Light The Cauldron

Today is a great day. Baseball officially started for many teams this afternoon, and the possibilities are endless. Some of my friends are posting their annual “predictions” for the season, but I don’t do things like that. I let the season’s chips fall where they may.
However, this doesn’t mean I don’t have other pre-season rituals. I like to follow the live blogs on Detroit websites and see what is happening in downtown Detroit. I don’t really have any desire to attend Opening Day (as my father says, “It’s more about the beer than the baseball”), but it’s still fun to see so many people excited about the blank slate ahead.
Another annual tradition I like to do is view a baseball movie. There are about three gajillion baseball movies out there, but I usually limit them to a certain few:
Angels in the Outfield Released TWENTY years ago (!), this was one of my favorites as a kid. At the time, it was just a fun movie with That Dude From Back to the Future. (Christopher Lloyd) But I just w…

Previously, on Blurb Musings...I had purchased the gear, I had set the date, and now it was time to ski down a hill!
Fun Fact #7: The hardest part of skiing isn’t actually skiing.
It’s the chairlift.
…
I’m not even joking.
The chairlift is a constantly moving conveyor belt that expects you to be ready when it comes around. In a pleasant summer day, that is not a problem at all. You walk up, you sit down, and you go!
But remember that you aren’t walking. You are on skis, and for a newbie like me, going forward three feet is a lot harder than going forward one hundred feet. At a chairlift, it’s all an inching process with dozens of other skiers and snowboarders. They try to create Disneyland ropes for lines, but it ends up being a big mess anyway, because you also have to try to line up your row before you even make it to the lift itself.
Pretty much, it’s a big mess.
My cousins guided me to the skinny gates, which opened when it was time to go. Then I slid along until I reached a yellow li…

When I first accepted the job in Colorado, two questions always came up by people talking to me. The first was, “How close is it to Denver?” The second question was, “Are you going to learn to ski?”

It wasn’t hard to answer the first question, but the second answer was more of an assumption. I really did want to learn to ski, but considering that I didn’t live near the mountains - and had never skied - I just replied with, “I hope to!”

One of my missions of the past year-and-a-half was to gather as much ski equipment that I could, so that if the opportunity came along, I could be ready to go. I knew that much of the ski gear could be rented, but I didn’t even own snowpants - a definite requirement.

Fun Fact #1: Skiing requires a lot of equipment!

Little did I realize how much I would need to buy. Even without skis, boots, poles, and helmet, I would have to purchase under clothing (like UnderArmour), middle clothing (sweatshirt-level), snowpants, coat, hat (or ski mask), quality mittens, …

It was a long day, but I'm glad I gave it a shot. Here is my running diary - starting at 10am and ending around 11:30pm today.

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The games have begun! I hope to watch every single game today - it’s been a few years since I’ve been able to do that. Back in 2009 my Dad and I got Subway footlongs, sat on the couch, and watched tons of Thursday basketball. This year I have stuff to do, but I can keep the TV on all day!

10:15amOhio State and Dayton kick off. I already wish they would shut up about Aaron Craft.

10:36amDayton is leading by 4. I think Dayton is more excited about this matchup than OSU, considering a few of those Dayton players might have wanted to be recruited by Ohio State.

10:39amTrying to get my Kindle Fire back up and running after the magazine apps decided to crash on me. Amazon was pretty much no help and just told me to do a factory reset.

10:40amOSU has taken the lead. American and Wisconsin are tipping off...in Milwaukee! I would totally be there if I w…