Ahh... Spring is in the air. I love this weather. I love the smell of things coming to life again. I'm seeing neighbors that I haven't seen since Halloween. Babies that were newborns in the fall are practically walking now.

But the thing that says spring most for me is....

BASEBALL!!!

It's that first crack of the bat that lets me know that Summer is close. The home opener of the White Sox is my first day of spring. It's a tradition in my family and something I've missed only a couple of the last few years. Poor Branden was there just before his birthday with a double ear infection! Some things are just too important to miss. No matter what the reason.

This year, it was my mom, my sis Eileen and my friend Julie. My other sis was supposed to go, but duty called and she had to bail. Amy is the junior partner in her medical practice so she gets all the crap heaped on her.

So the four of us headed to the park with out hopes high. There was cold beer in the cooler and a brand new grill (since I forgot mine at home) for making some hotdogs.

We did our best to put the thing together considering it required wrenches and screwdrivers and all we had were keys and fingernails. It got the job done anyway!

We were in nosebleed seats for the game, but that's ok. I don't care where I sit as long as I'm there. Here's a view of our seats.

Not too bad. I've definitely had worse. The game was great, if a little cold! The temp that day topped out in the mid- 40's but I'll live with it. My guy Crede scored a nice home run down the third base line and we won the game so I'm not gonna complain!

For you poor souls who have never been to "The Cell" here is the view of the city as you leave the stadium. Nice, huh? Love Chicago!

Grinder Ball Rule #1 Win. Or Die Trying.

The Grinder Ball Rules were the ad slogans for the 2005 (AKA World Series) Season. They are now posted around the stadium. This is one of my favs.

The next post is about another important part of the opening series this year along with the reason I was crying like a baby before the game.

Getting a new car is supposed to fun...exciting even. So why am I so exhausted?

I guess it has a lot to do with the how and why of acquiring my new car.

Previous to this weekend, I had been rockin' a sweet 01 Chevy Venture ... Warner Bros. Edition.

I know you are jealous.

It had an awesome VCR that loved to eat tapes as well as about 110000 miles on it. This van has safely driven all 3 of my children around. It has been puked in, peed on, pooped on, a mobile restaurant, medical clinic, changing table, dressing room, taxi, limousine. It has celebrated weddings, mourned at funerals, brought a baby home from the hospital, celebrated a World Series and many Little League victories. We have used it as a warming station and cooling center, shelter from the rain and a mobile radio out at the soccer fields.

Basically, we have lived in this car for the last 6 1/2 years.

Last summer, it started acting a little funny. In stop and go traffic, the temperature gauge would rise until the A/C turned on and it went back down. The gas gauge stopped working so I started telling if I needed gas by the trip odometer. I was leaking anti-freeze somewhere and she was burning some serious oil. I haven't had an oil change in a year and a half! The oil never made it to 3000 miles before I needed to add one or two quarts. Nothing seemed too terribly serious. It had relatively new tires, newer brakes and a battery we replaced on a day that was supposed to be the family trip to the Christmas Tree Farm.

So Friday, the last day of the never-ending Winter Break, my sister-in-law invited the kids and I to go with her to Ikea. I thought great! They can go to Smaland for awhile and Ikea doesn't care if they touch, lay on and sit on everything they have in the place! Plus I get out of the house so one more day where I don't kill them and they don't kill each other. Win-Win.

So we're cruising East on 90 and just passed the 59 Exit. For all non north-siders, that is the last exit off of 90 until you get into Schaumburg or for about 10 miles...give or take. All of a sudden, my temp. gauge goes all the way to hot. Red lights start flashing, things start dinging and my car shuts down.

All while I'm going 75 in the left lane.

With my kids and sister-in-law in the car.

So we manage to get to Schaumburg going 45 on the shoulder with the hazards flashing. We get to Woodfield Chevy, check in and get set up with a Rental since the whole thing is going to take at least a couple of days and head to Ikea.

While there, I find out that the problem is that I have blown two, not one but two, head gaskets as well as some secondary cooling system and all this will take a mere 3 grand to fix.

We spend lots of time talking and gathering advice with the consensus being - ditch the car and find something else. Luckily enough, my father in law is a salesman at Chevy. His manager just happened to take in a fairly new Uplander just 2 days earlier and was due to arrive a the dealership Saturday afternoon. We go and take a look at it. It is a nice vehicle, has everything we need and best of all, the price is right. So we go home riding in our "new" car.

Yet there is still the issue of the old car to deal with! I need to go clean the sucker out. No easy task when you didn't know you would be getting rid of it. I was dying! I brought a couple of grocery bags as well as a garbage bag and it still didn't hold all of the crap in that car! Amazing what will build up after a few weeks. I had just cleaned it right before Christmas.

I'm calling tow companies trying to get a price on towing it the 40 miles to my father-in-laws dealership. Best price so far . . . $165. Then there's the changing insurance, faxing registrations, putting on license plates, and worst of all, figuring out where the heck the windshield wipers are!

As Branden and I were leaving the dealership, he hugged the old car and said good-bye. It was really sweet and I actually choked up. It's hard to just leave behind something that has been such and intregal part of your daily routine for almost 7 years.

But I have to say, the thing I will miss most... I couldn't get my White Sox World Series decals off the windows! I started to peel them off and they were flaking in my hand. Where in the heck am I gonna get one of those now!