Pickles & Dimes

I am from a house on a steep dirt road named only with a number and the word “route,” from phone numbers without area codes, from phones with dials.

I am from air conditioning supplied by box fans in windows, from homemade curtains and matching bedspreads, from painstakingly made latch-hook rugs.

I am from scratch-n-sniff stickers and scented markers, from Matchbox cars, My Little Ponies, Strawberry Shortcake and the Smurfs, from friendship bracelets and beaded pins, from canvas shoes without laces and rollerskates decorated with yarn pom-poms.

I am from CHiPS, He-Man, Wonder Woman, The Goonies, Ghostbusters and Gremlins. I am from respecting your elders, from doing what I’m told, from showing people I’m good at something instead of boasting about it.

I am from sitting on my bed recording Top 40 songs from the radio onto my tape recorder, from using that same tape recorder to conduct mock interviews with my brother.

I am from living in the country and learning the difference between wanting something and needing it. I am from being a big fish in a small pond, from Midwestern sensibilities, from jello and hotdish and pop, from Soup Starter, from corn shucked on the back steps.

I am from baling hay and feeding horses and barn cats, from hauling wood and trapping gophers, from woodticks and snakes and occasional snapping turtles that confuse the dogs.

I am from 4-H meetings in dimly lit VFWs, from county fairs smelling of ammonia and cotton candy and popcorn. I am from a school with a mascot named after Native Americans.

I am from braces and glasses and mullets and home-given perms (all at the same time), from rolled jeans securely fastened with pins and stretchy bracelets and neon shirts.

I am from Chutes & Ladders, Aggravation, Husker Du. I am from Nintendo, from up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-start.

I am from things being fixed multiple times before thrown away, from basketball games with my brother and horse shows with my family.

I am from pale Polaroids carefully labeled in albums behind sticky plastic, from blue ink faded to purple, from newspaper clippings with my name highlighted glued into scrapbooks.

Where are you from?

(As seen on Whimsy’s blog. The template (which I didn’t follow because I am convention-thumbing rebel) is here.)

So, Jason was practically foaming at the mouth in excitement after yesterday’s “games under .500” discussion. If you haven’t already guessed, Jason was the one who said that, at 29-39, the Twins are 10 games below .500. I was the one who said they were 5 games below. He wanted that made very clear so that it was known to everyone that he was right.

JASON WAS RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG.

(He’s going to cringe that I’m going to try to explain myself further, but since he called me “stupid” during the original fight, too bad.)

My argument throughout the whole argument was while Jason said “you can’t unlose games,” he was operating under the assumption that the Twins play an infinite amount of games. Because by his line of reasoning, if the Twins finished the season with a record of 62-100, he would say they finished 38 games below .500. (Because they would need to win 38 more games to have an even record of 100-100.)

BUT.

Just like “you can’t unlose games,” you also cannot play more games than there are in a season. Do you see? There is a finite amount of games to be played (in this case, 162). A .500 record CANNOT be more than 81-81. So if the Twins finished at 62-100, they would be 19 games below .500. My reasoning is that, had they won 19 more games, because there is a finite amount of games (162), those 19 wins would have meant that 19 of their games WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN LOSSES. So you essentially have a swing of 38 games – but in 19.

(Argh. My brain just melted a little more. After this, it now resembles one of those melty taper candles dripping down a giant wine bottle.)

Anyway, since the majority of you agreed with Jason, I will concede. Once again:

JASON WAS RIGHT AND I WAS WRONG.

(Until I find mathematical proof otherwise – HA.)

Jason and I had an argument a few days ago about the Twins and their record (which still sucks). Despite winning seven games in a row, their record is still under .500. At the time of our argument, the Twins were 29-39. One of us said that means the Twins are 10 games below .500, because they would need to win 10 more games to have the same number of wins as losses. The other person said that at that point, a total of 68 games had been played, and a .500 record at that point would be 34-34, so the Twins were only 5 games below .500. The first person then asked the second person where they learned math, and the second person said they remembered hearing it explained somewhere that it’s not just a simple matter of subtracting wins from losses and well, things just deteriorated from there.

So, despite not being able to find solid evidence to prove either of us right, I thought I’d ask the Internet. (I’m hoping both Tess and Swistle can chime in here.)

The crux of our argument is that one of us seems to be thinking in terms of the future; that is, how many games the Twins would need to win to have the same number of wins as losses (because you can’t take away the losses), whereas the other person is thinking in terms of the present; the Twins have played a certain number of games as of a certain point in time, and a .500 record at that point in time would include X number of wins, and you subtract the number of Twins wins from X to determine how many games the Twins are below .500.

So, what do you think? If the Twins have a record of 29-39, how many games below .500 are they? 10 or 5?

(I’ll tell you which answer Jason and I gave later.)

We decided to do two baseball roadtrips this year after not taking one last year out of guilt because we spent money on new gutters, soffit and fascia for the house (boring!). But then this year, as we were giddily planning our dream trip to Phoenix, we realized that hey, we already had baseball roadtrip money squirreled away for last year anyway (we each set aside $25 a paycheck toward our travel fund and since we stay in cheap(er) hotels and eat at dives, the money grows faster than we can use it), so why shouldn’t we drive down to Kansas City for a few games? The Twins baseball schedule meant we had two roadtrips in less than two weeks, but who cares? It’s baseball and summertime! Win-win!

The trip only took 7 hours from our house, including a gas stop and lunch break, so it wasn’t too bad. This was our last roadtrip, since we’ve exhausted all of our within-driving-distance locations (Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago). We’ve already flown to these cities: Denver, St. Louis, Phoenix. After each trip, we frame a photo of the stadium and a photo of us, and hang it in our game room. It’s so cool to see the wall grow. (And amazing that we have yet to duplicate what we’re wearing in each photo. Apparently, we have a closet full of Twins gear.) I can’t wait until we’re retired and we have a whole room decorated with our baseball trips. I really love that we both love baseball so much.

Our hotel faced the stadium, so we had an excellent view of Kauffman Stadium:

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