Race #2: The Irish 5K in Pawtucket

My BFF signed me up for this race, to get back at me pay me back for Race #1.  It wasn’t nearly as cold as the race a couple of weeks ago, but it also wasn’t quite as warm as we hoped it would be.   And we got really ugly technical tee shirts.

The race course itself was pretty bad.  Pawtucket is not the nicest city in RI, and while I’m sure it has some good parts, we didn’t see them.  We ran past McCoy Stadium (home of the PawSox), various storage rental places, trucking companies, a homeless shelter, and quite a few homeless people.  Not the most picturesque race I’ve done, to say the least.  It also started up a long hill, and had a super annoying out-and-back part right before Mile 2.  I’m always tempted to cross to the other side during those – it’s a struggle to stay on my side of the road.

On the plus side, it warmed up about halfway through the race, we ran into some friends also running, and the finish was downhill.  And, the race organizers had emailed me my results by the time I got home, which was pretty cool.  My chip time was 29:50, so I was a few seconds faster than Race #1, which is always good!

Next up: The St. Pat’s 5K in Providence.  Its race #3 of the new Tour de Patrick series.  I’m skipping #2, which is this weekend in Worcester.

Hello, my friends, hello.

I know, I know.  Its been way too long.  I have no valid excuses.  I just haven’t been writing.  I’ve thought of it, often.  I made up excuses.  The bottom line is, I didn’t write.

But here I am, back like a bad boyfriend.  I’ll be better, I swear.  But I need you.  Help me help you.  Comment your hearts out.  Stoke my little ego, and I’ll come back, I promise.  No, really this time.

What have I been up to, you ask?  I’d love to tell you I was busy finding myself, doing major home renovations, or even achieving world peace.  No such luck.  It was more along the lines of: failing at P90X, going on some trips, hanging with friends and J, and suffering through rides on the commuter rail.

Even though I’ve been MIA for months, I’m going to leave you now to be with my wine, my husband, and Intervention.  But I’m going to give  you some pictures to keep you happy.  I’m uploading them via my new MacBook Pro, the newest item in my line of love/hate relationships.

(Oh, do you like the new look?  I did it months ago, but never actually posted anything with it.  Worth the wait?)

We went to Baltimore.  I ate him.

This is my parents’ hall closet.  I fear I am adopted.

We went to St. Lucia.

(The village behind us is where Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is from!)

J beat me in a race in November.  I was not happy.

(and that is a turkey tied around my neck.  what?)

We had a classy Christmas cocktail party.  What’s more classy than Barrack with a condom full of blue cheese?

 

In other news, I need a life.  🙂

 

Tips for Baseball Viewing at Fenway

J & I went to Home Game #2 on Wednesday night.  The good news was, there was beer and we were at the game.  The bad news was everything else.  Like the cold and the fact the Sox lost.  But, there was beer! 

In case any of you are lucky enough to one day take me to a game at Fenway, I’ve come up with some basic tips everyone should follow to make my viewing experience (and yours!) more pleasurable.

1) Take off your freaking hat for the National Anthem.  Yes, ladies, that means you too.  You wanted equal rights, you got ’em.  That means you take off your hat even if your hair will be messed up for 5 minutes.  And if its one of those stupid ass pink hats, you can just leave it off.  And toss it in the trash.

2) Hot chocolate does not warm you up like beer does.  Neither does eating ice cream out of one of those plastic caps.  Beer (at $7.25/pc) is the most expensive option here, but so worth it.

3) You’re no fun unless you sing “Sweet Caroline” in the eighth.  Loudly, off key, and with all of the made up words included.  Therefore, J is no fun.  He’s lucky I married him after I found out he hates this tradition.

4) Its okay if you drop your peanut shells in your beer.  I highly encourage it!  Makes the beer taste better.  Mmmm…salt.  Dropping a chicken finger in your beer is not okay.

5) If you have the bladder of a hampster, get an aisle seat.

6) Speaking of seats, if you’re in the park, you bought one (or a standing room spot).  Sit there.  Don’t stand in the aisle looking for an empty seat, only to get kicked out when the person who owns that seat returns to it.

7) Fenway Frank = good.  Footlong = better.  Monster Dog = gross.  Seriously.  I love a good hot dog just as much as the next fat kid, but the monster dog is too much “meat.”

8) Its okay to leave in the 8th when you’re losing, its cold, and you have to work the next day.  Really.

 

PS — The spellchecker is back!  My prayers have been answered!

 

Baseball Season Begins! Oh, and I’m Effing Matt Damon!

Finally!  Pitchers & catchers have reported to spring training.  Manny still has not shown up (shocker!)  Spring and baseball are in the air.

But the best story of the still new season is the prank Brett Myers and the rest of the Phillies organization played on Kyle Kendrick, telling the pitcher he had been traded to Japan for a player named Kobayashi.  Kendrick’s face is priceless.  Check out the video for a good laugh. 

And, just in case you’ve been living under a rock, my recent favorite video of Sarah Silverman singing to Jimmy Kimmel.  I don’t normally really like Sarah Silverman, but this video cracks my shit up every time I see it.

Again

I know, I know. I’m a bad little blogger.

So, what’s new? Oh yeah, as DuJane pointed out, a little team called the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. Again.

Its so weird to say that. Again. Like its no big deal. It is a big deal, its just not as big of a deal as it was 3 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, its always nice to win. But this year seemed so easy. We had no heartbreak. No Aaron Fucking Boone. No coming back with walkoff after walkoff from being down 3-0. No spraying champagne in Yankee Stadium. We just kept winning, right from the beginning. Sure, the season had some bad moments, some scary moments, but we always looked good.

Not that I need a reason to be happy, but since I can’t use the “Its been 86 years!” reason, I came up with a few more:

• I don’t have to break my promise to J: that if the Rockies won, we’d name our first born son Yorvit. This allows us to have the young “Jason William Kevin Curt Bronson Orlando Manny Papi” as we promised each other in ’04.

• I had a friendly bet with my friend Kay in Colorado. So instead of stuffing a Pilgrim into a FedEx box like I would have had to do if the Rockies had won, I am anxiously awaiting all the splendors that Colorado has to offer (with the exception of Rocky Mountain Oysters).

• Free Tacos for America!

• You gotta love signs like this:

 

 

 

(Sign Reads: Garko was right. Champagne does taste just as good on the road)

 

• And this:

• And, lastly, we can’t see this white boy dance enough:

(okay, maybe we can!)

Congratulations Sox!

Happy Days

Last weekend was the Komen Race for the Cure in Boston. Once again, Team GDT was the largest non corporate fundraising teams, per capita. We raised over $87,000, which is more than we raised in the past three years combined.

We also had a fabulous weekend together, which isn’t easy to accomplish with 50 women. But we all seemed to get along and just have a good old warm and fuzzy time together. The alcohol helped!

The best moment of the weekend was watching the survivor’s victory lap prior to the race start. I don’t know how I’ve missed this truly moving experience the past few years. Its simply amazing to me how strong these women and their families are. I think the part that touched me the most was the man who pushed his wife in her wheelchair, not only for the lap, but for the entire race. That’s true love.

The happy day from this weekend was that the Red Sox clinched the AL East for the first time since 1995. Yay! I missed the celebration, as I was busy drinking beers by a bonfire and biting my tongue for various reasons. But we were lucky enough to go to Fenway for the next to last game of the season. It meant almost nothing, but we won, the Indians lost, and we got home field advantage. Double yay! The postseason is never easy. I’m off to the store for Tums & Coffee!

The high and the low.

First, the low:
The only word to describe the Sox/Yankees game last night is painful. At a time when these games mean so much, the collapse of the Red Sox is not acceptable. Especially in a game where we had Petite’s number, and a decent lead. One bad, awful, gross inning later, and we’re done.

J made a good point about the Yankees yesterday. In general they play good baseball, but when their opponent has a weakness or makes a mistake, they exploit it, take advantage of it, and run them into the ground. Not a bad quality to have.

Let’s just hope the rest of the weekend goes a little better for the Sox.

Now, the high:
A few weeks ago, I blogged about Team GDT and our fundraising efforts for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure in Boston. Today is the last day donations can be counted for the team/individual challenge, and I couldn’t be prouder to announce that Team GDT has raised over $80,000 this year alone. That’s $30,000 over our goal, and more than the first three years of participation combined. Unbelievable.

This is a fabulous group of women, and every year, I am even more honored to stand at the race and be a part of their team. The race is next weekend, and its sure to be a great, bittersweet time.

By the way, Team GDT has also published a cookbook, with all proceeds going to Komen. You can see it at www.teamgdt.com, and you can also donate through the link as well. Every dollar helps!

The Good Bucky.

Last night, J & I are watching the game, and I said “Hey, who’s pitching?” He replied: “Buck Holtz.” I thought, huh, you don’t hear the name Buck too often (unless you know George Costanza’s porn star name: Buck Naked). Later, I figured out that the kid’s name was actually Clay Buchholz, and he was a 23 year old rookie, making his second MLB start for the Sox, because Wakefield being hurt messed up the rotation a bit.

So, the kid looked good. By the fourth inning, J was saying, but not saying, he was on his way to a no hitter. See, J is a bit superstitious when it comes to baseball. He firmly believes Don Orsillo (Sox announcer) ruined Schilling’s no hitter earlier this season by simply announcing he was on his way to a no hitter. So, every time Orsillo or Remy would make note of the zeros on the board, J nearly had a conniption fit at the tv.

He fell asleep in the 8th, and I took over the worrying. They showed a clip of the last Sox pitcher to get a no hitter, Derek (Even though you’re a headcase I still miss you since you went Left) Lowe, and I thought, this can’t be good for Bucky. Then, they showed a clip from the ’67 dream team, who apparently the ’07 Sox are being compared to, and a fabulous catch by Yaz in the ninth to keep the pitcher’s (whose name I can’t remember) no hitter alive. Then lost on the next batter. I wanted to turn the tv off at that point, fearing the worst, but I left it on and woke J up for the last batter.

And he did it! Bucky got the no hitter, on a called strike that seemed to take forever to call. Jason Varitek picked him up (what I wouldn’t give to have been Clay Buchholz for that moment) and the team swarmed the field, nearly crushing the kid to death. You could tell he was crying, and so was I. Then you could hear Josh Beckett say, “You just did something Curt Schilling couldn’t even do!”

So, there you have it. The first Red Sox Rookie to get a no hitter. And I’m still calling him Bucky. But the good Bucky, unlike the other one, who is known to all Sox fans as Bucky Fucking Dent.

Get Out Your Brooms

After three games in the Bronx, the Yankees swept the Sox in a pitiful series. The Sox now only have a five game lead (which really saddens me, because I have been dying to title a post “Nine Games” ala Ferris Bueller). I’d have to check, but I’m not even sure if the Sox lead at any point in any game this series.

And who is this Joba dude the Yankees have pitching? I’m going to assume he did not really mean to throw the ball at Kevin Youkilis’ head. I’m going to assume he didn’t mean to do it twice. For his own good, I hope its true (I’m in my pjs, menacingly cracking my knuckles as I type that). APparently, MLB assumes otherwise, as he has been suspended for two games.

After the slamming we did of the “other” Sox last weekend, I was hoping for at least a win. Would that have been too much to ask for? I realize there is no reason to panic here, but its a bit discouraging to not be able to pull it together with a month or so left in the season, against a team we’ll quite probably have to face in the playoffs.

So what now? The waiting game begins. The Sox lost last night, but so did the Yanks. Phew — still at 5 games. I really think it will be this way throughout September, as the happy May days of 11 game lead are long behind us. But that’s okay. That’s what September is all about.

PS — J took the picture at the top of this post after the parade when the Sox won the Series in 2004. Its hard to see, but there’s a couple of guys hanging a broom out the window of their apartment.

The Wild World of Sports

Slogging through my long run on the dreaded treadmill at the gym tonight, I got to see a lot of news. And the sports world has gone crazy, crazy I tell you!

First up, I’m not a huge X Games fan, even though I believe the first X Games were in my home state of Rhode Island. But look at this guy fall!
Jake Brown’s X Games Fall
The amazing part, aside from the simple fact he’s still alive, is that he’s planning on coming back to skateboarding is three weeks. If I ever fell 40 feet, I think I’d wrap myself in bubble wrap and hang out in bed, getting up only to -carefully!- eat and pee. Of course, the odds of me being 40 feet in the air to begin with is slim to none, but you get the point.

Next, I think we may have to move the Seattle Mariners into the Evil Empire of Baseball. Why? Because their mascot, a moose of some sort (why the Mariners have a Moose mascot, I don’t know) tried to run over Coco Crisp! How awful is that?! That moose should not be allowed into the Hall Of Fame — blacklist him like Pete Rose, I say! Here’s a clip: Coco and the Moose

The Rox Sox mascot, Wally the Green Monster, is far more civilized, by the way. And, he’s popular with the ladies

Some other stuff happened this weekend in sports too. ARod hit his 500th homer, and Barry Bonds hit number 755. I’m far more impressed by ARod, but that’s a blog for another day. And, Schilling is back on the mound for the Sox tonight, so we’ll see how long he can keep his fat yap shut for after the game.