This Is Spinal Tap

Yesterday, well, it wasn't a lot of fun. But it could have been a lot worse. I'm not sure if it was worse than I had imagine it'd be, even. Still, it's not high on the "to-do again" list.

First off, the doctor on Thursday said not to eat after midnight. Fine, that makes sense. I had a late dinner and figured I'd be good to go. The NLR people were going to call the Russellville doctor at 8:00 and try to get him to call in an order for the procedure. About 9:15, the NLR people called me and said they'd talked to Russellville and I should hear something in the next half hour. Around 10:00, I called back to NLR to let them know I hadn't heard from Russellville, but I had to leave a message. Still nothing. Finally, I call NLR again around 11:00 and I finally get the nurse, who says she's waiting to hear from Russellville too. So I call the Russellville doctor. I get put on hold for close to half an hour before I hang up and call back. They finally pick up the phone that time and say they are scheduling an appointment. So, after holding some more, they come back and tell me it's at 2:00 pm. When I mention I've not eaten, she said the doctor did say particularly not to have lunch, so I continue to go without.

Our friend Beth and her daughter Hannah came over to take care of Benjamin so that both my mother and Meron could go with me to the hospital, which really worked out well. We do the paperwork and then we go upstairs to an outpatient room and wait for a bit. The doctor doing the procedure knew my mother (then again, a lot of people in town do) and had actually lived across from us for a while when I was younger. He was the doctor that gave Meron her epidural when she had Benjamin, as well. He seemed capable enough (which is not always something you can say about St. Mary's) and explained everything fairly well.

He and the nurse ran Mom and Meron out of the room (there really wasn't much room to work, which was the reason he gave, but I doubt they minded not being in the room all that much) and started the procedure. He had me lie on my back and curl up into a ball. Unfortunately, that didn't work as well as we hoped, as there was still pain when he pressed the needle into the back. The nurse helped me scrunch more, but the slight bit of scoliosis I have in my back caused some problems for them. Finally, they sat me up and got the needle in, then laid me back down.

After that, it was just waiting as the fluid came out. That part wasn't painful, and the doctor, nurse and I just talked while we kept waiting for it. When it was done, he said due to the way they'd had to do some things, I was a bit more likely to have a spinal headache from this.

While I was having the procedure done, my mom and Meron went and got me a Subway sandwich, so when I had part of it at close to 4:30, it was tasting darn good. But to add insult to injury, the doctor said there was no reason for me to have not eaten. Lovely! I mean, I know I need to lose some pounds, but starvation isn't the way I'd like to go about it!

To combat the headache potential, I came home and got straight into bed, drinking a lot of caffinated beverages. Didn't get out of bed the rest of the day except for a few trips to the bathroom, which was to be expected after drinking 4-5 cokes! The doctor said I'd probably be fine to move around this morning, but since we are going to our Sunday School party tonight, I've stayed in bed all day today to rest up. Meron and Benjamin came in to take a nap, though, so I thought I'd get up and see if I couldn't move around some.

We'll find out Tuesday what the results of the examination of the fluids and blood work will be, so until then, I'm just assuming it's the Guillain-Barre and not worrying too much about it. What will be will be, of course, so there's no reason to start the New Year with an ulcer!

Thanks to all for the prayers, and may you be extremely blessed in 2006. Happy New Year, everyone!

Results, Maybe

So, you want to hear about my day?

Actually, it wasn't as bad as I feared and could have been much worse. Even with the research Meron and I did on some of those diseases tossed around by the nurse practitioner (ALS, MS, etc.) and the fact that most of my symptoms and situation didn't match them, I was still nervous about the results. It about killed me last night to see Meron tossing Benjamin in the air and think maybe I'd never be able to do that again.

So my mom and I headed down to North Little Rock. Got in, filled out paperwork (including a sleep survey which seemed really irrelevant, but hey, if they give you the paperwork, you better fill it out), and got in to see the doctor about 9:45 or so. Of course, I have to get into one of those hospital gowns. Thank your lucky stars this isn't a video blog, that's all I'm saying. Anyway, the doctor gets all the info, tests reflexes, muscle strength, etc. She even has me walk some in the hallway so she can get a feel for how I'm moving.

After all of that, she informs me that it is most likely Guillain-Barre syndrome. According to this guide of peripheral nerve disorders, Guillain-Barre is "an uncommon acute neuropathy which usually affects the motor more than the sensory nerves. It reaches its worst within one or two weeks, four weeks at the most. It should be treated as an emergency. Most people make a very good recovery."

Still, they want to do the nerve conduction survey to make sure that's what it is. However, this doctor doesn't do them--another one in the clinic does. And, of course, she's pretty booked up today, but seeing as we are from out of town, they'll try to squeeze us in. They took Mom's cell phone number and said if there were any cancellations, they'd call, but the 3:00 appointment hadn't confirmed, so if we could be back then and that guy didn't show, we could get in then.

Of course, killing time when someone can't walk much is a difficult process, especially since we didn't know how long it'd be. We went to the mall, but I barely made it to the bookstore, where I picked out a couple of books to help with the wait. (And apparently Mom felt sorry for me as well, because the Star Wars DVD Trivia Pursuit game I wanted for Christmas was half off, so she bought it for me). I sat on a bench while she hit a couple of other stores.

After that, we got a snack, sat in the car reading and taking a short nap, got some lunch, went back to the doctor's parking lot to read, then went back into the doctor's office around 2:45.

We didn't actually get into the doctor until about 4:15. I got back into the gown, rubbed my hands and feet down with alcohol swabs, soaked one hand and my feet in hot water, then the NCV doctor came in. After some talk (and seeming to dismiss MS, etc. by casual conversation), she actually ran a similar one as Coulter ran last week, using the electric current on the nerves. Hers was faster and not quite as painful, either, which was a good thing.

After that, she poked a needle into the muscles in the leg a few times to register the electrical activity. That didn't hurt too much save the one time the muscle decided to start cramping up a little bit.

However, as she's doing all this, she says that she thinks I'm going to need a spinal tap. I first thought she was kidding, but after she mentioned it again, I realize that she wasn't. Apparently due to the fact that I wasn't sick before this came on (which is a typical way of getting it) and some of the numbness I'm having makes them want to make doubly sure that's what it is. They also said some blood work needs to be done.

They couldn't reach any of the doctors in Russellville (since it was almost 5:00 by this time) so they are going to call them tomorrow and see if they can't get all that work done here at St. Mary's instead of having me go back down there. If they can't, though, I'm heading back down the interstate.

So, for those of you thinking and praying for me, I appreciate it, and if you could maybe keep that going for another day, it'd mean a lot. Thanks, everyone!

More Doctors

Had my follow-up appointment today. Can't say it was worth much--all the guy did was schedule an appointment with a neurologist on Thursday, where they'll do the same nerve conduction study, but with needles. Wow, I can't wait for that one. Christmas just hasn't ended yet.

And the guy is saying, "I don't know if it's muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, ALS...." Thanks for the optimism, there. I told him I thought it had something to do with my back, since it's bothered me just a bit with all of this. My personal gut feeling is there's a pinched nerve or something back there. So then he says, "Well, it could be a bulging disc." Let's mention that before the life-threatening ideas, OK? Thanks.

They were going to have me wear a halter that monitored my heart for 24 hours. Not sure why that didn't happen--maybe they expected different results from the first nerve study. The one thing that does seem to be working is my blood pressure, which has been "almost perfect" every time I've been in. So I'm not sure why they'd have wanted to measure my heart anyway, but it didn't happen, so no reason to be concerned about that.

Keep Meron in your thoughts and prayers as well. She's a world-class worrier, and having the guy throw around big stuff like that didn't help her mindset any. She's trying to not let it get to her, but it's hard when she's sitting at home with Benjamin all day.

Anyway, just a quick update for those wondering. My improvement from yesterday didn't last, though I think it's coming and going because after the doctor visit, I seemed to move a little better. So maybe I'm getting out of the woods, maybe it's just the eye of the storm. Who knows?

Reason for Optimism?

First off, due to the inclusion of the blog address in our Christmas letter, there may be some newer members of our reading audience. (And, in fact, that's born out by at least one comment to the last entry.) So to them I say, welcome! I update 2-3 times a week, usually (more regularly during baseball season, most likely) and hope you'll stick around to keep up with what's happening with me, the wife, and (as his step-uncle noted) The Cutest Kid on the Planet.

Good news, potentially. This afternoon the wife and Benjamin took a nap, leaving instructions to get them up at 3:00. Well, Benjamin was still sleeping then, so I held him for a while (turned out to be about another 45 minutes) until he woke up. After that, I got off the bed with him. Getting up and moving seemed to be easier than it had been even this morning, so I started walking into the den. I could walk at a much better pace and a more normal stride than I had been, which of course put me in a much better mood. I don't know if it'll last, don't know if it'll continue to get better, but that helps me think maybe it will.

And then Casablanca was on TV, which helps the mood a lot as well. Never underestimate the healing power of a good movie. ;)

Christmas went well. We opened gifts, went to church, then opened more of Benjamin's gifts that he got from other relatives before going to my parents to open gifts out there. Needless to say, Benjamin got a lot of stuff. Toys, clothes, etc. He's not picked out anything that he just loves yet, but I'm sure he will in time. I got a Dilbert calendar, the fourth season of 24, Revenge of the Sith, a Star Wars book, candy, and a set of pens and a notebook. Plus my brother got Meron and I Return of the King, which was the Lord of the Rings movie we didn't have. All in all, it was a great Christmas.

Tomorrow, back to the grind for the rest of the week. At least it's a short one, and I'm looking forward to poker on Friday night and the Sunday School New Year's party on Saturday.

Hope all of you enjoy the rest of 2005!

Eve Before Christmas Eve

So much to write about. I'm not even sure where to start!

I guess we'll get the scary/depressing news out of the way first. My legs are not doing any better at all. I just shuffle from point to point, since I can't seem to walk at a normal rate. They are weak and sometimes I wonder if they'll support me.

I had the nerve conduction survey done yesterday. That consisted of me laying on a table while the therapist shot electric current straight into the nerves in my feet and legs. If you think that's a good time, well, there's something wrong with you. Thankfully he was personable and that helped the time go by. (For example, after I was flinching and groaning, he said, "I want you to know, I'm not in pain at all." To which I responded, "Well, as long as you are comfortable." And after the testing was done, he said, "Now, I used purple washable marker to mark on you. They aren't bruises or anything." I shot back, "They will be when I get to the police station!") The test results showed that there are some nerves that are not firing or responding at the speed at which they should be, but he wasn't able to hazard a guess why. He was forwarding the information back to the doctor that recommended me over there so they could work on putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And he tested my right hand as well, and he said that it was most likely carpal tunnel and it didn't appear connected to the legs issue.

I was at my grandmother's for Christmas today and I barely made it up her stairs to get into the house. I had trouble getting into my parents' SUV as well. And I even had some trouble getting Benjamin into his high chair for dinner tonight, which shook me quite a bit. I don't lose it very often, but that did it for me. I've tried not to worry Meron with all of this and put on a brave face, but that slipped a bit tonight.

So we are a bit worried about what this is, how permanent it is going to be, is it going to get worse, etc. Likely it won't, it's probably just a pinched nerve or something in my back, but since it'll be next week before I can see the doctor, it'll probably cloud our Christmas just a bit.

Anyway, on to different things. Benjamin went to the doctor Tuesday since he was just being extremely fussy, which isn't like him. Turns out he had an ear infection in both ears and they were pretty red. He was prescribed an antibiotic and some ear drops, plus we gave him Motrin to work on his fever, and the good news is he seems to be over it now, at least for the most part. He's not running a fever any more and we've stopped with the drops since he doesn't seem to be in pain.

Our Christmas Eve open house for our church is (obviously) tomorrow night. It won't be much of an "open house", since with my condition we've not been able to get the whole house in order, but most everyone has seen the place before, so I'm not too worried about that. Plus, this is my church family. They will understand completely.

OK, let's get some positive news in here! Who wants a downer blog entry this time of year?

We had a very good encounter with Russellville's finest a couple of days ago. We had come in from running errands about 9:00 PM. I went outside about 10-something with no notice of anything. Meron goes out about 11:30 and notices that our Christmas trees outside (small plastic set with lights that flash) have been tipped over and tangled up. Since this was the second time someone had messed with our lights since we put them up, we went ahead and called the police.

When they showed up at the house, they actually saw the kids running away from here. They turned the spotlight on them but it didn't stop them, so they chased them down and caught them over by some apartments down the street. From the time we called to the time the policeman came to the door to see if there were any damages, just an hour had gone by. The kids are up for criminal mischief, though we personally didn't press charges yet. (They wound up doing about 12-15 houses that night.) We found later that they had taken down the lights over our garage and cut some of the wires, so we may add our claim to any that are out there. Then again, it was just a $4 set of lights, so I don't know that we'll mess with it.

With interruptions, this has taken me a while, so I'm just going to briefly hit the new Cardinal acquisitions. Sidney Ponson concerned me at first, but with the low salary and the reports that he's cleaned up his act and looking fit and focused since leaving rehab, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It's just a bit out of character for the Cards to pick up a guy with that kind of baggage. But St. Louis has been a great place for players to revitalize their career, so maybe that will happen with Ponson.

Juan Encarnacion and Junior Spivey signed today. I'd have liked the Encarnacion move better if it wasn't a three-year deal. One year, with an option, OK. But $15 million is a lot to tie up in a player that may or may not be worth it. Maybe hitting in the Cardinal lineup will help some. Spivey had a good year a few years ago, but the Cardinals just got him because he was not tendered a contract by the Nationals, which means that he was on baseball's equivalent of the scrap heap. But with only Aaron Miles and Delvi Cruz in camp to play second, he'll probably win that competition and be the starter come April.

Folks, have a great Christmas Eve, a lovely Christmas, and remember the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Doctors

According to today's doctor, the tingling in the hands is likely from tennis elbow, which is ironic given my lack of athletic activity (my wife said "From what?" when I told her) and the fact I'm not a big tennis fan. Now, rotator cuff surgery? I'm all over that. That'd at least have that "baseball pitcher" cache with it. But I digress.

Anyway, he asks if I've got an ergonomically correct work area. I basically laughed at him. The desk my computer is on is built in. If I put my feet on the floor and sit at a 90 degree angle, as he said it should be, my knees just about hit the drawers under the table top, and that's because I have the lowest-riding chair in the office. A regular chair and my knees wouldn't fit underneath it. My elbows are well underneath my keyboard, not above it. And I'm not sure there's much we can do about it, since this is built in and that's the only place where I can connect to the server.

As for my toes, he wasn't sure, so they X-rayed my back because it could be "degenerative disc disease" or something like that. What people hate so much about doctors, I think, is the fact that they tell you something like that, then you get the X-rays, then you have to wait for the doctor to come back, which means you basically can go through all the worse case scenarios in your head. I was trying to figure out how Meron would handle Benjamin if I had back surgery and had to be out for weeks when he came in and said the back was fine. Thanks, but next time, don't let me stew like that.

(The good part about the X-rays was that I got to lie down for that. The way Benjamin's been the last couple of nights, if she'd taken about 2 minutes longer to run them, I'd have fallen asleep.)

Anyway, he's sending me somewhere else for a "nerve conduction study" or something like that, to see if there are nerves being pinched or something. I'm leaning toward waiting on that for a week or so, seeing if maybe it goes away on its own.

So now I've got to get an elbow splint and see if I can talk the boss into remodeling my office. Always a good way to spend a Monday!

Poker, Parties and So Much More

A fairly full weekend to recap, so here goes:

You've, of course, been waiting with bated breath to know how the PPT Shootout went down. First of all, I've got to say, great work by Ken, Jon and Russell to get it all set up and organized. We had a great time, a wonderful meal in the middle of it, and all in all were glad we did it. From the pre-game plaque awarding to the bounties to the Financial Backer plaque, all the details were thought out and added immensely to the experience.

The poker, on the other hand.... Actually, though I Borged it (finished 7 of 9), I felt I played pretty well. Got pocket aces three times on the night, including the very first hand. I could have slow played the last couple, but decided not to risk it. They actually came in back to back hands, so I went all in on both of them. The hand after was a nice one as well (King-Queen suited, I believe), but after that things started to go downhill. I chased at least one hand that I knew I shouldn't have, and that really cost me. I was hoping to make it to fifth (since we paid all the way down to that) and late in the game I had a good stack of chips and it looked possible. But it wasn't long before the chips were gone and I was gone as well. Still, a great time and I'm looking forward to next year's Shootout. Hopefully I'll go into it with a few more wins in 2006.

Our next game is actually December 30, and my good friend Shively is planning on attending with me. He's played some internet poker but hasn't had the live game experience. Going to the Shed is an experience, if nothing else!

Friday night was the office party, which went well. Benjamin had the run of the place since it was at Grandma's, and he and Tyson (the other baby of the office, who's about two months older than him) were pretty much the center of attention. I think Benjamin's getting used to that, though. He's going to be so spoiled when he grows up. Just like his mother.

We really didn't figure we were going to get to do anything for our 6th anniversary, which was yesterday. All the people we asked to watch Benjamin were busy doing other things, out of town, etc. That's the way it gets this time of year, of course.

However, our church was getting a group together to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and our friend Beth (PPT founder Ken's wife) was watching the kids at the church. She said if we wanted, she'd take Benjamin home with her so we could go out to eat afterwards. So we watched the movie, then tried to go to the new Brick Oven Pizza place in town, but it was packed, as normal. It's been open just three weeks and it doesn't have much room anyway, but the parking lot was full and so we went on to Pizza Hut for our meal. In fact, that'll probably be lunch today as well!

Heading back to a different doctor today. The wrist is still numb, but the thumb and a couple of fingers on the right hand as well as both of my big toes are consistantly tingling like they are waking up from being asleep, and my leg has been bothering me so much in the calf area that I've been limping around for about a week now. Hopefully this new doctor will have a few answers for me. We'll see.

Short week this week as we get Friday off. We're going to my Grandma's that day to get together with my mom's family. It should be a lot of fun, if a long day (she lives around 3 hours from here). And we still are working toward the Christmas Eve Open House at our place. Most of the house looks fairly presentable, but there are still things to do and Meron has a ton of cookies to make. I'm taking off Thursday as well, I think, so that I can help her prepare.

Hope you have a great week as you get ready for Christmas also!

Friday Afternoon

Man, it's hard to get anything done on a Friday! Between the meeting we had this morning and the fact that the weekend is a-comin', it makes for a lazy day. Throw in the Christmas time of year and it's a deadly combination.

Not a lot going on in the baseball world. Cards signed Brandon Looper for the pen, bringing a former Cardinal farmhand back into the roost. They paid more than I'd have like to see them dish out, but with the contracts relievers are getting this offseason, they probably had to. If they add someone like Felix Rodriguez or Octavio Dotel to the pen as well, that's going to be a major strength in 2006. No trades for an outfielder yet, but I'm keeping the fingers crossed.

Still trying to grasp that Christmas is just over a week away. We'll be having Christmas at my Grandma's this time next week. Where does the time go? I've gotten my gifts for Meron wrapped (though there are still a couple of small things to pick up) so it's getting more and more believable.

Shootout is tomorrow. I'm hoping to at least place in the money, but I'm not counting on it. (That way, I can be pleasantly surprised.)

OK, so there's not much to put on the blog today. But it's something to do on a Friday!

Christmas Picture

For those of you that didn't get a picture Christmas card from us (and we apologize for that--we'd have loved to send one to everyone!), here's the picture I was talking about:

I'll try to blog a little more later if I get the chance, but thought y'all'd like to see it!

Christmas Thoughts

Benjamin is finally figuring out how to give kisses, at least a little bit. Meron called me up at work a couple of days ago to say that she’d given him a kiss and then said, “Can you give mommy a kiss?” He leaned in and pressed his lips to her cheek. After doing it a couple of times, though, he wouldn’t do it for her anymore, nor would he do it for me when I got home for lunch. Now, I can get him to do it occasionally, but he still won’t do it for his mother.

Santa #3 is tonight at our church. Meron and I were going to go to the FFH concert here in town, but it was at a time where we’d have to have whatever babysitter we got (since my parents were busy) feed him and get him ready for bed, and I for one wasn’t ready to put that responsibility on anyone just yet. So we’ll take him to see Santa tonight and hopefully he’ll have a good time.

Hard to believe it’s just a week and a half until Christmas. I’ve gotten (or at least ordered) most of the gifts we’ll be giving out this year. Most of Meron’s has been taken care of as well, though there may be a small thing or two for her stocking still to get. (And since she now knows about this blog, I’m not saying what I’ve gotten for her! I’d hate to ruin any surprises…..) I still have some money left over from my Grandma to get Christmas presents with. I bought this jersey while MLB was having a 20% sale, so that will probably be my big item. I went looking for the Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit last night at Wal-Mart, but they didn’t have it in stock, and neither does Amazon, so I may have to pick out something different. Maybe some Law & Order DVDs?

Benjamin’s been real good about leaving the tree alone so far this year, but I’m wondering if that will change once the presents are under there. He just had a lot of presents to open on his birthday, so he may think all of those are under there for him. It’ll be interesting to see how he responds, not only to that, but the whole Christmas thing. I think next year will be an amazing year for him. I’m not sure this year he knows quite what’s happening yet.

Still listening to my Christmas music. Amy Grant has put out three different Christmas albums in her career. All three are worth listening to, of course, but the best of the three is Home for Christmas, with songs like “Grown-Up Christmas List” and the modern classic “Breath of Heaven.” There are good songs on A Christmas to Remember, including the title track and “Christmas Can’t Be Very Far Away.” The original album, A Christmas Album, has “A Tennessee Christmas” and “Emmanuel” as highlights.

Hope you are getting into the Christmas spirit as well!

Nope.....

....not carpal tunnel. The doctor definitely ruled that out. 'Course, he couldn't actually tell me what it WAS. He walked through a few things, but nothing really fit. So he told me to keep an eye on it and if it gets worse or starts being painful to come back. If it hasn't cleared up by January, I'm getting a second opinion, I tell ya!

Meron is going to make her quarterly quota on her Tastefully Simple sales after all, with a big push this week. However, if you want a good mix or dip for a gift, go ahead and order one through the link there. They make great presents (we're going to do that for my great-aunt and my grandmother) and they are extremely easy to make, at least in general. (Thus, being named Tastefully SIMPLE! Keep up, people!)

Lots of talk amongst the CCH moderators about the rules for next year's fantasy baseball season. Can't believe it's getting time to start thinking about that, but with the slow drafts starting in mid-January, we've got to get the guidelines out there.

Busy weekend coming up. Of course the Shootout is on Saturday, but our office Christmas party is on Friday (held out at my parents) and then our 6th wedding anniversary is Sunday. One year I surprised Meron by reserving a hotel room in Little Rock and not telling her anything about it. This year....we'll probably go to the new pizza place in town. I'd hate to see how bad we'll be on our 12th anniversary!

Not much else here, just a Monday. Hope yours is so good you are shocked that it actually is Monday!

Daniel Is a Lazy Slug

On the PPT website, whenever someone doesn't turn in some article, column, etc. that they should, they are termed "a lazy slug". Since it's been about half a week since I updated this blog, I guess the terminology fits.

So let's make it up to you the best way I know how:

Benjamin had some great Christmas shots this year. One of which made our Christmas cards. We couldn't afford to get photo cards for everyone, so if you didn't get one, don't worry. If we can't get a picture to you, I'll put it up here in a few days.

Things here are pretty routine. Benjamin is healthy and Meron is as well, which of course means it's my turn to go to the doctor. I've got a numbness in my wrist area (and some other strange things, which probably aren't related) that my friend Jennifer (who is a nurse) and my wife (who isn't) say is likely carpal tunnel syndrome. Hopefully the likely treatment of a splint won't keep me from my internet rounds. I know that they might hold a party in the Clubhouse if I didn't show up for a while, and I'd hate to see those mods get out of control. Though maybe I can file a worker's compensation claim with Clubhouse owner Roark.....

We got the Dickens' Villages up last night. Since I tend to have less than stellar success with moving these things (let's just say Meron's gotten pretty good with Krazy Glue) and my numbness in my arm, Meron did most of the work moving them around and getting them set up. They look pretty good, if I do say so myself. A couple of them didn't get out this year, but that's to be expected with a one-year-old running around. We made sure not to plug in the ones on the mantle, since one well-placed tug on the extension cord and five houses would be wiped out!

Lots of buzz around the poker group about this weekend's Shootout. Apparently the new twist is that there are going to be bounties put on the heads of a few players. I'm guessing (since I've never really seen how this works) that if you put Player X out, you get X number of bonus chips. Which could really come in handy if you are running low. Should add a little extra excitement to the all-day event. I think all of us are pumped up for a day-long poker marathon. Who knows how many smart aleck remarks and withering insults will be thrown around. I'm guessing 10,000, and that's just at Ben and Joe.

Went to an open house at our church's parsonage today. The last time I was there, it was this summer and we were removing an old tub during our change in pastors. A lot of people spent a lot of hours working on getting that house into shape, because it had been at least 10-12 years since any big work was done on it. After that, Blake and Kerri did a wonderful job with decorating and arranging. The house looks lovely and really reflects the current tenants.

Guess I'll wrap it up now. Hope the picture of Benjamin helps mollify any that may be perturbed at my slacking!

Catching Up

Sorry for the blogging delay. Meant to get an entry up yesterday but it just didn't happen.

Benjamin's spots all went away without any permanent damage, clearing up pretty much by Thursday. Which meant everyone was healthy again, which also meant that couldn't last. Saturday night the boy started running a fever, and when we checked it at around midnight (since he just felt hotter than a regular fever), it was 101. That also meant I had to make a late-night run to the grocery store to get Children's Motrin, since we were told to alternate that and Tylenol every 3 hours to keep the fever under control.

Sunday morning he was running over 103, but that was really his only symptom. He still was playing fine, not being overly fussy, etc. Meron stayed home with him since I had to teach Sunday School, and I returned the favor that night as she went to our Sunday School party and he and I stayed home (and, of course, watched some Law & Order, at least until he fell asleep).

Monday morning he scared us a little by throwing up a little bit, but not much and it was an isolated case. And by this morning, the fever seems under control. Which is good, because the UMKids group at church is having Santa come in tomorrow night and we were hoping to be able to take him to see Santa #3.

He saw Santa #2 Saturday morning at Breakfast with Santa. A children's organization uses this as a fundraiser, providing a breakfast and things for kids to do, plus a chance to get their picture taken with Santa. Lots of kids there, so it took longer than we were expecting, but the picture came out OK (the one Meron took with her camera is probably much better) and we may try to do it again next year.

Friday night's poker game was middling to mediocre. I came in fourth and there was only one hand played after I got out. But, for once, I was saved on a couple of all-ins instead of punished. I caught a 9 on the river the first time to make the straight and stay alive, and the second time, I had to go all in with a 5-6, and pairing the 6s after the flop was enough to win. Played OK, made a couple of betting mistakes, but had a good time on the whole. Kinda glad I didn't win, since I've never been in the money in back-to-back games and the next game is the year-end Shootout and I'd much rather win some money there since the payouts will be larger.

Got some of the lights up around the house. Still need to get some help to do the roof. Between my dislike of heights and the fact that the rickity ladder I have comes just short of the roof, requiring a step off to get up there, and I usually have someone come help me with that part. Hopefully I can again this year, but if not, we'll survive. We still need to run some down to the mailbox and do the big Christmas-tree looking bush out front and we'll be done with the ground-level work, at least.

The tree is up inside and the ornaments went on it yesterday. We're still trying to decide if our other tree, the tree my parents bought their first Christmas that was passed down to me when I moved out, will make it up this year. We were going to put it in Benjamin's room so it could still be seen from outside, but I'm not sure we've got the space for it. I still have to get out some of my Dickens' Village collection. They probably all won't come out because I don't want Benjamin knocking them over or pulling them down, but there are enough high places in our den that we can get a few out. That'll probably, along with cleaning my wife's scrapbook room, be our chores for this weekend.

The Cardinals appear to have missed out on A.J. Burnett, and I have mixed feelings on that. On the one hand, I thought the price was getting pretty steep and I have a hunch he'll get hurt or otherwise not live up to the contract. On the other hand, that would have allowed for a trade for an outfielder, which would have made the Cardinals better than trying to sign some in the weak free agent market. I was really hoping to get Austin Kearns from the Reds, but it doesn't look like that will happen now.

They are forecasting a little snow around here tomorrow evening. No accumulation likely, but still, it'll be nice to see. Of course, that's assuming it actually happens, and around here, you don't believe it's going to snow until you see the flakes.

Just for my friend Deb, I'll note another Christmas CD in my collection, Celine Dion's These Are Special Times. It's probably in my top 3-4 Christmas albums that I have, but Meron has the same opinion of Celine that Deb does, so I don't get get listen to it at home much. Still, a song like "God Bless Us Everyone" will stay with you all day long.

Stoking the Stove

Rumors, rumors everywhere. It’s the Hot Stove season in baseball, which means that everyone relieves the boredom of the off-season (which is only occasionally punctuated with actual news) with wild and crazy trade and signing talk.

Right now, the hot rumor in Cardinal camp is Jason Marquis and Anthony Reyes for the Phillies’ Bobby Abreu. This one started taking form after it was reported that GM Walt Jocketty sent around a memo reporting that anyone that leaked any information on what they were working on would no longer be employed by the Cardinals. (Don’t know if that went for leaking that memo as well.) This was first discovered by the guys at mlbtraderumors.com and was analyzed well by Viva El Birdos, a solid Cardinal blog.

VEB today breaks down why it’s much more likely the “big news” is the signing of A.J. Burnett instead of an Abreu trade, and the rationale makes a lot of sense to me. I’m a big Abreu fan, but I wasn’t sure that the Cards wanted to get rid of 40% of their rotation, including their cheap, talented prospect in Reyes, for him. I’ve always thought the idea of signing Burnett and trading Marquis for someone like Austin Kearns was more of what Walt was working on. Whether that’s true or not, we’ll find out. GMs meet next Monday, and leading up to those meetings could be a flurry of signings and possibly some trades. No matter what, the rumor mill will be working overtime for next couple of weeks!

With all this and other reports floating around, it looks as though the Cardinals will not be getting Brian Giles. I was really thinking he’d be a great addition to the club, with his ability to get on base and his power batting in front of Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen. However, the braintrust wants to go a different way, apparently, so we’ll trust they know what they are doing. (All this and more discussed every day at CardsClubhouse.com, BTW!)

Benjamin’s spots still haven’t cleared up very much. We’ve also found that Benedryl does not calm him down, but does more of the opposite. Isn’t that fun? We’re going to give him a couple more days before taking him back to the doctor. He most of the time doesn’t seem bothered by them, so I don’t know if they aren’t itchy or he just doesn’t let it get to him.

Starting to work toward getting the house in shape for our traditional Christmas Eve Open House for our church. I’ve made up a schedule of things that we need to do and when they need to be done to have the house actually presentable by then. (It’s a pretty good size list, unfortunately!) So far, we’re staying on schedule. We’ll see if we can keep that up through the next month.

If you are looking for Christmas music this time of year, check out Point of Grace’s first Christmas album, A Christmas Story. I can listen to that one over and over this time of year. They’ve put out a second Christmas album this year, but I’ve not had a chance to get it yet.

If it’s anything like it is here where you are (20 degrees this morning!), stay warm!

That Didn't Last Long

Just as the wife makes the return to the land of the healthy, Benjamin passes her on his way back to sickness. Yesterday after lunch, we noticed some spots on his neck, but we didn't really think too much about it. By last night, though, they were all over his body. He'd had the chicken pox vaccine a couple of weeks ago at his one year immunization, and it didn't quite look like that anyway.

This morning, it was getting worse and he was running a fever off and on, but we took him to church anyway. He wasn't quite his normal self, but he seemed to get better as the morning went on. The spots, though, continued to increase. They were more like little welts, really looking all the world like an allergic reaction.

When his fever returned this afternoon and he started getting cranky, even after his nap, we went ahead and took him to the ER. I really wanted to try to wait until Monday to see his regular doctor, because the last ER bill was over $200. (Obie, you remember St. Mary's from their Tenet days, right?) Anyway, we couldn't wait any longer. After a nice long wait, we came home knowing very little more than we did when we went.

They called it hives, but basically said it was an allergic reaction to an unknown agent. They thought it might have been the antibiotic he just finished taking, but that seemed unlikely to me since he showed no problems in the 10 days he was taking it. They recommended Tylenol to keep the fever down (it was 101 when we took him in) and Benedryl for the itching/discomfort, and that they hopefully would go down in a few days. On the positive side, Benedryl may help him sleep through the night, which won't be a bad thing.

Got to watch the first couple of episodes of Alias Season 4 while Benjamin was napping today, but otherwise had another totally unproductive day. A tornado watch became a tornado warning, and as blase as I usually am about those, after looking at the radar and seeing swirling action coming right at us, I went ahead and got the family into the bathtub while I kept an eye on the TV. The radio was worthless--even though we have two local radio stations, the tornado sirens were going off, and one of the few times there really was a threat to the town by severe weather, and I turn it on to ESPN Radio's breakdown of the NFL and some ballgame (maybe an NFL game, I didn't stick around to be sure.) Great job there, guys.

That's our eventful Sunday. Unfortunately, the Thanksgiving break is over and it's back to the grind tomorrow!

Hoopin' It Up

So we played some ball this afternoon. It turned out to just be three of us (how'd we know you were already on your way home, Bob?) so instead of 2-on-2, it was that rousing game, 21. If you don't know the rules, basically all there is to it is that you have to hit exactly 21 to win. You get up to three free throws (shoot until you miss) after every basket. The players:

Andy: A 6-2 or 6-3 long-armed lanky former high school basketball player. In other words, he has height and the training.

Shively: Always regretting he didn't get that extra inch, he's a 5-11 guy that plays often, loves the game, and it was on his court that he's spent hours playing on. Out of our group of friends, these two guys are clearly the best basketball players.

Me: I've not played basketball in probably three years, and not on any sort of regular basis since high school and college. Add to that the extra gut I'm packing, and it promised to be quite ugly.

The first four games worked out about how you'd expect. Shively won the first, Andy the next three. I had scores of 5, 5, 0, and 0. In the third game, I swear I didn't actually touch the ball the entire game.

Of course, this whole time they aren't doing too much guarding of me. Hey, why would you waste the time? Just get my rebounds. My one semi-strength is the mid-range jumper from the left side of the court. That's about it, but it paid off.

Game 5 rolled around and I started hitting a few shots from the left and tacking on 2 or 3 free throws each time. Suddenly, it was me tied with Andy for the lead around 12. Then I hit another shot. And another. And then one of those shots that just makes you say, "whoa", even if you aren't Keanu Reeves.

Shively is the master of the crap shot. He can throw anything up and a lot of times, it goes in. So when at his house, play at his game. A long rebound came off to the left and bounced gently off the bumper of the classic car Shives' dad has in the garage. It bounced back to me, and without looking, I scooped it up, turned and shot in one movement. It went straight in, giving me 19 and I iced it with two free throws.

After I won, Andy said, "That's going to go on a website somewhere!" Heck yeah it is!!

I almost won game 6 as well, since it was the most competitive game. Andy won it 21-19 (me)-18 (Shives). Probably a good thing we quit then, because I think they'd have started guarding me the next game!

Thanksgiving 2005

Another Thanksgiving come and gone. Where does the time go? It was another good one, with our traditional lunch at my parents’ house. My grandmother, uncle, step-aunt, three cousins and my brother were all there, so it was a fairly full house. We’ve been fairly blessed that most every Thanksgiving and Christmas that side of the family (my mom’s side) have been able to gather together. In fact, Meron and I miss the most Christmases, usually because we’ve gone to Ohio.

And Thanksgiving weekend always means getting together with my friends. We’ve not done as many large-scale events the last couple of years as we did in the past, and apparently the touch/flag football game is now just a memory. But we still get together some. A few of us watched the Razorback/LSU game yesterday. We all figured we’d only need to watch the first half, as LSU should have just stomped all over them. The Hogs, though, played them extremely close, and if only one of a few things had been different (hit one of the two missed field goals, get the two point conversion, not allow the safety) they may have knocked off the #3 Tigers instead of losing 19-17. Arkansas played very well the last few games, and being a young team that gives some hope for next year.

We’re also going to play a little basketball today. I’ve not played in probably 3 years, so this could be real interesting. As long as they give me enough room to lose any lunch I eat, I should be fine.

Tried to do some (wait for it) yard work this morning. It needed a last trimming before I got the Christmas lights out and started work on that. First off, though, I had to get into my mowing pants. I’ve worn shorts most of the year to do the little yard work I do, but the temps were lower today so I thought I’d try to get into them.

I believe I wrenched my back trying to get into them. I’m not saying they were tight, I’m saying I expected someone to say “Where are you going in those things, 1982?” Somehow I got into them and still could breathe. That counts as major progress and probably should have stopped there.

Actually, I got the yard mowed, but what I really needed to do was weedeat, and of course the weedeater wouldn’t start. I started pulling them by hand but when the fingers started splitting apart, I gave up. I’ll either try the weedeater tomorrow, borrow someone else’s, or wear some gloves before I get out and pull more weeds.

Meron is finally turning the health corner, I think. Thanksgiving wasn’t great for her, but she kept down everything yesterday and felt good enough for cheesesticks from Pizza Hut. You know she’s doing better when she wants pizza and related items. Benjamin sounds like he might have a little cold, but nothing like he’s had in the past, so for the moment, the family is pretty healthy. Always something to be thankful for!

Weekend Wrapup

Wouldn’t say it was a fun-filled weekend.  Not that there was anything majorly wrong with it, just “fun-filled” doesn’t seem like a very accurate term.

Got to play some poker Friday night, which was almost called off due to Meron relapsing into sickness again.  But there was little I could do for her, so I got Benjamin ready for bed and off I went.  Might as well have stayed at home, it’d have saved me $15.

I tried to go for the aggressiveness angle that I did last time and early on it was working.  At least once I bluffed a pot when two threes came on the flop and I bet heavy, acting like I had a three when I didn’t.  The aggressiveness really started to burn me, though, as the pots got bigger.

For instance, I had a pair of queens and I bet it hard since I was in the dealer position.  Jason, in big blind, called.  Flop comes low, no face cards.  I bet big, Jason raises me.  I know, KNOW, that he has pocket kings or pocket aces.  But I talk myself into “maybe he just has A-K” and call.  When he bets big again after the turn, I fold, which I should have done earlier without depleting my stack.

The next time, I’m small blind and it folds around to me.  I try to run Joe off by betting big with A-3.  He calls, which doesn’t mean a ton from Joe.  The flop comes A-Q-X, and I bet my pair of aces.  Joe raises me big, and I have to lay it down.  Turns out he had A-Q, so it’s a good thing I did, but it still dropped the chip stack.

My final hand was the same situation.  Small blind, folded around to me.  I was hoping Joe didn’t have a hand so I went all in with K-5.  Unfortunately, he had the chips and an A-9, so he called.  A 9 came up on the flop and nothing else, so I was dealing.  I didn’t go out until 11:30 or so, but I was the first out, giving me my first Joker since the third game of the year, which is a major improvement over the 4-5 last place finishes I had last year.

Meron went to the doctor Saturday morning and found out that she likely had a virus that was going around, though it could be a bacteria that had similar symptoms.  If she wasn’t better by today, she was supposed to take one of those one-time antibiotics, which most likely would have torn her up.  Thankfully, last night she seemed to have turned the corner and is improving.  Which is wonderful not only for her but for me.  I love her, but she’ll admit she’s pretty high-maintenance when she’s sick, so between taking care of her and Benjamin, well, I just might need this Thanksgiving break!

I won’t have to incur the wrath of the “Angry Pilgrim,” whom I’ve been told visits those that put their lights up before Thanksgiving.  I noticed two houses in my neighborhood not only have them up, but are turning them on.  I definitely don’t believe in turning them on until Thanksgiving!  I didn’t get a chance, due to Meron being sick, to get out and get things ready for the lights, so I’m guessing that’ll be a Friday and Saturday project.  I need to probably pick up some new ones, since I didn’t put up any last year with us going to Ohio for the holiday.

Speaking of, I guess we’ll be watching the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving this week.  I can’t believe Halloween got by without watching It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and I know we have to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas every year.  The wife won’t have it any other way.

I read this weekend that the Cards have told the agent for Brian Giles that they are focusing on pitching.  I know everyone says that “you can’t have too much pitching,” “pitching and defense wins championships,” etc.  And there is truth in those statements.  However, if you don’t hit good pitching, you aren’t winning either.  The Cards need an impact bat, in my opinion, to slide into the 2 hole in front of Pujols, Edmonds and Rolen.  So what are they thinking?

Well, to be sure, A.J. Burnett is quite a talent.  Could he be reined in enough for a Cardinal clubhouse and a LaRussa-led staff?  Would he listen to Duncan and get some of that wildness out of his system?  (The pitching wildness, I mean.  I’m not sure Duncan is much on trying to get his pitchers to stop partying.)

My read on the situation is this:  Walt Jocketty most likely has a deal in place for an outfielder, assuming he can sign Burnett.  It probably involves Marquis and another player.  The outfielder is likely younger and cheaper than Giles.  I’d love to think it’s a player like Austin Kearns, who I think would thrive in St. Louis and in this lineup.

Looking forward to seeing my friends this weekend.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Shively and Andy, and though I saw Bob a month or so ago, it’s always good to see him as well.  Not sure who else will be around this weekend, though Bryan’s promised to try to drop by with that new wife of his, which I’m looking forward to meeting.  Aren’t the holidays grand?

Benjamin's Advertising Gig

Sickness and Health

Well, half of last night's agenda was accomplished. We got Lost watched (and I wasn't too surprised at the character they decided to remove, since that had been some internet speculation I'd read), but no hot chocolate since the wife has been not feeling great the last week or so. It comes and goes, but especially seems to hit her hard in the evenings. Not sure what it is, if it's just a bug or something else, but hopefully it'll clear out soon.

Then I have one of my patented colon attacks when I try to go to bed last night. You don't want the details, of course, but it kept me up a lot of the night and I still don't think I've quite recovered. Thankfully Benjamin seems to be responding positively to his new antibiotic, because at this rate he may wind up taking care of the both of us!

Had a meeting today at lunch. A member of my church asked me if I was interested in sitting on the board of a local non-profit group called Help Network. He invited me to visit one of their meetings and see what they were about. They'd like me to join up as a board member, but I'm not quite sure. They do some great work, getting aid and assistance to those in the area that need it, but today's meeting was an hour and a half, and that's pretty regular from what I can gather. An hour and a half lunch meeting? As my friend Dana would say, who does that? The meeting did seem to drag, so I'm not sure if I want to try it again, see if another meeting would be more involved, or if I want to pass now. I'm leaning toward passing at this time, but we'll see.

Just over a week until Thanksgiving. Looking forward to seeing most of my friends who will be coming into town. We typically have some activities set up and plans made, but I couldn't get much of a response this year, so we will just play it by ear. Which is probably good in at least one regard--one of the Thanksgiving traditions has been a game of touch/flag football, and I'm fairly sure I'd collapse by the end of the first drive.

My parents are likely on their way back from Israel today, so prayers for a safe trip are desired. They tried to call a couple of times while they were over there, but we just missed them both times. I tried to call them back, but I woke up some Israeli woman who probably wondered why some American was calling her. And that's going to be one expensive wrong number when the bill comes!

MVP

There really shouldn't have been any doubt, but coming into today's announcement there was some suspense on who the NL MVP would be. Derrek Lee had an outstanding year, but his Cubs finished way back. Andruw Jones hit the most HR, but his average was pretty weak.

So the voters recognized the best player on the best team in 2005--Albert Pujols. AP's been close before, finishing in the top 4 every year of his career, so it was great to see him break through with a well-deserved honor. Congrats, Albert!

I noticed that the PPT site now has a link to this blog, so it's possible some of my poker compadres will slip over here and take a look, at least the ones that can actually read. (So, probably no Ben, is that what we're saying?) Looking forward to our game this Friday. It's been a while since I played with those guys and last time out I felt I played well, even if the results weren't there. Whether I can do that again or not is a totally different story.

Wind and rain came sweeping through here today, dropping the temperatures drastically. It was 73 when I got to work and it's around 55 now, with a low tonight projected to be about 30. Sounds like it's time for the winter tradition of the nightly hot chocolate! The wife and I need to watch last week's Lost episode tonight (before the new episode tomorrow night!) anyway, so we'll probably drink the cocoa and watch the show.

That's probably about it for today, but had to acknowledge the MVP. Having the MVP and Cy Young on the Cardinals (not to mention my fantasy team) takes a little of the sting out of the end of the season.

Partied Out

We survived!

Benjamin's party on Saturday went off without too much of a hitch. A good number of people there, though some that had said they would be didn't make it. Which aggrevated Meron somewhat since she had made goodie bags for those kids that were coming and that was one less step and expense that we had to go through. But all-in-all, it was fun. Benjamin didn't really get the cake thing, so no huge messes there. Lots of gifts, including an Elmo given by formerly dear friends of ours (OK, just kidding) that was a Giggle Gabber or something like that, but basically you shake Elmo and it talks--and it has no off button. Isn't that lovely? Thankfully Benjamin was distracted by the numerous other things and hasn't gone nuts too much with that. Once we get some pictures developed, I'll put one up for display.

Sunday was Consecration Sunday which went very well. I know Blake had invested a lot of time and "political capital", if you will, to do this his first time out, but pledges were up about 25% and there was very good attendance. The only stressful thing was the caterer. Meron was in charge of getting it all arranged and she told the guy that we wanted to eat at noon. So, 11:40 comes and there's no caterer and the guest preacher is winding down. You think she was stressed on Saturday? Nothing compared to that.

Thankfully the restaurant that was catering was only a few blocks away, so I sped down there to see what was going on. They were loading up and just about to head out to the church, because the guy "thought we were supposed to be there at noon." My friend Ken said, "I used to work in catering, I've used that line before." The food was easy to set up, and it only required having the meeting we were going to have after lunch before lunch instead, so major catastrophe averted.

I'm getting more and more into the holiday spirit. I can't wait for Thanksgiving next week, and I may even try to do some Christmas light work this weekend. I've got to get the house in good shape as well, since we are probably going to do our traditional open house after the Christmas Eve service for our church. It's a come and go thing that has been very well attended the last few years. We were in Ohio last year for Christmas, so this will be the first time we've tried it with a kid. May be a challenge!

Benjamin has his one-year doctor appointment today, but since he's on an antibiotic for a sinus infection, I don't know if he'll get his shots or not. I'm sure he won't be thrilled with the doctor in any case.

Enjoy your Monday, if at all possible!

After the Storm

Benjamin survived his first birthday, but it's almost amazing he wasn't done in by the piles of wrapping paper and gifts surrounding him. Three different people stopped by the house yesterday to drop off a gift, and he didn't get all the ones from us or his grandparents opened. We did the gift opening in stages, since we didn't want to overwhelm him and wanted him to play with the stuff before getting something new.

He's got a gift from one of Meron's friends that should arrive today, two more that we were going to give him before his party Saturday, and then the ones from us and all the grandparents that we were holding back for the party. This kid is not going to know what to do with all the new stuff!

I think his favorites from yesterday were the box of books my mom and dad gave him (in abstentia, since they are in Israel right now), the big stuffed Elmo Meron's mom sent him, the Little People farm from us and the bath toys of Pooh and Piglet that we gave him. That is a portion of what he got, but probably not even half.

That eye and nose stuff hasn't really cleared up much, so we are going back to the doctor today. He still should look good enough for those Santa pictures, though.

Chris Carpenter won the Cy Young yesterday. He was quite deserving, though I was afraid his late season slump would do him in. What I couldn't believe was how few votes Roger Clemens got. It was billed all year (until Dontrelle Willis came on pretty strong late) as Clemens vs. Carpenter, and Clemens had this sub-2.00 ERA and was just amazing. I thought he'd get a lot more votes than he did.

Gotta run Benjamin to the doctor. If I don't come back to blogging, have a great weekend everyone!

Time Flies

A year ago today, my wife and I went to see her OB-GYN. The baby was two weeks late and not showing a whole lot of signs of wanting to leave his/her cozy confines. Dr. Cloud examined her and said, "This has gone on long enough. One way or another you are having a baby tomorrow."

Meron really wanted to try to have a natural childbirth, but Dr. Cloud told her it was only 50/50 whether she'd be able to do that. I assumed that she'd just agree to the caesarian, but I had underestimated how much she wanted to do this naturally. She said she wanted to try to be induced first.

This is way more than I would have done, but there is a reason why the women have the babies. There's no way we men could handle all the discomfort and pain. If men had babies, we'd have figured out how to beam them out of us already!

We went to the hospital at 5 AM the next morning and they started the induction around 6. Meron hadn't signed up for the epidural, so that wasn't an option, something that was regretted many a time during the afternoon as the pains started getting stronger. Around 3, she hasn't made as much progress as they would like, so she agreed (quite willingly!) to the caesaran, and Benjamin Daniel was born at 4:35 on November 10, 2004.

Has it really been a year since all of that? I look at the little guy and wonder where the time goes. I can't imagine how I'll be feeling when he turns 5, or 10, or 20. There have been aggrevations, but thankfully no medical scares, no major accidents, and a whole lot of fun. He's an amazing kid and I love him a ton.

He's also becoming a local spokesbaby, almost! The drugstore that I mentioned earlier a month or so ago changed out the pictures they had up of him and put up new ones. Then yesterday, they called and asked if he could come in and get his picture taken with Santa early so they could use it in their advertising. I don't know if it's in store only or if they'll be putting an ad in the paper. He's going in Friday, so hopefully it will go well and they'll be some great pictures.

By then he hopefully will be over the most recent round of cold/sinus symptoms. He had a terrible runny nose and gunky eyes earlier this week, but we've started giving him a decongestant on a regular basis (per doctor's orders) and it seems to be clearing him up well. He's got to look good for his photo shoot!

Not much else is going on around here. We are having our Committment Sunday this week, complete with catered meal after the service. It's our push to get pledges for next year, and the program results at other churches have been very positive, so we're hoping the same will happen at Wesley. Of course, that's also hoping that people fulfill their pledges! As next year's Finance Committee chair, I'm very hopeful that will happen!

Free agents can start signing with other teams come Saturday, so it'll be interesting to see if anyone signs early, if any trades will get made, and what exactly the Cardinals will do. It's rumored they are a frontrunner for Brian Giles, who I think would fit very well in the Cardinal lineup. What the cost will be is another matter.

Two weeks until Thanksgiving!

Back to the Grind

Man, I've never had so much pressure on me to get a blog entry done. All the mods at the Clubhouse are expecting an extra-long opus, so hopefully I won't disappoint too much.

As you can surmise, I made it safely back from out West. It was a pretty fun trip, even though I hated being away from home that long. If Meron and Benjamin had been there, it'd have been a whole lot better.

Last Wednesday, we (the group from the office) got up well before the crack of dawn and headed to Little Rock to catch our 7:00 AM flight. We got into Phoenix around 9:30 local time, which is only one hour behind my normal Central Standard instead of two because Arizona is one of those contrary states that doesn't recognize Daylight Savings Time.

Since we didn't have anything we were required to be at until Thursday (one of the drawbacks of being near a smaller airport is that you have limited flight choices) we headed up the road to see what we could see. We were trying to decide between the Sondona desert and the Grand Canyon, but one of our number really wanted to see the Canyon, so that's what won the day, even though it was a much longer trip.

It was the first time I'd ever been to the Grand Canyon and was taken aback by the colors, details, and size of it. I'd pretty much always thought of it as a "big hole in the ground", but the different levels and colors gave it more complexity than that summarily dismissive phrase conveys.

That said, I'm not a huge nature guy so after an hour or so of it, I was pretty much done, at least since we couldn't go around to the other side. However, the guy that wanted to much to go up there is a big photography guy, so he took pictures for about two hours. When you are just standing around waiting, scenery watching gets old fast. Though it was interesting to see the people there. There was a Japanese tour group going through, parents with their months-old baby (which of course made me miss Benjamin more) and other groups and nationalities.

Got back to the hotel/resort (which was gorgeous and fairly luxurious) around 8:30-9:00. We decided not to go anywhere to eat but to stay at the hotel and eat at one of the restaurants they had (I think they had about 4 on site). However, looking at the menu and prices on the board outside one of them made us reconsider. We saw one guy eating a sandwich with fries in the lobby area and asked him where he got it. Turns out one of the "restaurants" was that open seating, and they came, got your order and brought it to you. Sounds good.

So while everyone else is going with the turkey club, I see some tuna (just for y'all, mods!) on the menu along with some words I didn't recognize, but hey, let's go with the tuna. I thought it'd be a sandwich like the club was.

I had noticed that some dishes were listed "small plates" and some "share plates." The tuna fell into the former and when it came out, I understood why. While the others had large sandwiches and fries that filled their plates, I had an Emeril-style plate. Five tiny slices of tuna with a sauce dribbled around it. You know, the kind of thing that probably costs $50 in one of those fancy restaurants, but takes you 5 minutes tops to eat. And apparently some of the words I didn't understand were code words for "burn your taste buds off" because it had an amazingly hot kick to it. Thankfully the wife of the boss didn't want all of her sandwich and let me take half of it.

Thursday and Friday were mainly spent in classes and speakers. The classes weren't really that exciting, especially since they were hands-on classes for programs we'd been using for a year or so. We were expecting a little more advanced stuff. We picked up a few tips, but that's really about it.

Friday night was Casino Night, which was what I was pumped about since it gave me a chance to play Texas Hold'Em in a totally different environment. They gave you a voucher for $300 in chips when you walked in. I immediately headed over to a Hold'Em table, cashed it in, and began playing.

The first hand I got as Ace-Jack, so I should have known it'd be a good night. Won that hand in a semi-decent pot, but started to get the idea this wasn't a good test of how good I might be. Nobody had any real motivation (the chips were cashed out for raffle tickets at the end) and some would sit down that had no clue about the game, which doesn't help much when you are trying to figure out what people have.

The best hand of the night was fairly early on. I got the Ace-King of diamonds, and two more diamonds came up on the flop. I bet semi-hard, not enough to run many out. The turn was another diamond, so I had the nut flush. I went all-in, figuring that probably no one would call me. Three other people at the table stayed in, though. Only one of them even had a flush, which obviously wasn't as good as mine. I think some others had a pair or two pair.

After that, it was just a lot of small wins and a couple of painful losses. The guy next to me "had never played before", but I'm guessing he'd played at least some type of poker, if not Hold'Em. He finished the big winner at the table, but I was second, I think. After the initial $300 and another free $300 (they occasionally just came by and passed out vouchers), I wound up with just over $1500 in chips, so I doubled my money and then some.

Got even better when the raffle came around. Kept waiting and waiting to see if one of my many tickets were called, but I'd get close but not quite. Finally, Meron called to check in and I gave my tickets to Photo Guy to check for me so I could talk to here. The last prize was called out while I was on the phone and everyone started to leave, so I wrapped up the conversation and caught up with our group.

I made some comment about having all those tickets and they said, "Look, Photo Guy won the last prize, a $50 AmEx gift cheque". He, of course, had a lot fewer tickets than I did, but I figured that's the way it went, till he told me that he'd won it with "my 394 tickets", which were mine, and then handed over the envelope. So it was more profitable than my PPT nights usually are!

Saturday we wrapped up the confrence, then headed into Phoenix. We took the tour of Chase Field (formerly Bank One Ballpark), home of the Diamondbacks. It was great to be able to see inside some of the party suites, go into the visitor's clubhouse, and sit on the bench inside the Arizona dugout. We couldn't go on to the field, which would have made it just about perfect but did keep me from going nuts sliding into bases and such.

Got home about 12:30 CST Saturday night and was glad to be there. The best part, though, was when Benjamin woke up between his mommy and his daddy Sunday morning and had a huge grin and just shook all over from excitement. It was great to know he was glad I was home.

I took yesterday off so he and I could do things while Meron got a well-deserved break to do some scrapbooking. We ran errands in town and just had a good time. It's so hard to believe he'll be one this week, but that's a story for a different day!

Leaving On a Jet Plane

Sorry for the lag in blog entries. Between being out of the office and not having anything earth-shattering to report, I've not made quite the effort to get something up. Hopefully next week will be better.

This week, though, there probably won't be too many entries. Well before dawn Wednesday I head out to Scottsdale, Arizona for a business conference on the accounting software that we use. I'll be out there until Saturday, when I get home probably around midnight. It's a long trip, and not one that I'm really looking that forward to.

In the past, it wouldn't really have bothered me. In fact, a week or so after I started at Deloitte and Touche back in 1998, they sent me out for training. It happened to be in Scottsdale, in the same hotel/resort that I'm going to this time (though it's been bought by Marriott in the interim). There was some trepidation on that trip, but really only because I'd never flown before. Turns out, even though I'm scared of heights, I don't mind flying at all. (At least, I didn't. I've not flown since June of '01, so things could have changed, I guess.)

Back then, however, I had only met Meron in person once and I really didn't have too many attachments. When you are single, traveling is an experience, an adventure. Now, it means I have to leave my wife and this precious son of mine here by themselves for 4 days. That's the tough part, plus the fact that if something unexpected and terrible does happen, they're on their own and I miss out on a lot of things.

I hate to sound like I'm being maudlin or depressed or worried. I'm really not--I know the odds are that everything will be fine. But even then, I do get worried about Meron having to deal with Benjamin all by herself. I don't do everything, of course--she does plenty on a normal day. But I am there to give her a break when I get home, to give him his bath, to get up in the middle of the night or in the early morning with him. All that could really wear on her while I'm gone.

Still, she has people she can call if she really needs it. My parents are leaving for Israel Saturday morning, but they are around until then. And Benjamin does go to TLC on Thursday, which will also give her a breather. Hopefully that will be enough to allievate any additional stress.

The one thing I am looking forward to on this trip, though, is Friday night. The conference is having a casino night with Texas Hold'em as one of the games. The office paid our ticket fee, so we're going. I'm really excited about testing my limited skills against a different group of players. I don't expect to do a whole lot, though there is an open bar at this thing, so maybe all my opponents will get drunk, or they'll be typical accountants and play a very conservative game.

Benjamin has cleared up from his croupe and now is just taking a decongestant to clear up what's left in his lungs. He's not coughing much at all anymore and has a ton of energy. Bath time the last couple of nights has really been a lot of fun, since he's gotten into splashing and laughing more than in the past. I'm afraid he's going to miss his daddy some and I hope he doesn't take that out on his mommy.

Didn't do the Halloween thing tonight, leaving the light off so kids didn't knock on the door and rile up the dog. We did go to our church's Halloween carnival on Saturday night, though. It was a lot of fun seeing all the costumes. Benjamin got a lot of attention for his Darth Vader outfit and he wore it without too much fuss, even the hat part. He even enjoyed his first hayride. The church gets a four-wheeler and a trailer full of hay and someone drives it around the church property. He sat through that without a problem, though we didn't push our luck by taking him on it again.

Odds are I won't get an entry done tomorrow, but the hotel rooms are supposed to have internet access, so I may try to do a blog or two from Arizona. Who knows?

Sinuses Are a Pain in the Nose

The only problem with the changing of the seasons is that it does a number on the sinuses. I’ve been sniffing and dripping all morning long, which I’m sure drives everyone within a five mile radius of me nuts. Medicine doesn’t seem to do a whole lot, and blowing my nose lasts about a minute. Problem is, I probably won’t get much better until April, knowing me.

Benjamin is doing better. When we found out that the last antibiotic they prescribed wasn’t an antibiotic but a steroid, we went ahead and got the prescription filled. Either due to that or the fact that it was running its course, he seems to be coughing and wheezing less. He’s slept in his own crib since Friday night and he’s actually sleeping better, making it all the way through the night in some cases, getting close in others. Hope that keeps up even after he gets completely better.

We went down to Conway this weekend to finish getting stuff for his birthday. I think we’ve maxed what we want to get him, but even if we were the only people buying for him, he’d do well. The big thing he’s getting is the Little People farm set, which hopefully he will enjoy. We’ve already gotten him the Little People tractor, and he seems to play with that some. A book that we ordered for him came this weekend as well, and Meron (after reading it) gave it her seal of approval, so we know it’s a good one.

The big news in Russellville is that the new Wal-Mart SuperCenter will open this week. I’m sure it’ll be a madhouse for the next month or so—anything new in town is automatically the most crowded place for a while. When we got our Dairy Queen Grill and Chill back in the summer, the lines for the drive through were out into the road and inside was packed as well. Obviously it tapers off, but that first rush is a strong one. Anyway, I went to the old Wally World Sunday for a couple of things and it’s amazing how empty it is. Unfilled shelves, displays missing, etc. It’s like when you move from your house, just on a larger scale and much more public. I’m interested to see the new one. I’m hoping there will be things there that you usually can’t find in Russellville, like different foods, name brands from outside our region, stuff like that.

I got an e-mail today saying that my fourth season of Alias has been shipped, so I’m looking forward to that. I finished Season 2 of Law and Order in the last week or two, so I’m needing something to watch. I tried taping the new season of Alias, but with the ballgames I didn’t do it as regularly as I should have, so I’ll probably just have to wait until Season 5 comes to DVD. It’s OK, I think I can wait.

That should pretty much cover the weekend, I believe. Probably not much excitement this week either. Another bank audit, hopefully PK tonight, and our marriage class on Wednesday. So either I won’t do much updating or I’ll find a topic to ramble on at some length!

Changing of the Seasons

First off, it's been way too long since we've had a Benjamin picture. This one's about three months old, but it's still one of our favorites. So enjoy!

Benjamin seems to be getting somewhat better. He's still froggy, but it doesn't seem to be as severe, and I don't think he's run a fever the last couple of days. We called the doctor today and he prescribed another antibiotic, but since everything we read seems to indicate that croup is a virus and won't be helped by antibiotics, we're thinking of holding off and not filling that prescription just yet. Croup seems to run its course in five to seven days, so he may be getting to the end of it anyway. After all you hear about the over-prescribing of antibiotics and since that'd be the third one in a week and a half he'd be taking, it just seemed like a reasonable step.

The weather has finally gotten cooler, and apparently to stay. After a tease of it earlier, it's stayed about 60-65 today and that seems to be the forecast for the next ten days or so, which is nice. I'm not a huge winter person, but I do love cool air, windows open, flannel pants type weather. Much better than the 100 degree heat we have in the summer!

Cards lost Game 6 to the Astros, so Pujols's HR just delayed the inevitable. Actually, it did more than that. It gave the Cardinal fans a chance to say goodbye not only to the team but to the stadium that has held Redbird baseball for 40 years. Next year, a new place gets the honor, and I'm looking forward to getting up there hopefully in 2006, but might be 2007 depending on how hard tickets are to come by.

Weekend is almost here. Hope you have a good one, whatever you may be doing!

A Sick Little Boy

It's been a tiring day today. We took Benjamin to the doctor yesterday afternoon. The doctor examined him and wasn't absolutely sure what's wrong with him, but gave him an antibiotic, a different one than he was on from his doctor's visit last week. It's an understandable pet peeve of Meron's that doctors just give out antibiotics almost like candy, but I figured he had some general idea what he was doing, and he probably did.

The problem was, though, it wasn't an issue that antibiotics could deal with. While we were getting him ready for bed last night, he coughed and coughed until he vomited his dinner, which of course scared him. We cleaned him and it up, fed him his bottle (after some debate) and put him into bed. However, his breathing was so loud we could hear it in the other room, and he continued to cough hard enough to wake himself up. Plus the fact that, even though we'd given him Motrin, his fever just wasn't subsiding.

About 11:30, he had done it again and Meron had gotten him. I was just about to get into bed when he got sick again. Between all the symptoms and a worried mother (and, I'd admit, a father that wasn't too thrilled about the continued fever), we went ahead and took him to the emergency room.

The emergency room experience wasn't too bad. We got right in, and I'd say the doctor saw him within 25-30 minutes of our arrival. He diagnosed Benjamin's problem as the croup, which basically meant there wasn't much they could do about it. He had the nurse give him a steroid shot to help expand his throat passageways and told us to keep his head elevated at all times.

That meant sleeping in a chair holding him. Meron tried doing that when we got home, but Benjamin was awake enough and probably scared/distressed enough that he just wasn't getting to sleep. So around 2:00 I sent her to bed and I held him. After settling him down by walking around the room, we got in the chair and fell asleep. We didn't get up until he was ready, around 7:30 or so. Meant I was late to work, but that's one of the advantages of my boss being Benjamin's grandfather.

It's supposed to clear up after 2-3 days, so hopefully it will. Meron says he sounds better today, but we'll probably have to do the chair thing tonight as well. I'm going to take care of him while Meron goes to the marriage class, since she was the one signed up for providing tonight's meal.

In other areas, the Cards try to ride the momentum wave into tonight's Game 6. I'd love to see about 3-4 runs put up in the first to take a lot of the suspense out of the game. But I doubt Oswalt and Houston will let that happen. Also, another new Lost tonight, the last one for a couple of weeks. Got to remember to set the tapes for both of those when I get home.

Pujols At The Bat

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Cardinal nine that day
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play
And so, when J-Rod went down on strikes and Mabry did the same
A pallor wreathed the features of the fans of Redbird fame.

A straggling few turned off the tube, the rest
Clung to the hope that springs eternal in the human breast
They thought, “If only Pujols could get a whack, at that
We’d put up even money now, with Pujols at the bat.”

But Eck preceded Pujols, and so did Jimmy E,
The former was a pipsqueak and the latter one for three.
So upon that stricken multitude a death-like silence sat.
With Lidge there seemed but little chance of Pujols getting to the bat.

But Eck bounced a single when he only had one strike more
And Edmonds, the streaky slugger, then went and took ball four.
So when the dust had settled, oh what a sight to see!
There was Eckstein safe at second, and on first was Jimmy E.

Then all across Cardinal Nation there arose a joyous yell
It rumbled in the mountaintops, it rattled in the dell.
It rolled against Busch Stadium and recoiled to where Walt sat
For Pujols, mighty Pujols, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Pujols’ manner as he stepped up to the plate.
There was pride in Pujols’ bearing, and focus upon his face.
And when, with panic building, Houston fans started sounding flat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt, twas Pujols at the bat.

All Cardinal eyes were on him as he knelt upon the dirt
Praying for the strength to on that baseball put a hurt.
And as the writhing pitcher got a visit on the mound
There was a noticeable drop in the level of the sound.

And now the leather-covered sphere comes hurtling through the air
And Pujols took a rip at it, missing it with inches to spare
A slider from the closer Lidge had been the pitch he missed
A groan went up from St. Louis, Houston cheered and hissed.

From the benches, black with people, came decibels of sound
As the Astros looked to be moving to the next round.
And now Lidge holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Pujols’ blow.

Oh all across Cardinal Nation, the sun is shining bright
Bands are playing somewhere, and all the hearts are light
So many men are laughing and telling their children of the sight,
Because Albert Pujols hit the baseball long into the Texas night.

The Great Pujols

In Buzz Bissinger's book (which he co-wrote with Tony LaRussa) Three Nights in August, he early on in the book refers to the current Cardinal first baseman as "the great Pujols". Last night, Albert Pujols proved that it's not just a fanciful artistic license.

As you know from yesterday's post, the Cardinals were in the deepest of holes last night. Check that. The hole was pretty deep, but it was about to get deeper. I was at PK, so I didn't see much of the game, but I got home and turned it on to see the score. Cards were up 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, but Houston had a runner on. Knowing that it was going to get too stressful for me, I turned it off.

Which probably saved some furniture or at least a remote, because when I flipped it back on, it's 4-2 Houston in the top of the 8th, as I found out later Lance Berkman hit one of those fairly cheap home runs into the short Crawford boxes they have there in Minute Maid Park. The Astros have hit a number of homers into those seats, which would be loud outs in most ballparks.

So again the TV goes off, and it comes back on in the top of the 9th, with an out gone. I can't bear to watch Houston celebrating, so Meron and I flip to another channel and watch something, anything to get my mind off of what is coming.

As we start getting around to go to bed, I decide to go ahead and see if it's a final.

Nope, not yet.

I thrust my arms up in the air as the score shows Cardinals 5, Astros 4 in the bottom of the 9th with one out. What has happened? With all the cameras showing Pujols, I've got a good guess.

After the game is over, I rewind my tape to see just how the 9th played out. The first two Cardinals struck out against Brad Lidge, the dominating Houston closer. Then David Eckstein has the count run to 1-2 against him. The Cardinals were down to their final strike, when it all turned around.

Eckstein slapped a single in the hole between third and short. Next up was Jim Edmonds, who has a history of killing the Astros. I don't know if that was on Lidge's mind, if he was just too fired up, or what, but he didn't really get that close to the strike zone, walking Edmonds on 5 pitches. Which brings up Pujols.

Pujols, as it's been said a number of times, is this generation's Musial. He may be the greatest Cardinal ever when it's done, and he's probably already just second to Stan the Man. And when you know that he's been 0-4 in the game, leaving runners on, you know it's time for him to deliver.

Deliver he did. He didn't hit one of those cheap homers. His ball cleared the Crawford boxes, the regular seats, the train tracks on top of the stadium. If there hadn't been glass to stop it, it would have gone completely out of the stadium, rolling around in the streets of Houston.

One of the great things about this, besides the obvious, was that I knew Pujols would be referencing the Source of his strength and abilities. Which makes me think that it's possible the Lord put him in this situation for a reason.

I'm not saying that God wanted the Cardinals to win. He loves everyone and feels the pain of the Astro fans today as well as the joy of the Cardinal fans. But it put a faithful follower on a national stage, even more than he usually is. Pujols will turn any moment into a moment of witness, especially one as big as this.

And who knows? Maybe a non-baseball fan hears about last night's game and decides to Google Pujols. Maybe he or she stumbles across his Foundation web page. Maybe they click on the button on the front page to read about his faith. And maybe they are stimulated to learn more, to reach out, to accept Christ for themselves. Will that happen? Only God knows. But it's possible.

So Game 6 Wednesday night in St. Louis. If they can beat Roy Oswalt, I feel fairly good about their chances against Roger Clemens in Game 7. It's not over yet!

Blogging from the Ledge

3-1.

That's the deficit the Cardinals are staring at in the NLCS. Which wouldn't be so bad if it were, say, best of 11. Unfortunately, it's best of 7, which means one more loss and the season, as great as it has been, is over.

I will say I have a bit of the pessimist in me. I hate close games and I especially hate back-to-the-wall situations. Too many chances for miscues. Too many possibilities that a single mistake puts you home for the winter. Don't like it, don't care for it, never have.

The Clubhouse is, of course, in an uproar, as posters (some of which, amazingly enough, have never posted before) are predicting doom, calling names, berating umpires, etc. We mods are trying to keep the best lid on it as possible, and I think we are doing a pretty good job. People like msredbird, BrewCards, NJCards, and Oberkfell3B (hey, Obie, if you'd blog I'd link to ya!) are the right people in the right positions of authority.

Still, it's tough to battle the flame when you have a sneaking suspicion that the underlying cause (not the expressions of it) has merit. I'm personally quite down on the Cardinals' chances right now. I was glad when they beat Pettitte in the first game, because lefties have been tough on us so far. But now we have to face him again in our first (only?) elimination game. The Cardinals haven't hit, with only Pujols doing much of what is expected. They are banged up--Sanders took a fall in Game 2, and even though he was back yesterday, who knows how close to 100% he is, and then Nunez has a rough collision in Game 3 and is out for Game 4 and maybe even tonight as well. That on top of Rolen and Al Reyes being out for the entire postseason.

There are glimpses of hope, of course. Carpenter goes tonight, and if there was one pitcher on this staff you want on the mound in a must-win game, it's him. The Astros' closer, Brad Lidge, has pitched a number of innings this time around (as he did last year), and if yesterday's 9th inning is any indication, the Cards might be starting to figure him out somewhat. Plus, if they win today, they go back home to Busch, with the adoring crowd and, more importantly, last at-bats.

But Houston is making the plays that you'd expect a winning team to do. Rodriguez comes in and finishes Edmonds' AB yesterday after Edmonds was tossed (that did look like a ball, but Jim should know better than to argue in that manner in a key situation like that). He hits a drive that 1) would have been out of any other part of the park and 2) would have been over most people's heads. But Tavares catches it at the wall.

Then, after Pujols went on contact in the 9th and was thrown out at the plate (TLR, and I know he was tossed by then, but it's his philosophy and the staff knows it, uses that contact play way too often, and it burns the Cards a lot), it's first and third, one out. Grounder looks like it'll tie the game--but the 'Stros turn an amazingly-quick DP and end the ballgame. Those kind of breaks tend to reside on winning teams.

That said, I'm still rooting on the Cards and hoping they'll get a chance to continue a curse instead of ending one. The White Sox, the AL representative to the Series, hasn't won since 1917, a year before the Red Sox last one before the 2004 Series. Here's hoping!

On the non-baseball side of things, Benjamin's continuing to walk more and more. He's not doing it a lot in public, but he's going all through the house when we let him. He's even figured out how to get around the Pack and Play that we had blocking the hallway to the back of the house, so it looks like it'll be time to get a new baby gate.

Played some poker Saturday night. The guys got together for an unscheduled game that didn't count toward the PPT point standings. I played a little more aggressively than I usually do, after watching to WPT poker that morning. It went fairly well for me, but I lost a couple of big hands, even though I played them right. The first, I was holding A-Q suited and Joe (who was all-in) had J-Q. What does the flop come? J-Q-X. Between the turn and the flop I had a chance for a flush on the river, but it didn't come.

My last hand of the night, I held pocket queens. Charles was the only one that called me, and he had 9-10 suited. The flop held a 7, but that was it. The 8 came on the turn, and as soon as it did, I said, "The river'll be a Jack", which, of course, it was.

Not much else going on. I've got PK tonight so I probably won't watch much of the Cardinal game, which is probably better on my system anyway. Maybe tomorrow I can title my blog "A Breath of Hope!"