I usually get up on Saturdays really early, like almost the middle of the night, and go to Starbucks right when they open. This day I got up a little later, maybe 3am, and then waited to go back to sleep. I rolled out bed around 7:40am, which is very late. I decided sometime shortly after I woke up that I would try to make this weekend the very best possible, and to document it as well.
I accomplished some chores. I got a bag of oranges for $10 and 2 3-packs of strawberries for $8 apiece at the Farmers Market at Pasadena High School.
I got my shirts from the drycleaners on Altadena/ Colorado and dropped some off. I had either 5 or 6 to pick up and paid $10.25.
Fortunately these things can be done very locally. When I am feeling ambitious, I can ride my bike to get these things done. I was not feeling so ambitious this day. Also, since my bike and bike trailer were stolen about a month ago, it's not so easy to bike these chores.
We think we found our stolen bike and bike trailer with a dude down the street from where we live. He's tried to disguise them by we're pretty sure they're ours.
After the errands we had a strawberry sandwich with waffles. Then I took James for storytime at Pasadena Central library.
Then we went to Hamilton park for our game. The routine is to load up the equipment bag, the bucket of balls, water cooler, and James' perso0nal equipment and to drag it down to Field #3. There is no reason to speculate as to why Taoster's muscles are bulging. It's lugging the stuff.
We call it T-Ball, but at this point it's a misnomer. The kids hit off the tee the first half of the season. They get the fundamentals of the swing, and do their best to make contact. We're now in the second half of the season and it's all about coach pitched hitting. We only bring out the tee if the kid can't hit any of first six or so servings.
And i lob it in. I give them lollipops. The trick is to get low and close and underhand right into their wheelhouse. They want to hit it right back at me, and they often can. They haven't tagged me yet, but they've knocked me off my box more than once. And the kids and parents love it. All of the kids can hit coached pitching, and some can hit very well. 
We have a bee on her caps, but we're called the Mets. We're named after the Binghampton Mets, which is the Class AA affiliate of the New York Mets. Our primary color is orange. I hated it at first, and now I'm all for it. I wear an orange jersey and cheap sunglasses with orange arms to every game and practice. I guess orange is an acquired taste.We had to leave Hamilton park right after the game to get a birthday party for a former classmate from Sierra Madre Nursery school who just turned 5. It was at Sierra Madre recreational at the picnic table. He had facepainting and a jumping house and lots of snacks.
We decided spontaneously to catch the Quakes-Jethawks game that night. The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are the single A affiliate of the LA Dodgers. We've been to a few games so far. They're a heck of a lot cheaper, we can get seats at field level, and the games are just as exciting. They players can hit just as hard and far, and they're more likely than major leaguers to dive head first.
So what if they're less polished and make more errors? So what if the stadium is called Loanmart Field? So what if there are advertising stunts for local businesses after every half inning? I'll take cheesiness over a slick major rip off every day of the week.
We purchased 4 field level seats for a grand total of $50.00 and took Grandma out there.
James loves the mascots, two crocodiles named Aftershock and Tremor dressed up in Quakes uniforms. We got him a baseball with Aftershock's picture on it, which we can add to our ball inventory in the bucket.
James hung in there until the seventh inning stretch needing to leave. Taoster also learned quite a bit of the rules of the game.
Pedometer total for the day: just shy of 15,000 steps.
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It was Free Museums of the Arroyo Day. Heritage Square is a collection of old Victorian homes that have been relocated around the city to a spot off the 110 by Mount Washington. James and I took the train over there, and then hit Lummis Museum too. Taoski stayed home to work on getting the condo ready to move.
Then I went to St. Elizabeth that night, and started a movie, Delivery Man starring Vince Vaughn, that night. The pedometer showed total steps at 23,000 for Sunday.
That concludes my great weekend.
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