Wednesday, January 24, 2007

There Be Baseball Players Here!

My office overlooks the gym and I've complained, a lot, about having to listen to the basketball teams and the volleyball team practice. After today, I can cut them a lot of slack.

The college's reborn baseball team, after a 20-or-so years' hiatus, is working out in the gym today.

How can they expect me to get any work done when there's baseball just outside my door?!

Diva Happy Dance Time

Monday, January 22, 2007

Weather

We've had an extremely mild winter so far here in Central New York. (I say Central rather than Upstate because too many people think of Yonkers or Orange County as Upstate, and trust me, to people north of the Pennsylvania state line, that's still Downstate).

It's been warm and virtually snowless, which I haven't minded at all. I don't mind not having to scrap ice from the car every morning. I don't mind not having to clear snow from the car and steps every day. I don't mind not having to wear boots and gloves and scarves and hats every day.

But last week winter finally showed up. We got some snow, though the wind causing drifts and whiteouts is more of a hazard than the snow itself, and the temperature has been checking in at a crispy 0-to-10F above, and I hate cold more than I do snow so I've been grumbling.

But the sudden appearance of winter has been important because it's only now, that it's cold and blowy and snowy that I miss baseball and have a reborn eagerness for the pre-season to start.

Some vegetation needs to have that cold snap to start certain biological processes and without it the plants fail to thrive.

I needed winter to long for baseball.

24 more days before pitchers and catchers report.

Weird Gifts

People give me baseball-related gifts. Some of them are weird.

The weirdest, this year, is a large snail shell painted to resemble a baseball.

Weird, but cute.

Hot Stove

Baseball Heavy has an interesting entry about the Paw Sox' Hot Stove event. Locally the events are more likely to be a dinner at a banquet hall or hotel dining room with a guest or two from the organization. Something like BH describes I might find worth attending.

Fantasy League

It's time to get the Fantasy League in shape. It's nearly Super Bowl Sunday, the Mardi Gras of Baseball Season, and I haven't gotten the keepers up on the league web page. Meanwhile, I'm being recruited for another, local league. So far I'm holding out if for no other reason than I'm hardly keeping up with one league. Last year I don't think I saw a single episode of Baseball Tonight, my former evening devotions, and since I'm working on my baseball novel, supposed to finish it, revise it, and revise it again by the All-Star break, it's going to be tough to keep my focus on just one league.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Pin-ups for everyone!

Turns out Livianna was not upset in the least about me putting up my David Wright calendar rather than the Red Sox one she gave me.

She came into the department first thing Tuesday morning (we had MLK Day off) and I could see she was trying to hide something behind her back. Looked suspiciously like a calendar.

She took Grace and Mellow shopping Saturday and while riding up on the escalator one of the girls spotted a calendar at the Borders calendar outpost. It was a David Wright calendar. They insisted that I needed one so they circled back down and around to buy it.

We went into my office and I pointed to the calendar I already have, hanging above my desk where people aren't going to see it, as she hadn't seen it. Then we started looking for other places to hang this second collection of my "son's" pictures.

Some of the shots look like they were photo-shopped, just a uniform change, that's how consistent David is as a hitter, and as a fielder.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Teach your children well

Mellow likes to make personal special occasions cards, so I wasn't surpised that she made one for my birthday.

On the front page is a green sock, labeled Red Sox, a baseball and the tip of a bat. Inside, the message says "Happy B-Day from Mellow. I have two teams...the Red Sox and whoever beets the Yankees."

Yup, she's been paying attention.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Happy New Year

Well, if you follow the Gregorian calendar Christmas was just yesterday.

Speaking of Christmas, in 2004 I received almost nothing but Red Sox stuff for Christmas, some of it repeats of other gifts or things I had already bought for myself.

This year I reaped another Red Sox harvest for Christmas, but none of it was repeats, and some of it was stuff I didn't know existed.

Livianna got me the 2006 team card set and my 2007 calendar. A Red Sox calendar from her is pretty much a sure thing each year.

My godson TM got me Red Sox dominos and a Red Sox Rubik's cube. I don't dare take that out of the package because I've never solved one of those.

Last year's Red Sox calendar annoyed me all through December. The player pictured that month was Johnny Damon. So while I love the Red Sox calendar that Livianna got me, I also picked up, half-priced, a calendar of nothing but David Wright. She can hardly blame me for putting up a calendar featuring my "son".