Twins Baseball...

Let's talk about the Twins...

They haven't exactly had the best start to their year. Now, they have played most of their games on the road, which I think will always be par for the course early in the season because of the outdoor Target Field (I've decided I don't care because I love Target Field). I'm sure that doesn't help, as they were 53-28 at home last year.

I was a little frustrated the other day when they lost their second game in a row to Tampa Bay and then Mauersie was placed on the 15-day DL for "leg weakness". I guess he had a viral illness, was dehydrated, etc., which happens. But, it was mentioned that this viral syndrome aggravated leg weakness he's been having since offseason arthroscopic surgery. That doesn't sound good to me!!!!! Why does the former AL MVP have ANY level of residual leg weakness?!?!?

So, I popped a little comment onto Facebook. I see my friend Quinn put a post up today, gently reminding me and all the other lamenters that there's a lot of season left. That's true. I certainly wasn't giving up on the whole season, just voicing frustration that we're not hitting well and that our pitching (except Liriano and the closers) have been good, but we've managed to blow about 3 games which we should have one (because of starting pitching), even though the offense was weak.

I was trying to offer an intelligent rebuke, hoping I could find some Elias Sports Bureau stat for "what is the average finishing record for MLB teams that start 4-10"? However, no such luck. I DO think the Twins will turn it around. However, as one of the commenters to Quinn said, "these games still count". I'm sure it doesn't help the Twins' collective confidence being 4-10 and I'm sure it emboldens the teams they are playing against.

This is the best I could find: The Twins record after 14 games each of the last 9 full seasons and whether or not they made the playoffs that year:

2010 10-4 playoffs

2009 7-7 playoffs

2008 5-9 no playoffs

2007 6-8 no playoffs

2006 7-7 playoffs

2005 6-8 no playoffs

2004 9-5 playoffs

2003 8-6 playoffs

2002 9-5 playoffs

So, the worst record in the first 14 games the last 9 years making the playoffs? 7-7.

Things we've got going for us? 1) Betting hitting is sure to come. 2) Home crowds at Target Field, especially into the summer, will help. 3) KC and Cleveland lead the division by 3 full games right now--I don't think that will last.

Things that make me sad: In looking up the above records, I was reminded that we haven't won a playoff series since 2002. Sigh.

NBC NEWS--Tea Party Upset Because Federal Funding Used to Add Fifth Face to Mount Rushmore

(snicker)

Try this!

OK, many points for Tally for talking us into making this recipe (she may even be back into positive points now--hee hee). It's a quiche with hashbrowns for the crust. I guess the high-brow folks might not like it, but we thought it was delicious.

Quiche with Hashbrown Crust

Ingredients:

-3 cups frozen, shredded hashbrowns, thawed, drained, and pressed as dry as you can get them with paper towels
-4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
-3 eggs (can use 4 eggs if you like it a big more.....well, eggy)
-1 cup dairy product, meaning crank up the richness to what you like. We used 2% milk, which I thought was great. If you like it richer, go for whole milk or half-and-half; less rich, 1% or skim
-Salt and black pepper
-Other seasonings you may like (garlic powder, cayenne, etc.)
-Add-ins: meat, cheese, veggies, etc. I would go with 1/2-3-4 cup of cooked meat (less if it's bacon). We used turkey breakfast sausage. I would use some type of onion, about 1/2 cup. We used green onions, which I recommend. You could also add mushrooms, peppers, whatever, but I would slightly cook any mushrooms, peppers, or regular onion before adding to soften them up a bit. Finally, 1 cup of shredded cheese. We went with pepper jack.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix the drained, dried hashbrowns with the melted butter. Add a little salt and pepper and any other seasonings you wish to add. Press the hashbrowns into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round pie pan to form a "crust". The original recipe we used called for baking for 20-25 min, until the crust is golden brown and starting to crisp. It took at least 40 min for us, so you'll have to see how that one goes for you.

When the crust is getting close to being done, mix all the other ingredients. Again, we used 4 eggs, 1 cup 2% milk, 1 cup grated pepper jack cheese, 3/4 cup cooked turkey sausage, 1/2 cup green onion, and a little more salt and pepper.

When the crust is done, yank the pan out, add the egg mixture, and put it back in the oven, turning the oven temp down to 350 degrees. It's done when the whole top is puffed and light golden brown. The recipe we used called for 30 min, but I think it took ours more like 45 minutes, so watch yours carefully.

Enjoy the deliciousness.

Little River...

This was our little cabin, which was great. It had a real fireplace, which is something I've never had anywhere I lived--I loved it! Below was the view, looking out onto the Pacific from our deck.

This was a great little place in a great quiet, little town. Three things I had here were among the best I've ever had. The Swedish pancakes they had for breakfast--outstanding! The bacon they served with the pancakes--ridiculously good. It makes me want to make my own bacon because it was SO much better than any bacon I've had before from the grocery store.

We relaxed for a couple of days, which was great. On our way back to Yucca Valley, we swung through Napa Valley (more ridiculous people and crazy, middle-aged women who had had too much wine--see previous Napa Valley post, as it was more of the same).

What's that, you say? What was the third thing from the Little River Inn? Pliny the Elder beer, my friend. It deserves its own post eventually, so stay tuned...

Coming up, the Super Bowl. What does that mean? Commercials? Family and friends? Nope! John trying to make appetizers and having no idea what he's doing. We'll see how they turn out and if I can impress the wife.

Pacific Coast

Day 4 was spent driving to Gold Beach, OR, a little town on the Pacific coast of OR, just north of the CA/OR border. Day 5 was the best drive, in my opinion, down the 101/1 to Little River, CA, where we stayed at the Little River Inn.

We stopped to see some of the huge redwoods:

I'm really not a "tree-hugger" philosophically, but decided I should become one literally for this picture:

Next stop....Little River!

Bend, OR

Lots of driving.

After briefly spending time in Sabin with Tally's family, we trekked across ND, stopping for the evening in P.L. with my family. It was nice to be able to see everyone, even if it was pretty brief. The next day, we made it to Pocatello after a long one, then trekked through Idaho and Oregon to reach Bend. The weather was a little iffy, but nothing like Tally had to put up with driving herself back to MN in November, so I was thankful, as it could have been worse.

Let's talk about Bend. It seemed like a pretty neat little town, though we only spent one night and the next day until noon there. Really cool downtown with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. We stayed at this place called the Oxford, which reminded me of the HoDo in Fargo. They were really, really nice there.

The most interesting thing to me was the smell around Bend. It was really wonderful. You know how mountain areas smell like pine, spruce, etc. Tally and I noticed many variations of this smell on our trip through the Western U.S. Bend's was perhaps the most interesting and the best, in our opinion. It almost smelled sweet with a cinnamon component. Maybe I'm crazy, but I thought that was really interesting.

Road Trip!

OK, so having safely made it back from Okinawa, a road trip was called for. Tally had driven home over Thanksgiving (both to see her family, since she would be gone to Okinawa over Christmas, and to drop off the dogs at her parents' house), so we returned to pick up the dogs and drive back to CA.

We decided to extend our trip to go to some areas we hadn't been before. Also, we had plans to stay at a little place in Northern California that we had had our eye on for awhile. Since we couldn't celebrate our wedding anniversary last year with me being deployed, this was our late "anniversary present" to one another.

3200 miles, 8 days, 2 wiener dogs......buckle up.

And, we're back!

OK, so it's obviously been a long time. The rest of the deployment was fine. We were on the Navy ships for about 2.5 months. We were in the Philippines doing a field exercise (nothing very exciting there as far as pictures). We had to leave early because a typhoon was headed to that area. To avoid the typhoon, we sailed south around the Philippine Islands, then spent two days flying humanitarian aid and assessment issues to some of the remote areas hit by the typhoon. Luckily, damages to some buildings were the main problem, as opposed to injury and loss of life, which was minimal. I didn't really do very much, but managed to find my way into a couple of photos:

http://www.marines.mil/unit/31stmeu/pages/photos.aspx?Page=11

We then did some support missions, which didn't require anything from the Marines, before having some liberty time in Singapore and Hong Kong, both of which were very neat. I have some pictures, but they're on my other camera, which I don't have right now. We'll see if I ever get those up. If not, it was nothing TOO exciting, anyways.

Also, Tally came out to visit me before we came back to 29 Palms, which was great. It was a little bit of an adventure, since she flew "Space A" (which stands for "Space Available", and is a system of free military flights, with the catch being there's no guarantee you'll get a seat, and you can always get bumped at the last minute). However, we had fun, and she ended up being able to fly home on the exact same plane as me, sitting right next to me! Pretty neat. I do have a few pictures.

First is us at Pizza in the Sky. It's a really great pizza place with wood-fired pizza up on a bluff overlooking a little coastal town. It's run by locals, but the pizza is really, really good.

Next, we're at the Nago Pineapple Park, which was neat. The "tour", which was supposed to show the pineapples, how they are grown, etc., was pretty minor and quick, but they sure tried to sell us lots of stuff! The pineapple wine and cake were good, though.

Finally, here's us and the wife of another one of the officers in my battalion (she flew out with Tally) at Hama Sushi, this great little sushi place. It was SO good and ridiculously cheap.