kdiddy.org » dem pens

the thrill of victory

kdiddy — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:53:37 +0000

The Penguins lost last night, ending the season on a bit of a whimper and sending Montreal on further toward their 8 billionth Stanley Cup. We opted not to watch the game until the bitter end when the score flipped over to 5-2 in the middle of the third period. It was getting late and the baby needed to go to bed and I don’t deal well with the stress of games like that. While the practical side of my brain knows that it’s probably over, my black and gold heart still wants to believe in an unlikely miracle. Then I end up nauseated and palpitating, and who needs that on a school night?

As the baby was getting ready for bed, he said, “I can’t believe the Penguins aren’t going to win the Stanley Cup,” sounding genuinely offended. We reminded him that you can’t win them all. Then I realized that he’s a little spoiled. In nearly all of the years that he’s been aware enough to care, some Pittsburgh team was winning a championship or at least getting close enough to taste it. So, as far as he’s concerned, a year without a Super Bowl or Stanley Cup victory is just…wrong. I mean, it’s been almost a year since we last had to shield him from drunken hordes and angry police on Brookline Boulevard. This is no way to go into summer.

But now we have time to focus our sports energy into Little League. My son is not the most natural athlete, but we wanted him to play some sports for a few reasons.

1) Activity is a good thing.

2) It’s a concrete (and hopefully fun) way for him to learn about working hard and slowly improving at something, which we’ve been struggling with at school.

3) I didn’t play sports when I was a kid. I was doing ballet and I was way too shy. I kind of regret that now. So I want him to at least try a few out just for the experience. The husband gets together with friends every now and then for a casual game of basketball and it kind of bums me out that I can’t really do something like that. (Not that learning a sport now is just so impossible, but I would obviously have a lot of catching up to do and the muscle memory isn’t there and blah.)

Anyway, the baby hasn’t progressed in baseball like some of the other kids his age on his team. While they’re getting turns playing first base and whatnot, he’s still in the outfield. He gets bored out there and on the few occassions that a ball comes his way, he’s not reacting quickly enough to make a play. We explained to him that he needs to prove himself in the outfield before his coach will trust him enough to play infield.

Last Friday night, he finally got it. He played well enough in the outfield that the coach let him play second base. His team was also winning by a pretty wide margin, so I guess the coach figured that he couldn’t do too much harm.

He played pretty well, though most of the action was happening at first base.

But then, the last hitter came up to bat, swung, hit the ball, and sent it directly in the baby’s direction. His glove went up in the air, his eyes widened…and at that precise moment the dad who was acting as first base coach stepped right in the line of vision of the husband and me. Gah!

But I caught a glimpse of the baby catching the ball on the fly, pausing for a split second to marvel at the presence of the ball in his glove, then scurrying toward second base to tag out the boy heading for it.

And with that, his team won the game.

It was so exciting! Everyone jumped up and cheered and called out his name and afterward his coach declared him MVP.

I was so proud that he had tried hard enough to improve and could finally understand, at least a little, that wanting to do something isn’t enough. Adding hard work to desire will often lead to success. Not always, but often.

I hope that it’s one of the moments that he’s able to replay in his head, even when he’s an old man. I’ve already tucked it into my “Flash Before My Eyes on My Deathbed” file.

seviche gift certificate winner

kdiddy — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:04:49 +0000

Mornin’ everyone. I’m trying to pretend that yesterday never happened for Pittsburgh sports. The Brewers beat the Pirates, 20-0, which makes it the worst defeat in Pirates’ history, and if you know the Pirates, you know that that’s really saying something. The husband and the sister-in-law actually went to the game and they were all depressed afterward. Then the Penguins lost to the Senators in triple overtime. Thankfully, the playoffs aren’t over for the Pens, but extending them longer than necessary gets to be really nerve-wracking.

ANYWAY, let’s move on to more pleasant things, namely who the lucky winner is of the $50 gift certificate to Seviche. I went to random.org a few minutes and drew the number 18. Commenter #18 was…Katrina! Congratulations, Katrina! I’ll be emailing you in a few minutes.

Thanks, everyone, so much for entering. I think this was really fun and I hope we can do something similar again some time. And even if you didn’t win this time, I do sincerely recommend that you check out both the Sonoma Grille and Seviche. You won’t be sorry. Thank you, also, to Nakturnal for contacting me and arranging the whole thing.

because it’s sunday and you need this

kdiddy — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:21:29 +0000

When we were at my mother-in-law’s house last weekend, her friend brought over her puppy, Zeke. Zeke is a big baby and loves giving my kid puppy kisses.

Also note my kid’s chompers. Considering that the husband and I both had to get our teeth jackhammered into something resembling straight, I’m thinking that the local orthodontists are salivating in anticipation of my kid’s date with the Train Tracks of Doom and OMFG My Mouth Hurts.

But anyway PUPPY!

I want to smoosh both of their faces.

Also, my kid finished up a few weeks of ice skating lessons yesterday. I’m fairly certain that the recent pwnage that the Penguins handed out had something to do with this. He’s pretty good at it, though.

I’ve been ice skating twice, I think, and each time was a total disaster. I mean, a disaster if we’re measuring ice skating success by being able to move about the rink upright and not lying on the ice, crying. Ahem.

sweeeeeet

kdiddy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:18:38 +0000

Ignore the pile of shirts in the background (hey, they’re folded, right?) and feast your eyes on my kick ass tshirt. I came across BelieveMerch a few weeks ago and ordered two of these shirts, one for me and one for the husband as a graduation/anniversary/Father’s Day gift. Then I had to wait because only someone of brilliance orders something from a small, local merchant who peddles Pittsburgh sports stuff two days before the Penguins win the Stanley Cup. I waited as long as I could before sending them nagging emails (by the way, if you happen to read this, BelieveMerch folks, sorry I put my mom voice on in that last email). But the shirts finally arrived today and I’m so so excited.

The reasons for the awesomeness of this shirt are threefold:

- It looks fucking badass
- It’s about Pittsburgh
- It’s a Weeds reference (Shane, a young character on the show, goes through a period of obsession with Pittsburgh, convinced that it’s the Promised Land and obviously art imitates life so he’s absolutely correct.)

it’s big taste

kdiddy — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:48:55 +0000

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t totally sure that the Penguins could pull it off. Having to go back to Detroit for Game 7 after every appearance there in these playoffs was a total disaster had me thinking that last night could be another heartbreaking loss. But the team that played last night was a totally different team that played there a couple of nights ago, when we lost 5-0. Everything came together. They played well, they were focused, and, yes, we had some luck on our side.

And they won. They won. It was thrilling. Getting to see Sidney Crosby hoist the cup was awesome and watching him hand it off later to Mario Lemieux was almost too much. I only have vague memories of the last time that the Penguins won and Mario was the first to lift that beast over his head, mostly of hugging my parents in our living room and banging pots and pans outside. Last night was nice and clear, though.

As I’ve said before, I don’t care that it’s “silly” to be emotionally invested in my sports teams. There’s happiness and joy there. That’s a good thing.

We walked to our main drag last night and watched some of the celebrating. We left when the cops showed up in case things took a turn, since we had the baby with us and I would really like him to wait until he’s older to get teargassed for the first time. But things remained rowdy but peaceful. I could hear the cheering from all over the city for hours. It practically became my lullaby as I drifted off to sleep, so happy to call this goofy city my home.