When the game is tied after nine, baseball goes to extra innings. Free baseball!
Here are some extras that I have lying around …
10th INNING ~ Go Hoos!
If you’re shopping for baseball players, the first round of the Major League Draft was last night. Three members of the University of Virginia Cavaliers were chosen in the first round: Nick Howard, RHP (Cincinnati Reds), Derek Fisher, OF (Houston Astros), and Mike Papi, IF/OF (Cleveland Indians).
But, before heading off to their new paying jobs, there’s still this business with the College World Series to attend to. Good luck this weekend in your games against Maryland. Go Hoos!
Would the #1 ranked college team please put your glove in the air?
Thank you, UVa Freshman SS Daniel Pinero. (Hey Susie, he’s Canadian!)
(Watch the University of Virginia Cavaliers vs. the University of Maryland Terrapins Saturday and Sunday at noon, EDT on ESPN2. Game 3, if necessary, is Monday at 4 p.m.)
11th INNING ~ Ostriches
I thought it couldn’t be real. They call it an Ostrich Pillow, a napping, pillow-y, cave-like thing that makes you look kind of dead. It creeps me out and mesmerizes me all at the same time. It’s real … sweet apple cider, it’s real!
Orioles Fans, Is your starting pitching falling apart again and it’s only the second inning? Tuck into Ostrich Pillow!
NFL, Still refuse to acknowledge your ugly concussion crisis? Here, stick your head in!
Editor/Husband, Wondering how much longer this game can go on? Answer: MUCH longer. How about a half-inning snooze?
Endless meetings. Dinner party guests that just won’t leave. Mind-numbing political rants from the drunk uncle who gets all his news from Fox.
Ostrich Pillow.
I’m so glad it’s real!
12th INNING ~ Keep Calm & Carrion
Buttercup is a black vulture that lives at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.
Buttercup
Vultures – or buzzards as some people call them – are one of the world’s greatest recyclers. They eat the rotting meat of dead animal carcasses lying on roadsides and in fields that would otherwise spread disease and kill us all. Vultures are our great protectors.
Vultures are also misunderstood.
It is ok to dislike the New York Yankees because they upset the economics of baseball with their pocket-change millions. It is NOT ok to dislike vultures because they’re a bit wrinkley on the outside and like to fly around around in circles overhead looking for a snack.
(And, yes, they do pee on their legs sometimes, but really, who doesn’t?)
They are sociable creatures with amazing stomach enzymes. (I’m talking about the vultures here, not the Yankees.) Thousands of humans might go down, but a vulture would never succumb to food poisoning on a cruise ship.
Celebrate vultures and Buttercup with the Wildlife Center’s new “Spring Carrion” line of tee-shirts and tote bags. You’ll be helping a great organization and helping spread one of the best worst puns ever.
(P.S. If you’re planning on using your Ostrich Pillow outdoors, please watch out for vultures.)
13th INNING ~ Yay!
Oh, how I love the hidden ball trick. And, this is one of the best!
Florida vs. College of Charleston. May 30, 2014
Watch it here.
Isn’t college baseball grand?
The Baseball Bloggess 
As I understand it, the Ostrich Pillow was originally designed for use on airplanes. Because we all want the obnoxious kid in the window seat to think we’re dead…
They should just build the Ostrich pillow into the airline seats. Because people carry enough stuff onto the planes with them (and I spend a fair amount of unwholesome, unYoga-like time cursing them). I wonder, if I saw someone in an Ostrich pillow, how long would I leave them there before I thought, “hmmm, maybe they’re dead.” I think after six hours, they would be due for a pat on their Ostrich pillow head, just to make sure they’re still breathing.
Do they make Ostrich Pillows in very small sizes, i.e. kitty-size? It would surely work better than a paw over the eyes. Inquiring cats want to know.
Based on my extensive experience putting hats on cats, I think you’ll be ready for a nap yourself long before you get the fuzzies settled down in an Ostrich Pillow.
Besides, a cat in an Ostrich Pillow wouldn’t be nearly as cute as one with a paw over his eyes.
Squeekee has a little hut, which is very Ostrich Pillow-esque. VERY similar, now that I think about it. She tucks in there all day. I could probably moosh it just-so to replicate an Ostrich Pillow for me!
The Ostrich Pillow could be the next in a long line of offerings purchased for Mason, who has pawed his nose and turned his back to stare at the wall when offered a raised pet bed, a furry bed with raised sides, special pillows, two different hut-like houses, and several other cozies. I want my territory back and maybe this finally will be the solution? Mason insists that wherever I happen to be sitting is HIS rightful fiefdom. If I get up from a chair, sofa, bed, or the floor, even for a moment – whoosh – he is there to take over and tucks in for the long haul, just like Squeekee. Casey is right, though, Mason is TOO cute curled up with his paws over his eyes…. So, maybe we’ll cohabitate with the status quo and save any recycling of an Ostrich Pillow. :)
Thanks for the smile!!
One other thought: We need somebody with an Ostrich Pillow and a kitten to get a few pictures of the latter peeking out of the former. Or even better, curled in a little ball, sleeping inside the pillow. That would have to be at *least* an eight on the Terminally Cute scale.
Clever marketing for the Ostrich people … cats selling people pillows! I like it!
I think my cats see cat beds as territory to be conquered. They may not LIKE the bed (or the cupcake, or the heated pad, or the tube, or the cat tree bed, or the hut I’ve put out for them), but sleeping there means that no one else can. It’s all about the power struggle. If I sleep here, you can’t; ergo, I win. Please give a hug to Mason for me! :)
Yours actually use the sleeping places you buy them? ‘Nuki is the only one of our gang that spends any significant amount of time in the condos or the S-curve. Everyone else prefers the dining room chairs and *our* bed!
Casey, You know what’s even crazier … all four of our cats were outdoor strays, three of them were refugees from a local barn/feral colony and had never been inside any building before they moved in with us. And, every single one uses the cat beds AND the scratching posts. None of them have ever shown interest in scratching the furniture at all. Sure, they sleep with us at night, but daytime is all about the cat beds, and staking out their piece of paradise. Believe me, I know how weird this all sounds, but I swear it is true!
I believe it. “Perversity, thy name is cat.” Isn’t that how the quotation goes?
PURR-versity.
I read to Mason your reply regarding your cats and their acceptance of cat beds on some level, and also gave him a big hello from you. In response, he asked me to remind you he is not a real cat, but a small superior being who wouldn’t think of using a cat’s bed, post, or otherwise. He is with Casey’s group (other than Nuki, who must have too much cat in him/her) – MY bed is our bed, and if I leave a chair for a second, it is his. Otherwise, it is sofa or other appropriated property. :) I still think this pillow has potential, though….