Thursday, May 26, 2016

BJ's Back

Late Saturday afternoon M, C, and I drove A up to Camp Highland. Since we were short on time we ate at Chickfila in Ellijay. The camp has built two dorms for the youngest campers (one boys and one girls) closer to the field and mess hall. Didn't get home until after 10 pm.
 
JFBC Sunday School was better this week. Great speaker we'd had before on a practical subject. Ceil didn't come until it was time for the service. She always misses the good programs and seems to attend for the bad ones. Later she and M went to Passion. Afterwards C went to Dekalb Farmers Market. Will had driven over to hang out and study while Joel worked at Chattahoochee Coffee, just down the street from Phillips Arena where we were. He picked up MC at the airport at 9 pm. MC couldn't drive because of the time change from Norway. MC started her new job at Augusta First Presbyterian today.  
 
It was fun going to that WNBA game Sunday. I thought it worked out well driving downtown, even with the short walk. Funny how those little girls gave us the season ticket holders tickets, which weren't too bad. Section 109 would've been behind the basket. I guess the scalpers knew selling tickets would be hard and were trying to make a buck any way possible. Interesting crowd far different than what you see in any other sport. It was cold at the game, especially after we moved a couple of seats to the right.
 
I like watching warm-ups, especially when there's a big star to watch. They saw Golden State draws huge crowds to watch Steph Curry warm up. They even sell sideline passes for warm-ups, similar to the way the Braves sell field passes for batting practice. Like we discussed I blame the early season on the low shooting percentages and sloppy play. Perhaps Atlanta is better this year and Chicago worse.
 
Monday lunch meeting today: we ate Willys. Later I had another hour long meeting. Those two meetings really put me behind. So much I had to do that kept me at work past 7 pm. Traffic headed home wasn't bad so I saw the end of Jeopardy tournament of champions. Buzzy lapped the field again. What is the smallest state by land area square miles that touches one of the great lakes? I guessed correctly but then guessed something else. C baked chicken gravy and rice with corn on the cobb and fresh green beans. C watched The Voice finale and I cleaned the kitchen and worked on my laptop.
 
The workers got a decent amount done Wednesday, patching holes in the ceiling and walls and tearing up the tiles in the downstairs bath. They're going to put in a new vanity and tile as well as fix the hole in the master shower, fix several windows, paint the foyer, and more. Need to get a new floor in the kitchen as well. Ceil will paint the dining room, kitchen, and den.
 
I worked past 6:30 then drove to the library. Checked out a rare recording of CS Lewis reading his book Four Loves. Didn't get home until almost 8 pm. Ceil grilled chicken and vegetables and tossed a salad. With no where to sit we moved to the dining room. TV is upstairs in storage. C planted flowers outside and I did the dishes, then went to bed while she painted. I went to bed earlier than usual as well, and had a deep sleep all night.

Rob on baseball: BJ Upton is a fascinating example of players who just perform better, for whatever reason, in some places rather than others.
 
Team  OPS  HR % K %
Tampa 0.758 12% 25%
Atlanta 0.593  6% 32%
Padres 0.752 10% 27%
 
Writer Jon Heyman posted some numbers yesterday about how similarly bad Carl Crawford and Jason Heyward were during the first 2 months of their big free agent deals.
 
Heyward, Francoeur and McCann all came up to the Braves from AA.  Frenchy and Mac hit about as well as Dansby Swanson is now (800+ OPS), but Heyward destroyed AA pitching.  So I guess it should not be a surprise if Swanson comes up sometime this summer directly from AA.
 
ME: I'm sure players sign big contracts and put pressure on themselves to perform, pressing at the plate to do things they'd never done before. We knew BJ struck out a lot before he got here.
 
I'm glad I don't have to travel around too much for work. Traffic is so bad.
 
Funny story: M has always been a light and picky eater, but he's a sucker for fast good. He is so low energy that I haven't minded buying him fast food as long as he'll eat it. Now that he's driving he's hitting eating places more than ever.
 
Sometimes when life is busy it's nice to have the holiday to catch up on rest, errands, and work around the house.
 
I saw Lang's burger article on GQ.com: https://www.gq.com/story/memorial-day-burger-recipe I get regular emails from CQ with a list of articles to read, and lately I've noticed Lang's articles featured.
 
On my yahoo email I get over 100 emails a day, because over the years I've entered contests. 99% of the emails are junk. Going through the unsubscribe process does no good (neither would spending 30 minutes on the phone trying to unsubscribe). I've found that since yahoo.com is so slow on my computer it is quicker to delete the emails on my phone, saving the few I want to read for later. Last night with the mess I didn't even long onto my laptop. The desktop is packed away with the TV.

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