The old ball game

We took My Boy to his first baseball game a few weeks ago--the Oakland Athletics vs. the Minnesota Twins. My Husband got sweet company tickets on the 3rd row in line with 3rd base. The seats were so excellent we could smell the grass (sigh), and we had a great time for the 5 innings we lasted (My Boy is an "early to bed, early to rise"-type guy, so 5 innings was pretty good). No foul balls came close to hitting my child as I feared, and I re-discovered how much I like attending sporting events and checking out sporting event food. We didn't get there early enough for a bobble head, but Nice Guy sitting nearby gifted his Jack Cust to us--thanks, Nice Guy!

We attended yet another A's game last week. The seats were still pretty good and we stayed the whole 9 innings this time since My Boy freakishly took a 2+ hour nap that day. But he did NOT want to stay for fireworks, which was one of the reasons I got the tickets in the first place. Oh well.

Here's something: did you know the mascot for the Athletics is an elephant named Stomper? Is there a less athletic animal? Wikipedia tells me a former manager of the New York Giants said one of the A's first owners "bought himself a white elephant" when he got the team, so there's the history. Before each game, Stomper apparently "rides around the field in a little red car while the song Jungle Boogie is played." Too bad we missed that--I would have laughed a lot. And he's appeared in a public service announcement against chewing tobacco, so that's good. My Boy was a little scared of Stomper, but not too scared to get a picture.

Books, books, books

Today I strapped My Boy in the stroller and went to check out the Big Book Sale at Fort Mason. It's an annual event where the San Francisco Public Library sells all types of media donated by individuals and businesses, and it's apparently the largest book sale on the West Coast. I went primarily to get some cheap paperbacks to take on my upcoming trip to London and was not disappointed. Here's what I got:

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Homeland and Other Stories by Barbara Kingsolver

Excellent, huh? Any opinions on which ones I should take with me? I also got a copy of The Doctor's Book of Home Remedies, which my family had growing up. I am a big fan since it once gave me a sure-fire way to get rid of hiccups (plug your ears while drinking water; it totally works). All these books cost me $15! The selection of younger kids books wasn't great, but they did have tons of VHS movies for $1 each and some CDs, DVDs and other types of books I didn't get to look at (you have to know your limits when browsing with a 3-year-old). If this sounds like your thing and you live in the Bay Area, you should definitely go.

The way to a girl's heart

My Husband came home a couple nights ago with a gift that made me happy--a previously-viewed copy of Hot Rod on DVD! I originally watched it because I really like Andy Samberg from Saturday Night Live. It's very goofy but was way better than I thought it would be, and I laughed a lot. You'll probably like it if you have the sense of humor of a 16-year-old boy as I do, or if you think this clip is funny:

And speaking of SNL, did you hear Amy Poehler will leave the show when she goes on maternity leave in November? (she's married to Will Arnett from Arrested Development in real life if you didn't know--also in Hot Rod and featured in my last post). She will supposedly be in an Office spin-off show, thank goodness!

Not cool

I have a theory, and it's one I think is pretty solid: it is impossible to look cool while riding a Segway Personal Transporter (the official name). There is a company in San Francisco that offers various Segway tours. It actually sounds really fun, but whenever I see groups like the ones below, I have to fight an impulse to scream, "Dorks! Nerds! DORKS!" at them.

Fun facts: a Segway costs about $5,500, can go up to 12.5 miles per hour and up to 24 miles at a time before it loses charge. Still, if this guy can't make it look good, who can?

Hilarious reading for 3-year-olds

Here are a few books that make My Boy laugh out loud:

All the Pigeon books are amusing, but this newest one really got him. He usually wanted me to read it two or three times in a row when we had it from the library.

Props to my baby sister for introducing this one. Short and simple with great pictures.

My Boy laughed so hard with this one I thought he might hurt himself. Plus he can kind of "read" it by himself.

The part that got him in this one: when Olivia asks her baby brother if he's seen her missing toy and he says, "Woo-shee gaga."