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Citi field on Saturday
I know, I know. I’m a little behind on the blog posts. I will do my best to catch up this week.
Saturday (despite the cold and crappy weather) John took all 3 boys along with Grandpa Jack, Uncle That Guy, Aunt Nez and their three, his friend Paul and his family, his friend Brian M. and his son, and Brian and his son (Timmy’s BFF) Jack to Citi Field to see the Red Sox vs. the Mets. Still preseason, but baseball nonetheless.
I opted out. Surprising, I know. But I got some work done while everyone was baseballing it up. And after sleeping 12 hours Friday night into Saturday, I was feeling pretty well rested and efficient.
*and after some “complaints” by an unnamed party about having the bsquared logo on the point n shoot pix that I obviously didn’t take at the game, I decided to keep putting my watermark on there anyway. Too bad!
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first visit to citi field (for all the boys)
While I was at Gail’s baby shower yesterday (where I didn’t take one single picture and the camera stayed home, but was assigned the job of ‘scribe’ by my sister in law Inez, which is so right up my alley. You know me and my lists!) all the boys (John, Jack, Patrick, Timmy, Uncle That Guy, Brendan, Sean & Grandpa Jack) went to a pre-game game at Citi Field. They were doing a run thru to make sure everything was working correctly in the park before the Mets start playing. Honestly, I don’t think many people went to see the game but to check out Citi Field.
John took the point n shoot and between him and the boys, got some good shots of the new park.
The excitement is building…
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mets seats
Have arrived. As you can imagine, I’m thrilled. Not really.
But John and the boys are pretty stinkin happy about having his Mets seats in our house as the last of Shea Stadium is just about gone. They came via UPS and are quite authentic- gum underneath the seats and everything.
I think they came at the perfect time…at the start of pitchers & catchers reporting and a new season of the Mets looming.
Now if I could just get them out of the living room (but they weigh like 100 lbs. Literally. ) I think they are going to live in the boys room. At least they are blue and not orange. See, trying to be positive. Just not in my living room.
edited to add: Thank you Uncle Joe! You are a good brother in law. I’ll carry the pillows! (he moved the seats to their new home- the boys room.)
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the boys whirlwind baseball adventure
As dictated by the boys. I’m just typing and plugging in the pictures. A ridiculous amount of pictures follow…
Day One:
At 4:00 in the morning we went in the car to LaGuardia airport with Uncle Nelson, us, Dad, and Grandpa Ken. We took our flight to Washington DC where we had breakfast and Jack had a muffin. Jack held up the muffin showing it Dad and Patrick and started saying "muffinie goodness"! Then we boarded the plane to Kansas City. We arrived at the airport around 9:15. Then, we picked up our rental car and drove to the hotel. Once we got settled in, we went to Aruthur Bryant’s for lunch. They made world famous Kanas City BBQ. We really liked it,(but it could use some personal hygene.) After lunch, we went to the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame. We learned about famous Negro League players like Satchel Page, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Jackie Robinson. When we were done, we went back to the hotel for a little while and then we went to the game. When we got to the Kauffman Stadium it was the Royals vs. the Chicago White Sox. They had really cool waterfalls at the stadium. The Royals lost 4-2 but we got some good stuff anyway. We headed back to the hotel and got some sleep. (after 20 hrs of being awake).
It wouldn’t be a vacation w Grandpa Ken if there wasn’t a restaurant in a really bad neighborhood with an armed security guard:
Day Two:
We woke up at the Sheraton, had breakfast (including more of Jack’s muffinie goodness), went back to the hotel room, relaxed a little bit and took a quick dip in their indoor pool. After the pool, we went to the ballgame and it was REALLY hot. The Royals won 8-2 this time. We went to Strouds for linner (lunch/dinner). Strouds Chicken is famous for their pan fried chicken and it was like country style. It used to be a house in the country with a log cabin, then in was some kind of manor, and then it was sold to some people that made it into Strouds. The food was really good. We got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, and fried chicken. Patrick went on a walk with Grandpa and got some really cool pictures. After eating at Strouds, we drove halfway to St. Louis and went to sleep in a new hotel. The Econolodge was disgusting and it smelled bad. And there were bugs. Seriously.
Day Three:
We woke up and got breakfast at McDonalds and it was pretty good. After breakfast, we drove 2 hrs. to downtown St. Louis. We went to the Cardinals team store and got merchandise before the game. Then we went to the Gateway Arch. We had to wait on line for a really long time but when we got to the place where we had to get up to the top of the arch, we went in these cool space capsule kind of things and we spiraled up to the top. We got a couple of great pictures from up there. It was a great view. Then we got down and we went to Ted Drewes which makes frozen custard like Carvel. Except it was much better than carvel. When we finished eating, we went to the Anheiser Busch Brewery for a tour. They had clydesdale horses and a lot of cool other stuff. Dad liked it cause it had BEER. It smelled like barley and yeast which we sorta liked but sorta didn’t. At the end of the tour we got free beer and soda. Soda for us, beer for dad and grandpa. For dinner we went to Charlie Gitto’s on the Hill which is an Italian restaurant. We had some fried ravioli there and it was REALLY good. Then we went to the Cardinals vs. Phillies game at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals lost 5-3 but they had cool statues in the front of the stadium and a cool team store. We left in the 8th inning, and went to a new hotel which was much better.
Day Four:
We drove for a while to Chicago. When we got to Chicago, we went sightseeing downtown and saw the Sears tower, lake Michigan which was pretty cool, the watertower that survived the fire, the opera house, and a cool mossy church. We had lunch at Lou Malanatti’s which had Chicago style deep dish pizza which was really good. Then we went to the team store and to Wrigley Field for the Cubs vs. Astros game. The Cubs lost 2-0.There was a huge rain delay with tornado warnings with a 2hr 45 min rain delay. The hotel we made reservations at had a blackout cause of the weather. We heard tornado sirens but dad told us it was the police! So we went to a new hotel (the super 8 motel) and it was okay.
Day Five:
Technically, there was a day five, but not much. We took the plane home and Jack had more muffiny goodness for breakfast.
So there you have it…a jampacked vacation with lots of baseball and lots of good food. A big thank you to Ken for the trip, John for the trip and for taking pictures, charging the camera battery, and not losing/breaking the camera, and to my boys for taking tons of pictures just for me (how awesome are the ones of the arch??!!) of things they knew I would like. I have them so brainwashed.
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home team happenings
Been so busy with clients sessions (which is a good thing) that I haven’t had a second to post anything that’s been going on around here. And as always, theres lots of stuff to report…
1. Jack and Patrick have spent the last two weeks at baseball camp- every morning for four hours. And they LOVED it! They worked really hard and got some great instruction in all areas. Patrick really did some great hitting this week (lots of singles, a few doubles and triples too!) and Jack finally got to pitch (he even struck a few players out).
The coaches put them on different teams (why???) and they had their first faceoff- Jack pitching and Patrick at bat. It was interesting- very hard to figure out how to cheer!
John stopped by the game between court and appointments and hung out with Timmy a little too.
2. I got a pedicure and went with a hot pink. I have never gotten a real color on my toes before- usually just a very pale pink. Shocking, I know. But I still keep doing doubletakes thinking my toes are bleeding. Other than that, I really like it.
3. Got into a car accident on Thursday. All my fault. Backing out of the driveway. Totally backed into a huge Yukon or Suburban. We are all fine. Funny part is that I know (sorta) the woman who’s car I backed into- we see eachother around town all the time. She was so nice about it. There was hardly any damage to her car (just one small black scuff) but my whole tailgate is caved in. Scary thing is that I couldn’t have been going more than 5 mph upon impact and the tailgate is seriously crushed. I had stopped at the driveway apron to make sure there weren’t any cars or kids coming and then it looked clear, so I went. Apparently it wasn’t so clear afterall. The tailgate opens and closes fine, theres no huge gaps and the lights work, so other than being ugly, there’s no rush in getting it fixed. Just another thing…
4. Still two shoots to be edited from last weekend. Two shoots this Saturday (one of which is in Staten Island) and one Sunday in NYC. I recounted and as of now I have booked and/or completed 105 shoots in 2008. Out of control!!!
5. Heading to the town fireworks Saturday night with the usual fireworks crew (Ivy and her bunch now including her fiance, Steve, my parents, Ivy’s parents) so be on the lookout for some new shots soon. Including the ring!!!
6. Got the NY State 3rd grade test results in this week as well. Patrick did awesome and got a 3 out of 4 in language arts, and 4/4 in Math. Jack…what to say about Jack- other than perfect! He got a perfect freakin score on both language arts and math. 780 out of 780 in lang arts, and 770 out of 770 in math! Can you believe it?? My second thought after how very proud of both of them we are was….holy sh*t!- how are we going to pay for Boston College (which seems to be the college of choice at the moment) when they do this well on their SAT’s? Better start booking lots more shoots!
7. working on the new pricing for next year with some new packages and new add ons as well. Exciting! And even more exciting… my fabulous parents are buying me a (way) early birthday present on Sunday. Pictures on that soon too. Can you guess what it might be?
