First Game of the Year

Yesterday was our first game of the year. Daddy was pretty nervous because I hadn't been hitting well. We went out early in the morning for extra batting practice. Well, it really paid off. My stance was much nicer, and I crushed the ball twice.



I also made some excellent fielding plays at second base. We rotate positions, so I played third, left-center field, and second over the course of the game. My best plays came at second.



My coach thought the improvement was remarkable. One of the coaches said I was 500% better than the preceding week.

Interested in your own copies of these lovely pictures? You can make prints using the Snapfish album I've uploaded here.

Opening Day

It's opening day in Little League although our first game is tomorrow. There was a big parade where all the Little Leaguers marched around the big field. Interestingly, San Ramon Valley is one of the most successful Little Leagues in the country. It has more LL World Series appearances than any other Little League.

There were more than 400 Little Leaguers in attendance.

Aidan Morgan - Handicapper

I might have found my one true calling--sports betting. As you know, I did very well at pigskin pick 'em this past season. This is my first year filling out an NCAA bracket an guess what, I'm in first place! Thanks to Villanova's win over the Dukies, I vaulted over Mommy and Auntie Max to claim the lead. If Pitt wins the whole thing, I believe I'll be the champ.

The Carrier

As you know, I've been battling strep throat these past 6 weeks. We finally found the problem. Turns out that Daddy is the carrier. He's apparently had a low grade version of strep for a while only it got worse this weekend. He went to see the doctor today and, despite not having any tonsils, he still managed to get this illness. He's now on Cephalexin and will not be contagious by tomorrow. In the meantime, we're trying hard to avoid passing the disease back to me.

Masterpiece

It was kid generated art week this week at school. This is a project that I've been working on since the beginning of the year. I made flowers. They're made from fired clay, and they're really colorful. I sculpted them, made some patterns in the flowers themselves (one contains my initials another has a nice pattern of eraser circles in its center), and painted them. My teacher helped with mounting them on the green sticks and setting them in the vase. They're a lovely centerpiece.

Happy Trails

To Daddy's Miata. The Junior Giants guys came to pick it up yesterday. While he was sad to see it go, I think his new car is a lot cooler. You can talk to it...and it talks back. We went for a ride this weekend, and I asked it all sorts of things. It also has an actual rear seat, which is a big plus. Daddy likes it because it's quick as can be and corners well. I like the color. Now we have a whole fleet of red cars.

OOTM: After Action Report

Our team got a medal for Odyssey of the Mind. Also, a number of judges commented about my energy and how I made them laugh. We had a cool after-party yesterday with iced cookies. Yum. I think I ate every cookie. I can't wait to do it again.

Happy Trails: Bobby Crosby

In their attempt to make sure that none of my A's t-shirts contain current players, the A's have signed Orlando Cabrera to replace Bobby Crosby. See press release below:

Free-agent shortstop Orlando Cabrera has agreed to a one-year, $4 million contract with the Oakland Athletics, who also are closing in on a deal with veteran infielder Nomar Garciaparra, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney on Monday.

Cabrera, 34, will replace Bobby Crosby as Oakland's starting shortstop. Cabrera hit .281 with eight home runs and 57 RBIs and stole 19 bases for the White Sox last year.

The Athletics have had substantial talks with Garciaparra in the past 48 hours, and the player's choices are between the A's and retirement, the sources said. Oakland also is negotiating with veteran reliever Dennys Reyes.

If Oakland were to sign Garciaparra, Crosby could be moved to a utility position. Cabrera is a two-time Gold Glove winner at shortstop, having won the award in both leagues (2001 with the Expos and 2007 with the Angels).

In 1,572 games, Cabrera is a career .274 hitter with 105 home runs and 684 RBIs.

The Detonators

It was a rainy weekend, so we enjoyed a couple of episodes of "The Detonators." It's a show about demolishing structures. We decided to put the information learned on the show to good use in checking how large a wedge one needs to make in a cylindrical tower (like a toilet paper tube) to bring down the building. According to the formula, the size of the wedge, W, needed to bring down a structure like this is

W = D^2 / 2 H where D is the diameter of the structure and H is the height. We quickly measured our tube to learn that its diameter is 2" and its height was 8". Using the formula, it revealed that we need a 1/4" wedge or larger. To test the theory, we first cut a too small wedge in the tube and simulated the explosion by placing a block under the tube in the area where the wedge was cut out. Removing the block simulated the explosion. The theory seemed to work, the tube didn't fall. Next, we cut a larger wedge, one that was just a bit bigger than W. Redoing the experiment, we got the expected result--the tube fell.

Then we did another experiment. We chopped down the height of the tube. According to the formula, the old "successful" wedge will no longer work for the shorter tube. A test confirmed this. We then expanded the wedge and obtained a positive result.

Finally, we tried some building implosions. The one that we were able to simulate caused the building to fall in a particular direction by means of timed explosions starting in the direction you want the building to fall. To simulate this, we built a base of small blocks connected by tape. We then placed a sheet of wax paper over the base to enable us to pull out the blocks in a timed fashion. Finally, we built the building on top of the wax paper from colorful blocks. We also set up some nearby buildings that were not supposed to be harmed if the explosion went according to plan. This test was also successful. We triggered the desired chain reaction.

The one that we weren't able to simulate was an implosion of a building into its own footprint. They do this with timed explosions in the center of the building and moving outward. Despite many attempts to get the timing right with blocks, we couldn't do it. Still, it was very cool to put the principles of the detonators to the test on our small scale experiments.