Getting to know the little boy ...

As we've been preparing for baby, it's involved sifting through lots of items we've just tossed into closets and forgotten about.

Yesterday, I was going through some of the last items in our built-ins. I was pulling out all of Erik's baseball cards.

Now, my father likes to pull old things out and throw them away. Erik isn't an extreme hoarder or anything, and I can't bear to toss out his baseball cards. That's his option.

It was a little sweet, looking at some of the items as I pulled them out. There was an old Chiefs poster from who knows when. You could mark the wins/losses. About half of the season was marked. The rest ... maybe the Chiefs went on a losing bender and Erik lost interest? Or didn't want the visual reminder?

Anyhow, it seems sort of ... cute.

I never knew Erik as a boy or even as a young man. His major formative years were behind him by the time our paths crossed. Yet, in seeing some of these items, I feel that I get a glimpse of the boy he must have been. At least, it explains his undying affection for teams that break his heart year after year.

At the same time, as I gaze on pieces of his past, I can't help but look to our future. Knowing I'll get to see some of the boy he was in our own baby. Boy or girl? We don't know; it doesn't really matter. I'm sure I'll see some of his childhood come out in our  own child.

Side note: Nope, no photos to share with this blog post either ... the new Blogger is so awful, especially w/ photos ... so you'll have to deal w/ this for now. I am working on some changes, and once things are as I would like them, I'll post it here. Sound good?

#27 — Join a fantasy team

Ooooooh, this is a doozie. Are you ready for this?

Last week, we were at a friend's house, and Marc brought up a fantasy golf league. Yes, you read that correctly. A fantasy golf league. This isn't one of the formal ones; Erik and Marc made up their own rules.

Did I mention we had a draft? Yes.We.Did.

This is a long-term commitment, but one I can handle. All I had to do was select 5 players and then forget about them for the rest of the year. They'll tell me at the end of 2012 how I did. :) Low maintenance. I'm into that. This is great, especially since there are a bajillion tournaments that are eligible to add points to our score.

Oh, did I mention I don't follow the "sport" of golf in the slightest. This is going to be great. Especially since I was the No. 1 draft picker. :)

Here's my breakdown:


1. Rory McIlroy 2. Phil Mickelson 3. Sang-Moon Bae 4. Bo Van Pelt

Let me break down my choices for you by my extremely scientific method for choosing them.

1. Rory. I totally remember watching him crash and burn one afternoon last year. Which tourney was it? Um .... a big one. Masters, maybe? Heck, Idunno. But evidently the next week he went on to kick it in the next big tourney. Which one? Dunno either. But he's gonna be hot this year. Trust me. ;)

2. Phil. I at least have heard of his name before; he's a bit more household. Experienced. Wife is recovering from breast cancer, which is probably why I remembered his name. I like the story.

3. Bae. I looked at a list of top 100 golfers for 2012 and he was on it. Besides, who doesn't love the name? I'm getting a hard time regarding my choice from the other participants. Erik even says I might be about 10 years ahead of my time in choosing him. But I stand by my boy Bae. The South Korean women dominate, so can you, buddy!

4. Bo. Basically, this is a blind date. I picked him off of a list, too. Name sounded good to me.

Last, but the first guy I knew I'd draft:


5. John Daly. Seriously, those of you who know me can't even question this choice. One look at those pants should be all of the reason I need to know he belongs on MY team! :) I think everyone was a bit taken aback by my choice. But know what? If I end up watching much/any golf this year, John will without a doubt provide the entertainment for me. :)

After the first tourney, I'm batting zero. I didn't even have a player in the tourney. :( But my main main, Bae is slated for this weekend, and I have high hopes! (picture this in a Norman Chad voice, ok? it's great).

Erik, however, is off to a more impressive start. Of course, he took the draft very seriously and has selected what everyone else deems as a very respectable lineup of golfers, which is why he's currently in second place.


1. Adam Scott 2. Lee Westwood (I wanted to draft him; darn you, Erik!) 3. Dustin Johnson 4. K.J. Choi (Hey! Erik has a South Korean and nobody is mocking HIM! I guess the decade or so E's player has on mine is the reason?) 5. Ricky Fowler (the kid's got class; I should have looked at him more closely for my team, but I have several young players on there already, gotta get some experience!)

This isn't a fancy league. The winner doesn't get anything, except for out of dinner. The last 2 places have to make/buy dinner, 2nd place is responsible for an evening of adult beverages + snacks; the winner just enjoys it all and doesn't have to prepare/do anything.

This could be a clever ploy by some plotting husbands to interest/involve their wives in golf. If it is, so be it. This should be fairly entertaining. :)

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

Just thought I'd share my favorite Super Bowl commercial of all time :)



Genius!!!!

Chicago 2010 — pt. 3

On our way into the museum, we were greeted with this.

Evidently the Chicago hockey team did well at something? Idunno. Whatever.


Another one! From across the gallery!


I was actually pretty amused by all of the jerseys (this is the same as the middle photo, just from a different angle).

And a little doo from the course

While we were at the golf course, we saw this:


Nice, eh? Evidently they were aerating the grass, but it looked like piles of dog doo.


And SOOOOOOOOMEONE was uber mature and ended up throwing dirt clods at me ... any guesses on who that was?


Ok, one last doo-looking photo.

Those you love ...

So, a month or so ago, I realized I spend lots of time photographing people doing what they love, but I don't have many photos of those I love doing what they love (ok, so I have plenty of photos of our cat napping....).

Erik and I headed out to the 9-hole golf course south of town for an afternoon.


Erik workin' it ....




I can't decide which of these photos I like better. The above or the below.




I even hit a ball .... maybe 50-75 feet-ish? Not terribly bad. Not terribly good.


Liking both of these, too. ;)


Digging this detail of the bag.


Aaaaand .... here's the one reason I'm not 100% golf is a sport. You can drink WHILE playing it .... not just while being a spectator.


EDITOR'S NOTE: VICTORY! Our bedroom is painted (THANK YOU ANDREA, for helping to paint!). And I DO have photos, but don't have them all edited .... so you'll have to wait a day or two folks.

On the road — Manhattan

A few weeks ago, I woke up and suggested to Erik that we go play some disc golf in Manhattan. We'd been wanting to go to Tuttle Creek ... but it just hadn't happened yet.

But Erik was a bit skeptical ... it looked like rain. I checked the weather channel's Web site .... and it wasn't supposed to rain until 4 p.m. We were GOLDEN. Or so we thought.

We were approaching Manhattan when it started raining. OOPS. I lost "wife points" there. So we went to Target, then kicked around the mall ... THEN ate at Coco Bolos. By the time we'd wasted about 2.5 hours, it FINALLY stopped raining.

Yay! Disc golf time. :)

We arrived and this was what we saw:


I lost even MORE "wife points" after we saw it was a marshy mess!!!!!!

I've been known to lose a disc in the water, but fortunately for me, I avoided it .... Erik, on the other hand ... well ....











But we got into a groove:


Well, mostly .... ;)


The biggest change on the course was that they no longer have their red flags, which was too bad. They were SO much easier to spot than the white and purple flags. I know it's Manhattan and all, but .... yeah.

The new K!!!!

We took a few days to go to Kansas City, see Erik's parents and in general kick back. :)

But of course, we had to go see "The New K" :)

Somehow, I remembered my friend's husband is also a big Royals fan. Soooooo, we opted to get our husbands together for a playdate for our husbands.


(Me, Erin, Paul, Erik)



We got a bit wet taking this photo.


As you can see, Erik just swallowed a lemon before I took this photo .... ;)



Whatever, it was HOOOOT.


Also, on an absolute fluke, we ran into some fellas I used to work with. I knew Brian goes up a few times to see the Royals play ... so I hoped I'd see him there, but you can never be sure.

After Erik and I checked out the New K, we were walking and I saw Ryan and Jimmy. Soooo, we chatted and it was fantastic to see both of them. :)


(Jimmy, me, Brian).

Also, random fact: Erik interviewed in Independence, but opted to not work there .... yet another opportunity for our paths to cross, but they didn't ... it was evidently not the right time and right place for us...

In the dog (er....cat) house ....

After my overly optimistic post about a team who shall remain nameless, things have started to tank for the team.

Erik is calling for an immediate removal of the blog post, but I'm afraid the damage is done. :( I'm really hoping things turn around, or I'll be forced to sleep in the cathouse outside.

Winning streak!

Royals win 6 in a row and are above 500!!!!!!

I know nothing else about the team/season, really.

Oh, wait. I do. Someone was on the cover of Sports Illustrated for something. Pitching something. Less than 1/2 of a percent something. See, honey? I listen and know ALL ABOUT baseball talk! ;)

Maybe this will prompt Erik to blog about his eternal love/optimism about the Royals.

Or not.

In other baseball news, my boyfriend, Manny, was suspended for almost eternity (50 games) for testing positive for Pixie Stix. Or was it human growth hormone. I get the two confused.


I'm hoping he'll use the time to go out and purchase a belt to keep his drawers up. When we were in LA last year, we caught a game and his pants were nearly around his ankles. Poor Manny, new $25M contract and he couldn't even afford a belt. :(

;)

In the news

For Erik's paper, we're highlighting the stories we read and where we stop reading them. Management wants to know ... whatever. In truth, it's creating a bit of a false positive from me. If I read the paper, it's usually a few days later ... and maybe one or two stories. But give me a highlighter and tell me to mark it up? I pushed through 6+ inches of snow on the porch this morning to retrieve the paper. Go figure!

So .... headlines that caught my attention this morning.

1. Jury finds George Tiller not gilty
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

REALLY??????? I was shocked. Especially after earlier this week he said "When she was working for me - correction, when she was providing consultations for the patient ..." in THIS article (the trial was over if his "second opinion" doctor was an employee or not). I thought after that slip, it was all over. Evidently not.


2. Kathleen Sebelius signs Kansas right to know abortion bill
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

I have to admit I was a little surprised, but not really. She's trying to get confirmed to a cabinet seat.


3. Law cuts cell use by teen drivers
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

I'm not sure if I feel safer or not .... what about passengers in the car? Oh well, I guess I'm not a teen anymore (thank God!). I'll be interested to see how this 'hands free' device while driving thing goes. It was in effect when we were in California ... but that's not to say we stuck to it. But I'm told they DO ticket people for it.


These next two are for Erik:
4. Kansas falls late to Spartans
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

Thank GOODNESS! KU was really messing up my bracket. (ok, not really. I just don't like them and their 'we're God's gift to basketball and we're entitled to win b/c we did last year' attitude).


5. Mizzou battles UConn for right to move to Final Four
(CLICK HERE to read the story)

A surprising event, but Erik's excited nonetheless. If they win tonight, maybe he'll go outside and roll around in the snow shirtless. Or not ...

Sports fan?

One of my friends commented they didn't know I was such a sports fan (I'm a little nutty about my NCAA tourney bracket).

Weeeeeeell. Ready for a secret? It's not about the bracket. It's about not coming in dead last (like I did last year). Do you believe Erik the sports guru STILL married me after a such an embarassing performance in last year's bracket. Miraculous!

So this year, I'm determined to not finish so poorly.

Except I don't know anything about any of these teams .... so once again, I picked teams blindly.


First round was good, but it ain't looking so good now. :(

Week 1: Fantasy Success!

For those of you waiting with baited breath, you'll be happy to know Bone Collector scraped by with a 12-point win over the always feared Bluntmaster Generals (don't ask about the names. Some of these dudes ... lets just say you don't really want to know where they've been.)

My new man-crush Donovan McNabb was outstanding, throwing for 361 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-3 rout of the Rams.


Next Sunday, I've got a difficult matchup with the perennial tough Daniel Larusso All-Stars. Wish me luck!!!!!!

Are you ready for some football?

Back to the Erik part of our program ... Yay!

For the for the fourth straight year, I'm competing in a fantasy football league with some other gridiron geeks like myself.


Last year, I had my best season yet thanks to my man, Peyton Manning. Sadly, our league dropped its keeper format this season and Peyton has left me for another.


Undeterred, I found a new fella ... Donovan McNabb. If DM can stay healthy (fingers crossed) I'll feel good about my chances this year. If not, it's back to the baseman for the Bone Collector (Karen prefers Bone Crusher ... She's so violent ;-)

Here are some other members of my squad.


Although, I detest T.O. as a person, he scores lots of touchdowns, and that makes Bone Collector quite happy.


I'm also hoping for a productive season from Marvin Harrison. He was hurt most of last year, but a comeback isn't out of the question.


Larry Fitzgerald got a fat contract in the offseason. I hope that doesn't slow down his production.

Stay tuned.

Of course, I'm not the kind of owner to sit on his arse while his team struggles. I'll make changes if necessary.

Dodger days!!!!

To reward Erik for being SO AWESOME, we went to a Dodgers game.



Besides, when I was in softball, I was on the Dodgers team!!!!!

Oh, and no trip to Dodger Stadium would be complete without a Dodger Dog!