It's not that the Giants didn't have chances to win tonight. It's not that they didn't hit the ball hard, or that they made a lot of mistakes that cost them the game. It's just that they didn't put enough of the right kind of hits together in the right order to beat the Reds. The Reds got a couple of big hits, but they didn't outplay or outclass the Giants. They still need to win two more games to take the series, but it would behoove the Giants to win tomorrow's game in San Francisco, because the last three will be played in Cincinnati.

Today the family (as many of us as possible) got together at Suzanne and John's house to celebrate John's birthday, and also to celebrate the fact that the family is plowing through some rough ground and yet holding things together pretty well. Kylie is a star of her soccer team, and Aiden is flourishing on his football team, and they both wanted to test their skills today. So I spent as much time as I could out in the back yard running around with them in the hot sun. They were patient with me when I had to take a break.

"Okay, it's halftime," Kylie said. (Yes, said I. It's halftime forever. But of course it didn't work that way.)

After wearing myself out playing soccer (they beat me, 2-1), I was willing to go out and kick the ball around with them only if it that was all it was. And it started out that way, but in the end they can't help being competitive. Everything they do requires keeping score, even a game of catch, and kicking the ball back and forth with Aiden means he kicks it a little harder every time and celebrates whenever he can get it past me.

That's not what I call playing catch, but apparently the concept is foreign to this current generation. I'll keep at it, though, whenever I get a chance, and eventually I'll get through to them (or not).
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Alex on a mission.
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Meanwhile, Alex was Alex. He does what he does, and gets by on his inexhaustible charm. He can entertain himself doing something as simple as moving wooden blocks from one place to another and organizing them in a symmetrical pattern, then moving them back again and rearranging them again. Simple to you and me, that is. To him, whatever he's doing makes perfect sense. You can tell by the serious expression on his face (which lasts about as long as it takes him to realize that someone's watching him, and then he gives you a big belly laugh).