Some weekend pics

My posts are infrequent and they probably won't get more frequent anytime soon, but a quick update is in order.

Real estate work is going well and I spent a few hours on Saturday showing a first time home buyer four homes that met her specifications. She's a friend of a few friends, so she was okay to work with. I'm not interested in working with too many people I don't know.  A guy I played softball with is looking for an apartment downtown for him and his girlfriend and we went to look at a place the other day as well. They are going to check out a few places on the 9th of June and then make a decision. As a broker you don't make much at all on apartments, so it's worth even LESS of my time, but I'm trying to help them out so it's all good.

Marissa is more and more awesome everyday. She loves Skyping with "Gammaw", which encompass both grandma and grandpa. She even tries to kiss them through the computer...it's really adorable. She's starting to repeat things that we say as well. The other day Laura asked me to do something and I said "Oh yeah, sure, sure." Marissa said "sure, sure" about 5 times. Ha! She's hauling all over the condo and it's a lot of fun to watch. She loves to "crash" on our bed, which is where we pick her up and gently drop her on the pillows. "Crash" gets transferred to other times she falls down though, which is also funny. Eating is not a problem for this little one which is great. She'll try pretty much anything and if she doesn't try it today, she'll probably try it tomorrow or after she sees you eating it. Pretty awesome.  As I recall, we bought very little "baby food" in jars and such. She went from breast milk to real food fairly quickly.

Time for pictures!

Her new car that emulates the cars in the park across the street from us. She loves to drive!

Her first trip to the "pool" and granny's house. We're thinking that if she likes the water, I may start taking her to swimming classes at my gym. Good father/daughter time!

She got used to the water OUTSIDE the pool first. Ha!

Easy....easy... 

Alrighty then!

And of course the big towel afterwards.

Not much going on here, just a video of her walking around the Belmont Harbor park on a nice sunny day. 

Happy 1,000 Days!!!

Finishing up KC

First off, my apologies to those who, when bored out of their skull, come to read my journal only to find that I have been unable to update it (Ken!). Not sure where all of my time goes, but there hasn't been a ton of time for blogging and I know 25 years from now, I and Marissa will regret it. So here's the wrap up from our KC trip.

After the grand night at the Royals game, Sunday brought more adventure: a behind the scenes trip to the zoo (before it was open to the public) and a suite at Sporting KC, the local soccer team.

First though, the Hawks play today and I'll be babysitting Marissa. We'll definitely have the game on, though she's usually due for her afternoon nap around the time of puck drop which is 2.  She now will point at the Blackhawks' logo and say "Hawks!" We're very proud!!! 

Marissa LOVES the penguins and here we are at the outside portion of the exhibit. The exhibit was funded by a $15M tax that LL's brother helped push through. The exhibit is one of the largest in North America if not the largest. It's pretty awesome.

A rare picture of a penguin on their egg. Sort of crazy, some times, due to limited populations, brothers and sisters and cousins will mate. A very detailed family tree is kept for all penguins in zoos at least in the US but possibly the world. The penguins are then switched and swapped to help keep them healthy.  The ones who mate and lay eggs, but shouldn't (like siblings), have their eggs taken away and substituted with fake eggs. Very interesting. These next few pictures are from INSIDE the penguin pen!! Yep, we got to go inside with the penguins. Unfortunately for Marissa, she was wayyyyy too excited and wanted to get down and run after them. Couldn't have that unfortunately so she had to go outside and look from the other side of the glass. :-(

They have a pretty good polar bear exhibit as well. This little fella came swimming up to us by the glass, after the zoo had opened up to the general population.

Just when you think that's enough, which it clearly was, we headed out to the soccer game. The stadium seats like 17,000 and is as loud as hell!! Awesome fun!

Love the men's bathroom sign. Ha!

KC, here we come....and go I guess.

Last weekend, LL, Marissa and I went to Kansas City to visit with LL's brother and his family. We flew out Friday afternoon and returned Monday morning. In between the flights, it was a whirlwind of activity! Great fun and lots of eating.

It started with KC barbecue at the house upon our arrival, which was awesome. Lots of catching up and drinking, followed by a morning of coffee and cronuts (awesome if you haven't had them). Then it was off to the Royals baseball game in time for batting practice and a trip to the field! LL's niece was given a bat by the Royals third baseman, Mike Moustakas, and he even autographed it for her.

We were right down on the track as you can see from the pics.

Then we went on a stadium tour. Here are the lineups and the umps.

The TV booth. Had to take a picture of the cough button. Ha!

The KC P&L suite!

Marissa's cousin helping her get a drink of water. 

On my walk around the stadium, I found this hot dog stand. Nice!

The Royals hall of fame in left field was pretty interesting actually. 

Has to have a George Brett exhibit of course!

The World Series trophy. 

From behind the fountains in the outfield. 

If we didn't want to sit in the suite, we could sit here in the first row behind the Tiger's dugout. Unfortunately, with little Marissa (who wanted to run around) we couldn't stay down there for more than a few innings. I also had to be prepared to dive in front of her and LL in case a line drive or even bat was headed our way. Not a pretty thought. 

So then in the 7th inning or so, a guy comes up with two bases.  One of them is for me! Second base for the first four innings. 

Genuine Royals base!! Yes, I was able to get it home on the plane by carrying it on. 

The last triple crown winner, Miguel Cabrera standing on my base.

Eric Hosmer standing on my base too.

Tomorrow, hopefully, more pics!