Barb’s Burblings

There was an interesting article in the Post today about people who live in DC but don’t really know anything about politics–or have no interest in it. I’m somewhere in the middle here; I’m aware of what’s going on, but am not terribly into politics. It is kind of weird walking around, knowing that that could be a member of Congress in front of me, and I just wouldn’t know. I could probably recognize my current Representative, and the one from my last district, and maybe some of the more prominent ones, but that’s about it. I missed the last debate–though I was in Salt Lake City, so had an excuse. I’m perhaps a bit more engaged now than normal, but am hardly hard-core.
Anyway, yes, it is possible to live in the DC area and not really care about politics, but the article is right–there can be a sense of shame involved.

I admit I was pretty disappointed, if not terribly surprised, to see that Reserve Oriole Boyfriend Adam Loewen had signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays. He had blown out his arm pitching, and since he had been a good hitter before, the O’s and he thought he could transition to a position player. A long shot, but couldn’t hurt. Anyway, because of the insane contract he had, he was out of options, so was put on the waiver wire. He passed through, but it seems that he and the O’s had basically come to an agreement about a minor league deal…and then he signed with the Blue Jays.
Not cool. I can kind of understand it–he’s Canadian, and the Jays are pretty much the national team. But the O’s invested a lot of money in him, and were going out on a bit of a limb for him here. I’m sure it was a very hard decision for Adam, but it still hurts. Though really, if you’re going to pursue an out-there thing like this, I can see how you might want to do it with the team you’ve been following all your life (and it sure seems like a lot of O’s fans are behind this; see Teixeira, Mark). Once I saw that there were teams interested in him when he was placed on waivers, I definitely saw this as a possibility. It still sucks a bit, though.
Ultimately, it’s doubtful that he’ll ever make the majors as a position player, so I don’t think it’ll really hurt the team that way, but it’s not cool. Even so, I can’t really bring myself to hate Adam for it.

The bright side of the financial crisis? My dad’s been on tv a lot lately!
October 10 (No glasses in this one–weird!)
October 12 (In this one, he even gets ticker highlights!) (Also, I like his tie here)
October 16 (Notice that this was from 6 a.m. EST–he does these things at 3 a.m. his time!)
He’s totally famous! No, seriously, someone actually recognized him in an airport and bought him a coffee. Crazy! Anyway, he’s awesome. Love you, Dad!
(If you’re into finance and stock talk, you should check out his morning comment, which I have a link to at right. He does one every weekday morning.)

Most Haunted Live on the Travel Channel is in Gettysburg tonight and naturally I’m watching. (For a while, anyway.) For one thing, it’s hosted by Brits. Hurrah, British accents! But mostly because of my time as a ghost tour guide there. And apparently they got permission from the National Park Service to film and be on the battlefield overnight. When I was giving tours, we were sternly told to completely avoid the battlefield. One of the tours used NPS sidewalks, and while on them, the guides couldn’t talk. They had to wait until they stepped onto the non-NPS-owned land to talk.
It’s weird to think that 9 years, I’m sure I’d be off giving a tour tonight. A Friday in October? Definitely.
…And OK, it’s a bit freaky. Some of my experiences giving those tours definitely have made me open to the possibility of ghosts.

So in the Rays-White Sox game just now, Willie Aybar was at bat. He either made contact with the ball, or the ball bounced off the catcher, but it wound up careening down the first base line, fair. So Aybar took off for first as Thornton, the White Sox pitcher, ran over to field the ball. They wound up basically colliding (which counted as a tag, so Aybar was out). But what was really nice was that as Aybar bounced away from the force of the collision, Thornton made a “You OK?” gesture. Then Aybar came over and fist-bumped him to show that they were cool. I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for bench-clearing brawls, but seeing stuff like this is just really nice. They’re both playing hard, but they’re both people. Just really nice to see.

Today’s Baby Blues pretty much encapsulates my life with Colin and Pem.

What I love about Pem, though, is that I’ll force her to snuggle with me, and when I let her get away, she runs right back. Colin…not so much.

I love London, and a vital part of London is the Tube. John Kelly, a Washington Post columnist who just spent a year in Oxford, wrote a fun column discussing the Tube and the Washington Metro. Plus, it name checks Cockfosters. Yes! (Cockfosters is, of course, one of the endpoints of the Piccadilly Line. I still hear that announcement in my head.) Now we need a fun column about the wackiness of the London tabloids. I love me some British tabloids. Because seriously, we may think we have some random “celebrities” (with Paris Hilton as their queen), but I think the British have lapped us on that front.