34 thoughts on “April 26, 2019: Draft”

  1. A friend of mine and I went to the big movie last night (at 9:30, so I'm a bit groggy this morning). Long (and spoiler-free) story short, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

    'Spoilers, but relatively mild ones' SelectShow
    1. I think I may try to go Sunday morning, so I get to try to avoid spoilers all weekend.

      1. I convinced the wife to let me take the boy to a Saturday matinee of Captain Marvel, which we haven't seen yet (oh yeah, we caught up on all the rest of the MCU already). What I didn't mention is this is a bit of a setup for me to sneak out after I put everyone to bed to see the big one. At the very least, I'll pay good money to take a nap in cushy, dirty recliner.

        1. Haven't seen Captain Marvel yet, but have seen all the rest. Just not enough time to see that one first.

          1. I want to get that one in first before I suffer death from a thousand spoilers on the new one. Wish I'd already gotten that one though because, yeah, schedule sucks.

            1. My impression is that it's not supposed to be essential. Some familiarity with the character would help, but I've got some of that anyway.

              At least, that's my hope.

              1. It sets up Fury's pager, but you're right in that its mainly to introduce the character. It's worth seeing, though.

      2. We bought tickets for 9:30 am on Sunday, to work around the other stuff we have going on this weekend. There are showings as early as 7:45 Sunday morning, though many of the more normal afternoon/evening show times were already sold out days ago.

        1. 8:45 am for me. I may have to cut back on the Saturday late night video games I normally engage in.

    2. 'Spoiler' SelectShow
    1. A chance to be a big time baseball hero coming off the bench and mashing a HR over the LF grandstand.

    2. De Jong is the guy we just absolutely had to have in the majors right away, so it was worth losing Tyler Austin, right? I mean, not that Tyler Austin is all that, but it still bothers me that we lost him in such an inept way.

      1. The Twins needed an arm in the bullpen. It wasn't De Jong so much as just a long reliever. Remember, the Twins started with a bigger bench at the start of the season because of all the extra off days. At least one of the bench guys was just temporary until the Twins had a more normal schedule. Tyler Austin didn't have a spot on the Twins and was out of options. I think the hope was that he would sneak through waivers easier after the start of the season. De Jong wasn't the reason the Twins lost Austin. It was the claiming of Cron and the signing of Cruz. With him pretty much limited to first base (and possibly corner outfield on occasion), there really wasn't room for him on the bench.

        1. I disagree. Austin was on the team until the decided they needed De Jong. And they didn't actually need an arm in the bullpen, they just thought they did. They were afraid they'd get a short start the next day, which wasn't unreasonable, but they had other bullpen guys who could've pitched if they had. The only way they really needed an arm is if they got about three short starts in a row, and they could've waited to see if that was going to happen before they made a move. And as it turned out, De Jong pitched exactly once, about a week after they called him up, and pitched the ninth inning of a blowout game.

          Again, Austin isn't all that, and perhaps they would've let him go at some point anyway. But there was no reason they had to do it then, and the fact that they did shows ineptitude by the front office, in my opinion.

  2. I've made this a couple of times as is, and it's pretty good. I made a batch of it last night, but this time I had a ham hock to toss in and whoa mama, mind-blowing.

    1. I might try making my navy bean soup in the Instant Pot, I've got a ham hock in the freezer and a bag of great northern beans just begging to be cooked.

      1. this may come as a shock, but I think the Instant Pot makes pretty darned good split pea/bean soup.

        I favor making a stock with smoked hocks first, which at least doubles the time, but YMMV.

  3. Guess the top five Twins hitters when ranked by average batted ball speed (minimum ten* batted balls). First should be easy, but the second is surprising.

    Spoiler SelectShow

    *

    Actual Fastest SelectShow
  4. The line for the Studly shirts is ridiculously long. They've got a cult hero on their hands.

      1. I still have no idea how Rocco decides who's going to catch on any particular night. I'm not saying he's doing it wrong, nor am I saying he doesn't have a plan. I just have no idea what it is.

  5. The good news: After sitting in the garage for 3 years, I got the old Toyota pickup running again.
    The bad news: The metal part of the gas line has rusted and sprung a leak. Some vice grips on the rubber part stopped the leak, but I’ve got a mess to clean up now. Tossed a bunch of sand down to soak up the gas and have a fan running to help dry the floor and clear fumes, but tomorrow I’ll have to siphon out the tank and figure out a permanent fix.

      1. It looks like the prefabbed gas lines are not available anymore, so I'll have to do some fabricating on this job. I can make a new gas line out of brake line stock, just have to get the right size fittings and tools for bending and flaring. Since I have to get those tools I might as well replace all the brake lines while I'm at it. And since it will be much easier to do all of this with the bed off the frame, might be a good time to replace that, too. This could end up being the start of a more major renovation project since I found a boneyard not far from Brainerd that has dozens of old Yota pickups so I have a source for used parts sort of in the area now.

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