Labor Day 2006

In honor of Labor Day, I seemed to have taken off the past couple of days. As I mentioned last year, it's rather ironic that the working citizens of the United States honor "Labor Day" by not working. I always loved that idea.

Couple of quick items from the weekend:

- I went to my first Yankees game on Friday night (Thank you to Alexis for the tickets!). Since I've been in the NYC area, I thought I owed it to myself, as a baseball fan, to make it up to the 'House That Ruth Built' to check out the historic ballpark. The stadium seems a lot smaller in person than it looks on television. The age of the stadium also shows: the aisles are very narrow, the seats are very close together, and the concession stands have only the basics and nothing spectacular. I have to say that the vendors did a nice job of covering the stands with a wide variety of food -- the hotdogs, beer, pretzels, soda, ice cream, peanuts, Crackerjacks, and frozen lemon ice guys all made it to our section. Very impressive. As for the game, it was drizzling the whole time, and the Yankees ended up defeating the Minnesota Twins, 8-1.

One thing I didn't quite understand was when A-Rod hit a solo homerun in the 2nd inning to put the Yankees on top, 1-0. The "passionate" Yankees fans wanted him to come out for a curtain call. I mean, seriously. Give me a break. The guy hits a solo homerun early in the game, and the fans want to honor the guy already? You have to be kidding me. If they are so passionate, they need to have higher expectations for the guy, and give him the honor when he hits a big homerun in a game-deciding situation. I found this to be ridiculous. Overall, Yankees Stadium was nice to see, and I'm happy to have gone, regardless of the fact that I hope the Yankees lose every game they play.




- Penn State game on Saturday: I'm liking Anthony Morelli. The kid has a gun for an arm, and can throw a frozen rope to a receiver. The offense looked rather solid, given the rainy conditions throughout the game. The defense is a bit of a concern, as it seemed like Akron had too easy of a time moving the ball down the field. There's no way the defense should have given up 16 points. The only solace is that Notre Dame looked anything but impressive in their 14-10 victory over Georgia Tech. As a result, I feel better about PSU's chances next Saturday in South Bend. More on this game later.

- I have a new barbershop: the Russian guy around the corner. It's this little hole-in-the-wall shop literally around the corner from the apartment, and thankfully they were open on Labor Day. The guy didn't speak too much English, but he knew enough to understand what I was looking for, and they also give the hot shaving cream with the straight razor on the neck and sideburns. That is key. Renaldo's up at the Penn State used to do that, and I thought it was fantastic. Best part -- it was $10! Not much to report on otherwise, but just wanted to pass along the briefing for the new haircut setting.


Enjoy Labor Day!