Opening Day Pictures

Here are some shots from opening day.  Enjoy!!



This is the collection of bobbleheads that can be found in the Hall of Fame.  Sadly, most of these are in my house right now.............................

I still marvel at the new scoreboard.  Look how good DeJesus and Soria look!!!!!!!!!

And lastly, this one is for you my favorite photo boy!!!!!  This is the number 5 made out of 3,000+ baseballs for George Brett.  I thought the reflection of the balls in the blue base was rather cool.  This is the desktop on my computer right now.

Opening Day

Yesterday was the Opening Day for baseball season.  This year was my second Opening Day, last year being the first.  This year was much warmer than last year.  This year's wardrobe was shorts, my Royals batting practice jersey, and my Royals sweatshirt for part of the day.  Last year's wardrobe was jeans, long sleeve shirt, Royals powder blue golf jacket, and Royals sweatshirt, and gloves.  Definitely preferred this year's weather!

We got to the stadium early and walked around.  Not as much hype as last year.  I still enjoy walking by the fountains though.  In my opinion, that has been the coolest part of the stadium renovation.  For 34 years of my life, the fountains were a forbidden area, now you can walk behind them, in front of them, it is so cool!  We went through the Hall of Fame again.  I had my camera this time so I took some pictures.  I love the #5 made out of baseballs for George Brett.  Rivaled only by the pine tar bat and home plate.

Grienke pitched an okay game.  He held the Tigers to only 2 runs, one of which was unearned.  Willie Bloomquist made some absolutely amazing plays at 3rd base.  He really needed to after he missed the pop fly at the mound (I thought it was a tough catch but they still gave him the error).  I was a little disappointed that Alberto, Mitch Maier, and Mike Aviles didn't play.  The three guys with the best batting average coming out of Spring Training and they sit the bench on Opening Day.  WHAT THE HECK?!?!?  I was happy to see that Mark Grudzielanek started at 2nd base for Cleveland and that Mark Teahen started at 3rd base for Chicago.

The start of baseball season also signals the beginning of Fantasy League Baseball.  I am in a league with a bunch of guys.  A few former CC teachers (Larry, Sonny), some former students and a couple of guys I don't even know.  Wouldn't you know my week one match up is against Ray's Ghosts (aka my husband's team).  He is going down!!!!  In case you are wondering the name of my team is Tanaka's Marbles.  If you haven't seen Major League 2 then that won't make much sense, if you have I'm sure you are replaying the scene in your head as you finish reading this sentence.  Maybe I'll post a video if I can find it...........

Stardusters

Today marked the official end of Stardusters.  What took us 2 plus weeks to assemble came down in less than two hours.  *sigh*

It was a good show.  It definitely had its moments.  Although considering that Wednesday night we were still struggling to play completely through a piece without stopping, Friday went exceptionally well.   I promised myself I was not going to cry during the show.  I would like to proudly proclaim--------I failed.  I was fine until the final notes of Stardust.  At that point there was nothing else for me to do, nothing to obsess over, nothing but think.  To be a part of something that has gone on for 68 years is amazing.  I got to contribute to that tradition for 9 years of my life.  I consider it a great honor and privledge and can only hope I have done it justice.  The coolest thing though is that Pauline has not missed a Stardusters yet (that I know of) and is one of the newest members of the Stardusters group on Facebook.  What an amazing lady!!!!!!

Our annual Starduster prank was a huge success.  We built a Johnny on the Spot and put it in the band office.  It is probably going to sit in the band room for a while, it is that stinkin' cool.  I'm sure it made the people that used the band room for forensics on Saturday wonder.  The best part of the prank was watching him obsess over having his vehicle locked all week and making a conscious effort to not turn his keys over to anyone.  I have to admit, the post it notes last year were a stroke of genius and probably the best prank, until this year. 

Lastly, I include a picture of my favorite photographer boy.  We were having a camera war one night at break.  We were basically ambushing people with our cameras and got some good and some not so good shots (you should see the trick under the leg shot!).

Back to the Grind

After a very relaxing Spring Break where I did not do much of anything, today was back to work.  Not only back to work but Stardusters week to boot.  I spent most of today in the auditorium.  We got a lot accomplished and had some very good middle school helpers.

Here is what I did do over Spring Break.  I finally got some more paint on the walls in my house.  After finishing can #1 of paint I went to the garage for can #2.  Can #2 has set in the garage all winter long and evidently that is not good on paint.  After much stirring, I could only get the paint to a cottage cheese consistency, very gross.  So after a quick trip to Lowe's on Sunday I finally got the unpainted part of the kitchen done and threw some paint up in the stairway.......well, as far as I could reach without a ladder.

When we primed the stairway, hubby stood on plank stretched from the top step to an extension ladder stood at the landing of the stairs.  I have offered alcohol and food to my friend who claims to have crazy, mad paintbrush taped to a stick skills.  I prefer not to walk the plank.

Spring Break Begins

After getting a few projects done for Stardusters on Friday, Spring Break officially began.  It started with freezing my butt off Saturday at a KSU baseball game with our friends Wayne and Paige.  After warming ourselves up at Little Apple (at which time the sun finally came out) we headed home to watch THE basketball game.  I'm assuming I don't have to tell you which one.  Sunday was absolutely and totally unproductive.  Today I have tried to get some cleaning done but the progress has been slow.  I like for things to be clean I just don't like getting them that way.  The downstairs bathroom is now clean and the hallway floor upstairs has been stained.  I guess I will go work on the kitchen now.  It has suffered from a week of rainy weather and two little dogs that have not been trained to wipe their feet before coming inside.    The next goal will be to find the horizontal surfaces that one might call tables.  Wish me luck!

Random Dozen

1. How old is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?  Well, I just recently got rid of a pair of boots that I bought in high school.  My next oldest pair would probably be a pair of black dress shoes.  I don't wear them that often.

2. Did you buy Girl Scout cookies this year? If so, what variety?  Yes I did.  I bought 2 boxes of Trefoils (the shortbread ones).  They have different names for them here up north and I still can't get used to it.

3. Do you know how to ballroom dance? If not, would you like to?  No, and I would look really funny dancing by myself.

4. Were you a responsible child/teenager?  I was very responsible.  My parents would punish me by making me go to town on a Friday or Saturday night and I couldn't come home until after 10:00.  I thought going to town was a huge waste of my hard earned gas money.

5. How many of this year's Oscar-nominated movies did you see? I don't even know what movies were nominated, but it is doubtful I saw any of them.

6. If you're going to have a medical procedure done, such as having blood drawn, is it easier for you to watch someone else having the procedure done or have it done yourself?  I would really prefer not to watch.

7. What is your favorite day of the week and why?  Any Thursday during the summer because that means I get to go hang with my golfing gals.

8. Do you miss anyone right now?  I miss Sharon, our schedules have not allowed us to get together since before Christmas!

9. Do hospitals make you queasy?  Any place with doctors makes me uneasy.

10. At which store would you like to max-out your credit card. Not that you ever would, you responsible person, you.  Home Depot, there are a lot of things I would like for my house.

11. Are you true to the brand names of products/items?  Yeah, most of the time.

12. Which is more difficult: looking into someone’s eyes when you are telling someone how you feel, or looking into someone’s eyes when he/she is telling you how he/she feels?  Both are difficult.  My explanation for or against either one would require a lot of details about prior experiences that are best not shared.

Paradox

There is an episode of the Simpsons where Bart cheats on an aptitude test and gets sent to a gifted school.  When Bart is asked to give an example of a paradox, he states "you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't."  This pretty much sums up my past year.  No matter what I do, it always seems to be the wrong thing.  I am admittedly a people pleaser, but when I try to take some time for myself it is considered selfish.  When I don't take some time for myself then relationships in my life seem to take a hit.  I wish balancing your life was as easy as balancing the checkbook.  That I can do.

The winds of change are blowing and the more I think about things the more I am beginning to recognize the positives.  Granted, there are still a few tough decisions to make but I'm going to try to not to dwell on them for right now.  We'll see where the wind takes us.