Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 5:00 a.m. in "The City."

The current temperature is 57° under partly-cloudy skies. The sun will rise today @ 7:15 a.m. and set later @ 8:09 p.m. Today's high temperature of 71° will also be under partly-cloudy skies.

Let's keep this another short blog.

The Cubs lost, 1 - 7. and play in Milwaukee again tonight @ 7:10 p.m. EDT when Yu Darvish takes the mound. Need I say more? The only saving grace was a loss by the NL Central division leading Cardinals to the 5th place Pirates last night that kept the Cubs from falling farther behind the Cardinals.

My beloved Red Sox soundly defeated the visiting Yankees, 6 - 1, using home-runs by Mitch Moreland and the X-Man, Xander Bogaerts, along with a solid Red Sox pitching debut by Jhoulys Chacin, who pitched well, but who had to yield to several more pitchers, with the win finally going to Marcus Walden.

The Sox and the Yankees are now only 15.5 games apart in the AL East as they renew their rivalry again this afternoon @ 4:05 p.m. when another young pitcher, Travis Lakins, takes the hill.

The Tigers split two last night in Oakland, winning the first game, 5 - 4, but losing the second, 3 - 7. That means that nothing changed for the Tigers who are awaiting their place on the couch in the off-season as they play out the string. Tonight's game begins @ 9:07 p.m. when Jordan Zimmerman goes for the Tigers.

Don't forget that the Wolverines of Michigan welcome the Black Knights of Army today beginning @ 12:00 p.m.

Later, the Huskies of Northern Illinois are in Utah to faced the Utes @ 1:00 p.m.

Then later still, the Spartans of MSU are home to play the Broncos of Western Michigan @ 7:30 p.m.

We did the indoor chores yesterday while I awaited my latest cooking results. Mary spent some time exploring our lodging options for attendance at the Festival of the Book in Harbor Spring, MI. We are set with our hotel reservations and the reservations for the fur-children. This will prove to be a busy month, as we plan to attend the Michigan Irish Music Festival  next weekend too.

Speaking of my cooking results, the vegan Savory Seitan Roast I tried making for the first time yesterday turned out great. I also made more of the soon to be famous vegan pepperoni that turned out well last time. We asked John to taste-test the pepperoni and he immediately knew it tasted like, wait for it, pepperoni. He also taste-tested the roast and my blueberry pie and pronounced those excellent too.

We ate dinner at Don Luis last night and then headed home to allow me to watch the Cubs lose. Mary cross-stitched and watched some movie downstairs while I fell asleep upstairs.

Today, Mary will be grocery shopping and then later we'll be collectively going to that big-box arts and crafts store. After that, nothing is set in stone. Ciao.