Life has gotten way too hectic around our house lately.  I knew it was bad when I asked Chris what he wanted to do on his birthday and he said he didn’t want to make any plans.  We enjoyed a quiet night at home and that was a treat…something needs to change.

Besides the fact that it’s tiring to be so busy, it’s expensive and usually involves eating way too many calories!

For example, this week looks something like this:
Monday - Nikki Time…this is a new attempt to get caught up on my scrapbooking.
Tuesday - Third Way Network volunteering.
Wednesday - Twins “group organizer” picnic & game followed by Go Team concert.
Thursday - Birthday dinner for a friend.
Friday - Twins game followed by a concert at the Cabooze.
Saturday - Volunteering at Bridging in the afternoon.  Bachelorette party in the evening.
Sunday - Brunch with my family to celebrate Chris’s birthday.

I will admit that this is one of the worst offender weeks, but that is just ridiculous.  So…I’m reclaiming my sanity (assuming I had some to start with) by instituting a new rule.  I am not going to have plans more than 2 week nights a week.  Sunday through Thursday I will have at least 3 nights a week at home.  I’m not going to cancel any plans that are already made, but this change starts NOW!

My coworker, Laura, sent me a link to this video this morning & I was laughing out loud.  Maybe not everyone will find it as funny as I do, but I wanted to share anyway!

Friday June 13, 2008 we checked out of the Seneca and headed East to Cleveland. Friday was our only night game on the trip and we were looking forward to a game under the lights. Each of our drives seemed to have a little bit of rain but not too much. I think the worst was probably on the first drive down to Chicago from Minneapolis.

Again we walked over to Jacobs… um…Progressive Field prior to the game so we could check everything out. We were there early enough to walk down to the front row of the lower deck which was neat.

Once we found our seats we started to notice the weather. The grounds crew had the infield tarp out as the players warmed up and the pre-game activities took place but just prior to the game they rolled it back up. This photo was taken at 6:10PM EST:

The pirate says “Play Ball!”

The game started on time with the Padres in town for the beginning of Interleague play. After 5 outs…yes, not even one complete inning…the game was delayed due to pouring rain. And when I say pouring, I mean it! We had all brought our rain jackets but Chris & I were without umbrella until Liz saved the day. Thankfully she had brought 2 and they were willing to share with us.

Since this was interleague play and the Padres were not scheduled to come back to Cleveland this season, the ushers told us that if it was at all possible the game would go on. That, along with the fact that you were not allowed to re-enter after leaving the stadium kept us within the confines of the park. We sat in our seats for a little while, then stood up in an area that provided some wind coverage before moving out to the concourse where there were overhangs. After almost 3 hours the rain finally stopped and we were told that the game would resume (yep - THREE HOURS LATER!). We found some abandoned seats further up in the upper deck that had remained dry and took a seat.

It was very interesting to watch the grounds crew get all of that water to disappear. I’m not sure what type of drainage system is underneath the field but by pushing the water around in the shallow left field it just magically disappeared! Once they got back to playing the game there were maybe 1/4 of the fans had remained to cheer their team on, but those fans were amazingly loud. The game was exciting with 5 home runs total and a dominating win by the Indians. Game recap can be found here.

The Friday night promotion is fireworks after the game and after sitting through the rain and the delayed game we were cold & wet but we were not disappointed by the show. It was a little surprising that the show went on, I can’t imagine living downtown Cleveland and waking up to a 1:30AM fireworks show, but it was fun!

With the late game we called it a night after walking back to the hotel because we had to head out for a day game in Detroit on Saturday.

Click here to see all the Cleveland photos.

Check out the other days of BBRT 2008 here:
Day 1: On the Road
Day 2: Chicago
Day 4: Detroit
Day 5: Milwaukee

Thursday, June 12, 2008 we slept in a bit before heading down to Wrigley Field early. Chris had never been there and the Cubs are Liz’s hometown team so we wanted to take in everything we could. The trip to the El was a little longer than expected but we made it up to Wrigley with time to walk around outside, take some photos and even stop into the Cubby Bear for a cold beverage.

Chris’s first visit to Wrigley!

This pirate is going to be traveling all over the world with us!

The choice at Wrigley…Old Style or Old Style Light (yes, seriously!)

The game was a retro kickback to 1948 which meant the Braves were called the Boston Braves and everyone was in old time uniforms. We watched the Cubs fall behind early and struggle to come back but a rally time home run by Jim Edmonds in the 9th forced the game into extra innings! The game was finally over in the 11th when the Cubs batted Reed Johnson in place of Jim Edmonds with the bases loaded. Johnson was hit by the first pitch thrown and that is how the Cubs drove in the winning run. It was crazy! The game recap can be found here.

After the game we met up with Liz’s brother and some of her other friends at Goose Island Wrigleyville. The food and beer were both tasty and the company was great. After wrapping up there we grabbed one final drink at a brew haus before heading back to the light rail and crashing in our beds at the hotel. Funny story at the last stop…a guy walked by that looked very much like Kid Rock. So much that Casey emailed Bryan to see if Kid Rock happened to be in Chicago at the time. Turns out that he was in Europe or something so that answered that question!

Click here to view all Chicago photos.

Check out the other days of BBRT 2008 here:
Day 1: On the Road
Day 3: Cleveland
Day 4: Detroit
Day 5: Milwaukee

Baseball Roadtrip 2008 was a BLAST! Mid afternoon on Wednesday June 11, 2008 Liz and Casey drove down to South Minneapolis to pick up Chris & me and we were off. The trip was an intense 4 days of driving and baseball but we all had a good time.

Back in early 2008 I had taken a look at the Twins 2008 schedule to find out when they were playing in Milwaukee because I’ve been trying to get out to Miller Park for a few years now. I noticed that the Twins were in Cleveland to take on the Indians around that time as well and started putting together a long weekend trip that would take me to a few new ballparks. Chris was game for the trip (pun intended) and we decided to see if Liz & Casey wanted to join us. It turns out that the day I had planned on leaving was Casey’s last day of school so he wasn’t able to leave as early as my schedule required. But…they were interested so we got to work seeing if it could be altered and happily it could! We didn’t see the Twins play the Indians but still were able to see 4 teams in 4 days which is amazing with the craziness of baseball schedules! Chris saw four new ballparks, Liz & I saw 3 and Casey saw 1 (this was his 3rd bbrt!).

Liz recently became the owner of a new Pontiac Vibe and so she volunteered her car for the trip. There wasn’t a lot of extra room, but we’re all relatively small and so we fit in perfectly. Plus, it gets pretty good gas mileage and since we all know what gas prices are like (almost $4/gallon!) that was important. Liz drove the entire way down to Chicago and we got into our hotel that evening. We were staying at the Seneca Hotel & Suites which is behind the John Hancock Center. The hotel was more like an apartment…we had a fridge, stove, microwave and a bunch of closets. After checking in we decided to go grab a drink prior to going to sleep. The concierge recommended Pippin’s Tavern which we could walk to.



Check out the other days of BBRT 2008 here:
Day 2: Chicago
Day 3: Cleveland
Day 4: Detroit
Day 5: Milwaukee

I wasn’t able to get dinner reservation at Oceanaire on Chris’s true birthday but Friday night turned out to be a better option for us anyway. We had 8:00PM reservations so we were able to relax at home after work for a while before getting dressed up and heading downtown. We were presented with the custom menu printed for Chris’s birthday when we arrived!

Everything we ordered was delicious! We had lump crab meat for an appetizer and a berry walnut salad on greens before our main dishes arrived. Chris has told me MANY times that Oceanaire had the best Crab Cakes ever so I would have been very surprised if he didn’t order them. He did. I choose a T-bone Halibut steak and we got mashed potatoes and grilled portabello mushrooms as sides. Yum. That’s all I can say…it was all very tasty!

Since we were celebrating a birthday we were presented with some complimentary Baked Alaska. It is basically ice cream placed on a chocolate cake with marshmallow around it. The whole thing is “baked” by lighting some 151 on fire at the table and pouring it over the dessert which was fun. The dessert was a perfect way to wrap up a great evening of good food and conversation. We really need to do that more often!

I’ll say it one more time…
Happy Birthday Handsome!! I love you!

Chris & I decided to treat ourselves to a Thin Mint Blizzard this afternoon because we had heard so many people rave about them. Plus, Thin Mint is by far my favorite Girl Scout cookie! Well, I’m sorry to say we were disappointed. I’m not sure if it was the fake mint flavor or what but I was totally unimpressed.  It wasn’t horrible, but I don’t think I’d order another one. There are plenty of others that I enjoy more.

I think this photo was taken at my parents house last year…probably on Mother’s or Father’s Day.

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Chris turned 29 today! Obviously it was a work day so we had to get up bright & early. After work we grilled up some chicken (he has that perfected!) and veggies and had mashed potatoes to complete our dinner. We enjoyed some beer and eventually some ice cream…pretty good day I’d say!

Tomorrow night we’re off to Oceanaire for the official birthday dinner.

Happy Birthday Handsome!!

In June Chris & I headed out on a Baseball Road Trip along with our friends Liz & Casey.  We had a lot of fun traveling around the midwest to 4 different ballparks.  The first one we visited was Wrigley Field…always a fan favorite.

I haven’t posted about BBRT yet…shame on me…but will be soon!

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