On the Road Again

Charlene and I go waaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back. This picture was taken 28 years ago in Watertown, NY. We haven't seen each other in a few years so it was time for a road trip to Boca Raton. East Coast Florida. OMG. SO different from West Coast Florida. She lives between West Palm Beach and Miami. Land of women with plastic faces and men who wear tassled shoes with no socks. Ewwwwww. But it's about a 4 hour drive (well, it's supposed to be!) and not one that either of us makes often enough. The pool action ended right before I got there but her youngest daughter, Sami, shared this photo of her and her boyfriend, Matt. She colored in the creature with PhotoShop and I thought that was very creative. Sami is a junior in college this year.

Charlene also has twins, Patrick and Colleen, born in 1983. As I recall, the twins were a complete surprise. Yeah, that could happen waaayyyyyyy back then. And here's a girl who was an only child and never babysat! That's funny, right? I'm sure you can look back and laugh now, Char.

So the Divine Miss M was worried that our weekend together would not be nearly as much fun as I had in New York. She couldn't have been more wrong. She found the greatest little place to visit Saturday night. We drove to Lighthouse Pointe to board a boat to an island on the intracoastal waterway. The restaurant we ate at, Caps, dates back to 1928. One of the most unique things about this restaurant (besides its prices!!!!!) was the fresh Okeechobee Hearts of Palm Salad. The Sabal Palm Tree is the Florida State tree and this is what they use to prepare the salad. The hearts come from the inner core and have a cabbage-like flavor hence its nickname swamp cabbage. Mmmmmmm...good.

Back at the house, I "coaxed" Charlene into telling me about her Emmy. ;) She is currently a producer at WPTV in West Palm Beach. Both she and her husband, Mike, have been in broadcoasting for over 30 years. Mike is currently the Director of Engineering at WXEL which is a public broadcasting station. Anyway, Charlene won the Emmy for a story she produced called "Get out Alive." It was about teaching children what to do in the event of a fire. And here's Char with her statue. Very impressive.

Patrick left for NC shortly after I arrived. And Colleen lives in Miami now that they are both out of school. I want to thank Colleen for leaving an empty bed at home so I wouldn't have to sleep on the futon this time. LOL. But here is the view from the futon Sunday morning when I woke up.

But, wait, what's this??????? Is this what I think it is? These guys are the most plugged in, techno savvy family I know. They have flat screen tvs, TIVO, IPODs, a Trio phone, Garmin navigators, wireless connections and notebook computers everywhere. And here sits a computer monitor that could probably get a spot on Antique Roadshow! And as if that weren't bad enough, check out what's under the bed!!!! I think this is what happened to the last guest who went around taking pictures they didn't know about...

In a New York Minute

I flew to NYC on Friday for a one-day Scrabble tournament on Saturday. A fellow Scrabbler, Paul, picked me up at the airport in Newark, NJ. We had lunch outside at a little restaurant down the street from his apartment called Big Nick's Burger Joint. No meat for us though and the food was great. Then we took a walk down the street to the Boat Basin on the Hudson River. We saw the transition area being set up for the Nautica NYC Trithalon on Sunday (olympic distances). And then we headed to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. We had seats in an upper tier behind home plate - check out my view. The Yankees were playing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (of all teams) Friday and we left after the 6th inning because the Yankees were losing (and lost) to TB. This bothered Paul considerably but the Yankees came back with a vengeance on Saturday and Sunday to win the rest of their games.

Paul lives on a 9th floor apartment on the west side in Manhattan. I woke up Saturday morning and took a picture of the view from the futon I was sleeping on in the kitchen/living room. Yeah, the apartments combine rooms to save space! I thought it was pretty cool. I had gone out for fresh bagels the night before so that's what we had for breakfast before heading out to the Comfort Diner for the Big Apple Tournament. Paul introduced me to everyone and I especially enjoyed meeting Lynda aka GuitarGirl. There's a great picture of her with Paul sitting in one of the booths. There were 32 people playing in four equal divisions of eight. I was initially the lowest rated player until another player was added at the last minute. Even so, I was only expected to win 1.4 games. I went in with a rating of 839 and the highest rated player in my division had a rating of 1388. That's a big difference and although I didn't beat the highest rated player, I exceeded my expectations and won 4 games. That added 70 points to my rating for a new rating of 909. Wow. On top of that, our host, Ira, let the winners of the last game keep the brand new board we were playing on. I won my last game. Incredible. And you would have thought that's where the excitement ended.

No, the evening only got better. I invited Zack Hample (author of Watching Baseball Smarter and How to Snag Major League Baseballs) to join us for the ice cream social after the games. I brought 6 of his new books with me to be autographed for friends and family. He was happy to oblige in exchange for cake, pie, and ice cream. Guys can be so EASY sometimes. It was so great to meet him in person. He used to play in the Manhattan Club so he knew practically everyone playing and it was nothing short of a reunion for most of them. But I couldn't let him get away without one game. I'm not saying who won but someone in the picture can't show his face. There's probably a rematch in our future. Guys can be so TOUGH sometimes. He's also pictured with Stefan Fastis who wrote Word Freak which is a favorite for many people who play Scrabble.

Zack, Paul, and I shared a cab home around 2am and I was so high from the day's events that I didn't get to sleep until 3 or later. But I was up shortly after 8 and since Paul was still sleeping I slipped out around 9 to watch the triathlon for a couple of hours. The swim started at 6 in the Hudson so I missed that but there were still bikers and runners out there who needed support. I joined Joe Stallone, whom I just met, in cheering on the guys and girls as they passed. Some of them even thanked us for coming out as they ran by. It was a great way to spend the morning. The race ended in Central Park but I hooked back up with Paul around 11:30 so that we could go to the Empire State Building. Fifty years old, from NY, and I've never been to the ESB. Thank you, Paul. It was a gorgeous day and the view was awesome. We strolled through Central Park (check out the picture of Bethesda Fountain aka Angel of the Waters) the next couple hours only stopping once for brunch at Tavern on the Green. Another treat. Thanks again, Paul. And before I knew it, it was time to go. The time went by so fast. Like in a New York minute...

If at first you don't succeed, Tri Tri again!

This morning Curt participated in the Morton Plant Meese Triathlon (sprint triathlon or a Class C race as Bigun likes to call them). It was held at Sand Key in Clearwater on the Gulf of Mexico. Last night we enjoyed a carb fest at Angelina's with Team Taylor. It's just as important for the supporters of these events to have energy because there's a lot of cheering to be done and not just for our guys. Today I manned the kayak and Di manned the cowbell and camera, as usual.

The couple, Diane and Dennis, that we bought our kayak from called and asked if I would like to help provide kayak support and I was grateful for the opportunity. The first wave went out at 7am this morning and we met at 6 to get our gear together. Curt woke me up a little after 3:30am, however, and we left the house a little after 4. The transition area opened at 5 and a lot of guys/girls like to get there early to set up. The first picture is taken from my kayak as the sun starts to rise and the swimmers make their way down to the beach. Di sent me several pictures she took of me from shore. I wish I had room for more of them. And the group picture is one I took of the rest of our crew. Our crew included Diane's mother (who is 70 years old, btw!) and another couple, Art and Patty, in addition to a guy visiting from Wales, Matthew. We were spread out from the beginning to the finish line and were actually able to help a few swimmers . Swimmers are not disqualified if they hold onto the kayak to rest which is a good thing. We were out there a little longer than usual because the last swimmer in was 86 years old. What determination. I wish you could have seen him. I just missed Curt finishing the race because I was out in the water so long but there's a couple of pictures of him right after he's done and one with Bigun. And last, but not least, we have the arch nemesis, Tracy Parker (orange jersey). She doesn't even know she's the arch nemesis (Holy Cowbell, Batman!) and Curt doesn't even know her. He just knows that her name shows up on Athlink as a rival every time they're in a race together and she beats him in every race. This seems to bother him for some reason and that cracks me up. I think she beats Bigun, too, but she's only 36 and maybe she's expected to do better, guys????? Race results, you ask? I'll refer you to the Bigun's blog for all the details. Take it away, Bigun...

Well, I was born in a small town...

Oneonta, NY. I WAS born in a small town. And I grew up with an uncle who started playing semi-pro ball when he was a sophomore in high school. He was on his way to the Mets organization before he was drafted and sent to Vietnam. His pitch was in the 90s. This is how I learned to love the game. And soldiers. And corvettes. He was my male idol growing up. My mother's baby brother. He was an uncle the moment he was born.

But it was another uncle that I went to a minor league game with while I was home. Damaschke Field is home to the Oneonta Tigers. His nephew has box seats and it was just the two of us which I thought was pretty cool. Check out the view of the background in the picture where the guys are warming up in the outfield. Oneonta. City of the Hills. It lives up to its name. The Tigers are a single A team in the New York-Penn League. They played Vermont the night I was there and won 7-6 in the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs. For a minor league game, it was pretty exciting. My uncle told me he usually leaves after the 5th inning but he was glad he stayed for this one. He even asked me if I wanted to leave at the end of the 8th to beat the crowd. There were 409 fans in attendance. He's a funny guy.
My cousin, Johnny, his son, has helped coach the Oneonta State Softball program for 18 years. He also does part-time coaching at the Cooperstown All Star Village (CASV). CASV was founded in 2004 and is only open 9 weeks each year. It gives kids aged 10-12 a major league experience through week long tournaments. It is a state-of-the-art facility. And this is what he does when he's not tending duties as quartermaster for the NY State Police. The picture taken of several fields was at the CASV. Unfortunately, I had to buy a disposable camera while I was visiting and the pictures aren't real high quality.

So the big news here is "How to Snag Minor League Baseballs." I say this because Zack Hample (check out the links for Zack on the left side of my home page) wrote a book called "How to Snag Major League Baseballs." He wrote this book in 1999 while he was still in college but it is now out

of print. Zack talks about the different techniques on his blog and he has over 3000 balls collected from 42 stadiums. I just bought his most recent book "Watching Baseball Smarter." He goes to batting practices, he has a glove trick, he wears caps from both teams playing, and knows how to ask for balls in several languages, etc. Unfortunately, I don't have the benefit of his knowledge but I did have an edge. It's not that hard, Zack. At the game I attended, all we had to do was ask the trainer for a ball and it was hand delivered by one of the players to my box seat after it was hit foul of the first base line. Sweet. I coulda wrote a book...

So during a break in the action my uncle tells me about this game he went to in NY to see the Yankees. He brought his binoculars with him but set them down and forgot about them until it was too late. A few months went by and he gets this letter from Poughkeepsie. A women wrote (he had his name and address on the bincoulars) that her husband found them but wouldn't return them. She said that if he ever forgot about them that she would send them back. Incredible. Then a few more months went by and my uncle gets a call from a friend who needs binoculars. He borrows some from a neighbor and goes to visit the friend. This is when he learns that my cousin Johnny wrote the letter and had it mailed from Poughkeepsie. Now that is some funny stuff. Look out MGel and Bigun - you've got competition!