Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Fog. What is up with all this fog in San Fran? After being spoiled with day after day of beautiful sunshine, two days in a row without sun seems rather extreme. But as long as it isn’t raining, I guess I won’t start complaining just yet. As mentioned, our plan today is to catch a San Francisco Giants baseball game. The San Diego Padres are in town and the two teams are fighting for a final playoff spot so it should be fun watching two California teams battling it out. After a bit of blogging using our usurped errant WiFi signal, we hopped in the car, sped across the Golden Gate again and then on through the city to the Marriott hotel. We decided to stay at a hotel in the city tonight to do city things today and tomorrow. We checked in and then linked up with Pat, who was already staying at the same hotel. The hotel was conveniently just a few blocks from AT&T Park so we just had to walk over. Because we arrived a little early, we ended up scamming some great seats behind the dug out on the 3rd base side. The seats we paid for were in the boonies but for the first three innings we enjoyed the action just like the rich people. But then said rich people arrived and, although we were given clemency, we were forced to vacate. That was a bit of a drag but, on the bright side, we did get to see, from the good seats, Barry Bonds crack a homer in the bottom of the 1st inning which to put the Giants up 2-0 and lifted his lifetime total number of homers to 731. We then grabbed some ballpark grub before heading to our real seats. These seats turned out to be so far up we decide to opt for the most extreme seats in the park just for kicks. Even at the seats furthest away from the action it was still a fun place to watch the game. The binoculars, which Pat so generously retrieved from our house and delivered to us this morning, came in very handy here. The fog never did manage to completely lift and the lack of sun made for a rather chilly day at the game. Then, with the game tied 4-4 in the 7th inning, Pat told the kids that it was going to go into extra innings and the Giants would win 5-4 in the 11th. They asked how he knew that and he said that all the games were fixed, just like wrestling. Well, the game did make it into extra innings, and it did go to the 11th, and the Giants did manage to score a run and win the game 5-4! The kids were amazed. Pat just smiled and said, “I told you so.” After the game we headed out for dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant. That is A-P’s favorite and everyone else enjoyed it too. I ended up exceeding my own “spiciness” threshold slightly which reminds me of the old saying, “A man does not truly know his limits until he exceeds them.” Then Chantal generously offered to watch the kids (I think she just wanted to watch a movie at the hotel!) and Pat and I went out in San Fran for few drinks … just to quell the spiciness, of course. I think the night could be summed up by this way. It has been a while since I have been “out drinking with the boys” that and I think Pat could tell. We both managed to have a good time just the same.

Today’s word:

clemency \KLEM-uhn-see\, noun:
1. Disposition to forgive and spare, as offenders; mercy.
2. An act or instance of mercy or leniency.
3. Mildness, especially of weather.