apple juice

Absolutely, Power Corrupts

No, not an article about Tom Delay. (I’m soooo funnny)

Mark Teahen is no exception. This odd swing of his — the reason he’s a good hitter but not a power hitter — has a rich provenance. There was nothing to do in Yucaipa except play baseball — or, at any rate, nothing else he wanted to do. Every afternoon he and his two brothers would go out into the backyard for a game of Wiffle ball. Right field — the natural power zone for a left hander like Teahen — ended at the back of the house. If you hit the ball on the roof, it got stuck in the gutter, so the boys declared what would have normally been a home run an out. It was left field, a low brick wall, that tempted the hitter. Reach out over the plate and serve the ball into left field, and you had yourself a home run. Mark and his older brother Matt, both lefties, developed an extreme tendency to go the other way, to try to hit the ball over the left-field wall. Only his younger brother, Mick, the lone righty, learned to pull the ball and hit with power.

A great article about two baseball players with different swings and skills in the midst of steriods and the rise of the power hitter in Major League Baseball.

It’s the paragraph I quoted that I like the most, though. It reminds me of playing baseball with my brother and our friends in the various front and backyards of our hometown. You could never pull it because that meant you would lose the ball in the woods, and whatever you do, don’t miss! A miss meant a mark on the garage door and an angry parent!

So, (cue music) although I wasn’t ever a great baseball player, it’s funny how those things shape you, your swing, your skills. I didn’t strike out too much, and I liked slapping line drives where people weren’t standing. I never hit a homerun at any level of baseball. But the one time I really crushed it, I just stood there like and idiot and watched it… “where the heck did that come from?” It bounced off the wall in left center and I only got a single because I only took 2 steps out of the batters box before I stopped to watch. Oh well!

It has a name:

Buck the Singing Deer Head

Yes, that’s right, Buck the Singing Deer Head.

I guess they were compelled to point out that it is, in fact, not an entire deer that sings, just the head.

Awesome.

If anyone at brandonsale.com wants to send me a commission, feel free… maybe they are in the Amazon Associates program?

Update: Here’s the official site: Talking Buck – The Animated Trophy

It’s father’s day season! This year, why not get a gift he will love!

And yes Eric, this product comes from the wonderful folks who brought us Bill the Talking Bass.

We were shopping at Menards today. If you are not living within the reach of Menards, it could be thought of as a big hardware, lawn and garden place. Much like Home Depot. Except uniquely Minnesotan. [or at least midwestern] Witness the below pictures:

This is just what you need to finish the decorating on your house! It talks! It sings! It comes with a Microphone so you can talk and freak out your friends! Ahh! The deer is talking!

When I was walking past this display, there was an older gentleman, dressed in carharts and a flannel hat. He spoke into the microphone, “Test, Test” and then looked upwards towards the magical deer. No deerlips were moving, again “Test, 1, 2, Test”. Nothing. Shake microphone… “Test, 1, 2”

At this point, I almost lost it. But I soldiered on, undeterred. We needed a compost bin. Of course there was no compost bin. They had them, but they are now discontinued. Oh yes, there is one in stock in Blaine. “No, thanks”, I say.

I only go to Blaine in the direst of circumstances.

On the way back to find the Juice-ette, I pass the deer again, it’s singing “Sweet Home Alabama”. My day has been made.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Twins, Hennepin County have stadium deal.

Under the terms of the plan to be unveiled at a Metrodome press conference Monday, the Twins and the county would build a $360 million, 42,000-seat open-air stadium. The site is near the confluence of Interstate Hwy. 394, the end of the Hiawatha Light Rail line and the proposed Northstar commuter rail in downtown Minneapolis.

Now I REALLY want to live closer to the light rail line…

I mentioned in the previous post that I’ll be heading down to the fair grounds for this year’s Living Green Expo.

This is something I think about a fair amount… We all drive cars, use energy, do wasteful things, throw away recyclebles, eat cow, etc. There are things you could do… like spend, oh, about $25,000 to install solar panels on your house, sell your car and buy the patent for that stair stepper bike that dude in downtown Minneapolis rides around, get a team of hamsters to generate electricity at your house, etc. But that’s not terribly feasible. And it’s not like you can go and install a huge wind turbine in your back yard either…

But here’s something you can do (if you are served by Xcel Energy in Colorado, New Mexico or Minnesota):

Go to this page at Xcel Energy about Windsource

Call them up, they will tell you how many blocks you use, and then you can buy the equivalent amount of wind energy.

There’s some fine print there, you aren’t insuring that the electricity that comes to your house was wind-generated, but what you’re doing is basically adding more wind-energy to Xcel’s overall pool.

You can cover up-to your average electricity bill, so I bought 5 blocks, which was an extra $10 a month.

It’s a little something you can do, and it won’t break the bank either.

I’ve been gone a little while. After a wonderful vacation for a week and a half, it’s back to work. The daily grind.

This was the first vacation I’ve had where one day into it I had a sinking feeling of having forgotten to do something at work before leaving. Two days in I had emailed back to a co-worker to update a few passwords.

But after getting that out of the way, the vacation was wonderful. My ankle held up as well as I could expect, and I skied without pain for most of it.

After the great week, I thought I might be able to go for a run! The ankle is still a little sore, but I thought it was possible. Three houses away, I was feeling the pain, and by the end of the block I stopped, went back, and grabbed my bike to follow the Juice-ette and Yeti around the lake. The pedaling motion is a far lower impact activity.

Luckily, your local sporting goods store will sell you any number of different ankle braces with different levels of protection, little slip-on neoprene booties all the way up to plastic casts (real comfortable looking).

After trying a few on, and running around Sportmart in my socks, I settled on one of the lace-up boots. It worked well enough to make it over to the lake, down the near side and then almost back to the house. As it breaks-in, I think it will support even better.

The point of this story is that I was feeling like a tremendous slug sitting around, not doing any exercising or anything. If there was some sort of work-out program that involved vacuuming, I would be all over that, but alas, you don’t work up quite the same sweat as you do while running.

So the weather is beautfiul here in minnesota. The air smells wonderful, all the plants are sprouting and budding. Birds, chirping. Kids, playing. If only we had some outdoor baseball!

Things you can look forward to in the next couple weeks as I get back into a routine here…

• I made an epic ski video from the trip. I will post it here. Ski team buddies will get a kick out of it I’m sure.
• I’ll be going to the Living Green Expo at the end of April, to find out how I can live green. (Britt, are you going to be there?)
• Hopefully seeing a concert or two (M.Doughty is coming to town with a new CD out in May)
• I’ll probably babble on about BioDiesel again soon, much to the chagrin of my shrinking readership.
• and whatever I feel like, gosh!