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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Petco Park

On Tuesday night, my husband and I went to see the San Diego Padres vs. the Oakland A's at Petco Park. I still call it "the new park" even though I realized they are in their third season playing at that park!

Anyway, I brought my camera, which I know made me look like a tourist, but so what. I took on looking EXTRA-nerdy, just for you, my dear readers.

Here's the run down:

First inning, Padres get the bases loaded, but it ends with 3 men out and 1 run.

That was seriously the most exciting inning. The new Padres pitcher, Chris Young, is 6 feet 10 inches tall (yes, really!) and the A's seemed to be having a REALLY difficult time. Pop-up after pop-up.

The game ended with the Padres winning 3-0, and one of those runs was on a balk.

The best part of any ball game is, of course, the people. I was sitting next to a couple who have been season ticket holders for 20 years. They believed the entire section should be sold to season ticket holders only as they were offended anyone in the section could possibly be rooting for the other team.

Behind us were the "first date" couple, with the really loud, annoying girl ("I was like, you know, like, WHATEVER!"). Last year we had those same seats, and also got a first date couple behind us, who talked through EVERY SECOND of the game, letting everyone around them hear their intimate conversation.

Next to my husband was a woman who must have been 95, decked out in full Padres gear, who would scream as loud as she could, "Go! Charge!", only a small fly could scream louder than she could. I couldn't even hear her cries of, "Go! Padres!" until my husband left his seat to go get food. With every pop-up she would hold out her hands to catch the ball, only I prayed it wouldn't come near as a baseball would break her tiny, fragile hands.

So next time you go to the ballpark, and you see a dork with a camera- be careful, they could be blogging you :-)

Enjoy my photos of Petco Park- beyond the outfield is the "park at the park", and you can also see the small beach area for the kiddies to play. It was HOT, record breaking hot on Tuesday, which I think kept the crowds down. The Padres also beat the A's again last night.



The Western Metal building in Left Field.


The view from our (awesome!) seats.


The Park at the Park (beyond the outfield) and the beach area, right hand side of the outfield fence.

A decent sized crowd for a Tuesday night.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Camp

Sweet camp... I remember (almost all of) my camp days fondly, the friends I made there, the laughs I shared. I went to computer camp when I was 10 (is it any wonder I'm a programmer for a living?), but my daughter has chosen drama camp for her experience this summer.

She has written her very first play! Here it is, folks:

Monday, June 26, 2006

USNS Sacagawea

Saturday night was the launch of the USNS Sacagawea, a new Naval T-AKE ship. I had the honor of attending the event:


Walking in with the crowds to the shipyard- there was quite a long line to get in!


We had good seats up on the platform where we could watch all of the guests of honor give their speeches.

Descendents of Sacagawea christen the ship.


Ribbons marked the launch of the ship from dry dock into San Diego Bay. The ship moved fast! In a matter of seconds, the ship became a speck in the distance.

For more on the story, read here.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Summer="I'm Bored"

My daughter has been on summer vacation since last Friday at 3pm.

Which means, she's barely been on vacation for a week.

"Mommmmy, I'm boooooo-oRED!" complete with pouty face and stomping feet. Oy.

Since school has ended, she has gone to Balboa Park, gone to see "Cars", to a birthday party, swimming playdates, trip to the playground, trip to the COUNTY FAIR, and by goodness, was she ever bored today. Or I should say, "Is bored today", because she is sitting on the floor of my office playing disney video games on the laptop while I work.

She wanted me to call all of her friends and see if ANYONE would please, please, please come play today. This after going to the fair all day yesterday! Two of her closest friends are leaving on vacation (how dare they!) and won't be availble for playdates for (gasp!) over a week.

Thank goodness camp begins Monday, or I might start pulling my hair out.

Monday, June 19, 2006

The Benadryl Hangover

I woke up yesterday with one heck of a migraine headache.

I get these occasionally, usually because I am on my computer most of my life. My eye doctor once told me his prescription for my migraines was that I should spend more time outdoors in the sunlight.

So I took a book outside and read outside.

I don't think that is what he meant.

Anyway, yesterday I tried the Mega-Tylenol and chug some caffeine route. A few hours later it became clear to me this was a SINUS headache, the migraine headache of doom! Doom!

I ventured into my medicine cabinet, which was so empty I could hear the sound of crickets. I did find some Benadryl (no other cold medicine) and I read the directions (yes I did!) and decided it should relieve some of the pressure on my head.

Which it did do.

But then I fell asleep. For FOUR hours.

And I woke up still tired, but made myself stay up until midnight. I set the alarm for 8 am, and woke up just fine.

I woke up, though, with a wee bit of a hangover, a Benadryl Hangover, complete with no more sinus pain but the unfortunate side effect of being still tired. My typing today is even off.

Which brings me to my next point. I am reading a book I am enjoying so thoroughly I will share it with you. You may be familiar with Augusten Burroughs from his book "Running With Scissors", which is coming out later this year as a film. His latest book is called "Possible Side Effects" and it is laugh out loud funny. I have read all of his books and this is my favorite 2nd only to "Running With Scissors", which I want to read again before the movie is released.

Wishing you all Benadryl dreams...

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Happy Father's Day!

To all the father's out there, hope you have a wonderful day with your families.

To my own pop, happy father's day and thank you for everything- we love you very, very much and can't wait to see you later this week!

To my husband, thank you for being such a great step-father to my pride and joy. We love you, love you, love you!

To celebrate, here is a picture of my little girl, drawn by a caricaturist at the birthday party we went to yesterday. I wasn't able to scan the entire picture, but most of it is here.


Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Rachel's List

My child and I went to Hallmark yesterday. She was enthralled and wanted to buy everything in the store (Hallmark has a new lifetime loyal customer, I'm telling ya). She even managed to get M&M's out of the deal, which apparently are now being cross-marketed by Pirates of the Caribbean (I heard pirate jokes all the way home in the car).

We came home and she immediately set up shop. She created her own "card business", and left little notes taped all over the house for us to find. Hence, she named her business, "The Sneaky Card Shop".

This is one of the notes I found for me ("Mom, notice anything different about your blue candle? Huh? Huh?"), a To-Do-List for Mom.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Corgi!Corgi!

Our puppy, Kiki, was spayed last week. The above photo is pre-spay.

She came home that night and was so tired, she would stand in one place for 15 minutes at a time without moving any part of her body. I got no sleep that night from staying up with her making sure she was allright.

The next day she woke up as if nothing was wrong. Seriously. I couldn't believe it. The vet called, and she couldn't believe it either- honestly, this dog was not acting like she had major surgery the day before, nor was she acting like she had stitches in her stomach! She jumps around, rolls around- and I've had a C-section, I can't imagine doing that the day after surgery.

The doctor emphasized that I was to keep her subdued as much as possible. We've been having to crate her again to keep her calmed down.

We came home friday night and she had her doggie head cone thing down around her waist. The dog has so trashed this poor dog collar that my husband had to put DUCT TAPE on it to hold it together.

And we have one more week of this until her stitches can come out. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the stitches will heal nicely so this torture device can come off her :-)

Friday, June 09, 2006

The end of an era

I have been a girl scout leader for 3 years. The very first day of Kindergarten way back when, I turned around and introduced myself to the woman who became my co-leader. I told her that very first day that I wanted to start a girl scout troop. And so it began!

Tonight is my last meeting with the group of girls and parents who have become like family to me. We have moved recently, and we are joining a troop out here that was in danger of extinction. As Girl Scouts say, "Make new friends, but keep the old".

I'm not sure if I'll realize tonight that I won't get to see these kids every 2 weeks- my daughter sure is sad about missing her friends- but I know one thing is for certain- I will never forget my time with them, and I am especially grateful to Co-Leader for being such a terrific friend.

Will I be sad tonight that there will be no more "Thank you, Miss Wendy", "I made this for you, Miss Wendy", "Guess what I did today, Miss Wendy", a sweet hug from a sweet little girl, or will I just be rejoicing that summer vacation means a few months of no Girl Scout planning, reservations, reminding, shopping, organizing, pleading, reminding again, and being on the receiving end of complaints?

I'm not sure yet. But, here's to you, Girl Scouts, everywhere.

* Photo courtesy of http://www.girlscouts.org

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Consumer Protection

My daughter's school recently completed a fundraiser. One of the items you could purchase was a Domino's pizza card.

This fundraiser card cost me $10 (apiece!) an offer of “Buy a large pizza at regular menu price and receive a medium one topping pizza free” up to 30 times before August 31, 2007. There is a copy of the card at the bottom of this post, along with the letter that sold the cards, nowhere on that letter did it state “Valid at participating Domino’s Pizza locations only” like it does on the actual card that got sent home with my child.

Long story short, I called our Domino's store and they said they would not accept the card. I went to the fundraiser's website (which I should have done the day the order form got sent home) and noticed not a SINGLE STORE in the entire san diego area is on the list of stores that accept the cards, except a store in Chula Vista which is a 30 minute freeway drive from my house.

Here is a list of stores that accept the cards:
http://www.easy-fundraising-ideas.com/DominosStores.aspx#California

I'm not sure who at our school PTA thought this fundraiser was a good idea, I only hope that the school got most of the $10 to keep for themselves (the fundraiser website says the school gets "Up to 90%").

Just be careful when you participate in these kinds of fundraisers! In this case I got screwed, and I only hope the school didn't.


Friday, June 02, 2006

Summer=Heat=Crowds

Wow, I guess Summer *does* own a calendar. My thermometer read 90 degrees today, and I see much of the desert areas are in the triple digits. My new best friends are my air conditioner and the pool.

We're busily wrapping up the last few weeks of school (then I'll be Momma of a THIRD grader) and making plans for the summer. We have 5 weeks of camp and 4 weeks of nuthin. A good balance, only achieved when I realized how frickin' expensive summer camps are.

The San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon is upon us once again. For those of who neither run it nor watch it, we plan our day around not being anywhere remotely in the vicinity.

However, if you ARE running in it or are going to brave the crowds and the heat to watch it, click here to get all of the details. It's quite an amazing thing, really- a 26.2 mile run with live bands lined up along the route. Really, it's genius. Besides, you get to see some of the best views of San Diego and that's a bonus for a visitor to our lovely hamlet. I have many friends who have run it and say it is their favorite marathon every year.

Still- I'm in the crowd of locals that just can't get used to living where people want to vacation. When I used to live on the coast, one year I had forgotten about the marathon. I tried to leave and every road out was blocked off! I eventually turned around and went home to sulk. My daughter even commented, "Mommy, why are all those people running?" After that I never tried to venture out of my coast town until about 2 or 3pm when the day's festivities were over.

I did find it interesting that San Diego has stated the traffic is likened to having the Super Bowl in town, if that helps put it in perspective.

My point, and I swear I have one, is that tomorrow is not only my kittie cat's 3rd birthday, it's my parent's 39th wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary to Mom and Pop! So glad we'll get to celebrate it together.

Have a great weekend, everyone!