My mom donates. I don't do things that involve needles. She took most of the pictures because I was at work. The Hjammer one is my bad photography. Or it's the camera. Yeah, it's the camera's fault the pictures are blurry.

Tony Esposito wasn't scheduled but dropped by when my mom had her donation appointment. She went to see him and said he was very friendly and spent a few minutes chatting with everybody who came up to get an autograph.

Jamal Mayers has epic eyebrows. He reminds my mom and me of Peter Furler, former Newsboys lead singer.

Bryan Bickell...sorry dude, I can't think of anything to say about you.

So we asked Niklas Hjalmarsson how to say his name, and in the most adorable Swedish lilt he said "Yall-mar-son." So now you know how it's pronounced, straight from the source.

Okay, so I think it's just me and you, Vaughn Haze.  It would probably be easier if we took care of the details through e-mail.  My e-mail address is in my profile.

If anyone else is interested in joining us, let me know.  The date we chose is Monday, July 18.  That's a 7:05pm Central Time start.  We'll probably be sitting in either the upper deck box or upper deck reserved section.  The box seats are $63 (Seriously, Cubs?  For upper deck?) and the reserved seats are $27.

I'm not sure how many Good Phight members live in the Chicago area, but I thought I'd throw this idea out there: a meet-up for a game when the Phillies play the Cubs in July.  Basically we pick a day and agree on a section to sit in, and then I'll go and buy the tickets once I get paid by the rest of the attendees.

We can pick one (or more, if you want to) of:

Monday, July 18 at 7:05 pm

Tuesday, July 19 at 7:05 pm

Wednesday, July 20 at 1:20pm

(all Central time, of course)

Monday and/or Tuesday would work best for me, but I can take off work if Wednesday is a popular choice.

Wrigley seating and pricing Unfortunately the Phillies games are all "Platinum" dates, so they're a little expensive.  If it wasn't my only chance to see my NL boys play in person...

So...yay, poll!  If you have a seating preference, mention it in the comments.

Okay, so this is kind of short notice, but...  I have a certificate to get four free IceHogs tix that I can't use because I have other stuff to do.  Their last two home games are next weekend, Friday April 8th and Saturday April 9th.

You can take the certificate to the box office to get the tix and you can even upgrade to better seats by paying the price difference.

If you want it, email me your address (my email's in my profile) and I'll mail the certificate to you ASAP.

Sooo...my mom went and donated blood during the day, then we went back later in the evening to see the guys.

While I was at the end of the line for Turco, these 20-something girls came up behind me and asked who I was in line for.  When I told them "Turco," they immediately declared that they were the beginning of the Stalberg line. My reaction: *groan, facepalm* (thinking) "Ugh, fangirls..."  They just had that vibe about them.  The same kind of girls that go all squee over Sharpie.

Seabrook was there at one point, too, but I already had his autograph, so I didn't stay to see him.

Tommy Hawk hanging out in a donor chair.

Turco was the first one there.  He seems like a really nice guy.  He was taking pictures with practically everybody.

Stalberg showed up a little while later.  He seemed a little shy, but maybe he's just not used to the autograph thing yet.  I like this picture.  It's kind of arty (artsy?).

Turco and Stalberg

Skille was enjoying himself.  He smiled a lot and chatted with everyone who came through the line.

And this is what their autographs look like.

This keeps bugging me, so here goes.  I am a Christian, and I know that most or all of you guys don't believe the way that I do, so I try to let things slide, but last night there was a series of posts that really bothered me.  When you say things like "F**k Jesus Christ" and mock a man for daring to share his Christian beliefs on TV and even implying that he's a fool for having those beliefs in the first place, it hurts.  I feel like you're saying the same things about me and denigrating something that's an integral part of who I am.

I like you guys and I like posting here.  I'm not asking you to completely stop saying things that could be considered "blasphemous", but can you please try to keep it tame?  Even if you think it's funny, not everyone feels the same way.

The trip was a blast, but you all know that already.  There were so many Hawks fans there, it almost sounded like a home game when we were cheering.  A "Let's go Hawks" chant started up in the hallway after the game and it was REALLY loud!  I definitely recommend a visit to Maggie O'Brien's before a game; the food there was excellent. 

Anyway, pictures...

Continue reading this post »

I admit, this doesn't have much of anything to do with the Bears, but I don't care.

The Chicago Rush are returning to action as part of the new arena football league, Arena Football One.  I know a lot of people look down on arena football, but I loved it and I'm so happy to see it coming back to the Allstate Arena next year.  Even though technically it's a new team in a new league, they've hired coach Mike Hohensee again, and have signed former Rush QB Russ Michna, fresh off an undefeated championship season with the Chicago Slaughter of the Continental Indoor Football League.  (The Slaughter are coached by Steve McMichael, by the way.  There's your Bears connection.)

Trib article

Rush website

Okay, so I have shamelessly copied this idea from the Khabby Photo Montage thread (there are also some Huet ones on the last two pages) on the official Hawks site message board.  Let's make photoshops of Huet letting random objects into the net, like turtles, beach balls, or the Earth.

I wasn't going to make one, but I realized that even my amateur Paint skills should be able to handle this, so...

via farm3.static.flickr.com

Here's a few pics with possibilities:

one

two

three

four

five

I don't see a gamethread yet, so I guess I'll start one we can use until the official one comes online.

All the usual suspects playing their usual positions today, with Joe "Cookies" Blanton on the mound.

Top of the first:

Rollins HR (Phils lead 1-0)

Victorino grounds out (1 out)

Utley triples

Howard doubles, Utley scores (Phils lead 2-0)

Werth Ks and Howard gets picked off 2nd base (outs 2 and 3)

Bottom of the first:

Counsell grounds out (1 out)

Hart flies out to LF (2 out)

Braun singles

Fielder walks

McGehee pops out (3 out)

I joined Nucks Misconduct for that one game where all the fans joined each blog's game thread for the first and second periods of the game.  Now I've got a blog on my list that I never visit, and it annoys me to see it on there with that "# Stories, # FanPosts, # Fanshots" thing underneath with numbers that just keep getting bigger. So, to restate my title question: is there a way to "unjoin" a blog?