Hamilton played after a draining Friday in which he stayed with his wife, Katie, throughout labor and attended the birth of his fourth child: Stella Faith. Hamilton admitted beforehand that he was "tired." He was not available for comment after the loss.

Manager Ron Washington said he did not consider giving Hamilton the option of sitting out to recover after the emotional day. Hamilton did not play on Friday. "We need him to help us win ballgames," Washington said.

Childbirth has disrupted the Rangers several times this season. Ian Kinsler missed three games in June while on paternity leave. Right-handers Colby Lewis and Alexi Ogando also took a paternity leave, forcing the club to shuffle its rotation. Washington said he agreed with all of the decisions. [Source]

And this says to me Ron Washington doesn't give a shit about his players at all. Ian, Lewis and Ogando were smart enough to demand the time off, but Josh is too much a hard worker and didn't do the same. He should have. He didn't help the team, he wasn't on task at all. I think Ron Washington is the worst manager in the league right now. For this and many other things.


In other news, I'm very happily becoming a football fan.

My school sent out a notice to all teachers that in our classrooms, we're supposed to take some time to talk about September 11, 2001. Almost all of the children in the class were born in 2000 or 2001. This is not something they have in their memories and I had to stop and wonder if they needed to either. Do we need to teach them about this? It's a horrible thing I have in my memory, I don't feel the need to share that with them. When the tsunami happened in Japan, we debated if we should talk about it or not. I decided I would talk about it so they could ask what they wanted to ask (will this happen here?) and I could reassure them that it wouldn't. I have to wonder if telling them about what happened that Tuesday will present that same question. And do we lie (no, it will never happen again) or do we scare them (there are a lot of crazies out there)? Do we tell them that Osama Bin Laden's death has ended this? It hasn't. Do they need to know at ten years old that this could happen again? Do they need to know it happened at all?

I also was hesitant about teaching something that's so... real. And that gave me pause. We teach the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War Two, the Holocaust. But those things didn't happen during my lifetime. They are academic subjects as much as the Crusades and the Black Plague. They happened, they were tragic, but they aren't 'real' to me in the sense that they happened to me. September 11, 2001 happened to me in that I was in my twenties and very aware on that day. I know where I was, I remember the horror, I watched it happen. I couldn't teach it like a historical event. I would have no idea what to do in front of a room of 25 ten year olds. Thankfully, I do not have to cross this bridge quite yet as my students are mid-to-low functioning Autistic and cannot comprehend anything close to that complex. But I wonder what I'll do next year when it comes up again and I'm in front of a class. We'll see.

My dream last night:

I was in an old fashioned library and Derek Jeter was looking at books on ASL and then started talking to me about it. I told him I could sign and talked about my students that I sign with. There was another Yankee there too, I think it was Nick Swisher, but I can't be positive, he never spoke. Then Derek and the other Yankee sat in those big highback chairs and put hockey skates on. I went out to my car, but decided that since it was 2pm, I would have a whole hour to skate (my rink's public skate goes from 1 to 3, so therefore I guess every rink ever has the same hours in dreamland), so I went back in and put my skates on and went down to the basement of the library where the rink was.

Evidently my mind tried to cram everything that features in my life into one dream. It was fun!

Watch this video.

If you don't laugh out loud, you have no sense of humour. I loved these two a lot before I watched this, I love them even more now. I want to be happy all the time, even when I'm batting under .200, because it makes the world a better place to live in. I want to just have fun. I may not be playing pro ball, but I'm doing what I love, and I want to be as happy as they are, even on the oh-for days. That's my goal. I'm keeping a copy of this video on my phone to remind me.

I get mad at Joe Girardi and then he reminds me that I really do like him. I disagree with how he handles pitchers (I'm of the Nolan Ryan school of starters) but he does his job, and that's the important part. He runs his team well. He doesn't have an easy job.

Girardi gets heated when talking A.J.

The following exchange occurred postgame when YES Network reporter Jack Curry questioned Joe Girardi about pulling A.J. Burnett in the second inning:

CURRY: WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN YOU AND A.J. WHEN YOU REMOVED HIM IN THE SECOND?

Girardi: What do you mean?

CURRY:THE CAMERAS SHOWED THAT HE TURNED AND SAID SOMETHING IN YOUR DIRECTION AND THAT YOU REACTED AND SAID SOMETHING BACK.

Girardi: I didn’t say anything back to A.J.

CURRY: WHAT DID A.J. SAY TO YOU?

Girardi: Well, you can write what you want and you can say what you want, but he was pissed about he thought he struck out Joe Mauer. And I asked if they thought it was a strike and the guys said they thought it was a strike.

CURRY: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU CAME BACK TO THE CLUBHOUSE? IT LOOKED LIKE YOU LEFT THE DUGOUT TO GET HIM TO COME BACK TO THE DUGOUT?

Girardi: This is silly. This is really, really silly. You know what, we had a fistfight is what we had. No. I came and looked at the pitch. There’s a camera, our video room is right down there, and everyone always seems to want to blow up about A.J., A.J., A.J. Nothing happened between me and A.J. I went down and looked at the pitch. And I’m tired of it. I’m tired of people looking for something between me and A.J. Me and A.J. have mutual respect for each other. I cheer for this guy. He cheers for me and we cheer for this team. I want the guy to do well and everyone’s always trying to say there’s something between me and A.J. What do you want, the pitcher to want to come out of the game? I mean, this is ridiculous.

CURRY: JOE, YOU DON’T THINK A PITCHER SAYING SOMETHING COMING OFF THE MOUND COULD BE INTERPRETED AS SHOWING UP THE MANAGER?

Girardi: I think people are always looking for A.J. And I’m tired of it. Case closed on that.

CURRY: HAVE YOU HAD ANOTHER PITCHER DO WHAT A.J. BURNETT DID TONIGHT?

Girardi Case closed on that. I’m tired of it. [Source]

I found this extremely interesting, especially the part about gendered nouns. When I was learning Spanish, I wondered why nouns were randomly assigned a gender (they don't even conform to the ends in an o, ends in an a idea) and if that made them 'girly' or 'boyish'. I never really followed up on reading about it though, and so I was happy to stumble across this article.

Another interesting point in the cardinal direction languages reminds me of a story. When I used to work in retail, tourists would ask me directions to different places. And I would tell them, "you take a left here, a right there," and the tourist stopped me, "Is that east or west?" I just looked at him, "I don't know, I live here, it's a right." How the hell would I know if that was east or west? I guess if I spoke that language, I would have.

( Does Your Language Shape How You Think?Collapse )

In dealing with HiH's appeals process, I'm amused with this test result.

Your result for The Sorting Hat: A Comprehensive Harry Potter Personality Assessment [Test/Quiz]...

Slytherin

52% Ravenclaw, 35% Hufflepuff, 58% Slytherin and 51% Gryffindor!

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folks use any means

To achieve their ends.

( Read more...Collapse )

So proud of my Longhorns closer, he was called up just a year after being drafted. Told ya he'd be fast tracked. He pitched four innings, two of them scoreless, in two games. That's a good start.

( Chance Ruffin brings 'goofy' personality to Tigers after less than one full season in minorsCollapse )

( Tigers' Chance Ruffin pitches jokes in locker roomCollapse )

It's been another year since I've done this.

Basically here's the deal. Say that you have no player tees whatsoever or you want one. You suddenly get the chance to get one of your team. However there's a catch. The catch is that you must get one player tee for each team. Now, which ones would you get? Here's my picks.

( I can't tell if there are more or less than last year.Collapse )

That then made me wonder if I could pick one and only one favourite player currently on every team's Major League roster (or DL but not 40 man). Well, I can... almost.

( The Marlins don't exist.Collapse )

Stolen from hockeysaurs

Day 1 - What do you think of your handwriting? I really like my handwriting. Someone told me once that my handwriting should be a font and I think that was a huge compliment. My students will, on occasion get confused by the E's I make or the A's, but after seeing it a few times, they get used to it. I do have to remember with my Autistic students that I have to make the kinds of E's and A's they're used to, or they won't understand what the word is.

This is the only example I have handy: Borrowed off my Tumblr, a picture of my scoresheet.

( The Rest.Collapse )

I haven't been posting a lot lately. Except for Twitter. That's where everything I used to post here goes.

But I feel the need to post this because (1) everyone should enjoy how awesome both Roy Halladay and Kevin Millar are and (2) I don't get to use this icon much.

Kevin managed to get Roy on Intentional Talk with his usual amount of charm.

I went to see New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys (NKOTBSB) at Fenway Park last night.

The show was amazing. I can't say enough about how much fun I had. The place was packed and I would say 98% were women in their 30s. The energy was high and everyone spent the whole concert on their feet, singing and dancing. It was pouring rain but that didn't stop the show. I was under the grandstands so I was dry, but I wouldn't have cared if I had been rained on. It was so much fun.

The New Kids on the Block put on the better show, they did a lot of their old songs. There's nothing like singing "The Right Stuff" at the top of your lungs with thousands of other girls that did the same when they were in elementary school too. The boys looked older of course but they were still bringing it. It cracked me up that they had to lower the key of the songs from when they were in their teens. Can't bring those falsettos since puberty hit. But they still sounded great.

The ticket said the show was starting at 6:30. Well, it didn't. Around 6:45, we got the opening act, which was someone from American Idol. She had a nice voice and was pretty to look at, but didn't sing anything I knew. She sang for about twenty minutes. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. At 8:00, the show began. I was a bit annoyed it was so late. But Marky Mark came out to introduce the band. The place went crazy. I fully admit I was part of the crazy. It was so awesome he came home to do that. And he was funny and touching at the same time. Everyone forgot that we'd been waiting so long.

The boys were announced like a starting line up and came out to line up down the first baseline in Red Sox jerseys. The numbers and "Red Sox" on the front were done in red sparkles. I think the real team should take that up, they looked great. Donnie Wahlberg had on a Jason Varitek jersey (sparkly C and all). Brian Littrell had eyeblack. It was an awesome open. They did a one song together in the jerseys and went down for a costume change.

They took turns doing sets and then would go down for costumes. They both started their sets with songs from their newest CDs. I know and love the newest New Kids CD, because I spent a summer with that blaring from my car, but I didn't know the newest Backstreet songs, because I didn't listen to that album much (I do own it) and so that was a bit of a down for me. But both bands sang a lot from their older stuff and that was fantastic. I was completely sober and still on my feet dancing and singing with everyone else.

When it struck me that I am now a teacher at the very school I was attending when "The Right Stuff" was popular, it made me feel a little old, but I can laugh about it. I love their music. It's pop and that's all. It's fun, it's great to sing along to, and I'm glad they're still going! They sang a ton of songs that I knew and loved and made me want to go get my CDs out again and make a mixtape (so to speak). Back when they were popular, I was into Joey, because everyone was into Joey. He was cute and close to our age it seemed (he has 8 years on me). And in college I was into Brian, because he was sweet and soft spoken and seemed like he'd treat a girl right. But now? If I were to pick, I would not pick those two. Joey seems like a playa and Brian isn't strong enough for me. It's pretty funny how tastes change. I would be all over AJ McLean with his very powerful voice and the tats and hats and the facial hair. Hello. And from New Kids? Probably Donnie, he seems like he'd be a lot of fun and again has that strong singing voice. (You'll see later why this cracked me up.)

At one point the Backstreet Boys brought girls up onstage to sing to. Three of them picked overweight girls and the fourth picked a girl in a wheelchair. I wonder if they did that on purpose. I know that the girl in the wheelchair was, but the other girls all being overweight? That surprised me a lot. And I liked it. It's sending a message to the rest of the girls watching (even if we're in our 30s, we still want an attractive person to sing to us!) that even an overweight girl is worth that much. It was a classy move, I want to think they did it for the statement.

Knowing about Jonathan Knight's panic attack issues, it was pretty awesome to see him up there. He was smiling like he was really proud of himself just for doing it. All of the boys at one point or another spoke except him. But he was there and he did the show. I was so proud of him, I wanted to give him a hug. Good for him!

The highlight of the night was when they all put on Bruins jerseys on stage and did a song together. The place went nuts when the saw them pick them up. The jerseys had their names on the back and 11 (which made me comment that they must all miss PJ Axelsson as much as I do). The New Kids had on the home jerseys while Backstreet wore the thirds. I have to find a picture of that somewhere, I was much too far back to get a good shot, but it was so cool to see! Not the red-headed stepchild anymore!

Towards the end, they paired off and introduced each other. AJ McLean said that he's found his "brother from another mother" in Donnie Wahlberg and that he wants to be adopted by the Wahlberg clan. He paused and added "for real". (Knowing about AJ's struggles with rehab and the various Wahlberg issues, I wonder if their parents helped them, where maybe AJ's mother didn't.) My slash goggles couldn't take that. They were the only pair that seemed like they were really into each other. It was kinda adorable, especially from those two. Nick Carter got both Knight brothers to introduce which also made me laugh. He'd enjoy a threesome, you'd figure. And Jordan went on about how hot Nick is. (I told you, AJ and Donnie got my slash goggles going and it was all over from there.) Joey said Brian "Mitchell" which we're not sure is a joke from something else or if he really just got the name wrong. Brian looked really surprised, so it's possible either way. Howie, of course, had to make a "wood" joke about Danny, it was necessary.

For the last number the New Kids had on Celtics jerseys and they flashed this really cool logo on the screen. It had a spoked N (ala Bruins), the K from a sign in Boston, the O was the Celtics guy, the T was the sign from the T and the B was the Sox. It was so very Boston and amazingly cool. I have to find it somewhere. And I was highly amused that the Patriots were left out. Ha! Bruins are not the forgotten team anymore! So they start singing Hangin' Tough and that's awesome and we're singing along. Then there's a pause and they appear on the Green Monster and they're singing it again. And the Backstreet Boys come out (in Orlando jerseys, which was so cute since they became a band there and they had done all the Boston stuff up until then) and were singing Backstreet's Back. They made a medley of the two songs, singing at each other. It was flippin' awesome! And that's how they ended the show.

It was worth every penny and dealing Boston traffic to see that show. Completely worth it. Questions? Comments?

(ETA: I missed Nomar doing colour commentary on the Texas Longhorns for this. And it was worth it.)

I haven't done book reviews in a while. I'm always reading two or three or four books at a time, and I don't always finish them before moving on. But here are two that I finished and enjoyed.

World War Z: This book is brilliant. Pure satirical genius. You wouldn't expect something from the author of one of those gag survival books to be this perfect of a writer, but he is. This book feels real, from beginning to end. There isn't a moment where you can't see this happening and believe it's really the accounts of survivors. It's the perfect post-war memoir. I was working at Barnes and Noble, when this book came out. The book itself was coded to be shelved in Fiction, but the Audio Book was coded to be Non-Fiction. And I can see why someone would think it's true. I cannot say enough good things about this book, it's brilliant. Read it.

Logan's Run: It was very difficult to find this book but finally it was given to me as a Kindle book by a friend. It's purely Science Fiction. It's a beautiful example of Science Fiction and should be enjoyed as such. It was a well paced story and had some very thought provoking ideas. The writing was very smooth and the technobabble didn't get in the way at all. The strange terms were smoothly introduced and defined in text. It was very enjoyable and highly recommended.

Now, what to read next....

WE DID IT!

STANLEY CUP FINALS!

(More coherency tomorrow.)

So xsavedbygracex and I were having comments about being tricked by hats into thinking people are fans. I wrote this down for her, but I wanted to share with y'all.

Overheard between two students: [One is in elementary school, Two is in high school.]

Student One: I like your hat. Is that the Yankees?
Student Two: No, it's North Dakota.
Student One: Oh, I don't know that team. Do you like them?
Student Two: No, I don't even know who they are. I just liked the hat's design.

I look back at the hat?

It's Notre Dame.

Roy Halladay has to show up AJ Burnett at every turn. Including pie.

vs

So my mother's former co-worker sends me a birthday card every year. And I send him one. We try to find the most random event cards we can, nothing even close to birthday. I sent him 'for a special girl on her confirmation' in February. He found the best one this year.

Knowing that Huston Street lived in the same house with Nick Swisher in Oakland makes this video hilarious. Knowing how he saves whipping out the real Texas pride for special occasions makes this video hilarious. Hearing Huston say "we're gonna Cal Ripkin this" makes this video hilarious. Put that together? WATCH THIS VIDEO.

Huston Street Goes Fishing

This is the rock version of Signing Time. It's awesome! I love ASL so much.

Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feelin' - ASL Song from Stephen Torrence on Vimeo.

Stolen from dontelltheelf, a meme.

Zero - Who was your last text from?
Twitter.

One - Where was your default pic taken?
It's a picture of the cover of a how-to hockey book. It's Brian Rolston taking a shot on Marty Brodeur.

Two - Your relationship status?
Single.

Three - Have you ever lost a close friend?
I have lost friendships, but the only person I've lost is my grandfather.

Four - What is your current mood?
Tired. I have more cleaning to do and I don't wanna.

Five - What’s your brother's/sister's name?
I don't have any.

( And forty-five more.Collapse )

C.J. Wilson dishes on Ian Kinsler's latest bad haircut: 'Kinsler has always had bad hair'

By JON MACHOTA / Special Contributor to SportsDayDFW.com
Published 20 April 2011 05:53 PM

Ian Kinsler wasn’t pleased with the latest haircut he received in New York. The Texas Rangers second baseman had the trim done by a local barber that works at Yankee Stadium.

According to Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson, Kinsler’s normally long locks were left much shorter than he desired.

“It was a dramatic change because he had a huge mop, then all of a sudden he’s cropped,” Wilson recently told sports radio KESN-FM 103.3.

Kinsler was embarrassed and Elvis Andrus compounded the problem by swiping his teammate’s helmet during batting practice and running so the rest of the team could see the trim.

“Kinsler was chasing him like, ‘No, give me back my hat!’ He was putting his hands on his head,” Wilson said. “Kinsler has always had bad hair. I’ve never seen him with a good haircut."

When Wilson was initially asked about Kinsler’s hair, he replied: “It’s been so many years of just seeing that rag mop on top of his head. Some guys just have a feel for what looks good on them, like Mike Young. He always keeps it short, cropped perfect. We always joke with him that he has like a special genetic makeup that allows him never to have to do his hair. He’ll take his helmet off in the middle of a game, or his hat, and his hair will be perfect. We’ll be like, ‘How is that even possible?’”

Wilson also discussed the short hair of Nelson Cruz and Adrian Beltre, saying: “Their hair is always short. They have to get a haircut like almost once a week. It’s kind of funny to watch those guys complain about having hair that’s … it’s like a putting green. I’m like what’s my hair than? I have a mullet half the time.” [Source]

Is this post an excuse to use this icon or another reason to love the Rangers? You be the judge.

Alicia and I have a whole tour planned out that now includes the Bloomingdales and the Flight Simulator in the Mall of America, among many other very strange things that only really make sense to us. And I can tell you that we would be laughing our asses off the whole time. I'm trying to think of other places it would include, off the top of my head: dive bars in New York, an ice skating rink and a Hawai'ian restaurant in LA, the University of Miami dorms and nearby coffee shops, the front lawn of Shattuck and many many things in San Francisco.

chelly_bear tagged me for a meme ages ago. I haven't done one in a while and I'm very awake.

( Some questions.Collapse )

Dallas Braden is reason enough to watch the A's. And off the field, he's just as awesome. Witness:

From chelly_bear, a meme where you're asked five questions. My five:

1. What pairing is your favorite to ship?
Ever? Huh, that's a tough one. For hockey it has to be Marty and Brian. They're one of our first pairs and at the time they were on two different teams. We wrote their whole story and became very attached to them. And then Brian became a Devil again, which was just icing on the cake. For baseball, the first one that comes to mind is Derek and Russell. I love the whole Derek and Jason backstory and I love their whole extended family and their issues. I find them very interesting. Those were just the first ones I thought of as 'favourites'. I have dozens and dozens and dozens that I love shipping besides them. And then some.

2. What do you think of Russell Martin going to the Yankees?
Well, off what I just said in the question before, I find it hysterical. Derek is best known for being on the Red Sox team that won the 04 WS, and I found it very funny when Russell became a Yankee. Baseball-wise, at first I have to feel bad for Jorge becoming a DH, but I think it's for the best. He can only help make Russell better and the Yankees need a catcher of the future. It's a lot like Joe Girardi helping Jorge when he came up. He owes him to pay it forward. I also really like the Baby Catcher that's coming up, Jesús Montero, and I'm hoping he's backing Russell up, because that'll be an awesome tandem, with Jorge helping them both and them pushing each other. I'm really excited about this season's catching situation.

3. How did you become a Yankees fan?
Well, the easy answer is that it's all Alicia's fault. Her mother is a born and bred Yankees fan, but Alicia was a Sox fan and so was I. But last season we got started on the old Oakland boys that used to live together. That started with my overriding love of Huston Street no matter where he is, who is one of those Oakland boys. Another of them is Nick Swisher. So we started to look into what he was doing currently. Now Alicia already had a love for the Core Four and once she shared that with me and we looked into them and started watching the games, well, it was all over. They're an amazing team, an amazing organisation, and watching them felt like seeing baseball the way it was really meant to be played. Michael Kay on YES really helped too.

4. If you got the chance to date a baseball player, who would it be and why?
Pretending they're not married/taken/involved/etc? My first answer would be Barry Zito. I would love to sit and talk to him for hours. I think he knows so much and has so many and varied interests that we'd never run out of something to talk about. I've wanted to go look things up after reading his interviews so many time and I'd love to have him there to explain his philosophies in person. And of course the fact that he's one of the most beautiful men on the planet is a nice bonus. And those legs.

5. What is your favorite food?
Cheese.

I have to say, things like this make it completely unimportant how similar this song is to Express Yourself:

Target agrees to stop funding anti-gay groups following Lady Gaga deal

by Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
21 February 2011, 11:11pm

A special edition of Lady Gaga’s new single, ‘Born This Way’ is to be exclusively sold at the retailer Target.

The company has in the past donated considerable sums to organisations that support those who discriminate or even advocate death and violence to gays.

Now Lady Gaga has forced the retail chain to “make amends” and donate to gay rights groups.

Target, which has 1,743 stores across the United States, donated $150,000 of corporate funds to support a political action group, Minnesota Forward.

This organisation supported Tom Emmer, who supported a constitutional ban on gay marriage in his failed attempt to run for governor of Minnesota. His campaign had earlier donated to a Christian punk rock ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International.

Although the chief executive of Target, Gregg Steinhafel, apologised for the donation, the company has donated to other right wing candidates with anti-gay records. Target does pay benefits to same sex partners of employees.

Now, following a meeting with Lady Gaga, the company has promised to stop the donations and give to LGBT groups.

“That discussion was one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had in a business meeting,” Lady Gaga said. “Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they’ve made in the past … our relationship is hinged upon their reform in the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they’ve made supporting those [antigay] groups.”

The company has committed $500,000 to LGBT community projects, although that is a tiny fraction of the $156 million it donates every year to ‘community efforts’.

“We, as a company, are considering and taking very — it is part of our hearts to care about this issue. It’s who we are. Around this, we’ve established this policy committee because we understand the importance of decisions like this one and we want to be more thoughtful. We said that we’re giving almost half a million dollars already in 2011 because we want to demonstrate our commitment to the LGBT community,” Dustee Tucker Jenkins, vice president of Target told Billboard magazine.

‘Born This Way’ was described by Sir Elton John as the ‘new gay anthem’, [Source]

Part of why I adore Sean Avery and you should too:

Sean Avery, Gay Support System

By Advocate.com Editors - Posted on Advocate.com February 04, 2011

New York Rangers forward Sean Avery has a message for gay hockey players who are scared to come out: Pick up the phone and call him.

Avery, who is known to be one of the sporting world’s more liberal athletes, says he’d be more than happy to serve as a support system for a gay player.

"If there's a kid in Canada or wherever, who is playing and really loves the game and wants to keep playing but he's worried about coming out, I'd tell him to pick up the phone and call [NHLPA executive director] Donald Fehr and tell him to book me a [plane] ticket,” he told the Toronto Sun. "I'll stand beside him in the dressing room while he tells his teammates he is gay. Maybe if Sean Avery is there, they would have less of a problem with it."

Avery, who lived in West Hollywood when he played for the Los Angeles Kings and now lives in Chelsea, says he doesn’t see the big deal about having an openly gay athlete in professional sports.

He says there are "probably a few gay players in the NHL, but I don't know if somebody has the courage [to come out]."

Last month Avery stripped for designer Marc Jacobs to promote skin cancer awareness. He also made headlines in 2008 when he became an intern for Vogue magazine. [Source]

( Canoe.ca has also wrote about this.Collapse )

As in love as I am with the state and the South, this is why I don't live in Texas:



In other news, yesterday was a snow day and today the roads were almost pure ice. Wee!

2010 in Review

Sports:

Olympics: The Olympics gave me short track speed skating, JR, Jordan, Travis, Aly and the rest of them. I actually tried a few of their techniques and still want to try out a pair of speed skates someday.

Baseball: The Texas Longhorns became my reason to care about college sports at all when I fell head over heels with their baseball team. The Rangers caught me right from the start. Truth be told, CJ had already caught me, but there was the rest of them. They became official. I ended up losing a lot of interest in the Red Sox and muting NESN for the first time in ever. At the same time, I was falling in love with the Yankees. Alicia gave me them and she doesn't so much as feel bad about it! As with everything, it started with a catcher. After that came the Giants. I can't be completely sure that if it was Brian and Barry or Mom and Dad or Buster that really made that team stick, but they did. And then the World Series. That was fun.

Football: This year also brought football to my attention. First the Longhorns, but that was... *coughs* So I moved on to watching the NFL, fully intending to follow Alicia with the other Giants. But I took a glance at Colt McCoy and the Browns and completely fell for them. And football. So they're mine. Kinda a sad team, but mine nonetheless.

Hockey: This part of the hockey season saw me stop caring about the Preds and start caring about the Stars. It also saw me feeling horrible for the Devils. And rooting on my Bruins as always. And it saw me counting the day for baseball season to start again.

Life: I started this year teaching high school and finished it teaching fourth and fifth graders. And realising this is my calling. I'm also learning ASL and love not only that language but talking to my Autistic and auditory disable students. It's amazingly rewarding and I love every minute of it. This year also brought to my attention Taoism and Zen, which have helped me more than I can explain. I'm still reading and learning, but I can appreciate this path much more than any other I've tried. This year I was visited by my best friend and we spent most of the time hanging out in my house which tells me that she really is my best friend. I didn't need to plan things to do, because we just enjoyed each other's company so much. That will be repeated in 2011 for sure.