hawing

I updated the all-fan giveaway thread in the Trading Post to reflect the T-shirt designs, but I don't see why we can't talk about it here too. To save you a click, here are all the shirt images: For me, blue is easily the most flattering Brewers color - so that makes me more lukewarm on the gray, white and yellow shirts. That probably means they'll be giveaways on the Friday games we have this year, but that's what the Trading Post is for. Overall, I give the selection a thumbs-up.

On Monday, January 12, the Brewers released 12 t-shirt designs. Fans can vote on their top 7 for the next week. The winners will be announced at the January 25 On Deck event. The link for voting: http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/fan_forum/shirt_vote.jsp The shirt designs: Speaking only for myself, there's nothing here I couldn't stand to wear (except maybe that Motre Bame design, but that's also because it's primarily gray).

We buy general parking in advance (it's part of our season ticket invoice) and I'm pretty sure that was still $9. So there's that. If I discover we were charged more, I'll update this post.

People who hug first, then disclose that they're sick. The SO and I caught a real bully of a cold after such an encounter on Christmas Eve, and we're just now emerging from it. Because of the placement of the holidays, I only had to take two days' unexpected leave, but the SO's Christmas vacation was totally wiped out by this virus. (For those of you who enjoy following the hawing "relish tray" legend, the director/hostess of Christmas Eve was the hugger described above.) I'll take responsibility for not being a "huggy" person, but if you're sick, give people the choice of hugging or not.

You'd think that if anything on a Brewers message board would be my legacy, it might be Brewers related. But no. This year we were assigned a shrimp tray, which is more straightforward at least. The guy who usually brings the shrimp (and the ginormous Italian antipasto tray) is currently on the outs with his wife right now and won't be coming to Christmas Eve. So it's *his* fault we have to bring shrimp, and might not have those delicious Italian meats and cheeses. Thanks, infidelity.

And if those game winning hits are at Miller Park, it's likely to be a game I attend, because baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.

I'd have considered it if the grab bags had at least had the sizes marked on them. I'm willing to take a chance on a has-been/barely-was name, but if it's a really huge or really small size, I wouldn't be able to wear it.

That reminds me of an unpleasant work experience I had a while back. My library sustained a bunch of layoffs in 2002. The union contract in place at the time (and let's keep this from being political; in this instance it's just a fact that the thing existed) allowed laid-off people to bump those with less seniority. One colleague decided to bump the other professional in my department. Behold this timeline: Day before the layoffs took effect: Bumper asked our supervisor if she could have the first week of her "new" job off to deal with the stress of being laid off. Supervisor said yes. (To be fair, supervisor asked my opinion first.) The two weeks following bumper's "stress" vacation: I attempted to train her for my department. I use the word "try" because her attendance was erratic, which is rather problematic when running a public service point. Supervisor was on his own vacation during the second of these two weeks. Last day of the two weeks of attempted training: I emailed supervisor a summary of bumper's comings and goings and asked for help. The following Monday morning: Bumper notifies me that she's finalized her plans to transfer to a job at a different library. She said she was available to "help" (my air quotes) in my department the rest of that week, then was taking more vacation before she transferred. She also told me how much she appreciated my introducing her to my department's work, and said she looked forward to including it *on her resume.* I declined her offer of "help" for the rest of that week because I was that eager to never interact with her again. I did eventually get a colleague again (someone else laid off was given the chance to return), and staffing has been stable ever since. But productivity-wise, it was a lost two months for me. Way to be professional, bumper! Random addendum to keep this story Brewerfan-relevant: In the midst of all this was that 2002 All-Star week, featuring the all-star tie. At least I still got to attend that.

There's ample time for it to evolve into a more general Brewers Museum/Experience. The location they describe for it (LF corner of the Loge concourse) makes me think it's that space that has been several different things over the life of MP. I've been ambivalent about Bud for a long time. For me, his "pros" are significant enough to outweigh his "cons." The hologram seems waaaay over the top to me, is all. There's a Royals Hall of Fame, with museum-style exhibits, within Kauffman Stadium which I really enjoyed when we last visited KC. Perhaps the MP "experience" will have Bud as its primary focus to begin with, then add general franchise history. That would be cool and I'd drop by it periodically.

One taste bud on the tip of my tongue is inflamed. I either burned it or bit it. Owwwwww.

Link to Caitlin Moyer's Brewers blog My apologies if this was posted elsewhere at Brewerfan already, and my apologies for the Pandora's Box discussion this is likely to inspire. I saw mentions of this on Twitter before I saw Cait's blog, and honestly thought the hologram part was just social media snark. Now it feels like an Onion story (to me).

The Diamond Dancers usually have an on-field (warning track) routine before Friday and Saturday games. It's usually around 45-90 seconds, because yes, we are dorky enough to have timed it. I'm not in the demographic audience, so I can certainly do without it. I'm not sure it's a canary-in-the-coal-mine indicator of the Brewers' finances - though if it is, it can't be more than a drop in the bucket. They've been touted as the Miller Diamond Dancers, so maybe it's Miller backing out?

The Cubs' offseason changes do seem poised to challenge the whole "cursed" theory.

Season seat holders get the opportunity for the Thursday visit. It's another perk for their making a SSH commitment to the team. At hawing HQ we always bypass that because of our distance from Milwaukee. We do, however, schedule a day off work for the Friday of the sale every year. We generally arrive around the noon hour and have never come away empty handed. In fact, this year I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of large-size apparel for women. I also found merchandise for kalle8 and a few people on my Christmas list. How you judge the selection depends on what you consider "the good stuff," of course. Some of the discounts are really only a deal when compared to the items' original high prices; I choose to think of the prices as being knocked down to what they "should" cost away from the ballpark (yet they still tend to be things you can't get elsewhere). It's like a rummage sale in that the selection varies every year. The SO and I regard it as a fun day to get out of town and have a reason to visit Miller Park. I'm dorky enough so I'm literally just happy to be there. For what it's worth, Brewers Authentics (the folks behind the online auctions at brewers.com, followable on Twitter at @BrewersAuthentics) are having a Clubhouse Sale auction starting Monday morning (12/8), in response to fans who can't get to the clubhouse sale and wish they had a chance at the merchandise. Their tweets suggest that the bids for at least some merchandise will start at $1.00. Frankly, I think the Brewers do a pretty fair job of listening to and trying to accommodate outstate fans, in many ways. I count myself among that group and feel plenty accommodated overall.

Keeping it random, happy Thanksgiving, you guys. Or should I say: Happy....Thanks.....giving....

Fortunately for the Brewerfan Nation, I have a wooden table right next to me, and I am knocking on it for all of us.

I'm just glad I've heard of two of these acts. Of course, the one in our ticket package is the guy I hadn't heard of, and the one of least interest to me since country music is not for me. Here's hoping none of the three turn out to be crazy extra inning marathons! because that would suck for everyone involved (except the players of the winning team, I suppose).

Rimshot for you, Baldkin. Most professional library jobs require a master's degree from an accredited program. "Library school" is a relatively old-school term, but people outside the profession can identify it readily, so that's what I go with personally. Some programs still use "library science" and I think that's goofy. The official name of the department in which I earned my master's is the School of Library and Information Studies. Some universities are going with I-School, which to me sounds a little too much like something that will lead to cease-and-desist communication from Apple some day. I can't speak for the kids nowadays, but UW-Madison's SLIS in the late 80s and early 90s was not at all devoid of the kind of parties many of us associate with college age people.

I was going to say, don't you need bf.netters to help you gauge the quality of your new screen? Yeah, that's it.

I for one am pleased at the possibility of getting On Deck tickets just for spending enough at the sale. Given our distance from Milwaukee, I'm not super comfortable committing $ to tickets that we'll have to eat if it's snowy or icy en route that day. Between Christmas gifts and shopping vicariously for kalle8, it should not be difficult for me to hit $125. Am I right, Kalle?

I hear you on that. It just seems like talk radio (sports and non) is designed primarily to rile people up, and that's not what I want from the radio. Again, though, I'm not the demographic.

They are, and I would totally stay for a Garbage concert after a game. I don't know how hard the Brewers are going to try to keep it family-friendly, though.

Marlins Park has a bobblehead museum. I got the impression that this "freestanding" one would be bigger. I'm actually thinking of contributing to its Kickstarter campaign, though probably not at the level that would get me more bobbleheads. I just like the idea.

There is virtually nothing about me that matches the talk radio demographic (both sports and any spot on the political spectrum), so why am I even posting here? Only to describe the last time I gave sports talk radio a chance, and after which I wrote it off: In 2008, I was headed home from a weekday game with a coworker. We were driving into a severe thunderstorm, so I was inclined to keep the radio on WTMJ since they are quick to cut in for severe weather updates. But when Bill Michaels got into SHOULD THE BREWERS SIGN BARRY BONDS I had to change the station. Just, no.

Yup. We met in library school, which is as dorky as it sounds.