Cup of Coffee

April 11, 2012: Sickish

109 Comments

the boy's had a cold for a little too long, and this is mom's first week back at work, so i get to hang out all day and take him to the doctor. i predict it will be like one of those simpsons side plots where homer and bart are left to their own devices.

109 thoughts on “April 11, 2012: Sickish”

  2. Not only is Surly now available at Target Field, I learned yesterday that they're going to be selling a new brew exclusively at the park!

    1. At the game on the 23rd, we'll have to draw straws to stand in that line.
      (Cos I want one.)

  3. My brother is in bSland. He drove from SBGville to just west of Sacramento, pulling a fifth wheel trailer, in two days: 2004 miles. Finally, someone is going to get some work done out there.

    1. I will alert the media...wait, they don't work anymore either!!!!111one1111!!!

      Keep me posted.

  4. I was looking at the Twins schedule and notice they travel to New York for a 4 game series next week. It seems like the Twins play a 4 game set against the Yankees every year, so I looked at baseball-reference. Sure enough, this year will make 6 out of the last 7 year the Twins have played a 4 game set against the pinstripes (2010 being the exception).

    Why cant they have one of those 2 game series against them?

    1. I always felt like they did the four gamer at New York every year, too. I'm glad I'm not just imagining things.

  8. My wife is apparently being gifted a pair of tickets to Saturday's game against the Rangers. We have been told they are "box seats" and that free food might be involved. Anyone have any experience with seats fitting this description so that I might better figure out where we're sitting in advance?

    Also, yes, this is a heck of a gift. My 5-month-old nephew is currently at children's hospital, preparing for his second heart surgery on Friday. Sometimes nice things like this come into the hospital. My sister can't take advantage of them this time (see: heart surgery), so they're giving them to us because 1. We spent a week at children's back in December 2. It's my wife's birthday 3. They can't make her party (see: heart surgery).

    1. Last year, Sheenie got to spend a game in one of the boxes. She said it was along the first-base line above the lower level, and she had access to a full bar as well as catered food - she definitely had no complaints. (IIRC from the Better Know a Citizens, one of the Citizens here worked for the company whose box she was able to enjoy - a SD company who contributed a lot of work to Target Field. Can't remember who, however.)

    2. Jeez, best of luck to your nephew. Anyway box seats plus free food must mean Champions level!! Lower level behind in one of the 4 sections directly behind home plate.

    3. I'll be going to the game tomorrow and believe I'll be in a "box seats with free food" section. You can get a look at what DPWY and free are referencing here.

      A friend manages at one of these and the owner gifts 2 seats to a game in this section every year to his managers. I was taking the bar exam 3 days after the last invitation to attend and I was this -><- close to going but thought better of it. Turns out, I just should have gone.

    4. I just got invited to the game on the 27th in what was described as the Target Suite. I'll be curious to see if it is the same section you guys will be in.

    6. Thanks all for the info and prayers for my nephew (Godson, too). He's got a ton of problems, the biggest of which is that he was born with half a heart. Once things are going better for him (fingers crossed) I'm going to try to nudge his dad into hanging out here from time to time. He's the biggest baseball fan I know and a sports journalist (looking for jobs...) who writes some really good stuff. He'd fit in well here.

      I still don't know which seats exactly we're in, but I'm trying not to get my hopes too high. I'll keep the high hopes for my nephew.

  9. Nine years ago I became a father for the first time. My son is going to celebrate by eating oreos and playing DS in bed. Later we're going to go to a Chinese buffet for lunch and then test out new bikes.

    3. I'll be curious whether you and he go with a dirt bike or something with gears. My son wants a little mtn bike and I'm not sure which way to go. He'll be nine in July.

      Happy bday!

  10. Today New Gal is dealing with an extremely unpleasant crisis at work that has her questioning her entire career path. My job may be menial, extremely low-paying, utterly unfulfilling, and the very definition of dead-end, but I often thank my lucky stars that it is at least stress-free.

    1. I've had a few menial, extremely low-paying, utterly unfulfilling, dead-end jobs, and every one of those has been stressful anyway (either due to bosses or customers). I will say, though, that none of those jobs were ever stressful while I wasn't at work. I've had a job where I worried about it even when I wasn't there, and that's not worth a million dollars.

    2. In the back of my head I'd always thought it would be a nice, stress-free job to go back and work for a farmer. Sitting on the tractor/swather/combine/whathaveyou and listening to the radio. All the enjoyment of farming, without the stress of actually owning a farm.

      1. Insurance takes a lot of the stress out. Not that that makes it stress-free, but it helps deal with some of the pain.

        My in-laws farm. I've been thinking a lot about just trying to take over and write in my off-time.

        Mine is certainly one of those jobs where you take it with you when you leave the office. It's particularly brutal when losing a case means your client will be homeless. I feel great when I win a case, but terrible when I can't help people. Farming sounds good.

    3. I've been blessed to find a job that I truly love. That's not to say that it's always stress-free, but it's a lot easier to handle the stress when you really enjoy the things you do. I hope many of you have jobs you love, too. If not, I hope you'll be able to find them.

  11. EPL Predictions

    Here are the current standings. There are 4 games today, however, so this may change quite a bit by tomorrow.

    Place Player Points
    1 Daneeka's Ghost 22
    2 MagUidhir 22
    3 Homer Dome 18
    4 The Dread Pirate 16
    5 Freealonzo 16
    6 Spookymilk 15
    7 DK 14
    8 Buffalo 11
    9 AMR 11
    10 davidwatts 11

      1. I was clearly behind you last week. I'm guessing I had 8 points. Some cellar-dweller must have moved up a spot.

    3. I blame the success of Swansea and Norwich. It's hard to figure out what those promoted clubs are going to do.

  13. I heard a little more about our CEO's exit - first from someone tangentially connected, then from someone fairly close to the situation.

    The timing is strange, to be sure, but it actually has nothing to do with our company's other woes. He just made some stupid decisions that had nothing to do with money. I was surprised by that.

    1. I heard something about that too. Wasn't he the 2nd passenger on Bobby Petrino's motorcycle that crashed?

        1. He may have gotten away with those two things. What he did, though, was utterly boneheaded and left no doubt that he'd be caught.

          He started as a cashier in the company and, without ever going to college, rose all the way up to CEO of the company. To be gone less than three years after finally making it to the top because of his own impropriety sort of destroys the entire rags-to-riches narrative.

  14. Update on AMR's Million-Dollar Magic Number:
    159
    (Same number for Toronto to finish ahead of Tampa Bay as for Seattle and KC to finish ahead of Tampa Bay.)

  16. O.k. Now I have the first sign that I am getting old...

    So I was at the dentist and they found what appeared to be a cavity. Since I haven't had a cavity for nearly 40 years this was weird to me and the Dentist thought so too because they couldn't see any cavity when examining my teeth -- it only showed up on the x-ray.

    So they dig into the tooth and find out it's not a cavity due to tooth decay but that my tooth is "resorbing." Basically it's dissolving away!! Thankfully it's the way back molar. This was way beyond the expertise of my dentist so I have to go to an Endocrinologist(sp?) and I will probably lose the tooth.

    At least my cavity record is still intact.

  17. I'm listening to Strasburg & Santana duel on the radio today. Santana sounds like he's pitching really well. I want him to come home.

    1. 5 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts. Looks like it might turn into two runs since he walked the first batter in the sixth and was pulled. The reliever then walked the next two batters.

      1. Acosta wriggles out with a double play and a fly out. Santana, however, forgot how to win it seems.

        1. Forgot? Dude, Bartolo Colon owns a Cy Young Award because Santana never knew how to win in the first place.

  18. NOOOOOO

    Jon Krawczynski ‏ @APkrawczynski

    #Twins have called a 4 p.m. press conference to discuss Scott Baker's health. No news yet, but it doesn't sound good.

      1. I picked him up in both of my fantasy leagues. So yup, I was able to predict it.

          1. I hope you have a spreadsheet somewhere that you're keeping track of these "points" in.

    3. If Terry Ryan called Roy Oswalt, do you think he'd pick up the phone? I trust him more than Hendriks or Slimestache.

      2. I like Hendriks, but now I think they could potentially lean on him too much, and his young arm doesn't need the innings to pile up that much yet.

        1. They might, but I'm hopeful they won't. The Twins have a pretty good record of not overusing their starters. Plus, they're not likely to be contending, which should help them resist the temptation to have Hendriks work too many innings.

          All of which assumes, of course, that he'll be good enough for the temptation to exist in the first place. I'm hopeful, but it's certainly no sure thing.

      3. Maybe he could convince him to join the Twins and show off his talents so he could be traded to a contender in July, assuming the Twins are out of it, of course.

      4. Oswalt might listen if TR offers him a snowplow or some other type of heavy machinery.

    4. Press conferences aren't usually called when a pitcher needs ligament replacement, right? This feels really bad.

    5. Flexor tendon surgery. Done for the year. Only six-month rehab, but he will be a free agent.

      1. A not-type A/B/whatever they have now free agent, because of the time missed with injury. Twins got burned w/ Nathan on that too.

        1. The Twins would have to offer Baker more than his $9.5M option to get a draft pick if he was eligible. The new agreement requires something like a $12M offer for 1 year before you can get a draft pick now.

          1. I thought that wasn't for all of them... but perhaps I'm wrong. Why did small markets concede on that?

      2. Are you saying it isn't typical to diagnose an injury 10 months after the initial symptoms?

  19. I don't know why I feel compelled to share this crap with you all, but after reading this my day got a little darker. Maybe I'm hoping the communal outrage will be cathartic.*

    *I know that this stuff happens all the time, I just wish it didn't.

    2. Why why WHY do these options ever show up on the table for these parents?

      Upon reading the headline, I assumed the worst. Now I just hope the kid never has to spend another day with his father again, although that's hardly a happy ending.

    3. It's unclear whether the child has any permanent injuries.

      Yeah, I'm going to assume there'll be a bit of permanent psychological damage.

    5. As a parent of a 2 year old, this makes me sick. In addition to throwing this guy in jail for a good long time, I'm all for surgically removing the option for more kids for this guy. I can't imagine what would drive a parent to do that.

    6. Part of what makes this so sickening is knowing that, because this type of behavior/anger response is learned/passed on, it's likely the abuser was himself a victim of abuse and there's a fair chance that the victim will struggle with those anger issues himself.

      RPZ said that he can't imagine what would drive a parent to do something like this. I think the answer is that we're dealing with an entirely irrational response. I couldn't live with myself if I did something like that to my child, and I'd be willing to bet that this abuser probably hates himself for what he did/has done to his child and wife.

      I don't mean this to excuse the behavior in any way, of course. Beating a child is one of the single greatest offenses anyone can commit - especially because it will affect the child for the rest of their life. I just hope that the guy gets the help he needs when he's in jail, and that the kid gets the help he needs to break free from his abusive upbringing.

      1. My guess is this abuser either hate himself about everything, or has no feelings of empathy at all. And you're right; there's virtually no chances this guy wasn't abused himself.

        I know someone who gave their son a brain injury through a beating (you know his sister, actually) and he's now in prison as he should be. But I know he learned this behavior from his father, who regularly beat him (usually with his mother holding him down in preparation for it) and all of his siblings for illogical reasons. His father is a monster of a human being and has never paid for anything he's done.

  21. the Stanley Cup Playoffs chase starts tonight. Nice filler before the Twins game.

  22. well then

    Jerry Zgoda ‏ @JerryZgoda
    Beasley played just 10 mins, but not b/c of toe and he was ticked afterward: "Nope, I'm just not liked, I guess. I don't give a ..."

    Kevin Love has a concussion (called a mild concussion, but a concussion is a concussion), the Wolves make a valiant comeback only to lose. The Wolves have not won an April game since 2009.

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