You can forget out future plans/Night touch my hand with the turning Golden Skans

Articulate Articles
Gardenhire Deciding Lineup
Pioneer Press – Phil Miller
Star Tribune – La Velle E. Neal III and Joe Christensen

Well, it is getting closer and closer and that means I am getting more and more impatient for it to just start already, damn it.
I caught the rebroadcast of the Diamond Awards on FSN. I gotta tell you, the montages really suck me in and tear me up (as in crying like a baby.)
So, on Thursday, February 28 at noon the first Spring Training game kicks off against The Reds.

Non-baseball but no less important

Concert Calendar
2/27 – Foo Fighters!
5/2 – Bob Schneider @ Fine Line (hubba hubba)
5/3 – Kate Nash @ First Ave

Linked, for your pleasure
The Current
89.3 The Current is the newest addition to Minnesota Public Radio; mind you it is at least three years old. In my section of the Land O’Cubicles we listen to this station all day long and it rocks. Where else can you hear the Klaxons, Kate Nash, Tupac, Vicki Lawrence, Dolly Parton and Count Basie? No where’s, that’s where!
89.3 The Current
For great live in-studio performances check out their You Tube page!
MOD
Speaking of the Klaxons, I don’t believe I have ever uttered their name in this blog. Shame on me. The Klaxons were introduced to me by a friend’s ex-boyfriend (who shall be called Schmike) and he could have easily been the president of the Americans for The Klaxons Fan Club.
Here are a couple links:
The Klaxons – Golden Skans
The Klaxons – It’s Not Over Yet

And the Oscar goes to…
Last night I went over to Tiff’s house for the Monday Night Happy Hour Oscar Party. Let me summarize with my favorite bullet points (Arial font, size 9)
· George Clooney needs to whiten his teeth
· George Clooney met his current girlfriend when she was a cocktail waitress at the Palms Casino in Vegas, a la Harlequin Romance Novel Plot.
· Even after watching her on the Barbara Walters special, we all hate Miley Cyrus (or Destiny Hope if ya’ll is feeling trashy.) Sorry to all the Hannah Montana lovers.
· Javier Bardem is hawt! (again with the teen lingo)
· I know somebody cares but did do we really need two separate awards for Sound Editing and Sound Mixing?
· Ooooh baby, when James McAvoy was presenting and speaking with his gorgeous accent the whole room melted.
· Jon Stewart is funny.
· I feel vindicated about “Falling Slowly” from the film Once winning best original song!!! I have been touting this film and soundtrack for a looooong time.
· Vegan Joe thinks Marketa Irglova from Once is pretty.
· Anne Hathaway is flawless
· We don’t like Penelope Cruz but we don’t know why.
· We were obsessed with Daniel Day-Lewis’ wife’s hideous broach and red bowties.
· Diablo Cody was a breath of fresh-fashion air!
· I am a bit confused to why some famous people were at the Oscars (P.Diddy, Miley Cyrus, The Rock)
· Jennifer Garner has to be Best Dressed!
· Jennifer Hudson…uh…yeah…no.
· Viggo Mortensen needs to get rid of the crazy facial hair!
· Renee Zellweger is scary

Hell no, we won’t go
Three floors down from me, on street-level, there are about a dozen people walking in circles with picket-signs. I can’t see what the hell they are picketing for but I wish they could keep their chanting to a dull roar. Seriously, it is all I can hear and it is making me mental. Mental, I tell you! Shit, one of the strikers has a ten-gallon pickle bucket that he is beating on like a drum. Y’ar.
Update: Now someone has two cooking pot lids and is banging them like cymbals. Son of a…

So I came back to Minneapolis/This time I think I’m gonna stay

Alas, nothing related to baseball
It’s quiet…almost too quiet in the MLB topics.

This week is a big holiday/party week…jealous?
Monday Night Happy Hour – Monday
Going Away Happy Hour – Wednesday
Land O’Cubicles Holiday Party – Thursday
Lena’s Holiday Party – Saturday

The Zep
Led Zeppelin is baaaack. Tonight is the reunion show in London. I can only hope that this may spark a tour!

Video Advent Calendar – 17 Days Until Drinking Bailey’s
This song makes me laugh! I mean, seriously…you have to listen to the lyrics. This video opens up with him singing “Silent Night” and then segues into the best song EVER!!!

Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis - Tom Waits


One more video…if you can handle it!
Last month I went to Las Vegas with my Aunt Karin, Stacy and Lucy. Here are some of my photos set to music in my Vegas Video Montage.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Be a clown, be a clown/All the world loves a clown/Act a fool, play the calf

First…baseball
Well, that was a pathetic excuse of a World Series attempt. How boring. I do feel bad for the Rockies’ fans that had to sit through four games of pure ass-whooping. I am shaking my head sadly over the cake-walk World Series.
Also, as my co-worker and anti-Christ (don’t ask) pointed out… Was it necessary for A-Rod to announce he wasn’t signing with the Yankees for 2008 during the end of the fourth game? Oh, and was it really that “breaking” of news? Jeez-Louise.

Here is the non-baseball side of life (since all we can do is receive updates on contract info until Spring Training):

I. Hate. Clowns.

Well, at least now I do. You see, I have never subscribed to the fear of clowns, sock puppets or other random things. However, thanks to an episode of Supernatural I now hate clowns. Last night I started watching the first disc of Supernatural Season 2 and it scared the bejeezus out of me. I should have known. Last year I made my way through Season 1 and freaked the shit out of myself. Stupid spooky stuff. And yet I can’t stop watching it.
Anyways, in this episode this clown would attract the attention of a child and then follow it home. In the middle of the night the child would see the clown in the yard, open the door and let him in the house. And then the clown would kill and feed off the parents. Yeah… A.) Lucy isn’t allowed to make eye contact and wave at clowns B.) If for some reason she see’s a clown and then tells me to look but I don’t see anything we will leave and hide out for a couple days somewhere else C.) She’s never allowed under any circumstances to open the door for a clown. Never!

I am officially too old to be sneaking in the house at 3:00 am on a Sunday morning.

Last night was my first bar crawl hosted by the Monday Happy Hour Crew...Halloween themed.
It was damn fun. We started at 5:00 p.m. at Mayslack's bar in Nordeast and proceeded to traipse around Nordeast Minneapolis and visit 8 other bars.
Here are some highlights:
* We got flashed by a guy in a trench coat (that was his “costume”.)
* On the long walk from Jaros to the next bar (almost half a mile) we snuck out drinks to enjoy on the walk. I had the Greenie.
* We spent more time than is probably healthy playing this bar video game called Photo Hunt, erotic edition. Basically you had to find five subtle differences in each picture. Alas, all the photos were of very naked women, most of them a la 1980’s. I don't know why but that photo porn was fucking addicting. Let's just say that we got really good and our group made the high score at three different bars (check for “Sofonda Tots”, they wouldn't let us use dirty names so we picked tots.)

Anyways, Sunday morning I rolled out of bed early and drugged my hung-over ass to Amy’s house. No better way working off a hangover then lounging on Amy’s comfy recliner watching British television drama...more specifically Ultimate Force. Machine gun fire, explosions, fisticuffs and British hotties made me feel better.

Anyways, I am not getting on the wagon anytime soon since tonight is Monday Night Happy Hour.

Take this sinking boat and point it home / We've still got time

Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice / You've made it now - Falling Slowly, The Frames (Glen Hansard) from the motion picture "Once"

Well, color me surprised. Silva pitched well. He pitched into the 8th without giving up a run. Sure, Detroit had 7 hits but our great defense shut them down after they got on base. On a slightly snarky Silva note (say that three times fast) I like how the review of the game had a flavor of Silva and LeCroy making a great duo and that they will most likely be paired up for Silva’s final start. Are you f-ing telling me that all it takes is having LeCroy behind the plate? Are you telling me that Baby Jesus, Red or that other kid weren’t the right match up? Now, I know, I know…that’s not what they meant but it sure looked like someone (cough) is grasping at straws to find a reason why Silva had a crappy year (much like last years.) Yeah, again…I know, I know his numbers aren’t bad but this year we needed better than “not bad.” I am not saying that Silva is to blame for our crap-tacular (yes, this word was necessary) year but he was part of it. And that is the end of my slightly snarky Silva rant.

And on to another…
Right now we are sitting at a record of 77-79. I know I am not the only one who feels that this wouldn’t be a good year to have a losing season (the first since 2000.) We need something to hold us through April (or February if you are obsessive compulsive) so we really need them to win four out of the next six games.

Baseball and Vodka, bringing people together
Well, I can safely say that my quirky knowledge of baseball paid off last night. Whilst at happy hour(s) I entered into a heated baseball debate with a stranger two stools down. As the 6th and 7th innings passed we found a mutual respect between our teams…Twins and Rockies. Jim/Bob/Bill was so impressed with my skillz (yeah, with a z) that he bought Tiff and I another round (at full price) to convince us to stay and watch the end of the game. Not only did I get my free drink but I got to watch my team beat Los Tigres whilst sharing the secrets of our beloved Twins. Thank you Bill/Bob/Jim/whatever your name and thank you Baseball.

Hells bells/Hells bells, you got me ringing/Hells bells, my temperature’s high/Hells bells

Well, hells bells. Just when the getting gets down the Twins stage a classic moment for us to get sucked into again. Last nights game was fun, plain old fashioned fun. Alas, due to obligatory Monday Night Happy Hour I missed the first six innings of the game but I saw the important moments on the highlight reel. Besides, the last few innings were the best!
Lucky Risa (Curlz) was at the game enjoying another fantastic baseball moment. I received a text towards the end of the game. Hey Curlz, did you make it on the Kiss Cam?
With that being said...Did you all see Barty have a great game? What about Cuddy? Oh, anyone else laugh when Gardy reenacted the first base incident with Barty and the Rangers first baseman? And then he was ejected. No one was surprised.

Well, five home games left and then we are in Detroit and Boston. I am going to sit back and enjoy the remaining games whilst obsessively following the Wild Card standings. I am sure you all have a few teams you would like to not make the playoffs.

If you think it’s easy doin’ one night stands / Try playin’ in a rock roll band

It’s a long way to the top / If you wanna rock ‘n’ roll – It’s a long way to the top, AC/DC

Well, last night was my normal Monday Happy Hour event and this time we ventured to Uptown at Figlio’s. Unfortunately, the Uptown drinking establishments do not subscribe to that wonderful thing called Baseball. In fact, at this one place they had on an old episode of Law & Order, muted whilst the other TV wasn’t even on! Oh well, looks like I would have been really pissy if I saw the beginning of the game anyways.

Oh Silva, *shaking head sadly* why must you make it hurt so much? (Stats, anyone? 10-13.) Also, I know it feels like I am picking on you but please…those antics after Gardy pulled your ugly-pitching ass out of the game? Not necessary. (I do like to watch those kind of things because then I can make up stories in my head and such.)

Also, glad to see that on SI.com one of the top stories is “Triple play highlights Indians’ win over Twins.” Yeah…

I do want to give a shout out to Barty who is one of our most consistent players right now. Way to homer, dude!

Well, I will humbly represent the lady-bloggers (which sounds a little dirty) at the groundbreaking. However, I do have a happy hour before the event so my scribings of the happenings may be slightly skewed.

In which I rant (slightly irrationally) about The Trade.

I thought this picture was fitting for a few different reasons. Read on to see if you can figure them out.

Last evening I was completely out of communication from anyone who wasn’t at my friend Ryan’s “Congratulation on your new house closing” party. There was no television, no telephone and I had my cell turned off. I sure paid for that this morning when I awoke with a slight hangover headache (damn Tanqueray and orange juice) and extremely tired.

Now, let me set a scene for you…
I was sitting on my bus, shades on, coffee in hand, Yoko Ono playing in my ear (see below for an explanation) and dozing on and off. It was around 17th and Chicago Ave when I roused myself to look at the KSTP News Bulletin billboard to catch up on any breaking news. There it was, in big bright lights “Castillo Traded to Mets.” What the fuck? I didn’t even hear a hint of that news. I was flustered when I dug my cell phone out of my purse. I kept elbowing the guy next to me trying to balance my coffee, music player, purse and cell phone. I called Amy at home since it was only 7:00 a.m. and I didn’t know if she had left yet. No answer. I called Amy on her cell phone thinking she wouldn’t have it turn on. Eureka! She answered. I didn’t even attempt for a casual morning greeting “Did you know Castillo got traded to the Mets?” (At 7:00 a.m. I cease using good grammar.) I was saddened to hear that she had heard that already and she had called me last night to leave me a message about it. Damn drinking! It ruins everything! So, this morning whilst I peruse all the sports pages I get angrier and angrier. We traded him for what? Son of a… Of all the stupid… Jeez… Okay, so yes, I am mad. Yes, I may be a tinge irrational. Yes, I may have threatened to alter my giant foam finger so I can flip Pohlad off. Yes, I will calm down and look at this rationally. Oh and by the way, I am blaming Pohlad for this trade (and for smacking my elbow on the corner of my desk when I was in a heated debate with Geoff.)

What a crap way to start the day.

Random Yoko Ono-ness: A friend of mine has a sister that works for Astralwerks label out of New York. Every quarter she sends a music package to Eric and I. We just got a box yesterday and it included two Yoko Ono CDs. (We think the sister put them in there since Yoko thanks her in the liner notes.) Eric didn’t want a thing to do with them so I took them home with me. Now if only I can get his grubby hands off the Chemical Brothers and A Band of Bees.