I flew to Chicago each of the last two weekends to witness my niece – and then my nephew celebrate first communions at separate suburban parishes.

I was raised in the Catholic church. For now anyway, that same religious affiliation is being passed on by my brothers to their children.

The ceremonial first communion essentially seals a young kid’s church membership. By allowing an eight-year-old to participate fully in the pinnacle moment or “sacrament” within a mass, I guess the church is seeking to promote development of a yet-to-be-fully informed faith. I never really thought about it too much until the last couple weekends, but it seems like it might be a bit too much to process, too soon.

But snare ‘em while they’re young I guess. And hope they stick around.

After each of the respective masses, we had fun family celebrations highlighted by cake and ice cream.

This past weekend, I stuck around a few extra days to hang out at my Mom and Dad’s house. We watched a classic Midwest spring downpour with small dancing hail stones from inside their open garage on Sunday night.

On Monday afternoon, my Dad and I went up to Woodstock, IL for a high school baseball game which is always a guaranteed good time. This matchup pitted host Marian Central (not to be confused with Marian Catholic – although Marian Central is a catholic school) against St. Viator on a big diamond within a massive open parcel of land across the street from the school.

Viator’s team bus didn’t show until ten minutes before first pitch. It appeared a huddle-up between the two teams’ coaches produced an agreement to start the game about 15 minutes late so Viator could warm up a bit.

Admission was free. Marian Central’s baseball field lacks much in the way of fan seating infrastructure. My Dad and I occupied the visitor’s side bleachers which does not have a view of right field. That’s where Viator junior Dan Sullivan deposited a home run over the fence. Sullivan has a nice-looking swing.

A teacher and coach going back to my high school days more than 30 years ago was the home plate umpire. Jerry Blum took an errant fast ball on his left arm late in the contest but shook it off as he probably has a lot over his years calling balls and strikes at that level.

I closed out the visit by catching a good chunk of the Bulls win in their series opener against the Cavs. This Bulls team is really likeable for their gritty play. Rose is amazing with the ball and was finding Gasol for repeated open jumpers just inside the top of the key. Jimmy Butler is such a hard worker on both ends and so is Noah. The Bulls are a screen-setting machine with the ball. And of course Tibbs gets ‘em to commit in a big way to protecting their own basket. Hard to believe bookmakers made the Bulls a plus 190 series underdog when on paper they seemed to have an edge – especially with Love’s absence.

Home now for a regular work week and then back to Chicago on Monday for the Mets/Cubs series at Wrigley.

We won’t get a new Woods record until probably sometime late in the calendar year but in the meantime there’s a rich-in-sound full length debut to be enjoyed from the band’s semi-regular touring keys player John Andrews. It’s solid.

Entitled “Bit By The Fang,” the LP is release number 78 from Jeremy Earl’s Woodsist label. Out for two weeks now, I’ve been playing it a lot early in the morning on the way to work.

Andrews created all of the album’s sounds and wrote all of the music except the tune Trouble which was penned by his pal Christopher Yaple. The esteemed Portland, OR-based engineer Timothy Stollenwerk mastered the record which sounds great on my subpar home playback system.

The piano and organ are front and center on most of the numbers although there’s some great guitar work too. The title track features a really cool jam which one could envision Earl or Jarvis Taveniere helping out on should they ever back John up. As it is now, Andrews is going it alone in the live setting. He told the music writer Darren Bonilla that at least his first few dates would feature him alone sitting at his Wurlitzer. It doesn’t sound like expansive touring with a band is part of the plan.

There are definitely moments where you hear a little Woods seep into the sound of the record. The opening trip-out on Hear Me Out has that Woods between-songs interlude feel. Same with the end of Fang. The effects bridge songs together and make the record feel connected as it goes along. That it was all done by Andrews in the home setting is pretty amazing, really. Sonically, it‘s lush. But it’s also impressive that he has such versatility to make a record with all these components.

Don’t Spook the Horses has Quilt-ish hints to it. Quilt of course is the band Andrews plays drums in, his primary endeavor.

A couple days after the formal release date of Bit By The Fang, Andrews expressed what sounded like frustration with the internet world’s reception to his accomplishment. In a Tweet dated 4-16-15, Andrews said: “Found more torrents to illegally download my record than album reviews.”

I don’t know much about “torrents” or how all that stuff works but my feeling on this record is that it will be remembered and enjoyed in a way that’s ultimately much bigger than a bunch of pirate nobodies who clutter up Google search results with whatever no-good they’re up to. Additionally, this record is forever in the annals as a Woodsist release which is a prestigious and rare distinction.

-I had a ticket for that much-anticipated Hookworms show at Palisades a week ago Saturday only to find out a few weeks before that it had been cancelled. The band scrapped 11 US dates after learning it had failed to obtain visas to tour and perform in the states. In a statement to its fans, the Hookworms said they were “confused” and “upset” about the US government’s failure to issue proper requested documents despite six months advance effort and the band’s problem-free US visit 18 months prior. We’re talking about five young English guys with no known transgressions worthy of getting snagged by a travel barrier. Unless there’s something the band isn’t telling us, it may be another example of post-9-11 US government bureaucracy killing the aspirations of young artists who want to visit America to share their work. Six days after the band’s announcement of the cancellation, I received word from Ticketfly that my ticket order for the show had been fully refunded. Still, it’s shitty that movement of artists between two continents on good terms is blocked for what appears to be no good reason.

-I forgot to mention it in the previous couple Met game write-ups but Billy Joel’s Piano Man has become a permanent tradition now during the break preceding bottom eight of home games in Flushing. I actually like it.

-And now that the Islanders have played their last game at the Coliseum, I can only laugh at the sudden disingenuous rush to scream foul over their move to Brooklyn. The time and opportunity to keep the Isles where they belong came and went on August 1, 2011 when the voters of Nassau County rejected a modest proposal to renovate the Moz. It also would have been nice if some of the people who packed the Coliseum the final few weeks of the season would have gone to a game or two when times were lean. All Long Islanders can hope for now is that somehow Brooklyn doesn’t work and people don’t show up. That could potentially set the stage for a return to Uniondale. But I don’t think that’ll happen. The Isles will grow a new fan base at Atlantic and Flatbush while simultaneously extending a hand of welcome to the die-hards from Nassau and Suffolk who will learn the L-I-R-R isn’t a bad way to go to a hockey game.