I couldn't decide whether to lead this post with something incredibly exciting, or save it for the big finish.  Then I thought about it and realized there was nothing really exciting. 

Softball and work.  That's about all that's going on.   And softball has gone downhill fast.  My Sunday team is 4 and 2, but we've lost 2 of our last 3 and have been playing poorly. Today was especially bad.
I've played shortstop all 6 games for that team.  I've been okay there.  In a 35 and over league I'm adequate to play the position, but we'd be much better if we could find someone else to play there and move me back to 3rd base.
The Monday and Wednesday leagues have been ugly lately.  The only bright spot has been the Monday rain outs.  Looks like another one tomorrow.   We need to start hitting soon or we're in trouble.  I can't figure out how the same 11 or 12 guys can score 15 runs consistently for weeks, and then just stop scoring.

I was getting hits constantly myself, even through most of our team slump.  But the last 2 or 3 games have been ugly for me as well.     No worries, though.  I've always been a base hit machine (ha ha. I've never been a hitter), so that will change.

On to books, then, since reading is my fun cheap entertainment.   I've almost finished Collusion, the sequal (part 2 of 3, so far) to The Ghosts of Belfast.  Very good, but not quite as good as good as the first.  Stuart Neville is definitely a writer.  He's good.
While reading the 2nd book I realized that they are both westerns.  They're set in northern Ireland, post-Troubles, with cars and cell phones and all the other 21st century technology, and they are classified as crime noir,  so it took me a while to realize it,  but really they are westerns.   The trappings are very different, but they're all about the reformed gun-fighter (IRAish 'freedom fighter'), his tortured past, and his being dragged back into violence- but this time for a good cause.  
Still, marvelous writing and great stories.  I really enjoy them.  The 2nd book is not quite as good, but still better than most of what I've read in the last year or two.
I have a good list of books to follow, too.  I have World Made By Hand, by somebody-or-other whose name I have forgotten.  Some sort of post-apocolyptic thingamajig, but I don't recall the premise.  Looks good though, or  at least it did when I read the back cover a month ago.   I also have the newest Christopher Moore book.  He is always entertaining.   And I'm going to plough through the rest of "That
Awful Mess on the Via Merulana," which has been a thorough chore but might be worth the effort.  It's like reading James Joyce but without an at least passing familiarity with the culture, so it's that much harder.
Plus there is another Stewart Neville book, Stolen Souls.  That will be high on my list.  And I recently read two crime novels by Martin Limon (I'm not taking the time to figure out how to put the accent mark over his last name), and there are four more books in that series which I would like to read, so my list for the next few months looks good. 
I also intend to take another stab at The Poisonwood Bible, but I don't know...  I didn't care for the first attempt.

What else, what else....?   My life is not must-see TV.  Why do I enjoy it so much, then?  I must be easily pleased.      Well, the new girl downstairs is an absolute knockout.  Wow. Just met her today.  Over a decade younger than me and a single mom, but wow.  We'll see.  The pitcher might be throwing faster than I can handle, but if nothing else I might have to close my eyes and swing as hard as I can with this one.