Another Delco Guy In South Jersey

A Long, Hot Saturday

After six hours coaching baseball in the sun, Another Delco Guy is relaxing on the veranda, drinking an ice cold lemonade, waiting on the Phils game and reflecting on the Eagles' perplexing first round pick.  Who the heck had the Birds trading up in the first round to take a wideout?  Not me!

Today was pretty much all baseball.  This morning, we made a few adjustments to John's swing that got him hitting the ball more on a line rather than swinging down on it. After his team dropped a 20-17 decision to the Southampton Orioles today, we headed over to our home field for try-outs for the travel team.  He did pretty well, catching the ball cleanly in every attempt and smashing some nice hits. He stands a good chance of making the squad even though he needs to work on both his running and throwing.  John is a pretty big baseball kid, but after 6 hours on the field he was pretty wiped out!

The girls spent the day shopping and are at yet another of Emma's endless string of birthday parties.  I'm going to go check on how the steaks I have marinating are coming along.

Enjoy the weekend!

John and Indy

It's Take Your Child to Work Day and part of John's day here at UArts is to explore the Richard Amsel exhibit that is running. In addition to gallery hopping, John also got a genuine UArts ID, met with the President and grabbed a cheese steak. Now we're headed to a ball game vs. Southampton.

Ben Franklin Alive And Well!

Here's Ben crossing Market St. At 6th St in Center City Philadelphia!

Spring Break Fun!

We are enjoying great rainy day fun at Jumpers in Edgmont, PA where John, Emma, Andrew and Ellie are taking advantage of the 6 moon bounces and the jungle gym. Regular readers will remember that moonbounces are about Emma's favorite thing in the whole world. That blur in the middle of the slide is her!

Today she gets to enjoy them with her brother and 2 cousins. At $7 each it's not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

Have a great day!

Harry Kalas Leaves The Field

I grew up listening to baseball with my grandfathers.  First with my dad's dad, on the back porch of 3447 Mount Vernon Avenue, watching the tomatoes grow as he sipped a Genny Cream Ale and I drank Frank's orange soda from the can.  Then later, on summer vacations in Maine, my mom's dad was never far from the AM radio, listening for the Phils' game from back in Delco.

Those moments, thick with humidity and mosquitoes and languorous in their easiness, are among my most cherished memories.

Today the man who was voice of those memories passed away, silencing the old AM radio in my mind.  It seems to be a fitting end to my grandfathers' generation.

Harry Kalas was 73. 

He died doing what he loved, preparing for the Phils to take on the Washington Nationals on the Nats' home opener this afternoon.  The game will go on, but there will be long moments of awkward silence today and for days to come as we all struggle to fill in the blanks that Harry has filled for so many years.

My brother put it well today, noting that he feels as though he's lost a close relative.  I concur. 

I am very happy that last fall I turned off the TV sound and that my son and I listened to Harry call the 9th inning of the Phillies 2008 World Championship.  I told my son of Harry's death a few minutes ago and he took it in stride as only an 8 year old can.  He's outside playing ball now. 

I wish John could have heard Harry call the 1980 Mike Schmidt 11th inning home run in Montreal that clinched the trip to the post-season for the Phillies of my childhood. "Swing and a long drive to DEEEEPPPPP left-center field.  Outta here. Michael Jack Schmidt has done it!"  I was under the covers in my bed listening to the game, an ecstatic 10 year old.

This will have to do:

Thanks for the great memories Harry.  You will be missed, but always remembered.

Easter Overflow Mass

We got here early, but OLGC is a pretty small church, so we are at the Overflow Mass in the school gymnasium. It looks like a very full house but we're enjoying the children's choir.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to You All!

Yesterday was a busy day at Another Delco Guy.  We did some shopping so The Bunny had less to do, dyed our eggs, hit Chuck E Cheese, and watched the Phils beat the Rockies.

Today we've got breakfast, church, Char's family egg hunt, The Masters and then my sister's for Easter dinner over in Delco. 

From everyone here at Another Delco Guy, we wish you and your families a wonderful Easter.

Emma is READING!

Emma is READING!
Originally uploaded by Cavalier92

Last night was one of the most amazing nights of my life, as I sat next to Emma and heard her read pages to me from her new book, Hop on Pop. It arrived in the mail from Grandma yesterday and Emma was ready for it! I really recommend this book for young readers, it starts with easier groups of words and works up the ladder as the book goes along.

Emma has always been a smart little one, but it's generally been in the category of silently watching everything and making incisive comments later. Char works at a school district and has been getting tips on how to help Emma along on this project. Recently, Emma has been part of Kindercare's Pre-K program which has a group of ten sight words a week for the kids to work with.

So when the book came, she combined her sight words with her love for Dr. Seuss and off she went!

John is blown away!

Friday Fantastic Four

It's Friday and it's the first day of my spring vac(stay)ation, so we've got a vacation-themed Fantastic Four.

What four things would you do for a non-travel vacation?

1. Plant flowers
2. Play with the kids in the yard
3. Sleep past 6:30
4. Catch up on some writing

What would you do with a week off and nowhere to go?

Not A Bad Lobby

Good Morning From National Harbor

Things start early here at DUG, so I am glad that UNC put the game away early last night so I could get to bed early.

It's clear and cold here just outside our nation's capital, but I will be inside the gigantic Gaylord National Harbor all day. It's a beautiful new hotel and convention center that seems to dwarf even a large conference.

Ok, back to work now!

Not Much To See

I have finally arrived at The Gaylord National Harbor and there is not much of a view from my brand new room. I am headed down to the sports bar to watch the game. Have a great night and go Heels!

JRoll Leads Off!

Opening Night!

We are here!

Baseball Season

John Takes His Cut
Originally uploaded by Cavalier92

As anyone who doesn't live under a rock knows, tonight the Phillies will begin the defense of their World Series title against the Atlanta Braves down at Citizens Bank Park. This will be my fourth consecutive home opener and I have yet to see a win, so I am hopeful that the karma is flowing in our direction after the Pat Burrell love fest left town yesterday.

In other baseball news, my son John won the TAA Baseball Home Run Derby yesterday, hitting a few rockets out to the 87 foot mark. If that doesn't sound far, well then you have not actually tried to play baseball in a sandstorm before.

Emma also participated in Opening Day, mainly by looking cute in her Royals uniform.

Well, I am going to try to arrange travel and tailgate plans with 10 people who are planning-challenged.

TAA Opening Day

It is windy and a bit cool but we are having a great morning!

Happy April Fool's Day

Your eyes are not deceiving you and this is an actual post on my blog!  And no it has nothing to do with April Fool's Day.

I will admit to neglecting things here a bit lately.  Between coaching two baseball teams and running John to CCD down on Long Beach Island twice a week, there has not been a ton of time to do much of anything that is not directly related to the kids.

I even took last Friday off to take care of a few matters of personal business like getting a haircut and having the car serviced.  Still, after a frantic weekend of driving hither and yon I staggered into Monday feeling like I had not had a weekend at all, let alone a long weekend!

I've also got a new writing project for work, nothing much, but still it takes away from the creative time at the keyboard.  As part of an attempt to help demystify financail aid for families looking at higher education options, I've launched a blog at work.  It's not much to look at yet, but we're adding more stuff all the time.

This weekend marks John and Emma's Opening Day of baseball on Saturday and the Phillies opener on Sunday.  I'll be at both and there will be plenty of photos!

Monday night after John's game, I have to head south to the new Gaylord National Harbor for a higher ed software conference.  I am a bit bummed that it is not in DC itself this year but rather in some planned community/conference destination that was recently constructed southeast of DC.  In the past versions of this conference, I have enjoyed wandering DC on the free afternoons and seeing the cherry blossoms and nearly being arrested.

I guess I will have to check out the pool instead.