Monday, June 29, 2009

Boys of Summer

"Boys of Summer"... one of my favorite Don Henley songs, from his 1984 album "Building the Perfect Beast". I'm sure some diehard Eagles fans may scoff at Henley's solo work, but I loved this whole album. Then I saw him in concert back (in '88 or '89, whenever "Heart of the Matter" was released) with my friend and bandmate Timmy D. (I was the token female in the band, playing keyboards, singing background vocals and yes, even shakin' the tamborine a bit!) and Henley put on a great show.

That was a bit of a round-about journey I went on to tell you about our weekend; we headed to see the STL boys of summer play on Sunday at Busch Stadium. I'm not the biggest sports fan; in fact, I'm not much of a sports fan at all. But I DO like baseball, and I love seeing the Cardinals play. We bought a package of tickets, and plan to see five games this season. In between that, lake time and all the other stuff, I don't think we have a free weekend between now and the end of September!

Jace had a baseball game on Friday night (an awesome one, I might add-- he pitched two innings and did great! Don't ask me the stats, I knew at one point but I've slept since then... I think he only allowed two players to get on base, or something like that... I could be totally off though) and then he was going to his dad's for the weekend on Saturday, so Dave and I headed to St. Clair after Jace left Saturday morning.

Dave is continuing the never-ending home project with my dad; it started with a day of jackhammering about two months ago. This is the third time we've been there, and the area is really shaping up. Dave spent four hours in the heat on Saturday, screwing webbing into the cinderblock walls and putting the first coat of Kwikcrete on it in preparation to put stucco on at a later date. My dad wants to finish up screwing the webbing in sometime in the next three weeks, and then we're going to spend a Sunday afternoon there in late July, after going to a Saturday Cards game.

After all the work on Saturday, we headed into St. Louis about 11AM on Sunday, and started out at Paddy O's, right by the stadium. We took my dad to the game with us; my mom just had foot surgery, so she opted to relax at home, rather than risk getting her toes trampled on at the game. So my brother, Rob, headed in from Edwardsville and enjoyed the game with us - it was great to see him and get to spend a little "adult time"... not that we don't LOVE having Jace, Eva and Sam around, of course! It was just nice to catch up, hear about his job, the kids and just hang out and watch the game.

The Cards played the Twins, and although they won on Saturday we didn't have that luck on Sunday - they lost, 6-2. Here are a few pics from the afternoon:

















The other thing we did while we were home was load my grandparents' spinnet piano into the back of the 4Runner, to bring back to our home. This was the piano that my mom (Terry) played when she was young, but my grandparents don't play it any longer so I was thrilled to be able to have it. My folks have a baby grand that my mother (Catherine) refinished before she passed away, and at some point it will be given to me. I love that piano, mainly for the memories - we grew up singing with her almost every day, and I am sure that is in part why I have such a love for music. She was so talented, and could play both the piano and the guitar. My brother Rob has her guitar, and has learned to play it- something I have not yet mastered. But I can play the piano, both by ear and by reading music, and have missed it very much. Right now it is still in the 4Runner, until Dave's work buddies can come over and help him unload it tonight - I'm excited!

Back to work, it is a short but busy holiday week.

2 comments:

Lucas said...

The game looks like so much fun but I'm especially glad to hear about the piano. A piece of family history that will be preserved and cherished! Enjoy Nance.

Rob said...

I was just looking at Mom's guitar the other day. Since I bought a new one a few years back, I haven't played Mom's as much. But I need to put some new strings on it and bring it to life again.

Sam & Eva love to listen to the guitar. Lately Sam has been pulling out some percussion toys and playing along. He even grooves when he plays! Not sure how early you can tell if a kid has a gift for music, but Sam sure has fun with it.