Wow, wow. Lotta Action. Lot. Of. Action.

First of all, let me just state for the record that I am a huge fan of this vacation thing. Doing fun stuff during otherwise mundane weekdays? Sign me up for a lifetime pass, please. I worked five out of the last ten weekdays, and it has been a glorious stretch for a number of reasons. I mentioned my trip to the OC here, but this past Memorial Day weekend has been fantastic as well.

Thanks to Anne for hosting a few fun-packed days down in lovely West Yarmouth on Cape Cod. I escaped work early on Thursday and we headed down to her house to meet up with Amanda and then trek out to the Beachcomber in Wellfleet. Although it was a decent drive, it was a cool spot - live music, indoor, outdoor & raw bars, and many local lunchboxes. On the trip back I absolutely dominated 20 Questions.

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Friday was the Best Possible Beach Day In the World, which we happened to spend at (one of) the Best Beach(es) on the Cape. It was a nice spot - private, not crowded - and we hung out there for several hours. Thanks to the wonders of modern radiation protection, I did not get a burn at all, but rather a slight darkening of my usual pallid complexion. That evening we spent roughly five hours preparing dinner, but it was tremendous: a summer Waldorf salad, an assortment of grilled veggies, taboule-marinated chicken, and sesame-encrusted tuna steak. This last item was one of the best things I have ever had the pleasure to eat, thanks to the culinary stylings of Marc. After dinner we went to Molly's, a local Yarmouth spot that was just absolutely bonkers on a Friday night. If you've been to the elite New York and Boston nightclubs then you know the kind of scene I'm talking about.

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Saturday we hit the beach again but it wasn't quite as nice - it got cool, windy and overcast toward mid-afternoon, and we didn't get to the beach as early as we should have, given various delays due to bridge construction. We were joined by Krisjamin for dinner, which was a full-fledged, multi-course jam 'em up: fish chowder, an avocado & tomato salad, stuffed quahogs that were the most buttery-delicious things ever, more grilled veggies, steak and some more tuna. A couple reds proved themselves respectable libations to accompany our repast, and a birthday cake appeared to usher in yet another year of Franco-Canuck-induced hijinks. I received the Best Birthday Gift Ever in the form of one Cape Cod, MA T-shirt. Sunday was basically cleaning up and getting back to the Hub after a tremendously delicious frittata made from leftover grilled veggies. Amanda has pics up of the trip here.

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Again, thanks to Anne, Ben and I were able to snag tickets for the Memorial Day Sox game against the Indians. We had bleacher seats that were actually pretty decent. I hadn't sat in the bleachers in years. Great, great game to get to go to. There was a lot of crazy awesomeness that went down, including:

1. The triumphant return of Trot Nixon. This was one of those special Fenway moments - he got a huge ovation when he ran out to RF in the bottom of the first, and at his first at-bat during the top of the second, he got a long, loud, standing ovation. It was simply awesome. He also roped one into right for a hit, for which he received due props. Then he quickly became another Indian.
   
2. Father Curt pitched a great game. 7 innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball with 10 Ks and zero walks. He looked really good - after he fanned the side in the first I felt like I was lucky enough to get to see a good game (I have rather a poor history with seeing games live. Usually I watch Wake pitch - no knock against him, but I'd like some variety - and usually they lose. Clearly this is because my sample size is far, far, far too small). A fascinating take on his performance and the nuances of his pitching struggles can be found in his little corner of the blogosphere. His splitter was nasty.
   
3. A triple play! Almost, that is. Although in actuality it would only have been possible with one of the Molina brothers lollygagging down the first base line. He beat the throw by a solid step and a half from what I could tell.
4. An inside-the-park home run by Youkilis, the unlikely candidate! The ball took a big, sharp carom off the center field triangle and allowed the Greek God of Walks to sprint home. Unbelievable. Youk has been just - dare I say? - godlike thus far.
   
5. Papelbon's entrance. I'm almost sure I haven't seen him enter a game live, but it's quite the spectacle. People started standing up and cheering while he was warming up, and then "Wild Thing" came on, everyone was on his feet screaming as Pap sprinted out to the infield grass, came to a halt, and calmly walked to the mound. The camera flashes were going off like 4th of July fireworks on every pitch he threw. Insane.
   
6. A play in the top of the ninth that I don't think I had ever seen before. With one out, Pap threw a 1-2 pitch to Blake. From where I sat, it looked like Blake checked his swing and fouled off the pitch. Evidently the pitch hit him on the hand. The umpire called it a walk, but Blake was soon called out after Francona spurred a discussion with the first base ump. In the ump's opinion Blake's check-swing broke the zone, and thus counted as a swing and a strike, despite his actually getting hit by the pitch. Because it was strike three, Blake was called out. This was a huge out because Pap had been struggling a bit. But when Pap K'd Hafner for the save, the place absolutely erupted. Awesome.

A truly great game. The 5-3 win was exciting and packed with Red Sox Dramatic Moments. It felt like one of those season-defining games - granted, it's early, but the last time we had a record this good after 50 games was back in 1986. Something big happened then...

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I've been catching up on my shows on the off times the last couple weeks. The most recent Sopranos was excellent. Entourage keeps me laughing and wishing I were at least moderately wealthy and living in LA. LOST blew my goddamn socks, pants and general accoutrements off; as a finale one couldn't ask for too much more, given the raised expectations over the course of the second half of Season 3. I won't go into detail, given that at least one regular reader of this blog has yet to watch it, but suffice it to say that it's packed with action, excitement, and enough Mikhail to keep us all fat and giggly.