Good-bizzle Jo-hizzle

 

I'll admit that my biggest flaw as a sports fan is that I expect players to be more loyal then they actually are, but I am not saying players should stay when it doesn't make sense to.

 

However, I generally get upset when they cling to years of the contract as the sticking point of a deal and downright dislike the ones who ask to be traded before it's up because the team did not hold up their end of the bargain.  What is forgetten is that they gave up their opinion on the topic when they wanted the security of an "eight" year deal. 

Sign a three year deal and show your team that you are worth the money...when the deal is over decide if you and your club are both moving in the same direction and go from there.

I feel like I am in the minority on this topic.
That being said...

Johan Santana did not have to be traded. 

The four year / $80 million extension the Twins offered was fair.  After the contract would have been honored, he'd have been able to enter free agency as an elite 33-year-old left handed starter with two to four Cy Youngs under his belt.  This trade, as are most, was all about years.  Johan can say that he wanted what was best for the Twins, but the truth is a much different picture then he painted. 

He forced this trade.  We were only able to get a portion of his value because of the restrictions he placed on the deal, because he had all the power.

I read the Pioneer Press this morning.  I was surprised by all the negative print Bill Smith is getting.  Did he take the best deal offered to him? No.  Did he get market value? Definitely not.  Does this allow the Twins to compete in 2008? No, but they were the third best team in the Central with Santana.

Would I have chosen the same deal he did? Yes. 

The fact that Fernando Martinez is not a Minnesota Twin right now is unfortunate.  Smith needed to get him and I will admit he failed there.  But I would take the Mets package with a handful of useful players, sending him to the National League, over the Red Sox and Yankee's offers as they were. 

Look at the Knoblauch and Pierzynski deals.  Look at how the Twins brass have, as a whole, done far better acquiring "talent" then other franchises.  We need to let this one play out before we start throwing rocks.

Don't get me wrong though...if the offers would have been different, my tune on what we should have done would have been as well.

In the end, I understand that we will likely be seen as the losers in this deal.  It's hard not to be when you're trading away the best pitcher in baseball.

Am I upset with the Twins? Not really.

Am I worried about our staff? Yes.

Am I upset with Johan? Regretfully, yes.

Fortunately for me, Johan will be a Met soon and I will be able to eventually cheer for him again.  I have absolutely loved watching him pitch over the years.  I'm grateful he's not a Yankee (or Red Sox, surprisingly) and I will just bide my time until I can appreciate he talents as a pitcher again.  I may hold a little grudge against him this year but it will not be long before I am enjoying highlights of him pitching.

He's the best pitcher I have ever been able to watch on a consistent basis.  I will miss his tenacity and willpower.  Most of all, I will miss seeing his changeup make batters consistently look silly.

I'll admit that it was fun while it lasted...and maybe I will be able to say the same thing about Liriano someday (minus the being traded portion of this post). 

I do have a soft spot for southpaws you know.

Super Bowl XLII

Since last year's prediction went well, I figured I would take the plunge again on a buy one, get one free kind of basis.  I am a bit bias because the team I cheer for has a chance to go 19-0.  That being said, I think most of the nation is going to be pulling for the New York football Giants because Belichick is so unliked outside of the New England area. 

My squad still wins this one though...

Patriots 30  Giants 17

What's your prediction?

We're starting a revolution!

Before I start, I'd like to say that for more background on the situation, see Gina's last two posts: Puke-O-Rama! and Three Days and Counting.

A couple of tests are still pending, but it looks overwhelming like Natalie has celiac disease (pronounced sē′ lē ak′).

Never heard of it before? Me either. Though, I have read that up to 1% of the U.S. population has it (3 million) and that approximately 97% of those cases are undiagnosed.

What does this mean? Nattie has a gluten intolerance (which is found in all wheats, ryes, barleys and usually oats).

Her doctor has asked us to start her on a gluten free diet immediately.

After looking into things, I'd compare having a gluten intolerance to having a peanut allergy (but thankfully without the epi pen or 911 on speed dial). The attention to detail and investment in time to read labels and understand the background of companies making the products is critical.

Is celiac life altering? Absolutely. Is it life threatening? Not likely.

The main organ at risk is the small intestine. Over time, considerable damage can be done to it if the proper changes aren't made. The good news is that the small intestine does heal completely if a gluten free lifestyle is attained (and then continued).

The list of foods that she is no longer allowed the have is quite extensive. Around 75%+ of the food in our house is unavailable to her. Here's the list of ingredients she needs to avoid, etc.

Which of these items do you think contains (or may contain) gluten:

*most milks, aged cheeses, seafood, poultry, peanut butter, eggs, fruits, vegetables, butter, jello, tea, wines, black coffee, ketchup, salt, pepper, cinnamon, etc.

*yogurt, chocolate milk, hot dog, bologna, hamburger, salad dressings, mayonnaise, baked beans, pickles, chocolate, chewing gum, tomato sauce, maple syrup, flavored coffee, canned soups, any type of medicine, etc.

*beer, meatloaf, pizza, ravioli, bread, buns, most cereals, licorice, pasta, waffles/pancakes, mac 'n cheese, speghetti o's, pretzels, gravy, ice cream cones, etc.

The answer is that the first list does not contain gluten, the second may contain gluten (see label reading statement above) and the last list definitely contains gluten.

After doing some research, a gluten free diet is spendy but is much easier to deal with today then it was even a couple of years ago. Not only are there places like Trader Joe's which make gluten free food reasonably priced (though terribly inaccessible to a south metro resident), but it's even being put on labels of food now (though not FDA approved yet). We will be buying a breadmaker and will be making much of the food we eat from scratch. I am looking into what books we will be adding to our library as well. I've already decided that Shelley Case's Gluten Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide will be for sure.

Another interesting factor in this all is that either Gina or I passed the gene to her and it's possible Macie has the same condition.

Let's see, Gina has a good stomach and I definitely don't. Neither does my dad. His dad, bad stomach too. Who do you think is carrying the gene? Gina's family has some of the traits associated to this disease but they're not resigned specially to one side of her family making me think that it's not her.

Based on the list of symptoms, I'm fully expecting to be diagnosed with it as well and will need to follow the same guidelines as Nattie does.

If this holds true, I can't tell you how much it will break me heart to look at Nattie and know that I caused this.

Once we confirm who the carrier is we will need to go back through their family tree and suggest that those who may be at risk be tested.

We will also be seeing a nutritionist in early February to help us make the conversion as smooth as possible.
While all this is very unfortunate, it could be a lot worse. The first couple of months are going to be quite an adjustment but after that it will just be a way of life.

And...

I am glad that we potentially have answers to many of Nattie's recent issues.

One way to get a snack

Usually, Macie's happiest when she's being mischievous. It's so funny because she can be sweet and be trouble all at the same time.  Also, she moves so slow you think you have her under control until she uses her outstanding flexibility to strike when you're least suspecting it. 

Example...

The five minutes that lead up to this video are as follows:

* T minus five - I'm cleaning the kitchen and Macie is playing innocently in the living room.
* T minus four - She scoots her way into the kitchen.
* T minus three - She starts opening cabinets, the cereal one in particular because the child safety device is broken right now and her super baby sensor informed her of it.
* T minus two - She begins to grab at all the cereals in the cabinet, aggressively pulling each one out.
* T minus one - She manages to dump some of the contents of one of them onto the floor and her and I notice at the same time.  I try to pick everything up before she can strike but I'm too late.  I can only get the cereal bags coralled in time.

* T minus zero - Liftoff (see video)...

Macie

Girls, girls, girls

Ann's post reminded me of one of my Rory stories about girls.

From 7th to 12th grade, Rory and I frequently had sleepovers (though we called it something cooler towards the end I'm sure).  The nights were generally at Paul and Karen's and we usually played Nintendo for quite a while and stayed up very very late.  I remember leaving early on occasion to go golf with my brother/dad the next morning and I had only gotten a hour of sleep max.

We had all sorts of fun but during these nights we always did a couple of things...

* Via complicated and covert tactics, we'd head upstairs at some point after everyone was asleep and each swipe a handful of Oreo cookies.  It was never easy because they had the Oreos in a flip top jar behind a roll up door.  It was not quiet to do without precision accuracy.  As usual, we'd accomplish our goal and head back downstairs.  I'd finish mine in 2.2 minutes and he'd take 2.2 hours.

* During high school, the highlight was for us to rank some of the girls at school.  I actually don't think anyone knows about this.  We hadn't even spoken about it in a decade, give or take.  There was generally about 20-25 on the list (almost all from our grade) and we'd rank them over the course of the night.  However, in true Bri/Ror fashion it was not simply about looks.  That would be too easy.  It was the whole package (personality, looks, how good a friends we were with them, etc.).  It was the highlight of the night. 

Afterwords we'd talk about our rankings for quite a while...usually questioning eachother about some of our decisions.  Rory was in charge of the list (and being the pack rat he was probably had it in his apartment on Snelling for all I know).  I'd guess we did 30-40 rounds of this over the years.  Think of Rory, then think of how much fun he probably had doing it...

So innocent, so fun.

Those were the days.

View of Toledo

Seeing as I changed my profile picture to this, I figure I should at least explain the significance.  This painting is my favorite of all time.  It's by the artist El Greco.

I first saw it on TV in the museum that they walk through in Keeping the Faith (a movie I affectionately call "Duffy's profile").  I really don't have much desire to visit NYC (shocking, I know), but seeing this painting in person would be one of the reasons to.

I get lost in it.  I just catch myself staring at it from time to time.  I think it's the edginess of it all but I can't even pinpoint what it is about it that draws me in. 

That's the beauty of art I suppose.

Backyardigans representation

For those of you who have been pondering who each of the Backyardigans correlate to in our household, Natalie was kind enough to fill me in on Sunday.  This should set your mind at ease...

(Tasha/Tyrone/Pablo/Uniqua/Austin) = (Gina/Brian/Natalie/Macie/Casey)

Putting me in my place

While we are on the Nattie front, I thought I should mention a quick transaction from last night.

Natalie and I were playing memory (which she is quite good at) when she says "Lamby wants to pick one." 
For those that don't know, Lamby is her favorite stuffed animal that she can't live without. She happened to be holding her at the time.

I nodded my head and Nattie flipped over a card.

To which I respond, "which other one does Lamby want to flip."

Matter of factly, Nattie says "you choose one daddy, Lamby can't talk."

Did she set me up for that?  Was I outsmarted by a two year old? 

We'll never know.

Remembering Rory

Originally, I was going to wait for a month or two to make this site public.  Part of me wanted to feel like I was really ready to do this before sharing any of my personal thoughts on Rory. 

 http://www.barkingtortoise.com/rory/

As I have read others posts recently though I have changed my point of view on that.  My hope is that this site becomes a place for everyone to share together about our friend and not just for me individually. 

If it doesn't, that's OK.  I feel like it is going to be healthy for me to have an outlet like this.  If others feel the same, that's wonderful.  But, I have no expectations on who will or will not share here publicly.

You can also access it directly at http://rememberingrory.vox.com/

boatdrinks.vox.com

Yes, it's true.  I moved my blog to boatdrinks.vox.com yesterday.  We'll chalk it up to one of the 318 self-reflection changes my life will probably undertake over the years, directly or indirectly from last month's events. 

For those of you who knew me in college, you know that I signed off every email I sent from ~1996-2001 with the phrase "Boat Drinks."  It was such a significant thing for me to say to others that a friend of mine even had it engraved on the back of a watch that she gave me for being an usher in her wedding in 2000. 

In the last couple of weeks, I have been using it again to sign off on emails here and there.  Going forward, I will likely fully incorporate it back into my emails again.

The phrase comes from a Jimmy Buffett song (with the same title) and is used in the movie Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead.  If you haven't seen the movie, throw it in your Netflix queue.  It's one of my favorites of all-time even though it never got great reviews.

Instead of explaining the significance and use of the phrase in the movie (in case you decide to watch it), I'll just briefly explain what the term boat drinks means to me.

Saying boat drinks is basically an abbreviated way of saying "I hope your life (is / is moving towards / turns out to be) everything you hoped it would be."  When it's all said and done, I wish for you a life that you enjoyed to the fullest because you made the most of your time here.

I am continuously striving for boat drinks.

Vox header change (finally)

I finally made time to update the girls in my vox header.  They're cutie pies...

 

What is your word?

Over the holidays, Morgan brought up an interesting topic with Gina and I.  She asked us to try and figure out our "word."  Before getting to far into my thoughts, I want to first add Morgan's explanation of this.  She was kind enough to write down her take for me.

------------------------

From Morgan:

Everybody has a word.  It is a word we think and are afraid describes us- and if anyone found out, it would be devastating. We end up devoting a great deal of time and energy to not being that word.  Avoiding it becomes the motivation for much of what we do.

Example- One woman’s word was lazy.   Deep down, she just knew she was lazy, and she hated the idea.  So instead, she filled her day with activity.  Now, the irony of the word is that by trying to avoid it, we become it.  The “lazy” woman would work to the point of burn out and then be unable to do things she needed to accomplish.  It made her lazy.

When you figure out your word, share it with people.  At first, it will be uncomfortable, but the more you say it, the less power it will have over you.  Friends and family who know your word will also better understand why you make certain decisions and can help you move past it.

Hints for finding your word:

• What trait would you hate to have others associate with you?
• What do you “know” about yourself that you keep hidden from others?
• Pay attention to your actions…Notice when you do things that aren’t necessary or don’t make sense.  See if you can figure out why you’re doing them.  This could lead to your word.

Happy Soul Searching!

-----------------------

This is not an easy thing to do.  I know I didn't particularly enjoy thinking about my worst traits.  But, now that I know my word it was definitely worth the struggle.  One point that Morgan implied but did not specifically make above that makes this even more difficult is that in the process of trying to not be your word, you actually become the word (at times).

One other thing, try to avoid words that have prefixes/suffixes.  For example, lazy is a better word then unmotivated.  It's not that unmotivated can't be used though...all we are saying is that the word is negating the idea of being motivated which isn't as clean conceptually, that's all.  Saying you're lazy does that work all by itself.

After much deliberation, I've determined that my word is selfish. 

First of all, calling me selfish hurts a lot more then many other words that would generally be considered worse to use.

Secondly, I put a lot of effort into living my life unselfishly.  Whether it be trying to do things for others or simply in the day-to-day decisions I make, the word selfish influences choices that I make. 

Until Morgan brought this up, I just did the things I did because it felt right.  After thinking it though more, I do think that trying to unconsciously be unselfish does factor into some of the things I do.  And, doing this actually makes me sometimes act selfishly.  Essentially, I am capable of being so unselfish that it’s selfish.

Example (from before I knew my word): 

Gina and I setup plans to go see National Treasure with my parents, Matt and Morgan on January 2nd.  However, I needed to cancel an installation for our phone service to do so.  The cancellation was going to take twelve business days to move and we ended up having the kids’ home that day anyways so I kept the appointment. 

Prior to making a final decision on what we should do, I told Gina I'd really like to see the movie.  She said she was interested but didn't necessarily have to see it in the theater.  When it came to discussing it with the group, in front of everyone I told Gina she should go and that I'd stay home with the kids.  It's a classic case of me unselfishly being selfish.  It was clear that I wanted to see it more and Gina was truly OK with not going, yet I pushed her to go.  If she went, she would have felt guilty the whole time about going.  I would have sincerely been fine with not going but in some ways that's not important in the equation.

The point is that I need to do things for myself once in a while so that people like Gina don't feel guilty doing something like buying a pop while they are out running errands because she knows I wouldn't do that.

It will also be a good idea for me to sometimes think about my needs more as well.  I sometimes lose track of that and it's not necessarily a healthy thing to do.

In the end, I went to the movie and Gina stayed home.

Hopefully my example helps.

So, on that note, good luck finding your word.  I really think it's an exercise worth doing.  I know Morgan would completely agree too.  She knows her word too and really feels like it's significantly helped her to better understand herself.

It's likely not going to just come to you.  This is something that may take days or weeks to figure out.  I figured out mine pretty quickly but we are still very lost on Gina's word and it's been over a week now.  If you think you have your word, try to find examples that validate it.  I know I thought I had a few words before selfish but I couldn't really find applicable examples to support it.

Movies Reviews (2007B)

See Movie Reviews (2007A).

Unfortunately, I didn't get around to watching many movies the second half of 2007.  But, here's what I thought of what I saw...