kampshoff.org

Om nom nom nom

This video speaks for itself.

Everyone's a Kid at Christmastime

Here's a video from Natalie's dance recital.

First name: Bob, last name: Wehadababyitsaboy

Wow, I am terrible. When Natalie was born, I had a long account of the ordeal, complete with pictures, up on this site within days.

Nathan was born four weeks ago, and I've got nothin' so far. Such are the stresses that a second child adds to one's life.

Nathan William Kampshoff was born at 1:15 pm on July 30, 2007, his sister's third birthday. No, we didn't plan it that way -- well, not really. Gretchen was insistent that we have the same doctor for the delivery as we had with Natalie. Unfortunately, Dr. Kohls was going to be out of town for most of late July. The way the scheduling worked out, we had two days available in that window: the 27th and the 30th -- a rock and a hard place. The 27th is our wedding anniversary. Ultimately, the 30th won out.

Nathan wasn't quite as big as Natalie, at just 9 pounds, 15 ounces, but he was longer, at 21.75 inches. He also didn't want to come out. Apparently, they had to suction his head a bit, which left a big purple bruise that lasted quite awhile.

The whole C-section thing wasn't nearly as scary the second time around, and Gretchen even recovered more quickly this time. Aside from some issues with jaundice, Nathan was given a clean bill of health and we all came home a few days later. The jaundice went away on its own, and Nate is happily gaining weight.

He's got the same blue eyes as Natalie. Unlike his sister, he came out with very little hair, all of it light-colored. If I had to guess at the eventual color, he may be blond, or strawberry-blond just like Natalie.

Natalie loves being a big sister. Predictably, Daisy has reacted with one part confusion, two parts curiosity, and ten parts I-want-to-lick-baby's-head.

Labels: kids, Nathan

Home Opener -- Twins 7, Orioles 4

Random thoughts, in no particular order.

We decided to splurge and got seats in the lower deck. Section 116, row 6, seats 8 and 9, on the first base side. The seats were great -- minimal problems with sight lines from people standing up in the next section over.

Bedard gave up home runs on back-to-back pitches to Morny and Hunter. That was probably the most exciting inning of baseball I've watched in person since the ninth-inning comeback against the Evil Empire last season.

Santana was passable, but certainly not dominant. He seemed to be having some control problems with his off-speed stuff. He worked himself out of quite a few jams, though, and made very few mistakes, one of which being a meatball served up to Tejada.

It was nice to see the bats come alive right away. All of the starters besides Barty got on base, and all got hits except for RONDELL! and Barty. Poor Barty couldn't buy a hit. I should have started Nicky instead. Cuddy didn't have a great night, and nearly killed Morny by losing his grip on the bat and letting it fly into the dugout on a strike three.

The crowd was pretty laid-back for a home opener, especially in the last third of the game. In the 7th (?) inning, more people were interested in the game of keep-away being played with a beach ball on the other side of the stadium than the game itself.

We may have gotten on camera. ESPN had a camera crew in our section, and had it trained on us at least twice. I'll have to check the recording.

RONDELL! made a redonkulous snow-cone catch in the middle innings and saved a run or two. He's looking good in the outfield.

Morny got robbed of a double in one of the worst calls I have seen up close and personal. He was safe by a mile, and the ump knew it. Everyone in the stands had a crystal-clear view of the play. A make-up call later allowed Castillo on base when he should have been out.

Some drunken dumbass ran out on the field in the bottom of the ninth after Nathan got his first out. It took about fifteen security dudes to tackle him, and he was defiant as he was being led out. It was nice to see most of the fans ignoring him or actively booing him as he was led away, but there were plenty of drunks cheering him on.

When Aubrey Huff came to the plate for the first time, someone in our section shouted, "Hey, that's a girl's name!" Pretty funny, except Huff drove in a couple of runs during that AB.

The bullpen was solid. Dennys, Crain, Juany, and Nathan all saw action, with no runs allowed and only a couple (?) of hits.

We need a nickname for Cirillo. Gretchen started calling him "Brillo Pad" but that's too silly. I'm content with "New Guy" for awhile.

Kubel didn't get an AB, which was a shame; I would have liked to see him swing, and get some stats for my fantasy team.

Williamson is the slowest relief pitcher ever. I think the downturn in the crowd's attention span started when he took the mound.

The Carneal tribute was nice, but a bit maudlin. They didn't do the Kirby video after Take Me Out to the Ball Game; instead, it was some upbeat music with Carneal footage. I really hope they don't do that all season. Even the Kirby tribute got old after awhile.

All in all, a great game, especially since they won.

Labels: Twins