Project Miner

We finally got a cable for our camcorder so we can import movies to the computer and annoy family with DVDs and YouTube links.  Here is the first of many, which is great because it proves my Mom is nuts, and hilarious (pardon the bad lighting)…

Poor neglected blog.  It’s been a crazy couple of weeks – Katy did a nice job documenting Dad’s visit and the trip to DC.  After the trip to DC I went to Colorado with Scuba Steve and Troy.  It was a great trip, super fun to see the fellas and do some skiing and snowmobiling.  However, now I am a total wreck, sick, injured and way too busy.

Injured
On the ski trip, at the end of day 1 my ankle started hurting.  It was a familiar pain for me on skiing trips and reminded me of how my ankle would hurt when snowboarding.  When I got back to Atlanta, and it was still hurting I decided I should see a doctor.  The last time my ankle hurt, I saw my regular ole doctor and he basically said "rub some dirt on it", so I just walked it off and it went away.  This time I went to see a family friend who is an orthopedic and specializes in the foot and ankle area.  When I first removed my shoes and socks, the three physicians standing around all said "ooh, check that out".  Never a good sign.  Apparently my ankles protrude out a lot more than they should.  After an x-ray, they all noticed a mark on a bone and said "at some point you broke your ankle and didn’t get it set".  Yeah, I rubbed some dirt on it.  Sigh.  So, that break made the tendon not sit in it’s groove properly and it moves way up my ankle bone when I move in a certain direction.  When said tendon is restricted tightly by boots, it gets inflamed  and causes much pain.  Unfortunately, I still can only "rub some dirt on it"… or get a cortisone shot.  Yikes.  I passed on the shot since it wasn’t really hurting anymore, but now I know what the deal is (and they said anti-inflammatory meds would be very helpful).  They also said "one day, the tendon might jump over the ankle bone and then you’ll need surgery".  Future ouch.

Sick
I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have a sinus infection, would I?  Double sigh.  About 10 days ago I had an allergy attack (not pollen related) and spend the next several days teetering on the edge of sinus hell, finally jumping off the cliff on Saturday.  I spent Sunday, some of Monday and most of Tuesday in bed hacking up nasties and generally wanting to be shot in the face.  Got some meds Tuesday afternoon and am on the mend, but still fell like I’m 40 feet under water.  I hate sinus problems.  Hate is a pretty wimpy word for what I feel.

So, there it is, the doom and gloom blog entry.  I really don’t mean to sound so terribly down in the dumps, but it’s been a rough week (the joy of vacation went away too quickly).  Really I’m just whining – other than being sick (which is on the down swing), things are great – Ona is doing well (has two teeth now, is an inch away from crawling, is sleeping better, and so on), Katy is rockin’, etc. 

Non baseball nerds, stop reading now. 

I’ve entered a fantasy baseball league for the first time in years.  I played with Mahan and some of his friends in 2000 or 2001 (think it was 2001) and it made me never want to do it again.  It was so bad, it made me hate myself for being a part of it.  Back then, we did a real draft in some dude’s basement (which I think was in my sister-in-law’s neighborhood) and it took 8+ hours.  Yes, more than a regular work day.  And yes, worse than a regular work day.  These people would call "time out" and pour over stats and information and then think and think and think and then start a bidding war…. and then somebody else would call "time out" and blah blah blah.  After that horrible draft day, it didn’t get much better – just nerdy to the extreme and kind of made me hate baseball (which is really hard to imagine if you know me at all). 

So, this year, Jol and his co-workers created a yahoo fantasy league and I got roped in.  I got anxiety about it because I have no idea what I’m doing in fantasy baseball, even though I know a ton about the real game.  Finally, I just go with yahoo’s pre-set picks of who the best players are, take some advice from Jol and around the net and go for it.  I think I did "ok", though I’m not super happy with my team (particularly my outfield).  Here is my roster (it’s only a 6 team league, so every team has superstars all over it, which did remove some of the anxiety… I just hate feeling like a donkey)…

C – Russell Martin (one of the players I really wanted on my team)
1B – Prince Fielder (not sure I like that, though he had a monster ‘07, I’m worried about his ‘08)
2B – B.J. Upton (dude can play, though Brandon Phillips was who I was hoping for)
3B – Miguel Cabrera (even though I worry about him changing leagues, I think he’ll do quite well if healthy)
SS – Derek Jeter (solid)
OF – Curtis Granderson (so underrated)
OF – Hunter Pence (worried about sophomore slump)
OF – Corey Hart (gotten better last two years, could bust out… or bust)
Util – Carlos Guillen (I love this pick)
Bench – Chris Young (I don’t like this pick, I poured over it and hated it instantly)
Bench – Adrian Gonzalez (a monster, but where do I put him?)
Bench – Stephen Drew (hate him on a non-baseball level, but he can play)

SP – Johan Santana (woot)
SP – Dan Haren (move to NL should be good, rather have Webb, but he was gone)
RP – Joe Nathan
RP – Bobby Jenks
P – Carlos Zambrano
P – Fausto Carmona
P – Daisuke Matsuzaka
Bench – Joba Chamberlain
Bench – Matt Cain

Ok, so my pitching staff is insane.  I should record a trillion strikeouts and wins, quite a few saves and have a low WHIP.  I wanted Rich Harden as one of those last bench players, but he got snagged.  Injury risk, sure, but I’ve gotta have love for an A’s player. 

I drafted guys I hate and want to do poorly – Santana, Zambrano, Matsuzaka, Drew.  I also drafted guys I really like – Haren, Guillen, Upton, Martin, Granderson.  No A’s, three Tigers, no Braves.  Weird and sucky that I ended up with a Met and no Braves or A’s.  Oh well.  I almost took K-Rod instead of Joe Nathan (K-Rod is the better choice, I think), but I loathe him waaaaay too much for that.

I kind of want to try a league with more teams now, just to see how I’d do.  Though, I’m just too lazy to join some random league… and it’s probably too late anyway.