Little Salty

I was watching Sportcenter this morning and I have to admit I’m a little salty. I could care less that my back to back catches weren’t shown on TV but when I was watching SC they showed some schmuck in Philly dropping two foul balls. His balls were on consecutive batters and dropped. Mine, which were both caught, were on back to back pitches. Some other schmuck also made “Top Plays” by catching a home run ball with a glove! Come on people! Where is the love for Ryan. Back to back pitches with barehanded catches! I shouldn’t have watched SC then I could have just enjoyed my accomplishment.

Sign Me Up!

Last night we went to the Brewers game. Jocelyn had gotten some 300 club tickets from work so we scooped them up and headed to the park. It was a nice night and we tailgated and had some gourmet Metro Mart brats. I added the habanero Monterey jack and the Buffalo chicken brats to my repertoire. Both good but I’ll probably skip the Buffalo chicken next time and substitute it for one of the others. We headed into the game and made our way to our seats. There were two other people sitting next to us that got the other set of tickets from Jocelyn’s work. We sat and talked and watched the game. Then in the sixth inning I had a life accomplishment. Victor Santos was pitching to Rockies right fielder Brad Hawpe. I don’t know what the count was but Hawpe fouled one off and was right at me. The ball had some zip on it, but with my beer in my left hand I bare handed the ball and made the catch. There was some cheering and a couple guys were hooting that I spilt a couple drops of my beer. So I sat down and basked in the glow of my accomplishment. The next bit is a blur really. I know I was sitting down and talking to the others about my “great catch” but I must’ve been paying close enough attention to the game because the very next pitch Hawpe fouled another one right to me again. I don’t know how I did it because I was still holding my newly caught ball and my beer but I caught the second ball and cradled it like catching a football. I now had just caught two balls in two straight pitches! Mind you I am sitting in the third deck of Miller Park so the chances of two straight foul balls being caught by the same person that far up has to be small. I was dumbfounded and really didn’t know what to do. I had never caught one ball at a major league game before and I just caught two in two pitches. I took my baseballs and held them up for everyone to see and a bunch of the crowd cheered, it was a great moment. The rest of the game really didn’t matter to me because I was on a high. I was just hoping that another ball wouldn’t come my way because I would probably drop it or it would hit me in the head and didn’t want to ruin this moment. We stayed for the rest of the game and a bunch of people said “nice catches man” and “there is the guy that caught the two foul balls.” It was awesome AND the Crew won 6-1. Go Brew Crew!

A little side note, the Bucks also won the draft lottery. They had a 6.3% chance of getting the #1 pick and they hit the jackpot and will be drafting #1 this year.

Whatever happened to common sense?

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Mr. Common Sense. Mr. Sense had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and that life isn’t always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge). His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. – Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. Mr. Sense declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion. Finally, Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge financial settlement. Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on; if not, join the majority and do nothing.

Unexpected Chaos

Crazy weekend this week. Friday I went to go see my old boss Chad DJ at Mr. G’s in Kenosha. There was an unexpected cover charge when we got there but the drinks were cheap so that made up for it. Plus I was there to check out Chad spin some phat beats. I met another one of my ex-colleagues Jordan there. Jordan quit ASQ and is getting his masters in a wilderness program. Jordan and I are eerily similar in many ways and we always have stuff to joke around about. He is also one of the few people in my life I am able to let loose with and talk some true geek speak. So J, Jordan, his girlfriend and fellow ASQ employee Kristen, and some other ASQ folk spent most of the night at Mr. G’s. I don’t know how to describe Mr. G’s. I could see it fitting in in the Sheboygan area but there was a weird hick ghetto folk feel to the people there. There were way too many stretchy cloths for the way to much body mass there. We were having a good time but we had to get back to Milwaukee so we headed out about midnight. J had a meeting in the morning so I went with Jordan and Kristen to the Metro. We spent the rest of the night there bitching about ASQ and trying to practice separation of work talk and weekend. Once we got off that subject we had a great time and I got to anoint some new folk into my Metro fold.

On Saturday I called Adam to see if he wanted to go to the Javon Walker Celebrity Softball Game. He and Stacy had said they planned on going so I tagged along with them. They were nice enough to pick me up some gourmet brats from the Metro Market and we went to the park and tailgated. It was a beautiful sunny day and I got pretty sunburn on my arms. We went into the game in the third but it really wasn’t anything special. It was a bunch of third string Packers playing some other no name people. All the celebrities that were supposed to come canceled. Ethan from Survivor and Tara Reid were the only real “celebrities”. So all the hype was for not. Drew Rosenhaus who is Javon Walker’s agent was allowed an at bat. This guy got booed like I have never heard someone get booed before. You know how some people get so many cheers they have to come back for an encore or a curtain call. This guy got the complete opposite of that. It was like Elton John at Harley fest. Javon Walker got his fair share of boos as well but that was really the only thing worth mentioning at the game. Someone, I’m blaming Adam, had the bright idea to go to My Office post game to have some beers. So we went there and played some Golden Tee and talked with the bartender. I left around seven and went back home. I had something to eat and drank a ton of water and we watched Jersey Girl which was surprisingly a good movie. Jocelyn wanted to go out so I went along and we spent the rest of the night at the Metro. It was a long unnecessary day of drinking and I really paid the price for it on Sunday. Next weekend I’m going sober Sally.

My Virus From The South

This weekend we went to Orland Park just outside of Chicago to spend Jocelyn’s birthday at her mother’s place. Saturday afternoon we made our way down south. We left Milwaukee just before noon and the weather was 45 and cloudy. By the time we got to the ‘burbs of Chicago the temp was in the high 60s and sunny. It was a beautiful spring day and what better way to spend the day than removing viruses and repairing computers. It seems Jocelyn’s mother’s boyfriend’s (sister’s, cousin’s, acquaintance’s) computer had some nasty viruses that needed eradicating. Never fear, Rautech (which has been redesigned) to the rescue. I thought this was going to be your everyday run of the mill removal but this was the worst virus I have ever come across. Many of the discussion boards suggested nuking the hard drive and starting from scratch. I didn’t want to take the easy way out so I spent hours plugging away at the darn thing. I really tried everything. At about three I took a break and we went over to see the new house a couple miles away that they’re moving into June. It’s very nice and has a Frank Lloyd Wright feel to it. After that we went back to the other house and I continued to plug away at the virus. I took another hour break for some spaghetti bake and vino but when that was done back to the dungeon I went. I spent the rest of the night working away and at midnight, almost twelve hours later I finally fixed the problem! I could’ve have done the reformat but this was definitely a personal/pride thing and I kicked that virus’ butt!

Sunday was another beautiful day and I had no viruses to remove, only a wireless network card to install. So I worked on that a bit and then went to the park with the Picl girls and enjoyed the 80 degree weather. The park had these rickety busted up concrete stairs that are used to climb the hill of a toboggan run. I did these stairs about five times and I had enough. I shouldn’t have run them but that is no excuse, I’m just plain weak. I had enough and went and sat on the picnic table and waited for the others to finish up. J and her sister stopped and we played aerobie/Frisbee. I found out how a dog feels when he’s playing fetch with his owner because the aerobie never really flew at me but more above and to the left of me. The problem was my legs didn’t work from those steps so getting the stupid thing was a chore. After J’s mom finish doing the steps 20 times we headed back and showered up for dinner. Before we went to dinner we stopped at a really nice restaurant/bar called The Canoe Club. We stopped there for a beer and to see the very large and very cool shark tank that they had as the bar back. After that we went to a Japanese steak house. It was one of those places where they chopped the food up in front of you and toss it around. Our chef was great and all the food was superb. From the time the chef arrived we were eating something. It started with soup, then salad, fried rice, vegetables, shrimp app, my steak and scallops, mushrooms, and then finally green tea ice cream and it was all great. I worked my chopsticks flawlessly and looked like Ryan Chopstickhands throughout dinner. When dinner was over we had Jocelyn’s birthday cake and some rum drinks back at the house. We spent the night listening to music and enjoying some warm weather. We took off about 8 and got home safe and sound. A happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there!