Cambridge to Knoxville

I remember that when I was driving to Manassas Battlefield I spotted a car that had just arrived at a roadside stop. As the people piled out, I noticed someone wearing a Notre Dame t-shirt � not just any standard athletic store shirt, but The Shirt, the annual fundraiser intended to get the entire student section wearing the same color. Each year brings a different design and, until this year, color. My freshman year, the 1994 season, was a bright kelly green. Navy blue, forest green and slate gray followed. Navy blue was repeated and, last year, so was the bright green. And it stuck because they're using the color again this year.

Last Friday, while driving through the small towns on the small highways of western Pennsylvania, I spotted The Shirt again. It was actually, if I remember correctly the image as we flew by it, the edition from my freshman year, nearly nine years ago. Weird.

It was a fun weekend, pretty relaxing and enjoyable. I particularly liked Saturday morning, when I carried my book out to the front porch and settled into a rocking chair to read in the shade, enjoying the breezes. At times I would look up to watch the chipmunks scurry across the neighbors' front lawn across the street, then dive into their hole.

Just as Casey, Tessa and I settled in to play Harry Potter Uno on Tessa's bed Saturday afternoon, their dad's booming command of "Ready!" came from downstairs, and it was time to go to Pittsburgh. We stopped by a shopping complex built along one of the rivers, apparently on the site of one of the old steel mills, and then hustled our way through the Strip District buying foodstuffs and then eating at Primanti's before heading to PNC Park for the Pirates-Astros game.

In two years, we've gone to two Pirates games on July 5 in which they've played the Astros, winning 4-3 each time on the day someone famous dies: Ted Williams last year and Barry White this year (well, Barry died on the 4th, but most of us heard about it on the 5th).

And, it's gotten freakin' hot here. With the humidity, as we're so used to in New Jersey in the summer. I'm beginning to realize how little I wear shorts now as opposed to the last few summers working at the paper, where I could wear khaki shorts to the ballpark or the office. Now, I pull out the shorts on weekends and occassionally some evenings when I'm not simply going home and putting on the mesh shorts for the night. Today, I joined Casey for a walk to a nearby park overlooking the Hudson River and New York while she ate lunch. It was uncomfortable walking from the office there in jeans and a heavier t-shirt, but sitting on a bench in the shade was a great way to spend a half hour out of the workday.

But I've been doing nothing but surfing the internet and catching up on e-mails and diaries since this morning, so now that work calls, I should go.