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March 22 Trying out Word as a Blog EditorWord 2007 has a new feature that allows you to register blogs with it and write your post's right in Word. Works pretty well – much easier to control the formatting than a web form after all. I just hooked it up to my live spaces account and wanted to try it out … 38 PitchesI've been spending TOO much time lately reading Curt Shillings blog. It is a fascinating read, and if you are a baseball fan -- you don't have to be a Red Sox fan, just love the game -- you will love the blog. He is prolific, he says he won't keep it up, but he makes giant posts almost every day right now. He know's his stuff, seems to be a real guy, and spends a ton of time answering very random questions. He had the entire media scooped on the Papelbon going back to being the closer today. It was the first place I saw it and the venerable Boston Globe actually quoted Curt's blog as a source. September 24 Ein PrositSo, there is a song they sing over and over (and over) at Oktoberfest called Ein Prosit. They sing it *at least* every fifteen minutes in the beer hall, and this is between such varied things as traditional Bavarian folk songs to "We Are the Champions." Any way, the song only has three words: "Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Gemütilchkeit! Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit, Gemütilchkeit!" Which means "A toast, a toast ...." I don't know what. Whenever I asked anyone how they would translate "Gemütilchkeit" to English, all I would get is a blank stare and the either "I don't know" or "You can't." The attempts that were made said something like "cozy" or "homey," but no one seemed satisfied with this.
There are other German words, of course, that have no direct translation, and we've made use of them: Gestalt -- the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; Schadenfreude -- taking pleasure at others misfortune. Surely we can come up with the definition of Gemütilchkeit! It may enrich English as well. September 23 Oktoberfest PhotosHere are some photos I took with my phone. Not too good quality. The gentleman in some of them is my friend Russ, he has been frequently mistaken for a native Bavarian.... OktoberfestOK, it has been a while since I posted to this site, but I have to do it now: I am at Oktoberfest in Munich! By a lucky coincidence, I got sent here for work, and it just so happened that it was during Oktoberfest. It is everything you would expect it to be. There are 14 large "tents" for the various breweries. They are not really tents, though, but permanent buildings. There are six major breweries here, most have multiple tents. Spaten has 3. These things are as big as airplane hangers. Due to fire laws, when they fill up, you can't go in until someone leaves. So the key is to get there early, it opens at 11 AM and runs, beleive it or not, to only 11 PM. Then the bars fill up...
Anyway, you have to have a seat to get a beer. They have rows and rows of picnic tables and usually people are shoved in as close as possible. When the waitress walks by, you hold up a thumb (this means "one" here) and say "ein Mass, bitte." and a liter of beer shows up before you know it. Each tent has one kind of beer, so there is nothing to choose (unless you want a Radler which is beer with lemonade, or Alkohol-frei, but you don't want that do you). Each brewery has their own Oktoberfest brew, and that is what you get in the tent. They are all "Hell" meaing light in color. But some are darker than the others.
I've rated the various beers here on three criteria: taste, color, and quaffabililty. The last takes some explaining: basically, this is my subjective rating of how easily it goes down. All taste good of course, and all were pretty quaffable, the big variation was color, though none would be considered dark. So these are all 1 to 10, ten being the best and in color, light to dark.
So, while Augustiner brau has the best taste, Hacker-Pschorr is the over all winner with perfect quaffability (I had three litres in about two hours). Spaten just edged Augustiner for second, it is excellent as well. You can't go wrong with any of them. Russ and I spent all of last night at the Hofbrau tent and had a great time. It was was last one we had to try. For what its worth, when I've asked locals what the best beer is, they always say "Augustiner."
November 03 AFC Player Of The Week!Unbeleivable! Finally get to see a Pat's game out here in Sunny Seattle, and it was a good one. And God Bless Him, Tedy Bruschi is the AFC Defensive Player of the week. Congrats Tedy. The team is already better because you're back. October 07 Its all over nowIts a lot easier to take this year.
And can I say, I really like the White Sox and Ozzie Guillen. The do it the old fashioned way, with pitching and defense. The squeeze was a nice touch. Everyone knew it was coming and we couldn't stop it. If the Red Sox can't win it this year, I'd be content with teh White Sox.
Go Sox! October 06 ALDS Game 2Well the game is over. It was better than game one, but that's not much consolation. My friend Arod Isatool, however, points out something that is somewhat consoling -- having our backs against the wall is normal for these Red Sox:
2004 Down 3-0 to the Yankees in ALCS
2003 Down 2-0 to the A's in ALDS
1999 Down 2-0 to the Indians in ALDS
In fact we are 8-1 in potential elimination games over the last two years. Not bad. In fact, as Red Sox fans, we expect them to dig themselves into as big a hole as possible. Last year's World Series notwithstanding, there is rarely a free lunch for the Red Sox fan.
Tomorrow's another day. At home. This ain't over yet. October 05 ALDS Game 2 : In ProgressWell Graffanino pulled a Buckner. I'm shocked the ESPN guys didn't say so. Let the Pale Hose get an extra out, and Iguchi smashes a 3-runner to put them ahead. Damn.
BTW, I swear I heard one of those guys call him Ichiro earlier in the game.
White Sox do it with Pitching and Defense. Red Sox do it with Offense. Period. This is not looking good....
Come on, guys. ALDS Game 1At first I was pissed it was a day game, so I woudn't be able to watch it live -- unless I blew of work. That wasn't out of the question, there are plenty of bars around here with wireless access. I could have gone to the bar and been on e-mail. But I got scheduled for a meeting in the middle of the game, so I decided to pay for the internet radio feed.
Thank god I didn't have to see this debacle with my eyes. 'Nuf said. September 26 Its a rainy night in Boston...Though I'm in sunny Seattle. Technically we're not in first place right now since the hated Yankees won. The Orioles are going to roll over for them, I'm sure. Just think, just a few short months ago, the O's seemed like they might be for real, and would be our main competition. The Yankees seemed like they actually did suck for a while. But lo and behold, here we are. 7 games left and tied in the loss column.
I felt my old Red Sox feelings last week when the Yanks overtook us for a couple days. I was almost ready to declare the seaon over. But this is a resilient bunch of guys. It certainly looks like it is going to come down to that last series in Fenway. We gotta damn near run the table at home though. We can do it. I beleive again. August 28 So Long MarkI know I haven't posted in while, what with the baby and all the travelling we've been doing. But I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Mark Bellhorn for his contribution. He has been "designated for assignment" which essentially means he is gone.
We all know why, his production -- questioned by others even last year -- had been markedly down this year. The he got hurt and Theo brought in Graffanino to fill in. Well Graffanino has legitimately won the job now, and Bellhorn did not show much at all in his rehab assignment. Such are the ways of the world.
But I never questioned Mark's production last year. Sure he struck out a lot -- hey, so did Manny -- but he got on base a lot. He was a constant "duck on the pond" for the big guys. And he could definitely be clutch. Does anyone doubt that we would not have won it all last year if it wasn't for Mark's timely home runs in the playoffs?
So long Mark. Good luck and thank you! July 11 Honora's ChristeningHonora's Christening was yesterday. The weather was fine, and we had a great day. My mother was here to witness the event. Gretchen's sister Sarah, and her husband Joe, are the godparents. It was great to have a full house.
A sampling of pictures are in a new album. May 28 Buck and McCarver still suckOK, its been a couple weeks. The Sox haven't been playing great. I personally witnessed two losses (one specatcularaly bad) here in Seattle. But Buck and McCarver just got me out of my seat and to the computer: They said: "Before game 4 in the ALCS there were Red Sox players congratulating the Yankees and wishing them luck against the Cardinals." That has got to be a TOTAL LIE! Where did they come up with that and why? To put us down again? That just would not and did not happen. First of all, I have seen clips of Millar before the game mugging and saying "Don't *let* us win today, don't let *us* win today!" Second, no one on the Sox team was willing to quit. They won that game, and three more. No way anyone conceded ANYTHING before that game. They didn't name names -- tell me who did it! Who? Which players "congratulated the Yankees." Those guys don't even talk to each other. Who was it you LOSERS?!? May 14 Why Honora Sophia?Honora was a name we were planning on using all along. It is Gretchen's middle name. She got it from her Mother (also her Mother's middle name). Gretchen's mother got it from *her* maternal grandmother: Honora O'Malley. The name shows up at numerous places in Gretchen's familiy tree. The most recent before this was our niece: Mary Honora Connolly. We think it is an unusual, and beautiful old Irish name. So our Honora got it promoted to a first name. Why Sophia? Well, we struggled for a couple days with the middle name. We couldn't find anything that we liked. I mentally went through many names that had been considered over the past through months, and Sophia popped out. We just though Honora Sophia sounded good, so we went with it. Sophia, is of course, the Greek word for "Wisdom." The Baby is HereHonora Sophia Quinn was born at 8:19 AM on 5/5/05. Cinco de Mayo is going to be a party every year! She was 6 lb. 7.7 oz and 19.5" She is adorable, of course. You may judge for yourself. See the photo album. May 03 Tonight helps, let's get it going againNice to see my buddy Halama have a strong game, after the bullpen totally *gave it away* last night. I'm sure you've noticed: after going 19 straight games without giving up a run in the first inning, it has now been 6 out of 7 where we DID give up at least 1 in the first. 4 of them losses. Pitching is a problem, despite strong starts from the two replacement starters -- Jeremi Gonzalez and old Seattle friend Halama. What is UP with Embree? And why not designate Blaine Neal (very inconsistent, could NOT find the plate last night) to bring up Gonzalez rather than the solid, consistent David McCarty. David, we will miss you. Enjoy your ring, you deserve it. Another old Seattle friend -- John Olerud -- joined the organization today. Contrary to my feelings on Halama, Olerud is solid, and can plain hit. He is a great weapon off the bench, as evidenced by his stint with the hated Yanks last year. We all remember his All-star, batting title years with the Jays. He's lost a step since then, but, assuming he recovers from his surgery, he can still play with the big boys. Nice to see our DH get a Salami tonight. But tonight it wasn't Ortiz: it was Doug Mirabelli! Whatta weapon. If that guy is your backup catcher you are NOT hurting behind the plate. April 29 Short on Pitching!!!!Damn, its been two days since we had a game and we're now three starters down! Schilling going down was not entirely unexpected. Here's hoping he can *really* come back this time. I was about to add an entry after his last start that said: "Well, this could be the end for Schilling. He may never be the same pitcher again. Will he be able to adjust and be productive, if not dominant, for a few more years, or is this it?" Well, this very well might just be it right now. I sure hope not -- we're screwed if it is. Well going down as a bit of a surprise -- what did he do anyway? He's out for a month? He was just getting it together too. The moderately good news is the other three guys have been going fairly well. Wake's been no. 1 before (back when Clemens went down back in the day -- leading Duquette to beleive he was near done and getting rid of him, but I digress). Clements going good as is Arroyo. But of course we find out today we lose Arroyo for a couple starts due to the suspension for the plunkfest in Tampa. So, two starters, plus old Seattle friend Halama. Let me tell you, the feeling I get with Halama is EXACTLY the same as the feeling I got when I saw Bob Stanley emerge from the bullpen -- and that ain't good. Who else can start? Is Miller anywhere close? Apparenly he did OK in the rehab start. It would be nice to get him up now. My wife commented that maybe we'll get some kid from Pawtucket up who will go on a tear. Tim Bauscher, that's you dude. Let's see it. I am scared for the next month or so, if we can emerge from that, get Miller, Wells and hopefully Schilling healthy, I think we'll be OK....... |
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