All the small things...

It's amazing what can happen in as little as a week. I haven't updated this blog in nearly a week, but I thought I'd share what all transpired during that time. It really has almost nothing to do with this Vancouver adventure directly, but it has a lot to do with why so little got accomplished that was directly related to the adventure...

My lovely and talented wife wandered off to Mexico with my sister and my niece to celebrate Spring Break. Normally my brother-in-law would have gone instead of my wife, but he's not much for traveling, and watching a whole bunch of high school kids do things that they probably shouldn't be doing would only help to raise his blood pressure dangerously. That's probably why they didn't ask me along either. Lest you think it was complete pandemonium and chaos, my sister and my wife are really quite responsible and know when to draw the line between 'fun' and 'dangerous'. I had no fears about them being there, other than the rash of violence against Americans in Mexico that had been occurring with increased frequency of late. Again though, it's the prevailing American opinion of 'it could never happen to me' that had the upper hand. I don't know if we'll ever cure ourselves of that habit, but I really wish we - as a nation - would try harder. Or at all.

Anyway, with her gone, it left me alone with the two kids for about 8 days. Not a big deal really, but it certainly makes one appreciate all the things that the other parent does on a regular basis, without any recognition or reward. Somehow, I got through 3 full and 2 half school days for one, 5 full days for the other. (The half days make it harder because my younger one really could still use some extra supervision). I was able to see my daughter's very first high school softball game. Even though the game started at 5pm and was 45 minutes from Fort Wayne, we were able to get there about 5:35pm. Unfortunately, she had suffered a nosebleed just moments before we got there and I didn't see her actually play. I was able to hear her cheering form the bench though and being a good teammate, so it was all good. And the fact that they fell barely short of a victory (losing 20-3), wasn't really all that bad. There will be more games. In fact, this should have been their 3rd, but the first two were rained out. That helped me cope with a long week as a single parent a little easier as well, so there was a silver lining to those rain clouds for me.

I celebrated my birthday (45 already?) with the kids on Friday night at Bandido's, where it's now become a tradition to celebrate birthdays (probably for the free meal for the birthday person).

We also got to enjoy a baseball game with the single-A San Diego Padres affiliates Fort Wayne Tincaps, during their opening home stand and their 9th game of the season (and just their 3rd home game at the brand new ballpark). It was a blast, and the kids really enjoyed it. I'm such a sucker for punishment, I even asked another neighborhood kid to come along because I knew I wouldn't be satisfied trying to keep just two kids from killing each other, I needed more of a challenge. Our seats were probably the BEST in the house - directly behind home plate, 4 rows back.

The Tincaps won in extra innings 6-5 and we got to cheer along with 3,800 of our new, closest friends. You can see how close we were to the plate, and while it looks like the two guys in front were staring at their shoes, they were just looking down at a paper or something. they were in the front row.

We sat about 4 seats away from some of the Tincap pitchers who had the night off, but were doing pitch counts and running the radar gun for the game. They were nice enough to sign Garry's new Tincap batting helmet ($5) with his new Tincaps silver sharpie ($3) and made his day ($priceless). We saw quite a few people we knew at the game (grownups and kids) including one of Rachel's softball coaches, the varsity coach, a South Side High School vice principal and his family (they are family friends) some co-workers from Fort Wayne Newspapers and a handful of other folks. We got there early and stayed late and really enjoyed the game.

Best looking girl in the stands.

That's Garry behind me (NOT the one with the silly hand over his face, that's Garry's buddy).

We did our fair share of shopping too, while my wife was away. Groceries are stocked up, lunch items are in good shape and essentials (tp tissue, facial tissue, band-aids and such) all stocked up. We even took care of a few household items, like putting together a 500 piece puzzle of Paris, and fixing a picture frame that doubles as a key holder. Long story on that one, but let's just say 'it fell'. That's the usual excuse I get anyway.

We rounded out the weekend with a Sunday breakfast out at one of our favorite spots, then some batting practice at the batting cages, and a tad more shopping (and getting more birthday gift ideas, thank you again, Garry). We finished the day with pizza from Papa John's (one of our favorites) and some tv watching while I did the ironing.

Now they are safely tucked in bed, although they don't have school tomorrow, and I heard from my beautiful wife that she is back in the USA and safely at my sister's house in Michigan before she makes the trek back home tomorrow.

So, nothing of any real measure was worked on toward this trip during the last 8 days or so, but you can see I had some really good excuses, and I was able to enjoy some great family time. And now I think I'll go and catch some hockey before I turn in. It's getting late, but the west coast still has hockey! Thank goodness for FIOS television!