July Weekend

We had a easy weekend before we start a round of visitors and traveling this summer.

We hit a few antique malls and in one Christy tried on this crazy dress. She looks like the "Queen of the Irish" in this getup.

I also lost a ten spot to Brad as I bet on the Cardinals over the Twins this weekend.

Sunday night we had some excitement. A White pick-up ran the stop sign and right up on the neighbors yard stopping about 5 feet from her kitchen. The person took off faster that I could get a plate number.

And, we painted our front door.

Masters Update

My team, the Colorado Smokejumpers is in 1st place in my division.
18-13 overall.

Strategy has already shifted a bit. Opposing pitchers are walking Ruth at an unbelievable rate. They would rather put Ruth on and face Killer or Maris (both hit around .260) and then get to Gaetti. I moved Ruth to hit 3rd and then Mantle in clean-up.

Knobby at 9th is doing great. He is hitting .354 with all those strikes to look at, opposing pitchers would much rather throw good pitches to Knobby than Carew.

It is early but things look good.

Big Ed Walsh is the star on the mound: 5-2 with a 3.78 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.

Masters Tournament

I was asked to enter the Masters Tournament at my Historical Fantasy Baseball web site.

Time to play with the big boys.

The first round is a custom league with a complex draft. Each manager drafts the following: one franchise outfield,infield, starting rotation, relief core and catcher and stadium. We used a snake draft with a random draft order. I pulled #1! Your team will be made up of the above, only players that spent the majority of their time with a franchise are eligible.

I selected the following:

Yankees Outfield

Twins Infield

Expos Relief Core and Catcher

White Sox Rotation

Coors Field.

Here we go:

Batting first and playing first base, Rod CarewHitting second and playing center field: Joe DiMaggio:

Hitting in the three hole and playing right field: Mickey Mantle:

Hitting clean up and playing left field: Babe Ruth:Protecting Ruth against lefties: Killer at DH.Protecting Ruth against righties: Maris at DH:

Hitting in the 6 hole and at 3B, Gary Gaetti:Hitting 7th and catching, Gary Carter:
In the 8th slot and playing SS, Greg Gagne:And, after watching a ton of Cardinals Baseball I have become an advocate of La Russa's "second lead-off hitter" at 9th in the order. Playing 2B chuck Knoblauch:

Talk about a murderers row!

Carew,Di Maggio, Mantle,Ruth, Killer/Maris.

I have excellent defense in the infield and great range in the outfield with an excellent arm in right.

I played it all or nothing by going with Coors field, the ball will really be flying out of the park.

My pitching will suffer.

Updates to follow.

Coors Field:

Busch Stadium

Last night I met an old friend from Graduate School for the Cards v. Tigers game. I was able to get to St. Louis a bit early and take some shots of the stadium before the game.



The entrance to New Busch Stadium. When people compare ball fields to cathedrals I get their point.

Inside with the Cards in the field.

Approaching the stadium from the NW.

The attention to detail is incredible.


The Musial statue outside the main gate inspires awe.

The inscription on the base reads "Here stands baseball's perfect warrior. Here stands baseball's perfect knight."Outside the ballpark the Cardinals have erected a statue park of great past players. I can't emphasis enough how much they honor their rich past in the game. I hope the Twins take a hint and erect a statue park at their new stadium.

Twins statues: Puckett, Hrbek, Killer, Oliva, T. Kelly.

Possible:

Bert: He played for many other teams, has a ring with the Bucks, but he is a huge media presence for the Twins.

Carew: There is that nasty period of time when he played for the Angels. Did he go into the Hall as a Twin or Angel?

Bostock: Short career, also an Angel.

Gaetti: Most of his career with the Twins but many other teams.

Walter Johnson: Honor our past? The great Washington Senators pitcher.

Others? Feel free to post.

AC/DC

Wednesday night Christy and I went to the Sagamon County Fair to check out an AC/DC tribute band.
Here is a shot of the midway.

Elephant rides! It made us think of Water for Elephants, an excellent book. Buying a corndog on the midway.

On our way to the grandstand. Last year the fair had a Van Halen tribute band. I like it!

AC/DC tribute band Hells Bells on stage.

Angus!

Nice.

Highway to Hell.

Malcolm, Bon Scott or Brian Johnson? and Angus. I think it was Bon Scott as they played a bunch of songs from JailBreak.

Rock on!

Good Citizen

Friday, we went to St. Louis for the opening of Khara's show at the Good Citizen Gallery.
The title of the show is later rather than sooner.
I took a few photos of some of her work and the explanations I give here come from her.
This is one of my favorite pieces below, it is titled The Silent Lure of Attention. She says that when she was a child her grandfather would lure the formerly shy Khara to him with M-n-Ms. This is a shot of the piece from the side with Khara standing by it. What you see here is M-n-Ms stuck to the wall.

Another shot of the piece straight on.

When you stand against the wall in just the right spot this is what you see. A reproduction of a photo of her grandfather sitting at his desk, all done in M-n-Ms.
This is a shot of Cori, Laura and Christy looking at In Case of the Eventual. Khara wrote notes to people she has something she wants to share with them and they are to be distributed after her death. Each note has been shredded and placed in a small plastic cube.

This one is titled Fleeting Efforts at Reassurance. She says, "...bottles of breath have been collected from the most influential people in my life in order to never allow them to take their last one."

This is a close up of my bottle, #56. Christy's bottle is #57.

Christy and Khara talking by the piece titled Attempting To Mend the Distance. Pieces of maps from places she has visited are woven into a map of the United States, the pieces trace the route from Jacksonville to her home in Pennsylvania.

Dr. John Cox checking out The Inescapable Inevitable.

The Good Citizen Gallery in St. Louis.

Last Norway Photos

Here are some last shots from Norway. They are all of me as it takes a friend to take your photo and Christy was at home. All these photos were taken by Khara Koffel so please don't download them w/o asking me first.

Here is a shot of me as we enter Oslo on the cruise ship. Here I am at the Fram museum talking to Laura. The black and white photo that is in focus is of Helmer Hanssen, a long lost relative on Mom's side. He was with Amundsen on the Fram and was on the polar assault team.

In this photo I am looking at the Baptismal font that Kierkegaard was baptized in. I am about to lecture on his theology of baptism.

Skipping stones in Balestrand,

On the train to Flam.

Waiting on the fast ferry in Flam.

"Above" Bergen with Mac Student James.

Syttende Mai

Syttende Mai means May 17th in Norwegian. It is their Independence day and do they celebrate! We started the day by securing a great spot to watch the parade. These are two locals in their traditional attire called a bunad. Local dignitaries.

The Norwegian navy. They have a very proud tradition going all the way back to the Vikings.

WWII vets, they received a unchecked round of applause as they rolled by.

More from the Navy. We had no idea that the parade would last over 3 hours and run both ways on the street. If they would have run it one way it would have lasted over 6 hours!

The flag was flying on every available pole.

A shot of the crowd. I expected a few people in Bunad but well over 50% were in their local traditional attire. Each Bunad is from a specific region in Norway and they are all different.

Cadets.

School children.

More school children. Education is free and excellent all they way through university and even graduate work if you are accepted.

We were in Norway during the time when high school age students are graduating. They all wear these very interesting pants/overalls and they are decorated. Each student wore them all the time to make it known they were a graduate.

Flags everywhere.

After the parade we climbed up to the cathedral in Bergen, here is a shot of the city from the steps of the cathedral.

The Bergen cathedral.



A cool Viking statue in Bergen. Note his wide stance, as if he was holding his balance on the open sea.





Yes! Motley Crue in Norway.

Finally we went to a party for the local youth. Our students had a great time. There was a DJ on a fake ridiculous viking ship with smoke and disco lights. This is the venue were I was introduced to the techno version of John Denver's County Roads.