Crazy

Seven games down, five to go. I've discovered that the real problem of this weird setup, is that the coach for the opposing team is a tool. Yup, that's mainly it. Not that I'm one of those people who spends all my time judging people using the brief interactions I may or may not of had. I'm more of a profiler hobbyist. But that is neither here nor there. We managed to get three innings in last night in a wonderful part of the downtown area. Luckily, there's only one more away game for us. We had a small show before the game yesterday, as a 350 pound black lady was sitting in front of the low rent apartments across the street from our field yelling out for the world to hear, "Help me! I'm dying!" I think that it may have had something to do with the 3 cans of 40 oz malt liquors she had laying at her feet, but that's just my unprofessional opinion. Then some of her crazy friends came out to try to help her, and were looking for someone named Johnson. I know this because they were walking up and down the street yelling, "Johnson!" Or maybe it was a lost doggie, I may never know, because finally the cops and an ambulance showed up to take the crazy screaming lady away. Which was good, because it was very distracting and confusing for my team of 6-year-olds. I'm not doing fall ball next year.

On a happier note, my wonderful 2-year-old daughter came up to me last night in her jammies and asked me if we could watch Star Wars. It's the little things like that which make her so awesome. Of course, while watching it with her, I have to take a test. But it's okay, because there's only one question. But it's repeated over and over. That question is, "Who's That?" Which is a different question from T who usually asks me why people are doing the things they're doing. So while watching, all I say is, "R2-D2. Luke Skywalker. Han Solo. Wicket. Because they're the bad guys. Darth Vader. Because they're the good guys. Ewoks. Han Solo again. X-Wing." and so on. But the key here, is that she wants to watch. And that makes me happy.

We Are the Champions

And now for something not quite as similar as the past posts. I took the kids to the library to get new books yesterday, and whilst I was there, I looked for a book on Catfish Hunter that I've been informed was a good'un. I didn't find that one, but I did find a book written a few years ago about the De La Salle football teams winning streak, which at the time was still intact. There are a couple reasons I checked it out. One, I almost went there. And that probably would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life. It's a good academic school and probably would've been fine for me. But I went to a private Catholic school from K-8, and at the interview for admission into DLS, yup folks, there was an interview for us 8th graders to get into the school. I was wearing some very stylish high top Jordans and really short socks, and was told by the person interviewing me that socks were required to be worn on the school grounds. When I told him that I was, in fact, wearing socks, he just said, "Oh." And after eight straight years of uniforms, I wasn't about to enter into a school that was going to get picky about my socks. And I know that K-8 equals nine years, but in Kindergarten, we got free dress every day. And besides that, there were no girls around anywhere until you hit Jr. and Sr. years. And I didn't need two years of nothing but guys in my classes.

The second reason I checked it out, is because it had the high school I did go to on the cover chasing a DLS running back. It's about 5 guys from Clayton Valley running after this guy in a futile attempt to catch him. Then I went to the back of the book where it shows all the DLS football scores from 1979 through 2003. The biggest win in that time frame was a 75-0 blowout over CV at a game I went to in my Senior year. I vividly remember how brutal that game was. And the DLS team during the third quarter had no starters in there anymore. They actually let CV start at their own 45 yard line on one play, and they couldn't get past the 50. It was just sad. Their second biggest blowout came against Northgate, a 70-0 victory. The 75 points is the most points they'd scored through '03. So I figured since I'd seen a small part of history, I may as well read about the team.

And also, Tony LaRussa wrote the forward, and since I'm close personal friends with one of the greatest managers of all time. . .well, I've met him a couple times and once told him about the wonders of the laptops we had at the store I was working at. Anyhoo, I figured if he thought it was worth reading, I'd give it a whirl. And since you're wondering, so far it's not that bad. But I'm only about 70 pages in right now.

Shake Your Bootie

So last night was the first step for me towards locking my little girl up in her room until she's 30. It was harmless enough to start, my wife was trying to email some pictures to her mom and there was one of those insurance ads where the girls dancing like an idiot. She saw the ladies dancing and jumped back and started imitating the little shaky style dance. And it was fun and adorable and all, then she took it a step further and shouted, "Let's dance! Look at me shake my butt!" And that's when my wife started laughing hysterically and I decided that my little girl wouldn't be allowed out of the house until I get that squeaky front porch swing, and the sawed off, rusty shotgun. Or maybe it won't be rusty and sawed off, but large and shiny. I'm not decided upon that yet. But I do know that when my 2-year-old daughter starts yelling out, "Look at me shake my butt!" It's time to start getting prepared.

And here I thought that the Britney Spears era was turning over a new leaf. Well, actually maybe just she is as I saw that a new illicit photo of her little sister breast feeding her baby is on the loose, because her boyfriend took the pictures on the memory card to the local Wal-Mart for development. Which begs the question, why are they going to Wal-Mart? Can't the Spears family afford something better? Like Target? But I guess once a redneck, always a redneck.

In other news, I showed up for a dentist appointment this morning that wasn't actually until tomorrow. It's not a fun one, as it's where they numb me up and then scrape my teeth below my gumline in order to remove plaque that I can't possibly remove myself. It's super fun. So I'll leave you with that thought for today.

Countdown

What's been happening, you say? Well, Fall Ball has been going pretty well. There's four games down and 8 to go. So I'm almost halfway through this experience. After our last game on Friday, which ended at around 6:40ish, I said good game to my kids, had them grab their stuff and sent them out to get their snacks. Meanwhile, the other team, who is comprised of mostly 6, 7, and 8-year-olds, is sitting on the bench while the assistant coach is telling them all the different things that they need to work on and that there will be a practice on Wednesday. This is in addition to the games on Monday and Friday of this week. Then, since they must not have been getting the message about their performance at the game, he had them run around the warning track. At least twice, this is after 7 now. The game has been over for at least 20 minutes, I've loaded the van up at this point and started driving away. And they were still running. Keep in mind here, that during this fall ball league, there's no umpires, no score kept, no stats, everybody hits every inning, so there's not really even any outs. The teams play without a catcher because it's coach pitch. And he's running them in the dark. Crazy stuff.

Yesterday, my lovely wife took the kids to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, formerly known as Six Flags Marine World, formerly known as Marine World Africa, USA. I didn't go as I had a tee time with my brothers and a couple of my brothers friends to play at Eagle Vines Golf Course in Napa. It was a great round and we had a blast, and I had three legitimate shots at an eagle, but missed them all. One was a par 4 that I drove the green on. That was a great drive, and a horrible putt that followed. But before I left, T wanted to know if I'd be accompanying them on their trip to Marine World. I told him I couldn't and he asked if I'd ridden the spinny roller coaster yet. I said no, and I'm not sure which one he's talking about, but he asked if I knew how it was built. Since I didn't he told me, and because I know you're curious, I'll tell you.

They go to the roller coaster store and buy the coaster in a big box. Then when they get it to the park, they take it out of the box and look at the picture of the finished coaster that's on the front of the box. Then they try to match the picture on the box with the pieces that came in it. Then once they have it all put together to match the box, they ride it. It's just that simple.

Tuesday's Gone

Good news, everyone! T's officially in his class for the rest of this year. As I believe Monday was the last day for them to bump him for someone else, I waited until after Tuesday to really enjoy our small victory. This one issue has been stressing me out slightly for the past few months as the uncertainty of my son's educational location was causing problems for us. Now, however, all is better. We'll get him a couple 'spirit shirts' buy the yearbook, join the PTA. It's gonna be a party. But not a real party, just the kind that you have in your imagination. You know, where there's confetti, and you're riding in the hot tub in the back of a limo while an adoring public toss you hundred dollar bills. Or, maybe we'll just buy him the shirts.

In other news, I'm apparently still going to be updating the Yoga site. I had determined from that email that I wrote of previously, that I was off the site. It would seem, though, that she's not to thrilled about the abilities of the new people or the way their site is set up. So I'm back on the case. Which is nice, because I like money.

Habanera

With all the goings on with politikin' right now, and all the crap that counts for cable news. I've found something that made me feel good to be an American, good to be connected to the world that dispenses news in such a manner that world news gets just as much importance as how Britney did at the VMA's. I'm also posting this just because the Muppets are awesome.

Enjoy!

I Dig Rock 'N' Roll Music

Friends, I know you are all waiting to hear about the game last night, and it wasn't nearly as smooth as I'd been promised. The other team only had nine show up, I had 16. Most of their kids are 7 and 8, most of mine are 5 and 6. It's like we were the Kindergarteners playing against the Second Graders. I had one kid who probably only stood about 2 and a half feet high and must have weighed no more than 16 pounds and had never played before in his life. He's a real nice kid but it took a long time for him to get his hit the second time. There's no tee allowed in this league, but I'm bringing one next week. This is supposed to be the instructional, sandlot style, laid back league where my kids are getting ready for their first view of coach pitch hardball. With outs and everything. Last night was the first time I saw any of my players. They have been practicing three times a week since the middle of August. Which you're not supposed to do. The only time you're supposed to see your team is at the games. So hopefully things will improve on this front soon. One of the players on the team has a board member for a mom, and she's going to talk to the coordinator for me first. I'm thinking I'll contact him tomorrow.

On a lighter note, T is apparently becoming aware that a thing called 'Rock Music' exists. And he also has enough knowledge about this where he knows that "It's supposed to be played loud." This is disrupting his bedtime ritual because he's blaring rock before going to sleep, and he is unable to sleep because of it. But I've learned his knowledge is probably of a more current nature, as the ol' iPod was shufflin' the tunes and Led Zepplin's "Immigrant Song" came on. While this was playing, T asked me if I had any rock music on my player. When I informed him that this was, in fact, rock music, he asked me to turn it up. So I guess we're slowly getting there.

Eighteen

Well, she loves her new big girl bed. Even though she's already managed to fall out of it once. However, I believe that she was reaching for something when she fell down and wedged herself between her bed and the toy chest. But other than that, all is well with her sleeping through the night and enjoying every minute of it.

The biggest issue with it so far was naptime yesterday. She didn't feel like sleeping and was able to sneak out to get her big brother and the two of them ended up just playing around in their rooms for a couple hours. Which backfired on them that night when she hit the wall with her lack of energy and became a screaming mess. But back into the big girl bed, and all was well. Sleeping two year olds are the best.

Tonight is the first game for fall ball, the total roster count now is 18. That's right eighteen kids. If all of them show up, I'll be able to play them as two teams. We wouldn't need the other team. The league we're playing against was also only able to field one team, so we're going to be playing the same team twice a week for six weeks. It's going to be interesting. Hopefully the kids will keep their energy up about playing against the same kids all the time. Maybe they'll all just become best friends and I'll have to invite 36 kids to T's next birthday party. And then 32 more from the Kindergarten class. (Almost there on this one also. Just need to make it until the end of the week and we won't have to worry about this again until next year. When the whole process starts over.

Down on the Farm

Friends, I'm coaching Fall Ball this year. It's the one thing that I didn't totally want to do. I was warned by one of the more experienced T-ball coaches last season that it wasn't a great idea. However, I got a call from the guy running it asking why I hadn't signed up my son yet and if I was going to coach. Of course, this technically isn't T-ball as we've moved up a division to Farm League. Which means that the Tee is no more. They have to hit the live pitching. That's gonna be different. I had four families request me as their coach, which I guess won the pool. So about a week ago, I signed up my little guy for Fall Ball and at the same time got my team and our name. The Muckdogs. It's a pretty neat-o hat as evidenced by the logo.

So with that starting next week, we're playing 2 games a week for six weeks, but there's only one other team. So that's 12 games (for those of you who aren't math inclined) against the same opponent. This probably will be interesting. And to make it more interesting I've got 17 kids on the team. Ranging in age from 5 to 7. It isn't a great thrill for me to try to figure out how to get all those kids involved and keep them entertained at the same time. The other team, from the next city over, also has an enormous team. So these games that start at 5:30 are supposed to get three innings in, but I'm not sure if we'll be making it through 1.

I also heard from one my parents from last season that her nephew is going to be on the team this year. Her son was the one who had a High School Musical themed birthday party last year when turned 6, and she tells me that her nephew is mildly autistic. Now I'm not sure what mildly autistic means, as I have no real experience with this. Honestly the only exposure to autism I have is Rainman. I know that it's not that severe, but mildly autistic is kind of a general term for me. Hopefully one of this boys parents will be able to inform me as to what I need to look out for or if I need to be cautious of anything. Because honestly right now, I'm mildly tired, and mildly curious, and mildly looking forward to this Fall Ball season.

Let's hope that mildly autistic simply means that he isn't that great of a hitter. Because I don't think it would be any worse than the rest of the team.

Big Girl

Hello friend. It's been a while since I last spoke. T's surviving Kindergarten well, he'd rather be there than at home. We've also learned about his teachers way to show if he's supposed to go to school that day. On the calendar in the classroom, there are green apples and red apples. On the green apple days, we go to Kindergarten, on the red apple days, we don't. Which is such a great idea, we're going to get some stamps and begin that process at the house with his calendar in his room. And bonus! We're still in the class, and only have to make it 11 more days until they can't kick us out.

And since having our first born go off into the world of Kindergarten isn't enough to get us feeling like our kids are growing up, we ordered our little girl her own big girl bed yesterday. It's not coming until Friday, so I have this last week to get her out of her crib every morning, and all her animals. Which, in case your wondering, include her Pooh Bear, a Care Bear blanket, her Cinderella and Cinderella's horse, the monkey, her baby, her puppy, and her blankey. It's quite an ordeal getting them from her one at a time out of her crib, so having them on a bed that she can readily get out of will certainly make that portion of my morning easier. But the part where she's getting bigger and more grown? That's a little tougher.