| Play ball! |
Summer can mean only one thing: baseball. Here we celebrate and document our 2008 pilgrimage.
Come along, won't you? |
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| We <3 promotions |
posted by Shalar @ 2:33 PM   |
| Saturday, May 31, 2008 |
Who doesn't love giveaways? I was curious, so I checked out what freebies we might collect on the road this summer. Of course, being one of the first 10,000 fans or so into the ballpark means you need to be there somewhat on time, so our acquisition of this stuff will depend on our timeliness as well. Not much good anyway, but hey, it's free. Wrigley, by the way, has very frequent awesome giveaways - lots of collector-type hats and dolls and stuff. For example, if we had tried to get to the Cubs/Sox series our last weekend we could have gotten a commemorative lapel pin at the Sunday game. And I know (unrelated to the Lake Effect), we're going to one of the Nats @ Cubs games the first weekend in August - if we go Friday we'll (actually, the boys would have to go for this one) get a child's home batting helmet and if we go Sunday we'll get a Ryne Sandberg commemorative plaque.
Anyway, these aren't as good as the Cubs' promotions, but whatever:
June 12 Pirates/Nats
Alumni Autographs: Former Bucs Jim Rooker, Don Schwall and Tom Walker will sign autographs on the Riverwalk from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (very doubtful we'd arrive early enough for this).
No giveaway at the June 13 Cubs @ Blue Jays. Rogers Centre doesn't do that many promotions, actually. They should drum up some more sponsors.
No giveaway June 14 for Dodgers at Tigers.
June 15 Rockies @ ChiSox:White Sox Lunch Bags first 20,000 fans; Presented by Museum of Science and Industry Chicago.
No promotion June 16 Iowa Cubs game but getting to possibly see the Overtons is WAY better than any ol' giveaway anyway.
No giveaway June 17 Nats at Twins but it's my birthday so there will be celebration despite that. And gifts! Unfortunately, we will miss the Dan Gladden bobblehead giveaway by 3 days. I can't even tell if his image captured in doll is from how he looks now as a broadcaster or back when he played - the mullet hasn't changed that much: 
And finally, June 19; Royals at Cards: Bud Light(big surprise)T-Shirt Day
25,000 fans, ages 21 and up, will receive a complimentary t-shirt, courtesy of Bud Light. |
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| Public apology |
| posted by Kristina @ 6:03 PM |
| Friday, May 30, 2008 |
 I just want to say for the record that I was joking about Shalar not being as good a writer as I am. I have long enjoyed her written works. This dates back to middle school when the topic of her articulate and informative essays — delivered to me handwritten on folded sheets of notebook paper — tended to be boys, boys and more boys.
Kind of like now.
Here's a picture of a flamingo because this blog is getting visually boring, and these plastic animals are a symbol of our shared youth and adolescence. Back before we knew better. Because if we'd known better, the icon of our shared youth and adolescence would be a baseball. |
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| Enhancement |
| posted by Kristina @ 11:08 PM |
| Tuesday, May 27, 2008 |
| Look, I used my technical wizardry to make it easier to see who authored each post. This way you won't (god forbid!) start reading one of Shalar's tedious, meandering posts and think it was written by me and wonder what, what on EARTH, happened to Kristina's incredibly amazing writing skills. |
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| Passport slander |
| posted by Kristina @ 10:59 PM |
| Monday, May 26, 2008 |
I am pretty sure the applications went out within a couple of days of each other, mine a day or two earlier than Little Miss Lucky Me's. It wasn't a whole week earlier, although that does make for a better story.
And I consider that $60 to be well spent, as it supports this country's State Department and is my little act of patriotism ... or something ... anyway, I live by the "better safe than sorry" rule and gambling makes me crazy.
YES this year is BYO laptop. Geeeeeeeeeeeez. And there will be no giant freelance editing project hanging over my head, because that was the dumbest idea I ever had. (It was also the only job I've ever been fired from, since I never could get my act together and they finally gave up on me.)
Yankees schmankees! |
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| Chiming in... |
| posted by Shalar @ 8:59 PM |
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I just had a couple of items to add to Kris' stellar introduction to this year's blog.
1) One more way in which we've prepared for this trip: passports. Nowadays one is required for land or air entry into Canada so unless we could somehow be catapulted into the Rogers Centre from the US border, we were forced to renew ours. Now, the State Department would like to frighten you into believing that you must spend the extra $60 to expedite your application so Kris was suckered into that plan. I was not, mostly because I was doing good to have the money it takes just to renew the danged thing, and I was fundamentally opposed to the fact that expediting only guarantees you your passport one week sooner than regular processing. I knew it was risky because I mailed my application a day or two short of the suggested four weeks to travel, but though Kris mailed hers a week or so before me and expedited, we both got our new passports within a day of each other, after like 8 days. Caveat: my good fortune does not guarantee you will have similar timing because we may have gotten lucky because they weren't overly busy with applications right then so please, if you need passport service, allow yourself plenty of time prior to your planned travel dates. Wouldn't it be funny if I forgot to pack it after all this? HaHaHaHaha. Ha. Ahhh, that would be hilarious.
2) Wow, we have a lot to do to prepare for this thing. It's only a couple of weeks away! Crap.
3) Um, I haven't learned how to drive a stick...
4) I'm definitely bringing my own computer this time.
5) That's a good photo of Jeter - I wonder who took that? I can't believe there are no Yankees games in this year's itinerary. They need our support. |
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| In response to viewer mail |
| posted by Kristina @ 3:00 PM |
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What an active bunch of readers you all are! Here are Kristina's responses to four comments posted thus far:
To Todd: Ha ha. No beer involved, just my amazing wit. Now send those midscale lodging discount cards, dammit.
To Karen: I believe the STL game will be Thursday, June 19, a day game. Let me know asap if you're interested and I'll factor you into the ticket purchase, as long as you promise to root for KC and not those wicked Cardinals. (The Nats lost 3 of 3 at Busch Stadium this year, ouch.)
To Craig: HA HA HA HA HA omg you're funny. To explain to readers who don't understand Craig's sophisticated humor, we were supposed to take a major detour last year to see a game in Pittsburgh and never made it. This was 100 percent Kristina's fault. Well, 99 percent. There is the .5 percent of Shalar's lost luggage being a mystery factor and .5 percent Shalar not pushing harder to make sure we left on time. And we had a tendency to arrive late to games. I don't remember if we were on time for any. Maybe Fenway, but I know we cut it close.
To Missy C: Unfortunately, Wrigley is the game we will probably miss because of ticket unavailability and price. I made a mistake (!) before, it's White Sox @ Cubs that will cost a bazillion dollars to attend, not the opposite. Any interest in the Colorado @ White Sox game instead? Or Minneapolis? That Metrodome isn't going to be around forever, after all. Failing that, we're both hoping to be back in Chicago for the Nats series there at the end of August. And you should bring the wee ones to the ding-danged game. They need to learn early to love this fantastic sport.
To all others: Keep those cards and letters coming! The success of this blog depends on the involvement of readers like you. It also depends on Shalar coming home from her camping trip and contributing someday. |
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| Hello, Faithful Readers! |
| posted by Kristina @ 6:22 PM |
| Sunday, May 25, 2008 |
 Yes, we're back. It's the Shalar and Kristina Show. It's Baseball Trip '08. How about a little Q&A to get us warmed up?
Q. Your trip hasn't started yet. Why are you blogging now?
A. We anticipate high reader demand for updates in our planning and our travels. While the trip is still a few weeks away, a lot of the fun will take shape in these crucial pre-voyage days, and as long as the spirit moves us to post our reflections on these matters, you'll get to observe it all nearly firsthand.
Q. What's the deal with the blog title?
A. Those who paid attention to our trip last year know that we called that one The Nor'easter, in honor of our travels up the East Coast in the Northeast U.S. Keeping with the weather theme this year, we're calling this trip (and this blog) The Lake Effect. Although there are a few diversions from the theme, most of our destinations involve a lake connection: Toronto, Detroit and Chicago are all cities on the Great Lakes. Minneapolis is a city in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Pittsburgh and St. Louis are ... well, OK, no huge lake connection there, but both have awesome river ties.
Q. How's the planning going as of this writing?
A. Ug. We have cities identified and one night booked in a hotel. We have tickets for one of the games. There's a whole lot to do, including securing discount cards from my hook-up who works for a decent chain of budget inns. Then there's booking all those nights, and getting tickets for all those games, and making sure we'll have time to see all the people who will expect us to see them while we're in their vicinity.
 Q. Are you crazy? Planning a driving trip when gas prices are at $4 a gallon and rising?
A. Yes. Sort of. But this is less crazy than the initial plan: California, where gas costs more and both of us would have to fly and rent a car. This way Shalar flies to Maryland and we drive Kristina's trusty Honda Civic hybrid, which averaged 47 mpg during a Spring Training road trip to Florida in March. (I believe we can do better.) This was our mode of transportation last year, too, and last year, you may recall, Kristina did every inch of the driving because Shalar is a total dork who doesn't know how to drive a manual transmission. This year Kristina insists that Shalar will learn. Kristina insisted that before the start of the trip last year, too.
Q. Who ya rootin' for?
A. Some games we'll care about, some games we won't. If forced to pick sides, here's who we'll be cheering for: Nats in Pittsburgh, Cubs in Toronto, Nats in Minneapolis and Kansas City in St. Louis. I don't think either of us cares too much about the Detroit and White Sox games except that if one is inclined to actually believe KC has a shot at a division title this year, one would root for Los Angeles in Detroit and Colorado at ChiSox.
Q. Do you really think KC has a shot at winning the AL Central title?
A. No.
Q. So why root for them? I thought you were Nats and Cubs fans?
A. We do primarily support the Nats (Kristina's pick) and the Cubs (Shalar's pick), but Kristina has a longstanding affinity for the Royals because she was impressed, as a child, that there was a team that had her initials on their hats. Also, blue was her favorite color. And it's OK, really, to have a favorite NL team and a favorite AL team, and to both hope and fear that they end up in the World Series together. (Chances are Kristina will not see a KC-Nats match-up in the Series anytime soon.) Shalar has a favorite AL team too: The Yankees. This is not because of the initials on their caps. This has something to do with their behinds, I think, and other objectifying characteristics.
Q. What about the White Sox @ Cubs game?
A. Chances are good we won't end up making it to that game, unless someone wants to give us a cool grand or two so we can buy tickets to that super sold-out and overhyped match. It's on the list because when plans were made, it seemed like a slightly realistic goal, and I'm too lazy to take it off the blog header graphic.
Q. Why aren't you going to Milwaukee, since you'll be so close? Or Kansas City, since you claim to be such a huge Royals fan?
A. We went to Miller Park in Milwaukee last year on our Chick Trip (that's an entirely different blog altogether) ... and, well, snore. And we are going to a Royals game this year on our Chick Trip, mid-July. And geez, we can't be everywhere at once. Lay off.
Q. What's the deal with the photos?
A. The top photo is us at Fenway last year, by far the best stop on the tour. Below is a bit of flavor for you, also from last year: Derek Jeter batting for the Yankees, emphasizing the reason Shalar is so fond of his team.
Q. Aren't you going on a little too much here? Do you think anyone will read this much blathering about a trip that hasn't even started yet?
A. OK, OK, hint taken. More soon. Stay tuned. |
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