Now the season begins

It hadn't really felt like baseball season yet. Sure, there were games everyday, but I haven't been staying late at school or coming home early so I don't miss part of the game during my commute. But now, it really feels like baseball season.

I skipped out of a study group to come home and watch the game. To some degree, I'd accepted if they lost today - after all, Pettitte was pitching, and we're facing scrubs for the rest of the series. So when they were down 6-2 in the eighth, I didn't exactly complain when my dear boyfriend got frustrated and wanted to turn it off in the eighth, so we headed out to dinner. As we were parking, I got a voicemail saying “I can’t believe Rivera blew the save!” We caught the 9th at the Old Pro, and the rest, as they say, is history. I watched the bottom of the eighth on my Tivo after, and really, what more can you ask for in a baseball game? It’s no July 24th game (better in my mind than even game 4 of the ALCS, if not quite as meaningful), but it was sweet.

And finally, I’d actually like to thank the nice folks at FOX. Now, normally, I hate them. Even though my dear boyfriend finally has the Extra Innings package, if they have the Sox for a Saturday game, and they decide to show a Kansas City-Tampa Bay game here, we don’t get to watch the our team. But tomorrow, not only are they showing Sox-Yanks here, they’ve also been kind enough to start it at 3:55 EST, so I can roll into the bar at a respectable 12:30 here. Let’s leave the drinking before noon for football season, huh?

What is sports without teams to hate?

While I’ve been playing with irrigation systems for my garden all day, my bracket has slowly been falling apart. Yesterday I was 14-16, including picking VCU to upset Duke, and so far today I’m 3-5. Like any good fan, for some reason I can’t stand Notre Dame or Duke. I have no reason to dislike either of them, but you always need someone to dislike. I did grow up a Red Sox fan after all. So I will always root against the Yankees, the Lakers, the Colts, Notre Dame and Duke. I went with my dislike on Duke in the bracket, and they obliged by losing. I went against my gut and picked Notre Dame to win, and Winthrop took care of them nicely. At least I get the satisfaction of both of them losing, even if my bracket didn’t like it so much.

In other basketball news, Long Beach State scored 86 points today, tying for the second-most points in the tourney so far. Unfortunately for them, they were playing Tennessee, who scored the most points (121!).

Irrigation

I spent the morning watching basketball and trying to devise a watering system for my seedlings. This is the first time I’ve tried growing from seeds rather than buying seedlings, so it’s a bit of a learning curve. The big problem I’ve been having watering them evenly. My watering can doesn’t water evenly at all, leaving some seeds dry and some soaked. After playing around with all sorts of complicated what-not (what else do you expect from a PhD student in engineering? It has to be more complicated than necessary), I came up with this:

Disposable bread pans with a little hole for each seedling. So far it seems to work a lot better than the watering can. I also made a drip-waterer:

I love anything I can make from trash! This is such a simple idea, but I’m not sure how well it’s working. Just take a plastic bottle, cut off the bottom, poke holes in the lid, and stick it next to your plants. Theoretically, it should drip slowly throughout the day, watering your plants nice and near the roots. I think I may have made the holes too big though, since it drains in about half an hour. Not exactly going to keep my plants wet in the dry summer heat, but I’m going to keep playing with it and see if I can’t make it work. I’ll be in Europe for most of May, so I need to make the watering as easy as possible for my roommates while I’m gone.

If I can drag myself away from basketball this afternoon, I'm going to try upside-down tomatoes!

Where to begin?

I've been meaning to start a blog for a while now, and since I'll be on the couch all day (and all weekend, no doubt) watching March Madness, this seems to be the perfect time. I warn you, this will be a bit eclectic, with discussion of the Red Sox, gardening, and education. But seeing as there is no coherent theme here, I’ll assume no one will read it and write just for myself.