Tag: baseball

Lunchtime roundup

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My right hand feels as though it’s about to fall off. I wrote 8 “thank you” notes for my birthday celebration this past weekend. It’s a good thing I generally don’t write longhand or I wouldn’t make it as a writer. A computer (or typewriter at the very least) is a saving grace. But it just doesn’t seem right, typing a thank you note, so I did them long-hand. They probably won’t go in the mail until Saturday, however. I’m out of stamps. Everyone seems to borrow stamps from me but when I ask to borrow a stamp in return, they never have any.

I sent an updated W-4 to payroll today. Per my accountant, I’m having an addition $100 taken out of each paycheck, which should keep my tax bill somewhat lower next April.

I’m 196 pages through In Memory Yet Green and just about to begin one of my favorite parts, where a young, 18 year old Isaac Asimov visits John Campbell for the first time. How I wish I could have been there! Coincidentally, last night, I purchased and downloaded mabfan‘s short story, “Cosmic Corkscrew“, in which “a fan goes back in time to retrieve the lost manuscript of Isaac Asimov’s first story.” Re-reading it, a decade or so after I first read it brought tears to my eyes last night. It’s made my reading of In Memory Yet Green even more delightful.

Dad and I received two “This is Birdland” t-shirts from the Orioles yesterday (well, I received them, but I’ll bring one out to him when I visit in a week and a half). The shirts are bright orange while white lettering. We got them as one of the perquisites of being season ticket holders.

It’s supposed to be well into the 70s today. When I get home from work, it’s my plan to do my first lawn mowing of the year. The yard needs it, and since it is spring, frequent mowings are required and I don’t want the grass to get so long as to make the job too tedious.

Last day of March

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Wow, this year is flying by. Already April is here! Today seemed more like an April day than a March day, what with the rain showers we had. It’s also opening day of the baseball season, and naturally, the Yankees/Blue Jays game was rained out. They’ll play tomorrow instead. I don’t feel quite as enthusiastic about it this year. I think it’s because of the whole steroid controversy. I’m sure baseball will get passed it–after all, it has survived two World Wars, several smaller skirmishes, strikes, gambling controversies, etc.

I emailed my accountant this morning to make sure she received my tax papers which I sent out more than a week ago. She did. I heard from her later this morning. She’s got them all entered into the computer and I should be getting a call from her tomorrow to “discuss things”. Stay tuned on that one.

Mostly junk in the mail today, although I did get a birthday card from my financial adviser and his team. And I got the June issue of ASIMOV’S, which still says it’s my last one, even though I sent in a renewal some weeks back.

I took my suit to the cleaners to have it cleaned and pressed. $4.50, which to me seems reasonable, but I rarely take in dry-cleaning. When I do, I always walk out feeling as though I’ve gotten a bargain. After all, $4.50 is barely more than a gallon of gasoline these days.

I’m 305 pages through I. Asimov.

Staying at Kelly’s tomorrow instead of Wednesday. She is getting her wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. The dentist says it will be a quick and easy job, but I’m going to stay with her tomorrow just in case.

Still sick

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I woke up this morning in the full throes of a cold, with all of the associated appurtenances. The NyQuil helped to mute some of them last night, but I didn’t take it during the day. I struggled along through two meetings that I had to be in the office for, but now that they are over, I’m wrapping things up and going to try and head home soon.

I haven’t done any writing today, but hope to get some done this evening. I’m jumping out of chronological order and writing scenes that I think will be fun to write first, giving my brain some time to work on the other scenes in the meantime.

Thanks go out to Linky Lisa (kruppenheimer) for texting me one of the funniest lines from last night’s The Office–at 12:44 AM my time. I shouldn’t complain. She was getting me back for the time I texted her very early in the morning, when I was at Stratford On Avon.

And I had an amusing iChat with the Vicky half of vickyandnorm this morning.

I got paid today, which means November is a 3-paycheck month. (It was that insight that made me decide to buy my new laptop this month because about 1-1/3 paychecks would have gone toward savings this month anyway.)

I’m not sure how I have failed to mention that Joe Torre is now that manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team I hated with a passion back when I lived in L.A. It will be interesting. If the Yankees don’t make it to the playoffs this year but the Dodgers do, what does that say about Joe Torre is a manager. I think he’s terrific and it’s very difficult to see him managing for another team after 12 years with the Yankees. But I wish him the best of luck. (And there is a further rumor that Don Mattingly will be his bench coach.)

That’s all. I ramble.

Et cetera

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Veterans Day weekend, Kelly and I are heading up to Stony Point, New York to visit with vickyandnorm as well as strausmouse and rmstraus. Since it’s a long drive, and since it’s about that time anyway, I made an appointment at Saturn for this Saturday for my next regularly scheduled maintenance. I’ll be there bright and early at 9 AM.

AJ and Denisse invited us over for a Peruvian dinner Saturday evening. Although neither Kelly nor I have any culinary skills to speak of (we can both make grilled cheese, PB&J and Kelly can make fish on a George Foreman grill), I think we can combine our talents to produce Dirt. I’ve only had Dirt once before, back when I lived in L.A., but I loved it so much that it has stuck in my memory to this day. I think we might give it a shot.

The Recreation Committee at my work is having a haunted house tomorrow and I was asked to be a “lurker” in the haunted house. I have to dress in black. I will be given a scary mask. It is then my job to walk close behind visitors to the haunted house in an effort to freak them out a bit, and in general make them feel unsettled. Sounds like a lot of fun.

I received the November 2007 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in the mail today, which means I am now about 4 issues behind. This seems to happen every so often. The problem is that each of the 4 issues looks equally interesting so that it’s not even possible to skip one.

Zeke cornered another mouse last night so I was awakened at 1:30 AM to the sounds of squealing. I managed to liberate the tiny mouse from Zeke and get it out of the house. This time, however, I watched Zeke afterward and sure enough he went right to the space in the back wall of the kitchen from where the mouse emerged. It came in through a small space from under the house and that space is now blocked off by a piece of furniture that I don’t use. Hopefully that puts an end to it.

The Yankees announced that Joe Girardi would be the new manager. He signed a 3-year deal. Don Mattingly decided not to return to the Yanks after the announcement was made. I don’t blame him. Girardi is a great guy and a good manager, but Donny Baseball was the fan favorite. I’m not sure I understand the point of winning championships if you lose fans in the process.

I’m hitting the shower and calling it an early night tonight. I have another busy day at work tomorrow, this time writing SQL stored procedures and C# code, but I also get to play around with AJAX which is a terribly geeky thing to be excited about.

The dinner I had tonight was so bad for me, so utterly inappropriate that I’m not even going to mention what it was. Someday, I will get back to the gym.

Yes, I heard the news

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Like everyone else in the world, I did hear the news that A-Rod is opting out of his contract with the Yankees. No phone calls are required to inform me of the fact. No emails or text messages are necessary. I’m fully aware of it. It doesn’t come as a great shock.

Oh, and in lesser news, I also heard that some baseball team from somewhere in New England won the World Series this year. This is anecdotal, you understand, because I didn’t actually watch any of the World Series. Congratulations to whoever it was that won.

End of an era?

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I stayed up late and watched the entire game last night, and like most Yankee fans, I was disappointed that the Yanks weren’t able to eek out a win and continue the series. Somehow, this loss was more disappointing than most. I think it’s because it might be the end of an era. The Boss has said that if the Yankees didn’t win this series, that would be it for Joe Torre. And I’m afraid if Torre leaves, some good players will follow him out the door.

Torre has been the manager since this most recent dynasty started back in 1996. He has been the one constant on the team, through all of it’s changes in the years since. He’s handled the players–even those of considerable ability and ego–extremely well. He’s led the Yankees to 6 World Series appearances and 4 World Series victories. I think the team would be in for a tough time without him.

I also think that such a decision on Steinbrenner’s part adversely (and unfairly) affects the players and the fans.

Who would replace Torre? Can he be replaced? The only person that makes even remote sense is Don Mattingly. And even so, one wonders if Mattingly would garner the same kind of respect that Joe Torre had.

I don’t mean to take credit away from Cleveland. They played hard, they played well, the played better baseball, and they earned their spot in the ALCS. I will be rooting for them, with a heavy heart, through the rest of the post season. But it certainly won’t be as exciting as a Yankee/Red Sox series. And if the Yankees really do lose Joe Torre, who knows when the next time we’ll see the Yankees and Red Sox face each other in the post season. It might be a long, long time.

Columbus Day

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No work today as it is a federal holiday and that meant I could sleep in late and be lazy all day long. And that’s more or less what happened. Kelly headed home after lunch at TGI Friday’s. I planned to get the house cleaned up a bit, do some laundry, and head to the gym for my upper body workout. Instead, I lay down on the bed to pet Zeke and ended up falling asleep for nearly 3 hours. When I finally work up, it was around 5 PM and the day was mostly used up.

I am looking forward to the Yankees/Indians game tonight. And I may manage to get some laundry done between now and then. Maybe even a few odd chores. I do wonder how I’ll sleep tonight, however, having slept in late and taken a lengthy nap in the afternoon. I guess I’ll find out.

Spoke briefly with Dad today. And had a longer video chat with strausmouse earlier this afternoon. (He had the day off too.)

Now let me see if I can’t get a few things done before this long weekend is all over.

Why is the post season on TBS?

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I just finished watching the last part of the Colorado game and I cannot figure out why baseball messed with a good formula and chose to put the post season on TBS. It’s just not the same. Sure, the game is played the same. But I’ve grown used to hearing that FOX baseball theme play before a game. I’ve grown used to Tim McCarver and Joe Buck. I’ve grown used to the FOX hype. There is no hype on TBS and the game fell somehow flat.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Fortunately, it’s looks as though it’s just the divisionals that will be on TBS this year. FOX has the ALCS and the World Series.

The last day of the regular season

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I slept in a little this morning, finally getting up just before 9 AM. It was another beautiful day today, even nicer than yesterday. Kelly came back over at 11 AM and we immediately headed up to Baltimore for the last Oriole’s game of the regular season, which turned out to be against the New York Yankees.

I parked at the Sheraton Inner Harbor because we were planning on going to the Inner Harbor after the game. The stadium was packed. I’m not sure if it was because the Yankees were in town, or because it was the last game of the season, or the weather. But it was a lot of fun, with the Yankees winning 10-4. Jorge Posada managed the final game of the season, and at one point, he even came out to the mound to bring in a relief pitcher. I managed to get in my last baseball hot dog of the season, as well as some cotton candy, a Sprite, and a beer. It’s hard to believe the regular season went by so quickly.

Kristy and her friend were at the game, sitting in the bleachers, and they came by to say hello. They’d been to all three games in the series. The Yanks finished the season with a 94-68 record. And, of course, a spot in the playoffs.

After the game, we walked to the Inner Harbor and had a 3 hour dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s. It wasn’t three hours by choice, necessarily. They were so busy that the service was pretty slow. But it was still a good dinner, and a great day. And now that the regular baseball season is over, it really does feel like fall.

Yankees clinched a playoff spot

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After all of the criticism about their terrible start this season, the Yanks clinched a playoff spot last night. It’s looking like they will end up the AL wild card, and play the Cleveland Indians in the divisionals. At least they won’t be playing the Angels. And besides, the Yankees went 30-11 against the AL Central this year which is their best against any division including their own.

You would think I’d be rooting for the Angels over the Red Sox, but I’d love to see another Yankee /Red Sox ALCS, so as much as it pains me, I’ve got to root for Boston. Truth is I think most Yankee fans are probably doing the same, secretly or otherwise.

Up at 4:20 AM and into the gym by 5:50. Another 40 minute cardio workout that felt really good. A tiny bit of right knee pain at the very end, but I think this is due to the way I get lazy in my motions. When I feel the pain start to come on, I change my motions slightly (keeping my knee moving straight out rather than slightly off to the side) and the pain goes away. Burned about 560 calories and did just shy of 3 miles.