In case you missed it...

This has been floating around recently, I guess. It was recently uploaded on the fourth of this month. It's a video of the 1986 Dodgers doing the Baseball Boogie. This is the description off the poster's youtube page : "Funniest video ever!! 1986 Dodgers a.k.a. The Baseball Boogie Bunch perform hilarious Super Bowl Shuffle like song and dance about their season. Starring Current Dodger coaches Rick Honeycutt, Ken Howell, and Mariano Duncan. Also starring others like Orel Hershiser and Mike Scoscia!! This is Hilarious!!".

Seeing as I was only two years old around that time, the only Dodger I recognized was Orel. He's an easy guy to recognize. I think I may have recognized Duncan, but I'm not too sure. As someone suggested, when watching this video ... two rules. 1) Turn your sound up. 2) Don't show this to any Giants' fan. And I agree with the guy who posted this. It's HILARIOUS.




The other thing you may have missed? Today was the first exhibition (Spring Training) game for our Boys in Blue. I set my alarm to KABC so I could wake up to the game, which I did. Actually, I set it earlier to see if there was any pregame stuff. There wasn't. It was good game. I wish I could've watched it instead of listening to it. The Dodgers were great till the seventh inning. The first couple of pitchers threw several innings, allowing only one hit which was in the first inning, off the second batter. Then Tom Martin came in and surrendered a couple of runs. Two runs, three hits, and walk to be exact. They said it was typical spring training (or minor league, I don't remember) game. The first six innings took only an hour to play. And then it took two hours to play the last three. And at that point, it was harder to keep track of who was playing. Most the well-known players were already taken out and replaced by other players. To be honest, once Russell was pulled, I have no clue who was the catcher behind the plate. Though I think on the infield, at one point it was Loney (or Lindsey), Young (Delwyn), Hu, and LaRoche. Outfield ... it was mixture of Ethier (in left), Kemp (in right), Repko, and ... Xavier Paul. Don't even ask me who the pitchers were. Other than Martin, I think the only other name I can remember (besides Johnson the starter) was Koplove.

Furcal got a triple in his first at-bat! I hope that's a sign that he's healthy and ready for this season. Martin gave us all a little scare at his at-bat when he checked his swing and the ball caught more of his left fist than we (and Ned Colleti) would have liked. One of the sportscasters commented that they could see beads of sweat on Colleti's forehead. I think it was Colletti and not Frank McCourt who was there. Matt Kemp committed his first base-running gaffe of the year. He tried to take third on a single to left by Mark Sweeney (which Jones scored on). Only problem was once he slid into third, he found out it was already occupied by James Loney. That wasn't the only base-running gaffe of the game. There was also Jason Repko trying to go from first to third, Hu trying to steal second, and Martin getting doubled off at second. It was crazy. First we were winning, then they were winning, then we tied it up (thanks to a bases-loaded walk). Then the Braves took the lead again in the ninth. Then in the bottom of the ninth, whoever was on the mound (DeSalvo) couldn't find the strike zone and walked some more players. The funny thing was, the Braves put someone in the bullpen and Charlie Steiner said they saw someone in the bullpen, they just didn't know who he was. It was at the point in the game when you saw jersey numbers that were in the 60s and 70s and higher, and names you didn't recognize. Instead of receiving a media guide, they had papers. And the player (Bean) in question wasn't on the traveling roster either. With the bases loaded, they took DeSalvo out and put Bean in. Well, Bean beaned LaRoche to force in a run... actually, he just got him in the foot. That brought up Lindsey, who had a ball slip through his legs (I think) that allowed the Braves a chance to take the lead. He ended up being the hero, bringing in not only the tying run, but the winning run as well!

Here's the box score and the game summary from Yahoo. And here's the box score and summary from the Dodger's official website. I just noticed on the game summary by Yahoo that they credit LaRoche getting hit by the wrong pitcher.

Oh yeah. The starting lineup? It was Pierre, Furcal, Martin, Kent, Jones, Loney, Garciaparra, Kemp, Johnson. Russell managed to get one hit, but he also struck out the other two times he was up. That's okay, Russ. David struck out too.

One more thing. In case you missed it (which I completely did). The Phillies pulled this huge prank on one of their pitchers, Kyle Kendrick. If you don't know who he is (hello, he is on the Phillies). He just finished his rookie season with 10 wins. Not bad for a rook.

This guy gets around...

Like nobody's business!

http://baseballislife.mlblogs.com/photos/baseball_people_i_have_me/index.html

I counted 158 photos. Not 158 people, because he has multiple photos with different players. There's two or three of Andre Ethier and Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, and other guys.

He also has a Dodger's baseball blog.

http://baseballislife.mlblogs.com/my_weblog_about_the_los_a/

YES!!!!! MY TICKETS ARE HERE!!!

When I got home, my mom handed me something that arrived in the mail. She asked me something about why I bought so many tickets. I didn't understand at first till I got to my room. I looked at the address and it read 1000 Elysian Park Avenue. That should've been my clue right then. I opened the already opened envelope and rubber-banded together were 24 TICKETS! Here are the dates and games that I have tickets to!

Day	Date	Opponent
Monday	April 14	Pittsburgh Pirates
Monday	May 5	New York Mets
Monday	May 19	Cincinnati Reds
Friday	May 23	St. Louis Cardinals
Monday	June 2	Colorado Rockies
Sunday	June 8	Chicago Cubs
Monday	July 7	Atlanta Braves
Friday	July 11	Florida Marlins
Saturday	July 26	Washington Nationals
Monday	August 11	Philadelphia Phillies
Monday	September 1	San Diego Padres
Friday	September 5	Arizona Diamondbacks

The circled part is where my seats are. Row B. Seats five and six. That's where I'll be for twelve games!

Let's Go! Batter-up! We're taking the afternoon off
It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame,
for a ballgame, today.
The fans are out to get a ticket or two
From Walla Walla, Washington to Kalamazoo

It's a beautiful day for a home run
But even a triple's okay
We're gonna cheer
And boo
And raise a hallabaloo
At the ballgame, today!

"It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame…" by Jon Weisman

Complaints

That was the first thing I heard about when I went to work today. No comment about my improvement on getting to work earlier. Just that my manager received TWO complaints. About me. That was the bombshell. I've been at my current job for over two years and this is the first time that I've actually had a complaint written against me. Sure, I've had a customer make some ridiculous criticism or complaint here or there, but I was always able to take it in stride. This one took longer. I'm not sure why I got so upset over it. Maybe it was the way my boss said it to me. Or it was my first actual complaint.

So what was the complaint about? This customer came in to do a return and exchange. I did the return and exchange, however this one was a little more complicated than your usual return. Not only was it bought in another state, it was bought with a discount that was already expired. When I tried to make a joke, the customer took it the wrong way. Apparently, she tried to let go of this but couldn't as she "stewed" over it and decided to write a long complaint about me. I've been with the company for a while now, so I don't think I could be considered an ignorant employee. Someone who may have made a mistake on that day, yes. Ignorant, no. I talked with several coworkers and friends about this, and they were surprised by what was said in the complaint. Because for the most part, they said it didn't sound like me. She quoted phrases that I don't normally use when talking with a customer. And she said I had a smug demeanor. When have I ever been smug? Here's the definition of the word smug: "contentedly confident of one's ability, superiority, or correctness; complacent." The best part of this? Our store isn't even the closest store to her! We're like over an hour away, in good traffic. And if you know how our freeways are like, we're probably at least an hour and half away. that probably means I probably won't see her again.

The second one, came via phone call. My a.m. (assistant manager) was on break and the l.s. (lead sales) got the call. Apparently they were on the phone for a bit and my a.m. asked the l.s. what was the call about. The customer described me to the l.s., who then gave her my name. The customer said l.s. and I were there that night. She made a comment about the sweepstakes. And whatever answer I gave her, I must've given her a look of irritation. She said I wasn't rude in my answer, but she didn't appreciate that I looked irritated.

Okay, so next time I think I can handle something, I won't. I'll hand it over to the manager on duty. Because there's NO way I want another incident like the one above. Anyone interested in knowing more details about the complaint, let me know. But for now, that's all I'm going to write about because I know I have to be careful about what I put on here. That's why I try to keep things general and partially vague.

Is it time for a change?

I got a call yesterday for a second interview with Binder & Binder. They wanted me to come in today but I was going out of town. They said they would call me back on Tuesday to set up a second interview. Is it time for a change? Is it time for me to leave my current position? If I accepted the job at B&B, then I would have to quit my current job. It's a full-time position, Monday through Friday, 8:45 - 5:45. NOW one of the problems is location. The building is located off the 10 and 405 freeways. Now if anyone knows the 110, the 10, or the 405 freeways... you know that they're parking lots during the times I would be going to work and coming home from work. So, is the commute worth the full-time position? The bright side, it offers stability and weekends off. I can't tell you the last time I had a weekend off without requesting it. Or stability. When I first started working there, I did have some stability because I did work like either 9 to 5:30, or 10-6:30 from Monday through Friday. Then again, that was when I was like the only person who could open. Now, there's someone else who usually opens and there are more associates there. The only problem she has is weekenders, specifically Sundays. Which is where I come in. But I miss having my Sundays. I miss being able to go to church. Another conflict is ... Dodger games. I have mostly weekday games, that start at 7:10. I can probably make it straight from work. But whoever is going to the game with me would have to meet me there. And I can go to more Saturday games! We'll see. They have to call me back to set up a second interview. And then we have to go from there. I have to find out how much I'm going to get paid, how does taking time off will work out with them, and other questions. So, is the commute worth it?

Not sure what to say

Someone went to my friend and told her, "before my brother married so-and-so, he had a crush on you." Considering my friend is much younger than the guy mentioned, she thinks that he might have mistaken her for me. This is possible because we are just a year apart. And there were times that I did wonder. Now I just wonder if it was true. Did I miss a chance? Did I ever have a chance? Maybe I'm just wondering over nothing.

Almost done with my 2007 recap

I hope did the stats right.

First Half Results:

9 Games

8 Wins, 1 Loss (88.9% Winning Average)

5 Home Runs (One home run per 1.8 games)

7 Stolen Bases (One stolen base per 1.26 games)

81 Innings

44 Runs Scored (4.89 runs scored per game)

24 Runs Scored by Opponent (2.67 runs scored per game)

Second Half Results:

8 Games

3 Wins, 5 Losses (37.5% Winning Average)

7 Homeruns (One home run per 1.14 games)

6 Stolen Bases (One stolen base per 1.33 games)

74 Innings

36 Runs Scored (4.5 runs scored per game)

48 Runs Scored by Opponent (6 runs scored per game)

Total Results:

17 Games

11 Wins, 6 Loss (64.7% Winning Average)

12 Home Runs (One home run per 1.42 games)

13 Stolen Bases (One stolen base per 1.31 games)

155 Innings

80 Runs Scored (4.71 runs scored per game)

72 Runs Scored by Opponent (4.24 runs scored per game)

Dodgers Caravan 2008 Pictures

I just saw one blogger's posting of photos from the signing at Yankee Doodles and guess what... NO PICTURES OF RUSSELL!?! Now how can that be? Well, I decided to post my own pictures then. I'm working on that blog about it. But for now ... pictures will have to do.

Russell stretching

I wonder what he's laughing about. Beautiful laugh

Matt Kemp showed up instead of Brad Penny

Jeff Kent checking on the time

I missed getting an autograph from STEVE GARVEY again!

That's a Russell Martin bobblehead btw

She gave him a besito (little kiss) which I missed

And now ... the signing of my scrap book

Chloe Update

Update on Chloe 2.7.08

Great news!!! Chloe went from 51 to 1285 in only one week!!! As most of you all know it usually takes Chloe a while to get her numbers back up...I am speechless and very thankful. God is so good!!

Thanks so much for thinking of...and praying for....our family for the past 9 months. It's wonderful to be a part of the family of God. I wouldn't want to imagine life any other way.

Love and thanks,

Karla & Family

P.S. Marathon training is going great...20 miles this Saturday!! Only 3 weeks to go! Yikes!

Update on Chloe 1.31.08

Chloe's numbers have dropped again down to only 51. Other than the low numbers she is still feeling great! What a trooper!

We thank you for your prayers,

Karla & Family