RANDOM MUSINGS

 

DSC08289.JPGOriginally uploaded by Jilly2113

Sunday was sad!! The Astros retired Jeff Bagwell’s number 5 and had a pre-game ceremony for it. It was such a good tribute for him. It helps that we had freakin awesome tickets. Haha. Five rows behind the dugout, dude. It rocked. I have a hundred million pictures. Hardly any of them mine, cause my camera does not do as well as others. The pics are great, though. I did get choked up during the video tribute. It is just sad that he never got a chance for the farewell that Biggio is getting since Bagwell got hurt. On one hand it is a tiny bit good for a career to end that way…I even read somewhere where Bagwell doesn’t regret not playing because he CAN’T. It is not like he is choosing to keep playing and then playing past his prime. It is physically impossible. On the other hand, it took the decision away from him. Oh well. What is done is done! His little girls were cute when they threw the first pitches out, though.

Firings…I do have a few comments about those. (Just so Kevin does not think I am slacking!) I was not surprised by the Purpura firing at all. During the jersey retirement on Sunday the crowd booed him big time. As they should. If only for the Jennings trade. Jennings was damaged goods when we got him, which is ridiculous. Dude goes on the DL two weeks into the season and you don’t think he was already having problems? Right. The Garner one did surprise me, though, and seemed kind of pointless. And yes, I know that this is a tryout for Cooper and all….to see if they want to give him the job next year. Since we aren’t going to the playoffs anyway, it is a good chance to see if he can make a difference in the clubhouse. Which I doubt. I went to see them yesterday and they are the same. Pitching is not doing very well and can’t get people around the bases. Stupid shutout. The sad thing was that in the first inning when the Cardinals had a 3-run homer there were more Cardinals fans than Astros fans at that point!! It sounded like the Cardinals had a hometown crowd. Jeez. I do hope Cooper does well, though, and makes some changes. Mainly in the area of hustling. You would think everyone would follow Biggio’s example on that. But no. Although, it is not like a manager can magically make his players play better. There is only so much a manager can do. At some point the players need to be held accountable for not producing. The only thing I am looking forward to now is Backe returning!!

Have a good week!

P.S. New pictures are up from a couple of things in the Photos section…

P.S.S. I stopped being lazy and rotated the game photos so you don’t have to look at them sideways now. HA.

alamo

Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

I have become spoiled about going to the movies lately. Which also means I have a new addiction. I am loving Alamo Drafthouse. I am almost to the point that I won’t go to the movies unless it is showing there. In the past few weeks I have had 3 different movie experiences: Drafthouse, regular AMC, and 3D iMAX.

The 3D experience was pretty good….just becuase it was iMAX. Hard to not enjoy a screen that large. HA. And the crowd did pretty well. No one really left. I figure if you pay the extra three dollars to see it in that theater you are going to stay for the whole damn thing. It also helped that it was a Monday afternoon. Most people are at work.

I had not been to a “regular” movie in a while. Needless to say it was not as enjoyable. It was freakin noisy, and this one family kept leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back. Just annoying. I don’t understand why people would pay for the ticket, and then not stay and watch! Bathroom breaks are one thing…but this went way beyond that. Cristina kindly reminded me that people do sneak into movies sometimes, so they may not have paid the ticket price for that movie. Whatever. They could still respect the patrons that DID pay for it and were trying to watch the movie!!

Which brings us to my fave…Alamo Drafthouse. I swear…just the people eating popcorn in the regular theater were ten times louder than the people eating regular food/meals at Alamo Drafthouse. I took the fam to Alamo on Sunday, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. It is definitely different. I have not been disappointed by any of my food choices, either. The only thing that gets on my nerves is the price of sodas…a large soda is almost $4! But you don’t get refills on the small ones. Oh well. I usually get water or beer anyway!! HA.

Movies I saw this weekend: Bourne Ultimatum for the second time and Rush Hour 3. I could not believe I was going to see Rush Hour 3, but it turned out to be pretty damn funny. It was smart of them to not try to stretch it out and make it over two hours. It was only about an hour and a half…perfect amount of time.

Hope everyone is having a better week than Blanca!!!!

bourne

Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

I don’t really have any complaints about the latest movies I have seen. That may be a first. Of course, it helps that I am only seeing movies in the theater at the moment, which tend to be only ones I REALLY want to see and that I REALLY think are going to be worth the ticket price. My Netflix queue is only full of Buffy. HA. I said it. I am on a mission to get through the entire series. I am at the very end of season 5 now. It helps that I am watching it on dvd and not having to wait week-by-week for a new episode.

Anyway…movies.

The Bourne Ultimatum - Jenny and I saw it this past weekend. I really wish I had watched Supremacy again before we went, as I did not realize it literally continued from the last time you see him limping through the snow in Russia. I was thoroughly impressed with this one. Not the standard let-down when you see the third installment of a trilogy. The action was fast and woven into the plot very well. It also wrapped up the story quite nicely. I still need to go home and watch the first two again. Just to remind myself of the small details I am not remembering. I know Matt Damon keeps saying he won’t do another one, but I am holding on to a tiny sliver of hope that he changes his mind! Jenny is also a bit spastic to watch movies with. Haha. She REALLY gets into it. There was gasping, hand waving, etc happening in the seat next to me. It was hilarious.

Harry Potter - As if this one was not going to be good, right?? All the Harry Potter movies are high quality and very entertaining. I really liked this one much better than Goblet of Fire. That one veered a little too much away from the book in a couple of key areas for me to like it that much. I just kept thinking about the ways that it was different, as opposed to just watching and enjoying. Order of the Phoenix delivered, though. The main action scene at the end was very well done. It helps that I saw it in iMAX 3D, I am sure. The best thing about these movies is that you can watch them without reading the books. Marilyn even enjoyed it…although she has not even seen all the movies, so I am not sure she REALLY knew what was going on. Haha.

I do have pictures from the company boat/cruise/Kemah thing this weekend. I am just being lazy about posting them! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Apparently Jason Hirsch got hit with a line drive in a game a couple of days ago and then continued to pitch for five innings. Did pretty well, too…even though his leg was BROKEN. That is crazy. I don’t know if I am just a wuss about pain…actually, I KNOW I am a wuss about pain….but this seems a bit over the top. Poor Hirsch! Now he may have to go on the DL. I mean, I don’t feel bad for the Rockies or anything. They are an opposing team, after all. I do feel bad for Hirsch and Bucholz…Bucholz has already been moved to a reliever role. But they may work out great for him. Although I saw him give up a walk-off run to someone the other day. I think it was the Braves. BOO on the stupid Braves. This has officially gone from making any sense to a rant. Oh well. It is early in the morning. And this is about baseball. So I will rant all I want!

 

756Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

The picture is a t-shirt design that can be bought at the bustedtees site…LOVE it. I can’t stand the whole Bonds debacle. I am just tired of hearing about it. We all know the number is tainted, HE knows the number is tainted, so just admit it and move on. The funniest part is when the sports shows and commentators start breaking down the difference in his stats after his first decade or so in the Majors. There really is a huge difference. Even funnier is the fact that some of the commentators don’t want to be seen as “anti-Bond” so they start trying to make excuses for the jumps in his stats. Stupid. Anyway…this shirt ships in 1-2 weeks if anyone is interested! HA.

smurfs

Originally uploaded by Jilly2113

I know this is random…but the Smurfs are coming out on dvd! That is awesome. I know I should not be that excited about something I probably won’t spend money on, but I am! Haha. It isn’t coming out until December, though. Apparently the first set has 19 episodes on it. I would LOVE to buy this for all my friend’s kids. I watched the Smurfs every morning before school! That and Scooby-doo.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I just realized it has been a while since I have posted anything on here besides a plea to Rebecca G to post again! I am still waiting on ya, girly. I have just been in a “quiet” mood lately. Don’t feel that there is much to talk about. July was super busy…or at least it felt that way. That could just be my imagination though, as opposed to the reality of the past month, as I would be hard-pressed to name things that have kept me so busy. Hmm. I know there were a few Astros’ games in there. One with the parents where we witnessed the disastrous 11-run first inning by Jennings. Wow. I really don’t think there is really anything to say about that. The game itself was interesting, at least, because the Astros rallied back and weren’t shut out or anything. Now THAT would have been boring to sit through. Another in one of the suites, courtesy of Natalie. That was pretty nifty. It also means that now I have sat in every section of Minute Maid except the Crawford boxes. There were also a few happy hours thrown in there in the past few weeks, as well as some vacation, Warren and Austin days. I did manage to see Harry Potter and Transformers. Which both rocked. I think I have an addiction to Alamo Drafthouse. There are some new pictures up. From Austin, I believe. And the July Quarterly meeting. That was a madhouse. Oh well…at least it looked good!! I don’t know that I really have anything to talk about. Just lots of stuff going through my head lately. Things I am not likely to put out here for everyone to read. Hope everyone has a good week and weekend….