Food Critics?

Here I am outside of Wrigley before the game. We walked up from Mark's (probably 3.5 miles or so) early to take in the atmosphere. Sam had to get a Cubs hat and some Cubs Sox (oops, I mean socks). We went in the stadium a little more than an hour before first pitch.

We're currently conducting a study on the quality of hot dogs as well as pretzels and cheese at each ballpark we visit. Wrigley's dogs are pretty good (2nd best behind Comerica), but don't get them from the express cart (if you're in the upper deck). Our hot dog buns were stale from the cart. Wrigley likes to serve their dogs smashed. The bun is kinda smooshed around the hot dog. It may not sound appetizing, but it does make it easier to eat one handed.

The pretzel & cheese are tasty, and the salt is easy to remove. Though their pretzels aren't very big. On the upside, you have more than enough cheese to enjoy with the pretzel, which is often lacking with larger pretzels.

7th Inning Stretch

A celebrity often leads the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field. The tradition started with Harry Caray (whose charactiture is in the window), who always raucously lead the crowd.

If you look closely, you can see Eddie Vedder singing (he's the one with the mic). For those less rock-n-roll inclined, he's the lead singer of Pearl Jam, a well known "grunge" band out of Seattle (I believe).

The lyrics of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" are slightly altered however. Below are the lyrics as sung at Wrigley Field:

And-a one, and-a two:

Take me out to the ballgame,
take me out to the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker-jack,
I don't care if I ever get back
because it's root, root, root for the CUBBIES!
If they don't win it's a shame!
Cuz it's ONE-TWO-THREE strikes you're out in the old ballgame!

If winning: Let's hold 'em!
If losing: Let's get some runs!

Looks like a fastball (as if I can tell)

Here's a picture of Clay Hensley (of the Padres) pitching to Michael Barrett. If you click on the picture to view the big version, you can see the baseball en route to the plate.

It looks like a really nice day for baseball, which was suprising, since the meteorologists were predicting rain for all day. It wasn't very warm though. We were both bundled pretty well and still were a bit chilly. The hot chocolate vendor did pretty well!

Zoomed in on the action

Here I am testing my digital zoom on my camera. I haven't really used it before, but it seems to work pretty well. We were sitting in the upper deck (Sec 533, Row 4, Seats 9 & 10), but you can see the action pretty closely zoomed all the way in.

Neifi Perez is being intentionally walked with 2 outs because the Cubs pitcher (Rich Hill) is batting next. Pitchers generally aren't known for being good hitters, and it paid off for the Padres. After walking Neifi, Rich Hill struck out.

Mike Piazza is catching. He was booed every time he came to bat because he hit a 3 run 9th inning homerun to beat the Cubs the day before.

The Scoreboard, since 1937

The world famous center field scoreboard at Wrigley Field. No batted baseball has ever hit the scoreboard in the 69 years it has been there. The scores are still changed by hand. Every now and then you'll see someone take down a blank space and put up a number. I wonder if they need any summer help...

The small flags have the names of other teams in the National League in order of their current standings.

Wrigley Field!

Sam & I spent Mother's Day at Wrigley Field of course! It was our first baseball game of the season. We spent the night at Mark's apartment (with earplugs), and walked up to Wrigley from there. It was a bit chilly, but at least it didn't rain (the forecast said it was going to).

The Cubs were a bit chilly too...not scoring any runs. It was their 12th loss in 14 games I believe. Sounds reminiscent of El Tigres, who are doing quite well this year!

The 1st Year!

It was also Meika & Mike's 1st anniversary on Sunday! Yay!

I heard from Mom they had an interesting time on their anniversary. I think the U.S. has "Love Hotels" too...they're just seen a little differently. ;)

Congratulations! We only have 60 days ourselves to our zeroeth anniversary!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a bit late, but we were in Chicago on Sunday, so I didn't get a chance to post this.


Happy Mother's Day!!

Our First Dinner (Qdoba)

I know it's been awhile, but I'm back on the blog. It's been crazy busy to say the least, and it's not looking like it's going to let up for me until school's over. It may last through the summer even...

Today we signed the least for our new apartment and so we started moving some stuff in. Sam and I have been packing basically every night for the last week or so. Sam & I met at the new apartment right after we got off work (her alarm went off at 4:45am this morning so she could get to work early & leave at 3:00pm). We got the keys and took care of all the legalities, then met her parents back at my old apartment. We had four cars and loaded them all up with boxes of stuff and moved them to the new place. It went pretty fast, which is great, since I'm not a big fan of moving.

Saturday we're renting a truck and moving all my big stuff. Luckily we're getting some big help from both sets of parents and AGAPE from church. THANKS!