My cat has a regular lunch break.

(Yes, he's still "my cat" even though he continues to live with my parents while I, on the other hand, do not.)

I'm sitting at the computer at my parents' house and he's out in the back yard on his leash. Around 12:40, I look out the window and he's hunched on the top step, scanning the yard but clearly interested in coming inside, as his butt against the door indicates. So I open it and Oreo immediately stand up, meows (more like "MRRRRROW!"), and comes inside as I unhook him.

He heads straight for the kitchen (as do I to discover a virgin pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food in the freezer) and his bowl. I return to the computer with my ice cream, and minutes later, he saunters back into the room and promptly plants himself by the door, looking out at the yard.

"Mrrrow!" he says, using his paw to ring the bells hanging off the door handle, along with a decorative pillow that says, "What part of 'Meow' don't you understand?" Like a dog trained by Pavlov, I stand up and open the door, rehooking him to his leash, and he scurries off to his spot in the uncut grass near the flowers along the driveway, scanning for moles and other backyard critters of suburbia.

This is a messy pint of Phish Food. It was filled past the brim, with some ice cream on the outer upper rim of the carton. Several times now, as I've steadied the pint to corral another large spoonful, I've come away with the now-melting ice cream all over my anchor hand. Well worth it, though.

I went to Staten Island last night to write a feature story on another team in the Phillies' system, the Batavia Muckdogs from upstate New York. They were in town to play the Staten Island Yankees at their waterfront ballpark. What a place. The part itself isn't any nicer than Lakewood, but the location is unbeatable. It sits right next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, with Upper New York Bay in the background. Across the water down the left-field line stand the tall cranes of the Bayonne waterfront and the Military Ocean Terminal. Off in the distance beyond left-center field lies Jersey City and its growing skyline. A little further east, more toward center field and in the foreground of Jersey City, stands the Statue of Liberty. Beyond her, Manhattan, with Lower in the foreground and the Empire State Building set back a bit so that it looks like it's barely a few stories taller than some of the other buildings.

The Brooklyn Bridge continues the panorama, connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn and, essentially, Long Island. Moving across the horizon out beyond right-center field is the Bay Ridge section disappearing to the east behind the upper section of the ballpark. Back on the Staten Island shore, just visible down past the right-field corner, is the ferry terminal, with one of those familiar burnt-orange vessels docked at the gate.

The cat has gone and wrapped his leash around one of the chairs on the patio. I must go free him.