Play Ball!

I love baseball. I really do. My blood will always flow with pinstripes for my first love the Yankees, but I have adopted the Nationals since moving to DC! I try to go to at least one game a summer, usually I make it to two or more, but this year I realized I was cutting it close! The season ends this weekend, so I roped my neighbor Carrie in to going with me last Saturday night.



You can tell it is the end of the season because all the Presidents were looking a wee bit worse for the wear!



It was a little chilly but we made it out into DC with plenty of time and trekked our way up the stadium. Of course getting $10 tickets means you sit at the tippy top, but hey, at least we were the second to last row!



It was also Half Way to Saint Paddy's Day, 9/17, so that was fun to see. Lots of green and half priced beer!





We split some aaaaamazing garlic parmesean fries and I got a hot dog as well. But man oh man those fries were heavenly. So worth $9.50... almost as much as our seats! The Nats were playing the Florida Marlins and I finally got to see the wunderkind Strasberg start and pitch!





It ended up being a looooooong game. Just my luck eh? 13 innings! It was 1-1, cringe I know, until the 13th inning when the Marlins busted out three runs from nowhere. Drat. The game went so long the Presidents raced twice!





The first race Teddy was doing so so well, but then the leprechaun came and stole his Lucky Charms. Poor Guy.





The second race he was way out in front, but he ran the wrong way around the stadium. Poor Teddy, he is just never going to win at this rate!

All in all, good night, lots of fun and plenty of baseball loving for me!




Oh! One of our clients got me flowers and chocolates today to say thanks for all my help (: Nice to know people appreciate things! I was very surprised.

Song Link Up and Baseball

As you can tell from my past entry or two I am loving that it is finally Spring. Spring means warm weather, green trees, flowers, bbqs, long walks, and my favorite sport of all time.... baseball. Sure it leaks into summer a bit as well, but it is just the perfect time of year from America's favorite past time.




I absolutely adore baseball. I always have My ideal date is to a baseball game (well, if my teams are playing!) which Ryan smartly realized within the first few weeks of us dating!



I honestly think we were dating maybe two weeks before we went to our first Nationals Game together. He got tickets from work for free and we ended up having a blast! Even if he was late (from picking up his car from the inpound lot, oh those were the days!) and I missed the first inning. Or two.





The Nationals sort of waltzed into my life in college when it was my 19th birthday and my friend needed an idea for me to celebrate. Enter another friend with season tickets and insertme in the third row and I am set! The Nats never play the Yanks, so I feel no betrayal in my supporting both teams. I loved how cheap the tickets were and the general atmosphere of being at the game! Any baseball game just feels electric to me. Even when I went to the minor league games at home in NJ they were always just such a great time. Including the summer I filled in as the mascot for the Somerset County Patriots! There is nothing like being ina six foot tall dog suit in 110 degree heat... for $30 an hour!

I have been a Yankees fan since birth, honestly there are pictures of me as an infant in a Yankees onsie where I look like a little boy! So it is something I have always been and not a, "front runner", as some may call it. I knew freshman year my room mate and I were going to have a problem when she was hanging up a Fenway Park Poster and I was hanging up a Yankee Stadium Poster. She moved out by February :P



Sadly I have only been to Yankee Stadium (the old one) a handful of times. Never been to the new one! As you can see above my friend Aliee and I got rained out the last game I went to!



I hope we get to go to another game soon! It just isn't Spring.... or Summer... without baseball!!!

In light of all that, there is only one natural choice for my song this week. Man I LOVE this song! (: Head on over to Goodnight Moon to link up.

Ketchup!! :P

Ok, an entry!

I am currently at work and in between phone calls so I decided it was time to do a blog entry. I will write it in my email, post the pictures and then post the entry when I get home. Complicated much?

So rewind a few days.

Lobstahs

On Friday, one of our clients sent a box of 50 live lobsters to the office. Why? He was vacationing in Maine and wanted to share! So I bring home two lobsters in a bag of ice for me and the hubby to share. Meet Jean and Claude!



And yes, they were alive! I felt a little like Julie from Julie/Julia because I really didn't want to put a live lobster into a boiling pot of water. So Ryan held up the lobstahs, I cut the rubberbands off the claws, and he dropped them into the boiling water.





We boiled the water with some thyme, had corn and lots of melted butter. We, living in the semi-South, do not have claw crackers or even a nut cracker so we had to use our kitchen shears to break the lobstahs open! The claw meat was so sweet and the tails was delicious, neither of us are brave enough to eat the middle gooey guts parts! Mine was definitely female as I had a LOT of little red eggs in mine! I didn't eat those though. Week one of work spoiled me, birthday cake, margaritas, and lobstahs!



Baseball

After dinner (and cleaning up since we were quite messy) we went over to the ballpark since we had tickets to the Nationals vs Marlins game. Our neighbor Rigoberto (who I have blogged about before, he is the awesome chef) has season tickets and passed them onto us for this game. We were in the third row on the third baseline!!!



Amazingly awesome seats. I had my new camera so I got to play around with a lot of settings, including my sports one which takes 25 pictures in about 2 or 3 seconds. It rocked my socks off. I feel like I need to make a flip book!




Funnily enough one of the Sgt Majors from the barracks was sitting in front of us and we were chatting back and forth most of the game. We ended up getting a free tshirt for Rigoberto that they tossed to us and having some delicious Boardwalk Fries! The Nats lost *surprise* but we had a blast.

I am not sure, but I think some guys on the Marlins lost a bet???



And my favorite: FIREWORKS



Art Fair



Saturday was a lazy day. Ryan has had a cold for a few days and even resorted to taking MEDICINE! I was shocked. Only Nyquil to get by without coughing all night, but he never takes anything when he is sick so it shocks me still. We watched tv and lounged around a bit before I ran into Rigoberto outside again. I gave him the tshirt from the game and he mentioned there was an art festival of sorts going on down on King St. Ryan and I drag ourselves from the house, me with new camera in tow, and go explore. I loved looking at all the artwork and wished I was uber rich enough to buy some of it! But I also got quality camera playing time!

Playing with Shutter Speed: 1/2000



1/2000



1/350 or so I think.... so you can see the difference in shutter speed!




Playing with Aperature:





and some of the photographer...

and the gorgeous hubby....



Nick's

We then walked all the way to the top of King St and I showed Ryan where my new office is located. When we were sitting on the benches near the fountain Ryan's friend called and invited us to Nick's, a country bar not too far away, to hang out.



We took a cab there (ended up being pricier than anticipated, $15!) and had a good time. We got some food and drinks and I really wish we did the line dancing lessons that were going on before the band started. Once the band started it seemed like everyone knew all the complicated dances and we couldn't do any of them!!! We slow danced to one song and even then people were spinning all around us!

My friend Kim (and one of my bridesmaids) is coming to visit next weekend. She is a huge country buff so we decided we have to go back next Saturday. She is wicked excited and I quote, "Imma gonna bring mah boots!!!" I am wearnig mine too! Mine are my mom's from back in the 80s. Kinda excited.

After the bar we decided to walk to the metro, almost got lost in a paving plant (don't ask) but made it! We even survived the speedwalk home!

Chores

Sunday was chores... Ryan had a C-Bag (I am sure you Marine S.O.s know what those are!) FULL of our laundry. I mean we couldn't close the thing. 2 people 2 weeks 2 much laundry! I went grocery shopping, still made it in budget with lots of frantic running around, and cleaned the apartment. Our bathroom sink was badly clogged for a day or two so I got some Draino for that and poured the entire bottle in the instant I got home. Three hours later, nothing happened. Crap. I was convinced I would have to call our maintenance guy. But I kept cleaning. I was just finishing the kitchen when I heard a horrific grinding noise. I look in the dining room and black things and shards of ice are FLYING out of the airconditioning unit. I had to grab my apron to shield myself to turn the darn thing off! Then I had to reclean the entire dining room. So that thing has not been on since Sunday, luckily it is cooler out. Ryan needs to call maintenance to come fix it! This stuff only happens when I am home alone. I honestly thought the window broke and glass was flying in but it was ice....how does that happen??? And with black leafy looking dirt things?? But the good news is our sink cleared overnight so that works again somehow! It just needed 12 hours or so to sit instead of half an hour like the bottle says?

Work work work. Still liking the job. Getting better, getting into a routine. I even made meatloaf last night!

ADD: We lost power at work! After I wrote this the computer flickered three times and died. People were stuck in the elevator, traffic lights were out, no power for like a mile around. So I walked home!!! I am tired now. We'll go back for my car tonight, I did not want to deal with traffic with no traffic lights working and the garage not working either!

I will write about my Doctor Appointment Adventure later....

Thanks for sticking with me guys <3