Board Games, Baby Showers & Baseball - A lovely full weekend
I had a non-stop fantastic weekend. Friday evening, Mortgaged and I got to move our Friday night ritual from the sofa to the ballpark again. He called me 90 minutes before first pitch this time to say that his awesome season ticket holding coworker had just handed him the tickets again, this time all four. I think it’s because we actually go, have a great time, and then Mortgaged thanks his coworker and lets him know we had a good time. It sounds like some of the folks he’s handed the tickets to in the past haven’t gone to the game.
Anyway, ours really isn’t a baseball set - okay, I think you would agree that none of you would drop plans already in motion to snap up free tickets to a ball game and that’s okay J - so we gave the other tickets to Mortgaged’s cousin A and his wife S and had a really nice time with them. A is a Dodgers fan primarily, but a baseball fan in general and a finance guy who’s very interested in the business of baseball so he had a lot of questions about contracts and restructuring the team next year and was a lot of fun to talk to. The game? Well, it was great to see Pinero pitch so well so soon off of the DL and it was fun to see all of the minor call-ups start together including on guy just called up from AA - no, I didn’t typo and drop an A - that evening, but we did see all of the call-ups play. Some of them are very talented and I hope to see more of them, but not all in the same infield just yet. It was a very low scoring game and, ultimately, a loss (and an elimination, sigh) but it was fun to watch. The Big Bang Friday fireworks did not disappoint either! The finale was one of the more impressive I have seen, and all to Santana hits. Is it because Ervin Santana just pitched a personal record season win? I hope so.
Saturday, I went took my mother to a baby shower for the wife of a cousin on my dad’s side of the family. It becomes more obvious to me the older I get that if I don’t work to maintain relationships with the various members of my family on my own, we really will all drift apart when my parents’ generation becomes to old to bother dragging us together. And I have some really neat cousins so I am making a greater effort to go to more of the family gatherings. Besides, this was actually more fun than it sounds. My cousin’s wife is a kick with a great sense of humor. I had not seen my cousin’s mother since I was child and she is lovely to talk to, and they kept the silly games to a minimum (and most were music oriented as my father’s side of the family is extremely talented in this regard). Besides, it was nice to spend some time with my mom and, hey, any gathering with Sprinkles cupcakes has to be good, right? The menu did seem like it was selected by the mother-to-be mid craving though - Italian meatballs, a six foot long bean and cheese burrito, Greek salad, Costco turkey wraps and Orieda French fries with nacho cheese and A-1 steak sauce! - but this became a source of a lot good natured jokes, including from the guest of honor herself.
Saturday evening, we gamed!! Yay!! My Catan withdrawal has been staved off for the time being. Mortgaged and I had new friends, old friends, and one very good old friend over to our house for an evening wherein at least one person was laughing and another was cracking wise at any given moment - just the way I like it! We played Ticket to Ride, Catan, Ingenious, that squiggles of doom game whose name I cannot remember and a new-to-me game, Zombie Dice. And it was an informative evening as well. We learned that four bottles of wine and a couple six packs of beer produces an awful lot of silly - huzzah! - party food attracts female anatomy without fail, cheese attracts everyone, including those we wish would avoid it, it takes an awful lot of wood to get anything useful done in Catan (and don’t even get me started on the sheep), and pronunciation is really a philosophical concept.
Sunday morning, Mortgaged and I were up and back at the ballpark again. It was fun, but what a hot day. 106 degrees in the stands at one point! I am not kidding, you could smell the plastic seats, it was so hot. The Rangers clenched the division the previous evening, so the Angels are playing for second place now…and pride…and maybe, if I may hope so boldly, to finish above .500? The game was fantastic until the 7th inning. Weaver pitched 6 phenominal innings, briefly reclaiming the AL strikeout title. He made a highlight reel catch too, in the third inning on a line drive to his head that spun him around and knocked him on his back. Seriously, this was one of those, yes I was there and I saw that live kind of catches.
We got to see Andrew Romine - the kid up from AA - get his first major league hit, and only in his fourth at bat! We got to see him make a few really nice plays between Friday and today too…and two really bad ones today. Oh well, he is a rookie. We got to see Bourjos beat out the ball to first - the kid is faaaaasssssst - and to see Bobby, after several bad plays, make a good catch and then an even better throw, all the way from left field to first base, for an extremely long, impressive double play in the 8th. But the highlights ended there. We let them get ahead, we didn’t rally and we lost by one. It’s nice to see the kids play and all, but could we get a few more of the big boys playing against Oakland and Texas please? Oh well, any day at the ballpark is a fun day, and this was no exception…and we’re going back two more times before the season ends next week.
What a great weekend!