All posts by Laura Sellers-Earl

Phoenix Rising

Day at Cubs Park, with benefits

Rosters
Flip ponders the Padres lineups, especially No. 7 Middlebrooks, who we have a signed baseball from. Flip’s calculating his retirement plans.
field
Daddy Earl at the Cubs-Padres game today. Great time, even though Carl wound up working for more than two hours up in the mezzanine on a techie phone call. Great seats right behind home base, surrounded by Cubs fans. Go Padres!
Game on
Daddy Earl at the Cubs-Padres game today. Great time, even though Carl wound up working for more than two hours up in the mezzanine on a techie phone call. Great seats right behind home base, surrounded by Cubs fans. Go Padres!
Go padres
Flip at the Cubs-Padres game today. Great time, great seats. Good section-mates.
Chicago hot dog
The Chicago-style dog with all the fixins.
At the game
Daddy Earl enjoys his seat behind home plate and away from the sun.
beer guys
Flip sports our beer guy Mark’s signed and numbered baseball card. Collect and save!
Flip at the game
Photo bomb!
selfie for us
The family that plays together …
Go Seahawks?
Baseball is over for Flip. He’s ready for football with his new Seahawks helmet from Daddy Earl.
bunny wonder
St. Francis of Aflipsi. The animals are not afraid. Not sure what Flip thinks, though. Probably, “what’s the white stuff falling on my head?”
Ralph talks back
Not everyone wants to listen to Flip all night, so Ralph talks back at him, in his own language.

 

Phoenix Rising

Flip’s first Major League baseball game

Flip, Mr. Baseball
Flip grandstands on the San Diego baseball team outside the Peoria sports complex with the Padres vs. the Rockies at hand.
The boys and Flip
The boys enjoy the view before the game starts. Flip’s already a little sunburned.
The girls and Flip
The girls grin with Flip during the game. The Rockies won, 6-5, but it was a great game.
The boys
Here are our handsome escorts! Flip left to find a hot dog and a brew.

 

Phoenix Rising

Baggage to beverage and family in between

On the carousel
 Flip gets a ride after a long flight. Fortunately the bags came pretty quick and Debbie and Syvlia swooped  in and  delivered us to our final destination.
Dad, boychild, Flip and planes
David shares just one of more than 100 model airplanes, which are really handcrafted and to scale and freakin’ awesome. Flip’s a bit blown away and snuggles close to Carl.
Lovebirds
Lovebirds enjoying some dandy Mexican at Tia Rosa’s in Mesa. Flip is enchanted.
What a relief
After dinner and drinks, what a relief.
Flip's audition as a bird
In David and Jean’s backyard, Flip seizes the opportunity to sample some gourmet bird food, or so he thinks.
Flip's apertif
Well played, Flip! Well played.

 

Run 101

25 January, 2015 00:21

Flip’s new stunt double, Rip goes out on the town with the Stanoviches to T. Paul’s Supper Club’s tasty happy hour then lures the couple home for an evening of martini experimentation.
Sharon Stanovich and Rip at T. Paul’s Supper Club.
Carl gets Rip roaring to kick off the martini tasting party.
Yeppers!
Rip’s stuffed buddies prop him up at the end of the meeting.
Run 101

Rip gets his New Year’s grub on

 Happy New Year!
Flip’s successor, Rip, gets his fill of New Year’s Day blackeyed peas for good luck, spinach for prosperity and cornbread, just for goodness. Thanks, Mom, for cooking up a great, traditional plate of food. Oh, did we mention the key lime pie?
Rip is a little bummed because he was supposed to be winging his way down to Missouri with Carl, but he didn’t catch his ride. Next time, young critter. Next time.
Barbados, Flip's Great Adventures

Winning the lottery when checking in

After a long couple of days traveling to Barbados, we survived a harrowing taxi ride to the Barbados Hilton. We wound up waiting in line quite awhile, as they were checking lots of flight attendants and crews out. But, once we go to the front, our checker-in guy got a funny look on his face, left with Carl’s ID, finally came back and informed us we had not only been upgraded, but we had what was basically the Presidential Suite. Two other managers came over to congratulate us and share fist bumps. It really was like winning the lottery, and we were sorely tempted to skip the cruise to stay in our four balconied set of rooms and monster bath suite.

Thanks, Hilton! It was the bomb!IMG_0019 IMG_0020 IMG_0023 IMG_0024 IMG_6770IMG_0011 IMG_0010 IMG_6777  IMG_6817IMG_6823IMG_8593

Barbados, Flip's Great Adventures

The saga of the prescription glasses

After retracing our steps several times at PDX and turning TSA into my own personal investigative force, earning my a “Sorry, sweetheart” at my third visit, I resigned myself to a squinting holiday. Until we landed at Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C., when Carl reached into his jacket pocket and proffered the previously panic-producing pupil pals. Yup. Who would have thought to look there? Certainly not Flip, who proudly acts like he solved this mystery by his very own self. My I need Carl to help with luggage, so strangling is out. Let the play begin!