Two in one day?

Normally, I call one blog post a day a valiant effort.  But two?  Holy shit!  Maybe it is because four in the morning seems so long ago that right now feels like today and this morning feels like yesterday.  

I wanted to post this because the Stanley Cup finals start tonight.  A rematch from last year, Detroit v. Pittsburgh.  For those who don't pay attention to this great sport, Detroit won four games to two.  And they were all well played games.  Last year, I thought the Wings were going to win in five games.  I was confident about that prediction.  This year, I am cautiously optimistic that they will win again.  

I say cautiously for a few reasons.  One is history.  The last time there was a repeat of Stanley Cup foes, the previous loser went on to win the next year.  Scary!  Many people have looked to Detroit being banged up as reason to favor Pittsburgh, but they are wrong.  Detroit is too deep on the bench to have a few injuries slow them down.  The last two series the Wings played were draining.  Anaheim took them to the seventh game and Chicago's youth looked to be catching up with the Cup defenders.  One thing that they can take away from the Chicago series is that did keep up with their youth, which could help them prepare for Pittsburgh.  

The age and experience that the Wings far out-weighs the Penguins, and those two factors count for a lot in the playoffs.  Detroit is getting scoring from all over the place, Pittsburgh is getting it mainly from two sources:  Crosby and Malkin.  Those two have been playing fantastically awesome hockey.  They are a great face for the NHL to have.  

In the end?  Detroit repeats, four games to two (again).  All of them will be great games, and I hope clean games too.  I hate to see a series get nasty when it doesn't need to be.  

sleep cycle

It seems like that no matter what I do to try to catch up on sleep, it doesn't work.  I get to bed super early at night to get an extra hour here, an extra hour there to make up for the four or five hours of sleep I got the previous night.  Doesn't happen.  I was in bed by nine thirty(ish) last night, and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.  If I had slept straight through to my alarm going off this morning, it would have been seven hour.  SEVEN!  That is huge.  But, I woke up a little after three.  So five and a half hours of sleep.  Not bad, but seven hours would have been exquisite.  

All of my family, I am sure, is (are?) surprised at this whole up and at work before the sun is up situation.  I am not a morning person.  At all.  Never have been.  They know it.  People at work are now aware of it as well.  I could get nine or ten hours of sleep the previous night, I will still be quite and somewhat cranky.  

I did get a nice nap in yesterday after work.  Close to two hours, that helped out a lot.  This is how I really make up for the hour or two that I wake up early before my alarm.  It is a good system.  I nap on the couch, which could have it's disadvantages, but it helps to keep the nap time at a minimum.  If I were to nap in the bedroom with the nice fluffy pillows and warm blankets and darkness, I may sleep for four or five hours.  I would then be in a world of hurt.  Sure I would gain the sleep back, but I would not be able to fall back asleep at the normal time at night.    

I have found a solution to being tired.  It is a tried and true solution that people have used for centuries.  Coffee.  Joe.  Java.  Mud.  Morning tar.  (et al.).  The addictive morning drink that keeps me going through the day.  I love me some coffee.  I never understood my parents need to have it made every Christmas morning before we opened presents.  I understand now.  Can I get through the day without it?  Yes.  Should I?  No.  No one wants to see that.  I don't get the shakes or have bugs crawling under my skin, it isn't that bad.  

It is one vicious cycle.  Finding the balance of night sleep, and afternoon nap sleep is critical.  I find that happy medium every once in a while, but it is quite elusive.  

middle of where?

One thing that I just found out is that there are several camping areas around us.  Granted, the only time that camping really crosses my mind is when we are getting ready for float trips.  One downside to that is we partake in, at most, two a year.  And we have the equipment for camping.  Two of our friends went camping a couple of weeks ago and said that they did just about nothing, which sounds great for a weekend away from Wichita.  They did have to deal with flooded areas because of the wet spring we have had, so that would be a bummer.  

I think that the optimal time to go is now, at the end of May or the beginning of June.  When I was younger, we would go camping once a year with our family friends and it always seemed to be in the middle of the summer.  July time.  It is way too hot down here to go camping in July or August.  I suppose the camping option could possibly extend into the fall, but that leads to the question of when camp grounds close.  

One thing I would love is to just get away.  Finding a campground that is in the middle of nowhere.  To have peace and quite and no city.  Maybe just a small town nearby to make a beer run.  

Yeah, I like that idea.  

Visit recap

My parents are still here and we have done some new things.  In their past visits, we have just stuck around Wichita and done stuff here.  Museums, movies, shopping, etc.  

The first new thing we did was a baseball game.  There is an independent baseball team, the Wichita Wingnuts, here.  At one time the Kansas City Royals had a double A team, the Wranglers, here but people just stopped going to the games.  So, the team up and left to Arkansas.  Of course, there was plenty of outcry about the team leaving town, but why would an organization stay somewhere that isn't profitable?  So the Wingnuts came to town a few years ago.  The game was fun, and cheap!  Great seats for twelve dollars.  Who cares what team is playing, if you enjoy baseball why not go?  

Yesterday, we went to Abilene.  But why?  In actuality, dad wanted to meet with a guy that his company does work with.  The company is in Solomon Kansas.  We dropped dad off to meet this guy, and we went a little bit further down the road to Abilene.  There we found the Dwight D Eisenhower center.  It was fantastic.  There was his boyhood home, a museum, a library, and his resting place.  Once again, it was fairly cheap.  I believe it was eight or nine dollars to get into the museum, which we spent a little over an hour just in the museum.  You could spend two or even three hours there.  They have audio recordings, so sitting there and listening to them would take up some time.  Well worth the trip up there.  A good day trip if you have family in town and they dig history.  

Today we are going to hang by the pool for the first time this year and go to all star sports to play putt-putt or maybe hit the driving range.  

All in all, a great relaxing visit.  The weather cooperated the entire time my parents were here as well.  It has been in the mid to low eighties all weekend.  They leave tomorrow to go to Seattle for the last leg of their trip.  

Two great signs

There have been two great signs for the Detroit Tigers this year.  And if we are to follow signs, they will make it to the World Series again.  These signs are:  

1.) They pitched two consecutive shutouts earlier this month against Cleveland for the first time since 2006, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in five games in the World Series.  

2.) Last night, they hit two grand slams in one game for the first time since 1968.  That year, they beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games to win the World Series.  

So there you have it.  Call your bookie and put some money down for Detroit and St. Louis to meet in the World Series this year.  

Early morning observations

As I am up at three o'clock this morning, I have had time to watch some interesting things on the television.  And here, my friends, are some acute observations while you sleep the morning away.

-I found music videos!  Oh yes.  VH1 has been hiding them in the wee hours of the morning.  And you know what, I miss them.  

-I will forever hold a little grudge against ESPN for their basketball bias.  Two very exciting games sevens last night in the hockey playoffs, one went into overtime, and all they talked about for twenty minutes was one basketball game.  

-eSurance commercials are annoying.  

-The fitness craze that makes people dance around like strippers is not sexy.  And the fact that you get a stripper pole along with the videos is down right disturbing.  

-Kansas has a 'if you drink and drive, we will find you' campaign, which is great.  In the commercials, they pull over five different vehicles, all of which are driven by men.  I strongly believe this is prejudicial against men.  Women drink and drive too.  

-You can buy a Barack Obama watch with the 'Yes We Can' quote, his face, and an American flag all engraved on the face of the watch, along with the presidential seal on the back of the watch, for just thirty five dollars off of the home shopping network.  Oh, and there are diamond-type stones all around the watch.  Classy.  

-The two hockey analysts ESPN has, matthew barnaby and barry melrose, are far superior to the six or seven basketball analysts they have.  

-MASH is one of the greatest shows.  ever.  'Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen' is the best episode of any show.  ever.  

Skate on the throat

Tomorrow night, the Detroit Red Wings have a chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals against either Chicago or Vancouver.  First things first though, they need to beat the Ducks.  The biggest thing that irritates me about that franchise is that their existence is based on a Disney movie.  Without it, this franchise does not drive me crazy.  They couldn't have put the team up some place where hockey means something, say....Wisconsin or Minnesota (even though Minnesota has a team now).  Oh no, they put it in southern fucking California.  California already had one team too many and they gave them another one.  

I want to watch the Wings tomorrow night drag the Ducks out to center ice and tear their collective heart out, take a nice big bite out if it, give their fanboy the middle finger, and skate away laughing.  That would make my night.  

A good start

The way the Tigers are playing now almost makes me forget about the bad season they had last year.  Almost.  The trade that they made last year with the Florida Marlins did not work out all that great for them, but it seems to have come around for them.  The first half of last season, Miguel Cabrera never looked comfortable at the plate or in the field, but found his groove after the all star game.  And then there is Dontrelle Willis.  There is a big mistake the Tigers won't ever get back.  

The new, younger talent they brought in and up has worked well.  Two starting pitchers in Edwin Jackson and Rick Porcello have held their own and Ryan Perry is still very raw, but displays great potential.  The line up has great power, but now has speed and they are not afraid to run.  When we went to the game in Kansas City, they damn near pulled off a suicide squeeze.  It would have worked had the bunt not gone foul.  

The key to the early season success, I think, is the pitching.  It all starts with the new pitching coach, Rick Knapp.  He helped Verlander remember that he is, in fact, Justin Verlander:  Tiger Ace.  Knapp and Gerald Laird have done great things with this young staff and I hope they can keep it up.  

So thirty games into the season, they are seventeen and thirteen and just half a game behind the Royals in the central division.  If KC loses today (they are winning at the moment), the two teams will be tied for the lead.  They just need to remember that they are the Kansas City Royals, and that they belong in the cellar of the AL Central Division.  

Waste of a day

I worked overnight on Monday and Tuesday to get a bunch of stuff that needed to be done done.  It was nice in the fact that I did not have to deal with people asking questions, be annoying, or just getting in the way.  So my sleep schedule got a little screwed up, but not to the point where I am wide awake at one in the morning.  

Wednesday morning I got back home a little after seven in the morning and promptly went to bed.  Fell asleep a little bit later and woke up at two thirty.  A nice, college student type time to get up.  The best part, I think, is that I went back to bed six hours later.  Oh yes my friends, I was up Wednesday for six hours.  Even though I got a decent amount of sleep in the morning, I still had to force myself to go to sleep at my normal time so I could get back on my normal sleeping pattern.  

Now, it is eight o'clock at night and I need to get ready for bed again at an early hour.  Why?  I have to work in eight hours.  Four in the morning.  

*Whoo whoo* They should be up cooking breakfast.  

BAH!

I got stuck next to a urinal talker tonight while I was out for a few beers.  I thought that urinal talking was a social no-no and that everyone knew that.   

Guess not.