Page 134 of 142

Magnetic Poetry: Horse Names Edition

June 2, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

The running of 135th Kentucky Derby and the 134th Preakness Stakes, got me thinking about how horses get their names. The filly (you go girl!) who won the Preakness, Rachel Alexandra, has a normal enough name, but Mine That Bird is the name of the horse that won the Kentucky Derby. What exactly does Mine That Bird mean? (I feel like it must have some crazy subliminal message, but I just can’t quite figure it out.)

Some other Kentucky Derby winners include Burgoo King, Gallahadion, Tim Tam, and Lil E. Tee. It’s like they throw a bunch of two-year-olds in a room and show them pictures of pretty horseys and whatever comes out of the toddlers’ mouths becomes a horse’s name. (Actually, I take that back…I wouldn’t want to insult my two-year-old nephew, who is actually quite an eloquent speaker.)

In honor of the running of the 141st Belmont Stakes this Saturday, here’s a list of some horse names. Some of them I made up by randomly picking words from my magnetic poetry set and some are actually the names of horses running in the Belmont. Can you guess which is which?

Light Heart
Mr. Hot Stuff (Also a good name for a male stripper.)
Full Rhythm
Chocolate Candy (Very tasty.)
Pickle Fight (I’m so naming my next cat this, just so I can call him P.F. for short…and if he ever gets lost, I can drive down the road shouting “Pickle! Oh, Pickle Fight, where are you!”)
Flying Private (I think I saw this movie in the adults-only section at the movie rental place…not that I ever go into that section!)
Memory
Luv Gov (This sounds like a political scandal in the making.)
Sour Thought Drink (Don’t try to order this at a bar…I promise you it won’t taste good!)
Summer Bird (Call me crazy, but I would’ve thought this name would’ve been better for a parrot.)

Did you guess correctly? See the comments to find out. Oh, and my pick for the Belmont is Mine That Bird because I think his jockey, Calvin Borel, is going for his own kind of Triple Crown.

Adventures at the Baltimore Orioles Game

May 18, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

Highlights from my first day in Baltimore include catching up with my sister, watching my nephew (the 9-year-old) chase after cars that potentially held Yankee players, getting a ball signed by Andy Pettitte, seeing A-Rod whack a home run off the first ball pitched to him in 2009, and listening to a couple of old ladies chatter away while paying very little attention to the baseball game.

So these ladies were at the game with their husbands. I’m not sure if they had ever been to a baseball game, but they did have some astute observations. For one, they noticed that some of the K’s that were posted on the scoreboard were forwards and some were backwards. They didn’t know what the K’s meant (one of their husbands explained that a K was posted for each strikeout the home team’s picture recorded), but they thought it was nice that some were backwards so the scoreboard didn’t ever show three forward K’s.

(Not that I disagreed about it being nice that there was never three forward K’s in a row, but that’s not the real reason why some of the K’s were backwards. A forward K indicates the batter struck out swinging, and a backward K indicates the batter struck out looking.)

They also noticed how cute some of the baseball players are (hello, Derek Jeter!!!). No arguments there. At one point they asked me if my nephew was my brother, which my nephew found pretty hilarious. I wanted to say to them, “Didn’t you notice my nephew calling my sister ‘Mom’? If I was his sister that would make her my mom as well…not really feasible!”

Then towards the end of the game, they called my husband “the best looking fella” in the stadium, and they also said that they “may be old, but they can still look.” My nephew again found all of this pretty hilarious, so the ladies turned their attention to him. “But you’ll give him a run for his money in a few years. You have beautiful eyes.”

I guess it’s not so bad having the same taste in men as a couple of old ladies. They’ve seen a lot, so they probably have good taste, right? (Let’s hope so for my husband’s sake.)

Star-Spangled Trip to Camden Yards

May 14, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I went to Camden Yards for the first time this past weekend. I hadn’t been to Baltimore since eighth grade when my class stopped there for a few hours on the way to Washington, D.C, and was pleasantly surprised at all it had to offer. My brother-in-law and my nephew (the 9-year-old) have gone there a bunch of times over the last few years and really love the ballpark.

We went to see the Yankees play the Orioles on Friday and Saturday night. I swear there were as many, if not more, Yankees fans there than Orioles fans. I guess that’s because now you really do have to agree to give up your first-born child in order to pay for tickets to the new Yankee Stadium, unless you want to sit in seats with obstructed views (and I thought engineers were supposed to be smart!). I haven’t even been to the new Yankee Stadium yet and I’m already missing the old one.

Anyway, back to my trip to Baltimore. Let me warn you in advance (because no one bothered to tell me) that if you do go to Camden Yards keep on your guard during the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Orioles fans shout “O’s!” (short for Orioles) when it gets to the line “Oh, say does that…” Aside from having thousands of shouting fans scare the crap out of me, I had some mixed feelings about defiling our national anthem (who knew I was such a patriot?).

Up next: How my trip to Baltimore made me realize my observations are right in line with those of a couple of septuagenarians (scary, I know!).

Temperature Swings and Spring Garden in Pictures

April 30, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

In some areas of Connecticut the temperature was in the low 90s on Tuesday. In those same areas last night the temperature got down to the low 30s. For all of you math geniuses that’s a 60-degree swing in less than 48 hours. Welcome to New England!

My hometown is on the water, so it tends to be a bit more temperate. But still, weather in Connecticut is kind of ridiculous sometimes. Despite the cool temperature last night, today is holding firmly in the 60s with a mix of sun and clouds. In other words, spring has finally taken root.

That means my daffodils are blooming,

my bleeding hearts are gaining steam,

and my pea plants are growing, growing, growing (which is just in time because the other day I used up the last of the frozen peas from last year’s crop).

Now I’m off to enjoy the nice weather (while it lasts!).

The Eastern PA SCBWI Conference Intro

April 15, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

My picture has hit the Internet again! I attended the Eastern Pennsylvania SCBWI Poconos retreat. It was at the Shawnee Inn, which surprisingly was only about a two-and-a-half hour drive from good old CT. Many attendees who reside in PA had longer drives than I had.

The weekend was—as my 9-year-old nephew would say—awesome! The members of the Eastern PA chapter of the SCBWI were so welcoming. I didn’t know a single person (except for my roommate, whom I had only met on-line…scary, I know…but really quite safe…I mean, we write for children, not exactly the scariest group of people), but everyone was super nice and acted like they actually wanted to get to know me.

I made a lot of new friends, got to meet the guru of children’s writers’ websites Verla Kay, and gave wedding advice to super-cool YA author Lara Zeises. The previously mentioned roommate posted all her pictures on her blog, and I just happen to have a starring role.