Surprise Sunday

In DC,  most people (including me) bitch about how freakin' hot it is during the summer. August is usually the worst of all and after listening to it for the past 2 months you have the urge, to rip that person's head off and relieve yourself in their neck/throat region.

However this past Sunday, we got a reprieve from the excessive heat and humidity that plagues this city in the summer (good idea to build over a swamp!) and the skies were overcast, the temperature only peaking in the mid 80's and the humidity was nowhere to be found. The family took this opportunity to take in a ballgame which just happen to feature our favorite team (the AAA Buffalo Bisons) masquerading as the New York Mets.

The plan looked like this. Let the little man run around all morning and then throw him in the car at 11:15 and grab an early lunch up by our house. Then he'd get all milked up and fall asleep until we got to the game, parked, and maybe with a little luck, until we got to our seats. A good hour at least maybe two if luck prevailed.

Yeah...we didn't make it down our street before he was slumped over and out like a light. Making a bit of lemonade from our situation, we figured on driving straight to the ballpark by taking some local streets and lengthening out our drive a bit. More time on the road equals more time napping in our book. Unfortunately the little guy woke up a few minutes before we got near the park and then the skies opened up and unleashed one heck of a storm. It's now 1230p and the game is set to start in an hour. No word from either team's Twitter-verses on the status of an on-time start so we figured, what the heck. Let's drive back downtown and get some lunch.

Almost an hour later (thanks traffic), we pulled up at District Pi. For those in the DC area and those in the know, this is the brick and mortar (literally) location of the food truck by the same name. Deep dish pizza with a great cornmeal crust and all for the low low price of about $3/ slice. Yep crazy expensive and crazy small portions, but the beer was plentiful and not too expensive so that made up for it.

While we sat there, the rains continued and we finally got notice of the rain delay. Since we were just across the street from the National Portrait Gallery we thought it would be a good way to kill a little time. Plus, they had a cool exhibit on "The Art of Video Games". The little man loved the exhibit. Well actually, he loved staring up at the screens while the older kids played the games but he still loved it. I loved looking at the old Atrari, Colegovision, and Sega Genesis systems, and I think Mrs. Bloggerman just liked the fact that I wasn't complaining for about 20 minutes.

When we got out of the museum, it was 3:30pm. The game was now starting at 4pm, but since we knew damn well that the little guy wasn't going to make it more then an inning or two before breaking down we decided to cut our losses and head to a friend's house for some grilled fish.

Wait...Mrs. Bloggerman doesn't eat fish... does she?

Family Gatherings and Strange Departures

After a weekend with the wife’s family up in NJ for (unfortunately) for a funeral I’ve learned even more pearls of wisdom and that I’d be a much better person if I could forget them.

Two interesting nuggets to discuss today.

The story of three fish
During the eulogy yesterday the story of three fish was told. Essentially, two young fish go swimming by this old, wise fish. The wise fish says, “How’s the water today boys?” They ignore him and swim by. When the old fish was out of earshot one young fish turns to the other and says, “What’s water?” The point here is that we sometimes are oblivious of our bigger world when we are young and it takes someone with a little more “experience” to help us see the big picture.

Don’t take any fruit from that bowl
When you get together family and friends to mourn (and eat), you will inevitably hear somebody discuss what they want their “final plans” to be. And if you get at least three of these plans I guarantee at least one of them will be “alternative” in nature. Such was the case yesterday.

The plan in was told by a friend of my in-laws who wants to be cremated. He doesn’t want his ashes spread over a ball field or into the ocean but rather made into a glass bowl. This glass bowl would reside in his wife’s house until it was her time to depart. After she was cremated they would have the original bowl melted down and add the wife’s remains to form a new “joint” bowl. This process would pass down from generation to generation. However his wife had other ideas. She was completely against the idea on the basis that one day some family member who had the bowl would decide to just sell it in a garage sale. I understand that she doesn’t want to end up as a $.99 special but she’s feeling better now. I told her we’d keep her at no less then $5.