Zeus and Blondie

Posted on May 22, 2011 by kdarcy21

Well, I think that Zeus has finally accepted Blondie into the household, well, mostly anyway.  The first day he was rather cold, avoided her but wasn’t mean.  The second day I could tell that he didn’t like her presence but he tolerated her.  Today he finally started to play with her and they appear to be having a good time together.

Zeus has instantly become the “good dog”.  An 11 week old puppy is a fairly adventurous endeavour on my part.  She likes to chew, everything that she can.  Zeus has been VERY good about her playing with “his” toys.  She’s made herself quite at home.  Everything that was Zeus’ is now hers – isn’t that the way it always is when a girl moves into a house?

The adventure will continue …

 

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Rain and Welcome Blondie !!!

Posted on May 22, 2011 by kdarcy21

It has been a few busy days, not because of baseball though.  Well, not exactly busy really, but sort of.

First off, the weather.  Well, to put it mildly, it sucks.  A week ago (Saturday, May 14) we were scheduled to play the Canadian Thunderbirds in a 9 inning game at Alex McKenzie Park.  The weather for the day was supposed to only be a 40% chance of rain and only 1-2mm.  Well, the two games on before us played without any issues at all.  I start my infield with the boys and it starts to rain.  We got our infield done and it starts to pour.  Long story short (or a bit shorter anyway), we pitched to 3 batters and the game was called shortly thereafter.  Our game on Sunday, May 15 was cancelled as of the Saturday night.  The parks have been closed since AND are closed until Tuesday, May 24.  Insane weather, completely insane.  We haven’t had baseball in over a week now.  I am hoping for good weather on Monday.  We have a practice scheduled and then an exhibition game versus the Niagara Falls Minor Midget Falcons.  Diamonds are closed so we are breaking the rules a bit and are going to use AN Myer in Niagara Falls.  Won’t be the best diamond, hopefully the outfield will be dry(ish).

I’ve also gotten Zeus a playmate, Blondie:

Zeus isn’t quite sure about her as yet.  She LOVES Zeus, loves him, follows him EVERYWHERE, it is quite cute.  She follows me everywhere as well but she loves him.  Zeus is still a little jealous of having another dog in the house but he’s coming around.  He started playing with her today which is good.  She’s going to be a BIG dog – the breeders are guessing 75-80 lbs so that’ll be double the size of Zeus.  He’d better be good ’cause she’ll thump him in a few months…

Perhaps I am insane getting a second dog, who knows.  I am looking forward to the adventures that will come.

 

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Anyone want to help with my Ark?

Posted on May 18, 2011 by kdarcy21

I am moved in, well, mostly moved in.  I still have to move the contents of my office, dining room and kitchen.  I also have to move quite a few clothes.  Packing and moving is the easy part for me.  The hard part is the unpacking.  I hate unpacking, hate it.  I am SO slow in getting started is all – I always seem to find something better to do with my time.  Oh well, I will get to it – I have to, I am having a house warming party at the end of July.  I certainly hope it doesn’t take me THAT long to get it done…

Baseball has been on hold for a bit.  We’ve had so much damn rain I can’t believe it.  I hope it isn’t one of “those” summers.  We were rained out on Saturday after we had started.  Good news is that it didn’t cost us the full $55, both umpires returned most of the cash which was quite nice on their part.  I felt bad for the Thunderbirds who had come down from Hamilton.  We can’t control the weather though…

I cancelled the Sunday game on Saturday night – too much rain.  Monday’s practice was cancelled by 9am on Monday and Tuesday’s game was cancelled by 10:30 in the morning.  No baseball today, we are off – I have a union meeting.  I am supposed to umpire tomorrow (Thursday), who knows if that game will go or not.  We have a practice on Friday and then play games all weekend.  Come on Mother Nature, dry the hell up would you…

The team is looking pretty good.  They have come together pretty well which is quite nice.  From the looks of them, I would say that this is the most talented team that I have ever had the opportunity to coach.  I am really looking forward to starting the season – bring it on.

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New Phone on its way…

Posted on May 16, 2011 by kdarcy21

Replacing my Motorola Milestone with the HTC Desire HD:

Full review:

Review: TELUS HTC Desire HD Review

The Motorola Milestone has several shortfalls.  I believe, but do not quote me, that it’s been discontinued.  Not surprised.  When I received the phone, it came with Android OS 2.1 and was pretty good, smooth running BUT lacked some of the “cool” features that the 2.1 version of the OS has.

So, a few short days later, I receive an email that the 2.2 update is available for the Milestone – awesome.  I do ahead and download and install the upgrade.

Well, I now have the “cool” features of 2.2, BUT, I also have one of the slowest smart-phones that I can imagine.  It pauses between switching screens, between apps, everywhere.  Being an IT guy, I find this most irritating.

So, I place a call with Telus.  Although I have only been with them for a few short months, they are more than willing to allow me to upgrade – I just need to sign a new 3 year agreement – no problem there.

I will likely get the new phone tonight and will very shortly have a Motorola Milestone for sale.  Cheap…

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Major Bantam Cobras

Posted on May 13, 2011 by kdarcy21

It looks like I missed posting about the game that we played on Wednesday night at our home park which is Alex McKenzie Park in St. Catharines.  We played a house league team from Grimsby that was put together by a former player of mine who has wanted to do this since he left my team – way to go.

Anyway, one could immediately tell the differences between my boys (all-star) and the Grimsby boys (house-league).  We defeated them 11-5 and it never really got close.  We gave up 4 of their 5 runs in one inning where one of my pitchers struggled a bit – that happens.  Otherwise, we were dominant, as I’d expect to be.

This team, I think, is going to be a pleasure to coach.

 

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Moving Day !!!

Posted on May 13, 2011 by kdarcy21

Well, something happened with the internet service at my “old” house and now it is hopefully activated at my “new” house, so, I am moving this weekend – Sunday morning to be specific…

I am having the place cleaned on Saturday and at 7am on Sunday I and a few friends will move the large items in.

I can’t be without internet access at this time of the year – baseball is in high gear and I have LOTS of baseball work to do, that’s for damn sure.

So, I guess I am moving a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.

To my old place, you’ve been great.  To my new place, I will soon call you home.

 

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Weekend Recap

Posted on May 9, 2011 by kdarcy21

Our exhibition game against the Canadian Thunderbirds was cancelled on Saturday.  I received a call in the morning that the City of Hamilton had cancelled all of their parks for the day.  Unfortunately, a few of the players made it to Hamilton since they didn’t check their email nor Facebook before going to Hamilton.  It was reported back to me that the diamond looked playable to them so who knows.

I guess we will find out for sure this coming weekend.  We are slated to play the Thunderbirds again at home this coming Saturday.  Let’s hope for some good weather.

So, we had our team meeting on Saturday evening at Dom’s.  Pizza/wings.  The guys destroyed the food, I was a site to see for sure.  It was a good meeting.  The parents voted in favour of going back to the Cooperstown Classic the second week of July and it appears that we don’t have any issues about going to Sault Ste. Marie for the OBA Championships should we be classified A.

The schedule, as I am sure I’ve mentioned is a busy one.  I am really looking forward to getting it going.

I am off work for at least part of the day today.  A Bell technician is visiting my new place to do something for my Distributel internet and phone.  I also have to make a bunch of calls relating to baseball.

Enjoy your week.

 

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Go Cobras !!!

Posted on May 7, 2011 by kdarcy21

We played our first exhibition game last night against the minor midget club from Niagara Falls.  In 2010, they won the OBA A Championship.  We held our own last night, from what I heard as I was only there for 1.5 innings.  We held the lead in the game and ended up losing 5-3 – not too shabby at all.  Way to go boys.

I think that the club is going to do quite well this season.  We have a solid core of players.  I lost one last evening though.  I received an email that they didn’t feel that they could commit to the schedule.  That’s too bad but I understand where they are coming from.  We are playing a VERY busy schedule for sure.  That’s the way I like it.

Essentially, all of the games that we play in May, June, July and August are a work-up to the OBA Championships over Labour Day Weekend.  Winning that tournament is my ultimate goal.

Wish us luck!!!

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Baseball is here…

Posted on May 6, 2011 by kdarcy21

It has been a couple of very busy days.

The election is over so that takes that off of my plate.  I spent a couple of hours last night collecting election signs from around the downtown core.  There weren’t too many in the area that I was driving through – south of Welland Avenue, west to Ontario, east to Geneva and also bordered by the 406 – mostly businesses in that area.  Anyway, the city is being cleared of its election signs.

Baseball is proceeding well.  I have 13 signed players now and will likely sign #14 tonight.  That will be it.  I have two assistants right now as well with a 3rd assistant who will help out as the bench coach.  The guy who helped me last year (MH) won’t be able to assist this year – he didn’t take his coaching clinic last year and therefore would have to start over now and he can’t do it with his work schedule.  This is good and bad – he wasn’t out all that often last year but he enjoyed the game and was good with the kids.

We play our first exhibition game tonight.  It is against the Minor Midgets from Niagara Falls.  They won the OBA A Bantam title last year, so, we will have our work cut out for us.  We also have large shoes to fill to match what they did last year.  The A OBA’s are in Sault Ste. Marie this Labour Day Weekend.  It is hard to think that far ahead – still a few months off.

We play the Canadian Thunderbirds 14u club tomorrow in Hamilton.  They were supposed to play in St. Catharines but our GREAT City decided to close the parks until Monday, May 9.  Yeah, that was necessary St. Catharines, the parks are fine.  Oh well, what can you do…

Anyway, the schedule will be quite busy, but, that’s the way that I like it.

I am preparing to move – sort of…  I haven’t actually stated packing or anything as yet, but I am getting to the point that I do have to do that.  I may move some stuff in there on Sunday, Mother’s Day.  The Bell guy is doing something at the house on Monday with regards to my Distributel service.  I have to be there.  The appointment is also between 9-5 so I am hoping that he will be there early so that I can go into work.

One more work day today then off for 2 and part (or all) of Monday.  I am picking up our uniforms at lunch today – awesome.  I am sure that they will look great.

Later…

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Canada Turns Blue …

Posted on May 3, 2011 by kdarcy21

Well, the election is over and the Conservatives have won a majority government.  The two campaigns that I worked on, Rick Dykstra and Rob Nicholson both won by landslides.  Unfortunately, the candidate in the Welland riding did not defeat the NDP incumbent.  So, two out of three ain’t bad.  The Liberals were devastated across the country as were the Bloq, perhaps the people of Quebec decided that the Bloq weren’t doing anything for Quebec and they got rid of them.  The leader of the Green party was elected in her riding out there in BC – those darn, tree huggers out on the west coast.  At least she will get a taste of inside politics.

I got to the campaign office yesterday at 7:30am.  I got home after the post election party just before 2am.  Long, long day.  I woke up this morning just before 6:30am and had a great nap tonight.  I was off today which was good, got a fair amount done.

Back to work tomorrow.  Blah.  It’ll be good being back at work actually.  I have been off for five days.

Now all I need is some nice weather so that we can get our baseball season going.

Congrats to the Conservatives – now get down to business.

 

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