Woo hoo! We did it! I’d like to introduce you to my wonderful wife, Andrea.

The Oakland A’s are the 2013 AL West Champs!

It’s official.

The Oakland Athletics are the 2013 AL West champions!

Andrea and I went to the game today and I have to say, Oakland bats were swinging and the fans were loud. It was pretty friggin’ exciting.

Now that the west was won, those ALDS tickets I bought last week will come in pretty handy. Woo hoo! We are going to the Postseason baby!

I snapped some great shots at today’s game… so enjoy 50 photos as the Oakland Athletics win the AL West. (Continue reading for the slideshow).

J.T. Styling in the Radio Flyer Red Wagon

I’ve been wanted to get something to help moved stuff when gardening a doing stuff around the yard. There are utility carts for sale at the local hardware stores, but man, they are pretty utilitarian and quite boring.

I kept thinking back to that little red wagon I had as a kid and thought, “What if?”

I’m not sure the wagon I had was a Radio Flyer, but that’s THE red wagon. So checked out Toy’s “R” Us and Target and they had a couple of models of different styles. The models come in different styles: plastic, wood and metal – They even have ones with big all-terrain tires. I wanted the classic style like I remember but nothing was in stock locally. Looking online, I found it on Amazon for $79 with free Prime 2-day shipping. Now that was $20 less than anywhere else, plus it’ll be at my door just in time for yard work for the weekend.

Two days later the doorbell rings, the dog barks, I wave to the delivery man, pull the large box inside, and opened it like a little kid on Christmas morning. Follow the gallery below as I unbox and build our new Radio Flyer Classic Red Wagon Model #18. I hope you enjoy it as much as my little dog does!

To improve my writing skills, I decided to take creative writing class at Las Positas College here in Livermore. The class had two major parts: write a short story and write a collection of poems. During one of our class discussions on writing poetry, our instructor was talking about the fun of creating sounds in poems. On the whiteboard, he started writing variations of funny sounds such as “ploing” and “pzahh.” Being a man who uses sound effects quite often in daily life, I was quite amused. I was also quite inspired.

Soon after, I was off on a trip to London and I had a little time to kill on the flight. At 35,000 feet somewhere between Saskatoon and Nuuk, “History of War” was born. Back in class during our critique sessions, everyone seemed to really enjoy it. One student even said that I should publish it. So hey, what better place to publish my very first poem than my very own website right?

So here is my contribution to the world of poetry. I hope you enjoy it.

History of War
by Kirk Sylvester

Grunt toss rock bash
Club swing face smash

Clink clank slash cut
Zip twang shwish pluck

Pip pop bing bang
Tsssss crack frooom bam

Click clack ratta tat tat
Vroom roar treads track

Jets soar swoosh zoom
Bombs drop weeee boom

Atom missiles rumble launch
Small world knockout punch