Category Archives: Sports

StitchCon 2022

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Again this morning, I was the only pedestrian on the walk between my hotel and the convention center. Oh wait! I forgot about the jogger. Can’t forget about the oblivious guy with headphones crossing the freeway entrances against the light. But then, he didn’t get hit by the turning cars, so I guess it is ok?

I spent most of the day stitching with a few forays into wandering around. 

and I will be able to finish the Ferret tomorrow

 

sin there are just a few stitches left on the last flower (daisy??)

and just under a hundred stitches of the tiny flower variety. 

see those little five stitch suckers? There are 20 of them scattered here and there across the open spaces. They are a pain. I do have a few done, but the rest will finish this pattern.

I am electing not to stay up for the late night (2300-0200) stitching.

Oh! and the Ohio Anime Convention is today and tomorrow (second link here) upstairs from our meeting room… I may wander upstairs tomorrow with my phone/camera since some of the costumes are amazing.  What that particular bit of excitement did was turn the parking lots into a total disaster. This is really the midwest. Everyone drives a car. So there is the hotel next door . Plus the attendees for StitchCon and the local supporting members. And that is before you even get to hotel and convention center staff….

and on to Miltenburg

Holly Doyne Posted on by

First up – [CORRECTION – from yesterday these are members of the Edinburgh Northern RUGBY Club – participating in the European Amateur Rugby Association Tournament, Not soccer. My apologies to  fans of both sports]

 

otherwise – frankly, it was one of those days. Breakfast at the hotel (which turned out to be a much better idea than the poor fools who received  a white bread & butter sandwich and a piece of fruit as their “boxed” breakfast from the hotel.

Cab to the airport. Hang out at the airport.Check in finally.  Wait at the airport for the plane that was late. Board plane.

Take flight to Frankfurt. Find our way to baggage claim. Wait for luggage. And wait, and wait. This is a holiday weekend (Pfingsten?) and both the labor force was down and the passenger numbers up. After about 30 minutes, George’s bag came off the carousel, along with two other bags wearing priority tags.

Mine was not there. Nor was anyone else’s for another 30-45 minutes. When the rest of the luggage finally arrived  and I claimed mine, I realized the issue – no priority tag. No problem, I no longer have that kind of status on Lufthansa. Mostly my luggage gets tagged because we checkin together.

Then find the shuttle for Terminal 2. Then attempt to find the car rental desks. Then try to find the car in the garage. (Hint – do NOT, ever, rent a Renault. They are a pain. Nothing works the same as any other European car….not the locks, not the backup camera, not the gear shift … not the entry clicker). Oh – BTW – the positive is that it managed to survive a trip through a German washing machine……

Anyway – we finally headed out of town more than two hours after we had landed. Could have taken the train (grumble)…. We are staying with <?> a second cousin of George’s. At least I think that is the relationship. Anyway . quiet house in Miltenberg which is located just over the border in Bavaria on the Main River.

and I desperately need sleep.

and so not

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

squeaking by, that is. Baltimore managed to get a run early on in the afternoon game rescheduled from the evening. The As, in spite of multiple opportunities didn’t manage even one measly run. They had more hits. In fact, in the face of no one out, runners on 1st and 3rd – the next three batters up were easily out.

Attendance? I would be surprised if there were even 1000 people at the ballpark. Seriously empty. So sadly empty it was embarrassing. There were Orioles fans present and about the only ones happy. We had perhaps a dozen in the drum section. It would have been more, but the unlucky people who bought front of the bleachers seats for this game discovered that they really didn’t want to sit in the middle of this particularly noisy crowd.

I did mention that the game had been rescheduled from the evening? Shortly after I arrived at the stadium, the sun cho\ose to go under clouds and pretty much stayed there. It was cool, it was windy.

Meanwhile, I hear from a friend in NY who is at a Mets Game. It is cold, it is windy. But this is New York, there is a Kosher for Passover food stand. Don’t think it completely made up for the Mets losing to the Giants but you take your little bits of joy where you can find them.

The good thing about afternoon games is that you are home in time for dinner.

And yes, the skies opened up later in the evening and it rained….

Squeaking by

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

I am failing to add pictures today for several reasons – the main one being that photos taken with a  phone from Right Field don’t really show anything. That is, if there was anything to show.

You guessed it –  yet another marginal win by the As. Again, if the Baltimore Orioles were even a slightly better team…. George tells me I shouldn’t be so down on the team, but then, he wasn’t at the game watching all the young and not so young players struggling. Again, bad ownership, flashes of brilliance from the new center fielder, and a decent performance by the bullpen. Oh, yes, and error again contributed to the win.  It couldn’t have been the fans – the fact that there were UNDER 3500 fans tells you how disillusioned the fan base has become. It also tells you how few people renewed their season tickets… Mostly there were us, the crew around home plate and one of the schools local choirs for the national anthem (and there seemed to be almost a hundred of them). 

We had enough drums, extra cowbells, a broken Tamborine, a bin of Red Vines, and friends. That and two families worth of toddlers (two each) kept the energy level up. Somewhere in the middle of the game, the rumor started spreading that tomorrow’s game time was being moved up by a few hours. Now a 1840 start works well for me. Late enough to avoid paying for parking should I drive to BART, early enough to be done at a reasonable time in the evening.  Anyway, there is rain predicted for tomorrow. Unlike many other cities, rain outs are not usually a high risk here. But if they can be avoided by starting three + hours early, why not? Well in a city where lots of fans will show it, it might be a problem. Based on today’s experience, there probably isn’t going to be much difference in fan support between 1507 on a Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday evening. 

Please note – the information came from the management apparently posting on social media. Nothing on the score board, no tannoy announcements. An email dropped into my box at 2230 notifying me that game time tomorrow had been changed. And I wonder – does everyone have email? Is there anyone who is going to show up in the evening and be really angry? It might well have been smarter to turn Thursday’s day start into a double header. 

Even so, I had to bail in the mid-8th.  Something about needing to be at the SFVA tomorrow for an appointment. Actually, I don’t have to be there all that early. But this is the SF Bay. I can leave insanely early, get coffee from Peet’s and have a smooth uneventful drive followed by quiet time hanging out in the car reading, stitching, or listening to an audio book. Or, I can sleep longer and spend an insane amount of time caught in horrible traffic attempting to get across the Bay Bridge while being caught behind drivers whose panic shows that they do not belong behind the wheel of any car. 

Easy decision.

Current stitching update – left to the end…

More flowers finished in the Barbara Ana Floral Dreams and some fish and birds added to the LongDog

 

They won

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Ok. I should be jumping up and down to celebrate. The As won their Opening Night game. Yes, they won. The pitching was alright. The hitting was barely enough; at least they made no fielding errors. And that is where the worry about how real a 5:1 win really was. The As had an early run, The Baltimore Orioles came back with their own run. Later in the game, the As had a 4 run inning. Which wouldn’t have happened without first a major Orioles fielding error (RF & CF sliding and failing to catch what would have been a simple “grounded out.” A second error later in the inning, I don’t even remember who overthrew first base, meant that instead of the side being retired, there were still base runners after the man on third scored.

That is not how you win a game against a team which is even a smidge stronger.  Plus, there were only two batters In the line up who started the evening with a drum beat. That is a lot of turnover split between older players needing to retire and young ones just called up. I skipped the chance to be on the field to stay with a friend in the bleachers. On camera? Me? Not likely.

Enough about baseball, I doubt you were interested anyway! 

 

 

Some progress

Holly Doyne Posted on by

There are days when I work on a number of projects – ranging from stitching to cleaning to reading or machine embroidery. And sometimes within a category the item/s are one or many.

Today was a bit more sensible. From my upstairs window, I could see Sausalito and the Bay Bridge clearly for a change. But then it is Sunday with noticeably less air solution. There were a variety of entertainment options – Baseball has started which provides the listen/watch option. there are audio books, and then there is the insanity of YouTube for which there are a bijillion and one choices.

But the day came down to opening yesterday’s mail which had arrived later last evening. George refers sometimes to my daily packages; which are neither daily nor often packages. I don’t call envelopes packages, but anyway….

I finished Galaxy Girl – which required almost 400 stitches

I might yet go back and add some backstitching – it depends on how she looks when set in a framing hoop.

Floral dreams is 4300+ stitches (not the 2600 I was remembering) so adding 1350 stitches meant progress but there are a lot of flowers and color changes left. I would really like to get this finished as the Raccoon from the Year in the Woods series really is asking to be started….

Again, a Barbara Ana pattern.

and finally – 

554 stitches of fill-in of the Nile skiff. a fish, and what looks to be a dog head. I don’t see this finished before I head to San Diego for the NCL Jewel – but it just might be a cruise finish…

(You Belong to Me – LongDog Samplers).

and tomorrow is Opening Night for the As. For anyone who has TV access – you just might want to see the 20 minutes before the game. Apparently the lousy As front office has figured out that the Drum Section (which makes other team’s fan groups totally insane) might just as well be incorporated into Opening Night. Jorge (the head of the ’68ers Fan Group is working out the details but we just might be on the field to drum in the players…. (of course with an 1840 game start, the time zones suck for most of you….

Not that many points

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

and Senior’s Day.

It was the last home game of the season. Following their usual pattern, the women’s basketball team did well in the first quarter, not great in the second and third, then got it together in the last quarter. Once again, however, it was not together enough to make up those last few points they were down.

Traditionally, and I don’t know how it is handled at other schools. I had neither the money nor time to attend games at any university I attended. But here, the final home game of the season is preceded and followed by a recognition of the graduating members of the team. Obviously. there was no season last year. An additional year of eligibility across the board was granted to the players. The end result is that the team included several members who were “graduated” but playing. Or one can take the “gr” designation to mean graduate school. It matters not.

We didn’t stay the extra time. I was tired and there is still cleanup to be done downstairs.

 

By one point

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was a busy day. Alex was seen by Ortho who scheduled him for surgery next Wednesday. Even better – they think they might be able to put him into a boot by two week after which means that he could be at least partially weight bearing. And that is not an insignificant benefit. Dani also took all three dogs and Alex home last night. We are going to see how well the downstair there will work for Alex on crutches. I would rather have him home, and drive out to lend a hand while Dani is at work than leave him in transition forever.

I am just 150 stitches short of finishing the Fox –

All that is left are white snowflake type items. 17 small and three large. I counted. Once it is finished, I can move on to the Swan (Feb) hopefully before the end of the month.

Also related to February is From the Hearts Monthly Quaker.

I was able to stitch almost all of the large dark pink plus the upper green small quaker while at the game. (More about the game at the end).

And then there is the Zodiac series which I completed the monthly portions last year but sort of had planned to stitch the frame as I went, and then didn’t get there. This was followed by trying to decide if it really needed the frame. After today, I think it is obvious to me that I am going to have to stitch the rest of it.

I have two choices; pick out the portion of the frame that I have completed so far (about 3k worth of stitches) or just stitch the rest of it – about the same number of stitches.

Looking at it, I need to finish.

It just looks more complete.

which leads me to the last bit – the bit about the game. The Washington Huskies were here today (which means that they should be playing Stanford on Saturday). The Bears held their own through the first quarter but fell significantly behind in the second and third. After clawing their way back to a tie in the last few seconds, fouls and free throws handed the game to Washington. Literally down to the last seconds. The Washington player missed her two free throw attempts, but Cal managed another foul in the scramble for the rebound. The second of those two free throws won the game as Cal couldn’t get a basket with less than two seconds to go.

The last home game is Saturday. I am hopeful that George will have recovered enough from today’s dental treatments to come to the game with me.

and more of the same

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

but if one takes enough meds – well, the ability to care, much less make sound decisions might just be a bit impaired.

Which is why I found myself at the Cal Women’s Basketball this afternoon. The game was a reschedule with Arizona (COVID) and, as of last evening, cancelled and would not be rescheduled. Once again, the issue apparently was with the Arizona team. So any of you bright people want to believe that giving up masks, eating out a lot, and taking strangers hands to stand in a circle singing “Kum-ba-yah” … well. The pandemic is not over.

Found by Noah fr Reddit

Back to the game. Game is scheduled. AZ is not playing. At 0400 in the morning CALState LA decided that it was worth a drive north for a chance to play another game. You have to respect that kind of willingness and dedication. Bus ride that sucks under the best of circumstances. That is 376 miles and 6 hours of driving under the best of circumstances.

1300 in the afternoon means that just about anyone who is on campus is in class. One of the solutions to getting an audience was provided by campus catering who showed up with trays of food – free to all the students. (Feed them lunch, they will come?)

By half-time there was enough left over that anyone else – staff, spectator, or band, that wanted food could eat. They had friend chicken sandwiches, a veg alternative, French fries and coleslaw.

this pretty much was most of the attendance. Empty to put it mildly. Score at the half was 53:23 Cal.

 

Otherwise –

I have Aquarius completed but for the beading

 

and figured out that this Barbara Ana Mystery 2 Part Stitch Along is not featuring another one of her ladies.

not unless a lady has ears….

A hard loss

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

No, not a family member or a football game. But the Cal Women’s Basketball team lost in overtime. I can’t say that either they, or Utah were consistent. Errors were made on both sides. Actually all three side – the refs being the third side with some really stupid calls both made and missed.

Besides the game, two rows in front of us sat Ron Rivera, the coach for the Washington Commander’s (Football team formerly known as the Redskins). He is a Cal grad. More importantly, his wife played on the Cal Women’t basketball team. They were here, in Berkeley today to support women’s athletics. Not in LA, not at the Super Bowl.

Alex is holding it together. Dani’s dogs are doing their absolute best to be escape artists, because, of course, she has enough already on her plate.  I am figuring on getting back to stitching and cleaning the craft room sometime after we find if Alex needs surgery or not…

Wild Card Playoffs

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

First comes the whine, then the observation. Just saying….

A long time ago in my world, US football ended around New Years. There were two leagues and the top team from each played each other for the obnoxiously named “Super Bowl.”  Which, on reflection probably was an OK name considering that most other countries have more sense than to play American style football preferring the more sensible soccer. I like soccer, it takes brains, speed, agility, and stamina. The players have to run the game, not the coach directing everything from the sidelines. You don’t have to weigh 120+kg to be on the field. I am pretty sure that butting the ball with your head isn’t all that wise, but compared to slamming into the ground on each and every play?

So here we are on a Sunday – there are now Wild Card games. I am sure someone reading this cares about how the teams were chosen to be Wild Cards. I certainly don’t. Apparently there are a total of four games, which means eight teams.  -Should I go look up how many total teams there are? It seems that just about everyone was in the playoffs. Nah, I really don’t care. Anyway – there are three games today and one tomorrow night. I saw part of two games. The only thing wild about the whole day was the first quarter of the last game where there were enough mistakes to make it interesting.

The observations: The Dallas Cowboys commit the most offenses of any team in the leagues and essentially lost today’s game on penalties. Few of the fans were wearing masks. Yes, they are outdoors, but hello? 65-72k fans packed in and screaming? I would like to see the comparison stats over the next three weeks, allowing for immunization rates, of the major cities whose teams played today.,

The obvious reason that the playoffs – which now don’t end for at least another week or two – extend into February is money. The league, the owners, want to make money. Unlike US Baseball which has a 160 game schedule, there are only 8-10 regular season games. This may explain both the ticket prices if you want to go in person (astronomical) and the desire to extend the season to generate revenue. And then there are all the advertising to be had and made a profit from.  The main advertisements were beer, cars, insurance, and phones/internet. Additionally, there were home sales app, drug company pitches, job hunting apps, and a rare public service announcement. Oh yes, and Pfizer has joined the splash.

Otherwise, I spent the day stitching, put in my hour of organizing, and served the raw edges of a bunch of yard goods destined for backings. I like my life boring!

Cal Women’s Basketball

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It wasn’t until just after 1200 that I remembered that there was a home basketball game today.

Gwen had gone to work with Dani and is doing a whole lot better. Yes, cone of shame still applies, her incision is pretty swollen, but she is walking and most definitively has an interest in food. The last can  probably not be taken an indicator of improved health since a golden retriever pretty much is always interested in food unless  unconscious.

I had make the Costco run with Noah and we had dropped a few things off with Shana on the way home. So there I was, 1220 with the realization that walking into town to go to the game just wasn’t going to work. Not if I wanted to be there at the start of the game. So, we drove and parked in the garage off Durant. (note, street parking is all metered and limited to 2 hours in that area. The meter enforcement is on a continuous loop so it is not worth taking a chance. Four quarters + half-time + whatever is added by interruptions + walking a few blocks is greater than 2 hours). As it turned out, the garage was cheaper anyway.

Back to the game. Unlike for the men’s games, most of the seating is general admission. Getting there early means seating on the sidelines opposite the players benches and about 4 rows back. The women got it together and won. The Straw Hat Band was down to less than 20 today as finals finished last week. Given the current pandemic, there aren’t a lot of alumni coming into the area over the holidays to fill out the ranks.

The cable is still working (we will see how long that lasts), after seeing Washington lose (sorry Shelia) the broadcast switched to the Seahawks who also lost (sorry Steve). I will spare you the rant on rescheduling games due to COVID. I like the California public school attitude – you can’t field a team? You lose. Or the PAC-12 – you can’t field a team? You forfeit. Why a team should get the opportunity to be rescheduled and have other teams disrupted is beyond me.

Oh, right, money. Broadcast rights, advertising revenue, etc. etc. etc.

Stitching –

Obvious, not as much was accomplished today. I finally managed to finish Part 3 of Frosted Pumpkin’s Maple Lane Trolley while at the game. And it was actually the trolley. And has a fair number of stitches. Part 4 will be next to the coffee shop, then five will be a banner underneath the first sections.

And then there is the Flower Bot which was supposed to be finished last May.

But now the changes to the smaller bot has been charted and stitched.  Now I just have to finish stitching the larger bot’s flowers, a few bubbles. the bottom conveyor, and the words which are being added to the bottom. Maybe even this year?

All day football

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Now, I am not all that much of an American Football fan. Growing up in Minnesota, I actually attended a few Viking’s games. It was always December, the stadium outdoors and the wind blowing cold with snow. I was always excited to go, after all a child being included in an adult outing? And always desperate to leave by half-time.

Football was important in high school only for being in the band and having fingers so cold that they barely were able to manage on the metal pads of my flute. By the time I hit college, I had too much to do just keeping myself in class, fed and housed. I never attended a game, didn’t even know when they were except by the distraction of the extra people and traffic on campus.

Did I mention that a TV was not part of my daily life or interest? That limits sports to anything that might be heard over a radio. Queue baseball, the only sport (maybe Cricket?) which is just as entertaining in voice only mode as it might be in person. Back to American football. The next time I remember anything at all to do with it was after we were married and hosting a Super Bowl Sunday party. Really just an excuse to get friends together for salad, spaghetti, garlic bread and whatever else happened to be contributed.

All the years we lived in Europe, the time zones made the sport totally and completely irrelevant. Besides, there was Fußball! A much more interesting and relevant sport. Soccer for you English speakers.

So here I am, near the end of 2021 in a house perched on a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Not exactly anything that was in my plans. Ensconced in a chair which I purchased back in the early 1980s on our first tour in Europe for way too many DMarks. Unlike the loungers of today, the footstool is separate and is more likely to be hosting stitching supplies than my feet. George’s excessively large screen is mounted on the wall, tuned to a game. We see the Raiders go down in shame, the 49ers out maneuver the Bengals, Green Bay stomp on Chicago. There are intermittent looks at other games happening around the league. The commercials are still insurance adverts, cars, vacation homes, and alcohol.

Me? I am mostly stitching and seeing the important plays because of replay…..

Cross-Stitch Progress –

I have added a few hundred stitches more to “You belong to me” by LongDogSamplers. I can now see the start of the first pyramid. I mentioned that there are 12 pages to the project. Four across and three down which means that they are actually rather narrow and long. According to PatternKeeper – I am at 29% complete. I do not expect to finish this year, but hope to add 100-200 stitches a day.

then there is The Mandalorian – the first part of which was essentially started on my journey home, so was stitched on starting the morning I left the ship, while waiting in Barbados’ Grantley International Airport, on the plane to Toronto, overnight in Toronto, on the flight home and the first three large letters since I have been home. Now on to the baby Yoda and the storm trooper. This is a kit from ForbiddenFiberCo.

and finally, there is the WitchyStitcher’s Creepy Cryptids. This project is on a scroll frame, so the four weekly released that I missed while traveling had to wait. The fabric is from theVintageNeedleArts on Etsy. I have two more Cryptids – Nessie and the Dover Demon to stitch before 7 January.

Ashland Oregon

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

A friend assures me is a lovely town, well worth a visit in non-Covid times. There is a Shakespeare Festival, historic inns. It might be lovely, it might be industrial, I have no clue. When arriving off I-5 around 1900 in the evening it was impossible to tell. Most certainly it is not a town that is spending significant resources on street lighting. Located 16 miles north of the California border, the sign for Ashland was a welcome sight.

The sun is setting earlier and I do not enjoy driving in the dark. Not in the dark, not up and down hills (mountains?), nor around curves. We will not speak of the fact that more than 50% of the vehicles sharing the road with me had twelve wheels or more. They sail down hills before gradually slowing as they grind their way up the next. Their head lights provide an unwanted glare in my rear view mirrors. The few other cars dart past, between the trucks sometimes managing a speed only marginally faster than required for overtaking.

This kind of excitement and stress do not bring me joy. I really, really no longer enjoy driving at night and have decided that I will not blow this particular popsicle stand prior to decent light in the morning.

In case you are wondering, I am currently headed to Portland. There is a knitting friend there who is also a weaver. He is a brother to a much longer known friend, indie.dyer and yarn shop owner in the San Juans. I have “toys” that have been occupying space in my life, our garage prior to our most recent move to Germany if that gives you an idea on the age. I am never going to use them again. Selling them is just too much of a pain. So why not give them to an engineer? Neither he nor his son have a clue as to what fills the back of our  VW Golf. But I was reassured that there was plenty of space in his great room.

We shall see….

A quiet weekend

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Not much happened and little to report.

I stitched, George got some work accomplished.  We took out the trash. One of those kind of weekends.  Then there were the Tampa Bay Rays who slid past the Yankees. That was a positive. The Minnesota Vikings who, as a result of really stupid coaching, lost their game on Sunday.

There was minimal organizing and cleaning other wise –

I have a lot of Zoom on the schedule for this coming week, along with a run to the Apple store since I need to replace my phone. I have had it for a number of years (replacement for the one that went down the waterfall in Iceland – or perhaps the one that was stolen in Nepal). In any case, the battery lasts 3-4 hours which is enough to drive any reasonable person totally and completely nuts. George has conference calls most of the week as well.

Bleh – it feels like ground hog’s day…. *the movie.

Stitching –

 

Advertising

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was a lovely day – completely free of TV ads. The great thing about watching baseball was seeing the action – the downside was having to watch the same ad over and over and over again. For whatever reason, I seem to be able to tune them out when listening to the radio more easily than when watching.

Baseball games? The ads are fast food, cars, insurance, with occasional detours into mortgage companies. We will NOT talk about Ronan. 

Unless. of course, the game involves the Yankees. The total focus of the advertising change. Instead of pickup trucks, it is convertibles and high end SUVs (why do you even need a car in NYC?)  Obviously,  there will be investment brokers and high end vacations. (Note, the fanciest the As get are Toyotas, Ford pick-ups, and the local casino “resort”). 

Ah, well – it was time to watch the Oakland Roots – and hear from the community instead. 

 

 

and on the stitching front –

Out of the running

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Well, it was a good effort – at least through the first of the wild card playoffs – the As managed to squeak by the Chicago White Sox. Then, down two games in the second series, they managed to pull it off yesterday. Not so today. They tried, at least some of them did, and some of the time. It just didn’t click – with the final score being 11-6. Ah, maybe next year? 

Meanwhile, I can completely ignore baseball from here to February. Or perhaps later – it all depends. Basketball (Women’s) is also over. I am not for football (American).

So I can go back to my audio books – and stitching….

 

It just isn’t the same

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Yes, I am more than comfortable, sitting in our back bedroom/guest room/TV room with baseball on the television, but it just is not the same. Not like sitting the ball park. Not being surrounded by fellow noisy (and noise making fans) and most certainly not bothering to wear As logo gear.

Admittedly, I don’t miss the PITA of riding BART to and from the game.  Nor cmoming home late. But I miss my game day friends, cheap food & souvenirs, and the pleasure of driving the occasional  opposing side right fielder out of the game. 

But all of that is not stopping me from watching the As play. without yelling, cheering, or cowbell it is just too quiet. I am also keeping an eye on the Twins as a back up team to support. Angel informs me that the Mets have to figure out their bullpen before they have a chance – the absence of a closer is costing them.

So that is the update.

Game stitching is the Linen & Threads 2020 Mystery SAL

August Clue

Which, as you will see over the next week – is not a clock.

Otherwise I am making relatively good progress on my Tempting Tangles Coffee Sampler. Originally released in 16 parts, I have parts 1-4 completed (except for a small blank spot) as well as 5 & 8. Now to finish up parts 6&7 to claim 50% completed…

Coffee Compendium.

But there isn ‘t any baseball!

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Last year, or perhaps it was the year before, I added the Oakland Athletics Schedule to my calendar. It provided me regular notice on the games including whether they were home or away so that I could plan the rest of my life. Life does revolve around purchased tickets (baseball, other sports, theater, concerts, whatever) since taking full advantage of sunk costs just seems sensible.

This year, obviously there is no baseball. I am sure that it might give someone else comfort. But for me, it is just one more almost daily reminder that there is NO baseball. Or softball. Or soccer. Or cruises with Dani from Hawaii to Vancouver.

I have been trying unsuccessfully for weeks to get rid of this paritcular calendar. There is absolutely no point in notes that “there is a game tomorrow” or “your games starts in 15 minutes. Watch on MLB app…” since there is NO baseball. Unsubscribe on my computer? It repopulates from my iPad. and/or phone. And round and round. And if I take all devices off line, I can’t unsubscribe.

My last ditch attempt this morning was to unsubscribe each device in turn and immediately take it off line till the last one done.

So far, so good…

ahhhhh NOOOOoooooo

something else out there…..

And in Falcon Chick update
– the third hatched. The live cam is here for those who want to be entertained by something other than a screen saver. Warning, just because you don’t potentially hear some of those high pitched shrieks (GRINNELL – where ARE YOU???) doesn’t mean that cat/dog/or other person in your house is going to wonder exactly what annoying soundtrack you have playing.

It is not Opening Night

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

Nor was yesterday Opening Day.

For everyone who hasn’t a clue – I am referring to the opening of Major League Baseball Season. Said season of which was to have started here with a day game yesterday afternoon between my old home team – The Minnesota Twins, and my new home team (is 2016 still new?) – the Oakland A’s.  Realistically, all professional sporting events are on indefinite hold.  The League has been making old games available for streaming, those who are fanatics are spending time on social media, blogs, and the phone talking about games, players, and what they re planning on doing when the season recommences.

Me? I am a fair weather fan. Or perhaps a, any weather fan as long as I can go to the game in person. I have season tickets to the As and had been contemplating whether I was going to wear my Twins Jersey or my As Jersey to Opening Day or Opening Night. But now, I don’t have to make a decision at all. Perhaps my only regret is not having made plans to spent a week in Scottsdale, AZ seeing the beginning of spring training (and inflicting myself on my sister who lives there). But that blasted paper, classroom obligations and family here took up my time the beginning of February. And then the window of opportunity closed. The closest I am likely to come is wearing an As sweatshirt

We are all slogging through daily life; I expect the same is true for all of you. As the numbers mount in the US, one can only wonder at the total disconnect between certain members of the leadership and the reality on the ground.

Having participated in major planning efforts with regards to pandemics (Avian Influenza, Novel Influenza) in both 2005 and 2009, I perhaps am one of the few people who think the world so far is faring better than might have been predicted. We still have power, the internet is still functional, food deliveries are still making it to grocery stores

as Donna says – I am not stuck at home – I am safe at home.