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Tagged: rox
Two Nights At A Ballpark In Philadelphia (9/8 & 9/9/12)
This is the story of two evenings that the boys and I spent at a ballpark in Philadelphia. Two nights, 51 outs, and a whole lot of fun.
The story starts in the afternoon on Saturday, September 8, 2012. Colleen was away for the weekend visiting her folks. But the boys and I had Phillies tickets. The Phils were scheduled to take on the Colorado Rockies.
We hopped into the car a little after 2:00 p.m. Kellan napped a bit and Tim and I played a rousing game of turkey vulture – where we battle to see who can spot more turkey vultures along the drive.
We made it to the LF gate…
…in plenty of time. In fact, we arrived around 4:00 p.m., and the gates were scheduled to open at 4:35. We past the time chatting with our Citizens Bank Park pals, the Tischler (Seth, Tami and Harrison.
Generally, I pay no attention at all to weather reports. But, on this day, the consensus was that the weather wasn't going to cooperate with the game schedule. They typically open the first three gates at the LF gate 2.5 hours before a Phillies home game. But shortly after we arrived, an usher came out and opened the very first gate, which required us to relocate from first in line at the third gate and the Tishlers to relocate from first in line at the second gate.
The usher said he was preparing the first gate because the Phillies were going to open the gate half an hour early…if it started raining. Essentially, if it started pouring rain on us, they would open the gate so we could take cover in the concourses, but if the rain held off we would simply get to stand outside an open gate for another half hour.
The skies over Center City Philadelphia (behind us to the northwest) looked rather threatening…
…but the sky was blue over Citizens Bank Park (in front of us to the southeast). Rain usually moves from the southwest to the northeast around Philadelphia (up the coast toward NYC) so I still felt like we or, more precisely, the game could survive the weather.
Oh, yeah, in addition to rain, there was 70 mile per hour wind in the forecast too. That concerned the Phillies too.
When they finally let us in, at the normal 4:35 gate time, we hustled in to the corner spot by the LF foul pole and found this scene on the field:
No BP. Sad.
But the Rockies pitchers were out playing catch. There was only a small gathering of fans out there. I figured all of the Rockies would toss their warm up balls into the crowd. There were plenty to go around for the few people out there.
See that white "X" on the foul line down by the corner spot?
Out of the blue, Carlos Torres looked right at me from that "X" and then he tossed his baseball to me and the boys. We were right in the corner spot at the bottom edge of the section that is open for BP. To our immediate right, a yellow plastic chain blocked off access to the rest of the stadium. Torres's throw landed just out of my reach on the "off limits" side of the yellow chain. But Bernie the very cool usher saw it all play out and came and grabbed the ball and gave it to Tim.
Thanks, Carlos! And thanks, Bernie, for the assist!
Harrison had a consecutive game streak of getting a baseball that we wanted to extend. I didn't want to hurt his chances of that happening. So the boys and I relocated to the next section over into leftfield fair territory…
…so Harrison and his folks could be alone in the corner spot (the red arrow above is pointing to Harrison and, oh, by the way, see the young girl in the purple "Rockies" (not actually Rockies) shirt? Watch for her later in this entry where you can find her wearing Phillies gear. She is a full-on pre-teen, female ballhawk with Hamplesque focus and determination and she would prove to be Harrison's main competition the rest of the night, in very entertaining fashion, in my opinion).
Anyway, this was our view of the field after we relocated to the fair side of the foul pole:
And this is Edgmer Escalona a minute or so after he tossed us a baseball that he had in his pocket:
I was pretty amazed that he tossed us this baseball (completely unsolicited) because there were several teenagers to our left wearing (actual) Rockies gear. But, what can I say, ball players generally love awesome like boys like Tim and Kellan.
Thanks, Edgmer!
Unfortunately, that was it for toss-ups – not just for us, for everyone. One Rockies pitcher tried unsuccessfully to throw his warm up ball into the RF seats (section 103) from the LF foul line, but his throw hit the wall and rolled back onto the grass where it was left:
Every other Rockies pitcher took his baseball with him back to the dugout. There was a grand total of two pre-game throwing Rockies toss-ups and both of them were tossed to us. And that means that Harrison got snubbed. Sorry, Harrison!
Before heading out to the pizza wedge, I took some photos of the plants that separate the fans from the outfield wall:
I'm not sure why they don't have one of these in RF too. They are a great idea because they look nice when they flower and they prevent fans from interfering with questionable homeruns.
Just before 5 o'clock, we took a stroll down Ashburn Alley…
…toward the RF seats.
The RF seats weren't going to open for another five or ten minutes when we arrived at the RF end of the bullpens. That's where we met up again with Harrison:
I told Harrison that I thought I had spotted a baseball in the back corner of the Phillies bullpen. In the picture above, if it was really a baseball, it would have been right below Tim (about 20 feet below) on the other side of the fence. When we looked over the fence, we couldn't see anything.
But when the RF seats opened and we made our way down to the pizza wedge…
…, there it was tucked under the padding on the back/side wall of the bullpen. It was right behind the home plates . It must have trickled by one of the catchers while a Phillies pitcher was warming up in the bullpen.
Since we already had two baseballs, we were really hoping that Harrison could manage to get his hands on that baseball in the bullpen, or the one on the RF grass.
Remember that one in RF that the Rockies pitcher had thrown? Well, it was still there. There was no one on the field. We just sat around chatting awhile.
Eventually, a groundskeeper-type guy started walking across RF on the warning track. When he was still way off, Harrison made his move and hollered to the groundskeeper about the baseball. The groundskeeper didn't say a word but started veering slightly into the grass:
It was clear that he was going to toss the baseball to Harrison. I was happy for him.
But then Harrison started walking closer to RF. "No, no, no!!," I thought to myself.
See the girl in the red shirt above? That's the same girl who was wearing purple in LF. Harrison walked down and stood right next to her because she was directly in front of the baseball. I am positive that the guy would have grabbed the ball and walked down to Harrison closer to CF to toss it to him with zero competition because Harrison is the one who asked the groundskeeper to toss up the baseball.
But when the groundskeeper tossed it up to Harrison (standing next to that girl), it flew too high and went right over both of them into the second row. And guess who got it in the scramble?
Not Harrison. Darn.
So Harrison turned his attention back to the baseball tucked under the padding in the bullpen. Unfortunately, the girl in red had the same plan. Meanwhile, with the game still two hour away (allegedly), the boys and I headed to the other side of the stadium and grabbed a huge heap of food for dinner:
That thing I got (bottom left above) was called "The Big Leaguer" or the "Major Leaguer" and, oh, boy, it was a lot of food. It was essentially a Rueben and a burger combined. Not my healthiest meal ever, but quite tasty.
It was 6:45 by the time we left McFadden's and headed back out to RF. The Tishlers were sitting under cover at the back of section 102. It was raining. We grabbed some seats with the Tishlers…
…relaxed a bit and shared in some conversation. This is what was happening on the field:
It wasn't raining like crazy, but there didn't appear to be any baseball in our immediate future.
When game time rolled around, the PA announcer announced that the Phillies were putting the Cardinals-Brewers game on the big screen:
We just kept sitting and chatting. The stadium started filling up a lot more. Just before 8 o'clock we saw something hilarious…
…an usher was standing and leaning against the SRO counter sleep-standing. Before I could snap her picture, she sat down slept some more.
We didn't know if we were going to see any baseball at all that day, but one thing was certain – there would be ice cream:
I should mention, as we sat in those seats under cover for hours, the young girl in the purple/red, was in constant movement circling the bullpen, looking at that baseball against the wall from every angle, and hoping and praying someone would come out and toss it to her. It was pretty hilarious. Meanwhile, Harrison was playing it cool waiting for his opportunity to get his hands on that baseball.
At around 8:10 p.m., a charge of excitement circled the stadium when a bunch of groundskeepers entered the field from the RF foul corner:
They headed toward the tarp and started sweeping the water off the sides of the tarp. I was hopeful there was baseball in the forecast. Kellan was ready for some Major League action:
When some groundskeepers headed out to the bullpens, Harrison sprang into action in his attempt to get his hands on that baseball in the bullpen. It was like a chess match with the young girl. It was a funny situation. Seth, Tim, Kellan and I were Harrison's pawns as he jockeyed for position along the back wall of the bullpen:
It was a lot of fun, but nothing came of it. A couple groundskeepers worked on the mound a bit, but they were busy and had no interested in walking to the other end of the bullpen to grab that baseball for Harrison.
The groundskeepers never took the tarp off the field. The Phillies never made any announcements. Time just kept ticking by as we made our way later and later into the baseball-less night.
Eventually, the Tischlers decided to call it a night. They were hoping the game would be postponed and they would be able to re-use the tickets for another night. Before they left, Tami took a couple pictures of me and to boys:
When they left, we decided to head over to the other side of the stadium to check out the team store. On our way, we stopped by section 117 and got our picture behind the Phillies dugout…
… and a panorama from the back of the section:
The boys had fun playing around in the team store:
I had never really realized there was an upstairs in the team store that is all kids' stuff. And, as a bonus, there was a big Phanatic statue up there:
It was nearly 10:00 p.m. by this time. We head been inside the stadium for five-and-a-half hours. Moments after the picture with the Phanatic statue, the PA announcer announced that the game had been postponed due to rain. It would be played the next day as the second half of a double-admission doubleheader.
The boys and I started to head toward the exits. As we made our way to the field level concourse, we saw Jesus Tiamo and someone else…maybe Mick Billmeyer, walking out to the bullpen. I figured we ought to head over there on our way out to see about that baseball that had been sitting in the bullpen all night. But they were in the bullpen for two minutes at most. By the time we were circling CF, Tiamo and his colleague were heading back toward the dugout:
I don't know why, but I decided to head back to the bullpen anyway. As we reached the concourse behind section 102, an usher told us the seats were closed. We hung out for a minute. And then someone in a Phillies uniform popped out of the dugout and walked down the warning track on the RF foul line:
We decided we'd waited around so long already that it couldn't hurt to wait around for a couple minutes more. After the guy stopped to chat with that other guy in the blue rain jacket, guess where he walked? That's right, right to the Phillies bullpen.
We waved him down and…
…he ran over to the corner and grabbed that elusive baseball and tossed it up to us.
Holy cow. I couldn't believe it.
The ball was SOAK and HEAVY. Tim and Kellan posed victoriously with the ball:
And as they were posing, we heard a yell from below. I looked down into the bullpen and it was the ballboy. He had found another, completely dry, baseball on the bullpen bench (or maybe sitting on one of the chairs), and he tossed it up to us too.
Thanks, guy!
By the way, the ball has dried out just fine.
And with that, we called it a night. On the rainy drive home, we discussed whether we should make the trip back to Philadelphia the next day for the make-up of this "game." Tim was all for it. We didn't have any other plans.
So…..on September 9, 2012, we made our way back down to Philadelphia hoping to see a baseball game.
There was a 1 o'clock game. Our game was supposed to start at 6 p.m., and the gates were supposed to start at 5 o'clock.
We went to another rain out in 2009 at Nationals Park and it was a nightmare trying to work with the Nationals to figure out how the make-up game would work. But it was completely different with Phillies. I called the Phillies in the morning to see if we could exchange our tickets for better seats. I was hoping for something in the front row in the outfield. They told us we could exchange tickets at the first base ticket office. So we planned to arrive around 4:30 p.m. to work out an exchange.
Here is a bad thing about having a double-admission doubleheader – parking. When we arrived at Citizens Bank Park, the first game had just ended and a huge stream of cars was flooding the exits. Here is the scene while a parking attendant was trying to create a lane to get us into the parking lot:
It took some work, but he managed to get us into the parking lot.
We were able to exchange our tickets in row 14 of section 104 for two tickets in the first row of section 103. I was pretty excited about that. We had never had front row seats at Citizens Bank Park.
We had plenty of time to kill before the gates opened. Since I knew there would be no BP and no early BP gate opening time for the LF gates, we decided to switch things up and get in line at the 1B gates right by the ticket office.
We past the time by playing catch outside the gates:
They opened up the gates and prepared to let us in just prior to 5 o'clock:
But then they made us wait 10-15 minutes more before they finally let people inside the stadium.
When they did, we headed out to the pizza wedge:
Check out all of the activity on the field:
So we grabbed some seats and relaxed:
Luckily, we had lots of practice sitting in the seats and relaxing from the night before, so we were pretty good at it!
Eventually, someone-or-other (a coach) came moseying on out toward the bullpen…
…and Phillies bullpen catcher Jesus Tiamo followed not too far behind.
When they made their way into the bullpen, Tiamo came over and tossed a reese's miniature peanut butter cup up to Tim. Then he walked over to the bench and rooted around in his equipment bag a bit…
…before he turned around again and tossed probably five baseballs into the stands. Tim got one, Kellan got one, that same girl from the night before (whose arm you can see as she stands behind Tim in that last picture) got another, plus a few other kids at the other end of the bullpen.
Double thanks, Jesus!
We headed over to the games in the RF concourse and Tim and Kellan showed off their prizes from Tiamo…
…and then they shared the little peanut butter cup.
Then we played a few games…
…and collected a few game stamps.
We headed over by the visitors' dugout before the game and that is where we were for the singing of the national anthem:
Check out our AWESOME front for seats:
The one and only bad thing about the seats is that we were trapped in the middle of a row sitting next to a mom and dad who had two kids that were obviously of ticket-needing age, but didn't have seats of their own. So we were packed in like sardines down there.
But check this out, Kellan was able to eat an ice cream helmet with his fingertips were *in play*:
Tim often times asks for an ice cream cone instead of an ice cream helmet. I very seldom agree, but I did at this game. And here is why I very seldom agree to the cone:
Those pictures don't do it justice. Tim looked and felt like he had been dipped in a huge bowl of melted ice cream. While both boys still manage to make a message while eating an ice cream helmet, the ice cream helmets really help cut down on the mess.
The game featured a match-up between Rockies rookie Drew Pomeranz and Phillies rookie Tyler Cloyd. Both gave up one hit in their respective half of the first inning, but escaped without giving up any runs. I tried to capture Chase Utley's first inning single, but I missed it and had to settle for this shot of him retreating to first after taking an aggressive turn toward second:
I did, however, get an action show of Tim:
Meanwhile, Kellan was just chilling and watching some baseball:
The Phillies scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning. The only action shot I got of it was Dominic Brown swinging and missing en route to a strike out:
Just before Brown's strikeout, Ty Wiggington hit a double. Immediately after Brown's strikeout, Michael Martinez hit a single to CF to score Wiggington.
Soon thereafter, I had to take another panorama from out seats because the sky looked pretty cool:
There was an empty seat right behind us so the boys could stand right on the fence…
…and be right on top of the action.
While standing there, Tim decided he should give Kellan lessons on how to "look cool" while leaning against a fence. This was Tim's *coolest* pose:
Cloyd had a rough inning in the top of the third and Rockies came charging back. Dexter Fowler, Jordan Pacheco and Tyler Colvin loaded the bases with three singles. The Rockies then took a 2-1 lead on Ramon Hernandez's 2-RBi single to CF. Hernandez was followed by Chris Nelson…
…who took a causal stroll around the bags after hitting a 2-Run homerun to LF to make the score 4-1 Rockies. Check out Chase Ultey in the bottom
Even with great seats, if it is just me and the boys, we're not going to spend the whole game sitting in one place. We do a decent job of it when joined by my Colleen or my folks. But when it is just the three of us, we like to be on the move during a game. So after three innings in these wonderful front row seats, we took off for the play area:
Once again, Tim did a great job chaperoning Kellan through the big kid playarea.
After the play area, we headed over to the RF concourse and played some more games:
If you get enough stamps in your stamp book (they had out a little paper stamp book when you play your first game of the day), you get to cash the stamps in for a prize. Tim got enough stamps to get a bunch of Citizens Bank Park pencils and that Phillies megaphone shown above to the right. And that megaphone would provide a lot of entertainment over the course of the rest of the game.
Next up, we hit Chickie's & Pete's…
and got some (seafoodless) "Crab Fries":
The fries were super salty with the special seasoning, and they were mighty tasty. We were in line at Chickie's & Pete's when Ryan Howard hit 2-unearned-run-RBI single that hit the RF wall right below our seats. It would have been very exciting had we been sitting in our seats instead of standing in line for fries.
Anyway, Howard was thrown out at second trying to stretch his hit into a double. That ended the inning with the score 4-3 Rockies.
Even though our seats were amazingly awesome, we never returned to them. You see, the crowd was thin in the RF seats and this was our first and best opportunity ever to sit in section 101 (or, as we call it, the pizza wedge). Section 101 is really cool because it is a little pizza wedge shaped peninsula between RCF and the Phillies bullpen.
Here is a panoramic view of what it looked like from our seats in row six of the pizza wedge:
Row 6 is only four seats across. I sat in the first seat in from the aisle, Tim sat in the seats on the fence (on the bullpen) and Kellan primarily sat on my lap, stood next to the fence, or sat in my arms as stood watching the game (including a period of several minutes during which I held Kellan and puffed up my cheeks so he could repeatedly smash my cheeks are hard as he could).
The second half of the game was good for the home team, but it was even more fun for us because we were sitting in the pizza wedge. The boys took turns (maybe not as much as Kellan would have liked)…
…screaming through the megaphone.
A lot of that megaphone yelling was directed toward Tim's buddy, Jesus Tiamo:
It was pretty hilarious. From the home plates in the Phillies bullpen, it is impossible to see anything happening on the field. The Phillies used seven pitchers in this game and it seemed like Tiamo was constantly warming up the next reliever.
The Phillies scored two runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh inning to take a 7-4 lead. Each time the Phillies scored a run, Tim hopped to his feet and turned back toward Tiamo behind the bullpen plate and megaphoned to him, "JESUS, YOUR TEAM JUST SCORED AGAIN!"
The funniest part of the night was when Jimmy Rollins hit a single in the bottom of the seventh. The hit sent Carlos Ruiz to 3B and Kevin Fransden to 2B. However, Tim thought Ruiz continued running and scored. He hopped to his feet and shouted:
TODD: "No, they didn't. Ruiz stopped at third."
It was pretty hilarious. And, while you might think it would have annoyed Tiamo (as my wife later suggested), that was far from the case. It was really amazing. I am estimating that Jesus waved and smiled at Tim and Kellan at least twenty times. AT LEAST!
At times, it seemed like he was waving at them between every pitch he caught in the bullpen.
And when Tiamo finished catching Phillipe Aumont in the bottom of the seventh inning (just before the former-Mariner Aumont pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning for the Phillies), Tiamo tossed Tim Aumont's warm up baseball. And that resulted in another cool moment. Tiamo's toss was a high looping lob. I thought it was going to sail over and out of Tim's reach so I came in behind him to catch the ball for him. But Tim reached up as high as he could and our gloves came together in the air, high above Tim's head, and Tim came down with the ball in an absolute snow-cone catch. It was pretty awesome!
Tim thanked Jesus and then posed with the ball as Jesus walked back to the bench:
Thanks again and again and again, Jesus!
Here's something interesting we had never noticed before, the Phillies have a little office refrigerator outside their bullpen bathroom:
During the eighth inning, Jesus warmed up the final Phillies pitcher of the night, Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon:
Papelbon was the winning pitcher in the first game of the doubleheader. So he was gunning for a rare 1 win, 1 save day. Papelbon gave up a 2-out souble to Dexter Fowler, but otherwise had no trouble shutting the door on the Rockies.
Phillies win 7-4:
As the team celebrated and the few remaining guys in the bullpen headed out to the field to join in the victory celebration, Jesus Tiamo turned back and gave Tim and Kellan a final smile and wave "good-night!" Jesus and the megaphone definitely made it a unique fun night.
Before we headed for our car, a nice usher that we had chatted with a bit recently took one final picture of us in the pizza wedge:
Fun times.
2012 C&S Fan Stats
|24/22 Games (Tim/Kellan)
|18/17 Teams – Tim – Mariners, Rockies, Phillies, Mets, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Braves; Kellan – Mariners, Rockies, Marlins, Nationals, Athletics, Orioles, Mets, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates, Braves
|40 Ice Cream Helmet(s) – Mariners 5, Phillies 7, Orioles 5, Mets 2, Twins 2, Cardinals 3, Royals 2, Rockies 3, Red Sox 2, Pirates 3, Nationals 2, Marlins 4
|1 Ice Cream Glove! – Nationals
|136 Baseballs – Mariners 22, Marlins 7, Mets 21, Nationals 8, Phillies 5, Umpires 6, Orioles 13, Athletics 2, Diamondbacks 4, Blue Jays 1, Twins 1, Cubs 7, Cardinals 1, Royals 6, Red Sox 6, Rays 10, Pirates 3, Rockies 4, Braves 1
|22 Commemorative Baseball(s) – Marlins Park 2, Mets 50th Anniversary 2, Camden Yards 9, Dodger Stadium 4, Fenway Park 1, Shea Stadium '08 2, Nationals Park '08 2
|12/12 Stadiums – Tim – Safeco Field, Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park, Marlins Park; Kellan – Safeco Field, Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park, Citizens Bank Park, Marlins Park8/1 Mascots Photos – Tim – Mariners Moose (2), Sluggerrr, Teddy Roosevelt, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Oriole Bird (2); Kellan – Fredbird
|7/2 Player Photos – Tim – Ricky Bones, Willie Bloomquist, Jeremy Guthrie, Evan Scribner, Stephen Pryor, Shawn Kelley, Scott Cursi; Kellan – Willie Bloomquist, Stephen Pryor
|2 Batting Gloves – Ronnie Deck
|9 Autographs – Willie Bloomquist 2, Tim Byrdak, Brian Roberts, Munenori Kawasaki, Evan Scribner, Felix Hernandez, Shawn Kelley, Steven Pryor, Josh Kinney
A Scorcher In The Nation's Capital (7/7/2012)
After much internal debate about where to go and what to do, we eventually decided to head to Nationals Park on July 7, 2012, to see the Rockies take on the Nationals. I had originally planned to take the boys to Cleveland with my buddy Greg. But it ended up looking like that plan couldn't happen. Then Garrett Meyer gave a tip about how to get some free tickets to a Nationals game, so I picked this game so we could see Jamie Moyer. Unfortunately, the Rockies designated Moyer for assignment long before this game happened and he is now toiling away in the Minor Leagues for the Blue Jays.
But, anyway, we had free tickets to the Rockies vs. Nationals. And since he had originally planned to join us this weekend in Cleveland, our buddy Greg decided to join us in DC.
I was confused about what would be happening before this game. It was listed as "photo day" on the Nationals' promotional schedule. It explained that the stadium would open 3.5 hours early (12:30 p.m.) and fans could go on the warning track in the outfield to get pictures with the Nationals between 1:30 and 2:45. The game wasn't scheduled to start until 4:05 so I was confused if BP was going to take place during the photo day festivities. I asked Jeremy Guthrie about it on twitter, and he mentioned that BP was scheduled to take place on the field but he wasn't sure how it would really play out.
When we arrived at the ballpark at 1:00 p.m., there were already some fans on the field. The field was not set up for BP and I was thinking, "Wow, 2:45 to 4:05 is a long time between the end of photo day and beginning of the game if there is no BP!"
Wouldn't you know, Jeremy Guthrie was standing in shallow LF right where we entered the field. I called out to him and asked if they were going to take BP.
Oh, well. What can you do? Make the best if it!
Guthrie was standing there with a baseball waiting for his partner to come play catch. I told him that I'd play catch with him since he didn't have a partner.
"Sure, I'll play catch with you was his response." Greg snapped this picture…
…on his phone while Guthrie and I played catch until his partner arrived on the scene. It didn't last very long. But it was my first time playing catch with a Major Leaguer and it was pretty darn cool.
Thanks, Jeremy!
By the way, Jeremy's last throw to me was a pretty decent knuckleball. I told him the best I could do was a pretty weak split-finger gripped knuckleball. I let it fly and Guthrie got a good chuckle at my attempted knuckler.
After playing catch with Guthrie, I got a picture of Greg and the boys on the warning track:
I was hoping that Guthrie would toss us the baseball we played catch with after he finished throwing with his partner. But he ended up playing catch with two different kids at the same time (using two different baseballs) and gave both baseballs to the kids. But we did get a nice consolation prize, a picture with Guthrie:
I think that picture turned out to be pretty hilarious for a couple reasons. First, Kellan has his back to the camera and Greg is starting to walk into the picture to get Kellan to turn around. I take so many pictures that I don't strive for perfection. Kellan often times doesn't look at the camera and I don't really like to waste a Major Leaguer's time trying to get Kellan to turn around if he doesn't do it on his own. Second, Tim is looking off camera at a girl who tried to get into our picture. It was pretty funny. Guthrie was clearly trying to get a picture with us, but this gal walked right up and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Guthrie. When she turned and looked at a guy holding a camera, Guthrie politely explained that he would get a picture with her after he posed for our picture. So she walked away, but Tim was still looking at her when I snapped the picture. So sometimes a less perfect picture tells a better story and helps us remember exactly what was happening when we took the picture.
I should mention that Mateo Fischer met up with us when we were watching Guthrie warm up.
After getting the picture with Guthrie, we all decided to head out into the outfield. We stopped at the LF foul pole and got a picture of Tim and Greg with the "336" signs:
Greg took a picture of me and the boys in front of the visitors' bullpen in LF:
For good measure, I got a picture of Greg leaning against the wall by the "377" sign as Kellan wandered off toward CF:
We all caught up to Kellan and I got this picture of our little group:
Have you noticed in all of these pictures that Tim is holding a bright yellow squirt bottle? He's holding the squirt bottle because it was supposed to be (and was) 100+ degrees at this game. I generally do not acknowledge or pay any attention to the weather, at least to future weather. So when my wife kept mentioning during the week that it was supposed to be really hot at this game, I didn't pay it much mind. But the night before the game, we went to the store and bought Tim a squirt bottle to help us all keep cool.
We weren't the only ones prepared with a water squirter. As we walked by the opening in the CF wall where they store the batting cage and other stuff, an usher-type-guy told us there was a cooling station back there through the opening in the wall.
We were all for exploring this uncharted territory at Nationals Park. So we headed into the store area…
…and found a some spare grass for replacing damaged grass on the field, a big pile of extra warning track dirt, a garage full of various types of equipment, and a couple fans blowing water on us fans:
Oh, yeah. We also found a random brick behind the LF wall that the "Carolina Green Corp" built Nationals Park in 2007.
We ended up spending a lot of time in this shady area. We kept coming back again-and-again to hide in the shade and take advantage of the mist-blowing fans.
But after our first visit to the cooling station, we continued on our way toward the RF foul pole. The RF wall at Nationals Park features a large out of town scoreboard that we got to check out up-close-and-personal:
The Mariners' position in the A.L. West cellar meant they were low enough on the wall that we could get our picture with our team:
I've noticed if I take two consecutive pictures, often times, Tim will look at the camera in one and Kellan will look at the camera in the other. Here is a great example of the this phenomenon by the Nationals' bullpen:
After we made it to the RF foul line, we headed up into the seats. We found a shady spot in the second-to-last row where Tim could unload his water squirter in Greg's face…
…and we could do some in-stadium birding.
When we made it up into the stands, the Nationals really started circling the ballpark in earnest. Two players would come out at a time and begin a big lap around. Mateo ran back down to the field before the rest of us. We watched on from above as love-him-or-hate-him rookie, Bryce Harper…
…made his way down the RF foul line sporting a clown shirt. Oh, by the way, now-a-days everyone who is originally elected to the all-star game bags out on it on some feigned injury or whatnot and is then replaced by a far less deserving player. On this date, Bryce Harper (and his 62-games of MLB experience) was named to the NL All-Star team.
After cooling off in the shady seats for a while, we headed back down to the field. We all headed out to CF and split time between the cooling station and the warning track.
Tim shook hands with and even got to spray several big leaguers in the face. Here he is with Craig Stammen, Jordan Zimmerman and Ross Detwiler:
BTW, credit for identifying all of these Nationals (none of whom looked the slightest bit familiar to me) goes to Mateo. Thanks!
Here is a guy I did recognize, Mr. Too-Cool-For-School (And-The-Fans), Jayson Werth:
Notice the large padding he kept of empty grass between himself and the fans. In that picture to the left, he was saying something to Tim along the lines of, "Oh, no thanks, spray yourself!"
A few Nats were standoffish like Werth, but most were very cool. Here are a couple more of the cool variety – Henry Rodriguez, Rick Ankiel and Adam LaRoche:
Ankiel was one of the few I recognized and the only one with whom I shook hands. LaRoche received a multiple-squirt facial attack from Tim. I should note that Tim only squirted the players who specifically asked to be squirted. I think there were four such players in total.
After a while I pointed out the indoor restaurant at the Red Porch to Greg and said, "Do you want to go in there and see if they have air conditioning going? He pounced at the suggestion so we started heading over to the LF line to exit the field.
On our way, we met Terrance…
…who I personally believe is the No. 1 hype-guy in all of MLB. I've seen Terrance working at Nationals games for years and the dude goes all full-force in and all-out attempt to rally the troops.
After this picture, he turned to Tim and asked, "IS YOUR NATITUDE IGNITED!"
Tim, showing an utter lack of Natitude, was like, "Whaaaat?"
And then Terrance noted that Tim most be too full of Marinertude to ignite any Natittude. It was a keen observation.
Once we reached the concourse I noticed something that was just calling out for a picture:
Tim is acting like the Nats pig is a sweaty Nats player and his cooling him off with a blast of water to the eyes.
On our way to the Red Porch, Greg stopped to buy some food. Mateo, the boys and I went ahead and found that the Red Porch restaurant was packed to the rafters. There was no chance to get inside. But there were a bunch of couches behind the restaurant that were all in the shade. So we grabbed one…
…and waited for Greg.
Once Greg arrived, I put him in charge of the boys (including, to Tim's great delight, Mateo), and headed off to grab some nachos. But a funny thing happened on the way to get our food. All of the fans were off the field by this point, and I noticed that a couple Rockies pitchers were coming out to warm up down the LF line.
We had been inside the ballpark for about two hours and had zero baseballs to show for it. Kellan has NEVER been to a game without getting at least one baseball and I really wanted to keep that streak alive for him (btw, this was his 22nd game of his life). Instead of going to get the food, I headed back to the Red Porch and without saying a word to anyone (wink, wink…Mateo), I grabbed my backpack and Kellan and headed back to the LF line.
Three groups of Rockies pictures were playing catch and Drew Pomeranz was signing autographs at the corner spot. Kellan and I walked down by Pomeranz but stayed about 10 feet from the group of autograph seekers.
When he finished signing and started walking off, I called out, "Hey, Drew." He hadn't even started to warm up yet and he clearly thought I was going to ask for one more autograph. Instead I asked him, "Hey, when you finish warming up, is there any chance you could toss your warm up ball over for this little guy?" Pomeranz responded with a non-committal but encouraging-toned, "Possibly." He then ran over to the bullpen and started doing arm exercises with some stretchy bands.
Meanwhile, the first group of Rockies pitchers finished playing catch. Rex Brothers was on the CF side of the pair and he ended up holding the ball. He spotted us in the first row behind his partner (Josh Roenicke) and tossed the ball right to us.
Thanks, Rex!
Kellan and I immediately bolted of the there and headed for the nacho stand. On the way, I snapped this picture…
…and texted it to Mateo.
When Kellan and I reached the couches at the Red Porch, I was not surprised at all to find that Mateo was long gone. Greg reported that he high-tailed it out of there the second he received my text.
Let me tell you, those nachos were delicious:
We had a great time eating, high fiving and squirting water all around in the shade.
But when we finished our nachos, we were all running low on water. We had 3-4 20 ounce water bottles and we must have filled each of them up 10-15 times throughout the day. We were constantly drinking water or having me pour it all over the boys' heads. Anyway, with our water running low, we decided to head back to the water fountain in the 3B-side concourse.
Tim and Greg walked straight to the water fountains. I told them that Kellan and I would meet up with them after cutting through the stands to see what was going on down on the field.
Wouldn't you know, Mateo was down there watching the onlwith our water running low, we decided to head back to the water fountain in the 3B-side concourse.
Tim and Greg walked straight to the water fountains. I told them that Kellan and I would meet up with them after cutting through the stands to see what was going on down on the field.
Mateo was down there watching the only remaining Rockies pitcher playing catch. And wouldn't you know, it was Drew Pomeranz and he was just about to finish his warm-ups. Like Brothers, Pomeranz was on the CF side of his partner. When he finished playing catch, he looked up, spotted us, and tossed us the baseball. Thereby turning his prior "possibly" into a "sure thing!" It all looked sort of like this:
Thanks, Drew!
Kellan and I again immediately took off for the concourse. Greg, who has never got a baseball at a game before (but hopefully will by the time this season is over!), was amazed when we showed up at the water fountain with a second baseball in hand.
As we finished topping off our water bottles, we spotted some Presidential looking fellas in the concourse. We headed over there and Tim and Greg got pictures with George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt:
After 45 seconds in the sun with the Presidents, we headed back to the shade:
Eventually, Tim ran down to the front row to hang out with Mateo:
See the guy in the red Nationals jersey out in CF in that last picture. That was Nationals coach Jim Lett. I pointed him out to Greg and told him that Lett would most likely throw us a baseball by the time this game concluded.
Once the final Rockies pitcher left, we decided it was time to visit the air conditioned team store…
…it felt like pure heaven in there. We came back later for more.
It was game time. We had some great seats in section 135 down the 1B line. But it was way to sunny and hot in the seats. So we headed over to section 137 and hung out in the shady seats toward the back of the section. This was our view for the first several innings:
Immediately before the first inning started, Kellan and I walked over to the railing looking down into the Nationals bullpen. There was only one player in there and he grabbed some stuff…
…and headed out the big door way that you can see in the bottom right corner of that last picture. I think all of the Nats relieves were hiding out back there. Who knows. Maybe they were in the dugout and only planned to come out to the bullpen if needed in the game.
Anyway, there was only one guy left and it was the aforementioned Jim Lett. He was out in RF playing catch with right fielder (and former Mariner) Mike Morse. When he and Morse finished, Lett collected the LF-CF warm up ball (used by Bryce Harper and Tyler Moore), and then he tossed us one of those baseballs (not sure which warm up ball it was) as we stood right behind the RF foul pole.
Thanks, Jim!
The Nationals had 2012 All-Star Gio Gonzalez on the hill:
He pitched a very solid game.
My cellphone told me that it was mighty hot and was gonna stay that way all night:
Even though the boys really aren't fans of the heat, they did great and had a lot of fun in the shade with the water squirter:
When Bryce Harper came to the plate in the bottom of the first, my camera and I were all set to see what all of the hype is about. Instead, the young phenom strike out looking on a pitch he clearly thought was a ball, hang there hanging his head for a good 5 seconds without moving, and then do a world class pouty, slouchy walk…
…back to the dugout. So, yeah, in our first Bryce Harper at bat, Harper demonstrated his youth much more than his All-Star caliber skills.
The first scoring of the game came in the bottom of the second inning when Ian Desmond hit a solo homerun to RF.
And we just kept having fun…
…playing and squirting water every which-a-way in the shady seats. In those last pictures, Kellan is smiling at laughing at Greg who was making faces and what-not to entertain Kellan.
Harper's second at bat came in the bottom of the third inning and resulted in a groundout:
Greg bought a big all-you-can-eat popcorn. Tim requested a picture posing with "the smallest piece of popcorn" of all time:
Eventually, we decided to relocate to the 3B line, which was completely shaded. On our way, we stopped off once again at the air conditioned team store:
When we left the team store, we decided to head to the upper deck instead of going to the 3B side. Greg had been to Nationals Park once before, but had never visited the upper deck. I old him it featured a nice view of the Capitol building. And I wasn't lying:
After Tim and Greg got a picture behind home plate…
…, we grabbed some ice cream and reported to the seats at the top of section 408:
On our walk up the section 408 stairs, I almost had an ugly spill. I was holding Kellan in my left arm, and his ice cream helmet in my right hand. As I ascended the stairs, I kicked the stair and tripped. Kellan's ice cream helmet went flying. I started to fall and drop Kellan, but then I caught myself and Kellan on the way down. It wasn't pretty and probably scared the pants off of Kellan. Luckily, the little guy escaped the incident unscathed.
Hopefully that is my last time I ever trip while holding one of my boys!
Anyway, I should mention that the Rockies scored a run in the top of the fourth inning to tie up the game at 1-1.
While Kellan enjoyed his ice cream helmet, Tim enjoyed his very first ICE CREAM GLOVE!
Check that thing out! I've never seen one of those before. It is a little left handed catcher's glove designed to receive a generous portion of your favorite frozen refreshment. The only knock of I on the ice cream glove is that didn't have a Nationals logo or anything to show that we got it at Nationals Park.
Despite the single run for the Rockies in the fourth, Gio Gonzalez was still pitching quite effectively:
Kellan had a whole lot of chocolate left on him after he finished his ice cream:
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Nats took control of the game thanks to some horrendous play by the Rockies. Danny Espinosa led off the inning with a double. Harper followed with a single on this swing:
Harper demonstrated some terrible baserunning. He tried to take second and should have been thrown out. Instead, he headed back to first. The Rockies should have thrown him out, but no one covered first. Although no error was given on the play, we'll call that a mental error by the Rockies because they failed to take advantage of Harper's bad baserunning.
Ryan Zimmerman followed Harper with an RBI single:
With Harper on first, new Rockies pitcher Josh Roenicke threw a pitch in the dirt. Zimmerman advanced to second on the play. He was going to make second easily. There was absolutely no way he was going to be thrown out. But when Zimmerman was about ten feet from second base, Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario made a horrible decision to throw to second. Rushing the throw, he air mailed the ball into CF allowing Harper to trot home for the second Nats run of the inning.
While all of this was happening, we were sitting maybe four rows from the top of the stadium. I told Greg that he would be able to see the Washington Monument if he went up to the top row. He headed up there and reported he couldn't see it. I was like, "What? Are you blind? Its right over there…"
Oops…that's a new building over there and it completely blocks what used to be a view of the Washington Monument. Too bad.
A few minute later, Ian Desmond grounded into a fielder's choice:
With two outs and runners on 1B and 3B, Roenicke tried to pick Ian Desmond off of 1B. Instead, he tossed the ball into the 1B dugout. Zimmerman trotted home on the play with the third run of the inning.
That made the score 4-1 Nationals. That score would hold up for the rest of the game.
After the lengthy bottom of the sixth inning, we relocated to some shady seats down the 3B line, all the way out by the LF foul pole. Here was our view from the back of section 108:
We could see Terrance doing his thing in the first row:
The highlight of the rest of the game was this Bryce Harper ground out:
Or, wait…no, the highlight was hanging out with my boys (and Greg)…
…and continuing to douse them with bottle after bottle of water from the trusty water fountain.
In the top of the ninth, the "Giambino" (one of my least favorite baseball nicknames) strikeout:
The Rockies just couldn't get anything going. One batter later, the game was over…
…and Screech the Eagle was climbing up on his perch to wave the "W" flag as the Nats ignited the crowd's Natitude (but nore ours).
On our way out of the stadium, a nice guy took our picture in the LF concourse:
For his payment for taking that picture, Tim was required to squirt him in the face with his water squirter.
And there you go. Another fun day at the ballpark.
2012 C&S Fan Stats
|14/12 Games (Tim/Kellan)
|17/16 Teams – Tim – Mariners, Rockies, Phillies, Mets, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates; Kellan – Mariners, Rockies, Marlins, Nationals, Athletics, Orioles, Mets, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Twins, Cubs, Cardinals, Royals, Red Sox, Rays, Pirates
|21 Ice Cream Helmet(s) – Phillies 2, Orioles 1, Mets 2, Twins 2, Cardinals 3, Royals 2, Rockies 3, Red Sox 2, Pirates 3, Nationals 1
|1 Ice Cream Glove! – Nationals
|78 Baseballs – Mariners 9, Marlins 4, Mets 8, Nationals 2, Phillies 5, Umpires 6, Orioles 6, Athletics 1, Diamondbacks 4, Blue Jays 1, Twins 1, Cubs 7, Cardinals 1, Royals 6, Red Sox 6, Rays 6, Pirates 3, Rockies 2
|11 Commemorative Baseball(s) – Marlins Park, Mets 50th Anniversary 2, Camden Yards 3, Dodger Stadium 4, Fenway Park 1
|10/9 Stadiums – Tim – Citizens Bank Park, Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park; Kellan – Nationals Park, Camden Yards, Citi Field, Target Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Coors Field, Fenway Park, PNC Park4/1 Mascots Photos – Tim – Sluggerrr, Teddy Roosevelt, Abe Lincoln, George Washington; Kellan – Fredbird
|3/1 Player Photos – Tim – Ricky Bones, Willie Bloomquist, Jeremy Guthrie; Kellan – Willie Bloomquist
|2 Batting Gloves – Ronnie Deck
|5 Autographs – Willie Bloomquist 2, Tim Byrdak, Brian Roberts, Munenori Kawasaki


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The Museum of Contraception and Abortion (Vienna) English website: http://en.muvs.org/
Dittrick-hosted events mentioned on PPNEO website: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ppneo/event-recap-29383.htm
Let's talk about sex! Speaking of Sex is Planned Parenthood's award-winning podcast and videocast that takes a fun, yet informative, look at sexuality and its important role in our life and relationships. Using humor and creativity, Speaking of Sex takes on the challenge of educating and exploring the full range of questions everyone has about sexual health. From encouraging partner communication to reducing stigma and shame, Speaking of Sex will help you protect your health and have fun.
See list of all episodes here:
and the Northeastern Ohio episode here:
John Campanelli and Dale Omori: Full Cleveland Tour of Contraceptive Museum
Emma Goldman Papers; Goldman was an anarchist and an early advocate of contraception.
Dr. Gregory Goodwin Pincus: Father of "The Pill" http://www.fau.edu/library/br138.htm
Margaret Sanger Papers Project http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/
The Midwest Teen Sex Show http://midwestteensexshow.com/
Guest curator of the Dittrick contraception exhibit, Jimmy Wilkinson Meyer
Planned Parenthood: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/birthcontrol/fact-020709-contraception-history.xml
Sopia Smith Collection, Womens History Archives at Smith College
United Nations Population Fund http://www.unfpa.org/
Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, The History of Birth Control, by Kathleen London:
German language
The Museum of Contraception and Abortion (Vienna) http://www.verhuetungsmuseum.at/
If you find a link on this page is not working or you have suggestions for links
(non-commercial and on topic) send them to the Web Master.

subset: commoncrawl


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Providing for the safety of both horse and rider in the sport of eventing is one of the primary goals of the USEA, and education is vital to the achievement that goal. The purpose of this page is to keep our members apprised of the very latest developments in safety. See the latest news on the right hand side of the page.
For years, the USEA has taken the lead when it comes to providing education about all aspects of training and competing safely in eventing. Below are just some of the ways that the USEA is spearheading safety in the sport:
Rules and Regulations for Horse and Rider Safety
The USEA, in collaboration with the USEF Eventing Committee (formerly the USEF Eventing Technical Committee), has proposed many of the safety rules now in place at competitions such as:
Research Studies
The USEA has and continues to financially support safety and horse welfare studies. Learn more about the research studies here.
Certified Instructors for Eventing
Training and Education for Eventing Officials and Course Designers


text: Used Cars Harrogate Search for your next Used Car Make Choose a make... Abarth Alfa Romeo Aston Martin Audi BMW Chevrolet Citroen Dacia DAF DS Ferrari Fiat Ford Honda Hyundai Infiniti Isuzu Jaguar Jeep Kia Land Rover Lexus Maserati Mazda Mercedes-Benz MG Motor UK MINI Mitsubishi Nissan Peugeot Porsche Renault SEAT Skoda Smart Ssangyong Subaru Suzuki Toyota Vauxhall Volkswagen Volvo Model Choose a model… Min Price Min price (£) 1001 2001 3001 4001 5001 6001 7001 8001 9001 10001 11001 12001 13001 14001 16001 18001 20001 25001 30001 40001 50001 75001 100001 200001 300001 400001 Max Price Max price (£) 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000 12000 13000 14000 16000 18000 20000 25000 30000 40000 50000 75000 100000 200000 300000 400000 700000 Postcode Please enter a valid postcode 21,263 vehicles match your search View vehicles We'll bring your chosen car to Harrogate If you are looking for a variety of used cars in Harrogate, Evans Halshaw can help you find the car that is right for you. With a range of different makes and models, we aim to provide a variety of second hand cars in Harrogate, and with our move me closer service, you aren't restricted by location, as we can move any of our used cars nearest to you. Coupled with our price guarantee, we try to take the stress away from searching by constantly reviewing and updating our vehicles to offer you the best price for your used car. Explore online our used cars for sale in Harrogate, you can find out more by calling our experts at Evans Halshaw on 0333 323 6434. Why not try our Move me closer service? Try our move me closer service, and benefit from our whole used car range across the UK. It's easy, just search our used car offers, find a car you want, submit your Move Me Closer request by clicking the button under the 'Location' section of the page, pay a £200 refundable transfer fee and have it moved to your nearest location. View and test drive the vehicle, if you are happy with the car we can then continue with the purchase. Find out more Price Guarantee Our dedicated used car team are constantly reviewing our used car prices to make sure that we're the most competitive on the market. Our goal is to make sure we offer all our customers the best possible price for their ideal used car. To ensure this happens, we have developed a Price Guarantee in order to provide peace of mind when it comes to purchasing a car. If you can find a similar car at a competitor dealer within five days, we will refund the price difference. * Move Me Closer We'll move your vehicle closer to you Find out more Sell Your Car Request a free online valuation of your car Get valuation Servicing Quality car servicing that suits your budget Book online Find Your Nearest Dealer With over 140 locations throughout the UK Find a dealership


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I cleaned everything out of here. I'm not going to be able to check on the forums for some time so if I'm not in here neither are you. So there! If I see anything in here I'll delete it.
Everyone who posted in here has been notified and we chat in real life anyway so it's not that big of a deal.
To anyone else, go post in Off Topic Junk or General Discussion. More exciting there anyway.
Be back in a few weeks. . . or months.


text: Unsurpassed wearing comfort is a given with the all-new IGNITE evoKNIT and its form-fitting, mid-height knitted upper. A TPU piece and support strap stabilize the heel by locking it onto the platform, while seamlessly bonded overlays increase comfort and fit. Mounted on the classical IGNITE tooling for maximum energy return.


text:
Nicolas Copernicus was a cautious man in an era when darkness shadowed brilliant flashes of insight and discovery. His painstaking calculations that showed the sun is fixed and the earth revolves around it directly contradicted religious dogma. The Church was furiously trying to stamp out the Lutheran heretics and Copernicus was himself a canon of the Church, dependent on it for his livelihood and position. He was also something of a perfectionist about presenting his revolutionary findings to the world.
Dava Sobel dramatizes the discoveries and the eventual publication of Copernicus' work in A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. It is, like her other recreations of the scientific breakthroughs that changed how we see things, deeply researched and imaginatively rendered. Copernicus seems to have been a pretty nice guy—smart, brave, responsible, diplomatic, humble, socially savvy, addicted to eclipses and stargazing, and possessed of unshakeable integrity.
The late 15th-early 16th century world he lived in was full of intrigue, power grabs, treachery and hardship but it also contained dazzling scholars, clear night skies, a predisposition to inquiry and a useful hunger for fame and glory that Copernicus could turn to his own advantage. When a young scholar shows up at his door, looking to persuade him to publish his massive heliocentric opus, the aging astronomer's reluctance to stir up a hornet's nest of ridicule and protest has met its match.
Sobel inserts a two-act play in the center of this book. Based on the real correspondence of Copernicus and his peers, the play portrays what might have happened between the two men and among the clergy and political forces in Poland at the time. Copernicus' mistress, his bishop, canonical colleagues and the German mathematics professor, Georg Joachim Rheticus, are vivid characters. Sobel creates a believable scenario of how the younger man overcame Copernicus' objections and eventually helped him to publish the ideas and proofs that would send the world spinning in space.
Dava Sobel delivers another good read about an important scientist who most people know as a name and a theory, if at all. Science is fascinating when it is located in its real narrative, even if the gaps in the story are necessarily filled in by intelligent invention.
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos Dava Sobel | Walker & Company 2011


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While financial planning for same-sex couples living in a state that recognizes their marriage just got easier with the Supreme Court's overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act Wednesday, advisors and attorneys say lots of same-sex planning issues remain unresolved.
The benefit of the Supreme Court striking down DOMA "is still pretty narrow," says Anna Pfaehler, a CFP and advisor at Palisades Hudson Financial Group in Scarsdale, N.Y., who advises same-sex couples.
While the high court's striking down of DOMA gives same-sex couples who marry the same federal benefits as straight couples, the ruling also preserved individual state laws on the issue, Pfaehler notes.
"For some very basic cases" the Supreme Court's decision "makes financial planning easier," but "it didn't solve a lot of the problems [involved] with more difficult" same-sex planning cases, Pfaehler says. Planning for same-sex couples is "still kind of a mess."
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the portion of DOMA that bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in a state. As it stands now, "legally married gay men and women are entitled to claim the same federal benefits — such as social security survivor benefits—and are subject to the same Federal burdens — such as the so called 'marriage penalty' — available to opposite-sex married couples," says John Olivieri, a partner with the law firm White & Case, who advises same-sex couples on how they should structure their estates.
Olivieri notes that "there are more than 1,000 federal laws, programs and benefits where one's marital status is relevant." Previously, he says, "people in a same-sex marriage were not considered 'married' for federal purposes. Now they are."
But individual state laws — specifically in those states that don't recognize gay marriage — can still cause significant planning headaches for same-sex couples. "For couples that are living in states that don't permit same-sex marriage, they will still be in the same situation they were in before" the Supreme Court ruling, says Nicole Pearl, a partner in the Los Angeles office of McDermott Will & Emery, who focuses on estate and wealth transfer planning and marital property agreements.
For same-sex couples who live in the 12 states that recognize same-sex marriage—not including California, which could change soon as the Supreme Court declined on Wednesday to decide a case involving California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage—the DOMA ruling brought some real benefits.
As Pfaehler explains, a same-sex couple who were married and living in New York could now file a joint state and federal tax return, and if one partner died without a will, the other partner "would be entitled to receive some of the property." Also, in gifting from one partner to another, the recipient would not have to pay federal gift tax now, she says. "With DOMA repealed, a married, same-sex partner has the same rights as any spouse would. Therefore, you can now transfer property to your (married) partner free of federal gift tax." Both Pearl and Pfaehler agree that the "transitional" issues that come with same-sex marriages can be the most challenging.
"What about the [same-sex] couple who lives in New York and then decides to move to another state that doesn't allow same-sex marriage?" Pearl asks. "Is the federal government still going to recognize" their marriage? Estate and income tax issues also crop up in this scenario, she says. Then there's the couple who goes on vacation and gets married and then returns to a state that doesn't recognize gay marriage. Again, she asks, "Will the federal government recognize it?"
The answers, Pearl says, will likely come in federal regulation that has yet to be issued.
As to the tax and benefit implications of the Supreme Court ruling, Olivieri notes that "financially, it is not always beneficial to be considered married. For example, two-earner couples with high incomes will pay higher income taxes if they are married than if they were single."
However, he continues, "all things considered, the benefits outweigh the burdens. Although they may pay higher income taxes during life, when one spouse in a same-sex married couple dies, the surviving spouse will now be entitled to claim the so-called 'marital deduction' from the estate tax (which generally allows one spouse to leave an unlimited amount of property to the other spouse without estate or gift taxes) and to make a 'spousal rollover' of the deceased spouse's IRA or 401(k)."
Indeed, from a benefits perspective, the ruling's "broad impact" extends to matters such as spousal protections and rollover rights in retirement plans, the taxation of group health benefits, COBRA health coverage elections, special enrollment rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and leave rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, say Cathy Stamm and Valerie Grace of Mercer's Washington Resource Group.
In an alert issued Wednesday, both write that regarding employer action, the Supreme Court rulings in both DOMA and the high court's action vacating a 9th Circuit decision but leaving intact a U.S. district court decision declaring California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional take effect "immediately" and possibly even retroactively.
The two write that if "marital status affects the delivery of benefits to an employee's same-sex spouse or that spouse's child, employers may need to amend the plan's 'spouse' definition; reprogram tax reporting systems; and update enrollment forms, distribution election packages, tax notices, beneficiary designation forms, SPDs, and the like."
Other steps may involve filing refund claims for taxes paid on the value of same-sex spouses' health care coverage, revisiting domestic partner policies, and evaluating whether DOMA "workarounds" adopted in the past are still needed to achieve HR objectives, the two write.
Check out Advisors Missing Opportunities Presented by the 'New Modern' Family on AdvisorOne.


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We live in an amazing city. I love Miami but we do NOT have a lot of options when we think KIDS birthday parties. The Miami Children's Museum is great. WE HAD LOTS OF FUN!
Carina & Gaby wearing custom made tank tops from Bon Bon Bebe.
Once again the cake & cupcakes were from Mishas Cupcakes
For more pictures click here to go to my Flickr page


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EENV-101 Environmental Science
Modern society functions with incredible resources and conveniences. Some of this progress has come at a great environmental price. This course investigates the scientific principles of the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere, and examines the environmental issues that our society faces. Topics include sustainability, ecology, resources, energy, pollution, wastes and approaches to living in a more sustainable way. 4 SH. 3 lecture hours, 3 laboratory/field hours. CC: Scientific Explanations.


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Maine parents settle charges of stemming from underage drinking party
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) � Jurors have deadlocked in the trial of two Maine parents accused of looking the other way while teenagers consumed alcohol during a party that got out of control.
The trial of Barry and Paula Spencer of Falmouth served as a cautionary tale after a party for their son's high school baseball team grew with members of the lacrosse team and out-of-town students joining in.
Barry Spencer testified he tried to make it an alcohol-free party. Prosecutors say beer and alcohol containers strewn across the backyard told another story.
On Thursday, they agreed to community service and to contribute money to several organizations. The seven counts of allowing minors to possess or consume alcohol at their home will be dismissed if they meet the obligations under the agreement with prosecutors.
Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com


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Is It Safe to Shop on My Smartphone?
Yes, but only if you follow these safe-surfing steps
En español | Q. I'm thinking about using my smartphone to buy holiday gifts because it's easy and I don't have to go from store to store in a mall. But is it safe?
A. Making purchases on a smartphone that's connected to a public Wi-Fi network, like at a coffee shop or airport, could lead to the theft of your credit card numbers and personal information.
See also: Beef up your smartphone security.
Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Here's how to minimize the risk:
- Make sure your phone's security and antivirus software are updated.
- Don't shop on unsecure Wi-Fi networks. Many public systems have no encryption — hackers can intercept your data. For safe surfing, look for "WPA" or "WPA2" on your smartphone's screen, which indicate that your data will be scrambled.
- Avoid unfamiliar websites. Identity thieves may set up fake sites to snare your personal information. If you've never heard of a website before, go elsewhere to make a purchase.
- Insist on security at your shopping site. Make sure the site's browser status bar has a padlock icon, signifying security for transactions. The address of a secure site starts with "https" rather than "http" — the "s" means secure.
- Use complex passwords. Choose passwords with letters, numbers and symbols that are easy for you to remember but difficult for thieves to guess.
- Monitor your credit card statements. Check them each month, or more often, to make sure that all purchases showing up on your account are correct. Also check your credit reports to look for fraudulent activity.
Having said all that, know that it's probably safest to shop at home using your own secure network. And you'll never have to get out of your pajamas and slippers.
The Federal Trade Commission's website provides more information about identity theft, including a form to report it.
Also of interest: Save money with your smartphone. >>
Carole Fleck is a senior editor at the AARP Bulletin.
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Judge: No legal emergency in Octomom strip case
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- An effort to cancel a strip-club performance by the woman known as "Octomom" has been denied by a Florida judge.
Circuit Judge Timothy McCarthy has ruled against holding an emergency hearing requested by T's Lounge in West Palm Beach, saying the situation does not "constitute a legal emergency."
T's Lounge was trying to thwart Nadya Suleman's scheduled appearance Friday at a competing club. She had signed a contract to dance topless at T's this week but later backed out in favor of The Playhouse Gentleman's Club in Hollywood.
Suleman's show can go on, though a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against her by T's will likely proceed.
Messages left for her spokeswoman were not immediately returned Wednesday.


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GoDaddy Receives Patent On 'Announcing A Domain Name Registration On A Social Website'
from the no-joke deptAnother day, another crazy patent. DomainNameWire has the story that GoDaddy has successfully received a patent on "Announcing a domain name registration on a social website." The patent, 8,276,057, was filed back in September of 2009. Take a look at the claims for yourself to understand exactly what's being claimed, but reading through them, I'm at a complete loss as to how this is considered worthy of a patent. It has been common practice that after you do something online that options be presented to allow that action to be posted to a social networking site. It's done so often that I actually find it kind of annoying these days. But basically any programmer could implement variations on that, and nothing in what GoDaddy describes appears to be anything unique or special or out of the ordinary. Thankfully, with StackExchange's new prior art crowdsourcing effort, folks are already finding prior art. Unfortunately, that effort is supposed to be for patent applications... and this patent has already been approved for reasons that defy any logic.
Filed Under: obviousness, patents, social media
Companies: godaddy


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It's been more than six years since I missed a deadline for this newspaper, and I still hold Joe Flacco responsible.
The Baltimore Ravens quarterback has used this postseason to insert his name into the conversation about the game's best at that position. His numbers in AFC playoff wins against the Colts, Broncos and Patriots: 853 yards, eight touchdowns, no interceptions
But for University of New Hampshire fans, he'll always be a link to one of the greatest — and latest — games in program history, a 52-49 win by the Wildcats in Newark, Del., on Sept. 30, 2006.
Let's revisit it.
UNH football was white-hot that fall. The season before, it had been ranked No. 1 in Division I-AA for the first time ever, earned the top seed for the national playoffs and set a program record with 11 wins.
With players like quarterback Ricky Santos, wide receiver David Ball and cornerback Corey Graham (more on him later) all back, expectations were high again in 2006. Three weeks earlier, they had opened their season by winning at Northwestern, a Division I-A school from the Big 10, by a 34-17 score.
It was also a return to the scene of the crime for Santos, whose legend had begun at Delaware Stadium two years, when he stepped in for the injured Mike Granieri and practically became a star overnight. That's why I was flying into Philadelphia on the Friday before the game instead of covering high school soccer.
The stage was set perfectly. On one side was Santos, the established star who would go on to win the Walter Payton Award that year as the best player in I-AA; plus Ball, who was on the verge of breaking Jerry Rice's college record for touchdown receptions.
"I remember vividly (then-Delaware coach) K.C. Keeler talking about Santos and Ball that week, what players they were," said UNH coach Sean McDonnell, "and then me reminding Corey Graham he was a pretty good football player, too."
On the other side was Flacco, a 6-foot-5 Pittsburgh transfer expected to follow in the footsteps of other Delaware greats at QB, including Andy Hall, Rich Gannon and Scott Brunner (whom this 11-year-old sportswriter-to-be adamantly believed should be starting over Phil Simms back in the day).
Throw in a prime-time start (7 p.m.) and a full house of 22,000 fans — many of whom had spent all afternoon tailgating in the sprawling parking lots around the stadium — and the stage was set perfectly. Sports Illustrated was even on the media list.
And then the game went out and lived up to all the hype.
Tied 21-21 at halftime, Flacco led the Blue Hens on an 82-yard scoring drive to go up 27-21. But the lead was short-lived, as Graham returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a score, atoning for an earlier fumbled punt.
Santos, playing what some fans called his best game ever, put the 'Cats up 45-34 by leading back-to-back touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. But Flacco wouldn't roll over, twice leading his team back within a score before running out of time.
"We were throwing the kitchen sink at them," said Keeler afterward.
The teams combined for nearly 1,000 yards of offense. Flacco was 28-of-45 for 315 yards, three scores and no picks. Santos passed for 281 yards and ran for 110 more. In the press box, every time a writer on deadline got comfortable with his opening paragraphs, momentum would shift.
"We kept making one more play than they were going to make," recalled McDonnell. "The whole thing just kept going back and forth. Just a great CAA game in a great atmosphere."
Three of the participants from that game are big national news these days. Flacco and Graham — now teammates on the Ravens — will try to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Then-UNH offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who would leave for Oregon five months later, was named head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles last month.
Graham is just the fourth UNH guy to play in a Super Bowl, after Pittsburgh Steelers fullback Dan Kreider, Denver Broncos linebacker Scott Curtis and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Bruce Huther.
"It feels amazing," Graham told Seacoast Media Group writer Ryan O'Leary after last week's upset of the Patriots. "We came in here, no one thought we could do it, and we did the impossible."
There was a postscript to that meeting in Newark. A year later, Delaware came to Cowell Stadium to play UNH, which was minus both Kelly, who'd left for Oregon, and Santos, who was knocked out early with a shoulder injury. Flacco went 40-of-51 for a school-record 419 yards, but much of it came after the fact in a 35-30 loss.
Even in defeat, his maturity was evident. With his team in a rush to get to the airport afterward, he fielded questions right on the field, took blame for his team's slow start and paid compliments to the UNH defense.
On Sunday, Flacco will play a stage much bigger than Delaware or Cowell Stadium, against one of the best defenses he's seen in his life.
Lots of people in these parts will be interested to see how he does.
Mike Zhe is a Seacoast Media Group staff writer. He can be reached at email@example.com.


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General Phase 2 Documentation
For a successful service mode run it is absolutely essential that all users (including p2 AND P2PPv3 users) read the following documentation.
P2PP version 3 User Manual (Issue 8, 16 January 2017)
For p2 & P2PP v3.4.0 and above: valid for Service Mode observation preparation for VISTA, VST, VLT and VLTI instruments.
The P2PP version 3 User Manual is available for download (with figures; PDF file). It gives a general description of how to create Observation Blocks (OBs), and contains detailed description of P2PP3 and its capabilities.
P2PP tutorials are available for a number of instruments. Please select an instrument from the instrument drop-down menu on the right. A dedicated test account is available for P2PP; run the tool and login with the following credentials: username= 52052, password= tutorial
Also available are some general text and video tutorials on the use of scheduling containers, on the attachment of finding charts, on filling and submitting the README, on check-in/out OBs from the Repository for revision.


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Search Jobs and Apply
Taking initiative. Solving challenges. Delivering excellence. Making a difference.Does that sound like a great career? We think so too. The oil and gas industry stretches across the globe, from Houston to Singapore. With hundreds of locations in more than 60 countries, NOV is seeking talented team members who are passionate about changing the world, one solution at a time. Search for your new career at NOV and become part of something special as we help shape the future of the oil and gas industry. We're an equal opportunity employer.NOV offers a comprehensive employee benefit package including health, life and disability insurance; a retirement plan; and paid time off. Our team is committed to creating a lasting impact for ourselves, our customers and the communities where we live and work.
For technical support... we are here to help.Contact NOV Careers and we will assist you as soon as possible. Also, please check here for browser compatibility. Resumes and job applications must be submitted online and will not be accepted through our e-mail address.
NOV is aware of a scam involving fraudulent job offers. Please be advised that NOV never requests payment as part of the employment process and any job offer that requires payment is likely a scam. If you have received a fraudulent offer, please disregard and do not disclose any personal or financial information to them. Note: we only accept applications submitted through this website. Materials sent via email or social media are immediately deleted and not reviewed. You can view positions we currently have open to external candidates by using the search tools on this page.


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Customize your WordPress blog with Typekit fonts
Got a blog at WordPress.com? Now you can use Typekit! We've just rolled out a way to easily use fonts on the world's largest blogging platform. With Typekit and WordPress working together, customizing the look of the nearly 10 million blogs they host now takes just a few clicks.
Log into your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearance in the left-hand navbar. There, you'll find "Typekit Fonts" with a place to add your Kit ID (available under "Embed Code" in the Typekit Editor). That's it — you're ready to go. You can choose fonts from our rapidly growing library to add them to any of the WordPress themes to give your blog a distinct look.
And of course, Typekit works with WordPress blogs you host yourself. That's getting easier as well, now that the WordPress developer community has begun to release plugins for Typekit. Check out the options over at the plugin directory.
49 Responses
Good job guys. That's a huge move. Good type on the web everywhere is quickly becoming in our reach!
Wow great news. Can't wait to give this a go.
and I was just browsing your site today! well done. Good design is coming within reach of the masses.
This is outstanding news. Typography, ahoy!
Just wanted to point out that there's also a WordPress plugin for the self-hosted version of WordPress for Typekit and it also works with WordPress MU: http://wpmu.org/typekit-for-wpmu-%E2%80%93-new-free-plugin-available/
Tumblr next, please 🙂
This is gr8 news to hear about, i think it's more than a GIFT from SANTA on this X-MAX…..merry christmas to you all there…keep it up guys you are doing great deed…….:)
That's good news
Great set! Thanks for these! TypeKit is a great example! Thanks!
very thanks.. i'll download the plugin…
good news…
A big step. Congrats.
Sorry don' take it bad (i don't have any regret to pay for Typekit :)) but i think this 2 plugins do not have a practical value to WordPress, it enable you to activate the script or not.
It would be great if you could t pick up and manage the fonts library trough WP , and especially enable the script with a check box when you write a post/page, in order to avoid 800k (example) during the page load.
Going to give it a try on http://corettajackson.com!
I am surly gonna have a try! Thanks for this post!
I have not been able to use Typekit yet (new blogger), though I've tried. I have Windows Vista and use Internet Explorer, so was surprised that this browser was not supported.
Anything I can do in the meantime?
Works for me. Tried it on a WordPress.com site without issue.
Things to remember:
1. Publish the type kit.
2. Make certain you have fonts hooked to classes/ids
3. Make certain you have the correct type kit id entered in the plugin
4. Make certain you aren't using Chrome/Safari to view the site.
A really informative blog, in deed. Foundries and casting industry are such which can be never set. Foundries in India are some of the high capacity foundries in the world.
I got it to work on my free WordPress blog…kind of..
It works on the front page, but when i click on a post all the fonts have gone back to how they were. When you choose the domain name of your blog, should it appear on ALL pages of your blog?
What a shame.. once again, those "geek-developers" with advanced technical knowledge just cannot find a way, or condescend to actually explain how things work. I know basic CSS, but that is no the problem here…Ran into a 10 glitches and no help anywhere to solve them. Cant get the fonts on the sidebars, headers, etc. only in the body of the blog. The control panel doesn't even show up—have to use the two plug-ins which are rudimentary and also without explanation.
wow..that's a good news..i can't waiting to display it
Support is pretty much non-existent isnt it…
I wont upgrade to a paid account since TK cant bother to answer some simple, basic enquiries. Check the blogs around the internet. Soooo much confusion and difficulty in getting the fonts to work, SIMPLY because of a lack of instruction…
Make a product and then dont explain, and dont respond? starnge indeed.
Hi there, I simply published in order to say hey. Your blog is nice seeing that I personally use this for the purpose of my personal homework for college.Its bright and bright colored. I go along with the preceding commentor incidentally.Excellent blog post but will visit now and again
Do I need a plugin to get Appearance > Typekit to show up? I am working with a client's 3.0.1 installation and there's no Typekit under Appearance.
You can get Typekit to work in ANY WordPress website… But dont rely on their useless control panel, which doesnt even show up on ANY of my WordPress site dashbaords.
You need to install TYPEKIT FONTS in your WordPress.
This control panel will show up on SETTINGS panel in WordPress.
With this nifty plug-in, you can put in all the css modifiers you want. I modify everything: menu, block headers, sidebars, etc.
To find your specific CSS big pain though, because there is not "standard" nomenclature in WordPress.
In Firefox, get the DEVELOPER TOOLS add-on and install it in Firefox (its free). Then with you webpage open, you can use the menubar in developer tools to see EXACTLY the css name of your headers, text body, block headers, menu, you name it!
TypeKit themseleves are HORRIFIC as far as explaining anything or providing support. It would be SIMPLE to put a really helpful how-to together, but they just dont bother! Life is strange and people stranger.
For examples of my customization with Trajan and my favorite, Adelle..
see http://www.damaruworks.com
Some of my CSS is below, but you will need your own modifiers.. like I said, every THEME has a different stupid name for its headers, etc..
.art-menu a .t { font-family: "trajan-pro-1″,"trajan-pro-2"; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal}
div.art-PostContent p {font-family: "adelle-1″,"adelle-2"; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal}
div.art-PostContent ul li {font-family: "adelle-1″,"adelle-2"; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal}
h1 { font-family: "trajan-pro-1″,"trajan-pro-2"; font-size: 16 px }
h2 { font-family: "trajan-pro-1″,"trajan-pro-2"; font-size: 14 px }
h3 { font-family: "adelle-1″,"adelle-2"; font-size: 16 px; font-style: italic}
div.art-PostHeader a:link {font-family: "trajan-pro-1″,"trajan-pro-2" }
True, but is supports ALL themes on WordPress.ORG.. which is all professional blogs or websites.. I make my own themes in Artisteer (much better than buying new themes all the time from others!) and they all get customized with Typekit (see my ealier port for examples of the CSS).
Mandy, I'm sorry, but it is unacceptable for a company like yours to charge a minimum of $25 a year for a service (more than I pay for my WordPress.com blog) and not keep it up to date. It's been months since WordPress changed its most popular themes, and yet your response continues to be "if you need help, just drop us a line." I use Coraline, one of the top themes that came out in August 2010, and you still haven't updated the Kit Editor to support it– oh, wait, I just checked and now I see it– five months after it came out. I used TwentyTen before that, which came out in June 2010, and you still haven't added that to the Kit Editor. When I did once email you to ask for all the selectors I needed, you (or someone else there) said something to the effect of, "You should just be able to declare selectors for HTML and BODY and have them cascade from there." Would that it were so simple!
I moved my blogs from self-hosted WordPress.org to WordPress.com to simplify my blogging and not have to spend hours on installations. Now I've spent hours on TypeKit trying to get it right. For $25 a year and more, I should have to spend so much time on this. You and your people should spend those hours yourselves updating your Kit Editor so the paying public can simply use what they paid for and get on with their blogging.
Comments are closed.


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How do I terminate an employee's UH Email Account?
A department head or administrative officer can request a UH Email Account termination for an employee by making a formal request on departmental letterhead. The Dean, Director, or administrative officer's signature is required. Requests should be sent to ITS Account Administrator. Note: Submitting a termination request does not always immediately cut off access, please see below.
By Campus Mail:
Information Technology Services
ITS Help Desk
IT Center 101
By US Postal Service:
ITS Help Desk
Information Technology Services
2520 Correa Rd, IT Center 101
Honolulu, HI 96822
When the termination is requested, it is possible that the individual using the UH Email Account has established additional affiliations with UH, such as becoming a student or becoming a faculty or staff with another UH department. ITS will research all termination requests in order to ascertain if there are additional affiliations by the individual. If there are no other affiliations, the UH Email Account will be flagged for termination. By default, the UH Email Account will go through the normal grace period. If access to the UH Email Account must be immediately cut-off, the letter must explicitly request this.
Note that termination of the UH Email Account is synonymous with termination of the UH Username.


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Other than its new rear-wheel drive coupe, the Scion FR-S, Toyota has rightfully earned a place as one of the most conservative and boring brands in all the car world.
But they just filmed an add for the new Auris with an Israeli person who identifies as trangender. That's pretty far from conservative. Warning: Technically there's nothing more NSFW than a person in a speedo, but your coworkers might give you a sideways look.
Instead of the typical boring Toyota ad, or one of those terrible ones with the kid that hates everything his parents do, Toyota brought in an 19-year old from Tel Aviv for the commercial shoot. It's definitely risque and far away from the normal Toyota comfort zone.
Will it help sell cars? Who knows. But it has received a lot of attention. This video has been on YouTube for three days and has nearly 500,000 views. That's gotta count for something.
Hat Tip to Ryo!


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Navy can't hang with Notre Dame in Ireland
Irish crush Mids 50-10 in season opener
Notre Dame scored touchdowns on its first three possessions and defensive end Stephon Tuitt returned a fumble 77 yards for another TD as the Fighting Irish routed Navy 50-10 in Saturday's season opener in Ireland.
A crowd of 49,000 filled Dublin's Aviva Stadium for the first U.S. college game in Ireland since 1996.
Theo Riddick and George Atkinson ran for first-quarter touchdowns, and tight end Tyler Eifert caught a 5-yard TD pass.
Tuitt scooped up quarterback Trey Miller's fumble and rumbled to the end zone to put the Irish up 27-0 in the second quarter.
Navy kicked a 26-yard field goal before halftime and opened the second half with a three-pass drive capped by Shawn Lynch's 25-yard grab to make it 27-10. Atkinson and Riddick replied with two of Notre Dame's three second-half touchdowns.


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Sunday, 8 March 2009
taking a break
I wanted readers to see that they shouldn't be afraid of letting go of everything "safe" in their life. Because of SR, I went from a lonely person in a marriage that shouldn't have happened to a happy person with bright eyes and optimism. I experienced running, camping and nature with a soul mate in many beautiful landscapes in the US. I left my residency program in a state far away so I could live with SR and give birth to and raise our child in happy and loving conditions. I became a step mom which has humbled me and brought a wonderful type of love into my life that few get to experience.
I also wrote about my pregnancy experience. I believe that many of the lay beliefs about what is healthy for women in pregnancy are dangerous and outdated. Women should exercise during pregnancy, they shouldn't gain too much weight, they should be sure to eat enough fish to prevent premature birth, and when the baby is born, they should breastfeed if possible.
This is my blog, it's not a newspaper. It's personal stories and personal beliefs. I want people to be able to read it and draw their own conclusions. I appreciate all of the comments people have made.
But now there is another task at hand. We live in a new country and have new jobs and are far away from two kids we love. It's harder than we thought. My task now is do everything I can to keep this a loving and happy family. And that starts with taking time to show my husband I love him. The whole reason I started this blog in the first place.
So, I'm taking a break from the blog. The stress it is starting to create in my life is not worth it. It takes too much out of me. It is emotionally exhausting sometimes to write an honest blog about my life and include suggestions and stories that I think will benefit my readers and then have to deal with so many negative and accusatory comments in return.
I hope you have enjoyed the blog. And if it has affected some peoples' lives in a positive way, then it's all been worth it.
8 comments:
- Olga said...
Mow your email makes more sense too:) Enjoy real life, and so will I!
- 8 March 2009 at 13:37
- Danni said...
You're dead to me now SLG!
j/k but I'm bummed you won't be blogging. Seems like a very reasonable decision tho.
- 8 March 2009 at 15:12
- green light said...
I know I worded my comments harshly (hey, I'm a New Yorker, blunt is how we roll), but it comes from a place of genuine concern. I hope that taking yourself out of the public helps you, if that's what's happening.
I worry for you. I spent most of my 20s as an expatriate, including in cultures where the native language was a second one to me, and it's really hard. Even if you've got every reason to be happy and are surrounded by people you love, it's still lonely and isolating, especially in the beginning. To me the return of your weight obsession seems so clearly linked to needing control over your life during a difficult time. I do worry if you end the blog, that you'll lose an outlet, and will only end up deeper in your own destructive tendencies. You're a talented athlete, and a committed mom who has been brave enough to be honest about posting about your challenges. That takes guts. I hope you also have enough guts to reach out and turn your eating disorder around. Paula Radcliffe does not subsist on oatmeal and gum. Good luck to you.
- 8 March 2009 at 16:07
Sea Legs, I'm glad you are focusing on yourself and doing what's right for you. You took a lot of thoughtless comments (including many couched in a false language of "concern"), and responded to them all with grace and logic. In additional to taking courage, this also probably took a lot out of you. I would have folded a long time ago!
I was one of the women runners who were helped by your blog, am subsequently having a healthy and low-weight gain pregnancy, and I wish you the best. Your blog did help others.
- 8 March 2009 at 16:47
- sea legs girl said...
Thanks for all of your thoughtful comments. Our plan right now is that SR and I start a blog together about ultras and triathlons in Denmark. I'll let you know if/when it starts.
- 8 March 2009 at 18:06
- SteveQ said...
I decided to stop blogging and the decision lasted only a week; I'm hoping your decision's the same - the hint of a new blog with SR is enticing.
Hope the break's exactly as long as you need it to be.
- 8 March 2009 at 18:29
- Michelle said...
Well, SLG, if you decide to blog again, you could always turn the comments off. I did that with my blog a while ago, although I eventually turned them back on. But I don't blog much anymore, as I've found that it became a chore when it felt like I had to update every day.
Hope a break is what you need. I do think that the people who voice their opinions do have concern for you. Sometimes it's hard to come up with the right words without coming across as harsh.
Take care. I'll miss getting new pics of the Bois!
- 8 March 2009 at 22:29
- Ingrid said...
SLG, I'll miss reading your posts and seeing your family updates. I hope that you and SR decide to start the new blog. I look forward to reading it!
- 9 March 2009 at 16:41


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Scammers Take Aim at Vets and Those Who Support Them
Stand guard against 7 common cons
On Veterans Day, our nation honors those who have served in the military. On this and the 364 other days of the year, scammers try to abuse them.
Steady incomes in this tough economy and post-service benefits make active duty and former military personnel attractive targets. And other military-themed schemes continue, in which fraudsters pose as soldiers—or feign to be working on their behalf—to dupe patriotic and compassionate civilians.
So stand guard, particularly in coming weeks, for a likely increase in perhaps the most common con, phony veteran charities. You'll get a call from someone asking you to donate to a veterans group—its name may sound like a big national organization you know. This is a proven "hot button" issue that opens the hearts and wallets of older donors, and scammers often seek them out by using telephone calling lists that list ages.
Here are seven other ploys that prey on those who fight for our country and those who care for them:
1. VA phone calls. Often targeting older vets, telephoning scammers pose as officials of the Department of Veterans Affairs in an attempt to glean personal or financial information, including credit card numbers. In one recent ruse that requested those numbers, potential victims were told that the VA was "changing its processes for dispensing prescription medications."
But like other federal agencies feigned in "Uncle Sham" calling cons, the VA makes no such requests by telephone.
2. Grandparents scam. Military families are the latest bull's-eye in this long-running scheme, which preys on loving grandparents. Just last month, a 69-year-old Texas widow lost $2,600 to a self-proclaimed attorney claiming that her grandson, a soldier in Iraq, had been arrested while on R&R in Mexico. The money was needed to get him out of jail. The reality: He was on a mission near Baghdad at the time. The scammer could have discovered that, plus grandma's name and hometown, by reading the soldier's Facebook page.
3. Military loans. The promises are for "guaranteed loans" and "same day cash" to active-duty personnel (and to a lesser extent, veterans) with "instant approval" and "no credit check" with "all ranks approved."
But the loans often come with sky-high interest rates and hidden fees.
What makes these finance-crippling loans especially disturbing is that military personnel may not need them at all — they have special financial protections, including a ban on their homes being foreclosed while they are serving.
4. Veterans benefits buyout plans. These promise a cash lump sum in exchange for a veteran's future pension payments. But the small print may note the lump sum represents only a fraction of the veteran's actual entitlement over time, warns the Better Business Bureau. If you're considering a plan, have a lawyer carefully review terms.
5. Housing scams. Military personnel searching for off-base housing can be swindled by phony advertisements of rental properties. Using stolen photos of legitimate listings, scammers pose as real estate agents or owners to get upfront fees — often with the promise of granting "military discounts" in setting the rent. The typical red flag: Any request to wire money or otherwise pay before getting proof the rental property exists or is available.
6. Phony jobs. Targeting younger vets, scammers pose as government contractors, sometimes on Internet job websites. The goal is to collect personal information under the guise of employment opportunities that don't exist.
7. Impostor schemes. In one ongoing online swindle, scammers pose as soldiers about to be deployed or as a family member of a service member killed in action. They offer to sell cars at bargain prices, saying circumstances require them to sell it quickly.
Upfront payment is requested (often by wire transfer), but the vehicles never arrive.
Another common ruse warranted another warning from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command two weeks ago. Thieves pose as military personnel in online romance scams, wooing American women in cyberspace before inevitably asking them for money.
Also of interest: More news about scams and fraud. >>
Sid Kirchheimer is the author of Scam-Proof Your Life, published by AARP Books/Sterling.
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