Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 2:30 a.m. in "The City."

Baseball has been mostly very, very good to me. My beloved, 1st place in the AL East, 67 - 30 Red Sox, took 10 innings to defeat the visiting Blue Jays yesterday afternoon, 6 - 2. They Sox used J.D. Martinez's 29th home run and a Grand Slam from the X-man, Xander Bogaerts, in the bottom of the 10th, to notch their Major League™ best 67th win. Just one more game before the All-Star Break™. The late comedian, Freddy Prinze, would have said it like this in regard to the Sox in this YouTube™ clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0AuipqPqsU

The 54 - 38, 1st place in the NL Central Cubs, ended up pounding the Padres last night in a game that finished after 1:P00 a.m. EDT. The final score was 11 - 6, and while Kyle Schwarber's bat was hot Javier Baez had an even hotter bat, as Baez drove in five on his way to the Home-Run Derby @ the All-Star Game™. Kyle Hendricks got the win with help from his relievers.

Meanwhile, Kris Bryant is looking well in the field and at the plate. Sadly, Yu Darvish and his $126,000,000 contract, is still not ready to pitch in a Major-League™ game. He has been on the DL since May 23. That, along with every team's need for pitching, will probably put the Cubs in the hunt for a solid starter as the Major-League™ non-waiver trade deadline nears on July 31. The Cubs and the Padres finish out the 1st half of the season today @ 4:10 p.m. EDT.

The 40 - 57, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, well, they are rebuilding, but they lost another game to the 1st place in the AL West, 64 - 34 Astros, 1 - 9. The Tigers and the Astros play again today @ 2:10 p.m. EDT.

The MWL East, 7th place Caps, with a record of 47 - 46, dropped a squeaker to the visiting, 46 - 44, 2nd place in the MWL West, Beloit Snappers, 3 - 4. The Caps and the Snappers play this afternoon @ 2:00 p.m. EDT.

I was busy in the kitchen yesterday after my walk with STWD. That walk came before the rains came in the mid-afternoon. I needed to get into the kitchen and do some full-contact baking, you know how it is, but that meant that Mary couldn't get in there and make her vegan hammish. She plans to make that today. I also made Cole slaw to go with the chickpea sandwiches that Mary made for lunch before I got down to the serious business of pie baking.

As I often do, with a little help from Mary, I recorded my efforts along the way to the finished blueberry pie, which was delicious, by the way. Here are some pictures of my work, from start to finish.

The secret to a great pie is the crust, so that's where I always start.

I roll it out to the desired size.

Make the filling, from fresh blueberries.

 

Put the crust and the blueberries, complete with my signature symbol together.

Bake for 45 minutes and voila, a pie is born!

 Of course, no pie baking would be complete without assistance from Ginger, the sub-sous-dog. My regular sous-dog, Sugar, was upstairs resting.

While I was baking, Mary was at the grocery store. I think she "forgot" to take the cans back for redemption.

I also did some indoor chores along some outdoor chores too. A man's work is never done. I did find time to read the weekend edition of the Grand Haven Tribune, and do the crossword with some assistance from Mary. Plus, I started another novel to complete my afternoon.

The current temperature is a comfortable 70°, although the relative humidity is still a bit high. Later today, after the sun rises @ 6:19 a.m. and well before it sets @ 9:27 p.m., the high temperature will reach 79° under partly-cloudy skies with 84% relative humidity, making the day feel quite warm. I will be out in the back-forty grilling my heart out later today in that high humidity, as there is no rain in the forecast from the NWS until T-storms on Monday morning. Ciao.