I haven’t had a chance to blog much, but a few posts ago in my “To Hellinois…  … And Back Again” blog series, I mentioned that I might be partaking in a “very exciting, awesomely fun event” to which I promised, “more on that later”.

Now that the event is definite, I am bursting with excitement, so I will share –  hubby got us tickets to see the Chicago Cubs play the White Sox LIVE!  I’ve been wanting to go to a Cubs game for awhile (since our last visit to Wrigley in 2004), but last summer was out because I had a baby and unscheduled surgery from which I had to recover.  So, June 28 at Comisky Park US Cellular Field, we will venture into Chicagoland once again to cheer on the Chicago Cubs while on the turf of the Chicago White Sox – AWESOME!  My mom was nice enough to agree to watch all 4 kids for the day (and the eldest 3 for the rest of the week, BOOLYAH!), and the tickets for the BIG GAME arrived in the mail the other day.

They accidentally got thrown away in the garbage with the junk mail, but LUCKILY hubby was heads up and asked about the whereabouts of the tickets.  That’s when I realized that I probably had thrown them away – by accident of course!  Good thing he asked when he did – the tickets were found not too near the bottom of the garbage and salvaged, thank goodness!

But anyway, I am looking forward to this event like you wouldn’t believe.  Not only is it LIVE baseball, but it’s MLB, not AAA or AA.  And it’s the Cubs I get to go watch, and they’re playing the SOX – their arch-rival (especially as far as I’m concerned – I HATE those White Sox!!!).  So I would say yeah, even though it’s not even 2 months after our last Chicago visit, this visit will be well worth it!  So watch  for us – we’ll be decked out in Cubs gear to be sure to properly invade the South Side Sox turf.  The game is at 12:05pm local time on June 28 – the last of a 3-game series between the two teams, so it promises to be that much more exciting!  It’s scheduled to be shown on WGN, so if you get that channel, check it out, you just might see Taylhis and Co.!

GO CUBS!!!!

We were all over the place this past weekend.  I guess it was the nice weather…  wait, it rained Saturday!

It started with game night on Friday night – my intentions were to take it easy and end somewhat early so we could rest up for a big day with the kids on Saturday.  It didn’t end up that way – we began the weekend by staying up too late!  But it was a fun game night, kind of a different crowd, so it was interesting to mix it up a little.  Our new friend brought presents for the kids to game night, and I can’t express enough gratitude – she basically saved game night!  Our will-be-5-yr-old-tomorrow Sammie was in a mood, and seeing the new friend (the presents didn’t hurt either!) actually got her out of the mood she would have otherwise stayed in all night probably – thanks Mary!

Saturday we were going to take the kids to the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan.  My husband and I (and Taylor in her fetal days) went there in ’99, and we loved the zoo.  We found out it was only about an hour and a half drive from here, so we decided to check it out.  An hour and a half drive doesn’t seem like a long time if there’s no traffic and the kids are good!  Besides, an hour and half drive home after a busy day can sometimes (if we’re lucky) cinch the deal and put all 4 of them asleep for the night.  Well, anyway, it was raining on Saturday.  And we didn’t want to take 4 kids through an unfamiliar zoo in the rain.  So we ended up at Crazy Pinz in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  It’s a place where they have arcade games, bowling, mini-bowling, mini-golf and the kids’ favorite, Ball-O-City – a giant play area with levels and tunnels and balls to shoot at each other.  I was really happy when my husband pointed out the Chicago Cubs game playing on the huge tv in the bar.  So I stood over there and watched the Cubs wriggle out of a dicey situation – they had been winning 4-0 when all of a sudden, Houston scores 4 in the 9th and ties it up!  They also had bases loaded, but the Cubs got out of it somehow and came back with a win in the bottom of a 9th!  The bar at Crazy Pinz erupted in a cheer – Cubs fans everywhere!  So we stayed there for awhile and then got home late but not too late for us to catch up on watching the season finales of our two favorite tv shows – Lost and The Office.

I guess I should save it for another post, so let’s just say we were really happy with the finales of BOTH shows.  Lost actually answered a lot of questions that were outstanding, and it can finally be seen how events are starting to come full circle for the characters.  Something awesome occurred on the Office, well, it was alluded to anyway, but I think it was obvious what the next development is for the Pam and Jim characters.  Ahem.

Sunday after church we decided to reclaim our Saturday plans and head up to Battle Creek to Binder Park Zoo.  Sunday was a gorgeous, picture-perfect day weather-wise, and it ended up being a great decision – it would not be fun to tour this zoo in the rain with 4 little kids.  The zoo is mostly outdoor, and there is a bit of walking if you want to see the majority of the zoo.  You climb aboard a (free) zoo tram that takes you 5 minutes into the wilderness, err Wild Africa as the zoo calls it.  But whether it’s the wilds of Michigan or the savannas of Africa, the view that awaits you when you arrive in Binder Park’s Africa is breathtaking.  Beyond the authentic-seeming African village is a wall, and beyond the wall:

Click the picture to see a larger version – those are zebras and Thomson’s Gazelles grazing in the huge pasture.  And a clutch of ostrich eggs (real?) on the edge of the exhibit (lower right middle of picture).  The giraffes can go out there too, but they are usually over here:

where you can FEED them!  It was a great day at a great zoo, and we even saw an animal I had never heard of – the Patagonian Mara.  Fully grown they are about 35-40 lbs. (the one here at Binder Park is 9 mos. old and about half that), and they are rodents most closely related guinea pigs.  At Binder Park, the keeper was in the cage with the mara, and she was jumping onto his leg and doing tricks for food – very cool.  I didn’t get the best picture; there was a tree in the way – again click for a larger pic, maybe you can actually see the mara:

The Binder Park Zoo also has a cute rabbit exhibit where the kids can crawl through a tunnel and end up “in” with the rabbits, a cool children’s zoo (housing the happiest Guinea pigs I’ve ever seen – the first time I’ve seen Guinea pigs that weren’t squealing with fright or freaking out), and a carousel, among other fun things.  Here is my son on his first carousel ride:

And two of my 4 happy kids at the zoo:

And my other two riding a giant ant:

So…  a great weekend, even if we were never home sweet home.  I was going to share my pastor’s story he told on Sunday, but this post is long enough, that will have to wait for another post!  Until then…

I was scanning the web site for a local paper, and came across a picture of a bunch of school kids releasing balloons into the air. I’m sure they are hoping that some people would find them and send the cards back to the school. This has been an interesting human interest activity for kids. But recently this sort of activity is frowned on because of the problems those pesky balloons can do in the ‘wild’. We’ve all heard stories about various animals eating and choking on the balloons. All well and good, less flights of balloons…. But the thing that made me go HMMM was the fact that the school was celebrating the successful campaign of recycling milk cartons. Hmmm, adding to environment problems after helping the environment…

Second thing that made me go HMMM, is our local paper’s web site. I would love to give you the link for the article I read, but I don’t think it is there anymore. If it is there, you need a subscription to read the full article. Because of this tedious fact, I won’t even give the name of the paper. It looks like with a subscription you can get a full 30 day archive!!! (sarcasm here) Anyway, because of the unfriendly atmosphere, I won’t link to the site. No free advertising from me. It would be in the paper’s best interest to allow access to at least the community announcements. But no, that isn’t happening. Oh well, it isn’t my paper.

And finally an article from CNN. Apparently Pete Rose (the guy banned from Baseball for life) thinks that Alex Rodriguez deserves a hall of fame nod. Since he is banned, why is anyone asking him? I’m sure he thinks he deserves a spot in the Hall too. Not that A-Rod doesn’t, but since he hasn’t been retired for 5 years, isn’t it a bit early to start thinking of that? Hmmm..

Any others?

On Sunday, the Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics 8-7 in 15 innings.  While neither team is high on my radar to follow, the Mariners possess one player with very close ties.  Denny Stark pitched to four batters in the game.  This came after an absence of 1747 days (last appearing on the mound in 2004) and two Tommy John replacement surgeries on his right elbow.

How well I remember back in the day (he was a year behind me in school) when Denny was on the mound or on the hardwood either scoring 1000 points in basketball or pitching on the mound at EHS.  Totally amazing and he was definitely one who started out as soon as he was big enough to throw a ball to his father.  I know for a fact that his parents encouraged his talent and gift.  His father, “Connie” (and mother, Roz), coaching, developing him, but never being the stereotypically domineering parent.

Sometimes, coming from a small town and knowing everyone and what they are doing is a good thing.  In little league, I remember having Connie as a coach who never demanded anything less than what you were capable of giving.  So often we hear of coaches or parents who push as hard as they can in order to realize their own dreams through their players or children, but it was absolutely untrue in this case: THIS IS DENNY”S DREAM and it has been realized once again… if only for four batters.  Hopefully, this is only the beginning.  Perseverence does have its rewards.  I remember going to a Ft. Wayne Wizards game one summer when Denny was scheduled to pitch for the opposing team.  However, we were unable to see him pitch as he was called up to the next level.

UPDATE: According to a more local newspaper, Denny will be used in a middle relief capacity.

I really was enjoying a good ball game until the 7th inning. After that inning it was no longer a ball game, it was a slaughter. And yes, my favorite team got slaughtered.

Maybe it is the competitor in me, but I’ve always liked close games. It never mattered win or lose. I even enjoy a good slug fest for one team if it just happens to go that way all night. I don’t really enjoy good tight ball games for 5+ innings and then have one blow out inning. I generally just turn those game off. Yes, it does make it more difficult when the team I want to win is on the losing side, but I’ve turned them off in both directions. Congrats to the Yankees and their excellent pitching performance. That side of the game was well worth paying attention to. The top of the 7th, well that was just sad. A poorly played ball, some lousy pitching and some good hitting made it a laugher. I’m just wondering what Tiger pitcher(s) will be sent back to the minors or even released after this game. Three pitchers did little to prove they should be in the majors tonight. I’m don’t usually complain on one inning of work, but a relief pitcher should throw strikes. If the other team smacks the ball around fine, but walks and especially back to back walks should happen rarely.

Oh well, that is my rant for the night.

Kind of a double content post.

My youngest made it back from her competition in Myrtle Beach. A superior rating was given to the dance choir. They scored 95 out of 100 in the competition. I will need to wait until tomorrow to get more information, it seems the trip tired someone out.

The other thing, one of my ‘other’ favorite teams (anyone playing the Yankees — Sorry Jamiahsh) had a player steal home. A rare feat in baseball. A matter of timing, skill, and a bit of luck. Not done too often now. Major league record holder for most swipes of home was a former Tiger, Ty Cobb. Just for Jamiahsh, Lou Gehrig is on the home steal list with 15 and even Babe Ruth had 10. No it isn’t something that happens very often. More pitchers staying in the stretch when there is a man on third. Managers not wanting this to happen. Ball players a bit more cautious. Any and maybe all of those things contribute.

I’m trying to find the active player with the most steals of home, but it is hard to find. I’ll keep looking.

By the way, I didn’t mention Ty Cobb stole home 54 times. 50 times for the Detroit Tigers and 4 for the Philadelphia Athletics.

My favorite team (the Detroit Tigers) are at the end of a West Coast road trip. After tonight’s (this morning’s) game they will head to Kansas City. I’m curious as to the start times used on the West Coast. In Seattle, the games started just after 9:00 PM our time. Most of the games were over before 1:00 am. In Anaheim, the games start just after 10:00pm, and they haven’t been over before 1:00 am.

I usually have to get up by 6:00 am, at the very latest, so these west coast trips are usually going on past the time I would like to be asleep (I don’t always get there, but that was another post). Since I’m paying for Game Day Audio, I feel like I should get my money’s worth and listen to as many games as possible. So, yes I did stay up for all of the west coast games (3 in Seattle and 2 so far in fair Anaheim).

As you could guess, I’m kind of tired today. I did go to “bed” early last night, but I woke up in time for the game. But that really doesn’t get to my initial curiosity. Why the different start times for Seattle and Anaheim? They are in the same time zone, aren’t they? Now the 10:00 start is what I would consider normal (that is 7:00 in California), but the 9:00 (6:00 in Washington) is a bit odd. So, I started doing some research, and found my memory failed me (I was missing some sleep here). Only the Saturday game started at 9:00 our time. That now makes sense. Saturday games could get the people there by 6:00 local time. Not a bad idea.

Of course, now everybody knows why I was so tired on Saturday during filming. I was up late listening to the Tigers lose last Friday…. 🙁

Since I answered my own question, I imagine there won’t be many comments here…. 😉

Whew!!!  It’s Sunday night – the finale of what just might be our busiest weekend ever!

Friday night we stayed up late to tie up loose ends and organize our film shoot scheduled for Saturday.  Christopher,  our 9-month-old, has decided to start waking up in the middle of the night again, so despite our best efforts (and going to bed early didn’t work out either since there was SO much work to do for the film shoot), we did not achieve the much-needed good night’s sleep on Friday night after not getting very much sleep Thursday night either.  Saturday we were up bright and early to take the kids 20 miles into the country to their new babysitter – our regular babysitter had stopped doing weekends some time ago, and it finally became time to find a weekend babysitter.  I know what you’re thinking –  a new babysitter in a different town = scary!  But of course we had met with her beforehand, and we liked what we saw.  Not only that, but she lives in a very small town, and her husband’s a teacher (so he had an established reputation, and also would need to protect it) AND she is a friend of a very good friend – ie, she had awesome references that checked out, and when it was all said and done, the kids had a GREAT time over there.  As for us, we had a VERY busy day trying to shoot our “short” film.  I put ‘short’ into quotes because the short film took so LONG to film – at least in some of the cast members’ opinions.  I actually thought the shoot went quite well, considering certain factors.  But the bottom line is, it was a heck of a lot different than doing live theater (how didn’t some of us see THAT coming – it seems obvious that film and stage would be like comparing apples and oranges), and we did not wrap all of the scenes in one day.  So guess what we’re doing next Saturday?  No complaints out of me,  as long as attitudes stay positive…

Saturday night after the shoot we were exhausted.  We were going to take the kids to the park, but it started to sprinkle, and so we were able to catch an AWESOME Cubs game on tv instead.  This entire series with the St. Louis Cardinals has been  so great to watch, even though I’ve actually only caught parts of two of the games – more on that later.  Saturday night saw us staying up too late again because it took awhile to settle down the kids after their big day.  And, lo and behold, Christopher was up all night again.  Right when we flopped into bed, he sat up in his crib.  I pretended like I was sleeping for a few minutes so I could be a fly on the wall and see what he did to entertain himself.  I almost giggled as he sat up and clapped his hands to himself – it was adorable!  I must have fallen asleep though because the next thing I knew (after a few hazy awakenings throughout the night when kids were crying), it was morning and time to get up and get ready for church.

Church this morning was entertaining (I always find it entertaining and enlightening, but I really do need to get some more sleep – I SO don’t want to be known as the lady who dozes in church!) as always, although our usual pastor did not give the sermon.  I liked the sermon, but not as much as when our usual pastor does it… oh well.  After church, we went to our usual brunch and there we decided to take the kids to the Hannah Montana movie.  Except that once we decided, we had only 20 minutes to finish eating, get to the theater, and find a row of seats – what it takes to hold our family at the movie theater nowadays.

Come to think of it, it was such a busy weekend,  and Sunday was busiest of all, so I think I’ll end the post here and make it a two-parter.  My regular readers can  consider this a cliff-hanger because they know that any time we take all 4 kids to the movie theater, it’s nothing short of an adventure…  Until part two…

Since the beginning of this baseball season a number of people in and around the game passed away. Since I am a Tiger fan, the one that hit closer to home was the death of Mark Fidrych. Unfortunately, I never got to see him pitch at the stadium, but he was frequently on TV and his antics were played on the sports highlights of the News. Monday night baseball was a big thing on TV in 1976. There weren’t the number of cable stations. Believe it or not televised games were usually only shown on Saturday. Anyone else remember the ‘Game of the Week’?

Mark Fidrych brought a bit of the kid in all of us to the ball park. From filling in holes on the mound with his hands, to talking to the baseball or himself, and then shaking the hands of almost everyone when he won the game or left the game. He was a kid having fun on the ball field. He won 19 games in his rookie year, was voted rookie of the year, won 9 games before being name an all-star. And as quick as it started, the magic ended. An injury the next year made his season start late, and after winning 6 games his arm just gave out. Without the injuries who knows what his career would have been.

I remember watching those Monday and Saturday games. I remember some of the news stories and articles in the paper. It was the summer just before my Senior year. Even though the Tigers were a sub-500 team that year, they captured the nation for every game that Mark Fidrych pitched. I don’t recall anything else in baseball that came close to that year, and a performance by a 20 year old pitcher know as “The Bird”.

MLB network talks about the Bird
Last batter in Monday Night game
Mark ‘The Bird’ Fidrych interview

Tonight, I was treated to a surprise on the television after I got home from work: only the second televised Yankee game of the new season and it was the first game broadcast on the New York station we get via DishTV.  Quite a difference from yesterday’s 15-5 debacle.  New starter A.J. Burnett had a no-no going through six, but in the bottom of the 7th, the Rays scored a pair to make the score even.  By the ninth, the Bombers had made the score 7-2 capped off by Captain Jeter’s three-run dinger.  I now see that the Yanks and Tigers are even in their respective divisions at 4-4; however, the Detroit-Chicago White Stocking game was postponed due to rain.  And the Cubbies continue their winning ways at 5-2… GO CUBBIES!

For the past week or so, I have been rather surprised that neither ESPN station nor the New York affiliate were going to carry the opener at the new cathedral.  I searched and searched the guide at Thursday afternoon at 1PM.  I guess I should have checked the Ohio Sports channel.  If I had realized that the Yanks were facing the Tribe from Cleveland, I would have checked it before tonight.  So, following my shift Thursday afternoon… I just hope no one wants to watch soap operas.