I have two consecutive days off where I won't be traveling or otherwise under any obligations. I'll probably ruin it by getting sick or something.
75 thoughts on “March 21, 2014: The Weekend”
Holy cr@p, Timothy Dalton's 70 today??
does that scare the Living Daylights out of you?
Wow. For my money, Dalton's Bond was the closest to the original Fleming character until Daniel Craig took the role. Has it really been that long?
shya, I know!
Your UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals:
Chelsea v. Paris S. G.
Barca v. Atletico
R. Madrid v. B. Dortmund
Bayern M. v. ManU
In a switch from previous years, UEFA will redraw again for the Semis. Nevertheless we could very likely see an awesome semi-final slate of Chelsea, Barca, Madrid, Bayern
While I like Athletico Madrid for challenging the Barca-Real dyad, I'll never get fully behind them because they beat Fulham in the Europa League final back in '09
The Potter County Battlers came from eleven points down with six minutes to go to defeat Faith 51-48 yesterday. They move on to the state semi-finals tonight playing James Valley Christian. Go Battlers!
It would be cool if the JVC team name was the Rattlers.
It would, but in reality, they're the Vikings.
What do y'know? The terrors of SD!
It's never too early in the day to think about lunch, right? I like the idea of a mini caucus at Be'Wiched. It'll be a bit of a hike for me and a few others, but it shouldn't be a problem if the weather is nice. Maybe sometime in the next couple of weeks? Fridays are generally good days for me.
And speaking of lunch, I was too lazy to bring anything from home if anyone is in the mood for Pizza Luce today.
Being Catholic and knowing that free is as well*, I'd prefer to eat at Bewiched either Monday-Thursday or after Easter. I don't wanna be stuck with a veggie option or tuna salad.
*not that I know how closely he follows abstention rules
Oops, this is what happens when a non-Catholic vegetarian tries to suggest a day. Thursdays are usually pretty good too.
The boss is out the next two weeks, so those Thursdays are super.
I'll eat the tuna or veggie if others want to go on Friday.
I'd just prefer another day is all.
Because I like meat.
Yes. I do follow abstention rules but I thought they had a decent tuna melt. But a Thursday would work quite nicely.
Hey, I'm 'others' and I'm Catholic and I follow abstention rules and I'm one of the downtown crew looking to mini caucus!
...
I suppose I could have just said Thursdays work for me too.
Sorry, I was only pretty sure about you.
That's okay, I'm only pretty sure about me too.
Well both on religious practice and downtownness.
I'm guessing that you know where you work.
Most days.
With the non-Friday limitations, Monday April 7 looks like the next good day on my schedule.
That Monday is no good for me. Boss is back from 2-week absence and we'll have some quarter-end reporting things to put together in one day.
Be'Wiched is in my building, so when we get the date and time set I can walk down and reserve a table or two for us.
okay, I'm not linking (Because Stupid), but this headline annoyed me at teh Yahoos: "Man finds live worm in package of fish at Costco".
I mean, WTF? I guess Yahoo is now the nation's gossip hound? Worms happen occasionally in fresh seafood. That's just one reason why I tend to avoid cut-rate and gas-station sushi.
I am astounded. Rhu and socal (though he thought it made too much sense to actually happen) must have fans in the Twins FO.
I'm surprised they made the decision this early. I don't have a problem with it, I just thought they'd wait until the season was about to start to announce the fifth starter.
Makes a bit more sense to decide early if they're serious about trading some pitching for some offense, doesn't it? Kinda narrows down who is available as a trade chip this way.
yeah, setting up the trading block early is the thing that makes the most sense
Wow is right. I didn't expect that.
Yes, I am surprised they did this. Gibson is by far the one with the highest upside even after surgery. It's nice to see the Twins aren't overly concerned about losing players out of options who haven't earned a spot. If they can't earn a spot at this stage in their careers, it's doubtful they will ever be useful, and they will just get expensive that much sooner.
I'm glad to see the Twins aren't afraid to go with the best performer. I'm guessing Hicks has pretty much wrapped up the CF job now. Hopefully, Pinto will split time at catcher with Suzuki. With Arcia in RF, I can get into watching that lineup.
He may have, but even though LENIII suggests Gardy was happy with his 4-4 night (2 hits from each side of the plate), the quote that made the paper was this one:
"He overthrew the cutoff man again, which gave them another run," Gardenhire said after the Twins' 5-4 loss to Tampa Bay. "Which is a good teaching point."
"The guy who hit the ball went to second and scored on another base hit. So there you have it -- the fifth run, and we end up losing the game by a run," Gardenhire explained. "Throw the ball down. He had no chance to throw the guy out at home, I don't care how strong his arm is. We hit the cutoff man, keep the man on first, who knows what happens?"
Spring training is definitely the place to be emphasizing fundamentals, but considering the focus the past couple of weeks on their lack of offense, this seems an odd time to be tamping down enthusiasm for our probable opening day CF.
No one's ever accused Gardy of having a sharp PR mind. It seems like a legitimate criticism to me, though--if you're playing in the majors, you should know when to hit the cut-off man. Of course, that's only one part of Hicks' game, and I think in the end, Gardy will judge the whole package.
All very true.
I wonder if Vanimal was waived now because he is more likely to get through waivers since teams haven't decided on who they want to pitch but it is too late to bring a guy in camp to win a job.
He was placed on waivers on Wednesday apparently, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him slip through.
And if Nolasco keeps pitching like today, Gibson might be pitching the opener.
To the Mest no less.
Dustin Morse @Twins_morsecode
Vance Worley has cleared waivers & outrighted to AAA. The @Twins roster is now at 39. Also 39 players left in camp.
I think it bears repeating...last year's opening day starter just cleared waivers.
Just a minor obstacle on his path to being next year's opening day starter.
For the St. Paul Saints
Spoke too soon:
Rhett Bollinger@RhettBollinger
Samuel Deduno is also likely headed to the bullpen, per Rob Antony. Gibson is not officially the 5th starter. Diamond still in the mix, too.
I will be off the grid for the next week. Did I mention, however, that ALL WE DO IS WIN?
Even Aaron Rodgers had a shout out for the Bison! What a great game.
I read at CBSSports and ESPN that less than 0.2% of the brackets filled out remained perfect after day 1.
Has anyone heard how many got only one wrong? I want to know my (peak) percentile (before it all comes crashing down on day 2).
I've done similar things in the past in my work bracket, (Day 1 lead, Back to the pack on Day 2, behind after the weekend). This time there was no research, only "I heard Harvard is underranked" and "OSU? F--- them".
on ESPN:
Keri Potts @MsPotts_ESPN
18,741 of 11.01 million Tournament Challenge brackets (or .17 percent) got all 16 games correct Thursday. And 178,258 got 15 of 16.
Thanks!
Not quite in the top 1%, but top 1.79% is good enough for the girls we go with.
I was so close to having a perfect first day! The only two I've gotten wrong are Dayton vs. Ohio State and Texas vs. ASU, both of which were decided on last-second shots.
Stupid Syracuse goes and doesn't get upset is what I had.
In the ESPN fantasy tournament for the last World Cup (like the BPL one where you pick a starting 11 based on a salary cap), I finished 64th in the world. I have no clue how I pulled that off (ok, maybe having Forlan and Schneijder helped).
Fun to watch India best Pakistan in Dhaka. Now watching the Dutch against the Irish. Couldn't be any more different cricket. No doosras or spinners, just air balls and Yorkers, lay it out there like Bert Blyleven.
All I have is a Yorker. I just bring the heat. I can barely keep from chucking, much less worry about putting spin on the ball.
I too bring on the heat. But American bowling, they swing for the boundaries == wickets.
We may be signing the 10.5 year old and 8 year old for park & rec cricket this year. EAR saw it listed and thought it sounded fun, and it fits our schedule well.
We did T-ball/Baseball two years back and that was not that fun a time, at least for the adult who had to sit in the grass in the hot sun.
When I was a kid and awful at baseball, I was able to bike to the park. Things in the city are too far away, and with littler ones, that's a big commitment of time.
Down goes Duke. BWHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Schaden-freude *clap clap clapclapclap*
Went to the little Island store on my towny bike, got provisions for dinner tonite.
Got some expen$ive salmon, but thot I would hooch it up a little, use up that Chinese barbecue sauce in the fridge, the little bit of garlic we had left, make some kinda marinade.
And then I thought I would dabble in Dark Powers - I bought a fresh Scotch Bonnet pepper - sliced it thin, then mixed it in with the Chinese barbecue sauce and the garlic. Holy cow.
I barely tasted the marinade and my lips are still burning and that was a half hour ago. I can't imagine how this thing is going down if it enters the digestive tracts. Need to think through this, we have an early flight tomorrow.
Never dabble in the dark arts before a flight.
There's more to this story…
I went down to the hotel grill earlier, fired it up, etc.
Later I brought down my salmon (with the you-know-what marinade), green beans, mushrooms, pineapple.
On the side of my dish was the remaining half of the Scotch Bonnet pepper. Not sure why I brought that along.
So there's this dude - from New Canaan, CT. I explain the whole Scotch Bonnet thing. He picks it up and takes a bite out of the pepper. It all happens too quickly for me to stop him.
Seconds later he says he has to get some water, and runs off.
Minutes later he rejoins me at the grill and says, yeah, that's one tough pepper.
Nice Kirchner, btw. More fine art coffee cups, please. For special occasions, maybe we could have a Cup of Absinthe?
There are several more in the library. As I see duplicates, I'll aim for the fine art.
A personal note: there are problems in Big Brother A's family. I won't go into details, other than to say it involves his two supposedly adult children. If anyone would be of a mind to say some prayers for Big Brother A and his wife, such prayers would be appreciated.
Sign me up.
Dido.
Just got this one yesterday -- my first of this player. This one's for JeffA
ID the AU - which Twins player (former or current) has this signature?
damn. I spookied that answer, then said "who the hell is Jerry Fosnow?" and didn't venture an actual guess.
The Newmark Mets finally found their bats tonight and enjoyed a 78-4 win over the A's. Trey was the starting pitcher again and went 3 innings with just 1 run allowed. He struck out the side on 12 pitches in the first inning and ended up with 5 or 6 Ks for the game (Pretty much every out for the A's was a strikeout, but some came on coach's pitches after a "walk"). Trey also had two hits and twice scored on wild pitches and was awarded the game ball. The Mets came into the game 1-2 and had just 4 hits total on the season, two by Trey.
Holy cr@p, Timothy Dalton's 70 today??
does that scare the Living Daylights out of you?
Wow. For my money, Dalton's Bond was the closest to the original Fleming character until Daniel Craig took the role. Has it really been that long?
shya, I know!
Your UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals:
Chelsea v. Paris S. G.
Barca v. Atletico
R. Madrid v. B. Dortmund
Bayern M. v. ManU
In a switch from previous years, UEFA will redraw again for the Semis. Nevertheless we could very likely see an awesome semi-final slate of Chelsea, Barca, Madrid, Bayern
While I like Athletico Madrid for challenging the Barca-Real dyad, I'll never get fully behind them because they beat Fulham in the Europa League final back in '09
The Potter County Battlers came from eleven points down with six minutes to go to defeat Faith 51-48 yesterday. They move on to the state semi-finals tonight playing James Valley Christian. Go Battlers!
It would be cool if the JVC team name was the Rattlers.
It would, but in reality, they're the Vikings.
What do y'know? The terrors of SD!
It's never too early in the day to think about lunch, right? I like the idea of a mini caucus at Be'Wiched. It'll be a bit of a hike for me and a few others, but it shouldn't be a problem if the weather is nice. Maybe sometime in the next couple of weeks? Fridays are generally good days for me.
And speaking of lunch, I was too lazy to bring anything from home if anyone is in the mood for Pizza Luce today.
Being Catholic and knowing that free is as well*, I'd prefer to eat at Bewiched either Monday-Thursday or after Easter. I don't wanna be stuck with a veggie option or tuna salad.
*not that I know how closely he follows abstention rules
Oops, this is what happens when a non-Catholic vegetarian tries to suggest a day. Thursdays are usually pretty good too.
The boss is out the next two weeks, so those Thursdays are super.
I'll eat the tuna or veggie if others want to go on Friday.
I'd just prefer another day is all.
Because I like meat.
Yes. I do follow abstention rules but I thought they had a decent tuna melt. But a Thursday would work quite nicely.
Hey, I'm 'others' and I'm Catholic and I follow abstention rules and I'm one of the downtown crew looking to mini caucus!
...
I suppose I could have just said Thursdays work for me too.
Sorry, I was only pretty sure about you.
That's okay, I'm only pretty sure about me too.
Well both on religious practice and downtownness.
I'm guessing that you know where you work.
Most days.
With the non-Friday limitations, Monday April 7 looks like the next good day on my schedule.
That Monday is no good for me. Boss is back from 2-week absence and we'll have some quarter-end reporting things to put together in one day.
Be'Wiched is in my building, so when we get the date and time set I can walk down and reserve a table or two for us.
okay, I'm not linking (Because Stupid), but this headline annoyed me at teh Yahoos: "Man finds live worm in package of fish at Costco".
I mean, WTF? I guess Yahoo is now the nation's gossip hound? Worms happen occasionally in fresh seafood. That's just one reason why I tend to avoid cut-rate and gas-station sushi.
Just need to find the right worms.
Wow. Gibson won the 5th starter role. Deduno will start the season in the bullpen. Vanimal is on waivers.
I am astounded. Rhu and socal (though he thought it made too much sense to actually happen) must have fans in the Twins FO.
I'm surprised they made the decision this early. I don't have a problem with it, I just thought they'd wait until the season was about to start to announce the fifth starter.
Makes a bit more sense to decide early if they're serious about trading some pitching for some offense, doesn't it? Kinda narrows down who is available as a trade chip this way.
yeah, setting up the trading block early is the thing that makes the most sense
Wow is right. I didn't expect that.
Yes, I am surprised they did this. Gibson is by far the one with the highest upside even after surgery. It's nice to see the Twins aren't overly concerned about losing players out of options who haven't earned a spot. If they can't earn a spot at this stage in their careers, it's doubtful they will ever be useful, and they will just get expensive that much sooner.
I'm glad to see the Twins aren't afraid to go with the best performer. I'm guessing Hicks has pretty much wrapped up the CF job now. Hopefully, Pinto will split time at catcher with Suzuki. With Arcia in RF, I can get into watching that lineup.
He may have, but even though LENIII suggests Gardy was happy with his 4-4 night (2 hits from each side of the plate), the quote that made the paper was this one:
Spring training is definitely the place to be emphasizing fundamentals, but considering the focus the past couple of weeks on their lack of offense, this seems an odd time to be tamping down enthusiasm for our probable opening day CF.
No one's ever accused Gardy of having a sharp PR mind. It seems like a legitimate criticism to me, though--if you're playing in the majors, you should know when to hit the cut-off man. Of course, that's only one part of Hicks' game, and I think in the end, Gardy will judge the whole package.
All very true.
I wonder if Vanimal was waived now because he is more likely to get through waivers since teams haven't decided on who they want to pitch but it is too late to bring a guy in camp to win a job.
He was placed on waivers on Wednesday apparently, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him slip through.
And if Nolasco keeps pitching like today, Gibson might be pitching the opener.
To the Mest no less.
I think it bears repeating...last year's opening day starter just cleared waivers.
Just a minor obstacle on his path to being next year's opening day starter.
For the St. Paul Saints
Spoke too soon:
I will be off the grid for the next week. Did I mention, however, that ALL WE DO IS WIN?
Even Aaron Rodgers had a shout out for the Bison! What a great game.
I read at CBSSports and ESPN that less than 0.2% of the brackets filled out remained perfect after day 1.
Has anyone heard how many got only one wrong? I want to know my (peak) percentile (before it all comes crashing down on day 2).
I've done similar things in the past in my work bracket, (Day 1 lead, Back to the pack on Day 2, behind after the weekend). This time there was no research, only "I heard Harvard is underranked" and "OSU? F--- them".
on ESPN:
Thanks!
Not quite in the top 1%, but top 1.79% is good enough for the girls we go with.
I was so close to having a perfect first day! The only two I've gotten wrong are Dayton vs. Ohio State and Texas vs. ASU, both of which were decided on last-second shots.
Stupid Syracuse goes and doesn't get upset is what I had.
In the ESPN fantasy tournament for the last World Cup (like the BPL one where you pick a starting 11 based on a salary cap), I finished 64th in the world. I have no clue how I pulled that off (ok, maybe having Forlan and Schneijder helped).
Fun to watch India best Pakistan in Dhaka. Now watching the Dutch against the Irish. Couldn't be any more different cricket. No doosras or spinners, just air balls and Yorkers, lay it out there like Bert Blyleven.
All I have is a Yorker. I just bring the heat. I can barely keep from chucking, much less worry about putting spin on the ball.
I too bring on the heat. But American bowling, they swing for the boundaries == wickets.
We may be signing the 10.5 year old and 8 year old for park & rec cricket this year. EAR saw it listed and thought it sounded fun, and it fits our schedule well.
We did T-ball/Baseball two years back and that was not that fun a time, at least for the adult who had to sit in the grass in the hot sun.
When I was a kid and awful at baseball, I was able to bike to the park. Things in the city are too far away, and with littler ones, that's a big commitment of time.
Down goes Duke. BWHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Schaden-freude *clap clap clapclapclap*
Went to the little Island store on my towny bike, got provisions for dinner tonite.
Got some expen$ive salmon, but thot I would hooch it up a little, use up that Chinese barbecue sauce in the fridge, the little bit of garlic we had left, make some kinda marinade.
And then I thought I would dabble in Dark Powers - I bought a fresh Scotch Bonnet pepper - sliced it thin, then mixed it in with the Chinese barbecue sauce and the garlic. Holy cow.
I barely tasted the marinade and my lips are still burning and that was a half hour ago. I can't imagine how this thing is going down if it enters the digestive tracts. Need to think through this, we have an early flight tomorrow.
Never dabble in the dark arts before a flight.
There's more to this story…
I went down to the hotel grill earlier, fired it up, etc.
Later I brought down my salmon (with the you-know-what marinade), green beans, mushrooms, pineapple.
On the side of my dish was the remaining half of the Scotch Bonnet pepper. Not sure why I brought that along.
So there's this dude - from New Canaan, CT. I explain the whole Scotch Bonnet thing. He picks it up and takes a bite out of the pepper. It all happens too quickly for me to stop him.
Seconds later he says he has to get some water, and runs off.
Minutes later he rejoins me at the grill and says, yeah, that's one tough pepper.
Nice Kirchner, btw. More fine art coffee cups, please. For special occasions, maybe we could have a Cup of Absinthe?
There are several more in the library. As I see duplicates, I'll aim for the fine art.
A personal note: there are problems in Big Brother A's family. I won't go into details, other than to say it involves his two supposedly adult children. If anyone would be of a mind to say some prayers for Big Brother A and his wife, such prayers would be appreciated.
Sign me up.
Dido.
Just got this one yesterday -- my first of this player. This one's for JeffA
ID the AU - which Twins player (former or current) has this signature?
I got it, but again, it's a pretty easy one.
I got the first name right!
Hint free and bbref free.
Two in a row, I think?
The Newmark Mets finally found their bats tonight and enjoyed a
78-4 win over the A's. Trey was the starting pitcher again and went 3 innings with just 1 run allowed. He struck out the side on 12 pitches in the first inning and ended up with 5 or 6 Ks for the game (Pretty much every out for the A's was a strikeout, but some came on coach's pitches after a "walk"). Trey also had two hits and twice scored on wild pitches and was awarded the game ball. The Mets came into the game 1-2 and had just 4 hits total on the season, two by Trey.Let the Twins know about this kid!