The Low Down and a Few Pics

A glimpse into what has been going on in my world over the last several weeks, in no particular order, rhythm or reason.

• The is a deep feeling down in my gut that the Giants will not make the playoffs, or if they do the Dodgers will be hard to overcome. At least it's a winning season.


• School has been in session for 4 weeks now. First progress report grades are due on Tuesday. Time is flying on by but it is a long stretch now until my next day off, Veteran's Day. I think I have another good crop of students this year. My worries are not so much my students but all of the students who have 6th period PE. Between the 5 teachers in my department there are 250 students. Of these students, about 50% of them are "disciplinary repeat offenders". Daily I need to take time to pause and pray to my heavenly Father for His grace and wisdom to deal with these students and that I would always respond in a way that gives glory to God. Last week my school was put in lock down for an hour and half due to a shooting at the high school.



• End of August always means peach picking at Carol's family peach farm/ranch. Last week, I finished eating the last peach. For the first time I canned fresh peaches, using both the raw and hot processing method. Thank you Carol for always inviting us to go peach picking and to hang out with your family.
  
  
• Dawn and I took a little drive up the Silverado Trail from Napa to Calistoga. Just a drive to do something different for just a short amount of time.



• On the counter top cooling is sitting my very first attempt at making a cheese cake for a co-workers birthday tomorrow. Cheese cake is not a dessert I would choose to eat with all the yummy choices out there but I will enjoy trying what I created. The whole cheese cake was made in the Cuisinart that Suzy gave me. Thanks Suzy, I already love that you are now part of my kitchen. Speaking of Suzy, she had a group of people over last night for one of the most delicious (yum!) home made Julia Childs meals. Everything was so incredibly delicious. Great meal Suzy and absolutely wonderful fellowship!



• Since Memorial Day weekend I have been on a challenge to myself to get into better shape and to lose some weight. I praise the Lord that He has allowed some success and I feel so much better. There still is a long ways to go but with faithfulness on my part and encouragement from my family and friends, I will obtain my goal. The biggest part of my goal once I met my goal is to stay there and not go back to where I have been. Please contact me if you would like to know how I have made some of these changes and seen success.



• My dad and I went golfing over the Labor Day weekend and I managed to drive the golf ball well, stay out of the pond and out of the sand traps. My middle game and putting still needs some refining.



• At some point in the near future I would like to learn how to can tomatoes (including tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and whole tomatoes) and grape jelly or jam. Trin Trin has been asking me for sometime if I make grape jelly and I always have to tell her that I do not know how. The grapes are starting to come in at the farmer's market.



• With no air conditioning in my house I am starting to prepare myself for the big heat wave that is projected to come across the land this next week. I think for at least the next 6 days, triple digits is expected. The fog can return anytime soon for my liking.



• My faithful God is always good to me, always full of tender care and mercy.

Wild Card Hopes

Great weekend (the whole week actually) for the San Francisco Giants. Broom city, a little pay back for what the Rockies did to us last weekend. The new ad campaign in the Bay Area is "I'm In!" referring to everyone Giants- the fans, the players, the managers, the hot dog vendor, the BART driver, the priest. . . are "in" for the Giants being in the post season.

"I'm In!"

With the sweep over the Rockies, the Giants are now tied with them for the Wild Card spot in the playoffs.

What a night for baseball in the city on Friday night. Hot does not even describe what the weather was like at home inland before Amy and I left for the game. The Weather Channel said it was 90 in San Francisco, almost unbelievable. There have been countless times the temperature gauge says over 100 when we leave but quite the opposite upon arriving at the game. For night games, one would be foolish if they did not have their thick jeans, long underwear, the heaviest sweatshirt they own and a jacket with them. Amy and I stayed in our short sleeve t-shirts and carpi pants the whole game and were still very warm. Very odd weather. Amy said, "It feels like earthquake weather". When she says comments like this, my only response is, "Stop saying that right now". The nice evening ended perfectly with a win for the Giants.

Scruffy Boys

You would think it was October and the playoffs by the looks of my boys, the San Francisco Giants. Most of them forgot their razors for this road trip to Cincinnati. Guess it is the supersticious mojo scruff going on. Whatever it takes to win, whatever is fine for me.

When the Ball Game Is Boring

On Sunday, my dad and I were able to go to our first Giants baseball game of the '09 season. This particular game was all pitching, neither team scored a run until til the bottom of the 10th inning when my boys won the game. Yeah for Richie!

One thing I love about AT&T Park is that when the game is dull and lacks excitement you can find something in the ball park to entertain you. Here are a few things that entertained me this time. The above photo is for those fans who speak "Spanglish" (half Spanish and half English). I will translate the sign into complete English and out of the Spanglish. It translates, "Watch the Giants 'play of the week' each Sunday". I found it quite comical, the bright flashing light was in half English and half Spanish, kinda like how I talk in Spanish and don't know all the words in Spanish so I put in English words in the place of the Spanish words. This is what I call Spanglish.

In the below photos are of 3 separate older female season ticket holders who sit in section 102 or 103 near the seats I get from Steve (thanks again Steve, my dad and I both agree these are our favorite seats). The first of the two pictures, these ladies sit directly in front of the seats we sit in. Both look to be at least retired age. I have seen them at the games many times. They both are die hard Giants fans. Everything about them is Giants baseball. They wear ear rings that have baseball bats and baseballs. They are all decked out in their orange and black. They listen to the game on a MP3 player. At this particular game the first 20,000 fans received the ball cap they are wearing. Both of the ladies had just put their "rally caps" on and turned around and told us so. They said, "time to get our rally caps on, our boys need all the help they can get". They even were ragging on the Giants for not being able to bring a runner home that was on 3rd base with no outs. So cute.

What a hoot this woman is. She is much older than the first two and looks like she has been a Giants fan her whole life. She is a glitzy fan. Her ball cap was all sequins, she was all decked out in her orange and black, black fuzzy scarf, orange ear rings, and her socks were orange with orange sequins on the top of them. She knew exactly what was happening during the game. She even booooo-ed a call the umpire made. Simply adorable.

Almost There

Spring Training is officially over, yeah, let's get on with the regular season. Watched a game today after church and my boys beat the bad boys of LA. I love baseball season, I love going to the games (especially with my dad or with my family for my dad's birthday), love listening to a game on the radio, love when we win, love the thought that this just might be the year that we go to the series and win this time, love talking it up with Diane at work and Steve from church, love the chance of catching a foul ball or home run, love having slide races down the coke bottle with my sister (maybe this year with Trin Trin), love the smell of the roasted peanuts, love the heckle section of 108, love the opportunity to take a friend to a game and catch up, love the bridge and city lights from the 3rd deck, love beating the Dodgers, oh the list goes on.

Opening day is Tuesday.

Fan Fest 2009

Last weekend was the SF Giants Fan Fest. I am so glad it was last weekend and not this weekend. Last weekend was perfect weather this weekend would have been a cold soggy mess. Last year my dad and I decided not to go to the Fan Fest because it was a crazy nut house last year. The year before last you would have thought you were going to the final game of the world series at AT&T Park and the Giants were one out from winning. Both my dad and myself were glad we were able to go this year. It is fun to be with my daddy, fun to start thinking about Giant's baseball and fun to be around everyone else in the SF Giant spirit.

Here are a few of my favorite shots at the ball park.




This is one of the entrances into the ball park.













Congrat's Timmy for being the 2009 Cy Young Award Winner. Way to go and keep it up this year!



















I love this nice, little detail at the gates at the turn stiles.














Look at all of these people. There must have been 10,000-15,000 people there. Crazy. Some people were lined up all around the inside of the ball park to get an autograph.













Rumor has it that if a player hits a home run during a game and hits the glove, a random fan will win 1 million dollars. Mark McGuire also got close one time in batting practice.

I saw a softball home run competition one time and some fellow got real close.











"Have a Coke and a smile". (Just for you Jen).












One of my favorite things about the ball park is the kids lot above the left field bleachers. I have wanted to take a photo of all the little kids sitting on the bench, swinging their legs, wearing their SF Giants garb, looking like they are having a good time. Everyone in the photo wore the right clothing except one dude who is in his Raider football jersey~ get it together dude!






My dad's name is Chuck. So, as we walked around the stadium, I saw this shot and thought it was funny. I agree, "Talk to Chuck".

It's Never Too Early

It's never too early to impress upon them who they will be rooting for.

We Have THE Cy Young Winner

A big huge congratulations to Tim Lincecum for winning the Cy Young Award of the National League. Tim put up some incredible numbers this year and he is full deserving of this prestigious award. Without Tim's incredible efforts the Giants would have lost many more games than they did.

I saw several games this past summer with Tim as the starting pitcher. Seeing him in person is much better than on t.v. He has incredible motor mechanics and form. He was fun to watch. On one of the last games of the season, he stuck out the whole first 3 innings (against the Dodgers, remember them?, they went to the NL playoffs, no you don't remember them?, that's ok- they can be forgotten, the Giants beat them 2 out of 3 games in the last series of the year!!!).

I am going to try to link a YouTube clip here but I have not been too successful when I have tried in the past. But here goes. Here is the direct link. I still have not figured out how to include YouTube videos. Can anyone help me out there? Above image is taken from the Official San Francisco Giants web page.

Baseball is Over

Congrat's to the Philies for winning the World Series. Pedro Feliz was happy that he got traded last year. Thankfully, the Dodgers were defeated in the National League Championships. There was a let down this year at the end of September when my boys were cleaning out their lockers and not going into the post season.

Almost don't know what to do with myself now that baseball is over for the 2008 season. So many evenings were spent listening to the radio or watching the idiot box and enjoying America's favorite pastime. If I was out and about I was always listening to the car stereo. I loved the day games when I would be at work. We would have the radio on in the locker room and would try to catch up on the score in the few minutes we had inside. Always enjoy going to the ball park too with my dad or with the whole family for my dad's birthday.

So, from now until end of March I will have to fill my time with other things.

Photo is from Google Images.

No Text Needed

Image taken from Google Images

A Dime a Dozen

The last three game series have been sweeps. The Giants have been on the losing end of the broom stick 2 out of 3. I went back and looked at the Giants record this year and sweeps. Not surprised I saw they have been swept 8 times and they have swept 4 times. A few of those sweeps have been against the Nationals. Can we change the rest of this season so we play the Nationals at least every week?

Picture taken from Google Images.

Bye Bye Duram, Welcome back Roberts, Last 2 Times at the Ball Park

Last Sunday, my dad took all of us to a Giants game for his birthday. What a guy. Happy late birthday dad. Love you. We had a great time. It was absolutely a wonderful fun time even though the Giants lost. The age range was well represented with our clan. My 93 year old Grandma and my 5 week old nephew attended. My sweet niece, can cheer just like the rest of us. All of us were decked out in our Giants fan wear.

Early that day I heard that possibly the Giant's 2nd baseman, Ray Duram was going to be traded at the end of the game. This saddened me a little because Ray Ray was beloved by the fans. I have two favorite memories of Ray Ray. One time he hit a walk off home run. The stadium came unglued and we all stood and hooped and hollered for about 20 minutes. It was soooosweet. Someone (will remain nameless) who I know well used to work as a bouncer at MoMo's across from the ball park. This person knows of my love of the Giants and liking Ray Duram. Ray Ray came in after a game and spoke with my friend. My friend got out his cell phone and had Ray Ray give me a call. Sadly, I had my phone on silent when he called but he left a message. It was a fun message. I saved that message for about 2 years. It would have been nice if the Giants played Ray for his last game with the Giants. The fans would have given him a proper goodbye. Bye, Bye Ray Ray.

Here are some pictures from the day we all went. The picture above is of my loves in their Giants gear.

Here's Jen, Joe and my mom (in the back ground) holding baby Joey. Cute picture J & J.

Mom you are the best Grandma ever. Trin Trin loves you so much and Baby Joey loves you too!

Amy and I went to a day game on Thursday. We had a great time and this time the Giants won.

Here we are at the ball park after the Giant's won. Always a good day at the ball park when the good guys win. See the giant Coke~Cola bottle in the back ground? Some of you know this, some of you don't but there are 4 long slides inside the bottle. 2 are curvy and the other two are a straight shot down with a couple of dips along the way. On Sunday, Amy and I had a race down the slides. Each time I got to the bottom first. She claimed it was her jeans that held her up. I know better.

At Thursday's game Dave Roberts returned from being on the DL. It was good to have him back and he stole the show, literally. He made two fantastic plays in the outfield and hit a base hit to knock in the lone Giant's run and the only run of the ball game in the 8th inning. Welcome back Dave.

As you can see Amy got attacked by a giant spider on our walk down the water front.

Here is a random picture of an old street car. Thought it was cool. I think it still is in operation.

It's Time for the Broom

Today the Giant's swept the Nationals over a four game series. Good job boys! Tomorrow I will have to walk around to my PE classes with a broom and see if they know why and teach them why if they don't know why. The preamble will be given that it has nothing to do with a witch.

Kudos to Ken Griffey Jr. for hitting home run 600 tonight. He is only the 6th man in baseball history to be part of the 600 club. Picture is from mail.com news.

The Curse is Broken

Finally, the curse has been broken of the Giant's losing the games that I attended. Monday night my dad and I went and saw the Giant's play the New York Mets. This was my 5th game of out at the ol' ballpark this season, the first 4 were all loses. Not Monday night though, my boys kicked around the boys from York Town . Yeah hey! I was starting to tell those who attended the games with me that I might be a bad omen or something.

This was the first game, since buying season tickets from my friend Steve (think 3 or 4 seasons now), that Steve was actually at the game too. My dad and I were sitting next to him and his friend Mike. They sure know how to heckle the other team. If you want to read more about how to heckle from Steve, click here. What I really enjoyed seeing was Steve wore his glove the whole game to catch a foul ball if it came his way. I have brought my glove to games but I don't wear it the whole time. Or, I don't bring my glove because there is too much other things in my bag (like a jacket, a sweatshirt, long underwear, a hat, gloves, floor heater. . .) and no room for my glove. I need to change that. Maybe I will catch a ball if I bring my glove.

My dad and I were glad that we went on Monday because Tuesday the tide had turned and the Giant's got clobbered. A highlight from Monday night's game was we saw red hot Benjie Molina hit his 1,000th hit. It was pretty exciting. He has a pretty amazing story. Check his story out from Benjie's blog http://bengiemolina.mlblogs.com/.

There were two fans to my right, a boy who was a Met's fan and his mother, a Giant's fan. The mom told me a interesting fact about the official colors of the Met's. I don't know if what she said is true but I found it interesting. Both the Giants and the Dodgers (yuck) left New York so the Met's made their team colors orange and blue. Blue is my favorite color except when the Giants are playing the Dodgers (yuck again) or the dirty blue are in front of the Giants in the NLW standings. I would never want someone to think I was a Dodger fan.

Triple Play

Last night the Giants had a remarkable triple play. It was so cool. Too bad they ended up losing the game in the 13th inning. Check out the clip here.


Today I went to a game with my dad and Kathi and Rick from my church. It was a nice time with the company I was with but the Giant's lost again. This is the 4th game that I have been to this year and they have lost all 4. But I guess this will be par normal for my boys at the yard this year. They are fickle, they sweep the best team in the NLW and then lose 2 in a row (if we lose tomorrow we are swept) by one of the worst teams in the NLW.

First Ball Game of 2008

Last night my dad and I went to see the Giant's play the Rockies. There is something unique about going to the ball park to watch a game. There is so much to watch and be entertained by at the ball park. AT&T Park is a wonderful baseball park. My dad and I enjoy going to the games together. Here's dad with the Bay Bridge and the Coke-Cola bottle. Did you know the bottle has two slides to ride down in the inside?

Last night it was really cold at the ball park. I think I had 5 layers on and was still pretty cold. When the Giant's used to play in Candlestick Park (just down the freeway a few miles) it was said of the stadium and the cold, "you would be more cold at a night Giant's game in the middle of the summer than a 49er game in the dead of winter".

Dad and I went to dinner at our favorite place inside the park, an Irish Pub. We love the fish and chips there. Last night as we stood and ate we were joined by several dozen Giant's fans all watching the San Jose Sharks play in their playoff game. Kinda fun to be among Giant's fans cheering for a the Sharks.

I love this sign. It is funny. Just in case you were wanting to go to the Polo Grounds, almost 3,000 miles away.

The Giant's lost the game on a questionable balk call by the umpire. The evening would have been perfect if the Giant's would have won but I always enjoy a good evening with my daddy.

Rumor has it that if a player hits a home run and hits the big 4 fingered glove, that a random fan in the stands will win 1 Million. That would be over a 500' shot!

Might Be a Long Season

The Giants and their fans might be in for a loooonnnnnnng season. Today the LA Dodgers beat us 5-0. Our opening day starting ace, $127 Million Zito, allowed 3 runs in the 1st inning. Come on Barry Boy, it's time to earn what you are paid, move on from the A's and get it going. The Giants should have started Cain or Lincecum today and not be concerned with the money we have spent on Zito.

Today I wore a Giants jersey that a student gave me. Granted it was one of his old jersey's but it is a Giants jersey. Had to wear it today, it was opening day. I also wore a orange Giants cap. My students crack me up. Even with all the garb I had on, students still asked me, "Are you a Giants fan?" I just give them a dumb look like "isn't it obvious". Several students commented today, "Your Giants suck". My calm reply, "a true fan stands by their team if they win or if they lose. You are not a true fan if you are a fair weather fan".

One Week Away

Every ball fan is wondering (and hoping, and praying and dreaming) if this will be the year that their beloved team will go to the Series. One week from today the SF Giants start the 2008 season against the Dirty Dodgers. Yesterday I received a big bulk of my tickets to go and watch my boys at the ol' ballpark. Thanks Steve! There is something about going to a baseball game and watching the game live. There are the smells, noises and sights that you just can't get from watching the game on TV or listening to the radio. AT&T park is a fun place. If the game is boring or if the boys are playing like the last place team of the 10 and under division of Little League, there is much to keep you occupied at the park.

Maybe this will be the year?

Giants Fan Fest

Today is the San Francisco Fan Fest. This year I am unable to attend mainly due to three reasons. Firstly, I was disappointed with last year's Fan Fest held inside the stadium . Secondly, I have a deadline to meet tomorrow with a project that I forgot about. And thirdly, my dad is not able to attend with me (I love attending Giants events with my daddy). I would like to have gone but honestly, I am not disappointed at not going this year.

My dad and I have attended the Fan Fest the last 3 years. The 1st two years were a huge hit. Everything was held in a pier building next to the stadium. You had room to walk around and could actually see the planned events/exhibits and stand in an organized line to get autographs.

Last year the organizers decided to hold the event inside the stadium around the playing field. That sounds confusing. All of the venues were on the 1st or 2nd level of the walkway where all the concessions stands are. There were huge lines of people that were intertwined with thousands of people trying to move through the lines. It felt like I was a car in the worst commute on get away day before the 4th of July holiday on the spegetti maze (what my sisters and I call the 580, 80, 880 interchange in Oakland). The reports out the following day of the event said that 30,000 people attended the fest. Now for a normal baseball game that might be a little crowded but at a normal game situation most of those people are sitting in their seats. But last year it was like everyone was buying a hot dog and a beer all jamming the hallways at the same time.

It was actually funny to look back and remember how my sister Amy, my dad and I walked through that crowd. We held onto the belt or waist band of the back of each other's pants. It was the only way we could stay together. As my middle school students would have said, "big wedgy". Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a slight fear of earthquakes. It did go through my mind several times last year about having an earthquake in the crowded stadium. There would have been no way for us to have evacuated the stadium.

Guess the promotors wanted the feel, smell, taste, sights and sounds of being out at the good ol' ball park. There were a few good things from last years fest. Hot dogs and drinks were on sale for $1. We each enjoyed a couple of dogs and a Coke. We were able to walk on the playing field. My dad so loved walking on the blades of grass, touching the dirt and running across home plate. He just lit up like he was brought back a sweet memory of his childhood playing ball. One funny thing about the home and opposing teams dugouts was the ventalation system. The Giants dugout had fans and heater ducts and nice cushioned benches. The opposing teams's dug out had no fans or heating ducts and there was just a beat up piece of wood for the bench. No love for the opposing team. Love it.

Excited for spring training to start and opening day!

The Rivalry

Giants and the Dodgers have one of the fieriest rivalries in baseball. Steve Scott beat me to posting about this big rivalry. Click here if you would like to view his thoughts. The Giants either have a great year where they are in contention to winning the division or they are at the bottom of the barrel and they kick the Dodgers out of winning the division. Even though the Giants have absolutely no chance of anything in October except for watching on the sofa, they are having fun being the spoilers of the National League West. Some of my earliest memories are going to bed as a kid with my transistor radio next to me listening to the Giants play the Dodgers. Back then my beloved Giants were terrible. It was absolutely delightful to listen to that little radio and hear the Giants beat the Dodgers and eliminate them from playoff hopes.

This past weekend, my Giants played the Dodgers and started the Spoilin' September compain. Love it. Friday night I went to the game with my friend Neil. Neil is a good friend but sadly, he is a Dodger fan. The Giants won in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 9th inning. Dan Ortmeier hit a walk off home run. So, exciting. I think I jumped up and down for 10 minutes. Neil hung his head down but he was a good sport about his team losing. They played the radio call on the stadium's PA system. Here was the call, "IT IS OUTTTA HERE. WE'RE GOING HOME!!!". That was my favorite quote for the weekend.

Saturday, my dad and I went to the ball game. Before the game there was a tribute for the 40th anniversary of Mike McCormick winning the Cy Young Award. In his speech he said a few words that are true to my heart. He said, "I hate Dodger blue!". The Giants lost this outing with the Dodgers.

Sunday, in the bottom of the 8th inning, Ray Durham, known fondly by his fans as RayRay, pinch hit a 3 run homer that allowed the Giants to win. So, the Giants won the series. I always love when the Giants beat the Dodgers.

I read a great quick read this summer called 101 Reasons to Love the Giants. This is what reason number 56 titled The Rivalry says,

"Giants- Dodgers. It's a rivalry that has been around nearly as long as
baseball has. The Giants and Dodgers first met as major-league teams way back in
1884 in an exhibition game won by the Giants, 8-0. Through the years, the two
teams have faced off countless times- and crushed each other's dreams with
an amazing regularity. The "Shot Heard 'Round the World" is the most famous
example, and Juan Marichal's bat to John Roseboro's head in 1965 is the
ugliest, but the list goes on and on. The Yankees and Red Sox may have a
fiercer rivalry, but the Giants' and Dodgers' has been much more
consistently competitive over the years."

So, Giant fans wait to see how this year will play out in September. Maybe, from dead last place, the Giants will spoil a few of the other teams from going into October.