Queen Anne's Lace and Lilacs

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

(click photo for a larger view)

One of the advantages of having an ex-baseball player for a dad is that you end up knowing a lot about baseball - even if you're a girl (what am I saying!  I'm more athletic than either of my brothers!).  Now, my boys may take issue with that because, for the last few decades I haven't watched a lot of baseball - except for them, when they were in Little League - and they think I'm clueless.  But if they could have known me when I was growing up, they would discover I knew just as much as them about, not only the rules of the game, but about who was playing and how they were doing.  With just the one TV, all we watched on the weekend was sports - and any other time of the week that they were on.  I was familiar with basketball and football, too, but since my dad specialized in baseball, that's what we played just about every day after supper, in good weather. 

As an aside, I don't know if Evan and Brett remember, but I was the assistant coach one year for their baseball team.  Their dad was the coach.  He didn't know diddly about baseball, but with my instruction and guidance, he learned quite a bit - as did those kids he coached.  :)

Each summer, my family embarked on a vacation.  Many of these vacations included a major league baseball game.  (They also often included visiting Indian places, i.e., Anadarko, because Jerry Mark was into that.  I don't think we ever took a vacation based solely on my interests, but I wasn't one to complain.)  During our Haysville era, we went to quite a few Wichita Aeros games (AAA).  I loved those games.  Every night, I listened to the Aeros game on the radio.  If I got in trouble, one of the punishments was grounding me from listening to the game.  Torture!!   

It was in Haysville that the Kansas City Royals acquired George Brett and Hal McRae.  I loved these guys.  (In fact, Brett is named for George Brett.)  We often watched/listened to the Royals games, so, with Brett and McRae, they became my official team.  I also liked the Pirates and the A's. 

After Haysville, we moved to Norfolk, NE.  My dad bought the APBA baseball game.  Each player selects a major league team to manage.  Mine was the Royals, of course.  My dad's was the Phillies, of course.  Timmy also had the Royals, Jerry Mark the Dodgers, and my mother, the Rangers (although, she rarely played, and why she picked the Rangers, I have no idea).  Because I don't remember having trouble with this game, I purchased the game myself a couple of years ago.  Well.....there are so many rules!!!!  And playing with Tim!  Bless his heart.  He's not just a few decades behind - he never did baseball.  Oops.  I'm sorry.  He saw the Senators play back in the 1800s when just a wee lad.  That's about it.

So, I'm still the Royals.  I don't know a single one of the players.  I've been told they've had terrible teams the past few years.  Tim's the Phillies.  Now, we do know a little about some of them - we did watch the World Series last year.  But, you know, I have to explain the infield fly rule, errors, pass balls, home plate, etc.  We're trying to finish our first game.  I can't wait for Evan to get out here to deal with all of this.  We've gone three innings in a week.  And, I curse myself for not learning how to do the scoring back in the day.

You know, nothing unusual stands out in my mind about those games we used to attend.  I do seem to remember some drunk guys a couple of times.  More recently, Tim took Bethany, Erica (Tim's daughter) and me to a Dodgers game.  The people sitting above us were seeming to be dropping an excessive amount of debris down on us.  At first, it was just popcorn and trash.  Erica (27 at the time) had never been to a ballgame before. She wasn't appreciating this.  I was a bit surprised, myself.  I had to explain this wasn't normal.  Indeed,  it wasn't happening anywhere else.  Erica took her place turned backwards in her seat, looking up, warning us as things fell down.  As time went by, she began to get a bit upset. 

If you know Erica, you know this is not good.  For example, when I get upset with strangers, I complain to my family.  When Erica gets upset with strangers, she takes it to them.  Well, when the ice and liquid started flowing down, I knew I would not be able to keep her in her seat.  Sure enough, the next time - there goes Erica!  Meek and mild Tim was right behind her!  Little Bethany (6 at the time) and I are sitting there like, "Now, what do we do."  We finally grabbed the purses - after another drenching - and went to find Tim and Erica.  Come to find out, you can't go to a level unless you have a ticket for that level.  That was probably a good thing.  The stadium workers did get an earful!  For some reason, I'm seeing Erica swinging the little souvenir bat around.  Could that be right?  

The reason for all of these meandering reminiscences about baseball is this You Tube video of Bernie Williams that I saw today at The Riddleblog:

Easter

Mark 16:1-8

The Resurrection

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body.  Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"  But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.   As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified.  He has risen!  He is not here.  See the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see Him, just as He told you.' "  Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb.  They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid."

I spent some time thinking about Easter's past today (it's just after midnight on Monday, so it's still Easter to me).  I enjoy thinking about Easter when I was a kid (except for that one that I had to skip out on, having roseola).  We celebrated a number of Easters by starting the day at sunrise services.  I think I miss those services the most.  There were some that were a bit chilly, but there were also some quite pleasant Easter sunrises.  Afterwards, there was usually a special breakfast.  Then we'd go to church.  I loved the songs we'd sing Easter morning:  "He Arose," "Christ the Lord has Risen Today," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," "He Lives," and "He's Alive."  I don't mind the worship songs/praise choruses, but on Easter I'd rather sing the more traditional hymns.  None of these were song at church today, so I'm thinking I'll purchase them for my iPod.   

It was always fun to see the pretty spring outfits everyone was wearing.  Everybody was always in a good mood, at least as far as I could tell.  After church, we had a fancy meal, eat candy, and hang out.  So, my childhood Easters were great.  After I started having my own kids, Easter was at least as wonderful as before.  Dressing them up, egg hunts up at the church, and the fantastic music we had been working on for several months in the choir are the memories I cherish the most.  Each year the choir and others in the church would reenact the Easter story.   I really miss  being in that choir! 

Today started out at church.  There were a zillion people there, and the seats available were back by the people with babies and small children.  It was a bit noisy.   The songs were a bit unfamiliar, it seemed, to most people.  There was a small instrumental group that played a Celtic-sounding version of "O, for a Thousand Tongues" that was quite pretty. 

The sermon was from Mark 16 with some time spent on verse 7.  The angel at Jesus' tomb told Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome to go and tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee.  The pastor discussed why Peter was mentioned separately from the disciples.

 

Back at home, the egg hunts began.  We had two.  One was inside for Bethany.  It took her a little over an hour to find all of the eggs.  She was getting a little snippy about the whole thing towards the end - yet determined.  Then, she wanted to be in charge of the outdoor hunt, so she took 36 plastic camouflage eggs (Tim manages to find the most unique things!) outside and hid them for Tim and Evan to find.  Most of the eggs were either completely hidden or blended in so well with nature, that it was nearly impossible to find them.  That hunt took over an hour, too.  We finally had to call the event for dinner preparation.  Three of those eggs were never found.  Bethany has no idea where she hid them.  I figure the cats will find them.

 

The rest of the afternoon, Tim and I cooked another holiday meal masterpiece.  Well, for us.  It does just about kill me to spend hours cooking and about 10 minutes eating.  The kids cleaned the place up after we ate - with no complaining, come to think of it.  Interesting.  Brett's girlfriend, Kara, came over in the evening.  We played "Disney Scene It."  Tim and I lost, just like always.  You think you know everything Disney until you play that game.