Musings from Mandy

Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek with the fam waiting in line at Carrabba’s in Fort Myers . . . Sox rookie Brandon Moss meeting friends to catch a flick at the Regal 20 . . . Pitcher Jon Lester begrudgingly signing his old Pawtucket Red Sox cap offered up to him by a PawSox long-time season ticket holder now in possession of it . . . I usually don't take my news from the Inside Track, however, Jon, you best not be signing things begrudingly until you are 18-4 with a 2.49 ERA. Do I make myself clear?

Inspired by Chad Finn , who was apparently inspired by one if his wife’s friends…here are 50 things about me. 50. My favorite outfit is sweatpants and sneakers. 49. At Big Papi’s charity event two summers ago, he pinched my cheek and said, “Hi sweetie”. To which Katelyn responded, “That was really cute, in a creepy kind of way”. 48. At the same event, I caught a Sox cheating on their wife, had Jason Varitek touch the small of my back and say, “Excuse me”, and won a 1,000 gift certificate. 47. The most amount of Red Sox games I have ever been to in once season was somewhere between 20 and 25. In 2006. I went to about 15 last year. 46. I have a horrible addiction to shoes and purses. 45. My favorite time to get drunk is in the middle of the afternoon on a nice day. At the beach. 44. One of my goals is to go to every state, and 6 of 7 continents. 43. I hate cold and am not going to Antarctica. 42. I am so bad at cleaning my room and organizing it is not even funny. 41. I hop...

I'm having trouble sleeping right now due to the fact that for some reason it is over 100 degrees in my room and I have a vodka tonic induced head ache...So I figured I throw a few thoughts about the Asante Samuel signing your way...I'm hungover and maybe still a little drunk, so I take no responsiblity for these being coherent. *Asante signed a 6 year 57 million dollar contract with the Philladelphia Eagles, 20 million of which is guaranteed. Good for Asante. Seeing that my team is always hurting on the secondary it seems, I hate to see any corner go. That being said, would I want to pay 60 million dollars for a corner who: a. Routinely misses tackles going for a hit. b. Routinely does not wrap up tackles. c. Does not like to get hit. d. Didn't make the biggest pick of the season. I'm not saying it was an easy play, but I think it could have been made. e. $ is cleary more important to him, seeing he just picked McNabb over Brady as his QB. Probably not, which is wh...

The most chatty Joshua I have every seen!

So, yesterday I'm at the gym. And at our gym, we have this fixture there, this rather large gentleman that is in unbelievable shape. Like, maybe is a professional body builder, maybe is an unemployed NFL defensive lineman huge. Almost anytime, day or night, you go to the gym, this guy is there. And the other day he had someone with him. A fellow, in ridiculously good shape guy, wearing a Seahawks Lofa Tatupu shirt. Now, I really only know what a few people outside the Patriots look like, but Lofa I'm semi familiar with, he's a linebacker, played at USC, plays for Seattle, and is of Hawaiian descent. The gentleman walking on the treadmill next to me (low speed, high incline) is about 6'2", largely built, and looks like freaking Lofa Tatupu. Now I'm distracted and am really thinking that it's probably him. If it was Lofa, does he wear his own shirt? Probably not. But that didn't matter to me. (I was just in bed for like, a 1/2 hour when I remembered t...

It have two cousins, an uncle, and my mom's birthday in the next few weeks, so I was perusing the card section at Target the other day and came across this one, meant probably for a girl to give to an other girl. I'm assuming all this because I don't know what kind of stupid you'd have to be to find this funny. On the outside to the card, it says, "Top Ten Signs That You Are In Hell" 10. Convenient sign that reads, "You are now in hell". Now, I am just a humble school teacher, not a marketing guru, but I think that #10 means, "We could only think of 9 funny things". 9. Nothing but sports, fishing, and the Three Stooges on every TV channel. Now, I'm not a huge 3 Stooges fan, but I can handle an episode every now and then. Not crazy about watching fishing on TV, but I like seeing where they go to fish, like, the Keys. Who doesn't love the Keys? And as for the 24 hour sports? Does that mean we get Dish? NFL Network? NESN ? Again, not...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFsdFABv35o Haha...poor kid.

I realized the other day, quite how much I am not over the Patriots lost. I'm still absolutely angry. As one of my students proved the other day with his, Giant's Super Bowl hat, complete with it's, "We Wanted It More" logo, I am angry, I am hurt, and I wanted my Super Bowl ring and even the warm wonderful glow of spring training is not quite warming the ice over my sports heart. *I live in coastal Eastern North Carolina, and I've been waiting to see this whole Duke / UNC feud up close . A few weeks ago, I saw that match up at a neighborhood sports bar, and quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing about how other rivalries rival the Boston / New York rivalry. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything yet to see show me otherwise. *Does Tiger Woods actually drive a Buick? I don't think so. At least, I hope not. I've seen the picture of his house, and I don't see a Buick parked in that driveway. *The NBA All Star game uni's did nothi...

Jason Giambi mailed back my card, complete with signature, I guess he didn't have anything better to do. So to keep our tally up, I recieved signed cards back from Mike Timlin, Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, and A-Rod.

When I moved to NC in August, my mom sent me off with a ton of different piles of junk that I didn't need. Now, we are getting a third roommate, (my cousin, yay!), so I've been trying to cram two rooms full of crap into one. Anyway, one thing I came across was a box of my baseball card. Back when I was a freshman or a sophomore, and my brother was in first or second grade, we got into baseball cards. Mainly because there was a cool hobby shop like store at my house, partly because I had just started to really like baseball, and lastly because I'm a huge dork. It's a wonder to myself that I had any friends at all in highschool. Okay, friend. I had a friend in high school. Moving on... I had forgotten a few things about myself. I loved Mike Mussina. I really, really, really loved Mike Mussina. Now, please forgive me for a moment and remember that during this time, he was quite the pitcher: 1996 27 BAL AL 19 11 36 36 4 1 0 0 243.3 1997 28 BAL AL 15 8 33 33 4 1 0 0 224...

I decided in a moment of weakness last night that I hated the wallpaper in my bathroom and it needed to go. Forgetting the facts that: 1. I rent. 2. I'm not big on hard work. 3. I don't know how to take off wallpaper. 4. I don't have any money at all to pay for paint and whatnot. 5. I hate painting. Anyway, right now, I have half wallpaper covered bathroom, no shower curtain, and shards of wallpaper anyway, which is why I don't have a real live blog for you. But I leave you with this. We play a game in my class sometimes called, "Red Sox Trivia" where, to kill a few extra minutes at the end of class, I make up questions and use questions from my Red Sox daily calender. Today, we were playing, and after we were done and recess began, my four sixth grade boys congregated around my desk to ask me questions. I shared with them the games I went to, and the player's I've either met or gone to the same event as. Showed them the pictures of me and Pe...

I'm back. I don't how long for, and how regularly I'll be able to post here, but as Katie said, I have a request -- could you please start blogging again? We have won a world series and lost a superbowl. and you have nothing to say?? seriously?!" It's true. The 2007 Red Sox series was fantastic. It was a dream come true. It showed 2004 wasn't a fluke. It gave us more swagger. It started off with me coming very, very, very close to dying in Texas, not to mention warding off hypothermia and I came very, very, very close to commiting homicide in Michigan. I went to more than 20 Red Sox games and I will still probably be paying off my credit card for those games and the nights out after in 2012. It was full of the savvy veterans and lovable rookies. It was the walk-off from Manny while at the Baseball Tavern surrounded by a bunch of crazy drunkards and my 3 favorite drunks. It was sitting on the couch hungover in sweatpants and watching the Pat's domi...