« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
May 22, 2005
Kidding Me?
Posted by stan at 12:00 PM
May 21, 2005
Pacifico
Posted by stan at 10:39 PM
The Gingerman
Posted by stan at 11:58 AM
May 20, 2005
Enron nee Minute Maid Field II - Return of the Traitor
Well, the first trip to Minute Maid Field was so much fun that Sara and I decided to go back last night to see Benedict Clemens pitch one last time. The $12 tickets were a major draw too, I spent more money on beer than the get into the park, which requires some determination in Fenway but didn't even make it unsafe to drive last night.
I probably saw Benedict pitch in person 7 or 8 times now and for some reason I can vividly remember the first time I saw him pitch, a complete game blowout in Yankee Stadium in 1986 that featured, among other things, a Billy Buckner stolen base. I found the boxscore for that game at the excellent Retrosheet, the date was 6/16/86, so I imagine that trip was a present for my 11th birthday believe it or not.
Most of those 7 or 8 games came before Benedict offered West Point to the British, as it were, so it was a nice opportunity to unleash some pent up bad vibes. And the air was thick with karma as two first inning errors lead to three runs for the Diamondbacks and what amounted to a insurmountable deficit for the hapless Astros. Benedict took the loss, which served him right.
A less famous Citgo sign. The real deal can be seen here and here.
The final verdict.
On the way out, we checked out the view from the left field standing room area underneath the train tracks. Not bad at all if you don't mind standing and walking a bit for your beers.
And finally, I discovered possibly the only benefit of the giant sunglasses being popular with the ladies these days, which would be that they allow you to take much better reflection pictures with all that extra surface area.
I wouldn't quite call that a silver lining, maybe bronze or tin though.
Posted by stan at 09:28 AM
May 18, 2005
Peeping Tina
We stayed at the lovely Magnolia Hotel in Dallas last weekend, which was rather uneventful. Here is the view we had out our window of an apartment building across the street:
Wait, let's take a closer look using the miracle of Photoshop:
Yep, that's a peeping Tina with binoculars...
Posted by stan at 11:11 PM
May 17, 2005
Texas Sized Sam Houston
About the only thing in between Dallas and Houston is Huntsville, TX, which apparently was the birthplace or was the home of Sam Houston at some point. To prove it, they build a giant statue of him and placed it in an honored position...right next to Interstate 45.
In the woods behind the statue, they stashed this extra head, just in case the original got struck by lightning or something. They were really, ahem, thinking ahead.
From what I gather, they took donations in order to build the statue rather than use taxpayer money, something the rest of the country should take a cue from Texas on (if that is indeed true). In return for donations, you got a brick with your name on it around the statue (this is the same scheme used to fun the Babson College Class of '97 wall). So there were some names you expected to see on bricks, like the ones above...
...and there were some reading recommendations, which is nice...
...but most oddly, Mr. Solidarity himself chipped in a donation. Not sure I know the connection between Lech and Sam or Texas.
And please, no gun play around the statue.
Posted by stan at 08:15 PM
Cactus
Somewhere between Dallas & Houston...
Posted by stan at 12:16 AM
May 16, 2005
Minute Maid nee Enron Field
Sara and I finally made it to the Field formerly known as Enron last Friday. Nice place, I liked the open concourse where you can still see the field even when you're up getting a beer, reminded me a lot of Dodger Stadium in that regard. As Sara mentioned as soon as we walked in the place, it's much nicer than the narrow, dark, tomb-like experience that is the concourse at Fenway (I believe the direct quote was, "Wait, why am I not surrounded by cement right now?").
Other highlights:
-That extra 6 inches of knee room - at no point did my knees come in contact with my chin, what a luxury.
-Not everything was different, the $7.75 beers were strangely reminesent of Fenway.
-We parked on the street three blocks from the field for free and didn't get stuck in any traffic whatsoever, coming or going.
-Plenty of TVs that actually show replays of the game. In Fenway, they won't replay anything that could even remotely be considered controversial for fear of inciting riot. It was a nice touch.
The matchup left something to be desired, with the pitcher of last resort Ezequiel Astacio vs. the K-less wonder, Kurt Rueter. They, however, were outdone by two anemic offenses which featured, among other things, Morgan Ensberg batting cleanup, Jose Vizcaino & Ray Durham batting 5th and both Pedro Feliz and Lance Berkman sitting soundly on the bench with a day off. By the 4th inning, we had realized that there was only 1 of the 16 position players that night that would crack the Sox starting lineup.
In between innings, Sara and I concocted a plan to get a picture of the delightful Astros Family that was sitting behind us, with Dad Astro, Mom Astro and Baby Astro all wearing matching shirts. So, we faked like I was taking a picture of Sara and the Astro Family was none the wiser. The kid sitting next to us looks as if he sniffed out our plan though.
If at any time during the game you forgot what state you were in, well, there were plenty of reminders.
My one complaint about the night would have to be the urgency the Astros organization seems to feel pack some sort of activity into every single second of when the game isn't going on. I can't even remember them all, there were a bunch of people in the stands walking around with some catapult contraption at one point, the horrible kiss-cam, the "Deep in the Heart of Texas" sing along (in place of God Bless America, of course), and most obsurdly, at one point there was a contest to pick the worst dressed man out of a group and then they made that guy put on a tuxedo, I'm still scratching my head on that one.
They even felt it necessary to inform the fans when music was and wasn't playing, which I tried blurrily to capture above. It was just too much, that stuff never would fly at Fenway.
And the strangest part of the night goes to this guy, who apparently took his sneakers off at the game and watched in his socks.
You see something new every time you go to the ballpark.
Update: Here's another stadium review via Baseball Musings...
Posted by stan at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)
May 12, 2005
May The Force Be With You(r Lawn)
Seeing this illicits two thoughts: 1. Must George Lucas have all the money, and 2. I really wish I had a lawn.
(Via The HardBall Times - oddly enough)
Posted by stan at 11:03 AM
May 09, 2005
Melting
May friggin' 9th!
Posted by stan at 02:45 PM
May 08, 2005
Direct Route?
I'm not a pilot to be sure, but couldn't they find a more direct route between Las Vegas & Houston?
Posted by stan at 03:45 PM
May 06, 2005
Carla Must Have Had Something To Do With It
Here's a nice video of Dr. Fraisher Crane falling off a stage.
Posted by stan at 04:24 PM
Chicken Soup For The Baseball Soul
From today's NY Times:
The Yankees are a collection of faded stars who have crash-landed in the basement of the American League East.
You can read the whole article here if you need a pick me up.
Posted by stan at 10:28 AM | Comments (1)
May 05, 2005
Good Times
-Stolen from the archives of saralovering.com
Posted by stan at 01:24 PM | Comments (1)
May 04, 2005
Cycling For Jesus
As seen on the Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway.
Posted by stan at 12:38 PM
May 03, 2005
Blurry Coffee
Posted by stan at 03:46 PM
No Hat, No Cattle Returns
No Hat, No Cattle has returned from a brief, and I do mean brief, trip to Boston to iron out some wedding stuff/have a few drinks with friends (it was more of a visit to the inside of a Continental plane than anything else).
The Highlights:
1. I got a very good haircut by a rabidly homophobic woman. She essentially held me hostage with half cut hair as she went on a 20 minute screed about how everyone is moving out of Massachusetts because it is not faith-based enough. I tried to tell her we're moving because boston was not affordable-housing-based enough, but she not surprisingly seemed somewhat set in her ways.
2. Six cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee in 2 days. Good stuff.
3. 2 full days of delightfully low humidity.
4. I had a mentally exhausting brunch at Fire & Ice* in Cambridge, where I was forced to try and keep track of my pile of omlette fixins as they cooked them on the giant communal grill with about 40 other piles of fixins. It was like 3-card monty except with piles of fixins and lots more of them. 40-fixin monty.
That is about it, it was only 2 days afterall.
*Fire & Ice is a restuarant where they let you pick the ingredients/sauces you want from a bunch of bars and then you give them to the cooks and they cook them for you. Thus my bacon-based omelette Sunday morning.
Posted by stan at 12:17 PM