Been Awhile

It's been quite awhile since I've updated the blog (since March!). Let's recap what has happened since then:

1. A mostly failed Red Sox season. Injury after injury really made it impossible for us to get to the postseason. Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, Beckett, etc. At times, we looked like a AAA ballclub.

2. Jo and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary!

3. Jo and I took the trip of a lifetime to Italy and Greece in September. We saw Rome, Tuscany, Athens, and Santorini over a two week period. Truly the most remarkable sites I've ever seen. Amazing scenery, history and architecture; unbelievable food, and fantastic wine. Pictures are on Facebook.

4. EP and WP both had great marching band seasons this year. What are we playing next year?

Since ACC's it's been relatively quiet. Now in the midst of the holidays, we are decorated and Jolene is baking as I type this. Next week will be very busy with several Christmas parties, a WPMB meeting in Delaware, Samantha's bridal shower in Pittsburgh, and the first of our family Christmas celebrations. But first, looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Oh - and the Red Sox signed Adrian Gonzalez AND Carl Crawford this week. I was so excited about one of the announcements, I couldn't sleep that night. I can't wait for Spring Training!

Another Weekend

Gorgeous weather this past weekend. I took off work early on Friday, grabbed lunch outside at Spice with Mike, then hit the driving range. Went better than Thursday, but still pretty rusty. Guess I didn't realize how long it's been since I picked up a club. Friday night had 2 bottles of red wine with Jo.

Saturday I slept in, Jo left for her cousin's bridal shower, and I got to work outside. Wanted to start with the chainsaw right away, but the neighbors were sitting out on their deck so I figured I'd wait awhile. Cleaned up the yard, put down some grass seed. Once the neighbors left, I spent a few hours cutting dead branches off the two enormous pine trees in the backyard. One tree was more dead than the other, so I cut higher branches off of that one... up to about 8 or 10 feet off the ground. The other tree I cut branches up to about 7 feet off the ground. Both look waaaay better than they did before. We had sushi at Akitas Saturday evening with Sam, Mike, Mallory.

Sunday we hit some York County wineries again - Moondancer, Allegro, Fiore (Maryland), and Naylor - then stopped to see some lab pups in Shrewsbury. Had Cuff's b-day dinner at Fireside that night. Great weekend.

NOMAH!

I'm really glad I went to nesn.com today when I did, because I got to watch the Nomar Garciaparra retirement announcement live. Nomah signed a 1-day minor league deal with Boston today so he could retire in a Red Sox uniform. Great press conference. Later I also got to listen to an in-game interview with him on WEEI.

And then Jacoby Ellsbury had back to back home runs in consecutive at-bats!

Now Playing: BASEBALL

Wednesday night Sushi... mmmm....

Weekend 3/6-3/7

Great weekend. Spent the day Saturday along the PA/MD border, trying some local wineries. I was really surprised - the wine at all 6 wineries was pretty impressive. I think most people (myself included) have a negative opinion of most Pennsylvania wines, but these had some really good flavors. Wineries we visited:

Moon Dancer Vineyards & Winery - Wrightsville, PA

First winery we visited, and definitely the most expensive. Only 1 or 2 bottles available for less than $20. Reserve Chardonnay and the Meritage were the best. Really nice place, up on a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River.

Allegro Vineyards - Brogue, PA

We discovered that this winery sells bottles at Giant in Mechanicsburg and Enola. Fanfare (Chardonnay/Gewurtztraminer blend) was best white we had all day.

Fiore Winery - Pylesville, MD

Possibly the most accomplished of the wineries we visited. Lots of award/medal winners. Great Sangiovese. Caronte (Merlot/Cab/Sangiovese) blend might have been the best dry red we tasted all day.

Woodhall Wine Cellars - Parkton, MD

Really close to I-83 in MD. Big tasting, we probably tried 12 different wines. Best white: Seyval, best red: Reserve Merlot.

Basignani Winery - Sparks Glencoe, MD

Great reds, especially Marisa and Erik's Big Zin.

Naylor Winery - Stewartstown, PA

Last winery we visited. First Capital was really good, even though it was semi-dry. Shiraz was good too.

Saturday evening we had the usual gang over for dinner, then watched Zombieland. Hilarious.

Sunday was a lazy day... pancakes for breakfast, washed and cleaned out the cars, then walked to the dog park with Sydney and Jo, where we met Jared, Jen, and Tessie (their German Shepard). The place was PACKED. Typical Sunday dinner at the Legion in Dillsburg.

Anyone else think the Oscars was a snooze-fest? I couldn't stay awake... seemed a lot more lame this year than in the past.

Wild Card

Sox are in the playoffs! Great. Now we just need to stay healthy, especially Beckett, Lester, and Lowell. My preferred lineup for the Angels series:

1 Ellsbury (CF)
2 Pedroia (2B)
3 Martinez (C)
4 Youkilis (1B)
5 Ortiz (DH)
6 Bay (LF)
7 Lowell (3B)
8 Drew (RF)
9 Gonzalez (SS)

Leave Varitek out. Its obvious he doesn't have the swing he once did, and he can't throw runners out stealing 2nd. The Angels are the most small-ball style team in the American League, so they WILL be stealing bases. Let Martinez take care of it. Varitek can PH if necessary, or get pitchers ready in the bullpen. My suspicion is that Francona will have him catch Game 2 anyway, with Beckett on the mound. Hopefully Beckett has good enough stuff that stealing base runners won't be a huge problem.

Gotta love tonight's lineup - all benchwarmers except for Ortiz.

.406

Today, September 28th, was the final day of Major League Baseball season in 1941, a double-header for the Boston Red Sox. At the end of the previous day's game, Ted "The Kid" Williams had a batting average of .39955 - a number that would have been rounded up to .400 for statistical purposes. Williams, despite the advice of manager Joe Cronin, elected to play both games of the double header, going 6 for 8 with a home run, raising his average to .406 - the last player to hit .400+ in baseball history.

Props, the Big Trip, & Upstate NY

Marching band props have occupied my life this week. Hopefully they'll be done today or tomorrow. Big show on Saturday at Hershey.

Went to see our travel agent (Mike's mom) about our Italy/Greece trip next year. We'll be gone for about 2 weeks, around Labor Day 2010... 4 days in Tuscany, 3 in Rome, 3 in Athens, and 4 in Santorini. Can't wait.

Also decided to make a trip to the Finger Lakes in NY this year, after we initially thought we wouldn't have time to go. Andy and Alison are coming along so we can celebrate Alison's 29th birthday while we go to wine tastings all day Saturday & Sunday.

Fenway

I found this account of attending a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 2002 on deadspin.com... Hilarious:

The summer before my first year at college my Dad scored tickets for the Red Sox / Yankees at Fenway, something we had always wanted to go to. Believe me when I say that the real action wasn't on the field, but was spread throughout the bleachers. This was the summer of 2002... Fenway was still a place of unabashed debauchery, racist Southies, and DRUNK B.U. students; Not a pink hat to be seen. A quick overview of the stands during the game revealed numerous amounts of fights and no small amount of hot dogs, beers, and plastic ice cream helmets flying back and forth between Red Sox and Yankee fans. Behind my Dad and I sat the biggest stereotypical South Boston resident I had ever encountered; He spent the whole game yelling at the middle aged women in front of us who had unwisely decided to wear their Bernie Williams' jerseys to the game. "Ber-knee! Beeeer-knee! Why are't you in da ghame Berrrr-knee?"

At one point a Yankee fan in front of us was escorted out by security and decided to flip off the crowd as a parting gift; As he was being showered with garbage, boos, and cries of "FAGGOT", I took the remains of my half-eaten hot dog and hit him square in the head with it. My Dad, a lawyer, and usually a model of restraint, turned to me and said, "Nice shot." Never have I felt so close to my Dad.

Weekend

Friday - drove down to West Chester for a party. Got there about 5, met some new people, had some great imported beer. Left between 8:30 and 9, decided to grab food at Burrito Loco. Closed at 9. WTF?! That place was open til 3 AM when I went to WCU. Not cool.

Saturday - EP rehearsal at 10. Got a LOT accomplished. We took the kids to the New Oxford show (Cavalcade) just to get them out for an early season performance. Good way for the newbies to get all the jitters out before our first TOB show at Hersheypark Stadium 9/26/09. Weather was crap all day, off and on mist/drizzle during rehearsal and again during warmup. Stopped for our performance, which was actually quite good for the first time out. Took 1st place out of 7 bands in our division. Stayed for a (mostly) lame judges meeting, got home, crashed.

Sunday - Woke up earlier than I wanted to. I hate that. Went to Giant to get donuts for breakfast, then ended up going to brunch with Williams/Washburn clan at Cracker Barrel. Yum. Came home, cut grass, watched some football, put newly sharpened chain back on the chain saw, trimmed back one bush, cut down 3 others (one left to cut). Had grilled pizza for dinner about 8:30. Watched some more football, Entourage, crashed.

All in all a good, productive weekend. Looking forward to this coming Saturday's 2nd party on the new patio.

9/11

I can remember the exact moment I heard about what was going on in NYC on 9/11.

2001 was my freshman year in college. I had the worst class schedule of all time. Mon, Wed, and Fri I didn't have a class until 2:00 in the afternoon. Tues. and Thurs. I had classes at 8 AM. Basically, I never got into any sleep routine because I always wanted to sleep in M/W/F and had to get up at the crack of dawn on T/Th. 9/11 was a Tuesday, so I had gone to my 8 AM class (I think it was a Geography course), and I remember coming back to my dorm afterward and hearing someone talk about a fire in one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York. I didn't think much of it until I got upstairs to my room - 721 Sanderson Hall - and turned the TV on.

It was pretty crazy to live through those days after 9/11... experiencing college for the first time as a freshman, while this huge crisis was occurring... basically watching the news all day on TV while still going to classes and, slowly, life moving on. Not a day I'll soon forget.

Patio = Finished

As promised, here are a few pictures of the new patio. We finished it on Saturday, just in time to throw a surprise engagement party for Sam and Mike.

Sox

Forgot to post about the Sox last night. Great game... another good outing from Buchholz. Ahead of Texas by 3 in the AL Wild Card.

Oh, and here's out latest Red Sox addition, a new grill cover!

Patio Project Progress

Here are a few pics of the patio so far... I think it should be done today or tomorrow morning:

All the stones we bought and had delivered:














About 2/3 of the way done:





















I'll post more pictures after it's finished!

Quick post

Good rehearsal last night with EP. Kids continue to work really hard. First performance on Friday.

Sox beat the Rays 8-4 last night. Great outing by Lester, Billy Wagner continues to dominate in relief, 6-out save by Papelbon. Youk, Drew, Bay all homered. Moment of the Game:

Amazing catch by Ellsbury with the bases loaded. Saved the win.

Working on the patio tonight, maybe leaving work early tomorrow to hopefully get all of the stones down. Anybody wanna help??

Been awhile...

I haven't updated this blog nearly as much as I originally intended, but hopefully I'll get into the habit of blogging more frequently. Anyway, an update on things...

1. PATIO PROJECT
Most recently, Jo and I finally decided to do the backyard paver stone patio project ourselves, and we started it this past weekend. Unfortunately we picked a rainy weekend. I was off work Friday to get started, so in between rain showers in the afternoon I was able to get most of the sod pulled up. Saturday I finished the sod and tamped the dirt down between (more) rain showers. Finally a nice day on Sunday, where Jo, Sam, and I were able to get a few inches of gravel base put down, as well as the leveling sand. Hopefully I'll get to put the paver stones down this week. Also, we planted a garden this year which had mixed results. Plants grew like crazy, but the tomato plants got some sort of blight before we got much off them. We did, however, get TONS of cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green beans, lettuce, and green peppers. Let us know if you need any.

2. ANNIVERSARY
Jo and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary last weekend. Went out to dinner at Devon Seafood Grille in Hershey on Friday; had a band rehearsal, donated blood, and had dinner with Andy and Alison on Saturday; had brunch with Sam and Mike on Sunday, then dinner (more like a feast) at Jo's parents house Sunday evening. Great weekend all around. Oh, and our gift to each other - a new grill!

3. RED SOX
We've had a pretty good stretch lately. Won 10 of the last 14 games, including sweeping the Blue Jays twice, and taking 3 or 4 from the White Sox, despite losing 2 of 3 to the Yankees. Even though we're 6 games behind New York, we are now 3-1/2 games ahead of Texas in the AL Wild Card race. Next series: @ Tampa Bay.

4. NEW CAR
I got a new 2009 Jeep Patriot. The Explorer died, was revived with a used junkyard transmission, limped onto the dealer lot for a $4500 Cash-For-Clunkers rebate, plus another $3500 rebate from Chrysler. Pictures:


5. SUMMER TRIPS
No big summer vacations this year, in saving up for next year's Italy/Greece trip. We did get to Sea Isle City for a weekend for the now-famous (or infamous) George Family Beach Extravaganza, and went out to Pittsburgh for Papa and Dad's birthdays. Next trip, probably to the beach the first weekend in October (after we can take Sydney on the beaches).

I'll post pictures of the patio once we're done.

People Are Dumb

You know what really annoys the hell out of me? People who encounter a little bit of frustration, then spend an hour talking about how frustrated they are. How about, instead of TALKING about your frustration, you WORK ON A GOD DAMN SOLUTION. Get over it and move on. People who dwell on stuff has to be up there on the list of top reasons for violence.

Belligerent Bill is in full force today.

Summer Begins

Well, the Washburn Wedding went off without a hitch. Andy and I killed with our best man speech, there was not much dancing (which saved me from embarrassment), great food, all at a really nice place - The Stone Mill Inn. See Facebook for pictures.

Finally got to give the Stockards the Red Sox History kid book for their baby coming in August. Easily the best possible baby gift the world has ever seen.

I think after much debate, Jo and I have decided to put the paver stone patio in ourselves rather than pay thousands of dollars to have it done by someone else. We've done everything else ourselves so why stop now? Step 1: Demolishing the ancient "pavillion" in our backyard. Maybe I'll just push that damn thing over this weekend when Jolene is in Philly.

R.I.P. Dominic Dimaggio

One of the four Teammates, Dominic Dimaggio, died last night while watching a replay of Thursday's Sox game, a game which we won 13-3 after the Sox scored 12 runs in one inning before recording one out. Always played in the shadow of Joe, but was a better fielder with a stronger arm; and a far better, kinder person. Of the 4, Bobby "The Silent Captain" Doerr and Johnny "Needlenose" Pesky are still with us. Ted "The Kid" Williams died in 2002.

A lifetime .298 hitter, Dimaggio was called "The Little Professor" for his small size and bespectacled eyes, at a time when eyeglasses were rarely worn by professional baseball players. He also holds the Red Sox hitting streak record at 34 games. During his playing years, center field bleacher fans would chant: "He's better than his brother Joe - Dominic Dimaggio." It became a popular phrase in Boston during the 50s. His prowess in the outfield was legendary, so much so that even Ted Williams would yell "You get it, Dom, you get it!" when fly balls were launched toward left-center field at Fenway Park. After retirement, as the years passed on, Williams lobbied fiercly for Dominic's acceptance into the Hall of Fame, without success. In his autobiography, Williams said it was one of the game's biggest tragedies.

Dominic Paul DiMaggio, 1917-2009

Renovation Realities

So recently, my wife decided it would be a good idea to re-do the sunroom. We had done nothing to it since we moved in last Summer. It was dark brown wood paneling; bright green indoor/outdoor carpet; with a table, chairs, and a big buffet kinda thing all painted an odd peach-ish color. Basically, so ugly you could compare it to the worst parts of the Bible. It has been (and continues to be) transformed. Pictures will be forthcoming, but here are the steps that were taken so far:

1. Deciding on paint color. Perhaps the most unnecissarily cumbersome part of the project. Many colors were considered, especially the miriad of colors between light brown and light tan. Eventually, we considered several shades of yellow, finally chosing "Reading Glory." No clue why they gave it that gay name.

2. Priming the walls. Given that the paneling was a dark brown, and we were going to paint it yellow, we primed everything first. A few hours after we finished, I was in the kitchen and looked out to the sunroom, and it was really, really weird to see the room looking so bright.

3. Considering carpet. All I'll say is, after looking at Lowe's, the only one we liked was the only one they didn't have in stock. Ended up being a good thing I guess, because it was burber, and Sydney's paws/nails would've ripped it pretty easily. We're still working on this part.

4. Painting the walls. Two coats, looks pretty good now. Jo and Alison repainted the window frame/trim as well (white).

5. Furniture paint. First it was white, then black, then part black / part white... we eventually went with all black, and I think it was the best choice. We originally tried using a "hammered" look spraypaint, which didn't really have good results. After that, we decided to spraypaint the chairs and table legs, and use rollers to do the top of the table and the entire buffet. They look pretty nice now. The jury's still out on whether we are going to put a varnish or polyurethane over the paint.

6. Yet To Do: get the carpet, put new molding around the bottom of the walls, and hang up some blinds. Should be a really nice room in another week or so. Stay tuned for pictures.

Next Project: The Backyard Patio To End All Backyard Patios.

Mobile Blogging Test

Just checking this out to see if it works... I wasn't aware you could post via e-mail.