Barb's Burblings

Someone's a little desperate

The Nationals revealed that their mascot, like that of DC United and the Capitals, would be an eagle. The Nats' eagle is a baby, and goes by the name of "Screech." Well, when most people think of Screech, they don't think of the eagle, they think of Zach Morris's best friend on Saved by the Bell. SBTB alum Dustin Diamond will discuss the distinctions between the two on washingtonpost.com at 1 this afternoon.

Legos make everything cooler

Baseball brawls, while fun to watch in their own right, are made even more fun when reenacted with Legos.

I'm sorry, what day is it?

I stopped at the bank at lunch today. The teller must have been new; it took him forever to deposit and check and give cash back. Anyway, he handed me my money and said, "Have a nice weekend!" Me: "...Thanks?" I mean, I do plan on having a nice weekend, but it's kind of early to think about. Maybe the guy was convinced that it was Friday. Wishful thinking. Of course, I woke up yesterday morning wishing it were Friday. It's never a good sign when you're already hoping for the weekend and it's only Sunday.

I don't know that I'd say "greatest"

OK, there are times when I really don't understand my fellow Americans. The Discovery Channel and AOL got together to name the Greatest American. Nominations were taken for over a month by normal, everyday Americans. The top 100 are listed here. A lot of them make sense; you have your Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, your Walt Disney and Babe Ruth, your Jonas Salk and Malcolm X, your Eleanor Roosevelt (and I admit to being one of the people to nominate her) and Jackie Kennedy.

But some of the nominations are just like, "Huh?" Dr. Phil McGraw? Both Bush presidents? Mel Gibson? Barack Obama? Brett Favre? Hugh Hefner? Tom Cruise?

What's really scary is that these are the top 100. I shudder to think who else was nominated.

Woot, he did it again

AL Player of the Week, baby. He also received this award last August.

A little bit of this, etc.

I'm a little bitter that I had to come in on Friday, particularly since I wasn't really needed. It's just frustrating. Though I did spend some quality time divying up a coworker's set of Nationals season tickets.

In baseball news, I'm in the middle of the pack of my fantasy league. I have pretty good offense, but my pitching sucks. I'm not sure what to do about it, though. I've won both of my matchups so far, but not by much.

When I was working out last week, my CD player was having some problems. I don't know whether it was just that the batteries were dying, or whether the CD player itself is busted. I'm kind of disturbed, because I cannot deal with 45 minutes of exercising with no sound but my own breathing. Particularly when I'm on the elliptical and can't read. When I'm on the bike, it's not too bad. We'll have to see what happens tonight. If it's the CD player, I'm tempted to use the money my dad gave me for editing a paper he wrote to buy an iPod shuffle. Or maybe a Mini, though that would cost me more than that check. I'll have to see what happens tonight, then contemplate from there. I really should just fork that money over to Citibank, but...iPod! Pretty!

We're coming into the pre-Conference home stretch at work, but we have some books that aren't going to make it. We still need them out quickly, so unfortunately it doesn't look like the couple weeks before Conference are going to be as empty as they usually are. I was going to use that time to clean out my files, dammit! The stacks of paper are taking over.

Current song in my head:
"New York, New York" from On the Town

ETA: It looks like my batteries were just dying, which is a relief. Though now I have to buy batteries. Yes, they're cheaper than an iPod, but also less fun.

The swamping and the tapping

You know what perks up a day? Having your boss call and tell you that she needs you to come in on your day off. The day off that she knows you had planned to spend with your mother, who lives on the other side of the country. Like, swell. I know that it's because we're swamped but it's still annoying. But at least I don't have to come in until the afternoon. And yesterday the company paid for a nice lunch out, which was a bit gratifying.

In other news, I started Intermediate Tap last night, which is cool. And we've actually started to learn a routine! I guess that's what happens when you have the basic steps down pat. It's to "One" from A Chorus Line, so, you know, insanely stereotypical, but there's also something really fun about tap dancing to it.

Current song in my head:
"Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms

Deathmatch: Eyes vs. Body

I'm at this odd point where my eyes are reeeeaaalllly tired. They're like, "Take a nap! Sleep!" But the rest of my body is fairly energetic. If only there were a way for me to rest my eyes while on the elliptical...But I know I'd kill myself if I did close my eyes while doing that.

This day in history

You know, I thought I had posted about this before, but I guess I haven't. This week, April 12-19, is one of the most momentous in history. April 12 stands out in my mind as the anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's death (it's the 60th anniversary this year). But a lot happened This Week In History. The starts of the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, the sinking of the Titanic, the discovery of the polio vaccine...there's a lot out there.

History, fun!

Yet another entry about Brian

I swear that I am trying not to make this the All Brian Roberts All the Time Blog, but he's making it so hard!

The Orioles website just had to have an article about him. Complete with a helpful link to a bunch of video clips of him! (Though it doesn't have any of his grand slams on there.) Yay!

Though if you're on the website, you should also check out the amusing clip of when Tejada lost the "1" from his uniform while sliding home. Whoops.

10 and 2?

On my way home tonight I was behind a guy driving a BMW with Texas plates. It's a nice day out, and he had his window down, with his arm resting outside the window. It was so nice that he also had his sunroof open. He frequently had his other hand resting on the roof of his car. The problem here is that he frequently had both hands not inside the car. At the same time. Now, I have been known, on occasion, to drive with my legs. But in general, I don't do that for extended periods of time. This guy only had a hand on the wheel when absolutely necessary. It was pretty unnerving. And also? Stupid. Hands on the wheel, idiot!

Who cares about blossoms when there are snipers?

It was absolutely gorgeous yesterday. After waking up far too early and going to training for a new HOSC experiment and giving a First Ladies tour, I met up with Brent, Katie, Steve, and Becca to check out the cherry blossoms. Yep, it was just us and the eleventy billion other people taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Knowing that I'd be spending an afternoon in the sun, I planned ahead. No, I didn't wear sunblock (don't be silly!). I wore a shirt with a lower neckline, so I don't have a stupidly high tan line. Again.

Anyway, after spending approximately 2 minutes at the Tidal Basin, we decided that yep, the blossoms looked the same as every other year we had seen them, so we wandered around for a while. We wound up on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House and spent a goodly amount of time checking out the sniper on the roof. It was, quite frankly, awesome.

The whole day put me in a good mood, which only improved when I got home and saw that Brian had hit another home run. After being told that he's current on track to hit 81 home runs this season, he replied, "Yeah, I think that's about what I'll hit."

Current song in my head:
"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma!

All tied up

Right now, all 5 teams in the AL East are tied for first. Or last, depending on how you look at it. I'm pretty amused. I love the very beginning of the season, just for things like this.

And apparently Brian has turned into a power hitter. He got his second home run of the season tonight and was only a double (ironically) short of hitting for the cycle.

SA sees the light

Scientific American has realized the error of its ways and apologized for its horrible, one-sided coverage of the evolution/creationism/intelligent design debate.

For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it. Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.

For one, I'm relieved and gratified by this. It's nice to see such a prestigious publication correct itself in this manner.

Well, at least they're .500

It was another beautiful day for baseball, and Dave and I headed up to Camden Yards to catch the O's second game. We got our free Sosa t-shirts (which I promptly got ketchup on, thanks) and after one inning moved down to Section 72. It wasn't a good game; we got creamed, 9-0. There were some high points: Brian got the only hit against the A's starter. Larry kicked up some turf and replaced the divot, which was amusing. There was a stare-down between Cabrera and Hatteberg and both benches were warned. Sosa almost hit a home run, which was kind of exciting.

And Dave and I were impressed by Naked Floppy-Hat Guy, who had a large "O's" drawn on his chest in marker and was very proactive in starting a wave. (He had "Wave Man" written on his back.) (And I should point out that he wasn't so much "naked" as "shirtless.") He also managed to get together with some scantily-clad girls pretty quickly, so good job!

But even with the loss and lack of offense and crappy pitching, it was still good. A gorgeous night, the soothing sounds of baseball, and the prospect of 160 games left in the season. I'm pretty content.

Though I did try to get Brian to steal when he got on base (Me: "Steal!" Dave: "On a 3-0 count?"). Dang it, Brian, the doubles and steals need to start NOW! At least he's helping my fantasy team more than Tejada (who I realized is only 28--he's younger than my sister, which is incredibly freaky for me; I don't know how I'm going to deal when it gets to the point that I'm older than a lot of the players).

Current song in my head:
"So What" from Cabaret

Such a lovely day

It was the perfect day for baseball. Maybe a bit too windy, but that's okay. A tv crew filmed me entering the park, I got to watch batting practice, and sat near a fun group of people with a great sense of humor. I'd never been to an Opening Day before, and it was awesome. Such a great atmosphere. And the result was the right one, too. My boy Brian didn't do too well until he was batting lefty, but that's all right. I did wind up a bit sunburnt; sunscreen just never occured to me. Ah well. It's the price I have to pay.

And if anyone was watching SportsNite on Comcast SportsNet last night, you caught a glimpse of my back. They did a segment on fan reaction to Sammy Sosa and filmed it right where I was watching batting practice. The camera scans by a couple kids wearing Sosa shirts, then you see a taller person in a Roberts shirt. Yep, that's me. Yay! I was on tv!

Other than getting somewhat lost in Baltimore, it was a lovely day. Mmm, baseball season. How I missed thee.

And thanks to everyone who sent wishes about my aunt. The surgery went well. She should be back home next week, at which point she'll have a few weeks off before having to get radiation. So things look pretty good for her, but continued thoughts and prayers couldn't hurt.

Current song in my head:
"Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid

Conflicting emotions

It's an odd day. I'm really excited about going to the Orioles opening day. (And I'm working at home this morning, which is always nice--extra sleep!) I was pumped watching last night's game, and there was a really cute segment on Orioles All-Access with Brian and Larry going mini-golfing and go-karting and riding a roller coaster. Totally adorable.

But I also found out yesterday that my Aunt Carol (my mom's sister) has cancer in her mouth and is going in for surgery today. So if you could throw a thought and/or prayer her way around noon today, that'd be much appreciated.

Aunt Carol and Mom: