Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 4:30 a.m. in "The City."

Good news my loyal readers, I won't have to water the vast gardens of the PE today. We had a goodly amount of rain overnight that should be ending about 8:00 a.m. this morning. Mary got the fur-children out just before the skies opened up around 11:00 p.m. last night. With the lightning and thunder that came with the rain, STWD would have refused to go out once those began. Ginger wouldn't care, but she does not do well when she becomes a wet dog. Unlike retriever breeds who shed water, Ginger gets wet and then smells like a wet dog before she gets curly.

At any rate, the T-storms were not overwhelmingly intense, so STWD wasn't bothered enough to head to one of her hide-e-holes. Right now, she is lying on my side of the bed awaiting my return. I wasn't going to get up, but the usual pattern of internet outages from our cable company continued, so I got up to check the modem. It was blinking green and it only came back to life shortly after 3:30 a.m.

Speaking of the weather, the current temperature is 71° with no rain falling under the prevailing cloudy skies. Later today, after the sun rises @ 6:06 a.m. and well before it sets at 9:28 p.m., the NWS has forecast a high temperature of 72° under cloudy/partly cloudy skies until about 3:00 p.m. when the skies will clear and the sun will shine.

Sports news yesterday was interesting, The Cubs made some roster moves, placing Jason Heyward on the 10-day DL and sending slumping Kyle Schwarber to the Cubs' Triple AAA affiliate in IA for some work to regain his hitting stroke. His ML manager, Joe Maddon, and teammates like Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant believe that Schwarber just needs some time out of the spotlight to regain his World Series hitting success from last year when he came back from that horrendous knee injury to spark the Cubs to their first championship in over 100 years.

But I digress, the Cubs downed the Marlins 11 - 1 behind solid, if unspectacular, pitching by Jake Arrieta and home runs by Russell, Contreras, and Bryant. Switch-hitting rookie Ian Happ went 4 - 4, showing power from the right side of the plate. The Cubs are still in 2nd place in the NL Central @ 37 - 35. They hope to continue their winning ways when the Cubs and the Marlins play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

Last night, the Tigers looked like what they are, a bad baseball team. They once again fell hard to the Mariners, 6 - 9, to fall to 5th /last place in the AL Central @ 32 - 40. At this point, I expect that Tigers' manager Brad Ausmus will be lucky to survive the full season before getting the ax. Does he deserve that fate? Probably not, but that's what happens when a team doesn't achieve. The Tigers move on to San Diego to face the Padres tonight @ 10:10 p.m.

My beloved Red Sox had the day off before welcoming the LA Angels to Fenway Park tonight @7:00 p.m. to play the first game of a weekend series. The Angels defeated the Yankees yesterday to allow the Sox to once again share a statistical tie with the Yankees in the AL East. The Sox have a record of 40 - 32.

The Caps defeated the Lansing Lug Nuts last night in a squeaker, 5 - 4. That gives the Caps a three-way tie with the Ft. Wayne, IN TinCaps and the Lake, County, OH Captains in the MWL East as the second half of their season begins. The Caps and the Lug Nuts play again tonight @ 7:00 p.m.

Mary tried out her new food steamer yesterday and the vegan sausages she made are fantastic, definitely a keeper! She also tried a new approach to making vegan jerky in our food dehydrator, one I suggested, that incorporated the liquid marinade ingredients in the seitan versus later in the process. The resulting jerky tastes great and is not sticky. I like it and so do the fur-children!

We had John give us a price for laying sod in the back forty to replace the dead and dying grass that is caused by Ginger's visits. I know how to do it, but my yak says No, No! Plus, he will take a look at the clogged vents in my office and the media room to see if they can be made functional. As of now, both rooms are cold in the winter and warm/hot the other three seasons. Here's hoping.

We hope to take it easy today. Mary hopes to do that aforementioned sewing along with her regular Friday chat session and we'll both walk with the fur-children. I have a few things still on my agenda, but those should not require too much time, I hope. I want to get in some time with the girls and do some reading. Ciao.