We had a family photo taken at the Blue Jays game on Sunday.
A new bird
There was a Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) on the feeder this afternoon when I got home from work. He hung around long enough for me to get my camera out.
At dinner time there was a Rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) at the feeder. It’s the first time I have seen one in the backyard.
Happy Mother’s Day!
We headed down to Rogers Centre Sunday morning to take in our first Blue Jays game of the season. With the Jays doing better of late, we were looking forward to the possibility of a sweep of the Mariners. Angela was able to get the day off work so we could all spend the day with Susan.
The roof was opened for the first time this year. We were sitting in section 516R, seats 3-7.
The skies were blue.
Angela and I enjoying our first beer together at a Blue Jays game.
Even though the skies were blue and the sun was out, the roof started to close. There was some inclement weather coming. We don’t know if it ever came, it was sunny when the roof closed and it was sunny when we left the game.
Even the umpires were sad the roof was closing.
Both teams were wearing their pink trimmed jerseys for Mothers Day.
Aaron Sanchez came off the DL to start the game.
Kevin Pillar waiting for his first pitch.
He would go on to hit the game winning run in the bottom of the ninth with a walk off home run. Here he is running from his teammates trying to save his jersey from being ripped off.
The final box score for the game.
After the game we headed to chinatown for dinner at our usual restaurant. Imagine our surprise and disappointment when we couldn’t see the Xam Yu signage. It turns out they closed sometime between our last visit there and now. We ended up going to the restaurant two doors down called Sang’s Great Seafood Restaurant. We were able to get our noodles with BBQ pork, deep fried shrimp balls and cantonese chow mein, but no crispy beef.
Xam Yu has been replaced with a hotpot restaurant called PaPaSpicy. On the Xam Yu website they recommend a restaurant called Sang Ho Seafood Restaurant which is at 536 Dundas Street east of Spadina, we’ll have to try that one next time.
Some photos on the way back to the subway.
St Patrick station was pretty empty.
Hilton Falls Hike
Susan and I took the day off Monday. It was our 24th anniversary. Nothing special planned, we went for a hike to Hilton Falls Conservation Area.
The trilliums were in full bloom.
Chloe is getting better on the grated stairs that lead down to the falls viewing area.
With all the rain lately and the spring runoff, the falls were quite impressive, especially compared to the trickle that we have seen in the summer.
Our big camera selfie.
It was a beautiful day.
Chloe was a tired doggie when we got home.
Rogers TV Closes
The local Rogers TV station for Peel Region closed it doors on Tuesday May 2, in the process 15 full time employees were laid off. Among them were some of the people Claudia had learned and laughed with since her co-op placement last semester and continued up until recently as a volunteer at the Mississauga Steelheads games. The Steelheads made it to the OHL finals which start tomorrow night. Games 3, 4 and 6 are scheduled for Hershey Centre, but the usual mobile crew will not be producing the television broadcast.
Rain, rain and more rain
It has been a couple of wet days. Seemed like it rained all day today. I took Angela out to Hamilton today to pick up the keys to her house they are renting for second year. When we got home the birds were all over the feeder. One of the female cardinals.
You can see the rain drops if you look closely.
A goldfinch with a sunflower seed.
Louisville, KY
I spent the week in Louisville, Kentucky for meetings. I flew in on Sunday afternoon via Minneapolis. Louisville is the birthplace of Muhammed Ali.
Louisville has painted horses around the city. It is part of an event called Gallopolooza. In 2004 and 2009 they did horses.
In 2015, they did Bourbon, in the form of Mint Juleps.
The Louisville Bats were playing the Durham Bulls at Louisville Slugger Field. They are the Triple A farm team for the Cincinnati Reds. I bought a ticket for $13.50 two rows behind the dugout.
Their mascot is “Buddy” the Bat.
The game went to extra innings, I moved around to watch from different areas.
The final score was 4-3 Louisville in 14 innings, I only stayed until the 10th.
it was a nice stadium, although the draft beer was $7.60, a little pricey for a minor league park.
On the way back I stopped at the Visitor Centre and saw the Colonel.
A couple of blocks from the hotel was an area called Fourth Street Live, it has a lot of restaurants and bars.
On Monday afternoon, a few of us went to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. There is a 120ft bat out front. It is a replica of Babe Ruth’s 34 inch Louisville Slugger bat.
Ken Griffey Junior.
Babe Ruth.
Ted Williams.
Derek Jeter.
There is a tour that takes you through the factory and it shows the bat making process from billet to lacquered finished product. A display showing how they cut the billets from a tree.
It use to take 30 minutes for someone to make a bat on a lathe. Now they use a CNC machine to make the professional bats in 50 seconds.
There was a special Lego exhibit, called Big Leagues, Little Bricks. Here is a replica of Wrigley Field made from 58,000 bricks.
This is a mural made from Lego bricks. It has the words to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” spelled out.
Wrigley Field.
There is a signature wall that has all of the players that have signed contracts with the company. Only those that have a contract have their signatures burned onto their bats, other Major Leaguers who only order bats, have their name in block letters. I found early Blue Jays Doug Ault…
…and Rick Bosetti.
At the end of the tour we each got a miniature souvenir bat.
The Kentucky Derby is next weekend, so things will start to get busy this week. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to get a room for the $134/night I paid this week.
The meeting was at The Brown Hotel, it was opened in 1923, until closing in 1971. In the 80’s it re-opened as a hotel and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
There was a terrace on the roof that provides a 360 view of the city.
There is a ZeroBus (it is an electric bus) that is free in the downtown core.
Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to family and friends. We took a photo when we got back from Church this morning.
Angela was home for a night, she wrote her first exam on Saturday and then got a ride back to school with Grandma and Poppa tonight. She has her second exam on Tuesday.
We had Mom and Dad, Steve, Miranda and the boys over for a delicious turkey dinner. Here we are before digging in.
Gillian helping to cut onions for turkey soup.
Signs of Spring
There have been no shortage of birds visiting the backyard feeder, along with squirrels and raccoons.
The Goldfinches are back.
Along with the Dark-eyed juncos.
The House finches.
The other night there was a raccoon on the feeder, I sent Chloe out to chase it away, but it only went up the tree, eventually it came down, and I sent Chloe out again to finally chase it away.
EpiPen Recall
Pfizer Canada has recalled two lots of EpiPen injectors due to possible device failure. Our pharmacy called Angela and Claudia today to inform them that they had EpiPen’s (4 in total) from the affected Lot 5GU763 that expire in May 2017. The other lot is for the EpiPen Jr (Lot 5GR765) . The pharmacy is completely out of stock, once they have more in stock we will be able to get replacements.
