If you already know the full story of my fourth child's birth and how I came to miss it, don't bother with this blog and wait another four months for my next one.
Let me open by saying I think I've been a pretty good husband overall, particularly when it comes to my role during our children's births.
For Addison, I drove us from Lawton to Oklahoma City in a hard, freezing rain on Christmas night and then rubbed Missy's back for 10 hours until Addie got here.
For Maddux, we spent 24 hours at the hospital because Missy's water broke a few weeks early and he wasn't quite wanting to come out yet.
Myra's "labor" was the longest of them all, because we got her as foster parents when she was 3 months old and it took almost a year from the time the state of Oklahoma said we could adopt her to the point when it actually happened.
Needless to say, missing the birth of our fourth child wasn't even on my radar.
Missy's due date was Sept. 19. On Sept. 12 I drove two hours to Winstar casino on the Texas border to play poker. Missy's family was in town and I was only a two-hour drive away so Missy was in good hands. I told her to call me anytime and I'd head back home.
I ended up playing poker most of the day and night on Sept. 12. I checked in with Missy several times and she said she was feeling good. I ended up not going to bed until 5 am, at which time I left Missy a voicemail specifically telling her not to go into labor until I had gotten a few hours of sleep. But you know women, they never listen.
Turns out, the early labor had probably already started at that point. Missy said she had some contractions through the night, but they weren't necessarily intense enough or regular enough to make her think this was definitely the real deal.
By 7 a.m. on the 13th, she was starting to think this would be the day Hawk would be born. She called her friend Katrina, who lives 3 hours away and has helped with all of Missy's births. Katrina headed from Kansas to Oklahoma right then, but Missy thought she had a long day of labor ahead of her and wanted me to be fresh, so she sweetly gave me a few more hours of sleep before calling me at 11 a.m.
By then, Katrina was here and they decided it was time to head to the hospital. I hopped in the shower, grabbed my stuff and was on the road at 11:30. It took Missy awhile to gather everything for her labor bag and head to the car. She was stopping every 30 seconds and having long, hard contractions. She said she stopped every 3 feet on the walk from our bedroom to the car, so it took her 10 minutes to walk that short distance. Obviously, this baby was coming fast.
Missy's mom drove her and Katrina to the hospital, and they called to tell me to head straight to OU Medical, where Missy works as a labor nurse and where all of our kids were born. They arrived at 1 p.m.
Missy's mom dropped her and Katrina off at the front door and looked for a parking spot. By the time she got to the room, Hawk Harvey Franklin had already been born. Missy barely made it to the room when she had a big contraction and immediately felt the urge to push. She had Hawk in the doorway of the bathroom while our awesome midwife Deb caught him and Katrina captured the fleeting moment on video. Everyone else missed it.
I was pretty shocked when I got a call at 1:20 and heard a baby crying in the background. I arrived at the hospital at 1:30, just a little late, although Missy and I agree that we preferred the quick birth to the long labors she'd had before.
My life has changed quite a bit since Hawk's arrival. Since Missy hasn't been able to get regular sleep at night yet, I've been waking up every morning to take Addie to school and get Myra and Maddux up and fed. I've really cherished those peaceful mornings with my kids.
The early mornings also mean earlier nights. I'm finishing my poker sessions earlier and haven't had time for three of my favorite hobbies -- bridge games, guitar playing and blogging. But I'm slowly working those things back into my schedule.
It's crazy how fast the time flies. Seems like just yesterday I married the love of my life. Seems like just yesterday I was holding Addie, Myra and Maddux when they were Hawk's size. Seems like just yesterday Missy surprised me with a present when I got home from work. I opened it and it was a positive pregnancy test. Seems like just yesterday we were on a Spring Break trip to Houston when I threw out the suggestion of Hawk as a name. It's both the nickname of one of my favorite baseball players growing up (Andre Dawson) and an homage to Missy's maiden name, Hockett. Harvey was Missy's grandpa's name and we both loved him dearly so that was an easy pairing.
Seems like just yesterday that I was holding two-month-old Hawk when Missy surprised me with another positive pregnancy test. (Just kidding. We're planning on being done.)
We celebrated Thanksgiving by eating a lot of great food and playing games at the house. The only time we left from Thursday to Sunday was a quick trip on Friday to pick out our Christmas tree. That gave me a lot of time to think about my blessings, the newest of which came in at 9 pounds 10 ounces on 9-13-15.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Aces and Diamonds
Several years ago, my amazing wife Missy and I made a deal. When we turned 35, we would go on a fun trip by ourselves. This was Missy's idea because she wanted to take her friend Katrina to Paris, which they are planning to do in a couple of years.
Missy probably knew that since I am two years older, we would have one or two more kids to deal with by the time her trip came around, but I wasn't smart enough to think about that so I agreed to her proposal.
I thought it would be fun to do a two-week baseball and poker road trip, visiting several stadiums and casinos I had never been to before. After graduating from college, I went on a four-city baseball road trip with my friends Kevin and Chad, but I had mono the whole time which was pretty miserable and forced us to cancel a fifth city and come home a bit early.
Kevin and Chad are living in different states now, but I had hoped that the three of us could do the trip together. Kevin was finishing up his PhD in South Carolina and moving to a new job in Florida (way to go Kev!) so he couldn't go, but Chad was able to make it work.
It was a really fun trip, and I'll take you through every stop we made. Wrigley Field is the only stadium on this trip that I had been to before, and I had never played poker at any of these casinos. This is the link to the blog we flooded with pictures throughout our trip.
July 30, Clinton, MO -- I started by driving 5.5 hours to Chad and Aften's home. They have a really nice house in a laid-back, peaceful town. I was quite impressed. We played some basketball, ate some good Mexican food and met some cool people at the Elks Lodge. Aften made us a really nice basket of snacks and gifts to open as we reached each new city.
July 31, St. Louis -- Chad and I embark on our journey. St. Louis has a really cool ballpark village right outside the stadium with huge TVs, bars and restaurants. It was modeled after Kansas City's Power and Lights district and we hung out there before the game. The game itself was kind of a snoozer (the Cardinals beat the Rockies 7-0), but Chad and I invented a game within the game, where we each picked 3 players beforehand and those players earned points based on their performance. We did this for every game on the trip but this was only one which ended with Chad and I tied. After the game, we found a cool old-school diner which featured six White Castle-style hamburgers for $6.60.
Getting out of town was a funny experience, though it wasn't funny at the time. The area around the park (not the best part of town) had streets and intersections all over the place, and we weren't sure where we needed to go so we had our GPS on. The thing had us turning every 5 seconds, but because the streets were so close together, every time we'd make a turn it would take a second to calculate that turn and then reroute us down a different street nearby. This process kept repeating itself so that twice in a 5 minute span we did a full circle and wound up at a stop light across the street from the very diner we had just eaten at. The second time we pulled up next to the diner we just burst out laughing before finally figuring out where we needed to go.
Aug. 1, Louisville -- We stopped in Louisville on the way to Cincinnati and it turned out to be a great afternoon. We had lunch at a place right next to the Triple-A baseball stadium. We sampled a couple local craft beers and took a peek inside the stadium, which was really nice. We then went to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory. We got to see how the bats get made and hold a game-used Mickey Mantle Slugger.
Aug. 2-3, Cincinnati -- We went to the Sunday matinee game vs the Pirates, the only day game on our trip. It was fairly warm outside, which amazingly was the last time on this trip that the temperature was anything but perfect. We got incredibly lucky in that regard. Before the game, we checked out the Reds Hall of Fame. It was really well put-together with a bunch of cool memorabilia featuring the Big Red Machine, the Nasty Boys, and the "Wall of Balls," a three-story-tall wall of baseballs representing every one of Pete Rose's record 4,256 hits.
The stadium was probably my favorite of the whole trip (not counting Wrigley), although I really enjoyed every place we visited. It would be splitting hairs to even try to rank the stadiums. The Great American Ballpark was built around the same time as the parks in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, and all three do a great job of showing off their city's downtown skyline. The only things that would give Cincy the nod over St, Louis and Pittsburgh is that Busch Stadium was a little tricky to navigate and the concourse in Pittsburgh was way too narrow, leading to massive congestion. (In fairness to Pittsburgh, the games we went to were sold out which is pretty rare occurrence there.) The highlight of the game in Cincy was the beanball war that resulted in a couple of bench clearings and five ejections. The Pirates won 3-0.
We played our first poker of the trip at the Horseshoe in Cincinnati. The casino was beautiful and had great food, the nicest one we went to. Chad and I both walked away with a little profit.
Aug. 4-5, Pittsburgh -- The weather was amazing and the view of the city from the river was breathtaking. The Cubs were in town and we went to two games here, the only stadium we visited more than once. We had good seats both nights, once on the first base side and the next night on the third base side. I much preferred the third base side because we had a constant view of the gorgeous skyline. My Cubbies won the first game 5-0 but the Pirates won the second contest. We witnessed long home runs from a couple of my favorite Cubs, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo, as well as a dominating pitching performance from my favorite Cub pitcher, Jake Arrieta.
On Aug. 5, we went downtown early and parked at Rivers Casino, which was almost as nice as Cincy's Horseshoe. After playing poker for a few hours, we walked about a mile from the casino to the stadium. It was so nice outside we didn't even break a sweat. After the game we walked back to the casino and I picked up a little more loose change before we hit the road for Cleveland.
Aug. 6-7, Cleveland -- Cleveland was a bit of a paradox for me. As a city, it was my least favorite by far. But while I expected to be unimpressed by the stadium, I really enjoyed it and this was the most fun I had at a game the entire trip. I would say that in our experience the fans here were more personable and friendly than anywhere else.
We arrived on Aug. 6, which was a day off for the Indians so we played poker at the Horseshoe Cleveland. The casino was just OK and the poker room was really loud. At least Chad made some money there.
I thought the whole town was kinda dumpy, and it didn't help that we saw prostitutes on the street less than two blocks from the airbnb where we were staying. We got this airbnb largely because it had a washer/dryer and we needed to do laundry since this was the midpoint of our trip, however the washer was 30 years old and located in a basement filled with dirt and junk. The dryer didn't work, so we had to air dry our clothes.
On Aug. 7 I dropped Chad off at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn't too interested in it myself because I have a different definition of Rock and Roll than they do, and also I wanted to get in a few more hours of poker. Because the casino is located in the heart of downtown (and right next to the baseball stadium), you have to pay to park there unless you play a certain amount of poker (or other forms of gambling), so I figured I'd get us some free parking and hopefully make some money as well. Unfortunately, I would have been better off financially paying for parking every day for a couple years.
The loss didn't sour my mood for baseball, however, and like I said it was the best game of the trip. Progressive Field didn't show off the skyline like the previous stadiums, but it was built more vertically than horizontally, meaning the park was more intimate and the fans closer to the action. We were in the outfield bleachers and had a great time interacting with the fans by us. Behind us was a group of four Twins fans who had had a few to drink and were quite boisterous. Next to us was three Indians fans who were quite knowledgeable about the home team. Those groups interacted peacefully despite their allegiances. We made it known that we were neutral and thus celebrated every big play with the fans of each team. The game was a see-saw affair that the Twins wound up winning 10-9.
Aug, 8, Detroit -- Detroit was a quick stop for us, just the one day with no attempt to play poker there. We arrived several hours before the game and decided to drive across the bridge to Canada, mainly just to say we were there. We had no problem getting into Canada, and we drove around for about 20 minutes before deciding that Windsor wasn't much different from America and now we could say we've been there, so we might as well head back to Detroit. At the U.S. border, however, we were asked to pull off for a search and some questioning. We ended up being there for an hour and a half, which was a little nerve-racking and not exactly how I envisioned spending our lone day in Detroit. They let us go without incident, but for those scoring at home, we spent 20 minutes in Canada and 90 minutes at border security, which I guess beats getting mugged in Detroit.
Comerica Park was pretty cool, although the kids' area with the carousel made me wish I had my kids with me. The game against the Red Sox was packed, and we had some of the worst seats available in all of Major League Baseball. Still, I enjoyed the brisket nachos and frozen custard at the game. We walked around the stadium and took in most of the game from the concourse at various points of the stadium, carrying on a nice conversation with a lifelong Detroit native and Tigers fan. David Ortiz hit a long home run but the Tigers held on in a great game, 7-6.
Aug, 9-12, Chicago -- We spent Aug. 9 and Aug. 12 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, just outside of Chicago, with the baseball games in between. The casino was kind of dumpy but it was the biggest poker room we played in, and I wound up doing pretty well there and turning a decent profit for the trip. Aug. 12 was my 9-year anniversary with Missy, which I celebrated by eating a lot at the buffet 800 miles away from my wife.
Aug. 10 was Angels vs White Sox at US Cellular Field. We had dinner at a bar across the street from the stadium, but I wish we had eaten the park food, because it smelled amazing and they had a ton of different options. The next day, before the Cubs game, we met a well-traveled Cubs fan who said the food at US Cellular is the best in the major leagues, and I can believe it despite only getting a churro there.
The atmosphere at the stadium was far and away the most relaxed of any place we went. For starters, the stadium was less than half full. But even so, the crowd was passe despite both teams being in the playoff hunt and the White Sox throwing their best pitcher, Chris Sale. After walking around the stadium prior to the first pitch, we noticed there were virtually no ushers patrolling the seats. So instead of heading to the upper deck seats we paid for, we took some unoccupied seats right behind home plate and never had to move. It was pretty cool to see the best player in baseball (Angels outfielder Mike Trout) go against one of the game's top pitchers from such a great vantage point. Sale and the Sox routed L.A. 8-2. If I had to rank the stadiums on our trip, this might be last on the list just because it's the oldest (besides Wrigley) and kinda boring, but I still really enjoyed it and would definitely go to another game there in the future. I really liked the laxxed environment and would love to sample more of the food.
Before the Aug. 11 Cubs game, I had some shopping to do so we headed to Wrigleyville several hours ahead of time. I got shirts for Missy, my mom, and all of the kids. I also splurged for a vintage-looking Andre Dawson jersey since we are naming our next baby Hawk after him.
I've been to Wrigley several times but not since Missy and I came while she was pregnant with Addison 7 years ago. They just put up huge new scoreboards in left and right field, and I was a little concerned that they would take away from the quaintness and old-time feel that makes Wrigley so special and unique. Instead, I was surprised by how much better the scoreboards make the experience. Because they are behind the field of play and the bleachers, you can watch the game without them getting in the way at all. But then after the play, you can watch a HD replay or see stats just like any other stadium. The old hand-operated scoreboard is still up in centerfield with all the out-of-town scores, and you can still see Lake Michigan in the distance. It's the best place in the world to watch a baseball game and the Cubs beat Milwaukee 6-3 on a 75-degree night in Chicago. It was a perfect way to end the trip.
Aug. 13, on the road -- We considered going to a game in Kansas City on our way back, and that would have been a good one as the Angels beat the Royals 7-6 with a ninth-inning rally. But we've both been to that stadium several times (it's behind only Wrigley and Fenway on my favorites list) and we met Aften in Overland Park, Kansas to help load up a couch she bought for them on Craigslist. I was missing my family anyway so I dropped Chad off with his wife and took I-35 all the way home. Woke up in Illinois and went to bed in Oklahoma City, with lunch at Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, MO. It was a long day and a long two weeks but it was worth it. Made a lifetime of memories and even a little money. I'm super grateful to Chad for putting up with me and to Skype for letting me see my family often enough to keep me sane.
P.S. I'll be sure to refer back to this blog in two years when Missy leaves me here with four kids to go to Paris without me.
Missy probably knew that since I am two years older, we would have one or two more kids to deal with by the time her trip came around, but I wasn't smart enough to think about that so I agreed to her proposal.
I thought it would be fun to do a two-week baseball and poker road trip, visiting several stadiums and casinos I had never been to before. After graduating from college, I went on a four-city baseball road trip with my friends Kevin and Chad, but I had mono the whole time which was pretty miserable and forced us to cancel a fifth city and come home a bit early.
Kevin and Chad are living in different states now, but I had hoped that the three of us could do the trip together. Kevin was finishing up his PhD in South Carolina and moving to a new job in Florida (way to go Kev!) so he couldn't go, but Chad was able to make it work.
It was a really fun trip, and I'll take you through every stop we made. Wrigley Field is the only stadium on this trip that I had been to before, and I had never played poker at any of these casinos. This is the link to the blog we flooded with pictures throughout our trip.
July 30, Clinton, MO -- I started by driving 5.5 hours to Chad and Aften's home. They have a really nice house in a laid-back, peaceful town. I was quite impressed. We played some basketball, ate some good Mexican food and met some cool people at the Elks Lodge. Aften made us a really nice basket of snacks and gifts to open as we reached each new city.
July 31, St. Louis -- Chad and I embark on our journey. St. Louis has a really cool ballpark village right outside the stadium with huge TVs, bars and restaurants. It was modeled after Kansas City's Power and Lights district and we hung out there before the game. The game itself was kind of a snoozer (the Cardinals beat the Rockies 7-0), but Chad and I invented a game within the game, where we each picked 3 players beforehand and those players earned points based on their performance. We did this for every game on the trip but this was only one which ended with Chad and I tied. After the game, we found a cool old-school diner which featured six White Castle-style hamburgers for $6.60.
Getting out of town was a funny experience, though it wasn't funny at the time. The area around the park (not the best part of town) had streets and intersections all over the place, and we weren't sure where we needed to go so we had our GPS on. The thing had us turning every 5 seconds, but because the streets were so close together, every time we'd make a turn it would take a second to calculate that turn and then reroute us down a different street nearby. This process kept repeating itself so that twice in a 5 minute span we did a full circle and wound up at a stop light across the street from the very diner we had just eaten at. The second time we pulled up next to the diner we just burst out laughing before finally figuring out where we needed to go.
Aug. 1, Louisville -- We stopped in Louisville on the way to Cincinnati and it turned out to be a great afternoon. We had lunch at a place right next to the Triple-A baseball stadium. We sampled a couple local craft beers and took a peek inside the stadium, which was really nice. We then went to the Louisville Slugger museum and factory. We got to see how the bats get made and hold a game-used Mickey Mantle Slugger.
Aug. 2-3, Cincinnati -- We went to the Sunday matinee game vs the Pirates, the only day game on our trip. It was fairly warm outside, which amazingly was the last time on this trip that the temperature was anything but perfect. We got incredibly lucky in that regard. Before the game, we checked out the Reds Hall of Fame. It was really well put-together with a bunch of cool memorabilia featuring the Big Red Machine, the Nasty Boys, and the "Wall of Balls," a three-story-tall wall of baseballs representing every one of Pete Rose's record 4,256 hits.
The stadium was probably my favorite of the whole trip (not counting Wrigley), although I really enjoyed every place we visited. It would be splitting hairs to even try to rank the stadiums. The Great American Ballpark was built around the same time as the parks in St. Louis and Pittsburgh, and all three do a great job of showing off their city's downtown skyline. The only things that would give Cincy the nod over St, Louis and Pittsburgh is that Busch Stadium was a little tricky to navigate and the concourse in Pittsburgh was way too narrow, leading to massive congestion. (In fairness to Pittsburgh, the games we went to were sold out which is pretty rare occurrence there.) The highlight of the game in Cincy was the beanball war that resulted in a couple of bench clearings and five ejections. The Pirates won 3-0.
We played our first poker of the trip at the Horseshoe in Cincinnati. The casino was beautiful and had great food, the nicest one we went to. Chad and I both walked away with a little profit.
Aug. 4-5, Pittsburgh -- The weather was amazing and the view of the city from the river was breathtaking. The Cubs were in town and we went to two games here, the only stadium we visited more than once. We had good seats both nights, once on the first base side and the next night on the third base side. I much preferred the third base side because we had a constant view of the gorgeous skyline. My Cubbies won the first game 5-0 but the Pirates won the second contest. We witnessed long home runs from a couple of my favorite Cubs, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo, as well as a dominating pitching performance from my favorite Cub pitcher, Jake Arrieta.
On Aug. 5, we went downtown early and parked at Rivers Casino, which was almost as nice as Cincy's Horseshoe. After playing poker for a few hours, we walked about a mile from the casino to the stadium. It was so nice outside we didn't even break a sweat. After the game we walked back to the casino and I picked up a little more loose change before we hit the road for Cleveland.
Aug. 6-7, Cleveland -- Cleveland was a bit of a paradox for me. As a city, it was my least favorite by far. But while I expected to be unimpressed by the stadium, I really enjoyed it and this was the most fun I had at a game the entire trip. I would say that in our experience the fans here were more personable and friendly than anywhere else.
We arrived on Aug. 6, which was a day off for the Indians so we played poker at the Horseshoe Cleveland. The casino was just OK and the poker room was really loud. At least Chad made some money there.
I thought the whole town was kinda dumpy, and it didn't help that we saw prostitutes on the street less than two blocks from the airbnb where we were staying. We got this airbnb largely because it had a washer/dryer and we needed to do laundry since this was the midpoint of our trip, however the washer was 30 years old and located in a basement filled with dirt and junk. The dryer didn't work, so we had to air dry our clothes.
On Aug. 7 I dropped Chad off at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I wasn't too interested in it myself because I have a different definition of Rock and Roll than they do, and also I wanted to get in a few more hours of poker. Because the casino is located in the heart of downtown (and right next to the baseball stadium), you have to pay to park there unless you play a certain amount of poker (or other forms of gambling), so I figured I'd get us some free parking and hopefully make some money as well. Unfortunately, I would have been better off financially paying for parking every day for a couple years.
The loss didn't sour my mood for baseball, however, and like I said it was the best game of the trip. Progressive Field didn't show off the skyline like the previous stadiums, but it was built more vertically than horizontally, meaning the park was more intimate and the fans closer to the action. We were in the outfield bleachers and had a great time interacting with the fans by us. Behind us was a group of four Twins fans who had had a few to drink and were quite boisterous. Next to us was three Indians fans who were quite knowledgeable about the home team. Those groups interacted peacefully despite their allegiances. We made it known that we were neutral and thus celebrated every big play with the fans of each team. The game was a see-saw affair that the Twins wound up winning 10-9.
Aug, 8, Detroit -- Detroit was a quick stop for us, just the one day with no attempt to play poker there. We arrived several hours before the game and decided to drive across the bridge to Canada, mainly just to say we were there. We had no problem getting into Canada, and we drove around for about 20 minutes before deciding that Windsor wasn't much different from America and now we could say we've been there, so we might as well head back to Detroit. At the U.S. border, however, we were asked to pull off for a search and some questioning. We ended up being there for an hour and a half, which was a little nerve-racking and not exactly how I envisioned spending our lone day in Detroit. They let us go without incident, but for those scoring at home, we spent 20 minutes in Canada and 90 minutes at border security, which I guess beats getting mugged in Detroit.
Comerica Park was pretty cool, although the kids' area with the carousel made me wish I had my kids with me. The game against the Red Sox was packed, and we had some of the worst seats available in all of Major League Baseball. Still, I enjoyed the brisket nachos and frozen custard at the game. We walked around the stadium and took in most of the game from the concourse at various points of the stadium, carrying on a nice conversation with a lifelong Detroit native and Tigers fan. David Ortiz hit a long home run but the Tigers held on in a great game, 7-6.
Aug, 9-12, Chicago -- We spent Aug. 9 and Aug. 12 at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, just outside of Chicago, with the baseball games in between. The casino was kind of dumpy but it was the biggest poker room we played in, and I wound up doing pretty well there and turning a decent profit for the trip. Aug. 12 was my 9-year anniversary with Missy, which I celebrated by eating a lot at the buffet 800 miles away from my wife.
Aug. 10 was Angels vs White Sox at US Cellular Field. We had dinner at a bar across the street from the stadium, but I wish we had eaten the park food, because it smelled amazing and they had a ton of different options. The next day, before the Cubs game, we met a well-traveled Cubs fan who said the food at US Cellular is the best in the major leagues, and I can believe it despite only getting a churro there.
The atmosphere at the stadium was far and away the most relaxed of any place we went. For starters, the stadium was less than half full. But even so, the crowd was passe despite both teams being in the playoff hunt and the White Sox throwing their best pitcher, Chris Sale. After walking around the stadium prior to the first pitch, we noticed there were virtually no ushers patrolling the seats. So instead of heading to the upper deck seats we paid for, we took some unoccupied seats right behind home plate and never had to move. It was pretty cool to see the best player in baseball (Angels outfielder Mike Trout) go against one of the game's top pitchers from such a great vantage point. Sale and the Sox routed L.A. 8-2. If I had to rank the stadiums on our trip, this might be last on the list just because it's the oldest (besides Wrigley) and kinda boring, but I still really enjoyed it and would definitely go to another game there in the future. I really liked the laxxed environment and would love to sample more of the food.
Before the Aug. 11 Cubs game, I had some shopping to do so we headed to Wrigleyville several hours ahead of time. I got shirts for Missy, my mom, and all of the kids. I also splurged for a vintage-looking Andre Dawson jersey since we are naming our next baby Hawk after him.
I've been to Wrigley several times but not since Missy and I came while she was pregnant with Addison 7 years ago. They just put up huge new scoreboards in left and right field, and I was a little concerned that they would take away from the quaintness and old-time feel that makes Wrigley so special and unique. Instead, I was surprised by how much better the scoreboards make the experience. Because they are behind the field of play and the bleachers, you can watch the game without them getting in the way at all. But then after the play, you can watch a HD replay or see stats just like any other stadium. The old hand-operated scoreboard is still up in centerfield with all the out-of-town scores, and you can still see Lake Michigan in the distance. It's the best place in the world to watch a baseball game and the Cubs beat Milwaukee 6-3 on a 75-degree night in Chicago. It was a perfect way to end the trip.
Aug. 13, on the road -- We considered going to a game in Kansas City on our way back, and that would have been a good one as the Angels beat the Royals 7-6 with a ninth-inning rally. But we've both been to that stadium several times (it's behind only Wrigley and Fenway on my favorites list) and we met Aften in Overland Park, Kansas to help load up a couch she bought for them on Craigslist. I was missing my family anyway so I dropped Chad off with his wife and took I-35 all the way home. Woke up in Illinois and went to bed in Oklahoma City, with lunch at Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, MO. It was a long day and a long two weeks but it was worth it. Made a lifetime of memories and even a little money. I'm super grateful to Chad for putting up with me and to Skype for letting me see my family often enough to keep me sane.
P.S. I'll be sure to refer back to this blog in two years when Missy leaves me here with four kids to go to Paris without me.
Monday, July 13, 2015
I got the Russell Westbrook stink face and lived to tell about it
Is this thing on? Seems like every time I get an inspiration for a blog my wife gets pregnant so I've been exercising a blogless form of birth control these last several months.
Speaking of which, our fourth (final?) child is coming in September and we've decided to name him Hawk Harvey Franklin, in honor of a bunch of people. Hawk was the nickname of one of my favorite childhood baseball players, Andre Dawson. It's also short for Missy's maiden name, Hockett. And Harvey was Missy's grandpa's name, and Missy's grandpa was one of our favorite people in the world. He even lived with us during his last few months of life. We gave Maddux his middle name after my grandpa who was also pretty awesome.
So with another child on the way and doctor visits and such to pay for, it's the perfect time for everything to break. The TV, the computer and the garbage disposal all hit the DL recently, and the windshield on my car got cracked.
To fix that problem, I called Safelite, which has a catchy commercial jingle that is obviously way more important than actual competence. They were nice on the phone and I scheduled the windshield replacement for last Thursday, July 9, at 1 p.m.
However, on July 3 Missy's sister Terri went into labor a tish early, and Missy already had planned to fly up to New Jersey to spend some time with her (another unexpected but pleasant expense for us). So Missy moved her flight up to spend last week with Terri, leaving me home alone with the kids for a week and needing to reschedule the windshield appointment. No problem, I call Safelite and they give me several other times, including 1 p.m. on July 16, exactly a week after the original appointment. That seemed pretty convenient so I booked it.
Everything went great with Missy gone. The kids had McDonald's and Mountain Dew every day and went to bed at midnight. On Wednesday I'm waking up to get the kids around when my phone rings. It's Safelite calling to confirm my appointment for the next day, July 9. I tell the guy that I have already rescheduled that appointment for July 16. He doesn't say a word, just lets out the most exasperated deep and audible sigh that I have ever heard in my life. I hear some computer keys clicking and another one of these sighs, which are similar to the ones I have when I look across the room and see Maddux dumping a cup of milk all over the couch but know it's too late to do anything to stop it.
I'm just sitting there listening to these click-sighs for about 30 seconds before he says, "We don't have an opening on July 16." I tell him I already talked to someone several days ago and it should be booked. He starts in on another round of clicking and sighing, sounding just like I sound when I look across the room and see Myra coloring directly on the kitchen table but know it's too late to do anything about it. Finally he says, "Nope, we're all booked up on the 16th, and your name's not on here."
Then he mumbles something about, "Let me check here..." and starts the clicking and typing. After about a minute of that I finally say, "It's fine, we can do it another day. It doesn't have to be the 16th. But I can't do it tomorrow so just tell me what you do have open and we will reschedule this."
Now he takes it up a notch, with the loudest sigh in the history of the universe, even louder than the time I walked into Addie's play room and saw that she had taken the real maple syrup from our pantry and dumped the whole thing all over her play kitchen. He keeps clicking and sighing and doesn't say anything at all, so finally I say, "Look dude I'm sorry but I have to get my kids up and around. Just call me back later and we can reschedule the thing, I'm pretty flexible."
After a few more clicks and sighs, he says, "We can do July 20 at 4 p.m." I have no idea what day of the week July 20 is or what we might have going on but I say, "That's perfect," and get off the phone.
The next day I wake up to see I have a missed call from Safelite. (Who calls people at 7 a.m.?) and a voicemail that says they have a question for me. So I call back and talk to a young lady who says, "We were just calling to let you know we have an opening next week if you want to bring you car in." I ask when it is and she says...(drumroll please)....July 16th, at 1 p.m. I inform her that I briefly held that exact appointment time but was booted out of it by a guy who was sighing like I do every time my kids fight over a free Happy Meal toy when they have hundreds of dollars worth of better toys in their rooms. She didn't seem too interested in my story and got off the phone with me as fast as I did with the Sigh Guy. Now we'll just have to see if I actually get my windshield replaced on Thursday, July 16 at 1 p.m.
Speaking of which, our fourth (final?) child is coming in September and we've decided to name him Hawk Harvey Franklin, in honor of a bunch of people. Hawk was the nickname of one of my favorite childhood baseball players, Andre Dawson. It's also short for Missy's maiden name, Hockett. And Harvey was Missy's grandpa's name, and Missy's grandpa was one of our favorite people in the world. He even lived with us during his last few months of life. We gave Maddux his middle name after my grandpa who was also pretty awesome.
So with another child on the way and doctor visits and such to pay for, it's the perfect time for everything to break. The TV, the computer and the garbage disposal all hit the DL recently, and the windshield on my car got cracked.
To fix that problem, I called Safelite, which has a catchy commercial jingle that is obviously way more important than actual competence. They were nice on the phone and I scheduled the windshield replacement for last Thursday, July 9, at 1 p.m.
However, on July 3 Missy's sister Terri went into labor a tish early, and Missy already had planned to fly up to New Jersey to spend some time with her (another unexpected but pleasant expense for us). So Missy moved her flight up to spend last week with Terri, leaving me home alone with the kids for a week and needing to reschedule the windshield appointment. No problem, I call Safelite and they give me several other times, including 1 p.m. on July 16, exactly a week after the original appointment. That seemed pretty convenient so I booked it.
Everything went great with Missy gone. The kids had McDonald's and Mountain Dew every day and went to bed at midnight. On Wednesday I'm waking up to get the kids around when my phone rings. It's Safelite calling to confirm my appointment for the next day, July 9. I tell the guy that I have already rescheduled that appointment for July 16. He doesn't say a word, just lets out the most exasperated deep and audible sigh that I have ever heard in my life. I hear some computer keys clicking and another one of these sighs, which are similar to the ones I have when I look across the room and see Maddux dumping a cup of milk all over the couch but know it's too late to do anything to stop it.
I'm just sitting there listening to these click-sighs for about 30 seconds before he says, "We don't have an opening on July 16." I tell him I already talked to someone several days ago and it should be booked. He starts in on another round of clicking and sighing, sounding just like I sound when I look across the room and see Myra coloring directly on the kitchen table but know it's too late to do anything about it. Finally he says, "Nope, we're all booked up on the 16th, and your name's not on here."
Then he mumbles something about, "Let me check here..." and starts the clicking and typing. After about a minute of that I finally say, "It's fine, we can do it another day. It doesn't have to be the 16th. But I can't do it tomorrow so just tell me what you do have open and we will reschedule this."
Now he takes it up a notch, with the loudest sigh in the history of the universe, even louder than the time I walked into Addie's play room and saw that she had taken the real maple syrup from our pantry and dumped the whole thing all over her play kitchen. He keeps clicking and sighing and doesn't say anything at all, so finally I say, "Look dude I'm sorry but I have to get my kids up and around. Just call me back later and we can reschedule the thing, I'm pretty flexible."
After a few more clicks and sighs, he says, "We can do July 20 at 4 p.m." I have no idea what day of the week July 20 is or what we might have going on but I say, "That's perfect," and get off the phone.
The next day I wake up to see I have a missed call from Safelite. (Who calls people at 7 a.m.?) and a voicemail that says they have a question for me. So I call back and talk to a young lady who says, "We were just calling to let you know we have an opening next week if you want to bring you car in." I ask when it is and she says...(drumroll please)....July 16th, at 1 p.m. I inform her that I briefly held that exact appointment time but was booted out of it by a guy who was sighing like I do every time my kids fight over a free Happy Meal toy when they have hundreds of dollars worth of better toys in their rooms. She didn't seem too interested in my story and got off the phone with me as fast as I did with the Sigh Guy. Now we'll just have to see if I actually get my windshield replaced on Thursday, July 16 at 1 p.m.
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What does that story have to do with Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook? Well. the reason I need a new windshield is because I was texting and driving in a parking lot and ran right over him. Smacked his head right on my windshield and broke it. He'll probably never play basketball again.
Gotcha! That didn't really happen. But I really did get the Russell Westbrook stink face and live to tell about it.
While Missy was gone, my mom agreed to come watch the kids one day so I could play poker. It just so happened that Russell Westbrook was in the mood to play poker that day and it just so happened that I ended up playing at his table.
I've gotten to play with RWB maybe 10 or 12 times over the years, and he's a cool enough guy to be around. He'll answer questions about where his favorite places to travel are or what his opinion is of infamous referee Joey Crawford. About the only thing he won't do is take a picture with you, and I can respect that. He makes it pretty clear that he doesn't want his picture taken in the casino.
Westbrook is my mom's favorite player, so since she was watching my kids I texted her and told her that I was playing poker with her favorite basketball player. The first thing she says is, "take a picture and send it to me." I said no, he doesn't like his picture taken. She says, "Just tell him it's for your dear old mother and he is her favorite player in the world." I didn't want to get into a back-and-forth with her about it so I figured I'd just sneak a quick picture when he wasn't looking and send it to her. He was only two seats away from me so I had to be in stealth mode but at the same time it wouldn't look totally awkward like it would if I was on the other end of the table and trying to lean around to point my phone at him.
I made sure my phone was on silent so it wouldn't make a loud clicking sound and then I snapped the thing. What I didn't realize was that for the first time in 5 years of owning this phone I somehow had the flash on and it was pretty daggone bright and directly in his eyes. As soon as I saw the flash I jerked the phone down and pretended to type on the phone as if I was texting someone and the flash just accidentally went off and/or had nothing to do with me taking a picture of Russell Westbrook. I saw his head snap over in my direction and he was giving me pretty much the exact same look he is giving at the top of this page (assuming you're not in text-only mobile phone mode, in which case you can just Google "Westbrook mean face" and see about 75 examples). I felt like the biggest idiot in the world and just kept my head down pretending to type. I may have soiled myself.
Luckily, I've played with RWB enough that he knows me and likes me (or at least he did before this), Regardless, he didn't say anything (and I've heard him call out other people for picture snapping at the table) and we interacted normally the rest of the night. I never mentioned my mom or admitted to anything. I just wanted it to go away.
I went ahead and sent the picture to my mom. Ironically, the picture is quite blurry because I jerked the phone down as soon as the flash started going off. She texted back and said the pic was too blurry and I needed to take another one. I said there's no way I'm pointing my phone in his direction the rest of the night. And I didn't.
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I'm pretty excited about a road trip I'm getting ready to embark on with my bestie Chad. We are going on a six-city Midwest baseball and poker trip featuring eight Major League Baseball games and hopefully boatloads of cash won at poker tables in these cities.
He started up a Tumblr blog just for the trip, where we will post pics and stories. I'm not sure it's operational right now but we'll be posting stuff on Facebook/Twitter about it as well so if you care, keep an eye out for it. Our trip is basically the first two weeks of August and our wives are the most awesome people ever for letting us do this.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Impractical Pokers and Extraordinary Extras
In between poker hands the other night at the Firelake Grand Casino in Shawnee, America, my buddy Brant leaned over to the food tray right next to him, grabbed the steak knife, cut a piece of sirloin, dipped it in A-1 sauce, took the bite, grabbed the napkin and wiped his face.
For doing this, I promised him a small amount of money and a blog, which I am now writing.
One of my favorite TV shows is Impractical Jokers, where four buddies make each other perform embarrassing tasks in public. Whoever does the poorest job of completing these tasks is further humiliated in the form of a punishment conceived of by the other three. It's like National Geographic for immature people.
Brant also likes the show, and we were talking about it when a complete stranger at the table right behind us received his steak dinner. I challenged Brant to take a bite of the guy's steak, and he had to complete all of the tasks listed above. For starters, I thought there was no way he would actually do this, but even if he did I tried to put enough contingencies in there so that he would surely get busted, which is what I really wanted to see happen.
The food tray with the steak was placed right in between he and Brant as they sat back to back at the adjacent poker tables. The steak orderer was around 30 years old and wasn't making too much noise at his table. He seemed pretty focused on his card game. But he was also pretty hungry, because for the first 10 minutes the steak was there he was going at it pretty consistently. He'd turn back to the card game just long enough to fold his hand, then get back to eating. Brant would lean his chair back as if to stretch his arms but would never have enough time to go for it.
Because Brant was turning around and staring at this complete stranger's food tray every 15 seconds for half an hour, other people at the steak eater's table started to notice that something strange was going on. Three players in that game were giving Brant consistent suspicious looks every time he turned around, although the actual steak eater seemed oblivious and I don't think anyone ever alerted him to the danger his dinner was in.
Because he wasn't man enough to complete the task in time, I cancelled the bet when it appeared the dinner was finished and made several comments about how Brant wasn't man enough to complete the task in time.
Then the unthinkable happened. Actually two unthinkables. First, the dude went back and took another bite of steak. This proved that he might not be quite finished and opened the door for Brant to win the bet if he hurried. But there was only one or two bites left on the steak.
I still didn't think he could do it since he attracted quite a bit of attention during his first 49 sissified attempts at it. But somehow the eyes of God looked down on Brant and immediately provided a poker hand in which the whole table was involved. Brant leaned over and completed the entire task without ever being noticed, and the guy never turned back around to eat his last bite. It was really boring and annoying and I'm writing this blog under protest. It would have been much more awesome had he gotten busted; I might have felt like I got my money's worth that way. We thought about leaving the guy a $5 poker chip and a thank-you note which probably would have been appropriate.
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I also want to take this opportunity to tell you about a brand new nonprofit organization which I'm excited to be a small part of.
When I was in college I went with a group to the Philippines, where we worked with a Bible college on an education project and also did a little disaster relief in Manila. It was an awesome trip that I'll never forget and definitely gave me a lifelong love for the people there.
Missy took a humanitarian aid trip to Tanzania when she was in college, so she also has a heart to help those around the world who haven't been blessed with all the things we have in America.
Our friend Katie went to the Philippines on a disaster relief trip and while there she discovered the huge need for education among the poorest in that country. Education is the best way to solve the worldwide poverty problem, and Katie immediately went to work on the issue, coming up with creative ways to provide fun, supplemental educational tools as well as part-time jobs.
Now back in the U.S., Katie launched Extraordinary Extras, with the goal of returning to the Philippines to continue her work there while also starting after-school programs here in Oklahoma. Eventually we'd like to be worldwide force for fighting poverty through education with programs around the globe.
Of course, this requires money, and our first fundraising effort is a T-shirt campaign. We have a few cool colors to choose from and the shirts do a great job of stating our mission. The link to the T-shirts is here. (Note: Don't use autofill when filling out the address or billing information; for some reason it won't allow the order to be put through that way).
We'd love you to visit extraordinaryextras.org to learn more about the organization or perhaps make a tax-deductible donation. We also have a Facebook page. Let's work together to help fight poverty through fun eductaion!
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