Take me out to the ballgame

What do June 26th, 2005 and July 15th, 1979 have in common? Those are the dates that Ryan and I attended our first baseball games (respectively). I was 11 when I attended my first game. Ryan is only 14 months old, so he probably won’t remember his first game. I remember mine like it was yesterday. It was the first time my dad took me to see my favorite team, the Oakland Athletics. The A’s lost to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 on an error by shortstop Dave Chalk.

The A’s had been leading 2-1 going into the 9th inning, but they couldn’t hold on. That was pretty typical for the ’79 A’s (they lost 108 games that year). Both pitchers tossed complete games that day, a rarity today. ’79 was the rookie season for a guy named Rickey Henderson. It was also the first year that Henderson, Dwayne Murphy and Tony Armas played together as an outfield. Those three would go on to become the best outfield in A’s history (in my opinion).

I found a great website called retrosheet.com, which has box scores from many Major League Baseball games of years past. You can see that 26 year-old [box score here].

Anyway, Ryan’s first baseball experience was a tad different. We went to see the same Oakland A’s, but the opponent for the game last Sunday was the San Francisco Giants. The A’s would end up pummeling the Giants 16-0. A’s pitcher Rich Harden combined with two other relievers to one-hit the Giants. It was one of the most lopsided losses in Giants history (which I thoroughly enjoyed).

I saved Ryan’s ticket, much like I saved the ticket to my first game. I actually have that ticket in a small frame that I keep in my office. The frame also includes tickets from games two and three of the 1989 World Series (game three was the infamous earthquake game), the 1987 All Star Game, and the game four of the 1990 American League Champion Series (Roger Clemens was tossed in the first inning). The A’s swept both the 1989 World Series and the 1990 ALCS.


Our tickets
I also saved Monday’s newspaper for Ryan so he can read the game write up if he’s so interested. More than anything, I hope he’ll be able to look back on that date as the first time his dad took him to a ballgame.

He’ll certainly be able to silence any Giants fans with the story of his first game.

BBQ at Scott & Christine's

The clan trekked out to Outer Mongolia on Saturday to visit the Vincents. Scott & Christine have a cool house, except for the fact that it's located on the outer rim of the earth, where you fall off the map. Our hosts treated us to dinner, an endless supply of booze and one kickass fireworks show.

The kids got a kick out of the cement pond. Sonya loved the organized garage. I am now on the hook to modularize my garage and find room for a pool in my backyard.

Photos from [Scott & Christine's house] in Brentwood.

Dance Attack(ing my wallet)

Karsyn’s summer of endless activities kicked off last weekend with a dance recital at Foothill College on Saturday and Sunday. She’s been enrolled in dance for a couple of months, and her dance school put on a huge show, which consisted of about 4000 separate acts. OK, maybe not 4000. Let’s call it 50.

50 dance routines of girls and boys ranging from 3 year-olds to anywhere north of 50. It was quite the spectacle. Lots of frilly costumes make up and “dance people”. I am not a “dance person”. Sonya will attest to this. I think the whole deal is a little over the top and I have yet to embrace the whole concept.

I’m not a Neanderthal. I actually enjoy the arts. In fact, I can sit through an opera or a ballet. I can tell the difference between Mozart and Tchaikovsky. I prefer Monet over Renoir.

What I’m not, is someone who likes get milked for every nickel and dime I own. Here is a link to the photos I took of the event. You may notice that there are no photos of Karsyn actually dancing. The reason for that is that we were no allowed to take any photographs (even non-flash photos), or any video of the event.


Waiting for the show to begin
We were of course given the option of buying the $40 DVD of the event. Did I mention that I also had to pay $17 just to get in the door to see my own child perform? I don’t have any problem spending money on my kids. In fact, I could probably be accused of spending too much money on frivolous things for them. I have the money, and they’re only little once in their lives, so why not.

The fact that the outfit I also pay to instruct my child, also tries to fleece me for a DVD after charging me to see the performance live is a little over the top in my opinion. They have you right where they want you. It’s your kids first performance, you shelled out $50 for the costume that they need to wear (which I’m sure they also get a kick back on), all the grandparents are there. You have no choice. Throw in the bouquet of flowers that you need to buy and you’re talking some serious coin.

I was tickled to see Karsyn up on stage. She seemed to be genuinely having fun up there. I would have been petrified up there, but she seemed to soak it all in and enjoy herself. So now I’m torn because she actually loves to dance.

The whole “Jon Benet” culture also seems to turn me off a bit. Little kids do not need to be caked in makeup. They’re already cute. They already glow up on stage. They don’t need to be made up like little dolls. Let them be little kids.


The star of the show with her flowers
I also argued with Sonya that nobody gives out scholarships for dance (except for dance schools). If Karsyn ever got a scholarship from Juilliard, then I would stand humbly corrected, but I’m hoping Stanford, Harvard or some other school comes knocking first.

I’d tell you more about the performance itself, but I’ll let you come over and check out my $40 DVD. I plan on getting my money’s worth by watching it often.

Karsyn's Dance [Photo Album]

School's Out!

I started this blog back in August of last year with the intent of recapping some of the events in our lives, so that our family and friends would have an idea of what was going on. My first post covered Karsyn’s first day of kindergarten, and was a bittersweet day for Sonya and I. Our “baby” was starting school. [Checkout this photo].

Well, the first year of Karsyn’s education wrapped up on Friday with the last day of school. I sat down to write something about the day, but I found myself stunned by the fact that ten months had flown by so quickly. I just wrote that story about Karsyn’s first day of school for crying out loud! It’s really incredible how time snaps past you.

For Karsyn, Friday was a blast. She and all of her classmates were treated to the end of year kindergarten carnival. It was an event that was co-organized by Sonya. My dad, Sonya’s dad, and I all chipped in by volunteering at the event. Grandpa Karl ran the obstacle course, while my dad and were appointed ice creamer scoopers at the ice cream sundae station.


Why such a small scoop buddy!"
Yes, that’s right, the ice cream sundae station. Last day of school, let’s juice the five year olds up on as much sugar as we can get into them, then send them on their merry way! Camp counselors beware!

I must admit that it was a very well organized event. Sonya did a great job of planning and getting a ton of parents to chip in and volunteer their time. Karsyn’s school is great for parent participation and this event was no exception.

After a couple of hours of crafts, games, and sugar, all the kids returned to their respective classrooms for a final few minutes with their teachers. Karsyn’s teacher, Mrs. Redke, packaged all of the kids work for the kids to bring home and put together “memory books” for each student. These books were filled with much of the work the kids completed during the school year, and were capped with a series of photos from the school year.


Karsyn & Liam
As all the kids lined up one last time to exist the kindergarten classroom to their waiting parents, several of the moms (including Sonya) who had worked during the carnival were in the classroom as everybody lined up to start summer vacation. The kids sang their “Goodbye” song one last time, and all hell broke loose.

Specifically, all the moms in the room started bawling like, well, like five year-old girls. I got a big kick out of it, but I realize that it was certainly a sentimental moment for them. Karsyn’s friend Liam is the youngest of four kids in his family, and his mom Jamie had a tough time dealing with the end of kindergarten.

Sonya wasn’t much better, which means I need to have the video camera ready on Ryan’s last day of kindergarten! She’ll be bawling her eyes out. And I will tease her about it, because, well, that’s what five year-old boys do!


Karsyn & Mrs. Redke

Ryan and his Hanbok

My dad came over on Saturday to see the kids and one of the first thing he asks is where Ryan’s one year photo is. More importantly, where is Ryan’s one year photo in his “Hanbok” or “Tol” clothes. The “Tol” is Korean for “first birthday".

In the past, due to a lack of medical information, Korea's seasonal temperature differences, and many childhood related diseases, the death rate for children was extremely high. Many children died before their first birthday. After the age of one year, the survival rate steeply increased, making this milestone a very happy one for the child's parents. It has also been a custom to celebrate a child's 100 day birthday (baek-il) , but in most areas this birthday is less important than the Tol and any celebrations are smaller in scale.

Tol has two meanings in Korean. The most common meaning is a child's first birthday. It can also be used as a generic description for birthdays: Chut-tol (first birthday), Du-tol (second birthday), Seo-tol (third birthday), etc.

My dad and Mrs. Kim bought Ryan his Tol outfit on their December trip to Hawaii, and it was given to him on his first birthday. Apparently my dad has been waiting for the pics ever since.


Can't touch this
The clothes for the tol include a cheonbok (long blue vest) worn over a durumangi and a bokkeon (black hat with a long tail). Words and symbols related to children were sewn onto the fabric. Originally, the clothes were only for sons of the yangban class. Eventually, the custom and costume spread to other classes and included daughters as well, but with a different style of clothing.

We have a photo of Karsyn in her hanbok sitting on our stereo cabinet in the living room (in case you’re ever over and wonder why Karsyn is dressed up in the costume).

Ryan is not particularly fond of hats, so the bokkeon didn’t go over too well. In fact, the whole outfit didn’t go over too well the first time Sonya tried to have his portrait taken in his outfit.


The Grand Wizard whooping it up with Haraboji & Karsyn
So, we busted t out and tried to snap a few photos of him in it. He lasted about two minutes before he was ready to shed his silk duds.

Sonya and I will try to tag team him at the photo studio one of these weekends and see if we can get a portrait of him.

While Ryan may not think it’s that cool, he may be swayed by the fact that big stars like Nicholas Cage and Britney Spears have been known to chill in their Hanboks. Too cool!

More Loca Luna

More Loca Luna
Originally uploaded by TheFeeder.

I'm checking out the photo posting features that Flickr offers for blogs. Flickr, if you don't know, is a really cool photo service that Yahoo acquired about a month ago.

Go get a Flickr account if you don't already have one (http://www.flickr.com)

No place like Yosemite

The family trekked up to Yosemite National Park this past weekend as part of the annual San Francisco Turners trip. The Turners are an old German Gymnastics Social Club that Grandpa Karl has been a member of since he was a kid. The club spends a weekend in June camped at a private camp ground that runs along the south fork of the Toulomne River, just outside Yosemite’s north-west gate.

Sonya and I drove up Friday afternoon with the kids and met the group early Friday evening. We were joined by about 25 other Turners and their families, Grandma Marion, Sonya’s brother Thomas and his wife Toya.


Grandma, Grandpa & Karsyn in front of El Capitan
On Saturday morning, we headed to the valley floor, where we had breakfast at the Curry Village Lodge before setting out on bikes to tour various spots in the park. Ryan rode in a bike-seat on Sonya’s bike, and Karsyn rode on a tandem attachment that we borrowed from some friends. The attachment hooked on to the back of my mountain bike, so I had the “luxury” of an extra set of legs to crank up those hills.


Sonya & Ryan on the hike to Vernal Falls
Our first stop was the trail that led to Half Dome. We took the path about a mile up to the Vernal Falls bridge where we stopped to take in the view. Sonya hauled up the hill with Ryan on her shoulders a majority of the way. The fantastic snow fall that we’ve had this year has resulted in incredible water flow in all the falls in the park, and Vernal was no exception. The water was roaring past the bridge. To give you some idea of how much snow still remains, Tioga Pass is still closed (in June), and there is snow still at the top of Half Dome.

After hiking back down the trail we jumped back on our bikes then rode back through Curry Village, past Yosemite Village, then on to Yosemite Falls. The National Park Service has put in new paved paths to Yosemite Falls, and nice new elevated wood paths that run through some of the calmer water that forks off the main tributary that leads to the Toulomne River. These paths are cut through huge Redwood trees, offering a nice break from the sun.


Karsyn at Yosemite Falls
Yosemite falls was so active that spray from the water crashing at the bottom of the falls was blowing well past the bridge that cut over the continuing river. It was impossible to get pictures of the falls from the bridge, because the camera lens would mist up in the blink of an eye.

After biking back to Curry Village, we loaded the bikes back on the truck and headed over to the Ahwahnee Hotel, where we met everyone for cocktails on the patio overlooking Sentinel Dome and Glacier Point.

The Turners were planning a big party that evening, so we ended up leaving the park at around 4pm. Our campground was a 45 minute drive from the valley floor, just outside Big Oak Flat Gate off Highway 120.


Karsyn hooks her first fish!
When we got back to the camp ground, Karsyn and I decided to go give her brand new fishing pole a try. We found a nice spot just down-stream from our camping area, so we set up shop for a couple of hours. We were fishing for about 15 minutes before Karsyn landed her very first fish! It was a nice sized rainbow trout, that took her a minute to reel in. I had my camera with me in the event she caught something, so I was able to capture an event she’ll hopefully never forget.

Sonya and Ryan hiked out to see how we were progressing, and they got to see us each bring in a fish. Karsyn would land three fish total, to my lone brown. Four fish!!! It was a great day of fishing to say the least. Can’t wait for Ryan to be able to handle a rod and reel.

Sonya and I capped off the day sitting underneath a starry sky, rocking Ryan to sleep.

Checkout our [Yosemite Photo Album]