A weekend full of Saints games. First one of the regular season, and there were plenty of reminders of things that I don’t get right until I’ve had a chance to remind myself of my stupidity by showing up in the parking lot without something I need. Luckily, I hang out with people who are both generous and better prepared than I am, so all went well.
The things I forgot this year were gas for the portable stove that’s used for Sunday breakfasts, and sunblock. The first was solvable, since Pete had a spare can of gas. The second, well, let’s just say I’m feeling a little pink today.
The Saints faced Schaumburg’s best two pitchers on Friday and Saturday nights. The results were not so good, as the local boys lost the first two of the series. Yesterday, they set a new league record for doubles with ten, while going on to win 15-2. I think we’re past the best of the Schaumburg pitching at this point, and have high hopes for game four against the Flyers.
There’s also interest from the Saints of in a cookbook of tailgating recipes. Annie stopped by and mentioned it before I had a chance to bring it up, so I’m going to try to start collecting the recipes I use each night before I forget them. We’ll see how it goes, but there’s an outside chance I’ll have another book by the end of the season, and this time with someone else to sell it. That would be fun, I think.
For the record, Friday night was simple. Steak and standard yellow store-bought potato salad. Saturday, I made some polenta (or grits) for breakfast, then chilled ’em to have patties for the game to serve as an appetizer before some fajitas. Sunday was breakfast sandwiches (using sausage patties) pre-game, and some cocktail shrimp post-game. Only one or two recipes will come out of this weekend, but I’ve got a long home-stand (not to mention a long season) ahead of me, so I don’t want to burn myself out before I even get started.
I also have some pictures taken over the weekend, but I’m running late this morning, so they’re going to have to wait until later in the week. Sorry.
- A new Saints Shortstop arrives suddenly, and the Strib tells you a bit about Chris Weber. [strib]
- The Saints also have a Spiffier Midway planned for next year, with the renovations to happen after the end of this season. I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I like the benches, and will miss them if they put in plastic seats, but otherwise I think most of the ideas are overdue. Saturday night we discussed plans for the stadium and it sounds as though there will be a survey of the widths of the the section F posteriors, in order to determine what the right spacing should be. The current benches allot 18″ per posterior, but since everyone can slide up and down the row to make room, it’s seldom a problem. Standard stadium seats are 19″ and comfortable stadium seats are 22″. We’ll see how it comes out. [press-patch]
- Did you know that Everything You Thought You Knew About Grilling Is Wrong? Well, most of this is stuff I already knew, but I disagree on the flip early, flip often. The grill should be hot enough (and the meat warmed up to room temp) so that steaks get a couple minutes on each side and they’re done. No reason to flip them more than once if you had all your preparation done. [kottke]
- Here’s some good news: Scientists Say Sunshine May Prevent Cancer, including skin cancer, and
Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.
Of course they’re talking about fifteen minutes of sunshine a day, not the six hours I got yesterday. [fark!]