Sisters

MLP, bringing sisters together since 1983 :)

A Memory

Melissa Slapczynski pregnant with Junie, 2007

Baseball Trivia

A bit of baseball trivia: with the retirement of Darren Oliver today, there is only one player left in MLB whose career started prior to the strike of '94. That player? A-Rod.

Junie Lost a Tooth

Last night Laurenzerz lost her first ever tooth, an event somewhat diminished both by her knowledge that we're the Tooth Fairy and the fact I didn't realize it was her first and so gave it only a brief to-do. We'll make up for that tonight :)

The Bling Ring

Watching "The Bling Ring", a gawd awful slow movie if there ever was one.

Oh Heavens!

Compare and Contrast

2013: A-Rod: 44 games, .771 OPS

         Jeter: 17 games, .542 OPS

Sleepy Hollow

Just finished watching the pilot episode of "Sleepy Hollow". Aside from Crane's miraculously seamless acceptance of 21st century life, the lame dueling covens plot, the all-explaining tape recording the sheriff just happened to leave behind, and . . . well, aside form all that it had potential. Maybe once the silt settles this will be a show worth watching.

A Dinner with a Friend

Team Slap enjoyed a nice evening with Dale C who originally came over to set up our aquarium but stayed for dinner and took not one but two trips to the pet store with the crew. Thanks Dale!

2-1

Whew. Won my week 3 fantasy matchup by only 0.92 points. Now 2 -1 on the year

LOL

A Day of TV

Watching "Dogfights" on  the DVR, this time "The Last Gunfighter", an episode about Crusader dogfights over North Vietnam. Great show, superb graphics!

UPDATE: I'm now typing up class notes and watching Ali-Frazier ("The Thrilla in Manilla") on U-Verse on Demand

Done with classwork, and the Ali-Frazier fight. Great bout, shame about the TKO; I kept hoping the ending would be different LOL

Emmy Ire

It *IS* a crying shame that the late Cory Monteith. a drug addict known only for his part on an ensemble show, gets a special in memoriam honor at the Emmy's while Jack Klugman and Larry Hagman - REAL STARS who passed away recently - don't get the same treatment. What crap. Absolute-utterly fantastic CRAP. Here's hoping that the Emmy's scrambled to change their program once word of this hit the wire.

My Thoughts

Some people are only happy if they can complain about something that doesn't affect them.

24 Grand Slams!

It took me a full day to wipe the tears of joy from my eyes: Alex Rodriguez ripped a 92 mph fastball into the seats yesterday for a Grand Slam against the Giants. That's his *24TH* Grand Slam, passing Lou Gehrig for sole possession of the all-time record. Twenty four career grand slams. Wow. I hope you enjoyed watching such a cherished record fall Mr. Selig - I hope you see it over and over again in your  dreams. Say it with me folks - A-Rod, I bow to thee!

The Law

Back from class. In a belated answer to a ? about it, I like it a lot. It's a ton of work, with the reading alone almost overwhelming me (which is saying something) but I'm getting the hang of managing the homework around the obligations of work and family.  

While I thought I would like criminal law best, so far I find it very boring. The professor is great, the subject just doesn't seem to inspire me. Moreover, it's the one room in the world where I appear as a bleeding heart liberal, and that takes some doing. It's typically me and two other students vs the other 15, with the 15 taking the stand that any action by the police is kosher, any charge correct (no matter if it truly fits the crime) and all crimes worthy of time behind bars. Hopefully a few years of law school knocks some of the fervor out of their system. 

Contract law, which I thought would be a horrific bore, is for the moment hitting all the right buttons. There's a lot of thinking, a lot of hands on work, and it's suddenly dawned on me that it's an area of law that affects everyone, no matter their age or income. I like it. I may not like it a few semesters down the road, but I do now. 

What do I like best about law school? The private parking in an underground garage, and all the classes confined to one gorgeous building. If only I'd had that at UWM! LOL

LOL

Lisa's FB post in response to a Mom who publicly 'shamed' her daughter for twerking: "I'm going to publicly shame my kids if they waltz. The sign is gonna say, I humiliated my Mom by not shaking what she gave me and being a big dork!

Another Thumb Update

This morning I dug a little metal sliver out of the pad of my injured thumb. That wasn't so comfortable, but as soon as I pulled it out 50% of the numbness that's been bothering me vanished. Hot dog!

A Big Day!

Big week for Team Slap. On Monday we got a new washer, ending three months of trudging over to the laundromat. Today we picked up a free 40 gallon aquarium with all the fixings from a friend who was getting rid of it Hot dog!

Ken Norton

Boxer Ken Norton, a heavyweight champion that beat Ali and has a connection to my father-in-law (Dennis was a sparring partner), died today. He was 70. RIP

Just. Too. Cute

On Tuesday Smiley's homework included writing a synonym for each of his spelling words. One word was 'cone'; his synonym? "Mommy". 

[In case you don't know Lisa's maiden name was "Kohn" and I often call her "Kohn" or "Kohnie" as a pet name, a practice that really only seems odd when you read it in print.]

Dancing with the Stars

Just watched the Dancing with the Stars premiere for the 2nd time (I missed some of the acts yesterday). It's good to have it back on the air. It was a long off-season :)

Elite Eight

Books, history, movies, reality TV, pop music, dining out, God and family . . . my Elite Eight

Disrespect

A summary of the media's disrespect for Alex Rodriguez (courtesy of BTF)

1996: 9.31 WAR, just behind Griffey (crazy credit for defense to Griffey that year) but 2nd in MVP to Juan Gonzalez despite a higher OPS, scoring 52 more runs, and playing SS instead of a poor RF.

1997: despite a 846 OPS and 5.6 WAR he didn't get even a 10th place vote while Tino Martinez came in 2nd with a 948 OPS at 1B and 5.08 WAR. Even a guy with negative WAR got 2 votes (Deivi Cruz for Detroit)

1998: 919 OPS, 8.50 WAR but Gonzalez gets his 2nd MVP while A-Rod comes in 9th. Yes, ninth! He even had a 40 HR, 40 SB season that year. He led in WAR for hitters by nearly a full win over Jeter (3rd place).

1999: 943 OPS, 4.76 WAR (injured) and 15th place, about right for that season

2000: 1.026 OPS, 10.29 WAR and 3rd place behind 2 1B who cannot field (Giambi and Thomas)

2001: 1.021 OPS, 8.36 WAR and 6th place, Ichiro's year.

2002: 1.015 OPS, 8.81 WAR 2nd place to another SS who had a 861 OPS and 5.6 WAR (Tejada) who got it due to his team having that amazing 20 game winning streak

2003: Voters give in and let him win at last - He is 2.2 WAR ahead of all other hitters (Pedro had a great year again, Loaiza also had more WAR than non-ARod hitters) but he gets just 6 first place votes while a guy with 3.12 WAR (Shannon Stewart) gets 3 first place votes (yes, voters can be pretty dumb).

2004: In NY now, 4th in WAR but 14th in voting

2005: Wins again, led in WAR by over 2 wins so hard to ignore but 16 first place votes while Ortiz who hit worse than A-Rod by almost any measure (Avg/OBP/Slg/HR/SB) gets 11 first place votes

2006: poor year ('just' 4.46 WAR)

2007: Wins again, led in WAR by nearly 2 wins again, gets all but 2 first place votes

2008: 6.8 WAR, 2nd among hitters but 8th in MVP voting

2009 to now: 4.2 is his best WAR since and hasn't finished higher than 10th in MVP voting.

Awwwww

Last week we took the kids out to eat and mentioned to YaYa that it was the same place [Neds] where, as a 5 year old, she cried and wailed when Lisa told her she wouldn't be able to marry me when she grew up. When she was told the story YaYa  nudged me in the ribs and said "The offer still stands Dad." :)