This entry posted by Twayn, who could use a good 5-horsepower, 2-stage snow blower.

I finally have something in common with the Twins players down at spring training. I hurt. My muscles ache. Pick a body part and chances are it could use a heating pad and a handful of Advil. I spent the better part of Sunday digging out from the 18 inches of snow that fell over the weekend. Literally digging. My snow blower, which served faithfully for several years, took one look at the arctic landscape and suffered a traumatic breakdown. And the blizzard came on the heels of a crazy busy week. In addition to the regular rigors of work and playing Bob the Builder with a family member’s bathroom remodeling project, I had a broken washing machine of my own to repair, chauffeur duty for two adolescent daughters with more active social lives than yours truly, and a long list of household chores that never seems to become a short list of household chores.

So over the past week, when I wasn’t up to my knees in bilge water and dirty laundry, I was up to my buttocks in snow. To add insult to injury, my oldest daughter went with a friend to the golf show at the Metrodome on Saturday and couldn’t wait to tell me the minute she got home that she got to meet Harmon Killebrew. She says he’s a really nice guy and I would have loved talking Twins baseball with him. I believe her. When I did manage to find some downtime, I tried to spend it wisely, perusing the papers and Web for all things Twins. And with spring training in full swing now, there’s no shortage of stuff. Here’s a small sampling:

• Twins clubhouse assistant Wayne Hattaway turned 67 years young on Saturday. Happy Birthday, Big Fella. We hope your recovery is going well and that we’ll see you in the dugout come April, and for many years to come. Hattaway shares his birthday with Twins minor leagues director Jim Rantz, who turned 69.

• No longer breaking news for most of us, but the Star-Tribune has launched a triumvirate of Twins blogs featuring Twins beat writer La Velle E. Neal III , national baseball scribe Joe Christensen, and expert fan Howard Sinker, better known to Bat-girl.com readers as the pen behind ‘The RD Report’. I have them all bookmarked and they’ve already become part of my daily dose of Twins reading.

• Periscope, the Minneapolis agency behind the award-winning “This is Twins Territory” advertising campaigns, is at it again. They’re producing four new television spots this year, and you can see two of them, Little Piranhas featuring Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett and Carpool featuring Johan Santana and Joe Nathan, on the Twins website. My prediction? Santana wins another Cy Young award. Nathan fails to earn an Oscar nod. Nicky and Jason abandon baseball for a career in synchronized swimming.

• After early raves that led Ron Gardenhire to pencil him into the starting rotation last week, Sidney Ponson may be making his first trip to Gardy’s doghouse this week. It turns out Ponson doesn’t have a proper work visa from Aruba, and can’t pitch in any spring training games until he gets the red tape resolved. That’s got Gardy in a bit of a funk. Best get that done quickly, Sid. One call to Cincinnati is all it takes to make a guy disappear.

• After several agonizing months, this is the week the Twins actually start playing games again. The first spring training game versus the Red Sox is this Wednesday, followed by games with the Yankees on Thursday and the Reds on Friday and Saturday. The first televised spring training game is set for noon on Sunday, March 4th against Boston on FSN and WFTC29. The Twins will get some national airtime when ESPN carries their spring training game against the Yankees on March 27th. Imagine that, the Yankees on ESPN. Who would have ever guessed?

• Out: WCCO-AM 830. In: KSTP-AM 1500.

• Twins legends Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat are on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot. Let’s hope the exclusive country club mentality of the voters finally wears off. We'll find out tomorrow who (if anyone) will make it to Cooperstown this year.

• Lefty reliever Dennys Reyes left camp today to fly home for the imminent birth of his third child. Best wishes to the Reyes family.

• Lew Ford will be getting an MRI to determine how badly he injured his knee while throwing in the outfield today. Matt Garza will undergo a precautionary CAT scan because he’s still suffering from headaches caused by a neck injury, and Jeff Cirillo is nursing a minor neck injury as well.

• Patrick Reusse doesn’t care much for blogs or bloggers. That’s okay. I’m still a bit reticent myself about the benefits of the automatic transmission and painless dentistry.