I had a great time in Wisconsin. I'm so glad my grandmother finally got to meet my son, whom she has been spoiling rotten since he was born. They took to each other immediately. He also spent quite a bit of time with my cousins Thomas (age 9) and Michael (7). They, like everyone else, adored him. It was great to spend almost an entire week a) with my extended family and b) with no responsibilities. Having my cousins around took all of the pressure off my wife and I to play with Xander. He was thoroughly entertained the entire time, to the point that bedtime became something of an ordeal because he just wanted to go play with his new Thomas the Tank Engine trains or with his super cool cousins. By the end of the week, he was asking for Michael and Thomas by name and spontaneously telling my grandma, "Lovoo, gramma." Waaaay cute.
My cousin Ashley got married on Friday with a backyard reception on Saturday. It wasn't really what I expected. They got married at the courthouse and had the reception at her husband's Aunt's house (I think - I'm still not entirely clear on whose house that was). It was obviously not a big budget wedding, which is fine. It made me really appreciate coming for the entire week. We looked at just going for the two key days, since that would mean less time off of work, but that would have been a disappointment. It wasn't a big enough event. I don't mean that to take anything away from their wedding or their marriage, it just wasn't a big enough deal to mandate flying a thousand miles for. Being able to spend time with all my Midwestern relatives made it worthwhile. And I don't regret going to the wedding, either. I'm glad I was able to be there for that.
Whatever was under my L key that was making it touchy in my last post is under the / now. It sucks for writing questions.
Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th career home run on the three-year anniversary of his 500th home run. If he keeps up that pace (he won't), he'll be 40 years old when he becomes the all-time leader and 41 when he hits number 800, in 2016. Maybe I'll start caring then. Even though he's only the seventh player in major league history to do this (hit 600 homers), I'm entirely unimpressed. It just always seemed inevitable. I also think that his admitting to using steroids took some of the thrill out of it. I mean, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa almost certainly juiced, too, but it seemed different a few years ago. And it wasn't blatantly obvious at the time Bonds hit 600, either. We sort of figured that out later. The part that does impress me is that A-Rod is the youngest player to reach 600 home runs. It's not ridiculous to think he could clear 800, or maybe even 850, before he retires, especially when he inevitably moves to a DH role. My big hope is that Albert Pujols can continue his torrid pace and make a run for A-Rod's eventual record, whatever that ends up being. It certainly appears that Pujols never used any performance enhancing drugs. It's not as easy to say that as it once was, since the saving grace for Barry Bonds breaking the record was that A-Rod would eventually catch up to him and the idea was that we would only have a steroid player on top of the pile for a few years. It no longer seems safe to assume that anyone was or wasn't juicing back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Still, I'm pulling for Pujols. And I hate the Cardinals. He's just fun to watch.
That's the other piece that makes A-Rod's accomplishment sort of nonplussing. I don't think anybody really likes Alex Rodriguez. I mean, Barry Bonds was hated by a lot of people, but Giants fans still rooted for him, and a lot of people liked him before his head got huge and he started just belting long balls. Sammy Sosa was beloved by Cubs fans and many others. Ken Griffey, Jr., is a baseball icon about whom nobody has a bad word to say. And of course Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron are baseball icons, so all of the other members of the 600 club are these really interesting, iconic guys and A-Rod is just sort of unlikeable. You either hate the Yankees or you love the Yankees (I happen to fall into the former category), but I get the sense that even Yankee fans don't really like A-Rod.
I did get some requests since my last posts. I'll start dealing with those the next time I write, but I wanted to take care of my news while I actually had some. Thanks for stopping by.
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