Wow, camp hasn’t even started yet but this is just a plain old awesome time!!

Slept in this morning before checking out of my hotel to come over to the Crowne Plaza. Got here and found out we could check in early, so I checked in with Joe and then we went up and started to unpack our stuff.

Joe has a ton of stuff compared to me, bats, gloves – everything and he gave me an extra mini-helmet that he bought, and a silver sharpie so I can have the guys sign it, on top of some of my cards I brought with me!

We had a Super Bowl viewing party and welcoming dinner down in the ballroom. It was great, all the campers and most of the coaches were there. Joe Castiglione announced all the coaches who stood up and were acknowledged, and then we got some last minute info and then just went on to enjoy the game.

On top of all that, they had the 2007 World Series Trophy and the 2007 & 2004 World Series rings over in one corner so we could pose for photos. Not just pose, but I got to put the ring on and GOT TO HOLD THE WORLD SERIES TROPHY!

I met and talked to Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd who is hysterical to listen to and is totally here to have some fun this week. I also met and spoke to Bill “The Spaceman” Lee who is certainly and interesting fellow. He lives in in Vermont(certainly looks the part doesn’t he? WikiLink) now and is in the process of starting a small company that will make bats. He has a few bats here with him, if I end up on his team then I can use one.

Then we watched the Super Bowl. They did a “squares” pool for everyone(link if you don’t know), $10 a square and then 1st quarter was $150, halftime was $200, 3rd Quarter was $150 and end of the game is $500.

I had the Square for Cardinals 7, and Steelers 0.

2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter and I was excited, if the scored remained this, then I would win $200. Awesome.. but the Cardinals were driving… they were within field goal range and I was cheering for a fumble or an interception so they wouldn’t change the score and I would win… I got my wish… ALMOST…

With 18 seconds left, Warner throws a pass to the endzone and is PICKED OFF!!

YES!!

BUT WAIT!!

The Steelers start to run the ball back… 20 yard line… 30 yard line.. 40 yard line.. SOMEONE TACKLE HIM!! 50 yard line… 40 yard line… 30 yard line… time has now expired… SOMEONE TACKLE HIM!!! 20 yard line… 10 yard line… TACKLED BUT TOO LATE!!! TOUCHDOWN STEELERS!!

AAARRGH!!!

So close yet so far…

Well, the story ends well… I ended up winning the 3rd quarter with the 20-7 score, since the 0 and the 7 were in the right spots, so $150 was mine, REDEMPTION!!!

Time for bed now… long week starts tomorrow!!!

So here we are, the first day of camp, well maybe not camp but today is the first day most of the people will be arriving for camp.

I left Boston yesterday because I was paranoid about possible weather complications and I wanted to do some sight seeing while I was here.

I left Boston at 7:10 on a Delta Airline’s flight to Atlanta. I had decided to spoil myself with first class seats on my flight since I was paying for it with the mileage I earned at my last job flying all over the place, and it was only an extra 10K miles to do the upgraded service. I was a little bit disappointed since the itinerary said “Brunch” for my flight and it consisted of Sun Chips, peanuts, granola bars, and those butter cookie things. It was nice in the seats though, very comfortable.

I did run into another problem as well with the MD mixes I made to listen to on the way down, apparently I compressed the songs wrong, so they would play on my NetMD(which is dying) but they won’t play on the other not NetMD that I got from FreeCycle. DOH, lesson learned… Joe had an old MD player he offered me since he has gone Ipod, so I am hoping it is a NetMD so I can use it on the way home… and I hope he remembered to bring it with him.

I then had a layover in Atlanta and was going to grab a fruit smoothie and danish or something for a snack, but I couldn’t find a Starbuck’s to use the $80 in gift cards I have, so I settled on just watching CNN instead of paying for a way over priced danish with my own money.

So I arrived in Fort Myers around 1PM and the weather was great, got off the plane and headed to Avis where I got a rental car. I was fortunate and got one for the rate that I got when I worked for my old company, apparently their discount code was still part of my profile with Avis, so I saved $30 on a severely over priced Florida Rental Car. I could have saved $40 had I gone with someone like Enterprise, but less hassle with Avis, plus I got an auto upgrade from compact to Intermediate. So yeah, I am here in FL cruising around in an Impala, but it doesn’t have 20 inch blades…

I spent the day sort of driving around with no real plans. I found the Manatee Park and spent a couple hours there, supposedly they had an area with alligators too, but I couldn’t find them… at least not a real one…

I then went and checked out the Caloosahatchee Creeks Wildlife Preserve. It was nice, with a walkway through out most of it. Almost no one was there so I sorta had it all to myself. The only real wildlife I was able to get a picture of were some big buzzards or some other type of bird who was circling, huge wingspan and graceful. I was hoping for some snakes or something, but no luck outside of a raccoon.

I also played hide and seek with the raccoon who was really good at hiding so I wasn’t able to get a shot of him. I was walking on the wooden walkway, and he was on the left, but he ran under it when I was about 5 feet from him. He then poked his head out the left side and I tried to get a shot but he went back under it. I was patient and waited about 15 minutes to try to get a shot, being real quiet and just standing there, but I heard nothing and saw nothing. I finally gave up and lay down on the walkway and over the side, looked underneath and saw nothing!! He had completely vanished with no sound.

Then I left and drive around and ended up at a “Scenic View” at the beach on North Cleveland Avenue in Cape Coral. It was a nice little spot with a small pier, beach and nice view of the water. There was a guy there who was casting a net to catch fish, he actually caught a couple while I was there.

I then left there and headed south to Saninbel Island. I hear people talk about it all the time so I wanted to see it for myself, plus it was about 5PM and in looking at the map I thought I would have a good shot at a nice sunset out on the island. So I paid my $6 toll to get onto the bridge, and stopped a couple times before I got to the island. Once was for a few pelican pictures, and the other was to take some picture of some guys who were kite surfing. I drove around for a bit and just kind of saw what there was. It has a nice feel to it, especially with the cute little names of places, but it definitely had the “tourist feel” to it.

While driving I had to pull over to the side of the road because there were fire engines coming the other way, normally this wouldn’t be anything of note, but this was the first time I have ever seen a fire engine pulling a boat before!!

I then made my way down to Captiva where I stumbled onto Bowman’s Beach. This beach was charming, and really nice. It was especially nice since the majority of beach on that side of the island is taken up by private communities. I got out there and it was so peaceful, and the sun had awhile to go, so I setup and sat back to watch the sunset. I also decided to try to take a picture of me “holding the sun”, I figure it would be almost impossible since I was alone. Fortunately on the plane ride down I finally read how to use my camera and now know how to setup the timer function. It took me 3 tries to get the shot, I was shocked, but also kinda impressed with myself for getting it in 3 shots while by myself with no remote, even if I am out of focus a little bit and very dark because the sun caused issues, but I got my sunset shots and was on my way back.

Also at this point I am really wishing I had a zoom lens, I totally should have rented one for this trip. Mine gets close, but I spoiled myself when I rented the 100-400mm lens earlier this year on my trip to Toronto, the 28-135mm just wasn’t working for some of the shots I wanted to get, especially of the herons who were in the shallows doing their dinner hunting. Also with the sun shots, I think I need to get some UV filters, it will cut down on glare.

So it was getting late and I was hungry. I was going to eat somewhere on Sanibel, but the couple places I checked out had a 30% premium on dinner from what I would normally expect to pay, so the frugality in me won out and I left the island to find someting to eat. I headed back, ran into a little traffic but decided to go find my hotel, I found the hotel, checked in and then went to dinner. I actually don’t remember where I went to dinner, I just remember laughing that Stephan King was the General Manager and there was a stuffed Armadillo behind the bar. I had a caeser salad and a mediocre small prime rib that was supposed to have a baked potato with it, but they ran out so I got mashed, which had to be redone because they were cold in the center. Fortunately, the 3 margaritas I also had while not eating much all day long made me completely not care, also fortunately I was across the street from the hotel and walked here instead of driving.

I then went back to my hotel room, watched some TV and tried to get the pictures off my photo card… but apparently the 3 margaritas I had affected me that I couldn’t get my card reader to work right… I got it all taken care of the next day though… time to go pack up and check out now and then head out to wander around some more and then go check in at the Crowne Plaza where all the real fun starts to happen as the week at Fantasy Camp really begins!!!

Some disappointing news today from the Fantasy Camp Front. Carl Yastrzemski won’t be joining campers at all during camp due to health concerns.

I am sure every camper is disappointed in missing the chance to meet the legend, but we all extend out a heartfelt wish that his health improves.

10 days and counting!!

So we had quite the snowstorm up here today, the snow was light and fluffy, so the shoveling was easy, but it made working out tough.

I got a little ingenuity came through, I took some old couch cushions and put them against the back wall in my garage on top of my work table, and then threw against it. I was going to throw against the wall itself, but with my luck I would end up cracking the foundation of my house, and that’s the last thing I want to happen.

I threw twice today for about 15 minutes each time.

Arm feels good

Well, today the final information packet arrived via Fed-Ex.

I now have my roommate’s name, and it is my buddy Joe who I am going to camp with, so it will be nice to not have to share a room with a complete stranger.

Got the full schedule with all the coaches and managers as well. I will admit I do have a couple teams I hope to be on, my 3 top choices are all in the Yastrzemski Division.

Valentin’s Vikings; Manager – John Valentin; Coach – Luis Tiant
Lee’s Lefties; Manager – Bill Lee; Coaches – Felix Maldonando/Mike Stanley
Treuel’s Trolls; Manager – Ralph Treuel; Coach – Oil Can Boyd

Why those you ask? Well, they all have a coach or manager who I think is probably going to be a really really interesting person, even without the baseball aspect of it, just as a human being.

I am a little bit disappointed with some of the rules that were listed for the week. The top of which are the no bunting, no stealing, 7 inning games and only 6 runs an inning rule. I guess I kind of understand them all, but it makes me feel like I am back playing T ball again.

I leave in 16 days… a day earlier than most other guys… I am excited!

Well, here is my first post for the blog. I have had a few blogs in the past but I never seem to be able to keep up with them for very long because the interest in them just sort of wains and I give up on it.

When did all this start? I would have to say when I was a kid and I heard about how you could go play with the Pros, I wanted to go then and there and show em how good I was, I never did though.

I always say I bleed red for a reason, I am a Red Sox fan to the very core. What used to be a heart wrenching experience as a child, turned to gut wrenching as a young adult, and turned into unfettered rapture as an adult.

I have become friend’s with Joe, a fellow Red Sox fan to the core who lives out in San Francisco. He mentioned going to camp in 2007 for the 2008 year, so I told him to put it off for a year until I was 30 and then we could both go for the experience together.

Well, I am 30 and early last spring we both sent in our deposits and this journey was started.

In 19 days I board a plane to head down to Fort Myer’s Florida to the Red Sox Spring Training Facility at City of Palms Park where I will spend a week with other Red Sox fans as we play on the same fields as the team we cheer for all year long.

Excitment is an understatement for how I feel leading up to this, but I am also nervous at the same time.

This will be a blog that will chronicle my experience before, during and after in tandem with my Flickr Account and my Twitter Account.