Cursed

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.

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Delayed Weekend Wrap Up

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.

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R's - Have We Seen This Before?

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.

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R's - Fed Up

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.

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Say Goodbye To Two

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.

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Wayman

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

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R's - Lost Luggage

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.

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Bubblegum Cards

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.

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Radio Thoughts

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.

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Rumorville

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.

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R's - Streaking

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.

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A Toy I Won't Buy

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?

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R's - Good First Month

Well that was more like it. Taking three out of four from the team that entered the series with one of the best records in the league does not suck at all. And the way it happened did wonders for my confidence as a fan. The big news, of course, was the bats coming alive. Seven, 11, and eight runs in the three wins. Sure, they threw an old school, feckless, one-run game out there on Tuesday, but these are still the Royals we’re talking about.

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The Going Gets Weird

The President is telling us to wash our hands and cover our mouths when we sneeze and cough. The state health commissioner here suggests that we no longer shake hands, but rather bow to each other or bump elbows in greetings and goodbyes.* Wacky wild times we’re living in, friends. (What’s that? Bumping elbows? Is that like the fist bump the Obamas shared on national TV last year? Oh God, the terrorists really have won!

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Mixed

I'm more excited about the weather than I was last week. We had four very nice, if windy, days in a row. Even had to kick on the AC. It's going to cool off a bit, but at least we've gotten into proper April temps. I'm less excited about our up-coming trip to Mexico than I was a week ago. I'm hoping this flu scare blows over in a few weeks.

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R's - Buzzkill

Man do the Royals know how to ruin what should have been a perfectly successful weekend. Last week it was the Farnsworth-offered bomb to lose in the 9th at Texas.* This week it was two pathetic offensive efforts after one of the greatest pitching performances in team history to begin the series with Detroit on Friday. (Of course, it appears some slack is due to Trey Hillman, with the announcement Friday that Joakim Soria has some shoulder issues and is on the shelf for a couple weeks.

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R's - Return To Glory

What a return to the bigs for Brian Bannister. Since he was so unimpressive in Arizona, we can’t think he’s going to be this lights-out every outing. But holy crap will the Royals be difficult to beat if he can consistently offer six innings of quality pitching. Alberto Callaspo is a throwback. He reminds me of the Tony Muser Royals who hacked at everything early. Not sure what’s got into him, since he has generally been a patient hitter, but he sure loves him some first pitches.

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Unspoken Perils Of Catholic School

The preschool at our church is in a building separate from the main church built specifically to house the kids. The class for two year olds, however, is in the main church. So every Monday, when it’s C.’s turn to go to class, we drop off M., circle around to the church, and I walk her inside. Yesterday we walked into the church and C. was her normal chipper self, jumping and cheering in anticipation of seeing her teachers and friends.

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R's - Bad Announcing

I pretty much gave up on tonight’s game as soon as Fat Sid let the Indians recapture the lead in the third. As I was washing dishes, sweeping, getting laundry going, etc., I heard the Indians start to put the Royals away. Good decision. I did hear an epically bad comment from Bob Davis, though. I’ve never been a very big Bob Davis fan, despite listening to him do KU games for 20+ years.

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Thoughts On Parenthood

A couple links related to parenthood. First, a funny list by the father of a young daughter. I think about stuff like this all the time. Conversations I'll someday have with my daughter that will make little to no sense to her no matter how much I try to explain Second, I liked this post on ShysterBall about buying a son his first real baseball cap. It got me thinking about how I've not pushed my sports teams on my kids.

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