Philadelphia Weekend

The family converged on the city of Philadelphia this weekend to mark another baseball stadium off of Hubby's bucket list. His co-workers had gifted him with four tickets to see the Philadelphia Phillies for his 50th birthday.  With some strategic logistics, Hubby was able to manage to get all of us to Philly within an hour or so of each other.  That was no easy feat!  Me and Chip flew in from Texas.  Hubby flew in from China.  Harry flew in from Phoenix!  

I checked Chip out of school a little early.  He was all smiles about that, although I did have to convince him it would be safe to fly on the fourteenth anniversary of 9/11.  I really wish his teachers had not recounted their personal experiences from that horrible day right before he was set to walk on to a big ol' jet airliner.  A bit unnerving. I reassured him that airport security had been ramped up a lot since that awful day and that we would probably have an Air Marshall on our flight.  Maybe a slight stretch, but it made him and me feel better to believe that!  

Look at this delicious little lunch I picked up in the airport.  That carrot salad had horseradish sauce on it and it was fantastic!  I took a picture so I would remember to hit this place up again! 

My book club book was great reading for the trip.  I started and finished it on the first leg of the trip.  Light read.  In letter format (which I love). Baseball. Entertaining.   

Chip took over my iPad and was doing all kinds of crazy drawing and playing games.  Our first leg was to Chicago and we had hoped we could meet up with Hubby who was also connecting through Chicago, but he was in an international terminal so that did not work out.  We would have to wait to see him in Philly. 

Chip and I were delayed for about 40 minutes leaving Chicago, but eventually landed in Philly about 11:00 p.m. where Hubby and Harry were waiting for us.  

Whew - we made it.  

We had to walk down some ladder stairs to get off the plane and onto the tarmac to retrieve our luggage. Then haul it back up some stairs to get into the airport.  It was a weird set up.  

Chip had a bit of a bathroom situation once we landed, so the big boys went and picked up the rental car and met us at the curb.  The whole family back together again! The best!  

We jetted off to the hotel to rest up for the night.  

The next morning it was a bit overcast.  Rain was definitely in the forecast. Boo!  

We stayed within a short walking distance of the baseball park and directly across the street was the Philadelphia Eagles stadium and also the Wells Fargo Arena, home of the 76rs and Flyers.  Very cool set up if you are a sports fan. 

This was a big restaurant right in the middle of the action. 

We planned a 10:30 tour of Citizens Bank Park to kick off the day.

A cool wall of baseballs.

The broadcast booth.  Always a favorite with a Sports Journalist in the family.

The view from the press box.  Not bad.  Not bad at all. 

Look at that view of downtown Philadelphia.  Very nice.  Please also note the clouds rolling in. 

Harry and Chip dreaming of baseball.  

Hubby taking photo after photo after photo after photo. He takes tons of pictures. 

Then the best part.  On the field.  

And in the dugout. 

Giant scoreboard.

Brotherly love.

 Brotherly fighting.  Sadly, this is not that unusual. 

My guys.

They are monkeys. 

Chip in the corner pretending to be a pitcher with a no hitter going. 

Off to finish the tour.  This is the Diamond Level seating.  Fancy.  

The media room.  Harry was trading Chip. 

We loved the tour. Hubby won the trivia competition.  Although there really wasn't a competition.  But he sure had an answer for every single baseball trivia question the guide threw out.  It was impressive.  

We grabbed lunch at the Bullies place outside the stadium where there was a statue unveiling going on. It was a statue of Boxer Legend Joe Frazier.  Joe's family and friends were all over the place!  It was crazy busy, but we had a nice meal.  

Next up,  headed downtown to take in some historic sites.  This is city hall. 

Cool buildings. 

More cool buildings. 

The Liberty Bell.  

Independence Hall. 

Please note the clouds.  Still rolling in. 

Ben Franklin was there giving a tour.  

Taking a break.  Time to admit that we are not history buffs.  Should be thrilled to be in the heart of all this American history, but honestly we had more fun throwing leaves into the blustery winds to see who's would fly the farthest without hitting the ground.  Lame.

It was almost game time so we headed back to the hotel to get our tickets.   Hubby and Harry walked over super early and called us to let us know that our tickets were in the Diamond Club section!  What?  Had no idea there were such sweet seats right behind home plate.  Nice birthday gift! 

The Diamond Club had two viewing areas where you could watch the teams taking BP.  Haven't ever seen that before.  

We didn't really know how all the fancy food stations worked, so we went in search of a local favorite. The Philly Cheesesteak.

Tony and Luke's did not disappoint.   

While we were eating, the rain moved in.  Are you kidding me?  

Tarp was covering the field. 

Of course, having Diamond Club tickets was absolutely fantastic with this development because we could sit in there and watch college football on one of a thousand TVs.  So that is what we did. 

Eventually, the rain passed and they started rolling up the tarp!  

It looks like we are going to get to Play Ball!  Woo Hoo!  

The Philly Fanatic was out and about causing havoc through the game.

It was a GREAT game!  The Phillies were down 1-0 and then this big guy (who's name I can't recall or read on the back of his shirt!) came up as a designated hitter and roped a double.  

He was a fan favorite and it spurred the Phillies to a 5-1 lead. 

Well, the Cubs were having none of that and tied it up 5-5 in the 8th (I think). 

The Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 9th and the Philly's just needed one run to win! 

Well, this guy who I also don't remember his name (my boys are going to kill me if they ever read this!) smashed a game winning walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.  

The place went nuts!  

The whole team spilled out of the dugout to meet him at home plate with high fives of all kinds. 

Then, in baseball tradition, he got a nice big Gatorade bath from his teammates. 

And then a pie in the face.  

I mean, who wouldn't want that as their reward for winning the game?  

Baseball players are weird. 

It was a great baseball game in a beautiful ballpark in a very cool city.  

Then Sunday came and it was time for our flights home.  Goodbyes are so super sucky. 

We all returned to our home bases with great memories of the weekend. 

Hubby has two stadiums to visit to get them all.  Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins.  

Fun times marking items off of his bucket list. 

Hope your weekend was fabulous!

International Travel

Hubby is in China.

He asked for a bottle of water with his breakfast.

The waitress brought him two sticks of butter.

He drank OJ.

Algebra

Part of our three day weekend was spent on 8th grade Algebra.  Chip had about nine homework problems and then a take home quiz with an additional five problems.  Chip didn't think it would take long and tried to con me into waiting until Monday to tackle the math, but I knew better.

I have written about my relationship with math before, but I thought it would be fun to search my blog history to see how far it went back.  Well guess what?  I blogged about Algebra in my very first post from December of 2009!  Here is what I said in that first post when I was explaining how a blog would be great:

"Kind of like a virtual scrapbook of sorts, although at this point it would be filled with my complete and utter disdain for eighth grade Algebra (going to be the death of me). As my thirteen year old says to me every night...when am I ever going to need to know this stuff in the real world. I have no answer to that. Just sit down, figure out how to plug that stupid equation into a graphing calculator and get an answer that doesn't have ten decimals or no intersection!!!"

Not much has changed in the past five years, except my first blog was when we were going through it with Harry and now we are going through it with Chip.

My sweet friend, who was one of Harry's teachers in middle school was instrumental in helping Harry get through Algebra. She has since moved to Dallas, but when I reached out with a HELP ME text this week, she was kind enough to send me some links to Algebra tutorials.  I think they are going to help.  Also, five years later they have this app called PhotoMath that you can download to your phone.  You use the camera on your phone to pick up the math problem in the paper and by some magic shows you the answer AND all the steps in the math problem for how to solve it.  GENIUS!  I have no idea how the heck it works, but it appears to work great!   Chip worked through the problems with much hand holding by mom and then we would check it with the app.  It was a bit frustrating that we had the wrong answer, but we could quickly scan through the steps to see where we went wrong.  Those damn +, - and changing when you multiply/divide but not not when you add/subtract.  OY!!!  Math pain.  It is real.

We have completed the Algebra homework and the take home quiz.  We are getting shirts made that say Algebra Survivor.  We will wear them proudly!  We earned them.

TIDBIT:  This is post #780.  That is a lot of posts!  

Have a great three day weekend!

Can Man Productions

Bob and Lana are some creative fools.  Mostly, it is Lana that is creative, but Bob is her right hand man taking care of the some of the mundane but necessary tasks like painting, drilling, etc.  Together, they are turning out some pretty cute men made out of aluminum cans.  Look at these guys:

They started out making can men of school colors! Roll Tide, Go Sun Devils….they even made some with Auburn colors (YUCK!).  Then they got inspired to make a Santa and just today sent this one of Frankenstein.  He is new to the rotation and so dang cute! 

They put a lot of work into these and give them away to friends and family!  I have already put in an order for one of each!  I keep trying to have them slap a price tag on them, but they don't want the pressure of having to fill orders and make them perfect.  It is just something fun they enjoying doing!  

Let me tell you the most complicated part of the process….finding the cans!  It takes like 15 or so specific cans to make one can man.  They need big cans, small cans, medium cans, sardine cans.  They have the word out to all their friends and neighbors, and even get cans from my nephews school cafeteria, but not many folks eat a giant can of peaches from Sams or sardines!   That is their struggle.  Keeping up a supply of cans. 

A few weeks ago, they called the recycling center or waste management company in their town and asked if they had any cans.  The company invited them to come out and look through the recycle bins.  So basically, Bob and Lana are dumpster diving on Monday mornings.  They find some cans, but not always the exact ones they need.  They are persistent though. They have cans out the wazoo in various stages all over their house!  Just waiting to turn them into a can man.  Kind of like building a scarecrow. 

Anyway, I love the little guys and am so impressed with how creative they have gotten since there first prototype!  So fun!  If you happen to use any cans, open any cans, please don't recycle them…save them for Bob and Lana!  

Hope your Friday is fantastic!     

Two Weird Things

Middle School Football.  First day in full pads.

Football practice is from 2:30 in the afternoon until 4:30.  It is hot in Texas.  Chip was thirsty, exhausted, super sweaty….but so damn happy.  His groin didn't bother him (much).  They got to do Shotgun Alley.  That is apparently a really awesome part of practice where they pair off and try to clobber each other. 

That makes him happy. 

Isn't that weird? 

Also, in the weird category….

Can you see that black hair in the photo above?  I placed an arrow pointing to it, because it is hard to see (especially the older I get!)  That hair is growing out of the palm of my husband's hand.   His HAND!  Not the back of his hand?  The palm of his hand!  The fleshy part below his thumb. 

Isn't that WEIRD??

And GROSS!

He walked around with that thing growing out of his hand for an entire day and then it was gone.  He didn't pull it…because I was begging him to pull it and he refused.  It just fell out.  Thank goodness.  

Now, he recently turned 50 and you might expect random, stray hairs to be growing out of his eyebrows, nose or ears.  But his hand?  No.  I was not prepared for that! 

Anyway, here is a wish for all of you!  May your Thursday be the best damn Friday Eve ever!  May no one try to clobber you in shotgun alley! May you find yourself parked in front of a TV at some point this evening watching a little college football (HOORAY!) and may you not find any stray hairs growing out of your hand.  AMEN! 

Moving Harry Back to ASU

Here are a few pictures of our weekend moving Harry back to ASU.  Hubby and Harry headed out a few days early to make the long drive back to Phoenix with the car loaded down again with all things necessary to make a dorm room feel like home for the next nine months. 

They stopped in El Paso for the night and managed to score tickets to the sold out Chihauhaus Minor League baseball game. Shocking, I know.  They also managed to catch a Arizona Cardinals NFL practice before they picked me and Chip up at the airport the next day.  

We stayed at the Westin in downtown Phoenix (which is right next door to Harry's dorm) and this was the view from our hotel room.  

Off to the left, the building with the green arches is Chase Field - home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.  The low white arena to the right side of the picture is the U.S. Airways Center (soon to be renamed Talking Stick Resort Arena) which is home to the NBA's Phoenix Suns.  No wonder this sports loving kid loves this town! 

Our first night in town, we hit up Oregano's pizza which is a family favorite.  This day was actually August 13th which was Hubby's birthday so it was nice that we were all together.  I will write a separate post about his birthday gift.  He loved it and it provided for some lively conversation during dinner!  

The next day, Harry was scheduled to move in at 12:00 noon.  It was looking to be a scorcher in Phoenix. 

My weather app showed a temp of 108 for our move in time - but let's get it documented right here that the high for that Friday hit 117 degrees.  It was some kind of Phoenix record that made the newspapers the next day!  A little warm.  I texted this photo to my family and got lots of comments about the dry heat not being as bad.  That is a crock.  It was hot!  

Thankfully, the crew at ASU have this moving in business down to a science. I was worried that we would be in line for a long time and the heat might play a factor, but it went so smoothly that we probably weren't outside for more than six minutes from backing into the parking spot, unloading the truck and rolling Harry's belongings into the lobby of the dorm.  Super efficient.  We were at his dorm room door within 15 minutes and ready to start the unpacking!  

This is the view from his eighth floor dorm room window. 

The downtown crew getting reunited.   Smiles all around! 

Within a half hour or so we had moved the furniture around to accommodate the set up the boys wanted for this year.  They are going to bunk together in one room of their dorm and set up a den in the other room for their entertainment area.  I think it is going to work out great.  After the unloading of the boxes we brought, we had some down time while we waited on the things Harry had stored in Phoenix for the summer.  The boys got out their baseball cards and started strategizing over which autographs they were going to try to get during spring training.  

It was so nice this year that they knew each other well, we knew the parents and it was comfortable just hanging out and visiting instead of the awkward first year when we were all strangers and so unsure of what was ahead.  We relived many of the funny stories about the boys freshman year had some great laughs. 

This is their sleeping side of the dorm.  I have seen some fabulous girl room dorms all decorated to the nines and then there is this.  Concrete walls - no pictures - no lights strung across the room.  No personality whatsoever.  Boys just do not care. Not even one tiny bit. 

Once the storage items arrived and were unpacked it was time to outfit the entertainment side of the dorm.  We were lucky that Phoenix has an IKEA because we found a great little couch that would work great in their room.  We were off to get that bad boy on Friday afternoon.  

It didn't seem so little when we loaded it into Harry's truck.  Starting to wonder if it is going to fit.  

As with most IKEA items, it had to be put together and it was all done with allen wrenches.  The Sweds hate screwdrivers!  It took a bit of doing but with a lot of patience, contorting and a little bit of swearing we got it done.  I wish we would have demonstrated the cool features of this couch, but I will just describe it to you.  The long chaise part of the couch lifts up and it is all storage.  Very smart.  Under the long side is a mattress that pops up to make this couch into a queen size bed.  All very easy to put up and take down.  We also grabbed a couple of $8 side tables at IKEA for drinks and whatnot.  The guys were happy! 

Then they started showing Chip the flashlight game they play late at night where they shine the strongest flashlight you have ever seen down on people walking on the street.  It was very funny and I think Chip could have played all night long.   It was a long afternoon and we wrapped up about 8:00 p.m. and everyone was starving.  We piled into cars and all went to Noodles and Company for a late dinner.  So nice to hang out and get to know these guys a little better.  Nice, nice kids.  

The next day we wanted to visit an ASU store and hit up a grocery store to stock Harry up on food! 

We went to the Marketplace and found a store to get some gear.  We are outfitted out! 

Next we went to the Target right near the Tempe campus and it was a complete zoo!  The line went all the way back to the frozen food and wrapped around to the left.  Seriously like 100 yard long line.  We opted to go to a Target a little closer to downtown and Harry's dorm. It was not bad and we were speed shopping like it was a team sport. 

We got all the goodies unloaded and hung up the ASU flag we purchased at the store.  

A tiny bit of decor.  

Chip tested out the couch again and it was still good. 

After that we were headed to a preseason Arizona Cardinals game.  Traffic was really bad, but we managed to get there before the kick off.  It was a pre-season game but it was very festive and the fans were totally into it.  

I can't remember the score, but most of the starters just played the first half of the first quarter and then it was all about the backups getting some snaps in.  We had a nice evening and then had to head back and drop Harry off for good.  We were flying out really early on Sunday, so we were planning on catching a cab to the airport.  I was up early and realized that Harry had left his toiletry bag in our hotel so I walked over to his parking lot to put it in his car.  

I took this picture in the wee hours of the morning.  Knowing my baby was asleep inside and this was his home for the next nine months made me kind of melancholy.  I will miss him terribly, but he is very happy here and that makes it hard to be sad.  Not that I wasn't sad, because I was.  I stayed in a funk for several days after getting home from Arizona.  I covered this building with prayer and asked God to put a bubble of protection around all of these kids.  Give them the opportunity to spread their wings, learn to be responsible adults, find their purpose and live their lives to their utmost potential. Put good people in their lives that will guide them, teach them, care for them and above all for God to pursue them.  To chase them down and teach them the enormity of His eternal love and grace - even if he has to whack them over the head a time or two!

So, he is there.  He is doing his classwork. He is hunting down sporting events.  He is back to late, late nights.  He is kicking off his sophomore year and it is going to be awesome!  Good luck Harry!  Call your mother!  Anytime!  All the time!  Not just when you are sick!  But also, you better call me when you are sick. Keep doing you…cause you are pretty special!   I love you kid and am so proud of you!