batteh blog-o-rama

Thanks to Jon for hosting the BGBG/GSHAS Postseason BBQ on Saturday. The weather looked gloomy in the morning but cleared nicely for a wonderful afternoon of eating, drinking, and socializing. Jon and Todd did a stellar job manning the grill, and Jon cleaned up the remnants from the previous night’s storms so that we could swim in the pool. The water was a bit chilly but many intrepid souls braved the cold. A competitive game of pool basketball “HORSE” left Jon the last one standing (home pool advantage), but Chaz stole the show with his patented “go under water in the deep end, push off the bottom, come up and shoot the ball from 20 feet out with your eyes closed” shot. Not only was this shot completely ridiculous but Chaz made it 3 times in a row!! Luckily Will was manning the outside of the pool to help us collect the many shots that were missed (badly).

Thanks to everyone who attended and brought yummy food to share!! In case anyone was wondering, the cake was supposed to read “Congratulations GSHAS and BGBG” instead of simply “BG BG” (no slight intended to GSHAS- even though BGBG won both the regular season and tournament championships in an undefeated season, that isn’t a requirement to get on the cake). For some pictures from the event, check out the updated BGBG 2007 Photo Gallery. As always, feel free to comment.

Congratulations to both teams on wonderful summer seasons. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better group of softball teammates than those on these two teams, current and past. Thanks for carrying on the tradition!! Special thanks to Charlie and Liz for handling the managerial tasks!! GSHAS will be in action in the fall league starting this week while BGBG is off until the Jeremy Rose Tournament Oct. 6-7. We’ll try and plan another gathering following the fall season.

Ever wanted to know what you would look like as a Simpson? Well, now you can Simpsonize yourself at a new site promoting the upcoming Simpsons movie. Here’s how it works- you upload a picture of your face, answer a few questions about your general appearance, and then the site returns your Simpsons likeness. You can then customize/tweak all aspects of your look (body type, hair, facial features, glasses, clothes, accessories) and then do fun things like put yourself in various Simpsons scenes, create a screensaver, download your picture or buddy icon, etc. Pretty cool!!

A word of warning- the site is quite popular and a bit overwhelmed. I had to try a couple different pictures (clear head shots with non-distracting backgrounds work best) and also many different times before things went all the way through. Off-peak times work best and for some reason it seems to work better if you register (free, then you can save your images too) first. Anyhow, give it a shot and let me know how it works for you. Also, feel free to send me your picture and I’ll add it to our Simpsonized flickr gallery. Feel free to comment on our Simpsonized likeness. To get started, click on the link below:

Simpsonize Me

Tremendous work tonight in winning the intraleague tournament and completing a perfect 12-0 season. It was a tough pair of games as our bats were a bit cold though we hit when we needed it. We really started slow against the Puppies as they jumped on us early taking a 4-0 lead. We chipped away at the lead and then, down 5-2, had a big 7 run bottom of the 6th to take a 9-5 lead that held. Clutch hitting and solid defense really saved us in both games. The second game was also a tough one against the blue Cubs team. We eventually won 11-5 though they also jumped on us early before our bats warmed up. We got a couple of runs and then exploded in the mid innings. There were so many great plays throughout the game- both with the bats and the gloves. Amy had several key hits, Megan and Cara kept hitting the ball up the middle, Liz smoked a ball down the third base line, Matt got hits to both the right and left side, Ron had his usual line drive shots, Charlie worked both lines, and Jon L had a nice hit in the RC gap. The middle and bottom of the order started our rallies throughout the night until the top finally broke through- that is certainly a way to have a big inning. Tremendous work!! The gloves were outstanding- perhaps some of the best defense we’ve played all year. Jon L. made a nice pick on a short hop, Liz fielded a ton of balls at second base, nearly made a sweet turn on a potential DP, and had a strong cutoff throw to hold a runner at third, Charlie stabbed a hard line drive up the middle, Megan ran down everything in RF as did Matt in RC (including playing through cramps in both calves), all the OFers made strong throws to keep runners in check, and Cara was making all the plays at first including getting beat up on throws from the IFers, making a tag on a wild throw from me (and getting stepped on in the ankle by the runner), fielding several hot shot grounders, and catching several line drives (not to mention the ones that were just off her glove). Wow- the two teams really tried to work the right side to no avail.

Wonderful work both tonight and all season long. Congrats on a great season!! Thanks to our superfan Tershia for coming out to support us!! Following the game we distributed the spoils of our labor- two sets of T-shirts (regular season and tourney champs) plus we got two trophies that will need to be distributed accordingly. Those that were there got their shirts and we’ve got others for our subs and recently-relocated teammates. Check out the updated BGBG 2007 flickr gallery for some photos of our spoils.

Now that the season has come to an end, we look forward to the Jeremy Rose tournament on Oct. 6-7. Hopefully everyone can make it. Also, we were thinking that it would be fun to have a few post-season outings- perhaps both a dinner/drinks outing (maybe on a Tuesday or Friday) and then Jon volunteered to host a pool party for us out in Albion. Let’s try and schedule the pool party first. Please post a comment with your availability on Sat. Aug. 11th and 25th. I’ll cross check with Jon and we’ll finalize a date and send it out to everyone officially.

We just got back from a wonderful trip to St. Maarten/St. Martin. The island is shared by the Dutch and the French with free passage between the two sides. The goal for this trip was to a) snorkel and b) relax on the beach. Our typical day was to do something in the morning (snorkel, shop, etc.) and then sit by the beach to read and relax under the umbrella while enjoying the nice breeze and some cold beverages (thanks to Chaz who recommended and loaned me the first two Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell- I’m hooked). We had a great time and would definitely go back!! Here is a link to our flickr photo gallery with all the pictures from the trip:

PHOTO GALLERY

Also, you can click on the various links throughout the text to see a selected relevant photo- it’ll pop up in an overlay and you can navigate the pictures via the arrows which show up when you hover over the middle right and left sides of the picture and close it when you are finished so you don’t have to keep going back and forth between the photo and the text.

Our trip started with an early flight to Fort Lauderdale on Friday. For some reason, there was a delay on our flight to St. Maarten- odd that the pilot never mentioned why we sat on the runway for an hour. The landing in St. Maarten is pretty incredible- over water until right at the last minute where you fly over a beach with people on it just before touching down. Just to let you know what the landing looks like from the beach, check out this video:

The rental car place wasn’t all that efficient but we finally got our tiny little Hyundai Getz for touring around the island (to get up some of the hills, we had to turn off the AC to get a little turbo boost). We drove from the Dutch to the French side where we were staying at La Plantation (official site), a nice little inn with detached groups of 3 rooms, a large suite in the middle with two studios on the sides. We stayed in the studio and the room was quite large with nice stenciling on the walls. We were about a 5 minute walk from Orient Beach and wandered down to check it out. Orient Beach is about a mile long with fine white sand and beautiful water. It is a full scale nude beach on one end and more conservative towards our end (but not too conservative, it is on the French side after all). We were hungry and tired so we took a short walk to a little village to eat at a French restaurant Cote Plages.
(more…)

Great effort in a 15-1 mercy win over O-Team. We brought the bats and the gloves today. Matt made several nice plays at 3B, Meghan shined around second base picking up ground balls and making a nice tag on an OF assist from Chris, and Liz made a great scoop on my low throw at first. Everyone hit today- Liz smacked three line drives, Meghan picked up the carbon nanotubes for the first time and had several nice liners, and Dani and Alicia chipped in with several hits each as did Ron, Matt, Chris, etc. Great job!!

Sadly, this was Dani and Alicia’s last game with BGBG as they are moving to warmer climes. Fittingly, Alicia caught the last out of the game as she managed to pick up the ball in the dark night sky. Good luck and we’ll miss you. We hope to get you back up for the Rose in September. Here is a link to the photos from the outing on Sunday plus this evening’s photos:

BGBG 2007 Photo Gallery

We left on Friday and had a long travel day. First we flew from Detroit to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Vienna. Next we took a bus to the Westbanhof train station. We’d counted on some travel delays and thus had to wait in the train station for a couple of hours before our train left from Vienna to Salzburg. The train ride was about 3 hours and was very pleasant. We then walked about 10 minute to our hotel, The Allstadt Residenz. We were on the third floor and there was no elevator but the poor bellhop grabbed the bags and started right up. We very much liked this hotel. Since it was only about 5PM, we headed out to explore a little. The city is very compact and you can walk everywhere. We had a lovely dinner at Der Eulenspiegel. After dinner, we walked around a little more and then headed back to the hotel. That was one seemingly long day!!
(more…)

We had our end-of-season softball BBQ this weekend to celebrate excellent seasons from BGBG (11-1, regular season and tournament champs) and GSHAS (intraleague champs, interleague runner-up). It was great getting the two squads together and enjoying a nice, summer evening. We had a great time and hope everyone else did as well. Jon L. wins my vote for best shirt of the night, and his multi-functional shoes drew great admiration as well. Here is a photo gallery from the BBQ (feel free to leave a comment here or on flickr if you want a full res version of any of the photos).

Thanks to everyone who played on the two teams this summer- no better teammates than on these two teams.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Matt’s 70th birthday!! We drove out on Thurs. evening, spent Friday hanging out with the family, had a big party on Saturday, and then drove home today. We enjoyed visiting Swim Lake, playing Bang! (a cool new game), eating yummy food, and celebrating the big “70″ with family and friends!! Michele put together an awesome PowerPoint presentation which provided pictorial evidence of Matt’s 70 years of michief!! Check out the photo gallery for some pictures from the event. Feel free to add your comments and well-wishes.

Awesome work in the intraleague tournament as we beat Cleveland Indians and Narcoleptic Puppies to win the championship!! With the two wins, we avenged our lone loss of the season and won both the regular season and the tournament. Tremendous work!! Tonight’s games were probably two of the best we’ve played all year. In the first game, we beat the Indians 16-5. The second game was awesome as we beat the Puppies 11-0. My recollection of the details might be a little hazy after Ron and I collided in short LF- thankfully Ron turned away at the last minute, both of us are fine, and I am only semi-concussed. In both games the bats and gloves were outstanding- I actually can’t recall an error in either game. Jon L. turned a sweet 5U-3 DP, Michelle and Liz scooped up all the balls on the right side and even fed Charlie just like we practiced in spring training, the OF ran down all the balls with Matt and Alicia making nice running catches, and Charlie kept the hitters off balance all night, including some big outs on the Puppies’ power hitters. The bats were equally stellar- Matt was a hitting machine and was a triple shy of the cycle in the second, Jon L. blasted a triple over the LF’s head, Michelle wore out the hole between SS and 3B, Ron wore out the middle, and our lineup kept hitting up and down. Great effort tonight and all season!! Congrats (and way to shut out the team that said they were “going to win but it would be hard” before the game)!! Here is a photo gallery from the tournament (as always, feel free to comment here or on flickr). As you can see, we all received two T-shirts, a keychain, and a pretty cool trophy (we’ve got them for all those who played but weren’t there tonight- we’ll hand them out at the BBQ). Thanks to Dani and Alicia for providing the excellent post-game beverages!!

Now that our summer season is over (click on the BGBG category on the RHS to relive the memories), we’ve got the End of Season BBQ coming up in a few weeks (you should have received an evite) and the Jeremy Rose in September so stay sharp!!

What a weekend of fun!! We went to a dinner party with some friends on Friday night, enjoyed German Park with Annie and Chaz and then went to Matt and Anne’s BBQ where we celebrated Will’s 2nd birthday, and then went to Liz’s volleyball BBQ on Sunday. As always, German Park was a blast- we enjoyed our German food, beverages, and of course, the company!! Thanks to Matt and Anne for hosting an excellent BBQ- we enjoyed hanging out with everyone and I especially enjoyed playing ball with Will. Happy Birthday!!

Check out the photo gallery for pictures from the events (if you want a high res version of any of the pictures, just leave a comment on the picture and I’ll upload it for you).

We had a great time in the Pacific Northwest this past week (be sure to check out our photo gallery). We flew into Seattle, rented a sweet electric blue Focus, and then drove to Selah to visit Joan for the weekend. The drive to Selah made for a long day but we stopped into Cle Elum for a late (Eastern time) snack and coffee. After arriving at Joan’s, we quickly hit the sack to prepare for the excitement of the following day- a visit to Mt. St. Helens. The drive to Mt. St. Helens was long, but the trip was well worth it. We got a great view of the newly-growing lava dome from the Johnston Visitor’s Center. It was amazing to see the gaping crater left by the eruption and learn more about the destruction and subsequent regrowth. The drive home was equally long but mostly uneventful save for the elk that darted across the road safely in front of us. The next morning we drove out to Whistling Jack’s Lodge for a yummy breakfast. Joan then took us to the cherry packing plant where we went on a fascinating tour. We got to see the process from the initial cooling wash, sorting, and finally packaging and labeling. Very cool!! We left with a contraband box of delicious cherries. Joan then cooked us some delicious baby back ribs for dinner. Yummy!! We truly enjoyed our weekend visit with Joan and her five dogs (my favorite was Weiner Dog aka Meyer)- thanks Joan!!
(more…)

UPDATE: New pictures added to the flickr gallery

I flew down to surprise Matty to attend his state championship baseball games against Columbus (thanks to Liz for the great idea). Columbus was the defending state champion and had won the title the past two years. Behind two strong pitching performances from Eric and Evan, the Titans won 1-0 and 2-1 to take the state championship in Columbus. The two games were incredible- two of the best games I’d ever seen.

The first game was delayed for about an hour by rain/lightning (we stayed dry under cover). Matty DH’ed in the first game and went 0-2. Eric pitched a gem- only allowing two runners to second and rarely going to three balls on the hitters. Tim made an amazing diving stop in the hole between short and third, got up to gun the runner out at first, and really set the tone for some stellar defense throughout the game. Jonathan also ran down two deep balls in LC and RC later in the game. The games were played in a single A stadium that was 415 to dead center and that really hurt Columbus on a few deep balls. Tim also scored the only run of the game by getting a hit, stealing second, and scoring on an RBI single by Evan. I have to say that Liz was key to the victory- she called and was talking to me right when Evan got his hit. Pitching, solid defense, and some timely hitting were the keys to the win.

Matty also DH’ed in the second game and went 1-2 with a line drive single to RF. Matty got his hit leading off in the 5th but was forced out at second on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Evan pitched an awesome game and battled all through the game- really keeping the Columbus hitters off balance with a variety of pitches and arm angles. The game was nip and tuck all game long and was tied 1-1 in the middle innings. In the 4th Jonathan kept up his hot hitting with a base hit and advanced to third on a bloop single to RF by Jimmy. The RF dove for the ball and didn’t catch it. The second baseman picked up the ball and threw the ball home, but it skipped past the catcher. The pitcher was backing up home and thought the play was over so, with his head turned, didn’t see the ball skip past the catcher. Jonathan raced home on the play to put BT up 2-1. Columbus threatened in the bottom of the 6th and had a runner on third with 1 out. Their guy hit a line drive to RF that Jonathan caught. Coming towards home on the catch, he fired a one hop strike to the catcher to get the runner trying to tag from third (apparently he broke home and had to retreat to tag). The throw was on the money and the catcher caught the ball and had time to set himself before being plowed over by the runner. He held on to the ball and the runner was both out and ejected for not sliding. BT then got the last three out, including the last out on a K, to preserve the win. Mass celebration erupted with a pile-on behind the pitcher’s mound. This was BT’s first state championship in baseball. These were definitely two of the most amazing baseball games I’d seen with clutch plays all throughout the game. BT played error-free ball and took advantage of some Columbus mistakes.

I’ve posted a collection of pictures, both ones I took and some from others, on my flickr page. Here is a direct link to the photo gallery from the championship games:
BT Titans State Championship Gallery

For more photos from the games, check out this photo gallery from the Columbus paper and frankc’s awesome photos from the games (one gallery for each of the state playoff final games).

Here are a collection of links from the Columbus and Atlanta papers describing the two games:
Inning-by-Inning Blog
Errors Seal Fate for Blue Devils
Titans Throw Out Defending Champs
Titans Live Up to Their Billing
Maust Helps Titans to First Crown
Ogawa Can’t Deliver Magic Again

After losing two trees since we’ve moved into the house (an ash to the emerald borer and the other large tree that fell on the house), we finally bought two trees to replace them. A few weeks ago we got a Greenspire Linden and a Trinity Pear tree and had them planted yesterday. Check out the photo gallery for some pictures of the trees at the nursery and planted (wow- we must be hippies taking pictures of trees). The Linden was planted near the spot of the ash tree and the Pear near the garage. They’re not that big now but just you wait- we’ll be getting some sweet shade in 20-30 years!!

We took a trip to Niagara Falls this Easter weekend. After arriving via the Canadian route, we stopped for a bit on the Canadian side of the falls. The sky was overcast and the weather a bit rainy so we didn’t get much of a view. We then headed over to the US side and checked into our B&B, Manchester House. We really enjoyed staying at the historic B&B- Lis and Carl were wonderful hosts and really made us feel at home. After resting for a while, we went to Buzzy’s Pizza for dinner. The pizza was awesome!! We then drove around town and saw Liz’s parents first house (no more redwood fence), the house where the grandparents Tabak lived, and also Sal Maglie’s old house (now huge due to some additions).

After enjoying a delicioius breakfast of french toast and apples at the B&B, we headed to the US side of the falls. We parked on Goat Island (more…)

A group of us attended Nate and Dana’s wedding in Chicago this weekend. Annie, Chaz, Liz, and I enjoyed our ride on Amtrak (great idea, Annie). After arriving in Chicago, we did a little exploring in the Lincoln Park area. We found some interesting shops- including a super cool spice shop. Before the wedding, we met Jennifer and Chris for dinner at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian churrascaria. If you ever get a chance to eat there, you definitely should. Basically, it is an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the staff continues to bring you a variety of roasted meats as long as the puck next to your plate is green (they also have a salad bar, bread, mashed potatoes, polenta, and fried plantains). We ate a ridiculous amount of beef, pork, sausage, chicken, etc. Chris was definitely the eating champion and taught us all about “meat sweats.”

After eating our fill, we headed over to the wedding at the Swedish American Museum. The location was unique (be sure to check out our interaction with the various exhibits in the photo gallery), and the wedding was very beautiful. It was great seeing Nate and Dana again on this joyous occasion, and we had a tremendous time. Congratulations- thanks for letting us share in your special day!!

On Sunday, we ate a hearty breakfast and then explored downtown Chicago. We traversed the Magnificent Mile and also checked out Millenium Park. We then headed to Union Station to take the train back. Liz was excited to stand on the staircase made famous in “The Untouchables”, and Chaz discovered the indentions in the marble steps near the railings from years of use. The ride home was again relaxing- no driving required and lots of time for snacking. Train travel is sweet!!

Check out the photo gallery for some photos from our weekend in Chicago. Feel free to add your comments.

Photo Gallery

Liz had a business trip to California so we tagged a trip to Santa Barbara on the back end. It was surprisingly difficult to find a place to stay (places were booked) but we found a great place- Mason Beach Inn. We drove up to Santa Barbara on Thursday evening. Subsequently we found out that the first Amgen Tour of California professional bike race (ala Tour de France) was scheduled to finish stage 5 in Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon and then start stage 6 on Saturday morning. Cool!!

On Friday we took an early walk to downtown Santa Barbara and visited the Court House. Then we took the bus to the Santa Barbara Mission and took a walking tour. We then walked back to downtown and saw a bit more of the Court House. After lunch at the Harbor View restaurant, we took in the finish line of the race, visiting the various tents and mingling with the large crowd. We were able to watch the big screen as the riders crested the summit of their climb in San Marcos Pass and began their descent into Santa Barbara. It was a sprint to the finish with George Hincapie of Discovery Channel finishing first though Floyd Landis maintained his overall lead (and eventually won the race). It is unbelievable how fast they were riding, even after 105 miles. After being out in the sun all day, we enjoyed the pool and hot tub (both heated). Relaxing!!

On Saturday, we got up to watch the start of Stage 6. This time we were able to get a prime spot about 20 feet from the starting line and got a good view of the lead riders from the front. Based on a recommendation from one of Liz’s co-workers, we drove out to La Purisima Mission. We took a short hike up the Via Las Cruces trail to get a good view of the mission. This mission is no longer used as a church and you could really walk through it. We then hit a couple of wineries in the area- Fess Parker and Firestone where we took a short tour. Santa Barbara County is famous for their wineries. In fact, the movie “Sideways” was filmed there and both of these wineries were featured in the movie. We sampled lots of good wines and bought a bottle to take home. We drove back to Santa Barbara and had dinner at Chuck’s Harbor Grill restaurant- a nice, quiet place on the harbor. Well, it was quiet until these six guys sat down. They were really loud- turns out it was one of the Nebraska Powerball winners and five of his brothers. So, we cut them some slack. Another evening in the hot tub ended a great day.

On Sunday we went back to visit the wineries- this time with Gina and her husband Mike. We hit several wineries (Zaca Mesa, Consilience, Beckmen, Brander, and Mosby). Lots of good wines again (all but Beckmen). We came back with six bottles total- a Viognier (Fess Parker), Syrah (Zaca Mesa) , Sangiovese (Mosby) , Traminer (Mosby), Sauvignon Blanc (Brander) and Zinfandel Port (Consilience)- along with wine glasses from our tastings. Thanks to Gina and Mike for touring with us (and to Mike for driving).

Monday was our last day and the first day of bad weather (rainy as opposed to 70 and sunny). We went back to downtown Santa Barbara and toured El Presidio. Following a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant, we drove back to LA to catch our flight back. We arrived early on Tuesday morning and got back to the house at 2AM where we got a bit of sleep before heading back to work. A great trip!!

See photo gallery for some pictures from our trip.

Photo Gallery

Since the NFL thought it would be a good idea to have the Super Bowl in Detroit (it snowed yesterday), we took advantage of the opportunity to attend the NFL Experience. Chaz, Chris, and I (along with Chaz’s friend) tried kicking a field goal, threw passes for distance and speed, caught passes and punts, saw the Burker King King, and spotted a bunch of current and former NFL players (Warrick Dunn, Richard Seymour, Rod Woodson, Fred Biletnikoff). I even had my picture taken with Bill Ford. Check out the photo gallery for some action shots (I especially like the one of Chris in the Bears uniform frightening the little children).

Photo Gallery

We just got finished re-doing our office (what’s a month without a house project). We painted over the old brown wood paneling and added a little color to the room. See photo gallery for some before, during, and after pictures.

Photo Gallery

Congrats to Timmy for defending!! No one really knows when he started but in between then and now he played lots of softball and volleyball, got married, had three kids, moved to OH and started working, and even did some work in the lab. We got together to celebrate at Arbor Brewing Company- see photo gallery for some pictures from the event (check out Charlie’s soul glow in the last picture).

Photo Gallery

We really had a nice time with the family over Christmas. Besides eating lots and lots of good food (thanks Mom, Liz, and Karen), we had a great time on Christmas morning (Matty enjoyed the traditional treasure hunt to find his new bat, getting Nano Matty up and running) and enjoyed each others company. We played lots of games of Catan, and Matthew and I had our inaugural “Batteh Madden Challenge” which ended in a tie at 3 games apiece. We also visited the new Georgia Aquarium- a must-see for anyone in the Atlanta area. The ladies also found time to paint some original pottery. Check out the photo gallery link below for lots of photos (be sure to scroll through the various pages to see them all) from the festivities, including some pictures from Majd and Karen.

Photo Gallery