david-s.net - David Schlosnagle's Words, Photos, and Links

Photos from Chicago

Thursday, May 19, 2005

• Flight is scheduled to leave Dulles at 5:15 pm
• Mother nature decides to dump rain and fog on Chicago
• Flight is delayed
• All inbound flights to O’Hare are stopped
• Flight is delayed
• We finally arrive at O’Hare at 10:45 pm Chicago time
• Take the El with Cheryl and Friends

Friday, May 20, 2005

• Mother nature brings in the sunshine
• The girls and I go shopping on Michigan Ave
• Visit the Apple Store
• Drinks at the Hancock Building at the 96th floor lounge. - If you want to see the city, I highly recommend hitting the lounge rather than going to the skydeck. The $10.50 margarita is more than worth it compared to the $9.75 the Hancock Observatory will charge to go up to the 94th floor
• Aston Martin DB9 outside the Hyatt
• Dinner at Dublin’s Pub

Saturday, May 21, 2005

• Tickets to the Chicago White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs at historic Wrigley Field: free
• Deep dish Chicago pizza at Pizano’s Pizza and Pasta: $10
• Forgetting to take your camera to Wrigleyville: priceless

Sunday, May 22, 2005

• Ride down south to Hyde Park and the Frank Lloyd Wright Robie House
• Wandered through Millenium Park
• Frank Gehry’s Millenium Park Music Pavillion
• Watched the Crown Fountain spit water on people
• Drinks at the beach during sunset

Monday, May 23, 2005

• Head up to the Sears tower skydeck
• Picasso’s Untitled Sculpture
• Take the [El] back to O’Hare
• Watch the fire at O’Hare
• Arrive back in Dulles.
• Mother nature decides to dump rain and fog on Virginia

Congratulations to the Red Sox for ending 86 years of incompetence by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals and the Satan’s own baseball team, the Yankees. Now that you’ve won the World Series, you can go celebrate at Euro Disney while George Steinbrenner signs away Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and the rest of your team. Enjoy it while you can, you might not have another championship until 2090!

Well, fall ball is over and our softball team finished off strong last night sweeping a doubleheader against the team we were tied with for second place. I did my part going 6 for 6 in the two games with 3 run homerun. We couldn’t quite catch the first place team, (we split 1 win-1 loss against them), but we finished in sole possession of second place with a 10 and 4 record. It was a fun season, and I met a bunch of cool people from work. I can’t wait for next season (or seasons if we get a guys team together along with the coed league)!

After last week’s so-so batting performance, I decided to hit the batting cages this past weekend, and boy did it pay off. Our first game last night was a little disappointing, an 8-7 loss in which we couldn’t quite come back and win. I managed to go 2 for 4 with a triple and single. After that close defeat, we decided it was time for a little payback, to the tune of a 40 to 4 demolishing in four innings. After switching around our lineup, everything fell into place while we were bombing their pitchers left and right. We batted around in every inning, turning the scorebook into a mountain of black diamonds. Everyone on our team stepped it up, and we were playing well as a team on offense and defense. If we keep this up, we could be in first place after next week. I still have to work on my hitting, even after going 5 for 5 with a single, double and three triples. Two of those bounced off of the fence, so there is still room for improvement. Time to hit the weights again.

Tonight was the first night of our fall softball league. Seeing as how I haven’t played baseball since the summer after high school, I’m about 4 years out of practice. I think tonight was also the first time I’ve ever really thrown or caught a softball. After years of getting used to the weight and size of a baseball, it takes a little getting used to the giant softball. Our team (EB3 Motorsports) won the first game and lost the second game of our double header. Most of the people on our team are current or former AMSers, which is cool.

I was 1 for 3 with a triple and RBI. I should have done better, I flew out two times. I need to be a little more patient and wait for the right pitch, its hard passing up a lobbing arch. I also have to work on keeping my shoulder up and getting line drives. All in all, it was a good time and a nice escape from the daily grind. I can’t wait til next week for another doubleheader. Time to go hit the shower…