Coming up never, on ESPN. . .

While the Duran Duran concert was certainly the high point of last weekend, there was more. . .

Erik and Richard passed a couple hours on Saturday afternoon at the Museum of Natural History, which is (a) incredible and (b) far too big. In two hours, we literally covered two rooms out of about thirty. Granted, one of the rooms is large enough to house a to-scale blue whale suspended from the ceiling, but still.

After Katy got off work, she met us on the west side, where we ate an early dinner of Dim Sum at a place called China Fun. Now, as a general rule, you should never eat at a place with "Fun" in the name. Would you ever eat at Burger Fun? Dairy Fun? McFunald's? Taco Fun? Fun & Jerry's? Funnigan's? TGI Funday's? Fun-kin Donuts? Krispy Fun? Pizza Fun? Ruth's Chris Funhouse? Pappafundeaux's? Chick-Fun-A? Papa Fun's? Funkle Julio's? Nope. You wouldn't. So, why would we, three intelligent human beings, go to a place called China Fun for dinner, when there were 37 other restaurants on the same block? I don't know. But it was good.

The next morning, Katy and I grabbed a bag of bagels (not from Funstein's, that's for sure) and took them over to the boat basin. There, we ate brunch with Erik's dad at a picnic bench overlooking the Hudson River. After brunch, we waved goodbye as he and CeeCee headed back to the SV Kelly Rae, which that afternoon would carry them down the Hudson River, around the tip of Manhattan, up the East River, through Hell's Gate, and into Long Island Sound.

That afternoon, Erik made his softball debut in Central Park, where the Duke Club of New York took on the U of Michigan Business School in a friendly doubleheader. After a close loss in the first game, we trounced those 'maize and blue' pansies in a game-two shutout. Looking back, I don't really know how we pitched a shutout in softball. . .that shouldn't be possible. . .maybe U of M left after the first game. Weird. We played again Thursday evening against a scrappy team from Cornell. They took us to extra-innings, but in the end, the Blue Devils prevailed by one run. As many of you can attest, I'm not much of a ballplayer, but there is something really cool about playing softball on the Great Lawn of Central Park.

There is also one major obstacle to playing in Central Park: people, lots of people. There are eight softball fields on the great lawn, and they all face in toward the middle of a giant grass oval. However, there are no fences (or chalk-lines, even) that separate the fields from the rest of the lawn, so the boundary between "lawn" and "outfield" is pretty much nonexistent. The net result is that playing outfield requires a bit of agility in order navigate sunbathers, frisbee-players, cell-phone-talkers-and-wanderers, and other miscreants who do not value their own safety. In fact, it is a ground-rule double if you hit a person. . .no joke. One particularly funny scene erupted on Sunday afternoon when one of our players (not me, naturally) crushed one out to center field, right where a group of young men was circled up and passing around a hand-rolled cigarette (not of the tobacco variety, I'm afraid). Let's just say these guys were already a bit paranoid, so when everyone started screaming at them to watch out, they frantically scattered in a dozen different directions, arms and legs flailing. It looked like an old comedy routine on 8-mm film. It was genius.

This weekend is a big one here in the city. First of all, it's really, really hot and really, really humid. Second, there is a huge street festival on First Avenue, right by the apartment. . .which is perfect, because the only thing I crave when it's 97 degrees outside is some fried street-food. Third, the annual Puerto Rico parade is tomorrow on Fifth Avenue, which should be a much bigger party than last week's Israel parade (no offense to Israel, it's just that their parade was a bit lame). And, finally, this weekend is the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. . .again, warm beer, ribs, and baked beans sure hit the spot when your flip-flops are melting to your feet!

Love to all,

Erik & Katy