106 thoughts on “March 22, 2012: Home”

    2. I was watching that game live on TV because Spurs were playing.

      There was an immediate realization that it was really bad. They showed Muamba on the ground for about 2 seconds followed by 20 minutes of crowd reaction to what they were seeing. It was eerie as hell.

        1. When you land in Zimbabwe, they demand fifty American dollars in cash to let you "pass through customs" at the airport. At the hotel, we were told that our bill would be in American dollars "because we don't use our funny-money." Then, a couple of days later at checkout, the bill was actually in South African rand "because it's stronger today." Helluva country.

          Oh, and President Mugabe happened to be in town the day we landed so every corner on the drive into town was guarded by armed soldiers.

        2. Have a coworker in Omaha that was supposed to meet his wife in San Jose. He was almost to California before he realized that he should have paid more attention when booking his flight to Costa Rica.

  3. Update to the EPL Prediction contest. After ManCity's 2-1 win over Chelsea, the gap at the top is 1 point between leader's ManUtd and their cross-town rivals. Our contest is less close. DG now has a sizable lead.

    Place Player Points
    1 Daneeka's Ghost 26
    2 DK 18
    3 Spookymilk 16
    4 MagUidhir 15
    5 The Dread Pirate 13
    6 Homer Dome 13
    7 Freealonzo 12
    8 Buffalo 8
    9 AMR 8
    10 davidwatts 7

    1. That Man City win crushed me. Chelsea up by 1 and City scores twice in last 20 minutes or so. Chelsea winning would have put City solidly in 2nd and Chelsea in good position for 3rd. Not sure if would be enough to catch up with DG, but it would have been tight.

  4. We put an offer on a house last night, with a deadline of this evening. It just came on the market yesterday, and we were the first people to walk through it. As soon as we did, I called a friend of ours, who is a contractor, for a second opinion. He said to go for it, and we did. Not really sure how I'm supposed to concentrate on anything today.

    1. Good luck, man. I'm guessing the sellers won't be in a position to respond to you until this evening, anyway (assuming they are at work), so that might help you concentrate on things other than the offer during the daytime, if that helps.

    2. Hope it all goes well. Good to have a trusted contractor friend to look at it.

      Our first house was purchased from my grandparents-in-law, so, while it was in rough shape, we knew exactly what was wrong with everything. So, while moving from an apt in St. Paul to the suburbs was a change, we didn't have to worry about what we didn't know.

    3. Not really sure how I'm supposed to concentrate on anything today.

      Let me suggest assuming that you aren't going to get the place as a way to push it out of your mind.

    4. Hope it works out. Buying and selling homes is great fun if you don't get too emotionally involved...as if you can help getting too emotionally involved.

  5. I'm in Minnesota, unless my plane crashed and I'm dead.

    Spooky spookies his own demise. How appropriate.

  7. OK, I've switched things around with my wife. I'm ending up taking four straight "night shifts"* with the baby so I can make it on Friday night, and possibly Saturday (depending upon how life goes during the day). I probably won't leave my house until about 8pm.

    *Our schedule is: for two nights, it's my responsibility to do all overnight care for the baby. Then for the next two nights, it's her responsibility and I can sleep through. Well, Friday and Saturday nights came out to me, and unless I wanted to leave to feed the baby at 11pm, I had to switch. I didn't count it out until Tuesday, so I couldn't try extending things to three nights in a row.

    1. So AMR do you have next Wednesday off so you can go see The Wedding Present at the 400 Bar?

      I'm definitely in for Friday, Saturday is a game day decision. Spooks, assuming you're not dead, what were you thinking for a time on Friday? Personally I would like to do earlier (7?) and not stay out so late.

      1. Yes, the earlier the better Friday is preferred (as in, more likely to let me attend and not be in the doghouse).

        1. I was actually hoping for even earlier. Like around 6pm. Once I go home, the chances of me going back out decrease dramatically.

            1. I'm still unsure of what my plans are. Due to my father in law's health, we are going to be moving up OGZ baptism to either today or tomorrow (at the hospital), so that may interfere. I'd love to finally make a caucus, but we'll see...

              1. Baptism's planned for tonight, so my odds at making it tomorrow are up. 6:00 should probably work as well as anything for me, too.

    2. If any of our kids ever took a bottle at all, this is probably more or less what we'd do. As it is, Philosofette pretty much takes the night shift every single night. She's pretty great that way.

      1. The wife is a stay at home mom and is nursing, so I get diaper duty occasionally, but most of the time she handles the kiddo.

        1. Same, except for the fact that a freight train barreling through our bedroom wouldn't wake my wife, so I get up when the trinket does and change her diaper then try to be that freight train so my wife will get up and nurse.

          1. That's how we handled it when Kernel was in a crib in our bedroom. Now that she's in her own room (and sleeping through the night), my wife wakes up and nurses her at 5:30 or 6 and I sleep in until 6:30/7. In exchange for this wonderful arrangement, I do the bathtime/bedtime routine most nights.

          2. I'm the one who doesn't wake up easily, so even when Philosofette does want a break, it's tough for her.

            I do most of the cooking/bathing in our arrangement, but I don't mind either of those things, so I feel like I've got the easy part of it.

          3. Likewise. mrsS pretty much decided that the baby comes to the milk truck, not the other way around.

    1. That's cool, but not useful to all of us.

      /Runs fingers through thick head of hair.

      3. Once they come up with a way to stop the gray from creeping in, then I'll start listening.

  10. The dirtbag DC basketball power broker who B-Easy sued is still up to no good.

    He's also the guy who caused the ineligibility of one of KState's starters last Saturday. Of course, he's been funneling his inner-city DC players to the thriving metropolis of Manhattan, Kansas for several years beginning with BEasy, so Frank Martin better not protest too much.

  11. So... events at my particular place of employment continue. Which means I'm going to just throw this out there again: If anyone has any advice (good website to visit for job listings, people worth contacting, etc.) for an experienced attorney seeking a job in MN, I'd really very greatly appreciate any suggestions. (And yes, I will not contact a crappy career services office. Thanks.)

    No need to get into a big discussion here, but if you want to drop me a line off-site or chat at the Saturday caucus, that'd be awesome. Thanks any/all!

    1. When I was an experienced attorney seeking a job in South Dakota, I became a pastor. I realize that advice might not work for everyone, though.

        1. one of my clients this week decided to convert from Catholicism to Lutheranism. He's not an attorney, though.

          1. I always think this is kind of funny. I'd say more, but is this forbidden topic too?

            1. I don't know, but I'll just say he told me the reason he converted was because the Lutheran church was closer.

              1. I'd say that's pretty much the best reason you could come up with for going from Catholic to Lutheran. Going from Catholic to something else, you might have some other reasons, but for that particular switch... yup.

                  2. If you're having distance problems, I feel bad for you, son.
                    I got 95 problems but the walk ain't one.

                    (I could spend an hour making this better by reading up on the 95, and re-reading the lyrics, but I'm not gonna commit the time.)

                    1. I frequently refer to Catholicism as "polytheistic Judaism." People don't always perceive the joak.

            2. We don't call this topic "forbidden," but I believe I say "tread lightly with religion" in the Behave Yourself tab. We've really never had a dustup with religion here, though a former regular nearly started one.

              1. Treading lightly sounds good to me. I'm pretty hard to upset about the topic, but I've managed to piss off my fair share of people in the past.

  12. So I'm attempting to listen to the Twins game on the radio. Pretty sure that AM 1500 gets weaker every single year. How can they afford to host the Twins and not afford to have a decent signal?

    1. Because all the local stations cover them too. So in Mankato, even though I can kind of get AM1500 sometimes, I listen on the local station, since it's clearer.

      1. Well for some of us AM1500 is the local station. And it's frustrating to barely be able to receive the game in the heart of the Twin Cities.

  13. Enjoying a Surly Bender. I know what time it is, but man, talking with the very passionate beer guy at Blue Max really got me excited for the stuff (more than I already was).

    I don't like Bender nearly as much as I love Furious, but I did need an opener.

    1. I've introduced Josh - a casual beer drinker who's more into whiskey and scotch - to Dead Guy. He says he's forever in my debt. It's fun to introduce people to the good stuff.

      Thanks bS, E, and others for doing the same for me.

      2. I've introduced a few people to that, since it's the only pale ale on tap within the nearest 50 miles that I've found. I live in a portion of the world that considers Michelob Amber Bock to be "fancy dark beer", so takers have been fairly few, but I've got at least one or two who think it's pretty awesome.

    2. I agree with the levels of love regarding Bender and Furious, but man, if you do see any coffee Bender frickin drink it.

        1. I'm rarely particularly angry - not nearly as often as I'm in the mood for a deliciously hoppy IPA.

          ...but the Bender...maybe I'll sample both.

  15. Okay, my own fault for not paying closer attention. Is there a caucus this weekend, and if so where and when? Don't know if I can make it but I'd like to try.

  16. I usually take anything Reusse writes with a grain of salt. And, around these parts, the majority of the insight contained in this is not news. Still, it's a decent read.

    Question: Opinions on bringing up a guy without any AAA experience?
    This guy could also make that leap.

    As a fan who only started watching minor league players because Padre puts them up - how do AA, AFL (or any minor league) stats translate to the majors? I'm sure someone here can answer (since I'm not really inclined equipped to do the work myself) - is there a "standard" drop in offensive production from one level to the next? Or, does it just depend on the individual?

    1. It's complicated.

      From what I know about projection systems, they treat each stat differently. You have to take into account that minor league parks and leagues vary a lot. Regress them all the appropriate amount, then try to guess based on the history of other players.

      This is complicated by players presumably learning and getting better. They might lose 15% because of better competition, but gain 20% because things suddenly clicked (see: Span). Or get even worse because of some deficiency that is exploited better.

      I don't think I explained this very well, but I hope it makes some sense. A general rule of thumb is that a player's MLB career stats will be similar to their MiLB stats. That is, .800 OPS in the minors turns into a .780-.820 OPS in the majors, usually after a year or two as they adapt.

        1. He did LASIK but correlation is not causation. Lots of players have had LASIK and not seen their performance improve. Overall, Span hit .286/.355/.356 in the minors and he's hit .285/.361/.387 in the majors. This follows the rule of thumb that sean mentioned very well.

    2. AAA experience in and of itself is not important. Many good prospects skip AAA altogether.

  17. OK, so I haven't watched a Simpsons episode from the last ten years, but I just saw the Itchy and Scratchy episode spoofing Up. Completely brilliant.

  18. I just watched Nathan put in a half inning in the ninth with the Rangers losing to the Cubs 11-4.

    I had to turn it off.

  19. cc to cheaptoy: the package has landed. I will enjoy these during the draft.

    1. that reminds me that (a) I still have a cheapbeer left and (b) I need to get something in the mail to Wisconsin.

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