National Novel Writing Month

We've both had bad colds, but we're doing okay with NaNoWriMo. Here's my word count widget:

World's Largest Pinata

We saw the World's Largest Pinata while we were walking to the stadium the other day, and we didn't even know it! There was so much other stuff going on that we barely registered this huge thing -- we figured it was a remnant of Cirque de Soleil or something. Apparently it's full of candy, and hasn't broken yet because of "technical difficulties".

Phillies Parade

Where to start...

I took a couple hundred pictures at the Phillies parade, but I won't subject you to all of them.


First, I went down Pine Street to Broad and saw a band playing on the roof of a bus:



I watched the parade go by from the corner of Pine and Broad. It was hard to see because this guy put his tall girlfriend up on his shoulders right in front of me.

This is an idea of what it looked like before they blocked me:



The parade was going from 20th and Market down Broad to the stadiums, where there would be a big rally in Citizens Bank Park. Free tickets for this went really fast online, but a woman standing near me gave her six tickets to some other people near me. I asked if they had any extra, and they gave me all six tickets because they weren't going to go. My cell phone wasn't working, but finally I got in touch with Luke, who had sort of seen the parade when it went by City Hall. We decided we'd try to get over to the stadiums. But of course there were no cabs, and the subway was only running Northbound.

I had always wanted to walk over to the stadium (it's about three miles) but the neighborhoods between here and there are usually not too safe. But we walked with a whole bunch of people up Broad Street behind the parade:



And then we caught up with it:





We went through some back streets and ended up in a huge park where we had a great view of the parade.





Cole Hamels is in the front of this float (wearing black):



Shane Victorino is in the front of this one:



We were back on the move, and we caught up with the parade again at the park:



Here's the Flyin' Hawaiian again, and you can see Brad Lidge (the closer) in the back:



Here you can see Charlie Manuel (the manager) next to Cole Hamels, and the trophy is in the back:





We got into the stadium and bought Cokes and nachos. We had given our extra tickets to two women with two little kids, and it was great to see that they were in there, too. The one kid seemed really happy. From then on, it was a lot of big screen shots of players, the Phanatic, and Harry Kalas (who is a legendary sports announcer).

Each player came into the stadium in a convertible. Pat Burrell brought his dog along. The players' families sat near them in the infield, and some of the kids played in the dirt.

Matt Stairs lives in Bangor in the off season:



"Zombie" Romero used to play for the Red Sox:



Jamie Moyer grew up in the area. He skipped school to go to the parade in 1980 (the last time the Phillies won):



Then we had fireworks and confetti at the same time, which was totally awesome but unphotographable:



Harry's call when they won: