Dear A---

The Pirates game was fun, but not as colorful as you suggest. The baseball stadium is near the water, but there are no large ships or cannon involved (although the Tampa Bay Bucanneers have a ship with cannon in one end zone, but that is football). There is a large green parrot mascot that frolics with the fans, however. (R--- and I went to a Cleveland Rockers womens basketball game once and got courtside seats. The Rockers mascot, Rocky Racoon, came and tried to sit on R---'s lap and generally frolic with us. The disturbing thing was the mascot costume stank really, really badly, like the person inside Rocky sweated a lot and never washed the outfit. I've never looked at mascots the same since.) Anyhow, the Pirates beat the Braves, 5-2. Who do you think would win if real pirates fought real indians? Just another thought to ponder.

I have been doing the firefighters workout, but I still look like I've been following the engineers diet and exercise plan, which involves coffee, junk food, and 18 hours a day staring at a computer screen. I do get some sun walking the dog, so I don't have the proper fish-belly white skin complexion.

Take care,
B---