I want to be like Captain Kirk/get up everyday and love to go to work/Don’t want to be like Mr. Spock

Tonight’s game has been postponed due to the crappy weather that Mother Nature launched at us. (Thanks a lot Mama Nature, thanks a lot.) Damn little ice-shards were pinging me in the face.

Let’s reflect on last night
What a great game! Of course, I missed the majority of it…due to going to a movie with some friends. Kubel got a Grand Slam, eh? Well, if anyone is going to do it Kubel would be the one. You see, I get frustrated with him in the field sometimes but otherwise he has potential to being a power-house.

Random Theories
* Am I the only one who is super excited about the new food at the new stadium?
* I will be at my third game a week from today. I can’t believe how fast the withdrawal sets in.
* I hope the game doesn’t get postponed tonight because I am looking forward to seeing Livan in action. The only other game I saw him pitch was the home opener and…well, let’s be honest. I couldn’t see shit from the top of The Dome.
* My goal for this weekend is to buy a new Twins t-shirt or hat. You see, I am bored of my other shirts, I need a new one in rotation, and I can never find a ball cap that doesn’t make me look dorkier than I already do.
* I am quietly waiting for my blog counter to hit 10,000.
* My cat’s breath smells like cat food (Get it? The Simpsons?)

Extra! Extra!
Garza’s injury admission new to Twins

Correspondence
Gretchenstitches,
I have heard of the conversation events at Barnes & Noble but haven’t been to one before. Maybe I will have to go and learn a few phrases.

James,
Thanks for the info! I am looking forward to and dreading the weather challenges at the new stadium.

Non-baseball but no less important

Alright, who do I blame?
Who out here in the Blogosphere is a Flight of the Conchord fans? Who out in this cyber-land got me hooked on the show? I just got a notice that they will be here in concert/show sometime in May. I want to go but I want to see if any of youse guys are the ones that got me hooked?

Concerts Update!
4/12/08: Bon Iver @ Turf Club – I was offered an extra ticket but I think I will skip this show. I saw him late last year and it was great.
5/2/08: Bob Schneider @ Fine Line – This is Amy and my boy! We have seen him many times in concert. His music is great and seeing him live is a great experience! (It doesn’t hurt that he’s dead-sexy.)
5/3/08: Kate Nash @ First Ave – I will be at this show unless the Spring NordEast Bar Crawl takes place. My drinking buddies take precedence over concerts (most of the time.)
5/7/08: Swell Season (soundtrack to Once) @ Orpheum Theater – Yeah baby! I can’t wait to see Glen Hansard in concert! The show has been sold out since tickets went on sale.
5/9/08: VHS or Beta @ First Ave 7th St Entry – Hellz Ya! I have seen these guys a half a dozen times in concert. I shall be attending this with a new group of people that I have never hung out with before socially (coworkers.)
5/31/08: The Kooks @ Fine Line – I have been waiting for this concert FOREVER! I bought tickets the moment they went on sale. I am still trying to scam backstage passes or something from my connections. Hint, hint.
7/23/08: Tom Petty @ Target Center – This is going to be one of the best shows this year…I already know that. Stacy, Amy and I will be rocking with one arm in the air and a beer in the other.

Music of the Day
I saw Bob Schneider for the first time at some summer festival (maybe Rib Fest, maybe the Block Party) about five years ago. Ever since then I try to see him when he’s in town. His music is funky, rocking, mellow and very addicting. (He’s also known for once dating Sandra Bullock.)

Bob Schneider – Cap’n Kirk

And then we’ll get down there/Way down to the very bottom of everything/And then we’ll see it

I don’t know much…
How the heck did I last four months without baseball when I can barely handle an off-day? Is anyone else confused about why we had an off-day during the middle of a series?

Baseball is back on again tonight (at 7:11 thanks to the White Sox sponsorship from a major convenience store chain) and I will be able to watch a little bit of it. Tonight I am meeting up with friends to see Juno (for the second time, but hey it’s at the cheap theater.) I figure I can catch the last hour of the game plus do a little flipping with the Minnesota Wild hockey game. Go Wild!

Non-baseball but no less important

Tearing through raw fish like a bear during the salmon run
Whilst out with my Monday Night Happy Hour Crew I splurged and enjoyed a lots of good Japanese food. Normally we just dine on the happy hour food which includes edamame, simple rolls (spicy tuna, avocado) and gyoza (dumplings.) Instead, last night, we feasted! It was a chilly damp day in Minnesota (damn you Mother Nature) so it felt comforting to have a big bowl of udon noodles and hot Sake. We also had seaweed salad, little octopuses and a plate of raw fish. There was sake salmon (yuck), flying fish roe (not my favorite because of the texture of the millions of little fish eggs), yellow tail hamachi (my fave) and yellow fin tuna. Mmm…sushi. I know it isn’t very everyone but Japanese is fast becoming my comfort food!

Watch for the segue…

Japan or Bust
I thought this was a fitting way to announce my 30th Birthday Extravaganza plans. In one year, one month and 21 days I will be turning the big 3-0. I am not stressed at all about turning 30; I am stressed about wanting to celebrate it the right way. After watching a weekend full of Anthony Bourdain No Reservations I decided I want to go to Osaka, Japan. Since I have over a year I will have enough time to save money, take a quick Japanese class and be prepared to try everything. Another bonus is that I will be traveling during the Japanese baseball season! Won’t that just be fantastic? Okay, 416 days to go!

Music of the Day
I have posted a Bright Eyes song before and it received rave reviews (okay, like three of my peeps liked it.) Anyways, this song is great and the video is a little “different.” The start of the song is a little story telling. Stick with it and I think you’ll like the end results.

Bright Eyes – At the Bottom of Everything

I’m a new soul/I came to this strange world/Hoping I could learn a bit ‘bout how to give and take

This is what I am talking about
Be warned, I very rarely blog on weekends.

Friday
I was at the Dome with Amy. We sat in Section 225, Row 5, Seats 20 and 21. These seats are great and afforded a decent view with minimum stairs. Unfortunately we were the victims of Mr. Know-it-All and a group of drunken too-old-to-really-be-Frat-boys. Mr. Know-it-all spent the whole game saying negative comments in a loud, sharp voice. The Frat Boys spent the whole game drinking and making everyone around them feel awkward. In a way it was fun.
I am now unveiling a new section called “Overheard at the game.” Thanks to Amy for taking the notes while I was busy keeping the score card.

Overhead at the game
Mr. Know-it-all
Hit the guy for God sakes – said to Baker
Get ripped Gomez
Pull it Joe
Bring the heat
Pull your head out of your Canuck – said to Morneausey
Why did you give him the meatball – said to Baker
Class A 3rd baseman is better than all our big leauguers
Swing the bat, that’s what you’re here for.
Join the club Mornie, get on the bus.
Throw the two-seamer
Bust his chops
Bring the high heat
Let’er rip! Oh, hottie on the sign – said about the girl who helped with the countdown sign.
Let’s go Shaq
Double swing , Moon Boots – said to KC Royal’s pitcher
Side Show Bob – said to KC Royal’s pitcher
Clown fee – said to KC Royal’s pitcher
He keeps dipping his shoulder and that’s why he is flying out – said about Monroe

Frat Boys
Mmm chili dog.
I’m gonna text you a picture of my nipple.

Wally the Beer Man
Wally doesn’t bring the beer to you. You go and get the beer from Wally. This dude is a Minnesota icon. He has been selling beer since…well, since my mom was a young lass working at the Metropolitan Stadium. Every time I see him I get excited. He is as familiar as my Starbuck’s coffee barista and maybe slightly more important.


Saturday
I followed the game on MLB.com with the Pitch-by-Pitch feature and cheered when I saw Morneausey hit a three-run homer (I was a little late with my cheering thanks to the 10-second delay.)

Sunday
I watched the game from the comfort of my living room. It was the Bert’s Birthday show from the get-go. We had a birthday montage, hat, signs galore, singing and All-About-Bertness.

Success Story
I kept a pretty accurate scorecard for the entire game! Hey, with my A.D.D, love of beer and need to gossip this is a major accomplishment!

Non-baseball but no less important

Jesus Loves Pirates
Well, according to Veggie Tales he does. On Saturday (the most beautiful day of 2008) I took Lucy (who is almost three) to see Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Do Nothing. A feature film playing at the cheap theater. Now, we all know that Lucy has the attention span of a flea or…well, a toddler, so I wasn’t holding my breath we would last more than 15 minutes. I was armed with a giant bucket (roughly the same size of her) of popcorn. She plowed through most of that in about 30 minutes and then promptly fell asleep. Yep, that left me wide awake watching the 90 minutes of Veggies Tale by myself. If I am going to be honest, the movie wasn’t bad. There was one moment at the end where it seemed a little “preachy” but I was busy trying to eat as much popcorn as I could before Lucy woke up and yelled at me.



This is just her being her usual stylish-self.

Music of the Day
Ah, to carry on with the commercial-goodness…We have all seen the MacBook Air commercial and that damn catchy song. It is sweet, bubbly (without being obnoxious. Yeah, I am talking to you Colby Caillat) and hooks you in. Here you go!

Yael Naim – New Soul

Johanna drove slowly into the city/The Hudson River all filled with snow/She spied the ring on His Honor’s finger/Oh-oh-oh

Twins Record: 1-3
Jen’s Record: 1-0
The past few years there was speculation that I was a human-curse on the Twins. However, this year I have only been to one game and they came out the victors. Tonight I will test this theory again since Amy and I will be heading to the dome. It is going to be hard working all day with thoughts of baseball, dome dogs and beer dancing around my head.

Yesterday I was victorious in getting semi-clear reception of the game so I could pretend to work whilst listening. I spent most of the game texting two people who were in attendance…TBL and Kellie. Thanks for keeping me updated and for the photo (Kell!) Even though we lost that would have been a fun game to see…evidently we do know how to use bats.

The new stadium beware
I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am about the new stadium. However, once I sat down and thought it through I found a few doubts lurking in the back of my mind.

· I will kind of miss the quirkiness of the Dome and the familiarity of the “sweet spots” to sit.
· Ticket prices are going to be waaaay more expensive.
· The odds of getting opening day tickets will be slim.
· The odds of getting tickets, in general, will be tricky the first few years (like the Wild.)
· With my attention span and all the new amenities I may struggle to sit and watch the game.
· Club level season ticket holders get a lounge. How do I know this? A co-worker just bought a package and I hope to scam a few games off him (probably at full price, damn.)
· We may lose Dollar Dog Night.

Overheardinminneapols.com
Drunk guy: Where the fuck is the milk jug?
Overheard at the cheap seats, Metrodome

A brief break to check in on the Hockey-front
Last night the MN Wild clinched their first Northwest Division crown! Now, I am not an uber-hockey fan or anything (and I sure the hell have never seen a real live game before) but I enjoy a sport with old-fashioned hitting and brawls. I even have a Wild sticker on my car. Don’t ask.

Non-baseball but no less important
Dear Hostess 100 Calorie Packs,
Last night as I was slowly starving and standing in the “snack” aisle at my local Super Target I decided to throw caution to the wind and purchase a variety of 100 Calorie Packs. The pictures on the box looked good and wow, three filling cupcakes/muffins…how could I not buy them? Yeah, as I sit in my cubicle this morning looking at the empty wrapper I am confused. Did I really eat three filling muffins in three average bites? Hmm…

Music of the Day
This won’t be the first time Vampire Weekend has been posted on my blog and it won’t be the last. (Sounds threatening, huh?) Last night Vampire Weekend played a sold-out show at the Triple Rock club. I wasn’t there since I didn’t get my ass in motion to buy tickets earlier in the year. Evidently the show was f-ing amazing (duh.)

Vampire Weekend - A-Punk

Well I don’t know what I’m looking for/But I know that I just wanna look some more/And I won’t be satisfied

I did it my waaaaay
I decided to ditch technology and take my game notes the old fashioned way, via pen and paper.

Now, before I get to the nitty-gritty let me share with you the song that has been in my head since 6:30 p.m. CT, when the pre-game show started.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night/Take these broken wings and learn to fly/All your life/You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Yep, every time I hear Blackburn’s name I start singing that song. I also got Amy sucked into too (which she is slightly pissy about.)

Please forgive me while I embrace my inner-laziness and just put my thoughts down via bullet points.

·Blackburn’s (singing in the dead of night) first pitch is a hit by Figgins and a fumble by Harris allowed him to get the base. However, in defense of Harris even Dick & Bert said that was a tough play.
·Hey, they switched the rotation on me and put Harris in the #2 spot. I am having a hard time remembering the line-up. I spend most of the time going “Gomez, Baby Jesus, Cuddy, Morneausey, someone, someone, someone, someone, and someone.”
·Last year the people at Coors brought us the “optimal cool can” which turned blue when the beer was at a perfect temperature. This year they bring us the Big Mouth can. The commercial includes graphics on how it lets more air in and more beer out.
·My household spent an inning discussing whether the batter Blackburn (singing in the dead of night) hit actually turned in to the pitch.
·Another commercial funny - From the Minnesota State Lottery commercial: “Dragons love scratch tickets?” “Oh yeah, they love them.” Hmm…sounds like a Vegan Joe comment.
·Amy and I had our first baseball commentary via the phone of 2008! Man, I am glad baseball is back!
·That FSN commercial for “In My Own Words” isn’t clear. Who is staring in the next episode? When is it on? I kid. Sheesh, I don’t think I need to see it during ever break.
·Speaking of commercials…something’s missing…Oh yeah, the Land O’ Lakes milk commercial with Baby Jesus. “Pour it on Minnesota. Pour it on.”
·The Chrysler/Jeeps commercial feature the music of VHS or Beta. I “heart” this band; they got me backstage passes to see Duran Duran. Jealous?
·Ah, we see the Little Nicky Punto we all know and love.
·Baby Jesus is brought in at the bottom of the 9th. Time to make a deal with the baseball gods. If Baby Jesus gets a homerun I won’t mock him for the rest of the home stand. Whoops, guess I don’t have to honor that deal.

Swear Count: 1 (a good night). Yeah, I told Mike Scioscia to sit the fuck down when he was all worked up in the seventh inning.
New! Amy’s “Morneausey’s so hot” count: 5

In conclusion…
·We were shut down
·Blackburn (singing in the dead of night) did a great job! (cough*better than Bonser*cough)

Non-baseball but no less important
Words of wisdom: You know, there is a point in an adult’s life where you are too old to be drinking Red Bull as a recreational beverage (meaning not mixing it with Vodka to keep awake for a 10:00 p.m. concert.) Tonight I had this tasty passion fruit, Red Bull slushy and boy, oh boy am I feeling it.

Music of the Day
Two-for-One today!
Might as well segue nicely from the White Stripes to the Raconteurs. This song is from their newest album (which I don’t have yet but is on my Wish List.) I am also a big fan of Brendan Benson who is also a member of the Raconteurs. You may have heard him before since he sings the song on the newest iPod Touch commercial. So, we’ll start with Benson and the iPod commercial because you all know how much I am a commercial-music whore (meant in the most respectable way.)

Brendan Benson – What I am Looking For


Now, let’s rap up with the Raconteurs and Salute Your Solution

Yah-hee/Icky thump/Who’da thunk?/Sitting drunk on a wagon to Mexico

First of all I am very late blogging today but actual work got in the way of blogging so I am quick getting this post in before tonight’s game.

Baseball is to baseball as baseball is to baseball
Yeah, that doesn’t make sense and neither did last night’s game. I had all the best intentions to keep notes whilst I watched the game. (I even had my laptop sitting beside me on the sofa.) However, multi-tasking and a toddler make it difficult to follow-through. Oh well, here is what I do remember:
· The opening montage of coaches, Wally the Beer Man, field crew, concession workers and volunteers made me smile. I love montages!
· Ah, Bert, how I missed thee. There were “Boooofs”, random comments, awkward pauses and special appearance in the post-game show.
· Harris made a great play and broke his bat. Side-girly-note: After seeing how fashionably handsome he is in real life (not in staged photos or a tiny dot on the field, sixty rows up) he is giving Slowey a run for the “Hot” money. Sorry, I needed that girl-moment.
· Everett brought the only run in.
· Our bull pen was sub-par
· Finally…that was a long game.

I don’t know if I told you this but…
I found the best damn hotdog stand in the Metrodome! Okay, here’s the deal – the hotdog costs $5.75. I know that is a little more than the Dome Dog with chips but this is worth it. A.) No line because it is a separate stand. B.) Gourmet hotdogs! You don’t have to pile on sauce and such to cover the taste. C.) Fancy fixings to choose from when going through line - three kinds of relishes, onions, veggies, peppers, cheese and my favorite…fried onions!

Next…
Amy and I will be at the game on Friday sitting in much better seats (ain’t damn well going up those thirty rows again.)

Article:
Meanwhile, back in Minnesota by Jon Heyman

Non-baseball but no less important
Romantica, a local band that I have seen a few times and really enjoy (and has made various publications Top Album of the Year list) is going on tour. Paste Magazine is sponsoring them along with The Bittersweets. They are heading out into the wide world of the United States…make sure to check them out if they are in your next of the woods.



Another band on tour...

Is The Feeling. I love this band and am getting a little impatient waiting for the US release of their new album and a US tour. Anyway…they just announced they are going to be the supporting act for Bon Jovi on their European leg of the tour. Hmm…

Music of the Day
You either love the White Stripes or you just don’t like them. I am a fan from waaaay back (you know six years ago) and even like the Raconteurs. In the Land O’Cubicles there are few bands that we all agree on (most of them 80’s) but the White Stripes is generally embraced by all. Jack White is in my top 20 music crushes.

White Stripes – Icky Thump

I’m gonna get free/Ride into the sun/She never loved me/Why should anyone?

Even though it was snowing and the streets were full of slush… it was a great day for baseball!

Last night:
· I heard people booing Hunter than I expected. I stood and cheered at his first at-bat.
· At one point Brendan Harris walked to the plate with Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” playing. *sigh*
· 49,000 in attendance!
· Twice I watched the ball drop in the middle of three Angel’s fielders.

New this season:
· Great new music being played in between innings. I heard the Fratellis and Vampire Weekend…awesome!
· New games on the video board.
· Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville” played after “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”

Articles of note:
· Phil Miller – Pioneer Press
· Sports Illustrated

Tonight I look forward to:
· Sitting on the sofa with my laptop, trying to rationalize with a toddler why we can’t watch Elmo. Because Auntie Jen is watching baseball…duh.
· Listening to Bert say “Boof, there it is” and/or “The Boof is on fire.”
· Not having to commute with all the confused fans after the game.

And you won’t want to miss this…
I made a quick video montage (set to music) with pictures from last night.
Music of the Day
Click on the photo below to watch...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com