What’s going to happen to her?*
Amy was visiting this past weekend and we managed to fit quite a bit into the last few days, as she already mentioned. On Saturday, we spent almost all of the afternoon at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. This was the first year they changed the format of the day; in the past the Independence Day celebration was nothing more than the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and fireworks. This year, the day was co-sponsored by 97.5 The Hawk (a classic rock station) and was called “Freedom Fest.” There were moon bounces, food, drink, and ice cream stands, a tethered hot air balloon, and live music (which included a U2 cover band, 2U). We brought some picnicky foods, books and chess to pass the afternoon while waiting for the fireworks.
And then, the fireworks. I think it’s been at least ten years since I’ve seen fireworks at Mercer County Park, and this year’s were much better than I remember. Of course, it took several hours to get out of there, even after waiting an hour after the fireworks before going to (well, searching for) the car.
Yesterday, we were invited to Stacey‘s still-new house for a barbecue. Good food, good people as always, now with More Cute Kids!™ Many photographs were taken by all.
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera into the Trenton Thunder game we attended after the barbecue. More Cute Kids!™ was the theme for the game. Minor league games are much more family-friendly than the majors, if you discount the obnoxious, probably-drunk guy behind us who excessively verbally berated the (admittedly exceedingly pitiful) visiting players from Portland.
We were very close to the field, so it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for a player to pitch the baseball directly into this guy’s face. Unfortunately a stray line-drive foul ball did hit a young kid in the face, HARD, and the stadiumfolk rushed him out of the area very quickly.
After the game, we stayed in the stadium to watch more fireworks. The display wasn’t as good as the one we say Saturday night, but it was still fantastic. The home team came out of the showers and stood in the dugout to watch the show. Once again, getting away from the stadium after the fireworks was an exercise in in what the crazy kids like to call eXTReMe PaTIENCe! (That’s somewhere in between extreme snowboarding and extreme kayaking.)
Now, it’s back to reality. Work and school are calling and they’re not letting me get away with not answering.
* Chess Piece Face is a They Might Be Giants reference from 1983 or so.