So it's been a week.... 5 - 3

Since I went to my last Dodger game. And I know ... I usually post as soon as I get home from a game my recap. Sorry. It's a week late! I didn't get a chance to post that night because I didn't get home till after 12:30 AM ... and I had to be at work at 9 the next morning. There was no way I was going to get on the computer and try to blog about the game. And here I am now ... almost midnight and finally going over the game. Let's see what I can remember.

The day before the game, the weather was cloudy and it rained in some areas, hail in others ... I forget which day ... but even a tornado or two touched down here in Southern California. Where I live (which is VERY close to Dodger Stadium) ... it sprinkled here and there ... but not much. According to Google maps ... I am 2.9 miles from Dodger Stadium, which they say is about eight minutes. That's going down Riverside Drive, up Stadium Way. Now if I hop on the 110 and get off on the Dodger Stadium exit, that cuts .4 miles off my distance. So ... basically I live less then 3 miles from Dodger Stadium, somewhere between 2 and 2.5 miles.

Because of the rain, I knew my friend who was supposed to go to the game with me might change her mind. And, yes, she said she didn't want to go to the game because of the chance of rain and she thought it was ridiculous that I would go. She didn't want to risk getting sick, for a game. I made some calls and tried to find someone else to go with me. Nina usually goes with me, but she had plans for that night and was going to have guests over at her house. So, she couldn't come. Kevin was my second choice, but I couldn't reach him. And he was at a birthday part. I ended up taking my wonderful cousin Jenny! This is the first time we've gone to a game together. Before I left the Galleria, I stopped at Target to pick up a poncho so I could be prepared for the rain. I also wanted to look for gloves, but alas ... they're out of season. And when I got in line to pay for my stuff, there was a family of four or five in front of me ... all decked out in Dodger gear. They were buying just two or three things, one of which was a baseball inside a case. They were going to the game as well.

Jenny and I got there early and we stopped to see who was in Autograph Alley. I think it was Tim Leary. We got in for batting practice. I think I've just about given up going to batting practice. There's no way I'm ever going to get another batting practice ball or anyone to sign my scrapbook. Why? I'm not some cute kid, so why would anyone pay attention to me? And I get it. If one player signs one thing for a fan, they get swamped by a dozen other people who also want autographs. Now why would he want to put himself through that? Anyway, I had given up and thought I should head towards the dug out and maybe catch Steve again. Well, I saw him and he was busy talking to some family. My cousin Jenny asked me why don't I approach him? I said because he was talking to the family in the boxed baseline seats and the security people weren't going to let me go into that area. There was a security guy standing there and he confirmed what I said.

But while I was in that area, guess who I ran into? JoAnna! She was there was Kirsten, JoAnna's daughter Avery, and Avery's friend Madyson. Avery and Madyson were in line with the other kids waiting to get an autograph from a Dodger player. They waited. And waited. And then because some of the kids were fooling around, the kids were told to leave the line. They left ... and then the security told them they could come back. And then they were told to leave again ... and then told to come back. They waited. And waited. Then batting practice was over and told to leave again.

Jenny wanted to know where we were sitting. So I looked up and pointed out our section. And noticed that some of the guys were already there. And yes, I still don't know everyone's names. Guy 3 (he sits in seat 3 usually) was there, but I couldn't see who he was with. Turns out, this time he brought his father. Last time and the first time, he brought his cousin. And someone else in between. Yes, I know. I probably should learn their names. Anyway, before we went up, we got our food. I got Jenny a Dodger dog, and since she wanted fries, I got Garlic Fries. We waited for the elevator. Got on. Some guy got on and I thought to myself ... this guy looks a lot like Penny ... without the facial hair.

We went to our seats and said hi to Guy 3. I teased him about being early. After we sat down, the family behind us arrived. They also joked about getting there in time for the first pitch. Jenny got up to use the restroom and I asked her to get me a ice cream cookie sandwich, as cold as it was. But after the garlic fries ... I needed something else to eat. And it was SOOOO good. And then before the game started ... some guy was shouting out "cacahuetes" or however you pronounce peanuts in Spanish. But he would draw out the words and say them like in two words, like "caca" "huetes". And then there were these two guys sitting behind us ... who were in the wrong section. Their seats were in 3 TD, but they were sitting in 1 TD. They could've stayed. There's usually plenty of empty seats. But they moved over anyway.

Early in the game, Lowe already had a ball bounce off him. When my friends and I play "three flies up" at the park, we nicknamed one of the trees "DLowe" ... because we always hit the tree with the ball. Just like DLowe seems to get drilled by comebackers. Molina lost his bat, and Lowe retrieved it for him.

Let's see ... how many times did a Dodger get left in scoring position?
Bottom of second - Kemp reached third on wild pitch by Wainwright, after he singled, then reached second on DeWitt's groundout.
Bottom of fifth - Hu singled and reached second on Lowe's groundout
Bottom of sixth - Martin singled, safe at second on error by Molina, and third on Loney's groundout.
Bottom of ninth - Kemp walked, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.

The only Dodger to score was Hu, who tripled and then scored on Sweeney's sac fly.
I'll probably add more things later one when I go through my pictures. Those will jarr some memories. It sprinkled twice during the game. But it wasn't hard enough for the game to stop. As soon as it started to sprinkle, I pulled out a giant Hefty ziplock bag and stuffed my purse in it. The guys around me joked that it was big enough to stuff myself in it. It was pretty big. We also pulled out my poncho. We didn't have to use it till the ninth. It was also bubbles night at Dodger Stadium. Some bored person was blowing bubbles during the game.

At one point in the game, Kent came up in a big spot. I don't remember what spot, what inning, or anything. However, I remember Nicole cheering for Kent. Guy 3 said something, I don't remember what. Well, Kent flied out (I think it was the eighth inning) and Guy 3 was like, "I told you so." Nicole told him (she was kidding of course) that she wanted the other guy back, the Kent guy. Guy 3 takes off his sweater and he's wearing a Kent jersey. It was pretty hilarious. He told her he wasn't talking to her anymore, and someone responded "at least not during this game." Nicole leaned over and asked me what was his name. He sits two seats away from me, and I don't know his name. I told her that I didn't know. She asked me what she should do. The only thing I could think of was apologize. So, she goes "I sorry." He didn't respond. We told her that he was still ignoring her.

Then came the bottom of the ninth inning ... Matt Kemp was up to bat, with one out. He worked a full count before they called a rain delay. It just started to pour! Jenny and I already pulled the poncho over our heads so I could keep taking pictures in the rain. As soon as they called the rain delay, everyone in our section just split. Well, except for like these two guys in the front row. I would've stayed ... but we went to take cover on the top deck. I took a lot of pictures during the rain delay. Looking back, I should've moved over to the right side of the top deck to get pictures of the players in the dug out. I didn't know they were still in there. They pulled the tarp out, took it off, spread dry sand/dirt/whatever around, and then covered it up again. The rain eventually stopped and the game continued. Kemp got a walk. Then he stole second as DeWitt struck out. Then with Andruw Jones on the on-deck spot ... pinch hitter Delwyn Young got walked. You gotta wonder ... did they intentionally unintentionally walk Young (who's a pretty decent pinch hitter these days) to get to the Whiff King? Well, for the first time since my first game this year ... the crowd was actually cheering Jones more than they were booing him. It was like we were trying to "will" him to succeed. We wanted this moment to be his moment to shine, to redeem himself. Well ... what can I say? He let us down. Again. By striking out. Of course. So this is what we waited over an hour for. That and the awesome fireworks show. Which, by the way, I have posted up on my flickr.

So ... I bought the Sunday game where Clayton Kershaw made his major league debut. Wow. Amazing. Six ining,s five hits, two earned runs, and SEVEN strike outs. Three of those strike outs were in the FIRST inning. His pitch total? 102 pitches. James Loney got hit in the head with a pop fly that he missed. Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, Loney had a 1 - 2 count, with two outs, and Martin on first. He swung and you can hear his bat hit the catcher's helmet! It reminded me of when Matt Holliday did the same thing during the Home Run Derby last year.

That's all for now. I'll add more later if I remember anything else.

Standings as of 5/25/08

2008 National League - Standings
EAST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	STRK	L10
Florida	29	20	.592	-	18-12	11-8	238	227	Won 2	6-4
Atlanta	27	23	.540	2.5	21-7	6-16	239	193	Lost 1	7-3
Philadelphia	28	24	.538	2.5	13-11	15-13	260	227	Won 1	5-5
NY Mets	23	25	.479	5.5	12-9	11-16	228	223	Lost 1	3-7
Washington	22	29	.431	8	13-14	9-15	197	243	Won 1	5-5
CENTRAL	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	STRK	L10
Chicago Cubs	29	21	.580	-	19-8	10-13	288	209	Lost 2	5-5
St. Louis	30	22	.577	-	17-10	13-12	239	210	Lost 1	6-4
Houston	29	23	.558	1	15-9	14-14	253	249	Lost 1	5-5
Pittsburgh	24	26	.480	5	15-11	9-15	244	271	Won 2	5-5
Milwaukee	23	27	.460	6	11-9	12-18	220	246	Lost 1	3-7
Cincinnati	23	28	.451	6.5	14-9	9-19	225	255	Lost 1	5-5
WEST	W	L	PCT	GB	HOME	ROAD	RS	RA	STRK	L10
Arizona	30	20	.600	-	19-8	11-12	262	199	Won 1	5-5
LA Dodgers	26	23	.531	3.5	15-11	11-12	230	212	Won 1	6-4
Colorado	20	30	.400	10	12-14	8-16	210	253	Won 1	5-5
San Francisco	20	31	.392	10.5	11-15	9-16	189	244	Lost 2	3-7
San Diego	19	33	.365	12	11-14	8-19	182	253	Won 1	4-6

So, in the Eastern division ... the Marlins are still on top. But the Mets have dropped from second to fourth. The central division is the same except the bottom two switched. And no surprise there, the West remains the same. At least now the Dodgers gained two games and are 3.5 back instead of 5.5. Oh yeah. And in case you missed it ... the Padres lost Jake Peavy, Chris Young, and Josh Bard this week. Peavy to strained elbow, Young after he got smashed by a ball hit by who else but Albert Pujols, and two plays later, Pujols takes out Bard. They also released Justin Germano and Joe Thatcher. The Rockies didn't want to feel left out, so they put Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe, and Clint Barmes on the DL. Barmes, by the way, plays shortstop as well as second base. And guess which shortstop has been on the DL since April 30? Meanwhile ... the Diamondbacks have only ONE player on the DL ... who was placed there before the season even began! Now that's how you stay number one. By staying off the DL.

Now onto the Dodgers. At last! Clayton Kershaw has arrived. And what an arrival he makes! According to "Inside the Dodgers" blog, Kershaw's first pitch was at 1:09. They placed Gary Bennett on the DL and called up catcher Danny Ardoin. They "designated" Esteban Loaiza for assignment, and send Yhency Brazoban back to the minors. Hmmm I think Saito is one win away from tying Brad Penny for most wins on the team. What does that say when your closer has more wins than your starter?

Oh yeah...

Andruw Jones is on the DL.

Incredibly rude

So, this lady was in the fitting room, and I went in to show my customer to a room. I was cleaning out the rooms and she came out and asked me to get her an item. I was still with my customer. I told her that I was with several customers, and I would try to get the item for her. She said never mind if I wasn't going to get it for her right that moment. She wanted that item and she wanted it now. She didn't want to wait for me while I was with some other customers. Hmm wonder if she's the same "I don't care if you have other customers, I want you to help me NOW" lady. Anyway, I go back out to find my customers and to do my go-backs. She comes out and gets on the phone to order some things through the catalog. I was started to approach her and she said "I don't need any help from you" ... quite rudely I may add .... and I didn't even say a word to her. So I left her alone. She stayed on the phone for about another 30-60 minutes. Very loudly too. You could probably hear her from the store next door. Anyway, she goes to the register to buy two things. I'm standing right there, clocking out. My manager asked her if anyone helped her. She said no, she always helps herself. Then she adds, a girl did try to help her, but she didn't see her anymore. Then she said the girl told her she was with a customer and would help her when she was done. First of all, I was standing right there. I didn't say anything. I just clocked out and went into the back. Second of all, that is NOT what I said. Another girl clocked out the same time I did. She told me, not to worry, because this customer complains about everybody and everything, and to wait till the customer was gone to leave the store. She is RUDE to everyone, even the managers. What did I do? I poked my head out and looked to see if she was gone before I went back out. My manager said the customer said the girl was wearing a white top with black. I was wearing a creme blouse under a black vest-type top. The whole thing made me so mad. I couldn't believe how rude and impossible she was being!

5 - 2 Blake DeWitt is AWESOME-AMAZING

Nina and I got to the game early for batting practice, as usual. Since Steve Yeager was the guest at the Autograph Alley last time (May 5), we decided to see who was the former Dodger this time. Matt Luke. Anyone remember him? Apparently, he played for the Dodgers in 1998. He went from the Dodgers, to the Indians, to the Dodgers in 98. Was he traded for a player to be named later, which turned out to be him? LOL. Sounds like a laugh right? But it really did happen. I don't have my trivia book right now, but I'm not making it up. I only recognized his name because I received one of his baseball cards today. So, we went into the field level to watch batting practice. I saw Chan Ho Park toss an empty water bottle towards the Left Field Pavilion. It didn't go over the wall. When he went to go pick it up, I guess something caught his eye. Because he started filling the bottle up with whatever it was that caught his eye. At first, I thought it was pebbles or something. Turns out they were bugs, like roaches or beetles or something. He then took the bottle and showed it to some of the other pitchers. Schmidt later took the bottle and ran up to Saito and tried to surprise him with it. Saito didn't look shaken or anything. Nina and I decided we might try that center field area next time we go to a game. I texted JoAnna and it turned out she was going to be at this game too. So, Nina and I dawdled around till JoAnna got there. After we found each other, Nina and I headed up to our seats. Homer Simpson (okay, a guy in a Homer Simpson suit) threw out the first pitch. We saw them during batting practice in the Center Field area. You could see Marge, Homer, Bart, and Lisa. No Maggie. Before the game started, there was a moment of silence to honor those who died in the earthquake in China. I read an article in the L.A. times last week about it. Very sad.

Okay, onto the game. Penny struggled through the first inning, giving up a lead off walk. After a force out, he gave up two singles, which gave the Reds a 1 - 0 lead. Then in the Dodgers half the inning, they didn't put up much of a fight as the first three batters grounded out. Well, Andre put up a little fight. The first baseman flipped the ball to the pitcher covering. Andre just about jumped onto the pitchers back for a piggy-back ride. In the second inning, after striking out the first batter, Penny gave up another walk, which also came around to score. The Reds then had a 2 - 0 lead. The Reds scored another two runs in the next inning on a homer by Adam Dunn. The Dodgers finally get on board when Russ knocked in two runs when the Reds should've gotten out of the inning. Instead, the Reds got an error, the Dodgers got an extra chance, and Russ found himself at second while Andre and Pierre find themselves back in the dugout. The score is now 4 - 2.

Now, in the fourth inning, Penny walked the leadoff batter again. Who happened to be the opposing pitcher. Arroyo reached second on a sacrifice by Freel. He tried to go to third when Patterson flied out to Matt Kemp. Arroyo tagged up and tried to advance to third. Kemp made a throw to third and everyone held their breath to see what the call was. Arroyo was OUT. In the next inning, Matt Kemp showed off his arm again when he bobbled a ball hit by Griffey. Griffey tried to go to second, but was thrown out thanks to a great throw by Matt. Guess the two assists help us forgive Kemp for getting picked off first during the bottom of the fourth inning. The Reds scored their fifth and final run on a single by, who else but Adam Dunn.

With a 5 - 2 game going in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Dodgers looked like they were done. After Pierre grounded out, Ethier singled, and then Martin flied out... with two outs, it looked like Ethier was going to be stranded at first. After Martin flied out, Arroyo gave up four consecutive singles to TIE the game. With Hu in the batter's box, it looked like Penny's night was going to be over with Sweeney in the on-deck circle. Well, Hu struck out, and Penny came out to start the sixth inning. He then proceeded to walk the lead-off batter ... again. This time, he got out of the inning okay. He got a double play to end the inning, after getting a force out.

Now, the SEVENTH inning was interesting. Beimel came in, struck out Griffey. Phillips singled after being given a second chance. It looked like he was struck out, but it was ruled a foul tip that Russell wasn't able to hang onto. With a second chance at life, Phillips singled. Then when he tried to steal second, it looked like Martin threw him out at second. The umpires ruled it a balk. Then Beimel hit Dunn with a pitch. He's probably the one guy you didn't want to pitch to anyway. Then he ended the inning the same way he started it, with a strikeout. Broxton came in the eighth inning, and was throwing heaters! He hit 99 a couple times. Saito came up and gave us a 1-2-3 ninth. Really good, especially with Adam Dunn scheduled to bat fourth in the inning.

Ninth inning came and the score was still tied. Martin started off the inning with a single, and advanced to second on the errant throw by the new shortstop who replaced the previous shortstop who also made an errant throw earlier in the game with Martin running. Martin then advanced to third when Kent grounded out. With two bases open, the Reds decided to walk Loney and Kemp to get to the rookie Blake "Awesome-Amazing" DeWitt. Guess no one told them that DeWitt was 5 - for - 5 with the bases loaded. With only one out, guess they were just hoping for a double play while the rest of us were hoping for a base hit or a sacrifice or a walk or a hit by pitch, anything to bring the winning run (Martin) home. When Nomar comes back, PLEASE by all that is good and green on this earth, DO NOT (and I repeat absolutely DO NOT) send DeWitt back down. I believe this is the second game that I've been to this year that ended with a walk-off win. I can't remember how many I went to last year that resulted with a walk-off win... two maybe.

Other things about the game that have NOTHING to do with the Dodgers, well the game they played anyway. One of the guys in front of us was complaining about the incompetence of one of the concession stand workers at Dodger Stadium. He wanted a large soda. He figured, they sold two sizes of sodas, and he wanted the bigger one. Well, the concession person sold him a "large" soda but he actually wanted the "souvenir cup" soda. He went on and on about it. The worker ended up giving him not the drink he wanted, but like mixed several different sodas. And didn't bother to wipe up the cup. So the guy wanted to speak to the manager. The manager did give him the right size drink and the right size drink after all that drama. I'm not going to say what I thought about it. You can form your own opinions. And what's a baseball game without the wave? I don't think they got a wave going till the fifth or sixth inning. The people in front of us left after the seventh or eighth inning. I forget. As soon as they left, the four of us sitting behind them promptly put our feet on the top of their empty seats. Nina and I talked about the errors. She thought the error was put on the first baseman both times, but I told her no, it was on whoever threw it. She thought it should've been on the first baseman because he didn't catch the ball. I told her that he couldn't catch them because they were bad throws. The first error was on a low throw that bounced in the dirt. The second error just sailed over the first baseman's head. And tonight must've been the night for celebrities, if you include the Simpsons too. There was Nick Lachey (who used to be married to a Simpson), James Denton, Heidi from the Hills, and Melissa Gilbert. Anyone else in attendance? Any SoSG?

Oh yeah. Blake "Awesome-Amazing" DeWitt is not 6-for-6 with the bases loaded.

Blog quiz

Standings as of 5/18/08

East	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Florida Marlins	24	19	.558	--	13-11	11-8	12-5	9-8	2-4	Lost 1	5-5
New York Mets	22	19	.537	1.0	12-9	10-10	13-10	4-6	3-3	Won 2	6-4
Philadelphia Phillies	24	21	.533	1.0	13-11	11-10	5-7	9-6	9-6	Lost 2	4-6
Atlanta Braves	22	21	.512	2.0	16-5	6-16	9-12	5-5	6-3	Won 1	4-6
Washington Nationals	19	26	.422	6.0	10-11	9-15	12-17	6-7	0-0	Won 1	4-6
Central	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Chicago Cubs	27	17	.614	--	19-8	8-9	4-4	16-11	7-2	Won 1	8-2
St. Louis Cardinals	26	20	.565	2.0	17-10	9-10	3-0	14-12	7-7	Won 2	4-6
Houston Astros	25	20	.556	2.5	11-6	14-14	5-4	8-6	11-8	Won 1	7-3
Pittsburgh Pirates	21	23	.477	6.0	12-8	9-15	10-11	7-10	4-2	Lost 1	6-4
Cincinnati Reds	21	23	.477	6.0	14-9	7-14	6-7	7-13	5-3	Won 6	8-2
Milwaukee Brewers	20	24	.455	7.0	11-9	9-15	4-7	12-12	4-2	Lost 5	4-6
West	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Arizona Diamondbacks	28	16	.636	--	19-8	9-8	3-4	3-6	20-5	Won 1	6-4
Los Angeles Dodgers	22	21	.512	5.5	11-9	11-12	5-4	5-6	11-9	Lost 1	3-7
Colorado Rockies	17	27	.386	11.0	9-11	8-16	3-2	6-6	6-18	Won 2	4-6
San Francisco Giants	17	28	.378	11.5	11-15	6-13	3-3	6-14	8-8	Lost 5	3-7
San Diego Padres	16	29	.356	12.5	8-10	8-19	2-7	4-6	9-14	Lost 2	4-6

Not much has changed! In the east, the Mets and Phillies have gained two games on the Marlins in the last week. The first place team in all three divisions haven't changed. Except, last week, the Cardinals were tied with the Cubs. This week, they've dropped two games back. And yes, the Padres are still the worst team in the National (and American) League. But don't look now ... but they might have a chance of moving up a slot among the thirty teams. The Detroit Tigers are 17 - 28, and the Mariners are 18 - 27. What happened? Weren't the Padres supposed to be part of the running for the National League West? They've got Peavy, Maddux, Young... compared to our Penny, Lowe, Billingsley. And right now ... our pitchers are staying afloat mainly because of our terrific bullpen. Our offense needs to get going and stay going. No more of this inconsistency stuff, where they score a ton of runs one day and none the next three days. I'm hoping that since they lost today, that they'll win tomorrow. Of the five games I've been to this year, two of the wins have come after they won the day before, one with a loss before, and the two losses I've gone to ... one followed a loss and the other followed a win. Actually ... the last time I went to a game and they lost ... it was when Billingsley got like a dozen strike outs and they Dodgers started a eight-game winning streak the next day. Let's home tomorrow may be the start of another winning streak!

It's been a long day...

That started by me showing up at work at nine. When I wasn't scheduled to be there till one. I went and got a bagel before going home. Then I got home, and had to ring the doorbell like a hundred times before someone opened it. Why? Because I lost my house keys earlier this week. Around Wednesday I think. I got tired of ringing the bell every five seconds. So, every five seconds, I would ring the bell not just once ... but add another ring to each time I had to ring it. I stopped counting once I got to ten. Jenny came over and we washed both our cars. After that, I had to shower again. Then I left for work. Unfortunately, the freeway hadn't cleared up much since I left for work four hours ago. In fact, it got worse. It took me even longer to get to work this time. And, they closed off my usual entrance, so it took me longer to get to the parking lot. By the time I got to work, it was already past one. Then I wasted precious minutes trying to stuff my lunch into an overflowing minifridge (which my boss later cleaned out). I got the talk about being on time. It was a long day at work. I'm not even going to go there. The only interesting thing to say was our Schizo Shopper came back today. She came to our store FOUR different times again. This is the same crazy lady who holds a conversation with herself the entire time she is shopping in our store. I've overheard her say things like "that's the stupidest thing" and other weird things. I don't catch everything she says. But she's a few coconuts shy of a bunch ... probably cause all the ones she's missing landed on her head.

It's late by the time I get off. And as we're heading to the elevator ... I realize I can't find my car keys. We go back to the store. Not there. Turns out ... they were in my car. On the passenger seat. So, I call Jenny who goes to my house, gets my spare key and brings it to me. You'd think the night end there, right? As I'm getting onto the freeway onramp, it's a two-lane thing. The guy in front of me was in the right lane, I'm in the left. He signals to get into my lane. There's plenty of room. He's straddling the two lanes, so I'm wondering what is he doing and if he's really going to change lanes or not. Someone from behind us drives right past him, while he's still in the middle of the two lanes, causing the guy to swerve, slow down, and nearly STOP! This caused me to slow down and nearly stop. I look in my review mirror, and see that Jenny is behind me, and I'm grateful there's a good distance behind us. I get home, and thankfully my dad was home because guess what ... I still don't have my house keys. Other than my dad, no one else was home. If he wasn't home, two situations. One, Jenny wouldn't have been able to get inside the house to get my spare key and I'd be stranded in Glendale still. And two, I wouldn't been locked out of my house for another hour had I been able to get home anyway. Jenny calls me to see if I'm okay, since she was behind me and saw what happened. She said if there had been an accident, she would've been my witness. I told her, if there had been an accident, she also would've been my ride home. It's been a long day.

On the bright side ... the Dodgers have finally managed to win a game against the other "Los Angeles" team. Blake DeWitt is awesome-amazing! He hit a homerun today, in his first game back since ... Wednesday... when he hit another home run. Hey! He had a pair of back-to-back home run games earlier this month. In fact, he slugged his first home run on the 5th and the next day his slugged his first inside-the-park homerun. Then he hit home run #3 in Milwaukee on Wednesday, didn't play Thursday, didn't play yesterday ... and today he hits home run #4! Hmm will we see more back-to-back games where he hits home runs? Let's home he can do it on Monday and Tuesday. Why? Because I'm going to Monday's game (let's Penny can get his groove back!) And it looks like the Dodgers have a new catcher ... Chad Bennett .. j/k.... it's just a typo

Interesting things at work ...

The other day, I noticed a customer had some things in her hands. I asked her if I could put them in a room for her, but she said she had already been helped. Then I tried to ask her if I could put them at the counter for her. The words were in my head, but tripped over each other trying to get out. Frustrated and annoyed, the customer told me quite rudely to leave her alone. I apologized and went hiding in the corner of the store like a dog with its tail between its legs. She probably thought I was some stupid young Asian girl.

On Friday, my manager was putting up a sign on a fixture that said selected merchandise were marked lower. But there were some things on the fixture that weren't part of the selected merchandise. She asked me if customers would read the sign and see that it said "selected merchandise." I told her, no way. They never read the signs completely. They'd just rather assume it was everything on that fixture. So, she didn't put the sign up and waited instead.

Later that night, just as we were getting ready to close the store, a customer asked if she could put something on hold for an hour. Only problem was, it was 8:30 and we closed at 9. And after we closed the store, we still had two people in the store. One lady tried on a skirt in three sizes. The other was trying on an outfit, and I showed her different things to go with it. She decided that the skirt made her look fat, and after being in the store for about forty-five minutes, she decided that she was done. It was about fifteen minutes after closing before we finally got those two out. And of course the store was a mess and I had a ton of clothes to put back. We didn't leave till like ten.

Tonight, I started work when the store opened and I wasn't off till after we closed because I was the closing associate. After my lunch break, my energy/effort level dipped. Not sure why. Maybe because I just passed the fifth hour of my shift. This customer has a pant and a blouse and asked about our 25% promotion. I told her the specifics (basically it didn't include the pant and blouse) and she gave me a bugged out look, and then looked at the sign. She looked like someone just hit her in between the eyes ... you know, the deer in the headlights look. Then she goes and asks me if they were going to be a different price on Memorial day, and if we were going to have a special for Memorial Day. I SO wanted to tell her that I wasn't a fortune teller, that I couldn't see the future. But I bit my tongue and I told her that I didn't know. Most of the time, I don't know when we're going to have any kind of special until maybe a few days before it happens. There is no way I was going to know two weeks in advance if we were going to have a special. What do I look like? A fortune teller? Wait, and that's not the end of the story. She sees a dress in the window. Wants to know if we have it. Sarah tells her we don't because I already looked for it for someone else. Customer wanted to know if we could see if Pasadena had it. So, I had to climb on top of chair in order to get the item number. And then yell it out to Sarah, who's in the middle of the store. The customer THEN tells me what size she needed. I tell her to go tell Sarah, who's AT the REGISTER looking it up. She looks at me, quite irritated, and says "thank you" quite sarcastically. SO then I get down from the chair, walk to the register, and tell Sarah what size she needed. The customer comes to the register, and we tell her it 's not available in her size. She then asks me to check the Woman's size. WOMAN'S!!! What the heck is she wanting a regular size for if she wears a WOMAN'S size. Now I would've understood if she could fit into the smallest woman size and the biggest missy size, because that's what I do. BUT NOOOOO. She needed something two sizes bigger than our biggest missy size. And as she's leaving ... she asks how much it is. Mind you ... it's not an expensive dress at all. Not by our store prices. By then, I was really tired of this stuff. She did NOT need both of us looking something up for her. LOL maybe she was distracting us so her hubby and son could steal something. Who knows.

I felt bad today about an interaction with a coworker. She had an idea to do something, did it, and then asked my opinion. I told her no, it was a bad idea, and that our manager wasn't going to like it. After I said it, I realized I might've said it too harshly. But I don't think I was wrong. I just should've said it a little nicer. I'm pretty sure our manager isn't going to like what she did. And I'm going to hear plenty of it when I go back to work. I was just too blunt, I think. At least I was honest. Anyway, I guess she talked with the lead sales associate about it, and left what she did. The other associate agreed with me, that our manager isn't going to like this new idea.

One more to end the entry. A mother came in with her two grown daughters. They had a bag, so obviously they were going to return something. This something turns out to be a "gift". As they were looking at stuff, they were of course looking at the prices. I was walking by them, when they were looking at a sweater. One of the daughters commented, "this store is a rip-off." Gotta love working with the public.

Standings as of 5/11/08

National League
East	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Florida Marlins	23	14	.622	--	12-9	11-5	12-5	9-5	2-4	Won 7	8-2
New York Mets	19	16	.543	3.0	11-6	8-10	12-7	4-6	3-3	Won 1	5-5
Philadelphia Phillies	21	18	.538	3.0	10-8	11-10	3-6	9-6	9-6	Lost 2	5-5
Atlanta Braves	18	17	.514	4.0	14-4	4-13	8-10	4-4	6-3	Lost 2	6-4
Washington Nationals	15	23	.395	8.5	10-11	5-12	9-16	6-7	0-0	Lost 3	4-6
Central	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Chicago Cubs	22	15	.595	--	14-6	8-9	4-4	14-10	4-1	Won 3	5-5
St. Louis Cardinals	23	16	.590	--	14-7	9-9	3-0	13-9	7-7	Lost 1	5-5
Houston Astros	21	17	.553	1.5	11-6	10-11	5-4	8-6	8-7	Won 3	8-2
Milwaukee Brewers	18	19	.486	4.0	9-7	9-12	4-7	11-12	3-0	Won 1	3-7
Pittsburgh Pirates	17	19	.472	4.5	11-7	6-12	9-10	4-7	4-2	Won 5	7-3
Cincinnati Reds	15	23	.395	7.5	8-9	7-14	3-7	7-13	5-3	Lost 1	3-7
West	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Arizona Diamondbacks	23	15	.605	--	14-7	9-8	3-4	3-6	17-5	Lost 3	3-7
Los Angeles Dodgers	19	18	.514	3.5	11-9	8-9	5-4	3-5	11-9	Lost 4	5-5
San Francisco Giants	16	22	.421	7.0	10-9	6-13	3-3	5-11	8-8	Won 2	4-6
Colorado Rockies	15	23	.395	8.0	7-10	8-13	3-2	6-6	6-15	Lost 2	4-6
San Diego Padres	14	24	.368	9.0	8-10	6-14	2-7	3-3	9-14	Won 2	3-7

Ok, so the Dodgers big winning streak came to an end. Let's hope four games will be it for their losing streak. On the bright side, even though we lost the last four games ... we're still second!

Let's see ... the East has changed. The Marlins have moved back up, while the Mets and Phillies are now three games back. Much different than last week when the Phillies were only half a game ahead of the Marlins and Mets. As for the central, the Cardinals are still first ... but not alone. They're tied with the Cubs. The CUBS! Will this be the year the Cubs make it to the World Series? We'll see. The season is still young. Speaking of young ... the Diamondbacks still are first in the west, but no longer the best record in the league. That now belongs to the Marlins. Speaking of the best teams ... the Padres are actually the worst team in the league right now. Okay, so I just looked at the overall standings. They are the worst team in the majors right now. Not by much. But still ... Who would've thought that the PADRES with Peavy and Maddux and Young would be the worst team in the National League? Wolfie goes on the mound tomorrow with a 2 - 2 record. Let's see which Wolf is hungrier tomorrow... the good one or the bad one.

We'll see how much things change in another week.

In case you missed it ...

Skunk at Dodger Stadium
From the L.A. Times website

Padres release Jim Edmond

Blake DeWitt hits home runs in two consecutive games ... each of them a first. The one on Monday night was his first career Major League home run ... the other his first inside-the-park homerun. And the first for the Dodgers in what... five seasons?

Here's the video clip ....

From the L.A. times of when Danley got hit. It's different than the one I've seen because this was broad casted on the Rockies' TV network. I've only seen the one on the Dodgers' network with Scully calling it.

4 - 2 + it's been TWO years since Russell Martin came on the scene

As many of you know ... voting for the All Star team has started! I had to pick up tickets for my friends which I purchased yesterday at the box office. I got there around 3:30. Juan Pierre was in the batting cage, practicing his bunts. I also picked up one of those All Star ballots. Turned out I picked up two. While I was eating my Burger King at Nina's (and waiting for her family to get ready) Nina went through and punched out her votes. She didn't have any trouble till she got to the outfielders. Andre Ethier and Matt Holliday were her two easy choices. Her third choice took a while. She would read a name out loud and I'd tell her how they were doing. The funnies thing was when she read "A. Jones ... Andruw ... OH NO! NOT HIM!". Or something like that. I forgot what she said, but she read his name or just his first name and immediately discarded him. Jack came up and decided they were going to leave early with us so that we could take one car.

After going to six games ... I finally talked to Steve today! It was a short conversation. He was talking with Sweet Lou (I think) and when they finished talking, I yelled out "Hey Steve". He looked confused for a sec as he tried to figure out who had just called his name. He said hi. I asked him what's up with his podcast? He said he hasn't done anything. I said yeah I noticed. He said he hasn't had any inspiration. That's all.

On our way up to our seats from the field level, we stopped in the loge level to find Jack and them. Jack decided on Sunday to get tickets for today's game for himself, Sol, Harold, and their visitors, Art and Gertie. Art and Gertie have so many great stories. Art has sat in the same PRESS BOX as Vin Scully back when the Dodgers were playing in the Coliseum. Nina knows more about their stories than I do. We found Jack, Sol, Gertie, and Harold in the Dodger store on the right field side of the Loge level. I have never sat in the Loge Level, so I don't know what the level has to offer. Apparently they were having a 10% off sale. Too bad it didn't start earlier because I was just there on Saturday and bought something for Natalie's birthday gift. Since it was 10% off ... I got a souvenir baseball that has the autographs of the whole team (I think) printed on it ... and a gold baseball that celebrates Russell Martin's gold glove. I wanted the gold baseball before ... but the Top of the Deck store didn't have it the last couple times I went. So, it was better to get it since they had it and since it was also 10% off. Once we were done there, we stopped on the Reserve Level to get our garlic fries, a Dodger dog, and my soda before going to our seats on the Top Deck. I paused to listen to the mariachi band before stopping to visit the John before going to our seats. Before the game began, Scully had a little speech about Bavasi, who recently passed away. Then Don Newcombe got to say a few things. It was cute. He said he felt like Bavasi was like a father to him. He could reach into his wallet and take whatever he wanted and go have fun. Then we had a moment of silence before the National Anthem.

Now ... onto the game.

The kids took the field. There was one kid who caught my eye. He was a tiny little thing. His t-shirt must've been hanging halfway between his knees and his ground. Nina (and I think some of the people in our section) were laughing because DeWitt didn't have a kid to sign for. The cute kid I was watching was standing by another kid and Furcal. Furcal pointed to DeWitt, and the cute little kid ran over to him. I'm serious. If his shirt was any longer, he probably would've tripped on it. He was SOOO adorable!

Billingsley started off great. One, two, three down in the top of the night with TWO strike outs. Then comes Raffy to lead off the bottom of the first ... with a LEAD OFF HOME RUN! To left field. It was funny because when you saw the replay, you saw one guy try to get the ball, goes over the railing, and is hanging onto the railing. Pierre singles, and then steals second. The ball got past the second baseman, but not far enough for Pierre to take third. He takes third when Kent lines out. He hit a line drive right at the pitcher. The pitcher threw out Kent (while Pierre advanced to third), then doubled over for a moment. The whole Mets infield came in to see if he was okay. He took a few moments, threw a few pitches, and then the game continued. Martin singles home Pierre for the second run of the game. In the top of the third inning, Billingsley struck out David Wright ... again. A very frustrated Wright threw away his helmet and bat. Nina commented that the helmet was still spinning on the ground. Not only was that his second strike out, but he struck out with two outs and Reyes on third.

Bottom of the fourth, Russell steals second base, his third base of the year. We need to get on track honey with the base stealing cause I think we're a bit behind. Anyway, he advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Nina saw on the Dodger Vision that it was Russ' third stolen base. She looks at me and asks, "didn't he steal two bases?" I told her, no. He only stole second and reached third on the error by the catcher. We rehashed it again in the car. She said that the throw looked like a good throw. And she was trying to discuss why the error was on the catcher, not the guy who didn't make the catch. It's all fuzzy to me now, so I'm not sure who missed the catch or whether or not it was a good or bad throw. Top of the fifth, Furcal made a great throw to beat David Wright to the bag. It was quite a distance to throw and I was holding my breath to see what the umpire was going to call it.

Bottom of the fifth inning. Blake DeWitt comes up and leads off the inning with a home run. His first major league home run. I think this is the second time I've been to a game where a player hit his first major league home run. The first one? It was back in September of 2006. Who was the player? James Loney. It was odd because when he first went into the dug out, there was no one there to greet him. Then they surrounded him. They must've been waiting for him to put his helmet away. I noticed fans were standing on their feet and we were still applauding and cheering. And then DeWitt came out to the top step and waved. YAY! I thought it was funny because there was such hoopla over the Mets' Carlos Delgado when he refused to take a curtain call at Shea Stadium last week. And here, Blake DeWitt hits his first major league home run and he gets a curtain call. Two batters later, Pierre draws a walk, and is brought home by a home run by Matt Kemp.

Okay, I was just watching the recap of when DeWitt hit his home run. As he was circling the bases, you could see everyone standing around in the dug out. But as he's approaching the dug out, everyone scatters to sit down. He's putting his helmet away, and everyone's still sitting down. Then you hear this big "YEAH!!!" and one of the players (Nomar I think) bear hugs him.

However, in the top of the sixth inning ... Carlos Beltran hit a ball down the right field line. It headed toward the box seats and somehow gets past Matt Kemp and heads towards the bull pen. Man, it looked like Beltran was going to have an inside-the-park home run. Now, I've seen a few triples now ... but never an inside-the-park home run. Scary moment. Well, Beltran ended up scoring on the next play, which was a single by Alou. So much for a shut out. The guy sitting to our right yelled for Ethier when Kemp messed up tracking down the ball. Kemp redeemed himself a little bit later on when he caught a foul ball that almost went into the field box seats. I think a security guy might've jumped into the seats to get out of the way. Because once Kemp caught it, the guard jumped back onto the field back to his position.

Not sure which inning it was ... but one of the Mets' batters shattered his bat. But instead of flying into the infield like they usually do ... this one went flying into the crowd. In landed in the walkway between the "privileged" box seats and the field box seats. A security lady picked it up and handed it over to another security person in the dug out. At the end of the eighth inning, the guys to our right left. We were ahead 5 - 1. One of them said they didn't want to stick around in case Saito blew the save. Which, by the way, he DIDN'T. He set them down in order, with a strike out sandwiched in between.

Overall ... on the bright side ... Jones didn't strike out once tonight. Okay, so he didn't get any hits either. But at least he HIT the ball... right? David Wright, as much as I love him, didn't get any hits either. And he struck out twice. Sorry Davy. As much as I love you, I rather see my Dodgers win. Not too bad, we only left two men on base. And other than the two strike outs by Billingsley, Loney was the only other Dodger to strike out tonight. Anyone else noticed the emergence of thunder sticks? Maybe it was because of the 10% off promotion. But there was a crowd in the level below us who several of them had thundersticks. And then there was some guy in the back of our section or the section over who had hand clappers. The hand clappers got annoying VERY quickly. There was someone over to my left that even though he wore a Dodgers jacket, every time Jose Reyes got up, he started that "Jose" chant that the Mets fans like so much.

Funniest thing. Right before Furcal hit his home run, this thought ran through my mind. If he hits a lead off home run, will I be able to jump up and celebrate? My garlic fries are on my lap. Is it going to go flying over the railing? Well, as soon as I finished that thought, WHAM! Home run. Food tray gets placed on the ground, I jump up on my feet, and yell to my heart's desire. Four innings later ... I looked at the scoreboard and saw that Blake DeWitt hadn't hit his first home run yet. That was the thought that went through my mind : hmm DeWitt hasn't hit his first major league home run ... NEVER MIND. BAM. Home run. A few batters later, Kemp got up and I thought about when he hit his grand slam two Saturdays ago. Well, the bases weren't loaded, but Pierre was on base for Kemp's home run. Sweet. All throughout the game, I kept telling Nina, she should've set her computer to record the game. Trust me. If I had some kinda set up like hers, I would record virtually every Dodger game. Especially the ones I go to ... and the great ones like tonight!

Standings as of 5/3/08

National League
East	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Philadelphia Phillies	17	14	.548	--	9-8	8-6	3-6	9-6	5-2	Lost 1	6-4
New York Mets	15	13	.536	0.5	9-5	6-8	12-7	2-5	1-1	Lost 1	5-5
Florida Marlins	16	14	.533	0.5	8-9	8-5	9-5	6-5	1-4	Lost 1	4-6
Atlanta Braves	14	15	.483	2.0	10-4	4-11	8-10	3-2	3-3	Won 2	4-6
Washington Nationals	13	18	.419	4.0	9-8	4-10	9-13	4-5	0-0	Won 1	7-3
Central	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
St. Louis Cardinals	19	12	.613	--	13-7	6-5	3-0	11-7	5-5	Lost 1	6-4
Chicago Cubs	18	12	.600	0.5	11-6	7-6	4-4	13-7	1-1	Won 1	4-6
Milwaukee Brewers	16	14	.533	2.5	7-6	9-8	4-4	9-10	3-0	Lost 2	4-6
Houston Astros	15	16	.484	4.0	8-5	7-11	3-3	7-6	5-7	Won 2	6-4
Pittsburgh Pirates	12	18	.400	6.5	6-7	6-11	7-9	4-7	1-2	Lost 1	4-6
Cincinnati Reds	12	19	.387	7.0	6-8	6-11	2-4	5-12	5-3	Lost 4	3-7
West	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Arizona Diamondbacks	21	9	.700	--	12-4	9-5	1-1	3-3	17-5	Won 1	6-4
Los Angeles Dodgers	17	13	.567	4.0	9-5	8-8	3-3	3-2	11-8	Won 8	9-1
San Francisco Giants	14	17	.452	7.5	8-8	6-9	1-1	5-8	8-8	Won 1	6-4
San Diego Padres	12	19	.387	9.5	6-9	6-10	2-3	3-3	7-13	Won 1	3-7
Colorado Rockies	11	19	.367	10.0	4-8	7-11	3-2	4-4	4-13	Lost 3	2-8

So I know it's a little early to be scoreboard watching. It's only been the first month of the season. What a crazy month it has been. Who would've thought that the Giants would manage to stay afloat in the National League West, while the Padres and Rockies are in the bottom half of the division? We knew the West was going to be a wild race ... but who would've thought that the Giants weren't going to be in last place the whole time? No surprise there ... Nationals are last in the NL East. I've been following the standings for the last week or so ... figured the best place to keep track of the standings would be on my blog. I'll try to do it week to week. I like to see how the leaders of the different divisions change from week to week. BTW... DODGERS WIN EIGHT IN A ROW!!!

In case you missed it ...

Russell started at third base tonight! He did three AWESOME plays. One of which, he backhanded the ball, it popped out of his glove, he caught it and then threw out the runner at first. I think it was after the sixth inning when he went back behind the plate and DeWitt took over at first. Hehe maybe DeWitt felt he had to prove himself after Russ playing there ... but DeWitt committed two errors. Hey kid ... you're good. Russ is great. He played third like it was his only position. Then again. He has played third practically his whole life until they converted him to catcher. BTW ... did you guys see the Old Man triple in the second inning? I couldn't believe it when I saw him keep going ... couldn't believe it when he slid feet first into third ... AND BEAT THE BALL. The funniest thing was he laid there for a second (or five) before Bowa helped him up. Then he smiled into the dug out, put this fingers to his lips ... and I guess he was shushing his team mates who were probably ragging on him. It was cute. The first thought that came to my mind after he slid into third was : "Someone get the Old Man a ventilator."


Mike Lieberthal is officially retiring ... with the Phillies.

Great story. Opposing teammates help runner around the bases.

In other news ... there was mountain lion sighting in Eagle Rock. When Sarah came to work today, she mentioned that there were a bunch of helicopters circling her neighborhood. At first we thought it might've been some chase or something like that. Turns out ... there was a mountain lion loose in the neighborhood. Apparently, one of the helicopters were going around telling residents to stay inside their homes and to keep their pets and children inside.

Can you imagine what kind of excuse that would've been to get out of work? "Hi boss, I can't come in right now. The police are telling us to stay inside our homes because there's a mountain lion loose."