Legends Never Die

Most kids grow up having a favorite baseball player. My friends were big fans on Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Mark McGwire. I, on the other hand, loved watching Nomar Garciaparra. Today, Nomar signed a one day contract so he could end his 14 year career with the team he experienced his greatest success with.

As an 11 year old, I first saw Nomar on SportsCenter. I was amazed with his ability to get to any ball hit anywhere near him (and truly beyond that) and make a perfect throw to first base. In my opinion, when he was in his prime he was the best shortstop in baseball. My interest in Nomar grew as I started to watch Red Sox games, and that was how I became a Red Sox fan myself.

When I was 14 my dad and I took a trip to Fenway Park. By this point I had delved into the Red Sox painful and rich tradition, and the pilgrimage to the Mecca of Red Sox nation didn't disappoint. Even though the Red Sox didn't play well (they went 1-3 when I was there) it was unbelievable to see Nomar, or Nomah as the locals called him, and the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. I remember sitting on the steps of Fenway Park watching a dad show his young son a Red Sox magazine with Nomar on the cover. "Look! It's Nomah!", the dad said to his son. He was an icon to all young Red Sox fans.

Coincidentally, Nomar was traded from the Sox at the Metrodome in 2004. I was in the building when the news broke that he would no longer be a Red Sock, but now a Cub, and I was crushed. I received a phone call from a friend who told me the bad news. I would later see video of Nomar walking down the halls of the Dome saying, "I'll see you guys later" with tears in his eyes.

My dad and I made another baseball trip in 2004. This time to see the Red Sox play in Chicago against the White Sox. After the game, my dad and I drove over to Wrigleyville so I could buy a Cubs jersey with Garciaparra across the back. In 2005, I tried to buy a Red Sox Nomar t-shirt. The store workers told me they have been selling off the shelves and I should try to get one online. This was a year after he no longer played for the team.

I spent years of my childhood arguing with friends about how great of a player Nomar was. He was an incredible shortstop. He was in a class of his own as a hitter during his prime. He was the face of the Red Sox, and he is the reason I love baseball today. Nomar is a legend in New England and all across Red Sox Nation. I'll never forget the memories of watching him play, and I can't wait to pass them on to my children.

Thanks for everything Nomar.

Eric

Excelsior/Mound (With Pictures!)

Hello all,

Last weekend was busy. Lauren and I headed over to her friend's house to do a little two hour babysitting. The couple wanted to get out of the house and have dinner, so we took care of their one-year-old daughter. It was fun, and I learned a few things. For one, babies always want to play. I thought they like to play a little bit, and then just lay around. Apparently that's not true. I enjoyed it though. After that, we just headed back to Lauren's and played Mario Cart Wii until she fell asleep. Exciting, I know.

On Saturday we headed over to downtown Excelsior located on Water Street.

We started off at my favorite store of the bunch: Leipolds. Now I know Leipolds looks like a run down shack. I know it kind of has a funny smell. However, its charm and array of interesting items is not surpassed, in my opinion, by any store.

This place is full of Scandanavian, Lake Minnetonka and Americana trinkets. As an avid flag collector, the $2 four by six inch flags can't be beat. I actually bought my grandma a vintage South Tigers flag there last summer. When you look at the pictures you might be thinking, "Well dat der lookie like a buncha junk", but I can assure you that the place, while lacking organizational structure, is loaded with cool stuff. If you're proud of your Scandinavian heritage, looking for a unique Lake Minnetonka gift, or are looking for anything Minnesotan, then Leipolds is the place for you.

After taking in the sights and smells of Leipolds, we headed down the street to Capers. Capers is a store full of things that chicks would think are fun, and Lauren really enjoys going in there. It has some cool stuff like bands that fit around beer bottles with fun sayings and funny books. Besides that, it's mostly shot glasses with sassy chick sayings and modern goofball picture frames. Surprisingly, we passed the candy shop, and went straight on to Lauren's nightmare: Heritage II. If you think authentic wool Irish clothing is cool then you'll love Heritage II. If you don't, then this place will be more boring than watching wool grow. The lady working there sounded like she was from Dublin, so this place is the go to spot for an authentic Irish shopping experience. Not surprisingly, our stop at Heritage II was short. We moved along to Excelsior Bay Books. We browsed through a few books, but didn't spend very much time here either.

Before heading home to Tonka Bay, we decided to make a quick drive to Mound. We didn't really know what we were looking for, but we settled on John's Variety & Pets. I should of known we were in for trouble when we had to cross the small wooden bridge from the parking area over the marsh to JV&P, and then walked past the "half off" metal shelving in the grass/rubble around the store. The variety part of the name makes sense. This place has so much stuff to peruse through. If you need a Minnesota Twins pinata, a pair of underware or a hula hoop, then you'll be satisfied with John's Variety and Pets. However, as much as the variety tag fits the store, I'm not really sure if the pets moniker works with this joint. The "pets" section is located in the back. As we made out way to the back be passed a dog scarf (I think it was a dog scarf) with a tag on it that held the spitting image of Super Joe. This was my last good memory of JV&P. The first thing we saw when we got to the back were, *shudders*, fish tanks full of cockroaches and other bugs crawling on rolls of toliet paper with yellow light bulbs shinning down on them. I shouldn't even be posting this because I'm sure I'm going to have nightmares. Needless to say we bolted for the door.

We rounded up the night with a few games of Smart Ass (a trivia style game) and dinner at The Narrows with Lauren's parents. The game was fun, Lauren won twice, and dinner was delicous. I had the best club sandwich I've ever had. Sidenote: I think it's weird when a bar playing music has a TV on CNBC. It just doesn't make sense.

I hope you enjoyed reading the section on JV&P because I can't stop scratching the back of my head. One last quick note, there is a cool dumpy restraunt/bar called Haskell's in Excelsior. We didn't go there this time, but I'm sure we'll hit it up sometime this summer. Look for a post on that in the future. That's all for now.

Eric

Who vs. Whom

I didn't envision including grammar lessons when I decided to create a blog last weekend. However, here we are.

Many people struggle with selecting which pronoun to use when it comes to who and whom. I personally struggled with this concept for awhile myself. Fortunately, I have clarified my confusion, and I would be delighted to do the same for you. You must first consider if you are referring to the subject or the object in the sentence.

Subject - Person doing something

Object - Thing having something done to it

Who is the proper pronoun to use when referring to the subject.
Whom is the proper pronoun to use when referring to the object.

Let's take a look at an example.

Eric voted for Cal Ripken.

Eric is the person DOING SOMETHING in the sentence, so he is the SUBJECT.
Cal is HAVING SOMETHING DONE for him, so he is the OBJECT.

As a result, the following two questions are correct:

"Who voted for Cal Ripken?"
"Whom did Eric vote for?"

Here are a few additional examples:

- Maddox threw the first pitch of the game past Eckstein.

"Who threw the first pitch of the game past Eckstein?"
"Whom was the first pitch thrown past?

- Bernard took Cindy to the dance.

"Who took Cindy to the dance?"
"Whom did Bernard take to the dance?"

- Benny pushed past Ralph.

"Who pushed past Ralph?"
"Whom did Benny push past?"

I know you're thinking, "Oh boy, posts about grammar...this blog is going to be a blast to follow." I don't anticipate any grammar posts in the near future, so don't worry! I'll pass along a tip every now and then, but this blog will mostly focus on my weekend trips around the Twin Cities. Now, if only that snow would melt a little quicker. That's all for now.

Eric

St. Louis Park/Hopkins/New Hope

Hello all,

It has been an exciting day. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. My girlfriend, Lauren of lmcollegelife.blogspot.com fame, and I ran some errands in the St. Louis Park/Hopkins area. We took Highway 100, and I did some research on the road before we left. I learned that Highway 100 used to be a beltway (a.k.a. loop) around the Twin Cities. There used to be 6 parks specifically built next to the historic highway, but today only 2 remain. We were able to spot one off of HWY 100 and HWY 7. This summer I'll head down there with the camera and take a few pictures for the blog. Back to the errands. We shopped briefly at a busy COSTCO, picked up Lauren's computer from her step-dad's liquor store and then made a stop at New Hope's Unique Thrift Store. We came away with a LARGE cherry pie, a few sample drinks, slightly used children's books and a nice American flag. That's all for now.

Eric

Hello Blogosphere!

Hello all,

Welcome to EricinRealLife! I was inspired to create this blog earlier today when I was thinking about all the things I want to do this summer. Sure, there is still snow on the ground, but I can't wait for the spring and summer. I'm really not sure how often I'll post, but hopefully it will be quite frequently. The goal is to take pictures around the Twin Cities every weekend and post them here. That's all for now.

Eric