The Three Amigos Go North!

Posted on | July 30, 2009 | 24 Comments

8/2 10:33PM

Saturday was the day we were all looking forward to. It was the day in which we’d finally get to see Timothy Leroy Lincecum pitch.

I’m not sure exactly when Tim Lincecum became the boys’ favorite player. I imagine it started last year, but became more apparent this year as they both became really interested in the Giants. They’ve always been Giants fans and I reminded them of the 2002 season when the Giants went to the World Series. Whenever Barry Bonds came up, they’d chant, “Barry! Barry!” And then Brian decided that when Jeff Kent would come up, he’d chant, “Jeffy! Jeffy!”

But before the ball game, we had to check out of the Embassy Suites, which has a generous check out time of 1PM. I let the boys sleep until 10:30AM and we decided to get ready. It was shower time.

For some reason, the boys like to flip flop who takes the shower first. And they flip flop based on a historical record of every shower they’ve ever taken. I hear a lot of, “Remember last week when I took the shower first?” And JJ enjoys trying to forget the truth sometimes to get away with taking the shower second. I had to make JJ take his shower first because both boys thought it was the other’s turn. But JJ was lying. He had to take it first.

We finally checked out and were headed to San Mateo to see the new movie G-Force in 3-D. San Mateo has a fun little downtown area and the boys had some pizza and I had a meatball sandwich. The boys decided to ask the guy who ran the pizza parlor to change the channel on the TV to iCarly, which made the couple behind us chuckle. I don’t think iCarly was their cup of tea. Maybe if Spencer had tattoos and rode motorcycles.

We watched the movie and it was ok for a kid’s movie. The 3-D was pretty fun and overall, it was an easy way to waste an hour and a half. Then we were on our way back to the ballpark.

The boys wanted to get there for batting practice again like last time. However, they didn’t have batting practice. The players who were married and had children had their kids on the field and they were playing something resembling softball. The boys were kind of bothered. We had to wait them out.

My parents brought Cousin Ryland to the game. We bought Ryland a ticket for his birthday and it was his first chance to see AT&T Park, and what better first time than to see Lincy pitch?

For the second game in a row, Barry Zito was signing autographs, and this time, Brian was ready. He had his game ball from the day before that Jeremy Affeldt bounced to him and we brought a pen. Mr. Zito signed Brian’s ball and it made his day. In fact, he said watching Lincecum pitch and having Zito sign his ball was his favorite part of our little mini-vacation.

Lincecum started out slowly and had a few struggles, but he pitched well again. He didn’t have his A grade stuff, but it was still good enough for eight shutout innings. And the Giants won 2-0.

In between innings, all three boys would go as close to the field as they could to see if either Fred Lewis or Raul Ibanez would throw them a ball. JJ said that there was a time when Lewis threw a ball in their vicinity, but he was bumped out of the way by a bigger kid. He said that part of the mini-vacation was the best. I’m not sure why, but his “almost” chance to get a ball was his favorite.

Ryland had a great time and the boys showed him around the park. They acted like they owned the place and weren’t scared to walk around by themselves and they figured out how to get back to their seats. After the fact, they both said they wanted to do it again, so next year, the Three Amigos will be back at AT&T park.

But before then, I think we may make a trip to Wrestlemania 26.

Update: 8/3 1:10AM

I’ve heard athletes say that one of the hardest things about retiring is that it’s just too quiet. They love the roar of the crowd, being noticed in public, and just generally most everything that comes with being athletes. I’ve mentioned this before. When I drop the kids off at Carol’s and come home, the hardest part for me is that it’s just too quiet. Not hearing their voices and their arguing is the single hardest part about being a single parent who doesn’t have his kids all the time.

Time moves very slowly when they’re not around and it’s really more noticeable when I have them for long periods of time and then have to drop them back off. I get over it much more quickly than I used to and I’m happy for them that they get to be back with their mom because I know how much they love her. But just a year ago, I’d get pretty depressed. Now, it’s a much different feeling, though it’s still a feeling of loneliness. And of course, I just miss being around them all the time.

But I’ll see them again tomorrow. And we’ll probably talk about how the Three Amigos went north.

8/1 9:33AM

Friday started very slowly. The boys were tired from crashing out so late. It happens at ball games though. You leave a park where there are tons of people all cheering and then go home and you’re still amped. And since we were only 10 minutes from the park, there wasn’t a long drive to put them to sleep.

But we woke up at 8:30AM anyway to grab our free breakfast. I won’t even really explain the breakfast situation. I’ll give you two quotes.

“I didn’t like breakfast.”

“The Embassy Suite sucks!”

If you know my kids, I don’t even have to tell you who said each quote.

In short, the line for the eggs and sausages and bacon and all that was about 12 miles long and it didn’t move in the 10 minutes we were in it. So we decided to grab some oatmeal and bagels. The kids hate oatmeal, so it wasn’t a good breakfast. I don’t think we’re waking up early to go back tomorrow.

JJ was so antsy to go to the ball park that he didn’t want to do anything else beforehand. We thought about going to the movies or going to Malibu to play video games, but JJ just wanted to go to the ball park. But we couldn’t go to the park until 5PM and he wasn’t budging. Thus, the kids watched TV and we finally decided to head out at 2:30PM to grab a late lunch.

My friend Aubrey was in town for the weekend and she wanted to meet up in the city so she went to lunch with us. She hadn’t seen the kids in many years and when I asked them about her, they had no idea who she was. We met up at Tres Agaves, which is a nice Mexican restaurant near the ball park. The kids drank fake margaritas, ate hamburguesas, and did their best to entertain Aubrey by acting like fools.

After lunch, we were on our way to the park, 2 1/2 hours early. When you get to a ball park that early, there’s no one there. There are a few ushers, some geeky adults looking for autographs, and some kids who have never been that close to a baseball field before. The boys loved it. And the geeky adults looking for autographs were some of the most pathetic people I’ve ever seen in my life.

I’m fine with folks asking for autographs. But when you’re 30 and you’re begging a Major League player to sign your baseball, it makes you look like a jerk. When you’re hanging out with the kids and you’re begging players to throw you a baseball, you look like an even bigger jerk. Now, if you want to chat nicely with the players and act like an actual human being, rather than star gazing into their jock straps, then fine. I’m fine with that. But when you’re fighting with kids over a baseball that’s lofted into the stands, you should just exit the park.

There was one guy who was just as happy as a dog chasing a tennis ball when he was stole a ball that was thrown in the stands directed towards Brian. Tomorrow, I’m standing between any adults and my kids, and folks are getting body checked if a ball comes their way again. But Brian did get a ball. Jeremy Affeldt bounced one to him and he was happy. But JJ wasn’t. Even though he’s already been tossed a baseball before, he wanted another.

I asked the kids if they thought watching batting practice was boring and they said no. In fact, because the game was so boring, I imagine they liked batting practice more. We didn’t have a pen with us so Brian missed out on getting Barry Zito to sign his ball, but we’ll be ready with ammo on Saturday since we know the deal.

As for our eating excursion, we ate badly again, but not as badly as the day before. No stomach cramps for Bri this time. The Mexican food was really good and I had tacos. At the ballpark, I had something at Häagen-Dazs that I may have to get again one more time. It was a brownie/cookie with ice cream on top of it. I’m surprised I lived to write about it. In the middle innings we went to get hot dogs. I instead opted for a bratwurst, which was awesome. I don’t think I’d ever had sauerkraut for about the first 30 years of my existence, but I do now love it.

As for the game itself, it was bad, real bad, Michael Jackson. The Giants were never really in it and couldn’t get anything going offensively. They lost 5-1.

As for the boys and I, we had the “I like turtles” joke going like nobody’s business. I would set up these long winded stories simply in order to get the, “I like turtles” line out there to crack them up.

If you haven’t seen the video, it’s below.

Saturday is Lincy day and the kids are way excited to see their favorite player Tim Lincecum. I hope he has great stuff so they can see their guy win. It would really make their day. My parents are coming up too and bringing Cousin Ryland for his first AT&T Park experience. And there’s no real better experience than seeing Lincy throw darts. Hopefully.

Here’s more from the game:
The write-up of the boring game
Photos from the game

Also, check out Aubrey’s blog and her new sports and entertainment lifestyle web show, On The Flipside.

7/31 11:05AM

Yesterday, we started our trek up north. Well, it’s not really a trek, considering I drive further every time I go into the office. But for the kids, it was a trek.

Our trek started out a bit slowly and who could blame us? We were on vacation. For some reason, the kids have a fascination with the Fresh Choice and Sweet Tomatoes, which are salad bar type of restaurants. I think it originally stems from Carol and I taking them there as kids and I told them it was really called “Sweet Tomatillos”. But since then, whenever they want to go out to eat, it’s either Fresh Choice or “Sweet Tomatillos”.

Before the game

JJ is the smarter eater when it comes to overindulgence. Brian and I (if I’m off dieting) will eat first and ask questions last. We all decided to have some frozen yogurt and that’s where Brian and I went a bit crazy. JJ is much more of a snacker than a real eater. But he’s also the slowest eater in the world. He’s like the anti-Kobiyashi. While Brian and I cruised through our first serving of frozen yogurt and went for seconds, JJ was slowly still eating his first. Brian and I finished our second and JJ still wasn’t done. Brian would severely pay for it at the baseball game.

Brian has an issue whenever he eats too much junk food. He knows it. I know it. His mom knows it. Even Ronald McDonald knows it. But damn Ron still keeps serving him hamburgers. Actually, the kids do get their McDonald’s every once in a while, but they don’t eat junk food all that often. And if Jesus (step-dad) is making a run, they get their fair share of Super Taqueria too.

But on this afternoon, the junk wasn’t going to stop. You can’t really eat healthy at the ball game.

We then got the car washed, and really, Harold looked brand new. And we were on our way to Burlingame.

(Harold is the name of the car, in honor of Harold James Potter.)

We stayed at the Embassy Suites, mostly because I remember it being kid friendly from our stays at the one in Anaheim when they kids were younger. And plus, who says no to free breakfast? The kids really loved the room even though they don’t remember staying at a similar one in Anaheim several years ago.

On our way to the ballpark, we parked across the street from the old Fanbase office and headed over the one of the greatest places ever created – AT&T (formerly Pac Bell) Park.

We had great seats and sat in front of a fun foursome of a couple and their now grown and married son with his wife. They were very nice and we all chatted back and forth about the game. They were pretty impressed at the questions the boys were asking about the game. The boys can thank their grandfather’s influence for their feel for the game of baseball. It’s pretty impressive.

At one point, JJ and I were talking about what type of pitch Bobby Howry should throw Ben Francisco with a 2 and 2 count. We both said “something down and away”. Howry threw him a slider down and away and struck out Francisco.

The game was fun. Big Pablo Sandoval hit one into the water that would’ve made Barry Bonds stand up and rub his bald head. Eugenio Velez had a great game as well. And Jonathan Sanchez was well, dirty.

Big Pablo

Brian unfortunately got a humongous stomach cramp from all the junk food (which also included pizza and garlic fries, but I think it was the hot chocolate that took him over the edge), but thankfully, it didn’t last too long and he was back in business. We’ll go a little lighter on the junk tonight.

We’re ready for game two tonight. Both kids wanted to go to the park this morning, a mere 9 hours before game time. We’re going to hang in SF a bit before the game, but they want to see batting practice so we’re going early.

Here is more from the game:
Recap of the Giants vs. Phillies
Photos I took at the ballgame

7/30 12:56AM

When Carol and I were in the process of separation, I decided to have an evening with the kids in which we would stay out in the living room and watch a late movie and then have a sleep over. We’d call ourselves “The Three Amigos”. It became a regular occurrence and when I moved out, we did it at my crappy apartment every weekend I had them as well. We haven’t done it all that much recently. The apartment isn’t so crappy anymore. The boys are settled.

I did it mostly to help the boys get adjusted to what their life was to become. I’ve always been proud of the fact that I wasn’t the type of dad who always needed mom around. When JJ was just several months old, Carol had to leave on a business trip and it was just the boys and me. Brian couldn’t have even have been two at the time. Of course, we hung out at my parents’ house for dinner one night.

But I always challenged myself to be as close to my boys as possible, even if I had to play a more motherly role with them at times. When you have two parents who work, mom is not always going to be home. She may have to work long hours. She may have to be on time consuming projects. In that sense, it really set me up for single parenthood.

I can honestly say that even throughout divorce, I have a tremendously tight relationship with my kids. I may not be able to see them everyday anymore, which has way more to do with my work schedule than anything else, but our relationship is as tight as ever. I think a lot of that has to do with our sleepovers. On those evenings, it was just us three and no one else.

The Three Amigos are about to go north. I took a few days off work and we bought tickets to Giants games starting Thursday and going through Saturday. We’re going to stay in Burlingame, which is just south of San Francisco and it’s going to be just us and no one else. I don’t know if I should feel proudly or not that I play mom and dad to my boys when I have them. Is it really something to be proud of? I get sort of mixed feelings.

On one hand, I can handle anything as a parent and really don’t need anyone else. In that sense, I guess it’s kind of admirable. But on the other hand, the fact that I have to do it myself can be kind of frustrating because I know the kids would rather me not do it that way. But it’s not like I really have a choice right now. It’s just the way it is.

Voldemort read my tarot cards tonight (her question was about my future relationships) and sent me a message through text. The message was that there is a moment coming where I take a leap before I remember to be cautious. I told her that I at least hope that I get to leap with my eyes open for fear of going home ugly early. She said it’s a blindfolded leap and my instinct must guide me. Well, I already have two good looking kids. One ugly child won’t hurt my rep I guess.

As it is, I’m really happy with where my relationship is with the kids right now and as they get older, I really want it to continue to grow. Just two months ago, iCarly was their girl. Now she’s old and busted. And Megan Fox is the new hotness. Where did the time go?

I still get a weird feeling when Brian sends me a G-chat message that starts with ” Hi Dad”. I kind of look around and wonder where my dad is because I forget that I’m the dad. Am I really that child’s father? Is “Dad” really my name?

Later today, “The Three Amigos” shall go north and tear up Burlingame. Burlingame won’t hold us. It only hopes to contain us.

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