richie rich

originally we were going to enjoy the red sox' return to oakland via our old 27" non-flat screen tv, but when we heard rich harden would be starting on friday, well, that changed things. the downside, though, to matchups like the red sox or yankees vs. the a's is that these are the types of games where the new englanders pop out of the woodwork; put on their khakis, bright red or navy clothing, and puffer vests; attend a series of games; and boo the home team. sigh. but how about kudos to my correct use of semi-colons? friday's seats featured lots of red, but luckily no one got tasered like at retro jersey day (really, maybe concessions needs to rethink selling alcohol so early on promo days?). i like to think of that as progress.

friday night's game featured 1) rich harden throwing a bunch of quickie innings and 2) alan embree, who had just celebrated his 800th career game. with that, i made rich, rich alan M&Mbree brownies. perhaps too many puns, but it could have been worse (like rich, rich alan M&Mbree andrew or emil brown-ies??? gee. no.). thankfully, i know my limits!

i halved this AMAZING brownie recipe from the barefoot contessa, topping it with milk and dark chocolate M&Ms at the 15-min halfway mark (and i didn't include the nuts). they turned out a little gooey, but after an hour's worth of refrigeration, my coworkers scarfed the extras down in about 30 minutes flat friday morning, which i took to be a good sign. the coffee combined with the two chocolates give these brownies a round and deep cocoa flavor, and a little brownie slice goes a long way. optional: a glass of (soy) milk.

with security and police flocking about like hawks, my closest bullpen experience came via the handover to the ball boy at the end of the red sox' warmups. i assume that the guys devoured the brownies while gawking at rich's smooth delivery, but who knows. they could've been braiding dallas' hair. or taking cat naps. meow.

and lastly, after watching saturday night's exciting game via the couch, we were psyched for sunday, where we cleaned the apartment from head to toe in the AM, appropriately prepping for the afternoon's swiffer. er, sweep. go A's!