I may get another link or two posted before we officially depart, but this is your friendly reminder that Mrs. B. and I will soon be departing for a few days south of the border. We’re heading to Cabo San Lucas, where some friends and quite a few beers are waiting for us. It’s going to be a fairly quick trip; we get in mid-afternoon on Thursday and will fly home Sunday.
I've lost track of the number of times I've received an e-mail from someone who happens upon the blog that goes along the lines of this: Dearest Blogger, I recently found your wonderful weblog and have enjoyed it immensely. I especially enjoyed your recent post about potty training your daughter / watching a sporting event on your couch / the old lady who annoyed you at the grocery store. I was so moved by your work that I would like to reimburse you for the enjoyment you provided me.
Great weekend, sweeping the Reds with two of the games in beautiful, standard definition television on my local cable provider’s FSN feed. As hard to imagine as it may be, Luke Hochevar’s performance Friday night may be as impressive as any of Greinke’s this season. Then again, I think the Reds were giving him a lot of help. As good as he was, 80 pitches to get 27 outs implies some guys were coming to the plate with less-than-ideal game plans.
I thought we were done with stuff like this. The best thing about the Royals this decade is at least the failures have been epic and when you read a list of the most epic, it’s bound to make you laugh. A little. For some reason I couldn’t sleep after this loss. You’d think I would no better by now, even after all the promise of April, and not treat another June loss by a .
This is one that I may regret posting later on. Remember, it is all in good fun. Stay-at-home parents face many perils. Some are common across gender lines while others are specific to stay-at-home dad or moms. As a stay-at-home dad, I worry that people think I’m just taking a day off when they see me out with the girls, probably over-correct the girls' behavior because I don’t want anyone saying “That wouldn’t happen if their mom was around,” and struggle to feel comfortable with the social aspect of being a parent during normal working hours.
I’ve been putting this one off for awhile, hoping that the Royals might get their act together and I would have something positive to write about. Instead, they’ve run off an impressive streak of badness that makes even the most optimistic fan think the days of contending are a lot farther off than we had hoped. As I write this, the Royals somehow blew a four-run lead in the time it took me to read through a couple e-mails and straighten a few things up before I sat down to hopefully watch them close out a series-opening win in Cleveland.
I planned on posting this last week, probably Tuesday. Never got around to it. My bad. Some things are out-of-date, and will be noted. Just keep that in mind and add a week to all the dates I mention. The girls are growing up. Fast. The biggest development came over the weekend when L. started crawling. She was close last week, and as I watched her struggling to get going on Thursday, I said, “You’re going to crawl while I’m in Kansas City, aren’t you?
I don’t think we’re at rock bottom yet - hopefully we won’t find out how low that is - but I think it’s safe to say there are a lot of concerns about the Kansas City Royals Baseball Club* at the moment. With that in mind, I think it’s time to take drastic measures. (That was for Carl Peterson.) So, I will be attending the next two games in person. Perhaps my presence will kick-start the offense, help Banny keep the hitters on their toes, and give Meche the boost he needs to find his best form.
You may remember my four-month battle to get new glasses that spanned last October to January. I’m at it again. This time I’m trying to get some prescription sunglasses. Since the first week of April I have 1) ordered a pair and been informed a week later that the frames I ordered will not work with my prescription, 2) ordered a new pair in the correct frames only to receive them and find the prescription was wrong, 3) sent that pair back to be corrected and then had my eye care provider fail to call and let me know they were in, 4) finally went in and got them and, you guessed it, the prescription was off again.
Busy weekend, busy week, busy month. So for starters, I hope all youse guyses had fine Memorial Day weekends. Ours wrapped around the end of a period where S. worked 11 of 14 days, so we were all a little fried and are enjoying the fact she has this entire week off. Friday was the final day of preschool and the tradition at ours is for the kids to have a bike parade before they share a lunch with their families and teachers.
Is it officially time to get worried? Conventional wisdom a week ago, after the 0-6 road trip, was that the Royals would come home, beat up on a couple last place teams, and get their groove back. A 2-4 home stand did not inspire confidence. And, of course, they were lucky to be 2-4, thanks to the epic 9th inning comeback on Monday night. They also got some help from Baltimore Sunday in the other win.
Not much to write about this time around. With guests for C’s birthday and a work assignment over the weekend, I was only able to follow the O’s series casually. Thank goodness for pulling out Sunday’s game, or we might have needed to go to Defcon 2. To lighten the mood, though, let’s take a look at George Brett offering his comments about the criticism of manager Trey Hillman. It looks like they got to George on the back nine.
C. turned three on Sunday. Unfortunately, that did not mean she suddenly stopped throwing tantrums, reacting wildly to tiny things, or master using the potty. In fact, she threw her normal fit at breakfast because it was not presented in the manner she desired and peed either her pants or on the floor four times. But if you subtract all the left-over, two-year-old garbage, it was a fine day. She was very excited, and for a couple weeks had been telling everyone that her birthday was coming up and she would be “this many,” holding up three fingers as in the picture above.
Wayman Tisdale was a force of nature. One of the most devastating college basketball players I’ve ever seen. He was also the catalyst for the Big 8’s ascension as one of basketball’s power conferences, blazing a trail for Manning, Chievous, Grayer, King, Smith, etc. Rest in peace. Former NBA vet Wayman Tisdale dies at age 44 after cancer fight - NBA - SI.com
Well that sucked. So much for the winning steak, clear possession of first place, and pretty much every good vibe that had been associated with the Royals just a week ago. There’s something about the phrase “West Coast Swing” that makes whatever happens on it seem perhaps more significant than it really is. I don’t know if it’s our cultural memory of the Joads and the Clampetts and the O’Malleys or if it’s just the fact few of us can stay awake until the end of each game and the result the following morning is a surprise.
As my generation approaches middle age, we’re going to have to start answering for some of the things we’re responsible for. Example: ruining baseball cards. It’s not all our fault. The Baby Boomers, as always, deserve some blame. They were the ones who started the nonsense, paying insane amounts for cards from their youth. And they were the ones who opened baseball card shops back in the 80s and enabled those of us who were kids then.
A couple thoughts related to radio that have nothing to do with Casey Kasem.* (I’m still listening to the American Top 40 replays, although for some reason there wasn't one last weekend. Just haven't had any good stories from one for awhile.) First, three times in the last week I've heard songs and thought, "Is that U2?" The answer was always yes* but what made it weird is that this is the first time since 1984, I guess, that I haven't bought a U2 album as soon as it was released.
I’m going to act like a typical blogger for a minute and start a rumor based on minimal evidence: I think there’s a culture of acceptance of the use of performance enhancing drugs at ESPN. I’m not talking about glossing over the use of PEDs by athletes. I’m talking about their on-air talent. Two in particular. Hannah Storm and Sage Steele.* (That would be Carmel High School and Indiana University alum Sage Steele.
This is starting to get weird. I’m not sure what to do when I look at the standings and see the Royals, winners of six straight games, sitting in first place, seven games over .500, with a three game lead. I know, I know, it’s not even mid-May yet. The 2003 Royals had a seven game lead in July and only eeked out 83 wins. But still, the vibe seems to be changing around this team.
My long time readers know there are a few subjects that are always sure to interest me. When you combine two of those, like say peanut butter and chocolate, watch out. So why don’t I own a Kindle? It’s a cool tech toy, and I do love me some tech toys.* And it’s for reading, which I need to do like breathing in order to function properly. Seems like a no brainer, right?