Adventures in Moving

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Lots happening here; Drew's 1st birthday, my birthday (I got a iPhone!), trip to Las Vegas, and the biggest news of all; we're moving. I lived in my hometown for 22 years and 11 months, now 21 years and 4 months later, I'm moving back home. Literally. Nancy got the job she's been going after and the house is up for sale. Even though we've signed with a realtor, taken one 17' truckload of stuff to my folks house, been packing boxes and all that fun stuff, it still seems a little unreal. I don't know if it will really hit me until Nancy is gone and the boys and I are here alone for a few days; or if it's when the first potential buyer calls to see the house; of if it's the day I wake up in my bed in my room in my parent's house.

But before any of that happens, there's lots to do here. Packing, cleaning, painting. U-Haul has there motto on the sides of their trucks, "Adventures in Moving". I'm not so sure I want an "adventure", but that's out of my hands. Let the adventure begin!

Baseball

I took Clay to his first big league baseball game this past Sunday. We went to see our Washington Nationals take on the Atlanta Braves. Clay was kind of impressed with RFK Stadium. Remember, his idea of a baseball stadium in a softball field in West Potomac Park. We had good seat in the Mezzanine so there was no one in front of us.

The entire way there, Clay told me that all he wanted at the stadium was popcorn. So after we found our seats, I said Ok, lets go get some popcorn and get back to watch some batting practice. Holy Smokes! We must have spent 40 minutes walking around RFK looking for a vendor selling popcorn. Finally, we found it and spent $6 for a bucket of kettle corn. After the walk back to our seat; and a stop for a hot dog and beer for dad; we opened the popcorn. Naturally, Clay decided he didn't like it. So he ate the cookies that mom packed for him. She jokes that there were 9 cookies there; one for each inning. Well, sorry mom but they were gone by the bottom of the 4th, and that was with rationing.

The Nats lost 0-3, but we had a great time and I hope Clay will remember that he saw one of the last games at RFK Stadium. Next year, there's a new Nationals Park where we will go many times.

Weekend in Pittsburgh: Part 1

Well, we just returned from a whirlwind super long weekend in Pittsburgh. We drove all over: Dahntahn, Squirl 'il, Wes End, Sahs Side, Nor Side an' even ova der in Swickley n'at. For thos eof you who don't speak Pittsburgheese, I'll translate: We drove all over: Downtown, Squirrel Hill, West End, South Side, North Side and even over there in Sewickley and more.

But one of the best things was getting free tickets (Thank You Anna W!) to the Carnegie Science Center. Back in July, we took the kids to the Children's Museum of Richmond and Clay had a blast. But the CSS had so much more and I think Clay would have stayed until closing if we would have let him. The only thing that made him even think about leaving was the last 15 minutes playing at the water tables. He did the all too familiar "pee-pee dance". One hand holding his crotch and bouncing up and down rapidly, while giving us that look like, "I can still hold it another 5 minutes".

Well, let's just say that we cut it pretty close. But we had a full three hours at the CSS. One of the highlights for me was seeing a show in the Planetarium called "The Stars Over Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". It was hosted by the late Fred Roger; a Pittsburgh icon; and was a neat 20 minute show for the under 7 crowd. Clay enjoyed it, even though in this age of Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, PBSKids Sprout and all the rest, he hasn't really ever watched Mr. Rogers. I remember watching him almost 40 years ago and and even in college we had discussions about the Neighborhood of Makebelieve and even went to get Mr. McFeeley's autograph once ("Speedy Delivery"!).

I think I'm going to make an effort for Clay to watch less "Zack & Cody" and a little more "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood"

Saturday in the Car

What a beautiful Saturday it was here in Northern Virginia! A rare low humidity, sunny, cool day for August. Of course, I heard about this day on the radio as I sat in the car navigating Northern Virginia traffic. The I-95 corridor is awful every weekend from early June through Labor Day. A forty minute drive turns into 3 hours. Just when you think traffic has cleared out or you find an alternate route, something happens like a multi-lane closing accident and you're stuck again. This is what happened yesterday.

I passed a place called Aldo's Italian Restarant on US-1 so many times, I think I'm over pasta for a few weeks. I've never eaten there, but if I never see Aldo's again, that's just dandy with me. Throw in a bright yellow "out of fuel" light, cranky kids and poor cell phone service, noisy "new" $400 brakes and the day is complete.

Actually, the day was not a total loss. Looking back at it, it was very nice. The kids got to see their great-grandfather, gran, and assorted cousins; Clay "went fishing" for the first time; Drew got to go on a boat, and we had a couple of good meals and a nice visit with family.

But the best news is that while we were gone, the hornets nest in our "problem" tree has been terminated with extreme prejudice. So compared to the hornets, our day was a picnic.

Bitch on Wheels

You might not know it by looking at me now, but I used to be a pretty good biker (the human powered kind of bike, not a Harley). I used to go out in my ratty shorts and an old concert t-shirt and ride about 12 miles a night after work, almost every night for a couple of years. Even back then, I always noticed that some other two wheelers had a bit of an attitude. They comment if you weren't going fast enough for them, if you were in "their" lane or if your "Team 7-Eleven" hat was not on at the right angle.

There was nothing I liked better than following a bunch of these "Lance Armstrong" wannabees down the trail. I thought it was kind of funny that big old me with my "The Who: World Tour 1982" shirt on my JCPenny 10-speed was keeping up with them and their $2500 titanium alloy racers, wearing their way too tight, way too bright shorts and shirts. But through it all, I was always polite and considerate of other bikers and pedestrians.

So yesterday, we were only our way to the play-offs for the softball league that the Kennedy Center plays in. It's in a very scenic area in D.C. called West Potomac Park. It's right on the river across from the Pentagon and it has about a dozen ball fields all in a row. Parking is always impossible there, so we ride the shuttle that the KC supplies for players and fans (we are season ticket holders). We pack up the diaper bag, chairs, snacks, toys and look more like we're going on a camping trip than a one hour softball game.

As we get ready to cross the 3 lane, not heavily travelled Ohio Avenue to the ball field, we see a young woman on her bike about 8 car lengths away. So we stop and figure, we're in no hurry, let's let her go by so she doesn't have to break her stride. As she passes us, she makes a smart ass comment about us "walking out into traffic". What the hell was up with her?

This isn't the first time something like this has happened here to us, but I notice that these people are really brave when they can keep going past at 15 MPH. Ahhh, the friendly, laid back attitude of D.C.

Tree House

Yesterday at about 5PM, I heard a horrible noise outside like a Ryan Zimmerman broken bat homer. Then I looked out the doors to the deck and all I could see were leaves. We had a 25 foot branch come down about 60 feet from a tree in the back yard. This was strange because there was no wind or storm or anything. It shattered our stairs to our new deck and snapped the handrail like a toothpick. But, I still feel lucky for a few reasons. The kids weren't out there; I don't even want to imagine what would have happened (Boys, no more playing on the deck or backyard until the tree guys come out)! If the branch would have come down 8 inches closer to the house, there would have been 4 times as much damage (of course if it had come down 12 inches the other way, we'd just have a big old divot in our yard).
Clay of course thought this whole thing was pretty cool and proceeded to tell me how his friends Josh and Brandon can climb trees and how he wanted to go out and help me with the tree. I was not in the mood. By the time Nancy came home, I had about half of the branch removed, but it was still a mess out there. It was a crappy afternoon.
When something so bad happens, I usually think "This is a good time to buy a lottery ticket. Surely my luck must be about to change". Alas, no, it was not to be. Let's just hope no more trees come crashing down; at least until I win the lottery.

It's the BLUE jump rope!

On Monday, I showed up at Clay's Vacation Bible School to pick him up. I got there early and there was Clay running up to me "Dadddy, Daddy!" I hugged him and watched as a bunch of four year olds {Note: they had "4"'s next to their nametags} went by and told him to join his friends who were all holding a purple jump rope and go upstairs with them. He looked at me funny, but I insisted, "Go on, I'll be right up." I noticed that none of the other kids were talking to him and that the group leaders, (a.k.a. 13 year old girls) were kind of ignoring him too. Strange. After we got upstairs in the church, Clay sat down with his "friends"; then came back to sit with me. I told him to go back and sit with his friends until the last part of the days activities were done. So he did; then he sat back 2 rows further all by himself. I was starting to wonder what was going on. Now we've been going to this church for 5 years, but we are not the most well known or "social" of the flock, but EVERYBODY who knows him for more than a few minutes LOVES Clay.
After a few minutes, Clay comes to sit with me again and I let hi. If no one wants to sit with him, well that's their loss! After another minute, another group of 4 year olds come by holding a blue jump rope with their older, more responsible leader who comes up to me and says, "Oh, thank goodness he's here with you! We've been looking all over for him!" Oooops! I guess my early arrival shook things up and Clay grabbed onto the wrong jump rope with the wrong kids.
Maybe I shouldn't arrive too early next time.