Summer's Almost Here
The new Red Sox season starts Monday.  Hope springs eternal!  The boys of summer got a mulligan last year - the euphoria over the 2004 triumph lasted almost all year.  This year, though, Red Sox Nation wants to be back in the Winner's Circle... time will tell.

This season will be different than any previous one for me - I was lucky enough to be able to buy tickets to some games this year. Usually Red Sox tickets are about as scarce as hen's teeth for me; in the past I seemed to get to go to a game about once every 4-5 years. This year it'll be more than one game.  I joined Red Sox Nation last year on a whim, mostly because the $10 membership fee got me access to the internet-broadcast of the radio play-by-play for the games. At home it wasn't needed (TV and AM radio broadcasts of every game), but when I was traveling on business, I could listen to the games through my laptop speakers.

So one of the perks of being a member of Red Sox Nation is that they run periodic contests, and one contest they ran was for invitations to the Red Sox Christmas Party at Fenway Park on December 10th.  One thousand lucky winners would get admission to the Gate E concourse, food, interviews, autograph signings, and best of all the chance to buy tickets to up to ten home games.  Over 35 thousand entries, and I was one of the lucky winners!  So I was able to buy tickets at face value - no scalper prices for me this season! Time will tell if I was able, in the words of the guardian knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, to "choose wisely!"

Home Front Whinings
First the furnace, now the washer. Well, the house and it's contents are showing its age.  We replaced the furnace and central AC unit back in February, and evidently moving the washer out of the way so the workers could get to the furnace and then moving it back was too much for the 20-year-old dinosaur. It sprung a leak. I was hoping it was just one of the 20-year-old hoses inside, so I ordered replacements for them all and installed them last night, but it's still leaking.  It appears to be coming from the tub itself (right above one of the hoses, which is why I thought it was a hose). I'm not messing with that; hoses I can replace, but the tub is a) expensive, b) awkward, and c) finicky.  Time for a new one, so Lynn and I printed out the Consumer Reports evaluations and will hit the stores this weekend. What next!?

Whinings Addendum
I was reminded that the furnace and the washer weren't the only things falling apart lately. In January the first few shingles flew off the garage roof in a high wind to remind me I need to get a new roof this spring/summer... In February the furnace and AC unit was replaced... Last week the washer/dryer... then last Saturday we went to go out to my sister's and the front door knob/lock came off in my hand, spilling all the little broken parts all over the step, so it was off to the mega-fixit store to buy new knobs and matching dead bolts for all four doors (we needed to switch to lever door pulls instead of knobs anyway because Lynn's arthritis makes door knobs hard to work for her).  Things are falling apart all around us!