Last Tuesday was another game for my season tickets. Chris & I headed down on the light-rail, grabbed some food (I had Macho Nachos!) and headed to our seats. My friend Leah was in town for a grocery conference and their event was at the Twins game in a suite so after the 4th inning Chris and I headed down to the suite to hang out. Leah has invited me to grocery events in the Twin Cities in the past…as a stand in for her GM Manager Shirley. One of the guys who is at all of the events recognized me right away & invited us in. Lucky us, they had free beer! So, we hung out with Leah for the rest of the game. When the 9th inning rolled around I had to sit down & watch…just to be disappointed again.

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New Trivia Questions
Question 1: In 2006 Justin Morneau became the first Twin to win the American League MVP award since what year?

Question 2: The Twins recorded their 3,500th win on the road…where was it, and when?
Answers will be in the next Twins post.

Think you know the answers? Leave me a comment!
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Trivia Answers from 4/17/07
Question 1: Which Twins player with at least 25 at bats in Spring Training had the highest Batting Average?
A: Luis Castillo with 55 at bats & .436 batting average

Question 2: What year was Interleague Play introduced in Major League Baseball?
A: The first Interleague game was June 12, 1997
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Wow…where did the last week go?! Oh yea, now I remember…

Monday & Tuesday last week I went to the Twins games. I haven’t written about Tuesday yet…but I will, I promise! Unfortunately both days were losses. I don’t have tickets again until this Sunday, May 6th vs. Boston but I’m hopeful for a better result this time!

Wednesday evening Chris & I had dinner with our friends TJ & Erica at Stella’s in Uptown. Through his work, Chris gets 50% off all food on Wednesday so even though it’s normally a bit on the spend-y side…the whole meal (drinks included) was less than $100 for the 4 of us. We had the Fried Tillapia Tacos and Spicy Fried Calamari appetizers. I tried both - the taco was okay, the Calamari is not for me. I have had the opportunity to try Calamari in the past & have not done it so I decided to give it a try because I know a lot of people who enjoy it. Now I know…I’m not one of those people! I had grilled salmon for dinner and it was SO GOOD. I had the Bernaise sauce with it…mmmm. I think everyone was happy with their selections.

Thursday I finally had a night at home. I did some cleaning, a bit of relaxing, and went to bed early. It was fantastic! Friday after work was ‘date night’ for Chris & I. We had both had long weeks at work and so I decided to take him out to dinner before going to see 300. We at dinner at the Roasted Pear which isn’t too far from my house. It opened up a couple years ago & I’ve been meaning to try it. We had the Crab Cakes appetizer which was okay and then for dinner Chris had a walleye sandwich & I had a chicken wrap. My wrap was very delicious but I think it was too rich for me because my stomach was upset the rest of the night. Anyway, after dinner we went to Erik’s bike shop to look at bikes for me. Chris has a bike & we’ve talked quite a bit about going on bike rides so I wanted to check it out. This shopping experience gave Chris a look into my life a little…I ended up buying one. I got a Women’s Specialized cross country bike. (This one) It was within my price range & I knew the weekend was going to be beautiful so I had to get it. We made it to the movie theater just in time to miss a couple minutes of the beginning of the movie, which was lucky because we didn’t know what the start time would be. 300 is a fighting movie…lots of people die…lots of blood…and not one that I was really anxious to see but Chris wanted to see it & I figured it would be moving out of the theaters soon. My initial reaction to it was that I didn’t like it, that it was too gory. However, after sleeping on it, I woke up on Saturday morning & decided that I did like it. It was a good story & I could get past the gross factor.

Saturday we took our time getting going, but we ended up taking about an hour & a half to go for a bike ride and have Subway for lunch. Then it was time to get ready for Bryan & Kim’s wedding!

The wedding ceremony was really nice with lots of family & friend involvement. After the ceremony, Chris & I took off because (gasp) we had to go purchase the wedding card! I had the gift…but didn’t have a card. Anyway, the reception was at Edinburgh in Brooklyn Park so we headed up there after stopping at Target. Dinner was chicken & steak with potato and green beans. There were 2 kinds of cake so Chris & I each took one and got to taste them both. Surprisingly, I actually liked the vanilla better than the chocolate! The dance started with Bryan & Kim’s first dance followed by the father/daughter & mother/son dance…then the party began! We had a lot of fun dancing away to all the music the DJ played. We had special appearances by Todd & Mike on the microphone and Bryan dancing to Bye, Bye, Bye (yes…N’Sync!). Bryan & Kim are now off to Hawaii for their Honeymoon…CONGRATS to the newlyweds!!

Monday night Liz & I went to the Twins vs. Indians game hoping to continue on with her 2-0 record for games attended in 2007. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. What DID happen was the Twins blowing through the entire bullpen except Matt Guerrier which means that for Tuesday’s game there are 2 fresh arms - Santana & Guerrier…hopefully Johan will be able to pitch past the 6th inning to give the bullpen a little break.
I saw a new part of pre-game entertainment last night. They had 2 guys standing in the bed of a pickup truck with fishing poles. Instead of a hook on the end there was a baseball. Then there were 5 people dressed up in gigantic fish costumes…2 perch, a walleye, and 2 piranhas (or something like that). The 2 in the truck then had to use the fishing pole to cast out for the fish. If they hit a fish, then that fish had to lay down & flop around on the ground. Really, it was pretty funny once the fishermen got the hang of it!

Anyway, back to the game. Silva was doing a magnificent job of holding the Indians in check until the 3 run 5th inning. It’s like he can be steady & strong one minute and the next…boom…trouble in paradise. Anyway, after that we had a string of pitchers including Rincon…Reyes…Neshek…Crain…and finally Nathan. Granted, that was over 12 innings, but still. Liz & I were checking out the clock as the 10th inning got started (after 10 PM) and decided to give the Twins 1 extra inning before taking off. Unfortunately, no progress was made in the 10th so we headed for home since it was a school night & everything. I listened to the painful 12th inning on my way home from her place and was actually glad we had left. I guess Liz is now 2-1.

I’m going to the game tonight as well…so trivia will be included in that post.

So, I was having dinner with Liz last night (at Cheesecake Factory!) and she started telling me about the latest events that Casey’s family has been dealing with in regards to the time his brother, Jake, is spending over seas with his Nat’l Guard Unit. It turns out that Jake had suspended his cell phone service prior to being deployed. That makes total sense to me because he wouldn’t want to lose his number and he was going to return in 12 months. Well…apparently Verizon Wireless disagrees. Sometime after Jake left, the cell company decided that they would limit how long a number could be suspended down to 6 months. Jake has Internet access and was following his bank account (luckily!) so when they suddenly started withdrawing the monthly fee he noticed right away. Since last Fall his mom has been working to get everything straightened out.

Apparently, even though they have contacted Verizon to tell them Jake was still overseas…charges have still continued to pile up. So, not only have they not put the number back as suspended…they have not credited his account AND they continue to charge him. Ridiculous. I’m pretty sure he’d rather be back in MN using his cell phone, but since that isn’t an option…don’t you think they would understand the need to extend the number suspension?!? Ugh.

Casey finally had enough & contacted the WCCO Channel 4 Investigation team so hopefully they’ll be able to make something happen!

I was reminded today on my drive home of a radio bit that I heard last week. I usually listen to KS95 on my way home from work most afternoons and one of the segments they have is “Anyone listening who…” where both of the personalities list off a question or scenario that listeners then call in if they can relate to it. This particular day, one of the questions was “Anyone listening who has a job that their spouse doesn’t know about?” I figured there would be some calls of people who get paid cash for some small jobs…but I was wrong. I heard 2 people call in & you won’t believe these…

1) She donates her eggs. Yes, you read that right…behind her husbands back this woman DONATES HER EGGS!!! Apparently it’s a program where you create a profile and if someone selects you then you begin a series of self administered shots before going in for an early morning appointment for the donation. She said it’s $4,000-$10,000 each time! How can you hide not only shots but that much cash!?!?

2) This one is better…this woman is a sex phone operator. She works 25 hours a week in this part time job…somehow her husband doesn’t miss her for those 1300 hours a year, and somehow she is able to cover for $60,000 (yes…SIXTY!). The only thing I can think of is that her spouse travels for work or has an odd shift that he works.

The whole thing just blows my mind. Ok, so don’t have shared bank accounts…but hide thousands of dollars?!?! Wow.

This Saturday was both semi-productive and fun! After sleeping in, Chris & I headed to Ikea to look for a new TV stand for me. Now that I have a DVR box, I need something different to hold my TV because I don’t have a slot for it. Right now it’s sitting on top of the TV and that doesn’t seem very safe at all!! Unfortunately, there aren’t many options that are between 28 & 36 inches which is what I need. I found something that will work, but there aren’t 18″ shelf options for it so I decided to hold off & keep looking for something that might work better. Chris was able to find a new frying pan though so I’m calling it a semi-success.
Later that afternoon we grilled some delicious chicken at Chris’s house & played Guitar Hero before heading down to the Twins game. We got there just in time to see Johan Santana receive his 2006 American League CY Young Award. At the same time he received the 2006 Player’s Choice Award AND the MLB Player of the Year Award from Baseball America. It was really cool to see him get all that recognition. Johan also brought his wife & two daughters on the field to throw out the first pitch. His wife threw the pitch and then one of his daughters started throwing the ball all over the field…it was adorable! Chris & I had a good time at the game…but how could you not - the Twins scored 12 runs!! After the game we walked down to the Lone Tree for some drinking & some dancing. Tia, Nater, and Andy met us down there and we did a little dancing upstairs before heading down to the Annex for some more music. I had never been down to the basement at the Lone Tree…it was interesting to say the least. There were these girls in bikini’s & boots dancing on stages. Not what I’m used to!! After that we went back to Chris’s place, had some ‘after bar’ type food & hung out a while before calling it a night.

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New Trivia Questions
Question 1: Which Twins player with at least 25 at bats in Spring Training had the highest Batting Average?

Question 2: What year was Interleague Play introduced in Major League Baseball?

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Trivia Answers from 4/11/07
Question 1: Number of Twins on the 40 man roster who are older than me.
A: 12…can you remember when they baseball players all seemed so old?!?

Question 2: The Twins are the only team to have 2 triple plays in one game…what year was it & who were the 3 players involved?
A: July 17, 1990…Gary Gaetti, Al Newman, and Kent Hrbek
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On Sunday, my coworker Ross & I volunteered at the Special Olympics MN spring event Basketball tournament. We were part of the facilities team that worked on ‘take down’ duty. As each court was no longer needed, we would pack up the chairs, tables, water jugs, etc and move them to the appropriate place. It’s quite a project to get everything taken apart…I can’t imagine how it was setting up! The event ran Saturday & Sunday while Aquatics was this weekend as well. It was fun to see the athletes play. The tournament had a 3 on 3 half court bracket as well as full court games. It was very obvious to me that the Special Olympics allows athletes of every skill level to participate which I think is great. After each group was done playing they went directly to the Awards section to receive their medal. Overall the experience was good. I got a 2XL Tshirt that looked incredibly goofy on me, but I guess that’s what happens when you volunteer for the last shift of the weekend. The only other glitch was that the rental company that the chairs, table, and awards stage were rented from ended up not making it out to Eden Prairie to pick up the stuff which meant that we had to move almost everything a 2nd time to get it out of the way for the high school students on Monday. Ross & I were 2 of the last 10 people or so and so we decided to stick around to help out.

The funniest part of the whole thing was that this morning (Monday) my arms were sore. I was at work talking with Vince & was telling him how I couldn’t remember what I did this weekend but that my arms were SORE. So, I IM’d Chris to see if he could think of why I would be sore & he reminded me… possibly because I moved a TON of furniture yesterday. How could I forget that?!?!?! Must have been a long day.
After I got home & took a shower, Chris met me and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Apple Valley to have some dinner & watch part of the Wild playoff game. We were very lucky because we arrived at the end of the 1st period and a family was just leaving. If that table hadn’t opened up I don’t know how long we would have had to wait! Food was delicious, hockey was okay…we caught the end of the game back at my place & that’s where it turned ugly. The Wild have got a long road ahead of them if they’re going to move on to the next round.

Ok, so I wasn’t at the game on Thursday night…but I just have to say that it was such a fun game to watch! The walk off home run by Justin Morneau was awesome. I thought the look on his face as he rounded 3rd base was priceless, and it was awesome how everyone met him at home plate. It’s the 2nd week of the season & the whole team was excited about the win. I LOVE THE TWINS!

And how about that awesome double play in the 9th. Major…seriously MAJOR…base running error on the part of Carl Crawford of the Devil Rays who ended up at third base at the same time as his teammate, Ben Zobrist. While Zobrist got stuck in a run down between 3rd base & home plate, Crawford took a stroll back to 2nd base and ended up getting out as soon as Mauer tagged out Zobrist & threw the ball to Casilla. WOO! It was crazy weird, and super exciting because the inning was looking sort of scary. Joe Nathan is usually pretty reliable…but his wife recently had a baby so maybe he’s not getting the sleep he’s used to.
TWINS WIN 3-2!

Wednesday night at the Metrodome was WAY more fun than Tuesday night was. I was the lucky recipient of some free tickets in lower level 118 for the game so I was able to share my season tickets with my Dad and we all saw a great game! Chris & I sat in the lower level, my Dad & Tim sat upstairs almost directly above us. The first 3 scoreless innings were the second best part of the game for me…I think the most exciting part was the 4 run bottom of the 8th. Ortiz did an awesome job in the 8 innings he pitched and it was so nice to see the Twings get some hits & runs against the Yankees!!! I brought my digital SLR to the game so both Chris and I had some fun trying to get a few good pictures. My least favorite part…the SNOW! I know I live in Minnesota…but I don’t think I should have to deal with snow on April 11th. Ridiculous! Chris & I took the light-rail downtown from Chris’s house & it was snowing when we left for the Metrodome around 6 and it was still snowing when we left after the end of the game. Since the crowds after the game on the light-rail were insane (and I guess are after every game) Chris & I decided to walk to Kieran’s Irish Pub for a drink. We ended up watching part of the Wild game & sharing some chicken fingers before heading back down to catch the light-rail.

TWINS WIN 5-1!!

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New Trivia Questions
Question 1: Number of Twins on the 40 man roster who are older than me.

Question 2: The Twins are the only team to have 2 triple plays in one game…what year was it & who were the 3 players involved?
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Trivia Answers from 4/10/07
Question 1: Two of the Minnesota twins on the 40 man roster were born in the state, one active & one not active…name them.
A: Active: Joe Mauer, Inactive: Glen Perkins (who was actually activated 4/11)
Question 2: Kirby Puckett had how many .300 hitting seasons?
A: 8
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So, here’s the scenario…

As I imagine in most office situations, multiple people on my team watch specific shows every week…the one in question here is Lost. In fact, it was Steve who originally got me hooked on Lost by lending me his Season 1 & 2 DVD sets. So…on Wednesday we were sitting at lunch talking about how it’s a new episode that evening and Ross chimes in “I haven’t seen last week’s episode yet so don’t tell me what happened.”

Here’s my question…

When is it okay to freely talk about a TV show without concern for others who have not yet seen the episode?

I think in the age of DVR and TiVo, probably a couple nights is a reasonable timeframe for people to catch up…but then again, if they don’t want to hear about what has happened maybe you just have to give fair warning so they can walk away. What do you think?