193: WAKA Wednesday, with special guest

Katie drove up to have kickball Family Dinner and to support us in our Wednesday kickball game. We did not win (we actually lost pretty badly....again...) but it was still fun. I feel lucky to have my best friend within driving distance so we can see each other regularly. :-)

Better luck next week, Jagernauts!

Important Addendum to Photo 192

My mother sent me the following regarding my post from last night:


"Was the Prince Wm. park passport stamp from the time when your father put the string cheese in his nose and then ate it??????"

192: Stamps

Well, here I am again watching Ken Burns and wishing I were heading out west tomorrow instead of heading across the street to work.

I looked through my National Parks Passport this evening. It's neat to think back to when I got the stamp...like on March 21, 1998 at Arlington House (in Arlington Cemetery) when I was on the best field trip of my public school career with Mrs. Dye (AP History), three other students and our bus driver or on June 21, 2005 at Cape Cod National Seashore when Eddie and I took our first trip up to the cape together. The photo of the day is of the first stamp I got in the Passport with my parents...

191: For the benefit and enjoyment of the people...

Tonight was the second installment of the Ken Burns documentary about the National Parks. I have been looking forward to this since I knew it was coming out because Ken Burns is amazing (and my secret hero) and I love the National Parks. Watching even just two nights of the documentary have me itching to pack up our car and head west.

It's been really neat to watch the documentary because I come from a family where getting stamps in our National Parks Passport was a family pastime and have been to many of the parks. (Okay, don't cry, Mom) Some of my favorite family memories have taken place in National Parks, ranging from my dad singing God Bless the USA while standing on top of the men's bathroom at Mount Rushmore on the 4th of July while sporting a Kenny Rogers beard (not kidding) to hiking desolate landscapes out to Anasazi ruins and enjoying a few sips of an ice cold beer upon returning to our car.

I pulled out my Pin Hat tonight from the other room while the documentary was on. I got this hat the summer my parents and I spent a few amazing weeks out west hiking and visiting what seemed like a million national parks/monuments. Since then the hat has become too laden with pins to wear comfortably so it's a decoration. I thought it would make a neat subject for my photo of the day today.

188, 189, 190: Weekend

188: El Potrillo

I drove down to my parents' house on Friday after work to spend some time with them and to also put me closer to the marching band competition I was going to on Saturday. We went out to the local Mexican Restaurant, El Potrillo. My parents are regulars there. We had a tasty dinner and then headed home to watch a couple hours of YouTube videos. The internet is amazing!

189: Hannah Grace

I met up with the Tallwood High School Marching Band (Tim's band, with Katie and Laura on staff) at Hickory HS for their competition. Amanda and Hannah came over and so I had two buddies in the stands for part of the evening! Hannah is getting to be such a little lady already, it's hard to believe. This is a shot of her watching her daddy's band.

190: G-Unit softball back in action....kind of

We all gathered for our 3:00 intramural softball game only to find out that we had already won. The other team had to forfeit for some reason. This puts G-Unit Softball with a 2-0 record, having NEVER played a game. We were able to get some of the 2:00 game players to stay so we could at least scrimmage a little to get some practice in. Hopefully we'll be able to actually play next week!



Here's a shot of Jocie taking some batting practice:

187: Happy Birthday, Norris!

Tonight our mighty trivia team (featuring only Eddie, Matt and I during Round One and then just Matt and I for two and three) tied for first! I battled it out (with emotional support from Matt) with an intellectual bout of Rock, Paper, Scissors to win first. Tonight, the pub acknowledged the birthday of Guinness, which is today, as well as the birthday of pub owner and ninja warrior Norris, which is tomorrow. Matt helped me shoot a secret shot of Norris as he was standing up front between rounds.

Happy Birthday, Norris!

186: Just another WAKA Wednesday

Yet another fun kickball evening....we lost pretty badly tonight but I still had fun. I'm enjoying my newfound "jock confidence" since getting to play so much on Saturday. (I'm hoping it carries over to softball on Sunday!) I only took a few photos at the game tonight and liked this one best. I like the blurry background of JC, who is an incredible pitcher....he has a curve you wouldn't even believe. If there was a National Kickball League, he'd be in it.