Beck's Blog: Inge's homer brings up a heartwarming tale
I'm catching up on stuff, so here's a late link!

We have returned from our first sabbatical to the great land of Beulah! Pretty good time too. We took the kids to the sand dunes. I hadn't been in a long time myself. It looks so easy to get up that first hill, and about halfway there you find yourself slowing down and looking back again and again. It didn't help that Paula decided to let me carry Emma. Then once we got to the top, Michael & I decided to go up another hill and leave the wimpy girls behind. I noticed pretty quickly that the sand gets hotter as you get higher. Not sure why that is. Paula's theory is that there's less moisture from Lake Michigan in the sand as you go higher. Seems reasonable to me. We were doing pretty well until about the halfway point, when Michael decided that his feet were getting too hot and I should carry him. Nothing like lugging around a 50 lb sandbag with burning feet!

We also went to a Traverse City Beach Bums game. They're an independent minor league team, with a total payroll around $60,000, so not exactly the big leagues, but it was fun. We got $8 lawn seats and brought a couple chairs. The first inning, as soon as we pulled out the chairs, expecting the kids to run around, both kids climb into our chairs and get comfortable. Sweet...But they had a lot of fun running around the grass and making friends with the other kids. I recommend checking it out if you're ever in the area.

The Oakland Press Blogs: Open Book: A Sports Blog: Matt Milhous Millen: Pompous You-Know-What
Now that Matt Millen is apparently going to be on every football pregame show possible, it's good to remind the world of how horrible he really was.

Nolan Ryan challenges conventional thinking on pitch counts - Joe Posnanski - SI.com
This has got Bill James talking a little about the history of pitch counts and what Nolan Ryan's doing. It sure does seem like pitchers get hurt just as much now as in previous years, but I wonder if they tended to pitch hurt more often in the past.

I guess they're not that big, but things are still afoot. Yesterday was the first official day of summer, so Paula gets to be a stay-at-home mom for a few months. I don't think I could do it, I'd go crazy after a week or two. But yesterday also marked the official beginning of potty training for Michael! There's really nothing more frustrating than trying to explain to a 3 year old how to just let the pee come out. He is making fairly quick progress though. This morning we only stood at the toilet for a couple minutes.

We're also taking Emma completely off the bottle, so bedtime routines are switching around. I'm good at putting Emma to sleep with a bottle, but not when it's just rocking her. So I'm switching back over to getting Michael ready for bed and letting Paula get Emma trained.

In other news, Samantha turns 8 today. Happy Birthday to her! I know she's very excited to not have to use a booster seat anymore.

Also, I've seen it on facebook, so it seems to be public enough knowledge that I can mention it. Jenny's pregnant - due in February. I think she said right around Valentine's Day. I know Samantha's looking forward to having a baby sister / brother, so that will be cool.

The inside story of the Conficker worm - tech - 12 June 2009 - New Scientist
I love reading about this stuff. Besides just being plain interesting, it makes me much happier to be running Linux. Not only is it generally configured to have higher security than the default Windows settings, it's also still obscure enough that people aren't busy making viruses for it. The fact that I can't get my stupid scanner to work with it is just an annoying side effect!

STLtoday - Jacob Turner catching eyes of major league baseball scouts
This is a profile of the Tigers' 1st round pick. Who knows if he'll sign though, since he's a high schooler, committed to North Carolina w/ Scott Boras as his agent. But you've got to figure that the Tigers had an idea of how much money it would take before they picked him...

What's Alan Watching?: Burn Notice: Matt Nix talks season three
A good interview with the creator of Burn Notice. Pretty in depth answers to just a few questions instead of the normal short hits.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien - Old Time Baseball (2/20/09) - Video - NBC.com
This is a good one! I never really watch Conan, but I'm about halfway through his first episode of the Tonight Show and it's pretty good. I may start recording it and watching from time to time.

Movie crew gives Tiger Stadium a last hurrah before wrecking ball
I was just downtown yesterday afternoon taking Michael to the ballgame. The Tigers really need to work around our sleep schedule a little better though. Michael normally naps from 1:00-3:00 and then goes to bed at 8:00. Makes the standard start times of 1:05 & 7:05 a little tricky.

Today we went to the game at 1:00 and stayed through the 7th inning stretch. Michael then conked out pretty much as soon as we got into the car.

As you probably do not know (as I tend to not advertise it, lest I draw attention to how crazy it is) I am enrolled in a swim class twice a week from 6-7 AM. Today I happen to be swimming by what can best be described as a "cranky old man." Without prompting from me, he says, "What is this music? I feel like I am in Saudi Arabia!" I merely smile, hoping that I don't have to engage in a conversation about whatever the hell he thinks the "Saudi Arabian Music" category on Jeopardy might contain.
But, as you might suspect, he was going full throttle.
He proceeds to complain that I must be the only person in the pool who knows this music, as I am "a youngin'"
He asks why we can't just play American music, instead of this "Saudi Arabian Crap."
He then asks what it is.
At this point, just hoping to shut him up, because it was 6:30 AM and I really wasn't in the mood, I responded honestly...
"It's James Taylor, and I'm pretty sure this song is older than I am."
Seriously, what did the guy want that could possibly be more American than James Taylor? A slice of apple pie? In the pool? Just shut up and swim!

The greatest show on TV is back for season 3 tonight! Burn Notice. WOOOOOOOO

Matt Wieters Facts
I particularly liked "The Day Matt Wieters Was Called Up To The Majors Every Pitching Record In History Was Given An Asterisk, Because They'd Never Had To Face Matt Wieters." and "When Matt Wieters Goes To A Scary Movie, Matt Wieters Isn't Scared Of The Movie, The Movie Is Scared Of Matt Wieters."

Peter Gammons: Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch cares about the fans - ESPN

Transforming USB Flash Memory (2 GB) - Ravage - Transformers Device Label Device Label at BigBadToyStore
This is the smartest thing I've ever seen! They should make more. I could collect all the Transformers and be all, "Yeah, home videos from 2007 are on Bumblebee, 2008 is Starscream..."

I'm hoping to do some camping with Michael this summer. So last night we started our test drive. We set up a tent in the backyard and got the firepit out for roasting marshmallows. It went pretty well. Michael was a little scared, but finally fell asleep in the tent with me. Around 3:30 he woke up and decided it was time to go in the house, but at least it's a start!

AMERICAN PIE: GQ Features on men.style.com
Just to ruin the surprise for you - Buddy's is #15. But I've never even been to the the other 3 Michigan places. In fact, I've only heard of one of them.
Niki's Greektown
Tomatoes Apizza Farmington Hills
Luigi's Harrison Township

I have no idea where Harrison Township even is, but I'll make sure to hit the other two this year, and maybe some magical day I'll find the mythical land of Harrison.

Haven't posted much since the kid's birthdays. Emma is finally getting serious about walking. She's right around the same age as Michael was, which seems to be slower than most kids. Our kids just take their time walking I guess. She can stand by herself for up to a minute, and in the last week or so has finally gotten around to taking a step or two without holding onto anything.

Emma is smaller than Michael was, so I had hoped that she would walk a little bit earlier, but no such luck. She's practically a midget. At one year she's only 95% height / weight & over 100% head size. Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing for us to have such a rinky-dink child...

World Series games will start before 8 p.m. ET - ESPN
Still not quit enough for Michael, he could only watch a couple pitches, but I may actually be able to stay awake for the whole game!

World's Best Illusion: the curveball
It's like one of those mystery spots! There's one near Beulah where you can put the car in neutral and it looks like you're rolling uphill.