God Save the Queen

So my niece, Ashley, took me on an interesting little fieldtrip today. She stayed overnight at my house last night becasue she had to be at the WCIA/Channel 3 studio this morning here in Champaign at 5:15 a.m. to appear on the "Ag Update" on The Morning Show at 5:45 a.m. to promote the Ford County Fair in her capacity as the reigning Ford County Fair Queen. Staying at my house provided her with an extra 30 plus minutes of beauty sleep. I went along as I had never been to a tv studio before. Good thing I did as I was in charge of sash pinning, and gave the "thumbs up" on crown placement.

Ashley did a great job on air, they won't be able to keep people from attending the Ford County Fair. I was able to sit in studio and watch Ashley's segment, along with the preceding 5-10 minutes of live news coverage. So, tv news is really not all that glamorous, especially at the butt crack of dawn. While I was on the set the weather reporter spilled her ice tea all over the counter (evidently this is a regular occurence) and saw a couple of "off camera" anchor yawns and eye rolls. Evidently the Ford County Fair is not breaking new because they basically sat Ashely down in the chair, slapped a mic on her lapel, the anchor/reporter moved over to her chair during the commercial break introduced herself, Ashley asked her what questions she would be asking her, boom they were live, it was over, out the door a few minutes later.

WCIA is supposed to have the video clip posted on-line, but I don't see up there yet. When they do I will put up the link. In the meantime here is a pic of Ashley looking very "unqueenly" last night. I didn't get a picture this morning, so I can't post a before/after for you. This morning I was much too entertained watching and listening to Ashley curse the "queen routine"... the pantyhose, full make-up, hair curling, suit, heels, and crown thing are definitely NOT part of her typical everyday routine, neither was the 4 a.m. wake-up-call.

After her segment, we came back to my house for Ashley to change and then went to Le Peep for breakfast before I headed to work. We actually got to Le Peep at 6:20, 10 minutes before they opened. Ashley's quote of the day was "Wow, you know it is early when you the breakfast restaurant isn't even open yet!"

I Heart Brendan Ryan

So even though Izzy blew the save, one of my favs, rookie infielder Brendan Ryan hit his first ML home run tonight to win the game for the Cards in extra innings. We saw B-Ry hit his first ML home run in Oakland just 10 days ago. He is just such a nice guy, and he was SOOOOO excited tonight, he said he just about passed out running around the bases. In the post game interview he said that yesterday he did make a rookie mistake, his cabbie took him to Yankee Stadium instead of Shea Stadium... ooops! Brendan Ryan you are just too cute... I heart you! I find it a bit ironic that I am wearing my EcksOs (David Eckstein's cereal) t-shirt in this photo with B-Ry, and the reason he is currently up with the big league club is because Eck is on the DL.

Also, kudos to my boy Flo... after struggling in some recent outings, he picked up the save today. Way to go Flo Flo.

Jon & Kate plus 8

So TLC has done it again, and completely sucked me into yet another show that I don't really need to watch... Jon & Kate plus 8. Other TLC shows that I am strangely drawn to include Miami Ink, What Not to Wear, and Little People, Big World. So Jon & Kate plus 8 is about a married couple that has 6-year old twins (2 girls, Cara & Mady) and 2-year old sextuplets (3 girls, Alexis, Hannah and Leah, and 3 boys, Aaden, Colline and Joel). I managed to get sucked into multiple episodes on Sunday night, hence why I actually know all of the kids names. FYI, fertility treatments were involved with both births.

Anywho, for whatever reason I kind of like this show. As you can imagine a house with 2 6-year olds and 6 2-year olds is kind of crazy, but not as completely insane as you would think. This couple has been blessed with an incredible sense of humor (I am guessing that if you didn't have one before 8 kids, you would probably be forced to find one fast), and I am completely amazed by Kate's organizational skills. In one episode Jon & Kate decided to write a will, (why they waited until they had 8 kids, two of which they have had for 6 years I don't know) so their attorney was asking them when they wanted the kids to get any of the life insurance money that remained after they were taken care of, age 18, after college, age 30 etc. To which Kate says to Jon, "Oh honey, the kids are better off if we are dead", and Jon responds very deadpan, "They are sleeping aren't they, I don't want them to find this out and kill us... they will be the death of us, but..."

I am not sure when this show is on, but check it out. Well that is it... boring day today, sorry.

Oh, today kudos go to my Mom, who was in town today and came to the bank and took me to lunch... thanks Mom!

Blessed Union of Food

So far this has been a pretty good weekend. Friday evening I went to the Taste of Champaign with my pal Sarah J and her buddy from school, Matt. It was a lovely evening, nice and pleasant before the rain came, and Sarah and Matt were excellent tasting companions... good sharers the both of them. I enjoyed tastes of gyros, ribs, General Tso's chicken, lemon shake up, apple donut and chocolate dipped turtle cheesecake. Yummy! I was approached by a young man, named "Crooked" and asked to purchase the CD he is releasing which he said included "clean rap, with some of the proceeds benefiting the children in various African nations who are forced to fight as soldiers. I politely declined, a worthy cause but I am not into rap clean or unclean, but I very much enjoyed being approached, and the the young man's name was "Crooked" for some reason it just made me smile... he appeared to be anything but.

Today I went to Anne and Matt's wedding. Anne and Matt go to my church, and are in my small group. It was a beautiful service, the first wedding I have seen my pastor officiate... he does nice work by the way, and well Anne and Matt are just a great couple... they work well together. It was great to see some former small groupies that have moved away, just a good day all around.

One rather odd/random wedding siting. I was keeping my friend Allison company while her fiance stopped to use the men's room on our way out. As Abe entered the men's room, two other guys came out carrying a Weber grill. Why did they have a grill in the men's room of church? I am trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for this, and am at a loss. Any ideas?

Ah, to be 6 again!

I went to work today. It was okay. I like my job and the people I work with, but I miss the days of summer vacation when you basically had no plans beyond the next 60 minutes for 3 months. Hence the title of this post "Ah, to be 6 again!"

The title was also inspired by my six-year old friend, Sidney. She lives is Nebraska with her Mom and Dad, Jenn and John, and her younger sister, Abigail. You may remember her sister Abigail from the "Milestones" post about 10 days ago... big girl panties and such. My day wasn't all that exciting so I thought I would give a shout out to Sidney. Her mom told me that she asked her the other day "Mom, do you think Aunt Jane will ever blog about me?" Evidently she heard her mom telling someone about Abby's milestone and that I had managed to blog about it, and well I am guessing it is hard to be upstaged by your almost 3-year old sister. I wouldn't know, I am the youngest, so I don't have younger siblings to upstage me. Wait, I take that back, I do have a "Little Sis", my buddy Nathan, but that relationship probably isn't quite the same; however, he would definitely be upstaging me if he revealed that he too wears "big girl panties all the time"... but I digress.

Anyway, Sid cracks me up, she definitely has a flair for the dramatic. The funniest story I have about Sid is from a couple of years ago when she was about to turn four. Her family was talking to her about her upcoming 4th birthday and she said "I am realy excited to be four, three is just SO BORING!" I wonder how six is going for Sid... I hope it is much better than three!

I probably won't get a chance to hang with Sidney until October. We are planning to meet in Iowa City for the Illinois vs. Iowa football game. Sid cheers for the Illini, I like that quality in my six-year olds. We make up cheers together and Sid giggles a lot, I like that quaility in my six-year olds too.

So I will close this post with a final shout out to Sidney... "Rock On Sister Friend!"

Home At Last

Okay so the best decision I made was to take today off of work. Our flight was about an hour late leaving San Fran, so it was about 10 p.m. before we made it home from Indy. So today I am just chilling, doing some laundry, getting groceries etc. When I do go back to work, just two days before the weekend. I am a bit tuckered... we did a lot in San Fran, and it was a lot of fun.

So our last day in San Fran, we skipped renting a car and heading to Napa. There were a few things we wanted to do in the city, and Napa/Sonoma probably deserves more time than just a day. First we headed to AT&T Park to take a tour. We just missed the 10:30 tour, and thought we would be stuck waiting until the next tour at 12:30, but they had added an 11:30 tour since they won't be doing tours next week with the All-Star game in town. It was meant to be, we had time to go across the street and get breakfast at Happy Donuts, and the 11:30 tour only had about 10 people on it, and Linda our tour guide was awesome. She was originally from Brooklyn, and this lady knows her baseball. It was the best stadium tour I have ever been on, and the first tour ever lead by a woman... hmmm? FYI, in the picture above we are standing on the on deck circle for the visiting teams, right where Jimmy, Albert and the boys stood a couple of months ago.

After the tour we did a little shopping, actually taking time to go in and check out the many stores we had walked past many times during the week. I scored a $9 shirt at Banana Republic. We also went and checked out China town. It was just 2 blocks from our hotel, but this was the first time we had an opportunity to see it. We went and had a great dinner at The Daily Grill, the steaks were fabulous, and Nikki is still talking about the perfection that was her baked potato, evidently the best part was the endless supply of chive "sprinklets".

So that pretty much wraps up our trip. I will try to keep blogging, but it seems unlikely I will have quite as much to blog about now that I am back home.

Ready Set Gay!

That was the title of the insert that was in our Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. We thought we could dedicate this post to some of various things you encounter in San Francisco that you don't see so much in C-U.

First of all, these people walk kind of slow. I am all for the relaxed and slower pace, fine, whatever, but I am only in this city for short while, there are things I want to see... I don't want to spend 10 minutes walking to Powell Street station if I can do it in 5... get out my way! These folks would not make it in Chicago, on Michigan Avenue especially. Nik and I commented that our very fast walking friend, Lindsey, who lives in Chicago would turn these poor people into dust.

There are homeless people everywhere asking for spare change. Well that is probably in every city, but San Fran has nice weather all the time so they are always out and about. I enjoy the various different approaches they take to get your attention. One guy near Powell Station noticed we were wearing Cards baseball gear so he just started yelling at us "Safe! He's Safe!"

We also have seen several of the R2D2 mailboxes around town, along with Starbucks literally on every corner. Heading back to our hotel one couple behind us was overhead saying "Do you want to go to this Starbucks or that Starbucks?"

Also on the wharf we saw a 55 year old lady on a little razor scooter, usually only 12 year olds ride those in C-U.

The local street muscicians really step it up a notch. Not just your average sax or guitar players. The best so far has been a 4-man band that included an alpine horn (think Riccola!).

This is our last day in the city so, we toured AT&T (phone company of the week) Park this morning, and are now headed out for some shopping, and a bit more sight seeing. Most likely the next post will be from back in Illinois.

Escape TO Alcatraz

After the game on Sunday we took a boat to Alcatraz on Sunday evening. It was a busy day but the evening trip to Alcatraz was totally worth it. We sat on the top deck heading out, and had an amazing view of the city as we left it behind. The evening tour includes several talks by the tour guides on the boat and on they way up to the cell house. We took an audio tour of the cell house that included being "in the hole", in the solitary confiement cell in total darkness with the black out door closed... it was so creepy. We were only in there for a minute tops, but I was so ready to get out. We listened to another tour about various escapes that was interesting too. By that time it was dark and the island was way cold. I had on my gloves and my hood up. The ride back to the city was beautiful, you could see the city completely lit up at night. We only ventured out on the deck briefly, as it was very cold. We tried to take a picture of the city lit up at night, but neither of us could get a good shot with our cameras.

After we got off the boat is was nearly 10 p.m. and we hadn't eaten any dinner yet. We went to Hard Rock Cafe because it was close and it was open and we were starving. The service was horrible, but the food was decent (albeit overpriced, but we kind of knew that going in). Anyway, after eating it was late enough that we were able to ride the cable car back to the hotel, with just one other family (ironically Cards fans from the Chicago area) so we each had our personal pole to hang from.

The first cable car was only going half way down the line, and the very grouchy operator was quick to tell us that. When we inquired if there would be another car going the entire way (at this point it was late on a Sunday night, we didn't know how much longer they would be running) he snapped at us "You see all those cars over there, they have to go somewhere!". He was such an azz, but that has been our only encounter with nasty service. Everyone else has been quite friendly and helpful to us poor tourists.

Do Blondes Really Have More Fun?

Perhaps Cards lefty relief pitcher, Tyler Johnson, can tell us as he is now sporting some platinum blondes locks. I believe his natural color is brown. Tyler is a little hottie, and the fav our our pal April so we were on the lookout for him all weekend but never could find him, but were like "Who is the blonde, did we bring somebody new up from Memphis?". Well now that Tyler had dyed his hair it all makes sense.

I am not sure I am a fan of of the platinum, but Tyler is the Cards resident "Wild Child" and rocks multiple tattoos and piercings so I guess if anyone can pull it off he can. Not sure if this was of his own choosing or if he lost a bet or something.

Oh, a big shout out to our pal April, reading this blog from Central Missouri. We thought of you Sunday night at Hard Rock Cafe... we had just seen TyJo earlier that day and one of the videos they played was Aerosmith's "Dream On". Anyway see you on the 7th.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

So Sunday was our last baseball game here in the Bay Area. It was A's necktie day at the park, in honor of Fathers Day, so we are now the proud owner of A's neckties. They are actually quite attractive, I may wear mine as a belt. Speaking of Fathers Day... Nik and I want to give a shout out to George and Jerry.... Happy Fathers Day. Granted it is unlikely that my Dad is reading this, as it requires a computer, but Jerry probably is.

The game wasn't quite as eventful as the night before, as the fans we sat next to were pretty quiet, with the exception of an STL fan (although he wasn't wearing any Cards gear) that sat next to Nikki. I am not sure why but this guy has some serious issues with the Cards' right fielder, Juan Encarnacion. He just dogged him the entire game. I realize that Juan will not ever be a super star like Albert, Rolen, Jimmy or Carp, and he isn't one of those scrappy, little guys like Eck or Miles, but the guy is decent, he gets the job done, give him a break. Seriously, Juan must have killed this guys puppy or something.

The Cards won the game 10-6, and this was the first time the A's have given up double digit runs in back to back games since September 2004. The A's fans don't appear to be the most loyal of baseball fans... many of them left in the sixth inning when it was still a close game.

We have managed to see a lot of firsts during our three games. Spiezio's first time pitching, Chris Duncan's first ML grand slam, and Brendan Ryan's first ML hit. FYI Brendan Ryan is one of my favs because he was at the Cards Caravan in Decatur in January when I got to go up and sit on the panel because I was wearing a Flores #34 shirt. Then when we went through his autograph line two days later at Winter Warm Up he was like "Hey, I remember you from Decatur!". We also saw him at Spring Training a couple of years ago, and he just seems to be a nice guy. So it is good to see nice guys not finishing last.

I got to see Flo close up today, as the pitchers were throwing out in right field. Of course the one day I don't wear my Flores #34 shirt I am close enough for Flo to have seen it. I did give him a shout out as he was leaving the field and I got a nice little wave back. He had no clue I was his "date" from Decatur, because for one I wasn't wearing his shirt, and two I had on a ball cap so I looked incognito. Also another fun little show while the pitchers were tossing was Adam Wainwright, Kip Wells and Todd Wellemeyer playing a mean little game of hacky sack... they were pretty good.

So all in all our trips the Colesium were good, we went 2-1. The ballpark itself is nothing special, but I enjoy watching the Cards just about anywhere.

Do You Get Hiccups In The Midwest?

So Saturday's game was rather eventful. The Cards came through with a big victory 15-6, and some of the A's fans didn't take it too well. They didn't really yell at the Cards or the Card fans much, but they were less than kind to their own players. On a personal note we had both a very pleasant and a very unpleasant A's fan encounter.

The good news first... we were sitting in bleachers behind a group of 4 or 5 guys in their 20's all grads of Cal Poly. We had lots of fun with two in particular. They good naturedly gave us crap, and we finally gave it back... they said they liked us better when we were quiet. One of them took a little cat nap in the inning when the Cards scored 5 runs, while his buddy was out getting refreshments. He woke up and was like "What happened?"... poor guy, we scored another 5 before the inning was over... he said he should have kept on sleeping. They were heckling random Brewers fans at the game, with a very clever "Hey, Brewers fans, in California our cows are happy!" They were lots of fun. One of them got a horrible case of the hiccups, that was amusing. After an inning or so of hiccups and us giggling at him he turned around and was like "Do you get hiccups in the midwest?" Coindientally Nik got the hiccups back at the hotel after the game.

Okay for the not so pleasant A's fans. Several innings into the game two women came and sat next to us, moving from left field because everyone out there was loud and obnoxious. She made a point to say that she liked the Cardinals and that they were the team she followed in the National League, but then proceeded to knock our manager, every player and the midwest in general for the next several innings. Talk about passive aggressive. She said that she was from Oakland, and didn't care much for SF... obviously because she tried to tell us we would have to transfer on the BART on the way back to SF after the game... no sweetheart, not so much, not if you get on the right train. She also tried to tell us that the A's have been in the post season much more than the Cardinals... we quickly let her know that the Cards have 10 WS championships (2nd only to the Yankees not the A's) and that we had been in the playoffs every year for the past five years. Of course she wasn't one of those fair weather fans that left early... no she stayed for almost the entire game... and would not shut up.

After the game while waiting for the BART some guy in a Dodger jersey tried to tell us he was a scout for LA and that he would get us on the field for tomorrows game. He kept trying to get our names, but fortunately another young lady Card fan waiting for the BART (they had tried to feed her the same line) came over and just started chatting with us about her love of Yadier Molina and her distress at him being on the DL, and completely rescued us from them. She said that they were all over her too, and that us Cardinal girls needed to stick together. Ironically she is from Moline, Illinois and went to college in Quincy and has relocated to the Bay area. So, todays "Kudos" go to her.

Over the past two games we have noticed that the A's public address announcer sounds like a 70's game show host, and sometimes the accompanying music goes along with his voice. He is not the best anuciater either, and the way he says Albert Poooohose is so annoying. Ok, I could see mispronouncing some rookie name, just up from AAA, but Albert is an All-Star, MVP who has been in the league for more than 5 years.

Today's game featured a Flores Family showdown as Randy pitched against his brother, Ron, who plays for the A's. Randy didn't fair so well against his brother... he obviously knew I was there and just lost focus.

Oh, other random note, we saw So Taguchi on the street near our hotel earlier today. He went 4 for 6 at the game tonight... evidently we are good luck.

Well I think I am caught up on the blog... totally broke down and paid for wireless from the hotel for a day. Not that I didn't want a cupcake, but it is just hard to get there when they are open.

In The Land of Nuts & Berries

Did a little sight seeing today (Saturday), and boy did we see some very interesting things. A couple of our favorites are as follows: When walking towards the wharf I saw a man pushing a stroller and hesitated to let him go in front of me... a dad out with his little one, I will be curteous and let him pass through, right? Well good thing I did, if I hadn't let him go in front of me I would not have noticed that he had a small dog in the stroller, not a child. We also saw two old ladies, at least 75, possibly twins, wearing matching red cowboy hats with rhinestone hat bands, red skirts, cowboy boots and knee length leapoard print fur coats.

Walking a long the wharf we saw a young woman not wearing pants... thankfully her flannel shirt was a bit long, but not "this passes for a dress long". Oh, and the featured statue at the entrance to the wax museum was Paris Hilton in her orange jail jumpsuit. Also when walking along the wharf there was a random homeless man, hiding behind a bush facade that he had constructed that jumped out and scared the crap out of people, including me. Another homeless man hit us up for change on the way back to our hotel this evening, but at least he was original... he said "Spare some change? I will be honest, I am trying to get a beer."

Just saw another "crazy" thing on ESPN watching the Cubs vs. Padres brawl, especially Carlos Zambrana ready to "give someone the belt"... what is that about? There were a few other interesting folks we saw at the game, but I will save that for a separate game post.

We also took in some of the more mainstream SF sights as well. We took the cable car down to the wharf, and then a bus over to Golden Gate Bridge. We walked about half way over the bridge and then walked back. Took the bus back the wharf (it was crazy crowded and touristy) and sat and watched the sea lions for a bit before we took the bus back to our hotel. Cable car and multiple buses... so getting our money's worth out of our Muni pass today.

Great Scott!

Friday was our first of three Cards games. We walked a few blocks to the Powell Street station to take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to The Coliseum. It was an easy trip, about 20-25 minutes. Oakland really isn’t much to write home about, and neither is their ballpark. It is old, not all that attractive, has narrow concourses, generic scoreboards, and what appears to be dugouts that you would have difficulty seeing the batter from. That being said there is plenty we did enjoy. The Asian usher lady that handed out to us (and apparently all Cards fans) a little fabric fortune cookie made from baseball fabric that had the Cards logo and the A’s logo on the “fortune”. Also a random A’s fan was “Hey, Cards fans, welcome to Oakland!”



Before the game we were taking in BP and David Eckstein came over to sign autographs for what seemed like an eternity. He was mobbed at first so I didn’t go over there, but then the crowd thinned out so I went over and he signed my ticket. I had been trying to get his autograph forever, and kept getting denied. Finally! He really is a super nice guy. He didn’t play (guessing some sort of oblique/back issue… as he was pointing to that general area when he was talking to Pete P. one of the trainers or the “D.S. Designated Stretcher” as we like to call him.



If you saw the scoreboard (Cards lost 14 to 3) you know we didn’t have much to cheer about during the game. The 3rd and 7th innings when we gave of 6 runs each were particularly difficult to watch. However, the bottom of the 8th was HISTORIC!!! We were out of the game, our pen had been used up in Thursday’s blowout at KC, so Scott Spiezio (utility infielder/outfielder) was brought in to pitch. Please see my “Game Highlights” post from about a week ago for more details on my love of Scott Spiezio. Spiez was great! He pitched a scoreless inning (more than some of our actual pitchers can say) and nearly had a strike out. The Cards fans at the game (and there were a good number, considering the distance) went nuts when he got that third out. They were yelling and screaming, and completely oblivious to the fact that we has just gotten our butts kicked. Spiez was a riot to watch. He was out there just having a blast, grinning from ear to ear. We watched him warm-up in the pen and were like “What the …” We thought maybe he was just tossing to warm up to get ready to come in an play defense. When he came into pitch and was tossing a last few warm up pitches, it appeared that Rolen was watching him intently and possibly giving him some tips. Anyway, it was great to see, and if you are going to get your butt kicked, at least give the fans a treat and have your utility man pitch.





The BART ride home was definitely one to remember. It is too difficult to describe in words but basically our train was filled with a variety of drunk Cards fans that were just very chatty and crazy. The poor people of Oakland, especially those that had not been at the game, couldn’t get off the train soon enough. It was very entertaining. Hopefully we can get a win tonight (Saturday).

Only In A Jeep

So Day 3 in the Bay was pretty enjoyable. We got up early and went to breakfast at Lefty O’Douls, a local landmark. It is a baseball themed piano bar, that conveniently serves a quick hot breakfast. I got the Lefty’s Home Run special thinking it would inspire my boy Jimmy at the game that night… not so much I guess, but more on the game later.


We took a Jeep tour with Hank Davis of Golden Gate Jeep Tours. It was a little pricey but worth every single penny, we pretty much saw the entire Bay area in 6 hours. We never would have been able to see that much of the area in that short of time on our own. Nikki took the back seat, and she gets today’s Kudos… evidently it is just way windy in the back seat, especially when crossing the GG bridge and our short jaunt on the freeway, and Nik was pretty much beaten to death by her ponytail.



Here is a just a brief list of the places we saw on the tour: Chinatown, North Beach (Italian neighborhood), Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower, Russian Hill, the cable car house, Palace of Fine Arts, the Presidio, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Sausilito, Belvidere, Tiburon, Lincoln Park Golf Course (nearly got nailed by an errant golf ball), Baker Beach, Sea Cliff, Pacific Heights, Haight-Ashbury (which now at the corner is a Ben & Jerry’s that is about as counter-culture as it gets these days)



Some Hollywood tidbits from our tour: we saw the street corner where she crashes the car in “Princess Diaries”, some of the movie was filmed on Baker Beach. We had a view of Treasure Island, where the airport scene in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark was filmed. We drove by George Lucas’ house in Tiberon, Robin Williams’ house in Sea Cliff, and author Danielle Steele’s house in Pacific Heights… also we saw the author of Helter Skelter, who’s name escapes me at the moment, walking down the street.


We had lunch on the water at an Italian restaurant in Tiburon. There were two ladies each dining by themselves but were both wearing some really big and fancy hats that they had both gotten at the hat shop across the street. Sadly they did not comment on my hat… I was sporting the baseball hat (go figure)


Our driver, Hank, was great. He was a big A’s fan, so we talked a lot about baseball. He told us that the Cardinals stay a the Westin St. Francis around the corner from our hotel, and that their bus will load on Post Street. Gotta love Hank.





Hank brought us back to our hotel about 3, then we changed for the game, but walked down to CC to post yesterday’s blog. On the way there was a small group of demonstrators telling us “We believe in Aliens, they exist and have contributed greatly to our society”. We were rockin’ the Cards gear, so the alien supporters shouted out to us specifically… we felt special. There are lots of crazy and whacky people here. Some are homeless, some just was to hand you a flier about Aliens and such.

Do You Want To Ride In My Mercedes, Boy?

(Sorry for the delay, but these are the highlights since the last entry, Day 2/Thursday from our trip. We didn't get to CC in time to post Thursday night... so we are basically posting a day behind)



After blogging last night at Citizen Cupcake (herein after referred to as CC) we went to grab dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. By this point we were WAY tired, and the meal was pretty much lost on us. Finally back to the room by 9:30 p.m. and we crashed big time. We were going on about 2 hours sleep over the past 40 hours, and we were both getting a little crabby.
After a fabulous nights rest, we were ready for Day 2. We grabbled a quick breakfast at our hotel and headed a few blocks down the street to Hertz to rent a car to go to San Jose to the Winchester Mystery House. We were supposed to get a Ford Focus (or equivalent), but they were busy, the cheap crappy cars were all buried in the back of the queue and since we were bringing it back tonight we totally scored and they gave us a sweet little Mercedes C230, in a bright candy apple red. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a sweet ride. It took us about half the trip to San Jose to figure out how to work the darn thing, but we are really getting used to it now. On our way out of town I was poking along because we weren’t certain of our directions, and we experienced some road rage from a fellow driver… probably never would have happened if we were in the Ford Focus… don’t judge people, don’t judge.

We toured the Winchester Mystery House today, and it was a great time. It was the home of Sarah Winchester, of the Winchester rifle fortune, and well lets just say Miss Sarah was freakin’ crazy. She moved to San Jose from the east coast after her husband and infant daughter died, and a psychic told her to build a house and never finish… boy did she ever. She thought continually building the house would appease the spirits of the many people killed by Winchester rifles. The mansion tour took over an hour, and we walked over a mile, if you can believe it, and we saw 110 of the 165 rooms in the home. Sarah was wack, there are stairs to nowhere, useless windows everywhere including one in the floor, it was crazy. The tour was very interesting, but one lady in our group was just a little too much. She was just a little too into it, and well she was pretty much annoying us all afternoon…damn tourists! Another mystery from the mystery house was a woman on the tour with a young man about 25, and an older man about 65-70, at first I thought she was married to the old guy, then I thought she was “with” the young guy, and we still don’t have it completely figured out yet. The latest version is that the young guy is her stepson, and the old guy her father-in-law but it really is a mystery. We knew SF/Cali would be expensive, but oh my they take that to heart at the Winchester House snack bar… it made ballpark food look like a bargain.



After hanging with ghosts at the Winchester’s we headed over to the coast for a scenic drive and some lunch/dinner. We stopped in Half Moon Bay for a great meal at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company, and ate near the water. Nikki was carded, so our Cameraon Diaz look-a-like waitress needless to say received a very generous tip. I tried the seasonal brew, Cherry Bomb Brown Ale, and it was thumbs up. Nik tried it too, and didn’t even maker her “beer face”, so it must have been really good.

We then drove down the coast a bit, and are currently sitting on the beach just chillin’. Typically we type the blog in a word file, and cut and paste at CC, so I am really BEACH BLOGGGING, it rocks (Nathan, it is even better than Sofa Surfing… you must do this in Australia). By the way, Illinois really need to get an ocean. Not that I am a swimmer or a surfer but is just delightful.
All for now. Going to actually enjoy the beach for a bit. FYI, sunsets are lovely, but create quite a glare on the laptop screen.
Back at the hotel, and had to say goodbye to the Mercedes L Continued to take the Pacific Coast Highway back to SF, and then drove up then down the very famous Lombard Street. I nearly panicked and almost made Nik drive, but I pushed through. I think going up was worse, it is like you are driving up to the sky… needless to say I was gunnin’ it in the Mercedes. Going down was super winding and crooked, but you go slow enough it wasn’t that scary. There were random tourists everywhere along the route… I nearly had to take out some dumb lady just standing in the middle of the road taking a picture and gawking… once again… damn tourists!
That’s all for today, looking forward to our Jeep tour tomorrow with Hank of Golden Gate Jeep Tours.



Fyi, today's CC selections included Coconut Creme for Jano and Chocolate Mint for Nik. Having a great Day 3, will post about it tomorrow. Off to the game, Go Cards!

We Might Be Giants

So this has been a crazy albeit enjoyable first day of our vacation. #1 We left Champaign-Urbana to head to Indy just before 2:30 a.m. We have had 1-3 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours. I apologize now for typos, there will be many. Also Nikki and I will be taking turns writing so the grammar/we/me/her/1st person/3rd person will be jacked… get over it we are tired. #2 when stowing my suitcase on the shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal I left my suitcase on its wheels… it nearly flew out the door when we took a turn. Luckily a fellow passenger caught it. #3 Things you can buy at the Indy airport a) star bucks b) an ipod from a vending machine, and c) a quite tasty breakfast for a reasonable price a the Budweiser Brewhouse in terminal A #4 We totally bonded with our waitress, Emily, at said Budweiser Brewhouse, over her new purse she was showing to her co-workers, we were much more interested than they were #5 shortly after breakfast in the ladies restroom we overheard a mom saying “Timmy, don’t drop your ipod in the toilet.”… so very tempted to say from the next stall… “But if you do Timmy you can just go buy a new one from the vending machine down the hall.” #6 do the ipods come preloaded with music already downloaded, why would you buy one at the airport, especially one with no music, that makes for a boring flight? #7 it is kind of toasty here in San Fran, probably hit 80 today, the normal high is about 65 tops, the folks in SF aren’t prepared for this and are overwhelmed by the heat, we find it quite pleasant, no humidity and nice breeze off the bay #8 got to our hotel about 10:30 a.m. local time, 12:30 p.m. for you at home, made a quick change, bought our muni passports and headed to Phone Company of the Week Park (currently AT&T Park) for the Giants vs. BlueJays game. #9 A special thank you to Mr. Nathan J. Holman for graciously providing us with the tix, he is the bomb diggity. #10 Our thoughts on the park, very nice, the upper deck concourse very similar to Busch Stadium, the field level concourse similar to PNC or Miller Park, McCovey Cove is very cool and kind of sad we didn’t see a splash hit today (were actually cheering for Bonds to go yard and hit one in the cove--we had made our way down to landing in right field and were just waiting for him to hit one over our head--he struck out instead--typical). #11 Nikki bonded with some Giants fans over their mutual hatred of Royce Clayton (he would have to play for Toronto wouldn’t he--backstory for those not in the know is that basically Royce Clayton is the reason Ozzie Smith retired and since Nikki worships the Wizard, then Royce is obviously fulfilling the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in this telling of the story). #12 ATT had a Jr. Announcer today (they really need to do this at Busch)… she totally rocked Tim Lincecum, but Schierholtz was a little more challenging for the young gal. #13 the view of the bay from our seats was awesome, but it is little steep up in view reserve section, glad we chose to eat out in the concourse, also from there behind the CF wall a little boring/junky looking you can see batting practice equipment, they need to landscape or something #14 We did see something very unique at the game, 3 Giants got their very 1st major league hits today, pitchers Lincecum and Sanchez, and the catcher Rodriguez #15 Had to try the Gilroy’s garlic fries at the park today, very good but still burping garlic many hours later, very glad I didn’t finish them all. #16 before the game the vendors that sell in the stands were in the concourse doing calisthenics to warm-up, not unlike Orange Krush at Illini basketball games, kind of cool #17 As for former Cardinals that are now Giants, Matt Morris (MattyMo) kept very well hidden from Nik, even though she rocked her Matty Mo #35 Cards t-shirt, he probably just couldn‘t bear the thought of seeing her and not being able to go home with her, Steve Kline pitched in the 9th inning, below is a picture from the score board (random Kliner story, he almost peed on our friend John Todd in the bathroom in a bar in “The Lou“ one night… not on purpose, he had waited until the last minute to hit the bathroom “ready to go“ so to speak and nearly nailed John, luckily John was quick on his feet) #18 Since the game there have been several noteworthy events…1-we totally spotted a random San Fran native wearing a Brandon Lloyd 49ers jersey (Go Illini! We know he doesn’t play for San Fran anymore but apparently he made an impact.) 2-Nikki nearly passed out on the overly crowded overly stuffy subway ride back to the hotel from the stadium. Luckily Jano came thru with an Albert Pujols “Jesus Christ is my MVP” testimony card that quickly became a fan so that Jane would not have to ask the gentleman in the aisle to catch her friend as she fell on the floor. The young boy in front of Nikki was too busy sayin, g “Ooh…Albert Pujols!” 3- Nikki almost stepped on a pigeon, and 4- Currently there is a band rocking Happy Hour not far from our hotel room window across the street in Union Square… to which Nikki quoted our favorite line from “Pretty Woman”… “Look, there’s a band!”

That is pretty much Day 1, hope to get some sleep and have more adventures tomorrow.

Currently blogging from the infamous Citizen Cupcake, our table dancer's name is Rodrigo... just kidding it is a bakery/cafe. The cupcakes are "wrapper lickin' good", will be trying a new one every day. Currently devouring German Chocolate for Jano and Vanilla for Nik (vanilla, go figure :))

Milestones

So some of my favorite ladies have had shared with me some major milestones in their lives recently. They are all very different, and are definitely spread out on the spectrum of life, but they are each significant in their own respect

• Talked to my Mom today, and she said she was going to inquire about hearing aids. Amen Sister! I like to think of this as something positive, first of all her hearing test revealed that her hearing loss is of a type that can be helped with hearing aids, second hopefully I won't have to use my "angry voice" to talk to my Mom any more... even when you are not angry, if you use the "angry voice" long enough you start to get angry, and really is that anyway to talk to you mother?

• My buddy Sarah J reached a milestone of another sort. Her offer to buy a house was accepted, so when she returns to Vicksburg, MS at the end of the summer (she returned to UIUC for the year to start here PhD studies in Civil Engineering) she and her dog Daisy Mae will have a cute little house to live in. I have seen a picture of Sarah J's house on the internet... it is very cute and absolutely perfect for her. I can't wait to visit her in Vicksburg now.

• The final milestone... I saved the best for last... my Goddaughter, Abigail now wears "Big Girl Panties" all the time now. Abby will be 3 in less than a month, and let's just say that this a very big deal for her, and the rest of the Thomas household. Rock on girlfriend!

So congratulations ladies, you all have a lot to celebrate.

Kudos: Today's kudos go to the poor poor man who gave me a pedicure at UI Nails this evening. This was the first pedi post-cast, and I know it could not have been pretty, but God bless this man not only did he do it, he did it well, and with a smile on his face. Needless to say he was tipped handsomely for his efforts. A secondary kudos to OPI and the great names they give their nail polish colors... in a case you were wondering... tonight's color was "Hoodoo Voodoo".

Game Highlights

So today was the first time all weekend I was able to watch the Cardinals game. The Cardinals, Fox Sports Midwest and Insight Cable has some sort of drama going on these days, so there are about 30 or FSN games that are not on Insight Cable... for some reason they decided to have two back to back, Friday night and Saturday night. Needless to say I was kind of pizzy because I hadn't been able to really sit down and watch all week, and was all set and ready to go both Friday and Saturday night, only to be DENIED. Arrghhh. I don't now what the deal is with the Insigt black out, but Cardinals, Insight... save the drama for yo' mama!!!!

Today the game was on KSDK so I was good to go. Here are some highlights from todays game: #1 Spiez! (aka Scott Spiezio, see photo) hit a 3-run HR! Granted Albert hit two home runs, but he is Albert, he is supposed to do that. Spiez is a bench guy, the 3-run dingers don't happen every day. Also, Spiez is a former Illini, and well those who used to were the orange and blue have a special place in my heart. Then there is also the fact that he is just way cool, and is the only one who can pull off the red soul patch (see picture and note that Nik and I can't really pull it off, not that we didn't try!) Add to this the fact that Spiez is involved in one of my favorite Spring Training stories. Before the game at Port St. Lucie against the Mets Spiez was headed to the dugout and noticed a little boy (probably in the age 6-8 range) sporting a #11 Dee Brown Illini jersey. Spiez called out to the little boy, "Hey, Dee Brown, the Illini, that was my school." Then the little boy excitedly turned around, found his dad a couple of rows back and yelled "Dad! Dad! That guy knows Dee Brown!!!!" Priceless!

Game highlight #2 was the text I recived from Nikki in the 9th inning that read: "I love watching the game with Grandma. Her reaction after Izzy gave up the HR in the bottom of the 9th- 'Well Shit!' " Again, priceless!

#3 Today was "Pooches in the Park" day at Busch Stadium. It also rained during the game... ahh nothing like smell of baseball... hot dogs, peanuts, beer... and wet dog! No thanks.

So I am posting this from my local Panera, and it brings us to today's Kudos: Panera Bread for their Black Bean Soup and Fugi Apple Chicken Salad... perfection!

Kudos All Around

So this post is just going to be a quick Kudos to Nikki for stumbling across a great little blog that I have added to my favorite links. The blog "Ladies..." (we check'em out so you don't have to) is a bunch of sports minded gals discussing a variety of sports, along with the various levels of hotness of the men playing said sports. It is pretty feakin' hysterical and isn't too much different than most of my conversations at most sporting events. Here is a post from "Ladies..." that has me looking even more forward to my upcoming trip to San Fran/Oakland (just 3 days!), it is entitled "Hotness: Thy Name is the Oakland A's" http://ladiesdotdotdot.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/hotness-thy-name-is-the-oakland-as/#more-578

I must admit, I don't know much about the A's, but I figure after three games in Oakland I will. Basically I know that Tony LaRussa was the A's manager before he came to STL, and that their 3rd baseman Eric Chavez owns a pair of grey pinstripe trousers that he purchased from my friend Lindsey at the Club Monocco store in Chicago last summer when the team was in town to play the White Sox. Well, that is all for today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Same Brain

So here is an interesting story. Often times my friend Nikki and I share the same brain. We have the same thoughts about things, no matter how random they might be. Well it turns out that we are now sharing "our brain" with April and her mom, Jane. First, a little background. We met April and Jane at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up in STL in January. You spend a lot of time waiting in lines at Winter Warm Up, and to pass the time you start talking to strangers. We started talking to April and Jane, kept seeing them all weekend and well what kind of baseball lovin' girls would we be if we didn't bond over southpaws and baseball booties? Before the weekend was over we exchanged names and emails, decided to keep in touch and try to get together sometime in STL for a game (they live in central Missouri)

Fast forward to today. I sent an email to April telling her we had two extra tickets to the game on July 8, and asked if she and Jane would like to go to the game with us. A little bit later I get a response saying how it was funny that we had invited them to the game on July 8, because they had two extra tickets to the game on July 7 and were going to invite us to join them. Needless to say we are going to both games and are going to make a weekend out of it. The same brain thing, kind of creepy, huh? Oh, it gets creepier... the tickets we both have, in the same section just one row apart. Now is that a coinkydink or what?

Kudos: WIXY (local country radio station) and their 90's at 9:00, which is often the highlight of my day at work. Today's fav 90 song, Terri Clark's "I've Got Better Things to Do"

Birds of a Feather

So I have a cardinal that lives in the tree in my backyard. When I say cardinal, I mean the actual bird, not a professional baseball player (although how cool would it be to have Jimmy, Eck, Flo, Yadi or Carp living in my backyard... I would have lots to blog about then). Anyway, back to the cardinal, he usually shows up in the morning and evening and I can see him out my kitchen window. I don't know why, but I just get really happy when I see him. Maybe it is because I am a fan of the cardinal baseball team, but really I just think he looks wicked cool, and I enjoy that he picked my backyard to live in. Have you ever really seen a cardinal? They are beautiful, the red feathers really rock. Not to be down on all the sparrows and robins out there, but y'all don't stand a chance next to the cardinal. Also, unlike most bluejays which are mean and nasty, the cardinal seems to have a very pleasant disposition. Typically I am a fan of nice people, so I think I am a fan of nice birds as well. I think I should name him, any ideas? Right now I am leaning towards calling him "Rod", get it? "Rod Cardinal"-Legendary Illini basketball and WWE trainer... I crack myself up. Please share any cardinal name ideas in the comments section.

Kudos: They go to Dick, who works at my bank. I had to skip lunch yesterday (long story) so I was forced to find "nourishment" from the vending maching in our break room. My M&M's got stuck, Dick helped me jiggle the machine and bring those sweet candy-coated chocolates home safely. Kudos Dick!

Cupcakes??

So this is kind of funny. I was telling my cousin Mark about how I wanted to blog about my upcoming trip to San Fran, but discovered our hotel does not have free internet... major bummer, and flaw in my usually stellar trip planning skills. So I got on-line to check out free wireless spots near our hotel, and found a few... Golden Gate Perk and Citizen Cupcake, to name a few. Being a fan of sweets I said I was intrigued to try Citizen Cupcake. Well by this point my cousin, Martin, and my brother, Phil has joined the conversation and they are all doing the wink-wink, nudge-nugdge thing... "Citizen CUPCAKE... this is San Francisco are you sure you want to go there?" This connection never even crossed my mind, maybe because I am a girl, perhaps it is because I was 100% focused on the actual cupcakes, maybe the boys are still working through some homophobic issues. Regardless we all had a good laugh, and now I HAVE to go to Citizen Cupcake and report... bakery or gay strip club?

Goin' Crazy! (and other graduation highlights)

So many of you may know that this weekend I celebrated my nephew Lane's graduation from Carlinville High School. His party was Saturday night, and the graduation ceremony was today (Sunday). Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was today at lunch before graduation. My family was talking about the Cardinals (go figure), and my Mom asked Lane, "Do you know where Aunt Jane is going?" (referring to my upcoming trip to San Francisco/Oakland to see the Cardinals play the A's-10 days for those of you playing the home version of the countdown game). Lane's completely dead-pan response was "CRAZY, that's where she is goin!!!!". Hence the title of this post. Ah, this is just one of the many reasons I love Lane, his sense of humor.

Anyway the graduation/party was a big success and and fun was had by all. I am so proud of Lane, for many reasons, but one in particular is that he was awarded a scholarship for his volunteer and community service efforts during the year-end assembly at school this past week. He has volunteered at his church, the local food pantry, with Salvation Army, ran the curtain for the school musical, served as equipment manager for the baseball and football teams, and volunteered several summers of labor to the local school district as a maintenance helper (he scraped gum from underneath school desks for free!), among many others. This summer my small group at church will be discussing servant leadership. I think we could all learn from Lane's example. He has definitely been blessed witha servant heart.

Okay, so done bragging, now I can share some of the other crazy graduation moments. Just minutes before the graduates were set to process into the gym, the President of School Board completely passed out on the stage, and had to be carried out in his chair. Evidently he had the flu, and the heat combined with dehydration was not a good thing. Drama!!! Also, my Mom and I sat behind a group of four members of the "Iron Sleds Motorcycle Club" (Harley dudes) at the graduation ceremony. It was sweet.. one had a mullet, another a camouflage dew rag, the third was bald and sporting a fu-man-chu 'tache, while the fourth was sporting a blue tooth head set. It so reminded my of the game they used to play on Sesame Street- "One of these things is not like the other, but three of these things are kinda the same. Can you tell me which one of these things is not like the other, now it's time to play our game, it's time to play our game.

Well those are some of the graduation highlights. I hope to have something exciting to post about soon, but it may be hard to top the Iron Sleds and the passed out School Board President, which I thought were both very blog worthy.

Oh, and I have decided to add a "kudos" section to each post when appropriate. Today kudos go to my buddy Nathan (see Nate Down Under link) for picking up the phone when I called him on my way home from Carlinville. I had made it all the way to Monticello and was just 25 minutes from home when I hit the "I am so tired, this drive is so boring, I am not going to make it" driving wall. Needless to say Nathan got me home save and sound... Kudos Nathan!!!!