World Series Fare

Barry Zito. Barry Zito is a hero. A HERO, I tell you. I'm trying hard to think about what I would have said if you'd told me I'd be saying that come October, after the first game of the season that I took Smunch to...that one where we got there late, Barry Zito was pitching and by the time we arrived (in the middle of the first inning) the score was already 4-0. Mind boggling, really.

If you'd told me that they'd be playing the Detroit Tigers..the team of Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera...in the World Series and that Zito would be pitching against Justin Verlander. I would have laughed. It wouldn't have been a pretty laugh either.

That's my extra long-winded way of saying that just two days after Smunch and I witnessed that epic Game 7 at AT&T Park, the Giants won the first game of the World Series against the mighty Detroit Tigers, behind another stellar start by Barry Zito. I think it was the 14th start of his in a row that the team won. They never lost another one that Barry started after the one Smunch and I went to.

I don't tweet. But if I did, perhaps I would have cottoned onto the #RallyZito hashtag. I don't really know. I'm far too old fashioned for such things. Look at me. I have a BLOG for goodness sakes!

Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs that night...two of them off Verlander. As Mike Krukow would say, "Ownage is ownage." Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval OWNS Justin Verlander. It's as simple as that. It spawned silly pictures, like this one:

The Giants won, 8-3.

And the rest of the series? Well...It was all just about as mindblowing as Barry Zito, actually. On Monday, Smunch and I were there to see if our team could make it. Less than a week later, on Sunday, in fact, they were the World Champions. By Halloween, there was a parade down Market Street.

What? What just happened???

Our team wasn't supposed to make it out of the NLDS after being down 2 games in a best of five series and heading out to Cincinnati. Our team wasn't supposed to make it past the NLCS when they were down 3-1 in a best of 7...where they were still in St. Louis and would have to win three games in a row. And then there was gonna be Justin Verlander. Heh.

Madison Bumgarner shut the Tigers out 2-0 in Game 2 on Thursday. He'd struggled at the end of the season, but held it together for this one big night. The Giants left for three games in Detroit. On Saturday, for Game 3, I made "Rally Enchiladas" in honor of Ryan Vogelsong's favorite pre-game dinner. Gosh, they were yummy.

And the pitching wasn't too bad either. Vogelsong also shut the Tigers out 2-0...on their home turf.

Of course, it wasn't just the starting pitching. There were so many amazing defensive plays. How 'bout that relay Gregor Blanco made from left field, missing his cutoff man, but hitting Scutaro who was backing up Brandon Crawford at third, then Scutaro throwing a shot to Posey to tag Prince Fielder out at the plate? How about any number of Brandon Crawford's crazy defensive plays? I swear that guy's arms have elastic in them. And Blanco was plain incredible out there too.

So, that left Sunday, when I decided it was only appropriate to have hot dogs and apple pie with our baseball. Now all I need is a Chevrolet.

Matt Cain started Game 4. I don't know what he eats or does for luck. He was driving golf balls off home plate before his perfect game. I suggested we go mini golfing, but we didn't really have time.

The game was a whole lot more tense than the previous three. If you peek at the score in that photo of the TV, it's the top of the 8th with the score tied 3-3. But our friend Marco Scutaro, Mr. Clutch, came through yet again. DH, Ryan Theriot got himself his first hit of the game and had been sacrificed over to second. Somehow, you just knew, when Scutaro came to the plate that this game had an excellent chance of being over. I've never seen anyone on the planet hit in the clutch like Scutaro. So, when he hit the ball, I had a lot of fun watching the look of joy on Theriot's face as his hand slid across homeplate.

Then in was Sergio Romo's turn. He struck out two before Miguel Cabrera came up. Romo throws a wicked slider and he'd thrown all sliders until his last pitch to Cabrera...a fastball that Cabrera watched as it flew over the plate.

SWEEP. And then there was a parade on Halloween. I wasn't there...again. It was Halloween. I had pumpkin math to teach and a costume parade to attend. My favorite kids will always trump my favorite team...

A Happy Birthday

With life largely revolving around school, soccer and other kid activities, it's sometimes hard to recognize any kind of milestones Daddy and I make ourselves. Then, of course, there's the fact that some milestones are better off ignored. That was Daddy's goal for his 40th birthday...pretend it never happened. As he likes to mention, however, turning 40 (or any milestone age) is better than the alternative.

In my typical fashion, I agonized over whether I should try and throw a party. See, I'm not the greatest party-thrower. I feel a strong need to have everything "just so". It's never "just so", so I get really stressed out and make other people miserable. I'm getting better though and I found that when I'm really motivated...and not out at Starbucks sipping lattes with my friends...I can get a heck of a lot done during the three hours Mam is at school on the weekdays. I chose to have most of the food catered at Whole Foods and managed to keep myself down to cakes, veggies, fruit and cheese...oh, and cheese sandwiches and those little cocktail weiners wrapped in crescent rolls for the kids.

I made Daddy's very favorite cake from a recipe I picked up from Epicurious.com last year. This Lemon Lattice White Chocolate Cake is awesome. I made three batches, with each one being good for a layer of sheet cake and one 9" round. That made for two cakes, but I figured that was O.K. Either we'd need more than just the sheet cake and we'd cut into the round one too, or I'd save it for his real birthday the next day (which happily turned out to be the case).The weather was supposed to be hot, so we had plenty of beer and soda. I picked up a couple big boxes of popsicles for the kids. It didn't turn out to be quite as horrible as advertised, so it was a lovely afternoon in the backyard...and the popsicles were entirely forgotten.That was especially important because I'd flogged Daddy and myself to make up for years of neglect out in the yard. He dug and overhauled while I planted flowers and ornamental cabbages. Many of the guests probably didn't know the difference, but the general lack of child-related garbage and plethora of living plants, with FLOWERS! was a huge improvement.

There was food. There was LOTS of food and I was pleased that I'd lied to the catering guy and told him I only expected 30. I didn't love all the things I'd ordered either, but there was so much, it really didn't matter. I'd spent an entire couple of weeks worrying about plates, utensils, food, guests, balloons, cakes and I managed not to get totally stressed out. I was pretty proud of myself for that alone.

Most importantly, of course, the guest of honor seemed pleased.Good cake, good company, beer. Friends from work came, friends from high school, his dad, my parents, old family friends, most of our neighbors. What more could a dad ask for from a family-themed birthday party? Happy birthday to my awesome husband who proves that some guys really do get better and better as they age.

Fun Without Kids

On the whole, my life is about my kids. So, it's hardly surprising that most of my blog posts are about them or something I'm doing in relation to them. The real surprise is that as soon as Smunch was done with Author's Breakfast and Mam had walked confidently out of preschool for the last time, Daddy and I dropped the kids off with my parents and left for the weekend for our very aforementioned anniversary.I understand that for some people, this wouldn't be a really big deal, but for us? This was HUGE! It's not that we're paranoid parents, afraid to leave our children for more than an evening. It's that we have no one to leave them with. In the seven years since Smunch was born, my parents, who are quite local, have never offered to take the kids for more than several hours. So, you can imagine we were eager to take them up on the first ever offer to keep them for a weekend. And after having to reschedule for the principal's rescheduled retirement celebration, I really couldn't wait to leave.We went to one of our favorite coastal destinations where we haven't been since having kids. For just a moment, we were able to kinda, sorta, almost forget we even had children and all the responsibility that comes with them. We may have also forgotten there is a limit on our credit card...which is particularly weird considering how cheap I normally am. It was sort of a weekend of throwing all those responsibilities to the wind. We had trendy cocktails, fantastic food, good wine and added to our collection of dinnerware. Romantic, huh? I was also treated to an addition to my jewelry collection. Much more romantic. The weather was incredible, so the views were awesome. We had a terrific view of the sunset from the big deck of our not-so-big room.I took about 500 photos, literally. That means I got some really beautiful ones. Including these ones from our hike on Saturday. If you can't get enough of those, there are lots and lots more available in our web gallery.

It was hard to want to check out of the hotel and head home on Sunday. We did a little more shopping (ouch!) and finally made it down to the beach for what I was hoping would be a nice stroll on the sand before going home. But we never got to the sand. I got captivated by the tidepools for a few minutes and then totally mesmerized by these guys (not a postcard, honest!): who were frolicking in the surf and trying unsuccessfully to wrap themselves in sea grass. Before we knew it, we were already late for getting home and had to call the parents to apologize for being distracted by sea otters. Fortunately, this is something they understand.

Going back to regular ol' life this week has been hard. It's amazing how a restful weekend can be drained right out of you within 24 hours. And, I've got to say that while I'm absolutely nuts about my kids, it was awfully nice to leave them behind for a a couple of days. I didn't really miss them, even though I loved seeing them again. Hope we're not looking like this before we get another opportunity to go somewhere on our own for the weekend... although if we don't get that chance, I sure hope we're still that happy together.