Well, it went nothing like we planned, we were glad to get home, but we still had fun.

We had planned to visit Disneyland the day we flew in. However, we had to fight rush hour to get to our hotel and the park closed at 8pm that day. We settled for dinner at Claim Jumper instead.

We had planned to stay in a Residence Inn so we could have a full kitchen. What we didn’t know was that this particular one allowed pets in all rooms. When David started developing a headache, we moved to a Ramada that advertised that no pets and no smoking were allowed in any rooms. That worked better for us.

The second day was, by far, our big day. We hit Disneyland at about 10:30am. Aside from a short trip back to the hotel for lunch, we were in the park until 11pm. After my obligatory ride on The Jungle Cruise, we found the Indiana Jones Adventure ride to be closed for repairs. We made our way through Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (which was decked out in characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for Halloween) and David’s favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The Indy ride opened later and we were ten feet from getting in before they had to close it again and shuttled us all out. On our third try later that night, we got to ride and then we rode it again. In fact, we ended up hitting Indy, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain (which is much improved) twice during that day. We returned back to the hotel quite exhausted, but we got our money’s worth.

Our last day we took rather leisurely and hung around California Adventure. We did all ride California Screamin’ which was David’s first full-fledged roller coaster. He loved it and wants to do more. I think we’ll have to hit Six Flags during our next visit.

Despite some hiccups and the fact that Stef and I don’t recover as quickly as we used to, we still had a blast. In fact, we were having so much fun we took very few pictures. You can see the ones we did snap here.

We are about to take a short family vacation. Fortunately, we did not choose to go to Hawaii. Instead, we’re going to the “Happiest Place on Earth”!

During our last visit over five years ago, the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed and David wasn’t tall enough to do all of the rides. This time, we’re looking forward to riding our favorites repeatedly and skipping the boring stuff. David is planning which rides he wants to hit and trying to negotiate his way out of the rides that Mom and Dad like but he finds beneath him.

It’ll be a blast, no doubt, and the weather is looking great! Who would have thought that going to California would mean we were travelling where the earthquakes were not happening?

Let us know if you want a souvenir.

Well, it’s a minor victory, but I like to celebrate them all.

As you can see on the left sidebar, I finished the season in first place in my rotisserie baseball league. This is notable because I finished the previous season in a distant last place.

My strategy started during the end of last season. I began to stockpile cheap talent. I was definitely taking the Moneyball approach. I started this season with only one player over $20 (Curt Schilling at $22) while superstars in our league will often go for $40-45. I also took a chance on some new Mariners and came out pretty good: Kenji Johjima (.291/18/76) at $15, Yuniesky Betancourt (.289/8/47) at $4, and Jose Lopez (.282/10/79) at $6. My cheap talent approach has paid off, too: Nick Swisher (.254/35/95) at $6 and Dan Haren (14 wins, 4.12 ERA, 223 IP) at $3.

Each year there are two categories that you have to specifically draft for: saves and stolen bases. I traded early on for Chone Figgins who ended up giving me 48 SBs (I finished 1 SB short of the leader as a result). I had a lucky break in the draft for saves. I had no closers at the end of draft day and picked up JJ Putz hoping that he might become the closer at some point. Eddie Guardado had an early breakdown and JJ was promoted even faster than I thought he would. He ended up giving me 36 saves at the bargain price of $2.

To push me over the top, I traded for Derek Jeter (to get some OPS and SB) and Vladimir Guerrero (to get some HR and RBI). That resembled more of a Steinbrenner kind of move, but it was necessary. I hope I don’t regret trading away Felix Hernandez. Although, as a Mariners fan, I hope he becomes good enough for me to regret it.

Anyway, it was a heckuva year! Enjoy the playoffs.