My wedding weekend

Here's a brief recap of my weekend. At 3 p.m. on Friday Alison and I headed out of town. So did half of Atlanta, apparently. We hit traffic early and often. Note to weekend travelers: Leave at noon.

Two days after finding out that I have borderline high cholesterol I went to my in-laws and had a nice dinner of steak, steak, butter with some potatoes, two bites of salad, two dinner rolls the size of my fist, and a 1,000-calorie piece of peanut butter pie. It might be time for Alison to increase my life insurance.

On Saturday we drove to Lexington, spent about 15 minutes getting changed for the wedding, slipped into Applebees and wolfed down an appetizer platter in ten minutes and headed to the wedding site.

Alison worked with the groom at a TV station in Lexington. I think everyone who worked for that station in the past ten years showed up to the wedding. This proves one of two things to me. Either this is one heckuva guy, or media people can't turn down an open bar.

The wedding site was the Gladie Historic Site in the Red River Gorge, which is about an hour from Lexington. Basically we got dressed up to attend a wedding in the woods. The couple are avid climbers so they literally tied the knot. That's solid symbolism, because when you tie a knot, you want the sucker to stay tied.

At the reception the bluegrass band was perfect for the setting but not so good for dancing. The receptionists drank something called Wildcat Tea that looked like Windex. I had Newcastle. It's my favorite beer but ever since beer purists told me that clear bottles are bad for beer, especially the imported kind, I've been torn. Another problem is my favorite high-dollar beer is Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale and that's also in a clear bottle. The Beer Gods are against me!

Anyway, after about six hours in the car and a hideous book on tape (Patricia Cornwell's Southern Cross), we were home. I was able to watch the White Sox on TV for the second time all year. The ump (and Hee Seop Choi) may have helped a bit on the Scott Podsednik sacrifice, but a rally is a rally. It's nice to watch 'your' team and be confident that a rally is imminent.

I like the sequence of walk, sacrifice/error, sacrifice, then single to bring in the runs. The team's third in the AL in homers but can win in many different ways. Even with 94 games to go, I'm feeling good about the playoffs.