CANADA DAY

The first leg of my birthday was spent partying with the kids at Carlos Queso. This was two days prior to my bona fide b-day but because kids don't concern themselves with days of the week or particulars, for all intents and purposes it was July 1st. I engaged in all the birthday practices-pizza and tokens, presents and cake. The cake wasn't planned, again, not my real birth date but try telling that to Marco who will turn all of 4 in a couple of months. He felt gypped and someone was gonna hear about it. "What are you waiting for guys?!? Don't worry Tia Mitsy, we'll get you a birthday cake! Lets get money from Nino." So, upon Marco's thoughtfulness or sweet tooth, he and I took a trip to get my OWN cake. Things got sadder when I had to tell homeboy at BR to ice the cake with my OWN name. I paid with cash but should have used my ATM, so that he too could be in on the cruel joke that Marco put me up to. :) Also, I want it noted that my lil nephews not only blew out my candle(s) essentially stealing my birthday wish, but also got to lick the action figures clean (Venom and Spidey-thats what they were playing with) and even did the mordida. They also had a great time "helping" open MY presents. In other words, they punked me for all fun parts-watch when their birthday rolls around, watch.
Yeaaaaahhhhh presents! I got this rad Lasonic ghetto blaster ipod dock/radio. It does all kinds of things I ain't figured out yet but it has a remote and it's my new favorite thing. My brother got me some Dodger stuff, including big headed Russell Martin and Saito to add to my collection.

My favorite present arrived later that week..tickets to see the Dodgers in San Francisco. Best seats ever, right by the visitors dugout behind the commissioners box. They ended up losing that game, but snatched the series. I think I'm a jinx. Whenever I go to that ballpark, they lose. Probably cause I'm too busy eating garlic fries and forget to do the sign of the cross. LA's lack of offense made pobreZITO's pitching look good. How do we lose to the Giants cheapest pitcher and take two against their aces? Ugghh. But it was really fun and I was hexa close, close enough to determine the texture of each players hair. Yeah, I'm creepy.

Larry King was there, he's a big Dodger fan and probably the only fan alive that knew them as the Trolley dodgers. I swear to you, he is the physical manifestation of Mr. Burns. It's crazy. This is his posterior alongside Brad "Centavo" Penny.

Remember I told you my Mom was a big autograph seeker? Well, of course being just mere feet away from her favorite boys in blue, it should come as no surprise to you that she hounded the roster for their John Hancock. She was pretty successful but still has her eyes set on getting more of the infield and the pen. Personally, I don't like breaking the fourth wall- I think I'm scared of finding out people I admire will turn out to be cockholes and/or short. :) We've dubbed each player with a nickname but I had to remind my Mom those are only to be used in privacy. Here's who she got... Andre "Baby Boy" Ethier, James "Looney Tunes" Loney, Andruw "Gordo" Jones, Chad "Nalgas" Billingsley, Blake "BlackDeWhite" DeWitt, Luis "Maza, Maza que mas aplauda" Maza, Matt "Mateo" Kemp and Manny Mota. She now loves all the outfield (including Jones...she wants the fans to cut him some slack, ignore his average because he's really "simpatico" and "sonriente") any player that didn't "sign" are "sangrones." She had a cute moment with closer Takashi Saito where she called out to him while he stretched his hammies and showed him her shirt, #44, his number. He laughed.

And since then, check out what LA has done. They've come close to 2 perfect-no hitters, (Kuroda into the 8th, Lowe into the 7th) and between those two gem starts...Billingsley had a no hitter for 4 innings before he completely fell apart. :(