Sara (my boss) ended up buying me lunch again today, although not on purpose like she did yesterday. When she went to get lunch she asked if I wanted anything (the other people in the office are always doing that; usually I have my own stuff and say no, plus I don't want to take advantage) and I requested a Dr. Pepper. About fifteen minutes after she brings me the Dr. Pepper, she comes in and asks if I want the untouched half of sandwich she has decided she can't eat. It was pretty good, despite the fact that it came from the "Pub."

So because I didn't have to pick up lunch on my way home from work, I had plenty of time to do my last minute straightening up and now I'm just killing time until it's time to go pick my parents up from the airport. I feel nervous, for some weird reason. It's not like my parents haven't been here before. I am a little worried about how they will react to the appearance of my car; I've tried to describe the paint damage, but I don't think they get it. And since my Dad and I had the first real argument we've had since I moved up here over the state of said car last week, I suppose I'm a little anxious about resuming that conversation. I wish I could make them understand that I don't want them to pay for anything and I'm not expecting them to fix it, I just want some advice on my options. I feel guilty enough letting them pay for the steering column, and if it had been 250 instead of 450 I probably would have scraped the money together myself. (Or maybe I would just feel less guilty.)

Anyone for a fantasy baseball update? (I told you, I'm bored.) For a while my team was doing really well -- I was holding steady in third for several weeks in a row and was only three points behind the leader at one point. However, despite the fact that I still have the best offense in the league, my pitching has suffered another down week that's pushed me back to fifth, thirteen points out. A lot of this is due to the fact that my pitchers, even when they win, tend to give up a lot of hits, walks, and runs, which translates into my last place WHIP and almost last ERA. (WHIP= walks and hits per inning pitched; it's a measure of how well a pitcher can get all the batters out, as opposed to ERA, which only counts the guys who actually score. This is your baseball statistics lesson for the day.) At this point I have not yet achieved the dubious distinction of having the highest scoring offense and the lowest scoring pitching staff, but I'm getting perilously close. Still, we're not quite two months into a long season and I still feel most of my staff will put up solid numbers as the season progresses -- or at least, maybe some of the pitchers on the other teams will have some bad days.

In real life baseball, my Cardinals are still struggling to pull clear of that .500 mark. The NL Central is suprisingly strong this year; only the last place team (Pittsburgh) is under .500, and a good winning streak could change that easy (although we are talking about the Pirates here). What this means is that we're in third or fourth on any given day, depending on the daily shifting (it is a VERY tight division). Still, there have been some encouraging signs lately; we've won several close and low-scoring games, the pitching staff seems to improve on a daily basis (though our usual stalwarts, Morris and Williams, have been more erratic than expected), and despite going through a serious offensive slump in the last few weeks, we've actually improved our record (though not by much). It remains to be seen whether we can really get things going, but I try not to get pessimisstic about my baseball teams until after the All-Star Break.

I'm going to find some other way to kill time for awhile. Thanks for reading!