59 thoughts on “May 12, 2014: Return”

  1. Not only did I miss GoT last night, but I missed the late showing of it as well. We loaded for our 6:30 take-off, only to disembark 45 minutes later. After hanging around waiting on weather reports, we finally reboarded and took off at 9:35. After taking a round-about route and enough turbulance the last 30 minutes that I was starting to get uncomfortable, we touched down in Omerha at exactly 11PM...only to find another plane at our gate. Finally entered my hotel room after midnight -- so much for getting any work done before today. Extra curricular activity in the next room made falling asleep difficult as well.

    I'll have to get reports today on any damage from the storms here. You came out okay, didn't you Rowsdower?

  2. Monday Starting Pitching Report, sent from that baseball hotbed of Waterloo, Belgium:

    # Name W L SV G GS IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 BABIP LOB% GB% HR/FB ERA FIP xFIP WAR
    1 Phil Hughes 4 1 0 7 7 41.1 6.97 1.31 0.87 .328 72.3 % 33.1 % 6.9 % 3.92 3.31 3.86 0.9
    2 Kyle Gibson 3 3 0 7 7 38.0 4.03 4.26 0.24 .295 67.1 % 49.6 % 2.3 % 4.74 3.96 5.11 0.6
    3 Kevin Correia 1 4 0 7 7 38.1 4.70 2.82 0.94 .331 57.5 % 43.6 % 6.8 % 6.34 4.42 5.05 0.3
    4 Ricky Nolasco 2 3 0 7 7 44.2 5.64 2.22 1.41 .342 69.3 % 45.1 % 12.5 % 5.64 4.61 4.19 0.2
    5 Samuel Deduno 0 1 0 2 2 11.0 5.73 2.45 0.82 .306 61.6 % 59.5 % 11.1 % 4.91 4.09 3.96 0.1
    6 Kris Johnson 0 0 0 1 1 4.1 10.38 12.46 0.00 .364 100.0 % 60.0 % 0.0 % 0.00 4.93 5.23 0.0
    7 Mike Pelfrey 0 3 0 5 5 23.2 3.80 6.85 1.90 .286 61.9 % 43.7 % 15.2 % 7.99 7.52 6.58 -0.5

    There is good news: namely that the two big off-season acquisitions have improved. Nolasco looks like not a disaster, and Hughes looks like he can be a valuable asset. Gibson's results have gotten in line with his peripherals and that's not a good thing. Correia is coming off the books at the end of the year and that's another good thing.

    Twins starters are still 30th in FIP, K/9, and xFIP, 29th in ERA, and 27th in BB/9 but there are some encouraging signs.

  3. Prayers and good vibes appreciated for my sister in the hospital with some pretty serious stuff.

    8. I had a chance to see my sister today (right after the funeral for my cousin's baby). She is sedated and on a ventilator. She has Cystic Fibrosis, went in for a procedure the beginning of last week, was doing well, and then suddenly took a sharp turn over the weekend when she contracted pneumonia. Continued prayers are much appreciated. It's been a rough day.

    1. And they apparently are in a rain dealy. The game is now scheduled to start at 10:10.

  5. Uffda, this weekend was miserable. I'm fortunate to have a pretty good immune system, but I must've picked up a bug somewhere. Nauseous, couldn't keep anything down or in (I think I woofed my cookies seven times on Saturday), ran a fever most of the day Sunday, only had fluids. Somehow still managed to pound four t-posts around one of the new raised garden beds so Mrs. Hayes can set up our anti-squirrel defenses. Woke up this morning feeling much improved, but we'll see how my stamina is for a full day.

    1. That sucks, but it makes me feel less adequate since I'm not sick but still complained all day while churning up the garden soil yesterday. With my wife pregnant last year, we didn't touch the thing so it was completely weeded over. Couple friends came out and helped shovel the soil and sift out the weeds. I got sun burned and sun fatigued. Come on back winter.

      1. Finished my four garden squares this last weekend.
        Square:
        1 - dahlias and gladiolas.
        2 - herbs
        3 - marigolds around the perimeter (rabbit control), snap peas, blue lake beans, and tomatoes.
        4 - eggplant, jalapenos, spinach, kale, and chard.

  6. Cc to Sean: the coc page loads only half the screen on my iPhone. The home page loads normally, but the links to article pages load funny in both landscape and portrait. Also, mags' table from the epl scrolls with you as you lower the page pushing the text with it creating a white space.

    1. This will be hard to debug without an iPhone. Are you loading it over wifi or cellular?

        1. only half the page, or it only covers half the screen?

          I've seen this every time anyone posts a wide table (like, e.g., the Boss with his pitching updates)

    2. And I think I got what you saw. It doesn't happen in Firefox but did in Chrome. Might be a browser bug.

    1. Not the point of the article, I know, but this line is stupid:

      Even the machines are repaired on-site.

      1. Heh, yep. Having a maintenance department is not all that impressive.

        This, though-

        The peppers are ground here and stored in huge plastic tubs manufactured on-site.

        Do they really "manufacture" plastic tubs in the same factory that they are making chili sauce in? That seems unlikely to me, given the energy requirements and the fumes released during heating and molding.

        1. chile fumes are the perfect cover for noxious chemical fumes.

          Yea, a lot in that piece was suspect. I was mostly focused on the company not relocating out of state.

        2. I think it could be done with the right facility layout. I was once on site at a Nestle plant where they were making Nesquick and other such stuff and blowing the plastic bottles on the other side of the wall from the pasteurizing room. It's not quite the same as making the bottles from scratch, but close.

          1. Huh, I was picturing maybe a snap-together plastic tub (or something less impressive), but sounds like it's more possible than I was giving it credit for.

  9. also, in case you already thought that ice cream trucks were annoying anachronisms, comes this news: the jingle music is from associated with a horrible, racist song titled "N____r Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" [edited to reduce chances of folks coming her in pursuit of the N word reference]

    The first and natural inclination, of course, is to assume that the ice cream truck song is simply paying homage to "Turkey in the Straw," but the melody reached the nation only after it was appropriated by traveling blackface minstrel shows. There is simply no divorcing the song from the dozens of decades it was almost exclusively used for coming up with new ways to ridicule, and profit from, black people.

    "dozens of decades" might be a wee bit of hyperbole there.

    1. I live a 1/2 block from a park. We have these annoying ice cream trucks that troll around.

      They play these obnoxious songs that often end with a 'clown-like-wacky-Hello!!?!!-springy sound.

      I don't own a firearm, but I do have a Kashmir willow cricket bat. Hmm...

    2. In court this morning. Guy in his 30's caught speeding in his Mizerati. 128 in a 55. Fifth time he's had a ticket in five years for speeding. He explained to the judge that the first four times was to get to work faster. Just this past time was he intentionally being reckless.

    3. Sheenie's already pissed that she can't have Tylenol, Diet Coke, coffee, as much seafood as we usually eat, and turkey sandwiches. I probably won't be mentioning this to her.

  13. Greetings from Prague. Got here about 6:00 PM local time, checked into my hotel, and ate pig knuckles and drank beer. Cheaply.

    I overslept this morning after struggling to sleep most of the night. Hoping today will be better. It is 10:30 now and I'm dead tired. I'm setting down the iPad after this comment. Hopefully I will fall asleep immediately.

  15. Hi fellas!

    Long time no see. I have a complaint that only the WGOM is clever enough to hear/offer solutions to. My gas company sent me a bill three weeks ago telling me they have not read my meter in 15 months. Based on a estimate I recently offered them they decided they had undercharged me $877.00. They said I could pay off the balance in full or take in a payment plan. Hey, cool. Anyway, shame on me for not calling until I looked at my bank account this morning but since I am set up on autodraft they took out the entire $877. I called them and said "hey, I know I am at fault here, but come on. What can we do to not have nearly $900 drafted from my account?" I thought it seemed like a reasonable enough question.

    Well, they took a tone with me similar to my wife when I don't get home until 2am. They could not believe I had the chutzpah to ask them to reduce the charge and get set up on a sort of plan and told me to "take it up with my bank".

    So I did.

    My bank then told me the only way they can stop a payment is if I contact them three days before the payment is withdrawn. I asked my bank how I would know about the withdrawl ahead of time. They seemed surprised I would ask such a question.

    Now again, I know had I just called the gas company two weeks ago this is all avoided. With that said, do I have any recourse here? Thankfully I have enough money to cover my immediate bills but I think it is safe to say I won't be making any recreational purchases until the next pay day.

    By the way, the gas company said they can come in two weeks to read the meter to make sure it is correct.

    Thanks a lot.

    1. the first thing I would consider is seeing whether the state PUC has a mechanism for complaints against your utility.

      The second thing would be to bark up the tree at the utility. THEY didn't read your meter for OVER A YEAR and now they are deciding you've underpaid? Umm, WTF. Isn't meter reading THEIR JOB? Demand that they send someone over NOW to read the effing meter, not in two weeks. That's bogus.

      Regardless, I'm thinking there's a lot of fault here that ain't yours.

      Here is the link to the NY State Public Service Commission complaint filin' page.

      The Public Service Commission staff helps resolve complaints with utilities. We also have an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) program to encourage consumers and utilities to resolve their conflicts cooperatively.

      1. I appreciate the offer, but that won't be needed. I just wanted to vent about it. I will follow up with the gas company tomorrow after I cool down a little bit see if I can't talk to someone to address this. It isn't taking food out of the calves mouths. Just going to have to drink Genny for a couple of weeks.

        1. From experience (both mine and clients who I helped before we got the other attorney), I'm well aware that utility companies are... not consumer friendly. There are usually laws telling them what they have to do, but the often refuse to follow the law. Get their attorney involved if that turns out to be the case. Their own attorneys often set them straight.

      2. When I read this in the sidebar, I read "utility attorney" like "utility infielder"

  16. Philip Nelson certainly just kicked his future goodbye.

    Man, I am so glad I'm not a college-aged dumb@ss anymore. And I'm sincerely hoping that all the college-aged dumb@sses out there wake up before they kill someone or get killed.

    1. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

      Not that there was much doubt, but at some point the guy should just shut his trap and stop digging the hole any deeper.

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