Holiday travels/Back to School

After I wrote that last entry, spending hours investigating, searching baseball statistics, and trying to come up with some sort of evaluation process for each of the players in Part 1 (Oh yes, there's more to come!!!), Linds pointed out that I didn't even say anything about life, which is probably way more interesting to people than what I think about the Twins (or so I'm told, it's a way of thinking that I'm still trying to comprehend).

Well, after driving over 1500 miles (according to MapQuest) and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 28-29 hours in the car thanks to less than ideal weather conditions for Parts III and V of the trek, we came up with a path that trumped any of my college road trips.

One of my biggest take-homes from the Christmas season was a hat similar to the one below. Mine's gray with red marks on it, but has the fur and ear flaps nonetheless.



Another article of clothing I now posess (not from a gift, but rather my uncanny ability to smell out a bargain) is this sweatshirt shown below, modeled by yours truly.



School starts again tomorrow. The new topic for the new year....Chemical Compounds and Reactions!!! Get excited, and we hope that there aren't any headlines like this anytime soon in the Tribune...

New Year's (Season's) Resolutions

I read an article on the top ten most popular New Year's resolutions for the coming year. (Based on who, I have no idea) But here they are:

1. Spend more time with family & friends.
2. Spend more time working out.
3. Lose weight.
4. Quit smoking.
5. Enjoy life more.
6. Quit drinking.
7. Get out of debt.
8. Learn something new.
9. Help others.
10. Get organized.

I started to wonder about what some of the Twins players might be making New Year's resolutions about, or maybe New Season's resolutions. I know a lot of the time many sports websites, blogs, and newspapers spend time criticizing players on their play on or off the field. But after thinking about it, no one's perfect, and the best professionals are the ones who aren't content with where they're at, and are always striving to be better. I remember stories of Ken Griffey Jr. never content with his swing, and 611 HR's later, "The Kid" is now "The Natural".

C Joe Mauer: New Year's Resolution-Increase power numbers without decreasing plate discipline. Although there are few obvious flaws in Mauer's offensive and defensive game, one would hope that eventually the 25 year-old with the 6-5 230 frame might produce more than 10 HR, 80 RBI seasons.

1B Justin Morneau: New Year's Resolution-Be more consistent. No one's complaining after a 2nd MVP-type season, but after his stellar 2006 campaign, his offensive numbers dropped across the board, most noticiably in his AVG (.321 to .271) and OPS (.934 to .834).

2B Alexi Casilla: Improve OBP, maintain power numbers. To everyone's suprise, Casilla knocked out 7 HR's in under 100 games last year, contradicting all of his minor league numbers. the Twins need a 2-spot hitter who is able to get on base consistently and get in scoring position for #3 man Mauer.

SS Nick Punto: Show he is a capable starting shortstop...offensively. We know Punto loves to play good, hard-nosed, Twins defense in the field. He's the scrappy little sparkplug that keeps a team going through tough stretches. But if he returns to his dismal 2007 form (.210 AVG, .291 OBP), it may be tough to keep him in the lineup, espeically if Rochester SS Trevor Plouffe is heating up.

3B: Brian Buscher: Show he is a capable starting third baseman...offensively. With either Brendan Harris or Buscher staring the 3B spot in the face, I believe that Buscher showed by the end of last season that he was a viable candidate with slightly better offensive numbers in AVG, OBP, OPS, K%, and BB/K ratio.

Next edition will include those competing for outfield and DH positions.

So long everbody...see you in '09.

Weekend Wonders

This weekend, Jenni and Adam came to visit and we spent Saturday afternoon braving the wind and rain to enjoy some time downtown. After the visit to the Bean and Millennium Park, we headed over to the Art Institute to "culturalize" ourselves. There were some great times by all, and you can see it in our faces while trying to imitate one of our highlights of the trip here...



We then stocked up on drinks at Caribou Coffee and headed off to Daley Plaza to see the Christmas tree. After battling the crowds and a rowdy bunch of Santas, we arrived and made the best of another photo op...



With the Christmas season in full swing and the big day only 11 days away, we have now begun the "12 days of Christmas". Have you ever wondered who came up with the 12 days of Christmas, or what it originated from, or who in the world thought that the song would catch like it did (especially with my extended family year after year) If you're interested, here's the Wikipedia link.

But since I'm more about the how and why (being a Science teacher) and not the history of the song, have you ever wondered how much all 12 days of Christmas would cost someone in order to win over their "true love"?

Well wonder no longer, because the numbers are in....







drum roll please....






For the small price of $86,609, you can make your true love happy this holiday season. However, by leaving out the 7 swans a swimming for each of the 6 days you give them, you can save yourself some pocket change ($33,600).

Just don't let the true love know that you're holding out on those swans...


So long everybody...

Between holidays

This feels like the first actual free time in a long time, but then again, the whole Thanksgiving weekend was free time...so other than that I guess.

• School is still going great, we're working through the periodic table and elements right now and will be until Christmas break and maybe a bit after that, then its to chemical bonds and reactions.
• It has snowed a couple times now, maybe 3-4 inches each time. Glad we don't live in the city of Chicago though. They found out that it cost the city $500,000 each time it snows to pay workers, gas, trucks, salt, etc. So they decided that they wouldn't clear the streets throughout the night, but only if/when it stopped snowing.
• Basketball has been going pretty good, its definitely a different mentality out here with kids having more opportunities to play on travel teams throughout the entire year (yes, even during the season). I took some pictures from one of the kids' facebook pages, so here you go...

• We're 5-2 right now, and just won Friday night by 3 over the team that won their summer league tournament.
• Well...less than two weeks before its back to Minnesota for the wedding, Christmas parties, and hopefully some ice fishing!

So long everybody...

Busy Times

Getting 1st quarter grades in...

Starting the basketball season...

Getting through parent-teacher conferences...

Entering the holiday season...

I knew life was becoming busy, 99% of which was school-related, but tonight capped it all off. With Linds back in Iowa watching State Volleyball, I was sitting in the Lazy-Boy after another underachieving "Office" episode (the 1st couple seasons were ridiculously funny, now.....not so much). While talking to Linds on the phone, she mentioned they went to Wendy's to eat after the game...which immediately left me craving ice cream (which we are out of in the house), so Linds gave me the OK to drive over to our neighborhood Wendy's for a later-night treat. I pull up to the drive-thru and couldn't believe the words that came out of my mouth..."Uh, yeah, can I get a medium, chocolate McFlurry...." (I'm thinking "Where am I....did I just say that")...."I mean a Frosty..." I put on my best "I'm having a bad day face" when pulling up to the window so they wouldn't ask any questions or make a smart comment, and it must have worked because all I got was my Frosty and my change. I was off before you could say Chicken McNuggets...

Well, it has gotten busy lately. Basketball started 3 weeks ago, and cuts had to be made because I had 21 kids try out and 16 jerseys at my disposal (I kept 15 on the team). It was far tougher than it should have been, but the worst part was having to see the kids I cut the next day in class. But other than that, its been really good. We're 2-0 so far, after playing a fairly weak team in our opener winning 46-20 and then picking up victory #2 tonight 50-38 against a top-half team in our conference. Our next game is against a team which will compete with us for the conference title, so it could be a tough one.

Last weekend I did get some time off from school and thinking and everything... I was invited to a Bulls game (great seats...15 rows up behind the hoop) As much as I've said that NBA basketball isn't the most enjoyable sport for me to watch, it was a blast. Here are a few pictures...








So that was my Friday night, and then Saturday Linds and I decided to test our artistic side again with the camera. After hitting up a forest preserve and a ballfield, we came out with these pictures...among others:









Hope all is well with all of you...the weather now reminds me of pheasant hunting with hints of ice fishing. I hope to get at least one of them in sometime in the next few months.

So long everybody...

CEA

Short week of school this week...or a long weekend, however you want to put it. We had our CEA convention this Thursday and Friday in South Bend. It's a pretty cool place, a ton of Notre Dame stuff all over and the College Football Hall of Fame is there. We drove down Thursday morning, leaving here at about 6:00 and getting there around 9ish. The main speaker was...alright. I guess he's a well known writer. Walter....something, I think it starts with a W. Anyways, after that we had a few sectionals, I went to one on collaboration in the Science classroom that was alright, and then one about using everyday materials to teach Science lessons. That one was a little better because it appealed to the cheap me who never wants to order anything out of the overpriced Science supply catalog.

Friday morning I went to a pretty interesting one...Fantasy Sports and Mathematics. It was really good...used alot more math than I use in my class, so I think I'll use a bunch of his ideas.

Not a ton going on today either, so I'm sorry for the boring post. I've spent the afternoon so far watching a combination of the Wisconsin/Illinois, and Northwestern/Indiana games, following the Minnesota/Purdue game online, watching the Dordt/Doane game on webcast, and listening to the Northwestern/Briar Cliff game at times.

And people say guys can't multitask...

During down time, halftime, or anytime the games were all slow, I've been working on basketball practice for next week, fantasy basketball (which starts next week with the new quarter), and figuring out what experiments to use to show Boyle's & Charles's law this week in Science.

All from my laptop with "borrowed" internet and my flatscreen tv with "borrowed" cable.

Good thing my neighbors are such nice sharing people, otherwise I wouldn't get anything done!

Artistic Side

Linds wanted to take some pictures of the fall colors around our neighborhood, so I thought I would try my hand at being a little artistic. I think I did pretty good...these are all my pieces of work...and I even managed to keep baseball out of the picture.

enjoy...

This one...I think I got funny looks from the neighbors for looking straight up at the sky trying to get the camera to focus on the right leaf.

I call this one Barak Obama...it wants change and it looks like its headed for it, but no one knows quite how or when it's going to happen.

This is my John McCain, the true red maverick among a sea of green.


This is one of the stupid Canadians that wake us up every morning before sunrise. It'll be nice when they leave and I can sleep in peace, eh?

Actually, my first picture taken on the adventure before I started looking for stories to go with my pictures.


This is my favorite of all of them, its the background on the computer right now and I think I'm going to get it enlarged over at Wal-Mart or something, it would look good hanging on a wall somewhere.

Call it what you like...Republicans vs. Democrats, U.S. vs. Canada, Summer vs. Winter, American League vs. National League..........


so much for leaving baseball out of it (you really didn't think I could, could you?)

I'll admit it, I had to somewhat crack the stem of this leaf to get it to lay like this, but I think it looks pretty cool. Plus by now it would've been dead anyway, and my picture lasts alot longer.

I snuck up on this leaf, it was just looking the other way, minding its own business when I crept up in full camoflauge and took a shot at it....then the neighbor came out of the garage and I stopped humming the "Mission Impossible" theme song and moved on.