Halloween 2009

That wraps up another Halloween. The perfect weather (last year it rained) probably had a little to do with it, but we had the most trick-or-treaters in all the years that we have lived in our current place. There seemed to be more kids from outside our area walking our neighborhood.

This year Naomi was a witch, Ethan was a clone trooper from Star Wars, and Ryan was an army guy. They met up with friends and spent about two hours walking the neighborhood.

Auntie and Uncle visited afterward to end the evening, bringing over some goodies for the kids. They reported that a larger number of kids than last year came by their house too.

Songs Played After MLB Home Wins

Before the 2009 season is over, let's salute all those wins across MLB stadiums. Some teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants have played the same song after home wins over several seasons. These songs have come to become synonymous with the team. For a few teams, I was not able to identify a song.

Boston Red Sox – “Dirty Water” by The Standells
New York Yankees – “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra
Baltimore Orioles – “Orioles Magic” written by Perfect Pitch Inc. (did they play this in 2009?)
Toronto Blue Jays – ????
Tampa Bay Rays – “Feel the Heat Rays” by Living Under Venus

Cleveland Indians – “Rock and Roll All Night ” by KISS
Detroit Tigers – “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang
Minnesota Twins – ????
Chicago White Sox – “Sweet Home Chicago” by The Blues Brothers
Kansas City Royals – “Kansas City” by The Beatles

Oakland A’s – “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang
Seattle Mariners – “Kernkraft 400” by Zombie Nation
Los Angeles Angels – “California Angels A-OK” by Dick and Shirley Winslow
Texas Rangers – “I Like Texas” by Pat Green

New York Mets – “Takin’ Care of Business” by BTO
Philadelphia Phillies – “Goin’ Back to Philadelphia, PA” by Bobby Burnett
Washington Nationals – “Beautiful Day” by U2
Florida Marlins – ????
Atlanta Braves – ????

Chicago Cubs – “Go, Cubs, Go” by Steve Goodman
St. Louis Cardinals – Not sure if there is one song, but the organist often plays “Beautiful Day” by u2
Houston Astros – ????
Milwaukee Brewers –Not sure if there is one song, but Jasen Roby the saxophonist under I-94 plays the “Rocky” theme song after wins
Cincinnati Reds – ????
Pittsburgh Pirates – ????

San Diego Padres – “Rock and Roll Part 2” by Gary Glitter
San Francisco Giants – “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” by Tony Bennett
Los Angeles Dodgers – “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman
Colorado Rockies – “Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh
Arizona Diamondbacks – “D-backs Swing” by Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers

Those Darn Raccoons!

We have raccoons tearing up our lawn. This is a new experience for us - one that's been ongoing for a couple of weeks now. Our neighbors actually saw them one evening. She said it looked like a mom and maybe two or three little ones.

They have visited us three or four times now, each time digging up the same part of the lawn. We understand that they are just foraging for food. This happens in the fall when all of the hills are dry and brown, and lawns are not.

We sent an email to Gary Bogue, a newspaper columnist with our local paper, who has assembled a pamphlet on tips for dealing with raccoons. We've added a link to Gary's web site to the Links section of this blog for anyone interested.

We've tried leaving the outdoor light on near where they've been digging. We were told that we could kill the grubs in the lawn that they are after, but we haven't done this yet. We changed the time when the sprinklers come on hoping that they would find the wetter than normal lawn to not be to their liking. Who are we kidding, these are animals that will forage through almost anything. We probably really should turn off the water and dry out the lawn. We'll see what happens.