I was not surprised to hear that the Cardinals rolled the Dodgers yesterday. The St. Louis lineup may very well be unstoppable this fall. I was pleasantly surprised that the Red Sox made such short work of the Angels. I was disappointed that Schilling was left in for 107 pitches over 6 2/3 innings. Why not pull the guy and save that arm for game four or five, when you may need him. Or better yet, game one of the ALCS? It seems that every time the Sox have a good team, they are managed by a nitwit (see Grady Little and now Terry Francona).

It was also great to see the Twins shutout the Yankees. I flipped the game on twice: once to see Jacque Jones hit the bench after his homer made it 2-0 Twins and a second time to see Ruben Sierra hit a home run that, after he crossed the plate, was ruled (correctly) a foul ball. Sometimes you find happiness in the wierdest places.

I watched a few minutes of the Vice Presidential debate last night and it was, in a word, uncomfortable. Every time Cheney made what he thought was a good point, Edwards started scribbling and looked like he was dying to pull and Arnold Horshack and start screaming "OOOH!!! OOOH!! OOOH!!" Conversely, every time Edwards made what he felt was a good point, Cheney made that face a dad makes right after he watches his son throw a baseball at something in a tree, miss, and hit the neighbor's dining room window.

The best part was after Cheney hemmed and hawed about his party's position opposing gay marriages, despite the fact that his daughter is openly a lesbian. Edwards said

"Now, as to this question, let me say first that I think the vice president and his wife love their daughter. I think they love her very much. And you can't have anything but respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing. And there are millions of parents like that who love their children, who want their children to be happy.

And I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and so does John Kerry.

I also believe that there should be partnership benefits for gay and lesbian couples in long-term, committed relationships.

But we should not use the Constitution to divide this country."

Cheney's rebuttal:

"Well, Gwen, let me simply thank the senator for the kind words he said about my family and our daughter. I appreciate that very much."

Even though it didn't last long, it was nice to see that these two guys are, in fact, human.

This afternoon will be daddy-daughter day as the wife has to work tonight. That usually means ice cream, staying up a little too late and a substandard bath. When the wife's not home in the evening, I'm more like Santa or a grandparent than a dad. As I think about it now, I believe we may be hitting the TCBY for some Y, only this time I will try to keep Lauren from licking the glass of the display case. (It's like you've got to watch children every minute).

More later...