My Favorite Justin Morneau Fans...

Only 46 more days until pitchers and catchers report...

41 Weeks and 4 days / 40 Weeks

Just before leaving for the hospital 1/9/06. If only we knew what we were in for...

With an hour and a half to go we're thinking that we're not getting the tax break THIS year...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Smokey and the Snowman!

We Don't Need to Worry About Steve Finley Anymore...

...now that the Angels have traded him to the Giants of the NL. Meaning, we dont have to wonder whether to keep him at $15 or not (I'm thinking he'd have walked anyway):

Giants acquired outfielder Steve Finley from the Angels for third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo.

It'd be nice if this meant that Darin Erstad would return to center field for the Angels, but Chone Figgins is probably going to be the choice. Finley will take over as the Giants' fourth outfielder, and there's a good chance that he'll get at least 300 at-bats, though he doesn't figure to do much with them. The Giants will probably make Pedro Feliz their everyday third baseman. They would have preferred Bill Mueller, and we don't suppose a Joe Randa signing can be completely ruled out. Randa turned 36 last week, so he's in the right age bracket for GM Brian Sabean. Dec. 21 - 8:51 pm et

Meet LaFonda Mirage...

...that is the name of the paint in our side-room (aka the Three Season Room or the Cold Room). My sister told me the name sounded like a Las Vegas show dancer, and I can't disagree...here are some pics of the end result, after the rug guys delivered on Friday morning -






For more pics on the evolution of the 3-season room to the LaFonda Mirage Room, click here.

A Bit of Western New York at Fenway...

Big News! The Red Wings will be facing the Paw Sox at Fenway Park this summer. Considering that tickets for the series already on sale are either sold out or very near so - this may be our only chance to see baseball at Fenway for the whole season.
My only question now is...what will the prices for these games be? You know they wouldn't have a game (even if it is an A-Ball team from Oneonta) that wouldn't pull in a profit. Do you really think that the ticket prices will be low enough to (according to Mr Menino) "Open the doors of Fenway Park to many fans from across the city and throughout New England,” ? Or will they be snapped up so fast that normal fans (those not willing or able to pay the $9.95 for a silly membership card to join Red Sox Nation or not able to spend days in line in the cold or hours waiting at the computer) won't have some access to tickets? Anyways - at $23 a pop for a bleacher seat - who can really afford to go to Fenway? Give me the Worcester Tornadoes with the $2 to park and $6 tickets anyday.
If you are one of the lucky ones able to go, it should be a good time, though. And yes, Mom and Dad - you can stay with us when you go to this game - and NO - you won't have to sleep in the basement.

New Pic: Post-Cephalic Version (month 9)

Pics of the mother-to-be and Crash after today's external cephalic version (other links here, here and here). First words from Karen post-procedure? "Oh, we're going for sushi!*". The doctor thought the precedure was terribly easy (10 minutes only!), which was good, cause we'd heard only horror stories.

* For the uninformed, there are sushi varieties which are cooked and not raw; Karen ate only cooked stuff...including one new one on me, tuna tempura & avacado.

Our Big Night Out.

NEIL DIAMOND IN CONCERT!!! The tickets were a wonderful birthday present. While I did not see what I imagined, which was middle aged women throwing their panties at this 64 year old hearthrob, we did have a wonderful time. The man hasn't lost a thing! The Centrum was packed - everything was sold out except for the very top seats in back of the stage. There were more walkers and canes at this concert than I had ever seen anywhere else (except at work, maybe), much of the rest of the audience was college aged / Generation X-ers. A very interesting mix. It was intruiging to watch the fan interaction.
The two and a half hours that he played were like having a big sing-along with 14,800 of your closest friends. I could have done without the whole "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" montage in the middle of the show - but the rest of it was phenomenal. Especiallly his new stuff.
One of the best numbers of the night was "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show". "Sweet Caroline" was also a lot of fun, but it occured to us that it might be tough to tell Crash (if s/he is a girl) that we got her name from a song sung by an aging rocker wearing sequins. Crash's favorite song seemed to be "Kentucky Woman" judging by the way s/he was stomping on my bladder and how his/her head was smashing into my right lung (leaving no doubt in my mind that s/he is, indeed, the breechest of breech babies).
One of the best parts is that we never had to leave Worcester (besides the fact that Neil, being from Brooklyn, actually knew HOW to pronounce Worcester!)! It's so nice having a venue that we had have concerts like this so close.
An excellent birthday present and a fine "last hurrah" before Crash's arrival.

DevilDucky - Will Ferrell: Earth to America

Will Ferrell probably does the best imitation of our current president, different than Darrell Hammond's dead-on version of Clinton, but he hits all the high points. click here to view it (need quicktime6, beware).

The Saga Continues...

Isn't it funny how Doug Mienkiewicz causes trouble wherever he goes? As a Red Sox fan, I believe this ball belongs to all of New England. As a baseball fan, I think this guy is acting like a real pain in the butt. Even though the precident has been set with many other World Series Winning balls, maybe this one should just be the property of Major League Baseball and sent to Cooperstown.
But back to Mienkiewicz - It seems interesting that he has run himself out of three organizations in three years - and the exiting of the last two have been done in ways that weren't particularly classy. A team must be REALLY trying to get rid of someone if they're willing to trade a gold medal and gold glove winning first baseman for a Class-A 1B prospect Ian Bladergroen and cash.

We'll have to see how this one ends up.