We are in a house of mourning: the Astros went down to the St Louis Cardinals in the seventh game of the series with a whimper, not a bang. I am bravely Pollyanna-ing with 'they've never got this far before! they beat the Braves! they won a playoff series! they won the wild card race! in August everyone thought they were total shit! look what they achieved!' but Brent is a sad wee man in his 70s-Astro-orange shirt, and it must be said that the 'stros choked fairly comprehensively. Sigh. (And does this mean that Texas gets a karmic consolation prize and Bush will win again? Because if you're a particularly ridiculous kind of superstitious person, that's the kind of thing you wonder.) Well, baseball season is nearly over, and cricket season's about to start. At least I've had some practice in being disappointed already! This was like a dry run for the inevitably immense Black Caps frustration, which continues until March or so...