From 10/31/2014 - the evolution of our back yard

Went and saw the Midwest League Match-up tonight at Miller Park. It was a great Win for the T-Rats over the Dayton Dragons, and it was also good for us as the (World Champion) St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brewers in St. Louis 13-1. Pete has some great pictures that I will post later.

Gwinett Braves - 5/28/12

Guinette Braves at Coolray Field! This was our Memorial day Game. From our hotel, it was just 15 minutes away and we were just a little nervous about the grey sky but excited to see the game. We got there early and were exploring the park when the rain started. Luckily it was still early. We tried to find something interesting for dinner and finally settled on these jumbo dogs - one with chili and cheese, one with Cole slaw and sweet onion relish. They were tasty and MESSY!

The Seats that Michael got were GREAT! Front row on the third base line. I moved back a row as the cup holder was cutting into my leg and left the boys to goof around and make non stop, juvenile jokes about Ryan Sandburg's ass.

Oh yeah, Pete also took a ton of pictures of the aforementioned ass. Oddly, none of us managed to get a picture of him from the front!


So the game was fun except that the poor Braves went down 8-3 early in the game and just sort of spent the whole game there. There was a little bit of a rain delay, so people were starting to get antsy anticipating the fireworks as we headed to the bottom of the 9th. But the Gwinette Braves were not dead yet as they small balled their way to 8-6 and then in dramatic fashion hit a three run homer to walk off the game with a final score of 8-9. They barely had time to celebrate before the lights went out and we had celebratory fireworks! Coined the phrase and the title of our new photo/story blog "Slam and a Half" the number of runs the Braves had to make up, and did, in order to win the game. 

Not Guilty

Not going to feel guilty because I have been so bad about keeping on top of this blog, just going to try to be better.

Here are a few photos from our vacation this summer.

We took 11 days to drive through the South East and see some baseball and return to Cave Mountain lake.

Friday/Saturday
Drive to Atlanta.
Uneventful except for the 2 1/2 hours it took us to get through downtown Chicago and the horrible Motel 6/Denny's/Waffle House experience in Elizabethtown PA (good movie, dump town).

 Saturday we arrived in Atlanta and went to a local Sports bar where they serve the local (Sweet Water) beer. We enjoyed the Cardinals vs. Philly's game on the TV and some wings... yum.

Sunday we drove up (down? over?) to Montgomery AL for some Dreamland BBQ before a Biscuits game. We hooked up with Cheryl and her boyfriend John for lunch.

Downtown Montgomery i lovely, it reminded me a lot of Downtown Beloit, quaint, storefronts and diners.

The BBQ was fantastic, we all ordered sandwiches, but it felt more like a half slab of ribs on some white bread. There was no way you could have picked that up and eaten it like a sandwich. We didn't have any trouble picking up the ribs!

After lunch we headed across the street to the Biscuits stadium. It's very cool, reminded us of a lot of those Building/Stadiums (Camden, Mud Hens, Akron). This used to be an old train depot. The only issue we had on the day was that it was Hot as Hell!

Cheryl had come up with fantatic tickets, second row on the third base side, but it wouldn't have mattered where we were, it was hot and sunny! Good thing there was plenty of cold beer.

After the game, we freshened up and then went to John and Cheryl's local watering hole, Nail on the Head, and drank way too much Yuengling. Meh... we're on vacation!

Next up... Guinette Braves.

SLACKER!!!!

What the hell... Almost 9 months since our last post!

Don't think that it means we haven't been busy!

So what's been happening? and can I sum up 9 months in less than 30 photos?

January 4 - our good friends Rod and Kelley get married in a lovely ceremony in the woods. Yes, in January. Beautiful, and in a word... C O L D. Oddly remniscient of my Mom and Bob's wedding, also on January 4th, on the beach... in Manitowoc. Also cold and lovely.

















I stage managed a wonderful production of Nobody Lonesome For Me, a great fantasy about Hank William's last night by the same author that wrote Lady Day at the Emerson Bar and Grill that I did a few years ago. Matthew Brumlow was stunning as Hank and Peter Silbert held us together as the ghost guitarist.


We actually cancelled a couple performances during this mostly sold out run...




One for the over 4 feet of snow that we got














and One, again 'due to relevant Football game' - yes,amid much alcohol, the Green Bay Packers became the 2011 Super Bowl Champs.







Mom and Dad Koenig visited in January with Dominic Brenden and Madi

And before you know it... Baseball is back!!
Our first game of the season was a Brewers Rising Star game, you guessed it, the Brewers won.






















Then another Brewers Game - Happy Brewer Fans and Sad Braves fans









On a whim, we decided that Easter dinner would best be enjoyed at the ball park! Our good friends the McMillions put together a lovely tailgate and we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny, perfect day for baseball.












More summer baseball - a lot of Brewers games this year and a couple of new parks for us, we took in a game at the Corn Crib and cheered for the Normal Corn Belters















We took our Anniversary trip to Minneapolis and took in a game at the new Target Field. It was a perfect day of baseball, we went to the Minneapolis sculpture garden, then over to the game and after the Twins beat the Tigers, we walked up the block a little and enjoyed a few local beers while we watched the Cardinals on TV.







Another new park for us, we finally made it to (some of) a Rapids Rafters game with Gail, Tom, Dan, Christina and our A D O R A B L E Godson Gavin. He's so patriotic! It is a great park and it was shaping up to be a good game when the sky opened up and sent us diving for cover. But we recovered with a night of Quiddler and the game eventually went all the way to the 13th inning!




And finally, to get caught up on the summer (sort of) the end of an era - Pete parted with his golden locks for a much cooler and very snazzy short hair cut!

That's it... only 22 photos and we're caught up! Now, going into the fall, we've also been slacking on our summer house projects, but there's paint and a new sink for the upstairs bathroom, new flooring in the back of the car and lots of plans for the next couple of weeks. Our Goal? September 29th we have to have the upstairs put back together, hopefully less brown and orange!
Stay tuned! Before and after pictures are on the horizon!