It hurts!

It hurts real bad! I didn't hear about this until just now. But - it couldn't have happened to a better pitcher.

Recent Read

Oops!! Sorry wrong Picture - that was
another one from my Not a Mullet stash




Slow Heat by Jill Shalvis

Why this one: Some of her books I've really enjoyed and this one has been getting good reviews

Steam Level: Yep, steamy's the word

Blurb: Baseball player Wade O'Riley's bad boy image is about to be cleaned up by his publicist Samantha McNead. But the sexual tension between them is about to drive Wade to his knees

My Thoughts: I will forever think of this book as the book that coulda been a contender. It had a lot going for it. Wade was adorable. He had such a sunny fun outlook on life. He was so nice and laid back. And while certainly uptight, Samantha was a pretty good heroine. I quite liked her. In the books by this author that haven't worked for me, it's been mostly because of the heroine. And that was not the case at all in this book. I really did like Samantha. She had good reason for being the stick-in-the-mud that she was and she wasn't a stick-in-the-mud in a bad way at all.

BUT

Alas, I was taken out of this book again and again and again by the author's lack of knowledge in her subject matter. There were errors - GLARING errors, needlessly glaring errors in my not so humble opinion, that really downgraded this book for me. And that was such a shame because this really was a good book - apart from the GLARING errors.

Let me count them - and I'm sure I've missed some. I would have highlighted them to remember but as anyone who knows me - that would be against everything I stand for and I couldn't find sticky notes while reading.

I pointed out the first one in an earlier post. The hero of the previous game pitches a COMPLETE game the first game of the season. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! And as if that weren't bad enough, later on it was mentioned that he'd had surgery the previous year!!! Oh dear lord, that made that error even worse!!

ERROR: during one part of the story, they have TWO days off in a row!! Not gonna happen during baseball season!! It's rare they get one day off, but the only time they would have two days off is during the All Star game - and that would only be for the players not going. According to the book, both the pitcher and Wade, the number one catcher, would both be going.

ERROR: she has them playing a FIVE game series against the same team!! Not going to happen. Most are either three or four game series, maybe a rare two game series during the middle of the week - but a five game series????? Nope!!

ERROR: During one game, the author mentions that Wade pinch hit in the ninth inning and then later the heroine made a comment that he had such a tough game he must be tired. Uh - no!! If he pinch hit, that means he didn't even PLAY in the game. I don't know for sure - he might have helped out in the bull pen with pitchers warming up - except I don't think the author grasps the idea of relief pitching - so whatever - he wouldn't have been that tired!

ERROR: It seemed that Pace, the pitcher and the hero of the previous book, pitched an awful lot of games. He always seemed to be pitching.

HUGE GIGANTIC ERROR THAT PRETTY MUCH RUINED THE BOOK FOR ME : was almost a throw away line that Pace - who seemed to pitch an awful lot, threw a no hitter. One line was all that was granted to that bit of news. I have a feeling the author might have meant a shut out, but obviously she don't know baseball because many, many pitchers have never pitched a no hitter!! It would be cause for MUCH rejoicing!! Wade, our hero, would have caught a no hitter and would have been flying in space. I know this!! Years ago, I was AT the only game where a Blue Jay pitcher (Dave Steib) pitched a no hitter. It was in Cleveland, September 2, 1990!!. Pat Borders caught for him. I still remember that game as if it were just last season - the thrill, the electricity. Wendy's Justin Verlander had a no hitter in 2007 and I'm sure she will agree with me on how rare that is!

So now we come to the grade. If the reader doesn't really know baseball that much and likes sports romance than this is one they might like.
But if the reader is a baseball fan and decides to read this, best have a pillow on the desk for when they bang their head against it, while muttering 'no, no, no, no, no.

Me - it's probably unfair that I know so much because it annoyed me that the author got so many things so wrong. Because the grade would have and should have been so much higher. But because I've watched baseball for years, my sons played baseball for years and Ron coached baseball for years, I couldn't give this book a higher mark.

I saw that the author has a third one coming out. I surely do hope that she does a hell of a lot more research and goes to some games before she sends it in to the publisher.

Grade: 3 out of 5

So You Think You Can Dance

What the HELL was THAT????

I adore this show!! I discovered it the year Joshua won and haven't missed a single show since - either the US or Canadian version. I VOTED non-top two hours straight during the season Nico was on - confession time - mostly for him - but for others too.

Last Wednesday I was at a pot luck for my team at work and missed the show that came on at 8:00 pm so I stayed up until 1:00 am - way past my bed time - so I could catch it on a West Coast station.

I love it, love it, love it, love it!!

But I'm sitting here stunned, almost without words at what happened tonight. It was the final night of dance and.......

• What the hell was it with 6 dancers??? It's only supposed to be four! That was SO wrong!

• It was only on for an hour!!! All season long it's been a two-hour show. I block two hours out of my Tuesday nights just for SYTYCD. What the hell?? One hour?? That was SO wrong!

• Could they have rushed through it any faster???? Even me - who never notices these things, could tell they edited the hell out of it. That was SO wrong!

• I was surfing through the commercials. When I turned back to the station, they were already into the dance! No long introduction! That was SO wrong!

• They didn't have a men's group dance and then a women's group dance. The ALWAYS have that. That was SO wrong!

• There was no pre-dance stuff. They almost always have that - where we see the dancers working with the choreographers. Not having that - that was SO wrong!

• They barely even showed the choreographers. We've seen them all season long and I'll admit - on the Canadian version I had myself a little drinking game every time Jean Marc said to give it up for (whoever) choreographed the dance. I was sloshed every week.(OK - I made that up but you get the point). But to not even show the choreographers. That was SO wrong!

• They barely talked to the dancers. Well - I'm thinking they did - but it was all edited out. That was SO wrong.

I have invested so much time, so much excitement, so much love into this show - to have it reduced to the piece of shit that was tonight's show; I am really, really, really pissed off. I don't have the words to explain how robbed I feel at the moment.

I've been quite impressed with this season's group of dancers. Some of them have awed me and I can't remember in all the seasons I've watched it, being so impressed with so many. To have it 'end' in this way - well it's just all SO SO wrong.

Oh yea - and the Jays traded The Doc - Roy Halladay to Philadelphia today. It hasn't been a good day. The only consolation is he didn't go to the Yankees or the Red Sox. But still....

Still playin' those procrastination blues

Yep - I'm here - not packing - though I do have clothes in the washer and dryer so at least I'm doing something.
A sort of crisis has arisen though. Now you get a chance to see how my mind operates in this one - and trust me - it scares me as much as it will you!!

I've somehow misplaced my digital camera. I noticed this the other day and rather then actually look for it, I checked out the other one I have. It didn't work. The boys (though at 28 and very soon to be 31 *gasp of horror* they aren't exactly "boys") both came over today. I asked Ryan the more tech savy of the two, to look at the second camera to see if he could get it working. He couldn't but thought it might be that the battery is dead. I headed over to Future Shop with Brent in tow and camera in hand and the sales guy thought the same thing. As this is an older camera and I've no idea where the battery charger is, I spent money and got a universal battery charger. After letting it charge for over 2 hours, it was all charged up. I popped in the camera and nothing! The camera still doesn't turn on.
So......rather then look for the missing camera 2 days ago, I've now wasted time, money and effort on another camera. All to avoid looking for the missing camera that I might not be able to find - or might be in the third or fourth place to look for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in other news - and in an effort to further procrastinate - I happened to catch TWIB today - well Ryan turned it on when he came over. Now it's not any new news that I'm a Toronto Blue Jays fan. I like the American League better then the National League - I just like the DH rule better even though baseball purists hate it. So when it comes the National League, I don't have any real team I cheer for though I've always wanted the Cubs to win. Ron was a big Cubbies fan and was quite disappointed a number of years ago when we went to Chicago to watch the Jays and the White Sox, that the Cubs weren't in town. He really wanted to see Wrigley Field.
But my cheering for the Cubs was half-hearted though they were/are my National League team. Until today!

OMG - do they have some hawt players!! With a Capital H!!! I love sports romance and while hockey romance is my favourite - hey I'm Canadian eh!, baseball is my second favourite and these real life players can play in my fantasies anytime!!






Yes - I really can be that shallow; that I will cheer for a team simply because of the good looks of the players! I console myself with the fact that I did route for the Cubs before Ryan put on TWIB today.

And now - I think my wash is done, hopefully the drying too and I need to look for a camera. Wish me luck in finding it because what is a trip without a camera??? It's bread without butter, it's Laurel without Hardy, it's the Two Stooges.
And start packing - I really need to start that!

*********

Update 1

Houston - we have bread and butter, Laurel has found Hardy and the three stooges are united. I found the camera. It had fallen between the cushions of the couch. And I found it in about the 8th place I looked so that wasn't too bad.

Update 2

OK - I didn't think I'd get it all done - but I'm 99% packed. The only thing left is the stuff I need to get ready in the morning - deoderant, toothpaste/brush, makeup. The litter box is all nice and fresh and right now I hear Destructo Cat shoveling it all about. My clothes to wear are all ironed and ready to put on. My purse is ready. I have my passport and all documents in a brown envelope in my computer bag. My post at Readers Gab is done and ready to post. All I have left to do is set 4 alarm clocks and head to bed. And it's only 11:34!! And I have my 2 books ready

I am Ready to Fly!!

Update 3

It's almost 2:00 in the am and I can't sleep. The 'girls' have decided it's playtime and I'm so hungry I'm eating a bagel.
Speaking of bagels - how do you pronounce it? I pronounce it bay - gel with a hard a. Ryan pronounces it baaa-gel with a soft a. Drives me nuts every time he says the word.

Hah!!!!

Round 1 goes to Doc!!!

Just in case you aren't aware of it, I'm quite a baseball fan. The ONLY team in our household was and still is the Toronto Blue Jays. They've had some lean years lately and weren't expected to do much this season against the powerhouse Red Sox and Yankees. And even more so when half their pitching staff went down. The only solid pitcher they had left was Roy Halliday.
But much to everyone's shock, as of today, May 12, they are in first place in all of baseball!! Now in my not so humble opinion, this is the team that should be getting the baseball buzz, but much to my annoyance, they rarely even seem to be mentioned. I listen to a lot of sports shows on the radio.
I listen and I listen and I listen and the Jays are barely even mentioned.

Well, tonight was what many thought would be the first real test *snort*. I watched the game in between commercial during American Idol because this was a good match-up - Roy Halliday of the Blue Jays against A.J. Burnett former Blue Jay, now pitching for the dreaded Yankees. And *fist pump* Doc won. Now I don't know if they will be able to carry this roll they are on all season, but for now, it surely is a good feeling for all Blue Jay fans.