8/23/2011

Best and Worst – Cubs/Braves – Travel fun & More

Haven’t done this in a while so time to throw one up…gonna span a couple weeks.

Addyson performed last Saturday (13th) at the Iowa State Fair for her tumbling/dance class.  This a few days after her brother knocked her front tooth out.  She did really good and we got to spend a day at the fair.  Always fun, always busy.  Got the new Iowa poster, one for me and one for my son.  My son wanted it up on his wall when we got home.  After 7 hours they were spent (and me too).  Then Shawnna and I went out to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack.  We had a couple good drinks, a Shark Bite and a Twisted Cherry Limeade.  Shawnna has since tried to recreate the limeade at home.

Also last weekend (14-16) I was lucky enough to travel to Atlanta for a conference for work.  I got down there at 9 am on Sunday morning.  A buddy, Ferg, picked me up and took me to a small restaurant (Thumbs Up) for a great breakfast.  Spent 8 bucks for food that would have been enough for 2.  I don’t think I could have bought a meal like that in Iowa for that much.  I had southwestern eggs.  It was half a plate of fried tators, peppers and onions, then 2 huge breakfast burritos loaded with scrambled eggs, black beans, bacon, sausage and topped with pico de gaulo and guacamole.  I ate maybe 60% of the meal, it was huge and good. 

Somehow also I ended up sitting in like cream from a cinnamon roll and had that stuff all over my ass.  Me only packing one pair of shorts, we had to make a run to Target and I got a 2nd pair of shorts.  We then went to meet up with some of Ferg’s coworkers and head to Turner Field for the Cubs-Braves game.  Arriving at Turner we saw the old torch that was used in the 1996 Olympics.  The wall from old Fulton County Stadium, they also have the bases painted in the parking lot and a spot marked where Hank Aaron’s record breaking homer landed.

We tailgated for 2 hours before the game, and I purposely wore my Hawkeye hat, and got a half a dozen “Go Hawks”.  We wandered into the game during the first and the Stadium looks really nice.  There are a hand full of statues that we got pictures with (hopefully I’ll get copies of them soon). We sat out in right field for the first half of the game, and then headed behind home plate for the 2nd half of the game.  I drunk tweeted a few pics during the game.  The Cubs fell behind 4-0, but came back to win 6-5.  They also stopped Dan Uggla’s hit streak at 33 that day, a play that included a great diving catch from Darwin Barney.

The work conference was fun and interesting.  I went down with 2 others from Wells.  Meet them later after the game.  The hotel, the Intercontinental Buckhead was really really nice!  I finally got to put names with faces of others that I call and talk to what sometimes feels like a daily basis and also meet some other people who use the program we use and had some really good discussions.  Also meet a lot of other people at the evening events that were fun too.  Over all a great time…till the flight home.

My flight was supposed to be leaving Atlanta at 5 get in Minneapolis at 7 and 3 hour layover till 10pm flight to Des Moines.  Um….yea, that didn’t happen.  Flight delayed what the airport said was going to be an hour…yea it was like 2 hours.  Once on the plane…I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a while.  I sat by two ladies from Canada going to Minneapolis for the gymnastics championships (you read that right, they flew Toronto-Atlanta-Minneapolis).  They were older, prob 40-50….and we laughed the whole time.  They were hilarious.  If you’ve seen Bridesmaids, one of them had the same sense of humor that the lady who plays Molly on “Mike & Molly” has in that movie.  So we were cracking up.  And we needed too because when we landed in Minneapolis in a rain storm at 9 we were stuck on the tarmac 100 ft from our gate for an HOUR.  We couldn’t hit the gas a little and roll up to it because of lightning.  That sucked.  My 3 hour layover turned into me running for my gate at another concourse.  My flight to Des Moines though was thankfully delayed. We left at 1045.  Funny thing on my flight back to Des Moines is I sat by a millionaire, the owner of Van Wyk trucking, and a handful of banks, some storage companies among others.  But what is also interesting is he knows my banker, and also worked with my uncle in my hometown (of 500) back in the 50s/60s.  Small world.  So I got home at midnight, worked 50 hours that week and that was without working on Friday. 

Friday I was off and supposed to take my boy to Adventureland to play since last time we were supposed to go, we didn’t since he got sick.  BUT 2 temper tantrums later he wasn’t going and he was back to preschool.  I’ve learned you can’t reward that bad behavior.  Hopefully next time he’ll learn.  And one thing we’ve done with him is from a book called 1-2-3 Magic.  With that his temper, reactions and listening has really improved.  Go check it out fellow parents.  So my Friday was spent relaxing! 

Friday night my daughter had her first “real” sleepover with a friend she went to preschool with.  Her and her friend have a blast all the time, it’s too bad they don’t go to school together anymore.  Saturday my son had his first “real” birthday party to go to with a friend from preschool and some other kids that go there.  It was at a nice little park in Lakewood.  He loved it because he could throw rocks into the lake.  Sunday we spent the day outside, mowing and playing and riding bikes.  I fixed the wheels on my grill and overall just a good day. 

This coming week we start school, the kids go to grandma & grandpas so hopefully it goes quick!

And Iowa High School Football started!  Too bad I started 5-4.  Valley beat Dowling in a classic in that series. 

Now for the bad.  Little Ryleigh has an ear infection and is teething.  IT SUCKS!  She’s 6 mos old and can’t express herself without crying and squirming and not eating or sleeping.  We got some meds for her and she’s been ok the past 12 hours.  Still a little fussy.

Also out of my realm…what the hell is going on in the world of sports?  Fights busting loose in Candlestick Ball Park?  I love going to games but this is a shame.  It’s not just happening in San Francisco, it’s all over on college campuses and pro cities.  It makes me wonder about taking my kids to a game.  I don’t want to put them in that environment.  It’s sad…and thankfully the experience at home and TV in HD has gotten so good you don’t have to go to enjoy it.

Then there’s the “NEW” CyHawk trophy that was unveiled last Friday at the State Fair by the “NEW” rivalry sponsor Iowa Corn.  First off you don’t need a fricken sponsor for a rivalry, rivalries aren’t built on sponsorships.  I can’t stand that. You’ll never see Floyd of Rosedale changed or sponsored by Hormel or Oscar Meyer (at least I hope not).  With that being said the old trophy is well cheap looking, but it has some history and has something to do to with FOOTBALL and the game.  The new trophy revealed with a family of farmers has NOTHING to do with the game other than the scores on the base.  It has drawn scorn from all over the state and country with the Govenor, Hayden Fry and ESPN chimming in.  One paper from Oklahoma said it’s a terrible trophy but at least the sports world knows Iowa-ISU now play for a trophy.  Today (Tues Aug 23) Iowa Corn has a press conference to discuss all the backlash the new trophy has brought.  Hopefully it gets changed.  And please, please Iowa-Nebraska Heroes trophy, learn something here…don’t mess up. 

So this is kind of a book but had a time to cover. 


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