...for the lull between busy weeks, when customers beg me to honor Black Friday prices.
65 thoughts on “December 3, 2014: And Now”
Here was my day yesterday: Run my son to 6 am hockey practice. Go home and shower/get ready for work. Pick up son at 7:15 and run him to school. Work by 8. Get a call that someone smoked my mailbox overnight. Run back home to make sure mail/bills were not in box or spread across neighbors lawn. Back to work until 3:00. Pick up son and 2 friends from school and run them to drivers training. Stop by the rink to sign some checks and conduct other business. 4:30- Grab a quick bite to eat with my daughter at home. 5:30- run my daughter to orchestra practice. 6:30- pick up son from drivers training. (in between 5:30-6:30 answer email interview questions for local paper on college hockey game I am helping to host) Run my son home. Head right back out to pick up my daughter from orchestra. 7:00- bring my daughter to watch girls high school hockey game (they lose) since...she has 9pm hockey practice anyway (might as well save one trip back and forth). 9 - 10 pm - watch the daughter skate. 10:30-finally home for the day. Whew! Today, I am the "lucky" one and work a 12 hour shift, so my wife will do the running. Do you see a common theme above? I am thinking my soon-to-be investment in a vehicle for my son will be a good thing!
Oh, I forgot: 10:45- check WGOM for reaction on ii signing.
My take away from this is to make sure my kids don't want to play hockey.
Maybe change that to any competitive sports? Most of them are basically similar in the amount of time it takes to run them around. I would not change the hockey part at all, since I think the sport has helped my kids in many ways. A lot of the schedule pressure is self-inflicted. My wife says I volunteer too much, but I figure if I can't coach/skate, I may as well help out where I can.
Yeah, I know, I was just trying to be a smart ass.
That said, when my kids grow fond of curling, it'll be great because then I can go drink beer while supporting them.
Curling is definitely on my list as a great winter hobby once my kids have moved out. Beer may be part of the allure for me.
I don't remember, do you live in the Douglas County area? Would you be joining one of the local curling places?
Yup, Douglas County area. I have been dealing with the local curling folks as we try to get the rink complex expanded. I would curl at the RCC when the time comes
Hell, with your son having a license it sounds like you could make it a great winter hobby (because it is a great winter hobby) about then.
Speaking of curling, for those of you with a cable login and a streaming device, the Canada cup is on ESPN 3 starting now.
I remember my mom had a couple of days where she drove at least 100 miles shuttling the four of us around without ever leaving Richfield.
Looking back at the 1993 Draft, The Twins were one of the few teams to get a great player (as much as I dont like him, I would classify Torii Hunter's career as great. Not HoF worthy, but The Hall of Very Good). Alex Rodriguez, Hunter, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner probably highlight that Draft.
The Twins also drafted Jason Varitek in 1993 but didn't sign him. Varitek signed the next year with Seattle, though he and Scott Boras exploited some loopholes along the way. In any case, that was a significant miss for the Twins.
Torii Hunter's deal includes a full no trade clause. Great job on this one, Terry.
This deal gets more stupid by the minute.
This certainly makes it worse. I'm also pretty peeved Nunez is still on our 40 man roster.
Don't understand tendering Nunez or Duensing.
This to me is way worse than Hunter. Hunter will at least make some casual fans interested. If the team thinks that's a $10.5 million investment with a $10.6 million return, I can understand the move. But those two spots? Ugh.
From a baseball perspective, I think they are worse than the Hunter move, yes.
I'm mostly upset with the Hunter move since he seems like a pretty awful person.
ugh. Although very unlikely, I'm kind of hoping that Mauer is traded to a contender next season. It would be very hard to see him go, but he deserves an organization that understands his value, a media market that won't berate him, and a fan base that will praise his abilities. The signing of ii signals that the organization isn't interested in promoting it's current and future stars, but with appealing to the lowest common denominator.
I think we could very well see a Scooby-Doo type scenario where Terry Ryan's mask is removed to reveal that he was Souhan all along.
"It'd have worked, too, if it wasn't for you meddlin' WGOM and your Citizen, cheaptoy!"
If you read Souhan's article on the ii signing, this scenario isn't quite as cartoonish as you might think. It boggles the mind.
edit: Zack - you beat me to it by this -><- much.
I know, I made the comment with half my brain saying what Rhu put up above and half being dead serious. It was a weird inner struggle.
Nice try. Still won't read it. 🙂
Assuming it's not a team I completely loathe, I would probably be fine with this at this point. Souhan's article he wrote (one-handed) to welcome Torii back this morning made me ill. Ugh.
Hunter would wait until we were alone and recount his negotiations with the Twins, insisting that he would have stayed had he been able to negotiate with Terry Ryan instead of his replacement as Twins general manager, Bill Smith.
Holy shit balls. I know Top Jimmy lives on a different planet, but this is the most absurd shit I've ever read. I've mostly stopped caring about his full force free agent media tour, but his exit for greener pastures reflected his true character. Apparently this is the kind of personality we need in order to win.
Haha, right? Unreal.
He's not the hero we need, but the one we deserve.
I'm getting an urge to watch Mystery Men
We've got a blind a date with destiny, and it looks like she's ordered the lobster.
This is an effing lie.
I am proud to say that I was on the Torii is a dick bandwagon before almost anyone else.
That you were.
Even when the rest of us were loving that birthday party commercial.
I don't think I was far behind.
Also,
Apparently this is the kind of personality we need in order to win.
Count tha ringz.
I'm cross-posting this here from visagecodex, because I thought that some who are not fb-active (pepper) might find it amusing:
Microsoft products will auto-correct "hemophobic" into "homophobic".
I'm so glad I re-looked at my email about a relevant article (but with surgical photos) before I sent it to my colleagues.
"If you're homophobic or even just squeamish, be warned: there are graphic photos." That's a very different message than what I typed.
Yes, I feel ashamed about that use of "graphic". It's either redundant or oxymoronic, but I couldn't come up with the better way of saying "bloody" and had to move forward with the cliché intact.
there's a reason I don't use auto-correct on my computer. Now if I could figure out how to turn it off on my phone, I'd cost you all a lot of amusement do that too.
it also auto-capitalizes "microsoft"
I do appreciate it! That's an impressively awful "correction" of a word.
Re: graphic, I have occasion to talk about graphic novels on a regular basis, and the term always amuses me.
Im just going to leave this here
Phil Mackey @PhilMackey
"Whoever believes in that sabermetrics stuff never played the game." Hunter on his poor defensive metrics the last two years
Nice to see someone in the local media would ask such a question to him.
It was Berardino who asked the question.
Even more impressive that it was a writer.
Berardino then asked Hunter about his political slant/gay marriage statements. Gave a non answer, then called him a prick. LEADERSHIP!
I assume there will be a dozen articles tomorrow about how classy he is.
You know the media that cover the Twins are doing somersaults because they have an easy quote on a team that doesn't have many. Every loss got quotes from Dozier and Perkins basically. And you know they hated to see Gardy go, especially when replaced by the rather stoic Molitor.
One of the things Berardino said after the signing was how i-i had won a few "Media Good Guy" awards from the Twin Cities sports mediots before leaving. He didn't particularly appreciate my explication of what that award means.
I'd like him to say that to Perk's face.
I missed it by that much.
And apparently Glen Perkins and Brandon McCarthy have never played the game.
Or Billy Beane!
Or Gabe Kapler. Or Dirk Hayhurst. Or Clint Hurdle.
I read "Gabe Kapler" and said to myself "what does Welcome Back, Kotter have to do with this?"
I really, really dislike this signing. Granted, I dislike the retention of Nunez and Duensing too, but when I think to the future, how much drool is going to accumulate on the microphone as Dick'n'Bert discuss Torii's leadership and awesomeness... I mean... to hear stuff like this just makes me very disheartened that the team has these kinds of blinders on.
In 12 of ii's 16 full seasons, he had zero sacrifice hits. High of 3 (in 2013), no other season with more than 1. How excited can Dick'n'Bert get without any bunts?
Well, at a certain point we have to ask ourselves if the organization actually is wearing any blinders.
Fair, yet disheartening point
iis is your judge. Can we get a banner with that on it?
Torii Hunter: "There’s no way you can measure playing outfield. Only your eyes can do that. ... Eyes is your judge." #MNTwins
Wolves go on a 17-3 run to take a 34-32 lead into halftime against the 0-17 Philadelphia '76ers.
Ouch.
The end result of this game is preordained. Mark it down.
Oh yeah. It definitely is.
I had a 24oz bottle of Shiner Holiday Cheer tonight. Gets a definite thumbs up from me. Probably would not do much more in one sitting than this, though.
Here was my day yesterday: Run my son to 6 am hockey practice. Go home and shower/get ready for work. Pick up son at 7:15 and run him to school. Work by 8. Get a call that someone smoked my mailbox overnight. Run back home to make sure mail/bills were not in box or spread across neighbors lawn. Back to work until 3:00. Pick up son and 2 friends from school and run them to drivers training. Stop by the rink to sign some checks and conduct other business. 4:30- Grab a quick bite to eat with my daughter at home. 5:30- run my daughter to orchestra practice. 6:30- pick up son from drivers training. (in between 5:30-6:30 answer email interview questions for local paper on college hockey game I am helping to host) Run my son home. Head right back out to pick up my daughter from orchestra. 7:00- bring my daughter to watch girls high school hockey game (they lose) since...she has 9pm hockey practice anyway (might as well save one trip back and forth). 9 - 10 pm - watch the daughter skate. 10:30-finally home for the day. Whew! Today, I am the "lucky" one and work a 12 hour shift, so my wife will do the running. Do you see a common theme above? I am thinking my soon-to-be investment in a vehicle for my son will be a good thing!
Oh, I forgot: 10:45- check WGOM for reaction on ii signing.
My take away from this is to make sure my kids don't want to play hockey.
Maybe change that to any competitive sports? Most of them are basically similar in the amount of time it takes to run them around. I would not change the hockey part at all, since I think the sport has helped my kids in many ways. A lot of the schedule pressure is self-inflicted. My wife says I volunteer too much, but I figure if I can't coach/skate, I may as well help out where I can.
Yeah, I know, I was just trying to be a smart ass.
That said, when my kids grow fond of curling, it'll be great because then I can go drink beer while supporting them.
Curling is definitely on my list as a great winter hobby once my kids have moved out. Beer may be part of the allure for me.
I don't remember, do you live in the Douglas County area? Would you be joining one of the local curling places?
Yup, Douglas County area. I have been dealing with the local curling folks as we try to get the rink complex expanded. I would curl at the RCC when the time comes
Hell, with your son having a license it sounds like you could make it a great winter hobby (because it is a great winter hobby) about then.
Speaking of curling, for those of you with a cable login and a streaming device, the Canada cup is on ESPN 3 starting now.
I remember my mom had a couple of days where she drove at least 100 miles shuttling the four of us around without ever leaving Richfield.
Looking back at the 1993 Draft, The Twins were one of the few teams to get a great player (as much as I dont like him, I would classify Torii Hunter's career as great. Not HoF worthy, but The Hall of Very Good). Alex Rodriguez, Hunter, Scott Rolen, Billy Wagner probably highlight that Draft.
The Twins also drafted Jason Varitek in 1993 but didn't sign him. Varitek signed the next year with Seattle, though he and Scott Boras exploited some loopholes along the way. In any case, that was a significant miss for the Twins.
Torii Hunter's deal includes a full no trade clause. Great job on this one, Terry.
This deal gets more stupid by the minute.
This certainly makes it worse. I'm also pretty peeved Nunez is still on our 40 man roster.
Don't understand tendering Nunez or Duensing.
This to me is way worse than Hunter. Hunter will at least make some casual fans interested. If the team thinks that's a $10.5 million investment with a $10.6 million return, I can understand the move. But those two spots? Ugh.
From a baseball perspective, I think they are worse than the Hunter move, yes.
I'm mostly upset with the Hunter move since he seems like a pretty awful person.
ugh. Although very unlikely, I'm kind of hoping that Mauer is traded to a contender next season. It would be very hard to see him go, but he deserves an organization that understands his value, a media market that won't berate him, and a fan base that will praise his abilities. The signing of ii signals that the organization isn't interested in promoting it's current and future stars, but with appealing to the lowest common denominator.
I think we could very well see a Scooby-Doo type scenario where Terry Ryan's mask is removed to reveal that he was Souhan all along.
"It'd have worked, too, if it wasn't for you meddlin' WGOM and your Citizen, cheaptoy!"
If you read Souhan's article on the ii signing, this scenario isn't quite as cartoonish as you might think. It boggles the mind.
edit: Zack - you beat me to it by this -><- much.
I know, I made the comment with half my brain saying what Rhu put up above and half being dead serious. It was a weird inner struggle.
Nice try. Still won't read it. 🙂
Assuming it's not a team I completely loathe, I would probably be fine with this at this point. Souhan's article he wrote (one-handed) to welcome Torii back this morning made me ill. Ugh.
Holy shit balls. I know Top Jimmy lives on a different planet, but this is the most absurd shit I've ever read. I've mostly stopped caring about his full force free agent media tour, but his exit for greener pastures reflected his true character. Apparently this is the kind of personality we need in order to win.
Haha, right? Unreal.
He's not the hero we need, but the one we deserve.
I'm getting an urge to watch Mystery Men
We've got a blind a date with destiny, and it looks like she's ordered the lobster.
This is an effing lie.
I am proud to say that I was on the Torii is a dick bandwagon before almost anyone else.
That you were.
Even when the rest of us were loving that birthday party commercial.
I don't think I was far behind.
Also,
Count tha ringz.
I'm cross-posting this here from visagecodex, because I thought that some who are not fb-active (pepper) might find it amusing:
Microsoft products will auto-correct "hemophobic" into "homophobic".
I'm so glad I re-looked at my email about a relevant article (but with surgical photos) before I sent it to my colleagues.
"If you're homophobic or even just squeamish, be warned: there are graphic photos." That's a very different message than what I typed.
Yes, I feel ashamed about that use of "graphic". It's either redundant or oxymoronic, but I couldn't come up with the better way of saying "bloody" and had to move forward with the cliché intact.
there's a reason I don't use auto-correct on my computer. Now if I could figure out how to turn it off on my phone, I'd
cost you all a lot of amusementdo that too.it also auto-capitalizes "microsoft"
I do appreciate it! That's an impressively awful "correction" of a word.
Re: graphic, I have occasion to talk about graphic novels on a regular basis, and the term always amuses me.
Im just going to leave this here
Nice to see someone in the local media would ask such a question to him.
It was Berardino who asked the question.
Even more impressive that it was a writer.
Berardino then asked Hunter about his political slant/gay marriage statements. Gave a non answer, then called him a prick. LEADERSHIP!
I assume there will be a dozen articles tomorrow about how classy he is.
You know the media that cover the Twins are doing somersaults because they have an easy quote on a team that doesn't have many. Every loss got quotes from Dozier and Perkins basically. And you know they hated to see Gardy go, especially when replaced by the rather stoic Molitor.
One of the things Berardino said after the signing was how i-i had won a few "Media Good Guy" awards from the Twin Cities sports mediots before leaving. He didn't particularly appreciate my explication of what that award means.
I'd like him to say that to Perk's face.
I missed it by that much.
And apparently Glen Perkins and Brandon McCarthy have never played the game.
Or Billy Beane!
Or Gabe Kapler. Or Dirk Hayhurst. Or Clint Hurdle.
Or Paul Molitor?
Yes.
I read "Gabe Kapler" and said to myself "what does Welcome Back, Kotter have to do with this?"
I really, really dislike this signing. Granted, I dislike the retention of Nunez and Duensing too, but when I think to the future, how much drool is going to accumulate on the microphone as Dick'n'Bert discuss Torii's leadership and awesomeness... I mean... to hear stuff like this just makes me very disheartened that the team has these kinds of blinders on.
Bert already started
Maybe the drool will short out the microphones.
Nice collection of responses to that one...
In 12 of ii's 16 full seasons, he had zero sacrifice hits. High of 3 (in 2013), no other season with more than 1. How excited can Dick'n'Bert get without any bunts?
Well, at a certain point we have to ask ourselves if the organization actually is wearing any blinders.
Fair, yet disheartening point
iis is your judge. Can we get a banner with that on it?
Wolves go on a 17-3 run to take a 34-32 lead into halftime against the 0-17 Philadelphia '76ers.
Ouch.
The end result of this game is preordained. Mark it down.
Oh yeah. It definitely is.
I had a 24oz bottle of Shiner Holiday Cheer tonight. Gets a definite thumbs up from me. Probably would not do much more in one sitting than this, though.