Edition #30
Thirteen Things about THE BUMBLES - and the books we brought home with us from recent library sales...
Have you read any of these? Let us know your opinions so we can better decide which ones to dive into and which ones to save for a rainy day:
1. " She's Come Undone" - Wally Lamb (Molly knows nothing about this book other than it is about a woman named Dolores, is supposed to be quite funny, and Molly really enjoyed another of Lamb's books - "I Know This Much Is True.") 2. " Eyes of a Child" - Richard North Patterson (A gripping murder/mystery thriller involving a murder masked as suicide, a child custody battle, child abuse allegations, and a DA as a suspect.) 3. " Bleachers" and " The Innocent Man" - John Grisham (Two books outside of his usual crime thriller fare, the first a short fictional story about a man revisiting his high school football glory days due to the death of his former coach and the second a non-fiction account of someone questionably accused of murder and sentenced to death row.) 4. " Open House" - Elizabeth Berg (Molly's heard lots of glowing praise for Berg but has yet to read any of her work. This one seems to be about a woman overcoming her divorce by turning her home into a boarding house to pay the bills and care for her son.) 5. " My Losing Season" - Pat Conroy (A memoir from an author Molly enjoys. This is about his final year of playing organized basketball in college and how it shaped his life growing up.) 6. " Rabbit, Run" - John Updike (When Updike passed away this year Molly realized she had never read any of his books. This classic seemed to be a good place to start - about a man running away from the challenges in his life trying to find himself and happiness. The first in a series as well.) 7. " Notes From a Small Island" - Bill Bryson (His "A Walk In The Woods" cracked both of us up - and Molly's new venture into writing freelance travel posts caused more interest in reading about Bryson's views of touring his longtime second home in Britain before returning to the U.S.) 8. " So Far Gone" - Paul Cody (Another book about death row - this one a fictional memoir told via journal form by the character convicted of murdering his family.) 9. " The World According to Garp" - John Irving (Loved the movie. Imagine that the book is even better. The story of a bastard child growing up with a bizarre mother and unloyal wife. Lots of humor mixed in with the tragic elements.) 10. " Open Net" - George Plimpton (The professional amateur takes on hockey by joining the Boston Bruins' training camp in the late '70's and tells the stories behind the goalie mask.) 11. " Rebecca" - Daphne Du Maurier (Another well loved movie - Hitchcock at his best. So this classic deserves a good look. A woman meets a very dashing, wealthy widower on vacation and their fariy tale marriage turns into a nightmare as the deceased wife's presence is always nearby.) 12. " Echo Park" - Michael Connelly (Suspense, via a cold case file revived, and a detective's search for the truth causing him to realize killings could have been prevented if not for department error.) 13. " Wicked" - Gregory Maguire (We enjoyed the production of this play very much but have heard that the book is much darker. Looking forward to reading about the Wicked Witch of the West's life in Oz.) The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is not only encouraged, it is part of being a Thursday Thirteener! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
 Now where do you think the Bumbles were when they encountered these steps? Click HERE to find the answers in the words.
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 MizB asks you to: - Grab your current read.
- Let the book fall open to a random page.
- Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page.
- Share the title of the book the teaser comes from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
- Please avoid spoilers!
From pg. 208 of GALAPAGOS by Kurt Vonnegut (fiction)... "Why so many of us a million years ago purposely knocked out major chunks of our brains with alcohol from time to time remains an interesting mystery. It may be that we were trying to give evolution a shove in the right direction - in the direction of smaller brains." Oh how I love this book. Parts of it do come off as a bit dated now, but the overall theme about all that we, the human race, and our oversized brains are doing to make ourselves extinct is still very resonant. This is a tale of "The Nature Cruise of the Century" to Darwin's Galapagos islands in 1986 and how the small group of people beached on one of the islands ends up becoming the future all of humankind. The detached narrator looks back on the pivotal moments leading up to and including that doomed cruise and how Natural Selection caused humans to survive and evolve - to a much simpler, survival based existence - with smaller brains leading to a future one million years strong and counting. I absolutely hate spoilers. I don't even care to be reminded in the slightest about the plot before I read something. So it is very funny that I enjoy this book so much since throughout Vonnegut does nothing but spoil things and tell us what is going to happen point blank rather than via foreshadowing - that seems to be for sissies. As he himself said, "Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages." Vonnegut pokes fun at society and the problems we create for ourselves. His wry humor weaves around his more serious statements about such things as the atrocities of war. This book was devilishly fun. Read it if you want a satirical laugh about yourself and human nature. After all, in a million years you won't be able to read the book with just your flippers and your mouth.
 Feature Presentation... MONDAY MOVIE MEME
Molly looked around for a weekly meme about movies and did not have any luck. So therefore she decided to start her own! Andy will play along as well - hopefully you will too. Go to your blog and create your own post on the topic, linking back to us in your post, then come back and leave a link to your post here in our Comments section. If you don’t have a blog, just share your response in the Comments section.
This week's movie topic is all about How You Watch Movies... If you play along with this weekly meme then obviously you enjoy movies. But how do you watch them? Do you wait in line for the big premier at the theater? Do you savor trips to the local video store perusing the titles up and down the aisle? Or maybe you only watch them from home as they arrive in your mailbox, inbox, or on T.V. And maybe who you watch them with dictates how you watch them. Here's what we do - share your methods on your blog and link back here at The Bumbles.
OVAH THE MONSTAH 
Good Company:
where previously Molly put her teaching background to good use explaining the game of baseball to foreigners
Before parting ways with my Roomies in college there was graduation to get through of course. Boston University had all kinds of activities to offer its graduating students during graduation weekend. And so of course I jumped at the group tickets in the bleachers for a Red Sox game at Fenway. My parents, my brother, and my two Roomies were supposed to go. Neither of my Roomies were able to attend the game so my ex-boyfriend and my future husband got the tickets instead. It was a beautiful day at the park, which is not always the case in Boston before Memorial Day. It was quite hot that entire weekend. In fact, my mother and I thought having a perfect view of the backside of Ellis Burks in Center helped heat things up a bit as well. Back then the players didn’t wear their pants all baggy like they do now. My Mom isn’t a real big baseball fan. I think she roots for the Red Sox for the sake of my brother and I because she knows how much we love our teams.
So, to keep herself entertained on this very hot day in the bleachers with very little interest in the game being played, she amused herself by watching all the hi-jinks of the Bleacher Creatures. With great interest she studied and pointed out the fights about to break out, the ejections, and the ejected that tried their best in their inebriated state to sneak back in. As long as they weren’t sitting in striking distance of us I think she rooted for them to succeed in their attempts to get past the ushers and security – they were the underdogs to her.
And then there was the inevitable Wave that is always started by a rambunctious fan or two in the bleachers urging his or her fellow fans to stand up and sit down sequentially, with arms raised and voices cheering to show unity of support to the home town team. There is great disdain of the Box Seat patrons who always seem to kill the Wave when it works it's way around to them. Too good for the Wave are they? We’ll show them! And so goes the relentless pursuit of the goal to have the Wave make it all the way around the park back to where it started with the Bleacher Creatures. There is of course The Wall in left field, which at that time didn’t have fans in expensive seats on top to keep it going. Just a simple screen to catch the home runs that didn’t have enough height to fly over it and onto the parking garage roof across the street. But when the Wave hit the edge of the left field seats it just skipped over The Wall and landed back at the edge of the center field bleachers where it belonged – mission accomplished!
Upon graduation I left Boston in pursuit of my career in teaching while living at home in CT temping in the insurance hub of the universe in Hartford. There were no takers in the education field from all the resum̩s and interviews I suffered through. I realized quickly that substitutes make a lot less money than I was earning as an office temp so the teaching career got put on hold. I spent a year in CT Рcommuting back and forth to Boston on the weekends to visit my friends.
During that summer my Mets fan friends provided me a treat to a Cards/Mets game at Shea Stadium in New York. This was the first time I had seen a live National League game and the only time I have ever seen my childhood favorite Cards in person. As ugly as Shea was I still got that same feeling I get when I walk into any park alive with baseball – the excitement and anticipation, the unbridled hope and possibilities that not only could your team win but you might bear witness to a very special baseball moment like a no hitter, or cycle, or triple play. I didn’t get to witness any such special moment but I did get to peer at the tiny players beneath me from the tip-top of Shea with my Mets fan friends. It was a tremendously fun evening with foes in the city to the south. I thank them for the opportunity to see my Cards play ball live.
After a year my beloved cat had become miserable in CT so I used that as a reason to move back to Boston. Wouldn’t you know that the one summer I missed after graduation was the only time my co-ed softball team won the Championship? The Sox didn’t, but one memory that I hold dear to my heart from that Sox season upon my return was the last home game of the season I attended with a girlfriend of mine using her Dad’s season tickets. The seats were under the overhang of the second level on the first base side which came in handy on an overcast, drizzly day. The Sox weren’t going to the playoffs. But it was Tony Peňa’s last game as a Sox catcher. This was special to me because of his contributions as a catcher for both of my favorite teams. At the end of the afternoon in bottom of the 9th inning the most beautiful rainbow emerged over Fenway as the drizzle stopped. The Fenway announcer pointed out in between hitters to all in attendance that Nature was giving the fans and the team a big Thank You to the season – and to Tony.
next week, FANATIC, where Molly's love of beer makes for an entertaining work outing to Fenway...
 03-22-2009 - Statue of Liberty - New York, NY (click photo to enlarge) Visit
 to post or VOTE for this (Bumbles) or other interpretations of this week's challenge
We have lived in our town now for seven years and I have been a loyal patron of our local library. Because of the tiny check that I sent them about five years ago I also got onto the Friends of the Library list which sends me e-mails asking me to be a good doobie and help work all the various events from year to year. I read them, think to myself how nice it is to live in a town with such a strong sense of community and goodwill, and then hit the delete button. But a month ago I was either in an especially good mood or not quite awake when I read the latest request for volunteers to work the semi-annual library sale, because I zipped a little reply right back agreeing to help out without giving it a second thought. I am a lazy Bumble after all - this offer was a bit out of character for me. After responding to the volunteer request I was told to show up the last day of the sale when the library opened and that I wouldn't be allowed to handle any of the cash. I thought perhaps this was part of the volunteer hazing ritual to weed out the riff-raff. But it seems they just didn't want to bother with any of the newbies any sooner than they needed to. Myself and this other woman were the only two who hadn't been present to work the sale previously so we were given the grand tour as the gates opened. We were told to maneuver around the patrons and pick up after them - putting books back where they belonged, re-stocking the vacant spots from the reserve boxes of books below, and answer questions about the prices or where genres were located. It reminded me of when I worked at Shoe Town back in high school. Always having to go through the racks and straightening the shoes, putting them back under the right sizes, and filling the empty spaces. I hated that job. And to this day I can't go shoe shopping without unconsciously straightening the racks. To make my task more interesting I found myself trying to select books that I thought would be sure sellers from the reserve boxes and gave them prominent placement on the tables. I would look at the various patrons around me and try to fill a space near them with a title that seemed to match their personality. My little sociological experiment didn't work all that well since no one was biting. At one point I found myself putting "The Shipping News" in the hand of a young father and telling him to just trust me. I noticed as I kept circling the space and working the tables that my fellow newbie had planted herself firmly at the Childrens book table and wasn't budging. It seemed to me that the reserve boxes on the floor did a fine job in keeping the little ones occupied at their parents' feet so no real organizing needed to be dealt with there. After stopping by for a visit I soon realized that Ms. Newbie was using her organization attempts as a pure cover for searching for titles that all her grandkids would just love to have. She just about had a heart attack when I mistook her secret stash for left behinders needing to be put back in circulation. Her deviance gave me the idea to just go ahead and pull out all those great titles I had seen in my travels and set them aside for myself. It sure beat hiding them all and trying to remember where I put them later, like you do with that perfect dress at the store that you can't afford until it goes on sale. I asked the people in power (the ones allowed to handle the cash) where I could keep my books. They were happy to put a little HOLD sign on them and everything. When I bumped into the coordinator over the Biography table I mentioned to her how I had just recently been to another library sale in CT which did a bag sale on the last day to minimize the amount of stock left to donate or re-box for another sale. I was very abruptly told that method did not work because everyone just waited to come until the last day. Now, to me, it seems that perhaps people would want to come on the earlier days to have the best selection, and that on the last day people would buy more books than intended just because they had an empty bag in their hand. But coordinator lady told me that the bag concept "didn't work for us." Been there, done that, don't question my authority, newbie. As we entered the final hour of the sale, I was pulled aside by the coordinator who said they had a special job just for me. Uh-oh. In my experience, that is a method of getting someone out of the way who is doing more harm than good without hurting their feelings. My special job was to go through and pull out all of the excessive duplicates and put them aside to get a head start on boxing things up. So my fast and furious pace of restocking was completely stalled out by staring at cover after cover playing my own personal game from hell of Concentration. The silver lining was that it gave me a better opportunity to find books I wanted to buy - and Ms. Newbie had to leave her Childrens table and make the rounds in my absence. At the end of the day it was a good experience and one I'll probably sign up for again. I doubt they'll ever let me have the cushy job of sitting around collecting cash, but at least I'll have the added perk of book shopping on the job at bargain rates.
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Edition #29
Thirteen Things about THE BUMBLES - and the trivia questions we battled through at Stump Trivia Night...
One of the things we do for fun is to meet up with some friends of ours and go play bar trivia every now and then. Stump Trivia was created by a guy in Massachusetts and can now be played in many states across the country. It sponsors trivia nights at bars and pits teams against each other for gift certificates to the bar. So - if you have your thinking caps on you can have a fun night out for free! Here's a sampling of the questions we were asked. We missed two of these thirteen - how many do you know? Leave your guesses in the Comments and we'll add the correct ones to the post as you come up with them. Oh yeah - no cheating. We weren't allowed to use cell phones to make our guesses - so no googling for you!
1. What T.V. network targeting kids ages 6-11 was founded in 1977 as Pinwheel until adopting it's current name in 1981? NICKELODEON (becky68)2. What hugely popular musical and subsequent movie adaption was the last written by Rogers & Hammerstein? THE SOUND OF MUSIC (FireFox)3. What political figure claimed he was the victim of a hi-tech lynching during highly publicized Congressional hearings in 1991? CLARENCE THOMAS4. In what 1997 film is the imaginary character Rolo Tomassi used as a metaphor for a criminal who gets away with his crime? LA CONFIDENTIAL (FireFox)5. What fruit native to the Caribbean, Mexico, South America and Central America is sometimes known as a butter pear? AVOCADO6. What wildly popular game was included with the original edition of Nintendo's Game Boy? TETRIS (becky68)7. The Canadian Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels is best known for playing what famous role from 1949-1957 as well as in 2 films? TONTO (Nicholas)8. What 1982 duet was #59 on Billboard's "Greatest Songs of All Time" list, has also appeared on several polls of "Worst Song," and was the first song from a former Beatle to hit the Black Singles Chart? EBONY & IVORY - PAUL MCCARTNEY & STEVIE WONDER (Carleen)9. What nickname is sometimes used by the N.Y. Times to underscore it's sober presentation and style? THE GREY LADY10. Ramon Ferrer was the Captain of what famous ship in American history which also was made into a 1997 movie? The name of the ship meant friendship in his native language. AMISTAD (SuziQ)11. Martin Buser currently holds the record time in what annual 1,161 mile event - at 8 Days, 22 hours, 46 Minutes and 2 Seconds? IDITAROD (SuziQ)12. What 1937 event was radio broadcaster Herbert Morrison witnessing when he famously exclaimed "Oh the humanity! This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed."? THE HINDENBURG (becky68)13. The book entitled "The Undead" scheduled for release this October is an official sequel to what 1897 novel and is written by the great grand-nephew of the original author? DRACULA (Nicholas)The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is not only encouraged, it is part of being a Thursday Thirteener! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
    Can you guess what kind of tree this is and where the Bumbles went to find it? Click HERE to find the answers in the words.
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Catherine @ The Blonde Diaries gave us the Premio Dardos Award a few months ago and we have been very lazy Bumbles in passing it along. The award itself looks a little freaky - like a typewriter that is being attacked by the monster on Lost or something. But it actually is very noble and we can see why Catherine received it to begin with - she's got such a bright and fun blog and plays nice with everyone. You should go check her out. "This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values every day. The rules to follow are: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and their blog link."Then we're supposed to hand it out to 10 other bloggers, but we are sticking to our own "personal values and ethics" by featuring one blogger who we feel meets the criteria and that we think you need to meet. Drumroll please....... We met Jenn through a forum on ProBlogger and have really enjoyed learning all kinds of helpful things about the world of freelancing. She is always introducing her readers to great resources out there for sites to visit, people to learn from and tips of the trade. And lucky for you she's just started a series called "SpecialtyBuzz" where she will evaluate the pros and cons to specializing. This could be useful to anyone - for your side business, blogging, or writing. So go introduce yourself to Jenn and sign up for her feed. She's Premio Dardos quality after all!
A few weeks ago my mom sent me an e-mail inviting us to come down to CT for a visit to go to their town's Library Sale. She teased it with the explanation that on the last day you could walk out of there with a bag full of books for only $5. I think she really just wanted an excuse to get us to come and that was the best she could come up with, which does not make for a very happenin' itinerary to lure Andy with. "Hey honey, want to drive down and spend the weekend with my folks going to a library sale while the Celtics and Bruins are in the playoffs?!" It was however enough of a reason for me to say yes and since Andy is the good Bumble that he is, he agreed to go (no playoff game viewing was missed in the making of this weekend). I don't ever recall going to a Library Sale before, but my mom goes to them and used book stores all the time. She is my supplier when it comes to paperbacks. But now I was going straight to the source. Having an addictive personality, I'm not sure that it was a good idea to encourage a book addict to do such a thing. Their town's library holds their sale at the Senior Center because they don't have enough room in the library to put on a sale of this size. We arrived late on Sunday so we missed the biggest crowds they've ever had, but apparently the line was out the door, on a rainy, cold day no less. I blamed my parents for our delayed arrival since they never re-set the clock in my room. They blamed it on my penchant for sleeping in. Whatever. I thought I had done us all a big favor by not having to stand in line in the rain. But the tradeoff for that was that the pickins were slim by the time we entered. I was amazed by the never ending long tables stacked with books in all categories. The crowd was still large but it was kind of like being at Filene's Basement after the Bridal Gown Sale just ended. Very picked over, a little disheveled, and somewhat overwhelming. Here I was with my empty paper bag in one hand and my trusty list of To Read titles in the other, trying to see past all the Grishams to find the good stuff. I realized that at this stage of the sale, my mother's ability to always find the perfect dress amidst the racks of crap at Marshall's would come in quite handy. While I aimlessly wandered from table to table she was quite easily filling up her bag with goodies. I managed to pluck an old hardcover off of the Classics table that was on my list and beamed with pride when my mom showed up later with the same title in hand suggesting I have a go at it - I had beat her to the punch! Gaining confidence, I found my mojo and threw all caution to the wind, scanning through the titles from memory rather than referring to my list that was costing me time as some sweet Grampy would swoop in and snag a book right out from under me. Even Andy found a book from my list and added it to the bag. He managed to pick out a few for himself as well which was in and of itself quite the accomplishment. As the sale was coming to a close, we began surveying the prominently placed pile of Mystery/Thrillers one last time like crack addicts looking for the perfect score, which would explain how some of the titles I brought home ended up in there. I'm pretty sure one of mom's got mixed with ours - but knowing her it will probably end up being a gem.
Feature Presentation... MONDAY MOVIE MEME
Molly looked around for a weekly meme about movies and did not have any luck. So therefore she decided to start her own! Andy will play along as well - hopefully you will too. Go to your blog and create your own post on the topic, linking back to us in your post, then come back and leave a link to your post here in our Comments section. If you don’t have a blog, just share your response in the Comments section.
This week's movie topic is all about Tear Jerkers... The Bumbles aren't big criers. In fact we find "a good cry" to be quite the oxymoron. So therefore we don't go looking for sad movies - but every now and then a movie tricks us into thinking it is going to be perfectly fun and some damn sad scene gets snuck in there. We put on the brave face, but that stupid tear starts trickling out the corner of an eye and next thing you know, our sleeve is all wet because, being tricked into the sad scene, we didn't have any kleenex handy. Here are the few that really did a number on us. Why don't you share some others with us so that we aren't caught off guard without our tissues? My Girl (thought this was a comedy, biggest sucker punch ever)Beaches (even though Molly read the book first & knew what was coming, it didn't matter)Steel Magnolias (too much star power to avoid)Awakenings (such optimism, but forgot that medicine isn't an exact science)To Kill A Mockingbird (the best story ever is morally moving, chokes us up every time)Life Is Beautiful (OK, OK, it's about the Holocaust - but such a happy title makes you think it might be the exception to the rule)
OVAH THE MONSTAH
Baseball Instruction:
where previously Molly rediscovered softball and learned to keep score
Keeping score and playing softball gave me a greater knowledge of the game when I watched it during trips to Fenway. In college I never spent the money for the program with the score sheet in it. My dollars had to be rationed and beer and Fenway Franks took precedence. But I certainly could follow along without difficulty and appreciated not only the outstanding plays everyone notices, but the routine ones as well. I found it also gave me the ability to use my teaching skills in the game of baseball. My college degree is in Elementary Education but I work in Financial Planning. So although my parents spent an awful lot of money for me to earn a degree for a job I don’t actually hold, I do apply the skills I honed on teaching people the game of baseball.
It was my Senior year and I had moved back to the Kenmore area in a tiny little apartment that I shared with two of my closest friends about four blocks away from Fenway. My Scottish Roomie and I had to walk past Fenway every day to and from class. It was at times a complete zoo. I once was returning home from class and dared to cross Yawkey Way where the players pulled in to park their vehicles in the cramped confines of the ballpark. As I stepped off the curb I was directly in the path of the biggest SUV I had ever seen and it came to a screeching halt. It was the Left Fielder, Mike Greenwell, behind the wheel and another fan yelled out “What’s the matter Greenie? You can’t hit a baseball so you decided to hit a pedestrian?!” Greenie, who was in a hitting slump, was not pleased and wasn’t apologetic at all so my previous awe at his hitting the cycle at my first ever Fenway game forever went by the wayside.
After walking past the park a gazillion times (without getting run over by a player) I decided it was time for my Scot Roomie to actually attend a game. Her family moved from Glasgow to Tampa when she was approaching high school. All she knew about American sports was that Tampa had an American Football team called the Bucs that apparently never did very well. She knew nothing about sports and had no interest in sports. It was like she had a force field around the magnet of Fenway and the Red Sox that seemed to latch on to every other person plopped in the center of that area. A teaching challenge was born.
It is difficult enough to explain the rules of baseball to someone. It is far more difficult to explain those same rules to someone familiar only with the rules of Cricket. My only exposure to Cricket was on a family vacation to Barbados. I did not take part in the lessons our hotel offered – I preferred the beach. I wish I had played Cricket because it would have helped me relate to my Scot Roomie’s base of understanding.
The game we attended started off all right. It was a beautiful day and the seats on the right field side were a perfect vantage point. Scot Roomie wanted to know who that guy was that kept hovering over the players – that would be the Ump. Then there was a balk, which to this day I myself have trouble spotting. There is no way to describe a balk to someone who still hasn’t grasped the basic concepts of balls, strikes, and how a run is scored. When the 7th Inning Stretch came along and we all stood up to sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” my Scot Roomie wanted to know what this was all about and how we all knew the words to this song. She thought it must be something like the Pledge of Allegiance. I think she thought we were all involved in some weird baseball cult that was taught to us as kids. We left the game with her more confused than before she got there.
When my Scot Roomie moved to NYC after college, there was a moment in the 90’s when the Yankees won their first World Series pennant of that decade. She was still not a sports fan and did not have a TV. Yet, from the tranquility of her studio NYC apartment, she heard a monumentous cheer all around her. Because of my sports awareness teaching she told me that she realized that the Yankees must have just won the World Series. The fact that she knew there was a baseball team in New York and that the championship was called the World Series, and that she made the connection of those things to the celebration she heard outside of her window makes me proud.
next week, GOOD COMPANY, where college winds down and Molly's mom finds a way to enjoy game day...
 04-17-2005 - A NEW day begins in Times Square - NEW York City, NY (click photo to enlarge) Visit
to post or VOTE for this (Bumbles) or other interpretations of this week's challenge
 Well, if we had a Bruins flag we would be flying it at half mast today as Taps plays forlornly in the background. The B's lost in overtime of Game 7 in their 2nd round playoff series to the Carolina Hurricanes (aka the former Hartford Whalers) yesterday evening.
This crushing defeat on home ice was really disappointing for the B's and their fans. Exhibit A is, of course, Andy. Poor guy just about had a nervous breakdown watching the game and believed in his heart of hearts that the B's would prevail.
Despite the painful loss, Andy still feels it is better to have lost in this fashion with heads held high rather than laying a big fat egg like the Capitals did to the Penguins in their Game 7 blowout loss. And he is looking forward to next season already from such a young team that has gained motivation from this playoff exit.
But this loss does have one silver lining:
"I had to break out the razor this morning. I was looking forward to a big, bushy mustache well into June but it will have to wait until 2010."
Woo-hoo! Molly is doing a little happy dance!
"Maybe I'll start another one and shave it when Big Papi finally hits a home run for the Red Sox. At the rate he's going I might look like Rip Van Winkle…"
Uh-oh.
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Edition #28
Thirteen Things about THE BUMBLES - and some of the comments left for us here that deserve another look...
A while back, Wanda @ A Season To Read passed along the "You Don't Say" award to us which we thought was pretty awesome. It is given to recognize bloggers whose comments have made an impact on the blogs they visit. Now, we beg to differ that our comments make an impact - that's something we'd like to see Obama start doing for example. However, it is nice to be thanked for stopping by. As the award says, it takes time to visit a blog and leave a comment. We do this often because Bumbles are pretty friendly beasts. And lots of you have done the same for us here. So we thought we'd give some comment love in this Thursday 13 post to some of the ones we've received that caught our attention and pass the award along to the people who left them behind. See - you never know what could happen with those little comments you leave here!
1. In response to our last Monday Movie Meme question about what your first R rated movie was, Kaye left us this little nugget which made us laugh for a while: "Oh, I remember mine. I had been to a church dance with a young man. I was in a dress with a corsage. He decided he wanted to go to a movie. When we got to the theater it was R-rated. I wasn't old enough to get in without permission so he had to "give permission" for me to enter--needless to say I was so embarressed about the whole thing. And to top it all off the movie was 'Blazing Saddles.'"2. Frequent visitor and thoughtful blogger Sandy had this helpful tip for Molly in response to her post about Andy's hockey playoff mustache: "Hmmm...well if its not all that bushy, you might be able to take care of it in a few swipes. I'm a moderate fan of hockey. We go once or twice a year to see a Tampa Bay Lightning game. But not enough to warrant facial hair. Just give him a few drinks one night, and take care of it Molly!" The 'stache is still hanging around just like the Bruins. 3. Wanda, the bestower of our award, shows herself to be an insightful commenter when she gave us this food for thought in response to a Teaser Tuesday about the book, " The Devil In The White City": "Hmmm ... I do wonder if murderers are born or raised and whether or not saying "I was born with the Devil in me" is actually a cop out for making a choice."4. We like people who can admit their fears. The Ruby Canary did just that in response to our T13 about our wedding day: "That was sweet. Weddings scare me. I really don't want anything to do with them. I'm not sure where this comes from. So if you have invited The Ruby Canary to a wedding and they don't show up, don't take it personal. 5. Our RSS for Dummies post was not meant to imply that our readers were in fact dummies. Teddy Ree took it a step farther in insulting herself and complimenting us: "Awww thanks so much, I really needed the RSS explanation for morons and I finally get :-)" We know you are not a moron. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 6. We aren't big cooks (OK - Molly doesn't even know which appliance is the stove) so when Fire Fox left us this comment in response to our Monday Movie Meme looking for favorite movie snacks, it was a recipe right up our alley: "Sugar Babies, Raisinettes, Twizzlers... and ooohhhh buttered popcorn...YUM! Sometimes we'd make homemade snacks from whatever we could find in the cupboard (chunks of brownies mixed with peanut butter chips, M&M's, granola,raisins,peanuts). We still have an active summer drive-in theater (Wellfleet),which opens up a whole new angle on the concession business."7. Speaking of recipes, Lynn has tons of good ones. But when she comes to visit she likes to talk baseball and made us all nostalgic with this one left in response to one of Molly's Ovah the Monstah posts about growing up with baseball: "This is fun reading about the beginnings of your obsession with baseball. Mine started much less auspiciously with all those hours my sister and I spent under the bleachers at the Little League field while our brothers played. We were not paying attention to the game but were looking for gum wrappers to add to our 30-feet-long gum chains. Do little kids even make gum chains anymore? I would so love that experience you described of turning down the volume of the game on tv or radio and hearing the actual, live roar of the fans."8. Who doesn't love Alice Audrey? But she found a spot closer to our heart when she shared our sentiments very bluntly in her response to our Elevator Pitch post: "I hate mission statements. I keep thinking they should be right up my alley since I like goals, which often hinge on mission statements, but I still suck at them."9. An Eerie Tapestry is a witty fellow, and his humor was on good display in this response to our T13 about things we grew up just fine without: "Our TV just had buttons for selecting channels (back then there were so few channels that we only needed three). Walking back and forth to the set was how I used to get all my exercise (I get it now by walking round looking for the remote)."10. Priscilla usually has her nose stuck in a book, but her response to our Top 5 on Friday post about musical artists who shouldn't act was classic: "I don't think Jessica Simpson even counts as a "music artist." Poor thing."11. As stated above, Molly does not cook. But Andy does, and every now and then he discovers a new yummy recipe. Margot got kudos for complimenting the chef in this response to his efforts with Mexican Chicken Stew: "This looks fantastic. I'm copying the recipe right now. Your Andy is a smart guy. Don't you just love men who can cook?" Molly sure does. 12. Molly used to post about the Gym Rats before she changed to a smaller gym where there are rarely people watching opportunities. Which is too bad because sharing Belly Girl was a lot of fun, and Aly's response was too: "Ooooooh! I like Belly Girl and I love the way you've written this. You're right too! How often do people see our bellies? At the beach if you're wearing a two piece but other than that, what does it matter if it pokes out? I don't plan on going on TV with my belly any time soon so I'm safe...off to eat a midnight snack to celebrate." A girl after our own heart. 13. And of course, the list wouldn't be complete without some total sucking up to Janet, our Thursday 13 co-host, who happened to leave these very true words of wisdom in response to our T13 Suggestion Box post: "I think you should blog about what makes you happy!" Smart lady, that Janet. The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. What do you do? Write Thirteen things about yourself, summarize your week in one entry, make it easy for other bloggers to get to know you on a weekly basis. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is not only encouraged, it is part of being a Thursday Thirteener! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun!View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
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Every Tuesday I have participated in Teaser Tuesdays, the great book meme hosted by MizB that encourages you to post 2 random spoiler-free consecutive sentences from the book you are reading. I wanted a place to play along and therefore The Bumbles Blog was created. Last week, for I think the first time in our short blogging history, I skipped Teaser Tuesdays. Partly it was because I was busy with other things, but also because I was re-reading Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" and I figured people were probably more interested in discovering all the great new books out there competing for our attention as opposed to being reminded of the words in an old faded book. But as I read along, and got reaclimated with all the characters and reminded of the story, I got more and more of an itch to talk about it and all the tools that good old Faulkner used to tell his tale. Faulkner is not for everyone. Some may consider him an acquired taste. I'm not sure that many stick with him long enough to acquire him actually. I wouldn't recommend starting off with "The Sound and the Fury," although that is my favorite book of all. He doesn't write about a lot of action, but he writes about the impact of the actions of his characters with great depth. He crawls into their minds and their souls and exposes them to us. Sometimes the words are nonsensical or intimidating. They go 'round and 'round and are often repetitive. If you've ever had a conversation with yourself, he writes it the way it probably took place. Disjointed, with thoughts coming out so fast sometimes you skip over words - or stop short at the realization of something. He likes conflict, torment and dilemmas. He writes about women who have a different take on things and are misunderstood because of it, but whom I always get behind, the way I think he does too. And he is also pretty funny when he wants to be. I am not quite through with "As I Lay Dying" because I myself am not laying around and thankfully I am not dying - though I am dying to lie down and read some more. So I have decided that instead of every week, I will participate in Teaser Tuesdays whenever I have gotten around to finishing a book so that I can share a piece of it with all of you and give a little review to get your thoughts as well. Here's a Teaser from "As I Lay Dying" - even though I haven't finished it yet. Seems only fair since I have gone to all this trouble to get you interested in Faulkner again. This example is less stream of consciousness and more of a chuckle. From pg. 70 of AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner (fiction)... "I reckon if there's ere a man or woman anywhere that He could turn it all over to and go away with His mind at rest, it would be Cora. And I reckon she would make a few changes, no matter how He was running it."
Feature Presentation... MONDAY MOVIE MEME
Molly looked around for a weekly meme about movies and did not have any luck. So therefore she decided to start her own! Andy will play along as well - hopefully you will too. Leave a link to your blog post where you’ve shared your response or, if you don’t have a blog, share your response in the comment section at the end of this post.
This week's movie topic is all about Your First R Rated Movie... Taking a stroll down memory lane this week, we thought we would share that ever precious moment from youth when one sees their first R rated film. Share your story on your blog and be sure to leave your link in the Comments here. MOLLY:   My first R rated movie was probably either Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams or the original Friday the 13th. Either way, my parents had no idea what I had seen and in both cases thought they were putting me in a nice, safe environment appropriate for my pre-teen age. Oops. I saw Nice Dreams on Cinemax while babysitting for our neighbors. Drugs and three-ways - that's what I remember. I felt extremely dirty for having watched and was paranoid that the parents would somehow be able to tell what channels I had been watching while they were out. I saw Friday the 13th on video at my friend's house one weekend because her older brother wanted to scare us with scenes of slutty teenagers getting shish-kabobbed. It worked. I couldn't walk the 6 houses down the street back to my house in the dark and had to call for a ride. Friday the 13th is one of my favorites to this day. Nice Dreams is not. ANDY:   I want to say it was Vacation? My aunt took me and my younger siblings to see it in the theater. I remember it being the first movie I saw with boobs in it - briefly, but they were there. Another time, me, my brother and some friends wanted to see All the Right Moves. My mom drove us down there and just intended to buy the tickets for us but they said she had to actually go in and see the movie with us. Since that wasn't the plan, we didn't end up getting to see it.
OVAH THE MONSTAH
Keeping Score:
where previously Molly shared tips on getting to and into Fenway
My Mets fans friends and Yankee Boy played in the Boston Bureaucratic Red Tape League, which was slow pitch co-ed softball. They were always looking for extra girls to add to the roster and when I joined the team you could fight for playing time. It was a fun league and a fun team to play for. Typically the girls either played 2nd Base or Catcher. Every now and then one would play Right Field. Having not played softball in years I was nervous and excited to suit up and play. However, I wanted nothing to do with 2nd Base or Outfield. I had never played out there and the few times my new team stuck me out there I was petrified. I was very comfortable behind the plate, which is where I belonged and where I eventually stayed. For the longest time I played in Keds. This is not the footwear of choice for traction but happened to be the only sneakers I could afford. I graduated to some Nikes eventually but learned that the sneakers really had no effect on my lack of speed around the base paths.
I also played without a facemask and shin guards. I continuously was asked to wear the mask by my coach (Yankee boy), teammates, and umpires. I hated it. It was hot under there and uncomfortable – even though my glasses had long since been replaced by contacts. And I couldn’t see the action nearly as well through the bars. My coach offered to get a better one for me that would fit properly but we had such a limited budget for bats and balls, bases and score sheets, the umpire fees – not to mention the annual awards party. I learned to sit farther back behind the plate so as not to get clocked in the head with an aluminum bat or take a foul tip in the teeth. The problem with being that far back meant I couldn’t reach in to catch the pitch and had to catch it off a bounce instead. This was not a skill I was very proficient at (thus my fear of playing the infield) so my legs were constantly bruised. I basically acted more like a goalie than a catcher, using my body to block the ball so it didn’t hit the ump or rattle around the backstop causing game delays as I chased it down. Shin guards would have kept my legs from looking like a battered woman during softball season but they were hot and didn’t fit right either. I did wear them every now and then but still preferred the challenge of improving my fielding skills to avoid the bruises.
I started playing softball to meet new friends. I kept playing because of the friends I met and because I felt it was good exercise. Although technically we didn’t really get a ton of exercise. If you struck out in a game you had to bring beers to the next game – a case if you were a guy and a 12 pack if you were a girl. So any exercise we got on the field was compromised by the game sodas. After the game we would go to the local bar that sponsored our team, wash down free wings and pizza with more beers, and dissect every play of the game we just played by analyzing the scorebook.
My co-ed Bureaucratic Red Tape League softball days in college were where I learned how to score a game. This initially became my duty because there were a lot of girls on the team and being the newest member I got less playing time. Therefore it gave me something to do. I wouldn’t say that my scoring techniques were of the traditional variety. After all, there weren’t always other people on the bench for me to ask how to score certain plays. So I improvised. It completely screwed up the stats but at least I was consistent. Many hours were spent at the bar after the game poring over the scorebook trying to decipher my notations and correct them so the league stats would be as accurate as possible.
As the years went on and the number of girls on the team dwindled I had fulltime catcher duties. But I enjoyed keeping the book and continued to do so when it was our turn at the plate. Toward the end of my career I found myself begging out of catching when possible because I would rather do that than risk injury – what was I thinking catching without a mask and shin guards anyway? I quit playing because it was a real pain in the neck to leave work early to fight traffic to drive into the city for our games. It had been much easier when I was just a college kid living in the city rather than commuting from the suburbs from work. But the real reason was that I had seen plenty of other players suffer injuries and decided to hang up my cleats (Keds) while I was still ahead. Every now and then I go to the games since a handful of my friends are still on the team. And when I go I get to keep score.
next week, BASEBALL INSTRUCTION, where Molly puts her teaching skills to use educating a foreigner on baseball...
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