Family Portrait

I'll write more later about our weekend in Carmel but I wanted to post a cute "family" photo our friend Lyndsay took at a bbq she had for her husband's birthday:

:

The Dublin Zimmermans:

Up and At It Bright and Early

This Sunday Marc and I actually got up at 6:00 am and made our way to the city to meet Jenny and Josh for a 5K run sponsored by the SF Giants called Plate to Plate. Now I say actually because we have committed to do several runs with Jenny and Josh but just can’t seem to get ourselves out of bed early on Sunday morning to get to the city in time for the run. So needless to say when I spoke to Jenny around 8 am, she was very SHOCKED we were already in the city.

The run was actually fun, I was very worried since I hadn’t run in like 2 months. But we met Jenny, Josh, Josh’s sister Lindsay (whom I met at Jenny’s bachlorette party and we hit it off) and Jenny’s friend Karl (who lives next to the ball park – Marc was so completely jealous) at Panera and then walked over to the ball park where the race was starting. There ended up being about 2500 runners. The runners who most amaze me are the women pushing baby strollers; I can barely keep myself up let alone push a stroller. And they were all running faster than me!

The race was actually fairly easy, perfect for me! It was on the Embarcadero and was super flat! Exactly what I love when it comes to running but very rare in San Francisco. For anyone who knows SF we ran from AT&T Park to the Ferry Building and then back toward the stadium, on the way back we got to run on the field, we ran around the outfield (everyone stopped to take pictures of the Barry Bonds tribute – I personally was afraid if I stopped running, I would never start again) and then down the third base line, touched home plate, and up the first base line, then out towards McCovey Cove and towards the finish line. They were putting our images on the scoreboard too so that was fun! It was pretty cool to be on the field, it is amazingly big standing on the field and looking up at the stands.

I ran with Lindsay almost the whole time, she was the perfect running partner for me because we ran very slowly together. We ran 11 minute miles which considering I hadn’t run in forever wasn’t too bad. I got a second wind rounding the bases on the field plus SexyBack came on my iPod so I broke away from Lindsay and finished in 33 minutes. Not bad for a turtle! J

After the race we exchanged our bibs for free tickets to the Giants game, it was a pretty boring game and the Giants lost to the Pirates (pathetic isn’t it?) But we had good company so it was a good day. All in all A+ day! We might even get up again next year for it!

The Group before the run (Lindsay, Josh, Jenny, Karl, and Allie):

Marc and I:

Lindsay and I running (still all smiles - we were only going mile 2):

Views from inside the stadium (they're blury because Marc was running):

The finish line!!

At the Game:

Number 755

This week’s shenanigan took us to San Diego. Every year we attend a Giants/Padres game with my parents either in San Diego or in San Francisco. This year there were no weekend games for the match up in San Francisco so Marc bought us tickets in San Diego for this past weekend, which happened to put us right in San Diego as Barry Bonds was about to tie Hank Aaron’s homerun record. Marc bought the tickets the day they went on sale so we really got lucky with the timing, and had we wanted until the last minute to get tickets we would have paid about $10,000 a ticket, well maybe not that much but there was an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a guy who was selling his tickets for $10k a piece.

We took a late night flight in Friday night and rented a car (naturally a Taurus because we always get them) so that Marc could go up to see his Aunt and Uncle on Saturday during the day and I could go with my parents to see Ed and Lauren who just got back from 2 weeks in Kaui. Then we met back up at my parents’ house and Marc, my mom, my dad and I headed downtown to Petco Park. There was all of this talk about Barry hitting his homerun that night, we got to the park super early, say 2 hours early, because we were worried about traffic since the game was sold out. Marc got to watch batting practice, unfortunately for Marc, Barry had hit earlier in the day in private before the park was open and before the media was allowed in. So we walked around the stadium, which is really beautiful, got some dinner (yummy Rubio’s – my hometown favorite) and some beers and settled into our seats.

Marc watching batting practice and the media spectacle:

I was very skeptical about Barry hitting his homerun to tie the record because Marc and I had been to many games where Barry was just about to make a milestone and he got the hit the next night so I had zero expectations of getting a show. Barry was batting 4th and the Giants had a 3 up-3 down inning so Barry was the first batter in the top of the second. Barry got up to bat to a bunch of boos, there were also a lot of cheering (there happened to be a lot of Giants fans there), along with “*” signs that San Diego fans had made. We were fortunate that coincidentally we were sitting among many Giants fans so we didn’t get heckled, well Marc didn’t get heckled, I was wearing my Swinging Friars hat in honor of my hometown team. I am sure most of you may by now know that the first 2 pitches Barry took and then on the 3rd pitch he made contact. I am shocked that he even saw the ball because the amount of flashes that went off each time he was at bat was unreal. I tried to capture a photo of it but my camera filtered it out. Anyway, feelings about Barry aside, it was really amazing to be there as he hit number 755. 90% of the boos turned to cheers as people got caught up in history. What was really great was that the Giants team rushed the field as Barry was rounding the bases but held off until he was done hugging his son who was standing at home plate to greet him. I will also add that I am writing this at work so obviously neither Marc nor I were the lucky catchers of Number 755. Marc actually sprung for the good tickets on the 3rd base lines so we weren’t even in homerun territory.

Barry's homerun swing:

Barry Rounding the Bases:

All of the flashes going off, it didn't come out very well:

The remainder of the game was very uneventful. Barry got walked on the rest of his 3 at-bats. I was a little shocked that the Padres didn’t do anything to commemorate the occasion, perhaps because it was an away game but again, despite feelings on the subject, it was a piece of baseball history, good or bad. The next batter’s first pitch was delayed a bit but most likely because he was in the mob of Giants players celebrating with Barry. All in all I was a little disappointed in San Diego’s reaction to the home run, they didn’t post anything congratulating him, do any sort of a ceremony mid-game, etc. Growing up in San Diego, I would have expected more from the city.

The Swinging Friar (I love him!):