25-Man Roster

Case Ace (12 Team League)

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Round	Pick	Player	Position
1.	(7)	Evan Longoria	3B
2.	(18)	Miguel Cabrera	1B
3.	(31)	Ben Zobrist	2B,SS,OF
4.	(42)	Johan Santana	SP
5.	(55)	Adam Lind	OF
6.	(66)	Josh Johnson	SP
7.	(79)	Andre Ethier	OF
8.	(90)	Clayton Kershaw	SP
9.	(103)	Lance Berkman	1B
10.	(114)	Gordon Beckham	3B
11.	(127)	Carlos González	OF
12.	(138)	Brett Anderson	SP
13.	(151)	Roy Oswalt	SP
14.	(162)	Julio Borbón	OF
15.	(175)	Frank Francisco	RP
16.	(186)	Francisco Liriano	SP,RP
17.	(199)	Mike González	RP
18.	(210)	Kerry Wood	RP
19.	(223)	Chris Davis	1B,3B
20.	(234)	Fausto Carmona	SP
21.	(247)	Milton Bradley	OF
22.	(258)	Octavio Dotel	RP
23.	(271)	A.J. Pierzynski	C
24.	(282)	Scott Sizemore	2B
25.	(295)	Brian Matusz	SP

Love, Mom and Dad

My parents picked out this Hallmark card for me for birthday:

Sometimes things work out well.
Sometimes life is good.
Like you're given a son
to care for and love.
So you try to bring him up well,
to let him know
how important he is to you...

And before you know it, he's an adult,
looking you in the eye
and grinning with that smile
that comes straight
from the heart...

And you think to yourself,
"Hey, he turned out good."
And your own heart
fills up with love... again.

Happy Birthday
to a good man...
and a wonderful son.

Winning

There is an old poker maxim that goes like this:

Poker players like winning more than losing, but playing most of all.

If I recall correctly I first read this in a book that was advising players to keep the mood happy at the table, because if people are happy they won't notice losing their money to you.

I just got back from my hockey game and I like losing way more than winning. Maybe my order is winning, playing, losing.

Part II, The Aftermath

I posted the story about my dad nearly drowning and this is the rest of the story.

Part II:

One regret I have is not notifying the people in the boat when I got his head above the water and knew he was alive. While struggling to get his suit off I yelled to the boat for a knife. Later Shelley jumped into the water carrying a screwdriver and whatever else she dug up on the boat that she thought might help. When I saw the frightened look on her face I realized that she didn’t know that we had made it. Paul and I were still struggling to get my dad off the motor so I didn’t think to tell the boat that we knew he was alive. It was pretty traumatic for everyone involved.

Dad came out of the boat with some minor bleeding, but it turned out he was in worse shape than I initially thought. His body went into shock, and he was cut up in areas we don’t like to talk about. Also, his legs were more bruised than anything I had ever seen. Dave, Mom and I took him to the hospital.

The nurse asked me some questions about what had happened. She asked me how long he was under, and I replied, “Well, he didn’t die.” I don’t think I was ready to talk about it until I knew my dad was hooked up to an IV and being treated. I later estimated it at 90 seconds, but after discussing it with Paul we think it may have been closer to 60. Either way he was under quite a while.

Dad still didn’t look good that evening, and it wasn’t until I saw him the next day that he looked okay again. He ended up with 40 stitches, and it took him several weeks to recover.

That night I replayed the situation in my mind. I replayed how close it was, and how little I was able to do. Dad may have died had I not been in the water. So maybe I should consider myself a hero, but it didn’t feel like that. I felt helpless. With everyone else in bed I walked to the bathroom crying and I looked at my face in the mirror. I saw a face of complete terror that I’ve never seen on me before or since. I was shaking and crying. The next day I was better. I’ve been fine since. I was not traumatized by the event, nor was my dad. I just know he felt bad to have to put people through that situation. I know it was tough on my uncle as he feels it is his responsibility to run the operation at his place.

I know no one lives forever, but I’m glad we still have Dad for some more years. It is important for my family to still have him around.

Spirits

As I wrote my thought of the week today "high spirits sans spirits" I thought of how quickly I came up with three very distinct meanings for the same word. So I typed in "spirits" to dictionary.com.

25 definitions just for the noun. 24 for the common noun.

Spirit:

–noun

1.

the principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul.

2.

the incorporeal part of humans: present in spirit though absent in body.

3.

the soul regarded as separating from the body at death.

4.

conscious, incorporeal being, as opposed to matter: the world of spirit.

5.

a supernatural, incorporeal being, esp. one inhabiting a place, object, etc., or having a particular character: evil spirits.

6.

a fairy, sprite, or elf.

7.

an angel or demon.

8.

an attitude or principle that inspires, animates, or pervades thought, feeling, or action: the spirit of reform.

9.

(initial capital letter) the divine influence as an agency working in the human heart.

10.

a divine, inspiring, or animating being or influence. Num. 11:25; Is. 32:15.

11.

(initial capital letter) the third person of the Trinity; Holy Spirit.

12.

the soul or heart as the seat of feelings or sentiments, or as prompting to action: a man of broken spirit.

13.

spirits, feelings or mood with regard to exaltation or depression: low spirits; good spirits.

14.

excellent disposition or attitude in terms of vigor, courage, firmness of intent, etc.; mettle: That's the spirit!

15.

temper or disposition: meek in spirit.

16.

an individual as characterized by a given attitude, disposition, character, action, etc.: A few brave spirits remained to face the danger.

17.

the dominant tendency or character of anything: the spirit of the age.

18.

vigorous sense of membership in a group: college spirit.

19.

the general meaning or intent of a statement, document, etc. (opposed to letter): the spirit of the law.

20.

Chemistry. the essence or active principle of a substance as extracted in liquid form, esp. by distillation.

21.

Often, spirits. a strong distilled alcoholic liquor.

22.

Chiefly British. alcohol.

23.

Pharmacology. a solution in alcohol of an essential or volatile principle; essence.

24.

any of certain subtle fluids formerly supposed to permeate the body.

25.

the Spirit, God.

–adjective

26.

pertaining to something that works by burning alcoholic spirits: a spirit stove.

27.

of or pertaining to spiritualist bodies or activities.

–verb (used with object)

28.

to animate with fresh ardor or courage; inspirit.

29.

to encourage; urge on or stir up, as to action.

30.

to carry off mysteriously or secretly (often fol. by away or off): His captors spirited him away.

—Idiom

31.

out of spirits, in low spirits; depressed: We were feeling out of spirits after so many days of rain.

Serendiptous Life Bargains

In March of 2009 I deposited $2000 into to E-trade to buy some stocks. I tried to purchase some shares immediately, but there was a waiting period before I could buy. 7-10 days later I was not feeling as adventurous. I let my money sit in that account until today.

Now, only 12 months later, I cashed out for $2001.28. To think, I didn't even know this was an interest bearing account.

Cell Phones

On the way home from work today the guy in the pickup in front of me had the following bumper sticker on his back window:

Guns Don't Kill People. Driving While Talking on Cell Phones Does. (Cell Phones was underlined for emphasis).

Yeah, he was on his cell phone.

Round Table

When Gio asked the lady on the phone for a side of pineapples she was not the least bit amused by Gio. So his next line was something like this, “Oh, I was just making a joke ma’am. I can see you did not think that was funny. I apologize.” Then we asked for delivery and she told us it would be an hour and half. So we went and picked it up. When we got there the girl behind the counter was very happy and friendly. We asked her if she also answers the phone there. She said sometimes, but doesn’t remember taking an order for a double pepperoni. I responded, “You’d remember.” Gio told her that he was obnoxious on the phone and wanted to make sure our food wasn’t tampered with. She laughed and assured us everything was proper.

We bought a can of pineapples from the grocery store.

(Ask me sometime about the time Gio got a call for his son to play in the youth basketball league.)

Classic

Fail Blog Titled this one:

You're Life is a Cliche