Swallows 6 -- Giants 4

We won! We finally won! I screamed my lungs off, and we held on for the win. It was a bit of a home run derby there for a while! I think four of our guys hit one yard today.

I've decided to stop yelling so much at Petagine when he comes to the plate. He still feels too much at home when he visits Jingu, and he regualarly hits one out of the park. I yelled several impolite things at him on Saturday, and as usual he parked one in right center. On Sunday I kept my mouth shut, and he didn't have that much impact on the game. I will test this theory further and report back.

Aside from Uehara, the Giants' bullpen is pretty thin. They've got a bunch of goofy guys in their who aren't nearly as effective as their salaries suggest they should be. Not that I'm complaining or anything...

Swallows 6 -- Giants 4

Swallows 2 -- Giants 8

It happened again. The Swallows beat the crap out of the Giants last night, but we got blown out this evening. I still have yet to witness a game where the monopoly is cut down. They threw Uehara at us tonight, so that didn't help. And Billy Martin helped a few runs come around with his less than stellar work in right. To his credit, he did have a couple of base hits, but then he whiffed with two men in scoring position during the middle innings.

I'm going back for more tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will hold, and I'll get to see the Swallows beat them with my own two eyes. One question...has anyone in this country ever heard of a salary cap?

Swallows 2 -- Giants 8

Sunburns

Just received my second burn in one week. All it takes is a half hour under the sun, and I'm bright pink. The temperature is confidently above 30 degrees centigrade these days, and I think it's about to get worse. We've got the door open, and the fan pulling cool nighttime air in, but it's not doing much. It's still 29.5 degrees in here next to the computer.

The air conditioning nazis on the second floor at work won't relinquish their control of the AC on our floor. They keep a slow trickle of chill coming out of the vents, and it does nothing to cool the rooms that we're in on the fourth floor. They sit at desks all day, so they're apparently just fine. I would really love for one of them to come upstairs and teach a class in that heat. The students are dying as well! Apparently they're trying to conserve resources. There aren't any hand dryers in the bathrooms either. Towels? Yeah, right. They're probably planning to ration toilet paper next.

SPF 20 sunblock isn't enough to prevent the sun from having a BBQ on my body. I need nerd-care, SPF 40, I guess.

Sunburns

Lake Sai. Summer, 2003. Miyu and her father, Masaki. This house was designed by Uncle Yasu. It's beautiful!

Rash of Photos

I just felt like posting a bunch of pics from the past 12 months, so it now takes twice as long to scroll down to the bottom. I wish there were some other way to organize photos on here. There probably is, but it would most likely take too long to figure out how to do it.

I'll be doing more mass-postings of photos in the near future. It's so easy to do, so I might as well...

Rash of Photos

Trip to Itou. April, 2004. In search of food, we find a creature who was also on the hunt.

Trip to Itou. April, 2004. Back at the hotel, watching the game. Chunichi vs. Yomiuri. I'm visibly bummed because it looks like the Giants are going to win. Little did I know that Alex Ochoa was about to ruin Yomiuri's night with a 9th-inning dinger.

Trip to Itou. April, 2004. Kelly goofing around under a Cherry tree.