Sunday, May 4th: St. Ephrem Giants 13 @ St. Anselm Lady Hawks 1
Yet another remarkable game by our girls. Christina went 2-for-3 with two singles, two walks, a pop-out, and she scored twice.
Tuesday, May 6th: St. Ephrem Cyclones 11 @ St. Anselm A's 5
The boys moved into a tie for second place with this win.. Austin was 1-for-4, with a single and three strikeouts.
Friday, May 9th: St. Ephrem Giants @ Our Lady of Angels Little Rascals
A rainout, which was fine by us, as Christina would have missed this game anyway to attend a family function.
Season stats:
Austin: 5-for-14 (.357), 3 Singles, 2 Doubles, 3 Walks, 2 Hit by Pitch, 9 Strikeouts, 2 RBIs, 3 Runs, 6 Stolen Bases
Christina: 12-for-20 (.600), 12 Singles, 6 Walks, 1 Strikeout, 3 Groundouts, 3 Pop-outs, 3 RBIs, 8 Runs
Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 7W 1L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 6W 1L
Next games:
Tuesday, May 13th: Giants @ St. Bernadette Lady Knights
Wednesday, May 14th: Cyclones v. St. Pats B
Saturday, May 17th: Cyclones @ St. Anselm Cubs (with whom we are tied for second)
In what I consider the finest, most noble, moment in all of sports history, two players assist an injured opponent complete her first and only career homerun, at the ultimate cost of being eliminated from the playoffs.
I have to give them full credit here because I'd be quite content if my kids ended their academic sports careers on such a note. Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University finally hit the very first homerun of her career (with 2 RBIs), but was injured crossing first base. The rules stated that either (a) she could take a single, and allow another player to run for her, or (b) be called out if her own teammates or coaches touched her to help her. That's when Mallory Holtman, the career home run leader in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, asked the umpire if she and her teammates could help Tucholsky. The umpire said there was no rule against it. So Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace put their arms under Tucholsky's legs, and she put her arms over their shoulders. The three headed around the base paths, stopping to let Tucholsky touch each base with her good leg.
Folks, they don't make heroes any bigger in my book.
Tuesday, April 29th: St. Ephrem Giants 14 v. St. Anselm Lady Eagles 1
Once again, our girls dominate the other team in a game where the mercy rule had to be called three times (i.e.: when one team takes a 12-run lead, their turn at bat ends (no matter how few outs they have). On their next turn at bat, if the other team hasn't scored, then the leading team can only score one run at a time until the trailing team closes the gap.) Christina went 1-for-1 with a single and two walks (walks do not count as "At Bats" for statistical purposes), and she scored twice.
Sunday, April 20th: St. Ephrem Giants 15 v. St. Pat's Hurricanes 2
Continuing their winning streak, the Giants played remarkably well. Christina was 3-for-3, with 3 singles, 2RBIs, and scored one run. She would have been 4-for-4, except a Fielder's Choice ended the inning on her final at bat.
Wednesday, April 30th: St. Ephrem Cyclones 8 @ St. Pats B 1
A fairly average game for the boys, against a team hasn't given us much trouble this season. Austin went 0-for-2, with 2 strikeouts, but he was hit by a pitch and walked once ("Hit By Pitch" also does not count as an "At Bat" for statistical purposes).
Friday, May 2nd: St. Ephrem Giants 17 @ St. Bernadette Bombers 7
This was a game where we expected much stiffer competition, as St. Bernadette's runs a harder program, with more training than our school. However, despite home field advantage, the Bombers were unable to stop our offense. Christina went 1-for-4, with a single and an RBI, as well as walking once, scoring a run, and hitting a pop-out and two ground-outs.
Saturday, May 3rd: St. Ephrem Cyclones 9 @ St. Pats A 8
This game should not have been so close, and should reasonably ended 9-6. However, in the final inning, the umpire insisted on changing a basic rule, which our coach could not overrule. This sudden change cost us two runs, and nearly put us into extra innings. If not for the kids really knuckling-down to stop St. Pats, it could have been a nasty finish. However, the bright side is that Austin broke his slump in grand fashion. He went 3-for-3, with a 2 RBI double, another double, and a single. The coach awarded him a game ball for his performance. Needless to say, he's pumped up to play next week.
Season stats:
Austin: 4-for-10 (.400), 2 Singles, 2 Doubles, 3 Walks, 2 Hit by Pitch, 6 Strikeouts, 2 RBIs, 3 Runs, 6 Stolen Bases
Christina: 10-for-17 (.588), 10 Singles, 4 Walks, 1 Strikeout, 3 Groundouts, 2 Pop-outs, 3 RBIs, 6 Runs
Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 6W 1L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 5W 1L
Next games:
Sunday, May 4th: Giants @ St. Anselm Lady Hawks
Tuesday, May 6th: Cyclones @ St. Anselm A's
Friday, May 9th: Giants @ OLA Little Rascals
Sunday, April 20th: St. Ephrem Cyclones 0 v. St. Anselm A's 0
Cyclones win by forfeit.
Sunday, April 20th: St. Ephrem Giants 15 v. St. Pat's Hurricanes 2
Continuing their winning streak, the Giants played remarkably well. Christina was 3-for-3, with 3 singles, 2RBIs, and scored one run. She would have been 4-for-4, except a Fielder's Choice ended the inning on her final at bat.
Tuesday, April 22nd: St. Ephrem Giants 15 @ St. Ephrem Lightning 2
The first meeting between our girls and the other Junior Varsity team from our school. As with most games recently, the Giants dominated from the first inning. Christina went 2-for-2, with 2 singles, 1 walk, and scored one run.
Thursday, April 24th: St. Ephrem Cyclones 10 v. St. Anselm Orioles 4
Austin and I were forced to leave Bring Your Kids To Work Day early to make this game, but it was worth it. I saw some amazing plays this game. Our centerfielder, N.P., make a terrific throw from deep center to get the batter out at first. Austin, unfortunately, continued to have trouble at the plate, striking out all three times at the plate. These wooden bats are giving him a real difficult time. I have to get him to the batting cages soon.
Saturday, April 26th: St. Ephrem Giants 0 @ Saint Mary Mother of Jesus Blue Angels 7
I missed this game as I was away at the Nebula Awards, but sadly, the girls lost this game to the winningest team in the league. SMMJ is undefeated, as were we, but they don't generally out-score their competition like the Giants do. Christina, like her teammates, had trouble with the SMMJ pitching, going 0-for-2, with a strikeout and a pop-out.
Season stats:
Austin: 1-for-5 (.200), 1 Single, 2 Walks, 1 Hit by Pitch, 4 Strikeouts, 3 Runs, 6 Stolen Bases
Christina: 8-for-12 (.667), 8 Singles, 1 Walk, 1 Strikeout, 1 Groundout, 1 Pop-out, 2 RBIs, 3 Runs
Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 4W 1L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 3W 1L
Next games:
Tuesday, April 29th: Giants vs St. Anselm Lady Eagles
Wednesday, April 30th: Cyclones @ St. Pat's B
Friday, May 2nd : Giants @ St. Bernadette Bombers
Saturday, May 3rd: Cyclones @ St. Pat's A
I tried a couple of times to embed this video here, but to no avail. My YouTube-fu is no good. Here's the link to a funny video (says the Lando fan).
1. What do you think of _____________ ?
2. When did you last ____________?
3. __________ or ___________ and why?
4. What did you ______________?
5. What's your favorite ______________?
6. How would you ______________?
7. Who would you most like to ________ ?
O,K, Enough of that. This Brooklyn boy is not convincing as a Texan.
(ETA: links to other sites should appear in blue, links to Nebula photos should appear in green.)
All-in-all, a truly enjoyable and worthwhile weekend. I should also heap praise on the terrific group of volunteers who put the whole event together, and provides such excellent service: Karen Meschke, Sandy Del Monte, Laura Domitz, Lillian Butler, Lee Martindale, Beverly Hale, Cheryl Ducoin, Stina Leicht, John Moore and all the other hard-working Texans. Please know that your work was greatly appreciated, and should be considered a tribute to your city and your state.
Miscellaneous mentions of myself and the Nebula weekend:
Sarah Beth Durst's blog
Mary Robinette Kowal's blog
Michael Ehart's blog
Keith Stokes' photos
Jayme Lynn Blaschke's photos
Vera Nazarian's blog
Due to a copying error, the following resource sheet was omitted from the materials handed out at the contracts presentation. As promised, I am posting it here, and in the Nebula and Lounge groups on sff.net.
Guide To Online Resources Related To The Nebula Awards Weekend Publishing Contracts Presentation
• General resources:
For a copy of the handout materials from this presentation:
http://www.sfwa.org/contracts/IntroPubCo
• Copyright resources:
For information on U.S. copyright (with many resources):
http://www.copyright.gov/
For European copyright and other intellectual property rights:
http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/nav/en/bu
For calculating U.S. public domain dates and information about 35th year statutory termination:
http://scrivenerserror.com/c-term.shtml
• Territory resources
For information on current members of the British Commonwealth:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Internal/1
For general information on the European Union:
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
For information on current member states of the European Union:
http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/i
• Legal resources:
For the Random House v. Rosetta Books decision:
http://www.rosettabooks.com/casedocs/Dec
For the original Random House v. Gemini (Joan Collins) complaint:
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cas70.htm
For information on the Joan Collins court decision:
Google on “Random House v. Gemini”
To which, I replied:
Nonsense and blasphemy. ORIGIN OF SPECIES didn't evolve from a first draft. On the first day, Darwin created ORIGIN OF SPECIES, and saw it was good. But ORIGIN OF SPECIES was lonely, so Gregor Mendel took one of ORIGIN's ribs, and built up from it a companion for ORIGIN, which was named Genetics.
Thursday, April 17th, 6pm: St. Ephrem Cyclones 3 @ St. Ephrem Tigers 6
Our first loss of the season, to our intramural rivals. A well-played game where a couple of errors in the first inning turned the tide against us. Though he had no hits in one official at bat (a strikeout), Austin contributed to what success our team did have. He walked once, and was hit by a pitch. Once on base, he was unstoppable. He stole four bases, and scored one of our three runs. So far, of the 9 runs the Cyclones have scored this season, Austin touched home for 3 of them.
On a creative front, Austin began composing a cheer to use at games against the Tigers. The Tigers are coached by the father of one of Austin's good friends, Joe C. Austin picked up on the feline name of the team, and crafted the first two lines of a cheer, which he's still working on:
Joe C. and the Pussycats
Ponytails and wiffle bats
More to follow.
Friday, April 18th, 6pm: St. Ephrem Giants 12 @ Visitation Angels 0
Christina was unable to play this game, as we had a family function to attend. However, the girls continued to dominate their division, and have so far out-scored the competition 29-5.
Season stats:
Austin: 1-for-2 (.500), 1 Single, 2 Walks, 1 Hit by Pitch, 3 Runs, 6 Stolen Bases, 1 Strikeout
Christina: 3-for-4 (.750), 3 Singles, 1 Groundout, 1 Run
Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 2W 0L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 1W 1L
Next games:
Sunday, April 20th: Giants vs St. Patrick Hurricanes
Sunday, April 20th: Cyclones vs St. Anselm A's
Tuesday, April 22nd: Giants @ St. Ephrem (unnamed)
Thursday, April 24th: Cyclones vs St. Anselm Orioles
Saturday, April 26th: Giants vs St. Mary Mother of Jesus Blue Angels
First, I've been a major Beatles fan for years. I have every song they ever officially recorded (quite a numebr of songs they never officially recorded), and a decent, but nowhere near complete assortment of their solo work. I've lost count of the number of Beatles books I've read over the years. I've won several Beatles trivia contests (including one at a Beatles party thrown by Michael Whelan, and attended by nothing but major Beatle fans). I had known a lot of their music growing up in the 70s, but never really put it all together in my mind as such a phenomenal catalog until eighth grade or so. Right at that time, John Lennon was killed, which is a horrible, deeply embedded memory for me, but it did spur me to get serious collecting their music.
Obviously, I never got to see Lennon or Harrison live in concert. I saw Julian Lennon live during his Valotte tour. I did see McCartney put on a terrific show back in the early 90s. However, I've been trying to see Ringo since the first All-Starr Band tour in 1989. The closest I ever came was driving past the arena where they were playing while I was returning from a vacation in Cancun. So, this show is the culimination of a long-term goal.
Second, a while back, Christina had me take her to see Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana's 3D concert film. It was a terrific film, and the girl definitely has talent. As amazing as the 3D effects were, and it did look as if she was standing right in front of us, I knew it wasn't the same as being at a live rock concert. We've taken the kids to see some live musical performances (including a Beatles cover band), but again, not the same as an all-out rock concert.
The kids have absorbed my love of the Beatles, and each has their own MP3 disc made from my Beatles CD collection. Each disc holds every song the Beatles recorded, except Revolution 9 and Happiness Is A Warm Gun (Rev 9 wasn't going on the discs from the start, and when I had to eliminate one song to fit the disc, I felt that of all the Beatles' songs, Happiness was the most easily dispensed with). At first opportunity, I'll get back to doing my children's music posts, and include the cover art Austin designed for the Beatles discs. Needless to say, the kids are as excited as I am that their first real rock concert will be given by a Beatle.
Interestingly enough, Ringo actually sings the most kid-friendly of the Beatles songs -- Yellow Submarine, Octopus' Garden, With A Little Help From My Friends and Act Naturally -- so he's sort of been the kids' favorite Beatle since they first heard the band.
In a minor footnote to this show, the All-Starr Band features Ringo's friends from other bands, and each performer get s chance to do their own biggest hits, interspersed with Ringo's. This year, the band features:
- Edgar ("Frankenstein"/"Free Ride") Winter
- Gary ("Dreamweaver") Wright
-, Hamish ("Pick Up The Pieces") Stuart
- Billy ("The Stroke"/"Rock Me Tonite") Squier
- Colin ("Who Can It Be Now"/"Down Under") Hay (whose band, Men At Work, were the headliners at the second rock concert I ever attended. The first was Rick Springfield -- blame the selection of artist on my godmother, who took me to see him for my birthday when he was the hottest thing in music)
I am, of course, guessing at which hits the band will play. I'll try to let you know how my predictions fare after the show. I have created a playlist on our computer of these songs for the kids, so they can familiarize themselves with some of what they may hear at the show.
About which show, I'll say one more time for emphasis, I AM VERY EXCITED TO BE GOING!
Rock, peace and love, my friends.
Saturday, April 12th, 1pm: St. Ephrem Giants 17 @ St. Patricks Hurricanes 5
The season started off with a BANG for our girls. They blew away the opposition with solid hitting, excellent base-running and concentrated defense. Seven of our 17 runs came from a three-run homerun, and a grand-slam by the ever-consistent H. Also contributing mightily was G., a young lady who joined the team last year, and has been steadily improving, who hit a three-run homer. Christina was not only the first batter of the new season, but she had the first hit, and scored the first run. She batted .750 (3-for-4), with 3 singles and 1 run scored.
Saturday, April 12th, 3pm: St. Ephrem Cyclones 6 vs. St. Anselm Braves 1
Luckily, Austin's game was only a few blocks from Christina's field, and the game before us ran late, so we managed to get from one to the other in plenty of time. Austin's new team played an amazing defensive game. They only gave up 2 hits, and made 1 error. Our pitching was superb. Austin went 1-for-1 (1.000), with a single and a walk. He stole second base twice, and scored two of our runs. He REALLY likes stealing bases.
All-in-all, this looks like it will be an exciting year.
Season stats:
Austin: 1-for-1 (1.000), 1 Single, 1 Walk, 2 Runs, 2 Stolen Bases
Christina: 3-for-4 (.750), 3 Singles, 1 Groundout, 1 Run
Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 1W 0L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 1W 0L
Next games:
Friday, April 18th: Giants vs Visitation Angels
The design is posted on my website here. More of my baking creations can be seen here.
Some background which I don't believe I've refreshed on this LJ since I first posted my credentials two years ago.
I have greatly enjoyed my time in both LJ and the publishing industry, and expect to continue participating in both for a long time.
Last night, as they do every Holy Thursday, Christina, Austin and the rest of the Children's Choir were asked to sing with the Adult Choir from the choir loft in our church. Normally, the Children's Choir sings from the side of the altar, while the Adult Choir sings from the loft. They two choirs alternate Sundays.
We also learned on Tuesday that our bishop had chosen our parish for his celebration of Holy Thursday Mass. The kids were very excited to get to sing for the bishop, and they really outdid themselves. Their voices carry much purer and clearer from the choir loft than from their usual location. Whether the bishop was well pleased with the performance, I cannot yet say. However, I was certainly proud of the performance.
As an additional family thrill, my cousin's son (a parish altar server) was selected to personally serve the bishop during Mass.
All in all, a lovely and meaningful Holy Thursday Mass.
Just to get things started for the season, we've gotten our team assignments.
Christina remains with her coach of the previous three years, for which we are grateful. He's a wonderful coach, and has really encouraged Christina to become a top player on the team. We'll know in a couple of days if we get to keep our team name, the Bluejays. First practice is tomorrow.
Austin, meanwhile, has been "traded" to another team, along with one of his friends. He's played for four years on the Yankees, but due to a new league rule, the J.V. teams must have a better mix of 5th and 6th graders. So, Austin has shifted to the Cyclones. Austin, a Mets fan like his dad, has never been comfortable playing as a Yankee, so he's pretty jazzed about being one a team named for our hometown minor league team, which is an affiliate of the Mets. We met the new coach briefly yesterday, and he was very encouraging. Austin will get to show his stuff at practice next week, and I'll probably be back in the dugout keeping score for the Cyclones as I did for the Yankees.
Looking forward to a great season, which starts in about three weeks.
(BTW, posting this today is not an oversight on my part. I'm not participating in today's LJ boycott. I find most boycotts and strikes to be pointless, and since I'll be offline for the Easter holiday from this afternoon until Monday, I'm taking care of my own online business now.)
The same applies to storytelling. Thank you for all the magic, Sir Arthur.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008
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