The Strike Out King Comes To Boston!!

Whoa! The Red Sox have signed Brad Wilkerson?????????

WHYYYYYY?????

THEO!!! THEO!!!! *slap-slap-slap*

Theo. Listen to me. I realize I'm no "boy wonder" GM, but, please, listen! I live in Texas. I go to Rangers games.

I'VE SEEN BRAD WILKERSON PLAY BASEBALL!!!

Sure, he "belted" 20 home runs his last season here. But I noticed that the article on www.redsox.com does not mention that he LED THE LEAGUE IN STRIKEOUTS!!!!

I watched him strike out 5 times in one game. (That might be a slight exaggeration. But it was a lot.)

Gah.

Might as well put him at shortstop. He's at least as inept as Lugo.

Sigh.

Meanwhile...the Rangers continue their march toward mediocrity.

And Manny, the fastest bat in the west, remains homeless.

TTFN, y'all.

For Boston

I've got the shakes.

Like Ted, I feel lost these last couple of days.

There is a baseball game tonight, but it's, you know, National League. *pft, pft* Where's the mouthwash?

But you know, weird as it seems, I think all is as it should be. The Rays and Sox have been battling this thing out all season, so it only seems fitting that they should be playing each other for the ALCS. And I really, really, deep down in my heart, believe that the Sox are the better team. I guess we will find out this weekend.

This season went by so fast. I hate when baseball season is over. It seems like such a long time until April. I realize that we still have some post-season activity left, but the season is, essentially over, and we are down the home stretch to the finish line. I just hope our finish line is further down the road than the Rays.

Honestly, I want a Red Sox/Dodgers World Series. Bring it on!! I want to hear the Fenway Faithful BOO MANNY!!! *Cue "Shipping Up To Boston by the Dropkick Murphys* Yeah, I do. I want to hear it. And you know they will. Because you know what? At the end of the day (I really hate that phrase, but I'm using it anyway), we are RED SOX FANS!! We are not Manny fans. We are not Johnny Damon fans. We are not "Nomah" fans. WE ARE RED SOX FANS And if you wear a Red Sox uniform, we love you. But if you change that uniform, forget it. Especially if you "diss" us on the way out. We might be more or less neutral if you go peacefully, or if it was Theo's idea to trade you. And if you dare decide to go to the Evil Empire when you could have stayed in Boston??? You might as well have grown horns and exchanged your bat for a pitchfork! *Is the song over yet?*

*Whew.*

Ok. Anyway. Two more days to endure without Red Sox baseball. And then, Friday night, I won't even be able to watch the game, because I will be in Glen Rose, TX, celebrating 23 years of wonderful marriage to my beautiful wife! Woohoo!!!

Nice romantic setting, a cabin by the Paluxy River. No TV. No phone. No wireless internet, either, but that's ok. There's radio, and the game should be on ESPN radio. Unless they decide to air some stupid high school football game like they did last year. Pft. And...there's a hot tub on the deck outside. Yeah, baby!

On a more sombre note, prayers would be appreciated, as my wife will be undergoing a hysterectomy next Wednesday. It's not a life-threatening or cancer situation. Just some complications that couldn't be resolved with less drastic procedures. Should be a pretty routine thing, though. And with today's technology, they say the recovery time should be no more than two weeks! Boggles my mind.

Ok. That's it for now. I've got a driver looking at me. Back to work. See you guys Friday night! (In spirit, at least)

GO RED SOX

TTFN, ya'll!

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!

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!

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!

So Long, Manny!

Manny Ramirez is a Dodger. Jason Bay is coming to Boston. In a deal that involved three teams, the trade was done right before the deadline. Manny will play for Joe Torre. The Sox gave up a lot for this Bay guy. Including Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen. I'm not sure we can afford to give up bullpen, even as bad as it is, lately. I hope that we can recover from the drama. We'll see. In spite of all the stupid things he said over the last couple of days, I'll miss Manny. I'm sorry to see him go to the National League. That's like leaving the country as far as I'm concerned. I care less than zero about the National League. I'll never root for a NL team. Don't know why. Just the way it is.

TTFN, y'all!

Roller Coasters, Anyone?

Yes, I've been watching. I guess I really haven't felt like writing much lately. Until Saturday night, that is. And darn the luck, I wasn't looking. I was playing 42 with my wife and kids. Bleah. Stephanie yelled at me from up at the front computer. It's still great, though. Wish he could have done it at Fenway, but there were plenty of fans in Camden Yards to see it, too.

Before the Baltimore series, I was whining and moaning about why Boston can't win on the road. Seriously. It's pretty horrible. But now, they've won the Baltimore series. Maybe it's a west-coast thing. I dunno. But it's maddening.

Who would've ever thought we'd be battling it out in the AL East with the bloody Tampa Bay "Sunbeams???" And I know for sure I heard some screams from Tampa when Lugo was muffing those plays at shortstop and getting thrown out of the game in Seattle. By the way...did anyone ever hear what exactly he did for that idiot umpire to toss him?

And I also have a very serious question for Mr. Terry. When you have two outs in the top of the ninth, score tied 3-3 against one of the worst teams in baseball, and your batter is 0-6 against the current pitcher, WHY DON'T YOU PINCH HIT????? Why the bloody heck do you put Youk in to pinch run instead of pinch hitting??? Sigh.

We're all perfect managers, aren't we?

Ah, well. We're back in the winning column for now.

And look at the Rangers! Our home team was actually over .500 for one day this weekend, and were it not for the 7th inning, they would have won Sunday, too. But for now, the remain at .500, 1 1/2 games behind Oakland in third place. And they've won another series. All things considered, even as disappointing as Sunday's game was, they are playing really well, right now. Better than most of us expected. And to make it even better, they have won more games than the Evil Empire and are ahead of the Evil Ones in the standings!

And our good friend Josh Hamilton hit a grand slam home run on the day his picture appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine!! HAH!! Take THAT, Sports Illustrated Curse!! Still leading the MLB in RBIs.

In non-baseball news (What did he say??), I just finished one of the best books I've read in quite a long time. It's called Look Me In the Eye: my life with asperger's, by John Elder Robison. It's an amazing biographical story of the author's experiences with his Asperger's syndrome. I highly recommend it.

Gotta go eat lunch. Bye for now.

May I Present the Play of the Year?

I don't know what's wrong with our Sox right now, but I trust that they will come out of this slide and eventually retake first place from the TB Sunbeams (puppies and butterflies notwithstanding).

In the meantime, THIS play that Manny made yesterday has got to be the most amazingly awesome thing I have EVER seen! Manny makes the grab, facing the wrong way, running full speed, WALKS up the wall, high-fives a fan, and makes the relay throw in to double up the guy at first base. HAHAHAHAAAAA!!! Oh, and the batter was Millar, wasn't it? Heh.

And that, my friends, is why we love Manny being Manny!


And just for kicks, HERE is Asdrubal Cabrerra's unassisted double play from a couple days ago. (Thanks to Dawn for catching that mistake...I won't change it so her comment will still make sense...that should have read triple play, not double play.) It's only been done 14 times in MLB history. It's kind of confusing, but if you watch closely at the beginning, the two runners were going at the pitch (hit and run?). By the time Cabrerra had the ball, the runners were at second and third. He made the diving catch, jumped up, tagged second base, then tagged Scutaro, who had already rounded second. It was glorious.

TTFN, y'all!

Night of Praise with Dennis Jernigan

Saturday night, Christi, Stephanie, and I drove all the way up to Denison, TX, to take part in a Night of Praise with modern-day Psalmist, Dennis Jernigan. As always, it was an inspiring night. We sang most of the old favorites, along with some brand new songs, a couple even newer than the newest cd, "I Cry Holy." There were a few problems with the sound system at the church. At the beginning, Dennis couldn't hear his tracks from the monitor speakers (by the way, DJ uses an iPod for his tracks; this is an increasingly popular thing to do), and later, his powerful singing was simply blowing out the speakers and distorting them. But we still had a good time. Stephanie got to meet Melinda, Dennis's wife, and four of their kids were there...lessee...Asa, Ezra, Gayla, and Raina (not sure if I spelled those right or not), and Stephanie got to meet all of them, too. And DJ actually remembered her name! Now, that made her night, doncha know? I got a pretty good picture of Stephanie standing between Dennis and Melinda, so I'll post it here.



~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't not write about the playoff results. I was disappointed that the D-Backs swept the Cubs. I was happy that the Rockies swept the Phillies, although, I must say I'm a little afraid of the Rockies. They are hotter than August in Texas right now, and have won 17 out of their last 18 games. Of course, I was ecstatic (and not in the least surprised) when the Red Sox swept the Angels. Manny was amazing. Sunday afternoon's game was close until the Sox blew it open in the top of the 8th inning. I almost felt sorry for the Angels. I said, "almost!"

Then the darned Yankees had to go and spoil it all by beating Cleveland last night. It was supposed to be straight sweeps across the board. But NO! We have to have another game, now. So, tonight...we'll be rooting for the tribe again. But you know what? I'm not the least bit afraid of the Yankees right now. This Red Sox team can handle them. I know the Yanks beat the Sox during regular season, but it's playoff time, now. The Sox are hot and out for rings. And it's time for New York's domination of baseball to be over.

TTFN, y'all!

MANNY!!!! MANNY!!!!

It's been a few days. I'll bet everything thinks I'm not watching the Playoffs.

Hah! Am so!!

And I'm...what's that rock song say? "Lovin' every minute of it!"

Except for the Cubs being humiliated by the D-Backs.

Anyway. Boston is two up on the Angels after last night's GLORIOUS walk-off home run by Manny. Did you SEE that?? It might have hit someone on the street behind the Green Monster!

And Manny, being Manny, just stood at home plate with his fists raised triumphantly in the air as if to say, "That'll teach you to walk Big Papi to get to me!"

Red Sox win, 6-3.

Earlier in the day, I watched as the Evil Empire fell to the Indians, yet again, in 11 innings, 2-1. That was an incredible pitcher's duel. Fortunately, Andy Pettit doesn't take a loss for that game, because he pitched really well for the Yanks.

Shockingly, the Indians are up 2-0 on the Yankees. I'm not believing that. I'm lovin' it, but it's still pretty shocking.

Seriously, that home run by Manny was amazing. I replayed it about six times. In fact, I'm going to go watch again, now.

Here is a link to the video of the home run

Here's a longer clip of just Manny Hmm....did he ever actually touch home plate? Hahahah....

This clip is of a rather bizaar play where a fan stole an out from the Angels catcher. This young man was very popular for a while...notice who is right behind him? Yep. That's Stephen King!

TTFN, y'all!