1 week to go...

Well, summer is almost over. You always wonder where the time went and (maybe more importantly) what you did with all of it. Well, what I did was...

• very little schoolwork
• start refinishing a coffee table
• knock off another MLB stadium off the list (Miller Park)

Now, it may not seem like a whole lot, but here's what I came up with after summer's close...

• i teach for 9+ months out of the year and put in more time than your typical 8-5 job, so I was ready for a break
• i know that this coffee table will eventually end up in the basement of our future house (which i also picked out and found this summer...add that to the list), so there's no real sense in rushing it (this might be procrastination, so I'm riding a thin line)
• i want to see every major league stadium in my lifetime, so one new one a summer is a solid pace (plus the two Chicago stadiums I made it to before the summer began), and now my total stands at 8

The list goes on to include fishing trips, a wedding (maybe I should write it as a fishing/wedding trip), camping trip, trips from friends, trips to friends, trips from family, and trips to family. Minor league baseball, NFL training camp, a Taste of the city, and travels in six different states.

So as summer comes to a close and people ask me what I did, I struggle to come up with a really good answer. Depending on the person, I usually respond with "Nothing...absolutely nothing." to "Little bit of this and a little bit of that..." to "I hit the books and revamped my whole curriculum and view of teaching."--only to school board members, of course...

Hope all of you had as busy of a summer as we did. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty exhausted, I could use a break before school starts...

So long everybody...

A shot of our latest Kane County Cougars game, former Twins draft pick Tyler Ladendorf batting...

Trip, Trade Deadline, Twins

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to update you on our lives and what's been happening the past few weeks. We just got back from a camping trip with my extended family to Lewis & Clark Rec Area by Yankton, SD. The trip was bookended (is that a word? it sounds really literary, or something, so I'm going to use it because it makes sense) by stops at the Van Wyk residence to break up the drive, construct a couple bonfires (one sub-par and one simply amazing), and spend some time fishing. During the trip I managed to play a total of 36 holes of golf, 10 of which were great and will keep me from disowning the sport forever, 26 of which made me want to crack my driver over my leg and run over it with the cart.

I'm blogging from our house again, which means that our laptop is fixed, complete with a new motherboard and a hole in my wallet.

Thanks to the fixed computer, I was able to follow along on one of my favorite days of the year yesterday, the MLB trading deadline. I don't know if its something to brag about or not, but I feel like I was one of the first Twins fans to know about the official accquision of Orlando Cabrera, which wasn't discussed on MLB Network for another 15 minutes, or posted on the Star Tribune website for another 2 hours.

I'm glad the Twins made a move, if nothing else, I hope it keeps Mauer in Minny beyond the end of his current contract, which runs through 2010. He mentioned a few weeks ago that its going to be hard to sign an extension if the team doesn't show that its willing to make the moves necessary to keep up with the other big boppers of the AL. Now I don't think that all the needs were addressed (just look at the bullpen's line last night...4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, but none bigger than the game-tying homerun that Guerrier gave up to Mike Napoli leading off the 8th inning)

The Twins' move looks even less significant after watching the Tiggers add Washburn, a solid starter. I must admit though, I don't believe that Washburn will continue to put up the same numbers for the final two months that he has through the first four. Neither do I think that the Sox accquision of Jake Peavy is as great as everyone is saying. He isn't supposed to come back until the end of August from an ankle injury, so he'll get at most 5 starts this year, so I'm not that convinced he'll have that big of an impact on this year's regular season outcome.

A quick look at his Home/Away stats for his career:

Home: 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP

Away: 3.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP

I am in no way trying to say that he is horrendous away from PETCO Park, but it just shows how playing in a pitcher-friendly ballpark helps out your stats. Not to mention moving to the AL, which is much more hitter friendly with the DH in the lineup.

On a positive note (well, not for Twins fans I guess) Peavy is one of the premier pitchers in all of baseball when he's on. Kinda like Mark Prior was when he was on. Also, he's not a rental player for the coming year, the Sox control him through 2013.

Finally, just a look at his stats against other top AL teams:

Yankees 0-2 3.60 ERA 1.30 WHIP

Red Sox 0-1 5.40 ERA 2.00 WHIP

Rays 1-0 0.00 ERA 0.71 WHIP

Tigers 0-1 4.50 ERA 1.00 WHIP

Twins 0-0 2.84 ERA 1.34 WHIP

Angels 0-1 3.38 ERA 0.75 WHIP

Rangers Never faced

Take the record (1-5) with a grain of salt, because don't forget he was playing for the Padres.

So long everybody!