 for five dollars (no guitar), but he said he needed the money. Seems like you would want the video game before the video game chair, but to each their own. Dog cages? For once George held up his end of the deal. Old TV? Outta here. Nobody wanted the vacuum, but someone did want the dishes that I listed in the "free" section. In fact, 7 people wanted them within a half hour of posting. Man, people sure do love free stuff.

I've continued my craigslisting up here in NYC. Kim and I are moving into a new place, so we've gotten rid of some extraneous things - a window AC unit that was languishing in the closet, our tall bar / dinner table, and this insanely heavy kitchen cart / island that has a granite top. I even gave away for free our DVD player last night, because it only works when it feels like it. I listed it in the free section as "Sony DVD player that sort of works." A ton of replies came in short order, and someone drove by and picked it up within an hour and a half.

My final and perhaps greatest craigslist sale will come in a couple weeks, when I try to get rid of our unbelievably heavy (160 pounds) 32 inch HD tube tv.

So how do I know I'm addicted? Because I actively look around our apartment for stuff to sell. Little ottoman type things? Miami heat fleece blanket? Expresso maker? Kim has put the kabosh on me selling these things. But she is starting to like selling stuff too.

Hmm, you know what? I just remembered Kim has this old digital camera that sucks down double AA batteries like a Discman. I think it averages 20 pictures per 4 AA batteries. Its awful, so I got Kim a new one a couple years ago. I smell a sale!

If you watch Family Guy and The Office on TBS, you've probably recently seen some "Bitcoms." Basically, they are 20 second stand-up comedy skits that... well I'm not sure what they're supposed to be. They seem to mention a sponsor, like cars.com, so I guess its a commercial of some sort. But at the end they mention TBS, so I guess its some sort of network promotion too. And I suppose it promotes the person who is doing the stand up. But you see, the problem is that they aren't entertaining at all. So much so that I can't tell if its intentional or not.

One of them features Lisa Landry, who is a relatively unattractive (and from what I can tell from the commercial, unfunny) comic. In the one featuring her, she starts off by saying that, as a woman, she never feels comfortable buying a car.

And this inexplicably leads to laughter.

Then, she says that this all changed when she went to cars.com, which let her pick out a car just for her.

Including one that made her butt look good.

Which, even more incredibly, leads to even more laughter!

The thing then ends with the whole TBS "Very Funny" tagline.

Anyone have any clue whats going on?

The Phillies are currently up 5-2 on the Cardinals in the bottom of the 8th. There are runners on first and second with one out, and best hitter on earth Albert Pujols is up. JC Romero was just taken out of the game... and the Phillies have sent in Ryan Madson...

A month or two ago, Kim and I were watching a baseball game and she made a comment that literally had me beaming with pride and joy. The Phillies had been in a similar situation as the one above, got out of it, and then sent in Brad Lidge to pitch the ninth. I informed her that Lidge was our "closer," as he is the best pitcher in our bullpen.

So Kim then insightfully asked, "Why wasn't he pitching in the last inning when all those guys were on base and the good hitters were up?" I was so excited I gave her the five minute explanation of how the save, almost uniquely, encourages managers to manage a game in a suboptimal manner.

I can't think of any other statistic in other sports that encourage suboptimal managing. Probably because stats in football and basketball aren't necessarily "created," but exist independently on their own. Braylon Edwards had X receiving TDs last year. Andre Miller had Y rebounds per game. They are what they are.

But the save, well if you're reading this blog then you probably know its relatively stupid. So why did Charlie Manuel use Ryan Madson in the above situation instead of Lidge? Why not use your best pitcher in the most important situation? Even Kim, who has zero knowledge of baseball or baseball strategy, instinctively realized this basic truth.

And you know managers realize whats going on to at least some extent, because they change their strategies regarding closers in the playoffs. Guys like Papelbon and Rivera suddenly come in the middle of the 8th, in situations exactly as we had above. Yet the goal of the game is to win, no matter whether you're in the playoffs or game 102 of the regular season.

Anyway - Pujols walked on four pitches, and then Ryan Ludwick GIDPed. In the ninth, Lidge gave up a leadoff home run, then a single, single, and HBP to load the bases. Lidge then struck out the last two guys to end the game. Manuel must have known all along!

Side note - one extremely entertaining Joe Morgan moment occurred in the ninth inning. After Lidge struck out some patsy on four pitches, Morgan said that Lidge didn't throw him one ball in the strike zone. Then, they show a replay of pitch one with the "K Zone" graphic overlay, and it shows the pitch squarely as a strike. Silence ensues.