Kate's Point of View

Judged by a lot of my friends, the way I spent my Saturday was drool-worthy. Wonder Boy and I toured the Cincinnati Reds Great American Ballpark. We got to walk through the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum and see all sorts of Johnny Bench memorabilia. Did you know he could hold seven baseballs in his hands at once? Or that the Reds used to sponsor a basketball team for its players? Pete Rose was pretty hot in his 70s short sports shorts!

Walking around the stadium was a pretty cool experience. I don’t make many games, but I try to support the team. Growing up we used to go to baseball games all of the time. I have very fond memories of frosty malts, frozen lemonade and nachos with funacho cheese. Pretty much the reason I used to enjoy hitting up baseball games was the food. Now I’ve expanded my interests – it the food and the beer. I have yet to try out the contraption that fills your beer glass from the bottom, but I intend to. It sort of blows my mind. I digress. Most of my Reds memories are at the old Riverfront Stadium and I hear a lot from family about Crosley Field. It was cool learning about how elements of those two stadiums were incorporated into Great American Ballpark. There are as few areas of the stadium that I always assumed were crazy expensive to go to for a game. Turns out they are reasonable, so I may be checking them out.

The highlights of the tour were:

• Seeing how the fancy people live and sitting in some Diamond Seats. We also got to walk through the restaurant were Diamond Seat ticketholders can eat and watch the Reds players walk to batting practice or to the dugout. The whole setup is pretty cushy. Wonder Boy pointed out in a not very subtle manner that some Diamond rickets would make a fabulous birthday gift. He knows what our budget limit is for gifts so at least pointed out that it would be an ideal gift for a milestone birthday. I’m pretty sure that soon I’ll be hearing what a huge milestone 37 is…
• Hands down the coolest thing during our stadium tour was walking out onto the field (not on the grass though, because the was rule number 1 for the tour) and going into the dugout. I got to sit where Barry Larkin once sat. Swoon.
• We got to go to the visiting team dugout as well. I noted that no one was interested in sitting where those players sit during games. It was still cool, though.

Today I got mail. As in mail that was delivered by a man in blue and left in my postbox – the physical kind you can touch and not the kind on your computer. Sometimes I think there is nothing better in the world than getting mail. In fact, getting things delivered to you is one of the huge perks of online shopping. (Read: rationalization!)

So a week or two ago I started my Christmas shopping. I know… I know. But, when I see something perfect for someone, I can’t help but buy it right up. And sometimes, while cruising the interwebs for things to generously give to others, I find things to generously buy for myself. Hey, it happens.

So today I had the delightful experience of opening two packages. And sure, the reason I got them was because I spent money. But do I care? Nope. I cannot elaborate on the one item except to say that Bruce, as in Springsteen, is having a very merry Christmas. The other was an item I bought for the house and I adore it.

A few days ago I was keeping up with trends in social media, aka reading all the blogs I track for fun, and stumbled across a post on Rare Bird finds for the cutest art print at the Etsy shop Le Petit Elefant.

Sadly, the print was sold out so I had to make do with a greeting card. Its well worth it though. I adore this little print of two little nerds in an Eskimo kiss. The card will get framed and posted in my bedroom. And if the print comes up for sale again? More mail to look forward to!

Addendum: The 8X10 version came for sale! I bought it and it will be framed and in our bedroom soon.