Greetings

This weekend was a weekend for meeting people. First, we went to Connecticut to meet our new nephew - my sister's baby Jack, who was born last week. He was adorable, and I hope we eventually get to see him awake. Rumor has it he does wake up on occasion.

Then, Sunday, we went to a party my uncle had for his oldest son - who just was remarried a couple of weeks ago to a woman he met from Russia. This was the first time we had met her - she seems like a very nice girl, if a little shy (mainly due to language issues, I suspect). Then, on the way home, we stopped at the Wiehls' house in Orange and stayed for a semi-impromptu picnic party they had and we got to see friends of theirs we hadn't seen in a long time. That was nice, too. David played both solo and with the other kids, and got to experience a trampoline for the first time. That was cool.

The drive home from there (once we finally left around 8-ish) was an ordeal. We hit heavy traffic well before the Sturbridge interchange, and I detoured onto the local streets to get to Route 20 instead of struggling through the I-84 jam. Unfortunately, we then hit more traffic in Oxford from a construction project (a fast light plus a lane restriction), and that stopped us again - but we finally rejoined the Pike outside of Worcester. The rest of the trip wasn't too bad, though, but we wound up getting home after 11. Ugh.

This morning we all slept in, and I'm here at the office now taking a break from the project I've been working on (prepping the new PCs for my customer that I'll be installing their new network for this weekend). I have a fully booked week ahead of me now.

So I guess I better get back to work...

Footnote: I was away, of course, when the Nomar deal went down, but my opinion is that I like it. As much as I was a big Nomar mark, he was clearly miserable here, and really didn't appreciate the pressure of playing in this town anymore. Plus he has weakened defensively (his arm has become a lot more erratic), and was gone for nothing at season's end. This deal brought in a replacement Gold Glove-caliber shortstop in Cabrera (who also has his contract up at the end of the year), and a terrific defensive 1st baseman with some pop in his bat (who is also signed through next year). If Trot Nixon makes it back to full-time play, then Kevin Millar becomes the odd man out, but with the extra pop in his bat he's found lately he may stick in the lineup despite his defensive shortcomings.

It also shows that Theo has major stones, to dare the wrath of the Fellowship that way. It's potentially a great move. You give up some offense in the drop from Nomar to Cabrera, but you get better defense and a much better defensive 1st baseman - between Millar and Ortiz it was like the second coming of Dick Stuart. That should help the pitchers, especially Derek Lowe. And it frees up between $12 and $15 million that would have gone to re-signing Nomar for next year.