Hey gang,
Batboy’s weekend started by heading out to Cordova to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 this Friday with Nicki and a group of our friends. I really enjoyed it and Nicki said she was a happy Harry Potter fangirl. I haven’t read any of the books (only watched the movies and listened to a couple audio books) so I was trying to avoid any spoilers- especially the fate of Snape and which side he was really on.
Wasn’t disappointed at all, and have been able to ask Nicki questions about characters and their futures and back stories without Nicki replying, “Are you sure you want to know that..?” I still think the first movie will always be my favorite, and I like some more than others, but I enjoyed getting caught up on all of them the past week or so with Nicki. I still can’t stand Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and skip this film occasionally because of just how well Imelda Staunton played Umbridge in it!
Earlier on Friday before the movie I killed a bit of time waiting for Nicki to get off work by shopping for some mats and frames for art I wanted to hang in the batcave (my studio) over the weekend.
I had a Steve Stanley “Atomic Batteries To Power…” Batman print (top) and an airbrushed Batmobile illustration by Bob Kimball (bottom) to add to the walls of the new batcave. Both I’ve had for a while but didn’t have a place to hang them in my old crib.
Steve (and another super-friend Stephanie Perrin) sent me the print a year or so before I moved in with Nicki. I fell in love with this art at an Adventurecon Steve and I were both set up at in Knoxville a few years back. I wanted to buy a print from him at future Superman Celebrations in Metropolis but he wouldn’t sell it to me. Apparently Steph had already got one from him for me!
I’ve had Bob’s painting since one of his previous moves years ago after the ’89 Keaton movie and rediscovered it during my recent move. I’ve got another airbrush illustration by Bob of Bat-Bat from Mighty Mouse that needs to be framed, too. There are lots of Bob’s former bat-collection now in my possession thanks to his nomadic nature in the 90’s.
Like the 60’s Batman movie mini poster (top). I moved it from the left side of the wall where the batmobile art is to this side near the door and my bat-buttons and lanyard collections are.
I also put up a pic of Bob’s 60’s TV batcave model. You can see a better shot of it here. He did an amazing job on it!
Friday I also got to add another item to the collection- a Lego Harley Quinn I ordered arrived in the mail. I spent most of Saturday morning cleaning up the batcave, packing and unpacking stuff, and hanging art. The studio keeps evolving and that’s a fun thing. Can’t wait to have new shelves, floor, and paint- but that’s going to have to wait until after the wedding.
Later on Saturday afternoon Nicki and I headed downtown to Autozone Park to watch the Memphis Redbirds play the Round Rock Express. It was a company outing for Nicki and her work co-horts at ILS.
The weather was a bit warm when we got there (it’s been in the mid-high 90’s all week), but actually cooled off as the game went on and we had a great breeze and some shade by the nearby buildings surrounding us. When I first heard Memphis was going to have a new baseball park in the middle of downtown I thought it was nuts- I was wrong!
Autozone Park is a gorgeous ballpark (2009 Minor League Ballpark of the Year by Baseball America) located downtown on Union Ave. near the Peabody Hotel and Rendezvous restaurant.
We were on the 3rd base line “Party Deck” and had a great view of the game. One foul ball landed in the middle of the deck and then bounced downstairs to the midway right over Nicki’s head!
We had gotten to the ballpark early, scoped out a good table and got us some of the awesome catered food! I got a hot dog, BBQ rib, BBQ nachos, and a Coke. Nicki got some ribs, fried chicken and a Diet Coke. We later got a couple cookies, a few more Coke’s, and shared some chips.
We were as happy as a couple fat ticks on a hound dog, and just as stuffed! That didn’t stop me from getting us some ice cream a few innings later…
Earlier we had been talking about how as kids we loved getting the small plastic batting helmets with ice cream in them when we’d go to the Memphis Chicks games. Luckily they still serve them at the Redbirds games, although Nicki wasn’t too thrilled when she thought I had brought her a NY Yankees helmet! Unlike me, it’s not her favorite team.
The Redbirds helmets were filled with soft-serve (Nicki got chocolate and I got chocolate/vanilla swirl). It wasn’t the hand dipped ice cream like when we were kids, but it was still very good- and cold! I got a bit of a sinus/brain freeze.
Earlier in the week the Redbird’s mascot “Rocky” was assaulted by a disgruntled fan. At this game Rocky brought back-up with the St. Louis Cardinals‘ “Fredbird” as a wing-man!
Each team got a home run in the 6th, but the Express ended up winning 3-2 over the Redbirds.
We had a great time, and loved all the armed services support shown there. The fly-over by a couple fighter jets before the game during the national anthem scared the mess outta me, though! Don’t know what the folks downtown who weren’t at the game thought when they heard explosions followed by fighter jets overhead!!!
Right after the game was over the field crew began to set up for fireworks in the outfield. They were very fast at setting up. Really not a bad place in the stadium for this- well, unless you’re down wind like us!
Thanks to the breeze the smoke immediately headed towards us and the smell of gunpowder quickly filled the air. There were even a few burning embers dropping into the stands, but nothing serious.
It was so worth it! It was an amazing fireworks display- and very loud! Sound was bouncing all over the stadium and off the surrounding downtown buildings.
If you ever get a chance to catch fireworks after a Redbirds game I highly recommend it! I’ve seen them from the 1st, 3rd, and outfield sides and enjoyed all of them.
It was a perfect date night for us- even without our usual trip to Walmart! We had a great time hanging out with the ILS crew. Much thanks to them!
And to top it off there was an amazing full moon. It was low, huge, and orange when we walked out of the stadium. It was amazing to see how the size of the moon would change as we drove down Union towards the interstate and home.
Wished we had noticed it before we left the ballpark. We could have gotten a much better view and shot of it. One of the times I really wished we had a bigger camera- I so missed my old Minolta SLRs! One day…
Lots to take pics of around Memphis and the Mid-South. Looking forward to some photo excursions around here in the future.
Hope you had a great weekend, too!
Lin