Spring is in the Air!

Finally, some much needed warm weather has arrived here in Boston. I'm getting real tired of running in frigid arctic temperatures! Speaking of which, only 36 days until the Marathon! Just bought a new pair of running shoes that will hopefully carry me across the finish line. I'm planning to start breaking them in this afternoon with Ilish. There's blue sky and temps close to 60 degrees so we're gonna take a run around Castle Island!


Our group run was 16 miles this past weekend and though I decided to wear shorts for it, I probably shouldn't have, oh well. Our last long run is in a little less than 2 weeks and it's a biggie - the last 21 miles of the marathon course, starting from Hopkinton. I think all of the Charities are bussing their teams out there so there will be lots of runners making it as close to a dry run of the actual marathon as it can be. Stay tuned and I'll be sending out an email update soon.

So this coming weekend is a big one in Southie - St. Paddy's Day on Saturday and the big parade on Sunday, but we probably won't participate in too many festivities on Saturday because we'll need every ounce of energy for Sunday. I think the first pre-parade party we've been invited to starts around 9 or 10 am! Should be a really fun time.

So with all the email addresses I submitted for opportunities to buy Sox tickets, I purchased the last round I was selected for on Saturday - standing room for the right field roof deck. I could have gotten a table but they sell for $440 each! It includes $100 worth of food but that's not really appealing because I'd rather have $100 of beer included. Besides, it wouldn't be easy to find 2 other people willing to fork-up $110/ticket. The only lottery I didn't get selected for was for Monster Seats, of course. Oh well, will try again next year. Ticket summary: 4 tickets (8 all-together) to two Yankee games in September (could only get standing room for those games), 4 tickets for a June game against the San Francisco Giants (we get to boo Barry who has repeatedly dissed Boston), and 2 tickets to a Cleveland Indian game that Sandy and I will go to by ourselves. I hope I get to see another pitcher besides Wakefield. Seems like all the games I go to, Wakefield is pitching.....

Doldrums of Winter...and training!

So this has to be the worst time of the year. No more football and about 6 weeks away from the official start of baseball season. But Spring training is in session so that will go a long way in killing the time between now and April 2 when the season kicks off. I entered the Red Sox lottery to "win" the opportunity to purchase tickets to certain games and seating areas. Haven't heard about Monster seats yet but I won 2 opportunities to purchase tickets to the 9 Yankee games at Fenway. I was in the virtual waiting room for 4 hours before I got through, only to be able to buy standing room only for the September 14th and 16th games. Oh well. It was better than nothing and gets me (and a few other lucky people) into the park for what will hopefully be a couple of slaughter games against the evil empire!

Mark your calendars for March 2nd when Dice-K will pitch again BC in this traditional spring training ritual. It'll be on NESN. I think we're gonna see great things from this team this year (holding my collective breath......)


As for Marathon training, I can't wait for all this damn ice to melt. Makes running on the sidewalks a bit treacherous. We're suppose to be running 18 miles this Saturday (ouch!), but at least it's suppose to be a balmy 34 degrees...and I'm not being sarcastic about the balmy part!

All the dogs are doing well, but Ilish keeps throwing up her meals which is a bit discerning. She's still a maniac for the tennis ball and chuck-it though which I suppose is good. Ellie is as beautiful and cute as ever. If only she could do something about that need to destroy small dogs. Billy barks too much and Herschel won't stop eating poop.

At least it's all mostly frozen now so it's harder for him to chew and much easier for us to pick up! Bo is vacationing on the Vineyard until this Sunday.

TAFN (That's All For Now!)

Macworld 2007 San Francisco

OK, there won't be any pictures today, I'm just glad to be sitting here having the time and where-withall to blog. Yes, it's been a while because preparing for Macworld has consumed every last minute of my time. And when I've been free, the computer is typically the last thing I'd want to use.

Anyway, we're on our third day here at Macworld and to say it's been exhausting, thrilling, eventful and frustrating is a total understatement. What a rush dealing with angry media
who want access to the Steve Jobs keynote but don't have good enough credentials (one fellow from India accused me of being a racist because the white guy in front of him got a pass.) Thing is, the guy in front of him had appropriate credentials and he didn't. He then asked why there weren't any "people of color" working the media registration desk with me. I told him it's because I'm racist.

Anyway, now the event is over and it was quite the experience - I look forward to doing it again next year. Though one thing people should know is that Steve Jobs is a total freak and he runs his company like a communist - his reports live in fear of eachother and backstabbing is a common occurence. Cool products but a totally f$#ked up company. By the way, you will all want an iPhone so start saving now.

The Patriots lost a game they should have won last night and will go a second straight year without a Superbowl win. Chicago will be easily beatable which is why they would have another ring if they won last night. I don't like Peyton Manning and I hope he loses so everyone will still dubb him a "choker." Still can't believe they lost that one.... Well, Spring traning is in less than a month!

PS - Sandy lopped off part of her finger at a dinner party at our house last Thursday. I told her to stay out of the kitchen but she wouldn't listen. More details later.

The Holidays

Well, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday down the Cape. Much to everyone's surprise (not mine of course), the lentil loaf and vegetarian gravy that accompanied the turkey and ham were a total hit! I even heard a few "this is better than that meat gravy" comments. Here's a few shots from the day:














It was great to see Allana and meet her boyfriend, I mean FIANCE, Trent, as well as everyone else who made the trek down. Who knows, it was so much fun that we may do it again next year!

After the festivities ended and we got back to Boston, we took Alison's friend Mimi on the first ever Freedom Trail Pub Crawl! I don't know if anyone else has come up with this idea, but it should be marketed immediately! What fun.... though we didn't make it through the entire Freedom Trail. We ended it at the Green Dragon after we hit the Union Oyster House in Fanueil Hall. We just told Mimi about the USS Constitution in Charlestown and the Paul Revere stuff in
the North End instead of walking there. Here's a few shots of our stops:



OK, enough photos. Now it's on to Christmas! Sandy and I are gonna see the Nutcracker this weekend which will be fun. Have to do a 10 mile run on Saturday morning first. The training is going great though and I'm doing surprisingly well on my fundraising requirement. I'll be sending out another email about that and my patient match soon. Don't forget to donate!

On the the Sox. JD Drew and Julio Lugo? Not sure what the hell Theo is thinking over there on Yawkey Way but we just overpaid an underachieveing injury-proned outfielder (JD has been on the DL at least once every year of his career so far) and Julio Lugo has made more than 20 errors at short in every season of his career. Good God...I hope their bats and speed can make up for it.

And the Monster deal is getting scary. Insiders have commented that a deal may not get done with the Japanese boy wonder because the 2 sides are too far apart. I can't stand Scott Boras.

I'll Be Back!

OK, so I've been getting some slack about not updating this blog recently....trust me, it's been on my mind but life has been soooooo busy lately! But I'm forcing a few minutes out of my day to briefly say that I will get back to a normal writing schedule again soon!

Here's a few highlights though:
I'm kicking butt on my fundraising goal for the Marathon so THANK YOU to all of you that have donated (you know who you are). But I've still got a ways to go so don't forget to donate if you haven't!

Thanksgiving on the Cape was awesome! We had more than 21 friends and family come down (most of whom spent the night), and we ate, drank and played some games by the fireplace. More details and photos to follow.

I held the first ever "Freedom Trail Pub Crawl" in Boston in honor of our friend Mimi visiting from California. It was great, though we didn't really make it past Fanueil Hall.... Those are pictures I'll make available soon as well!

Our house is under contract in Vermont - Yay! Keep your fingers crossed that there are no glitches!

The Red Sox are still working on signing D-Mat, but I've warmed up to him joining The Nation now and am confident Theo and the Trio will git it dun!

More to come soon.....I promise!

Holidays Approaching!

Well it seems like we're officially immersed in the holiday season. We will be hosting 20 people for Thanksgiving on the Cape in just under 2 weeks - WOW! I think a good portion of them are staying at the house too. Dad, I think you may have had the jacuzzi shut down a bit early ;-)

But seriously, hanging with the predominantly McCormack clan, as well as a few folks from the "left coast"(Mimi, Laura and her companion), will undoubtedly prove to be a great time. Did I mention there would be at least 5 dogs too? Can't imagine life without them. What bums me out a little is that the holiday season passes by quick enough as it is and this year, it will probably pass even more rapidly. It's the busiest time for me work-wise. Our biggest event, Macworld, is the first week in January and having to manage the more than 600 media who want to attend just to hear what weirdo Steve Jobs will pontificate about this year can be daunting. It's a good thing though - job security!

On another note, Sandy and I had a date night last night. We went to a restaurant called "Toro" in the South End and if you couldn't guess, their specialty is tapas.

The food was wonderful! Had a nice glass of rioja to go with it too. I spoke in Spanish to the waitress and the first thing she asked me was where did I learn Spanish - they always ask me that. The reason is since I learned spanish from actual spaniards, and my spanish speaking friends are from Spain, I speak with the castellan accent which is very unique to that country. People pick up on it immediately and it's kinda cool because it's like the "real" spanish versus south american spanish or latin american spanish. I know, sounds snobby but hey, it's the spaniards that ingrained it in me!

Anyway, in addition to the holidays, ski season is upon us and we were up in VT last weekend so I could attend the annual ski patrol refresher. I'm volunteering this winter, mostly because I really like it and I get to ski alot for free. Sandy likes it more because she just ski's for free without having to patrol this year (after 6 years, she's done patrolling). One of the perks of volunteering is a season pass for immediate family and spouses, so there you have it, free skiing. So now, between trips up there to volunteer and my marathon training, this winter will be very busy! And speaking of marathon training...stay tuned for an email about my fundraising page soon!

Red Sox: The Sox wisely decided not to pick up Keith Foulke's option and Foulke wisely decided not to pick up his option to stay with the Sox. He did help us get a World Series Title so we we'll leave it at that. As for the Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka (D-Mat as he's already being to referred to) that teams are paying upwards of 20 million just to negotiate with - I say let the Yanks have him. Look at Detroit - I don't think any of the hurlers on their roster makes more than a couple million a year and they crushed the Yanks on their way to the world series. I'm sure the Red Sox did due diligence by bidding but as nice as it would be to have the guy, I don't think it's worth what it will cost. BREAKING NEWS: Uh Oh, just saw a report on ESPN that teh Red Sox may haev posted the top bid......let the games begin!


Oh yeah, the best for last - we re-signed Alex Cora! (insert extremely sarcastic facial expression here.)

So that's it for now - beautiful day here in the Metro Boston area and we recently were told we can leave by 3:30 today! See ya!

First Halloween in Southie

So we had our first Halloween in Southie and boy what a blast. My God Daughter Emily, her brother Ayden and mom Tammy came over to trick or treat. Dad couldn't come with them because he was working - bummer, Dad! Emily was a skeleton, Ayden was a Power Ranger, and the rest of us were basically just a bunch of idiots!


What we quickly found out was that you don't wait for the kids to ring your doorbell in southie. Everyone just sits out on the front steps and waits for the kids to come by. It was great! We had candy, cocktails and lots of good laughs on H street last night. Even hung with our neighbors and took tours of our respective houses. John the firefighter has a really big plasma TV with HDTV. I need to get HDTV.



Mimi and Pop (Ayden and Emily's grandparents) also showed up for a little while too so they could see the kids all dressed up. Then we went out so Emily and Ayden could have their own fun. We heard the hot spot was a couple of blocks away on K street so we made our way over there and it was like a huge block party!

The only other place I've seen that kind of foot traffic on a sidewalk was during rush hour in NYC! It was crazy and festive and fun - all kinds of scary costumes and houses totally decked out with Halloween decor. We were very tempted to stop in the Quencher Pub for a beer, er, I mean rest because the kids were starting to look tired. But we decided to forego that idea and go back to H street. We got there, hung out on the steps for a while longer, had some pizza, put silly costumes on the dogs and took pictures, and then called it a night. We really like Halloween in Southie!