Me in Place

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was fine. Nine kids ages ten and under are in the family right now – you kinda have to escape to the TV room for a while if you’re going to make it!

The morning started bright and early with my brother and I doing our (now) tradition of running a 5K Turkey Trot. Seeing as how it was 36 degrees (but thankfully not raining when the race started), I was just pleased to finish (but not necessarily pleased with my time). I am definitely an indoor cat, so the cold is always a shocker to my system. But all’s well that ends well. The conversation at the end is now also a tradition. Bro. Jeff finishes first and comes back to the three mile marker where there’s .1 miles to go – you’d think .1 miles to go would be an encouraging thing, but not necessarily. Bro. Jeff jogs alongside me and says, “C’mon, Kelli, c’mon.” I say, “But I’m going to throw up.” He says, “No you’re not. Keep going.” I say, “I’m gonna throw up.” He says, “Keep your head up and look at the finish line, not the ground. Don’t look at the ground.”

Who knew a brother could actually be an encouragement?

And now, for the MIP In-Depth Baseball Analysis of Her Dear Cubs:

*The season is still young. Don’t lose hope.

*I still miss Mark DeRosa. He is probably going to be traded from the Indians soon. Wouldn’t it be nice for him to come back?

*I think the saddest thing about my brother BEING A TRAITOR is that he can’t enjoy the story of Bobby Scales. How cool was it when he hit that homer last night? A good, “in your face” moment to prove he is worthy of staying up. (The other saddest thing about Traitor Brothers is that if they can do that to their favorite ball team, couldn’t they, just as easily, do that to you?)

*Zambrano: Whatev.

In case you were wondering – I do realize the Cubs’ season has begun!

Last night we had our annual Opening Day Party for the Cubs, at which I serve hot dogs and chips and make the kids put on their Cubs hats and shirts. SuperBoy and I made one spectacularly decorated Go Cubs cake. They thought we should have candles on it, but I’m not really clear on why.

And, here’s the link to get your very own SAS Decorating Cubs Fridge Schedule where you can track your mood all season long! So far, it’s looking pretty Happy!

This is a guest post by Kelli’s brother, Jeff

After last season I renounced my Chicago Cub fandom. No more Cub dumbness for me. After all, I’ve now lived in Wisconsin for 22 years, much longer than any time in IL. So I decided to cheer for Wisconsin teams.

My sister maintains her Cub fandom as do others in my family and that’s fine, they can all attest that I have not attempted in any way to persuade them. I’m being faithful to my home state.

I have given up on the Cubs. I wish them well, I hope my family gets to escape their gloom soon. I will root for them if they ever make it to the World Series. But I just don’t want to do it anymore. Here’s my top nine reasons the Cubs are the most inept sports organization of all time. Hands down. I am also maintaining obedience to all rules my sister gave me.

1. The Cubs were the last major league baseball team to adopt the minor league system. This hampered their club for many years. Only recently have they begun growing their own talent. This is stupidity at work.

2. No lights in Wrigley Field until 1988. Forget your sentimental stuff, this is just plain dumb business. The money to buy a decent franchise was passed up for romantic notions. Gag.

3. College of Coaches. The Cubs have been expert at picking inept coaches. The only thing worse than inept coaches are having a number of them running a team at the same time. What are these people thinking?

4. Harry Caray. I mean, seriously. I felt covered with spit just listening to him on the radio.

5. The tendency to trade young talent for has-been old guys. The regularity of this practice is stunning.

6. The tendency to hang on to “fan favorites” that are now too old and inept for about 13 years too long.

7. The tendency to drop “fan favorites” that are actually good players in about 23 minutes.

8. Dusty Baker.

9. The ability to consistently lock guys down in long contracts even though they have no concept of what a “strike zone” is. Todd Hundley was a catcher who couldn’t catch, throw, hit or run. Ah, but he was signed because he was a left-handed hitting catcher. This is the logic behind most of their personnel decisions.

10. You now have the chance to offer the best other reason the Cubs are the most inept baseball franchise in history. Have at it.

This is a guest post by Kelli’s brother, Jeff.

Every year I convince my sister to fill out her March Madness bracket and then I defeat her by wide margins. This year, since she’s given up on computering at this time, I thought it would be fun to invite all of you to compete for a chance to win some of my sister’s money.

By the way, offering to give away my sister’s money is not a violation of any rule I received.

Here’s how the game will be set up. Fill out your bracket and enter the MIP march madness group here  (password is “kelliwithani”). At the end of the tournament, whoever scores more points than me will receive a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com from my sister.

This will be a great test of my actual love for my sister. I could enter a horrible bracket and make you all win $10 from my sister. On the other hand, I could insist upon winning and thus defending my sister’s pocketbook. Hmm, what to do, what to do.

Guess you’ll have to enter and find out.

I’m speechless over the Cubs.

Wait. No I’m not. I’ve written some verse in haiku in memorium. If you’d like to join me in my haiku mood, please do so. If not, just lie in the grass and let the cold rain wash over you, as Jimmy did in the infamous Quadrophenia post.

Cubs sleep on the field.
If you build it, they will come.
A Field of Nightmares.

DeRosa DeTried
DeRest? Delayed Reaction.
D. Lee? Disaster.

Those were totally lame, I know. But it’s healthier than eating my emotions at this time. Mark DeRosa already has a post up about the loss which you can read here.

We made it to Friday! That’s cool. Here is a photo update on us:

Second Pumpkin bread recipe came from the old standby cookbook The Joy of Cooking. It had a more straight pumpkin taste. Kids: Didn’t like. Me: Did like.

Also made these yummy cinnamon sugar donut muffins. Kids: Did like; Me: Did like. Recipe here

Dog enjoys a movie about her ancestors:

And I need to know if you think I have a wrinkle:

Jake just wants out:

Reading:

And just one more:

I have been waiting for this day for forever. The day I could take all three of our kids to their very first Cubs game!

Early Sunday morning (as I was preparing for worship, of course) I checked my Cubs homepage to see when the games against the Astros would be played. When I saw that they would be at Miller Park and that tickets were available, I threw caution to the wind, called Mr MIP at his church music practice to see if he wanted to go see the Cubsokaysoyes?okaybye, took out a second mortgage and got us tickets to Monday’s game! (I’m joking about the mortgage, Grampa, don’t worry).I have to include a shout-out here to my friend Sue who, being a die-hard Brewers fan the way I am a die-hard Cubs fan, still found it within her heart to share directions to the park that saved time and got us to the parking lot faster than those poor souls on the expressway. Thank you, Sue! So sorry about your team. And their manager. And their post-season.

Carlos was still in his post-no hitter glow (What an Amazing game that was, wasn’t it?? Oh, and you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.):

We had great seats in the 13th row:

And enjoyed Lilly’s great game and the Cubs winning!Oh, and we had to take pictures of the one Astro we will actually sort of cheer for, Lance Berkman (they played “I Can Only Imagine” when he came up to hit. Interesting.):

And, okay, I’ll include cute Hunter Pence, who makes me think of SuperBoy being in the Majors:

Now, the irony of it all is that my BFF, Mark DeRosa wasn’t in the line-up!! Sheesh. But I said to Mr MIP, he’ll be put in in the 8th in a double switch. Sure enough, he was. And bless Mr MIP’s heart, he took about 256 pictures of DeRosa for me (until an usher told him he needed to return to his seat). I’ll save you from looking at all of them, but I have to put one in:

And SuperBoy? He did fine. We just kept him fed. In the bottom of the 9th he asked me who the “hitters in the red shirts are.”

P.S. Fruncle Roger who is trying to get to every last Dog ‘n Suds in the U.S., this is for you! Look what we drove past and I said, “You have to turn around!!” If you know your directions from Milwaukee to Aurora at all, you’ll probably scratch your head about how we ended up in Richmond, Illinois,but don’t think too hard about it. We had a fun little diversion (and I still say I’d be a great navigator/map reader in the Amazing Race):

Last night was SuperBoy’s first Baseball Game! Kane County Cougars vs. Peoria Chiefs.

(#23: Ryne Sandberg, coach of the Peoria Chiefs)

Here are MIP’s Best and Worst of the 2008 Summer Olympics!

Best Opening Ceremony Award goes to: The Opening Ceremony! Loved the drums, loved the cool screens, loved the girl who was too ugly she had to sing somewhere else and then the cute girl got all the glory. The only thing I give a B- to is Sarah Brightman (the original “Christine” from Phantom of the Opera), because whenever I see her I want to cut her stringy hair.

Worst Lines from Al Depresso-Matic Gymnastics Guy: While I appreciate Al’s depressing bios during the Ironman Triathlon coverage, listening to him during gymnastics about sends me over the edge. Or at least to Oberweis for a hot fudge sundae so I can erase the raincloud from my soul. A few of Al’s hyper-depressing hyerboles:

After a little teeny step by a little teeny gymnast: Is it safe to say… there goes the gold?

Before a routine: The next few seconds could change your life, if you think about that, it can be daunting.

Really, Al, Really?

After another teeny step: Can you imagine the devastation in the room?

And, as previously mentioned on this blog: after a small mistake in a routine: It would be like having a tear in your wedding dress as you walk down the aisle.

Best Bob Costas Line

The USA 4×100 relay teams laid giant goose eggs in the Bird’s Nest.

Best Moment

USA Beats France in the 4×100 swim relay!

Moment I Had Tears:

When Ryan Hall entered the stadium at the end of the Men’s Marathon. No, he didn’t medal – he came in tenth – but he did great. I love how the marathons end – entering the huge stadium with all those people cheering you on. Now, if they did that at the Morton Arboretum 5K, maybe I’d run a little faster next time.

And now for the medal ceremony!

The Bronze Medal goes to Commenter Janet, who consistently commented all through the Olympics and supported me outside the blogworld in all things Olympic. (Wow, Janet! This laurel wreath looks awesome on you!)

The Silver Medal goes to my kids who supported me in my Olympic Obsession and only twice said out loud, “We are so TIRED of the Olympics. Can we watch Clifford?” Thank you, guys! I love you! No spinach this week for you snoogie woogies.

The Gold Medal goes to Mr MIP, who – although he didn’t really totally completely LIKE the Olympics – let me watch as much Olympics as I wanted (Except for the fateful Yearbook night) and asked me questions about them and let me ramble on and on about who won and who lost and who was stupid and how the commies are one messed up group of people. Thank you, Mr MIP! You may return to your regularly scheduled programming!

And on the blog, we’ll get back to the Important Issues of Life, such as: why am I storing glue in the food cupboard?