Baseball Report

The family attended a Cleveland Indians game last night. It was sponsored by the department where my husband works, so the tickets were less expensive, and it was Dollar Dog Night, so the overall food cost was not so pricey.

It rained quite a bit last night; the tarp was actually pulled over the field for a rain delay at one point. We had planned ahead and brought hats, jackets and a blanket, but they were not waterproof, so eventually our stuff got soaked through. We weren't planning for such a deluge as we got, and anyway, we don't own serious rain gear. Eventually we ended up a little further back of our original seats, under the roof. From there we were dry, but couldn't see the big screen, so I missed when my youngest daughter was once again briefly on it. The stadium was relatively empty last night; whether that was related to the economy, the weather, the Indians' lackluster season or all of the above, I don't know.

"The Prog" is not nearly as cool of a name as "the Jake", but the Progressive Insurance SUV they have near center field by the home bullpen adds some fun to the game. For every home run and at the end of the game (I presume this is only when we win), the car spins, the doors open and shut, the hood goes up and down, and items such as T-shirts are shot out of the top of the vehicle. There was also a big spray of confetti at the end of the game.

Speaking of home runs, as you can see from my husband's picture, we were near center field so we had a good view of every home run that got hit, and in a 5-1 finish every run was scored by the long ball, mostly solo shots. I was rather surprised and pleased when the Indians pulled it out last night. It's always more fun when they win!

Family Time, Me Time

It's relaxingly quiet around here at the moment. Mr. BTEG took our two daughters and the Equestrienne's overnight guest to see A Night at the Museum 2. Current report is that the Dancer found it very humorous. They are bringing home pizza for dinner.

I haven't really been a movie person in a long time. Perhaps I just don't have the patience for a movie. I also hate the way I can get involved in a movie emotionally. I don't want to feel depressed after a sad movie. Movies on television at home are not so bad, but a sad or scary movie can still overly affect me.

I got a little bit of work done in the sewing room today, both actually sewing and putting away and organizing. It felt very nice to accomplish some things. I keep telling myself I need to spend more time in there and then I don't! As school and other activities wind down for the girls perhaps I will actually do this.

Here I Am

I'm keeping my promise to myself to sit in front of the computer and type something! Today was not the best day from a physical standpoint, but the sun was shining and my family was together and it's the start of a three-day weekend, so that makes it better. We also went to a restaurant for dinner, where we were Rickrolled. :)

Anybody have any exciting plans for the weekend? I think just relaxing is going to be enough for us, although the Equestrienne is going to have back-to-back sleepovers with her friend. I need to hit the sewing room soon. The Dancer has just hit one of those points where she has suddenly outgrown almost everything she wears. Believe it or not (and it's probably not if you've seen my sewing room) I do not have enough of many cuts of fabric to make clothes for myself or my daughters anymore. Fortunately, there is at least one beloved baby in my life, so perhaps I can use up some of the fabric on cute baby clothes. I'll have to try to do it before she gets too big. :)

Knowing Myself

So, I'm not going to be a high-traffic, well-known blogger any time soon. That's okay. I'm not sure I really want to be one, but I suffer from the occasional "blog envy." On the other hand, I like to keep my traffic up, and posting fairly often is the best way to achieve that. But when I have days like I did yesterday, when I'm doing all I can just to cope with life, a blog post may not happen. It might be good for me to at least try to write something everyday, though. I don't always have to write creative, insightful, perfectly crafted posts. :) Just put myself in front of the screen and see what I produce. It might give me something to do this summer since I've pretty much given up hope on the Indians season. Call me a fair-weather fan, but it's heartbreaking when your team's season is over in May. No excitement for the rest of the summer, at least not from baseball. I'm hoping we'll get to a lot of the fun festivals in the area, though. That will even give me something to blog about!

What Are We Saving?

One of my daughters' favorite shows is Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. Ordinarily it is a very good show, incorporating history, science and other topics in an entertaining format. Today, though, it irked me. Half of the show's focus was on saving electricity, which is a good thing in and of itself. However, the reason purported for saving energy was to release less CO2 in the atmosphere, and CO2 was tied to "global warming." Come on. As time goes on how much evidence do we really have that this is occurring? Even many global warming champions have switched to "climate change" as a safer explanation of why we must follow their plan.

Two of the kid contestants measured the amount of electricity in watts it took to do certain tasks, such as blowing leaves to using the blender. A high number was greeted with dismay. I wonder how many watts it uses to provide the bright lighting for their filming studio, the cameras, the computer-generated dog, and the televisions kids use to watch the program all across the country. Yes, it's a bit snarky, but seriously! I'm tired of being lectured by television shows and actors when their livelihood is based on using huge amounts of electricity.

Of course, they did give us an alternate method of powering the television: pedal power. Practical to a certain point. They also showed a good option to using the blender: mashing guacamole yourself. Okay. They showed a solar-powered radio and fan, but I think the current drawbacks of solar power were displayed by the fact that the panel needed to run a small table-top type fan was about the size of the Dancer. And when one of the kids stepped in front of the panel, the fan sputtered. We get very few cloudless days here in Ohio.

They also switched to one of those bulbs containing mercury, which in my mind is still controversial. The funniest thing was washing clothes by hand in a metal pail. I know many of my readers like hanging clothes on the line to dry, but how many of us would like washing all of our laundry by hand? Even the Amish wringer washer uses a gas or electric engine. Made in Saudi Arabia! Even if I lived someplace where I would not get stoned by my neighbors for hanging up clothes outside, I would still use the dryer 1)for things like towels that get nasty air-dried and 2)in the winter. Heck, I'd like to see the rich and famous in Beverly Hills have their servants start hanging laundry outside to dry. Or would they get too many people trying to steal the bedsheets of a famous actress? :)

So, yes, there are ways to cut back on electricity. But can't we do it just for the monetary and resource savings, or must we do it to "save the planet"?

Mental Illness and What It Means

A friend of mine was surprised that I mentioned on Facebook that I am bipolar. Partially through blogs like I Trust When Dark My Road and Lilac Rose, I have come to see mental illness as nothing to be ashamed of. Mental illness is no different than any other type of bodily illness, such as Crohn's or asthma. Some people will look down on those suffering from mental illness, but life is best lived not caring about what other people think. I have lots of people in my life to whom I can turn if my illness starts becoming unmanageable, and thanks be to God that I have these people and medications to help handle symptoms. I pray to never be in as dark a place again as I have been, but in the end I have to live on faith.

Stress

It only occurred to me yesterday that the fact that we are planning a move might make a difference in my mood and view of life. That seems rather silly of me considering that moving is one of the big life changes, although not up there with death or divorce. I think the fact that this will be a *good* move (we're not moving until we find some place we're really happy with and that is larger) helped me forget about the stress part of it. After all, I've been looking forward to this move almost since right after when we moved into where we are now, since we had to make do with the best we could last time. But there is still stress in packing, deciding what is worth taking and what isn't, finding a new place, balancing our wants with our budget, and encouraging our daughters to sort through their messy bedroom. I need to be aware of externals to make sure I'm not just beating up on myself as I so often do.

Game Pieces

Two very popular hosts of a morning radio talk show here in Ohio have been let go. Clear Channel states that it is for economic reasons, but I can't really believe a company which seems to basically own all the radio stations in the country is hurting over and above. They are saving money, however, since the replacement DJ apparently has his show beamed from Los Angeles. The thing that saddened me was when I realized that all the people saying they will no longer listen to 106.5 don't really matter. If they listen to any other radio station instead, it is probably owned by Clear Channel also. What will really hurt Clear Channel is if people just start listening to their ipods or mp3 players or CDs instead of radio, and maybe people are already doing that. But if that's the case, why not keep what makes you different -- the talk show hosts? Without a live host, why listen to a music station that has become, in one commenter's words, a "jukebox" when you can tailor what you want with modern technology?

Tired Out

The main living area of our home is being thoroughly cleaned this weekend, and it's been very stressful and tiring. Mr. BTEG has been doing most of the work, with the Dancer as his right-hand helper, and the Equestrienne and I have pitched in some. Three of us also managed to ding ourselves up a little in the process. I tripped over some boxes and scraped and bruised my right wrist. I'll be glad to get things back in order.

I think our 16-year-old cat Cedric is showing his age. He's becoming more insistent about being around me, and about fresh clean water always being in his water dish. However, physically he's still in great shape, taking on the young cat in our house, Sabrina, and winning. I will be sad when he eventually joins our other cats who have passed on, but at 16 he has lived a long life for a cat.

Nothing too deep this weekend due to the aforementioned housecleaning. Hoping to have a nice and not too stressful day tomorrow. I may end up going to the doctor for an ear infection, though.