matt

I noticed this morning that the Marlins are playing Tampa this weekend in Tampa so I quickly glanced at Craigslist to see if there were any tickets for a game this weekend. Lo and behold, I found box seats with parking for $100 so I called the guy and bought the tickets. The guy probably had about 7 or 8 teeth but the tickets are legit so Glenn and I are going to Tampa Sunday afternoon. I can't wait because I haven't been to a baseball game since...umm...Baltimore a few years ago with John? I don't even remember but suffice to say, it's been a while and I can't wait. The game is at 1:30 but I think we'll get there early and enjoy batting practice.

I've been watching a lot of baseball lately and watching it got me thinking "Wouldn't it be nice to have a site where I could write my thoughts during the game and post them online?". These are the sort of thoughts a geek like me gets from time to time and I started envisioning the features of the site and the design of it and how it would be an internet sensation in no time. And that's when I decided it was a bad idea.

Well, not a bad idea, per se. Rather, I've come to the realization that I simply don't have time for these little ideas. In the past, I'd always gone with these ideas and out of them came a few Disney World websites, a podcast, this blog and a few other ideas. Whenever I've had a passion for something, I've gone for it but after doing all of my thinking about this great baseball site, I quickly came to the conclusion that all of these ideas for this wonderful site would take up a lot of my time and that is time I simply do not have. Not anymore.

It seemed like I used to have unlimited time on my hands and if I wanted to take a few hours out to work on something I could. In fact, when I became a brother in my college fraternity, the night that we "crossed over" when all my pledge brothers were out at the bar getting wickedly drunk, I went home after one drink and I stayed up the entire night to create the fraternity website. That, in a nutshell, is me. I put in everything in the moment and when I'm struck with an idea for a great website, I go for it.

But things have changed now for me. Besides the stuff I need to do for work, I still have committments for my sites and podcast to fulfill (or try to). And of course, I have a committment to my wife to actually be there more than just siting in the same room as her. As it's been explained to me, coding something in the same room as her doesn't constitute actually spending time together (I know....go figure!).

So while I sat on my couch coming up with the great idea for my site, I relucatantly dismissed the idea because I know, deep down, that I don't have the time anymore for anymore. Sure I'll miss the fun that comes with achieving something like a great web site, but as the Greek god Apollo always said, "Know thyself" and I realize where I am right now and it's not right for me, right now. That's okay, and I get over it....usually thinking about how much development time it would take to "get it right" and I move on.

It's too bad because it was going to be a real kick ass site...

One of my favorite snacks ever are cherry tomatoes. I've always loved tomatoes but there's something about cherry tomatoes and if I get a good batch, it seems like I can eat them all day long. When we go to Sam's Club, I get two containers of them and it makes for a great snack for the whole week and I don't feel guilty about eating a lot since tomatoes are great for you.

Last night I was watching Baseball Tonight and Marissa remarked that all I do is watch sports and it took me back a bit because I never considered myself one of those guys that just watches sports. In fact, aside from baseball and a little pro football, I don't care for other sports much. I just love baseball and with it being April, I can't get enough of it. So while I still don't think I'm one of those guys that just watches sports, I do admit I've been watching a lot of baseball but with our new TV, it's hard not to since sports also look awesome in HD.

I realize I haven't written in a while but I've been generally unmotivated to write in here for whatever reason. At first it was just because I had nothing to write about but soon after I just couldn't motivate myself to write in here. Maybe because nothing exciting is going on beyond the things that are related to buying a house, which aren't that exciting. Well, I'm on a flight to Hartford and since they have internet onboard (woot!) and since I'm out of things to do online, I decided to write now. I guess it's a case of taking what you can get...

First, I'm savoring the flavor of the Marlins being 3-0 this season, which is their best start since 1997 (when they won a World Series). I'm hoping this year I actually get to a game in Miami but the 3 hour drive is kind of an issue. Ideally there'd be a 4pm game on a weekend so I can drive in, see the game and leave Miami around 7ish and be home around 10. We'll see how that plan goes.

As I mentioned before we are buying the house and now trying to get the mortgage in order. One company is almost done but they need one more thing from us. We're also trying a different company to compare and see any difference, so we'll see where that goes. Once we have the mortgage, we'll be ready to go and because we don't quite have the mortgage yet, I'm not entirely convinced that we have the house yet because technically we can still pull out if we can't get mortgage rates that suit our needs.

We're on a flight to Hartford to celebrate Passover. Marissa and I are going to New York tomorrow to spend the day in the city at the Museum of Natural History and then it's off to Long Island for our passover seder. Technically passover starts right now but I don't think there's any matzah on the plane. Aside from the seder tomorrow, our only plans are to see the Heaths and spend time with my family. Should be a nice long weekend.

Speaking of Passover, I'm rebelling this year and allowing myself to eat certain food that is not typically kosher like rice or beans or other foods that make no sesne why they are not kosher for passover. It's my own personal fight for my principles.

Anywho, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll find the motivation to keep writing some more or at the very least post funny videos.

Song of the Day: Daughtry - Home

Last night I started watching the mini-series "Baseball" by Ken Burns and it got me feeling rather reminiscent of my love for baseball. I've always loved baseball, especially when I was a kid growing up. On my mom's side of the family, baseball was really a way of life. Most of my family were Mets fans and my uncle Steve was a Red Sox fan and I distinctly remember my grandpa and my uncle bringing me to my first baseball game at Shea Stadium when I was like 8 years old or so. We went there just the three of us and I was so excited because I wanted to see my favorite player, Darryl Strawberry but it turned out he wasn't playing that day (Damn you Jody Reed!) but the real story from that day was the foul ball incident. We were enjoying the game and I'm not sure what we were all doing but Dave Madigan was at bat and he hit a foul ball that hit me on both thighs (clearly my legs were together at the time). I remember it hurt so much and I didn't even get the ball! It bounced off me and a row back. Well, after a lot of crying my grandpa came bought me all sorts of Mets merchandise like a hat and pennant and other stuff. I'm not sure if he was going to buy it for me anyway but it made for a real memorable day.

Besides watching baseball, I loved to play it but I was admittedly quite terrible at it. My biggest issue was I was petrified of being hit by a pitch. I think the fear was exacerbated by the fact that I broke one of my fingers in little league one year when a pitch hit my hand and I was out for the season (the funny thing about that was it hit me while I was swinging so I technically got a foul ball for it and didn't even get to go to first for a hit by pitch). Of course, I also lacked a lot of talent when it came to baseball but whenever I did get on base (usually from a walk), I relished in it. I loved being a base runner and I really felt like I was an expert base stealer (come to think of it, I don't think I was really ever thrown out). I prided my entire game on my base running skills, but it's too bad I never got on base enough to really take advantage.

The best year of my baseball career was my last year of play. In Madison, the last level of little league was called "Seniors" and it allowed you to play through your freshman year of high school. Most kids my age had either played for the high school team or quit for lack of talent/interest so I had an advantage of being one of the oldest players in the league and therefore a real physical advantage over the 7th and 8th graders I competed against. That being said, I still sucked but I got to play third base regularly and despite playing terribly most of the time, I loved every second of it. The sad thing was it would be about 8 years more until I played another organized game of baseball (well, technically it was softball).

I also remember one particular day from my earliest days of playing baseball. I assume this was back in the tee-ball league and I remember I was in the outfield and since no kids in teeball hit the ball to the outfield, I was quickly bored and I remember one inning I spent the whole time playing with a caterpillar that had come my way. I was so engrossed with this bug that the ball could have hit me in the face and I wouldn't have seen it coming. It's weird that I still remember that one inning but I think I felt guilty afterwards for completely not paying attention.

Song of the Day: Bruce Springsteen - Glory Days