As I look forward to the prospect of driving west across the mountains in our first snow for Thanksgiving, I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving all. My turkey day is shaping up to be quite the soap opera, so I’m planning on imbibing as much wine as possible before the show.
You see, my brother gave my parents their third granchild (first two are my kids, of course). Baby Jenny was born back in June. However, throughout my brother’s fiance’s pregnancy, he never got the nerve up to tell our dad or grandmother that she was pregnant. Never. I thought maybe when the baby was born he’d finally break the news. Nope. The birth tragically coincided with my dad’s emergency hospitalization to have stents put in his heart, so maybe that’s why he waited (I doubt it). Having witnessed what a great grandpa our dad makes and his reaction to my pregnancy with my son (very positive), I’ve tried over and over to assure my brother he has nothing to fear. I even pulled the guilt card about how horrible it is for him to expect the rest of us to keep this secret, thus making us accomplices. No dice.
I’ve been very tempted to break the news a few times myself as I don’t like the accomplice role. But we’ve been sworn to secrecy, as you can tell. Only us siblings and my mother know. Our parents divorced back when I was ten years old and their relationship since could hardly be described as amicable.
My dad was gracious enough to invite my mom to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and to my surprise, she accepted. The alternative was sitting in her hotel room by herself, which was less appealing. See, we’re all driving out there because my brother conveniently scheduled his wedding for Saturday.
My brother has decided to announce the arrival of his daughter at Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and then have his fiance show up with the baby. Woohoo! Let the fun begin! Please pass the wine. After driving all night to get there, I’ll be ripe for it.
So I hope you enjoy a festive family-filled enjoyable peaceful day!
Now for your Nats news. What? No news? Nope, just the usual speculations about ownership. Thom Loverro wrote a piece that says ultimately nothing, but at least didn’t insult anyone along the way. The city has given eminent domain evictees more time to move out. Lovely of them to be so kind during the holiday season. Bowden is remaining tight-lipped about his interviews with Boston (while Beattie seems like a kid who won a spelling bee willing to tell anyone who will listen how it went). It’s my understanding that baseball execs seem to prefer the silent types, so maybe Bowden has more of a chance than we think. Of course this is merely my *conjecture* based on *opinion*, so what do I know (right Thom?)?
The Washington Post has introduced a new feature-filled blog and API information site “lovingly referred to as mashingtonpost.com” even though that domain is currently parked. I’m guessing they’ll actually use that domain once there’s more information ready for the site. It’s pretty sparse right now, but might be something to watch. I tried the News Cloud app for “Major League Baseball” information. It took me a while of going through the “Zoom” browser to find what I was looking for, and it’s hard to search through the Flickr-like word clouds. It’d be nice if you could type in a keyword to search.
Jose Guillen, who was reportedly dizzy yesterday (could he outdo the “blonde loop” I caught myself in?), gave a few more details to Bill Ladson on his surgery. It took two hours longer than expected.
“I have to spend a month without moving my shoulder,” Guillen said. “I believe there was more damage than what was [originally diagnosed].”
In retrospect, Guillen said he should have taken time off during the season in order to allow the shoulder to heal.
Hmm… so maybe tough-guy ball players are learning it’s not so smart to play through the pain after all? Maybe not such an honorable trait? Besides, think of the team! When you play like crap, you’re not helping your team.