It was a fabulous evening, something which can be attested to (to which can be attested??) by those who were there. I think the final headcount was 20, including Daniel and 3 of his friends. Several folks were unable to attend because of illness. There is always next year. As I was turning the corner onto the street where the stadium is, Daphne called to say they were out front. Which was great because they could help carry stuff in, along with the Shulls who also were there early. We were able to get set up easily before everyone else trickled in.
We had two tables (they had changed the arrangement so we were not as close to the field as last year). New baseball attendees this year included Daphne and Kevin, Paula, Harold and Ariel, and Joelle (who got to meet Janice face to face for the first time). There was a lot of food, tho i discovered two more meal tickets (valid thru the rest of the season fortunately) in a pocket at the end.
AND THE SAN JOSE GIANTS WON!! It was a great game, good Giants pitching. Final score 5 to 1 against the High Desert Mavericks. It must be Linda Feldman as the good luck charm. She drove down after the SF Giants (the big guys) won. How about that for a double-header? Two Giants games in two cities in the same afternoon. Linda F commented that it was a perfect evening for a baseball game. The temperature was balmy, the wind died down after 5 o'clock, and it was even better when the sun went down and we could actually see the field without glare.
The tables looked lovely with fabric runners in Hawaiian style prints. Flowers from the farmers market this morning. Toblerone chocolate from Costco. And lots of water. There were even a few chile lime pistachios (my variant on sunflower seeds) left over and quite a few peanuts.
All of the groups are recognized somewhere near the 7th inning, and it was really nice to see 2nd Annual Linda B. Klein Birthday BBQ and Baseball Bash on the big screen. After the game was over, we lit a small set of candles (six, each representing a decade), placed with care into a garlic french fry (seriously, we did this) because there was no cake. I had thought we would bring out the large picture of the cake from last year, but that didn't happen.
Thank you everyone for coming and sharing this important day with me, whether you were there in person or in spirit. And of course, Linda's spirit was with us as well.
I think we need to have celebrations more often. I don't want to wait until next year (thank you Ariel for looking on your cell phone calendar to let us know that 8/21 will be a Friday in 2009). Maybe I will get a list of everyone's birthdays, or maybe we'll just do a monthly birthday party whenever...i think starting at the end of October.
Ketzl is out enjoying the cool night air.
I've started laying out clothes for the trip. That's really an exciting development. Moving right along.
