A Weekend in Nashville Part 1: The Wedding

The weekend of May 30 took me to Nashville for the wedding of my former Assembly Hall co-worker Nathan to his lovely bride Stacey. Stacey is from Nashville although she has moved to Chicago, hence the wedding in Nashville.

Mom and dad went with me to get out of the town for the weekend. We left Friday evening and drove to Evansville, IN to check out my cousin Stephanie's new house that she and her husband Scott recently bought. It is a very nice house. I'm very excited for her.

We left Evanville Saturday morning and headed for Nashville. We were able to take our time as the wedding was not until 6:00. It was on a historic plantation in Franklin, TN, a southern suburb of Nashville. The good news...there were no tow truck drivers standing in the middle of the road when we crossed into TN from KY (if you don't get that check out the Jano Fabuolous blog from Spring Training Road Trip 2008). We met up with Jane and Eric at the hotel in Franklin and headed over to the wedding. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding with the plantation house standing in the back. We had an enjoyable evening and it was good to see Nathan so happy. I have only met Stacey twice (the second time being at the wedding, the first at Jane and Eric's wedding) and she is just such a sweet person. From the small amount of time I have spend with her she seems like she would be a lot of fun to hang out with and a good match for Nathan. Here's a few wedding pics...

50 Years....Wow!

May brought a family celebration. My Aunt Linda and Uncle Bud celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My cousins had a surprise party for them. Linda is my mom's sister and is pretty much like my second mom. It was nice to have everyone together again for the day. We don't get to do that as much anymore since everyone is so busy. A few pics from the day...

Uncle Bud and Aunt Linda




The girls (minus a couple...we're missing Sarah and Kristy)...there's so many boys on this side of the family we gotta stick together. From left to right is my cousin Stephanie, me, and my sister Angie.

Cards vs Cubs Showdown #1

I went to a Cubs/Cards game on April 24 and saw an excellent 4-3 Cards win. Frankie came in and closed it out. We sat right over the bullpen that night. I drove down from Champaign with my friend,co-worker and die hard Cub fan John M and former Assembly Hall employee Linda, also a Cub fan. The 4th person who was originally supposed to go ended up not being able to attend so I called April and she met us downtown and went with us. It was a great night. Random encounter of the night...we ran into Skip, the friendly practice field guard from down in Jupiter that we chatted with and got some great Jupiter restaurant recomendations from. He gave April and I both a hug. He was so sweet. Here is a pic from after the game....

Easter Weekend with the Cardinals

So my last post before I went on hiatus I mentioned that I was headed to St Louis for Easter weekend for a couple Cards games. It was a good weekend. We saw 2 Cards victories and stayed at the Drury Plaza downtown, my favorite place to stay in St Louis. Pictures from the weekend...

Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols receive their 2008 Silver Slugger Awards




Nikki spends Easter with Fredbird (can you tell it was cold that day?)




Amazing seats on Easter Sunday...




...for watching a complete game shutout from Kyle Lohse.

Pardon the Interruption...

Ok, back on the road and back to blogging. I had an excellent pork chop at the Beef House and am now completely stuffed. Good way to start a vacation.

Ok, now where was I....

How about some completely random stuff all thrown together, then I'll do my separate posts for my assorted trips this summer...

-I feel the need to comment on Michael Jackson. Yes, I realize that Farrah Fawcett passed away the same day but she did not have the impact on my life that Michael Jackson did. Charlie's Angels was just before my time. Michael Jackson on the other hand...I grew up listening to him. I mean who from my generation has not rocked out to his music while attempting a completely jacked up version of the Moonwalk while trying to figure out how in the world he moved like that? Was he a bit of a weirdo? Yes, absolutely. But he was an amazing performer and had some of the greatest songs from my lifetime. Of course the ultimate is Billie Jean, but that is not one of favs. I enjoy it, but my personal favs...The Way You Make Me Feel, Remember the Time and Man in the Mirror. I also love the Beat It and Thriller videos. Sadly I can still remember and do some of the dance moves from both those videos. My biggest regret is that I never got to see him in concert. He was on my list of people who I still wanted to see in concert. Sadly that can't happen now.

-Apparently I have gained a reputation in my office as being this great cook. This is quite possibly the funniest things I have ever heard. Hello...this is the girl that screwed up Kraft Mac & Cheese. I live on frozen food. I have brought a total of three things in for assorted work potlucks...crockpot pizza, Chocolate Lush and yesterday I brought Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cake thanks to the recipe Marla gave me after John's birthday party. The cake caused my coworker Brian to exclaim "I don't understand why you aren't married. That was some of the best stuff I have ever eaten!" He then went on to tell me that I line formed in the break room to try it after they learned that I had made it because if Nikki made it then we have to try it. Crazy. If they only knew I lived on frozen pizza, pizza rolls and popcorn.

-My Cardinal boy Joe Mather had to have surgery on his wrist, meaning now he will not be playing when I venture to Memphis at the end of the month. What the heck? I am finally going to go to Memphis to see a game and he won't even be playing. Hopefully he will still be there. But I'm not sure how it works in the minors as far as being there if you out injured. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that he is there.

-In other Cards news....it is a total possibility that another of my fave Cards, Ryan Franklin, could be selected for the All Star team. I would like to think that the Frankie Fan Squad could have a little bit to do with that, helping give Frankie the encouragement he needed to become this awesome closer that he has become today. Ok, maybe not but I am proud to say that I was a Frankie fan before everyone else jumped on the Ryan Franklin bandwagon. Right now he is sitting on a 2-0 record with a 0.87 ERA and 19 saves out of 20 attempts. He is tied for 4th in the league in saves. He has obviously been very effective when given the opportunity. I am very excited for him. Everyone was questioning at the beginning of the season what the Cards were going to do without a true closer, without even naming a closer. I believe that Frankie has effectively silenced those questions. Keep it up Frankie!

-It has been a pretty decent baseball year for me. I have been to 8 games thus far this year. It would have been 9 if not for a rainout in Chicago back in April. That game has been rescheduled to next weekend. Plus I have 3 more to go to this weekend in Cincinnati. And even more exciting...I will be going to some of the All Star festivities next weekend. Dad got tickets for the All Star Fanfest with his ticket package this year and the tickets are for next Monday July 13. I took the day off to head down. I may not actually make it to the All Star game itself, but I can at least check out some of it. All Star game tickets has kinda been a standing "I want this for my birthday" thing for a long time since it always falls within a few days of my birthday. When I found out that St Louis would be hosting the All Star game the year of my 30th birhtday I thought it was fate and I was determined that I was going to be there. Unfortunately tickets are not exactly easy to come by, unless you are totally loaded, in which case you could check out Stub Hub and get some tickets. Unfortunately, I am not loaded. So I'll take what I can get. I'm just hoping to see some really cool Hall of Famers at the Fanfest.

Well, I think I will break here and download some pictures/video to the computer so that I can highlist some of my trips from this summer. More to come...

Greetings from the Worst Blogger Ever

Ok, don't fall over in shock. Yes, I am updating my blog. Life has been quite busy of late and I have not had a lot of time in which to blog. I am going to get at least somewhat caught up today. Fill people in on the goings on in my life over the last couple months and fill everyone in on a couple good Cardinals trips. Speaking of which, as we speak I am en route to Cincinnait for the Cardinals series this wonderful 4th of July weekend. Fireworks and the Cardinals...two of my favorite things. And to make it even better....we are stopping at the Beef House for lunch in Covington, IN in a bit. Yum!

So, what have I been doing lately....well, the most exciting thing would have to be buying a new car. I got a 2008 Mitsubishi Endeavor and it is totally tricked out. It was not what I originally planned to get but I love it. It is silver with black leather interior, has heated seats, sunroof and a built in navigation system (which has been great for my numerous trips I have taken over the last couple months...more on those in later posts). I have always wanted an SUV and now I finally have one! I got a great deal on it as it was a new 2008 that had been sitting on the lot for a year and they were trying to clear out for the 2010 stock. Here's a pic of what it looks like (not actually mine, but it looks the same)



I've also been playing softball a lot. And our team has a perfect record! And by that I mean we have yet to win a game. I swear, we really are not bad. We have good players. One night we were beating the best team in the league by like 6 runs. Then it all fell apart. It is a lot of fun though and that is all that is really important.

Last weekend I attended a 30th birthday party for my friend John. His birthday is not actually until Sunday (July 5) but Marla and Jeremiah had the party a little early. It was a good time at Old Orchard. I haven't been there in forever. Jeremiah was quite cute. And I got to hold Claire, the 2 week old daughter of the John and Marla's friend Krista that I have met on several occasions. She is a doll.

Crap....we are getting off the interstate to head to the Beefhouse. Gotta stop for now. Mmmmm....Beef House.

The Week in Review

Ok, trying to get caught up on the happenings of this week.

-First congrats to Karen and Ben! Tate Benjamin arrived at 11:45 PM on April 8. He was 5 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. Very exciting! Tate was not expected for a few more weeks but it was decided that he should put in an early appearance due to some concerns. I can't wait to go down and meet him. I am loving the name. It is a very Illini sounding name. I don't know if it was planned that way, but knowing Karen it could have been. Loren Tate is kinda legendary country and Tate is a much better name than Barnhardt, Shepherd or Bardo :)

-The Cards finished out the week at 3-2. But the most exciting thing to see (or hear as in my case) was Carp's great pitching debut on Thursday. Since I was at work I was unable to watch but I did listen at work. It was great to hear him bounce back his first game out this year. I really believe that confidence is a big factor in pitching and even though all the interviews say they are all professionals and one bad outing doesn't affect that, it has to feel good to get out there and see that yes, you can still do this. Plus it stops all the can he/can't he discussions in the media. Obviously he can. So close to the no hitter. Granted, not a complete game no hitter but I am not expecting any of our pitchers to go out and pitch a complete game in week 1. They are still working on the stamina and such at this point. Never fear though because our favorite, Ryan Franklin pitched a 1,2,3 8th inning and Dennys Reyes closed it out in the same manner. So good to see. I feel this bodes well for the remainder of the season. Only bad thing about listening to that game on the radio....nobody has talked to Mike Shannon about the whole "Ka-heel Green" thing yet. Help me out here people! Plus he was attempting to like give a physics lesson on the air. That was.....interesting. I also noticed on one of the other games this week that Colby Rasmus is apparently trying to compete with Chris Duncan over who can fit more chew in their mouth. At least I think it was chew. It could have been seeds. All I know is that there was a giant wad in there. Less is more Colby....less is more.

-In other Cards news...I finished reading the book "Tony LaRussa: Man on a Mission" by Rob Rains yesterday. I really did enjoy it. I read 3 Nights in August and it gives you quite the insight into Tony. This one however really took it back to the beginning. It talked about his childhood, growing up with Lou Pineila and his playing years. I learned that his first managing position was with the Cardinals farm team in Springfield, IL. Of course that team is no longer around but I just found it interesting. It chronicles all his time in Chicago and Oakland and of course in St Louis. I of course cringed a bit when reading about the rough patches he had in St Louis with Ozzie Smith and Scott Rolen since they are 2 of my all time favorite Cardinals. I realize there are some bruised feeling all around there. I just wish it hadn't happened that way. Both times the situation was a tough situation to be put in and I really can't blame anyone for their actions/comments at the time it was all going on. I just wish that it hadn't played out that way. Can't we all just get along? Next up I am either going to read the autobiography of Josh Hamilton, or a book about the Gashouse Gang, the infamous Cardinals team from back in the day. Yes, I really do eat, sleep and breathe baseball during the season :)

-Well baseball season has started so that means it is time to start softball too. We actually had our first practice last week in the rain...that was fun. By the time I got home I felt like I had stepped into the shower in my clothes. We were supposed to have a practice game on Monday night but it was kinda snowed out. That was crazy. We had our final practice Thursday night and I think we should have a decent team. If nothing else I know we will have a fun team. Everyone on the team is really fun/cool but still actually wants to be competitive. My kind of team. I don't know what position I will play but it really doesn't matter to me. Other people had much stronger opinions on where they wanted to play. I have played like every postion so I just told them to put me wherever. I am very excited for our first game on Thursday. Now it is just a matter of staying injury free through the season. I was pitching batting practice the other day and if it hadn't been for my quick reflexes I would have taken a line drive to the nose. I caught it though so no DL for me :)

As I type I am currently en route to St Louis for the Cards games this weekend against the Astros. We have a Pujols Pack for 7 games this season straight down the right field line. Then mom suggested we stay overnight and go to the game tomorrow as well. I checked out Stub Hub and apparently nobody goes to the game on Easter Sunday. We were going to get tickets in the green seats (yes, THE green seats, the crazy expensive ones right behind home plate) that were on Stub Hub for only $100 a piece (that includes food and beverage...the face value is $250 a piece but I have never seen them on Stub Hub for under $300) but we couldn't find a 4th person to go as all our regular game go-ers had other plans. Don't feel too bad for us though....I managed to find tickets in row 5 behind home plate (technically row 5 behind the green seats) for only $50 a piece. Not bad at all. Unfortunately both giveaways this weekend are for kids. Darn. I want a Ryan Ludwick bat. I don't need the Kids cap today but I would totally take a Ludwick bat.

Ok, almost to Litchfield...gonna grab some lunch and then be on our way.