Christmas 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma

Okay, now it's Christmas.

Mario Lanza - All The Things You Are

150 years ago today:

 

 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

 Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Thoughts about the Red Sox in 2011

I just read this family conversation from October 2011.  Pretty interesting to review it all in hindsight, especially the sheer rage everyone was feeling at Lackey at that time.  I had forgotten just how intense it was and now that I remember, I'm amazed that he managed to redeem himself.

Rabbit Rabbit!

A puzzle of sorts

Unca Don...

...wants ta know:  Who were the two players standing side-by-side in the iconic photograph from 2004 that showed their backs with the numbers 19-18, and which two players from the 2013 team would you need to reproduce it?
He'll buy a new car for whoever gets the right answer first.

Jamie and His aunt

one of the reasons

you don't want foundation plantings against your house.

Progress

Orange!

Happy Halloween!

Red Sox Playoff Trivia

Win Probability Added (WPA) measures a baseball player's contribution to the probability that his team wins a given game. So it's a situational stat that takes into account only the context and the result. If you strike out in the first inning, you might decrease your team's chance of winning by 2 percentage points, and therefore get a WPA of -0.02 for that event. If you come up to bat in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, behind by 1 run, and hit a 2-run walkoff HR, you might increase your team's chances of winning from, say, 30% to 100%, and you'd get a WPA of 0.70 for that event. Similarly, if the pitcher strikes you out to end the game in that plate appearance, he would get a WPA of 0.30.

So here's the trivia question: What 2 Red Sox players led the team in WPA in games 4 and 5, respectively, of the 2004 ALCS?

Your only hint: The answer is NOT David Ortiz, for either game. In each game, Ortiz finished 2nd on the Red Sox in WPA.

PLAYOFFS

The Red Sox are in the playoffs for the first time in 4 years! It's time to get excited. If you need help doing so, I suggest watching this video:

http://youtu.be/hkblpPxLrcw

Wedding pictures from Aunt Judy

A first glimpse