Tuesday, August 30, 2005

The Streak Continues (or New Beginnings)

So I was caught up in the hype and caught the Gigantes-Boulders game Monday night, the debut of golden boy Matt Cain. I wanted to see for myself all the hype and I certainly want to see it well. I browsed Craig's List and found a pair of Field Club seats for 75 bucks. I called it a bargain so I went for it. It took a while to find someone available to go (Tim really needs to quit that loser job), but I found someone that enjoys the hype of the young phenom as much as I do (hey he's a Twins fan. Every Tuesday is new phenom night). So I ventured into the world of luxurious baseball watching....

- So the cool thing about the field club (other than being close enough to spit at the players) is the separate entrance. No being herded like cattles for us. In fact, when you first enter, there is this whole eating area -- with no lines! I felt guilty not getting any food (I pretty much shattered my meager budget this week on the tickets) and taking advantage...leaving after the game was even better. Twenty thousand people leaving at the same time, but I walked right out. That was worth admission already.

- Crazy thing about cozy seats, they are all pretty much owned by season ticket owners. You sit there and everyone around you greets one another by their first name, ushers come by and ask about work today, and most of them leave after six or seven innings and tell each other that they will see them tomorrow night...they would have totally sold me out if I spit at Todd Helton.

- Hey anyone knows what they play in the bathroom before the game starts? I know they radio broadcast comes on during the game ... So I went to the bathroom about 10 minutes before game time. The bathroom looked like a slightly bigger version of my bathroom at home, minus the shower, the scale, and the feminine hygeine products. I was just getting down to business when I hear Renel (voice of the Giants...and old school R & B) come over the speakers, telling me that it was Scout Night and Troop whatever the heck would be presenting the colors during the National Anthem...Does anyone know the rule for the national anthem while in the urinal? Is it more offending to not take off my cap or to splash all over the place while the bombs burst in the air? (metaphorically speaking) Can anyone help me out here?

- By the way, the Giants lost, and I don't think anyone really cared. We all felt bad that Matt Cain didn't get a win for a decent pitching performance, but we were happy to just have seen the Next Big Thing do his stuff...Plus he made fans of us one at a time getting about 84 foul balls into the stands.

- Byung Hyun Kim swinging a bat is funny.....Byung Hyun Kim doing a pirouette while batting is freaking hilarious.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Kids Can Be So Profound

I was drinking a 7-Up earlier today when Hannah asked me:

"Did you get that from 7-11?"

Friday, August 19, 2005

Reminds me of 1994

Flipping channels between innings of the Giants-Cards game, I found music videos playing on both MTV and VH1. I can't even tell even tell you the last time I saw a video on one of those channels. But while admiring the...er...vocal talents of Rihanna, I missed Ray Durham's shot off of my fantasy ace, Chris Carpenter. Good thing Tivo was backing me up with the recording....

Monday, August 15, 2005

Look What the Late Night Santa Brought Me...

What would you say if I told you my parents got me a Magic Bullet? ..... ...... ...... Ok, get your head out of the gutter now. Of course, for those of you late night infomercial viewers, you know what The Magic Bullet is. Basically a portable blender/food processor, it supposedly makes cooking faster and easier. I don't really know what I am going to do with it. I'll let you know over at my other blog home when I come up with something....

Saturday, August 13, 2005

The Long Winding Season

So I figured everyone is bored about hearing about my softball season, but at the same time I feel compelled to at least keep it up to date so no one would be left hanging... We've played two games since our last game (a forfeit win) and our slide continues with two losses. Personally though I've had two milestones. The first game was my debut at managing with a short staff. There was apparently some sort of company golf thing that took our team's best players so I was left juggling the lineup myself. Because of an injury, I didn't even play out there. It was hard to just watch; I am not ready to give up my playing days and go the route of Jeff Tedford, Larry Brown, or Bob Melvin (all average players who are pretty good coaches). Our juggled line up was rough from the get go when we were down 12-0 after one inning. We bounced back and made it 12-9 after two, and took the lead at 14-13 after three. After getting a rally snuffed out at the top of the inning, our defense failed us again when we gave up 6 runs in the bottom of the inning. We couldn't even do it efficiently as time ran out and the game was over.

Three nights later out Brayton rematch was set. The weather was perfect this time and we were all anxiously awaiting a good game. Pitching did us in this time as numerous walks made the hits that we did give up all the more costly. The last inning, when we were down 16-10, I made my debut at pitcher. I wasn't trying to do anything fancy, just throw strikes and hope my defense can take care of business. It went ok, I gave up a long shot to right center (can't believe someone took me opposite field) for a two run home run but that was it. That plate is a lot father than I thought and the pitches I missed were all short. We rallied for 4 runs and had the winning run at first (me) when my wife of all people had the hardest ball she had ever hit caught for the final out. Technically I guess I took the lost but I think I moved up the depth charts at pitcher. One more regular season game and I might be making my starting debut... tickets still available.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Commercials Killed the Radio Star

Since I am technologically hindered lately, let's talk about classic innovations... Now that I sit in an office all day long, I listen to a lot of radio. I don't really like having headphones on all the time. Besides the fact that you can't hear people walk up to you and you wind up jumping out of your seat and looking like an idiot when someone taps you on the shoulder, I just don't like being tied to a radio or even an iPod (maybe I'm afraid the cords will choke me). So I just listen to whatever my office mates listen to on the radio we all share. I am reminded of the down side of long term listening to radio stations -- The songs, and especially the commercials, just repeats all day long. I think I can stand Gwen Stefani's "Hollerback Girl" 6 times in 8 hours (she really sold out for this song, and after 7000 times through, I still am not sure what she is talking about...and why she suddenly starts to spell bananas. Is there a follow up song where she teaches today's youth how to spell Mississippi?), but the commercials drives me nuts. Commercials for TV shows and movies are the worse offenders. EVERY commercial break I would hear about the very special episode of The OC on tonight, and if I hear about Deuce Bigalow's European Adventures again, I will hurl (I'm guessing Deuce Bigalow 3: Thailand Whore will be a big hit as well). Do they have Tivo for the radio?

On the flip side (can you believe how long I can talk about radio commercials?), the best commercials on radio has got to be the Bud Light Real Men of Genius series. Hilarious. I think I like the Mr. 80 SPF Sunblock Wearer or the Mr. Mail Order Bride Orderer best. The background singers totally make the commercials.

Next time: An enlightening discussion on the benefits of the fax machine.

Pardon the Interruption

Aside from my usual laziness, the lack of posts lately is related to the fact that my desktop's power supply went kaput recently. For those of you scoring at home, this would be the second power supply that my computer has burned through. The rest of the computer is on its last legs anyway, but I can't get anything better yet, and all my docs and music and most importantly, my pictures are on that computer (in a secondary drive, should this power supply thing kill off the primary drive). Which is why I haven't posted. There are post in the pipeline, but I had planned some visual aids and I can't get to right now....I bought a new power supply yesterday and I'll tackle it tonight...In the meantime, I'll try to paint some visual pictures with words (like the good old days) on some other topics...as soon as I come up with something....