Barb’s Burblings

There’s a really cute story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about baseball players who want each other’s memorabilia. They’re fans, too!

During spring training, [Dontrelle] Willis exchanged jerseys with the Orioles’ Brian Roberts. He also has Marlins jerseys from former ‘mates Juan Pierre, Derrek Lee and Brad Penny, and plans to ask Matt Herges for his.
“I have Johnny Damon’s,” said Willis, who got to know him during the World Baseball Classic. “Since the WBC we’ve been really cool. His wife and my girl, she took care of her and stuff. We went to his house in New York. … Brian Roberts, I’ve always been a fan of how he plays the game and we get to play against them in spring training a lot. He signed a jersey because he wanted one from me.”

Isn’t that adorable? And he’s not kidding when he says the Marlins and the O’s play each other a lot during spring training. It felt like every other series was against the Marlins–and naturally the O’s played them horribly. Gah.

I love iTunes, but…why does it want to play “The Bitch is Back” all the time? What are you trying to tell me, iTunes?

5:50 - Arrive at Metro station
6:15 - Arrive at PetSmart to buy upholstery cleaner/cat repellant to stop Colin from peeing on the papasan cushion again
6:16 - See that PetSmart closes at 6 on Sundays
6:40 - Arrive at home
6:40 to 8 - Read newspaper; watch Baseball Tonight
8 - Sit down at computer to work on freelance assignment; turn on Emmys
8:05 - Go to Orioles Hangout to read reaction to Conine trade (very positive, unsurprisingly)
8:30 - Heat up Bagel Bites; notice that commercials are longer than 3 minutes
8:45 - Call from Steve to discuss Big Brother
8:47 - Watch Big Brother clip of Will flirting with the audience; dissolve into helpless giggles and declarations of love for Will
8:50 - My Name is Earl wins a couple of Emmys; I giggle when Greg Garcia mentions his son Camden, who I learned today was named for Camden Yards
9 - Notice that cricket seems to be in bedroom
9 to 9:15 - Locate cricket; urge Colin to get cricket; give up and use cat toy to get cricket out from under radiator; urge Colin to kill cricket; give up, trap cricket under hat, release cricket outside
9:30 - Toast bread, add peanut butter
9:40 - Declare undying love for Hugh Laurie, particularly when he’s working the accent
9:45 - Steve Carell doesn’t win? Booo
9:55 - See Kate Jackson in the tribute to Aaron Spelling; wish that they’d put Scarecrow & Mrs. King out on DVD already
10:05 - Put dishes in sink; consider washing them
10:06 - Colin begs for his evening snack; consider not giving it to him, due to his lack of cricket-killing
10:07 - Feed Colin anyway; it’s a good thing he’s so cute
10:15 - Change into pajamas
10:20 - Go to Netflix; add Bleak House
10:22 - Peruse friends’ lists on Netflix
10:30 - Start cursing idiot authors in earnest
10:40 - Victor Garber presents an award! In midst of Victor Garber obsession, think that if I won an award from him, my acceptance speech would consist of gushing about him, and then I’d start talking about John Wilkes Booth and it’d be really, really bad
10:45 - Force self to go through one more document
10:50 - The Office wins! Woo! I’m happy now
10:58 - Decide to write blog entry, even though am tired and should focus on finishing editing document
11 - Switch to Orioles All-Access
11:12 - Aww, Brian’s so cute
11:32 - Realize that haven’t been looking for “person first” language
11:33 - E-mail documents to myself to review for “person first” language tomorrow during lunch
11:38 - Floss and brush teeth
11:45 - Bed

There are way more reasons to love Victor Garber than his portrayals of John Wilkes Booth and Jack Bristow. For example, take a look at his Pop Culture Personality Profile from this week’s Entertainment Weekly:

I love his answer to the question of which famous person he befriended first (”I only befriend famous people. Don’t call me if you’re not famous”) and the fact that he’d eat nachos to gain weight for a part. And his freak out that he’s failing the test.
…And he really did used to have have hair like Art Garfunkel. Seriously. Check out this clip of him and Patrick Cassidy performing “The Ballad of Booth” at a Sondheim celebration. (Cassidy’s hair is also scary.) Victor shows up at around the 2 minute mark.

Recently, the comic strip Speed Bump held a “You Create the Caption!” contest. Here’s one of the honorable mentions:

Is it just me? I don’t really get it. If anyone cares to explain, please do.

Brian goes 1-4 with a leadoff single. Barb questions why in the name of all that is holy Russ Ortiz is still on the O’s roster. The O’s lose, 11-2.
On the positive side, I got the Melvin Mora bobblehead, and a new edition of O’s Magazine was out.

The Orioles’ season was basically over months ago. Early on there was still hope that they might make .500, but that hope is gone (9 straight losing seasons, yay!). So why keep going to games?
Well, for games like last night’s (which, sadly, I did not attend). It was all about the kids last night. Nick Markakis, the who absolutely stunk in April and May but has been one of the hottest hitters in the majors since June, hit three home runs. An Oriole hasn’t done that since 1999. Put together, they went something like 1250 feet. The crowd went wild, to the point that he had to give a curtain call. He has hit six home runs in the last six games.
Also impressive was My Reserve Oriole Boyfriend Adam Loewen. Things looked rough for him in the first couple innings; he gave up 4 hits and 1 run. But after that…nothing. He retired 21 batters in a row. He struck out 7. Most impressive for someone who had struggled for control, he walked none. He cruised and the Twins hitters were completely baffled. He pitched 8 strong innings.
Sadly, he was followed by LaTroy Hawkins, who managed to give up 2 more runs in the 9th inning. Good thing there was another youngster to come in and get the job done–closer Chris Ray jogged in, threw three pitches and struck out Torii Hunter. It was Ray’s 29th save of the season.
Any other notables? Well, my boy Brian hit a home run. He has a hitting streak at 11 games now, and that was his 4th home run in the last 8 games. It’s nice to see his power stroke returning after his injury. Corey Patterson, another under-30 guy, also hit a homer.
So even though once again my boys will be watching the playoffs and World Series from their homes, there’s something to draw people to the Yard. I have seen the future…and these guys are it.

In my July book club meeting, I mentioned that I was going through a bit of a John Wilkes Booth fascination. It turns out that my friend Mike also was familiar with Assassins and the Lincoln assassination. I mentioned that I was even thinking about doing a little “Booth escape tour”–following Booth’s path from Ford’s Theatre to the Garrett Farm, where he died. “I’ll totally go with you!” said Mike.
For the boring details, make the jump, or visit Mike’s blog, where he might post his (undoubtedly well-written) version of the day…

Read the rest of this entry »

In a sad turn of events, it seems that my work crush (well…one of them) is gone. It was inevitable, really; he was a student intern. I called him “Shuttle Boy” because I only ever saw him on the shuttle to and from the Metro. He looked a bit like James Franco and once he wore glasses. There were a couple of days when, on the shuttle after work, he wore gym clothes. Sure, he’s probably only 22 (note that he’s a student intern, which usually means grad school), but still, he’s dreamy.
Fare thee well, Shuttle Boy. You gave me motivation to go to work–I mean, heck, you made part of the commute fun!

Sorry for the lack of updates–my life has been crazy busy lately. But here’s a picture from when I went mini-golfing up in Mass on Saturday night. Julie edged me out for last place.

I like this picture because I look cute in it. And that’s bubble gum ice cream I’m holding. Mmm, my favorite! Because, apparently, I’m 6 years old.
And here’s a commercial that I like–for the Hometown Heroes baseball promotion. LOVE Honus Wagner in it. “In my day we didn’t have bases; we had rocks!”