I like this article

All that crouching didn't make Martin grouchy
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodrep1may01,1,1180786.story

Here's some of my favorite lines:
He must have felt something as the innings kept coming.
"I was getting hungry toward the end of the game," he said. "Then I got grumpy."

"He could probably catch 162 games," Lieberthal said. "He has youth. He has a great body. He's Robocop. He can just keep going."

Still stuck...

... with an extra ticket.

Russell isn't playing tonight! I heard it on KFWB's pregame show. While I was at work. Hehe. I got lucky again. My assistant manager wanted me to work on shipment once the night associate came in. SO, I have a FM/AM radio in my purse. I bought a small one at WalGreens on Saturday with the intention of listening to the game on Sunday and at the Dodger games. It's more interesting to watch the game when you hear what's going on.

Anyway, I kept it in my purse from yesterday. Plus, the game started after I got off work. I intended to turn it on as I was making my way to the car. Well, since I was in the stock room, I pulled it out and listened to the Dodger pre-game show. Hehe I even got to hear A. Martinez talk to Russell. He was supposed to have one of the next two days off anyway.

Here's Russell's standings as of yesterday:
Among Dodgers:
Batting
Walks: Leads with 13
Strike outs: unfortunately, leads with 13
Stolen bases: second behind Pierre's 12Runs: second, behind Juan Pierre, who has 21 (Russell has 17). Pierre has two more games than Russell does.
Runs Batted In: Second, one run behind Nomar
Doubles: Tied for second with Kent (Garciaparra has one more than both of them)
Home runs: Tied for third with Kent (behind Gonzalez and Ethier)
Batting Averge: third, after Kent and Garciaparra (if you don't count Kemp)
On base percentage: fourth after Wolf, Kemp, and Kent. (LOL, second if you don't count Kemp or Wolf)
Hits: Fourth (behind Pierre (31), Garciaparra (31), and Kent(30). Russell has 27)

Fielding
Put Outs : Second, behind Garciaparra
Total Chances: Second, behind Garciaparra
Errors: Unfortunately, leads with four

Among National League Catchers
Batting
Games: tied for first with McCann (Atl), Schneider (Wsh)
Runs: leading with 17, six ahead of Estrada (Mil)
Hits: leading with 27, three ahead of Estrada and McCann
Runs batted in: leading with 18, one ahead of Barrett
Total bases: Leading with 40, two ahead of McCann
Walks: Leading with 13, two ahead Schneider
Stolen bases: Leading with 5, four ahead of ofive other catchers
At bats: second behind Olivo (Fla) by four
Doubles: one behind Estrada, McCann, and Molina (SF)
On base percentage: second behind Laforest (SD) who's only been in six games versus Marin's 23 games. Laforest is .421 while Russell is .398
Slugging: second behind Castro, who's only been in ten games with .600 slugging average versus Russell's .465 slugging average with 23 games
Average: second behind Bennett (STL) who has .381 with eight games, versus Russell's .314 and 23 games.
Home runs: Tied for third with McCann, Montero (Ari), one behind Castro (NYM), and two behind Barrett (CHC)
Strike outs: Fifth, nine behind Olivo. One category we don't mind him not leading in

He's thrown out seven out of twelve base stealing attempts. Only Paulino (PIT, who played 19 games, started in all but one) has more. He's caught eight. Okay, I'm confused. I'm looking at the stats and not sure how to read them.

Great way to wake up

This should give you a good laugh. Anyway, this morning, I was lying in bed, half-awake, half-asleep. And I hear someone saying, "SEVENTEEN innings! Against the PADRES!" So, what do I do? I get out of bed and run out the door, looking like a mess cause I just got of out of bed. It was a man talking to our mail-lady. I get my mail, wave to the guy. He asks me, "Is that your car?" My mom moved my car so it was parked across the street from my house. I say, yeah. He's like, "awesome. Are you going to the game tonight? It's free blanket night." I told him no, I switched shifts so my friend could go (Sherisse). But I was going to tomorrow and Wednesday's game. He said, "aww! It's free blanket night. It's okay, I'll drop off one for you." How cool was that? I don't think he'll follow through, but I still think it's cool.

Still no takers on tha fourth ticket. Maybe I should've offered it to that guy.

Back to square one

So, I may have possibly found a fourth person to go to the game on Tuesday ... just to have one of the original three drop out. Now I'm back to either have one ticket or two. HMMM.

Anyway... did anyone get to watch the game today? At San Diego? On TV? AMAZING!!! Seventeen innings?

AWESOME DOUBLE PLAY!!!! BY RUSSELL MARTIN!!!!

Okay, so Russell didn't get a hit today. But he did get a DOUBLE PLAY!!! What's the big deal? As far as Vin knew, that was the first time he's ever seen that happened. Anyone else can think of something like that? Sure, there was LoDuca tagging out Kent and Drew at home plate, which happened another time before. BUT... was there anything like this?

Runner at third gets caught between home and third in a pickle. Pitcher throws the ball to third baseman, third baseman throws the ball to the catcher, who tags out the runner. THEN he proceeds to go after the runner who was in between second and third to TAG him out as well because he couldn't go back to second. There was already another runner there. Giving the catcher a DOUBLE PLAY. Ok, so I haven't been following baseball very long. Anyone else can think of a) an unassisted double play, b) a catcher doing the unassisted double play, c) a catcher doing the unassisted double play in the infield away from homeplate? LOL I was jumping like crazy when that happened. Then made some phone calls. Out of the three people I called, only one of them was watching the game. ONLY ONE of them saw the UNASSISTED DOUBLE PLAY.

Anyway, on a more serious note... today has been quite an interesting day. On a scale of one to ten, ten being great ... today was like a 2.5 or 3. On top of everything this morning ... today's my sister's 21st birthday. Did I call her to wish her a happy birthday? Sadly, no. Unfortunately, our relationship is as strained as say ... Jacob and Esau, when Jacob stole Esau's birthright. We're at the point in our lives where we've pretty much gone our separate ways and have nothing to do with each other. Sad, but true. Do I wish things were different? Absolutely. Is there anything I can do to change things? I wish I knew the answer to that. But for now, we'll just keep the peace by not stirring the waters. Hopefully the relationship between my brother and myself will be different.

The headaches keep on coming

First ... I got lost. Not terribly lost. I wasn't lost like I didn't know where I was lost. I was lost because I was going the wrong direction. In the end, with Angelina's help, I got to where I was going. Where as that? Walgreens. Why? To pick up pictures I sent to print. Good thing I didn't try to go before class this morning. I would've missed most of class. Then, since I was in Pasadena, I wanted to look for a new sketchbook journal. Sounds easy right? Not when you're as persnickety as I am. What kind was I looking for? Well... it had to be at least 8 x 10, hard cover, and blank pages. No lines. No binding. Why? Because it's for me to tape/paste my newspaper articles in. And after awhile, the book gets fatter from all the articles. It expands and a spiral notebook works better than a bound notebook. No lines because it's just for scrapbooking. And why didn't I want a scrapbook? Too expensive and not enough pages. Three stops later, I settled for a blank sketchbook. No spirals. Rats. On the bright side, I may have found someone to join us for Tuesday's game.

ONE MORE THING. Turns out, on May 19th, our class is going to be canceled and held on Thursday, May 17th instead. That means I can go to Woodlake for the Bible Bowl. Unfortunately, I didn't know ahead of time and I didn't request Friday off. So, I don't get off work till six on Friday. On top of that... I close on Thursday. So... maybe I can get someone to switch shifts with me. Maybe Jani will. Or whoever is closing Wednesday. I don't know. I'll talk to Tanzania about it either tomorrow or Monday. I wasn't planning on missing class for Woodlake, but it looks like in the end, I'll be missing class anyway.

Another day, another headache

Here I am, sitting in my library class ... getting annoyed at the guy sitting next to me. I'm sitting here behind the computer, minding my own business ... and he looks over at my screen and goes: how do you get to that screen? And then as I'm trying to get this blog done, he keeps peeking over at my screen to see what I'm doing! Excuse me? Can you please keep your eyes to your own screen? I liked it when they had the monitors with the screen on them so no one could see what you were doing on your computer screen unless they were looking at it at the same angle you are.

Sherisse called me. Tanzania called and asked if we would like to come in at six tomorrow morning. I said, sure. Why not? LOL I can sleep in on Monday. Sherisse and I switched schedules so she could go to a Dodger game. That's okay. I'm going to Tuesday and Wednesday's Dodger games. I'm so excited! Also, Nina called. She wanted to know if I wanted to go with her and her parents to Costco to print out some pictures. WELL ... considering that I'm still in class and I already sent eighty something prints to Walgreens ... that's a moot point, right? Also ... don't people know I have class on Saturday mornings? Why do you thin I'm up this early?

OHHH boy... this guy really doesn't know what he's doing. He is defintely not going to make it in the computer world.

Ticket Dilemma

Remember how on that morning where the lack of food and sleep caused me to buy four tickets? Well, two of the five people I asked to go with me said yes. Now I just need to find that fourth person!

Love is...

Kevin texted me this: "Did you get today's love is? It's a reflection of him when you look at a mirror. Did that happen? When yo usaw Russell in the mirror when you looked? LOL"

No sleep, no food ... very bad combination

Cuz then you get a very cranky person who goes and spends $120 to four tickets to a Dodger game. LOL You can't start a blog entry without mentioning the Dodgers, now can you?

First of all, I didn't get to bed till about four AM. I got off work around 10:20, picked up food, and didn't get home till about 10:45. Naturally, having just ate fast food, I didn't want to go to bed. So I stayed up, uploading pictures onto bebo and flickr. Went to bed. My mom woke up up at seven to tell me to let the service guy in when he shows up. He shows up at ten and wakes me up, considering I probably fell asleep around 8. Not in a good mood.

There's nothing to make in the fridge that's quick and filling. So here I am, waiting for the service guy to finish up so I can go get some MORE fast food. And my parents wonder where does my paycheck go. It goes to keeping me alive by feeding me. Not only that ... I just spent $120 on four Field Box tickets for the May 1st game. I CAN'T WAIT!!! ANOTHER GAME!!! WOO-HOO!!!! Just look for the crazy girl who doesn't know how to put her camera down.

Let's go! Batter up!

I had the day off! So, after a bit of shopping, getting plenty of stares, and wasting time waiting for my mom ... we went to the Dodgers' game! We left Nina's after six and got to the Stadium about 6:30. We got to our seats about ten minutes before first pitch. Russell was warming up with Lowe in left field, in front of us. Mind you, we were in the reserve level seating. But hey, they were free tickets. Anyway, there weren't too many people around at the time. Russell and Lowe went into the bullpen and so I started taking pictures of the other players warming up. Then it was time for the Star-Spangled Banner. When the Dodgers took the field, a bunch of little kids got to run out there and get an autograph from the players. It was so cute. I saw that on a televised game once, and didn't know what was going on! While Angelina, Nina and I were making a food run, Russell missed throwing a ball and Lowe fell trying to get it. And Roberts hit a home run. That might've been during Angelina and I getting ice cream.

Since the group I went with was much younger, the other three got trading cards, since everyone fourteen and under received them at tonight's game. The pack says if any of the players in the pack hits a home run during the game, the kid gets a free ticket. Well, Russell hit a double and Nina goes, "Yay! I get a free ticket." Angelina and I look at her like, "uhh what are you talking about?" We tell her, he hit double, not a home run.

More blond moments from Nina. She could never see where the ball was. Granted, it can be difficult ... but she's got a big mouth to go with the bad eyes. For example, one of the Giants hit a pop fly. She says, "I see it! I see it! It's foul." Guess what? It was pop fly to shallow right, which was caught. Then there was a moment when a Giant struck out. She goes, "where's the ball? where's the ball?" thinking it went outfield or foul or something. I tell her, "it's a strike. Where do you think the ball is?" And lastly, as a Giant was running in to score, she started cheering. Again, Angelina and I are giving her the "are you crazy" look. We both asked her, "Nina, why are you cheering? The Giants just scored." Her response: "Oh, I thought they got him out at the plate." I told her, "the ball's in right field. He scored."

These guys came in late to the game. One of the guys tells his friend, "be careful, don't spill your drink." What does he do then? Spills his beer. Which wouldn't have been all that bad ... had the spill not created a puddle under Angelina and Nina's seat ... getting not only their shoes wet, but Angelina's purse. And they didn't have the decency to tell us that they spilled. Jerks. Not only that, they later on got mad when the Giants changed pitchers after just changing pictures. They used very colorful language then. So, what did we do? Stand up in the bottom of the ninth inning and probably blocked their view.

My favorite plays? Well... there's the moment where Russell got forced out at second. But he slid, causing the second baseman to miss his window of opportunity if he wanted to reach for a double play on Ethier. Then there's when Furcal slid into home. Nice slide. And Gonzo making a great catch in left ... almost needed to slide there. It's tough trying to remember everything hours after the game ended. Makes me wish I had a laptop or notebook. But, I'd be too busy trying to take some decent pictures to do anything. LOL. At one point, I got frustrated because people were walking by in the aisle. And every time they did that, my camera would have to refocus on whoever I was taking a picture of. And then, after I'd take the picture, I'd have to figure out where I'm looking at.

Russell's night - 2 for 4, with one double, one run scored.
Tonight's attendance : 44,001
Tonight's picture count: (not done going through them yet. Once I'm done, I'll post the stats)
Russell - 149
Nomar - 61
Andre - 34 pics
Furcal - 38
ETC - 48
Videos - 10
Total files - 330

As for the blog update ... I'm at the 99th visitor! Cool! LOL maybe there should be a prize for the 100th? A Russell Martin picture ? By me? LOL. Anyway. So far, the most visitors on any given day so far is still eight. One more guys! One more!

Oh yeah ... and pictures? I'm not loading them this time around. You'll just have to mosey on over to flickr and see them for yourself. The address is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fallingLEAVes02/

At last...

No, my love has not come along (Ella Fitzgerald song I think).

At last! We fixed our internet connection. The house phone is disconnected for now, but that's what cell phones are for, right? So, we moved the modem and the new router I bought today to my brother's room. We had something to split our one phone jack from one line to two. We discovered that if the phone line is plugged into the jack, our internet works fine.

Before, the following websites wouldn't work: myspace, one of my credit cards, mycheckfree, and other sites. And, I couldn't upload pictures on Bebo or make any changes to my profile or stuff like that. Plus, lately, the Dodgers' website hasn't been working either. My Windows Messenger / MSN messenger stopped working too!

Ta-da! Everything works now! Man, I wish I had done this years ago. Ever since we got DSL and the router, our internet has been weird. I am so glad I got fed up with it. The Dodgers' website not working was the last straw!

So, this morning, my cousin took a ten minute shower just as I was about to get up and go brush my teeth and get ready for work. When he came out, I was standing outside cuz I only had fifteen minutes to get to work. Well, let's just say I barely made it to work on time. The first thing I said to a customer? "Good morning, are you looking for summers for sandal?" Wait a minute, back up. Let me rephrase myself. Sigh. I needed a mocha. I got one, but Juan wasn't there. He was on his break. So, I went back later after I got off. I asked him if he needed any more crossword puzzles. He said they got today's and were almost done with it. He even showed it to me. I told him, well, since I get the newspaper now, I have last week's crossword puzzles. He said, "thanks! high five!" LOL. Today has been following suit with the last couple of days. Lots of returns, not a lot of purchases. We went from being in the hole, to having nine dollars in, to back in the hole at -4.50. It's been a difficult selling week.

Niiiccceee...

I was right. No pictures in the newspaper. There was an article in the LA times. Still, I was hoping for a picture! Anyway, that's what the internet is for. Also ... wow! I'm up to 88 visitors! How cool is that. LOL. Can't wait to hit that 100 mark! And finally... the most visitors I've received on a day was six ... now it's up to eight! I'm excited. Sorta. Even though no one leaves comments, at least I know people are "looking" at my blog. Makes it sorta feel... worthwhile? So, I know I'm a crazy lady. Oh well. Guess I'm just looking for ... I dunno... justification? Personally, as a writer, I need to know that I am writing for something. I guess. Or maybe I just write to write. Who knows. Certainly not me.

Los Angeles Dodgers' Russell Martin follows through on a grand slam in the ... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

Los Angeles Dodgers' Russell Martin follows through on a grand slam in the ... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
GRAND SLAM BABY!

LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 21: Russell Martin #55 of the Los Angeles Dodgers ... - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!
"Oh, hey, that's my man right there." Andre Ethier, Living Spaces (La Mirada). April 21, 2007

Martin, Martin, Martin

August 2 - Free Russell Martin Bobblehead! I AM SO THERE!!! Who's with me?

You can also go to dodgers.com/martinsong to pick the song that will play when Russell goes on the plate. My computer is being lame and hasn't been opening the Dodger website lately. If you haven't seen it yet, go to latimes.com, search for Russell Martin, and look at the picture captioned "Dodgers martin slam." LOVE IT! If it wasn't copyrighted, I'd post it right here. LOVE THE PICTURE!!!!

LOL ... another quote, "I want to talk a little bit about Russell Martin." LOL that came from a caller from Long Beach I think. Who doesn't want to talk a little bit about Russell Martin. Dude! This guy doesn't think Russell is going to be a super-star. He thinks it's too early to say that.

OH BABY OH BABY!!!

FIRST GRAND SLAM OF HIS CAREER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who missed it... RUSSELL MARTIN (!!!!!!!!!!!!) hit his first grand slam of his career, winning the Dodgers game, 7-3 in the bottom of the tenth inning!!!

I missed all but the last inning of the game. Well, okay, last half! I got off work and was wondering why I didn't get my Dodger update yet. The game was still going on at 10! That's why! They were tied, 3-3, at the top of the tenth inning. Since it wasn't broadcasted on any channel that I may have at home, I raced over to Nina's to watch the last inning. Things weren't looking too good with one out in the bottom of the tenth inning. With one man on base, I was like, please don't hit into a double play. Nomar gets out. Pierre almost gets tagged out. Phew. Kent gets on base. Two men. No double plays, okay, boys? Gonzo gets walked. Here comes my man. I told my friends, bases loaded, here's his chance to hit a grand slam. And what does my baby do? Hit a grand slam!!!! I can't wait for tomorrow's newspaper. Russell's the game's MVP again! Even though the only hit he got was at his last at-bat... but that was the ONE that count. Yeah baby! We were laughing at the replay cause you can see Andre Ethier running around home plate. We were like, he must be going "that's my man! that's my man!" See previous blog about the autograph signing with Ethier. And then he's on the outside of the circle, lol. Man ... if Russ doesn't make the front page of the Sports section... what does a guy have to do these days to make the front page?

Quotes of the day: (may not be verbatim) At that point, the Dodgers would've been happy with a fly ball. They got one. A 405 feet fly ball.

Two Dodgers in two weeks!

This morning, I got up at 6:15 AM just to meet Andre Ethier! By the time I left the house, the first person was already at Living Spaces. First things first, since it was so early, Starbucks run! Thank goodness I filled up my tank last night ... as cold as it was. Anyway, picked up the LADs (L.A. Dodgeraholics, as I will be calling the group for short) and we were off at seven. Well, just a little bit before. Anyway, we got there about 7:25 and there was hardly anyone there! Okay, so the thing didn't open till ten. There were about ten people in front of us (one of them being an Angels fan). We chatted with them. They brought out some free coffee around nine. By then, the line had grown and started to wrap around the building. We were the first 15, so we couldn't see how long the line was. And a catering truck arrived for a little bit and sold food. They opened the doors and led us through a bunch of recliners and made us wait about fifteen minutes before Andre showed up. They gave us shiny blue (ok aqua) wristbands and free t-shirts. When they were handing out the wristbands, the dude who was standing over Russell last week was there again. He saw us and said he thought we looked familiar. Andre comes in, waves to the crowd. The dude was crankier than last time. He said, "no hugs this time." Andre was kinda said and disappointed that he won't be able to be closer to the fans. I think that's what he said. Dude said, "you'll thank me later." No hugs. Rats. One of the girls in front of us had Andre sign her shirt. Ten people later, it's our turn!

We went in the same order as we did last time. I handed my glasses to Andre. He said, "hey, how are you doing?" I was soooo nervous. I had no clue what to say. I think more nervous now than last week. I said, good how are you? I mentioned that I missed him at PCC. He said, "You got me right here." He was sooo nice! He started every signing with "hey, how are you?" I have to admit, he was so much nicer. Then again, we were the first fifteen not the one hundredth and thirtieth. Next up, Angelina Garciaparra! She wanted Andre to sign the same baseball. Andre turned around, I guess looking for where to sign. He sees Russell's autograph and says, "oh hey, that's my man right here." Next up, Nina ... uh... uh... Furcal(?), but she wants to trade him in for Brady Clark. She handed him a picture, that I took from the Rockies' game on 4/11. He said, "hey, where did you get this?" Nina told him, "my friend took it from a game." He's like, "oh that's cool." Then he made a comment about the picture, like about his rear. Nina couldn't hear what he said. It was kinda muffled. It might've been "that's my rear" or "nice rear" or "so, you like my rear?" Anyway, it was funny whatever it was. He was kinda laughing afterwards. What's with the players laughing at Nina? Russell laughed at her too about the sunglasses. He didn't make a comment to me about mine. He told Kevin and Harold, "what's up?" We just called Kevin, and we think he said, "Nice picture of my rear." LOL!!!!

I don't know of any future signings besides Living Spaces in Rancho Cucamonga in May. Oh, get this! When we got outside and getting our hot dogs, we were hanging around the KFWB booth, the lady goes, "anyone want free tickets?" So, we got five free tickets to Tuesday night's game!

Do you think we're insane yet?

It's always greener on the other side

Well, in this case ... the sky's bluer on the other side. While I was driving home, on the Downtown side of Dodger Stadium, the clouds are dark and gloomy. On the other hand, on the L.A. River side of Dodger Stadium, the clouds are not as heavy. You can actually see the blue sky!

So, today has been quite a day. I picked up Sarah (after stopping to pick up an umbrella at Walgreens) and then we went Angelina in Pasadena. She got to the parking structure just before we did. So, she waited in her car for us. We all had blue umbrellas. Quite a coincidence. It was raining, drizzling, as we walked around Pasadena. It lightened up enough at one point that we didn't need our umbrellas. But started again so we did need them. On the way to Barnes and Noble, we had to step over some running water. I guess Sarah misjudged the depth, because she stepped in it, and the water went over her left foot! We went to Barnes and Noble, got some coffee, shopped around. We left, but then had to go back. The cashier charged me full-price for my book, and gave Angelina the same book for the bargain price. Then we went to Forever 21, and I picked out a pair of sunglasses for Andre to sign, and another pair to give to Nina. Then we went to H&M, where I found a cute skirt and a pink sweater. It's a really pale pink! Bright colors like pink, orange, and yellow are colors that I absolutely cannot wear. So, I was excited to find this pink one! Sorry, Ernest! Didn't I warn you that this isn't an everything Dodgers blog? LOL. Afterwards, we went to Johnny Rockets and then onto the Galleria for Sarah to turn in her application. It was raining during the drive, but mostly stopped by the time we left the Galleria.

Here you go Ernest. Onto the Dodgers! Anyone watching the game tonight on KCAL... can you leave me a comment about who won today's text poll? The question today is, who is the best positional player from Canada? A. Russell Martin. B. Jason Bay. C. Justin Morneau. Already Russ is ahead with 84% of the vote. LOL, the sportscasters on the pregame show, Eric, was saying how every pregame show, it's Russell Martin this, Russell Martin that. Let's make him a Hall of Famer already. LOL. I agree with you there! LOL Juan just called to say he's at the Dodger game, right behind the plate. He says he's so close he could be a pinch hitter. But unfortunately, he doesn't have a camera. I told him, hey, I live close enough to Dodger Stadium, I would've lent him mine. But then I'd need it back in time for tomorrow's autograph signing.

Rain, rain, go away...

Well, it's about six o'clock and the game starts in another hour and forty minutes. So far, the rain as let up. How do I know? Well... I do live in Elysian Valley in the shadows of Elysian Hills, where, guess what? Dodgers' Stadium is located. LOL. I live probably less than ten minutes away from Dodger Stadium. In fact, if fans haven't started packing the freeway yet, I may attempt to get on the 110 to get to Chinatown to pick up my mom in a few minutes. Anyway, when I got up this morning around 9:30 (thank you mr. man at the door), it was drizzling. Since it was supposed to rain today, I ran out and took down my Dodger flag from my car. The "Think Blue" and "Go Russell" I wrote on my car last night is still on my windows. Though, they appear more white than blue. So, if you see a silver/gray/green looking car driving back with (or without) the Dodger flag, and writings on the car, that's a me! On the driver's side, if you look closely enough, there are little home plates with dates in them. RBIs. On the passenger side, just squares that are supposed to be bases. Stolen bases. LOL. I know. I'm a nut. Anyway, when I got home about an hour and half ago ... it was still light drizzle. But by now, it has stopped. I was wondering if the game was still on. Who knows. Looks like it. Well, I'm headed off to fight Dodger traffic and I will be listening to KFWB while I'm in the car. More later! Ooh. LOL I just wanted to give a shout-out to Ernest who added me to his blogroll. Awesome! LOL ... I hope he knows that my blog isn't meant to be a Dodger blog, but that's kinda where it's focused around right now ... seeing that we're sixteen or so games into the season. GO BLUE!

2007 All-Star

The All-Star ballot is up! And who's on it this year from the Dodgers? First off, RUSSELL MARTIN!!! Then there's Nomar Garciaparra, Rafael Furcal, Jeff Kent, Juan Pierre, Andre Ethier

Who did I vote for?
Catcher: Duh, my very own Dodger husband - Russell Martin
1st Base: Again, duh, Angelina's very own Dodger husband - Nomar Garciaparra
2nd Base: well, I decided to stick with our Dodgers, and voted for the old man, Jeff Kent
3rd Base: David Wright. Okay, I know he's a Met, but I like him. If I could have a Mets' husband, it would be DAVID WRIGHT.
Short-stop: Nina's Dodger husband (for now, until she trades him in for Brady Clark), Rafael Furcal
Outfielders: Andre Ethier (another Dodger), Shawn Green (I know, a Mets, but he was a Dodger once upon a time), and I wrote in Brady Clark.

Let's see who ends up on this year's All-Star team.

As for today's game, after last night's humiliating loss (2-7) against the Rockies, I had absolute confidence that the Dodgers would come back and win today's game. And did they? Yes they did! A whopping 8-1, including Russell's ninth RBI of the year. However, since he didn't get a hit (the RBI was on a sac fly), it ended his nine-game hitting streak. The same goes for Nomar's eight-game hitting streak.

Tomorrow, we play the Pirates. It's forecasted to rain, but hopefully the rain will either start after the game or end way before it. We could definitely use the rain though. It has been a very dry year for us so far. Too bad. I just wrote on my car windows again. Oh well. At least once the rain is done, my car will be clean(er) and I can write on my windows again. The inside has a running tab of Russie's home runs, stolen bases, and RBIs. Anything else I should add?

Coffee boy has a name

It's another Juan!

Since I didn't see a copy of the L.A. times on my lawn this morning, I needed to get another newspaper. I went to the little mini-mart in the mall. 54 cents! Are you kidding me? Why do you feel the need to charge and extra 4 cents for tax? Anyway, I went to Gloria Jean's to get this week's mocha. Coffee boy saw the newspaper I was holding and asked me if I was going to use the rest of it. I had already pulled out the sports section and found Russie's picture! I asked him if he would like the crossword puzzle. He took the calendar section before I could grab my favorite comics. I asked the other lady what was his name, and she told me, Juan. Yay! After a year and half, I finally learn his name!

Today's game

Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
Final score : 5 -1, Dodgers record : 9 -4, Diamondbacks: 9-5, putting the Dodgers ahead of the D-backs by half a game, again.

Play-by-play
Top of 2nd - Martin doubles, Ethier singles. Martin scores on Betemit's sacrifice fly.
Bottom of 3rd - great diving catch by Ethier
Bottom of 4th - great play by the Dodgers - Gonzo to Furcal to Martin, who blocks the plate and tags out the runner!
Top of 5th - Nomar hits his first home run of the season!
Bottom of 5th - Russ catches a foul ball. Vin Scully (?) makes a comment about the first thing a catcher learns is not to take off his mask so quickly because it then becomes a liability. In the replay, he comments on how Russ drops the mask behind him and is aware of where it is. That's my R-Mart!
Bottom of 6th - Russ almost throws out a runner attempting to steal third. At first, it looked like he did. He looks like he thought he should have. Grady Little goes out to talk with the ump about the call. I guess Betemit didn't make contact.
Top of 7th - Penny slides into second base, but is out anyway. In the meanwhile, he takes out the second baseman too. LOL. It was quite funny. No one thought it was a dirty play trying to help Furcal get to first. The second baseman didn't even look like he was going to try to make a double play. Scully said Penny's a big man and there weren't any brakes on the truck. LOL. And the second baseman even got up with a smile on his face. The bases are full, and Kent gets hit a pitch. He gets awarded first and Raffy scores, awarding Kent a RBI. Bases are still full. Up comes Gonzo. Here's his chance to get back at the organization that let him go. He strikes out. Russ comes up and strikes out again. After the second inning, Russ doesn't get another hit.
Bottom of 7th - great double play - Raffy backhands it, throws it to Kent who barehands it, who throws it to Nomar!
Top of 8th - Ethier is awarded first base (catcher's interference) but then is caught stealing. Tsk tsk.

Let's go Dodgers! The schedule is as follows:
Diamondbacks again tomorrow, then they fly out for two games against the Rockies (who they just faced last week!), and then come home to play the Pirates and the Gnats (I mean Giants).

NIIIICCEEE....

Russell is leading the team in average, stolen bases, and runs. Out of the first five stats, those are the ones that apply to him. The last four apply only to pitchers. As far as home runs go, he only has one. But RBIs... he's got seven. So, he's not far from leading the team in RBIs as well! Whoo! Go RUSSELL!!! On last night's Dodger talk, they were saying that Russell could wear a C on his jersey if they did that kind of thing. He's a team leader in every possible way. They talked about how rare it is to find a five-tool cacher, and Russell can be considered a SIX-tool catcher. How cool is that? I added some more categories to the stats. Russ leading in two of them, second in one. He could possibly be a leader overall!!!

STAT	PLAYER	TOTAL
AVERGAGE	R. Martin	.366
HOME RUNS	L. González, R. Martin, J. Kent, A. Ethier	3, 1, 1, 1
RUNS BATTED IN	N. Garciaparra, R. Martin, J. Kent	8, 7, 7
RUNS	R. Martin	11
STOLEN BASES	R. Martin	4
HITS WALKS ON BASE PERCENTAGE W	R. Martin R. Martin D. Lowe, R. Martin R. Wolf	15 7 .571, .449 2
SV	T. Saito	5
IP	D. Lowe	19.0
ERA	B. Penny	0.68

I got a hug from the MAN OF MY DREAMS!!!!!

LOL I didn't know what else to title the blog besides...

I MET THE MAN OF MY DREAMS....

*Takes deep breath, lets it out*

Where do I begin?
LOL I didn't know what else to title the blog besides...

As soon as I got out of class, I bolted to my car and sped down the freeway to get to Hollywood. When I got there, I drove past Earl Scheib's once, didn't find any parking on the streets, drove back the other way, found parking, and walked over to Earl Scheib's. Who knows how many times I squealed with joy! LOL When I got there, I found Angelina and them quite easily. There was over a hundred people already there. The lady in front of us was very friendly. Melissa came with her husband, and her son. Her favorite player is Andre Ethier and her son, David's, favorite player is Nomar Garciaparra. We chatted, I showed them my pictures from Wednesday night's game. The group of guys in front of them were peeking, so I let them browse the pictures too. Both groups commented that they were good pictures. Angelina thought I was crazy. She also thought it was funny to hear me talk baseball.

A blue Dodger hummer arrives and a van follows, with the free goodies and Dodger dogs. They set up. Russ arrives in a blue Toyota Highlander, which he drove by himself and arrived alone. How cool is that??? They hand out the goodies, the line moves along. Melissa asked if I was willing to sell one of my baseball cards. David (or her husband) didn't bring anything to sign. Instead of selling her a card, I gave her one of my extra 5 x 7s that I bought. And in good measure, I threw in a picture of Andre Ethier from Wednesday's game. I printed out ten 5x7s and picked one for Russell to sign. I liked the thought of handing him the picture, and asking him to sign a picture that I took from Wednesday's game. Melissa wanted to send me something to thank me for being so nice, so I gave her my information and she gave me her phone number. The line inched by and by the first hour, he already signed over the first hundred people. Here it comes guys...

The first picture is Russ shaking David's hand. He is so cute. The next picture is him signing the picture I gave Melissa. I'm not sure what he's smiling/laughing about. It could be that Melissa is telling him about me! She said she was gonna say, "this nice girl behind us took this picture and gave it to us. She should get a kiss." LOL. Melissa called me later to ask me if I tried to kiss him. LOL. Everyone else was like, you were that close. What could he do if you had gave him a peck on the cheek? After Melissa and her family, we're up!

I ask Russ to sign a picture that I took from Wednesday night's game. He says, cool, sure. Then I ask him if I could have a hug. We had seen other people do it, so I could get away with it too, right??? LOL The guy standing next to the table goes, "Okay, no more ideas about hugs after this. This is going to be the last one." DEEP BREATH... RELEASE... I texted Sherisse later about this and she replied, "did you cry?" And afterwards, the guys (well, Nina, Angelina, Kevin, and Harold) asked me what was going through my mind when he hugged me. Well... besides my mind screaming "AAAAHHHH!!! I'M GETTING A HUG FROM RUSSELL NATHAN COLTRANE JEANSON MARTIN!!!" Okay, so his full name didn't run through my head. In fact, I'm not sure if at that point anything was going through my head. I was soooo overwhelmed by just being so close to him ... man I don't know what was going on in there.

Next is Angelina. She was taking pictures for me, and now it's my turn to take pictures of everyone else. Angelina has him sign an official Major League baseball. No sunglasses. This time she came prepared, lol. But, don't worry. Nina's keeping the sunglasses tradition alive this time. Nina's up next, hands him the sunglasses. He looks at her like she's crazy. LOL. You can totally see the expression in his face. He's confused. Russell says, "Are you serious, yeah, you want me to sign these?" He looks up, smiling. Nina tells him that Angelina got him to sign a pair at PCC and we're making it a tradition. His reply? "Oh no." LOL!!!!! I mentioned that the sunglasses he signed at PCC were smaller. He tried to sign the glasses and commented that it was hard to sign. In the picture, you can see him laughing as he's trying to sign the sunglasses. Kevin's up next with another official baseball, like Angelina, then Harold with a Dodgers' baseball bat. He signed mine and Harold's with a silver sharpie, Angelina and Kevin's with a pen, and Nina's with a blue sharpie. While we were waiting for our "Dodger Dogs", Angelina tried to review the pictures. She wanted to delete one picture and somehow came to the screen that said, "Erase All Pictures." She goes, "LINDA! LINDA! How do I hit cancel?" I told her to turn the camera off. I did that last year by accident and lost all my pictures from the first day and half of youth camp.

Afterwards, we got our "Dodger dogs" and went home. By the time we got the dogs, they ran out of Dodger Dogs and were just giving away ballpark franks. We went to Nina's house, laid out our autographs on her Dodger bedspread, and took pictures of them. Nina and Harold went to the dentist while we ran some errands. First we got cash at the back, then went to Wal-greens. The machine was down. Again. We went to Target, and it was 30 cents a print. Angelina bought Kyle's birthday gift. We went to CVS in Eagle Rock. We picked out our prints. Kevin and Angelina left to get gas and Harold and Nina. I stayed to get the order in. Turns out the computer had to reboot and they didn't receive my pictures. While I was waiting, I saw Ditas, another freshman pit member of mine. Speaking of which, there was Drum Line Competition held at PCC today. Man, thought brought back a lot of old memories and emotions. Some good, lots bad. Anyway, I'm digressing. Ditas now works at the Eagle Rock CVS. She asked me if I was still playing music. I said, yeah, in church. She is an amazing pianist! One of the best players I had in pit that year. So, when I found out the pictures didn't get uploaded, I said it was okay. I wasn't going to try again there. I drove over to the CVS by the church. Homeboy from yesterday was there again. LOL I don't think he was too happy with me the other night. Anyway. I uploaded fifty-two 4x6 and five 5x7. I told homeboy that this was my fourth stop, the other three didn't work out. He said he was going to pull up my prints first if I didn't mind waiting. I waited, picked out two photo frames, picked up some Kudos, and got out of CVS after arriving in there forty minutes ago. Now, my photos (the 4x6s) are in my blue photo album. The picture Russell signed is in a photo frame. And I have more 5x7s for future autographs. And hopefully, we'll find out about the one that's being held next Saturday!

I knew I should've

... stayed home today and just go see Russ...

As soon as I left, I was already running late. But this clss is pretty hard and I need to be in every class. As tradition holds, I went to get STarubcksbefore class. Trust me ... Saturday mornings I'm dead tired. First of all, I'm not a morning person. Second of all, I am a night person. Last night, I didn't get to bed till about two. Anyway, first thing I did was grab a copy of the Daily News. When I can, I will get a subscription so I don't have to do this. I already subscribed to the L.A. Times.

OOhhh I gotta finish this later. My teacher just announced she's leaving early cuz she's sick. And we can stay and practice on Voyager ... but as soon as I'm done with one record, I'm outta here!

Watch out Russ... here I COME!!!

LESS THAN TWELVE HOURS TO GO....

TILL I MEET THE MAN OF MY DREAMS!!!!!

Being RUSSELL NATHAN COLTRANE JEANSON MARTIN, JR.!!!!!!!

I have been looking forward to this for two weeks. Unfortunately... I have class from 9:00 -12:30. He's going to be at an autograph signing from noon to two. The first one hundred people get a free t-shirt. Everyone else gets an autograph and a Dodger Dog. It's probably going to be a big turn out. The one at PCC definitely had more than a hundred people there. They were limited to only one hundred, so I hope the case isn't the same. Because I won't get there till like one. Guess what I'm going to have him sign?

A picture of him that I took at Wednesday night's baseball game.

I'll be back with what happens.

GO DODGERS!!!!

Hooray! I've got a two for two record going on. I've only been to two games and they've won them both! On my way to the stadium, I was like, "man, I'm gonna go stupid-crazy tonight." That's what a sports reporter said when he interviewed Russ. He used that phrase when they were talking about the MAGICAL night when Russ hit the third of the four consecutive home runs. He said, after Russ hit the third home run, the crowd went "stupid-crazy." Which, is the perfect term for me.

I got off work at 7, got to my car about 7:03, got off the freeway at 7:18, and got in the stadium just in time for Russ' first at-bat. Crazy, i know. Juan and Shelley couldn't believe I've only been to one game. And it was only one game that it took to create a monster out of me. Yup. One game. Why? I have no clue. I drove like crazy to get to Dodger Stadium, which is only ten minutes from work or so. When I got there, got a parking spot real quick in Lot 4. Spent a minute (which felt more like five) searching for my ticket. It was in the backseat with this morning's newspaper. Russ was on the cover of the Sports section! Sherisse called me, the Dodgers were at-bat and I was rushing across the parking lot. I got to the stands just as Russ was up to bat! Good timing! LOL I was so focused on Russ that I barely heard Isaiah say hi to me. Poor thing. Man, I wish I could've had a laptop or something to write up tonight's summary. Top of the second inning, Brad Penny made an awesome dive to catch a bunt. Ouch. He went face first into the ground. Good catch though.

The game was scoreless till the bottom of the third, with two outs. Pierre gets on first, moves to second when Martin gets on. Then they pull off ANOTHER double steal. They did this once already. So, Martin gets his third steal of the season (out of three tries!). He's a third of the way of beating last year's 10 steals. Go Russ! Okay, Nomar hits a single which Pierre and Russ score on. Russ tried to slide and ended up rolling into home. Quite funny. Wish I had my camera ready then to take the pic. We get the last score in, and no one else scores for the rest of the six innings. Insane. Nomar gets to go to second on a balk, and scores when Jeff Kent comes up to bat.

Our seats were in the "All You Can Eat" Right Field Pavilion. Man, I love these seats. Not only are we close to the field, but we don't have to pay for food (being Dodger dogs, peanuts, popcorn, and soda). There was this one guy who always brought back four or more hot dogs (as many as they'd let him) and wave them around and toss them to people. He'd be like, "who wants a hot dog?" and toss them to who it was who wanted one. The guys behind us were cool, but the guys in front of us weren't. Sherisse warned me that they were cheering for the Rockies. One of them was a Rockies fan, but the other guys didn't know a thing about baseball. At one point, the guys behind us started talking about how good my camera was. I guess he saw some of the pics I was taking. I think it was mine. LOL. You'll see what I'm talking about. Sherisse said the guys in front rolled their eyes whenever we started cheering (which was a lot, especially if Russ was up, we'd get louder). When Brady Clark came in for Andre Ethier, the guys behind us decided to start cheering for Clark. They were saying "we love you Clark" and "go Clark!" One of them goes, "what's his first name?" I tell them, "Brady." The guy tells me thanks and pats me on the back. Interesting. In the last two innings or so, we started just cheering for Clark whenever he was in the outfield. We changed it up from "Brady" to "Clark" to "Three." It was fun. Dude, next Dodger game I go to, we are totally sitting in the Right Field Pavilion and I hope those guys are there again. And the guy giving away the hot dogs. LOL. At the top of the ninth, with two outs to go, we stood up and made some noise. Since the Dodgers were ahead, 3-0, with two outs, they were on the last out of the game. Sammy Saito pitching and you knew this was it. Game over.

At the end of the game, they showed Russ on the big screen. I was like... is he crying? It looked like he was wiping something off his cheeks. Tears? Hehe he's such an emotional guy. No wonder I love him so much! BTW Russ, will you marry me? LOL j/k well sorta. Man, so far I can't find a copy of that interview. I wish we had TiVo so I can save it. Man.

Total number of beach balls on the field? I think three.
Total number of pictures taken? 259
Total number of videos? 6
The pictures divided by players:
Right Fielder, #16 - Andre Ethier - 19
Right Fielder, #3 - Brady Clark - 22
Dodger game (most random pics that didn't fit in anywhere else) - 18
Friends - 17
First baseman, #5 - Nomar Garciaparra - 31
Catcher, #55 (and the love of my life) - Russell Martin - 152

I'm tried of dealing with Blogger's issues with pictures. So if you want to see more, I'll try to upload them to Bebo very soon.

Russ' stats for the night: one run scored (stop, drop, and roll baby!), one base stolen














The first picture is from our seats in the "All You Can Eat" Right Field Pavilion. Which means, we get a nice view of our right fielders (Andre Ethier and Brady Clark)

















































This isn't from tonight's game, but awesome play by Russ! It's from the Giants' game

Gooooo RUSS!!!

The MVP of today's game!

Rightly deserved. The Dodgers barely won today's game, 2-1. The first run was scored by Russ. The second one scored when Russ hit a sacrifice fly. Ooh don't forget about the base he stole, which helped put him in scoring position on Nomar's single! In the bottom of the fourth inning, he got another hit and was in scoring position. The bases were loaded and they were left stranded. At Martin's last at bat, he hit a sacrifice fly that let Betemit score, putting the Dodgers ahead.

Now, defensively... there was the double play with the bases loaded. Oooh I think it was Holliday... he wasn't too happy about that. He shredded his batting glove and then put the remains in his pocket. There was another play during the fifth inning, but I wasn't home yet to watch it. Basically, he threw out the last out for the inning. But according to the person's blog I was reading, it was a good play. Top of the eighth inning was when the double play happened and yes, it was Holliday.

After the game, we got ready to go to Target to buy a couple birthday gifts. I came to the conclusion about the two runs the Dodgers got today had to do with Russ. Kevin just gave me this look that said I was crazy and out of my mind. Right after I was explaining that to Kevin, Nina told me that Russ was just announced as the player of the game for tonight. Duh! He's the reason the Dodgers won!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's game. At least I'll get to hear the beginning of it as I'm making my way to Dodger Stadium. Hehe. I get off work at 7 and the first pitch is at 7:10. Shelley and Juan arranged this outing. We got seats in the Right Field Pavilion, which is not the "All You Can Eat" section. Nice. I'll be plenty hungry lol just getting off work. Though hot dogs aren't a big favorite of mine, I'll have a my first Dodger Dog at a Dodger game tomorrow. Some guy ate 18 of them at Opening Day. Yecch. My thing is I'm usually more thirsty than hungry most of the time.

Can you believe I'm only going to my second Dodger game? You see, it's easier to be a Dodger fan when you don't have to put up with their gameday traffice. So, for years, I never liked the Dodgers. Then after my first Dodger Game, on September 2nd, against the Colorado Rockies, with Brad Penny pitching against Aaron Cook. They won, 15-4. The highlights from that day's game included Garciaparra's three-run home run in the third inning, the major league debut of James Loney (who hit a home run), and JD Drew (who's now with the Red Sox) hit a home run in the fifth inning.

Guess what the game tomorrow is? The Dodgers vs. the Rockies, with Brad Penny starting. Interesting coincidence, huh? Jason Hirsch is the Rockies' pitcher for tomorrow. Angelina thinks its interesting that I've only been to one game my entire life. It's interesting considering I've lived under the shadow of Dodger Stadium for years. Speaking of which, I better look up when they're having fireworks so I know not to try to go to bed early. I've done that before, where I tried to go to bed around 10, only to get waken up by fireworks half an hour later.

Anyway, I'm excited about tomorrow night's game. Maybe if we're lucky, with the seats we have, maybe one of us will catch a home run! Too bad I'll be missing Lost.

Lost points

So, because our new assistant manager was watching the training videos in the stock room, I decided to go out for my break today. I went to Gloria Jean's and he was working today. He wore a beanie to cover his head. He dyed his hair orange last week. MINUS FIVE POINTS. Doesn't look good at all. While I was waiting for my drink, he came over and was cutting the cross word puzzle (for himself) and Sudoku (for his coworker) out of the newspaper. He said it was to pass time. (Add a point - he likes crossword puzzles - don't ask me why he gets points for that). After I got my drink, I sat down at a table. He walked past me to go on his break. MINUS FIFTEEN POINTS. He was going to take a smoke. He smokes???? oooh boy ... he lost a lot of points for that. But who's counting?

Let's see... Russ lost points for having a tattoo. Coffee Boy lost points for smoking... not doing too well are we here. That's okay. Guys. Who needs them? SIGH. DON'T ANSWER THAT! Just leave a comment, lol. Hopefully we don't get some huge debate like the sibling rivalry war.

What else has a point system besides guys? Skirts.

Green jerseys

Touch of green: During Monday's Opening Day at Dodger Stadium, 12 of the green jerseys worn by the Dodgers on St. Patrick's Day will be auctioned off to benefit the Dodgers Dream Foundation. The silent auction, which will take place during the game on the Club Level, will include the jerseys of Kent, Saito, Nomar Garciaparra, Russell Martin, Juan Pierre and several others.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT WOULDN'T I GIVE TO HAVE RUSS' JERSEY?

Okay, I know. Obsessed much.

On top of that, Russell Martin is signing autographs this Saturday in Hollywood. He's going to be there from noon to two, and guess what? The first 100 people will get a free Russell Martin t-shirt. AAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Why couldn't it have been the following Saturday? I have class this Saturday, but not next Saturday. I wont' get out of class till about 12:30 and then I probably won't get there till about 1:00. Will they have a cut-off for autographs? Like after a certain number or after a certain time (besides the 2:00, duh)? Hehe I've already offered money to Kevin or Nina if they could a) get Russ to sign something for me, b) get me a t-shirt, and c) get a picture. Again... AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

You know what else is sad? This is my ninth post of the month! Sad, isn't it?

Today's game

First inning - Pierre bunts, out. Russ gets a base hit. Nomar gets thrown out at first, Russ gets to second. Kent gets walked. Gonzalez out.
End of first - Dodgers 0, Giants 1

Second inning - Martinez picks up a run, tying the game.
End of second - Dodgers 1, Giants 1

Third inning - Russ first to bat. Another base hit for Russie. Two for two.
End of third - Dodgers 1, Giants 1

Fourth inning - Homerun for Gonzo!
End of fourth- Dodgers 2, Giants 1

Fifth inning - Russ was hit! :-( But since he swung, the empire called it a strike and he's out.
End of fifth - Dodgers 2, Giants 1

Sixth inning - Kent's up to bat. The announcer called said, the kumbaya love fest between giants' fans and Kent was going on, and you'd think the statute of limitations would be up by now. It's been five years since kent played for the giants. Dodgers score! Kent scores! Kemp scores, Gonzo scores! The lead is now up to 5-1! Martinez makes a sacrifice fly down the center, Valdez scores the fourth run of the inning!
End of sixth- Dodgers 6, Giants 1

Seventh inning - Russ is walked. Barry Zito is taken out and replaced by Brad Hennessy. Double steal! Pierre steals third, Russ steals second. Russ' first steal of the year! Gonzo hits another homerun! Russ scores! Randy Wolf is replaced by Chad Billingsly, Gonzo is replaced by Brady Clark. Pedro Feliz hits a home run for the Giants, giving them two runs. It's okay, guys. We're still ahead by six.
End of seventh - Dodgers 9-3

Eighth inning - Russ flies out.
End of eighth - Dodgers 9-4

Ninth inning - Dodgers score another one. Bottom of ninth: Wilson Betemit comes out on third, Martinez (I think) gets moved to second, relieving Kent. Jonathan Broxton comes out to close.
End of game - Dodgers 10-4

Today's game:
Ten runs, fifteen base hits. Two stolen base. Two homeruns. Won four games in a row. Won eight games in a row against the Giants at AT&T.

Russ stats: as of yesterday

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG
2007	4	16	3	4	1	0	1	2	8	2	2	0	0	.333	.500	.250

Add today's game:
SB: +1
R: +2
H: +2

A good day?

You be the judge of that.

Work - two one thousand dollar sales (one was a little over 1000, and the other was about 1300)
Dodgers won against the Giants, score 2-1. Russie threw out two players in the first two innings. The Giants stopped running after that. LOL that's what they said on the radio when I was listening post-game.

So, why am I still feeling so bummy? It all started last night I think. And carried over to today. And then something happened that made me feel even worse. And now as I'm trying to do all the quizzes for my library class, I realize I don't know the material as well as I thought I did. Then again, who does? :'(

He's gone and done it ... he's broken my heart

Not really. You can't break something you've never had, right?

I was looking Russ up on L.A. Times to see if there were any new images or articles and lo and behold... he was in today's Times. Funny thing was, I had considered picking up a copy this morning when I was at Walgreens. Somehow, I missed the article in italics: Dodgers' Young Catcher is Catching On. WHAT? I didn't see it? Anyway, I ran out to find a copy (mind you, it's about 11:20PM when I discovered this). There was only one place I could go... Starbucks. But then, I knew they'd be closed already. But that's ok. There was also a CVS there and a Ralphs. I didn't even have to go in to either of them. They had a newspaper machine outside that still has some in them. Grabbed two quarters, stuck them in, got my paper and went home. Did I read the article in the paper? Yeah, but online.

Why is my heart broken? Russ just lost TEN points. What for? Getting a tattoo. No big deal, right? Still.... And you know you're crazy when you run out at 11:20 at night just to get a newspaper, right? I need help guys.

Three down, over a hundred to go

Three games down. So far the Dodgers are 1-2. Russ is leading the team with the most at-bats. He's just one at-bat above Juan Pierre. I wish I could've watched/taped/listened to today's game. Our TV isn't hooked up to the VCR, so I can't tape it. Wish we had TiVo. My lunch break was at five, so I got to listen to the first fifteen minutes or so of the game. Enough to hear Russ get thrown out at first at his first at-bat. I'm looking at the game stats and the season stats right now. Too bad I don't know what all those abbreviations mean. I know most of them, just not all of them. Besides Brady Clark and Olmedo Saenz (they've only had two at-bats), Russ is leading the team in averages, at .308. Hey, it's only been three games.
Anyone better at this than I am? I'm quite new to being a baseball/Dodger fan.
So it goes:
G- Games
AB- At-bats
R- Runs
H - Hits
2B - Doubles
3B - Triples
HR - Home-runs
RBI- Runs batted in
And here's where I run into trouble: BB? TB? What about LOB? that was on the game recap. SO is my guess, Strike Outs.
OBP - On-Base Percentation
SLG - ?
AVG- Duh, their overall average

How did Russie do in today's game? First inning, he grounds out. Third inning, he singled and then scored on Jeff Kent's double. Fifth inning, he grounds out. Seventh inning, he gets walked. Ninth inning, he strikes out again. He did that yesterday too. Hmm he probably shouldn't start ninth then, huh?

Their next game is Friday night, 7:15 PST, against the San Francisco Gnats, I mean Giants. Hehe. They play the Giants this weekend before coming home to Dodger Stadium! Gotta love the traffic that's gonna cause. In case some of you didn't know, the exit I take when I get off the 5 freeway southbound is the EXACT same exit most people take to go to Dodger Stadium. Then when I'm trying to get to Chinatown, if I decide to take the freeway, it's the same freeway everyone else takes to get to Dodger Stadium. Then if I take the streets, it's the same sidestreets the other people decide to take to Dodger Stadium. So, then what are my choices? Stay home on Dodger game days! Which isn't a problem, except I usually have to pick up my mom around 6-7 in Chinatown.

One time, I tried to cut across Elysian Hills (that's where Dodger Stadium is located) and it took me over an hour to get to Chinatown. It was Opening Day and the Dodger game just let out. Oops. I forgot. This was all before I became a Dodger fan. Before then, I HATED Dodger games. More specifically, I hated the traffic it caused. It's so much easier to be a fan when you don't have to deal with the traffic on a daily basis.

Today's Dodger Game

First Inning: Score 0-0
Dodgers at bat - Pierre thrown out at first. Russ makes it to first. Nomar flies out. Kent makes it to first.
Brewers at bat - Wolf hits Weeks. Russ and Nomar go for a pop fly, Nomar taking it, nearly colliding into Russ, with Wolf near by. You can sorta hear him yelling, to warn them from colliding. The announcer said Wolf needs to yell louder. Third out - Russ grabs the grounder and throws it to Nomar.

Second Inning:
Dodgers at bat - when Wolf is up at the plate, you hear a fan yelling "No wonder the Phillies traded you."
Brewers at bat - first run of the game. Announcer: "Maybe that's why Ned Yosh doesn't like the bunt. The Breweres aren't very good at it." After Capuano strikes out, bunting.

Third Inning:
Dodgers at bat - Pierre walked. Martin doubles, Pierre scores (1 RBI for Russ), turns around, falls, and goes back to second. Nomar doubles, sending Martin home (1 RBI for Nomar). The Dodgers take a one point lead, with back-to-back doubles. Kent flies out.
Brewers at bat - Fielder hits a homerun, tying the game, clearing the left-center wall. Estrada hit by a pitch (second hit of the game). Great play by Martin - threw the ball to Kent, who threw the ball back to Martin, ending the third inning

Fourth Inning: Score still tied at 2
Dodgers at bat - one, two, three - you're out
Brewers at bat- Wolf slips on the grass, threw from his knees, and throws Hart out at first. Another 1-2-3 inning as Wolf earns his third strike out.

I had to leave after the fourth inning to play family taxi. While I was on the way to pick up my brother, my Russie hit a home run! I was at the light at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Dodger Stadium Way when it happened and I let out a couple whoops of joy. LOL the car next to me must have thought I was nuts

Russ - three hits, two RBIs, one home run! - went three for five. First home-run of the season.
Today was a good day for Russie!

CRASH!

That's the sound a small pile of stuff made as it landslided off my desk! It was mostly receipts, my checkbook, and some CDs. What caused this landslide? I moved my leg and the desk moved. And the movement therefore caused a sudden landslide. It almost happened last night too! My phone was on my desk and it was on vibrate. The phone started vibrating and set off another landslide - this time was mostly papers and stuff, which I was able to catch.



Now here is a picture update of the state of my room. Maybe Mayor Villaragoisa will declare it a state of national disaster and send in some rescue team to clear it up. Who knows, maybe my future husband is part of that recovery team. As you can tell, it's not that bad right now. All the clothes have either been hung up or put away in storage containers. Want to guess how many of those I've purchased within this last week? SIX. There's two in my brother's room, two in my closet, and two in my room. THE HORROR, THE HORROR!

Automated systems

What's with automated systems these days? Yes, most of the time it's convenient just to listen to one and punch in the number you need. But what if you actually need to talk to a person? What then?

For example, when I call cingular or t-mobile to make a payment, then yeah, i don't want to talk to a representative. However, when I have a question about something, then, yes, I would like to speak to a representative.

Like, in this instance today. I tried to call the DMV to ask about renewing my vehicle registration. Because I never got my renewal slip in the mail. It probably arrived while I was in North Carolina and my parents just never gave it to me. Here comes April, and my registration is about to expire. Now, I don't want to repeat last year's mistake where I got pulled over because my tags were expired. Fortunately, it was because I hadn't put my new one on yet. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here. Looks like I'll have to go over to the DMV tomorrow and stand in line and wait for an hour to find the answer.

Somebody shoot me

... and put me out of my misery. LOL, okay, so I'm not that miserable. Actually, if you shoot our lead sales associate, you'd put me and Sherisse out of our misery. The last couple times I have had to work with her on Sunday, I don't get any sales. She hogs them and takes sales away from the house. Now, if she distributed house sales like the other managers do, then fine. Because, like today, we are busy with something and unable to fully assist customers. We do what we can to help them, but not like if we weren't occupied with something else.

Today, I came in at three and already the store was a mess. Sundays are pretty busy. Today was definitely no exception. Poor Joyce (she's our 63-year-old assistant manager) was marking down things in missy. Mariam was standing at the cashwrap (where else would she be?), marking down the jewelry. Now. If it was me marking down jewelry, or anyone else, we'd be standing at the jewelry fixture marking them down. Not taking them off the jewelry fixture and laying them down on the cashwrap. Our old store manager would never let anyone hang out at the cashwrap. That has become Mariam's favorite hang out spot. There were afew go-backs in missy, not a big deal. But in petite... there were go backs hanging on the cube and on the side of the H-rack. Immediately I knew who was going to end up doing most of those. Me. And guess what? I did. More later.

I took my time punching in. Joyce immediately sent me up front to clean, do the go-backs, and recover the missy department. Then she handed me a red pen and told me to start marking things down. She had one scanner, Mariam had the other. So I went to the office to get the other one. I noticed the CD player was on, but the speakers weren't. So I turned that on. The first thing I noticed when I started to mark things down was that Joyce only handed me a red pen. We have things left over the a "transitional" sale, which was marked in green. I asked her, do I mark it in green or red? She called another store and said yes, mark it in green. So I had a red pen and a green pen stuck in my ponytail the whole night. LOL i just checked right now to see if they were still there (11:47, almost exactly four hours since I got off).

Throughout the day, Mariam complained that the store was messy, and that no one was checking the fitting rooms. The area behind the cash wrap was a mess. The petite section was a mess. There was a ton of petite go backs. So much that during her break, I took the empty rolling rack from the missy section and dragged it to petites and put all the go-backs on there. It stayed full for the rest of the night. Joyce and I were busy marking down missy and trying to keep that relatively neat. Relatively being the key word. If you break down the space alloted in our store, it would be 10% shoes and accessories, 55% missy, and 35% petite. We were doing our best to keep our go-backs down to a minimum. What was Mariam doing besides ringing up customers? Occasionally putting a few things back in petite.

Originally, I was scheduled to get off at 7. That would've given me time to go home, freshen up, change into something more comfortable, and pick up Sherisse. We were having a "going-away" dinner for our assistant manager, Jeiza. When I got to work, Joyce asked me if I could stay till 7:30 to help recover the store. She had to change the sale banners to announce the further reductions we just marked, and Mariam had to close the registers. Sherisse called and asked me if I wanted her to meet me at hte mall. A little before 7:30, I had barely finished the missy go-backs, and still had petite to do. I had fifteen minutes to clear the rolling rack of petite go-backs and straighten petites. Something that MARIAM should have done when she wasn't hanging out at the cash-wrap.

Thank goodness (thank you Tanzi) that I have the new two days off. And I get paid for a full shift tomorrow! Yay for holiday pay.