Welcome to "Chez Nico: Lasso Your Own Dead Animal Yee Haw!!!" This smaller, thrown-together-late Chez Nico will have only 8-10 people, so I have spent much of the afternoon tarping off the dining room and kitchen. When the event was announced, tonight's game still had the potential to be "a big pennant race game," but now it's more "Braden vs. Harden -- well that's pretty cool."
The A's are 9.5 back with 36 to play, 6 of those head-to-head with the Rangers. This means even if they won 5 of the last 6 against Texas, the A's would still have to pick up 5.5 games from the other 30, and if Oakland swept all 6 they would need to gain 3.5 other games.
All this would seem more imaginable if the A's weren't the ultimate .500 team, following every good stretch with one about equally as bad and following every bad stretch with one about equally as good.
For the grill, I have gone and braved the jungle the stormy sea Tokyo Fish Market and procured some baby octopus, some scallops, and some prawns. It turns out they don't have alligator or kangaroo, or even ostrich at the Tokyo Fish Market, which makes me wonder "What kind of fish market are you anyway?"
I look forward to seeing what my Chez partners bring, I look forward to someone taking photos in which my eyes refuse to stay open and I look slightly dazed and mostly stoned, and most of all I look forward to reporting back afterwards that the A's have kept their slim playoff hopes alive behind their Perfect Warrior, Dallas Braden.
