After Friday's darkish post, I figured I'd follow up with the fun of the birthday weekend, as I know it'll calm those of you worried about my mental state (which, judging from all the frantic calls and emails, would be none of you).

Friday saw us go up to Portland for the tilt between the AA Sea Dogs and and Binghamton Mets. And let me say right now, Mets fans, that the team of the future is going to look an awful lot like the team of the present. The Sea Dogs posted a 7-0 win at lovely Hadlock Field.

It was pretty much like any other minor league game otherwise, though one promotion was classic Maine. Two guys with lacrosse sticks lobbed plastic lobsters at two women carrying a lobster trap, who had to catch 10 of them to win a prize. If there was ever a time I needed a digital camera, it was then.

We spent the night at the Eastland Park Hotel, which had a shabby gentility to it. The lobby was very nice, and they still have an elevator wth an operator on it, a nice touch. But there were places where repairs were made and not completed (such as the wooden panel screwed into the wall near the ice machine), and some of the furniture is problematic (the beds were too soft, and our TV stand was a collapsable half-table that looked like it came from an employee's garage).

In any case, we then went up to Sarah's parents house for the rest of the weekend. Not much to note there, other than for your TRASHy types who, if attending the regional at BU, may take home some of the goodies picked up at the annual American Legion Post 157 yard sale. There's one prize which, I swear to God, must have been banned by international convention. Or should be if it hasn't been.

I also came up with two new laws I'll be passing once I'm in charge:

1. If you are not in the stadium when the first pitch is thrown, you're not getting in until the 6th inning.

2. All RV drivers will be required to have a map of the US states on its back demarcating the states its owners have driven to. It gives the rest of us something to look at when passing.