Lost Posts

Couple of things I meant to post, but never did. Sorry.

Some videos:

Over Easter, we went to Minnesota. Sara’s cousin’s husband is an equipment manager for the Twins, so he got us nice seats for the game that weekend. It was cold. The Twins brass can boast all they want about the number of over head heaters they have on the concourse, but unless they add them to the seats, I’ll never understand why they didn’t put a roof on that thing.

That said, it’s a beautiful baseball park. Surprisingly, it’s a few thousand seats smaller than Wrigley. But it’s a excellent example of what a ballpark should be. I’m all for tearing down Wrigley and starting from scratch.

Here’s a couple of photos. I took a couple innings and walked around the park late in the game. I’ll get those up someday.

Picking up our tickets from the Twins Player's will call window

Bundled up in our seats

About 30 rows behind home plate.

Panorama of the exterior on our way out

Uncle Scott bought him a Twins hat, too.

Cubs Season Ticket Holder Family Day

Yea, that just happened. Alex and I played catch for 2.5 hours on Wrigley Field today.

I was a little pessimistic that we’d be let in, since the season tickets I share with 2 others aren’t in my name. The invite said 2 adults and 4 children. But with several hundred other visitors in this time slot, they weren’t checking IDs. Ryan and his wife, Dave and his son, Alex and I were all eager to experience this.

It was a fantastic day. From 10am to 12:30pm, there was really no part of the ballpark that was off limits. The Cub’s clubhouse and the visitor’s clubhouse were open. The Press Box was open. The Batter’s Eye lounge was open. The pitching machine in the batting tunnel under the right field bleachers was open. You could touch all the bases. Stand on the pitching mound. Slide into home plate. Really the only thing they didn’t want you doing was touching the ivy. Free food and drinks (water, soda, lemonade) were provided, too.

I was able to convince Alex to go into the Visitor’s clubhouse with me for a quick moment (they are not kidding when they say it’s a long walk – unbelievable). But I couldn’t convince him to go anywhere else.  There were inflatables in the outfield for kids, but Alex had no interest in those either. There was a long line for the Cubs clubhouse, anyway.

So, for 2.5 hours, we played catch and ran the bases.

And honestly, that’s fine by me. We had a blast.

I figure one day I’ll do the Cubs tour and hear some history from a tour guide like we did when we took the Yankee Stadium tour. Or maybe if we’re still season ticket holders again and they do this appreciation day again, I’ll try those other options then.

For now, I’m just thrilled to say I played catch at every position around Wrigley and watched Alex slide into home. It’s been a really, really good week.

This day was a scorcher. 85+ degrees, humid and little wind. We had suntan lotion on, but I’m still burned. Alex started the day wearing shorts, but I brought his sweatpants which he eventually changed into because baseball players wear long pants. We paused a couple of times to go down to the concourse to get some drinks, but for most of the time, we were out there in the sun playing catch.

Traffic was bad going home, which was fine. Alex fell asleep in the car, so it allowed him a nice nap without me needing to drive around the block this time. Thankfully we had a rain storm late afternoon, because he was ready to go out and play more shortly after we came home. Unfortunately, the storm was a quick one and all it did was give me a short reprieve.  When the sun came out, we went to the local ballpark for another 1.5 hours. That’s right, we played 4 hours of baseball today. It’s 8:30pm and he’s STILL not worn out. But I am.

All the pictures of the day are here.

My Famous Friends

2011 is shaping up to be an amazing year. I’m having a good one, and so are my friends.

My cousin, Stefan, is a producer on the Gayle King Show in NY.

A friend of a friend was one of 4 finalists to be the Good Morning America Advice Guru (okay, this one is a stretch, but it’s still cool)

My church friend, Kyle, and his band won a Battle of the Bands concert and opened a Bon Jovi concert this week.

And now I just found out that our work friend, Brian, is one of 3 finalist to be the Cubs PA announcer. He’s flying in for an interview on Monday.

Pretty cool first 3 months of the year.

Cool Pants

Saw this in line at Dunkin Donuts. It’s not exactly clear here, but these are Guitar Hero pants. And this guy looked older than me. Not sure who thinks it’s a good idea to wear their pj’s out in public. Click for a larger view of the image.

Open House

The location was close to everything, but it was really small and on a busy street.

Multi-tasker

I lied.

I did have some decay in one of my teeth. Although, to be fair, the hygenist said it all looked clean. But a week later when I went back to see the dentist, he was concerned at one spot, so I made an appointment to come back and get that filled in.

The appointment was this past Monday, late in the afternoon. I got a call on my cell phone from the office, but I missed it. Not recognizing the number, and seeing no message, I called the number back. It was someone from the front desk. While I was on the phone with her, the person who originally called tried my desk number.  For whatever reason, I took the call, thinking I could convince them both that I was on the other line with someone else from their office. I wasn’t very convincing.

So, I just held the same conversation with both of them.

They were both asking if I could move up my appointment and so, with a phone on both ears, I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t reschedule and come in earlier.” They both said ok, thanks and hung up.

Now THAT’S multi-tasking!