Twenty years ago today, I went to my first baseball game. The Expos had the NL East lead, a half-game up on the Pirates, and it was half-price ticket day for under 16s, so I convinced my parents to drive all the way to the Big O with the family.
The Meech Lake Accord had failed the day before and it was St-Jean-Baptiste Day, so for the first (but not last) time in Expos history, many in the large (for the Expos) crowd of 25,000 booed Canada's national anthem. Anytime the Expos played at home on St-Jean-Baptise Day after that, they played the anthems during the warmup so that no one would be there to boo.
We sat in the first row of the upper deck, right behind home plate. Dennis Martinez had a solid start, but the relief was weak and the Pirates won the game, retaking the NL East lead (which they kept for the rest of the year). Disappointing, but I'll never forget how awesome it was to eat peanuts and ice cream and watch the Expos in the Big O on a hot summer day, during that brief time when the retractable roof actually worked.
Petra's Call is an innovative flash-based webcomic from Ninja Robot Dinosaur that you should definitely check out. There are 15 episodes currently, all available through the embedded flash app above.
I met the creator Shane Neville years ago in Vancouver. He since moved out to the Maritimes, but looks like he's back in Lotusland in 2010. Exciting!
Microsoft Award Team 20 Craven Park, Harlesden London NW10, United Kingdom. Batch number: 12/25/0340 Ref number: MSN-L/200-26937 Winning number: GQ-88790-D
Attention: Lottery Winner,
This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUND (£950,000.00) for the New Edition 2009 Lottery promotion which is organized by YAHOO LOTTERY INC & WINDOWS LIVE in conjunction with a few other internet providers.
YAHOO & MICROSOFT WINDOWS, collects all the email addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo and Hotmail we only select five people every Month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we congratulate you for being one of the people selected.
TO RECEIVE AND CLAIM YOUR PAYMENT OF PRIZE You are therefore advised to send the following information to the claims agent(Mr. Andre Bach) to facilitate the remittance of your winning prize to you at once.
Msn Lottery Prize must be claimed not later than 15 days from date of Draw Notification after the Draw date in which Prize has won. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.
Congratulations!! once again.
Please contact Mr. Bach for all necessary proceeds in receiving your prize. Mr. Andre Bach. (VERIFICATION DEPARTMENT MANAGER)
