Basically Baseball

I’m over here thinking it’s Tuesday and it’s in fact Wednesday and that’s what happens when you’re off work on Monday to celebrate a newly created Federal Holiday. Three cheers for Juneteenth! I was convinced that I was getting this post out on Tuesday until about five minutes ago when I was reminded that it is, in fact, Wednesday. That’s not a bad thing to realize though – is it?

The three-day weekend passed much too quickly – but then, isn’t that always the case? Friday after work I did something almost unheard of for me: I cut grass. *insert laughter here* Truly, I am not a fan of any kind of yard work ever since a tick bit me while weed eating many moons ago, but my fiancé was cutting the grass at Brookside Church and so I packed a picnic, helped do a little push mowing and trimmed some tree branches before we had a picnic by the park. It was all very romantic except for the fact that I smelled like a farm animal…

Shockingly – I don’t have pictures of that.

What I do have plenty of pictures of are Saturday! We went to Nationals game (finally) and y’all know I took so many pictures, which I am all too glad to share. The Nationals aren’t really doing so hot this season (that’s putting it kindly) but the game on the 18^th was the day they retired Ryan Zimmerman’s number and I didn’t want to miss out on that! So we hopped on the Metro, cruised over towards the ballpark and headed in when the gates opened shortly after 2:30!

 

We used the bathroom and walked into the team store – for a hot minute – literally. The AC appeared to be broken in the Team Store and there were people everywhere, so we didn’t hang around there for too long. We got some tots from See You Tater and headed to the top deck to eat them and snap a few pictures; I couldn’t resist getting Ryan to snap some pictures of me with my (it’s actually my Mom’s) Zimmerman jersey, the field below and me throwing up a 1 and 1 – and 11 – for Zimmerman!

 

The game was scheduled to start at 4:35 and so we explored the stadium for a bit before I overheard an announcement about the retirement ceremony - and then I rushed Ryan to our seats, ha-ha! ! Our seats started in the shade but by the time the 1-hour ceremony was over, the sun had arrived in all it’s glory! Thankfully the temperatures hovered at about 75 and there was a stiff breeze (it was windy), so it never quite got so hot that it was overwhelming!

 

 

The retirement ceremony was pretty touching to witness – players from the Nationals past were there, including Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth, Daniel Murphy, Jordan Zimmermann and more people I can’t remember! Some of them spoke about their time playing with Ryan and there were two different videos: one with congratulations and well wishes from Ryan’s former coaches, media members and teammates and a second video narrated by Ryan’s parents, wife and children – it definitely had quite a few people wiping away tears – although my Ryan would tell you it was because it was windy! 

 

It was awesome to hear Ryan give a speech and then watch his number be retired and his name revealed on the ring of honor. And then – it was time for the game to start! Sadly, it wasn’t much of a game though as neither team seemed to want to do much playing. The pitcher wasn’t stellar – so it wasn’t a pitching battle… and the bats of both teams were almost nonexistent – so it wasn’t a battle of the bats. The game went scoreless until the 9^th inning and then in the 10^th, the Phillies managed to squeak out a 2-1 win. *sigh*

 

We ended our time at the game perusing the rest of Nationals Park and popping into the (very warm) Team Store one last time before heading to the extremely crowded Metro, riding back to our car and then driving (well, Ryan drove) back home. We arrived home shortly before 10 and Watson was quite glad to see us!

Sunday was Father’s Day, and I celebrated my Father from afar – he was in Mississippi celebrating the arrival of his RF-4 Phantom airplane – and I also celebrated my Ryan too. After church at Brookside, they had three different miniature cheesecakes for the Dads and Ryan very sneakily got a Reese’s Cup cheesecake and a Maple Bacon cheesecake! And then he got our friends to bring him a Banana Pudding cheesecake to the restaurant we were having lunch at! Silly boy and his cheesecakes! The Maple Bacon was his favorite! We had lunch with some friends and then headed over to our house to do some cleaning and furniture rearranging! 

 

Watson enjoyed the rides – although maybe he didn’t love riding in the floorboard between my legs on the way home, ha-ha! What he did enjoy was that on Monday morning, he discovered he wasn’t home alone since I was off work for Juneteenth! I spent the day mopping the floor, washing some clothes and cooking the ribs that Ryan had prepared the night before – we had ribs (beef and pork), baked potatoes and brussel sprouts for dinner and as you can see, Watson wanted in on the action!

It was a wonderful weekend filled with great memories and now another one is right around the corner! Thursday is my Friday and then I have another three-day weekend! My Mom, my future MIL and I are going to pick up my wedding dress on Friday and then cooking out with Ryan and my MIL’s boyfriend Doc for dinner on Friday night. Saturday we have a wedding shower here in Virginia and Sunday is church! And just like that – June will be almost done!