Rockies down 1 game, 1 run

I hope the Rockies turn it around, but it's looking not too good; it is the bottom of the 7th and it's 2-1. It would be great if they went to Colorado with a split. I'm not normally an NL team fan, but I don't like the Red Sox, so go Rockies.

The weather here in Calgary has been freaky lately. We had 22° on Tuesday (that's about 74° for my American friends) and a few degrees warmer yesterday. When I was walking the dog, I was in thin sweatpants and a t-shirt, and I was wishing I'd worn shorts. This morning we had two inches of snow on the ground, a cold wind and I got an opportunity to wear my new Bayern-München soccer scarf that I bought on the weekend (I bought a jersey, too, it's GORGEOUS!). I've been watching German soccer on GOL-TV and I'm loving it! And, my favourite team is at the top of the standings (and I can't say the same for the Yankees or the Canucks).

Game 1 -- Not so Good!

As I am an ardent Yankees fan, I can't in good conscience root for the Red Sox. Besides, they're rather disgusting with all that spitting that goes on all the time. Earlier tonight, they showed a statistic that said that Manny Ramirez has had 24 post-season home runs, vs. 18 of Mickey Mantle's. What a completely misleading statistic. This offends me as a mathematician (it's messing with the science of statistics) and as a Yankees fan. When Mickey Mantle was playing, there weren't division playoff games. That means that Ramirez has played in potentially three times as many games post season games as Mantle did, and against teams that arguably weren't as good as teams that make it all the way to the World Series. All of Mantle's post-season home runs were WORLD SERIES home runs: all 18, while Ramirez has a paltry 4 in the world series; the other 20 came in division playoff games. Anyway, go Rockies. I believe it is bad karma to root AGAINST teams, to hope teams lose, and I don't think I'm fooling anyone when I root for the Rockies, but I still say, GO ROCKIES. Still, here we are in the bottom of 5th, and it's 6-1. Crap.

Yankees and Giant Camels

Okay, how's this for colorful dreams? I dreamt last night that I watched a Yankees ball game from a bed (mine) perched on a grassy hilltop, and the reason I could see was because there'd been a fire that levelled some of the buildings that would otherwise have been in the way. We lived around the corner from Yankee Stadium (but in the madenning fashion of dreams, we didn't) and I was looking around thinking, we could buy a little house here, what a nice neighborhood. Then, in the part of the dream where we actually DID live in the neighborhood, behind our house was a very wide grassy area (I know, this doesn't happen in the Bronx), with a border of trees behind the grassy area, and a low, 4-foot fence separating our yard from the grassy area. So I'm looking out at the back yard and I see (on the grassy area) a camel at least four stories high. This doesn't alarm me. Then the camel walks to the left a distance, then makes one of those noises dogs make when they lay down when they're tired, and lays down, with its knees tucked under its body. The way cats lay down. I remember thinking ... boy, hope it doesn't walk over the fence, because it could do some serious damage if it walked into the house. But I only hoped for this in a vague way. I certainly wasn't worried. Too weird.

It's October the what???

Whew. Where does the time go? I have successfully cut down the number of hours I work this semester and that allows me more time to get into the editing I do for the doctor I work for (he's also a theologian, philosopher, family therapist, etc., in short, he has a lot of letters behind his name). We have just finished a book on what might be summed up as the philosophy of medicine and medical education, and the need to treat the whole person, and how western medicine does not do this, but must. How we can take a page from the eastern ways of practicing medicines and how we must integrate people's beliefs in both eastern and western religions (spirituality). It's high stuff but I've learned so much doing the editing. The book is with an agent, but we don't know yet whether he's chosen to handle it. (Fingers crossed.)

The second book is a series of transcripts of interviews with spiriual healers. This is heady stuff! I can't read it without having my sense of myself and my place in the world shaken up just a tiny bit. So I am just finishing up the first book: doing a glossary and polishing an appendix with a bunch of facts and figures which compare the health of various nations and the health care of various nations. Then I get into the second book which involves a first edt of the transcripts themselves. I have already done a couple of these and it is powerful, powerful stuff. Knocks your socks off. Really does.

For fun, we've been watching a bit too much sports on TV, I think. German Bundesliga soccer is back on TV in Canada (I don't know about the US) and I've been rooting for my favouite team, Bayern Munich. However, soccer is a sport (I think) where you don't really have to be rooting for a team to watch it and enjoy it, and so I watch a lot of other matches too. It's great stuff. I can't stand to watch hockey if there isn't a team I'm rooting for (go Canucks!). Baseball, well, I guess that might merit the occasional exception. But I love the Yankees, and unfortunately we have to wait for spring training. I hope they don't fire Joe Torre, but obviously something has to be done about the Yankees' starting pitching. With a budget like they have, it's remarkable that they don't have better pitching. I love soccer (and baseball) because neither of them has the mindless violence that the NHL has.

Recently watched Bleak House, which is a Dickens book, on DVD. The version that has Gillian Anderson in it (of X-Files fame). I have NEVER, EVER, EVER, seen a better show. This beats I think every show I've ever seen in my whole entire life (yes, it was THAT good). The casting, the acting, the direction, in short, everything about it, was absolutely top-notch. I couldn't find fault with it if I tried. A friend said that the version with Emma Peel was too dark and slow and she couldn't get through it. I lent her my copy of the one with Gillian Anderson. I'd be very surprised if she has the same to say about it.

And then I read the book. And except for a few minor details, the program followed the book really well. I loved the actors in the DVD, too, so just put those faces on while I read the book and it was like extending the DVD by another couple of weeks.

Next post I'll talk about Bikini Boot Camp which I did this summer (suffice it to say, for now, never again!) and I look forwad to catching up with all of you.