I've made it big time!!

Thanks to a friend who reads the Washington Post Express, I was informed that I was in yesterday's Blog Log! I was very excited when I heard this, because it was about my softball post! And then I checked it out online and saw what quote was used...


They had to highlight the point that The Land Sharks are now 0-2. I can't understand why they didn't want to talk about the GRAND SLAM that I hit to make it a somewhat comeptitive game. Oh well, some recognition is better than NO recognition, isn't that the way it goes?

P.S. Sorry I didn't make it as fancy as Law-Rah did to highlight which quote was mine. You'll just have to figure it out!

Margaritaville, Baby!!

I am not sure if it is the beautiful weather that we are having today, or if it is the fact that my weekend starts in a few hours, or if I am just excited for the summer, but I am in a GREAT mood this afternoon!! (Despite my frustrating morning...) So I decided to share one of my favorite things about the summer, Jimmy Buffett concerts! Fins Up!!

Here's an oldie, but a goodie... enjoy.

Softball game # 2

The Land Sharks had their second game of the season last night on the Ellipse. After getting destroyed 34-4 in the first game, we were hoping to make a good comeback and even our record at 1-1. Unfortunately, that was not the case. However, this was a MUCH better game and I think we may be able to have some momentum going into next week.

The game started nice and early at 5:45, which gave us a little bit of a problem. We only had 4 of us there at that time. However, we had the requisite 7 people a few minutes later, so we didn't have to forfeit. We were just at a severe disadvantage because they had a full team. Eventually by the time we needed to take the field, we had 9 players, so we were only required to have 1 ghost out.

We started the game well, scoring 3 runs in the first inning. Then I went out and took the mound for the first time. I gave up 3 runs, but felt pretty good since we were tied. We scored 3 more runs in the 2nd inning to give us 6, 2 more than we had last game. We were off to a good start. I took the mound again and held the All-Stars to 0 runs. We were up by 3 now! We even turned a pretty sweet double play!

Then I gave up 3 runs, so we were back to a tie game. Not bad for the end of the 3rd inning. This was when all hell broke loose. We got an easy first out in the 4th, but then I couldn't throw strikes anymore. That, combined with some poor fielding allowed the other team to break it open and score 8 runs. I was getting frustrated on the mound, and I don't think that was helping things either.

I had a little bit of vindication in the next inning, however. With 2 outs and the bases loaded, I came up to bat. I had been hitting the ball to the left the other 3 times I was up and I decided that this time I would hit it to the opposite field. I waited for a good pitch and then out it went. I was only thinking double, but with some fielding errors, I made it all the way home for a Grand Slam!!

We played one more inning after that, and we weren't able to catch up, but it was definitely a much better outing than before. Hopefully we will have our whole team at the next game and we will have some success and get the first win!

Pittsburgh Sports

Here is a really good article in the Post Gazette about the Pirates and their fans. There are a bunch of things that I agree with in there. Especially the fact that I think we need a new owner and that Mark Cuban would be awesome!! I am not happy with the way that Kevin McClatchy has operated the team. And I also agree with Keaton when he said that the fans have not been very outspoken about the problems with the team. And I think that it is definitely because we are so used to the Bucos losing! It has just become second nature and there is no outcry for change. I know I have not been very outspoken about this, so I don't really have much license to talk about it, but I think that now is the time it needs to be brought up. We want a baseball team in Pittsburgh that will compete!!

Now on to the Penguins. In a move that I fully support, they are not going to bring back the GM, Craig Patrick. He has had a great run in Pittsburgh and I definitely respect him for most of what he did, by esentially bringing up 2 Stanley Cups. He has made some incredible trades in the past, but it is definitely time for something new. Here is a column in the paper about how the Penguins GM opening should be a very sought after job. Cook makes some great points in here and I hope that he is correct and that we have top quality prospects to help the Penguins make it back to the next level.

It looks as if they are going to keep the coach, Michel Therrien. I think this is a good thiing too. His win-loss record was not too much different from Olczyk, but the team was pllaying much stronger at the end of the season, which is very promising. We also have the number 2 pick in this years draft. And I really hope that Therrien is right when he said that this is the last year that we will have a 1, 2, or 3 pick. I guess that would only matter if the Penguins stay in Pittsburgh though...

All of the discussion above makes me appreciate the Steelers Superbowl XL win even more!!

Let's GO Pittsburgh Sports!!!

**EDIT**

After writing the above post last week, this column by Ron Cook was in the Post Gazette this morning. There are some very good points in here. It essentially says what I was saying about the Pirates ownership, that Mark Cuban would do a much better job at running the Pirates and making them a more competitive team. He has done a great job with the Mavericks, and I am sure that he would be able to help out his hometown team. As Cook says, "We can dream, can't we?"

And then there is this article by Cook about Cuban potentially showing interest in the Penguins. Cuban says he would throw some money into the pot, but he wouldn't want to deal with being a majority owner and the arena headaches. If his money would help, I would be all for that!

Tony!! and Sunday Night Baseball

What a race for Tony this weekend!! I didn't get a chance to see any of the race because I was at a party, but from this article, it seems like he battled back and had another good strong showing! He has now lead a lap in every race this year. That is awesome!

In another note, there was a pathetic turnout for the Sunday Night baseball game, the Nats vs. the Braves. The smallest crowd at RFK since the Nats came. The first pitch was thrown out by the Budlight daredevil. That was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was that Majewski ruined the strong outing that Armas Jr. had by giving up a 3 run shot in the 8th. The Nats certainly squandered a number of runs that could have padded their lead though.

Once I get my camera back and the pics loaded, I will write about my quick trip up to NYC this past weekend!

Softball

Not feeling like a big post today, it has been a pretty busy day, maybe I'll edit this tomorrow. We got killed in our softball game on Tuesday. We had a good number of people there and I got stuck pitching. But I only walked 2 people. Its tough when you haven't had any practice, and the other team has some former college baseball players on the team. I knew I was recruiting the wrong players... Oh well, it was fun and hopefully we'll do better next week.

**EDIT**

I didn't realize just how many pitches I threw the other night until I got in the pool yesterday and started swimming. By the end of about 30 minutes, my arm was finally feeling pretty good. That is why I am so happy that there is a hot tub next to the pool. And boy was it hot too, 105 degrees! It felt really good. Hopefully this Tuesday I won't have to throw so many pitches. Now throwing back some pitchers after the game is a whole differnet story!!!

Youngest to 100!

Congratulations to Sidney Crosby!!

He is the 7th player to reach 100 points in their rookie year, not to mention the youngest player. Right now he is tied with Mario Lemuiex and 2 points behind Alex Ovechkin, with 1 game left.

Easter and Softball Season

I had a nice relaxing weekend home in Pittsburgh with my parents. My plan was to head home Friday morning and stop off near Hagerstown, MD to do some mtn. biking at Greenbrier St. Park on the way. However, the weather decided not to cooperate with me. It wasn't raining when I left DC, but the radar showed a huge patch of green on the way. By the time I got to Rockville, it was already starting to come down. I was happy that I decided against riding.

I still stopped off at the park to check it out and get some details since I hadn't been there before. It seems like a pretty cool place to bike, so one of these days I'll have to make it back up there. I continued on home and made it in time to change and get ready to go to dinner and then to the Banff Film Festival. There were some good films, but also a few that really dragged. One of my favorites was a mock-umentary about the Mountian Village in Telluride. It was hilarious!

The next day we just hung around, enjoyed the nice weather, helped do some setting up for the Wedding shower that night, and threw the softball around a little. The Wedding shower was fun. It was good to see people and meet some friends of the bride and groom. We decided that we would not go to church this year, and that didn't really bother me too much. As a Catholic Lite, we don't have the guilt that the true Catholics have. We went to brunch with some good friends and then eventually I took off and made my way back to DC.

I am excited about tonight! It is the first game of our spring softball league. I was a little worried that I might not be able to get enough people for the team, but I have a whopping 15 people coming tonight and a few more that are willing to play if we need them. I think it will be fun! It might take a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but I think we'll be fine. Since I am organizing the team, I got the opportunity to name the team. You'll never guess what it is!! The Land Sharks!!

Nats Opener

"A bad day at the ballpark is better than a good day at the office." - Unknown


This was my feeling Tuesday April 11th 2006 when the Nats opened their season at RFK. I was playing hookey from work, at a Dr.'s appointment. The only appointment that I had was with the Mets. I scooted out of the office and headed to meet a friend at the stadium. We went pretty early due to the "increased security" for the VP who was throwing out the first pitch. However there didn't seem to be nearly then amount that there was last year for El Presidente. We were there in plenty of time to watch all of the opening day festivities.


First came the introductions, and by far the loudest cheer was for the manager, Frank Robinson. After all the players were brought out, there was a nice rendition of God Bless America and a great job singing the national anthem by Placido Domingo. There were more fireworks and then it was time for Chaney to come out and bounce his pitch next to the plate. Forunately Schneider made a nice stop. There were lots of Boos as he walked to the field and even more when he threw it. Two guys in front of me were really loud!


The game didn't go exactly as everyone had planned with the Mets winning 7-1. Ramon Ortiz did a pretty good job of holding the Mets for the first couple of innings, but hten they took off. And the Mets new young pitcher did a great job in his second start. Soriano hit a nice single shot to left field, but that was about the most exciting part of the game. But as the quote at the top of the page says, it was a gorgeous day at the park and I was happy to be there! I will be happier though when they announce an owner for the team!!!

Today I am off to catch the last game of the series in a few minutes. It's another nice day out, so I will be glad to get away from work before I head home for Easter. Let's go Nats!!!

*EDIT*

Well, I think I repeated that quote at the beginning of this post numerous times today. It was a great day to be sitting at the park, but it was not a day to be a Nats fan. The Mets torched them 13-4 for the sweep of the series. Not a very good first 3 games in DC for the year. Oh well... A bad day at the ballpark is better than a good day at the office. And my Bucos didn't do too much better today losing 13-5 to the Dodgers. It is a long season though... and it will just get longer if they continue to play this way.

Another weekend and a Red Sox game

Wow, it's already Wednesday afternoon and I am just getting to a summary of last weekend... I guess that is partly due to the fact that I have been playing with the template of my blog more than writing posts lately. I still don't think that I have it perfect, but I am happy with it so far.

Where to start... I guess on Thurs., the start of the weekend. Yes, I know that I worked this Friday, but do Fridays really count as work days??? So on Thursday, it was a nice night and I decided to grill out and actually cook a real dinner for once. It turned out very well and I was mildly impressed that I still had some skill in the kitchen. Good to know that I can still bring it if I want to. Then it was a casual night at home watching a Netflix movie. It turned into a later night than I was expecting though, which may go towards the reason that I think Fridays aren't real work days...

Friday night I was able to scoot out of work while it was still nice and get in a quick bike ride before the rain came. It felt nice to get off of the bike in the gym and onto the bike on the trail. After I showered and had some dinner, I headed down to Old Town to Rock-it Grill for a little Blogger Karaoke. Even if you don't like singing Karaoke, it is still a fun place to go hang out, watch others sing, and have a beer. I-66 has a better summary of the night. I took waaaay too long deciding what I wanted to sing and my name was waaaay down the list, so I didn't get called up. But some of the others did, and they were much better than I would have been anyway!!

Saturday morning was not the morning that it was supposed to have been. I was going to head down to the crew regatta to watch a little bit, have some lunch, and then head up to Baltimore to pre-party for the Red Sox game. However, with the rain coming down like it was, I stayed in bed way too late, rushed to have lunch with a friend, and then met some other friends to head to B-more for the game. We definitely got some good pre-partying in at one of the local bars and since we hadn't heard whether there was a delay in the game, we headed to the stadium. As soon as we were inside, right about game time, this was our view:


That is correct, there was no one on the field. And right on cue, there was an announcement that there was an unspecified delay in the start. Oh well, time to grab a beer and wait until the grounds crew started to remove the tarp. Nice, it was then time to get some good BBQ and then head up to the seats, finally! As you can tell, it was a bit cold. Just ask Matt. And I was totally unprepared. Which is why I was jumping around most of the game! I had forgotten my fleece as we ran out the door earlier. I survived though. Despite the temperature, it was a great night for baseball.


As you can see, I was playing with my digital zoom on my camera and did a good job at almost catching some contact at the plate. This one didn't come out quite as well. We had a good time at the game and the Sox won too!! It was a pretty new lineup compared to last year, so that took some getting used to. And they even ended up sweeping the 3 game series. I also had a little bit of fun with the camera as we were headed out of the stadium.

And don't worry, the night didn't end there! Once we got back to Arlington, Matt and I went to Dr. Dremos to meet up with some friends. I hadn't been there in a while, since it was nice enough to chill outside in the carport area. It ended up being a fun Saturday! And I definitely wasted more of Sunday than I had planned on... I slept late, then had some yummy apple cinnamon pancakes, and then watched a bunch of sports on TV. A pretty good way to spend the day, despite the nice, but a little cool, weather outside. Tony didn't win in Texas, but he had a good strong showing and continued his streak of leading a lap in every race this year. However, he did win the IROC race that they had on Sunday, so that was cool!

HTML

As you all can tell by the new stuff going on with my site, I am playing with the HTML for the template. It is definitely a work in progress. I think that depending on the text size that your browser has and the screen size it will look different. If anyone knows anything about standardizing some of these things, I would love some help. Please email me if you have any advice. Right now I am working on the dancing parrot images. They seem to move around a lot with the different sizes. Also, give me feedback on what you think of the new colors!

*EDIT*

I have been doing some more work and I think I found something better than what I had when I wrote the above. Please leave me some FEEDBACK with what you think of the new look!!!

NFL Season is getting closer....

The Steelers schedule is out. It looks to be a pretty tough schedule to me. Especially the first week in December when we play Sunday and then Thursday. Fortunately they are both Home games.

2006 Steelers Schedule

Preseason
Aug. 12 at Arizona, 4:05 p.m.
Aug. 19 Minnesota, 8 p.m.
Aug. 25 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m.
Aug. 31 Carolina, 7:30 p.m.

Regular season
Sept. 7 Miami, 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 at Jacksonville, 8:30 p.m.
Sept. 24 Cincinnati, 1 p.m.
Oct. 1 Bye
Oct. 8 at San Diego, 8:15 p.m.
Oct. 15 Kansas City, 4:15 p.m.
Oct. 22 at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
Oct. 29 at Oakland, 4:15 p.m.
Nov. 5 Denver, 4:15 p.m.
Nov. 12 New Orleans, 1 p.m.
Nov. 19 at Cleveland, 1 p.m.
Nov. 26 at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Dec. 3 Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.
Dec. 7 Cleveland, 8 p.m.
Dec. 17 at Carolina, 1 p.m.
Dec. 24 Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Dec. 31 at Cincinnati, 1 p.m.

Unhooked Gen-X

Here is a really interesting post by Larissa. It is a bunch of reviews of the book, Unhooked Generation, by Jillian Straus. The book goes off of the premise that "Single men and women in their twenties and thirties are finding it harder than ever to find lasting love." I think that a PR firm sent Larissa and some other bloggers, who write about relationship issues, the book for free. Kind of hard to turn down a free book...

I have not read the book, and probably won't, but I have read the reviews that some of the bloggers have written. So far it seems that not too many people are very impressed with the book. They feel it doesn't seem to present any new information about dating in today's world. I think it is more interesting to see how people react to some of the issues in the book. I am sure that it would help if I had read it, but I think I have either experienced or heard about many of the issues that are raised.

One of the girls brought up the idea of people in this generation not being honest with each other. I think that she is absolutely correct. There are definitely various reasons why people aren't honest. And I don't necessarily think that it is done on purpose. It could have a lot to do with the world that we live in today. I don't know... but boy am I glad to be out in the dating world!

4 Mile Run Trail

This is an article that was in the post last week talking about work that they want to do along 4 Mile Run, which divides Arlington and Alexandria to the south. There is a nice bike trail along here that I run and bike on pretty frequently. It would be fabulous if they could clean this area up and turn it into the nice park that it has the potential to become. However projects always come down to money, and the cost for this is VERY high. Not to mention the time frame that they are saying it could be accomplished in, 20 years!!! I have a feeling that I will have moved on from my house along 4 Mile Run by then, so I won't get to enjoy it.

Down 4 Mile Run towards National Airport and Rt. 1, there used to be an amusement park. I haven't been able to find out much history on this park, but I did find the picture below on the Arlington Co. website. 80 years later, standing in the place of this neat amusement park is a fabulous water treatment facility! I was even lucky enough to visit that treatment plant when I was in school for one of my Enviromental Engineering classes. Fun Stuff!!

Luna Park

"This amusement park, located in the area where Glebe Road meets Route 1, was built in 1906 for more than $350,000. It claimed facilities for 3,000 picnickers as well as a large ballroom, restaurant and circus arena. Exhibits were housed in large buildings of various styles -- Gothic, Moorish, and Japanese. A "shoot-the-chutes" with a 350-foot incline was a leading attraction. The park was eventually damaged by fire and dismantled in 1915."


*EDIT*

Thanks to an anonymous commenter, here are a few more pictures of Luna Park:

Nice Weather and the beginning of April (Part 2)

The weekend was only beginning after I got back from my excellent mtn. biking in MD. It was a nice night, even though rain was supposed to come in later, it was still pretty warm, and the Nationals were back in town for an exhibition game against the Orioles before starting the season. As I mentioned a week ago, I had plans to get together with the girl I went to dinner with. I just happened to have 2 tickets to the Nats game, so this was going to be our second date. It was a good night for the first baseball game back in DC since last September.

However, the game didn't quite live up to our expectations. There were a bunch of errors, mostly from the Nats, but from both teams. There were good hits, good base steals, but also some bad pitching and fielding. There wasn't a huge crowd at the game, but those around us, above left field, 3 rows from the top, were a rowdy bunch. From reading my comments above, you would think that I paid close attention to the game, but I didn't. I was merely a casual observer because I was a little distracted by my company and the conversation that we had. This was not a bad thing...

After my unexpected late night on Thursday and my long mtn. biking, I was dragging a bit after the game, so I called it a night after taking my date home. And yes, we do have plans to get together again in a few days. I did have to stay up a bit later though because my sister and her boyfriend were coming in later, all the way from upstate NY! As soon as they showed up and I chatted for a few minutes, I was in bed asleep. Saturday was definitely a sleep in for us and then it was time to head out and show B's boyfriend around DC since he had never been here before. As those who live here know, it was peak Cherry Blossom time and the parade was on Saturday.


We drove through the city, stopping for Kev to get some pictures, and highlighting the main sights to be seen. We got stuck in the parade traffic, but got a chance to see the blossoms up close! Then we headed up to Dupont to grab some lunch and look around there. We wandered into a shoe store because B saw something she liked and after about 15 minutes of slow service, I walked out with a new casual pair of going out shoes! They were expensive, but very comfortable! After a little more sightseeing we headed to the grocery store to get some food to grill out while we watched some of the basketball games.

I was happy with the outcomes of the games, but I thought that the quality of the games was awful! I didn't think that Mason would win, but I figured after the way that they stormed through the beginning of the tourney, they would at least put up a better fight. They had a chance, but after several three pointers to open the second half, FL began to walk away. And LSU, I don't even think that they showed up to the court. They weren't in it from the get-go.

After the games, a bunch of us were going out the celebrate Al's new job!! We headed to Madhatter and Sign of the Whale. I decided that I was not going to dance that night and there wasn't a whole lot of it going on at Madhatter, so I was ok. However, then we moved on to the Whale and it was packed and I couldn't do anything to stop myself. It had nothing to do with the beers that I had been drinking either... Add the stupid time change in to this night, and it was a late one. By the time I got out of the city and home, it was probably about 4:00 or so. I knew that Sunday was going to be a bit rougher than I expected.

I had some plans for Sunday, or so I thought. B and Kev were leaving pretty early, they didn't come out with us, so I was woken up to say bye to them. Then I went back to sleep for a while until my Mom dragged me out of bed. After dilly dallying around, Mom and I went on a little bike ride around Arlington. We saw tons of open houses and places for sale. It is that time of year again. I was shocked when I realized that it was 3 years ago that I was looking at buying my place. For some reason I thought that it was only 2. It's amazing how quickly the time goes by!!

Mom had to leave to get back to Pittsburgh to pick up my Dad at the airport, so she left and I went back to my spot on the couch to watch racing all afternoon. There were 2 good races on at the same time!! The Nextel race at Martinsville, VA and the IRL race on the roads of Tampa. I was very happy with how the Martinsville race was going, Tony was either out in front for most of the day or he was trailing Jimmy Johnson.


So I decided to switch to the IRL race. I definitely like the road racing better and this was a pretty good race. There weren't too many cautions until the second half. Helio Castroneves ended up taking the checkered flag on a yellow, but he definitely deserved the win. And true to form, he climbed the fence! The last time that he had won was last year at Richmond when were there to see it. After that race, I switched back over to NASCAR and saw Tony and Jimmy going back and forth with 50 laps to go. I knew this would be intense. You could tell from before the race that Tony wanted to get his first win, and he wanted it there. After a late red flag, he was able to pull it out over Jeff Gordon and take his first win of the season. And also true to form, there was a double fence climbing, as Tony climbed up to the flagstand to get the checkered.

So as you can see, it was a pretty busy weekend. But definitely a GOOD ONE!


*EDIT*

I also want to add that I was very happy for the FL Gators and their championship!! As I said earlier, I thought that the games were awful this weekend, and that included last night. But the awful part of last nights game was UCLA, not FL. I thought they played a great game and definitely deserved to win! (at least based on the first half that I actually paid attention to.)

Nice Weather and the beginning of April (Part 1)

I really should have posted something over the weekend so that I didn't have so much to write about today, so I will do this weekend in 2 parts.

I had the day off on Friday and the weather was gorgeous! However, it all started with an unexpected Thursday night! A bunch of people from work usually go to HH on Thursday nights, but since I usually go out a bit later in the night, I don't go to HH. Last week I wasn't really feeling like going out much on Thursday, so I thought that I would just go to HH instead. Plus it was down the street from me at Bungalow Billiards. It couldn't have been more convenient. So I took the dogs off to the dog park for some exercise before heading down the street.

Bungalow was pretty crowded and I am not sure if it was because of the nice weather or because of the $1 domestic bottles. We managed to get a dart board after a little while and I managed to pull out a win at cricket. I started very slowly, getting behind early, but made a late surge. I thought my surge was in jeopardy when I was down to only the Bull and couldn't hit it at all, but as soon as I didn't think about it, I had won! The problem with a busy Bungalow is the fact that I didn't get any dinner. I had no problems getting beer though. Everytime I would go up to the bar, Jenn would have a new bottle ready for me.

Now this, in combination with the fact that I neglected to eat anything, caused me to lose sight of the fact that I was supposed to go home after HH so that I could get up and do stuff on Friday, my day off. Well, some minor convincing, and not much willpower by me, caused me to head up to Clarendon at about 9:30 with some of the guys. We started off going to RiRa, which is where the old hardware store used to be. This was a bit of a shock to me. I had no idea that they had closed and I would not let it go the whole time we were there.

We quickly tired of RiRa, which was not happening at all and headed off to Mr. Days. I had not been there in a while, but not much had changed. I am not sure how long we stayed there, but I think at about 12 or so we headed off to the Silver Diner to get that much needed dinner that I had neglected to eat earlier in the night. I straggled back into the house about 1 to 1:30, let the dogs out, and then decided that it would be a great idea to check my email. Well, when I woke up at about 4:30, my computer still on, and I was still sitting in my chair, I knew that was a bad idea. I immediately got undressed and into bed, since I needed to get up at about 8:00.

I had 2 things planned during my day off. The first was to go to the DMV to get my bike registered in VA so that I could ride it again and then I was headed mtn. biking up in MD with a group from MORE. I was a little late getting up. If you need an explanation of why, you must have missed out on my previous paragraphs. Then I got caught talking with Mom. I still had enough time, as long as things went smoothly at the DMV and fortunately they did. I was able to get my plate, get a few bites to eat, and make it to the parking lot in MD right at 11:00.

I was there a bit earlier than the others to ride with someone who was new to mtn. biking, so fortunately I was taking it easy on my body the first hour or so. I definitely needed that because I was a little bit hungover. As the afternoon wore on and people dropped off the group, the pace of the ride sped up. I was getting some of my balance back and ready to tackle the trails a bit more, so that was a good thing. It was a gorgeous day in the woods and even a bit warmer than I was expecting. I downed all the water I had with me. What a great start it was to the weekend and a perfect way to spend my day off!!