Short & Sweet

Because its never bad to hear it....

"Rejoice in the Lord Always, I shall say it again: Rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Phil 4: 4-7

"Consider it all Joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."

James 1: 2-3

Thats all I got. And I love it.

-Phil

Finally Some Purchases

*My New Shoes. Haha.

Hey.

Woke up this morning and went to work at 9. I had one of those nights where you wake up at like 5am completely refreshed, look at your clock, and realize you have 3 more hours of sleep left. Soo great! Didn't do all that much at work because of the wet conditions, STILL! So sick of rain, not sick of the temps, just the rain! Got off work at 1 and came home. Took a shower and laid around for awhile as it was still pretty gloomy out.

We went out at 6 or so and got some chinese food. For some reason, I was craaaaving it like no other. It was quite good. Laura had to stop by the Apple store so I gladly accepted and Wes and I went too. She went to buy something for her iPod. Did she get it? No. But oh, I ended up walking out of there with 2 new things. A new spray for my computer, and a keyboard protector so I don't get it dirty from working. It is white you know. After eating we went to a shoe store. I've been wanting to buy some new running shoes for doing athletic type things--not just running. I'm rather picky about things and shoes are no different. I found these really cool shoes there and looked at them for like 5 mins before asking to try them on. Come to find out, the only sizes left were 9 1/2 and 10. Both my sizes. They were the official shoe of the Boston Marathon this year and only 800 of them were made. Tried them on, fell in love and bought them. Thats a picture of them up there. Pretty colorful, huh? :)

Thats my day. Soon and very soon until mi familia is here. I'm so excited.

Just a quick thing I just remembered. Wes and I are laughing/talking about it now. But one of my favorite things about Fenway and the games are when Jonathan Papelbon (the Red Sox closer) comes in to the game in the late innings. They play the song "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" every time! Oh, and they play it SOOOOO LOUD! The start of it, has like 2 notes that sound something similar to like the Jaws tone. Whenever the crowd hears those 2 notes, they seriously just erupt into cheer. Its one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Then the announcer announces his name at the same point in the song every time as well. Family, I really hope you get to experience that. Its amazing.

Awesome. Hope you're Mondays were great. Wow. The Cardinals really lost 10-0 to the Giants. Sweet.

over and out,

Phil

B b b b b rowniesssss.

Hey.

As you know I went into work this morning at 1am. Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The wedding reception didn't get over until like 2:30 so the first hour and a half was spent waiting for it to end. Probably one of the coolest wedding receptions I've ever seen. I'll tell you all more in person, but for starters--Mr Henry had Maroon 5 as the band. Pretty legit, people. Oh and a fellow Missourian was there--Mr. Carl Edwards himself. When it finally ended we helped carry center pieces, tables, chairs and table tops to trucks waiting outside on the street. We picked up a little bit of the flooring but with the huge tent still there, we couldn't take up too much of it. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was 6am and we were out of there. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts on our way home, got my usual 2 D-nuts and then went straight to bed. I slept till about 1:30 or so and then ate some lunch with the roomate and did some work on my computer. We made brownies this evening which was greaaaat, and reminded me of the Nut House--as I would make brownies for my roomates once every 2 weeks or so. Oh how they love me for that.

I gotta be at work tomorrow at 9am. I hope I can sleep. Last time I did an overnight shift, I didn't sleep well the night before...:-/

1 week and a half until family coooomes!

butch-congrats. ;) (not you mom, the other butch)

will- glad you had fun sir. :)

dad- wish i could teach you how to use your iPhone.

most def put icing on the brownies,

Phil

Weddings All Around

Hey--

Heres what happened today, June 27. Ate lunch here, did some laundry and worked out this morning/afternoon. Took a shower and then went shopping with Wes. I don't really know why I even call it shopping anymore. I hardly ever buy anything. I don't know if its b/c I'm cheap or just not finding the "right" stuff. I think a combination of both? Yesss. With us being so close to the park we were asked to go in at 6 today to remove the mound and home plate tarps in order for the "guests" of tonights event to play on the field if they liked. The owner of the Red Sox, Mr. John Henry got married today and was having his reception at the ball park. Pretty sweet gig. We have to go in tonight at 1am to help take down things and get the field back in playing order. The field looked great tonight. After being away from it for 2 days it was great to see it looking healthy again!

Thats the extent of my day.

Congratulations Tory and Hilary on getting married. Sorry I couldn't be there!! Wish you guys the best!

see you,

Phil

Friday.

Hey.

Day off today. Woke up late and took a shower. Ate some lunch here and then watched TV this afternoon. It was nice this morning then clouded up and rained this afternoon. Got some dinner in the early evening and hung with some friends a bit. Wes and I walked to Boston University near the Charles River and walked around there for a good hour or so. Found a real nice grocery store there and a few other places. Came back home for a little bit and then went to Newbury St. A few friends from the dorm have been begging us to come out with them since we got here. Since we have a few days off, we went to a bar with them and had a beer and danced a bit. It was wicked crowded and hot. Nice, fun bar though. Its so great here in Boston because they don't allow you to smoke inside so you don't have to worry about wearing something you don't want to get smelly. I loved it. We got some funny looks as we were like some of the only guys dancing. Its whatever.

We just got back a few minutes ago, and will probably head to bed for the night. It was fun to get out of the room and have some fun tonight. The warm, humid weather made me really miss Missouri and the people in it. I really do miss you guys, hope you're well!! :)

got hit on by a gay man tonight,

Phil

Suuuuuuun!

Whats up,

Went to work bright and EARLY at 6 this morning. Stood and watched for a while as workers set up a huge circus like tent in right field. Like I said, there's a certain event going on this weekend, which is why the tent is necessary. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do the work we were planning on doing to the infield today or not, because of the rainy weather. We ended up being able to and so the process went. I didn't do all of these things but this is what took place. We had to do the work because of small film of Turface that had built up on the surface of the skin. This happened when we were constantly taking off and putting on turface due to the wet weather. We needed to go in there and till it up to make it a fresh surface again. So we first had to remove all the existing pro red turface from the skin. This took a little while, as there was A LOT on there. After that tillers were brought in and the skin surface was tilled up. Another piece of equipment was brought through and mixed up the dirt even more. A lazer grader was then brought in and the skin got leveled off. After that a roller was brought out and used to firm the skin up nicely. Turface was put on at a smaller rate and then rolled again. After on there it was then cocoa matted to look good as new!! Thats a quick way of explaining an 11 hour day of work.

Like I said, I didn't do all of that. Just when they were starting the tilling process my boss told me to hop on a mower and mow the outfield. The grass was pretty long (3 1/2") so we had to bag it. That meant that I had to use an old Simplicity riding mower (one you would use on your own yard about 10 years ago). Needless to say, not the greatest mower in the world. He told me I had to be lazer beam straight, and well, I wasn't. I was all over the place with that mower, as it was tough to keep steady. Not to make excuses, but everyone said that it was hard to control, so I didn't feel as bad. I ended up just mowing arcs instead of straight lines. It looked okay, but will just be covered up by a sweet pattern in a few days anyways. But I did get to mow--so that was fun. Thats really all I did the rest of the day, because I had to empty the bagger every 2 passes...so long!

It was wicked nice here today and I think its suppose to continue to be nice. Lets keep our fingers crossed anyways. No celebrities today...oh well. Ate dinner at a really good pizza place near Fenway. I have the next two days off before I go back on Sunday. On my way back from work I got asked where the nearest bar was. Im happy to say I was able to inform the guy where they were. Never thought I'd be able to give directions in Boston. :) The weekend is almost here, hang in there!!!

missing M. Jackson already,

Phil

Face to Face with a Moobie Star

Hey all.

Went to work at 10 today, did some organizing and other small jobs as it was STILL raining. The infield skin had puddles all over it, so we had to punch holes in those spots with big steel bars. Hoping it would help soak up the water a little faster. They are putting a big circus tent in right field tonight and putting terra plas flooring down again for an event. Not sure if it will be the whole field or not. Either way, I still have to go in at 6 AM. :( Sadness.

During the work today I crossed paths with who? Oh, just actor Ben Affleck. He was a lot shorter in person but looks the same. Walked by him a couple times, and drove a cart passed him the others. Apparently he will be shooting a movie there in August, so I guess he was there scoping things out. Pretty cool to see him with out a billion cameras around and protectors. Just another guy really.

Thats about all for today. Better get a good night sleep and then head to work early tomorrow. Friday I have off though!! Hope you all are grrrrreat. I miss you.

siiiick of mice,

Phil

Still, yes still, Raining in Boston

As the title says, it is still wet and rainy here in Boston. Haven't seen the sun in a few days--sad day! Its not all bad though, as its only about 65 degrees. Apparently its hotter than poop in Missouri. Sorry friends. :/ I went back to work today after a day off on Monday. Stopped in at Dunkin Donuts and got my usual 2 donuts to go. I really really hope that by the end of the summer they'll know me so well that they'll have it ready when I get there. Hmm. :D I worked on Home Plate today with another guy. Believe it or not, there is a lot more work than one would think. The holes from where the batters/catcher stand were nicely patched but the area around that and sort of to the side about a foot off was just awful. The infield mixture around these areas was pretty low creating low spots shaped in a big "U" all the way around the box. We had to patch all of that and then paint/fix the lines for the batters box. After that I did some clean up work and then was gone by 1:30. Vice President Joe Biden was apparently coming to Fenway today for something. I really have no idea why, but they had bomb squad dogs sniffing out the place and made us put stickers on all of our bags.

Spent the rest of the day around the room, as it was too rainy to do much of anything else. :/ I have more days off between now and next Friday, so I hope the weather will be nice for that! We're going to see a movie tonight--"The Proposal" apparently its funny. We'll see about that. Hope you all had a great Tuesday, it seems like these weeks just keep flying by. 2 Weeks till I get to see my family--so excited.

love to wear my chacos on a rainy day,

Phil

D d d day Off.

Hey,

Had the day off today. Slept pretty late since it was raining ALL day long. Finally went out around 3 and got something to eat and did a little shopping. Got a pretty cool new jacket. Came back home and sat around for a while and then went out with El and Laura. We went to the North Part of town. Its REALLY REALLY neat up there with lots of little shops and such. Aunt Liz and U Richard you'd love it, as it is predominantly Italian shops and restaurants. We ate at a small little Italian restaurant. Pretty good! After that we got ice cream and continued walking around there. Family--found some cool places up there that we will go to when you come.

It's back to work for me tomorrow. Not quite sure whats going on this week but it will be great none the less. Hope everyone had a great monday, and that it wasn't rainy like it was here!!

the mouse is back--but surrounded by trappppss,

Phil

A Great End to a Long Wet Home Stand

Hey. Exciting blog today!

So the weather like changed drastically and all those showers we were supposed to get last night, never came. All the thunderstorms and showers we were supposed to get today came as only mist and drizzle. So we were able to have a game!! Got to work at 7 and took the tarp off and worked on the field a bit. I cleaned all the peanut shells and sunflower seeds off the warning track while others were assigned different tasks. When we got the field game ready we put the tarp back on until right before the game when we took it off and got the field ready again for the game.

Today was pretty exciting as I got to sit in the runway with my boss and 3 other guys. The runway is the space in between the Sox dugout and the Sox locker room. We have to sit there during rainy games just in case we are called out onto the field to do mound work or plate work. Turns out we didn't have to do any of that, so I got to sit just outside the Sox dugout for the game. Not a bad seat eh? Watched as Wakefield would pace around in between innings then go sit down on a chair and watch the game from a TV. After David Ortiz (big papi) hit his hr he came down and gave us all high fives and said "yeah bitches!!" haha. Listened to Pedroia and Youkilis cuss up a storm after striking out or doing something wrong. Pretty crazy. Exciting day none the less. The Sox won in walk off fashion today as Nick Green hit a solo hr to lead off the bottom of the ninth. They won 6-5.

I have the day off tomorrow and then back at it on Tuesday. Hope all you Fathers had a great day today.

Dad-Love you, and Happy Fathers Day again!

Family-Miss you a lot.

Julie and Russ-congrats on the new baby to come! Boy number 4? Perhaps?? :)

"What difference does it make, as long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed? And in that I rejoice." -Phil 1: 18

shower luffa is turning red/orange from the Fenway dirt,

Phil

TBS

Game is on TBS today (Sunday) at 1:35 ET. Watch for me. If they even play :)

Happy Fathers Day Popps! Love you.

Phil

Uno Mas!

Heyyyyy,

After a nice morning to sleep in, I was energized and ready for another day at the park. I did laundry last night and left my clothes in the drier over night. I have clean socks now!! Lots of them. Our crew room smelt sooo gross today. With 25+ guys soaking wet, and sweaty you could see where it would get gross. Right? I went into work today thinking it was going to rain starting at game time, which meant we'd have to pull the tarp out. I can say with a smile on my face that it didn't rain all game! Oh, and the game was 2 hours and 10 minutes long. 10x faster than minor league ball. Soooo great! Got asked by a few Braves players if it was going to rain tonight--we always have to say I don't know. Its what we do. It was a good game tonight! The Sox won again!

My fingers feel a bit better. Apparently we're not the only room who has mice. Others have said they have them too. Sketchy!! I have to be in tomorrow pretty early and then the day off on Monday. I think after the game tomorrow we may go out to the North end with some friends and eat dinner there. We're supposed to have showers all day tomorrow, which leads me to believe we won't be playing. But who knows. I've come to realize that old saying of "you're in missouri, the weather can change anytime" applies to any place in the world. I just never was in another state long enough to realize it. True story.

Well good night. Happy early Fathers Day Popps, and all the dads. I miss you.

Ste-happy birthday! Kees Kees.

1 2 3 4 Uno Dos Tres Cuatro,

Phil

I'm Baaaaaack!

Im sorry, I'm sorry.

After a 12.5 hour day at the park yesterday I arrived back home at 12 am and went straight to bed since I had to be up in 6 hours. Heres how yesterday (June 18th) went down.

Got to the park at 11 and it started to rain around 1 or so? We did a lot of work in the morning in order to be prepared for the game if we were going to be able to play. The weather reports all afternoon/evening were calling for rain all night and not stopping till the next day. Oh but no, there was a window from about 7-9 that we had to squeeze the game in! I understand, you gotta do what you gotta do. Apparently Fenway loses 1 mil or so every time a game gets postponed. Thats legit. So it was pretty hectic before the game as always, people running around trying to get the infield dry enough and safe enough to play. The game started and of course moved slow. We got to the 5th and it started to rain steady. In the top of the 6th it started to really come down and the umpires called for us to get the tarp and bring it on the field. Last time we did this, we got more cheers than boos. This time, I don't remember hearing a cheer--all boos. Oh well. We got the tarp on and in place and then sat in the dugout. Oh, no big deal- sat next to Hanley Ramirez. I remember him saying--"man i just want to get out of here so i can go get drunk". Nice Hanley. I wanted to tell him to play better since I picked him first for my fantasy team, but I didn't have the guts. When I was pulling the tarp out my fingers got caught in it and pretty well ripped my middle fingernail up but not off. Hurt sooo bad---but is feeling better now. Who would've thought grounds keeping would entail this much blood, sweat and tears. The rain didnt stop and we ended up sitting in the dugout for 2 hours waiting for them to just call it. Finally at 11:30 they decided to call it.

Today I was at the park at 7 am. We didn't get started on things until 8, as the rain was still coming down. It ended up staying around until about 1 or 2. When that happens you have to fix and prep things part by part. With the rain still coming down, we couldn't just take the tarp off and fix the field--had to do baseline by baseline, homeplate, mound. The rain finally stopped for a bit, and we worked hard to get it in playing condition as others set up for batting practice. During the Sox BP it started to drizzle a bit, and about 5 minutes later it was POURING! There we were AGAIN, pushing that stupid tarp onto the field. By this time we were dead tired, felt like we couldn't go any more, but we did. 15 Minutes later the rain finally stopped for the night and we took it off, and again worked hard to get the field in tip top condition. We even got a glimpse of the sun during this. Dinner was provided for us tonight which was nice! I stayed and worked the game and drug the field in the 3, 5, 7 inning. I was spent after that and didn't have much energy to do much else. Today I went through 3 pairs of socks and 2 shoes. Thank God, I had extras!! Doing some laundry tonight, since I don't go in until 2 tomorrow. Yay for sleeping in!

Sorry again for not updating. I hope you understand. :)

Ben and Bethany--Congrats on getting married. Love you guys and can't wait to see you when I get back!

my father is getting an iPhone?,

Phil

500

Happy 500 consecutive sellout days at Fenway Park day!

So, if you read my blog yesterday then you are well aware of this pattern that we had to put in the outfield today. If you aren't aware, go read!! First things first. We had a friendly visitor last night while we were sleeping. Some way some how a mouse was in or near our trash can last night. We ended up scaring it off so no biggy. I hope it doesn't come back though...nothing worse than having something else crawling around in bed with you.

Got to work today at 10 and started right away on the 500. We first had to find a center point and go from there. After that we started measuring and flagging off the numbers. Our boss then basically traced along the flags with a mower a couple of times and then we took the flags up. Other tools used to do this were rakes, water pressure--hose, heavy rollers, you can use brooms and so forth. My boss told me to get a mower and start working on the last zero. I went back and forth lots of times until it was "burned" in nicely. After I did a bit of work on the zero I moved over to the five and mowed where we were able too. It takes a lot of time and work--more than most people think. I'll try to post some pics on here as soon as I get a hold of a couple. All in all it looks pretty good. It could look better but we only had so much time to do it. To an ordinary fan, it looks amazing. To me it looks just alright.

Really thats about all I did today. Stayed till game time and then left when the game started. Busy but quick day really. It was beautiful here again and it looks like that will be the last of the nice weather for a few days. Apparently its supposed to rain tomorrow, Friday and Saturday. Yay long days at the ballpark!!

Pretty tired so I'm gonna end this for today. Hope you're weeks are going amazing so far. Its half over! You can make it :)

many times sleepy,

Phil

"The Feeshies Hurt Mah Eyes!!"

Hey-O,

SO I woke up this morning to the sound of 2 girls making donuts in the kitchen. Our room is connected to the community kitchen and only a door separates the two. Of course I sleep by the door and pretty much wake up anytime anyone goes in there. The girls were talking way too loud for 8:00 am and I wasn't sooo happy. I got over it though. Went to work at 12 today and did a lot of the same things. We have been rolling in the pattern the last two days so that it will "pop" a little more when on TV and for the fans at the stadium. While I was doing this my boss asked if I could come in tomorrow a little earlier to work on a logo that we'll be putting in centerfield. Not sure what it is yet, probably a number or something. I have experience doing it though, as I put an "STL" and a Texas League Logo in at Hammons Field. I'm anxious to see what and how he's planning on having us do it here.

I stayed for Pregame and then left shortly after that for the day. I wanted to get some laundry done but the stupid quarter machine wouldn't work. :( Oh well. It was fun to see the Marlins today. The team is really young, so I'm sure for most of them it was their first time being at Fenway since they're in the NL. They took an extra bp earlier this afternoon to get used to playing balls off the Green Monsta. I threw a batting practice ball to one of the fans who said she dropped it. Normally I would never do that and know never to do that but I guess I just wasn't thinking? My boss was even out on the field, and my 3rd boss told me that if he would have seen me I would have gotten in trouble. I guess you're supposed to let the players give them the balls or something--lame. Rule broken at Fenway Park--Number 1.

Field looks great, keep an eye on highlights of tomorrows game, as you might see the logo we are going to put in. It's not there yet though so don't go looking yet. Hope you're Tuesdays were great. Miss you guys all a lot, and excited to see some of you soon!!!

Ellen.

not missing the hot, humid days of Missouri,

Phil