Okay, *that* was really irritating! You would think that, somewhere in How To Be An Umpire 101, they learn that when there's a puff of chalk, the ball probably hit the line and therefore is *fair*. I don't blame Moises for being pissed off; he even said some things in an interview this morning that had to be bleeped. We're still only 1.5 games back, so the world isn't quite ready to end, but at this point I'd love to just see St. Louis go home because I'm tired of them. Also tired of hearing the name "Pujols". Truly the most unfortunate name in baseball :P

Did my first volunteer stint up at the North Park Village Nature Center this morning. I was a little nervous, especially since I'm not that good at identifying buckthorn seedlings, but boy did I learn fast! Pretty much everything we saw was buckthorn so it didn't take much thinking. The other volunteers have been there a long time and really knew what they were doing. They are mostly retired men and were a lot of fun. One kept calling me Dee and it took me a while to realize he was talking to me. I haven't been called that in a long time, am not used to it anymore. Overall, the morning was fun but tiring, and I got very dirty and hot and sweaty. I think it'll be more efficient from now on to shower afterwards and just wear a hat in the morning. Besides, that'll keep the branches from pulling my hair so much. Ow!

Also got a call from my partner in the Plants of Concern monitoring project. She said she had some family stuff going on, which makes me glad I didn't call her and bug her earlier. Now I just need to find time to do the work! We're basically counting the three rare species present at a beach in the Edgewater area, and possibly also at a private beach that belongs to a condominium. I received a small scholarship from Chicago Wilderness to take the class that taught me how to do this monitoring, so it's extra important that I follow through. The class was way back in May, so I'll have to review my notes and remember what the heck I'm supposed to do!
- posted by Diane @ 12:43 PM