You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2007.
Drafted takes 3rd at the Ian Thomas Hales Memorial tournament in Cartersville this weekend. Our first game was at 11am. Alex and I picked up Autumn at her place at 9:30am (Amanda decided not to participate – it was raining), and hopped on I75 North.
Construction signs told us either 1 lane or all lanes were closed ahead, so we jumped right back off at Barrett Pkwy and took Hwy 41 all the way up. The ride was pleasant, but wet — it rained all the way, and got harder as we got closer. Alex however predicted it would stop once it was time for us to play.
It slowed to a sprinkle when we got there, and by the time we started warming up it had indeed, stopped raining. But then the sun came out it got hot as hell. Nasty, wet, humid, muggy hot.
We played Trouble the first game and won. I traded off with Karrie at 2nd as the Extra Hitter, while Alex and Austin immediately dove into the DS world of Pokemon.
With our win, thankfully, we had a break until 3:30pm. Most of us went to Chili’s for lunch – it was air-conditioning and not too heavy, so it was good. We then went over to Hibbett’s Sporting Goods and then Publix for some beer and water (staples for every softball tournament).
We played the Bounty Hunters at 3:30pm, and once again – one bad inning and we lost. I’m getting so tired of losing to them. Really.
Our next game was supposed to be at 5:30pm, but the rain had returned and had slowed things down a bit. We started closer to 6:30pm against the Lady Roadrunners. We won – I don’t remember the score because by then the rain had returned with a vengeance.
At one point I was under a tent with the boys, and it was raining as hard as it could rain. And still they played. There was a good 1/2 inch of standing water on the infield. And still they played. Finally the ump’s stopped our game, but the other game was in the 7th inning and they were trying to finish. Fully Loaded gave it their all and tied up the game with the Lady Rebels (a B team playing with our C teams — it’s an equalizer tourney so they had to spot each team 4 runs). They went into extra innings, which triggered one-pitch. You walk to the plate and get one pitch — you walk, strike out, hit or foul out. The Lady Rebels scored several in the top of the 8th and Fully Loaded couldn’t come back twice.
In the meantime, our game started back up, and the rain started slacking off a bit. But there were giant puddles all over the infield. I went in at 2nd for a couple of innings and I had one ball hit right to me — nothing I could do but “take one for the team” and I got a face full of water as the ball hit the water then my glove. Somehow I was able to see through long enough to throw to 1st for the out. By now, our game and the rest of the tournament has moved to 1 pitch.
So it’s down to us, the Lady Rebels, and the Bounty Hunters. Even spotting us 4 runs, we lost by quite a bit to finish 3rd. The puddles on the infield were so bad that people were coming into the dugout, taking off their cleats and wringing out their socks in between going back out. The puddles were too big to run around, so you had to just plow through.
Was still fun – and the Lady Rebels were pretty good sports – they still played hard, but didn’t rub it in like they have in the past.
One of my regular sites to visit is Curt Shilling’s wordpress blog and today it led me to Peter DeSpain’s blog. He’s a strong little guy going through a tough time, but hopefully he’s toward the end of the haul, and once he has his surgery and recuperates from that, he’ll be on his way to a great and long life.
His surgery is on Monday, and I know everyone in my house will be thinking about him and sending out good vibes and positive thoughts his way.
While Dylan and Ann were here last week, we took a trip to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. They had 2 exhibits we were really interested in: The Louvre and Annie Leibovitz. We hit the Louvre exhibit first and it had an audio tour. Knowing now, we should have gone there last, because the audio tour kept the kids enthralled. At one point we were moving on to another part and Sweetie yelled (since she had on the headphones) “But I’m not DONE yet!” and everyone around got a great chuckle of that.
This exhibit was good, but I absolutely loved the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I was the last of the group out, and could have stayed another hour. She had a lot of photos from her times with Susan Sontag, and I enjoyed reading her comments throughout.
Sweetie had another minor meltdown yesterday morning regarding teeth. This time, it was the top tooth and it was so loose she couldn’t chew. Which led to the breakfast breakdown – and she promptly asked for waffles. Which led to another breakdown when I tried to explain those wouldn’t be any better.
So she started up a video game and I started up LOTRO, and suddenly she rushes over “Momma! I lost ANOTHER TOOTH!” as though we didn’t all know it was incredibly loose, but a miracle that it suddenly was out. This one didn’t bleed at all, which made it even better.
We placed the tooth in the official tooth box:
… and forgot about it until later that evening. We were driving to Sweetie’s favorite restaurant “Bacado” (not to celebrate the tooth, just because we were craving mexican). We started going there when she was a tiny baby, and when she started eating solids, we would order her sliced avocado — and that became the name of the restaurant. As in: “I want to eat Bacado!”
She was talking with Buddy about something in the back seat, and I started to giggle. She had just said something like, “… and basthically that persthon wasth sthoooo tired!” It was so adorable I said, “Hey, you haven’t called Grammy and Poppa yet!” So she called and told Grammy all about it and how “it didn’t bleed A BIT!” and Grammy got to hear the lispy-ness of 1 less tooth.
We jump in both cars, drive down to Marietta Square, and drop one of the cars off in a prime “fireworks display” parking spot. We then go about our business until about 8pm, when we head back to the square and park the other car as close as we can get, but not too close. We mosey on back to car 1, watch the fireworks, and then go to The Marietta Diner for a late dinner, and finally pick up the car left behind and head home.
This year we started out a little later than in the past — about 3:30p. We were going by a small public lot and I saw someone leaving — jumped into the lot for the last place — even got to back in — score! As we were leaving we talked about how that might not be a good watching spot, but the chairs were in the back of car 1, so we could always adjust.
Late lunch was at Sonny’s bbq, and then a trip to the dollar store for another tradition… glowing stuff. For $7 we got 8 necklaces, 8 bracelets, and 3 10″ wands.
We decided to head back home for a bit, and EGlenn took an hour nap — Sweetie wouldn’t bite though. We started back to the square a little late — 8:15pm, so by the time we got there, it was packed. EGlenn dropped us off and started looking for a spot.
We broke out the chairs and the glow sticks:
It started getting dark, and still no EGlenn… I was just about to tell him to come by and switch places with me, when he called to say he found a spot.
While he walked back to us, we played with the light sticks… which HAVE to (have to!) become light sabers at one point. Red obviously being the evil one, we all took turns being bad.
Behind the back block:
Blur of color as it got darker:
EGlenn timed it just right and had just enough time to get settled into his chair. We talked briefly about which way we might move if the trees were in our way. Then they started… RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM US! We were so close, the trees didn’t come into play at all. It felt like the fireworks were right on top of us, it was so awesome! Buddy mentioned that we were so close you could SMELL the fireworks, and sometimes the smell was quite strong. Only one went off early, but it still got about tree high, so not too scary.
We then went off to the Marietta Diner for a late supper (Buddy and EGlenn had dinner, Sweetie and I had breakfast) then back for EGlenn’s car, getting home around 12:30am.
Was a great time!
With much less fanfare, Sweetie pulled her second baby tooth in two days. A little more blood this time, but she was much calmer about it.
Once again, we called Poppa and Grammy to tell them all about it, along with the gleeful announcement that the tooth fairy brought TWO golden “president coins.” They are very shiny and gold with George Washington on one side and the eagle on the other.
Our contract with the T.F. states on the first tooth lost $2 will be delivered, and $1 for each tooth after. Buddy has 9 gold dollar coins so far, and Sweetie will get her 3rd tonight.
The permanent teeth have decided to work overtime now that there’s room, and they’re quickly moving on up into the world.
