Reading Garfield

Los Gigantes defeat Los Cubbies

We went to San Francisco today to what was almost the last Giants home game of the year.








This picture was taken along the walk back from the stadium. We ran across an interesting sculpture globe.







The kids thought that probably Hercules uses this bow and arrow.







Dan and Douglas enjoying the game












They were doing a promotion for Scottsdale, Ariz., where the Giants have spring training. The mayor of Scottsdale came along with someone named Camelback Kate, who did a little lasso demonstration for the crowd.








Lou Seal, the mascot








Owen and me










Big Panda, a.k.a. Pablo Sandoval, running from first to second. If you look closely you can see he is blowing a bubble. Which seems to conflict with the Skoal container in his back pocket, but hey.









Owen had fun











We had good seats, down low near first base.








Big Panda with a hit











Matt Cain did a phenomenal job pitching for the Giants. They ended up winning 5-1 (after being up 5-0 at the beginning of the 9th inning, at which point Cain was no longer pitching - they went through 3 more pitchers in the 9th).









Yay! Baseball!

















Cubbies in front of us, all lined up watching the game







A beautiful day by the Bay.

We saw some seagulls at the stadium, which since they are by the Bay, Douglas figures they are bagels.

Baseball

Pics from one of Owen's baseball games. Douglas was listening to the iPod to tolerate attending a 2-hour Little League game.

1st baseball game...

Owen had his first fall ball game this evening - I need to upload the photos. His team is the Defenders (which is an actual AA team from Norwich, Connecticut - SF Giants' AA team) and the opponents were the Knights. The Defenders pulled it out, 7-5. Owen got a single, ending in a run, and a walk (struck by the ball). There wasn't much to do in the field - a lot of the runs were actually a result of walks and stolen bases. Not a lot of hitting going on.

Douglas is thinking about reading. We were talking about the Tom Lehrer song this evening about Silent E - "He can turn a tap into tape," etc. Douglas pointed out that Silent E could turn a crap into a crepe. Well, almost.

Fourth grade

Owen is learning California history and geography this year. This is the first significant project of the year: cut out, colored (for geographic regions), and reassembled counties.

Are you ready for some football?

Last night we went to the first home UC Davis football game, vs. Montana. Here's the start of the evening, with the Band-uh showing off.

The Air Force band out of Travis AFB in Fairfield came to play the Star Spangled Banner, and four fighter jets flew overhead, leading me to wonder what that was costing the university.






The sun was setting, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. We got cold out there!







Some other fans behind us








Yay! Football!









Here come your UC Davis Aggies!






Sadly, while the Ags led during most of the game, Montana pulled out a victory in the fourth quarter.

On the way home in the dark, Owen said "Why do cats like to stay up at night?" to which Douglas replied, "Because their eyes glow in the dark!"

Douglas likes Jack Handey

I got Jack Handey's new book, "Things I'd Say to the Martians," (or something like that) from the library on Tuesday and read a bit of it to Douglas last night. He could not stop laughing at some of the Deep Thoughts. Particularly:

When I found that skull in the woods, the first thing I did was call the police. Then I started wondering, who was that guy? And why did he have those deer horns?

Sticky

Meet Sticky the betta fish, the newest member of the family ... purchased to replace the very brief-lived goldfish from the state fair.

The State Fair

The kids and I went to the state fair this morning. Needless to say, they ate their share of funnel cakes.












We saw some livestock (how all-American is a llama?).







Also some extremely long horned cattle...







Had fun at the weird - wild - wacky section (and saw a magician)












Saw a pseudo-scientific discussion of Bigfoot











Took a rest now and then. It was a fun day. The kids each won a goldfish, one of which is now already dead.

Deep thoughts from Douglas

Candy edition:

"Why do they call it Mr. Goodbar when it tastes so bad?"

In other news, apparently in Douglas's class last week they had to write their names, and he wrote his backwards and told the class (no doubt with a mischievous glint in his eye) that his name spelled backwards is Salguod. He told me, "Senora Carrillo grabbed me and said, 'No clowns in my class.'"

We'll see what happens.