Shopping Secrets and #RE2PECT

As a Red Sox fan, I hate all things Yankee. Seriously. Hate it. With one exception: Derek Jeter. 

Jeter, you will be missed. As much as it hurts me to say that, you will be missed. Quick...I have to compensate for leading off this blog with a picture of a YANKEE...

okay. I feel better. phew. 

Sorry. It's hard for a die hahd Sawx girl to talk about anyone who plays in pinstripes, even if he is completely respectable and an asset to the game. 

Speaking of baseball, despite my opinion that the All-Star game (hereafter abbreviated ASG) is completely overrated and ridiculous, it's still baseball and I'm still gonna watch. Also speaking of baseball, I'm finally going to a game this season! Yay! 

No, the Red Sox aren't playing. I'm going to see the Nats and Brewers. I have never seen the Brewers play before so this should be fun. I like Nat's Park too. You can take the metro right to it and there is something fun about riding on public transportation when everyone is going to same place and it's a fun place. It gives you a sense of camaraderie. 

Moving on from sports to my other love, shoes. I have a secret for you ladies, especially if you have a size 7.5 or smaller foot. The BEST place to get cute shoes at a low price is Dress Barn Women. Some Dress Barns are combined, misses sizes and women's sizes, but some are separate. So Dress Barn Women sells the plus size clothes. Most of the women who shop there , many of them are very tall, which means their foot size is larger. So that means all their clearance shoes are size 6, 6.5, 7, and 7.5 with a handful of larger sizes. When my mom said she was thinking about going there today because she had a coupon my response was this:

And good thing too. Ten minutes later, I was walking out of the store with a pair of green flats studded with gold squares and a pair of subtle cowboy booties. My total? $16.00.

That's right. TWO pairs of shoes for $16.00. That's $8.00 a pair. You can't really beat that. And to top it off, Dress Barn actually sells nice, fairly comfortable shoes. So remember this ladies: if you have tiny feet, check the clearance shoes at the plus size stores. And I'm actually pretty sure the opposite works too. 

So if I don't blog again until I get back, sorry. I'm just...

I really need to lay off the coffee. And the gifs. :/ 

Peace :)

"Wright" Stuff: Team USA Knocks Off Puerto Rico

Team USA finally manages a defeat of Puerto Rico and makes it to the World Baseball Classic semi-finals on the back of Mets 3B David Wright.

It was a wild one last night, and one of the best baseball games I've seen in a while. Of course, it has only been spring training, but still, this was phenomenal.

Puerto Rico drew the first blood with a solo dinger off of Ted Lilly in the second, but Team USA responded with two runs of their own, including a huge slide and bad throw that brought David Wright home on a Brian McCann sac-fly. Kevin Youkilis added to the lead with a solo tater off of Jonathan Sanchez with two outs in the third.

But Puerto Rico wasn't going anywhere. A two run shot by Carlos Delgado in the fourth (also off of Ted Lilly) evened things up 3-3.

In the sixth, an Alex Rios single with two men on put Puerto Rico up 4-3. They built on teat lead the top of the ninth, when Ramon Vasquez hit one that got by Derek Jeter, allowing the man on second to score and putting Puerto Rico up 5-3 with half a frame left for team USA to stave off elimination.

Shane Victorino led off the bottom of the ninth with a single off of his Phillies teammate JC Romero, followed by a single from Brian Roberts. A line-out by Derek Jeter moved Victorino to third. Roberts stole second, and Jimmy Rollins walked to load the bases.

Puerto Rico brought in Fernando Cabrera to relieve Romero and face Kevin Youkilis, their two run lead in danger of disappearing. Cabrera walked Youkilis on 5 pitches, leaving the Americans down by one run.

Mets 3b David Wright stepped up to the plate, and on the 2-1 pitch, he hit a bloop double to the right corner, bringing home two runs and keeping the Americans in the WBC.

It was quite a game, and if you missed it, you missed the best baseball game since the Red Sox ALCS game 5 comeback last season.

The Americans will move on while Puerto Rico returns to spring training. Regardless of how things go from here, Team USA has already outshone the 2006 team. But with players like Wright, Rollins, Victorino, Jeter, and Youkilis (among many, many others) its hard to see them giving up now.

Team USA will play Venezuela, who they split a series with in Toronto, to see who will will Pool 2 tonight (March 18th) at 7 PM eastern. If you haven't been watching the WBC, tune in now, because things are getting very interesting.

Dice-K and Dustin: The Road Warriors

Okay. Dice-K wasn't dicey. At least until the 8th. That was a switch. And the Sox are looking good on the road, I mean, its against the Mariners, but still. I'll take what I can get.

Some really good things happened yesterday:

1. Dice-K went 7 1/3 and only let in 2 runs towards the end there...not too bad
2. Okajima looked good. It was like a flashback to last year, maybe he's out of his slump?
3. Paps notched save #30. That's the third year in a row he's had a least 30 saves in a season.
And its only July. We've got a lot more baseball to play.
4. Tek had another hit. Do we dare to hope?
5. Mikey had a good day swinging the bat, possibly signifying that he's coming out of his little mini-slump
6. Jacoby Ellsbury looked good. I mean, he didn't have a great night for a lead-off man, but he looked good.
7. Manny and Dustin extended their game hit-streaks to 11 and 23, respectively.
8. This afternoon's game will hopefully be the last one we play this season without Papi, who returns for Friday's home stand against the Yanks.
9. JD Drew homered. That's always a good thing.
10. The Rays lost. Actually, the Rays got spanked. Good stuff.


So now that we've discussed the 10 good things that happened last night, lets talk about something magical. I was watching the game, and there were a couple of balls hit to third, and I remember thinking: "okay, good, we got that out." when in fact Mikey had barely begun to field the ball. The duo of Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis is the most comforting corner combination ever. They are both tremendous defensive players, and sometimes I feel like any ball hit to them is an automatic out. And obviously Dustin Pedroia is up there too, they're all golden glove candidates (again in Mikey and Youk's case) in my book. That should have been your All-Star infield: Youk, Pedroia, Jeter, Mikey. (A-Rod is WAY overrated. I mean, at least Jeter is good and a class-act, but A-Rod...eh. not so much.)

Clay B. is starting for the Sox this afternoon (what a weird time for a game, not that I'm complaining, because I've been up late every night this week watching the late night games. I mean, I know its a 1:40 game in Seattle, but 4:40 is just a bizarre time to start a game ) hopefully this start will be better than the last few, especially since the Sox are up against Felix Hernandez, which is quite scary (especially for righties).

What do we need?

We need a quality outing from Buchholz, good, clutch bats from the boys, and I want to see Paps out there in the 9th. And a Rays loss wouldn't hurt either :)

Go Sox!!

So Good, So Good, So Good

Before we begin, I'd like to take a moment of silence for the city of Seattle. I can't imagine what they're going through.

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Done. Okay. On to baseball! It's always a good day when we beat the Yankees. When we beat the Yankees with a Jon Lester complete game shut out? Lets just say the Rays series stings a bit less (no pun intended) And Tek got a hit. Yay! All is right in my world tonight, and I can start praying for a Tampa Bay meltdown...probably not going to happen, but hey, its something we can hope for.

Congrats to Dustin Pedroia (or, D.P. as we lovingly call him) on extending his hitting streak to 11 games. J.D. was Mr. June...could Dustin be Mr. July? Don't know. We also find out how many of the boys will be taking the field for the All-Star game. Probably a lot. And Tito gets to run the show. I feel like this is just torture for the Yankees, and its sadistic, but I love watching them get tortured.

And who doesn't love Lester? I mean, how can you not? He's one of those players who you have a grudging respect for even if you hate their team (like my relationship with Jeter. Respect him. Great player. I'd love him if he played for anyone else, but I can't hate him. He's too much of a class act.) Lester is one of those guys that you just have to love. I think this is Lester's year. I mean, he's got the no-no, two complete game shut-outs...could we add a ring to this to top it all off? I think so.

Here's to Beckett and the Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day, y'all! (What, I may like the Sox, but I'm still a southerner) Shouldn't we automatically win on the 4th since Boston was like, huge in winning this whole Independence thing? Ya know, Paul Revere, Boston Tea Party, Boston Massacre...isn't there some karma from that or something?

And I'll leave you with a few thoughts.

-Burn Notice is a great show. Check it out! (It has the line: "Guns make you stupid. But Duct tape? Duct tape makes you smart.")

-Jacoby Ellsbury is like the Speedy Gonzales of Baseball. No joke.

-One of the issues facing the Sox at the end of the year is Jason Varitek's free agency. Normally, I am against falling in love with a player and thus not letting them go when it's time, but removing Tek is like taking away the soul of the team, a great defensive player, and an almost coach. How stupid would you have to be to trade the Captain? The guy who manages games better than any other catcher in the league? (Note: I fully believe the Sox will re-sign Tek, but this is just me getting out my two cent)

-A sweep of the Yanks would be great. Really, really, really great.

One final thing: this is from March, but it's too funny to pass up. Look up "Mike Lowell's Dancing With the All-Stars". This isi from March but it still makes me laugh. There should be four videos that go along with these three pictures, along with mentions of Nutrisystem, being turned on, and the ownership of a particular shirt.

So good, so good, so good.