Barack Obama honors Red Sox at White House

You can read the full story behind this picture HERE.

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse - January

The first title I read this month was our very own Tony Laplume's "Monorama". This was a very trippy, heady collection of short stories in a very sci-fi vein. The first section of stories are a collection of shorter pieces, each of which could easily (hopefully?) be expanded upon and made into full length stories.

This was also my very first Kindle read.  I was given a Kindle for Christmas 3 years ago.  I instantly purchased "The Princess Bride" (as my local library's copy had gone missing), but I have never been able to finish it!

I have read the first 15 chapters of "The Red Pyramid".  This was sort of a "have to" assignment.  In order to help my teaching partner, I agreed to shave 15 minutes off of each of my math classes in order to carve out some dedicated time for Novel Study groups.  I offered to read this and create the Teacher's Guide for the group.

I liked the first Percy Jackson novel well enough but never felt particularly compelled to go back.  I think I am feeling the same about this one.  I'm sure I'll finish it, to help the kids, but it won't be a labor of love.

I understand that authors are able to hit a groove or style and run with it (Cussler and Patterson leap to mind) but sometimes the groove becomes a rut that I'm not interested in.  Then again, I'm not the target audience.  I will give Riordan full credit for attempting some newer ideas (the two main characters are not the typical protagonists of Young Adult works) and the wink towards his Percy Jackson series drew a smile, but that's about it.

Earlier this month, my teaching partner bought a book for my classroom library.  Neil Gaiman and Skottie Young's "Fortunately, The Milk" was an absolute delight.  An easy, breezy adventure that I think would make a lovely stage production.  I could envision it performed in several different ways...a multi-media one person stage show...a full blown humorous play...it was so much fun.  I've never been a big fan of Young's illustrations in the comic books I've seen, just not my cup of tea, but they work so well here.  And Gaiman is firing on all cylinders.


I received "For Boston", the Boston Globe's World Series Commemorative book for Christmas and read it while sick one weekend earlier this month.  I'm not a fan of Dan Shaughnessy, but most of the stories in here are great for a Boston fan.  The layout of the book is curious, in that it starts with the Globe's stories about the World Series victory and then tells the tale of the rest of the season in reverse chronological order.  Curious choice.

This allows me to publish my favorite picture of the post season:

I'm on the left.  My teaching partner, a Phillies fan is next, followed by our Coffeehouse host, The Armchair Squid himself (an Orioles fan), and our host for the evening is seated (also a Sox fan).  This was during the game 3 loss...I can't remember the play, but I left as soon as the game was over.



The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers.  Please join us:

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	What's up, MOCK?!
3.	Words Incorporated	4.	Scouring Monk
5.	Huntress	6.	A Creative Exercise
7.	Libby Heily	8.	Trisha @ WORD STUFF
9.	Wishbone Soup Cures Everything	10.	mainewords
11.	Subliminal Coffee

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse

I had intended to be back in the saddle for this month's meeting but I just don't have my act together.  My Masters' class is meeting this week...lots of birthdays in the house and the Sox are in post season play.  Also a bummer because I'm still reading a book by a Coffeehouse member AND received a book from our host!


All that being said....why not check out the folks who actually have their act together!!

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse

Please join us for a bloggers' book club. Next "meeting" is Friday, October 25th. Check out the details here.

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	Subliminal Coffee
3.	The Beveled Edge	4.	Blue Sky Gazing
5.	Hungry Enough To Eat Six!	6.	Servitor Ludi
7.	V's Reads	8.	Julie Flanders
9.	Trisha @ WORD STUFF	10.	Rebecca @ The Dusty Cellar
11.	Scouring Monk	12.	The Writing Sisterhood
13.	The Random Book Review	14.	Wikes! Hikes on the Long Trail
15.	Ed & Reub	16.	M.J. Fifield
17.	StrangePegs -- Fortunately, the Milk	18.	StrangePegs -- "My Killbot Buddy"
19.	Katie O'Sullivan	20.	Gladiator's Pen
21.	Em Dashes and Ice Cream	22.	StrangePegs -- Fahrenheit 451

Happy Birthday...To Me!

Our blogs are all about us, right?  Sure we want to make connections and make someone chuckle or what have you, but when push comes to shove they are about US!  After all, the topic we most enjoy discussing is usually ourselves.

What a great birthday weekend I just had!  I stayed late for the last two weeks at school to have Parent Teacher Conferences and to get Friday off!  Friday is my wife's birthday!  Saturday we were the same age for the day.  Today is my birthday!

Thursday night saw some Doctor Who and a Red Sox victory!  I even wrote a lesson plan for my Master's Class!

Friday was a lazy day...but Friday night we had a nearly a dozen friends over for drinks and appetizers.  It was such a pleasant affair.  Everyone seemed to laugh and have fun.  The Armchair Squid brought gifts (I'll review mine on Friday!)  My teaching partner brought my wife a HUMONGOUS pumpkin, hoping she could use it for her recent spate of pumpkin themed recipes.  Alas, it was a carving pumpkin, not a cooking pumpkin

We had a Broomball game and we won!  It was quite an effort but we prevailed.  After the game most folks came back to the house for some more drinks and some carving of the pumpkin

. 

Saturday we went to visit my brother and his wife in Worcester.  Nan and the kids hadn't met the baby yet.  My folks came down.  We had a great dinner and a fun visit.  My folks got us all hotel rooms to save a long drive home.

My beloved Red Sox won a return to the World Series, just after midnight, officially on my birthday!

We went to a Panera near our hotel for breakfast.  I entered announcing it was my birthday.  Our cashier, Amy, said it was hers as well and she bought my breakfast after I told her if I was a girl, my parents wanted to name me Amy!

Our ride home was filled with a backlog  NPR's Sunday Puzzle...we had an impressive success rate!  We went to one Target and used our birthday gift cards!

I'm just feeling happy and babbly!  

Happy Sunday to all!

Finally...

via Joy of Sox

This Day In History: September 30, 1951

via Joy of Sox

On September 30, 1951, Harley "Jim" Hisner was a 24-year-old right-handed pitcher making his major league debut in the final game of the season against the New York Yankees.  

The Yankees' lineup featured five future Hall of Famers - Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizutto, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Johnny Mize - but Hines did quite well.

He faced Mantle to start the game and struck him out. Hisner pitched six innings and allowed seven hits and three runs. He walked four and struck out three. He also had a single in two at-bats.

In the seventh inning, Johnny Pesky pinch-hit for him and that was the end of his day. Spec Shea and Johnny Sain pitched a combined shutout and the Red Sox lost 3-0.

It was Harley Hisner's only major league appearance. You can read more about his career here.

Hisner, now 85 years old, was one of the former Red Sox invited to the Fenway Park's 100th Anniversary celebration earlier this year.

Ted Williams, 1940: "If I Were a Free Agent, I'd Sign With The Dodgers"

From the August 20, 1940 edition of theDubuque (Iowa) Telegraph-Herald



via Joy of Sox

T-Shirt Tuesday: July 31, 2012

Given that today is the trade deadline for Major League Baseball, I thought I would take a "group photo" of all of my Sox tees at the same time.

I was saddened to realize that ALL of the players I like enough to get their shirts are no longer on the team.  I still have my customized shirt which when I wore it to school one day several of the younger students in the building thought I had played for the team at one point!  Admittedly I was in far better shape than I am today but still I enjoyed the compliment!

And as I was loading all of my tees back into my dresser, I found another one from the '03 Division Series!

Not sure whose shirt I will get next...and since it looks like the Sox made NO significant moves today, I'm thinking I might have to wait a year to grab one...though a Pedroia would be tempting!

Jason Varitek Decides To Retire

Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek will announce his retirement this Thursday.

From The Boston Globe via The Joy of Sox

• Only Carl Yastrzemski (23 seasons), Ted Williams (19) and Jim Rice (16) had longer tenures with the Red Sox without playing for another team.
• Varitek played in 63 postseason games in his career, helping the Red Sox to the 2004 and 2007 World Series titles.
• Varitek leaves the Red Sox ninth in team history in games played (1,546), doubles (306) and extra-base hits (513). He is 10th in plate appearances (5,839) and RBIs (757).

Thank You, Theo...

One Month From Today...

October 2011

October
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Phases of the moon: 3: 11: 19: 26:
Holidays and Observances: 10: Columbus Day (Most regions), 31: Halloween

American League Division Series (both A and B)
Game 1: September 30
Game 2: October 1
Game 3: October 3
Game 4: October 4*
Game 5: October 6*

American League Championship Series
Game 1: October 8
Game 2: October 9
Game 3: October 11
Game 4: October 12
Game 5: October 13*
Game 6: October 15*
Game 7: October 16*

World Series
Game 1 at NL: October 19
Game 2 at NL: October 20
Game 3 at AL: October 22
Game 4 at AL: October 23
Game 5 at AL: October 24*
Game 6 at NL: October 26*
Game 7 at NL: October 27*

* - if necessary

A Bunch of Different Clips I Have Found

Since I am taking Sundays off from the 30 Day Challenge and I have a different theme going that will take up my 4th of July slot, I thought I would post all the videos I have kept in my Google Reader queue to share at some random point...

In reverse chronologically found order, via Bleeding Cool: "This video makes it clear. Michael Bay appears to have used scenes from Warner Bros/Dreamworks’ The Island in Paramount’s Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. Here are some screencaps to make it clear…"



Next via Joy of Sox:

"The video features Kevin Youkilis, Terry Francona, and Jason Varitek.

The Red Sox are the third major league team to produce an "It Gets Better" video. Earlier this year, the San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports team to join the It Gets Better campaign. The Chicago Cubs have also made a video."




via The Armchair Squid



via Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep!!



via The Onion (and FINALLY letting me know how he pronounces his name!) NSFW F-bomb at the end:



and from Bleeding Cool again: "The Best Green Lantern Themed TV Commercial Of All...and it’s not even an official Green Lantern partner. Brilliant, pure dead brilliant. Dodgy politics obviously, but hey. This is advertising."




I had a few others, but some have been yanked from YouTube (Greenpeace's anti-Volkswagen campaign the most notable one) and others just didn't stand up to a second viewing...

Blogging From A To Z: R is for...

...Red Sox.

What a day....

This might get lost amidst the A to Z challenge and might come across as just some whining, but this day....Oy.

It started at 4:30 with the toilet starting to run mysteriously.  Annoying.  Woke me up from a very deep sleep.  I get up and turn off the water, figuring I would deal with it later.

I try to fall back asleep but get out of bed at 5:00 thinking I could catch Sports Center and find out how my beloved Red Sox did....missed the top of the hour recap but eventually find out along the scroll that they lost....again.

Getting ready for school and my wife tells me that my ex-wife has pulled a pretty cruddy move and put our daughter in the middle.  Something Nan and I have tried to avoid forever.

My first meeting at school left a bad taste in my mouth but everything starts to change during Morning Announcements, when The Armchair Squid gets one of the principals to "inadvertently" read the lyrics to "Here, There, and Everywhere" over the intercom!  Absolutely brilliant!

The day itself was slightly above average as a whole, but shaky at times.  It ends with an impromptu visit by a School Board member that seems, in retrospect, to have been positive.

On the ride home from school, I see someone lying on the ground, not moving, on the median between two fairly busy roads.  No one is stopping so I pull over.  As I get out of my car and run over to the man, someone else gets out of their car.  As I call 9-1-1, it becomes apparent that the man has passed out and is intoxicated.  We are just over the town line, so the dispatcher I am put in touch with is actually the one in my hometown.  The police arrive and take over the situation.

One of the parent's of one of my students calls as I am walking through the door, but Nan has already told him I am not home yet so I put off calling him back.

After dinner, I decide to balance our bank account quickly before calling back the parent.  When I call up our account, I discover that somehow our accounts have been compromised.  Our money is gone.

Somehow, our debit cards are being used in Minnesota at some mini-marts despite the fact both of our cards are in the house!!

Our bank is a tiny local credit union with no after hours help.  So I call the police and when I give my name, the dispatcher actually comments that she remembers my name because I called earlier in the day!

Long story short, I have to go to our bank tomorrow to sort this out which means a half day of school (at the very least).  I had pleasant phone conversations with my principal (not the lyric reader), my teaching partner (and his girlfriend), my mother and my brother, as well as the parent of the student.

I think I might try to graph the ups and downs of this day, just to kind of sort it all out in my head....

Opening Day!

Here are my predictions for the 2011 Baseball Season.

American League

East: Red Sox
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild Card: Yankees

Pennant: Red Sox

National League

East: Phillies
Central: Reds
West: Giants
Wild Card: Braves

Pennant: Braves

World Series Champs: Red Sox

Being an unabashedly biased Sox fan, I am sure my predictions might seem self serving.  But I believe, on paper, they have by far the best all around team in the Bigs this year.  Some may have stronger starting rotations (and despite my cousin and teaching partner's fondness for the Phils, I think that is their ONLY strength right now) but in overall performance, it is the Sox this year.

And being the Yankee hater that I am, I will not be surprised to see some Yankee names when it comes time to start discussing individual award winners this year.

Do you need help choosing a baseball team to root for?

via Joy of Sox

Big Papi: " I feel like I can lead off tomorrow."

From Joy Of Sox:

Yo (expletive), I feel like I can lead off tomorrow.

David Ortiz, shouting across the clubhouse at Terry Francona.

Mike Lowell: "He looked good running the bases. When he smells it he runs a lot harder. Maybe we should put some chicken nuggets out there."

Only three American League hitters have at least one triple in each of the last 11 seasons: Johnny Damon, Carlos Guillen, and David Ortiz!

"I'm an athlete, man."

Video HERE

We're Going To Fenway!!!!

Earlier this week, for some reason, I popped "Field of Dreams" into the VCR while we were picking up after camping last weekend. I really enjoy the movie. I got kind of misty eyed as it started, suddenly remembering the ending and the missed opportunities of life, the whole father/son dynamic.

As it progressed, Nan, Logan and I all made our way to the various seats and ended up doing more watching than picking up. I shared with the two of them how I first saw the movie while I was living in Boston, how the crowd cheered when the characters went to Boston, how Costner's character drove right past the apartment I was living in.

I also shared how James Earl Jones' character was originally J.D. Salinger in the book and I had JUST read "Catcher in The Rye" for the first time.

The ending got all of us really choked up (despite Logan's unsolicited protestations of "I'm not crying!").

That night, I stayed up FOREVER (really like 3:00 AM....I am trying to squeeze as much out of the rest of this summer as possible) and woke up grumpy at 6:30 AM. I requested no television that morning for no real reason, other than I was cranky and it seemed like we were watching TOO much television lately. Nan encouraged me to lie down for a little while longer but held true to my no television edict.

I set my alarm for 9:00 AM so that I wouldn't sleep too long. The radio came on and I caught part of the local DJ asking a Red Sox trivia question. I hit snooze and Nan opened the bedroom door.

I was confused as to what was going on, but she was listening to the radio in the other room and asked me if I knew which Red Sox player was the only one in team history to score 150 runs in a season. I came up with three choices....David Ortiz, Wade Boggs or Ted Williams. All three seemed like valid guesses....Ortiz hit 54 home runs in 2006, Boggs batted well north of .300 from 1982 to 1991, and Williams, well, was Williams.

I said go with Ortiz. In my sleep deprived state it made sense. She got through....and was wrong. She asked me who she should try next. I went back in forth for a few seconds and suggested Williams.

Still not fully awake, I hear her talking and obviously getting the answer right. She comes running in and tells me she won two tickets to this Saturday's "Vermont Day" at Fenway, when the Blue Jays will be playing the Sox!

Well this wakes me up! We start trying to figure out who will watch Logan and when we would go down and so on. We decide we will run to the DMV first (to get our Enhanced Drivers' Licenses for a trip to Montreal this October) and then will hit the radio station before Haley comes home.

The DMV is a mini bust, as we do not have all the documents we need, but the lady is helpful and gives us all the right forms. We decide to try the DMV the next day and debate on whether to go get the tickets right then or wait.

(I'm babbling but it all has a point!)

We give ourselves a time limit....if we are not at the station by 11:30 AM, we will have to turn around and head home to meet Haley and will get the tickets later.

We make every light and hit the parking lot of WJOY at 11:28 AM. Nan, Logan and I go to get the tickets. The station manager is out front and is chatting, asking which of us will go to the game. We said just Nan and I, since there are two tickets....that Logan will go to his first game another time.

The manager goes out back, gets a group of four tickets and offers to trade them for Nan's two! He apologizes because they are one row back but we jump on them! Logan is giddy! Nan is giddy!

The only down side is that Haley is away this weekend. We took her to her first big league game when she was four. She lasted six innings at Olympic Stadium, mostly because it was so empty she was able to play and run around. If our extra ticket remains unused, Logan will have a little wiggle room, perhaps allowing him to last longer....(I was willing to leave an Expos game....I don't see myself willing to leave a Sox game.)

We struggled to find a decent hotel at this late a date, but a site I never heard of before (booking.com) found us a room in the same hotel Nan and I stayed at when we went to a game three years ago! It is less than 3/4 of a mile from the park AND the site found it cheaper than ANY comparable room!

So we are going to Boston on Saturday! We will hit some Paneras and Targets on the way down....maybe a comic book shop or two on the way home!

The ONLY minor negative is the fact that the Sox are playing the Jays. I have been to more than 20 games at Fenway and seen them play the Jays more than any other team....and they have lost EVERY TIME!!!