Take me out to the ballgame

It has been a week since we posted, so it's time for for an update. It's Monday night. We just got back from a Spiritual Gifts class at church. It was the first session of a three-week class, learning about the different spiritual gifts in the Bible, and taking a test to find out how we are gifted. It is a great class! The NCAA championship game is on TV, Kansas vs Memphis. It's only the first half, but looks like a great game so far.

Last week was kind of rough. I had Monday off, so Asher and I spent the day together. Sarah got in the truck to go to work Monday morning, but it wouldn't start. To make a long story short, I ended up replacing the starter during Asher's afternoon nap, laying in a puddle in the cold, cold rain (the driveway had just enough slope to keep me from pushing the truck into the garage). I already was a little under the weather (so to speak), but the cold and wet helped me get really sick, and left me laid out in bed all day Tuesday. The rest of the week was a lot better. Spring has finally arrived in Iowa, and the weather was incredible last week.

On Saturday, the three of us went for a nice, long walk in the woods on the Neal Smith Trail. Asher actually walked a decent section of it and had a great time discovering nature at his own pace. He was fascinated by a caterpillar crawling across the trail. In the afternoon, Asher and I planted our pea patch (he really, really likes planting seeds!). By the way, the seeds we started indoors on Easter are doing great. It may have been a mistake to start the zucchini indoors. Within a week, they were rootbound in the little greenhouse flat, and I had to transplant them to big Solo cups. They are monstrous now. Please send us any zucchini recipes, we will need them in a few months.

Sunday was the day Asher and I have been waiting for for quite a while, our first baseball game of the year. We went and saw the Iowa Cubs Sunday afternoon after church. The Cubbies had a rough day, but it was a good game for us:

• We got free tickets for a canned food donation, then upgraded to good seats.


• It was free Iowa Cubs stocking hat day and we all got one


• Going into the ballpark, we met some performers from Cirque de Soleil, who gave Asher a clown nose that he absolutely loves


• Asher had fun, and actually followed the game ("he throw it!" "the man hit it!")


• Asher's current favorite song is "take me out to the ballgame." He got to sing it with thousands of friends


• Sarah actually caught one of those hotdogs shot out of the cannon (for the record, it was a good hotdog, and very well wrapped, but a little cold)


• Asher met Cubby Bear (the mascot). When I asked him what he wanted to say to him, Asher looked at the bear and just said "Rawr!"

Let me tell you something about Iowa Cubs baseball. If you haven't figured it out from what I wrote, they are the triple A farm team for the Chicago Cubs, and they are EXTREMELY proud of it. The colors, logos, mascot and uniforms are exactly like the "big" Cubs. Most fans just wear Chicago Cubs gear to the game. It a fun ballpark atmosphere, and the crowd is always very into the game. The ballpark is pretty nice. It is set right on the point of land where the Des Moines and Racoon rivers meet. There is a nice view of the downtown skyline down the third-base line, and the Iowa capital over the wall in Center. The Iowa Capital is beautiful.

If I sound pretty fired-up about baseball right now, I am. Next weekend, we are finally taking our anticipated baseball and barbeque trip to Kansas City. We are leaving Friday afternoon and driving down. We have a hotel room in the suburbs on the Kansas side. We are going to see the Royals and the Twins play on Sunday, and you'd better believe I am going to be eating some barbeque. The only question is which of the famous BBQ joints we are going to try. I want to try Arthur Bryant, Gates, Jack Stack, and Oklahoma Joe's. I know we won't hit them all on this trip, but I am really excited.

I mentioned before that I went to a class and was certified as a BBQ judge by the Kansas City BBQ Society. Last week, I finally got my official badge and certificate. So far, I am signed up to help judge at least two, probably three competitions in the next few months. You can bet I'll tell all about it when I do! In a later entry, I'll tell about the whole KCBS judging thing. It is really interesting. Well, it's interesting to me, anyway.

OK, this is a really long entry, and I'll bring it to a close. We are into the second half of the basketball game now, and the Memphis and Kansas are still close.