Cup of Coffee

April 6th, 2014: Weather Preference

50 Comments

I've been up for awhile now and finished my first pot, so I may as well make a new one.

The Trinket has been more amped to go outside now that it's warming up and she can play in her sandbox. I'm worried she's going to prefer the warmer weather.

50 thoughts on “April 6th, 2014: Weather Preference”

  1. Fun with early numbers! there are two AL teams that have hit zero home runs: Kansas City (duh) and the New York Yankees. Texas has one.

    1. The Mariners have the most runs scored and the fewest runs allowed. The Twins are fourth in the AL in runs scored despite leading the AL in strikeouts.

  2. Wild Playoff Watch

    Wild handled the Penguins with ease. That had to be a nice confidence builder. A 4-0 win (Minnesota's 40th of the season) leaves the Wild on the brink of a playoff spot, and keep the possibility of a 100-point season alive (although very very very unlikely).

    Dallas, Vancouver, and Nashville all got 2 points as well, so with a week to go in the season, the crowd for the last spot remains the same.

    MIN - 92 pts
    DAL - 87 pts (WMN = 6)
    ------------
    PHX - 86 pts (WMN = 3)
    VAN - 81 pts
    NSH - 81 pts

    Tonight:
    Dallas @ Florida - The second game of a back-to-back might see the Stars come out tired. On the other hand Florida is not very good.

    1. I actually tuned out of last nights game after the first period because they scored 3.

    2. For me, the logical limit for most relievers is once through the lineup rather than any given number of outs or innings. Most of the time, they don't have enough pitches that you'd want them facing the same hitter more than once, but automatically removing them after just one inning as a rule is silly.

    3. One of the things I dislike is when an announcer or a writer says, "The manager was forced to...(use his bullpen, bring the infield in, use a pinch-hitter, etc.). Nobody's forcing him. Those are choices. They may be very good choices, or they may not be, but they're choices, and they should be treated that way.

  4. Awesomely entertaining game last night. Bad luck, Bucky. It figures that Johnson would miss one of those three FTs andbit would cost 'em.

    The reffing sucked, however.

    1. I said the same thing about the reffing last week. I can live with judgement calls, but sometimes, especially on fouls/non-fouls on inside shots, it doesn't seem the refs have any idea what is going on.

      Plus the time clock reviews have been absolutely brutal. Go back to the old way already.

    2. It seems basketball refs get more ire than any other sport. Why do we think that is? Is there are too much subjectivity in basketball or are they not managed well? I would say anecdotally, the sports are in this order:

      Basketball
      Football
      Baseball
      Hockey

      I don't follow soccer, but I'm guessing those refs are around the middle of the list.

        1. the refs last night apparently think that they work in the NBA -- if the defender is in the offensive player's way, it's a blocking foul. Two of the three calls against Johnson (the ones in the first half) were horrrrrrrrible, and the third was at least suspect.

      2. Because in the NBA, you get the 'star treatment' thing. Like on Friday when LeBron James would lower his shoulder into a defender who was standing his ground the and the foul gets called against the defender. But if its Alexi Shved doing that move its an offensive foul.

      3. I would say soccer refs get at least as much heat as basketball refs. One or two big calls can totally change a game and their job is basically impossible.

      4. I think the subjectivity is a huge part of the problem, although I don't know what to do about it.

        In baseball, almost everything is black-and-white. Either the runner was safe or he was out. Either the pitch was a ball or it was a strike. We may argue about whether the umpire got it right, but we all agree on what the rule is, and if we both saw it the same way, then we agree on what the call should have been.

        But in basketball, we can see it the exact same way and yet disagree on what the call is. Was that enough contact to be a foul? I say yes, you say no. Was that a charge or a block? I say charge, you say block. And there's no way to conclusively prove who's right and who's wrong. It's all just a matter of opinion.

        1. a great example last night was the technical foul called on Dakari Johnson for whacking Kamensky in the face. Steve Kerr thought it should be a flagrant foul; Greg Anthony thought it should be a no-call. Seemed pretty flagrant to me. refs called it a tech because it was a dead-ball foul. I think they got it about right.

    3. Kentucky's entire offensive strategy appears to be throw up any old half-assed shot from anywhere and then crash the boards and get a tip-in or dunk.

  5. @davidwatts I've been seeing you comment on Parks & Rec for awhile. Started watching yesterday. 20 episodes later: LOL.

    3. Just wait until the second season. They really figured everyone out and hit a tremendous stride that resulted in some of the funniest tv we'll ever see.

        1. Was that all it was. I thought it had a full first season. Anywho, my point still stands.

        3. Yeah, the first season was only 6 episodes. I am in the minority but I enjoyed those episodes (exceptions being The Pilot. But rarely do shows have a strong pilot episode.)

          1. Pilots should rarely be aired. Shows typically improve soooooo much between pilot and series.

            I wasn't a huge fan yet during the first season but I foresaw the brilliance coming. It's a Michael Schur show and he'd previously taken a short first season to get his feet wet once, so why not again?

        4. Yep. Well into the second season. Sustaining the pit as the main storyline was gonna be hard. Thankfully, it's filled in and they've moved on. Just terrific episodes, one right after the other.

  6. took the Mrs to Biba's for her birthday last night. Fabulous dinner.

    Biba her ownself was at the front of the house when we came in and said hello. She was also at the bar talking with folks on our way out and thanked us for coming. Try getting that out of your typical celebrity chef!

    Hilariously (to us), the waiter rushed over to us as we were first looking at the menu and said "if you want the lasagne, you have to tell me right now, because I only have two left." Funny start to the meal, but the waiter was great -- friendly and familiar/casual, but not overly so, and professional without being stuffy.

    the lasagne is celebrated and normally available only on thursdays and fridays. But we declined.

    we split the Mozzarella di Bufala with slow roasted San Marzano tomatoes and olive oil braised artichokes for antipasta. The mozzarella was clean and vaguely sweet. Nothing too extraordinary. But the roasted tomatoes were pretty spectacular.

    she had a nice salad with gorgonzola and pine nuts. I had a half-order (!!! more like a whole order!) of Garganelli with a slow simmered spring lamb and tomato ragu with a young Pecorino cheese. Oh, my. That was pretty awesome. For entrees, she had the pan-roasted halibut with spring vegetables in a butter-lemon sauce (hold the capers. Boo!). I had Ossobuco alla Milanese: Slowly braised veal shank with aromatic vegetables, wine and tomatoes served with a saffron risotto cake.

    The fish portion was very large. Nice, but a little bland (without the capers). And needed a little starch on the plate to balance things. The ossobuco was glorious. Rich, rich sauce, melt-in-your-mouth, tender meat. And the saffron risotto cake was incredible.

    for dessert, she had an outstanding lemon tart with meringue and raspberry sauce, big enough for two. I made the mistake of ordering the chocolate mousse. It was delicious, but very, very heavy and ginormous. I ate about half.

    Bottom line: an outstanding value at an old-line, premier restaurant. they weren't doing anything daring with what we ordered, but we didn't exactly order anything daring. Nor is there anything that I'd call "daring" on the menu. It's old-style, classy Italian.

    1. I think know I'm spoiled, but, to date, I've met Donald Link (twice), John Besh, a mess of Brennan family members, talked briefly with Susan Spicer, and saw Emeril "bam" from about 3 yards. Not to mention Bourdain came into my institution one Sunday while I was covering the front of house. Seemed like a nice enough dude for being such a blowhard on TV.

      One other celebrity moment, I got to chat with Bob Villa on Thursday night. Super nice dude.

    2. I almost always get the ossubuco if it's a classical Ital joint. Sounds like you had a wonderful dinner.

      1. yea, ossobuco for italian places, cassoulet for french. those are go-to items for me.

  8. Alex Meyer made his AAA debut today and it was decent enough. Three runs (two earned) on three hits and a walk with six strikeouts in five innings. We'll report on this and the other Twins' affiliates games in tomorrow's Minor Details.

  9. Chemistry solves another problem:

    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukDAfF0-8q8

    (more appropriate for this past Wednesday, but I just saw it today)

  10. If you want more baseball, the Red Wings are in extra innings against Buffalo right now.

  11. NBB recent brushes with fame:

    Garrison Keillor - at MSP airport. I've run into him downtown St. Paul before also. Hard to miss.
    Alain Altinoglu - conductor of Werther (Levine was taking treatments at a Banya) rushing from his limo to the Met.
    Bill Rogers (of Boston Marathon fame) - hanging out at a booth at the Half Marathon this morning.

      1. I hoped no one would bring James up- I originally made it non-Nishi and non-Chuck James divisions, but the whole LTE was unwieldy enough already that I thought it needed trimmed. Too many Fiction 59's for spooky's place, I guess.

    3. CJ may be my favorite,
      But onnly Herrmann is my favorrite.
      Nishi is my son's favorite

      'Spoiler' SelectShow

  14. I was looking at the active SLG% list and found this interesting (this does not include Sundays stats):

    47. Josh Willingham .4700
    48. Andre Ethier .4696
    49. Joe Mauer .4674
    50. Torii Hunter .4666

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