More MI visitors

Skippy and the twins drove into Jersey for the weekend. And Abbey, Adam, and I met them at Sarah and Matt's house in Denville, which we all quickly made our home away from home. Minus a two-hour hike in the water gap (exhilerating despite the sticky heat), it was a fun, but relatively low-key weekend filled with pizza, ice cream, and classic family games gone bad. In what is becoming Cantwell tradition, we finished the weekend with a dinner meant to feed at least a crew of 20. Somehow, the eight of us still did a decent job.

Nuns and Cyclones

Finally, good baseball weather. The Franciscan Sisters of the Poor (Sarah's company) was hosting a fundraiser at the Brooklyn Cyclones game on Saturday, so Abbey, Adam, Mike and I bought tickets. Realization #1: It takes forever to get to Coney Island from midtown. #2: Minor league baseball is so much more entertaining than the pros, at least in terms of mascots and cheesy games between innings. #3: Coney Island is not an actual island. I might be dumb, but I didn't know this. #4: Even minor-league beer costs a lot. #5: People really will wait forever for a Nathan's hot dog. #6: As evident from the airbrushed paintings of Tupac and Biggie on what should be innocent children's rides, Coney Island is more than a little bit scary, especially at night.

AB in LI

Amy flew into Long Island on Thursday night.

We stayed up late...every night. And by late, I mean the sun-is-rising late.

We drank with the guitarist from Deep Purple. Well, not THE guitarist. Actually, he didn't join the group until 1997. And he was kind of pathetic. But we'll take a celebrity sighting when we can get one.

We ate Italian ice every afternoon and pizza too many times to count.

We took glamour shots with Abbey and spent way too much time getting ready for the bar.

We ate the best falafel ever.

We wore our sunglasses at night.

We got sunburned.

We drove to the Jersey shore.

We didn't have enough time together.

Live Earth

Sorry, this post is a little late...

Two Saturdays ago, Abbey, Adam, Fink, Sarah and I woke up early, filled Adam's car with beer, food and a miniature MSU-helmet-shaped grill, and drove to Giants Stadium. Actually, we arrived at the "blue lot," an office parking lot about a mile away where we handed over our $20 fee and were told that tailgating was not allowed. We all kind of nodded in agreement to the attendant and then drove quietly to the back of the lot, passing groups of other concertgoers huddled together around their closed trunks looking lost and dreading the boozeless four and a half hours awaiting them. We backed into a shady spot and surveyed the scene, waiting for someone else to make the first move, and wondering if those first ones should be us. Soon, neighbors arrived, and with a bunch of red party cups in hand, the first beers were poured, the lawn chairs put out and the Spartan helmet fired up. Others followed. And once the tailgate tension ended, and grills powered up across the parking lot, we made friends with the group next door. Well, actually, Abbey made friends and the rest of us followed along as usual.

The concert (once we were school bused to the stadium) was really great. Numerous celebrities took the stage, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Cameron Diaz. Planes flew overhead with competing messages: "Don't believe Al Gore" and "Al Gore for President." And I've never seen so many acts on one stage -- Kayne West, Alisha Keyes, Fall Out Boy, Ludacris, The Police, Roger Waters, Smashing Pumpkins, John Mayer, Melissa Ethridge, and so many others. My favorite performance was by Dave Matthews Band, which reminded me how much I really want to see them in concert again. But, by far, the audience favorite was Bon Jovi, because although numerous celebs gave shout-outs to the "New York" crowd, the stadium actually stands just across the state border, in Jersey, BJ's hometown.