Sweet Surprise

So Ethan and I were wandering around (well, I was doing all the wandering... he was just sleeping) Walmart during our 3-hour lull before I teach journalism at our homeschool learning group when my cellphone started to sing.

It was Stuart... with some sweet, fun news from his company.
Yesterday, Stuart's company held a bake sale to raise money for some extra employee events. I made some of my "famous" cake mix cookies... nothing fancy but still very yummy. Apparently, everyone who brought in some kind of baked good got a chance to be chosen for free tickets to the R-Phillies end-of-season "party."

(Did I mention that they were FREE?)

Guess who won...the FREE tickets?

You got it! We did!

So we headed over to the ballpark for a FREE dinner of hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken barbeque, potato salad, macaroni salad, noodle salad, baked beans, and cookies. Mmmmm!

As you can see from the photo, Ethan was well-impressed by it all. *wink* (Give 'im a year or so.)

It was a definite sweet surprise!

More R-Phillies Fun

Last night, we got to enjoy free boxseat tickets to a Reading Phillies game, compliments of GAI-Tronics Corp.'s monthly ticket raffle.

Of course, after we bought drinks, peanuts, Cracker Jacks, hotdogs, and popcorn, it was no longer a "free" game. *wink* But we didn't have to pay for the tickets, so that's a savings, right?

It was an interesting -- but long -- game, somewhat slow in the beginning and then a bit more exciting towards the middle. (It made me appreciate U-8 soccer all the more.)

The Reading Phillies won 5-3 against the Harrisburg Senators, breaking a 7-game losing streak. Yippee!! And we even got to see Mike Schmidt, a retired professional baseball player (now in the Hall of Fame) who started his baseball career with the R-Phils back in the '70s.

The kids each got a free baseball hat with the "crazy hotdog vendor" on it and caught a soft R-Phils baseball at the end of the game. I taught them how to keep score...more or less. Well, in a very rudimentary way, I guess. So we went home tired but very exhilarated.

Not sure "Leechie" appreciated the loudness of it all, but still...

Of Baseball Games and Sunglasses

Taking a slightly different spin on my usual online calendar pages....

5 THINGS TO BE (UN)HAPPY ABOUT (AT A BASEBALL GAME)
• loud, obnoxious sections of cheering schoolkids
• tall people sitting in front of you when you're only 4 feet tall
• impatient children who only want to "eat" their way through the game
• 9 innings (7 of them with the sun glaring in our eyes)
• losing your sunglasses under the bleachers

Still, despite the above silliness, we had a good time at the R-Phils game tonight, enjoying some peanuts and Twizzlers. The game seemed to drag a bit more than usual, but the schoolkids were tolerable, for the most part, (except when they begged the players to toss balls to them...it reminded me of the seagulls in Finding Nemo).

The clincher of the "unhappy" moments came towards the end of the game when Stuart's "dollar-store" sunglasses slid off the seat and dropped down under the bleachers. You would have thought the kids' favorite pet had died. The tears and grief that ensued was amazing...they felt that much sadness for Stuart, who shrugged it off with "I'll have to get another pair sometime."

You can't say they don't have empathy.