Calm Before the Storm

I knew going into last week that it was going to be a crazy one.  It was the week of my big giving day at work, and the days before and after are always nuts, with one super long day in between.  Add that into normal life, especially in any sports season, and it can get overwhelming.  I was hoping that the fun of the previous weekend eased the crazy a little bit and that some slightly better weather might help as well.

After a busy and very productive day of work on Monday, I got home a little early and tried to get dinner ready on time for the boys to leave for baseball practice at 6pm.  I cut it a little closer than I wanted to, but just managed.  I wanted to spend some time that night working to get a head start on Tuesday's work, but I also wanted to take a walk and I knew I had to go to Wegmans that night, so once the boys left and I cleaned up from dinner, I got ready to go.  But it was such a nice night and I suddenly realized that the tulips were gorgeous and fresh at Highland Park and this might be my only chance to go, so why not do my walk there?  I had a solid 2-1/2 hours before the boys were home, so I made the last second decision to go.  I figured I'd do my usual loop around the lilacs, flowering trees, and tulips, and probably still have time to go to Wegmans and beat the boys home.  And with the week I had on tap (work alone--I had no idea what other things would pop up later), I figured a little moment of zen beforehand would serve me well.  It did.

I looked for parking spots near the tulips but ended up in my usual spot on Highland near the lilacs.  My first stop was the pansy bed, and it was lovely as usual.  It was getting closer to golden hour, as well, so the light was really pretty.  I just loved the soft colors of this part of the bed.

Most of the lilacs were still trying to bloom, but some were making good progress.  Despite the lack of blooming ones, I did manage to find just a couple blooms on my favorite variety.

The purple with the white outline is so cool.  It doesn't even look real sometimes.

I wandered through the Poet's Garden and saw this trillium.  I've learned how special and rare these flowers are from the Western New York hiking group on Facebook.  Their blooming is rarer than most flowers and picking them can damage the plant so they always say not to.  They're so delicate and pretty, though.

I fell in love with these chocolate lilies a couple years ago and desperately tried to get an underside picture (the flower faces down).  The light was shining so perfectly to capture the cool pattern in the petals, so I was even more determined this time.  I realized, however, that my forward-facing camera couldn't focus on something so close, so I had to go back to the normal camera, face my phone down, and take a completely blind picture (both with what the picture looked like and pressing the button).  Somehow I did this:
 

I almost looked like a crazy person as people passed by me crouched down with my camera, but they were struck by the flower too, and I'm not sure they fully caught what I was doing anyway.  Then I saw this sweet yellow one and couldn't resist it either.  My plant ID app says it's a short lily, but I'm not entirely sure it matches because their pictures had a fringe-like edge on a couple petals.  But this just looked so perfect.

The magnolias were all spent, so I wound my way up and around to the area outside the Lamberton Conservatory and headed toward the tulip garden.  It's funny how seasons work--usually when I go to see the tulips I catch all the magnolias and flowering trees.  But this year, because it was warm early and then got cold again, the magnolias jumped the gun the second we had a day or two of warm weather again.  Some of the other trees were nearly spent, too.  However, the trees on the road to the tulips were amazing.  This pale pink one was so fluffy and stunning.

The tulips were perfectly fresh and perky.  Aside from maybe one variety they were all mostly open but very early in their life cycle and still picture-perfect, so I really did time it perfectly.  

These colors were so beautiful.

These were so gorgeous.  I have this as my phone lock screen and marvel at it every time.

They were all really pretty as usual, but I was actually a tiny bit disappointed by the variety.  They didn't have any differently shaped ones or the ones that look like fringe on the edges.  I have to admit I got spoiled by the ones in Oklahoma City last year because they had so many different varieties in one spot.  This garden usually has a bit more variation, but not this year.  Still gorgeous, though.  I walked around to the conservatory, dodging photo shoots in the process.  This time of year Highland Park is crawling with pro and amateur photographers taking family pictures and engagement pictures and whatever else.  I must have seen a dozen while I was there, and also passed by what appeared to be a tiny picnic-style baby shower (on a Monday?!) with a ground-level table set with food and a photographer taking pictures of the mother-to-be with friends.  It makes me feel guilty we never did that stuff as a family, but would my boys have actually cooperated as we spent hundreds of bucks?  Probably not.  Anyway, I strategically avoided one group to get this gorgeous picture.

At least this one was a little different!

I headed up the road toward the reservoir, and I was interested to see how it looked.  About six weeks ago they found a dead body in it.  It necessitated a boil water notice in the city and closed down schools (including Jacob's due to the buses), and they've been emptying and cleaning it ever since, even though they insisted it was testing fine at the time.  It was pretty bizarre at first, and then obviously really sad since the body was identified as a man who went missing a month earlier.  It seems he got there on his own and climbed the fence, so who knows what happened after that.  It was weird to see it so low.  Compare it to the picture in this post.

There were still some daffodils hanging in there.  

I also managed to find a second two-color tree!  My pictures didn't turn out great so you'll have to trust me, but I always love seeing the one two-color tree (the post I linked to above has some pics), but I found a second one maybe 20 yards away!  While I was wandering, I saw a groundhog running around enjoying the massive buffet.

I saw these flowers that I'm not sure I've noticed before.  My phone says it's common pearlbrush.  Based on those buds I can see why, but the flowers were so sweet and dainty.

I went up along the azalea and rhododendron path and saw this wacky one.  It's called Japanese pieris.  Between the bright red leaves and the tiny flower clusters I was a little obsessed!

On my way back to the car I kept an eye out for pretty lilacs and thought these were such a nice purple.

I think having a lilac bush at our first house desensitized me a bit.  I like them (although obviously I can't smell them), but the bushes can be a major pain with a lot of shoots.  They can get really straggly and are tough to trim sometimes because you don't want to screw up next year's growth.  We have a couple miniature ones at this house, too.  They don't have quite as many shoots but they seem to be a bit fungus-ridden because the underneath branches break off really easily and one is pretty thin in spots.  They get crazy shoots on them in late spring and they are a monster to trim, but they are pretty.  I don't get overly excited about the lilacs (and the lilac festival is a madhouse so I rarely see them then), but I do enjoy them and love seeing the dark pink ones especially in passing.  I actually noticed a house around the corner from us today that has their own mini-garden of them, full of different varieties.  They had maybe eight different ones and even half open I could tell they were all different colors.  That was actually cool to see and something I will have to revisit later this week or next spring.

Before I got going, I decided to stop in a different part of the park I rarely go to, just to see if there were any pretty views there.  This section has the war memorials and is closer to some of the core festival areas, but I hadn't ever stopped there on one these annual walks.  There wasn't a lot to see, but the light was pretty.

This veterans walk is long but very moving if you have the time.  If I recall, each post has the name of a soldier who died in action in Vietnam, in the order they died.

The War on Terror memorial was pretty in the fading light.

After that I wrapped things up and headed out.  The walk only took me about an hour, but it was well worth the extra time to drive there and back.  I did a quick Wegmans run and headed home to work for a bit.  Shortly after I got home, the boys got home, too.  Practice is going well, but the jury's out on how Carter's team will compare to others!

I worked at home on Tuesday and had a productive day for a change.  I think the stress of prepping for the big day forced my brain fog/lack of focus I swear I've had since my bout of COVID to lay off for a bit.  I had no choice, so I guess my brain chemistry must have gone up a notch just to survive.  I really wanted to go for a walk that day, but the timing just didn't work out.  I can't even remember how I filled the evening but before I knew it, it was off to bed to face an exhausting Wednesday head-on.

Wednesday was a very long day.  I got to work around 7:45.  I had a quick breakfast (so I didn't overeat the donuts I knew were coming) and then headed up to my spot in the "war room".  Other than grabbing food across or down the hall, taking one short walk down to my office to see my intern, and taking a quick parking lot walk (it was such a gorgeous day) with my boss to calmly talk through some data issues, I didn't leave that room until nearly 10pm that night.  It was a very tiring day and my body was being a bit uncooperative for part of the week, to the point I thought I might have developed Celiac disease.  I ate a lot of carbs over a couple of days and I just felt bloated and like I was going to the bathroom after every meal, which concerned me.  I think it must have just been a mild stomach issue, thankfully, but it took a very low-key food day Thursday for it to settle.  But on the Day of Giving I need the carb fuel to keep moving and keep the day exciting, so it was tough.  Donuts in the morning, Dinosaur BBQ for lunch, Crumbl cookies for dessert, a fun iced mocha for an afternoon pick-me-up, and Detroit-style pizza for dinner.  It kept me going through a long day of putting gifts into templates, dealing with massive website issues, and doing some last-minute evening data (which I always try to avoid but seemingly always do).  We finally wrapped up around 10pm and noticed a bunch of leftover food in the hallway.  I grabbed a couple donuts, four chocolate chip cookies (out of a few platters of them), and a couple pieces of Crumbl cookies.  I also got to take home a full bag of rolls from the Dinosaur leftovers.  I packed up all of my stuff and couldn't wait to get home.  I still had to make my gift online from my bed and it took me a while to unwind, so despite being exhausted I didn't fall asleep as early as I'd have liked.

The next morning's alarm was painful.  We had to get both kids up and out early, and I woke up feeling drunk, or at least like I usually feel when I have to go to the airport early and only get a few hours of sleep (minus the "Yay, I'm going somewhere" adrenaline rush).  It basically felt like I had a glorified nap.  I could barely function enough to get the boys up and make lunches.  After drop-off, I sat down at my desk before 8am and groggily tried to figure out what to do first--review emails I didn't have time for the previous day, look at calling comments from two days, review 1200 gift notifications, or work on more data.  And that was only the beginning of what I was behind on.  

I hadn't been sitting there very long when I heard a ton of sirens nearby.  They just kept coming and sounded close so I looked up the 911 incident website for our county.  Much to my surprise, the address listed was right down our street, and it was for a structure fire.  I looked it up but was a little confused because the Google maps picture showed the lovely recently redone house at the end of the street, but that didn't seem to be the actual address because the angle was from further down the street looking back that way, like it was simply the closest address.  So, I got up from my desk and walked outside.  I hadn't put on shoes because I was just planning on peeking down the street, but as I walked out I could immediately see smoke on the next street over.  It seemed odd if it was coming from our street because our street seemed fine.  The end of the street where Google maps had showed was fine, too.  Without thinking I walked down the driveway and over a few houses to see if I could see the source.  My feet got wet but I just kept going.  I could see flashing lights and pretty quickly I realized it was a house on the next street, one that backed up to the houses across the street from us, about three houses down.  I could see smoke swirling off the roof on the one side, not as black as I expected, so I hoped maybe that meant it wasn't that bad.  But then I saw a firefighter pulling up roof shingles near the peak.  I couldn't see flames, but in retrospect I think that if I could have gotten a better view of the sliding doors in the back (they must have been blocked where I was standing), I might have.  It appears that the bulk of the fire was in the ground floor of the split level.  Per the news story, the owner couldn't get out so he had to jump off the small roof on the front of the garage from one of the bedrooms.  He did have to be admitted for smoke inhalation but was mostly okay.  Sadly, his dog did not survive.  It was pretty distressing to watch something like that happen, especially since house fires are one of my biggest fears.  I felt horrible for whoever lived there.  I felt weird gawking at that point so I went back to my desk, but I kept getting up to check for smoke for the next hour or so, now completely distracted from everything I needed to be doing.  It just added to that surreal, extra tired fog I was in that morning.

It was a gorgeous day outside again and I was really wanting to walk since I missed the previous two nice days and hadn't moved much the previous day.  I decided to just rip off the bandaid of my fire-related anxiety and take a lunch walk past the house to see how bad it was.  I knew if I didn't do it then it would eat away at me until I could.  It's just a weird thing for me to just know.  When I walked out of the house I could hear pounding, and I correctly assumed they were already boarding it up.  The damage on the front was pretty clear--pretty much a giant, black gaping hole where the front door used to be, where all you could make out was the light at the back of the house where I think the sliders were.  I haven't been back past it since but it now makes me rethink my walk routes because I use that street a lot and it just makes me sad.  Thankfully I pretty much have to be in one certain position to see even a small part of the house from our house, which is better for my mental health.  It's so sad, though.

Friday was another day back in the office, even though I was wiped and half of our team took off.  I had too much to catch up on, and Friday is also the day where my intern spends the most time in the office.  We had a battle with Jacob that morning because his leg has been bothering him again.  We thought it was the return of the shin splints when he started complaining about it hurting when he carries his heavy school bag around (he refuses to use a locker--he never really has and insists he doesn't have time to go there in this school).  However, it hurts in a different spot now, down where his plate is in his leg from his bone cyst when he was seven.  We're wondering if something is loose there.  He said he got kicked in the shin in one of his tournament games, so maybe it started dislodging something?  It doesn't hurt all the time like an infection might--just when he walks on it--so it could be possible something is moving in there that's rubbing weird.  He managed to convince us he had to stay home because the pain was too bad, and now he's scheduled to go in Monday to get it checked.  Just what he needed, another problem.

I had really hoped to work in the office through lunch on Friday and then come home and enjoy the nicer weather on my porch while I watched videos from some work sessions I had to miss this week in my role of helping with our new database setup.  Of course they scheduled six hours worth of training on two of my busiest days.  Unfortunately all of my catch-up work took until nearly the end of the day, so I just stayed to get as much done as I could.  Oh well.  It had been quite the work week, and I have definitely earned my bonus day off...now to just figure out when I can be comfortable enough to take it. 

I tried to make it a relaxing weekend, but I did three loads of laundry, grocery shopping, a Kohl's run, and Carter's baseball practice.  He also had his buddy Ben's birthday party so Friday night was spent shopping for a gift and confirming his best art project did not in fact make it into the district art show, even though he never got it back.  Boo.  I think his middle school arts electives will be spent doing viola and maybe chorus, so this might have been his last shot.  It was a bummer for sure.  It wasn't a bad weekend--there were some baseball bright spots, like the Pirates winning twice--once on a walk-off hit---which is a big thing around here these days with three teams on our family radar.  The Toronto Rock was pretty easily dispatched by the Buffalo Bandits in their next playoff round, so Buffalo is off to the finals.  Hard to believe considering how badly they dominated us.  The Amerks came back from three goals down to win their game in overtime and force a deciding game 5.  So, as another week begins, I'm bracing myself for Jacob's leg, looking forward to the start of Carter's baseball season, and hoping I can catch up on work.  Spring always goes so quickly and I know the end of the school year will be here before we know it, especially with baseball on our schedule three times a week for the next six weeks.  It never really does slow down, does it?  

Do-Over Weekend

It turned out that last weekend ended up feeling like a bit of a do-over of two weeks ago--back to Hamilton for another Knighthawks game, and another baseball game, but in a different city.  Some of the do-over worked out better, some didn't.

Carter had off on Friday, and we were originally supposed to do something fun.  But my work was pretty overwhelming leading up to our big giving day this week, so my planned vacation day turned into a half day of on and off work.  Not ideal, but at least it still left me some time to pack without stress.  We left around dinner time, later than would have been ideal.  Jacob stayed at school to shoot and didn't come out on time, which meant that we were just getting home by the time we were supposed to be leaving, and he still had to finish showering and packing.  On the bright side, we were a lot more systematic about packing so we made sure Carter's bag was packed this time--although he suggested we should leave it again so he could get more new clothes!  Craig was worried about being late for the team dinner he planned, and en route we figured out that the highway from the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge to the QEW was closed for construction, which rerouted us to the Rainbow Bridge and made everything take even longer.  That meant we couldn't stop for food on the way.  We got to the restaurant where the team dinner was happening just on time, and then the boys and I had to go find dinner ourselves.  Luckily there was a Pizza Pizza just across the way, so we went there (yup, again).

The team had barely gotten their dinner by the time we were done so we goofily waved through the window as we walked by and just sat in the van for a while.  Jacob and I mostly pointlessly argued about random stuff while Carter watched a movie.  Par for the course with Jacob sometimes--I think when he's bored he just decides a debate will fill the time.  Finally Craig came back and came bearing a gift--he had one of the coaches that lives in Canada buy the Toronto Blue Jays monkey we saw at Sport Chek last time.  We probably would have just gone and got him ourselves this weekend, but we didn't know that we would be back there so soon so Craig asked someone to get him.  It's one of those long-armed, long-legged monkeys with velcro on the hands so it can hug you.  It has a Jays jersey and hat and is super soft.  Carter was thrilled!

We headed to the hotel, and once again the parking ramp gave us issues.  It was SO small.  It had awkward dead ends and the few spots that were left were really awkward to get into.  We were already thinking ahead to the morning and how I was supposed to navigate the van out of there.  Thank goodness we figured out timing to have Craig do it, because the slope getting out was so severe that it took a couple tries.  The garage door is motion activated so it wasn't totally open yet as we were driving up to it.  Stopping halfway up to let the door open didn't give us enough momentum to actually go forward because the slope was so steep that we'd roll back the second he took his foot off the brake!  Craig had to back up the van to the bottom of the ramp to fully gun it to get out.  Awful.  I totally would have panicked mid-ramp.  No incidents with pillars this time, but because of the walls, fire hose boxes, and pipes, it still felt a bit miraculous to make it out of there unscathed.

Our room was a suite with a kitchen, a king bed, a pull-out couch, and a chair.  We thought maybe Carter would sleep on the chair since Jacob claimed the pull-out, but he opted to sleep in the king with us.  Unsurprisingly, Jacob's bed was super uncomfortable.  I felt bad because I had thought about bringing the foam topper I bought to sleep on a pull-out in the fall of 2022 when Jacob and I went to Albany, but I forgot.  We all managed--our bed was a bit cozy, especially with Carter's animals, but it was fine.  And it was comfortable, at least!

In daylight, we could see the views out our windows, rain included--we were on a corner so we had two!  This was in one direction, and we could see the arena!

Look close near the orange and you can see the bottom slope of the upper bowl from the outside of the arena.

From the other window, you could see our last hotel!

We were just above the outside deck.

Craig had to be up and out early, and Jacob went with him to eat the team breakfast.  Carter and I had a lazy morning but eventually had to get ready so we could get the free hotel breakfast.  It was really good--waffles, egg omelettes, sausages, stuff to toast, muffins, cereal, yogurt, etc.  It was all really good.

After that Carter and I were going to IKEA and lunch.  We had to wait for Craig once he was back from the shootaround to drive the van out, but then he hopped out and we were off.  We packed up most of the luggage then so we didn't have to do it later.  It was a rainy day, but the temperature wasn't half bad at least.  It was nice to get to IKEA since I meant to go on the previous trip but it didn't work out when we had to get Carter clothes instead.  I didn't have a lot in mind, but it's always nice to look and see what's new.  Always food for thought, at least.  I ended up just getting a pair of tongs (with the air fryer I seem to use them a lot and needed another set), new flexible cutting boards since one of my old IKEA ones cracked recently, and a spare light bulb for our bedside lights.  I considered a couple other things, like picture frames to coordinate with ones I have, or a new light to replace the crooked one in our living room, but ultimately passed.  We did discover they now have a large stuffed moose!  We totally would have owned this during our moose prime, and I might have still considered it were it not $25!

They also had this fun chocolate moose in the market.  We were a bit tempted by some of the snacks, but we were heading right to lunch so we passed.  Carter was just about done by that point anyway, but he'd been a good trooper through the store.
 

We decided to go to A&W, since Carter had never been, and the closest one was in the mall down the road from IKEA.  Apparently Canada never got the memo that malls are dying, because this one was jammed!  It was like Christmas season in the old days.  It was so hard to find a parking spot!  We finally did, and braved the rain to go in.  Carter liked his food, and we liked what was on the cups, too!

Craig had texted me in the meantime to let me know that the parking lots around the arena might be $30 cash.  I panicked because I had none, but thankfully there was a currency exchange place in the mall.  Luckily I had grabbed $25 out of my wallet before we left (I only bring a small purse since big ones can't go to games) and I exchanged that for $33 and change.  Whew.

Back out into the rain and back to the city we went.  For simplicity and to avoid that awful ramp, we just went right to the arena.  I wanted to get the lay of the land with the area parking lots, but that turned into a large detour/city tour before I could get myself turned back around and go back to the lot right across from the arena.  I figured Craig would appreciate that with his equipment and whatever else he brings to games.  We did end up at the far end of the lot, technically in an A&W parking lot (ironically), but it all seemed legit enough, and had we come out early we wouldn't have been blocked in.  I did a quick change to get into my Knighthawk gear (Carter opted to go without), and off we went.

I should have mentioned that my parents were meeting us for the game.  Since they didn't get to go to the 400th game, and my mom expressed some slight disappointment that they weren't invited, I thought it might be nice to offer them this game.  I figured they'd never been to a game there and it was a pretty easy drive, and a playoff game nonetheless, so why not?  Carter and I waited for them outside the arena and saw them just as we were wrapping up talking to the same Knighthawk fans we saw at the last game.

I only took one picture during the game which shows where our seats were (much better than last time!) and where Craig was again.  Jacob sat up there with him for the first half.  

 

This game, unfortunately, was not much better as a do-over from the last one.  Toronto went out to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter, which was more goals than the Knighthawks gave up for their entire last home game.  Then it was 5-1 at the end of the first, mercifully closer by halftime but still down 6-3, then 8-3 at the end of the third, and a 9-6 final.  It seemed like a comeback might be in the works a couple times, but no luck.  It was a tough game--their goalie was so strong.  Early on when we were down, Carter teared up, partly because I think it was depressing that we were losing like that, and partly because he was mad Jacob was in the press box.  Jacob sat with Craig last year for the Bandits game in the playoffs and the result was equally painful, if not worse.  Carter thought he was jinxing us.  Not sure what spawned that sudden burst of emotion, but he felt a little better once we scored.  But it was pretty rough as a whole, even if I wasn't expecting a lot given the previous game.  My parents obviously wished for a better game, but were intrigued by the arena and were appreciative of the chance to go.  We had a nice time regardless.

My parents took off at the end of the game, and the three of us headed down to the friends and family area.  We waited forever!  We were getting so impatient.  Craig finally came out with some chicken for Jacob and then disappeared again for a bit, and then it was finally time to go.  We stopped at the A&W we were parked at to get something for the road.  Craig just wanted a root beer but ended up getting a small burger too.  They no longer have root beer floats (what?!), but we got frozen root beers instead.  Not the same, but not bad.  I'd get it with sweet cream or cold brew next time.  We headed out of town with this gorgeous sunset.

We were just driving back to my parents' house for the night since we had opted to go to a Buffalo Bisons game the next day.  The trip back was pretty uneventful.  We did have a customs agent who started talking lacrosse once he got through the official stuff.  He lives in Rochester and goes to Knighthawk games, so he was interested to hear how the game went.  He got pretty chatty and I felt bad for the people behind us, but that was pretty funny.  Then we almost ran into both a fox and a possum in the 20 minute drive to my parents' house!  Oh, and we found out Mighty Taco's nacho cheese is no longer listed as gluten-free (boo), though based on emails with them it seems to be a formality because of the facility it's made in.  We grabbed some Mighty as a late dinner, got to my parents, ate, and generally pretty quickly shifted toward bed--once I inflated and made mine!

We tried to get up for church the next morning, but Craig and Carter weren't waking up any too easily and Jacob said he forgot church clothes, so we scrapped that idea.  The boys did make it up at a reasonable time because Carter and Jacob were both desperate to get out and play some baseball, especially since Carter had to miss practice the prior day.  They did that while I got ready and heavily debated my outfit for the day.  The weather forecast wasn't good.  Despite being in the mid-60s at my parents' house, Buffalo was only supposed to be in the low-50s, and rain was coming.  I opted for capris and a long sleeve shirt under my Buffalo Blue Jays shirt, figuring I'd wear my raincoat over.  I also didn't bother curling my hair (for the second day in a row) since it was going to be wet.

The boys came back, we packed up, and we were off to the game.  The second we opened the van doors, we were shocked.  It was cold and windy!  Everyone changed pants since the boys all had shorts on and I didn't want cold ankles, either.  Good thing, because it ended up being really cold!

Once we got into the stadium, we immediately ran into Buster and Chip, as well as the chicken wing racers.

As you may recall, I interned there 25 years ago (!) and it felt funny to be back with the mascots.  Chip used to be a lot shorter--when I worked there, his human was a short guy gymnast who went on to be the Pirate Parrot.  When Buster was teasing me behind my back, I let him know I had worked there long ago and know how it goes!  So, I got a picture!

Sadly we didn't get to see the wing racers actually race, but it was fun to see them in person.  There's also an atomic wing, carrot, blue cheese, and beef on weck (who we didn't see), in addition to the celery and regular wing below.

Despite the chill we made the best of it.  We did some browsing in the store, and then Jacob and I grabbed food before heading out to the outfield because players were warming up.  The ball quest was back on! 

Thankfully, this one went better!  Not only did Carter get one ball from a groundskeeper, but he also got one from the other team's starting pitcher--and that one was an amazing catch!

 

 
He was a much happier kid than he was a couple weeks ago!  We headed back to the concourse and met up with Craig's parents.  We went to our seats, just behind home plate.  We were in the row in front of Craig's parents' season tickets.

Unfortunately, we barely got through the first inning before the rain got to be a bit more than sprinkles.  On the bright side, the game wasn't too heavily attended so there was room under the overhang for pretty much everyone to move up.  The game continued on despite the rain, until about the 5th inning when it started to come down harder.  The game was stopped but no announcement was made and the tarp didn't come out so we were a bit confused for a few minutes.  But sure enough, finally the interns and staff assembled (oh, I remember those days) and pulled the tarp, and the announcement came shortly after.

The rain delay went on for maybe 20-30 minutes.  About halfway through we noticed the umps come out and talk to the managers, and then the managers met on the field, shared a bro-hug, and chatted for a couple minutes.  We were pretty sure that meant the game had been called, but it probably took another 10-15 minutes for the ump to come out and do the "called game" sign of waving his arms.  Then they announced it and that was it.  Of course, the guys had just gotten free burgers from a concession stand since they were closing up shop, so we hung out a few minutes while those got eaten.  The good news was that the Bisons had scored a couple runs right before that and it was a complete game, so they won!  But it was a bummer that we wouldn't get a rain check and that we missed half the game.  Ironically, it wasn't really raining by the time we left--there was a break in the rain but more was coming, hence the cancellation.  

We headed out and stopped at an Anderson's to get Jacob some food.  He got a roast beef meal, but Carter ate the fries and Craig wanted the drink.  I was still full from my fried bologna, and it was too cold for an ice cream snack.  We had a minor "incident" when we got there because a bird had massively pooped on the van in Hamilton, and the rain had sort of loosened it up, and when I went to close my door, I accidentally touched it and it was so gross and slimy.  And honestly, with bird flu going around, that was even more icky, so I ran in and immediately washed my hand, but of course the boys found it endlessly hilarious...and it was not.

We got home at a reasonable time, which was good because both boys forgot their homework (again).  I needed to get prepped for a challenging week of work, and Craig settled in for a couple days off to mark the end of his season.  But our do-over weekend was still a good one--even if the Knighthawks lost again and the rain ruined our baseball game, we got the monkey, got to IKEA, got my parents to a game, saw the Bisons mascots and got two balls.  Not too shabby.

News & Notes, Post Excitement Edition

The big downside to a fun weekend away from home is always coming back to all the things you didn't do all weekend.  There's the mental letdown, for sure, where you have this high from a big adventure and have to come back to reality, and then reality is that there's cleaning, laundry, cooking, and whatever else waiting to be done.  All of it should have been spread across a two-day weekend, but instead, none of it gets done and now you have the decision to try to cram it into evenings all week or wait for the next weekend.  As much as I'd like to go the evening route, usually there's enough kid activities, late dinners, and trips to Wegmans to fill the time sufficiently, and by the time those things are done, I'm lucky if I can cram in a much-needed workout before collapsing in my chair.  That's especially true now that baseball season has started, although I guess we got "lucky" with last week because we had rainouts for Carter's first three practices.  Sad for him, of course, but it made the week easier for sure.  I suppose I'd prefer lovely weather over our current garbage, even if it comes with baseball commitments, but last week especially, I'll take the breaks when I can get them.  

My to do list for the weekend had a dozen things on it, ranging from taking out the garbage and recycling, doing a couple loads of laundry, changing out my car CDs, and changing our sheets, to taking down the Easter decorations (finally), switching a few seasonal things around in my closet, unclogging a slow sink, and mixing up my "custom" cereal (since everyone keeps discontinuing the ones I like, I'm creating a combo of my own).  I also needed to run a couple errands and do an overdue cleaning of my whole house.  It was intimidating, but I like writing out the list on my phone and checking things off as I go.  It keeps me on track and feels pretty satisfying.

Craig had a two-game weekend to wrap up the season--one away, one home.  He left for Atlanta on Thursday, so it was just me and the boys for a couple days.  It wasn't bad other than running Jacob to his training session and his Saturday tournament, but I managed to hit up three stores during his training session to buy him some food and knock a couple errands off my to do list.  As for the Knighthawks, they only had a 3.13% chance of making the playoffs going into the weekend, but then they won their first game on Friday.  Craig was back in town by early Saturday afternoon, but had to work for most of the day to get ready for Sunday's game.  Also on Saturday, Jacob had to play in a local tournament with his school team.  Once again he wasn't thrilled about it, but he did better than he did early in the last one.  I thought he had 11 points in the first game, but he insists he had more.  He also had 11 in the second game.  They lost the first one but won the second.  

I pretty much came home and slept for the rest of the afternoon.  I woke up oddly tired and feeling like I might be coming down with something.  Luckily I had gotten a couple things checked off my to-do list the night before, but resting for that long put me in quite the hole for the rest of the weekend.  I was still pretty tired later, but I managed to make dinner and work through a couple more things.  Craig finally got home later that night and was keeping his eyes on other NLL games because there were a couple things that had to happen in order to give the Knighthawks a chance to make the playoffs.  Sure enough, against all odds, those things happened and the Knighthawks just had to win Sunday to clinch the last spot.  On paper it shouldn't have been too hard, but it was to a team the reincarnated Knighthawks had never beaten.

On Sunday Jacob's first game was at 12:30.  If they won, they'd play again at 2:50.  That was a bit of a bummer because the Knighthawks game was at 3pm and I had wanted to go to it.  That became even more important when we found out that morning that Craig was getting honored in some way during the pregame season-ending awards ceremony.  But I just wasn't sure it was possible.  Jacob's team ended up going out to a huge lead in the first game, so I figured it was a done deal, but the other team came back and made it close--even took the lead for a bit.  That gave me a tiny bit of hope I might make the game, but I still wasn't sure timing would work, and losing a game like that would have been awful.  Fortunately, they saved face and came back and won.  As much as I wanted to go to the game, that was a bit of a relief since this was essentially his school team and we didn't need a loss like that haunting them next season.  We had to make a quick transition to the next venue closer to home.  I decided that I was going to drop him off, run to the arena, stay for just the ceremony, and then go back to Jacob's game.  That meant I went from the city to Greece and then immediately back to the city.  I felt bad that neither kid could be there.  Carter didn't want to go to the Sunday games so he was at home, and I knew I wouldn't have time to get him without risking missing the ceremony.  Jacob wanted to see it too, but obviously playing in the championship was important.  I decided that it was better for me to get there and take a video so we all could see it, and at least the boys were "even" and neither got to be there.  It was a little bit of a risk, but I decided it was worth it.  

I got to the arena using my backroads method to avoid parking lot traffic, and luckily had a parking pass for the arena lot since the lot was otherwise full.  They parked me in a weird spot and assured me I wouldn't get stuck there--because obviously I couldn't get trapped as that would ruin my plan to get back to Jacob.  I ran into the arena, got through security and ticketing (thank goodness the e-ticket worked this time), and sat in my assigned seat for a bit waiting for things to start.

I sat there thinking about this team, how things have changed since I worked there, how team intros used to be one of the most exciting things ever, and wondered about all of the rumors that have been surrounding the team (and really all the Pegula-owned teams) near the end of the season.  Knighthawks games aren't what they once were, but it would be a shame if all this ever went away.  I guess on the heels of the last game, it just sort of hit me that if it (sort of) happened to Toronto, it could happen almost anywhere.  And technically it already did in Rochester, but the league made it work for us to stay, even if all the history did go to Halifax.  And you know, Craig may not be famous but he's pretty much officially a legend in this league 20-some years after becoming the Knighthawks broadcaster.  It's pretty nuts.

Once they started the ceremony, I realized I needed to go to a different spot, so I walked to about midfield and captured this video:

And with that, I had accomplished my mission.  I stopped recording and immediately ran into a former sports co-worker of ours right at that moment, which was fun, because she could appreciate that moment for both Craig and me.  I hung out for the opening faceoff and hoped to see the first goal, but gave up after a minute or two and walked to the car.  The crossing guard was confused that I was leaving so soon, and the parking attendant was amused as well, but took the time to make sure I was not blocked in and was able to leave, which was nice of him.  I listened to Craig's broadcast on my way back to Greece, and got to Jacob's game at halftime.  Apparently they jumped out to a giant early lead but gradually lost it, and they were down by maybe 10 or 12.  I asked the other parents how Jacob was doing and no one really gave me any indication either way.  He hit a couple threes while I was there, and the team made a heck of a comeback.  But a couple botched plays, missed free throws, and the inability to stop the big guys on the other team doomed them and they lost by 4.  When I asked him after the game how many he had, he said 31!  I wasn't (and still am not) sure how that's possible, since I only saw six points and no one indicated he was shooting the lights out before I got there.  But his coach said the book said 31, so I have no idea!  So I guess it was more of a bummer they lost because he definitely would have gotten the MVP again.

Back at home I listened to the game and the Knighthawks were CRUSHING it!  They ended up winning 12-3!  The three goals against was ironic considering the rough, low-scoring outing the prior weekend, but it set a team record for lowest goals against.  They also had a player set the one-game goal-scoring record with seven.  It was crazy--from a 3% chance to a playoff spot!  And guess who they're playing?  Back to Toronto/Hamilton we go!  We decided to go to Hamilton, mostly to save the boys from another weekend with Craig away, and then go to the Bisons game in Buffalo on Sunday.  We thought about going to Toronto again, but that seemed extreme to go again so soon, especially since we'd rather hit up some other games this summer if we can.  I'm hoping for IKEA this time...and to not forget Carter's suitcase.  My parents are meeting us up there, too.

Anyway, this is the plaque Craig was awarded.  Not too shabby, eh?

I did a reasonable job of getting through the rest of my to-do list items other than cleaning.  I tried to get to more this week, but only got so far.  Evenings are hard for me--it's such a battle between getting through dinner, deciding when to cram in a grocery run or a workout, and still getting some downtime before I'm nodding off in my chair, which happens way too much lately.  I was happy to get my decor straightened out over the weekend.  I always have an interesting spring transition once the Easter stuff comes down.  I never like to put away my Polish eggs because they're so pretty, so I came up with this little setup:

I decided they'd go nicely with my new green Aldi vase and some daffodils, and then figured if I was going that route I'd bring the St. Patty's gnomes back out because they're actually just green with the colored pom-poms, so it could all be springy again together.  I think it works and all the color makes me happy.  Did I mention I moved the stair-step cube shelf that was in Carter's room down to the living room?  It actually fit nicely in the corner with the IKEA chair I brought up from the basement and provides some extra toy storage and decor display areas.  I put a glass bowl of the rest of the eggs there along with another Aldi vase (they were like $6 and so pretty!).  I went for the blue vase and fell in love with the green, too.  So the green's on the mantel and the blue has white flowers and blue hydrangeas in it in the white cube shelf and looks so adorable there.  Funny how those little things can make you happy!

The boys handled the first baseball practice on Monday and I got quite a bit done while they were gone, like vacuuming most of the house and doing a lot of other cleanup.  Carter enjoyed his first practice and it seems that he fits in pretty well skill-wise, but Jacob suspects it's going to be a long season.  They lost another practice to cold, gross weather on Wednesday and now he's missing one this weekend while we're gone, but he's practicing plenty at home.  They're really doing everything they can to get Carter ready, so I'm hopeful he'll enjoy it.  

The weather has continued to be a problem, though finally Friday the temperature broke, even if rain continues to mess things up a bit.  We actually had two nights of frost this week and I forgot to cover my hydrangea the first night so now it has some damage after all the hard work protecting it a couple weeks ago.  Not a total loss but we'll see how it recovers.  It's just been so cold and breezy.  Our flowering tree lasted only about two weeks.  It's been such a strange spring, very up and down, but hopefully the tide is turning.

Otherwise, I have my busiest week of the year at work right now, and I'm battling some random aches and pains.  I swear it's early menopause stuff (either that or I'm dying, or my body has just plain lost its mind).  I think I have a hip flexor issue (hurts most in the first 30 seconds when I get up from a chair, but a long walk is fine) and possibly shoulder impingement that makes my upper arm burn for about 15 seconds after I reach the wrong way (usually behind me).  All that on top of having really tight, sore shoulders, which isn't new but has been bothering me more lately.  I also can't sleep that well at the end of the night, in part because I wake up around 4:30-5:30 and struggle to find a position where my hip, arm, and shoulders aren't bothering me.  It's tiring to deal with, but I suppose it could still be worse.  I can function, but it's frustrating.  After sleeping in a different bed for a couple nights and having the hip hurt less, now I'm suspecting our mattress, which is way overdue to be replaced.  Not to mention not sitting at a desk all day probably helps.  Oh, the fun of getting older.

Anyway, we had another fun weekend to look forward to this weekend, so that was enough to keep pushing through a tiring week.  More on that soon...

Coolest Doubleheader Ever - Part 2

Sunday morning in Hamilton was an early one given our late night, but we were up and out by about 9:30.  We were going to have an early lunch so we just grabbed quick stuff at Starbucks before loading in the van - egg bites for Jacob, a couple pastries for Carter, and an erroneous coffee order for me...apparently I'm incapable of ordering pre-caffeine?  It wasn't what I was craving, but it was fine.  We had a rather unfortunate discovery as we were planning things out in the lobby, as we had been planning on eating at the Wahlburgers down the street from the stadium but found out it actually recently closed!  That was a big bummer for so many reasons--it was convenient, good for Jacob, and isn't really easy for us to get to otherwise.  So, we decided we probably didn't have a choice but to do Pizza Pizza again, just to make sure Jacob had something in his stomach in the event the stadium didn't have much for him.  Oh, well.  

We had another unfortunate moment a few minutes later.  As we were pulling out of our parking spot in the very tight parking garage, we heard a terrible noise.  Turns out there was a pillar in Craig's blind spot and we just rubbed up against it between the tail light and back window.  The damage wasn't terrible--annoying but nothing that was a trip-derailer, thankfully.  Better than hitting another vehicle, too, but it stunk.  Luckily Craig seemed to shake it off quickly and the drive into Toronto wasn't too bad.  I enjoyed seeing the QEW for the first time in years because there's plenty to see and it's always evolving.  Traffic didn't ramp up until we hit the Gardiner Expressway, which is always crazy.  We got a little off-course because I have no idea where the GPS was set for (I sat in the back, remember?), but I finally asked where we were going and got us back on track.  We had a nice little downtown tour, though.

We parked and headed to Pizza Pizza.  This was my meal view...it may not have been super warm outside, but that sun was hot!

After lunch we started the walk up to the stadium, and I'm so annoyed this one is blurry because it turned out pretty cool.  I probably damaged my camera after all those eclipse warnings, but it seems ok.

This is better, but not quite as dramatic.  

Inside our gate there were really cool windows.  Look close and you can see all the baseball players! 

The boys have been having this weird obsession with getting baseballs.  They want more to play with in the yard because store ones apparently aren't the same, even though in theory a major league ball would be a souvenir.  Our pregame activities mostly revolved around strategizing the ball situation.  But, we did take a detour when a couple Jays were signing and Carter got a store-bought ball autographed.

That's Carter in the jersey

Carter only ended up getting one autograph because the other player down in that area was more well-known and was mobbed, but he was happy with that one.  We wandered around the stadium, which has changed pretty dramatically from other times we've been there.  They did a full renovation over a couple years, and I think at least one of our past trips we were limited to the upper deck concourse because that's where our seats were, so I'm not sure what existed pre-renovation that we hadn't seen.  I also don't know if that policy still exists.  I will say the stadium looked great with a bigger set of scoreboards and a lot more concourse activities than I remember.

View of the visiting bullpen from a concourse bar

Cool mural, and Carter with his signed ball

The full mural

They had a bunch of these player photos on the concourse walls so of course I grabbed Carter with his favorite!

We stopped in the store to get Craig and Jacob appropriate attire, and finally headed down to our seats.  The view was pretty great.

It was really fun getting Craig's parents there since they're big Blue Jays fans now after being Bisons season ticket holders and seeing players come up through the farm system.  They had never been to this stadium so it was neat giving them that experience. 

We were quite disappointed that the team store didn't have any stuffed Ace mascots.  The best we could do was to see him (and the junior version) on the screen.

The game production was a step up thanks to the new scoreboards and all of the fancy lighting that's been added since our last time there, but I think we generally thought it was a notch below Pittsburgh.

Jacob was (of course) unimpressed as a whole, and I have to agree that outdoor baseball just hits different and the fans feel more into it.  But having a climate controlled game was a bonus since it was still a bit cool out.  I was still hoping they might open the roof near the end since it was sunny, but no luck.  Not much compares to the CN Tower view from the seats.

Carter loved seeing his favorite player get on base!

As the game went on, it was becoming apparent it would be tough to get a ball.  At one point early on, Carter's favorite player, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., had been warming up, and Craig tried to catch his eye and show the back of Carter's jersey, which had his name on it.  Craig swears Vladdy saw it and tried to throw a ball to him, but the netting made it a tough throw and it went over our heads.  That was a bummer.  Carter did try to go down later in the game and get a foul ball or a between-innings practice ball, but no luck.  He got pretty upset for a bit, and Craig did eventually take him over to the bullpen a few sections over to try there, but no luck there either.  After the game Carter got a little weepy and said something like, "Jacob's going to hate me because I didn't get a ball," and it broke my heart.  Jacob had been hyping this up a lot, and they had been watching videos of a couple guys who are essentially pros at getting balls, which made it seem a little too easy and ratcheted up the expectations a bit too high.  I think Carter has also been enjoying that he and Jacob are getting along a bit better, so I think it worried him that this would end all of that.  Poor kid.  Jacob did refute Carter's worry, but it was a bit of a tough ending on that front.

The Jays had a solid lead most of the game and ended up winning 5-0.  It wasn't a super exciting game, but there were some nice hits and it was good to see them winning.  Later in the game we checked the game feed for Jacob's favorite team, the Pirates, because his favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, had been trying all season to hit his 300th home run.  Sure enough, he did!  And then as we continued to watch the live game tracker online, they loaded the bases and Jacob called that the next player would hit a grand slam because he hits well against right-handed pitchers...and sure enough, he did!  It was fun to watch it all happen via the live updates, and made the day even better that Jacob's favorite player and team did well too.

Jays win, and Vladdy celebrates!

Once the game was over, we had to try to meet back up with Craig and Carter and get ready for Carter to run the bases.  We know from Pittsburgh that it's always a big production with the major league teams--a far cry from the 20 minutes it took (that we would complain about incessantly) when I was a Bisons baseball intern!  I caught this selfie on the way up from our seats.

Interestingly, we found out later that Craig's cousin and his family were sitting only a couple sections over from us!  What were the odds?

At some point when I was down by the field waiting to see Craig and Carter emerge from the tunnel to run, Jacob went and caught up with them.  Imagine my surprise when I saw all three of them on the field!  Craig took this picture when they were down there.

This was the best I could do getting a close-up of Carter running.

I waited for them at field level near where we sat and took this picture as they came off.  Carter was still a little bummed at that point but his mood perked up after running the bases, especially since they were going to get him a ball in the store after this.

As I had been watching the game, it occurred to me that one of the first pictures of Craig and me together once we were dating was actually taken not far from where we were sitting.  We came to a game with our co-workers (though secretly made it a date weekend--people knew we were friends and I think we had some excuse about meeting up in Buffalo, but I'm sure it still seemed suspicious...yet no one called us out on it for months).  Anyway, someone took our picture right near the foul pole.  Those seats no longer exist after renovations, but I convinced Craig to take a new picture anyway.  Wrong angle, but you get the idea.  Crazy to think that was only maybe a month into dating, almost 23 years ago--and just before his now legendary broadcasting career began!  Man, we look young...and skinny.  But as I said in my social media post, I wouldn't trade the years or pounds for all that we've shared together.

I also caught this picture of Craig's parents while we waited for the boys to get back from one more store run.  I thought it was cute.

Back outside, it was a nice day.  Just warm enough, and nice and sunny.  So, of course, Toronto was photo-ready.

Our van was parked across from SOHO, the hotel-condo that has the Chihuly in the front entrance overhang.  Carter ran over with me while everyone was getting settled to try for less reflective pictures than I got last time.  It's so pretty.

We ran back, loaded up, and headed out.  Another view while we were stuck in traffic...

This was along the Gardiner.  Always so much to see!

Aside from getting behind one single car that was stuck at customs forever and one quick gas/bathroom stop, it was a pretty simple trip home.  Nice to see our route in daylight for a change, and finally get back to a functioning phone.  We dropped off Craig's parents, and I caught this on the way back out of town along the lake. 

We had to stop for a quick dinner that we ate on the road, and then came home to Carter's still-packed suitcase (ha) and homework drama with Jacob.  He forgot to bring his work with him over the weekend, so we had a long, late night of him finishing it--but unfortunately he was so tired as a result that we were unsuccessful getting him up the next morning.  UGH.  Not exactly the way we wanted to finish our weekend, but despite all the hiccups, I feel like we came home on a high.  It was a really fun, very special weekend, especially spending it with Craig's parents.  After all the worrying and wondering if it would happen and whether it would go smoothly, it felt like mission accomplished...even if it wasn't exactly perfect.  But it was pretty darn close.