D's Notebook

Tag: Misc (Page 4 of 11)

Heroes

May 2, 2014 /

Just about everything Joe Posnanski writes is good. We’re luck that so much of it is great, too.

He’s written many times about his hero, Duane Kuiper, over the years. His latest effort, centered around a trip to San Francisco for Kuiper’s bobblehead day, is one of his best ever.

…And I have seen my friends crushed after finally meeting the sports star at the center of their childhood, and this is where I’m lucky. My sports hero is Duane Kuiper. A few years ago, he emailed my wife about sending along something. After his identification was confirmed — to this day Duane Kuiper loves that there was someone out there who really thought there might be a Kuiper impersonator out there — he sent me a surprise package.

LUCK IS HAVING DUANE KUIPER AS A HERO

I always gravitated toward the stars for my sports heroes. Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett came first, followed shortly thereafter by George Brett and Magic Johnson. Eventually Danny Manning and Michael Jordan joined the list before I became too old to have heroes and moved on to favorite players. Each of those is a hall of famer at some level, each among the best to play their games.

What an interesting, and different, perspective to grow up idolizing the bit player rather than the superstar. I can wax poetic about watching each of my heroes as a child. But other than Manning, who still holds a special sway over me, they’re all just old(er) men now, and I’m often well aware of their failures and shortcomings in the rest of their lives. My love for them was always shared with thousands of other little boys and girls who lived and died with their wins and losses.

You can never say someone, especially a kid, is right or wrong for choosing their idols. I sure don’t have the feelings for my heroes from the 1970s and 1980s that Poz has for his favorite player. It’s a wonderful thing that he shares that with the rest of us.

Ends In A Zero

January 30, 2014 /

This all probably means nothing, and I can’t find a clever way to tie them all together, but there are four rather interesting anniversaries/birthdays that each end in zero, in close proximity to each other.

In reverse order, youngest to oldest…

Hoop Dreams just turned 20. I remember watching it in a little arty theater in Westport, in Kansas City, where you sat on folding chairs and the film was projected on a small screen. Like a lot of people my age, I was sucked into the story because it was about college basketball and there were appearances by many players and coaches I followed closely. But it was also an utterly engrossing story. It’s one of those insider looks at the realities of high school sports, and college recruiting, that makes you feel a little dirty to follow sports so closely. I need to carve out some time to watch it again.

Next, the Macintosh turned 30 this week. Being an astute observer of the Apple-centric side of the Internet, I’ve read a bunch of terrific pieces about the anniversary. I enjoyed most the ones by people who actually used the first Mac. It seems a little silly now, but that really was a revolutionary machine and the first real step to bringing computers to the masses. The Mac, obviously, became a big part of my life. But not for another 20 years after its introduction. Hey, how about that? My 10-year anniversary as a Mac user is coming up later this year! I guess I’ll have to write something about that when July rolls around.

Next, Dungeons & Dragons turned 40 last weekend. There was an 18-24 month chunk of my life in middle school when I was really into D&D. Or, as I’ve said many times, I was always into the idea of D&D more than the actual execution of it. I enjoyed rolling up new characters, reading about adventures, and planning to play the game more than actually trying to get some people together and squeeze a game in during homeroom or at a Friday-night sleepover. When I waste hours playing a game like Kingdom Rush today, it all goes back to that early 80s fascination with D&D.

Finally, Christie Brinkley turns 60 on Sunday. Holy shit! I was a few years too young for Farrah Fawcet, although I certainly watched Charlie’s Angels and admired the legendary Farrah poster that a few older kids in my neighborhood had. But for the guys in my slice of our generation, born in 1969-74 let’s say, Christie was it. She ushered in the era of the super model, and because of that likely never had the iron grip on a generation the way Farrah did in the 1970s. Kathy Ireland, Carol Alt, and Elle Macpherson all came along and grabbed the “Hottest SI Cover Girl” title in the 80s. But I’ll never forget my first ever Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, because Christie was on the cover. And, of course, there was her appearance on National Lampoon’s Vacation, in future husband Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” video, and more recently her sublime moments as Jerry Gergich’s lovely wife Gayle on Parks and Recreation. She even plays a surprising part in the 30 For 30 episode “No Más,” about the 1980 Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran fights.

I did the math, and my first memories of my grandmothers are from when they were in their late 50s, early 60s. They looked nothing like Christie Brinkley does now. Sure, she’s had work done, but it’s high quality work augmented by a lot of effort on her part. Not that I’ve spent the morning looking at recent pictures of her or anything.

Koana Islands

August 27, 2013 /

Wow, this fascinates me, and disturbs me almost as much. It’s an article about Ian Silva, a man in Australia who, through a combination of interest in maps and baseball, has created a very detailed, imaginary world. Complete with maps that look straight out of a real atlas and exhaustive records of the baseball league.

People in the Koana Islands love baseball. The first league play started in 1882, barely six years after the MLB. Between the top-tier, Triple- and Double-A leagues, there are over 180 teams spanning the island nation. Fans are so rabid that there’s even talk of expanding to a Single-A league, adding even more teams. If you’re a baseball fan, you might be surprised you’ve never heard of this. You’ll be even more surprised when you try to find the Koana Islands. That’s because the 32-island chain, with its nine major cities, 11 national parks, 93 million residents and a landmass that is equal to Spain and Sweden combined does not really exist.

It fascinates me because I spent hours as a kid staring at my grandparents’ world atlas when I visited them. I would, occasionally, draw maps of my own imagined countries and continents. And, of course, I loved baseball more than just about anything else when I was a kid. This could have been my creation. Well, I never stuck with anything long enough to do something this involved. But you get the idea.

Which is the thing that disturbs me about it, too. What was is it that sends some of us on paths where we have casual hobbies and diversions once we’re adults, and others of us into absolute obsessions like this? I had plenty of weird pastimes as a kid. I still have a handful of oddball interests that I don’t necessarily share with the world. Why do some people just read books, watch sports, maybe collect something while others spend their free time in an extra bedroom or basement obsessing over some esoteric amusement?

Oh, and this reminds me of the wonderful novel The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. as well.

Koana Islands

Say It Right Or Don’t Say It!

August 7, 2013 /

I’ve enjoyed the recent references amongst my Kansas City friends on Facebook to one of my favorite restaurants, Il Centro. Adding to the fun is the, now, obligatory comments about how everyone was sure to pronounce the name correctly.

For the non-KCers out there, as an Italophile, I was quick to correct my friends who called the spot “eel sen-tro” rather than the correct “eel chen-tro”. What was the point of that year of Italian if not to help people with such mistakes? It became a running gag for friends, once I convinced them I was right1, to continue to say it improperly around me just to get me fired up about it.

Anyway, there’s a local car dealer that is now selling Fiats. They run a commercial on the radio station we listen to when at our LVS that we hear probably 15 times a weekend. The man speaking on the commercial doesn’t sound like some old boy Hoosier with a drawl from the hills of southern Indiana. He sounds like a normal dude from the suburbs. But he pisses me off as soon as the commercial starts.

“Bon JAIR-no!”

What? “Bon JAIR-no”? How do you get that from buongiorno”? Of all the ways you could mispronounce that word, turning the “-gior-” into “-jair” makes no sense at all; there’s no “A” in it! I would have thought a man running a Fiat dealership would have had some assistance in any Italian words/phrases he wanted to drop in his ads. I guess not.

Ten years ago I might have written him a nasty email, correcting him and demanding that he recut the commercial with the proper pronunciation. But I’ve mellowed in my middle age, and instead I’ll just write a blog post that 15 people see and continue to stew each time I hear it. Which I’ll bet amuses some of you quite a bit.

ↁ

  1. I think it finally took the restaurant running ads on local TV for me to win the argument, my education be damned. ↩

Summer Lovin’

July 30, 2013 /

It’s been a few days since we’ve been to the pool. The weather began to change the middle of last week, we were at the LVS over the weekend, and so far this week it’s been too cool to get in the water.

With just two weeks until M. and C. begin school , we’ve enjoyed our first year as members of a pool. We had been averaging four trips a week until this week, usually for about two hours at a time. The girls have made a couple new friends there, but usually either play together or with girls they knew before we joined the pool. And I’ll again be completely honest: there are a number of attractive babysitters/nannies/moms who frequent the pool. Do not judge me.

Kind of related to that last comment, I also enjoy watching the 10, 11, 12 year old boys who follow a few of the female lifeguards around like puppies. There’s one lifeguard in particular who always greets her young fans with a smile, a joke, and a few minutes of conversation. I like it because I remember being there, at the edge of puberty when you first start to realize that girls are kind of cool to look at and you’d like to find a way to hang out with them.

Specifically, a summer in the early 80s when I spent a few weeks hopelessly chatting up a lifeguard at the pool near my grandparents’ home in central Kansas. I don’t remember how I found the courage to begin talking to a cute high school girl, although I’m pretty sure one of my older cousins knew her and that was the ice breaker. Anyway, I recall waiting for her turn on the lifeguard stand, then casually walking over, saying hello, and spending the rest of her shift talking to her. About all I remember of those conversations is me reminding her constantly that I lived in Kansas City. I think I knew the odds were slim a 16-17 year old girl would be interested in a skinny 11-year-old, so I had to go with my biggest selling point: being from the city. As wheat stalks bowed in the breeze just beyond the pool’s fence, I’d talk about going to Worlds Of Fun, Royals games, and other cool city to try to impress her. To her credit, she was always friendly and never told me to beat it and let her do her job. But neither did she ever offer to share some Laffy Taffy during adult swim.

So props to the pre-teen boys all over the country  who are going through their first real crush this summer courtesy of an older lifeguard. And even bigger props to those lifeguards who take the time to cheerfully talk to the goofy boys who trail them around the pool deck.

A Case Of The Mondays

July 22, 2013 /

I’ll admit, sometimes I feel like my life is one big first world problem. I’m super fortunate that while there are some annoyances that test my patience each day, some wrinkles I’d love to have smoothed out, I face no true, big problems. I try to remain mindful and thankful of that at all times, as I know how quickly things can change.

With that in mind, I’ll share my current, biggest, first world annoyance: I often have no idea what day it is.

That’s a common summer problem for at-home parents, as our schedules become fluid once the constraints of school are removed from them. But it’s been crazier for me this year since S. has Mondays off.

We do normal weekend stuff – visit our local vacation spot1, go to the pool, cookout with friends, etc. – which after nearly three months at her new job, is starting to feel normal again. But on Mondays, when the rest of the world goes back to work and their regular schedules, she’s still here hanging out with us. We can extend our stay at our LVS, go to the pool in the middle of the day, head to the mall, or anything else we want/need to do. And as we meander through our Mondays, I’m constantly thinking, “Wait, it’s not Sunday?” Even watching neighbors head off to their offices in the morning or seeing the mailman come doesn’t flip the switch in my head.

You would think after nearly nine years of doing the at-home dad thing, my system would be flushed of all those old, internal rhythms that fit the five-day work week. Apparently not.

M. and C. are three weeks and change from returning to school. While this has been a great summer so far, with some more fun events planned for the next month, I’m kind of looking forward to August 14 just so I can take them to school each Monday and have a clean, solid start to each week.

ↁ

  1. Which I shall call LVS from now on. ↩

Weekend Notes

July 1, 2013 /

Some weekend notes.

They did it! The Royals finally made the right moves and designated Jeff Francouer for assignment and called up second baseman Johnny Giavotella. Gio responded by going 3-4 Sunday and making a couple very good plays in the field. Eric Hosmer is warming up, David Lough has been fantastic. If they can just get Moustakas going they can get our hopes up for next year!

A few weeks back I jokingly told a friend of mine that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be good about 2-3 weeks longer than they were last year. Because last year they were good about 2-3 weeks longer than they were the year before. Both years they came back to earth and finished well behind the pack in NL Central. Here we are on July 1, 2013, though, and not only are they in first place, but they have the best record in baseball. I don't know if they're for real this time or not; I haven't watched a single Pirates game this year. The odds are against them, with St. Louis and Cincinnati in the same division. But, despite the disappointing ends to their last two seasons, I do know that they've given their fans hope for at least half of each season and are doing their best to make this year even more memorable. Which is all Royals fans are really asking for: a team that isn't out of contention before June 1.

T-Rob traded again. I/m reluctant to say he can’t catch a break, since he’s a year into a contract that’s going to pay him in the range of $10 million before it’s done. But hopefully Portland is a spot where he can settle, develop his game, and get a chance to play.

I’ve heard KU fans say he’s on his way to becoming another Drew Gooden. I know a lot of people view Gooden’s career as a failure since he’s A) never been a star and B) played for seven teams. But he’s been in the NBA for 11 years, averaged 11 points and just under 8 rebounds a game, and made $56 million over his career. He may not have been Paul Pierce, but he wasn’t Raef LaFrentz either. A solid NBA career that T-Rob would be lucky to mimic. If he wasn’t such a flake and realized he just needed to go grab every rebound, I think he wouldn’t have moved around as much and been viewed as one of the best rebounders of his generation.

Completely randomly, I was at the grocery store yesterday and wearing a KU shirt. When it came time to check out the high school-ish girl who was running the register asked me if I was a KU fan. I said yes, asked if she was, and she responded, “I used to be. I loved Thomas Robinson.”I didn’t ask more questions as to why she loved T-Rob, but I thought that was completely random that a white girl in Fishers, Indiana liked KU because of Robinson. She was pretty tall, so maybe she’s a baller and just liked his game.

I didn’t ask her more questions because the kid bagging the groceries is heading to Mizzou for school in a month. We’ve traded good-natured trash talk in the past so I was asking him about when he was headed to Columbia, etc. He informed me he had been in C-town for orientation a week earlier. He responded affirmatively when I queried whether he had consumed any Shakespeare’s while in town. Solid kid.

Our local mall has a new Athleta store. Athleta, if you don’t know, sells nice workout, swimming, and other active wear for women. I do not mind when their catalog arrives. Anyway, we went in to the store Sunday so S. could look at some stuff for the holiday weekend ahead. The store greeter was a friendly woman in her late 20s. She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, full-length pants, and a stylish scarf that covered all of her hair. At the risk of be accused of stereotyping, I’m 99% sure she was Muslim. Which, you know, good for her for wanting to work at an upscale store full of younger, active, healthy people. There are worse places to work, for sure. But I found it a little ironic that a woman who observes her religion in a manner that forces her to keep her hair, arms, and legs covered was working in a store that specializes in clothes that show off the body. The walls are covered with blown up images from their catalog: women riding surfboards, doing yoga, and other physical activities while showing off a lot of skin. She didn't exactly fit in with the image Athleta tries to project.

It’s going to be a very busy day/week. We have family visiting beginning tonight then a holiday gathering at our local vacation spot. I have a long list of things to do to prepare. Which always makes me feel like Ray Liotta in Goodfellas when he manically prepares for his brother’s birthday party. Well, other than the cocaine delivery and coke-induced paranoia, of course.

Sports Pages

May 1, 2013 /

Catching up on some sports stories.

I had a chance to cover a big high school sports milestone last week, but weather kept me from doing it. The coach of one of the softball teams we cover was on the verge of his 600th career win, the most in state history. Twice I had assignments to cover the big win, and twice it poured and rained the games out. He got the win on Friday while I was at the girls’ soccer practices. Oh well.

Good for Jason Collins. Five years ago, or even two, I think I would have written 1000 words about his coming out. But it feels like we’ve come so far in that short span and gays and lesbians, while not exactly embraced by the rest of society, at least have enough acceptance where their fundamental rights as taxpaying citizens in a free society are recognized. I don’t know if the change has been real acceptance, or just the folks who find “gayness” to be weird/ugly/gross based on their personal tastes rather than some religious/moral reasoning have learned to keep quiet. Anyway, I think we’re pretty close to events like Jason Collins or Brittney Griner coming out not being that big of a deal for most Americans.

There was a fantastic piece about Allen Iverson in the Washington Post a week ago. It may come as no surprise to some of you, but his life is a complete mess. To the point where you wonder if he’s going to make it.

Anyway, it kicked off a conversation with my buddy E-bro in ATX about who the most hated superstar in recent memory is. We agreed that A-Rod is probably the only real rival to AI, although as E-bro said, A-Rod is just kind of a douche where AI triggered all kinds of latent (and not so latent) racism in lots of white folks.

He also pointed out that Kobe was awfully close after he was accused of rape. But I think that was for far more legitimate reasons than the hate AI and A-Rod generated. Mike Tyson hits that, too, although I think a lot of people viewed him as a freak show once the docile personality he presented in his early days faded away.

And then there’s Tim Tebow. He is different because he’s not been a superstar in the NFL, but has been the most talked about player since his arrival in the league. He pushes the exact opposite hot buttons that Iverson hit: he’s very white, very religious, very pious. And like Iverson, I think Tebow engenders as much love as hate. He’s just not the best at his sport, which makes all the buzz around him a bit silly.

For the record, I was always conflicted about Iverson. I could have cared less about the tattoos, braids, etc. He was an unbelievable ballplayer who played his ass off during the 48 minutes of just about every game in his career. I always thought that part of him was awesome. But he was clearly already battling demons back then, and the way he lived his life off-the-court wasn’t necessarily the way you would want your kids to live. In other words, he’s human and full of flaws and contradictions. He wasn’t a superman, like Michael Jordan, who kept his foibles and failures hidden behind an iron wall that the media refused to look over.

While we’re on the NBA, I wish I could say I had been watching the playoffs. I was doing well with the Pacers this year, until the NCAA tournament started. That got me off my regular viewing schedule and I’ve never really recovered. Throw in their late-season swoon and I haven’t made the first four games of their series with Atlanta must-see TV. But with the series at 2-2, I may have to start watching.

I did watch some of the Denver-Golden State game Sunday night. I knew Seth Curry had carved out a nice career in the NBA, which was surprising enough. But I had no idea how good he was. He was flipping no-look, finger-tip passes across the court. Tossing side-armed alley-oops. Making steals on the break. And generally looked like a fantastic NBA player. Which I never saw coming. I figured his shooting would keep him in the league for awhile, but I figured he was a step too slow and not physical enough to really emerge as a star. I think he has a little Iverson in him, in that his athletic ability and pure will get him past some of his physical limitations.

ↁ

The Return

April 16, 2013 /

So, it’s been a while. Stuff has happened. Good and bad. Interesting and banal. Personal and global. So let’s get caught up.

First, Boston. Ugh. I’ll just restate a terrific thing I read on Twitter Monday afternoon: never forget that there are far more people in this world like those who ran to the explosion sites to help than there are people who do things like this. That doesn’t mean if we all hold hands and think positive thoughts bad things won’t happen. But it does mean that, on balance, most of us are there for each other.

Now, less important things.

As I mentioned in my Friday Vid post that came up over the weekend, the stomach flu does indeed suck. I got it in a different way than M. and C. did, but got it nonetheless. I didn’t throw up, but there were several moments when I really wished I could. I had the aches, pains, fever, chills, severe stomach cramps, and other assorted symptoms. I chugged Pepto, popped Ibuprofen, and took my shift moaning on the same couches M. and C. had moaned on earlier in the week. It wasn’t until Monday morning when I finally felt completely normal again. Good riddance. And hopefully L. and S. remain immune and we don’t see another wave this week.

Wednesday, just as I was beginning to feel the effects of the virus, we had our first big storm of the spring. It was brief but intense and in the midst there was 3-4 minutes of hail. We still have the original roof on our home, but perhaps for not much longer. We’ve had it checked a couple times in the past, but never got approved to have it replaced. The insurance company might finally be ready to cave.

I watched more of the Master’s than I expected to, although some of it was simply because I was stuck on the couch Friday and Saturday. As much as I don’t want to be interested in Tiger anymore, I’ll admit it was hard not to get caught up in his story.

Kobe. Damn. Horrible way for one of the all-time greats to potentially end his career. I was never a big fan, but like most people in my shoes, I came to respect him immensely over the past several years. And his social media explosion this year has been fantastic. His epic trash talking battles with several of the NBA’s young pups have been terrific as well. I’ve just really enjoyed him as a person and player recently, and it’s a shame that this could be it. His career was absolutely amazing. The sports media hungered for The Next Jordan, and he damn near got there.

I don’t think there was doubt about it, but this means it is officially, 100% LeBron’s time.

Sunday we had two more soccer games. C.’s team cruised, and she nearly scored her first goal of the season. M.’s team, after looking great a week ago, got hammered pretty soundly this time. I really like her coach. I think he’s going to be good for her. I’m not sure what his playing background is, but he clearly knows the game. And he has a good touch with both the kids who have more athletic ability or who already have a feel for the game and the kids who are not as advanced yet. M. loves pleasing authority figures, so I’m hoping his encouragement and some extra practice will improve her performance. She did have one nice run of possession Sunday.

I mowed the lawn for the first time this year on Monday! Some people think mowing the lawn is a hassle. I’ve always enjoyed it. It’s the trimming and blowing of debris that bugs me, especially in the heat of July and August. But doing that first cut, getting the dead tops off, and leaving a gorgeous green lawn behind is a good feeling. It’s amazing how our yard was still half winter dead brown a week ago and now it’s thick and green.

Finally, there has been a big change in our house. Or actually Monday was step one in a two-step process that will really alter the landscape of our home soon. I’ll just give you that tease now.1 I promise I’ll share more soon.

ↁ

  1. Actually many of my readers know what it is. I’m just keeping coy a little longer. ↩

A Quickie

August 21, 2012 /

More firsts over the weekend. M. and C. each caught their first fish. Both snagged a blue gill off a dock with a little help from a friend of ours. I didn’t have my camera or phone with me, but I can assure you they were thiiiiiiiiis big! Actually, they were quite small but that didn’t make their joy any smaller. They were both about as excited as could be. L. had given up and headed back to the house, otherwise she might have caught one as well, since the two other girls that were with us each caught a fish, too.

How do people still not understand the difference between Reply and Reply To All? I’m signed up for library duty at St. P’s. There are a couple shifts that need to be covered this week, and a message went out from the volunteer coordinator asking for replacements. There have already been three replies to all letting us know that so-and-so would really like to help, but they have an appointment then, or will be out-of-town, or whatever. This is getting old fast, so expect more messages about it as the school year progresses.

Beer #2 is fermenting. I brewed a modified Octoberfest Monday. I say modified because traditional Octoberfests are lagers, which require a chilled fermentation process. One day I might have the proper equipment to pull that off, but in the meantime I used an ale yeast and will keep the fermenter in a larger bucket with a little cool water in it. My local brewing store said it should work like a charm.

The brewing process went off without a hitch. I used a friend’s turkey fryer and did my boil outside to save the house from the odors S. and the girls objected to last time. I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but I did feel like I knew what I was doing this time. Hopefully it turns out as well as my first beer, or even better. Now I have three weeks to come up with a name for it.

ↁ

« Older posts Newer posts »

Archives

© 2025 D's Notebook

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑