Dem Pirates

Okay, so I will make an exception for pirates, those vile, vulgar, and absurdly over-hyped miscreants of the seas: our major league baseball team. While I used to immensely enjoy hitting a ball in the backyard with my dad, briefly collected baseball cards, and, for a period when I was eleven, slept with my head cradled in my glove, I never took to baseball as a sport in which to invest. Still, I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to go to a $10-a-ticket Pirates game with Katrina, Rob, Olive, and Alex. There was a volunteer appreciation event going on there for those that helped out at the marathon, so Katrina was able to invite some guests and we were honored to be her plus fours. Before the game we sat round on the grassy lawn outside PNC Park eating pasta salad that was provided by the caterers and letting Buggy tool around to her heart's content. Kat and Alex feel pretty hard for each other during the course of the evening; I can tell when Alex is really keen on someone. She was attentive and silly with him, and he revels in such companionship. Neither Rob nor I had ever attended a professional sporting event, so the novelty factor was pretty high. The weather, which was predicted to be rainy and stormy, couldn't have been better for the occasion, with a pleasant breeze to combat the mugginess from earlier in the day (a pretty violent thunder storm hit once we'd gone to bed later on). We found our way to our seats and were pleasantly surprised when they were decent. The game didn't begin until 7:05, so we knew we'd be pushing it bigtime with Olive's bedtime (we were able to slip in a third nap today with this in mind); we wouldn't stay for the entire game, obviously, but we wanted to make it worth our while. By the time the 6th inning ended Olive was starting to come unglued, wriggling and bucking like a hostage while Rob, Kat, and I tried to keep her amused. She was already nearly two hours past her bedtime so we exited and were home by ten, but it felt more like midnight.

I love Alex's face here. So typical. I love that kid.