Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 7:00 a.m., coincidentally the time the sun rose in "The City" today. That sun will rise into mostly cloud-free skies and take us to today's high temperature of 61°, before it sets @ 8:52 p.m.

That means that I'll once again try to follow the KISS formula and probably fail miserably.

Baseball is not being very good to me, at least when it comes to the now 16 - 15 Cubs, who occupy 4th place in the NL Central, as they once again saw a stellar pitching performance by ace Jon Lester wasted, as the bullpen once again imploded and the Cubs' bats could not get going, when they lost to the now 20 - 12 1st place in the NL Central, Cardinals in a sweep, 3 - 4.

Early in a game that was delayed by rain twice in St. Louis, the announcers lauded Jason Heyward's skills in the outfield and touted his Gold Glove abilities, only to see him let a ball go all the way to the wall when he missed on a sliding catch and the Cardinals tied the game on what became a triple. The Cubs welcome the Miami Marlins to what will hopefully be the Friendly Confines tonight @ 8:05 p.m. EDT.

My beloved 25 - 9, 1st place by one game over the 2nd place Yankees in the AL East, played the game the way it was meant to be played and won by a final score of 6 - 1 over the 13 - 23 Rangers. The Sox travel to the Bronx Zoo to face the Yankees tonight @ 7:05 p.m.

The 14 - 19 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers fell to the even worse 11 - 23 Royals by a final score of 2 - 4. The Tigers looked bad and they won't be looking any better in the near future. The Tigers travel to TX to face the Rangers tonight @ 8:15 p.m.

The 17 - 12, 3rd place in the MWL East Caps, handed the 15 - 11, 1st place in the MWL West Cedar Rapids. IA Kernels, a loss, as the Caps won, 4 - 1. Tonight the Caps are home to face the Clinton, IA Lumberkings @ 7:05 a.m. m@ the Fifth/Third Ballpark.

I had a good day yesterday as I planted two rose bushes as I had planned and then sat down to read and do very little else. I did, however, give up on the book I was reading, which in spite of good reviews, just wasn't working for me. However, the theme, art, caused me to get out my sketch-pad and pencils and draw what I consider a nice rendering of Abigael, my traveling guitar, whom I had strategically placed in the media room for that purpose. I focused on her and just added enough of the background to give her some perspective.

I also found time to go through the two rolls of nickels I had picked up at our bank last Friday. Out of 80 nickels, I found 15 to add to my growing collection of Jefferson nickels. A much less expensive collection than my previous collection of National Park Quarters, Fifty-State Quarters, or America the Beautiful Quarters. However, I am still looking to add to those collections too. And yes, I Adam, I am being frugal, what you might call cheap.

Mary kept busy indexing before we walked over to the 1st Presbyterian Church here in GH for another in their Community Artist and Speaker Series, that features musicians, actors, and speakers. We watched a one-person performance of Passion and Perversity, a play adapted and performed by Mr. Tom Harryman, a member of Actors Equity who has performed all over the US and who now is a member of the faculty @ Muskegon Community College. We had never seen the works of Edgar Allan Poe performed in this manner before, but to hear the words of Annabelle Lee, The Cask of  Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, and of course, The Raven performed live was a real treat.

Mary opted to make another of her homemade pizzas for dinner last night and it was superb, in spite of having to change the final configuration to skip the too old mushrooms and green peppers that she had planned on. Instead, we had thinly-sliced onions all over and on my half, black olives.

Today, I'll plant those final two rose bushes and Mary will continue indexing interspersed with meals and walks with the fur-children. Ciao.