Oh, The Mirth

Stolen shamelessly after seeing it on Terrilynn's blog because, on the night before one of the biggest elections in our history doesn't everyone need a laugh?

Good Things Come...

In our household this fall, Sunday nights are typically reserved for watching The Amazing Race. It's a special treat for the kids, that even on a school night they get to stay up until 9pm, root on their favourite teams, decide which challenges they would or wouldn't do, and plan for the time that they're old enough to get on the show themselves.

All that being said, it didn't happen tonight - thank goodness our friend TiVo was ready and willing to step up for us. Instead, some friends watched the kids while Stephen and I headed over to the Tractor Tavern for a CD release party for a singer/songwriter we both like very much - Karen Pernick, whose new album is called Two Kinds of Weather.

Her first CD, Apartment 12 was on constant rotation for quite a while after its release in 1996. Yes, you read that right - 10 years, we've waited for a new one. I liked her first so much, I e-mailed Karen, who had no web site (remember, it was 1996 and very few people did), and asked her if she wanted one. She wrote back and said yes so I put together the very first iteration of karenpernick.com, then met her for dinner when she played a Six String Concerts show in '97. I didn't get a chance to talk with her tonight after the show, but maybe I'll drop her another note sometime to see if she remembers me. :)

Anyway, the show was great. Karen is as lovely as ever, her voice is like buttah, and the new songs are terrific. She was joined onstage by the musicians she worked with on the album, no-name slackers like Wayne Horvitz (who also produced the record) and Robin Holcomb. It was also nice to see Julie Wolf come up onstage to do some backing vocals on "Apartment 12."

One funny thing... we ended up getting to the Tractor about 45 minutes early, while Karen and the band were still sound checking. So we queued up in the rain (under the awning, luckily), waiting until they opened the doors. This is funny only because this used to be what Stephen and I would do before every general admission show we attended... we always liked to be there to have our pick of seats or standing room near the stage. It's been several years and two kids since we've been early enough to do that. Made me feel all twenty-something again.

Celebrate Good Times

It's a weekend of fun and frolic! From EMP last night to a lovely girls night out with my coolmom friends (minus one) tonight. It's become a yearly, or nearly so, tradition, dinner out at the oldest Mexican restaurant in Seattle, Mama's Mexican Kitchen. (Geek note to anyone who pays attention to such things: check out Mama's URL. They are OLD school.) In addition to the great company, margaritas, and food, we have come to expect that it will pour (check) and that we will get the waitress we love (check). We didn't get to sit in the Elvis room, but I guess one can't have everything.

I did get to spend a goodly amount of time holding the lovely Ms. Piper, aka The Best Baby Ever. And I was reminded again how much I enjoy this group of women. Our friendship is conducted mostly via e-mail (and mea culpa, I've been a very poor correspondent over the last few months), and we don't get together nearly as often as we should, but whenever do I'm reminded how glad I am to count them among some of my oldest Seattle friends.

In other news... it is raining. A lot. With more to come. Talking with various friends whose kids are still playing soccer for a few more weeks, I've never been so thankful that my kids' soccer seasons ended LAST weekend.

When You Wish Upon A Star...

Just back from a lovely family date night. We took the kids out for dinner and then to the Experience Music Project for a member's preview of the new exhibit that opens this weekend, The Music Behind the Magic. The exhibit examines Disney's musical history, from Annette Funicello on the Mickey Mouse Club to Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins to the phenomenon that is High School Musical.

Thumbs up all around, especially for the special performance of Jodi Benson, the woman who voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid. As expected, my eyes ran pretty much through the whole thing. I'm such a sap.

Brilliance Or Insanity? You Be The Judge!

There are two LARGE bags of candy sitting in the kitchen, candy that my kids braved the bitter cold to procure on Halloween night. In fact, counting the bag of leftovers that didn't get handed out (said cold kept all but a handful of wee ghosties away), there are three.

Now, knowing that I have a wicked sweet tooth, and that I have personally seen, with my own eyes, dozens of Twix and Butterfingers in those bags and furthermore that I work from home full-time now and so am left completely alone with said three large bags of candy, you'd think this story probably has a predictable ending, right? And it probably involves me gaining five pounds, hiding candy wrappers under the coffee grounds in the garbage can, and explaining to the children that they've eaten a lot more candy than they thought they had.

Well HA! That is NOT the way it's going down with those three bags of candy. Because...

oh sweet mother what have I done?

I have given up chocolate.

Until April.

April 1st, to be exact.

Opening Day, 2007.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, and as it turns out it actually worked! Kind of. I made this sacrifice to the Baseball Gods just after they lost game 1 of the ALDS to the Yankees. "Oh merciful Baseball Gods," I pleaded. "Please help my Tigers get to the World Series, and if you do I promise to give up...

thinks quickly... has to be a true sacrifice, but nothing so harsh that I can't follow through on it. Too late to offer the firstborn. Sex? No! Alcohol? Ha! Sweets? N-... well, maybe not ALL sweets, but what about chocolate? Yeah, that's painful, shows I'm serious, but it's definitely do-able...

...CHOCOLATE! From now until... Opening Day next year! Just get 'em to the Series!"

And then... lo and behold, the Tigers won 7 in a row. American League Champions! World Series, baby! And I patted myself on the back, oh I did I did.

And then... well, we don't have to go into what happened next. Hoping the magic would work again, I offerred to extend the chocolate sacrifice, until the next World Series. Yes, you read that right. A whole YEAR. Never doubt how much I love my Tigers.

But the Gods were no longer listening. Or if they were it was in that "Well what more do you want from us we made the Cards hit easy grounders to your pitchers but even we couldn't help them when they kept overthrowing the 1st and 3rd basemen" way.

So the candy sits in the three bags, veritable mountains of chocolately goodness. And every once in awhile I walk into the kitchen and veer towards them, and then remember and walk forlornly away. Because I know that if I don't follow through on this promise that I will have absolutely no cred next year when we're in a close race for the AL Central with the Sox or Twins and I ask for that come-from-behind victory, or that strikeout with the bases loaded.

The only upside is that it's going to be a lot easier to get through the holidays without gaining that five pounds when chocolate is completely off the table. Halloween... Christmas... Easter... *sigh* Cold comfort, but I'll take what I can get.

And of course... there's always Skittles.

KBloWriMo 2: Electric Boogaloo

It's November 1st, and you know what that means... the second annual KBloWriMo! The first was such a success, and so much fun to do, that I couldn't help but do it again. And this year, someone else ran with the idea and made it an actual "thing" - NaBloPoMo. Quite a list of participants she has signed up and although at first I resisted, I finally, just minutes ago, decided to be a joiner. Baa. :)

I feel like November is going to be a very good month, I have to say. October was... it was wonderful and weird and crazy and disappointing and I'm honestly glad that it's over. Thanks to everyone who wrote or commented or called to offer their condolences on the Tigers losing, in a craptacular fashion, the World Series. Baseball gods love 'em, they just plain choked, and it was NOT the exciting ending I was hoping for. Still, they made it to the Show, and I love them for that and the season they gave us die-hards who have suffered for SO long.

Work life is shifting, yet again, as I finish up with one job without really having anything solidly in place to transition into. That's both really liberating and really scary, but I've got lots of irons in the fire that could... um... whatever the heck it is the irons in the fire do. Get hot, I guess. In any case, I feel that good things could be coming soon, although I'm willing to admit that could be the giddiness of the first day of KBloWriMo talking. It's like Christmas, but with words!

And those are all the words I have time for today - we are bereft of potatoes, so off I must go a-hunting and a-gathering. But guess what? There will be more buttery wordy goodness tomorrrow, my poppets, so be sure to check back.

Blessings

Welcome to the world little niecelet of my heart, Maeve Olivia Rilo Searcy! Born October 21 at 8:57pm, just squeaking in on the Libra side of the cusp. Congrats wee one - you picked yourself some great parents!

Photos coming soon, I hear tell.

We can't wait to meet you.

A Decade And Counting...

I bet you're wondering if there is anything going on in my life right now other than baseball. Why yes, my 3 loyal friends who haven't stopped reading entirely out of sheer boredom with my Tiger obsession - there ARE other things going on, thank you for asking.

In fact, today - despite the rain and chill that have settled in now that Seattle has remembered that it's fall - today is a lovely day because my sweetie and I have been married for 10 years! TEN! That's a lot of years for someone to put up with me (keep those checks coming, mom). Thanks, love. And Happy Anniversary.

No big celebration is planned due to circumstances that require me to be working (yep) for a bit this evening. But we'll do a nice night out soon, and spend some time wondering aloud what this grand adventure called "our lives together" will look like once another decade has gone by.

This one has taken us from one side of the country to the other and brought us two fabulous children, with a good dollop of ease and contentment thrown in for good measure. I've no intention or desire to move or have more kidlets, so I'm happy to concentrate on increasing that dollop to a metric ton or so.

Bless You Boys, 2006

Joy in Tiger Town

Twenty-two years ago today the 1984 Detroit Tigers - our beloved Bless You Boys - won game 5 vs. the Padres and became World Series Champions. It seemed the inevitable outcome of a dream season where the team jumped out to a 35-5 start and led the division wire-to-wire. The names still bring a smile to my face: Trammell, Whittaker, Evans, Parrish, Gibson, Brookens, Lemon, Bergman, Petry, Morris, Wilcox, Hernandez, and of course, Sparky Anderson.

Today, the 2006 Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant in a most dramatic fashion (and isn't that the best way?)... a come-from-behind victory capped by a walk-off 3 run homerun with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, completing a 4-game sweep of the Oakland A's. It couldn't have been scripted any better. And now the smiles come from Polanco, Guillen, Inge, Casey, Rodriguez, Robertson, Rogers, Verlander, Bonderman, Ordonez, Granderson, Monroe, and, of course, Jim Leyland.

In 1984 I took for granted that this is how baseball would always be... that the Tigers would be in the thick of the pennant race year after year, and the World Series would be a frequent event. It almost happened again in '87, but didn't. And then came the years and years of wandering in the wilderness.

Now, I know better. And so although I believe this team is just getting started, that they have years of good baseball ahead of them, I certainly won't take what they've accomplished this year for granted. I'm savoring every moment, storing some memories, filling up my reservoir of baseball optimism and joy to carry me through those seasons to come that won't live up to all we hope.

So congratulations to the Detroit Tigers, 2006 American League Champions. You done great. Now rest well, and we'll see you next week in the Series.

Thank You

fans

I haven't stopped smiling.

The disappointment of the last week of the season is completely forgiven.

Thank you.

Pitching performances of a lifetime by Kenny and Jeremy - wow. The boys carrying Leyland off the field on their shoulders. Bringing out the champagne and celebrating with the fans. And beating the "unbeatable" Yankees. It doesn't get any better than that.

Now it's on to Oakland on Tuesday and 4 more wins to get to the Series. But regardless of the outcome next week, I'm just so proud to be a Tigers fan today.

And I thought of something last night. Getting an extra month to play means one month LESS to wait until next season starts.

October baseball ROCKS! :)