Top 5 Baseball Movies

Every year around this time, two things happen. First, I start yearning to get into the garden and plant, even though the ground is still mostly frozen. At least this year, the growing season will start earlier! The second thing is I start getting excited about the upcoming baseball season.

I always miss watching the game when the Word Series finishes, but after a long summer and exciting fall, I'm okay with break. We get into the holidays and sports are far from my mind. Then come January. There is nothing to recommend January. About this time of year, there's a flurry of activity among the teams - trades, fan activities, and the talk of spring training. However, the actual season won't start until the very last days of March. So, to get myself through this troubling time, I have a few go-to baseball movies that I watch yearly. In my entirely biased opinion, the list is below...

5. Eight Men Out - A great cast in this one, it's about the players who threw the 1919 World Series. I love John Cusack in most anything he's in, so that's a bonus, but this is a cool story about one of those ultimate baseball stories.




4. Field of Dreams - "If you build it, he will come!" I grew up watching this movie, but it never gets old. It's about a guy who hears voices and is urged to build a baseball field in the middle of his corn field. In doing so, the men from the 1919 Chicago White Sox (see previous entry) get to play again and eventually, he get to meet his dad, whom he never had a good relationship with. Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and that guy from West Wing. :-)


3. Fever Pitch - I'm not a Red Sox fan, but this movie transcends one team. It's just lucky that it happened to be the year that the Sox won the Series for the first time in 86 years. Plus, cute little story and I am a Drew Barrymore fan. Based on a Nick Hornsby novel inwhich the sport was originally soccer. The 1997 British movie stars Colin Firth.


2. The Rookie - A heartwarming story about an older guy who, after a bet with the high school team he coaches, tried out for the majors and makes it. It's a great story, made even better by the fact that it's based on a true story.




1. A League of Their Own - Yeah, I know it's a girls movie, but hey, I'm a girl! Plus, it's got Geena Davis and Tom Hanks, Rosie O'Donnell before she went bonkers and Madonna in a role that seemed a little too easy for her to play. I don't know how many times I've used the line, "There's no crying in baseball!"

There are some other great ones out there that I love to watch - The Natural, Mr. Baseball, and Mr. 3000, which makes me laugh every time Bernie Mac sings the Mr. Softie song. But, these are the five that I need until that first pitch at Safeco on March 31st.

A Good Loss

At the urging of my mother, I joined Weight Watchers Online with her a few weeks ago. I've known people who had really good results with WW, but I was a bit skeptical. Well, here I am, moving toward the end of my second full week and I'm down about five pounds. The clubhouse opened up last weekend and I've been in there twice this week, taking a brisk walk on the treadmill while listening to my audiobook. This seems to be going well so far, but we'll see on Monday, weekly weigh-in day. Woot 5 lbs! Only 25-30 more to go (when did I gain so much??)!

End of Semester Stress

So, the last day of the semester is Friday. It's that time of year that I feel guilty doing anything but grading essays, entering grades in the computer, evaluating students,
grading final exams, and generally wrapping up the semester. The weird part is that this time around is a lot less stressful than in previous years. This is because my entire schedule isn't sifting around next week. With a few exceptions, I'll have the same kids in the same periods until June. It's rather nice. However, those essays are still yelling at me from my bag.

Shopping for the Dress

I was informed earlier this week that mom, Mandy, and I would be going wedding dress shopping. We didn't have high expectations, but this would be the only opportunity that all three of us would have together, so we could at least give it a shot.

We dropped Darren off at the mall across the street. With a Sears and an REI, we figured he could entertain himself for a bit. Our appointment was at 11:30 and after checking in, Mandy was sent to pull about three dresses she liked. We had looked at a few online and found one of them. We saw another that we thought was really nice, and on a whim Mandy pulled a third that was a little different, but she liked the bodice of.

We met Sandy, our dedicated saleswoman, at the dressing rooms and started the process. She tried on the first one. It was nice, but a little blah. It just didn't show off her excellent shape at all. The second was the one we saw online. Mandy was kinda "eh" about it. She tried on the third and it fit her really well, made her look great, but was a little overwhelming and not really what she had expected her to like. Sandy went back and pulled two more dresses - the first was a bit plain and was off in a matter of minutes. The second, however, was incredible. It showed off her slim body very well, made her look taller, didn't overwhelm her, and was gorgeous. When Sandy placed the veil on her head, I started tearing up. So did Mom. Mandy hadn't stopped smiling since she first glimpsed herself in the mirror. We all knew that this was the dress. It wasn't anything we would have expected to choose, but it was perfect. They say that when you find the dress, you know, and that was certainly what happened with us.

Only 14 months until the wedding!

Obama wins Iowa!!

I thought about it, but I didn't dare hope too hard. However, last night, Obama won the Iowa Caucuses and is now onto New Hampshire with some momentum. Here's his speech after the caucuses last night...

Resolutions vs. Goals

I hate New Year's Resolutions. You start the year with these great ideas about how you are going to change for the better. Usually these resolutions have to do with organization and health. I have fallen victim to this in the past, but rarely have I done anything about my resolutions past the first couple weeks of the new year. So, I have resolved not to make any more resolutions. Instead, I'm making a list of goals that I would like to attempt this year. The difference between a goal and a resolution is that if you fail to make a resolution by the end of the year, you feel bad about yourself. If you don't make a goal, you adjust the goal or the time frame. There is less guilt involved. Here, now, is my list of goals for 2008:

1. Lose 25 lbs by Mandy's Wedding
2. Buy a car
3. Move out of mom's condo
4. Pay off one of my credit cards
5. Readjust my retirement portfolio

I think that's a good list of goals. Granted, a lot of them deal with money, however, I think they deal with different areas of my financial health.

Hope everyone has a lovely new year and best of luck with those resolutions!