Homemade Ugly Dolls

My son Hayden loves to do projects. Over the years we have made bird feeders out of soda bottles, bird houses and wind chimes out of found objects, designed and beaded myriad necklaces and bracelets, and have painted, sculpted, and drawn countless creations. Today we tackled sewing.

Hayden loves Ugly Dolls and wanted to design his own. His friend Samantha thought that sounded like fun so she joined us. They drew their prototypes, then made the patterns. I think the most fun part was devising the face. Samantha had to leave early to go to her guitar concert so hers isn't assembled yet, but Hayden's is finished and is shown below (the red checkered one) sitting with two of the Ugly Dolls he already owned.

My Yardstick: Bathrooms and French Fries

After spending about 90 seconds with me, you learn that from June to August easily 80% of my spare time is spent alongside baseball diamonds. Both my boys are fortunate enough to play on summer all-star teams and that means I travel all over CT to watch. At the end of last year's season, I realized that I had begun to rate the little league fields I visit. My criteria? Bathroom cleanliness and how good the french fries are. Today, I share my findings.

Rec Park in Southington: Home of Southington South
They win the prize for the yummiest ballpark fries I have yet to taste, but have the least pleasant to use bathrooms. The facilities are behind the outfield and one tends to feel like psycho-killers are lurking around every corner. There is also never, ever any toilet paper or soap. Not good.

Parker Farms Fields in Wallingford: Home of Yalesville Little League
Our home fields get the spic-n-span prize. Bathrooms are always clean and well stocked with all the necessary tools. While the fries are acceptable, the true finds at this stand are the chicken nuggets (the best I have ever had anywhere) and the fried dough (quite yummy and not fried—it's cooked in a convection oven so you don't even have to feel guilty about eating it).

McCabe-Waters Little League Fields in Bristol
These bathrooms are even dirtier that the Southington commodes, the bowl overflowed every day we visited the field, but they did have soap and towels. While it was way too hot to eat during the week the Yalesville 10s played here, others sampled their fried oreos and raved. I enjoyed their raspberry blue slushie cups profusely. I did not enjoy the poison ivy that surrounds their outfield.

Memorial Park: Home of Southington North
Very nice fields. Bathrooms are clean, but their sink is annoying. The water only stays on if you hold the button down, making it difficult to actually wash both hands. Plus, if your attention gets diverted by the big, creepy spider's web in the corner, it can actually distract you from doing your business. Again, it was too hot to eat their french fries, but this field has a big plus: there is a Rita's Italian Ice right around the corner.

Breen Field at the Giamatti Little League Center in Briston: Home of Edgewood Little League
Gorgeous fields with the best stands for viewers. The bathrooms are immaculate, but there are no paper towels...just hand blowers (which I detest). Their fries were delish but they had the slowest service I have ever experienced.

Blackham School Fields in Bridgeport
Gross, gross, gross. Enough said.

Unity Park in Trumbull
Huge complex of fields, too bad the fields are in such bad shape. The bathrooms were tolerable, but their food was alarmingly over priced.

Berlin Little League Fields
Very nice fields sort of nestled down in a cozy spot. They get low marks from this sports fan because they lock their bathrooms, requiring that you have to wait in line and ask for a key every time you have to tinkle. Very inconvenient.

Plainville Little League Fields
These fields will always have a special place in my heart. While the food is good and the potty rooms are adequate, what makes them important to me is that this is the spot where my family gathered the night my father-in-law passed away. That night, July 9 2008, Turner ripped a line drive up the middle showing us shades of the hitter he'd become.

West Haven Little League Fields
The beautiful ocean breezes make this a nice place to watch a game, even though overall the feeling of the site is a bit grubby. There is litter everywhere. Their food stand is immaculate and I hear the egg sandwich is to die for. I did not partake. The bathroom facilities are totally acceptable. I am a fan of their league president who openly berated parents from Guilford for drinking beer at a little league facility (which is not allowed!). These same parents were making bloody marys in the parking lot of the Yalesville fields this summer.

Old Tavern Road Park: home of Orange Little League
This is a large complex of 6 fields, made to look even larger because their parking is in the middle of all the fields. They win the prize for strangest bathroom experience. The commode is adjacent to one of their big diamonds. Because it has been so hot, the bathroom door and roof vent to the out building were propped open. As the sports fans were cheering "go, go, go" to the action on the field, this potty-goer couldn't help but feel like they were cheering for me.