PLAY snowBALL!!

Thanks to the greatness that is Emily's job, she was able to get four seats for tonight's Twins' season opener against the Angels. We had 12th row seats in between home plate and 3rd base. Crazed Twins fan Nasty Nate and his friend, an even more crazed Twins fan (complete with Minnesota Twins shoes with Minnesota Twins shoe laces) joined us.

Sure Torii Hunter made his debut as a non-Twin. And yeah, he did go 0-4 and strike out in the 9th inning. Oh yeah, Carlos Gomez is going to be a lot of fun for us Twins fans to watch this year. And of course TWINS WIN!!!

But none of that was the story this night. The pictures tell the real story of how baseball opens in the state of Minnesota.


Here I am in our front yard as we are leaving for the game. I'm fired up. It's time to tailgate! Are the coals hot enough for me to throw my burgers on?


The woman behind that parka is Emily. You can see the Metrodome in the background. Insert your own isn't-indoor-baseball-great joke here. Nathan got to the game before we did and said they made a big presentation of showing only 162 more home games to go before the Twins play in their outdoor new stadium. Irony.


My car in the parking lot after the game. Nothing sounds like spring more than anti-lock breaks kicking in on icy roads in front of four-way stop signs and baseballs deflecting off the speakers on the roof of an indoor stadium.

But inside the climate controlled Metrodome, it's always spring.


Here is Joe Mauer's first at-bat of the season. My ears survived the spontaneous and simultaneous shrieking of every girl between 12 and 25 years of age as he stepped to the plate.

And this is for folks like the like The Anginator. The Anginator was one of many people who texted us to say they saw us on ESPN when Torii Hunter first came to bat for the Angels. I guess ESPN first showed Nasty Nate's friend cheering and then panned over to me and Nathan taking pictures of Torii with our digital cameras. This is the picture I took of Torii Hunter while ESPN was taking a picture of me.



It will be weird having someone else besides Torii Hunter roaming centerfield. Carlos Gomez has a long way to go, but two stolen bases, two hits, and two runs is a nice start. Immediately after the game, Gomez went back out to centerfield to practice catching pop flies in the Metrodome. The Twins really need this guy to excel to help with damage control from the Santana trade. It's good to see he is doing his part to help with that mission.

Here's to a 162-0 season.

Pancho Has A Question

Is it really supposed to snow tomorrow?

Because I speak for the both of us when I say we are both sick of having to run on days like this...


Especially when tomorrow is Opening Day for the Twins! Give it up for another year of indoor baseball in Minnesota!

And give it up for Emily, who was able to get some pretty good seats. We're going to the game with Nasty Nate. Should be fun. As per usual, the face of the Twins, Torii Hunter will be starting the season out in the Metrodome in centerfield.

What is unusual is the fact that he now plays for the other team, the Angels, who just happen to be opening their season against the Twins. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran a really nice story about how Hunter is fitting in with his new team. Click here to read the story.

The Twins will probably finish third in their division this year. Detroit and Cleveland are superior to them. Chicago is overrated, but Kansas City seems underrated. So I see the Twins battling it out with those two teams for third, significantly behind the Tigers and Indians.

But I have to admit, part of me is cheering for the Angels just because Torii Hunter is now on their team. When I was a kid I had one favorite team: whichever team Nolan Ryan was on. Torii Hunter is that kind of player.

What Would Crap Look Like If It Took Steroids?

Who hasn't asked that question at some point in his or her life?

Well the answer is it would look like American Gladiators hosted by Hulk Hogan.

I went to the gym to run on a treadmill for the third day in a row, due to yet another cold snap here in Minnesota. In years past I would have just run outside, but I have developed some spots on my face that are frostbite prone, so running in the cold is to be avoided.

So today as i was running the television in front of me was showing American Gladiators. "This should make the next half hour go by fast," I thought to myself. It actually made the half hour feel like an hour. I was stuck watching the freaking NFL Pro Bowl nd a Lakers/Heat basketball game yesterday. Both, I thought were unwatchable. However, I'd take either one of those games over the new American Gladiators.

So far the best shows for treadmill running in my book are Wheel of Fortune and Law and Order. Both require only half your attention but are interesting.

Busman's Holiday

Holy crap. Kirk already posted how we have less than three months before the Boston Marathon.

I have two days until the Frozen Half Marathon, which for me, is the opener to my racing season.

I am not exactly overly-prepared for both. In my defense, it's been absurdly cold. Like many Minnesotans I have been relegated to the treadmill during this cold snap. Emily joined Lifetime Fitness a few weeks ago, and last I joined her. So I haven't been running outside in over a week.

But tonight I am going to see this movie. So if I can't train for the marathon properly, maybe I can just perfect the art of watching a movie about a marathon.

Half-Frozen

I woke up this morning, went downstairs and got the paper off the porch, and about froze my extremities off in the three seconds I was out there. It's a balmy six degrees out this morning.

I decided, is any better way to start out a frozen day by signing up for the Frozen Half Marathon? So I did just that.  The close reader will remember I ran and subsequently wrote about this race last year.

My high goal this year is to break 1:20. I'm sure how feasible that is, which makes it a good goal, I guess. I posted my high goal for the Twin Cities Ten Miler this fall, and missed that goal by over two minutes. So I'm hoping it's not bad luck to put the high goal for any race on this blog.

Dirty Dog

There are many subtle (and definitely not-so-subtle) differences between living in San Antonio and living in Minneapolis.

One subtle difference is, in Minnesota, you have to drain and turn off the water to your outside water faucet by the end of November. If you don't, you may have some frozen pipes to contend with.

No one loves this cold-weather-living tidbit than Pancho. Like most four year old males, he HATES baths. I give him occasional baths in the bathtub during the winter but it makes a huge mess. Such a mess that I prefer him to be a little stinky rather than subject him to water torture (or at least that's how it feels to him). He gets so scared in the bathtub when I rinse him off.

So Pancho may miss the trips to the lakes and swims in Minnehaha Creek that summer brings. But he also really enjoys winter, and the lack of baths that it brings. Next weekend will probably be Pancho's last bath for many months.

Back in White

Holy crap. That last post I did about the five weirdest things that happened to me was my 400th post. That's a lot of posting. However, the close follower of this blog will note that none of these 400 posts have occured over the past week or so.

Our computer was at the Apple store getting a new disc drive. This was something we planned to do in like November. Anyway, the good news is now I can play this game again. And I can get back to blogging.

The biggest news over the week that I was without computer is it snowed an absurd amount. Yesterday I went for a run with some friends, and one of the guys I was running with mentioned how snow is like cocaine for dogs.

Hmmmm, with insight like that, you figured he'd be blogging more, instead of relying on me to quote him.

Anyway, the picture below is one I snapped today of Pancho. As you can see, snow does indeed seem to make dogs go loco.




And this picture is one of the icicles hanging off our roof. Clearly we have an ice dam. I am so glad we got a new roof last year. Newer roofs have a liner underneath them keep the water from ice dams at bay.



As an aside, is roof the only noun that ends in an "f" that does not assume the "ves" ending (like "hooves" and "lives")? I can't think of any other word like it.

But, as per usual, I digress. Clearly too much heat is escaping from our upstairs. Do you think our dormers, and upstairs in general, could use some more insulation?

Seeing as how it took us over three months to get the disc drive in the computer repaired, I reckon we'll get the ice dam situation under control sometime around when we, as a nation, elect a non-white woman as President.

Masters of the Obvious... UNITE!!

I am about to leave for work. How many times do you think I will have to talk to someone about how cold it is today? I'll keep track, but I'm guessing it will be 21 before it's all said and done.

Because, in case you hadn't figured it out yet, it's kind of cold today.

Did I Leave the Iron On?

One last post of Lake Nokomis, and then I'll be done until July with mentioning that lake on this blog. Why July, you ask? Because that's when the lake gets so hot, all the fish die and wash up on shore. Hard to imagine that scene, since right now the lake looks like this...



Mister Wizard, I ain't. So exactly how the water froze as a shelf of ice, hanging over the land is beyond me. But this is how the north shore of Lake Nokomis looks right now, and will until spring. So you have plenty of time to check it out for yourself.

But back to my reason for even talking about Lake Nokomis. I spend many Sundays going for an easy run around this lake. Since Labor Day, I have probably run past the northeast beach 15 times.



However, it wasn't until last month that I ever actually read the sign. And since then, it's always made me laugh. And if you read the sign for yourself, you will just how easily I'm amused.

I took these pictures yesterday, when it was somewhere between zero and two degrees with the wind chill. Tonight we have a windchill of -7.

I like to think that on a night like tonight, somewhere in south Minneapolis there is a teenager who had a summer job as a lifeguard on Lake Nokomis. As he watches American Idol, or updates his myspace page, he thinks to back to the glory of summer, when the lake was warm and he had an easy job.

As he sips on his hot chocolate, spiked with Bailey's he swiped from his dad's liquor cabinet, he thinks of his last day on the job, Labor Day.



Let's see, I took the buoys and rope out of the water. I cleared off all the benches. I cleared the beach of debris. I wiped down the lifeguard chair. My cushiony seat, sunscreen, and whistle are in storage. The rowboat is out of the water and I turned it upside down, with the oars INSIDE the boat this time. I don't want to make that mistake twice. Yikes was Peterson mad at me. But why do I still have this nagging feeling that's been with me for the last four and a half months?



OH CRAP!! I don't remember changing the sign on the beach to say BEACH CLOSED! Shithouse mouse! Or whatever it is kids say these day when pissed off. Old Man Peterson is never gonna hire me again!