Just a routine 3 a.m. update

Howdy. I wouldn't be up at all at this late hour if it wasn't for a toothache that seems to come roaring to life only when my head hits the pillow. I'm groggy as heck, but as I wait for the Advil to kick in, let's type.

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The van is still down, although estimates have dropped the bill to $1550. Whoo-hoo. Since we won't have that money for a long time, we've been walking quite a bit, juggling rides, and leaning heavily on the (fingers crossed/knock on wood) Escort.

I actually got pulled over in the Escort last week while running to the store to buy Smiley an apple for school. The exhaust system is ghetto-rifficly loud until it's warmed up, but the officer let me off with a warning. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money to replace that system right now either. Later that same day I took Smiley for a "man day", spending time at the DMV, getting the van towed home, and grabbing a quick bite to eat.

Oh, speaking of that exhaust the girls are horribly embarrassed and so, when I drop them off/pick them up from school, I park a half block away and walk them to the door. Fun.

All that is reinforcing an inferiority complex Lisa and I have. We never had the money of the other parents, but quite apart from that I don't have the time or energy to devote to all the petty little things that seem to consume a "quality" parent there. It doesn't help when on a day like today, when I was running late, I brought Smiley along wearing a mismatched outfit with chocolate smeared across his brow.

Screw it. As I told Lisa tonight "We're good parents. Not Cosby Show good, but right up there with Roseanne."

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I took the girls to the eye doctor for checkups. I warned YaYa, in the Dr.'s presence, that she better not think of tanking the test just to earn a new set of glasses. Lo and behold she did fake the results, and the doc called her on it. No matter. On the redo her eyes did come up as worse than before, and her prescription was strengthened. LuLu on the other hand, came out A-1. She recited the letters machine-gun style. :)

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I watched the Twins and Tigers battle for the AL Central crown in the do-or-die one game playoff today. It wasn't a flawless game, but when it comes to drama it was damn near perfection. For me it ranks right up there with the '91 and '01 Series, the Rockies-Padres playoff a few years ago, and the 2003 ALCS.

Congrats to the Twins - and I hope you're swept by my Yanks.

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Speaking of Minnesota: what a crappy football game Monday, at least for Packer fans. You can't give up 8 sacks and win, you just can't. You can point fingers every which way, and bow down to Favre if you like, but again - you don't give up 8 sacks and walk away with a W.

Oh, btw I notched my third consecutive loss in fantasy football. I adjusted my roster for bye weeks and racked up a respectable point total, but my opponents defence went nuts for something like 35 fantasy points, and I lost by ten. Sigh.

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Congrats to the Badgers for their 5-0 start!

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Back to baseball. A St. Louis blogger made a boast last week. He bragged about how his Cardinals would beat down the Brewers for their "arrogance" when they went to Missouri to finish the season. Hmm. I'm all for partisanship, no problem there, but since his team was going to the postseason and mine sucked I reckoned his commentary was pretty assholish and unnecessary.

Naturally, in the first game of the series Milwaukee came back from a 6-1 deficit to win, and then swept the rest of the set. Ha-ha.

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Team victories are what matters, not individual numbers, but I have to congratulate both Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

Braun finished at .320/32/114 with 20 SB, 39 doubles and 203 hits - only the seventh time in Brewers history a player has cracked the two-century mark.

Prince finished at a staggering .299, with a .412 OBP, 35 doubles, 3(!) triples, 46 home runs. While starting every game of the season he also set a new Brewers single season mark with a whopping 141 RBI's, tying him for first in the NL.

Well done. I'm truly proud of you both.

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I'm also damn happy with Alex Rodriguez, my favorite player in the game. He entered the final game of the season needing two home runs to reach 30 on the year, and seven RBI's to reach 100.A long shot of course, but he reached both goals IN A SINGLE INNNING, setting a new record in the process.

That marks the 12th year in a row he's gone 30/100, tying him all-time with Jimmie Foxx. Keep in mind, he sat out an entire month this year and still reached those goals.

Arod, you are the man.

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My MLB predictions

AL: Yanks over Twins, Angels over Red Sox. Yanks over Angels.

The National League is much more complicated. I'd like to see the Dodgers move on to face New York, but I'm not feeling it. Hmmm.

NL: Phillies over Colorado, Dodgers over the Cardinals (but my gut says St. Louis). Dodgers/Cards over Phillies.

WS: Yanks over Dodgers/Cards