September 1, 2008

I had an awesome dream last night. Ever seen that YouTube video where Travis Barker is drumming along to that Apple Bottom Jeans song? If not, check it out. Anyway, I had a dream that I could drum along to that song. I felt so cool! But then I woke up. Haha! I woke up at about 9:30, showered, grabbed a Slim Fast and headed out the door, on my way to the last Greensboro Grasshoppers game of the season. It only took about 45 minutes to drive to Greensboro and I found a free parking spot. It was a beautiful day and I got a seat right behind home plate. Like I said, I was bummed that I didn't go to last night's game, as Mike Stanton and Matt Dominguez each hit two home runs. But Stanton made me feel a little bit better when he crushed a 3-2 curveball out of the stadium in the third inning. It was his 39th home run of the season, so the power's obviously legit. He also drew three walks and was intentionally walked once, making him 1-for-1 with 4 walks on the day. Although I didn't see any myself, the strikeouts have to be a concern. On the season, he whiffed 153 times in just 125 games. Is he the new Brandon Wood?

The Grasshoppers have a beautiful stadium. It's funny going to low-A parks that are 10 times nicer than Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. On top of that, there were some other quirks that made the whole experience very enjoyable. First off, there were $1 hot dogs, sodas and beers. I'm not sure if that is a regular Monday thing or an end-of-the-season thing, but I had a couple hot dogs. They also play Bubb Rubb's "woo woo" over the loudspeaker and the whole crowd does a "woo woo" in return. At first I thought it was really cool, but it got kind of annoying late in the game after I had heard it about 100 times. No joke — it felt like I was living with Chris Miller again! They also videotape the relief pitcher running in and then replay it in slow motion with the Baywatch theme music, which was really funny. But the best part was in the bottom of the third and seventh innings when Babe the Bat Dog retrieved bats after players hit the ball. I'm not making this up! There's a black lab (named Babe) that sits behind a fence with her trainer. As soon as a Greensboro player gets a hit, Babe runs out and gets the bat. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen at the ballpark. Here's a perfect video because it shows Babe getting a bat and you can hear a Woo Woo!



After that, I headed home. But I made a pit stop at Target in Burlington because I wanted to buy a scale. I've decided that waiting to get a bike to workout is just an excuse. I'm sick and tired of being overweight and I'm going to do something about it. Why not? I have so much free time out here, I might as well do something productive with it. What's more important — being good at Madden or living to see my grandchildren? So, I've set a goal for myself and I'm going to use this blog as accountability. The goal is to lose 50 pounds by the time the internship is over. That's 10 pounds a month, which I think is doable. I'm already starting to eat better, now I just have to add exercise to the mix. After work every day I'm going to go for a walk or a jog (or hopefully soon, a bike ride). Right now I'm 260 pounds, but by the end of January, I will be no more than 210. Heck, that's still overweight, but it's a start!

I got home, cooked some chicken (and didn't almost burn down my kitchen this time!) for a chicken salad, ate dinner, straightened up my room, did the dishes, took out the trash, shaved and now I'm about to Skype with Cheryl and go to bed. First day of working out begins tomorrow ... I need some sleep!