Reindeer Rally ‘07

http://pictures.thelauves.com/reindeerrally0712.html

Webster's defines "commencement" as "a beginning". If that's the case, then December 15, 2007 was a day of significant commencements, both the kind accomplished by walking across a stage and the kind brought about by running through a mall.

We left the driveway at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday in order to make Cristina's 9:00 a.m. graduation. Cristina is the last of the three Lauve kids to graduate from Texas A&M, and to say we have the drill down at this point is an understatement. Texas A&M is a great school, but unfortunately its graduation ceremony leaves a little to be desired. That's a problem with big school graduations: they feature huge numbers of people walking across the stage, and in the case of A&M, the graduation is split into three different ceremonies, which means we usually don't get the benefit of high-profile speakers. But it was a good ceremony, and Cristina did a great job getting her last name pronounced correctly.

My aunt Diana told us that after Cristina's graduation we would go back toward Houston and participate in the first ever Reindeer Rally, which none of us could quite make heads or tails of. Expecting some sort of athletic competition, I was surprised when we pulled up to Katy Mills Mall, which, for me, is not a place I prefer to go any way other than kicking and screaming.

As it turns out, the Reindeer Rally (at least the 2007 incarnation of it) is a scavenger hunt. A very involved scavenger hunt that requires collecting items, gathering information, and taking pictures throughout the giant donut-shaped outlet mall. We were split into teams (my cousin Eric was with me, Alicia was with Brandi, Cristina was with my cousin Cecilia, my dad was with Diana, and my mom was with my uncle Kyle) and given a packet of tasks that included the following:

• Get a picture taken while talking with a kiosk vendor


• Transcribe John 1:14


• Get a picture taken in a jersey from an athletic store


• Grab a free food sample


• Place pennies in the wishing well


• Operate a remote-controlled vehicle


• Play Dance Dance Revolution


• Purchase a t-shirt for a child


• Purchase a teddy bear


• Purchase a children's educational book


• Get a picture taken while getting a massage


• Purchase 1/2 pound of candy


• Find the 10th track on Bing Crosby's Christmas album


• Make a souvenir penny


• Buy some bubble gum and blow a bubble


• Play the shooting gallery

What follows are the stories of two of the five Reindeer Rally teams. They wouldn't let Brandi and me be on the same team, but that didn't keep us from posting excellent results in the soon-to-be-perennial event.

Brandi and Alicia's Team
Even before I knew what Reindeer Rally was, I knew I was going to like it. I enjoy surprises, and figured that no matter what it was, it would give me some bonding time with my new family. When Diana called out the pairings, I had a feeling that Alicia and I would do well together. In fact, I thought we had a pretty good chance of winnning. With Daniel acting as though he was non-plussed with the atmosphere, and Eric and Cecilia both going through separate phases of being too cool for reindeer games, Alicia and I were the only pairing where both teammates were eager for the challenge.

Quickly we were off, taking our positions-Alicia deciding which store we were going to go to next and me reading off the instructions for each. Alicia did a superb job at creating the charted course of the mall so that we made sure and did each task in order as the stores were found. One of our biggest mistakes was really due to my poor reading of context clues. I read, "Go to the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, look for the shooting gallery and take one picture of your teammate shooting a round, and another of their score" and thought it was referring to golf so we spent some good quality time looking for a driving range in Outdoor World. Sorry Alicia! It also took us several minutes to figure out to take a picture of our score so probably not our shining moment in the contest. This was also around the time where I wondered allowed if Daniel was able to put his issues with shopping behind him and enjoy the fun of Reindeer Rally.

Probably one of our best feats was bribing a smart pre-teen and her little sister to let us break in line and play Dance Dance Revolution for long enough for us to take a picture. The oldest sibling informed us that in order for us to do so, we would need to pay not only her for the game but for her sister to play too! That's where we first spotted Cristina & Cecilia. Alicia and I started to run through the mall towards the end as we could feel Cristina and Cecilia close on our heels. Imagine my surprise and our slight disappointment when we were told by our benevolent judges (Grandmommie & Aunt Dortha) that Daniel and Eric were the first to finish!

Even with that sad mement of realizing we came in 2nd, the Reindeer Ralley was truly a success. Not only did we learn about each other and enjoy the hunt, we also got to contribute a donation to Salvation Army in the end. Each of collected a shirt, teddy bear and book for a different child in need. We also celebrated the winners in all of us since everyone, even the parents, did complete the scavenger hunt. We ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and had the Sparkling Volcanoan Dessert! We had a really good day celebrating Cristina and her graduation and then each other in the spirit of giving! I'm very excited to see what next year's Reindeer Rally brings.

Daniel and Eric's Team
My less-than-rosy disposition on a mall-based scavenger hunt changed as soon as I heard the teams announced. When I thought we were going to be doing a lot of running around, I thought of this as a competition between Eric's team and my team. Now that the two top competitors (in the DL preseason power rankings) were on the same team, it was obvious what had to happen: we had to run away with this thing.

My initial thought on the contest was that it was going to be very close. I figured that the difference between first and second place would be less than a minute, which meant cutting out seconds wherever possible. The instructions gave us just one rule, that each team had to stay together, so everything else was open to interpretation. This led to our three-word mantra: "keep the change". We were supplied with envelopes filled with money for most of our stops, and we probably shaved off a couple minutes by being slightly careless with my aunt and uncle's money. The rest of it came from good old two-guys-trying-to-get-out-of-the-mall impatience. We abhorred waiting in line, and for the last half hour or so, we ran everywhere we went.

The highlight of our scavenger hunt had to be the massage. The instructions said that we had to get our picture taken while getting a massage, and the massage envelope included four quarters. Remarkably, ours was the only team that couldn't figure out that we were expected to pop four quarters into an electric massage chairs. So when we came across a massage station with real live masseuses ($15 minimum), I decided to try and negotiate a $1 massage. What we ended up agreeing to was $2 for a 15-second massage, which gave us a picture that I think was the best one from Reindeer Rally.

After frantically scrambling through the final few tasks and getting our pictures developed, we raced to the finish line and were surprised to find that we were first. When you think about it, it's kind of remarkable that the only all-male team ended up being the best at navigating the mall. For the sake of competition, I hope that next year's Reindeer Rally involves baking or painting fingernails or something like that; otherwise, it's bound to be much more lopsided than this year's.

You might be a Cardinals fan if…

...at 1:01 Central Time today, you pulled up a PDF of the Mitchell Report, typed "pujols" into the search box, and hit enter.

That's what I did, and after taking a look at some of the blogs this afternoon, that's what a lot of people did. We all registered relief when no results came back, but  it's unwise to view a player's absence from the report as evidence that he doesn't use steroids. I believe Pujols is clean---he's shown none of the steroid-type spikes associated with steroid use, he has no reason (dipping production or being on the major league margin) to use, and he strikes me as an honest, straightforward man who sincerely cares about the integrity of the game. But on this report were 86 names that somebody was certain would never, ever use steroids. And anybody who thinks that the list, which used only two sources for most of the names it generated, is comprehensive is deluded. The list could be off by an order of magnitude---the players listed are remarkably diverse in terms of team, position, and age, but the one thing they seem to have in common is their carelessness. Presumably, there is another group of players (and trainers, and doctors, and executives) that was careful enough to steer clear of the investigation.

I was not alone among St. Louis fans in being relieved that the Cardinals were not terribly hard hit by the report. What a horrible way to react---finding only a few minor players from your favorite team implicated in this awfully damning report and treating that as a silver lining---but that's unfortunately the world we live in. Steroids have arguably ruined the last decade of the game, at least in terms of statistics and comparing with other eras. I wouldn't want to be a Hall of Fame voter right now---I'd be compelled not to vote for players linked with steroids, but even that is troubling because a) many of the links are based on hearsay and b) withholding votes from steroid users is essentially tacit approval of the people you vote for as being clean players, when you actually have no idea.

As I looked through the results of the investigation, one name jumped off the page. Fernando Vina. Fernando Vina? The guy who sits in between Mark McGwire and Tony Pena as the Cardinal acquisitions in which I am most disappointed? The guy whose only recourse for getting on base was attempting to get hit by a pitch? Was he taking steroid injections into his right elbow? Did he discuss with his trainer a mix of drugs that would allow him to dangle his limbs into the strike zone? Did he develop such a super-strong elbow that he was able to deflect fastballs with it four times a game? When the steroids came in, did the side of the package say, "Side effects may include an insanely overmanicured goatee"? That Fernando Vina?

This is really depressing, and the saddest part is that it probably doesn't get any better until Major League Baseball develops and agrees on a test for human growth hormone. As has been said elsewhere, the focus is on names like Roger Clemens when it should have been squarely on two names, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr. And shame on all of us fans, too, by the way. None of the stakeholders in this thing asked enough questions or demanded enough action, and now we're paying the price for it.

In other news, the Astros traded five players for Miguel Tejada (possibly the most productive active player implicated in the report) a couple days ago. Before the 2007 season, a couple Houston friends asked what I thought the Astros should do about Roger Clemens. I said that they should pay him $3 million to go play somewhere else. The reason behind that is that signing Roger Clemens, with his ability to lift the team out of the doldrums and into the playoff hunt, awakened something (let's call it hope) that was not necessarily productive in the long term. I didn't think the Astros would ever be great again with Roger Clemens; just good enough to almost make the playoffs. And with the way they tend to give up prospects, I think their focus should be squarely on the future. They don't need Roger Clemens around to change their viewpoint on "win now" vs. "win later". Well, the Astros have proven that they don't need Roger Clemens around to help them make ill-advised short term decisions; they can do that just fine on their own. In Tejada, they get a very good player for at least (and maybe only) one year. They gave up five players, including some promising youngsters, with 27 years remaining on their combined contracts. Yikes.

Where Have You Gone, Number Fifty-One?

"You'll look around for Willie McGee one day, and he won't be around."
---Willie McGee

The prognostication that Willie McGee made late in his career about a quiet disappearance from baseball ended up not quite coming true.  But eight years later, the same unfortunately cannot be said about his charitable foundation.

The 1999 season was Willie's last with the St. Louis Cardinals, and he was sent out with a standing ovation every time he came to the plate.  Five years later, he founded a charitable organization that helped gave scholarships and other financial support to students in the Oakland, California area.

My first exposure to the Willie McGee Foundation was in 2004, when Jarvis Brown, McGee's best friend and the president of the organization, gave me a call.  Their website was just about to launch, and Jarvis, who had seen some pictures on the WillieMcGee site I developed, called to see if I had any more.  The most surreal part of the call came when Jarvis told me about the group's kickoff event, which was to include VIPs from the San Francisco area and from the baseball world.  "City councilman so-and-so is coming, and mayor whatshisname, and, oh yeah, Ozzie's coming."  Just like that, as casually as you might mention that Uncle Steve is joining us for cards this weekend, he mentioned the anticipated arrival of the most exciting baseball player I've ever seen.

I considered donating to the Willie McGee Foundation a few times in the years after that phone conversation.  I checked in on the website fairly regularly, proud to see that Willie was still giving back to some promising students and athletes in his home area.  But a few weeks ago, when I pulled up the site, it wasn't there anymore.  I can't even find a mention of what happened to the foundation or why it disappeared.

This is just a reminder that there's never a bad time to give money to a charity that you care about.  There are always plenty of worthy and needy organizations, especially at this time of year, but that shouldn't be an impediment to giving to the ones you feel are most deserving.

Thanksgiving Pictures

http://pictures.thelauves.com/thanksgiving0711.html

Brandi and I spent our first major holiday together (Halloween being a mid-major) in Houston, College Station, and Jasper. Our trip began at the Neely's (my aunt and uncle's) house, where we had a great time. We went on a run with Sarge, the Great Dane puppy with the taped-up ears, and I did well in basketball but not so great in soccer (lost 5-4 to the team of Cecilia and Brandi). On Wednesday night, we played Scrabble, watched Frequency, and ate pizza with Alicia and Cristina. Did you know that the day before Thanksgiving is one of the biggest pizza delivery days of the year (rivaling Super Bowl Sunday)? Makes sense.

Thanksgiving Day was Alicia's first to host, which means that I got to prep my first turkey. The meal was very good, even the very nontraditional dessert of cheesecake that made an appearance for my mom's birthday. On the Thanksgiving All-Star team for 2007 were the squash casserole, dressing, and the pumpkin cobbler. The Thanksgiving MVP was the gravy, a gametime decision, that ended up being pretty much the best gravy I've ever put on turkey and dressing. The turkey was remarkably moist, too.

The big day for me was Friday, where Brandi and I attended our first Texas/Texas A&M game together. Our only other college football game to attend (and Brandi's first college---or pro---football game) was last year's Texas/Baylor game, which, apart from being a Baylor game, took place somewhere other than Kyle Field. We arrived just in time to tailgate with my uncle's family, and I threw the football with Eric before we headed into the stadium, arriving just in time to sing the Spirit of Aggieland. The game was incredible, with plenty of big plays, most coming from the home team. At halftime, we were treated to the Show Band of the Southwest, which performed a tribute to super heroes (including, oddly, Robin Hood), and Brandi got to see the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band for the first time. When we arrived in Jasper, Brandi's mom had made sugar cookies, and I got to watch them all decorate them.

On Saturday we went with Brandi's parents to pick up their Christmas tree. It was rainy and cold, the closest you can get to wintry weather in late November in Southeast Texas. We spent the rest of the day decorating the tree with lights and ornaments, ate Connie's great chicken and dumplings and a wonderful peach cobbler, and watched parts of a couple of movies. On Sunday we attended mass, ate lunch out, and took inventory of Cabbage Patch Dolls and Star Wars figures. Then we got on the road. Our first holiday together was a wonderful one, and it was a great dress rehearsal for the big one, which is right around the corner.