Entries Tagged as 'joe torre'

Fedex Delivery Guy Rant, And Foreigner At the Alhambra Summer Jubilee

Quick-hitters:

- Man-Ram: 2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, .500 batting average since the trade.

I’m just sayin’ :P

By the way, what is it going to take for Joe Torre to realize that Ramirez-Kemp-Ethier MUST be his outfield against any RHP??? Does Torre have something against Ethier?

And does anyone want Andruw Jones? We’ll take a bag of sunflower seeds for him!

- (Un?)fortunately, it appears that Sprint has fixed my billing issues from yesterday, and I only owe the correct amount of $31.77.

Drat. I really wanted to yell at them too!

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1,300 and still falling.

Big-box-in-living-room-o-meter: nine and rising :P

- Dear Fedex delivery guy,

2 <– This is a TWO.

3 <– This is a THREE.

1 0 2 <– This says “ONE ZERO TWO,” as in “Unit 102.”

1 0 3 <– This says “ONE ZERO THREE,” as in “Unit 103.”

If a package is addressed to “Unit 102,” you should probably leave said package in front of the door labeled “102.”  You probably should not leave said package in front of the door labeled “103,” and you definitely should not stack three huge, heavy boxes in front of the door labeled “103.”  What if my neighbor couldn’t move the boxes, and, therefore, could not get into his house?

(And you most definitely should not do this on consecutive days.)

I’m thinking about asking my neighbor if I could stick a sign on his door with a huge arrow on it and the words “ONE ZERO TWO is over there!”

- As soon as I found out that Foreigner was headlining the August 2nd edition of this year’s Alhambra Summer Jubilee, I circled this date on my calendar.  That was several months ago.

We swung by Victory Restaurant for lunner—a late lunch/early dinner—and had the grilled garlic with chicken.  In other words, it was a grilled piece of chicken with a crapola of chopped fried garlic on top.  Good stuff, though it was a shame that we couldn’t get there in time for the lunch specials.

We got to the Jubilee at around 5PM, and apparently they now require you to get wristbands before you could sit in the bleachers.  These wristbands had section, row, and seat #s on them; I don’t recall getting assigned seating at last year’s Jubilee.  After we got our wristbands, we strolled onto Main Street where we listened to this “band” butcher GnR’s “Sweet Child of Mine” for 30 seconds, or 29 seconds too long.

After that horrific experience, we went east of Garfield to a drink shop (I forget the name), where I had a Green Apple Green Tea.  At least, that’s what they said the drink was; it tasted like slightly watered-down Apple Pucker.  It was ridiculously sweet!  I felt like I was eating one of those green apple lollipops.

From 6-7 and 7:30-8:30, we were entertained by 80z All Stars.  They weren’t terrible, but I couldn’t really get into the music, as I was anxiously awaiting for Foreigner.  Finally, at around 8:45 (fifteen minutes later than scheduled), Foreigner finally came on stage, starting off the night with Double Vision.

When the second song came around—I believe it was Head Games—some guy who sat directly to our left returned to his seat, and proceeded to royally piss me off.  He got to his seat, but instead of sitting down, he started singing and gesturing to the band!

Picture this:  Head (gesture) games (gesture)…It’s you (gesture) and me (gesture) baby (gesture)…Head (gesture) games (gesture)…and I can’t (gesture) take it (gesture) anymore (gesture)…

(EDIT:  After a bit of deliberation, this douchebag’s act reminded me of this.  Go to 1:07 in the video, and focus on the guy in green.  Note the gestures, and then realize that the douchebag sitting next to us gestured at Foreigner

Not much later, the guy left again, and thank goodness that he never returned.

As for the rest of the concert (Note:  I’m recapping this off the top of my head; if I made a mistake somewhere, please let me know):

1) The first half of Waiting For a Girl Like You, sans strings, was incredible, as well as their new “remix” of Say You Will.  I especially loved the latter.

2) Urgent got the biggest screams of the night…at least by the individuals near me (and my ears have yet to recover from all that screaming).  Jukebox Hero was S T R E T C H E D out to nearly fifteen minutes, mostly of crowd interaction, and they could have ended the show right there without anyone being disappointed.

Fortunately…

3) After Long, Long Way From Home (a song I’ve heard once or twice before), Foreigner played an amazing rendition of I Want to Know What Love Is, and they could have ended the show after that song.

4) Then again, what better way to end a concert on what started as a hot summer evening than with Hot Blooded?  Right?

Awesome concert overall, and the fact that it was free doesn’t hurt.  And thank goodness that the Lou Gramm Jr. left us after only a few seconds of torture.

Joe Torre to LA?, Tons of Stupid Points, And UBMe #3 (”Shopping Cart Obstructions”)

Hello again, loyal readers!

Quick-hitters:

- Current rebate-o-meter: $3000, and dropping fast!

(W00t!)

- Why must oatmeal raisin cookies be so damn tasty??? I baked a batch last Thursday, and thanks to myself, my sister, her co-workers, my mom, etc., I’m down to five cookies.

(Four.)

Next up: a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I’ll put the over/under on how long those cookies will last at three days, and I’ll take the under.

- Trader Joe’s is evil. Costco is evil.

Going to both stores? Wallet homicide.

(I dare anyone to convince me otherwise.)

- OMG! The NBA season starts tomorrow, and I haven’t even signed up for a Fantasy Basketball league!

- So the big news story, which I just heard about a few minutes ago, is the report that the Los Angeles Dodgers (actually of LA!) are going to fire incumbent manager Grady Little and hire former Yankees’ manager Joe Torre!

THIS. MUST. HAPPEN.

Yes, Grady Little got a bum rap for the 2003 Boston Red Sox debacle. Yeah, he’s probably going to be unfairly fired for what happened last year with my Dodgers (the locker room fracturing, I mean). Still, it’s awfully hard to trade in Little for a four-time World Series-winning manager. I’m really looking forward to see who the Dodgers will end up signing, now that Torre appears to be on board?

(No, I’m not going to be myopic enough to believe that Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, et al., will be donning Dodger Blue next year.)

Great statistic mentioned by SportsCenter, by the way: in 2003, Grady Little was fired by Boston; the Red Sox won the World Series the next year. In 1996, Joe Torre was hired by New York; the Yankees won the World Series the next year. Hmmmm…

me *crosses fingers*


- Speaking of fingers…I was filing some rebates about a week ago.

(I’m usually quick when it comes to filing rebates; it helps to use pre-printed address labels.)

(By the way, the squeamish might want to stop reading here.)

Anyway, I was attempting to flatten one tri-folded rebate submission, getting ready to stuff it into an envelope. I ran my hand across the stack, and proceeded to flatten the submission (five 24# sheets of paper are pretty thick!). That’s when I noticed that my hand had quite a bit of blood on it.

Yeah, somehow, while flattening the rebate submission, I had managed to slice my pinky like a Ginzu knife through a tin can. I shook it off immediately, telling myself “eh, just another paper cut.” Ten seconds later, I was screaming and running towards the nearest sink.

I give myself 25,000 Stupid Points.

- It’s time for UBMe #3, aka “Shopping Cart Obstructions.”

While in line at Costco, you realize that you forgot an item on your shopping list! Knowing that the item–no, it was not Mexicoke–was located at the back of the store, you realize that nothing short of a power walk would get you to the back to the registers in time. You proceed to semi-jog to the back of the store, and realize that there are way too many people there for you to be jogging. You slow to a brisk walk, reach the refrigerated section, grab your item, and head back.

Like a running back in football, you keep trying to hit holes between shopping carts and their owners, trying desperately to get to the front of the store as quickly as possible. Halfway on the return trip, you hit a snag: you reach a section where nobody is moving! Out of the corner of your eye, you quickly notice a small gap opening, so you beeline towards it. That’s when some stupid woman pushes her cart through that gap, beating you to the spot. As if that isn’t bad enough, she then proceeds to leave her cart right there in the open, walking away to go check out some items an aisle away!

UBMe! Do you gently push her cart aside, and continue on your way to the front of the store? Do you patiently wait for another opening (which was unlikely, as the obstruction occurred in front of a smoothie display, and there was a big line of people waiting for samples)? Or do you do something more drastic, like walking across an aisle to get to the much less crowded perimeter of the store?

You decide to gently push her cart out of the way. You reach out, and a split second before you come in contact with her cart, you notice some guy coming in the opposite direction with his cart. You immediately realize that he is approaching you with a good deal of speed, and you know something is going to happen. With his cart, he literally swings his cart into hers, hitting the blockade with such force that the offending carts rolls away about 5-10 feet. Eventually, the cart coasts to a stop in front of a display of pillows, as the guy continues through the newly-opened gap. You turn around, and see the woman head back towards her cart, clearly pissed off! You grin in the direction of the guy who cleared your way, and continue towards front of the store.

You reach the registers, just as the cashier starts ringing up your order.

Seriously, that was awesome. The look on the woman’s face was priceless!

Until next time!