And a happy October to you too

Man, am I glad to see September go away.  More stuff has happened this month that I can recall, not all of it bad, but it has been way too eventful.

The aftermath of our flooded basement can be summed up like this: eh.  It could have been so much worse.  We were fortunate to have someone come out the next day to rip up the carpet and dry the floors and walls out.  Most of the material stuff that had to be pitched belonged to people who don't live here--the basement is mostly used for storage--and should have been dealt with a while ago.  I hate to sound unsympathetic, but procrastination will get you every time.  The residual aggravation is that the garage is full of things that I hate looking at (mostly because little of it actually belongs to us) and I doubt I can create enough room for the cars before it gets cold out.  I can't wait to move out of this joint.

Desmond (9 months) has now been out of the womb longer than he was in it.  He seems more like a little man than a baby recently, albeit one that still only has five teeth (three new ones--we've had some long nights here recently),is dependent on us for almost everything and eats meat from a jar.  He is sufficiently mobile and trying to get into everything, which means the door to the basement is closed 24/7 now.  He is not an expert at crawling as he still cannot seem to scoot on his knees but does the army crawl very well.  He babbles incessantly whenever he is awake and it is music to my ears.  He is such a happy kid.  There were many times this month where it seemed that all we had was stress, and every time all it took was a look in his direction to be reminded that we have it pretty good.  What an amazing little boy.  How did we get to be so lucky?

I'm happy to see the tide of the election starting to stretch more and more towards Obama.  I've decided that I can't watch the VP debate this week because I can't take the cringe moments of Sarah Palin anymore.  It's become uncomfortable to watch.  I almost feel sorry for her.  Almost.

Who am I kidding?  I'm not going to watch the debate because it falls smack dab in the middle of Game 2 of the playoffs.  I have been low key about baseball this summer, and intentionally so.  I have enjoyed this season as I have no other, but the "real" season starts now.  I'm 41, been following the Cubs since I was 5 and no team ever won 97 games until this year.  Number of wins aside, this is clearly the best Cubs team of my lifetime; best pitching, best defense, best management.  The time is right.  This should be the year.

However, I am not assuming anything.  I don't believe in curses, jinxes or anything of the sort.  Every past post-season failure of the Cubs has been the result of not being the best team.  They were outplayed last year by Arizona, much as they were in previous playoff series by Florida, Atlanta, San Francisco and San Diego. 

They should beat Los Angeles, and then they should beat Philadelphia or Milwaukee, and then they should beat Boston or Anaheim or Tampa or the White Sox (gulp) in the World Series.  They should.  Do it, please.  I am not getting any younger.

By the way, this is the first time in 102 years that both Chicago baseball teams have made the playoffs in the same season.  If both somehow managed to make it to the World Series I am fairly certain that this city would implode.  The Sox took a bit of the luster off that possibility by actually winning a World Series three years ago, but it would still be the most intense ten days in the history of Chicago.  I'm not rooting for or against the Sox to get there; all my energy is focused on the Cubs.

Do it please.  I beseech thee.