Honey Daddies

Father's Day this year, coincided with Meeting's annual harvesting of the Friendly Bee Honey, so we headed up in the morning and left Nora and Owen (and his friend Reb) to extract honey while we worshipped in the garden, only to have one of the not so friendly pollinators attack me for a full three minutes. Allen defended my person and I emerged unharmed.

Katherine and Mom Mom had headed to Austin for Father's Day (we're been told it was a coincidence and not to read too much into that), so we invited Don and a couple of his friends over for a night of barbecue takeout from 2fifty and a cherry pie that Nora and I had made while everyone else was at the Nats game the day before. It was a lovely evening and a nice sendoff before Jacqui arrives and we all head to Italy.

(To see all the honey and Father's Day pictures, click here.)

Farewell Employee #11

Ryan Zimmerman has been a big part of our lives here in DC, particularly Owen's.  From the early days of seeing him play at RFK, going as him for Halloween,  meeting him in-person at the opening of Ryan Zimmerman Field, celebrating birthdays with him (in theory), to the more recent experience of seeing him lead the Nationals to their Game 5 win of the NLCS championship and eventually winning the 2019 World Series, we've shared a lot of special moments with Ryan Zimmerman (as well as a name).

When he announced his retirement, we were a little sad. But when they announced they were retiring his number, well that just meant there was one more experience that Allen and Owen needed to share with him.

Friday night was "Employee #11" t-shirt night as well as an interview with Ryan Zimmerman and his former teammates: Jayson Werth, Ian Desmond, Danny Espinoza, and Adam LaRoche, so Allen picked up Owen from school and went directly to the game to make sure they got their t-shirts, heard the interview, and even had dinner at Red Porch. It was a great game with the Phillies, until former National Bryce Harper hit a 2RBI double that tied up the game, resulting in extra innings that led to a terrible call culminating in a National loss.

Saturday was the official retirement ceremony, so Mom Mom and Grandpa Don joined Owen and Allen. It was a beautiful, tear-jerker of a celebration, though the game was  a bit of a repeat of the previous night (the Nats lost to the Phillies in extra innings). Still, in the words of Ryan Zimmerman,

It was one hell of a ride we had together and I can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing.

Us too, #11, us too. 

(To see all of our Ryan Zimmerman's retirement photos, click here.)

WOODMOORstock

Nine stages, 36 bands, food trucks, kegs, hundreds of neighbors and fans, and so much music. Somehow Brad managed to organize his own little SXSW right in his neighborhood! The kids were at climbing and Pride with Elaine on call, Mom was hosting a lunch party and a dinner party, Katherine was in Florida, but I was rocking out at the first (hopefully annual) WOODMOORstock. Hopefully we can get the whole family there next time!

Pride 2022

It's been a tough year for a lot of reasons, but as they say, after the storm comes the rainbow. 

Owen has an incredibly supportive group of friends at Duke Ellington and a number of these friends are LGBTQ+. So when they invited him to join them at Pride, he immediately said yes and then in turn invited Nora. I was more than a little anxious about the two of them going off on their own in downtown DC, surrounded by throngs of people (Saturday was both the March for Our Lives protest and the DC Pride Parade), but they assured me they could handle it. And they did. On Saturday, after climbing with Gabriel, Owen and Nora metroed downtown and met up with the Duke crew.

It turned out that Owen was actually not just meeting up with his friends at Pride, but rather, he was joining his friends to march with Duke's Gender & Sexuality Alliance in DC's Pride Parade. After a flurry of texts to get a DCPS Field Trip Form in place, Owen and Nora became flag bearers for Duke.

For Owen, it was cool experience (although exhausting after two-hours of climbing followed by two-hours of marching), but for Nora it was something more. Hearing everyone cheer as they marched by felt as if everyone was cheering and celebrating Nora being themself.

As everyone should.

(To see all of Nora and Owen's pictures, click here.)

Play Ball!

 

We weren't sure it was going to work out, but Owen and I met up on the Mall after work and school, and found some of our Bad Air Daze teammates wandering around. We were about to give up on the EPA Softball League pick up game since we couldn't find a field or any of the players from the other teams, but at the last minute we some of the folks from the other teams who were squatting on a field. It was just five on five, Owen got to play short stop and I covered the entire outfield, and we all got more at bats than we could count. I hit for the cycle a couple times over, Owen made some stellar plays at short and got some solid hits, and we all had a great day in the shadow of the Washington Monument!

Pit Master

Every year, Duke Ellington puts on an Opera Workshop (well, maybe not every year – 2020 was pre-empted by the pandemic and 2021 had to be remote, but otherwise...). The event features Duke's vocal music program and its seniors, but sometimes the instrumental music program gets to help out. So this year, Owen joined the pit orchestra (and his friends) for Una Notte di Mille Stella. 

Allen went the first night, and found the performance so compelling that he joined Nora and I for the Sunday matinee. Afterwards, we took Owen out for a steak dinner to celebrate what's been a pretty amazing sophomore year, with hopefully, so much more to come.