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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

C-R-U-S-H!!!!!!!

Oh, yeah!

The only thing that could have made this day better would have been the Housewives losing.

Red Sox are one game away from a sweep in their final series in the House of Pain.

And the little guy comes through tonight. First ever career Grand Salami for Dustin Pedroia. Watch it here.

Final score Red Sox 11 Evil Ones 3

Is it just me or does Girardi look like a man who's been beaten down?

I hope they still have his announcer spot open on ESPN.

Actually, no. I don't. Let him flip hamburgers.

Hee.

And...to make the night even more wonderful, the Rangers got their first three game sweep of the season and their first ever sweep in Kansas City. I know...it's just Kansas City. But it's also just the Rangers, so there.

Whoa!! And the Athletics beat the Los Angeles Anaheim California Angels of Orange County again! So the Rangers are chipping away at that 15 game lead.

BAHAHAHAHAHA. Hoo.

The Rangers better win all they can for the next week. Because next Friday night, September 7, the mighty, mighty Red Sox roll into Arlington to complete the full-season sweep of the Rangers. That's right...they're gonna take all 10 games this year. And I'll be there. Looking for Tex.

Ok. Back to work with me.

TTFN, y'all!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!!

And there was much celebration and dancing in the streets!

Why, you ask?? I'll bloody well tell you why!

Reason number one: Red Sox-7 Evil Empire-3!!

Reason number two: Blue Jays-6 Desperate Housewives-2!!!

Sox move within 3.5 games of first place in the AL East!

And, to top it off, Rangers-2 Royals-1, with Kevin Millwood pitching his second complete game in a row.

Life is good.

Is anyone keeping tabs on the Sox/Yanks series for the year? I'm sure I can find it, but I'm lazy.



We now have two days of high school out of the way. And so far, Steph still likes it. Heh.


In the really scary, sad department, a friend of mine at work almost died this morning. Our security guard that mans the gate from 6 in the morning had a heart attack this morning. Very serious, according to the guard on duty when I came in tonight. Prayers are going out. I hope he's ok. We talk about the Rangers and Red Sox every morning when I'm heading home.

TTFN, y'all.

Monday, August 25, 2008

I'm Back

I don't know why I haven't blogged in a while. I guess I just didn't feel like writing. I think I'm depressed because the Desperate Housewives continue to rule the AL East.

But FINALLY, yesterday, our boys got it RIGHT! They WON when the DHes LOST! And I saw the glorious ending of that ChiSox/DH game. Believe me, it's the only time I will ever root for Ozzie's bunch. Ever. Well, except for when they play the Evil Empire.

Anyway, we gained a game back, so we're back to 4.5 games out.

With somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 games left in the regular season.

Man. Didn't we just start a few days ago??? How could it be this late already?

I'm all pumped up to see the Sox in Arlington in two weeks. I know that I'm in section 18 for one game and section 218 (Lexus Club level) for Sunday afternoon's game.

Tex, where are you sitting?



In other news, we had a very fortunate experience yesterday that tells us that there is some hope somewhere for the human race.

My wife went to the grocery store. Well, first, her and Steph went and got haircuts. Then they went next door to the Kroger to pick up a few groceries. I had been at a meeting at church and got home while they were gone.

I heard a car door outside and Steph came in and said that Mom left her purse at the store. Turns out she left it in the shopping cart after she unloaded the groceries. She hurried back to the store, and, praise God, someone had turned it in at the Customer Service desk, and everything was still in there!

She was still shaking when she got home. But there are still some good people out there. That's nice to know.


Last thing. Stephie and I went to the Rangers game Friday night, and on the way, we listened to her new Jonas Brothers cd in the van. I was kind of casually listening and here is what I thought I heard:

I don't wanna fall asleep,
Cuz I don't wanna f*** it up...


EXCUSE ME?????????

I certainly perked up and started listening more closely.

I still heard the same thing.

So I started the song over. All this time, Stephanie is totally wondering what I'm doing, right?

Well, it was a little more clear earlier in the song. What it really says is this:

I don't wanna fall asleep,
Cuz I don't know if I'll get up...


*whew*

I knew, really, that the Jonas Brothers would NOT be using that word in their song. But, hey. Say it fast and slur your words a little....

I'm just sayin'.

They need to be a little more careful.

TTFN, y'all!!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Brain Test--Right or Left?

I don't usually post twice so close together, but I found this neat brain test, thanks to a friend's blog. Robin is a Christian Fiction writer who used to have a Diaryland site a few years ago. Anyway, she linked to this brain test, which is supposedly able to tell you which side of your brain you use the most, based on your answers to 20 questions. Here is my result.

Your Brain Usage Profile:
Auditory : 47%
Visual : 52%
Left : 58%
Right : 41%

Jeff, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant with a balanced preference for auditory and visual inputs. Because of your "centrist" tendencies, the distinctions between various types of brain usage are somewhat blurred.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor, unless it requires total spontaneity and ability to improvise, your weaker traits. However, you are far from rigid or overcontrolled. You possess a degree of individuality, perceptiveness, and trust in your intuition to function at much more sophisticated levels than most.

Having given sufficient attention to detail, you can readily perceive the larger aspects and implications of a situation or of learning. You are functional and practical, but can blend abstraction and theory into your framework readily.

The equivalence of your auditory and visual learning orientation gives you two equally effective sensory input systems, each with distinctive features. You can process both unidimensionally and multidimen- sionally with equal facility. When needed, you sequence material while at other times you "intake it all" and store it for processing later.

Your natural ability to use your senses is also synthesized in your way of learning. You can be reflective in your approach, absorbing material in a non-aggressive manner, and at other times voracious in seeking out stimulation and experience.

Overall you tend to be somewhat more critical of yourself than is necessary and avoid enjoying life too much because of a sense of duty. You feel somewhat constrained and tend to sometimes restrict your expressiveness. In any given situation, you will opt for the rational, and learning of almost any type should be easy for you. You might need certain ideas explained to you in order to fit them into your scheme of things, but you're at least open to that!


I don't know if I agree 100% with that, but it's certainly close. I especially like the part that says that I can "function at more sophisticated levels than most." Hah. Yeah. I'm reeeeaaal sophisticated. Pft.

Anyway, take the test for yourself. See how you come out.

TTFN, y'all!

What??

So I logged on tonight.

AND THERE WAS NO RED SOX GAME!!

WHO LET THAT HAPPEN???

So I watched the finale of So You Think You Can Dance with my wife. Wait...the show is not called "So You Think You Can Dance With My Wife." Maybe I should rephrase that.

Anyway, we actually watched last night's final competition and fast-forwarded through most of tonight's 2 hour finale.

We both believe the right person won. Joshua was phenomenal, and such a sweet guy. Plus he's from Fort Worth! Which we didn't realize until tonight.

On a much, much sadder note...

A family was discovered dead in their home, about two miles from where we live. Apparently, the man shot his teenage daughter and his wife, then killed himself. I heard the news this morning, and when I saw the paper after I got home from work, it showed where they lived. I immediately was fearful that this was going to wind up being someone that Stephanie knew. But no names were released until mid afternoon.

Sure enough, at about 1:30 this afternoon, Stephanie came in and woke me up to tell me the name of the 14-year old girl. She was in Stephanie's history class. She didn't know her real well, and said that she couldn't even remember ever talking to her. But still...

As we watched the news tonight, there were kids on the news, and Stephanie kept saying, "I know him," or "I know her, that's so-and-so..." She wants to go to the house tomorrow and write a message on the poster board that's hanging on the garage door. Tonight, during the 9 o'clock news, there were probably several hundred people around the house, holding a candle-light vigil.

Life is hard enough without crap like this getting thrown at you, you know?

It takes me back 34 years or so to when my best friend in the whole world killed himself one Saturday morning.

I've still have not gotten over that.

I don't expect to.

But this thing is different. I'll never, EVER understand what could possess a man to kill his family, then kill himself.

As Ted said in a comment last week...

I haz a sad.

No Ta-ta today.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Red Sox 8, Royals 2--Rangers 8, Evil Empire 6. BAM!!

So the Sox are now 4-1 A.M. (After Manny.) Or it could be P.M. (Post Manny.) Then they could have P.M.S. (Post Manny Syndrome)

Can you tell I'm sleepy? I get silly when I'm sleepy.

Note to the Red Sox. In order to catch the Desperate Housewives (previously known as the Tampa Bay Sunbeams), you have to WIN when they LOSE! Got it?? Geez.

In the meantime, the local boys (that would be the Rangers) have whooped up on the Evil Empire TWICE IN A ROW!!! And the Monday night game ended in tremendously grand fashion as Marlon Byrd hit a WOGSHR (Walk Off Grand Slam Home Run) to beat the Evil Ones 9-5. Tonight, they were up 8-2 before struggling C.J. Wilson gave up a Grand Salami to, of all people, Richie Sexson. BOOOOO!! But they still held on and won 8-6, putting the Rangers 6 games over .500 for the first time in 100 years.

That was probably a slight exaggeration.

And the Los Angeles Anaheim California Orange County Angels lost to Baltimore, so the Rangers actually gained a game on them. Oakland continues to lose (I think it's 8 in a row, now), so the Rangers are solidly in second place for now. But 10.5 games behind the Halos.

Our Sox continue to be 3 behind the Desperate Housewives.

Also, the Rangers are only 1.5 games behind the Evil Ones in the Wild Card race. That will disappear by Thursday after they achieve their first sweep of the season.

Oh, and did you see poor, poor Joba the Hut Monday night? His pride got hurt so bad from the pounding the Rangers were giving him that his shoulder started hurting. I felt soooooo sorry for him.

NOT!!

It would appear that the Rangers have his number. Now, if they would just share that number with the Sox...

Heh. And A-Roid got hit twice tonight! Twice!! Hah. So the Evils hit Josh Hamilton. Pft. Hamilton had already blasted another 2-run homer against Petite. (I know. I did that on purpose.)

I'm enjoying this way too much.

I'm hoping the Rangers can keep up the spanking Wednesday. Also hoping that the Sox can continue their A.M. winning ways.

I guess I'll go back to work now.

TTFN, y'all!

Tex, we gotta meet up somehow in September!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Back in Texas

And just like that, it's over.

We had a mostly uneventful return trip last night. Our flight out of Boston was delayed because of a pretty hefty thunderstorm, so we sat on the runway in the rain for about 30 minutes or so. We finally got off the ground, adding yet another thing in my life that I have never done before, and that's take off in the rain. I tell you this much, I would much rather take off in the rain than land in the rain.

We made it to DC for our connecting flight with just over 30 minutes to spare. We originally supposed to be there with an hour and a half layover. We had just enough time to grab some more pretzel dogs, use the restroom, discover that the gate information we had gotten was wrong and get to our proper gate. We walked up to our gate right when they were letting first class on. Great timing!

Oh, yeah. And we could have upgraded to first class for $135 each on that flight, gotten dinner and comfortable seats. But Christi said no. :-( Oh, well.

Back in Texas at around 9pm. There was a group of young people from Pennsylvania (can't remember what town) who were going on to El Paso from DFW to cross over into Juarez on a mission trip. They were going to help build a house for someone. It was cool sharing our plane trip with them. One young man on our row had never flown before. And the looks on their faces when they heard that it was 100 degrees at 9pm in Texas...THAT was priceless!!! We just told them to wait until they got to Mexico. I wished them God's blessings as we got off the plane in Dallas.

The one thing I missed the most about Texas? Drinks at Sonic. There are no Sonics in New England, at least not that we saw. So you can bet we will be stopping there on the way to church this morning!

I've got a few more pictures to upload to the computer and post at flickr, but, as you see, I have now added my flickr link to the sidebar.

In Red Sox News, Jason Bay continues to make good in Boston, hitting a home run in yesterday's route of the Athletics. I am loving this. This is the Red Sox we all know and love. I know Oakland is struggling, right now, but this is also what the Sox need to get their momentum back.

Now, if we can just find that guy that Tonya Harding hired to wack Nancy Kerrigan in the shin and sic him on Eva Longoria. EVAN! I meant EVAN!

TTFN, y'all!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Day 7--The Golden Egg and America's Stonehenge

August 1, 2008

Christi was actually up before me Friday morning. We had our usual leisurely time in the morning with our coffee. Sometime around 10am, we decided to go get something to eat and try to find a place in Salem, NH, called “America’s Stonehenge.”

We decided on a little restaurant called “The Golden Egg.” It was fabulous! Friendly service and the food was great. Christi had a special called “Fire-eaters Eggs,” I had a smoked salmon omelet, and Steph had chocolate chip pancakes. Christi’s won. I had a couple bites of her eggs, and they were “to die for.” My omelet was good, but not as good as the Fire-eaters.”

After breakfast, we set out for Salem. We had to go back into Massachusetts a bit on I-95, then back into New Hampshire on the 495. We finally found the place, thanks to our GPS thingy. It was waaaaay off the beaten path, with not a lot of signs along the way. Christi was skeptical.

We got there and went in to the main building, where we purchased our admissions. There was a 10-minute video presentation in a side room that explained the origins (or the unknown nature of the origins) of the place called “America’s Stonehenge.” There are parts of this place that have been dated back 4000 years. Much like the original Stonehenge, the origins and purpose of the place is unknown.

After the video, we set out up the trail (according to one of the girls in the shop, there would be approximately ½ mile of walking. About halfway up the first trail, Steph started freaking out on us. She didn’t want to walk, she was afraid of bugs, etc. This has happened several times on our vacation, I just didn’t write about them. This one was probably the worst, though. Finally, Christi just took her back to the gift shop so I could try to enjoy the place.

So I continued on by myself. It was a very interesting walk, and there were quite a few things of interest on the way. The central point of the whole structure seems to be a walk-in cave/chamber that the archeologists have named “The Oracle Chamber.” So named because of long tube hewn in the rocks that is called “The Speaking Tube.” There was also a place within the Oracle Chamber where a person could crawl in, hide and observe everything without being seen.

I followed all the numbers along the way, and tried to get a picture of every spot in the exhibit. I don’t really think the place lives up to its name, “America’s Stonehenge,” but I do admit that there is something strange and inviting about it. There are large stones around the periphery of the structure. The next to last stop on the trail is a large, wooden platform (from the ground, it looks like a children’s playground), from where you can overlook the whole area. There is an astronomical chart in the middle of the platform which points at the various large stones on the periphery. Each one designates a point of sunrise or sunset, such as the equinoxes, and various other dates. It was quite fascinating.

A lot of the structures in the area have been rebuilt by the archeologists, some as long as seven years ago. There are excavations, in the area, though, that they have dated back several thousand years.

Whether or not the marking stones around the outside are authentic or not, I can’t say. Do we believe the archeologists, or are they making stuff up? Who knows? It is all very interesting, though.

I got back to the gift shop, we bought some sodas, and headed back to the house.

We discussed dinner plans, and decided on a place in Rye we had passed several times, called “The Carriage House.” It had a sign that said “Casual Dining.” But it didn’t open until 5pm, so we waited a few hours, while lounging around and enjoying the ocean. We did that a lot this week, which was the primary purpose for being here.

The Carriage House was a charming little restaurant. Pricy, but the atmosphere was really nice, and the people were very friendly. Turns out was sat right next to the bar upstairs (we had a spectacular view of the nearby beach), and I had an ongoing conversation with the bartender about Manny and the Red Sox.

As for the food, well, it was different, that’s for sure. Christi and Stephanie both had a Philly Cheese-steak Wrap that came with fries, but they were sweet potato fries. Christi didn’t like those, but Steph did. I had one of the daily specials, which was grilled swordfish with a sauce that I can neither spell nor pronounce. They had a half-portion available, so I got that. It had a large shrimp on it, along with a bed of rice, a huge broccoli sprout, and some stuff that looks like it came out of the yard. I ate everything but the yard stuff. Turns out, the waitress read the special wrong. It was supposed to have been salmon. But, since she told me swordfish, the chef made it with swordfish. I’m not sure I would have cared. It was very good. We decided to have some dessert, there, too. Christi and Stephanie shared a thing at the waitress’s suggestion that was kind of a hot fudge croissant. I had Crème Brule. Holy cow! I have only had that once before, and I have loved it both times.

It was the most expensive meal on our trip, but it was really good and enjoyable.

We headed on back to the house, to watch a thick fog roll in while Steph and I watched the Red Sox game. They won!! 2-1. And Jason Bay scored BOTH runs. Later, I saw a clip of Manny hitting into a double play to end the Dodgers game, and then a clip of him doing that thing where he doesn’t run after the ball. There was a ball hit out to left-center and the center-fielder beat Manny to it. He looked kind of lost.

The really cool thing was that, when Jason Bay came up to bat the first time, he got a standing “O” that lasted several minutes. Boston fans….there’s nothin’ like ‘em!

Unfortunately, the Sunbeams won again, too. But the Halos beat the Evil Empire again, 1-0 (in the ninth inning!), and the Rangers battled back to beat the Blue Jays. So it was a mostly good night.

The power went off in the middle of the night, around 1:30am. Stayed off for almost two hours, which made sleeping difficult, especially for me, because of that machine I have to use. I don’t sleep well without it, because I have sleep apnea. But it finally came back on a little before 4am, so we got another few hours of sleep.

I’m typing this all on Saturday morning at around 8:30. We have to leave our little paradise in about an hour and a half. I’m going to get in my devotional time before we have to leave, so I will close for now.

It’s been a pretty remarkable week.

TTFN, y’all!

Friday, August 1, 2008

Day 6--Hampton Beach, New Hampshire

July 31, 2008

Thursday, we kind of puttered around the house until almost noon. We were all hungry, so we got in the car and headed down the road towards Hampton Beach, with our swimsuits on. The weather was nice with a bit of a cloud cover. It was foggy/hazy out on the ocean when we got up. I love mornings on the ocean like that. They are kind of creepy, but very pretty.

We found Hampton Beach, got a parking place (it’s $1.50/hr to park there), put in a little over 2 hours worth of quarters, and started walking to find a place to eat. We found a little restaurant on a corner that had its menu posted all over the windows. Looked decent, so in we went. Christi and I shared a meat lover’s pizza and Stephanie had a “small” calzone. They said small. It was half the size of our pizza! We ate some of that, too. We all kind of shared everything. It was pretty good.

Then we went on across the street to the beach. It was relatively crowded, but not too bad. We saw it last year on a Saturday. I wouldn’t want to be out there on a Saturday. We put our stuff down and went down to get our feet wet. The water was chilly, but, as they say, “it’s not bad once you get in.” And that was true. The initial impact was rough, but when your skin gets acclimated to it, it’s really pretty nice. I got in about waste deep, and Christi and Stephanie went in almost as far. We just kind of walked around in the ocean water for a while, then got out a loaf of bread and started feeding the gulls. After that, we went back across the street, ordered so fried dough (it’s like a funnel cake, only with no funnel) and I went to get the car and picked up Christi and Stephanie at the corner. I got back to the car with 3 minutes left on the timer. How’s that for accuracy?

We drove back to the house, Christi went out and laid on the deck some more, while Steph and I lounged in the house. Around 5pm, I put some potatoes in the oven, then around 7, we cooked a couple of big steaks and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately, by that time, it had begun to rain, so we couldn’t eat outside. We did, however, eat at our kitchen table, right by the windows, so we could watch the occasional lightning flash out on the ocean. There was also one of those cargo ships out there and at dusk it turned its lights on, so that looked pretty cool, too.

During all of this, the California Los Angeles Anaheim Orange County Angels, along with their newly acquired Mark Teixeira, were beating the whatzit out of the Evil Yankees, which I enjoyed thoroughly, even if it was the Angels. The Rangers lost to the worst team in baseball, to split their series 2-2. Rangers remain in second place, now 12.5 behind the Angels.

Thank the Lord, the Sox had the night off. They needed it, after all the drama and the sudden trade maneuvers that occurred yesterday. Manny is gone. I don’t know if that’s good or not, but he had really pushed the envelope of “Manny being Manny” this time. Hopefully, the team can recover. They play Oakland tonight, and can help themselves and the Rangers at the same time. These three team deals are confusing, but I think I finally got it. The Sox gave two players to the Dodgers; the Dodgers gave those two players along with two of their own, to the Pirates, who gave Jason Bay to the Dodgers, who in turn traded Bay to the Sox for Manny. If you’re scratching your head, join the club. I’m still not sure I totally get it, but either way, Manny’s a Dodger and Jason Bay, whoever the heck he is, is a Red Sox. I saw his numbers, though, and apparently, he’s about as good at the bat as Manny.

BUT WILL HE BE AS MUCH FUN????

I think not.

Will he be able to throw someone out at second from that corner in left field?

I think not.

Oh, well.

Sigh.

Anyway, this is our last day/night at this house in New Hampshire. Don’t know what we are going to do. We may just lounge around and do nothing all day. We’ll have a few hours tomorrow that we have to figure out what to do with, because we are supposed to be out of the house by 10am, and our flight doesn’t leave Boston until 4-something. The car is due back at 2-something. And then, back we fly, to 100+ temperatures.

Ugh. I’m sweating already.

TTFN, y’all!