Forgot my camera!

0704081239a.jpg
Originally uploaded by bzarcher

Fortunately, I had my phone - had to take at least one picture. :D

After driving down to Cinci, finding parking near Great American and walking to one of the automated ticket kiosks, we made a guess about where to sit and went for the outfield bleachers. (I admit - I made a bias call when I was asked for ideas. We've sat behind home plate on on the baselines for a ton of Clippers games this year, and I wanted to see the game from the other side of things.)

We got fantastic seats - concealed under the upper deck awning so we didn't get rained on during the hour long rain delay, great field of view (and GAB is an -amazingly- beautiful new park compared to my memories of the cold, immense concrete slabness that was Cinergy Field), and some pretty entertaining bleacher creatures who all apparently had it in for Elijah Dukes. (And by the end of the game, Dukes was jawing back at them fairly goodnaturedly whenever he wasn't fielding).

Our party for this expedition ended up being Dave, myself, Crystal, and my Mom. In addition to getting a chance to hang out with Crystal in about 400% saner state than the last time I saw her, my Mom had a really great time and I think I made good on actually doing a bit of "family time" that didn't end in awkward silences and hasty exits.

We hit a BBQ place called Burbank's for dinner on the way back that I had vaugely remembered from some childhood trips with Dad, but Mom had either never been with us or simply had forgotten about it , so it felt like I was getting to show it off to everyone - we ended up smelting the mind of a waitress, but the food was both ample and fantastic, and their sauces, while good by themselves, truly sang when mixed together in carefully reasoned amounts. Mostly determined by squirting bottles at random.

Fantastic day. Happy 4th of July.

Notes from the road

Girl Scout Thin Mint Blizzards (TM) at Dairy Queen better not be more than a short term seasonal item, or I may die of mint poisoning. Om nom nom, etx.

After driving past a halal butcher and talking about the differences between halal and kosher, Alex and I got to talking about religous tolerance on both social and consumer levels (especially since we'd seen a dude wearing a yarmulke and prayer shawl going into the halal butcher), and how that is one thing you have to appreciate about America - it's part of the package that there will be Other People there, and sometimes you find that going to shop at their stores or live in their neighborhoods isn't such a bad thing after all.

Remember that your average Amish buggy driver is probably carrying or has easy access to a shotgun, and think about that before you decide to cut him off.

Continuing on that theme, while the Pennsylvania Dutch don't actually have the phrase "Fuck that noise", they probably do express a similar feeling now and then about the butter churn.

I bought an Axe Handle.

Alex bought some Mylar sheeting.

Neither purchase is actually related, but I bet you had a few minutes of horror thinking that they might have been, didn't you?

While Roush Hardware did have a type of weedburner torch, it looked flimsy, ran off a much smaller fuel bottle, has the gas flow controlled very awkwardly....and cost $15 more than the badass one I found in Northern Tool's catalog. Unless I get a pleasant surprise at Tractor Supply, I suspect I'll end up ordering one from NT next paycheck and have it shipped in.

The concrete cornfield really is a beautiful and strange landmark. I love it.