OK, I know it's been a while, but I'm back.

Things have been incredibly busy lately. We've been dealing with the end of the first quarter at work, along with the ongoing work related to the merger. Quarter-end is more than enough work to keep me busy normally, but the addition of the merger related stuff really kept me hopping last week.

My first game at Fenway for 2004 got rained out. It was the Tuesday night game against the Orioles. It's now been rescheduled for Memorial Day, so my first game this year will be April 29 against Tampa Bay.

Speaking of the Sox, they've done pretty well with the Evil Empire this weekend. I give Derek Lowe a mulligan for today's game, seeing as how he hasn't pitched in 10 days, but both Schilling and Wakefield looked great. And I don't think anyone is feeling too bad that A-Rod is oh-fer the series so far.

We've finished test driving cars, as well. We drove the Honda Element and CR-V, the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Forester. We've decided to buy the Honda Element. We really liked the astounding amount of room inside as compared to the others. The CR-V had a slightly better ride, but we couldn't find anything great to say about any of the others. Plus, I love the look of the Element, and the spill-proof seats are almost a must with small kids! We'll be going to get it as soon as my tax refund shows up, hopefully in the next week or so.

Can you believe the Detroit Tigers so far? After losing 119 games last year (one off the '62 Mets all time record), they're 7-5 so far. Mike Maroth, who lost 21 games last year, is 2-0. Now, I don't expect they'll contend for the division crown, even in the weak AL Central, but it's nice to see that things are finally turning around in Motown under Alan Trammel.