THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A & M in Atlanta for K's 90th birthday

Oct 27-29 in Atlanta for Ann's mother's 90th birthday (and yes she still drives a convertible). People came both Friday evening and Saturday evening to say hello to her. Saturday evening we saw Craig Barcroft. Some of the people in the Lenbrook (where K lives) are over 100. The Lenbrook is beginning construction of a 23 story annex; the existing building is 18 stories. One night I had a dream that they were going to have scattered site valet parking while the parking structure was being reconstructed. The next day someone told me my dream had actually predicted the future- of course it was actually a fairly logical conclusion. Ann got stopped for extra screening for security both directions because of cream jars outside of clear plastic containers or clear plastic containers buried in other luggage. It was quite a trip from Lenbrook to Gate C11. The Marta line was slow because of single tracking and the security line was slow (even outside the extra screening). We left the Lenbrook at about 12:15 and didn't get to gate C11 until about 2:30.

posted by Martin Weiss # 8:26 PM

Detroit Pitchers blow World Series with Errors

Usually pitchers just pitch but this series they had to field as well and the Detroit pitchers made an unprecendented 5 errors in the 5 games (its generally acknowledged that they blew two games- see below summary). StL wins 4-1 despite coming into the series with an 83-79 record, one of the lowest winning percentages ever for a pennant winner. A brief summary:

Game 1, Justin Verlander attempts a pick off at first, wildly. This probably didn't matter since StL won 7-2.

Game 2, Todd Jones misfields slow grounder in the 9th (but Detroit won anyway)

Game 3, Joel Zumaya, in 7th, throws wildly and to the wrong base. StL won 5-0 so it almost certainly didn't matter.

Game 4, Fernando Rodney fields a 7th inning bunt and throws it into right field (this play ended up tying the game and a few batters later the winning hit was made)

Game 5 Justin Verlander fields a 4th inning but (by the Cardinal pitcher) and throws wildly past the 3rd baseman which again lead to the tying run scoring and a few plays later the go ahead run scored.

and on Oct 30, a survey indicated that Detroit finished 2nd to StL in crime (STL had more crime) for cities with above 75,000 in population:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061030/METRO/610300382

however, Detroit finished first among cities with more than 500,000 population
followed by 2. Baltimore 3. Memphis 4. Washington, D.C. 5. Philadelphia

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:33 AM

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The battle to have a test for bacteria

I went to the doctor today. It was my 8th or so with an upper respitory condition. They prescribed an inhalor (with albuterol a substance that basically just widens the brochia). I asked for a throat culture in case there was some bacteria. They resisted that because I didn't have an elevated temperature. Eventually they agreed to prescribe a culture but they don't do that at the lab in the doctor's office so they sent me to Suburban Hospital who then sent me to the Suburban Hospital outpatient lab. I was out of the house from 830 to almost noon.

posted by Martin Weiss # 12:01 PM

Monday, October 16, 2006

Flu at the wrong time

I was looking forward to the weekend. There was a kiddush sponsored by a restauranter and one sponsored by a caterer. Unfortunately, I got sick. After everything was over Sunday late evening, my fever was down to 98.9 or so. Bummer. Ann went to the caterer's event and gave it 5 stars.

posted by Martin Weiss # 6:51 AM

Thursday, October 12, 2006

New Cat Status Report

As noted below we obtained a grey tabby (Trina) on Sept 20. On Oct 9 we had her neutered (which is an adoption requirement of the Humane Society). The surgical wound is healing nicely and she has about as good an apetite as before the operation. The vet said to keep the cats separated so she won't run around too much and open the wound. This is way difficult. We may end the separation tomorrow if the wound still looks like its healing well. I told Ann that the cat would heal quickly because she is a slayer (Buffy the Vampire Slayer healed quickly on the show of the same name).

posted by Martin Weiss # 1:50 PM

Thursday, October 05, 2006

M's Omelet goes over at work

We had a beginning of the Fiscal Year party. Our office brought stuff in and invited other offices to come. I made a 24 egg omlet with lots of vegetables. All the omlet was eaten pretty fast (we started serving at about 900 am). A few of the women asked me about the recipe. Basically I microwaved the vegetables first so they would be soft when the egg was poured on them.

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:39 PM

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

MLB regular season ends - some highlights

Washington player Alfonso Soriano ended the season with an 0-19 streak but before that he put up some nice numbers: 46 HRs, 41SBs, 40 doubles, 20 assists. Washington rookie Ryan Zimmerman ended the season with 20 HRs and 110 RBIs.

Outside the Nationals, Ichiro Suzuki finished the season with a .322 average after an April start of .177. He also racked up 45 SBs. Tampa Bay had a 3-36 record since July 1 and becomes the first team in history to lose 100 games (20-61 on the road for the season) while having a home record of over .500 (41-40). Grady Sizemore of Cleveland had joined 50 doubles, 10 triples, 20 homers and 20 steals only the second person to do that (Chuck Klein did it in a 154 game season for Philadelphia in 1932).

posted by Martin Weiss # 10:24 PM