"Huzzah! " cried the cranks as the muffin nabbed the cloud hunter in the garden

Following the parade we mosied into the park proper, suprisingly just in time to view a recreation of a 1860 era baseball game. I've meant to check out these vintage games in the past, and I was very glad to finally get a chance to see them up close.



The game was hosted and played by the Milwaukee Cream City's (Cream City being Milwaukee's nickname at the turn of the 20th century, a reference to the distinctive color of our brick buildings).





We were early enough to see batting practice, which didn't exactly thrill my troops. Note LuLu's question rougly 47 seconds into this clip.



So my sister took the kids to play on a nearby playground while my Dad and I watched for three or four innings. (the kids returned to watch about two inning into the game)






At its heart it's not all that different than the baseball you know. The fundamental difference seems to be in pitching. There is no mound, and the ball is thrown underhand to the batter. There are no fielding gloves either, a painful experience tempered by a rule that says a "striker" (batter) is out if the ball is caught on the fly or on one bounce. I imagine you see a lot of 'one bounce' outs in lieu of busted fingers.

The child you hear on the clip *isn't* one of mine. BTW, if you can't make out what my Dad says, he's questioning the distance between bases. From my research it's consistent with modern basepaths (90 feet, expressed as 30 yards in vintage literature). They did seem awfully long though.



For most of what I saw of the game the crowd was tenative and disinterested. That changed when a batter skyed a high fly ball to right. The outfielder approached quickly, then slowed down to allow for catching the ball on the bounce. That was his plan anyway. Once it hit the ball had its own ideas and took a wicked hop to the right. The outfielder, still running, took a violent leap to his left and made a spectacular barehanded sliding grab.

"NIIIICE!" I yelled, and the crowd roared appreciately and gave the man a hand.









The verdict? I liked it. Enough to try and find a Facebook page for the team (it doesn't exist yet) and enough to consider heading out to see them again this summer.

The 4th of July Parade

Look, the last thing I wanted to do at 8 in the morning was wake up three grumpy kids, get em dressed, and head out to watch high school kids march around in band uniforms. I am, as you may have guessed, air quote not a morning person air quote.

But Lisa would have got it done, and so we did it. My sister and niece were supposed to meet us at 8:30 but my sis showed up alone, as her daughter was too tired to attend. Ha!

We landed primo seats in an intersection where the parade turns right, and set up shop.



Some people still weren't happy. OFW.





But they could be coerced into giving the appearance of joy.



While some had it naturally.







My Dad met us there and the parade soon started. Once it was going it was all good.



























Someone in the crowd booed the Mayor, which I thought was low-brow. A time and place for everything, sir, a time and place for everything.

One of the skills Lisa has painstakingly taught them is the art and science of candy collection at these things. Parade participants, especially motorized ones, often toss handfuls of candy at the kids in the crowd. Anything less than a 75% retrieval rate . . . well, it hasn't happened yet. The kids inched their chairs closer and got ready.





Smiley used his Americana top hat as a beggars bowl, extending it to the parade and saying "me can-dee pease".









The kids made out like bandits. There was no pushing, no shoving, no cheating or bullying to get the goods. Just simple unadulterated action, without a hint of hesitation. That's the key right there. There were some kids next to us, kids you'll hear about in a second, who'd stand there and nervously bite their thumb nail and go all "now? or now? now?" when the candy was a'flyin. They got doo diddily doo diddly.





Ah, here's one of the kids now, on the right. Note that she's taller and about a year older than my YaYa. Her brother, in a red shirt, was as tall or larger.






Anyhow, the kids start whining to their Mom about how my kids were getting everything and they had nothing. A gross exaggerration, to be sure, and even their Mom pointed out there was no foul play involved. But while no Vile Socialst, I am a Christian. I called YaYa over.

"Divvy up some of the candy and give it to those kids, ok?" I said. "And sit the next few out."

So she did both things - and the kids next to us STILL failed to grab any decent amount of candy because the children to their other side now grabbed the goods. Plus, my kids were now out candy of their own.

Lesson: you can't help those who won't help themselves.

Here's a clip from the parade, most notable for Smiley's interaction with the parade near the end.





In this last clip, which took place near the end of the parade, after I'd restored full candy collecting rights to YaYa, you can see the Mom scramble to collect candy for her kid.

Mein Gott, you are raising soylent green! Instill some life in them fraulein!







Another 4th of July parade down! Happy Birthday America!

Government Overreach

In an effort to gobble up some more federal money Gov. Doyle's new budget makes seat belt enforcement a 'priority' issue . So now cops can pull you over for nothing more than seeing you without a seat belt on - and for shi*s and giggles under the guise of "I thought he wasn't wearing one judge!". Absolute bunk. I wear my seat belt, but in no way/shape/form is it the busines of anyone else, esp. the gov't.

Happy 4th of July!

In celebration of America's 233rd birthday we repaired our flagpole and put it back up on the front porch. Somehow, that flag did more to beautify the house in one minute than all the tulips and hastas we've planted since we bought the place.



I don't think I can surpass 2008's Jimmy Cagney and Kate Smith post, so here it is again. Patriotic music still stirs my soul, and I've got a CD of it in the van just waiting for Saturday to start.

To anyone and everyone who has had a part in securing the freedom and prosperity of this nation in any way, thank you. For those who did so at the threat of their own safety and lives, words cannot express my thanks.

Happy 4th of July!

* * * *

On a personal note this is the 3rd anniversary of my maternal Grandmother's death. I love you grandma, and I think of you often.

Baking a Cake

Dying to take a shower, but waiting for the cake to come out of the oven. I think it's thermostat must be going , and lately baking times have to be played strictly by ear.

update: I'm beating my chest ala Tarzan. The cake is out of the oven and light and fluffy and golden brown. A thing of beauty, like looking at myself in carbohydrate form.

Day Two

I got a lucky break overnight, when I confirmed LuLu's claim that MPS had the day off for the holiday weekend. That led directly to break #2. The kids slept straight through until 10:45, nearly four hours later than their biological clocks usually allow. Hot damn!

You'd think that would lead to a great day, but you'd be wrong. Oh, 81% of it was very nice. Another 10% was good, but the remaining 9% was consumed by constant bickering between the girls and by about a half dozen fits by Lu.

Whew.

Once they woke up I gave them breakfast. Only Ms. Lu didn't want what I offered and opted for Rice Krispies. Cue the first fit. The bowl wasn't clean enough (it was) the spoon wasn't clean (it was) the replacement spoon was the same one and I was tricking her (I wasn't). Each time she'd squeal and stomp her feet and grimace and yell "Dadddddy!". To finish it off she said they were generic Rice Krispies and she only wanted the real thing and I should go get her some.

So bleep it. I took her bowl and dumped the cereal into the toilet, and YaYa and I sat down to enjoy our food while LuLu pouted.

Whew.

After breakfast I put on the Ghostbusters II DVD and selected the animated episodes that were included with the disc. I noticed the first one was written by J. Michael Straczynski, later the creator of Babylon 5. The kids loved the episodes and were spellbound.

Then YaYa had a small fit about leaving the house. 100,000 times we've had this debate with the kids: if the family is going somewhere YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE. You go with us, because the law takes a dim view on a five year old left alone in a house. This would be debate 100,001.

But I sorta realized at that point that the kids clocks were all off, and that part of the craziness was them readjusting to the odd sleep pattern . So we all scaled it back a notch, and the next few hours were great.

We went to take my Dad to pick up his grill, but it turned out he'd already done so on his own. So we swung by my mother-in-law and briefly saw Ginger. Two things off my to-do list. Then, when both sets of parents failed to produce any vegetable oil to borrow for the cake I was going to make, we hit a nearby Aldi's. The visit was 1-2-3, but it spawned the darnest thing.

YaYa gave Lu a horseback ride. Not for a minute. Not for a few feet. But around and around the store, and through the parking lot, and at the next stop too. Wow.



So since things were better I took them to Sonic, where the three of us were fed handsomely by the dollar menu.



The roller-skating servers excited them both, with Lu proclaiming that she should get a job there herself.

Parenting tip: If you feed a kid, or have a grandparent or babysitter feed them, they will inevitably return home claiming to have been offered nothing. They will ask "What's for dinner?" a mere 1/2 hour after a trip to a restaurant, and keep a straight face while saying it. So now I've learned. When they're eating I make them say - literally make them say the words - "This is my lunch and I'm not getting anything else."

After that we hit up a Dollar General for some household supplies and headed home. Per a request from Lu we took a bike ride around the neighborhood, finishing at the park.



And there an odd thing happened. A mother walked up to me while I was pushing the girls on the swings and told me "I don't know if you know this, but when you take a girl out to the park you should make sure they have shorts on beneath their skirt. You don't know who's watching."

As a point of fact Lu did have shorts on beneath her dress. I'd not only made sure of it before we left, I'd asked her again as she started on the swings. I'm not sure if I should be grateful for someone caring, annoyed at the sexist presumption of my ignorance, or creeped out.

Anyway, on the way back we had more drama. Lu fell all of two feet and made a big scene. She only stopped when I pointed out my thumb, which I'd jammed in my bike as I worked on the trailer attachment. My nail was visibly bruised and there was blood seeping out of it. No big deal, but to them it seemed mind boggling, enough to stop her fit about non-existent injuries.

"You're tough Dad," said YaYa.

"I'm not tough at all," I said.

"Sure you are, that's nasty. I'd be crying a lot."

"Eh, people have a lot of little pain over the years. When you're as old as I am you've kind of gotten used to it, that's all. You guys will be the same way."

And then, totally isolated from the fall, LuLu decided she didn't like that I was riding in front of her, or the direction we took, and eventually decided she didn't want to ride at all. Lovely.

Fit usually means "tired", so when we got home I put her down for a nap. Within a few minutes she was fast asleep on the couch with her mouth open.

A few minutes Smiley returned with my niece while my sister ran an errand. I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to take the kids to the planetarium. It was closed for the day, but instead I decided to treat them all, even my niece, to a show at the local Budget theater at $2 a head. Well, everyone but Smiley. He was great, and we sat together on our porch chit-chatting, but with as tired as he was I didn't place much faith in him making it through a 7:30 showtime. He stayed home with my sister once she returned, and she told him I was taking the girls for shots. He gladly stayed, and when we got back he was on the couch, covered with a blanket and barely awake.

We went to see "Monsters vs. Aliens", and it was surprisingly good. I mean very good, and the kids were laughing and chatting to me during the whole thing. Heck, I was laughing out loud for much of it.

Then a quick trip to two different Target's to find glow in the dark bracelets for the 4th (where we saw part of the Summerfest fireworks from the parking lot) and on to home. But my sister and niece needed a ride so we packed up the van again, took them through a busy McDonald's drive thru for my sister's dinner, dropped them at their place and headed home for good.

Tomorrow the big test - the 4th of July festivites.