http://havebatwilltravel.com Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:15:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So what if it’s after the All-Star Break? Actually, since I got a (surprising) number of complaints that my invariably wrong predictions fell by the wayside this year, sacrificed at the altar of actually trying to pay my rent, I thought I’d try to revisit what I had *planned* to ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=207 I am breaking my long streak of not posting to suggest that you watch “Sugar.” It’s an HBO film that is surprisingly good… I have a weird hangup about this film, in that I don’t know if you need to be in the bizarre emotional state I’m in (four surgeries ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=206 Today is the two-year anniversary of the first surgery on my left knee. In the past 24 months, I have attended roughly 150 physical therapy sessions (not counting daily work on my own), had three more surgeries, suffered from one systemic staph infection, and gone through 8 physical therapists. I ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=205 Seeing as it’s a month into the season, I should probably get around to writing up the NL East and Central. I don’t have anything terribly insightful to say; I like the Cubs and the Phillies, with the Mets taking the wild card. The Marlins are an illusion, the Brewers ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=204 I can’t decide whether this is the worst division in baseball, or if that honor goes to the AL West. The AFC West and NFC West are similarly putrid. Why are all the good teams east of the Mississippi in both the NFL and MLB? I’m not sure. For the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=202 I’m already running late, so I will move quickly to the AL East, which by all accounts holds the best three teams in baseball despite them all getting off to shaky starts. As I pointed out in the AL Central preview, it’s hilarious that one of the Rays, Sox, and ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=201 As a fan, I feel torn about the Central. One the one hand, I love a competitive division, where any team has a chance to win it, and last year just 14 games separated first place from last place in the Central. On the other hand, I like watching good ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=200 Wow, it’s been nearly 7 months since I last made a post on here, 11 months since my last knee surgery (still can’t go down stairs), and 30 months since I last played baseball. However, at least, for the first time since October of 2006, I played catch over spring ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=199 More on this later… here’s the translation of the front page of the Woodchucks’ website from Babelfish. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=197 Many of you likely missed this link to a shot of Kevin Youkilis taking a warmup throw in the eye, leading to a big shiner. (this link might work as well) Anyway, that makes me feel better about my own gaffe at first base in Bois Guillaume. To be honest, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=194 If you haven’t been reading Tony Lewis’ blog about this year’s (signficantly more successful) Woodchucks team, you may have missed this devastating piece of news: Le Woodsmobile is no more. Apparently the damage from the (never fully explained on HBWT) crash and subsequent battery on the morning of the PUC ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=193 No posts for a long time, so I figured I’d give a quick update. As you know, my physical therapy from the ACL reconstruction in October went very poorly, to the point that 29 weeks out, I still couldn’t comfortably descend stairs. (By comparison, 35 weeks after my first ACL ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=192 Check it out. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=191 (as I always do), I’m going to run thr0ugh the rest of the NL Newsblast-style. The central has two good teams- Chicago and Milwaukee. Chicago has better pitching, but not so much better that it’ll make up for the Brewers’ lineup. Before the season, I thought Fukodome was a great ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=190 …plus que c’est la meme chose. Never thought I’d be reading about someone else having the same experience in France, but here he is. Meet Tony Lewis, current star SS/P for your Bois-Guillaume Woodchucks. Reading through his blog is like a walk down memory lane. I’ve eaten at those very ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=189 For years, the NL West has been the crappiest division in baseball. With the Rockies and D-Backs in the NLCS last year, that appears to have changed. It’s a mystifying division to me, because I can’t figure out if there are three legitimately good teams or if Colorado and Arizona ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=188 I’m running out of time on these, so before the season can start, I’m going to throw these out there and explain them later. NL West: SAN DIEGO Arizona Los Angeles Colorado San Francisco NL Central: MILWAUKEE Chicago St. Louis Cincinnati Houston Pittsburgh NL East: I still haven’t made up my mind on the East, which I think is going ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=187 I used to do the East last, but I guess when the Red Sox have won two world series in four years, it’s a little less important to pit the Red Sox and Yankees as a struggle between good and evil. Make no bones about it, the Yankees are still ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=186 There’s one thing I forgot to mention in the AL West predictions, of which Chuck’s comment reminded me: The Mariners are the perfect team to sign Barry Bonds. There’s just absolutely no way they would, but as he pointed out, they are rich in pitching but are going to struggle ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=185 No, HBWT is not dead! Instead, we’ll talk about a dead division, the AL West! Well, maybe that’s not fair, but basically, there is one good team in the West, one team I think might be good, and two stinkers. Let’s start with them. I went the other way last ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=184 Long story short, I was googling something about Rouen, and this picture popped up: I’ve been there roughly a hundred times, including my first arrival in Rouen when Sylvain picked me up. I’ll always remember it, though, as the backdrop for this picture. It may be my happiest in France. ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=183 I’ve been meaning to post for a while now, but life has a funny way of intervening. I have torn my ACL. After playing rugby for four weeks, I blew my ACL in ten minute of playing flag football. I was running a stop & go pattern, and I was ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=182 Many readers (okay, a dozen, tops) have emailed me asking about the recent post regarding the future of baseball in Bois-Guillaume. B-do summarized it succinctly, asking if the mayor’s objections to the club’s existence couldn’t easily be solved with an advanced piece of technology known as a “net.” Well, the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=180 HBWT was merely resting… Actually not sure what happened there for a week, but I got things straightened out with my hosting company and all should be well. I have a few posts I need to crank out over the next few weeks… Until then, merely enjoy this… http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=181 I was looking on the Woodchucks’ website to get an address (it’s sort of funny to have to list one’s previous employment as “French baseball player” on apartment applications) and saw this recent notice, posted just two weeks ago. I’ll write more on this later this week. Between the sloppy ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=179 If you didn’t catch it, you should by all means check out this feature on Kerry Wood, the one-time can’t miss flamethrower whose awkward mechanics and unfortunate professional relationship with renowned pitcher destroyers Jim Riggleman and Dusty Baker turned his shoulder into laffy taffy. A friend from France (Miklos, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=178 This is a trailer for a documentary on Satan & Adam, my favorite blues band and in my opinion one of the best live performers I’ve ever seen. I was lucky enough to sneak into the Press Room in Portsmouth, NH with a fake ID when I was 18 years ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=177 (Most of this was written, oh, a month ago. So sue me.) So… I told you so. It wasn’t rocket science, so to speak. Clemens has never, ever been about anything other than the most cheddar, and as each MFY starter went down, Sias’ willingness to pay went up another ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=176 This is the problem with trying to write your predictions while taking law school classes; you finish them three or four weeks into the season and they lose all value. I promise that I will get to the NL at some point, hopefully over the weekend, although, in all honesty, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=175 Not a bad start for the Dice Man. Obviously, that’s great news for any Red Sox fan, but I take special satisfaction in seeing him come in and pitch well in his debut. It can be kind of stressful to fly across the world and get shelled in your first ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=174 It’s always nice when, immediately after posting one’s skepticism about Felix Hernandez, he drops 12 K’s on the Athletics. However, one performance is not enough to shake my predictions, as my continued pessimism regarding Gil Meche (below) will demonstrate. The AL Central is by far the hardest division for me ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=173 This comes from my buddy Joel, famous primarily for playing a mean trombone and having the cutest child I have ever seen. He knows a lot more about the Mariners than I do, so I thought including his opinions would be worthwhile. That said, a 96 ERA+ is a 96 ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=172 Just a quick note to point out my friend Chuck (originator, ironically, of the plan to go to Europe to play professional baseball) and his new project. Seattle Untimely is a very funny parody of local news in Seattle, and this clip even includes a segment where Portland, Oregon gets ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=171 It’s that time of year again, and rather than email them out, I’m going to post my MLB predictions here. Last year… let’s not talk about last year’s predictions. I think I guessed 3 out of 8 playoff teams and certainly didn’t predict that an 83-win Cardinals squad would win ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=170 Before: After: http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=169 Scheduled today. I have to fill out a quick NCAA bracket and then I’ll head over to surgery. By this time to night I’ll look like Jack Nicholson from Chinatown. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=168 The second one is a little blurry, but you get the picture. Name and number! Thanks Sage, Babs, and Elisha! Also, a quick announcement that instead of sending them out as I usually do via email, my much-maligned (and last year, woefully inaccurate) MLB predictions division by division over the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=167 Pitchers and Catchers, my friends. Pitchers and Catchers. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=166 From last week’s post on great noses: “It is probably unfair to put anyone up against Don Mossi, the only human ever designed by a committee, a very mean spirited committee. However, I submit for your consideration these three beauties, of whom I am particularly fond of Warren Spahn, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=165 Several private comments have been too good not to share. While it certainly makes sense to me to replace this scimitar-shaped nose with one that, you know, resembles my old nose, a few readers have suggested that I at least take a glance at the menu. As such, it makes ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=164 Closing the book on this HBWT experience has taken a lot longer than I thought it would. With all the hoopla around school and exams, I haven’t exactly been prolific as a blogger lately. However, here’s one tidbit: After nearly eight months, two dozen doctor visits, and scores of nose ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=163 The Quiet Storm got jobbed out of the NFL offensive rookie of the year award, finishing tied for second behind Vince Young. I’ll be picketing NFL offices in New York all weekend. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=162 The stress of exams has kept me from posting, but I saw this and figured it was worth putting up here. He might be able to play for a few teams in France; they do love the bunt. As someone mentioned in a reply to last week’s post, the Gil ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=160 In ascending order of ridiculousness… $70 million for JD Drew? $36 million for Julio Lugo? $136 million for Alfonso Soriano? $50 million for Gary Matthews Jr.? $44 million for king outmaker Juan Pierre? I could go on. If this kind of inflation hit French baseball last year, I might have been ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=159 In the years to come, I expect that my time in France will continue to affect me long after my final flight home in mid-October. I made friends that I will keep in touch with for the rest of my life, I gained fluency (or near-fluency) in a difficult language, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=158 Apparently you can go through an awkward re-entry into the U.S., get wrapped up in grad school classes and Thanksgiving, then look up one day and realize that you haven’t posted anything in a month. Oops. I’ll give a wrap-up of the playoffs some time this week, but in the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=156 This is not the last post on HBWT. There is still a fair amount of storytelling to be done, a number of little vignettes that I’d like to pass on. However, the fact is, it’s November. The season- and my shortlived career as a professional athlete- is over, and now ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=155 This being my last weekend in French baseball, I figured I needed something to get me fired up, to rekindle the excitement of that first day flying from San Francisco to France. I needed something of an edge, too, something that would put me over the top. That’s right. The ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=154 The hats, at long last, have arrived. Here’s one below, and if you want to be able to claim “Woodchucks 4 Life,” as I do, shoot me an email. Comes in around $20 plus shipping, which is totalling $25 in the US. They’re Flex-Fits, so you have to choose S/M ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=153 In about 18 hours I’ll hop on my last flight to France for my last two games with the Woodchucks. There’s a nice symmetry to it all, as my last games in France will be against Antoni Piquet and La Guerche, the same guys I first saw with the Lions ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=152 Thanks, Changer! http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=151 It is snowing in Chicago right now. SNOWING. This meteorological aggression cannot stand. More later today. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=150 The wind was blowing in during warmups, a soft breeze that became stronger throughout the day. I felt good in BP: good, but a little slow. It’s hard to ascribe a decade of aging to six months, but I’m unquestionably slower- both hands and legs- than when I started the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=149 Today is October 3, 2006. It was seven months ago yesterday that I left for France. It was six months ago yesterday that I no-hit the Woodchucks in my final game as a Lion, earning my current gig as a Woodchuck in the process. Time flies, huh? Another 9-hour flight ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=148 BOIS-GUILLAUME SPLITS WITH ROUEN’S SECOND TEAM; WOODCHUCK NATION REJOICES I’m probably getting ahead of myself, but I thought I’d lead with the juiciest stuff. I got in on Saturday morning around 11, after a delay in Chicago due to tornado warning. While waiting for my bag at the carousel, I noticed ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=146 I left France on Monday, August 28th, after two frustrating losses against PUC in Paris. I stayed with my friend Miklos at his apartment in the Marais, and caught a nonstop to Chicago at noon, getting in at 2:30pm Chicago time. The weeks since have been a maelstrom of orientation ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=145 Reports of HBWT’s demise have been greatly exaggerated; it’s not dead, it’s just resting. The first few weeks of law school have been a bit hectic, so I’ll have an update later tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I would like to draw your attention to three entirely awesome things. ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=144 “Goodbye’s too good a word, babe So I’ll just say fare thee well…” -Bob Dylan, Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright Friday afternoon in Rouen. In fact, my last. Come Monday I’ll be just another first-year law student weasel, trying to settle in to my new apartment in Chicago and complaining about things like ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=143 Editor’s Note: Feast or famine, it seems. After weeks with nothing, you get this Kaczynski-style rant… oh well. I thought about breaking it in two, but it seemed better to just get it down on paper while it was fresh. Hugs and handpounds, Ev Seeing as how I tend to run ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=142 If I ever get back to stay, It’s gonna be another brand new day… -Jesse Fuller, San Francisco Bay Blues There’s something about a pitcher’s mound. So far as I know, it’s the only ground on any field in any sport that is raised so as to accentuate the singular control over the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=141 Sorry for the lack of updates. I am in the middle of another four weeks off before our game on the 21st at home against La Guerche. There is actually a lot to report in the HBWT world, but it will have to wait until another day as I have ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=140 I was helping one of the guys on the team with his house yesterday, and I was complimenting him on reusing the turn-of-the-century exposed wood beams. Like Eric, he’s remodeling what was once a decrepit, hundred-year-old Normandy barn, and he’s kept the same wood, which gives a very homely, comfortable ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=139 Hey, two posts in one week! By my recent standards, that’s an almost Shakespearean rate of output! We play Sunday at La Guerche, a field that will always hold a fond spot in my heart as the site of my first official game in France. As always, we’re short on ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=138 Sorry for the long layoff, folks. I’ve been traveling in our four weeks off, during which I managed to see Cork, Galway, the Aran Islands, Belfast, Dublin, London, Leominster Spa, Glasgow, Barcelona, Pamplona, and Bayonne. Which one of these is not like the others? In Pamplona, I managed to run ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=137 No time for a real post here, but since I popped into an internet cafe, I figured I should at least take the opportunity to show you what most of my HBWT administrative matters boil down to. Basically, this blog has nearly 200 posts, but it’s already attracted over 10,000 ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=136 Look who was quoted (albeit anonymously) by Gordon Edes in his baseball notes column this week! P.S. that is to say, me. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=134 Now you know how I felt about some of those calls in the games against PUC. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=133 A short drive from the Formula 1 took us to the Toulouse baseball field. It’s a very respectable field, no goofy cutout infields or concrete mounds or anything. The team is actually just called Stade Toulousain, with interlocking ST on their caps, because they’re affiliated with the Stade Toulousain rugby ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=132 Saturday found us road-tripping south to Toulouse. The team wanted to avoid a debacle similar to that which surrounded our travel to Montpelier- a last minute increase in our train tickets nearly doubled the team’s cash outlay- so we traveled in the ultimate budget option, a minibus. Now, I can ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=131 I have a post prepared that will run later on French Hip Hop, but in driving home from the Fete de la Musique (more on that later as well), I heard on the radio a local hip hop group trying to garner street cred in a late night SkyRock (more ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=130 After an all-too brief nap on Friday, we met up with Sylvain, who took us to see our new apartments. He prepped us by explaining that they were “very small,” and they lived up to his billing. Unfortunately, it appears that I left my camera at my old roommates’ house ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=129 Editor’s Note: I’m a little bit behind in posting, so I’m actually going to backtrack a bit and chronicle the end of last week. As I promised in my last post, I’m trying to increase the frequency of posting, and I’m aiming for five posts this week. Check out this ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=128 As I write this, I find myself entering the seventh hour of a marathon ten-hour layover at JFK. I flew through Amsterdam last Wednesday to San Francisco, where I spent the week seeing friends, smoothing things over with my girlfriend, and eating burritos. Lots of them. An average of more ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=127 As some of you may remember, the Woodchucks’ opponent this weekend is Savigny, my former team. Obviously, the teams are having two very different seasons. Savigny is battling Rouen and Toulouse for the league title, while the Woodchucks are battling to stay in the elite division. In fact, the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=126 So… This one’s going to take some explaining. I couldn’t sleep at all on Friday night. Not a wink. Just 7 hours of staring at the roof of my tiny hotel room. I’m not even sure that I blinked. It was a combination some personal/family stuff back home, and it ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=124 May be boring to many, but this Economist Article does a pretty good job of describing the risk aversion of French society. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=125 (Note: This title works better if you remember that the French pronounce their capital city as “Pa-ree.”) Matt dropped me off at the train station this morning after a night of review. I caught the 9:57 from Rouen to Paris, and then walked over to the Opera to catch the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=123 Scene: 8:00 AM this morning, teammate Aldo’s apartment, Bihorel, France. Our hero awakes to the realization that he is suddenly 27 years old, sleeping on the dining room floor. Enter, Conscious & Subconsci0us. SC: Jesus F-ing Christ! What the hell is wrong with you! You’re 27 years old and sleeping ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=122 The semifinal was to be held at Bois-Guillaume today, provided that the rain held off all night. Naturally, it did nothing of the sort, and this morning a few inspired Normandy citizens were seen near the Parc des Cosmonautes making the preliminary preparations for a large, biodiverse cruise ship of ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=121 After the games last night, Aldo and I cooked some pasta and roasted a chicken for dinner before watching a little bit of the Cubs’ late-inning implosion against the Braves. In terms of surreal situations, watching an internet broadcast of a Cubs’ day game at 11pm at night in Bihorel, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=120 Note to Rick Sutcliffe: Stop being hammered on live television. http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=119 The following is an email from my sister, whose PhD (she’s the smart one, as I’ve said many a time) in Cultural Anthropology at Wisconsin has brought her to Tokyo for a summer of research. As you’ll see below, Meaghers, in general, tend to encounter a surplus of bizarre, surreal ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=118 I don’t really have time to describe Sunday’s games against Rouen, so I’ll get to that later. Instead, here I’ll describe the Challenge De France, which started yesterday. We were to play Savigny on Thursday, but the torrents of rain made that an impossibility. I’ll give Sylvain credit here; the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=117 Haven’t really had time to write up our defeats against Rouen this weekend, but I will eventually. Things have been a little tense around here lately as the 2-room apartment that we saw on Monday proved to be a studio with a loft in 2-room apartment clothing, but we’re unwinding ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=116 I feel that somewhere, ages and ages hence, as I lie dying on a hospital bed and my life flashes before my eyes, most of the images will be from all the baseball games I feel we should have won, the tight matches that just barely squeaked away in the ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=115 Just a quick update- don’t know if this has made it back to the states, but there is a Huh-yuge Italian soccer scandal going on right now. It’s nuts. Everyone, right on down to the host of a soccer TV show, has been implicated. As my Dad put it, it’s ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=114 Now that I’ve returned from Rouen after two days of fattening myself in Paris with my parents, I feel I’m sufficiently recovered to take a stab at describing a fairly gut-wrenching weekend on the baseball field. I probably won’t have time to post the second part until early next week, ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=113 It was kind of a tough weekend in HBWT land. We dropped two to PUC, two, ahem, spirited games. Frankly, I was shocked that those guys had yet to win a game. They played reasonably solid defense, and had a decent lineup, with power in the 1-6 spots. We should ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=112 Check out the article in the Washington Post on another crazy baseball-playin’ Meagher! http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=111 The two-hour drive to St. Lo required Matt and I to get up before 6 AM on Sunday in order to make the long drive into town from Neufchâtel to meet up with the rest of the team. Just on a side note, the long commute is starting to really ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=110 Check out the pub that HBWT got in the Boston Globe! p.s. a few minor inaccuracies but overall very cool! A fling with French baseball Banker abandoned job to play game he loves By Chris Forsberg, Globe Correspondent | May 7, 2006 The irony that he had quit a lucrative job to move ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=109 The apartment search continues, as the place we found on Tuesday wanted an unreasonable four months deposit plus one month’s agency fee… It blows my mind how difficult it is to find a place to live in Rouen. I feel like back home, even in the SF housing boom, you ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=108 No real update today, as Matt and I are busy trying to find an apartment in Rouen. You’d think we were looking for the holy grail, it’s so difficult. Apparently, the internet is not so popular for apartment hunting in France, as searching on Google for “Rouen Appartements” (in both ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=107 The past week has been pretty quiet. For the most part, I’ve been laying low, trying to ice my elbow whenever possible and stay on the schedule of anti-inflammatories prescribed by the doctor I saw, who, incidentally, is both a chiropractor and a physician. The Australian and I have spent ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=106 Editor’s Note: Hey, sorry for the long layoff between posts. The problem, as you know by now, is that the closest internet access is 40km away, and we’re looking for an apartment where we can hook it up permanently. Till then, once a week posting is probably all I can ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=105 It’s been a fairly hectic week, which has prevented me from getting in to Rouen to post at the cyber café where Matthew and I are now regulars. I still haven’t signed up for internet access at home, because we’re hoping to move out of our place out in Neufchatel. ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=104 What with my recent relocation, there are a lot of new characters in the Have Bat, Will Travel story. There’s Matthew, the hard-throwing Australian who is returning for his second year with the Woodchucks despite speaking hardly a word of French. There’s Eric, the former club president who bravely takes ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=102 Just a quick note. Some of you may remember my post on “Kyle,” a guy I had worked out with in San Francisco. Well, I originally changed his name for his privacy, but it’s actually Kelly Corliss, and he’s recently put up a website. You can find it here, and ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=101 We took the train to Paris on Saturday afternoon, changing at the St. Lazare station. We took the 14 line to Gare de Lyon, and caught another train to Montpelier, getting in around 10:00. If you want to get a bunch of funny looks, try bringing a French baseball team ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=100 Editor’s Note: Sorry for the long layoff, as I’ve been away from email access. I’ll post more next week as I try to get caught up a little better, but I probably won’t have access until Monday or so. I’ve met my new roommate, and he’s a great guy, and ... http://havebatwilltravel.com/?p=99