Soccer is SO Exciting!

Maison was so into watching my soccer game that she decided to learn a new sport...

Opening Day!

Today Adam and I went to the opening day Rangers game. The game was pretty non-eventful (Rangers won 5-4 with a 2 run come back in the 9th) but the crowd did not disappoint, especially in our section. Two of our 'friends' from last year's home opener were there...the guy who "paid for a seat in the sun" sat in the row in front of us and the "I'm just sitting here eating my nachos" guy was a couple of rows up on the right. See last year's post "I paid for a seat in the sun" for their story. They unfortunately didn't provide any entertainment this year, but we definitely had some others that were quite the crowd pleasers...

Maison wore her baseball 'uniform' in honor of opening day:

View from our seats:

Curly haired mullett (such a rare sighting and literally right in front of us!):

Full grown man wearing a Rangers uniform. Complete with Rangers mock turtle neck. As you can see he was sitting across the aisle from Adam so I had to pretend to take Adam's picture in order to get a shot of this guy. As my Nannie would say, "he wasn't quite right" to say the least as he would literally throw a fit every time the Rangers had a bad play. It was quite entertaining....

In the 8th inning the Rangers were losing 3-0 and the Blue Jays had a no hitter going so I was a little bored and took a picture of our 'little piggies'. While doing so I missed the best action of the entire game...

A streaker jumped over the rail at the end of our aisle, ran through the outfield, did a bellflop on 2nd base to which the umpire just pointed at him as if to say "Security, we have an issue here". The guy made it all the way to the pitcher's mound before a security guard body slammed him to the ground. Here is the best documentation I could get with the iPhone...

To wrap up our interesting sightings...we saw an adult Asian woman wearing a catcher's chest protector on her back...yes it was quite an interesting Opening Day this year....

Chicago, Cubs, and Chris

The first weekend in May Adam and I went to Chicago for Chris Durbin's 40th b-day party.  Yes, ADAM (not me!) is old enough to have friends that are turning 40.  Seeing has how I am only 25 it would be a little odd for me to have friends that old.  Anyway, we left Dallas in the height of the swine flu and on the day that Joe Biden said he would advise his family not to fly unless absolutely necessary.  DFW seemed to be business as usual...our 6:15pm flight to O'Hare was delayed until 7:15pm by the time we got to the airport.  As we waited, our departure time somehow surpassed our original arrival time.  We boarded our flight around 9pm.  There were literally 10 people on the entire flight.  We see now why the flight was delayed.  I assume so they could get on as many standby passengers as possible.  I have never been on an AA flight to/from DFW/ORD that was not at least close to full...maybe the swine flu scared off some travelers???

 

We FINALLY arrived and got to our hotel around MIDNIGHT!  Vinnie picked us up at the airport and drove us to our hotel on Michigan Ave.  I was completely beat and pretty much unpacked and went to bed.  Adam and Vinnie went out for drinks at a pub that was near by.  

Friday Tom and his daughters, Jessica and Elaina, came into the city to go with us to see the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.  It was completely awesome!  At the start of the tour they select children from the group to sit under the sorting hat and find out which house they belong to.  Jessica was a Griffindor!  You go into a room where they show short clips from all the movies including the yet to be released, Half Blood Prince.  When the clips are over, the room goes dark just for a second and then a curtain opens to reveal the Hogwarts Express complete with steam and blowing whistle.  What a way to start an exhibit?

There were so many great things to see but the highlights were:  pulling mandrakes from their pots and hearing them scream, throwing quaffles through the quidditch rings, sitting in Hadgrid's chair, and viewing countless costumes and props from all 6 movies (including Half Blood Prince).  The tour ends in the dining hall complete with floating candles and Hogwarts food...pumpkin juice, chocolate frogs, and many more.   I couldn't resist getting a "Harry Potter Exhibit" hoodie, to document the moment.   Adam and I were interviewed for a local newspaper as we exited the exhibit.  I'm sure I told the columnist way more than she wanted to know.  After the museum, Adam and I had lunch at Heaven on Seven, a cajun restaurant off of Michigan Ave.  It was so completely bad for you but so good.  We had such an amazing day, but super exhausting.  I had to go back to the hotel and take a nap before going out for dinner.

Friday night we had dinner at Due (like Uno's) with Karen, Monica, Freddy, Lori, David, Reneau, Saneata, and Amir.   It took forever with that many people, but it was really good.  Afterwards, we tried to find a bar that wasn't super crowded and ended up at ESPN Zone...hehehee...total tourist trap.  After 1 round, we had to call it a night.  We had a big day in front of us.

Saturday was Chris's 40th b-day party which was to start at 10am at Murphy's for bloody mary's prior to the noon Cubs game.  Adam and I rode to the Wrigley area with Amir and then walked to the game.  We had to stop at Nuts on Clark to get some chocolate covered peanut brittle for the game which they were sold out of so we 'settled' for chocolate covered english toffee and chocolate covered cashews...YUM CITY! and Amir had to stop to get peanuts.  Needless to say, we did not make it to Murphy's by 10am....more like 11:30.  I was with Adam and Amir, I don't think anyone thought we would be anywhere close to on time.  We met Chris at Murphy's and then went to meet the others in the bleachers.

The Cubs game was packed...no swine flu worriers there!  It was so much fun despite the cold...yes, cold.  It was the first weekend in May and I had to wear a sweatshirt to a baseball game.  I don't even think they make Texas Rangers sweatshirts because I doubt they would ever sell any.  After the game, we headed to the Gingerman to continue the festivities until we were to head to dinner at Tango Sur.  Here is a pic of the b-day boy at the Gingerman....

We stayed at the Gingerman until about 7:00 and then headed to Tango Sur.  There was about 14 of us and Tango Sur does not accept reservations except for parties larger than 6.  Selena, Chris's wife, called to make reservations and they would not accept anymore large parties and thus we would just have to wait.  To kill time we went to the Blue Bayou across the street to watch the Bulls playoff game.  About 9:30pm, Tango Sur called to say our table was ready.  I was completely exhausted and decided to go back to the hotel, lay on a comfy bed and order room service.  Adam was in for the long haul...he made it to dinner and to the bar afterwards.  I think he got in around 4:00am.  I really don't know how he made it that long and I certainly have no idea how Chris could do it...maybe I need to hang with 40 year olds more often ;oP

Sunday morning we met Vinnie, Monica, and Freddy for brunch at Reza's.  It was great as usual.  Afterwards, we went for a walk on Michigan Ave and walked down to see 'the bean'.  Michigan Ave was completely lined with fabulous tulips.  They had ever color you could imagine.  Here are the pics from Michigan Ave....

               

We had such a fun trip to Chicago and it was so great to see everyone!

I paid for a seat in the sun

Yesterday, Adam and I went to the Rangers home opener.  We've been to either the Rangers or the Cubs home openers for the last 5 years and I have to say this was the worst ever.  The openers are always day games so we at a minimum take the afternoon off.  We had planned on leaving at 11:30 for the 1:00 game so that we could have plenty of time to get to Arlington and be in our seats when George W. threw out the first pitch.  Since neither of us give a squat about the Rangers, I was really looking forward to seeing W more than the game.  

11:30 came and went and I was still trying to save an excel spreadsheet I had worked on all morning for work.  Of course, it was not responding and when I finally convinced my manager to monitor it from the server and save a new copy it was already noon!  Adam drove like crazy and we got to Arlington about 15 min before the game started.  We had agreed we would just valet so that we could make it in by first pitch.  The traffic around the ballpark was horrendous which even though it's a major sporting event the Rangers rarely have much of a crowd so we didn't get the traffic sitch.  We waited patiently to get to the valet and were informed it was full - no sign, no warning, just wait 30 min in line for nada.  

We drove around the entire ballpark and all Ranger parking we were directed to was full, again without warning...only verbal information once you got to the front of the line.  We finally decided to park at Six Flags and walk.  By the time we got to Flags, there was at least 15 cars in front of us...we had to park right by the entrance gates and walk all the way to the ballpark.

By the time we got our tickets from will call, fought the crowd to our seats, removed the people from our seats, and sat down, it was the top of the 3rd.  Uh, the closest I came to George was hearing his commentary over the loud speaker while I was in the bathroom line.  

As if this couldn't get any worse, it was the coldest opening day in Rangers history.  It was in the low 40s with 20 mph winds.  I had plenty of layers but was still pretty happy that our seats were in the sun...at least for the next few innings.  

View from our seats - looks a lot warmer than it was!

Adam went to go fight the lines for some food and while he was gone a slight altercation took place on the row behind us.  We had bleacher seats which are assigned seats but it is not specified how much space each person gets.  This couple shows up and asks everyone on their row to scoot down since they have 2 tickets and there is only space for 1 of them.  This incredibly large mexican guy next to them asks someone towards the end of the row to move down and the man replied, "No, I'm in the seat on my ticket...I paid for a seat in the sun".  I literally almost burst out laughing.  I've been going to Ranger games since I was a little kid and NEVER once heard anyone say they paid to sit in the sun.  If anything, people lie, cheat, and steal a seat from a newborn just to get a seat in the shade.  The large man was not going to let this one go...he said, "you don't have to get upset, I'm just trying to help a brother out and eat my nachos".  They traded snide comments for a good 5 min.  I really restrained myself from providing my 2 cents, not because I feared he would dump his nachos on my head, but because I didn't want to turn around in my seat and possibly touch the freezing metal that my bootie had not already warmed up.

I was so anxious to tell Adam what he missed out on when he returned from his food run since it was the highlight of my day thus far, but he was pouting because the stupid Rangers no longer have Hebrew National all beef hotdogs and replaced them with some hokey Texas BS called Sheriff Blaylocks grilled dogs...uh, really?  I hate hotdogs but enjoy a Hebrew National when it is brought to my seat by a acne ridden teenager carrying a metal box in the 100 degree heat...I don't necessarily think Adam's hotdog crisis trumped my 'sunny seat antics' but I'm just sayin.

By the 5th inning our entire section was in the shade and it was freezing.  Overall, the weather sucked, the game was boring (8-1 Rangers), and I missed the highlight of the entire trip...George!  So the next time I go to a Rangers game and someone says they paid for a seat in the sun, I will reply "well I paid for 80 degree weather, an empty valet line, a hebrew national, and FREAKING GEORGE W BUSH, so pipe down and enjoy your GD nachos!"