Baseball on My Mind

Ahh, how nice it is to have a weekend where I’m not doing a lick of work, and not feeling guilty in the least about not setting foot in Walker Building! I’ve been taking the evenings off too, mostly either just reading or sending out some emails or other stuff I’ve fallen behind on in the last month-plus, it’s great!
Friday was Anke’s birthday, so a whole bunch of us went out to dinner at Fuji & Jade Garden. It was billed as a “sushi & sake” event, though I got neither (I did have a couple rolls from the huge sushi boat that Dave & Anke got though!). After the tasty dinner most of us went over to Dave & Anke’s apartment to play some Super Nintendo and DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). Initially I was pretty skeptical about the whole DDR thing and almost didn’t go, but I’m glad I did because it was a lot of fun! The whole concept of a video game that gives you some exercise is a new one to me, but I rather like it. It was actually pretty exhausting! Daniel kinda wussed out and didn’t wanna give it a go at all, though. Maybe he thought rumor of it would get back to his Auburn or Air Force buddies, haha. 😛
Yesterday was pretty fun too. First there was a church picnic at lunchtime (can’t pass up a free meal!), then in the afternoon I played some tennis with Kerrie, Daniel & Katie for a couple hours. After supper I went over to Walter’s with Petters, Jacob, Ben & Margaret to play some Hot Death Uno, a cool variant on Uno that Walter found. It gives some cool new twists to an old classic, to be sure. Then it was time to head into Bill Pickle’s for some footy! Setanta Sports aired the Geelong Cats v Brisbane Lions game live starting at 11pm (1pm Sunday afternoon down in Aus), and so I got to see my second Cats footy game in two weeks. 🙂 Petters, Daniel, Katie, Kerrie & Andrew all came down for at least part of it to see what I was always raving about with Aussie rules football. Unfortunately some early rain made for slippery conditions and very sloppy, low-scoring footy (not the best match to introduce people to Aussie rules with), with Geelong taking a 32-4 lead into the half (even 32 is fairly low-scoring for a half, to say nothing of Brisbane’s measly 4!). The action did pick up in the second half a bit and the quality of the footy was a bit crisper, but still Geelong cruised home to an easy 85-35 win, keeping them atop the ladder at the mid-season break with their 7th straight win.
I had originally planned to go to the Braves-Indians game over in Cleveland today with Vic, Lindsay & Kerrie, but when we tried to order tickets on Friday we found they were gone, except for the expensive tickets and some really crappy seats. Then we tried to find tickets to the Tigers-Phillies game down in Philadelphia, but that was sold out for today too. Who would’ve thought that so many people would take their dad out to a baseball game on Fathers Day? 😉 So we’re gonna take a raincheck on visiting Jacobs Field, and probably go to the Twins-Indians game in late July (and then I’d probably continue on home toward Wisconsin from Cleveland after the game). All this talk of baseball got me motivated to see what I could find for Twins-Yankees tickets for their upcoming series in New York the first week of July. Ticketmaster was all sold out, but on eBay I managed to find a 6-pack of bleacher tickets in right field for $12 apiece (incl. shipping). So a group of us meteo folk will be going to historic Yankee Stadium to take in a ballgame on the night of Tuesday, July 3rd! I can hardly wait, I’ve never been there, and I was really hoping I’d get to go to a game in Yankee Stadium sometime before their new stadium opens in 2009. And that it’s a Twins game? Double bonus! Now I’ve just gotta see if anyone wants to road trip with me to Toronto in late July to take in a Twins game north of the border (Ryan?). I could really check off a few stadiums this summer (last year I went to games at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Camden Yards in Baltimore, to add stadiums other than the Metrodome in Minneapolis finally)! I won’t be sad about missing the Twins play the New York Mets this week in Shea Stadium, though. I’ve heard that that place is such an absolute dump that it makes the Metrodome seem like a spectacular place to watch a baseball game!