Today was the day of the PeoriaSpeaks.com baseball outing to watch the Peoria Chiefs lay the smackdown on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Due to a scheduling mix-up, my wife was unable to attend and thanks to the monkeys who “fixed” my truck, I also had to skip Zoo Fest, though I’ll probably be visiting the Zoo next Saturday.

Because of the truck situation, I was going to be ridiculously late. The plan was to meet at Trots (may also be known as Hoops) at 4pm to pass out tickets and socialize awhile before the game. Due to the planning faux pas, I had to take the boy to a relative’s house before making my way downtown. At about 5pm I called the proprietor of Grandma’s Attic and explained I’d be late.

That’s when I found out we weren’t meeting until 5:00 pm anyway. Shitbeans.

I showed up at Hoops and introduced myself to the regulars I hadn’t met. A few minutes later, Flam pulls out a box of chattering teeth and passes them around. We’d raced them at some point, but apparently my camera didn’t like it. I do, however, have this gem:

We also received a gummy-candy flamingo which I can’t bear to part with, meaning “bite its head off”:

The notorious duo East Bluff Barbie and Brad Carter showed up as well. We talked politics briefly before I had to catch up with the rest of the crew at the ballpark (they had a previous engagement). Y’know, it’s nice talking to people who can make it a civil topic, yet still call someone a fuck stain when they deserve it. Epic win!

Don’t worry guys–I let them know they need to blog more. Who loves ya?

So I made my way to the ballpark:

Cue Sprach Zarathustra.

(note: at this point in writing, the author broke into an operatic yawn solo, rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. Lazy writing ahead.)

Many beers, nachos, hotdogs, pictures, dances and cigarettes later, the Chiefs ended up winning 5-4 and we were treated to a fireworks show after the game. It was a great time all around with plenty of awesome people. I’d go into more detail, but it’s currently 1:18 AM and I’m pretty dang tired. So here are some pictures of the event, since they show what happened about as well as I could describe it:

See you there next time?

EDIT — By request, here’s a picture of the guy who delivered a slice of pizza to my seat: