Take Me Out!
PLAY BALL!!
I've decided to do this trip Memento style so as to not forget any pertinent details of the last few days and to try not to remember anything from the past week that I've already obviously forgotten.
thegirliscrazy has a memory like a fox and
ronniebm has two kids and thus is forced to remember everything so I will count on them to fill in the hopefully few precious gaps in my recollection.
Anyhoodle, on Thurday night (or was it Wednesday...?) my company hosted us for an evening at a Lincoln Saltdogs game. The Saltdogs in and of themselves are the execution of an absolutely adorable concept:
Those Nebraskans sure do love their football, I wonder how they would feel about baseball?"
And in typical Field of Dreams fashion they envisioned the park and through proper funding made it happen. A gorgeous field complete with skyboxes, club seating, and beer wells every fifty feet. They even sold peanuts and cracker jacks as an adoring crowd waited in the stand for a new team to call their own.
The game we viewed was against the Sioux Fall Canaries. It was dollar night so all Fairbury Brand hot dogs were only a dollar. Don't let the low price limit you though, Gayla and I both partook in the Nebraskan version of Nachos Bell Grando (nacho cheese, chili, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, tortilla chips, and a little bit of love that sets it apart), and marveled at the many choices there were made available.
The lines were long, the parking formidable, and the humid summer air tempered by a cooling breeze. Not that the breeze itself was cool, but instead the presence of wind mixing with the water already in the air (some from the humidity, some from us sweating) created a cooling effect. It ended up being quite nice.
As each player approached the plate a "stinger" was played, or basic hype up song for each batter. Songs ranged from crooners, to country, to southerlicious hip-hop.
Ronnie: What would your stinger be?
Stacey: I don't know, I think Walk it Out.
Gayla: Mine would be something by Prince (she actually titled it, but I've forgotten, I'm sure she'll remind me, ahem)
Later on the way to Omaha to drop Gayla off, we established Ronnie's stinger to be Voodoo Coochie by MoJo, and Gayla's to be Something by Prince (and she really will kill me for not knowing, but currently she's hundreds of miles away so I'm okay with that), and mine would be "Get By" by Talib Kweli.
Anyhow, we ended up winning in an extra inning 6-5, and to get there some things happened which I did not understand. Something about... I don't know, some runner on 2nd couldn't run because there was a foul ball that did something when it wasn't supposed to? Who knows about these things? Certainly not us, not when there was food to be consumed, children to entertain, and coworkers to mingle with. The gist is though that because of this faux pas the inning had to be replayed yet we persevered and won anyway!
Here are some pics from the game with accompanying commentary:
These are the girls. Y is the baby and M is the eldest. M wasn't feeling my camera love, but Y is still young and can't escape the quick capture of my phone camera!
This is Gayla, and then Gayla, Ronnie, and the girls attentively pointing to something somewhere. Honestly, there was nothing over there, well, nothing the adulterated grown up mind could imagine, but to the unfettered imagination of children, an utter smörgåsbord of phantasmagoria-like happenings lie just out of our figuratively tunneled peripheral vision!
Or it could have been a butterfly, or a puppy. Probably a puppy.
Ronnie to her girls: "Look at the doggy!"
M: Doggy?
Y: Snaowjdf?
Ronnie: Yeah, isn't he mangy? Wait.
Stacey: What? Mangy?
Ronnie: No! I meant- what's the word?
Stacey: And you said it right to his face too! Look children, isn't he rather rabid looking today? Look at the mongrel! Ooh sha boo!
Ronnie: Shut up! That's not what I meant! I meant.. what's that word?
Stacey: Shaggy? Were you going for shaggy? And came up with mangy?
M: Puppy!
Overall good times and a fun night. The girls got commemorative Salt Dog lunchboxes (yes, I was jealous, shut up) and our section won coupons for free KFC Snacker sandwiches (I'm getting buffalo)!