Atlanta - There & Back (Part 1)

So this past Friday (the 8th) was J's birthday and I ran out of ideas on what to get her after recent perfume purchases. I remembered that it was "Opium" for Mother's Day after forgetting that five letter word at Christmas when I bought her "Chloe".

It had been over a year since I last had bought her some so I kind of forgot or one could say I completely forgot that "Opium" is her favorite. Okay my memory sucks for certain things. Actually I have a great memory it's just that sometimes I recall things a few days or weeks later. Not too handy of a skill. I knew when I had gotten the bottle of "Chloe" that it didn't feel right but rather than walk out of that store empty-handed I thought maybe I was just losing my mind.

Recent purchases had been books that she really wanted or music CDs I thought that she would like or that cool Keurig single cup coffee thingee. Little did I know that the single cup coffee things are ridiculously expensive even for a spendthrift like me.

Even bought her a power tool last year. Some sort of cordless drill that she ooh-ed and aah-ed about on one of her Lowe's trips. It surely wasn't my Lowe's trip. My walking in there is like sitting through one of H's engineering classes. I don't have an effing clue what's going on or what the eff I am looking at. I am like a doe, a deer, a female deer in headlights. LOL. I was truly laughing when I wrote that.

Anyways here I was June 7th; one day before her big day and all I could think of was getting her some Lady Antebellum tickets for their concert here in a couple of weeks with Darius Rucker and Thompson Square. Sadly they didn't have any pairs of tickets left. They had singles but nothing next to each other. Even went down to the BiLo Center box office and got that same answer live in person. I guess the younger lady behind the glass was not duly impressed by this Canadian's predicament because she kept on showing me a map of where the single seats were as if that would work. LOL.

So J and made our Friday evening (her b-day) plans and then Shazam I got an idea! Ouch that hurt by the way! My having an original thought. I knew that J's beloved Yankees were coming into Atlanta for a 3-day set starting on Monday. I figured that would be a good b-day present for her. Getting her tickets for one of the games.

Given that they were coming in on a weekday and Atlanta being 150 miles or so away I figured I would give her the option on which game we'd go see. We talked about it a bit on Friday and it was decided that Monday's game would be the best bet around our work schedules and parental responsibilities. Well hers anyways. H is happy any night that he has free rein at the house. LOL.

So when we got back to J's house I went a-searching for some tickets on MLB.com but then I got completely effing annoyed with Ticketmaster scamming a$$ prices for crap a$$ seats. I hate paying $12 to $20 in fees for each ticket to Ticketmaster or LiveNation. It is a total "cochonerie" paying this monopolistic fee. They aren't doing me $12 to $20 of favors per ticket by my purchasing seats on their site. Not helping my serenity either was the fact that the available seats weren't eggsactly primo deluxe either.



So off I went onto StubHub's website. Imagine my surprise by my finding two seats 12 rows up down the left field line (Yankees side) where the relief pitchers would be warming up at the Big O for a quite reasonable price. Okay the Big O reference probably doesn't mean much to those reading this blog. Let's put it this way. Raul Ibanez who starts in left field for the Yankees against righties plays deeper down the line when the opposing pitcher is at bat than where our seats were located. The seats were darn good! I didn't mind the fee either which was cheaper than the Ticketmaster fee. I may have paid above face value for the seats. It didn't matter as the Ticketmaster seats were more expensive and their location wasn't very good. Go figure!

Darn this is going to be a long blog. Thank Gawd that I have YouTube on play all mode.

So picked up J at her place at around 330 after filling up my tank for the 150 mile drive to Turner Field. Easy drive from Simpsonville/Mauldin. Take interstate 85 south until the Turner Field exit. Easy as pie. Whatever that means. LOL.

We did great time until about a few miles after "Spaghetti Junction" near Atlanta. I think that is about where Marietta is or the Druid Hills exit is on 85. What a effing adventure it is driving on 85 in the Atlanta area! 7 lanes I think. I am doing 70-75 in a 55 mph zone and I am in the way in the 5th or 6th lane. People drive on this everyday. Holy Eff Batman. That's insane!

To be continued...

Ah Baseball

Ah the beginning of a new MLB season where hope springs eternal that my team (the Washington Nationals) will do all of the little things correctly and make September a month for me to think that they have a chance. With some of the changes they made over the off-season, I will paraphrase the Godfather of Soul and state that "I feel good." So good, so good. LOL. I'm actually singing the words.

Anyways here are some of my quick thoughts on the season so far in no particular order except to note that this is how it is coming to my keyboard as I hunt and peck.

Firstly I am super impressed with Jamie Moyer's return to the major leagues after being away for over 600 days. This after Tommy John surgery and after turning 49 years old this past November. Most guys his age are practicing right arm curls with a bottle of beer rather than figuring out ways to get players out on the Astros that weren't even born when he started pitching in the majors.I read that he has 8 children. Maybe that's why he still needs to pitch. Can you imagine in this age having 8 kids? Wow. The patience of Job is required no doubt. Remarkable story.

One thing I have noticed in our instant gratification society that we live in today is how quickly we turn nasty. Most teams have played two or three games and if you read some of the comments on different websites about team play or certain individual's play, it's a sad commentary on how we quickly the knives come out.

If you're a Braves fan or Red Sox fan, a lot of them are already losing coherent thought and respect for others. I mean it's only game three of the season. Geez Louise. Someone has to lose a game. You lose 1-0 to 10-0, it's a loss either way. They're already calling for the heads of Gonzales and Valentine. Ridiculous fairweather fans that have no idea what they are talking about.

The Tigers with Cabrera and Fielder in the 3rd and 4th spots look scary. I saw the game yesterday afternoon and they both hit a couple of jacks. You don't have to be slim jims when you hit 'em as far as they do. They make hitting look easy. Josh Beckett looked he had batting practice stuff against those guys yesterday.

Have to feel bad for the Cleveland Indians. They've played a 16-inning game and a 12-inning game and came up short both times agaisnt the Blue Jays. Tough way to start a season. At least they had a day-off between games. It's weird starting the season on a Thursday and then having a Friday off.

Back to my Nationals now. Big difference with the team this year is they seem to have an abundance of major league players. Be it in the starting rotation. The bullpen. The bench. They are a lot more solid this year than last year. Good to see Chad Tracy come up big in the first two games. Davey Johnson is going to have some tough decisions to make when Ankiel and Morse are ready to come off the DL. Lidge and Rodriguez are making us forget that Storen will be back real soon. Clippard and his funky glasses has started right where he left off last year.

I think it will be a fun year for my Nationals.