Although i'm not the biggest baseball fan, i do appreciate going to the park and taking in a game every now and then. Going to meetings around the U.S. gives me chances to see stadiums throughout the country, providing some semblance of value to even the lousiest of conferences. Here in Houston, my hotel is only eight blocks or so from Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros. While it's not the Astrodome of days of yore, the fact that the 'Stros were in town encouraged me to buy a ticket. I splurged a bit and got a seat directly behind home plate, only 15 rows back. Again, while not the Astrodome, Minute Maid is an interesting park despite the crummy name. A retractable roof and air conditioning protects fans from humid summer Houston days and nights, while a huge bank of windows looks out on downtown. For some reason, an old-style train runs on a track above the bleachers, puffing along its course whenever an Astro hits a homer. The game i saw pitted the home team against the Cincinnati Reds. I got a sweet photo of Houston pitcher Wandy Rodriguez delivering to Ken Griffey Jr. from my seat. Foul balls that went straight up and back ended up in our section, and i came within inches of grabbing one. It came down two rows behind me, however the woman making a play on it spilled the ball into the empty row between us. I went to grab it, but the spin on the ball took it away from me and back to the woman. It's been a dream of mine since i was a kid to snare a foul ball ... not the most original dream, but hey, i'm a nostalgic sucker ... perhaps this is what keeps me going to games. So close. The Reds built up an 8-1 lead behind a series of home runs from Adam Dunn (2!), Griffey, and Edinson Encarnacion. The Stros made it interesting late to get within 3, but an insurance run in the 9th from Cincinnati sealed the deal. Rodriguez has to shoulder most of the blame, he got rocked. I left satisfied with my night out, happy to have run into Stanford pals Rodney and Yelin. I didn't find a cap worth buying, but no matter.

I didn't shave for 4 or 5 days prior to coming to Texas, and after getting to my meeting the usual temptation to grow a beard took hold. This is about the farthest i've ever gone, and it actually looks somewhat like your garden variety beard. I'm sure it will be shaved off in the next week or so (if not sooner), but it's an amusing diversion.

I haven't yet written about my latest gadget purchase. After learning that i could charge an iPhone, and more importantly the monthly charges, to my Stanford enrichment account as a business expense, i was sold on picking up the new 3G as soon as possible. I planned on stopping by the Apple Store at 7am on launch day (an hour early should work, right?), but a 7:30 seminar at Stanford thwarted those plans. I then resolved to wait until 10:30am to let the lines peter out and then pop in to get one. Little did i know that with Apple's new policy of making buyers purchase a cellular plan on the spot and launch day issues with the activation servers, the lines were moving slowly if at all. I found the line stretching across Stanford Mall at 11am, and went back to work. No luck on Saturday either, and then i had to fly off to D.C. for my DoD grant review panel. I had six hours between the conclusion of my panel and my flight home on Tuesday, so i walked a mile in the oppressive humidity to an AT&T Store, but didn't bother going in after seeing the "sold out" sign in the window. While surfing the net in the lounge back at the hotel, i found Apple had a page updating store iPhone availability on a nightly basis. On Wednesday night it said the Palo Alto University Ave. store would have them the next day, so i showed up at 9am to found the store had opened at 8am and was out. Grrrrrrrr. However on Friday i drove Veronica to work in SF, and on my way back to work found a short line in front of the same store at 10:30am. I parked the car and hopped out, and a short half hour later i had myself an iPhone. I love it so far ... the app store has lots of great little programs, like Pandora Radio and the amazing Shazam, which will identify songs for you after recording 10 second snippets. I've been fiddling with iTunes and Garageband to make custom ringtones, with my current favorite being Daft Punk's "Robot Rock". It works great to notify me of incoming calls, but i'm a bit reluctant to use it as my morning alarm for fear of growing to loathe the tune.