Sunday, July 29, 2007

Red Sox Weekend!


Why is this man happy?


Oh, that's why!


Josh, Jennifer, and Genevieve

Last weekend, we had an all-Red Sox, all-Boston extravaganza! Roger and I got tickets to not one, but two Red Sox-White Sox games, including the Sunday, designated "Vermont Day" game. We invited our friends to come down to Boston for the weekend and luckily scored a really low price, via Priceline, for one-night accomodations at the new Boston Hotel Intercontinental, right along the harbor.

The festivities actually began in New Hampshire, where we had lunch at the famous KC's Ribshack in Manchester. Very good BBQ, very good onion rings, and very, very good hush puppies.

When we got to Boston, we pretty much headed straight to the park for the first game, rookie Kason Gabbard was pitching. It was a very sunny, very hot day! So sunny that Jennifer and I ended up buying baseball caps for some relief. We also discovered the bargain of the park: freshly squeezed lemonade! Tall plastic 16 oz cup of ice, juice of a 1-1/2 lemons, sugar, and water. Yum! And as the ice melted, it was like you got a free refill. The Red Sox won 11-2.

After the game ended, we checked out our rooms in the hotel: really cool! Very nicely designed, with latest flat screen tvs, deluxe bath with a separate tub and a shower, and a well-appointed vanity. The hotel also had a gorgeous esplanade in the back, looking onto the water and the Children's Museum. For dinner, we headed up to Cambridge to eat at the Border Cafe, and then came back into the city for dessert at Mike's Pastry.


Roger, Genevieve, Josh, and Hank

The next day, Jennifer had to go back up to New Hampshire, but our friend Hank joined us for some more baseball and dim sum at Hei-La Moon.

We lucked out on both fronts -- very fast service at the Moon and with Wakefield starting for the Red Sox and Papelbon closing it out, we secured our second win in two days! We definitely were sated by the time we drove home!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

A House Divided

It's official, when it comes to tennis, Roger and I stand on opposite sides of the court (net?).

He roots for Roger Federer, the stoic Swiss, and I root for Rafael Nadal, the savvy Spaniard.

Sunday, as I was watching the Wimbledon Men's Final, I was really hoping that Rafa could pull out a win, not just to take one away from Mr. Federer, but just to make the rivalry just a little more interesting. Oh, but the knee worked up and Rafa fell behind in the fifth set. He definitely needs to work on his serve -- his first serve percentage numbers aren't bad, but he just doesn't have that power serve that can produce ace after ace that Roger has.

Here's hoping the two meet again in the U.S. Open.

(TIP: If you want to make Roger (our Roger, not Federer) cringe, just start quoting Joe Starkey, his last call of the 1982 Big Game ... "the most amazing, sensational, traumatic, heart-rending, exciting thrilling ... ")