a little bit of baseball heresy

hold on to your pink hats girls, but i've got a bit of news for you about your boyfriend. He's a jerk. let's not dress it up. Somehow or another he was put on this pedestal of selflessness and ego strokes, and he LAPPED it up. So now, since so many people fell for this act, we're stuck with out a catcher. the sox traded away all thier prospects thinking that varitek would stick with them, (lets not even touch the fact that he was never going to stay young for a moment) Even though he's played this game before.

he played it when he was still in college, then he played it again after finishing college

Varitek opted to return to Georgia Tech for his senior year after being drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Twins in 1993. He then reentered the draft and was selected in the first round by the Seattle Mariners in June 1994, then signed with the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League because he could not come to terms with the Mariners.

Varitek never played for the Saints and eventually signed with the Mariners in April 1995, but he lost almost a full year of development.
- find the entire article here

Then he harangued the sox into a $40 million 4 year deal in 2004; and lest we forget, he has always worked with scott boras, who is world renowned as a top drawer bulldog in the dollar department. Players only work with him if their greed and ego can manage him and his. Make no mistake, it's not a coincidence that Varitek works with him.

Sorry, but when every one starts pissing and moaning about how it's just a game and how can you be so greedy, and what's the diff between 5 mil a year and 8? and All the lamentation of in this economy you're holding out, you should be so lucky as to not get laid off. All the venom sent towards manny, and teixeira, and yes, even A-Rod; you best include the captain, be that is exactly what he is right now.

Cake or Death?

em, cake please.
(click the title, it's a linkie!)


the newest issue of martha stewart has cupcakes in it. and one of them is boston cream pie cupcakes, Great idea! but i don't have the patience tonight to make 24 little tiny boston cream pies, so i went with a more traditional version.

yummy!

sweater progress

i'm working on the cabled raglan, and i have to be honest, i'm not really sure i'll like how it will come out. i knit so terribly loosely that the fabric is ending up much more holey than i like.



but i'm going to keep going, because if it does correct itself when it is blocking then it will be one of my favorites. if it doesn't sort out, i'll have to think of something, because the yarn was moderately pricey. too expensive to not make into something.

coffee cuffs

here's the one i made yesterday before soccer. (which we lost, unfortunately. we were short on boys, and then our one sub went down with an injury of sorts, and those who were left played for a long time with no subs, but i digress)

anyway, these are pretty easy to make. one could sew them by hand if they wanted, but i never want, so i used the little engine that could. All you have to do is carefully unglue the one you get from the shop, then trace it on tissue paper. then use a nice metal ruler with nice markings, and measure 1/2 inch all around the edge. connect the dots, and now you have a pattern!

cut one of the outside, one of the lining and two of muslin for the interface. make your fabric sandwich, with right sides facing, and the muslin on the outside of the sandwich. then sew along the three edges, leaving the flat end seam undone. Oh, use a 1//4 inch seam allowance! Now, clip your corners, clip your seam triangles, and turn rightside out and run an iron over it. fold in the flat end there, and press. now run a top stitch all along the edge, sewing the turning hole closed as you go. Alrighty. Now, on the ones at the coffee shop, there's the little flap there, where they apply glue- you can do the same, with a velcro coin or snaps. Me? i just sewed the flap to the edge of the cuff. it looks the same as the blue one, but it's not exactly.

here's the blue one on an actual coffee.


Here's my only concern with these neat things. What's the point if they go on a throw away cup? I know it's every litter bit helps, but here's what i would like: a plastic cup, exactly the same shape, size, volume, diameter, weight and everything as this Dunkin Donuts cup. Decor craft sells I Am Not A Paper Cup but that's not really what i'm after. i don't want porcelain. i want a plastic cup. is there no one who can help me? Perhaps i should pitch it to the dragon's den, and make a fortune selling coffee cups with coffee cuffs.

Be careful, the bevvy you are about to enjoy.....

may be very hot!

so what you need is a coffee cosy!



I made this over the weekend. it's supposed to go on coffee like those from caribou, or panera. what is strange is that i seldom stop there any more. Coffee from a Shop was one of the first things to get the ax when i was making hard financial choices. (that particular one was hard on everyone else, as the adjustment from high-caff to half-caff was significant!)

but this is a fun project, and it's totally earth friendly, as it's reusable and not made of paper. it's even made from scraps, so the fabric was re-purposed. plus- machine washable. this is a prototype, so this one will probably stay with me. now i've got my legs under me with the project i'll make a few more for my friends who might like em.

sewing shermy

here is shermy, he is helping me sew.

a winter scene

A few months ago i took rather touristic shot of memorial park in my town. it was a summer shot. Today it is snowing (again), and i thought, hmm, it might be nice to have a winter shot.

I do rather wish the truck wasn't there, perhaps when i go out to shovel (again) I'll see if i can score one without the truck.

The proof is in the booking!

here it is! We really are going to the west of ireland for a few days! Well, all told, it's seven days, but the last day is taken mostly by getting back to the airport and returning the car (sniff!), so that doesn't really count.

but 'tis ok! Because we've got six days of green! We'll use Ennis as a hub, because it's almost exactly equidistant between Westport and Cork City. And did you know that at that time of year in ireland sunset is around 9.15 pm? it's true! lookee here if you don't believe me! That's super fantastic because even if places we visit don't stay open that late, it means we won't have to worry about driving on the very narrow roads in the dark!

hoo hoo! the letter arrived at it's destination!

yipee! Do you know what this is? This is the letter containing my application for a renewal passport! yaaay! that means the only thing standing in my way now is the possibility that i sent the wrong form, or didn't send enough cash. It's 75 clams to renew you passport. $75! but that's ok. it's valid for ten years, so that's only Seven.fifty per year.

so here's the plan- me mam and i are headed to the west of ireland for me birthday! yippee skippy! Everyone should turn 34 at the cliffs of Moher. We're gonna use the town of ennis as a hub, rent a car and go see the towns where mam's family came from. yaaay!

january again.

january is my least favorite time of year. well, january, february and march. the whole winter is just so stifling! I was able to plow through it for the last few years, the part time job at the pharmacy was good for distraction, but now i don't have that anymore, so i've got to think of something else.

tomorrow it's supposed to snow. blech. but at least it isn't until the afternoon. perhaps i'll try to get up early in the morning, and go to the gym. i've decided to really make an effort to lose ten pounds before the spring. So today i'm going to joing the gym. the gym three days a week, soccer two days a week. hopefully that will get me back into a bit better shape. we'll see!