Porgies from Greenport

Just back from our Father's Day fishing trip. After not one but TWO weather cancellations, we finally got out to Greenport for some porgies. Captain Mike of Captain's Table Charters did a great job. He put us right on the fish, Devon had the first porgy about five seconds after her sinker hit bottom.

We had a steady pick of porgies all day long, everyone got a keeper. We even made a few drifts for blues before we headed back to the dock- Daddy got a couple of nice bluefish- wish I had a video of the first one I caught, it broke the water a couple of times before I pulled it in over the stern.

Best day of fishing EVER.

ROCKET GIRLS

My latest project with the ladies isn’t exactly Rocket Science. . . well maybe it is. We’re building a couple of rockets. I tried to build an Estes Rocket when I was in the second grade. I got about as far as Step 1 before I realized I was in over my head. For whatever reason I kept the two parts that I managed to glue together in my sock drawer until I went off to college.




I think it’s time to give it another shot. This time I have two helpers, Megan and Devon. I ordered two rockets, a starter set that includes a launching pad and a second rocket that has space for a payload. The girls are already planning what they want to send into orbit.




After an aborted start yesterday, we were able to get going tonight. We glued the engine mount together and put the launch lug on the main body of the rocket. Stay tuned for more progress reports . . .

Gone Batty

Well, we're back. Last year Devon only made it through the 5th before melting, this year heat was not exactly an issue. But the ladies put up with the cold and damp and had a great Bat Day.

At the last minute we decided to drive to the game rather than take the subway. I didn't adjust our travel time, so we ended up there before the gates even opened at 10:00. Since the first pitch was at 1:05 we had PLENTY of time to visit the Yankee Museum and do Monument Park.

The Stadium itself is a masterpiece. I didn't see all, or even most of the building, but still- it's as impressive as hell. Wide concourses, great views even from our seats ten rows from the top. We could see every part of the field, the seats were spaced far enough apart so that you're not on top of your neighbor.

The Yankees have down an amazing job of tapping into their rich history. Everywhere you look there are vintage photos of old Yankees and past Championship teams. The Yankee museum has a great tribute to the Negro league teams and players that played in the old Stadium. I hate having to explain why that's necessary to the girls, but I'm glad they can't fathom why anyone would discriminate like that.

The rest of the museum is a more or less chronological presentation of the great Yankee Championship runs. It was great fun for all of us to put our hands over a Babe Ruth palmprint. I expected George Herman to have massive mitts, evidently not. His print wasn't much bigger than mine. I also loved the collection of autographed baseballs. The Yankees are attempting to get a signed ball from every player who wore pinstripes. On my next visit I want to search out Celerino Sanchez who briefly replaced Bobby Murcer as my favorite Yankee in 1972.

They let everyone wander around through Monument Park now; they also let you pose for photos throughout the area. I will admit that it does make for a slightly less reverent vibe, but it's still pretty impressive.

The game itself was a throwback pitcher's duel. Only a couple of hits and no runs through six. Both teams scored two in the Seventh. Johnny Damon homered in the bottom of the Tenth to put the Twinkies away. The girls lasted a full seven, then fell asleep in the car with their new bats safely tucked away.

Stay tuned loyal readers. Today will be the first trip to the (New) Yankee Stadium for the ladies and me. It's also BAT DAY!! Even Debbie is being a good sport and tagging along for the entire show. Megan is insisting on bringing both her T-ball glove and her pink batters helmet- she promises to share both with Devon. We may need a ruling from the Commissioner to settle that one. More details after the game.

First Visit to Shea (Citi)

Made my first visit to the Mets new home last night. Thanks to the Kingman for the ducat. I don't care what they say, I drive on the Triborough and the Interborough and the West Side Highway, not the freakin' RFK Bridge, Jackie Robinson Parkway or Joe DiMaggio Highway. Nothing against Jackie or Joe D (no comment on RFK), but I have become something of a traditionalist in my old age. I see no reason to rename perfectly good bridges and highways. So I am staging my own personal protest against Vikram Pandit and his crew of idiots (I mean bankers).

I'm calling it Shea.

Despite my objections to the name, I was impressed with the place. I like the wide corridors and the Jackie Robinson Pavillion was a nice tribute. I would agree though with Met fans who have complained about the shortage of Mets tributes- there is a hell of a lot of blank wall space that would be perfect for photographs of old Mets, summaries of classic games at Shea, etc. too much grey concrete. They could use some more TV's at the food stands too, but these are all things that can (and probably will) get fixed fairly easily. I think the Mets did a great job with their new home; I might even break down and bring the girls by for a game with their cousins. The wifflle ball cage looks like a blast.

HDTV RULES!!!

Yes, I know it's been a while. I wanted to fill you all in on my repeat trip to Stellwagen Bank, but Mother Nature intervened and we got cancelled. I would have recounted my exploits hauling in stripers (or even flounder) out of City Island, but I couldn't even manage a nibble.

This is worthy of a post.

Our TV crapped out yesterday. I got 19 years out of it. It's the first big ticket item I bought after college- it's the set I was watching when the 'Cuse crushed Kansas for the National Championship.

And I won't miss it at all. I went out tonight, picked up an HD-DVR cable box and a Sharp AQUOS LC-40E67U.

I'm tuned into YES-HD watching the Yanks and the Sox and I can see EVERYTHING. I'm kind of glad David Wells is retired because there are some things I don't want to see in High Definition.

It took me a good hour to figure out how to get the cable box running, and things aren't perfect, but WOW!!

Wii Rules!!

I had a giftcard for Circuit City left over for Christmas. Since Circuit City is about to go to the great corporate beyond, we were in a hurry to cash it in. The place was packed, but Debbie and I decided to get a Wii (for the kids, of course).

Well there were no consoles on sale, but we picked up three games anyway, and I spent the rest of Saturday and a good chunk of Sunday surfing the web for tips on how to find a console. For those of you living under a rock, Nintendo has adopted a marketing strategy of keeping the Wii consoles in short supply. You can buy and Xbox or a Playstation any time you want, but finding a Wii can take a little effort. In my case, very little.

After all this research, I found one obscure post (which I can't find anymore) saying that Nintendo has a corporate store in Rockefeller Center that puts a couple of dozen Wiis on sale every day. I swung by there yesterday with the girls on our way to visit Debbie at work, and two minutes (and $250), later we walked out with our new Wii.

It took me about an hour or so to hook the thing up, and then the girls were bowling. I tried- no, really I did actually try- to get the High School Musical Sing Along game to work without success, but the girls were happy with bowling and golf. Debbie and I were pretty popular, at least for the day.

After bedtime, Daddy tried out the boxing game. So far I'm undefeated, but haven't reached the pro ranks yet.