Half-full or half-empty?

I awoke today to the ringing of my cell phone. It was my contractor, letting me know that he had just left the security desk in my building where he had dropped off a sample of a wood called cherry betula. I'm supposed to look at it and decide if I'd like to substitute that for the cracked bamboo flooring.

I looked at the clock. 7:10 am CRAP!!! My alarm didn't go off!

A near miss...

After rushing to get dressed for work, I surprised myself by actually remembering to leave from the front entrance so I could pick up the wood sample. (I often leave through the garage.)

Although I live in a big building, the security guard remembered me and told me that I had a package there, too. She handed it to me. The package arrived the previous day, but the notice didn't arrive in my mailbox until late last night. If she hadn't remembered, I wouldn't have received the package till tonight. No biggie, right?

The package contained my corporate tax return which is DUE TODAY!

Another near miss...

Am I being blessed with lucky coincidences or just barely avoiding catastrophe?

A day (or four) in the sun

Highlights from Spring Training 2006:

• Relief pitcher Roberto Novoa signing autographs, completely unaware that he's tucked his designer shirt into his (no doubt) designer underwear! Okay, maybe I shouldn't pick on him since he's currently suffering from the flu.
• Our Little Lost Cub: Matt Murton seemed a bit lost when Firecracker and I saw him arrive at the Peoria Sports Complex. We were standing on an overpass above the tunnel to the outfield when the Cubs' red-haired left fielder drove up. He walked past the now-empty team bus (apparently, only the scrubs ride the bus!) and turned toward a few open garage doors that enclosed the field maintenance equipment. He turned left. He turned right, stopped and looked around. "It's that way, Matt!" we shouted, pointing toward the tunnel. "Uh, thanks," said Murton with a wave.
• A few minutes after the Murton encounter, after the rest of the team had already begun stretching on the outfield grass, Cubs closer Ryan Dempster arrived. For once, I actually thought of something clever to say. "It figures that the closer would be the last one to show up!" He laughed and waved.
• While celebrating Firecracker's birthday at a cool little nightclub, yours truly almost GOT LUCKY! I saw almost only because I declined the opportunity but the situation definitely makes the highlight reel of this year's Spring Training trip because my potential paramour was an Arizona State University frat boy!!! Yes, indeed! Firecracker and I were propositioned (well, she didn't know it because her attention was elsewhere) by college boys! Honestly, I didn't realize it was THAT dark in there! ;-)
• An elderly man sat in front of Firecracker and I at one of the games. He sat there, in the shade behind home plate, with a chair cushion on his seat and another on the seat next to him. Sometime in the early innings, he got up and walked carefully down the stairs. A few minutes later we spotted him at the bottom of the steep cement stairs, helping his wife gingerly and oh-so-slowly climb the mountain that would bring them to their ballpark perch. The man had one hand on his wife's back and the other on her butt, carefully guiding her up each step. When they reached us, he helped lower her into her seat, using one hand to pull her sweater down over her butt just before she sat. Firecracker and I smiled at the scene. That's what I'm waiting for, someone to push my butt up the stairs.
  

25 days till Cubs Home Opener!!!