I am not sure If I believe this

all-time Non-gender-specific first name baseball team

I was inspired to put this on the blog after watching the introduction of the Latino Legends baseball team before the last game of the World Series the other night.
I have been thinking about this for a long time.
All of these guys qualify because they have names that are just as suitable for girls as they are for boys and they are hall of famers.
Being in the hall of fame was the only playing requirement. After that it was the non-gender-specific quality of their names that got them on the list.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Catcher

Gabby Hartnett


Connie Mack

Connie Mack is in the hall of fame as a manager and all-around baseball legend. When he played he was a catcher.

First Base

Lou Gehrig


Second Base

Nellie Fox

Third base

Brooks Robinson


short stop

Robin Yount


Outfield

Babe Ruth



Kiki Cuyler


Chick Hafey


Pitchers

Christy Mathewson


Jesse Haines


Sandy Koufax

Olympic Stadium Memory

One year my dad, two other fellows (both named Mike) and I bought a ticket for every Sunday home game of the Montreal Expos. We had the same seats every week.
There was no roof on the stadium at the time. But, because of the small roof opening and the angle of the stadium relative to the path of the sun most people always at in the dark. Except us.
On sunny days it looked like this.


In this photo the sun is about two rows from our seats. It got unbearably hot and usually one of us forgot a cap and was forced to buy one. You could get painter caps at the time for less than $5 Can. The sun only lasted for a couple of innings.
Good times.

did one of those personality tests while waiting for Lucy to wake up

ENTP - "Inventor". Enthusiastic interest in everything and always sensitive to possibilities. Non-conformist and innovative. 3.2% of the total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

Ever have one of these days?

Desert Island digital audio player

If you were stuck on a desert island, what 1,000 songs would you want on your digital audio player?

Been busy

I have been busy and not doing anything at the same time.
I noticed that I had been getting a lot more visits to my site even though I had not been updating the blog.
It looks like some of the images from the "who will be in my movie" gag got picked up on google images.
So I was poking around google images today and I found this:


It is the S. Graser Quartet. I guess the fourth guy was taking the picture.

Another thought
There are these gas station/convenience stores here called Duke and Duchess shops. I think Duke pumps the gas and Duchess sells the sodas.
They have signs out front that say "Cold Beer at State Minimums."
Every time I see one I think "isn't 32 degrees about the minimum - what the hell does the state have to do with that. It's common sense unless you're selling beersicles - which, by the way, are impractical."

Back to the original thought
Here are some of the places that have accessed this site lately. Mostly looking for photos of Robin Williams

17 Sesser Illinois United States
7 Asheville North Carolina United States
7 Atlanta Georgia United States
6 Newark Ohio United States
5 Plattsburgh New York United States
3 Sion Valais Switzerland
3 London England United Kingdom
2 Cherry Hill New Jersey United States
2 Toronto Ontario Canada
2 Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh India
2 Houston Texas United States
2 Cazenovia New York United States
1 Cincinnati Ohio United States
1 Leiden Zuid-holland Netherlands
1 Sacramento California United States
1 Ft. Collins Colorado United States
1 Budapest Budapest Hungary
1 Syracuse New York United States
1 Ellicott City Maryland United States
1 Irving Texas United States
1 Las Vegas Nevada United States
1 Germantown Maryland United States
1 Miami Florida United States
1 Jacksonville Florida United States
1 Wellington Wellington New Zealand
1 Cologne Nordrhein-westfalen Germany
1 Tallahassee Florida United States
1 Medellin Antioquia Colombia
1 Berlin Berlin Germany
1 Luqa Malta Malta
1 Madrid Madrid Spain
1 Anchorage Alaska United States
1 Helsinki Etela-suomen Laani Finland
1 Plainfield New Jersey United States
1 Los Angeles California United States

Interesting, isn't it?

My Canada

create your own personalized map of Canada
or check out ourVancouver travel guide

States I have visited

I think



create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Mike is going to be 50!

Movie making with Lucy

Lucy and I made a movie today using Microsoft's photo story.
We decided to make a movie about playing hide and go seek.
I think it was a great lesson for her and a lot of fun for me.
First we drew a story board so we would know what photos we needed to take.
Then we loaded a roll of film in Lucy's little point and shoot and shot the movie. We had to ask mom to take a few photos for us.
Then we took the film to a one-hour photo place and went to a wing restaurant to eat wings and watch a little pre-game football.
We got the photos - on a disc - and then came back home to put the movie together.
It was quite a lot of fun. It might be large to e-mail (about 4 megs I think) but I will send it to you if you want it.
Here are some shots from the movie.

Lucy's Birthday (and mine)!

Today is Lucy's birthday - she is five-years-old.

Here is Lucy's song of five

Five things I can do
1. Count to 30
2. Write my name and a few three-letter words
3. Make people laugh
4. Throw a really good fit
5. Scare the shit out of my dad

Five things I can't do
1. Sit still for longer than three minutes unless I am watching TV (even then it is much more fun if I am jumping on the couch or hanging upside down off the coffee table).
2. Stay mad at anybody for more than a few minutes
3. Consider the possible consequences of jumping off the front porch.
4. Clean my room by myself (unless I throw a really good fit first).
5. Lie convincingly (although I tell lies constantly - "yes I washed my hands").

Five things I say the most
1. Can I have some juice?
2. Can I have dessert after brefkist?
3. Can I go play at Logan's house?
4. Can Logan play at my house?
5. Can I have a snack?

Five books that I love
1. The Smell of Christmas (a scratch and sniff Christmas book that has lost all its smell).
2. Any pop-up book (although all have been destroyed).
3. Maisy's Christmas
4. Auntie Claus (are you beginning to see a pattern?)
5. Any of Mommy's old books that I am not allowed to touch

Five things I want to do before I die
1. Stay up all night watching "Sponge Bob Square Pants"
2. Get every toy I see on TV
3. Have a sleep over
4. Have a playground in my backyard
5. Climb a tree

More pix from Popcorn Festival

Lucy does love a good Merry-Go-Round.






You gotta watch out, though, someone is always gaining on you!


Just about anything that went around in a circle was fine with Lucy.
Even an elephant, that was not in anyway supposed to resemble Dumbo, who is, in fact, a registered trademark of the Disney Corportation. This was not Dumbo.


See if you can spot anyone that resembles Lucy in the background.





If she likes it so much, why doesn't more get in her spaghetti hole?

Bib portraits

I should have posted this sooner. Here are two pictures of a portrait a guy I work with, Dave Breeding, did of his late father on a pair of bib overalls. He "painted" the picture with a bleach pen.

This is a picture my father took at an art show.


Here is a more professional shot. You can click on this one to see the details.

More Photos from USA vs. Mexico

I am just going to let these speak for themselves.


The teams enter the field.


Mexican fans


A row of flags. USA, Mexic, Ohio, FIFA, etc.


A young fan.


It's all about the flag.

From Ashevegas

My buddy Ash got this from Edgy Momma. Just a little exercise, kind of like Slam Books we did in grade school. It's the Song of Five:

5 things I can do:
1. Tell a joke
2. Juggle
3. Do mediocre yo-yo tricks
4. Tie balloon animals
5. Read aloud really well

5 things I can’t do:
1. Play a musical instrument
2. Sing anything but the most basic song
3. Draw anything other than cartoons
4. Algebra
5. Comfortably pilot a boat

5 things I see as attractive in the opposite sex:
1. Humor
2. Long hair
3. Short hair
4. Curves
5. Brains

5 things I say the most:
1. We gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes!
2. Damn your eyes!
3. Do you smell carrots?
4. Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, 1..2..3.., you don’t want me to keep counting.
5. How many jumps?!

5 books that I love:
1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
2. The Iowa Baseball Confederacy
3. Make Room! Make Room!
4. A Thurber Carnival
5. Catch 22

5 things I plan to do before I die:
1. Wear coverall jumpsuits everyday (either gray or light blue)
2. Buy a camper and travel around the country
3. Write a book about selling yo-yos
4. Paint a mural
5. Buy a smoker and cater picnics on the weekend

Don't ask me about the 1-hour photo situation in this burg.

"The Fish That Wore Eyeshadow" sounds like a movie Gabe Kaplan might have starred in.
Meanwhile, Lucy really liked this chintzy ride at the Marion Popcorn Festival.


The Eric Grohe mural in downtown Marion was just about completed in time for the festival. The girl on the top of the globe is pointing to Marion.



You can see more of his stuff at Eric Grohe Murals

On this page you can see how the work in Marion was done.

Lucy Logic

"I know how to read, I just can't read."

Some photos from the FC Dallas match

Lucy and I went to the Columbus Crew vs. FC Dallas match a few weeks back. I just got the film developed this weekend.

We both have fun at these games, but I have to believe that it is for different reasons.
The highlight of this game (besides the Crew's victory - I have never seen the home team lose in Crew Stadium) was a huge thunderstorm that rolled over the stadium in the first half. They stopped the game for about 40 minutes because of the storm.

If you click on this photo you can really see how menacing this thing was.
They herded all 14,000 fans into the bowels of the stadium. We got a little wet before we found shelter. As soon as we got under the stadium, Lucy found a guy hawking cotton candy. We bought a bag - it was purple.

We always have a good time when we are together -- but somehow I think the soccer games are more fun for me than her.

Well, hard beans! We are going to go to even more games next year!

Pix from the match

Todd Runkle and I watched the United States qualify for the 2006 World Cup at Crew Stadium in Columbus.
Incredible night.

These guys were having fun before the game started. I bet they were a little less happy a couple of hours later.
You have to click on this one to appreciate the hat and mustache.


I don't know why these guys always end up in front of me, but they do.

He had two flags a hat and a scarf. I was never really clear on who he was rooting for.


Here's Todd just after we walked into the stadium.


Believe it or not, somebody bought us a beer! Most people avoided us.

The plastic beer bottle is the referee's best friend.


This isn't a great photo. But it is the celebaration followin the United State's second goal.