Now that's a day off

An extra day off, a trip to wrigley, then pequods. Even with drunk sox fans that's a great day.

Current beer-scale: 4.7

Go on, try it

When you have a chance to try a $15 pretzel, you have to take it.

Looks great, doesn't it? To be honest, it would have been great if it was warm or hadn't been out all morning. Three dipping sauces, cinnamon, cheese, & mustard. A good base-layer for an afternoon of drinking, overall not terrible.

Unlike the weather, which was awful. But rain didn't stop the cubs from winning, and from us getting free shots thanks to someone's four-square app afterwards. Not a terrible afternoon.

The dog still wasn't impressed.

Current beer-scale: 8.3

Opening day

So it's April Fools' and the Cubs are opening at home in what is hopefully at least 40-degree weather. I will ignore the seemingly cosmic appropriateness of that whole situation with my north-side optimism while it still lasts. After taking a sick day this week I couldn't quite justify taking today off but I do have Old Style waiting for me at home.

It's rare that I would choose to drink Old Style; hell, I rarely even drink it inside Wrigley. Despite past posts on the subject I prefer to opt for a LaBatt from one of the "Beers of the World" stands, especially if I see the chick from windy city rollers vending. But in this case a buddy of mine from Portland called to ask if I could send him some for today, and I could only fit 4 tall boys into the box I had so I held on to the last two. Honestly I've got my fingers crossed that there's a rain delay and the game is still on when I get home this afternoon so I can have one during actual baseball, but I can wait for a Saturday game if I have to.

Current beer-scale: 7.9

go cubs go

So what exactly could drive me to hammer down old style all day Friday other than a cubs game? And with great seats at that. Actually, the seats originally were merely "pretty good," but transitioned to "great" after the first inning when we made it down into the 100 level.

This was seen a lot on Friday.

I frown on scalpers, but after a liter of Strong Boch at Uberstein I was willing to negotiate a little walking around wrigley. Ended up with two 200-level seats for $100 right before first pitch. Made it in to see some parachuters landing before things got started.

Our original seats. Not bad by any stretch.

Eventually we made it down to the 100-level to watch the cubs absolutely creaming the pirates. 10 runs in the second and honestly the rest of the afternoon is kind of a blur. I admit, I feel a little like a douche considering while I was paying attention and appreciating exactly how much of a beatdown the cubs were delivering, I can't help but feel that as fuzzy as memories of the game seem I was "one of those" cubs fans on Friday.

Our new seats. I'm glad I at least have some photographic evidence that I saw this game.

Evidently I was able to text some people, one of which ended up with extra tickets to Saturday's game too so it was back for game two the next day. It was strictly a water day though, to watch a closer 3-1 cubs win. By the time Gregg closed the game I was wishing I was able to think about beer with out feeling queasy.

The bad news, in so far as my general health, was that inbetween games we had plans to go out which resulted in said coconut mojito and mad hatters. The mojito was fantastic, so much so I find myself craving one even as jets still roar by overhead. The drinking's going to settle down for a while though, as the job search becomes priority one.

I'm not sure how much time I've going to devote on the job search here...everyone knows they suck and I'm more interested in how to cope with the process vs. the blood and guts of the process itself. If anything, the bike rides will get longer as I have more anxiety to work off. So hopefully something interesting will happen out there.

Current beer-scale: 4.2

Not an ideal day for a ball game, but always fun to head to wrigley for an afternoon.

Of course I was getting krausened all day. Unfortunately it was at $6.50 a pop. Still tastes terrible, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop me.

For a while it looked like we might have some extra drinking time too, but Wayne came out in the rain to sing the anthem and away we went.

Some day I'm going to try for the epic "9 beers 9 dogs 9 innings," but Friday wasn't that day. I was hitting a wall by beer 4. By that time, Harden was done, the cubs were down, and Zambrano was digging in to pinch hit. Even though he left two on base, it's always fun to see Carlos at the plate.

With the cubs still down, Lou came out to argue a call at second. Anticipation rippled through the crowd...would we be lucky enough to see a blow-up? Had the cubs been playing lousy enough to get Lou pissed this early? Unfortunately, things seemed pretty calm and Lou ambled back to the dugout.

Theriot hit a grand slam to put the cubs up 1 in the sixth and they added some insurance runs in the seventh. Stopped a skid, and hopefully they start to turn things around for May. Proof-positive it's never a good idea to live and die with every game of a 162 game season. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Current beer-scale: 2.0 (very low after a few more pints late last night)

Holy crap! That was cold.

I don't know how I couldn't have realized that Cubs traffic would be even worse considering the playoffs and the dumb 5:30 tv time. That was my fault. But does anyone think idiotic traffic cops not directing traffic, letting people run through yellow-turning-reds are helping and not hurting? I doubt it.

I can't blame the frenzied traffic pattern though. If I had tix I'd be going crazy right now too, and no one was outright obnoxious other than people caught in the intersection as traffic changed. It's only the first game, and the atmosphere around here is already insane. Lord help us all in a few more weeks.

Current beer-scale: 6.3