back to the beat

since arriving home, things have been a little bit hazy. i have vague memories of working in the quietest place ever (most staff were either on vacation or at a conference), re-adjusting to MUNI riders pressing their loins against my shoulder as we sway up and down the hills, practicing using my outdoor voice (at baseball games; not at MUNI riders), and packing away my shorts and flip flops for another month.

speaking of baseball, the bullpen baker is back in action. mlblogs is currently undergoing some renovations, so don't chide me for lists in non-alphabetical/numerical order. but DO chide the sf giants staff for misspelling "delivered." and for charging $7 for plastic-wrap ponchos (i love you super-duper umbrella). and i'm not even questioning a slumber party with the giants...

one day my prince will come...

saturday we drove to the east bay to buy a's tickets. when we got to the coliseum, we were told we had to pay to park b/c there was an event (but we'd get refunded if we left in a half hour). we shelled out our temporary $15 for parking, waited in line, bought our initial game tickets, witnessed several vertically challenged little mermaid-adorned girls excitedly skipping up the ramp, and realized that the disney princess wishes on ice tour must be in town. as we headed back to the car, we saw a little girl dressed in a yellow skirt and headband pulling her mom by the hand, and todd ever so poetically said, "it's like snow white went and did it with a dwarf."

fanny may i

yes, i'm cross-posting. i admit it; i'm lazy.

tomorrow morning i'm waking up at the crack of dawn (or somewhere close to it) to volunteer at fanfest. i get in free, get to wear a yellow polo with non-jean bottoms, and perhaps i'll be able to sniff cal ripken, jr. and determine what shampoo he uses before they cart me away to the loony bin.

at volunteer orientation yesterday, we got our assignments (mine and the girl's in front of me got "lost"-- apparently, the new software they used wasn't able to print out a report of those who didn't get placed into volunteer slots, and so they had no record of me or the girl, even though we both had very nice emails welcoming us to the fanfest family. honestly, you'd think they have something against 5'5" women with last names beginning with "h". or using technology that works. hello! we're in the bay area, not jersey!).

then, once in the orientation, we cheered "dhl", "all-star", and "fanfest" according to which group of seats we were in (but no wave. go figure. guess it's more a staple in oakland?). in addition, we got the first piece of our volunteer attire. no, not our canary-colored polos. or our brick red caps. but our fanny packs! yessiree, mlb has assured me that these things are coming back in style, like, tomorrow! that's right, the fanfest volunteers will be strutting their fanny pack selves all over san francisco (or at least SOMA), shaking their fannies like they're packed to the max. no way! yes way! whoo-hoo! and i get to wear one? all weekend long? promise? can i wear it to work, too? at least i'll be prepped for our trip to prague. i'm sure the pickpockets there won't assume i'm an american tourist; instead, my white socks and sneakers should be the dead giveaway.

season's greetings

baseball season's back, and the bullpen baker returns with more regular postings. go here for my most recent posting, which includes a recipe for rum baseballs. mmm, balls.

roundtable

sure, it's the offseason, but that doesn't mean that baseball is hibernating! the bullpen baker is participating in an a's roundtable over at the pastime. ryan's posting responses to a variety of questions every few days, so check it out.

medal ceremony

the bullpen baker's end-of-season awards are posted!

ah, baseball season is over, but before you go and cry about it, let's celebrate with the first annual (can they be annual if they're the first?) bullpen baker awards!

best sportage of high socks
1st place: mark ellis
runner-up: danny haren on rootbeer float day (what a tease!)

best rootbeer float creation
1st place: the a's wives, girlfriends, and requisite blondes
runner-up: nick swisher

best bench warmer
1st place: bobby crosby
runner-up: jeremy brown AND antonio perez
2nd runner-up: adam melhuse

best attempt to be on the 25-man roster come April 2007
TIE
1st place: marco scutaro and chad gaudin

worst attempt to be on ANY 25-man roster come April 2007
1st place: d'angelo jimenez


for more, go here.

tiny bubbles

at the suds n' duds this weekend, some guy overfilled his washer with detergent. and by overfilled, i mean totally disregarded the big signs on each washer with the accompany garden gnome that says "do not use more than 1/4 cup of detergent or this whole place will wash away in one big fell swoop and all that will remain will be your soapy clothes." right, so the guy put in his quarters, soap, and left. 10 minutes later, soap starts busting out of every crevice, down the washer, and onto the floor. i kept waiting for them to all spring together and create some kind of soapy terminator or frothy ectoplasm thing from ghostbusters because of course that always happens at the laundromat when there's an excess of bubbles and imagination.

the whole over-suds event reminded me of a sleepover i had when i was little (6th grade, maybe?), where someone (and it very likely could have been me) had loaded the dishwasher with lots of grubby pots, pans, plates, and most likely regular soap instead of dishwasher soap, and 20 minutes later my slumber party had turned into a slip-n-slide kitchen fiasco. but hey, at least we were 15 clean tweens livin' it up on a saturday night.

so when the guy finally returned, he looked at his washer full of bubbles, shrugged his shoulders, put more quarters into the coin slot, and walked out of the lovely establishment, as if this always happens to him and everyone else all the time. buddy, soapy, sopping, sudsy sweaters are not the norm here. now, personally, i would have taken my foaming garments and put them into a different washer as that seems simple enough. or even asked someone else "hey, what happened?" 'cause then hopefully some nice, kind, attentive neighbor would have said "you over-detergented (new verb here!) your load!" (and totally in reference to the laundry) but the guy just ran the cycle and left. so why would i feel inclined to hobble after him, two crutches, an immobile leg, and one semi-working one, yelling "you really should switch washers, sir! here, let me help you learn how to perform this basic weekly (hopefully) chore." instead, i felt like maybe i deserved a good chuckle. and of course, a few minutes later, the same thing happened. suds suds suds suds suds. out the detergent slot and the door and onto the floor. at least we now know of one corner in the laundromat that's clean enough to eat off of now.

another bonus from this whole event: when we got home from our cleansing afternoon, we saw the detroit tigers eliminate the yankees from the playoffs. which means we're going to the tuesday a's home game! whoopee!

presenting your al west champs!

now get ready to bring it!

photo: AP/Elaine Thompson

gimme an A!

i've posted my last 2006 regular season cookie delivery post over at the bullpen baker. now i've got to start thinking about baking for the post season (keep those fingers crossed)!

what's a girl to do?

todd comes back from dominica in just a little over 4 days, which means i have 4 days left to complete the rest of my "when the boyfriend's away, becca will play" list. this includes:

• finish "trying new things." therefore, dump girlfriend of just under 2 weeks. let her know it's not her, it's me, and i'm just not into that kind of thing. really. but hide ex-girlfriend in closet. you know, just in case.
• clean apartment to get rid of any trace of those wild, late-night parties while utilizing all of the method products i have yet to master. tape # for 1-800-keggers to fridge for later use.
• multi-task and save the environment: accumulate all of my laundry and do 1 load total, not 3 like when mr. man is here (how many shirts can one person wear in a week? the answer: at least 13). plus with one load, i can practice my ability to carry my clean clothes home in one hand while doing my nails, petting the neighbor's poodle, and finding a cure for chain-smoking colleagues with the other. bonus!
• hit the gym 25 more times with the hope of achieving that "honey, i must have just really, really missed you and forgotten to eat" look.
• cheer on the a's. finally turn to god (with the help of huston) in the hopes that rich harden's comeback (as opposed to liriano's) is successful. become girl of the book. for a month or so. and by book, i mean playbook.
  

top photo © me, emerald pool, dominica
bottom photo © me, bout sable beach, dominica

ideas for life

my partner in crime is taking a 2 1/2 week sojourn to the carribean to visit his mom. being the good girlfriend that i am, i offered him my handy dandy digital camera, allowing him to capture those irreplaceable memories as pictures and 3-minute videos without the use of film, fingerpaints, and cave drawings. but under one teeny tiny condition. if anything happens to my camera that takes it from well-cared-for and semi-high performing to not, he owes me a new one. and not the same camera. but a better one. now, i love my little panasonic lumix to death, i really do. and todd's only on day 2 of his trip. but i'm secretly hoping that once he transfers all his files to his mom's computer, somewhere around day 18, the litle sort-of-shiny camera quietly hops away, throws itself into the river, and swims downstream towards the friendly blue-green waters and black sands of dominica.


but until then, enjoy one of the last images i took with it. this was while waiting for bart after an oakland a's game (they won!). what you don't see in the picture is the train opening it's doors and everyone running from the back of the plaform, heaving themselves (and their offspring) towards the moving doors before the train exits the platform while making those xena warrior princess blood-curdling yells. ok. that didn't happen. but what was weird was that the train did stop. typical bart.

who needs a paperclip when you can be a staple?

seems everything is turning up baseball these days. mlblogs has me as the cover story this afternoon. perhaps i can quit my day job soon. yeah, pshaw.

do i get a gold star?

becks & posh has named the bullpen baker this week's (or was it last week's?) bay area blogger of the week! whoo-hoo! thanks, sam and fred:)

Must Like Baseball

yours truly is listed on the front page of mlblogs today as a related blog to danny haren's (sigh. i still think he should have renamed his blog "haren's harem").

bullpen blockade

You can visit my most recent attempt at bullpen baking here.

let's go oakland!

baseball season's in full swing, which means i'll be baking again. this time around, i'll be posting thoughts and experiences regarding my a's fan experience at MLBlogs, and you can check it out here.

there's no crying in baseball

ichiro lovers, unite! the mariners are in town, and like most other mlb teams (minus the yankees, who either stay on nob hill or at some super duper secret swanky hotel- i haven't figured it out yet.), they're at the westin until tomorrow. my favorite westin bellman confirmed this for me, and while i haven't seen him today, he'll also probably agree that you can still find felix hernandez drowning his sorrows in a shirley temple at harry denton's starlight lounge or the cheesecake factory (michael minna's required a reservation, so he had to take his tears off-site).

AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

stop... hammer time!

i have a little soft spot for mc hammer. maybe it's because i ran into him (and got his autograph on my program) at the racetrack right before his gambling addiction went all public (more about the evils of horseracing some other time). or perhaps it's because he pulled off those silly-looking big print hammer pants much, much, much better than my dad. but mc hammer prooves that anything is possible, especially when he has two blogs: one that's a "personal" blog and another that's housed at mlblogs.

guess his former oakland a's batboy status qualifies him to write about the game. now, i may not be a batboy, but i sort of know one, and i'm an unofficial bullpen baker. does that count? can i get an mlblog? please, pretty please, with an organic cherry on top?

bobble to the right, bobble to the left

sunday is huston street bobblehead day! this is so exciting; he gets his own bobblehead, complete with tongue curl. sigh. think huston will sign mine? i probably have a greater chance of him eating my cookies.

dear barry zito

dear barry,

sure, last night was a bummer. getting pummeled by the yankees to where you left the game in the 2nd inning, well, that must be heartbreaking. but walking 4 batters in 1 1/3 innings? and then being down 7-0? i'm a little disappointed? is it the pressure, the rain, the fact that i couldn't afford the $5k to be there, cheering my little pounding heart out? because i cheered on the couch, loud and hard, and i'm sure the butt imprint is still there to prove it.

always (sigh),
becca

photo (c) becca 2005