Freakin' Wicked!

Grace left little doubt as to the fact that she is a product of her environment. First some time in Utah and now in Massachusetts. On Saturday we were getting ready to drive up to Nashua, NH to do some shopping. Grace kept saying that she didn't want to go in "Daddy's car". When I asked her why she didn't want to go in my car (1997 Subaru Outback) she said, "It's too freakin' old." Michelle and I just started laughing. Once I finally go over the freakin' old thing I asked her how come she likes mom's car so much (2001 Nissan Pathfinder). She said, "Mommy's car is wicked cool!" What more can I say. Michelle and I couldn't stop laughing and we realized that we have one crazy BayTahn for a 3 year old.

Copo de Mundo and the TDF

There are two sports I really enjoy that I can't believe Americans don't get into. Perhaps it is the American arrogance that keeps people from watching soccer and cycling. I have heard all the excuses about why American's don't get excited about soccer, but I have to say that if people stopped watching the World Cup after the pathetic American showing than they really missed out. The quarter finals and semi-finals saw some incredible games. The Germany-Argentina, England-Portugal, and the final of France-Italy were all extremely entertaining. People often say soccer is boring, but in reality it should fit American lifestyle well. No commercials, no breaks, no timeouts. Heck the players don't even know the official time of the game. If people really think that soccer is boring and probably is because that don't understand the game. Before moving to Boston I was a very casual baseball fan. I would watch some of the playoffs and the world series but thought that the game was too boring (and long) to follow during the regular season. Now that I understand the game better, I also appreciate watching and observing the subtleties of the game. Regardless of how Americans do in soccer, I hope that sports fans across the country will tune in.

Another sport, cycling is equally baffling why American don't tune in. Armstrong was a great force in bringing cycling up in popularity, but I couldn't believe it when OLN said viewer numbers were down on its TDF coverage. For the first time in 8 years we actually have an exciting Tour de France. Only 2 real days of cycling left (with a ceremonial last leg) and the yellow jersey is completely up for grabs. An American may or may not win the yellow jersey and it just doesn't matter. The excitement and intrigue of this year's tour as had me at the edge of my seat at work keeping up to date with the www.velonews.com live feed. Here is a sport where people get on a bike for 21 straight days and ride more than 100 miles per day up grueling hills, across flats, and sprint up to 70 kph. For an interesting take from an amateur on one of the climbs they do take a look at this article. This year's tour has seen a guy come from 30 minutes back to claim the yellow jersey. A tour favorite bonk on the hardest stage (Landis) and go from wearing yellow to more than 8 minutes back. Then the very next day he attacks and rides solo for almost 130 km to reclaim all of his time but 30 seconds and be back in contention. Armstrong was great in that he was so dominant, but at least we actually have some intrigue this year. Who will wear the maillot jaune on Sunday in Paris?

A night at Fenway

On Monday night I got to go to the Red Sox game against Kansas City. I kind of lucked out and got the ticket at the last minute thanks to my friend Ben who was unable to go. He has some great season tickets and had planned on going with our friend Peter who will soon be leaving for a small island in the Pacific. Long story short, I got to go to the game with Peter.

It was a hot and muggy night, but the seats were great. Even though it was well over 90 degrees and the seats at Fenway are small to pack the people in. It almost has a MoTab feel with hard wooden seats, no leg room and your neighbor right there. Of course you probably don't get beer spilled on you at the MoTab. Anyway, the seats were above home plate looking down the third base line towards the Green Monster. What a view. The Green Monster is definitely bigger in person than on TV.

I was thinking that it wasn't going to much of a game with KC having such a bad record. However, the Red Sox haven't been playing well since the All-Star break and they needed everything they had to pull this game out. I quickly knew the night was going to be special when the ceremonial first pitches were thrown by Meatloaf and then Will Farrell. That guy is seriously funny. Wakefield was on the mound and he started out strong. The knuckleball was on target and he quickly went through the first three batters in the first. However, I had to call Jared and rub it in that I had beat him 16-2 in our fantasy league and I was now at Fenway. I mentioned that Wakefield was throwing well when things headed south. I must have jinxed him. He hit a batter and walked in a run and soon it was 4-0 KC. Wakefield recovered and pitched a good 3 and 4 innning and I was surprised when he didn't come out for the 5 (later found he has a fractured rib). Things weren't looking good until the 7 inning when the Sox rallied, capped by Mirabelli's 3-run home run and we were tied. The crowd was going nuts. There are no fans like Red Sox fans. With 1 more run in the 8th I knew it was sealed when Big Papi stole second. It was slow motion. It seemed like he was running forever to get to second and yet the throw wasn't even there. The crowd erupted to start the 9th when Papelbon took the mound with "Wild Thing" blaring over the speakers (do you remember the movie Major League?).

I was going to call Jared again during "Sweet Caroline", but didn't have the heart. He had suffered enough and I was reveling in the moment. The only thing I forgot was the camera. Hopefully next time I will have it. Thanks Ben for some great tickets and the Red Sox for a great game.

It's about time...

I started feeling guilty yesterday when I noticed that I had not contributed to the blog in 2 months. What can I really say in my defense. I have meant to, but something else has always come up. In my defense, I did work 58 hours last week and that was with having the 4th of July off. Luckily last week is over with and I should be back to a more normal work load now.


The big news is that our vacation to Utah is official. We purchased our tickets earlier in the week (at a much higher price than last year and higher than what we hoped to pay even with fuel increases). I can't wait to do some camping, hiking, cycling and having a nice couple of weeks in Utah.

While my girls have been off having fun, and with me working too hard this last week, the only real fun I was able to have was on the 4th. At the last minute we decided to take Harriet to her first firework show. One thing that New Englanders know how to do is a firework show. Stadium of Fire might as well be a backyard teenager firework show. It doesn't even compare. I have never seen firework shows like last year and this year at Nara Park in Acton, MA. A small little town and yet the firework show was incredible. We all had a good time hanging out with some friends and eating some good food. Grace had fun with glow sticks and Michelle and I were able to enjoy most of the show.


I promise more random thoughts about World Cup (what a year for soccer--great games), cycling (TDF is looking interesting post Lance, even the Americans (except Landis) bombed the TT), and life in the coming days.

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Do you know that song? It's a good one in the primary hymn book. Well anyway, we do a lot!!!

Apparently, I'm desperate to get out of the house because we have gone somewhere every single day since last Thursday. Mostly we've gone to the barn, but we've also been to playgroup in Stow, to see the 4th of July fireworks in Acton (Harriet didn't like them much, but the rest of us thought they were way cool), to Rita's place in New Hampshire to ride (she has 20 some-odd horses and girls sleeping over this week at her vacation house there), to Drumlin Farm, and to swimming lessons today!!!Grace has ridden at least 7 times this week that I can think of and has ridden 3 different horses. She's riding Peppe (short for Peppermint Patty) in this picture. He's her second favorite horse after Tink. She also had her first swimming lesson today which was really great. She's taking a mom and tot class and I have to get in the pool with her, so we left Harriet with our neighbor, Jeanne, across the street. It was Harriet's first time being tended by a non-family member. She did great. I found them on the porch in a rocking chair when we got back. So many firsts...I have ridden twice this week - 2 different horses! I haven't ridden since Harriet was born - in fact not since last September. So this has been a banner week for me! I even got to ride on the cross-country course on Rita's property in New Hampshire. I haven't ridden outside of a ring for at least 4 or 5 years. It was soooo fun!

Well, your memories of taking kids lots of places tend to turn into positive ones eventually, but I have to say, at the end of a long day out with babies, you really wonder if any of the effort was worth it and you begin to wish you'd just stayed home. I felt that way every single day this week. But, now that the week is over, I'm glad I did it all. What else would I have done? If I had stayed home, I would have still felt overwhelmed and tired at the end of the day, so we might as well have gone out and done something. We do have a lot to say for ourselves this week, but now I'm too tired and too far behind on house work to be able to sit down and write much about it. Hopefully, our pictures can tell the story.