Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Family Adventures: Father's Day and Other Man Matters


Happy Father's Day to everyone a few days late!  The ladies gave me a lovely day.  My Wife uses the occasion to buy matching T-shirts for Our Girl and me - a Little Red Riding Hood motif this year.  We had a celebratory trip to bookstore and went out for lunch.  As much as I believe in independent stores, there are times when nothing but Barnes & Noble will do.  The comic/graphic novel section at our nearest is excellent.  Lunch at Sukho Thai - our second meal out this weekend as we'd done Friday dinner at Bridge Street.  It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend.



Big news:  our kickball team had its first victory.  We won by a touchdown, 12-5.  My own contributions were modest but I did play the final inning at first and got the last two putouts.

Playing team sports with grown-ups is a bit of an adventure.  Though our team is much bigger - 18 at full strength - many of the same issues that came up with broomball hold true now.  Some are serious about winning.  Some like to win but are mostly there for the social benefits.  I'm really fine with either but it's tricky when people on the same team aren't always on the same page.  We've got a very regular crowd, though, and I'm hoping we can recruit a few for broomball in the fall.

We had our first boys night in a long time last night: a minor league baseball game in Burlington.  The Vermont Lake Monsters have just begun their short season A-league campaign.  Mock's cousin found great seats - second row on the third base side.  It was a great angle for appreciating the distances of the infield and how easily both the shortstop and the third baseman make those long throws across the diamond. 

Due largely to an adventurous fifth inning including, among other things, two throwing errors on the same play, the home team won, 7-1.  The team invested a million dollars in the stadium during the off-season.  I don't know if they're yet up to a standard to assure their A-ball status in the long term but they definitely spruced up, including a snazzy new outfield scoreboard.

School's only been out for a week so much of the conversation was shop talk - all part of clearing the toxins in time to begin fresh next year.  I'm hoping we'll make more games this season.  It's the perfect way to simultaneously enjoy baseball, good company and a beautiful Vermont summer.

3 comments:

  1. Those t-shirts are well-designed. Suze likes.

    Congrats on the kickball match!

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  2. I definitely like the t-shirts. You have a lot of sports in your life. That's good because it'll keep you in shape.

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    1. You're very kind. I'm not sure kickball's worth much for keeping in shape, though. As with baseball, there's a lot of standing around - one of those games where it pays to BE in shape but doesn't do much to keep you that way.

      With broomball, on the other hand, I get a pretty good work out - especially when we don't have any subs!

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