Very busy day today. R. had swimming and Girl Scouts and J. had Tae Kwon Do this morning. R. is doing really well in swimming. Instead of the group lessons she had been doing she has been taking a private lesson and she is really improving. Her teacher has been great and has been working on some of the things she needs to do better.

I took J. to Tae Kwon Do and watched as he broke two boards with a kick, breaking them on the first try like they were styrofoam instead of wood. It's pretty amazing to watch.

After that we went to get the minivan washed and vacuum it out. I cleaned out a mountain of pretzel crumbs, goldfish crackers and other assorted snacks. We'll probably get better mileage with all that junk out of the car.

After a stop at home for lunch, we all went to a magic show at the kids school. The magician was called Bonaparte. He was very funny and put on a very entertaining show for both the kids and the adults. I even got a portion of my 15 minutes of fame as I was called up on stage and had to wear a funny hat. A good time was had by all.

Then I had to mow the lawn. It was even more of a chore than usual, since the grass was probably about eight inches high after all the rain we have had the last couple of weeks. I had to empty the grass catcher on the back of my lawnmower seven times - twice is normal.

J. had a baseball game this evening. He played both catcher and pitcher. He caught for an inning and did pretty well, then he came in to pitch when one of the other kids took a bad hop off the nose (he was OK, just shaken up). To end the day, we went to dinner at Kelly's Roast Beef, a branch of the Revere Beach institution.

On the baseball front, Barry Bonds finally hit #714. He hit it off the A's Brad "Admiral" Halsey, who now gets to be the eternal answer to a trivia question. Today's trivia question: Who did Hank Aaron hit #714 off of? (Answer below - no fair Googling it!)

The Mets, and more specifically Billy Wagner, blew a win against the Yankees today. Pedro Martinez had shut out the Empire for seven innings and Wagner was given a 4-0 lead in the 9th. Wagner was very wild and the Yankees managed to tie the game, finally winning it in the 11th. Wagner hasn't been very impressive since joining the Mets, as this was his fourth blown lead of the year.

It's doubly unfortunate that the Yankees came back to win, since the Sox took an 8-4 win out of Philadelphia tonight and could have picked up a game in the standings. The power came from some unlikely sources - Josh Beckett hit the first home run by a Red Sox pitcher since Marty Pattin hit one in September of 1972, the year before the designated hitter came into being. Alex Gonzalez hit a two run bomb to dead center field in the 8th, too.

Trivia answer: Jack Billingham of the Cincinnati Reds.