In case you missed it, I am a big fan of the Monkees. I’m also a big fan of the Monkees as solo acts.
Micky Dolenz recently released a solo album of covers called Remember. All of the songs on the album have a personal meaning to him and he did all of the vocals on all of the tracks (one of which features something like 40 different vocal tracks!). After hearing the samples on iTunes and a free preview of “Randy Scouse Git” in its entirety, I knew I was going to have to own this album.
First of all, the cover of “Randy Scouse Git” really sold me. It’s completely different from the original, but just as amazing. The sample of “Sometime in the Morning” (a favorite Monkees song) gave me chills. “I’m a Believer” as a country song intrigued me. These factors pretty much sealed the deal for me.
Not to mention my absolute love of covers.
Now, I’m no music critic; I just know what I like. And I really, really like this album. I listened to it five times in a row after first downloading it. There’s not a song on it I don’t like. The surprise standouts for me are “Sugar, Sugar”, “Do Not Ask for Love”, and “Good Morning, Good Morning”. I figured I’d like them, but I was caught off guard as to HOW MUCH I like them. Micky’s “Sugar, Sugar” might be better than the original if only for the ending.
It’s a fun album. I’ve always felt Micky has been very creative musically and this album reflects that. It also shows that his voice is just as good now as it was when he was in his twenties. The man can still sing. (Seriously, “Do Not Ask for Love” is just his vocals and it is unbelievable.)
If you want a break from the current radio pop airplay, this is what you should be listening to. It’s fun, classy, and genuine.
I dress up for Halloween every year. Usually it’s just to hand out candy, but even if I did nothing, I’d probably still dress up. It’s my thing. As a Halloween purist, I find it to be a fun challenge to attempt to make a costume without spending more than twenty dollars. That means I try to use as much as I already have. I’ve been quite successful at it.
Here are the costumes I put together for the last five years (also photographic evidence of my weight fluctuation over the last five years if you’re into judging me for that sort of thing). Three of them cost me nothing. The other two cost me less than twenty bucks. I’m pretty proud of all of them.
Halloween 2006: MercenaryHalloween 2007: A TeenagerHalloween 2008: Belly DancerHalloween 2009: Madeline Westen from Burn NoticeHalloween 2010: The Perfect HousewifeHalloween 2011: Patient Zero
Pictures from my last Cubs game of the 2012 season and the Cubs 100th loss. Don’t let the downer qualities of that sentence fool you. I had a good time.
This is where Pat and Keith live.This is where Len and Bob live.Jason Berken’s first pitch of the game.Dave Sappelt at the plate.James Russell on the mound.Len and Bob singing the stretch. This is when Pat Hughes waved at me.
The Apple and Pork Festival really takes over my tiny town. What started as something that only took place at the Homestead (the C.H. Moore mansion grounds) has over the years expanded to include the several blocks from the Homestead to the Square and the antique mall and high school out on the west side of town. They run a bus from the Square to the high school and a tram from the Square to the Homestead to help people cover the entire thing.
Here are a few pictures of just the Homestead.
The bands are always swingin’. This one is a 50’s cover band.The Flea Market. If you want it, it’s probably here.The Covered Bridge that leads to the market.
Interesting note about the covered bridge: it blew down in a bad windstorm late last fall and was rebuilt. Having walked over that bridge dozens of times, it was kind of odd to see all of the new wood inside instead of the old, worn, scarred boards that used to be there.
C.H. Moore Mansion aka The Homestead.Where the apple doughnuts come from…
I got up at 6:30 yesterday morning knowing full well that after working two of my three current day jobs that I was going to drive three hours to Chicago, take the park ‘n’ ride bus to Wrigley, see my last Cubs game of the year, drive three hours home, and be up at 6:30 this morning and it might all possibly be for loss number 100.
Well, it was.
I’m running on four hours of sleep and pretty much just trying to get this written so I can go take a nap so I have no idea how coherent it might be. But I’m going to give it a shot.
I’ve never experienced the Cubs losing 100 games in a season. I find it to be a bummer. I’d much rather my team win. And they didn’t. I was really kind of hoping they’d pull off the sweep and avoid the 100. It’d mean nothing. Many people have pointed out that losing 99 is no different than losing 100, but it would have been something of salvage. A tiny morale boost in the midst of a tough season. It would have been nice.
But it didn’t happen. That’s a stone drag.
But it could be worse.
How?
Well, look at it like this. The Cubs will continue they’re rebuilding in 2013 in the NL Central. The Astros will continue their rebuilding in 2013 in AL West. Who would you rather suffer with? I thought so.
The thing about 100 losses is that it puts a team and its fans in an interesting position. How does management respond to this? How does the coaching staff? How do the players? How do the fans?
Now, I can hardly manage a fantasy team so I’m hardly qualified to speculate on what management should or shouldn’t do, will or won’t do, but I’m going to guess that Jed Hoyer’s not bullshitting when he says they’ll be looking at affordable, serviceable starting pitching. That seems like a pretty good place to start.
The coaches probably like being employed, even by a losing team, so I bet they’ve come up with all sorts of good things they want the players to work on. And the players probably have their own ideas about how they should improve, unless Darwin Barney is the only one that doesn’t like complacency (I’m willing to bet money that at least one other guy on the team doesn’t like complacency either).
And the fans? Well, the fans will continue to bitch and moan and whine and go out on ledges and nail themselves to crosses and rail against certain players, the coaches, the management, the owners, etc., and remind the world about how much better the team would be if they were in charge because, well, that’s what fans do.
A few of them, however, will be left standing at the end of another long season of possibly sub-.500 ball (but not another 100 losses; I don’t know that this team has it in them to do it again), sad to see another fall encroach upon their summer fun even if their team was dreadful because they tend to focus on the short term–this game, this inning, this pitch–rather than the long term. Because that’s what fans do, too.
Here’s the thing, kids. I’m all about the journey. Sure, I want to win. I like winning. I can’t wait for a Cubs World Series win. It’s going to be sweet. But I’m just as interested in the trip as I am the destination. 100 losses is part of the trip. The sucky part of the trip to be sure, but in order to fully appreciate the end win, the whole journey should be experienced. Zen, no?
I came up with this while housesitting at my aunt’s. I pretty much only ate hamburger for dinner every night that week because it was the easiest thing to fix in a kitchen I wasn’t used to and to avoid dragging out the grill. After putting scrambled eggs on a burger one night, I decided to cut to the chase and put the scrambled eggs IN the meat. I added some cheese and spices, slapped it on a tortilla, added some sour cream and salsa and called it dinner.
INGREDIENTS
-Ground beef
-Eggs
-Shredded cheese
-Tortillas
-Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder
-Salsa
-Sour Cream
DIRECTIONS
Brown ground beef in a skillet. Season it with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Beat eggs, add salt, pepper, and chili powder. Turn down the heat and add the eggs to the ground beef. Toss until eggs are scrambled and nearly done. Add shredded cheese. Toss until cheese is melted.
Put a helping of meat mixture on a tortilla. Top with sour cream and salsa. Roll into a burrito.
Okay, yes, I left out a lot of specifics in this recipe. That’s because it’s so easy to adjust. On my own, I used a handful of ground beef (about what you’d use to make a large hamburger patty) and a couple of eggs. That was good for two very full burritos. Cooking for three fat people, I use about a pound and a half of ground beef and six eggs. The cheese, spices, salsa, and sour cream can all be adjusted to taste.
It’s a great base recipe to jazz up. You can add onions, peppers, hash browns, mushrooms, whatever.
I will offer this warning, though. It’s a rather heavy meal. A little goes a long way. I’m usually stuffed after two smallish burritos.
The picture on the left is an old picture of my hat collection. The picture is only a year and a half old, but very out of date because I’ve added two or three (or four) more hats since it was taken.
It’s also not a picture of ALL of my hats because none of my stocking caps are represented and I have three or four (or five) of those.
I love hats. I don’t know why. I don’t know when it started. But I collect hats like most women go after shoes. I prefer ballcaps, but I like fedoras, cowboy hats, cabby hats, stocking hats, stupid hats, any hats. I’ve even got a sombrero.
I look good in hats, too. Nothing humble about that brag, either. It’s a fact.
The thing is I don’t wear hats very often. I wear ballcaps to ballgames, but other than that, it doesn’t happen very often. Coco Chanel said that before you leave the house you should take off one accessory. That accessory for me is usually a hat.
That doesn’t stop me from buying them, though.
I want to be prepared in the event that a hat is needed.
When the Cubs and Nationals “brawled” last week many fans immediately got on their high horses to give their opinions on the whole thing. And that’s fine. I, on the other hand, tried to get down as close as I could to the action so I could see what was going on.
Baseball fights fascinate me. Most of the time it looks like a typical “guy fight” (some pushing, some shoving, a few crappy punches maybe, and a whole lot of yow-yowin’). The cause doesn’t interest me as much as who does what during the confrontation. Who’s first out of the dugout? Who leads the charge from the bullpen? Who’s playing peacekeeper? Who’s looking for a piece of the action.
I must have watched this tiff forty times (and paused 140 times) to get an idea of what was going on. And since this bruhaha had two bench clearings and three separate altercations, there was a lot to see.
Round One:
-The Cubs in the dugout really weren’t paying much attention to Jamie Quirk yelling at Bo Porter.
-When Bo Porter stopped at the top of the dugout stairs, the first guys to Dale Sveum’s side were Tony Campana, Luis Valbuena, Wellington Castillo, and Jeff Samardzija.
-James Russell led the charge from the bullpen.
-Darwin Barney and Starlin Castro strolled over to the confrontation. Alfonso Soriano and Brett Jackson hustled.
-Jeff Beliveau peeking over the bullpen fence at the fuss cracks me up every time I see it.
Round Two:
-Joe Mather, Campana, Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt, Samardzija, and Anthony Recker were first out of the dugout after Lendy Castillo went inside on Bryce Harper.
-Russell again led the charge from the bullpen. Carlos Marmol and Manny Corpas were laughing and nudging each other as they ran in. Franklin Font runs pretty damn fast while wearing shin guards.
-Even Lester Strode ran in! (PS. I love Lester.)
Round Three:
-Corpas was part of the reason round three started. Anthony Rizzo tried to play peacemaker.
-Russell, Samardzija, Recker, and Blake Parker were right on the front line.
-Barney kind of got sucked into the crowd at one point, but they spit him out unharmed. Same thing happened to Rizzo.
-Some guys moved to the back of the crowd, some guys couldn’t get close enough. Chris Volstad, Campana, and Wood were three looking to get in on it. Travis Wood looked like this wasn’t his first rodeo. (I’m sure he and his mullet have seen many bar brawls.) (That was a joke.)
-Bryan LaHair was one of the peacekeepers.
-A Nats player had a hold of the front of Samardzija’s jersey and was swinging from it like a monkey when everyone was doing their share of shoving and I’m not sure Shark noticed.
-Some how Kurt Suzuki managed to keep a towel around his neck the whole time despite being in the thick of things at one point. (I wasn’t going to keep this strictly Cubs, but that really impressed me.)
-Dale Sveum and Dave McKay looked pretty calm throughout the whole thing. Pat Listach must have rowdy kids. He looked like a dad breaking things up. James Rowson was right in the thick of things, pulling guys apart and separating them.
-Many of the guys had a look of “WTF?” on their faces. Those guys were more to the back of the most pit. Several players (David DeJesus was one) didn’t seem to get too excited.
I was kind of impressed with the way the Cubs came together. Everyone answered the fight bell (okay, the second time Soriano jogged in, but he really needs to preserve his wheels) and while tempers flared, there were enough cooler heads to keep things from getting too out of hand. Everybody seemed to feel the need to protect his teammates. Nobody was left to hang. I appreciate that.
Yes, I realize this is unpopular opinion. But then, isn’t every opinion I have about baseball/the Cubs unpopular?
My last game was actually July 21st, but I didn’t realize it was going to be my last game of the season. I also didn’t realize until this week that I never posted the pictures I took from that game. How could I deprive you of that?
First pitch: Normal CornBelters vs. London RippersThe Rippers uniforms look a lot like track suits.Swing as they might……the Belters just couldn’t score.Game worn jersey auction for the Special Olympics. The jerseys came straight off the guys’ backs.
The season wasn’t the greatest and I would have rather my last game of the season not be a blowout loss, but it I’m still going to miss sad to the see the season end.
I’m afraid I didn’t go to many CornBelters games this year. Aside from the Home Run Derby and the All-Star game, I only went to two. One was a suspended due to rain in the 3rd inning. The other was a blowout loss, but at least I got all nine innings in.
There were two reasons I didn’t go much this season. One was, of course, money. Not that the tickets cost much; those prices are quite nice. But the cost of gas and the cost of concessions add up and all told, it was money I couldn’t afford to spend even if I wanted to.
And the second reason is I didn’t really want to. Don’t get me wrong. I love the Corn Crib and I love the Belters, but this team was in such flux it was hard to get into a groove. It seemed like every other week a player was traded. I realize that the manager was trying to put together a winning team (that didn’t work out since they went 29-67), but as a fan, it was rough.
Part of the fun of last season was rooting for the players individually as well as the team. We knew the names and the numbers. The 2011 team was blown up pretty early and I was up to the challenge of learning the new guys and finding new favorites. But then the new guys didn’t hang around very long either. There was no time to get to know many of them because if you blinked, they were gone. Once Alvaro Ramirez got traded after the All-Star game, I gave up. There was no point. I didn’t know the team and wasn’t going to be given time to get to know the team.
I like going to ballgames, but for me, I like it when I can relate to the team I’m rooting beyond the numbers on the jersey. It was a lot of fun cheering for Mike Mobbs and Ramirez and Bobby Pritchett last year. I knew their names, knew their numbers, knew their walk-up music. It was like rooting for friends.
This season I was rooting for a bunch of strangers that I wasn’t allowed to get to know. It wasn’t as much fun. As such, I wasn’t as het up and driven to go to games. I feel bad about that.
I hope next year the players are able to hang around longer so the fans have someone to root for. Winning draws fans, but so does a little consistency.
In case you missed it, I am a big fan of the Monkees. I’m also a big fan of the Monkees as solo acts.
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