Monday, April 29, 2013

Dinosaurs and the most awesome comparison ever

Cathy left to go back to New Hampshire early on Thursday morning.  I drove her to the airport at 4:45 am while wearing my pajamas. 
 
For her last whole day here Michael was at work and we had the kids, so we needed to do something kid friendly.  That limited our options a bit but luckily Spencer didn't have school that day (teacher training), so we didn't have to worry about his school schedule. We decided to go to the Museum of Natural History.  It used to be called the Mesa Southwest Museum.  I have been there many times.  There is absolutely nothing different about it under the new name but I guess they thought it sounded jazzier.
 
I had thought that this was Spencer's first time there, but once I thought about it I am sure we took him when he was younger.  He didn't remember it at all so it was like his first time.



 
Cathy was a huge help with the munchkins.
 
We timed it just right to be by the waterfall for the flood.  I remember it being much more impressive previously.  Maybe that is the change that determined the name change. 
 
 
We took this picture because of the javelina in the background. 
 
And in this one we were pretending that they were really outside standing in a sea of desert poppies. 


 
We all got to be on TV in classic Westerns.


 
Spencer spent some time in prison. 
 
So did Elliott.
 
Elliott loved on Cathy (who was a little too chesty in this picture, so I did some crafty editing). 
 
Spencer panned for gold.
 
He is still talking about it.

 
Drinks, including water bottles (!!!) are not allowed, so we had to sneak Elliott his contraband sippy.

The last room we went to was missed by every other group at the museum.  We were in there for a good 30 minutes and no one else came in to join us.
 
Elliott was a huge fan of the rocking pterodactyl. 


 
Spencer was a master at the "move the tubes around to feed the birds a wiffle ball" game.



We had lunch after the museum and then Elliott fell asleep in the car for 20 seconds.  He decided that 20 seconds was all he needed because then it took me a good 45 minutes to get him back to sleep once we got home.  Once he was finally in a deep slumber I started making dinner.  Cathy went in the pool.
 
She very much enjoyed my new Hobby Lobby purchase.

Maryellen joined us for dinner but we were too busy eating ham and potatoes and creamed spinach and fudge to take pictures.
 
After Maryellen left we did a little photo shoot to commemorate Cathy's second visit to us in AZ.
 
We wanted a nice one of the two of us.
Check 
We wanted one with Elliott.
He had other plans.
We wanted one of me looking like I was in a partial medically induced coma while holding a clothed kid and a half naked baby.
Success!
And we wanted a semi-decent minus the half naked baby family picture.
That'll work. 
 
And finally, we totally had to get a picture of Cathy with Ginger...... 
So that we could do a totally awesome side by side comparison that Cathy specifically requested I put in a blog post.
 
Cathy and Ginger on the left, circa June 2010.
Cathy and Ginger on the right, circa last Wednesday night.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Chase Field

I took Tuesday off of work.  It is the first day I have missed all school year, although I am working on Friday to make up for it so technically I still haven't missed a day.  I work 8 days a month so it's not like this is actually an accomplishment or anything.  I also get 0 hours for vacation time and sick time (I'm an independent contractor) so I have to make up my time if I want to get paid.  And I always wants to get paid.
 
Anywhoo.....
 
Tuesday was called "Phoenix Out and About".  Michael stayed home with the kids so that Cathy and I could go and be tourists.  Stop #1 was a tour of Chase Field, which used to be called Bank One Ballpark or BOB for short. Everytime I talk about that place I call it "BO...I mean Chase Field".  I still haven't been able to make the switch in my head.  I also still call US Airways Center by it's old name, America West Arena.  Apparently, in my mind, it is perpetually 2002.
 
So this is BO....I mean Chase Field.  I did not take this picture.  Google did.
 
Same with this one. 
I am not a sports person at all.  I would be just as happy going to get my teeth cleaned as going to any type of sporting event, but even I thought the tour was pretty cool.  I would definitely recommend it.  It was $7 each and lasted over an hour. 
 
The tour started in front of the administrative offices.
 
And continued in the rotunda.
 
The Diamondbacks won the World Series in 2001 and there is an entire display case full of memorabilia from that day.

 
 
 
The owner's private office 
 The pool. 
 A package of 35 tickets is something like $6,500.  Anyone want to join in?  We can reserve it now for a game in 2014. 
 
The field
 
In the tunnels underneath the stadium.  Those are air conditioning tubes. 
 
The locker room for the visiting team. 

This sign was hanging on the wall.  There was absolutely nothing in the hallway around it.  So, either #1.  People were not supposed to remove the sign and Russ Amaral will be proud that they listened, or
#2. Whatever should have been left there was removed and Russ Amaral is going to be incredibly pissed. 
 
The dugout 
 
In the dugout. 
The view of the field from the dugout.  The Diamondbacks created a new type of sod for the field and it has to use specialized lights.  Those are the lights right there.  Apparently it's pretty tricky to keep the grass looking good with the roof opening and closing and the AC blasting in there.  It takes something like 24 groundskeepers to keep it healthy. 
 
 
The players elevator 
 
The players parking lot.  There wasn't a single really fancy car in there.  I was kind of surprised. 
We saw this police car after we left the stadium.  It is my favorite thing, ever.  I would pay money to see this in a police chase on I-10.  Or any major freeway really.  Especially if it was chasing a Ford F-350. 
P.S. The head that you see is actually a guy squatting by the car on the outside.  There was a female officer actually driving it.  Just thought you should know that.