Rainy Evening at Nats Park

Not sure if the weather is going to cooperate tonight or not. 

It looks like it will rain for awhile and then clear but then rain again  

Hope they can get the game in. Doug Fister is back tonight after being on the DL. 

Lucy vs. Snoopy

A very funny series where Lucy takes on Snoopy. One guess who ends up the winner.

America is Saved — Donald Trump is Running for President

Praise the Lord Hallelujah.

America is saved.

Donald Trump is running for president!!!!!!

Trump will save this country.

Trump will make it great again.

How do I know this? Because he said so.

In fact I don’t think we need to have any primaries or general elections at all. Just have Trump take over when Obama leaves office.

After all Trump has answers to all the problems of this country. He just has to say things and they will happen.

Trump will build a wall all along the Mexican border. And he’ll make Mexico pay for it. How? Because he’ll make it so.

Here's list of some of the finer points in the speech he made yesterday:

• Sell junk to Saudi Arabia, since the goods we send them are blown up anyway;
• Repeal Obamacare “and replace it with something that benefits everybody”;
• “Turn off that spigot” of sending money to China (in the form of debt payments) by taxing them “until they behave properly”;
• Renegotiate our foreign trade deals;
• Call up the head of the Ford Motor Company and tell them they are going to be taxed at 35 percent for every car coming from Mexico until they decide to nix their plant in Mexico City;
• End President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration;
• End border crossings from Mexico because some of those border-crossers are “rapists”;
• To do that, build a “great, great wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border;
• Have Mexico pay for that wall;
• Don’t appoint a secretary of state who rides bikes and breaks his leg;
• Avoid riding bikes himself;
• Work hard on the Islamic State problem;
• Stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons;
• Find the General Patton or General MacArthur from within the U.S. armed forces to “make it really work” in the Middle East;
• Rebuild the country’s infrastructure -- “nobody can do that like me”;
• Create jobs -- “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created”;
• Save Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security “without cuts”;
• Protect the Second Amendment;
• Take the brand of the United States “and make it great again.”

At least we now know who the driver for the Republican Clown Bus will be.

The front cover the Daily News sums it up nicely. 

Jurassic World

I went and saw this on Sunday. My plan had been to see it at the Uptown. They had a 10:30 am show. I was going to go to the gym and then go to the movie. Glad I checked the time again. That early show at the Uptown was only on Saturday.

Quick change of plans. I wanted an early show so I could get back to my house before it got really hot. I opted to go to Silver Spring and see the 9am show. Turns out I’m glad I didn’t go to the gym and the Uptown. There was some sort of problem at DuPont Circle and they were single tracking and providing shuttle bus service. Not sure how long it lasted. But as I was riding up to Silver Spring all at each platform I passed trains going to downtown were just sitting at the station not moving.

I was a little concerned that I would be late getting to the movie. Turns out I had time to spare. The person at the ticket counter was pretty much out of it. I think they might have been trying to take a nap. It was after all before 9 and I assume she probably had opened the box office by 8:30. The ticket taker didn’t seem that much more awake either. He took my ticket and only after I took a few steps did he tell which direction to go to get to the theater the movie was in.

As for being late I need not have worried about that. There were at least 15 minutes worth of previews.

Now on to the movie. There were parts that I really liked. The homage to the first movie to the first movie is really well done. There are actually a couple of points where they do this. The best is when the two kids discover the old entrance to the park. It was the visitors center. It’s also amusing that they use some of the banner as part of a torch.

I really like Chris Pratt and his character, Owen, and his training the Raptors. I wish there had been more of this in the movie. A very interesting idea of training this incredibly dangerous animals. Also the notion of Pratt being the alpha male of the pack. That plays an important part towards the end of the movie.

The effects are amazing. It really looks like there is park with dinosaurs. Special effects have really advanced since the first movie and it really shows. I like the gyro spheres taking park visitors around the park. Sort of like driving your car through a animal park. Also Jimmy Fallon makes a funny cameo explaining how the gyro sphere works.

The problem with the movie is way too many sub-plots. Here are a few:

The kids (Gray and Zach) are being sent to the park because their parents are getting a divorce
The older kid is not really interested in his little brother; can’t seem to bothered all that much with him.
The kids aunt, Claire, is one of the mover and shakers and doesn’t have any time for them.
Claire went on one date with the Chris Pratt character so their is some little history there.
Claire sees the dinosaurs as attractions not as living.
As mentioned bonding with the Raptors.
The Raptors to be used as weapons.
The big bad dinosaur and the secret of what it really is.

I think that might be all of them. Just too many in a movie that is a little over 2 hours. I will say, that when Claire gets that the dinosaurs are actual living and breathing creatures, it is very moving.

I would have liked more on Owen and his work with his Raptors.

Things I liked. There are a couple of good plot twists. One that I certainly didn’t see coming. There is the scene on the previews where the pterodactyls are swooping in on guest which is cool. And I liked the twist at the end of what was arrayed against the genetically altered dinosaur.

In all a pretty good movie over all. One more thing since it made over 200 million opening weekend, there will be another one and there’s a scene in this movie that sets that up.

When Technology Has a Mind of Its Own

This Sunday was going to be spent getting update to the blog. Many posts about a variety of subjects.

Instead of doing that I have been trying, with absolutely no success, to get the scanner in my all-in-one device to work. Last week it worked just fine. Today when I try importing from Preview I get a error message that says the scanner is not available.

And now literally as I was typing the last sentence it suddenly started working again. What the F*#CK.

What a nice way to spend an hour of your Sunday afternoon.

Now what was I going to post about. Hmmm. Well I think the best I can do for right now is say just how hot a day it was here in DC. Low 90s felt 5 or more degrees warmer. I went and saw Jurassic World which I'll talk about in a later post.

In light of the fact it was soooo hot today, I thought this a great Peanuts cartoon. And it also takes place in the winter with snow on the ground.

I hope I'll have no further problems with my technology and be able to post a little later today. I'm also going to need my blood pressure to come down a little from the last little go around with the scanner.

All I can say it always amazes me when you haven't changed anything with the software or the hardware all of a sudden there's a problem. A most frustrating bit of the afternoon.

Brunch and a Visit to Tudor Place

Me and my pancakes

To end my birthday weekend, I had brunch with my friend Liz at Stoney's.

I then accompanied Liz and her son to a kids birthday party at Tudor Place.

We dropped her son off and then wondered around the grounds and caught up with each other. It was a delightful afternoon.

A close up of my pancakes. They were great!

Liz and her French toast.

A series of pictures from Tudor Place. Here's a little more about it:

Welcome to Tudor Place, a National Historic Landmark. Completed in 1816, lived in by six generations of a single family, and opened to the public in 1988, Tudor Place Historic House & Garden preserves, interprets, and shares with the public and scholars the rich resources of its architecture, history, collections, and archive.

Hot Spinning Class at LA Fitness

Yes, I’m taking a hot spinning class at my gym, LA Fitness. Hot as in the room where the class is is warm not that the class is trendy or anything like that. But, unlike the hot yoga courses that are sometimes offered, the hot spinning class is not by choice. It’s because the air conditioning in the spin room doesn’t work.

Monday it was 79 in the room and today it was 81 and that’s when you first walk into the room. So you can sit on your bike without doing anything and still break out into a sweat. By the time your done with the class well the heat takes a toll on you.

I don’t stay for the whole class anyway because I have to get to work. Usually I arrive about ten minutes early and then stay for about 40 minutes of the class. But with the heat especially today I was only able to do just 40 minutes. I was soaked in sweat when I stepped out of the spin room. When you do that you’re are immediately hit with this wall of cold air. It almost makes you cold that’s how significant a difference there is in the temperature.

I’ve talked to the guy at the front desk about this. He did everything he could to get the AC working. He tripped the breaker but that didn’t do anything. The fan is working but the air conditioning is deader than dead.

What I don’t understand is that the gym was closed for two and a half weeks to be completely remodeled. The spin room was moved. It’s much bigger than the old one. It seems to me one of things that would be checked with the remodeling is that the air conditioning worked. Because it used to work just fine in the room. So what exactly happened to it.

I know that people have mentioned the problem to the front desk. This has been passed up to the manager. Yet little if anything seems to have been done to try and fix the problem. At the very least they could get a big industrial fan or two in the room to help circulate the air. The ceiling fans only provide relief if you are directly underneath them.

I decided the thing to do was to send an e-mail to the corporate office of LA Fitness. This was the response I got:

I fully understand your frustration. This is not the experience we want anyone to have.

I have contacted the Operations Manager at the Washington DC location for their immediate attention.

That was on June 1. And nothing has happened. I sent another email last Wednesday and again today. I’m going to call the customer service number and try the manager as well.

Like I said an industrial fan or two might help. Also some communication with us that management is attempting to solve the problem. Either by someone coming into the class or a note on the door. Something to acknowledge that this is a problem.

How hard could that be?

The Hole in the Ceiling

To repair the problem with the bath tub drain caused by yours truly, the plumber had to made a hole in the living room ceiling to get to the busted pipe.

This is what it looks like. I have to call them back and arrange for them to come out to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to fix. I also think I'm going to see about getting ceiling fans installed as well.

Now I had a book case very close to where the hole was. The book case is close to 7 feet tall. Linus and Charlie got obsessed with getting a closer look at the hole. At one point I found both of them on top of the book case. Both were eying the hole. Both were doing the bob and weave that cats do when trying to figure out the distance to jump on to something.

Needless to say I couldn't allow that to happen. I moved the book case. But the funny thing is that Charlie still looks up longing at the hole in the ceiling as you can see in this picture. He spent the good part of ten minutes just staring up at it. From time to time he still does that.

A close up of the section I poke a hole in now all repaired

Charlie fixating on the hole in the ceiling

Pictures from Friday's Game

Here are a few more pictures from Friday's game.

The top one and the one below are pictures of Bryce Harper signing autographs for fans. This is when the team has come off the field from warm ups and right before the National Anthem. Max Scherzer came over and signed too. 

The picture below I find very interesting. On the way on to the field in one of the later innings (either the 8th or the 9th), Bryce Harper stops to talk to Jayson Werth. At first I thought it would be a quick conversation. A quick joke or something. But it turned into a three to four minute conversation.

I'm guessing Harper was asking for some advice for Werth on something. I say that because Werth pointed to the outfield. He then made made some gestures in one of the palms of his hand. Harper nodded through most of it. Then he took the field.

Celebrating the victory. Hoping that these celebrations start happening more often.

The Nats Go Cold

That's the only thing that you can say about them right now. They've gone cold.

Tom Boswell puts it best:

Baseball has always been a game of streaks — with hot often turning instantly to cold. But the Nationals are taking it to extremes. This season, the Nats have gone 7-13 and looked scatterbrained and error-tormented while doing it. Then they used a 13-12 comeback win as an emotional springboard to run off a 21-6 streak, and they could hardly have played sharper baseball.

Now, they’ve been ripped apart by a 53-27 margin in their last 10 games by the Reds, Blue Jays and Cubs — clubs that are under .500 as a group. If the Nationals weren’t in the anemic National League East, they’d probably be punished with a significant deficit already for their meandering 30-27 record. Instead, they are only a half-game behind the first-placed New York Mets.

My last game was on Saturday where they lost to the Cubs 4-2. The night before the Nats had done really well. Saturday they were just flat. Their two runs came from two home runs. One from Wilson Ramos in the 2nd. The other from Bryce Harper in the 9th. They had three other hits for the entire game. Just not enough to do it.

Saturday's game also brought the major league debut of Joe Ross. He actually did pretty well. He just didn't get any offensive support. From the Post:

But beneath the offensive gloom was the major league debut of 22-year-old Joe Ross , who was solid in five innings of work.

Ross is a tall and talented right-hander with a heavy sinking fastball and biting slider and is the younger brother of Padres starter Tyson Ross. Joe Ross was one of two prospects acquired from San Diego in the three-team deal that sent Steven Souza Jr. to Tampa Bay this season. He is also the youngest player to play for the Nationals this season. As shortstop Ian Desmond said afterward, Ross pitched like he had done this kind of thing before.

The question is is this the way the season is going to go. Very hot one minute and then very cold the next. Or is this just a blip or a bump or a little pause until they get things back on track.

They are dealing with injuries. The incredible pitching rotation is more than a little banged up. Anthony Rendon is back (his first game back was Thursday). But it takes a little while to get up to full steam. Jayson Werth is probably out until August.

But if there's a time to have major injuries and a slump it's in June and not in September.

Peanuts in St. Paul

My friend Denis is in Minneapolis for a conference. He took these pictures and sent them to me.

These are soooo cool.

I also thought it appropriate to include a Peanuts strip as well.

The Performers of Saffron Dance

Here are a few pictures that Diane sent me from back stage of the performance last nigh. I think this gives you an idea of how amazing the costumes are like. To see how amazing the dance part is you'll need to go to one of their performances.

Diane is on the far right in these pictures.

Saffron Dance Performance

My friend Diane is a belly dancer with Saffron Dance. Not many people can say that about one of their friends.

Last night I went to one of their performances. It was so much fun.

It was one of those you don't know what to expect but are blown away with what you see. Just very very enjoyable from start to finish. I sat in the back row so I could get a full view of the stage. It was a smart move I was able to see all of the dancers and get a better of the dance moves.

I particularly liked one where they used large fans as part of the dance. Something out of the 1920s with music to match. It was called Fantasia Arabe. It just so happens Diane was in this dance too. (I hope to have a couple of pictures to post too. You couldn't take any during the performance.)

Here's the mission of Saffron Dance:

Saffron Dance seeks to lead the belly dance community by continuing to elevate the artistic integrity of belly dance as an art form through the education and training of all aspects of belly dance via classes workshops, retreats, teacher trainings and studio-to-studio support.  

Make sure you catch Saffron Dance's next performance. You won't be disappointed.

Nats Win 7-5 on Friday on My Birthday

The Nats celebrate their win.

Going to a Nats game has become a tradition on my birthday. My record is now 3-1 for birthday games.

This one was exciting. The cubs had three home runs in the game which made it much too close for my comfort.

The Nats had a home run too. Danny Espinosa had one in the second that gave the Nats a 3-0 lead. They got two more in the fourth. But that's when the Cubs started chipping away at the lead.

From the Post:

On Friday night, he [Tanner Roark] set the Cubs’ order down once without a hit. Anthony Rizzo hit a solo home run in the fourth, but Roark sailed smoothly into the sixth. In that inning, Rendon made a diving play to his right to keep Addison Russell off base, which was important because Rizzo struck again a few batters later, a two-run home run that could have gone for three had Russell reached. Miguel Montero hit a solo homer two batters later. Roark left after 5²/₃ innings, allowing four runs on six hits — three of them homers, which he said came from leaving fastballs up in the strike zone.

So the 7th inning stretch comes along and the game is very close 5-4. The Nats added a run in that inning. Then came the top of the order for the Cubs and Anthony Rizzo. Then this happened:

Rizzo, who smashed a line drive to deep center field. Span, battling a sore right knee, chased it to the wall, leapt and made one of the most stunning catches of the Nationals’ season. 

It was a spectacular catch. Rizzo had been a thorn in the side of the Nats all night. When Span came to the dugout he received a huge round of applause and an even louder roar of approval. 

Things got a little exciting again in the top of the 9th. Drew Storen came in to close out the game. With two outs he allowed one run in. But struck out the final batter.

Another curly W in the books on my birthday. It was a great night.

The Walk Home on Thursday

The results of Thursday game was a disappointment to say the least. The way it ended with someone being picked off at first base well that was just plain bad.

It was after midnight which of course means the subway had closed.

There were not many people left but enough to make getting a cab a little difficult. I've yet to do Uber and thought this might not be the best time to make it the first time.

I decided I would walk over to the Capitol South Metro stop. There were several bars over there and I thought I could get a cab there if I didn't see one before that. When I got there all those places were closed because of course it was Thursday night.

The only place I knew for sure I could get a cab was Union Station. That's where I headed off to. There was very little traffic. It seemed no one else but me was out.

And during that walk I got these great pictures.

While passing the Supreme Court, I waved to one of the guards who was out walking the grounds. He yelled out how's they do. I told him they lost. We then proceeded to talk about the game. The Nats in general. The easiest way to get home after a late game. He said he walks a couple of blocks away from the park and then orders Uber. 

The whole conversation lasted about 10 minutes. I thought it was just great. It put me in a much better mood. I hoped it made his night a little better too.