America's pastime in Schenectady

The boys and I had a great morning yesterday. We headed over to the Schenectady Museum to take in their special baseball exhibit.

It was billed as the "The Science Behind Baseball." There was a little bit of science stuff. One display helped you figure out how to find the sweet spot on a bat. We also watched a short movie in which two kids conducted experiments to determine which bat sends the ball farther -- aluminum or wooden (their results gave aluminum the slight edge).

But it was mostly a great collection of baseball memorabilia -- particularly as it pertained to Schenectady and the surrounding region. There were lots of great old photos of the Schenectady Blue Jays -- a former farm team for the Phillies best known for producing future Dodgers manager Tommy LaSorda. I also spotted a photo of a young Phil Rizzuto being interviewed on WGY.

There were also items on display from more recent memory, including lots of memorabilia from the Albany-Colonie Yankees and the Tri-City ValleyCats.

I would have liked to have spent more time looking at the old photos and reading all of the captions next to them, but the kids didn't have the patience for that.

The highlight for them was getting up close and personal with several of the VallyCats players (and their mascot, Southpaw). They each brought baseballs that were filled with signatures before long.

They also spent a good deal of time testing their arms against the radar gun. Nolan says his best pitch was 28 mph (although the highest I remember seeing was 27). Little Thomas topped out at 25 mph and even did a pretty good job of hitting the strike zone.

View more photos here.

Things that have nothing to do with Indiana Jones

One of my loyal readers has commented that there has been too much geekery here on the blog and not enough family photos.

So here’s a picture of the boys from today’s trip to the New York State Museum. We’ve been to this museum a gazillion time and know it like the back of our hand. But the kids love it. It is a very cool place.

We’re halfway through vacation week and so far no one has killed anyone else. Besides the museum trip today, Kris and the kids have found some more letterboxes. It’s been one year since we started this hobby and so far the kids have found 53 letterboxes!

In other news, I did something I’ve never done before last weekend. I donated blood for the first time.

Growing up, I had something of an irrational fear of needles. Never in a million years would I have entertained the idea of voluntarily having a needle stuck in my arm and blood drained out of me. EEeww!!!

As I got older, I became much less squeamish when it came time to get blood drawn at a doctor’s appointment. Then last year Kris started donating and I realized I had no good reason not to – especially after watching the medical ordeals that our friend Mike Ford and my nephew Patrick went through.

It was easy and felt good to do. Hopefully, it won’t be the last time.

A Night at the Museum

Nolan and I spent Friday night camping in at the New York State Museum with his Cub Scout Pack.

The evening started around 6:45 with pizza for dinner. Then the museum staff had activities and guided tours for the kids all night long. We capped the night with a snack and a late night ride on the carousel.

The museum is closed to the public during all this time. We had the run of the place. After the night's activities were done, we were left to find our own corner of the museum and roll out our sleeping bags on the floor.

Sleeping on the floor actually wasn't as bad as you might expect. When we woke up in the morning the museum served us breakfast. Then we had free run of the place to ourselves again until it opened to the public (although we had left by then).

It's a great museum and we've been there many, many times before (the mastodont is Nolan's favorite). But there is something very cool about being there all night long and waking up there in the morning.

Something new I learned: the artificial mastodont and her calf are mostly made out of styrofoam. Their fur is from the Vermont Teddy Bear Facotry.

Candy Bombing

We took the kids to the Empire State Aeroscience Museum Saturday for some holiday fun.

Things kicked off when one of the most realistic Santas I’ve ever seen arrived with Mrs. Claus via airplane. It was cute to see all the kids rush to the plane to greet him like a rock star.

Once inside, kids visited with Santa while eating cookies and working on craft projects. One of the projects involved making little wooden rockets that were launched with rubber bands outside.

We toured the museum and then listened to the story of the Berlin “Candy Bomber.” It’s the tale of a U.S. pilot who dropped candy tied to parachutes made of handkerchiefs to children below during the Berlin airlift in 1948.

After hearing the story, we went outside where museum volunteers re-created the candy bombing by dropping candy tied to little parachutes from a second-story window.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Wow…this may be the longest I’ve ever gone without blogging here. Sorry for the unexpected absence everyone. I guess life has been pretty busy lately.

I’d like to send out a big thanks to Kris’ sister Kim and her husband John for hosting us this past weekend. We stayed with them in their camper at an RV park in Cooperstown.

While we were there John and I took Nolan on his first pilgrimage to baseball Mecca—the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I was a little nervous that he might get bored, but he really loved it. He toured through every inch of the place.

He most liked any exhibits that were Yankee related. He was really excited to see some Derek Jeter memorabilia. But he also got a kick out of seeing the bat Babe Ruth used to hit his legendary “called shot.”

On our way out I bought him his first pack of baseball cards (Thomas got some Yankee stickers). You’d think I had given him pure gold.

I'm still here

It’s been far too long since the last time I posted anything. I had some vacation time last week, then our friends the Reeds came to visit last weekend and the last few days have been busy at work.

So with all that I haven’t had time to blog—except for last Friday’s news about Star Trek. I mean c’mon, we have to make time for the important things, right?

Anyway, the vacation was good. I had three days off. We were supposed to spend that time in Boston, but when our plans changed I decided to keep the vacation time and just hang out around home. On Day 1 I took Nolan to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. On Day 2 we went for a family bike ride and picnic. On Day 3 we took a day trip to the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in Poughkeepsie.

It poured buckets over the weekend. So our visit with the Mike & Sharon and their kids was a washout. We kept to indoor activities like a trip to the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology and dinner at Applebee’s.

Last night was Nolan’s first baseball game of the season. Sorry…no pictures. We didn’t even bother bringing the camera. Kris had her hands full with Thomas and Chester and I was busy helping to coach the team. He has another game this weekend, so hopefully we’ll snap some shots then and maybe even get some video.

About half of his team was also on his tee ball team last year, and I’m really proud of them. You can see such a big improvement since last year. It’s going to be a fun season!