Let It Snow!

I know, there's all these pre-Christmas and Christmas stuff to talk about, and I do plan on doing that. (Everything went great, by the way.) I've gotten those pictures loaded into the computer, but they need some touchup work and I don't have time for that this evening.

However, the day after Christmas brought an unexpected gift--snow! Big fat flakes, usually mixed with rain and doing little sticking to the ground. No matter. When you get snow, you gotta enjoy it, even if it's fleeting. That seemed to be Benjamin's motto. He had to go out in it when I was home for lunch, then Meron called me at work so he could ask me if he could go outside by himself to play. (Since it's a fenced-in back yard, I said yes.)

Here are a couple of images from the day:

There was enough slush piled up on his toy car there that we were able to scrape it off and make a couple of slushballs with it. Because it doesn't matter if it's December--spring training is only 50 days away and you've got to get your arm ready.

This is him outside with the snow falling around him. I think Meron took the picture from the doorway, staying inside since Sarah didn't need to be out in it. (If it'd been a harder snow with accumulation, I'm pretty sure Meron would have made me stay home so she could go out and play in it!)

I don't know if he was able to catch any on his tongue or how they tasted, but he definitely gave it a try!

More soon, hopefully. Lots of pictures of the kids with Santa, the kids opening gifts, the kids being kids!

Shootout Recap

Saturday was the big year-end poker matchup called the PPT Shootout. Some good poker was played all around, even by me, though it wasn't good enough to bring home any money. The highlights, at least from my point of view:

My call of the night happened fairly early. Bobby and I were the only two in the hand, and we had bet back and forth on the flop and turn. The river comes out an ace. I think I checked, whereas Bobby bet fairly big. I pondered this a while. I had two pair, jacks and nines. I didn't figure that Bobby had pocket aces, because while he had raised pre-flop, it wasn't a big one. However, I had just about talked myself out of calling when I took a look over at him.

He wasn't looking at me, but for some reason I felt he was saying, "Please don't call." So I called. Turned out my two pair beat his two pair of jacks and sevens and I raked a decent pot.

That was the highlight of taking pots, though. I was able to win my share and stay pretty competitive, then I took a rough beat. I look down at pocket aces and raise. My wife picks that time to call and check on me, so I play the whole hand a little distracted, though I'm not sure that would have made much difference in how I played it. The flop comes up three hearts, which matches one of my aces. I bet, Jason calls. The turn is an ace. So now I have trip aces with a possible nut flush. I bet. Jason raises. If I'd been thinking, I might have gone ahead and folded there, but I doubt I could have gotten away from the hand. I called. The river was nothing, Jason bets and, even though I'm fairly sure I'm in trouble here, I call. Jason had gotten the flush on the flop. That took me from up about 10K on my starting stack of 21,400 to down around 19K.

It really wasn't the best nice for pocket aces. Charles had them once and went all in. Jason called with pocket jacks. During the dealing, one jack had been exposed, so there was only potentially one left in the deck. A possibility nixed when Joe mentioned he had folded the other jack. So basically, Jason is drawing dead it seems, especially when the first card on the turn is an ace. However, the next cards are 2-5, straightening the board and forcing a split pot.

Right after my pivotal hand that I'll discuss below, Bobby and Ken faced off as Ken bet with aces and Bobby went all in. I can't remember what Bobby started with, but he wound up with a straight after the board was done, propelling him from almost out to back on the path to victory. (After finishing last the first two years, Bobby took home the title and the big money this year.)

My basically final hand (I was left with just enough for a big blind) came again at the hands of Jason. Pre-flop, he goes all in. It gets around to me and I look down at A-K. I count it out and see that I'm pretty much riding everything on this hand. However, it is one good hand to ride it on. My gut said fold, my head said bet. With a gut like mine, you'd think I never ignored it, but I did this time.

Jason had a pocket pair of threes. If I could have caught one of my cards, I'd probably been chip leader going into the final stretch of the tournament. Instead, nothing higher than a 7 came out on the board and, after a few folds, I went home after betting 6-9 suited and having nothing come of it.

A good time was had by all, though, and there weren't too many crazy calls, even by Ben. And, hey, I got to play cards for 6 hours and still get home before the kids (well, Benjamin at least) were asleep!

December at the Shoptaws

Since we are in the process of getting our Christmas cards out, and since I wrote a Christmas newsletter for I think the first time, and since I mentioned my blog in it, well, it only made sense to get some new content up over here.

This month has been fairly busy for us. The biggest thing was that Meron's mom just visited for a few days. We went down to Little Rock and picked her up from the airport Saturday evening and took her back earlier today. Everyone had a great time, even if we didn't do a lot since there was a lot of rain while she was here. She got to see the kids, which was of course the point. Her birthday was Tuesday, so we spent that evening having Christmas. Watching Benjamin (and, to some extent, Sarah) opening the presents and having a good time was probably the highlight of the trip.

Us picking her up last Saturday was a little ironic. Because, ten years ago on December 8, I went to the airport to pick up Meron on her first visit to Arkansas. A lot has changed since we first met each other, since we were heading down there with two kids and almost eight years of marriage with us. (Ironically, two years ago on the 8th, the first symptoms of GBS started. Heck of a day, huh?)

Benjamin and Sarah went to see Santa last night at our church. I've not seen the pictures, but apparently Benjamin did much better than he did last year. Our friend Richard, who does a great Santa as well, is going to come by the house next Tuesday in full gear to see him and he's pretty excited about that. We'll see how that works out.

Sarah is starting to sprout her first tooth on her bottom gum. You can feel the sharpness of it, even though it's not poked completely out. She's also able to scoot and get around a little on the floor now, though she's not crawling. She did get up on her hands and knees once, though.

This weekend is the big PPT Shootout. This is the third year for it and, while my success rate is low, I'm hoping it beats 2005 and 2006. I'd really like to finish higher than seventh, though anything under fourth pays the same ($0.00).

We are having a big open house on the 23rd, which means that sometime in the next couple of weeks, I have to find time to clean the house. I'm not sure when that will be, since the day before will be Christmas at my grandmother's, but I'm sure it'll get done. Also, Meron and I will have been married for 8 years on the 18th. Where the time goes, neither of us knows.

More as things happen, but for now, have a great holiday season!

More Visual Images

Here are a few more recent pictures of the kids:


Sarah having fun playing on the floor. She's not much on rolling over, but she'll work her way to get stuff out of reach. Loves playing with her toys and, of course, anyone's keys she can get ahold of.
Benjamin's been real good about playing with his sister, as well. He got all this stuff for his birthday, but he still can't stay out of the ones set aside for her! Still, it's a help when he can entertain his sister.

Not sure yet if this is going to be the Christmas card picture or not, but it should help get you into the holiday spirit!

I'm trying to take advantage of the new Blogger feature and put a slideshow up on the side of the blog. So keep an eye out and see if I'm successful!

Kids

Gotta love the kids. Monday, I walked out of the house to go to work. Benjamin was already up and sitting on the couch, while his mom and Sarah were still back in the bedroom. As I opened the door, I noticed that there was a fairly thick layer of fog. "It's foggy outside," I said as I left, mainly to myself.

Meron later told me that this exchange happened later in the day.

Benjamin: "Daddy said it was froggy outside."

Meron: "You mean foggy?"

Benjamin: "No, froggy! There are frogs everywhere! We have to be careful!"

He can definitely come up with some very creative things.

Thanksgiving was good. Ate lots of food, saw the family, etc. Our basic holiday.

Got together with a few friends to see Arkansas/LSU on Friday. Basically, when the right group of us gets together, it's Mystery Science Theater 3000 with sports. Lots of comments and running jokes going back and forth. Andy kept saying that he had a "turnover card" since LSU had recovered an Arkansas fumble on the first play of the game and kept trying to play it. Thankfully, they finally heard him on the last play of the game. Hogs 50, LSU 48, 3 OT. Ranks right up there with the Miracle on Markham as great Thanksgiving games our group has watched on TV.

Also was able to see my good friend Shively this weekend. I hadn't seen Shives since before Sarah was born, due to car issues and work issue with him. I was able to give him the league champion bobblehead we had received for running our keeper rotisserie league through CBSSportsline. As he said, "I'd put it on my mantle, if I had one."

We spent Saturday getting the Christmas lights up. I didn't do it last year--Meron got almost all of it done while I was watching the Hogs--so it took a while to get up the oomph to do it. However, after it was all said and done (and we may put a few more still), it looks pretty good. We've done the two trees (one in the den, one in Benjamin's room) as well, so just some minor things (stockings, Dickens Villages) left to do. We are having a Christmas open house on the 23rd, so we want it to look good for that. (And anyone in Russellville at that time is welcome to come by!)

So now we are just preparing for Christmas. Benjamin is really enjoying it. Sarah, well, she still doesn't know what's going on, but that's to be expected. Hopefully we'll get some Christmas pictures of the two of them done soon and I can get them up for your viewing pleasure!

Birthdays and Other Occasions

I'll come back and do some pictures later, but it's been too long without an entry.

First off, a week ago Saturday was Benjamin's third birthday. Both his mother and I have absolutely no idea how he has gotten so old so fast. It just doesn't seem possible! Anyway, the morning was spent opening presents. He really enjoyed his digital camera (along with everything else) and I'll try to post a few of his pictures up here as well.

That afternoon, we had his birthday party at the depot. It was a well-attended party, with around 12 kids there. We set up the train table that the depot has as well as a Thomas DVD to watch. And with all of those kids there and all that to do, what does my son do? Spends his time running around the tables that are set up in the middle of the room. He started out along, and I'd keep catching him and telling him to play with his friends. Later on, he had a couple more following him. By the end of it, most everyone was running around the tables. The kid's a leader, apparently.

Everyone also got a kick out of the fact that, close to the end of the party, a train came through, so they were able to go outside on the small back porch and watch the train go by just feet away from them. I was glad that we got to see one. It was a lot of fun.

Highlights of the toys from the party (though he really did like most everything) would be the stuffed dinosaur from his best friend Micah (and Micah's sister Gabi) and the monster truck toys from Daniel. The dinosaur goes just about everywhere with him now and Benjamin has named him Light (for some reason). The monster trucks are the kind you rev up and let go, and he loves to see them go crazy, bounce off a wall, and come careening back toward him.

His party kicked off the birthday season. He had a party to go to this Saturday (Daniel's), this Sunday (Walt's) and has one for a week from Saturday. When the mommy group Meron was in was formed, most of them were pregnant and the kids were all due about the same time. He had fun at both parties this weekend (partly because they both had Bump 'n Jumps, partly because Micah was at both of them, partly because it's kids and a party).

The kids both went in for a checkup on Friday, Benjamin due to being three and Sarah due to being almost 6 months. (Another thing we can't quite grasp!) Benjamin stood 39" tall and weighed 38 pounds. The doctor told us if he keeps this pace up, he'd be 6'4", 220. If he has any athletic ability at all, that could really work for him!

Sarah was 19 lbs, 6 ozs and was 25.5". The doctor said the length is kinda subjective, since with babies, it's hard to get them as straight as they can be. Still, she is in the 75 percentile on height and 90th on weight. Apparently, we grow them big!

Sarah is going to start on baby food (a holiday-appropriate squash) today. The milestones keep happening!

We had Consecration Sunday, also known as our yearly pledge drive, at church this weekend. Due to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, our pledged amount for next year is around 14% increase over this year. Next year is also the year we are scheduled to pay off the debt at the church, so there could be a lot of exciting things happening in the next couple of years.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday. My mother's family usually gets together at my parents' house and it's a good day. Not a lot going on besides eating and reading the paper, but there is some good food and that counts for a lot.

Hope you have safe travels if you are going and a great holiday no matter!

Picture Smorgasboard

Some recent pictures, with minimal written interruption. It's a long one, as I didn't think to try to get the pictures to line up with each other, instead putting them one on top of the other.

Already, he's more accomplished of a dancer than his father.

Two from this year's fair outing:

Two from Meron and Benjamin's trip to Heifer Project:

Three from the pumpkin patch outing:

And, finally, the kids in their Halloween costumes:

What We've Been Up To

My wife has gotten pictures edited, so if she can find the time this week, she swears she's going to blog. If not, I'll see if I can't get some pictures up of the kids sometime soon.

This weekend is Benjamin's third birthday. So hard to believe that the kid is growing up! He's a heck of a boy, even if he's got some of that three-year-old in him in regards to listening and following instructions. It drives his mother crazy on a regular basis!

Since I last wrote, we had our last softball game. I went to be a part of the team picture (something else that I'll post if I get a copy of it) but I didn't play in the game. I was dealing with the aftereffects of a rough weekend, nasally, and figured the cold air would just kill my throat. From what I heard, we played the team pretty close for a while before the inevitable happened. When you look at the run differential for our team, the worst in the league, you kinda get the idea that next year we have to pitch better or score a heck of a lot more!

Last Saturday, I went up to Fayetteville to watch the Hogs with my brother. Those that knew the relationship my brother and I had even 7-8 years ago would be pretty shocked by that. However, ever since Benjamin's first birthday, he's done a great job of growing up and being decent and we've gotten along much better.

The Hogs rolled over Florida International for homecoming and we left with a few minutes to go in the third quarter. I wanted to walk up and see my name on the Senior Walk. I'd seen it before, soon after I graduated, but being that this was 10 years after the fact, I thought I'd check it out again.

If nothing else, I proved out out of shape I am. I used to be able to make the walk from my dorm to the business department in four minutes. When you see how steep the hill is between the two, that was saying something. When I tried to make it this time, I wasn't sure I was going to survive to the top. I had to sit and take a breather after I made it up there before we finished walking across campus.

Lots has changed up there. Coming back from finding my name, I saw the backside of these buildings and didn't recognize what they were. Turns out it was a whole complex behind the business department that had been built since I was there. It was just amazing to think that what had been a parking lot was now all these buildings.

This Saturday was poker. Unable to defend my title, but that wasn't a surprise. The big blow was fairly early on in the game. I had pocket aces and tried to bet Russell off, but he wouldn't budge. After the flop and turn, he bet big and I called. The river came another ace, which I thought did it for me. He bet, I raised, he called. Trip aces looked nice, until he threw out the straight he'd made with that last ace. I stuck around for a while after that, but it was just to see how many I could outlast--I knew nothing good was happening after that beat. Finally went all-in with A-8 suited. Charles called with A-7 and a 7 came on the turn.

What else is going on.....Sarah still tends to favor her mother when she's tired. She'll play with me great when she's happy and rested, but when she is tired, she will scream her head off rather than fall asleep on me. If she does sleep on me, she's down for a while. But most of the time Meron has to come get her, and she immediately calms down when Mommy's there. I was Pillow Daddy for both kids again yesterday as Meron did her picture editing, so that's not gone out of style yet.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Benjamin went as an alligator, Sarah as a kitty cat. We spent the evening at the church, doing trunk or treat, then games, then the hayride. Benjamin brought home a lot of candy, which he's been going through at a not-terribly-fast clip, but that's only because we've been watching him. He got to play with his friend Micah a lot that night, which made it much more fun for him. Sarah, she didn't quite know what to think, I don't believe. She just kept watching everyone to see what they were doing.

This writers' strike is going to be a problem, I can tell. When you have waited forever to watch just a couple of shows, and there are rumors both could be curtailed, that's not a good thing. There is talk that 24 won't even be shown this season if the strike lasts too long, and I've read conflicting reports about Lost. One said that they'll cut the season to 8 episodes instead of 16, one said that they've already gotten 14 of the 16 episodes written. Who knows. Outside of that, and all the reality TV that is going to be out there, it doesn't faze me much.

Speaking of TV, Meron and I still haven't finished the first season of Heroes. We got down to the last two episodes, but haven't had a chance to get them watched. Hopefully we'll be able to do that this week.

That's really about it. One of us should get pictures up this week before having some from the party early next week!

Another Night, Another Loss

Our softball team really isn't that bad. It's a decent team that, if it was in a league of non-serious teams who practiced maybe once a week and didn't play together close to year round, would probably win a few more or at least be a bit more competitive.

However, last night we ran into another of those teams that take it much more seriously than we do and got smoked again. We did close within 6-5 after our second at-bat, but we just couldn't stop them. Having only 9 didn't help either, since that created more gaps in the outfield, but I don't think the extra person would have mattered. Probably the highlight was Jason smacking his second over-the-fence home run of the season.

As for me, well, I had a busy game.

First off, I caught the whole game. There were more than a few throws home, though most were up the line or too late. I did catch one on the third base side of the bag. I knew one runner had passed me, but the hitter was right behind, trying for an inside-the-parker, and I was able to spin and put the tag on him. I did miss one throw coming in. I retrieved it and threw a strike back to Bobby covering the plate, but the runner scored before the ball got there. Though if he'd been a second faster, the ball would have smacked him in the head.

At the plate, some mixed results. I singled in my first at-bat, though it was a high pitch I probably should have laid off of. It was a bloop single over the second baseman's head, but it was enough to drive in the runner from third with two outs. That actually started a big two-out rally as we scored 5 in that inning.

The second time up, I drew a walk on three pitches. (In this league, you start with a 1-1 count. You also only get one foul-ball strike after you get to 2 strikes, something that will come into play in a minute.)

The third time, I took the first pitch for a ball, then fouled off an inside pitch that was probably ball three. With two strikes, I knew I had to be swinging, and the next one was a weak foul over the catcher's head. The last pitch, I put about the same swing on the same type of pitch and had the same result, so I struck out. I'm not sure what it was about the guy that I wasn't getting more solid contact on him. He must have been up in the zone more than I thought he was.

The basepaths, though, was where the night really got interesting. As I said, I singled the first time up with two outs. The next batter, Thomas, hit a fairly routine grounder to the left side. They tried to force me at second, but the throw was high and went into right field. I turned the corner and headed to third. Between me and it were the shortstop and the third baseman, both looking like the throw was coming that way. So I did something unexpected, for me.

I slid.

I've said before, sliding is not something I do. And I'm not sure that this could be considered sliding, more of a controlled fall toward the bag. It definitely wouldn't have been anything Rickey Henderson would have been proud of, but I did go to the outside and grabbed onto the bag as I tried to go by.

It wasn't pretty. Heck, it wasn't even necessary.

Because as I'm deciding to sacrifice my body and what little dignity I have, the ball apparently has gotten away from the other team trying to get the runner at second. I'm emphatically directed to take off, so I get up and head home, scoring a step or two ahead of Thomas.

The second time, after the walk, I wound up going first to third on another misplay, then scoring on a single by Bobby.

So, final line for the night: 1-2, 1 BB, 1 K, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 putout.

Season totals: 6-11 (.545), 5 runs, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SF, 3 RBI, 1 assist, 1 PO.

Softball

Not much to say about last night's game. Played in a cold drizzle, we got out in front 3-0 in the top of the first. However, they answered back with 7 in the bottom of the inning and we only got one hit the rest of the way, run-ruled in the bottom of the third.

I saw one pitch on the evening. It wasn't a bad one, but I reached just a bit for it. It came off the bat solid and tailed a little, but not enough to elude the shortstop, who caught it on the fly.

So, totals: 5-9 (.556), 3 runs, a sac fly, 2 RBI and an assist.

That's a Winner!

So, poker this weekend went about as well as possible. For the first time in probably two years, I wound up on top.

Pocket Jacks were my friend most of the evening. I took a hand from Joe using them, then looked down to see them when Jon had raised in the small blind with all others folding. I reraised, he went all-in with AQ, I believe. The jacks held and I captured the $10 bounty that had been put on him.

Later in the evening, jacks worked the other way, as Bobby went all in with them, while I looked down and saw pocket aces. Again, nothing else came up on the board and I won, though I was sure that another jack would show, even when it was shown that one had been burned already.

Finally, the last real hand of the night saw Ken go all in with pocket tens and I had the jacks. That left Ken with two thousand when blinds were 3K/6K and even then I was concerned. He won two straight hands, then we split a pot, before I was finally able to put him out.

In fact, after thinking about it, I think I put each player out. I can’t remember if I knocked Russell out, but other than that, I won those all-in showdowns. Not often someone “runs the table”, as it were.

The biggest key of the night was the dog that didn’t bark. A lot of times, even if I have the best hand in a matchup pre-flop or at least with cards left to show, a card that beats me shows up. For example, in Jon’s case, I was shocked when an ace or queen didn’t show up. That held most of the night, which was the biggest difference between my normal also-ran status and taking home a little cash.

Friday night’s picnic went well. Thankfully, the guy that brought the ground beef took charge of cooking them, so I didn’t have to do as much as I expected. I was glad he was there—always better to trust an experienced guy. Also found out that the spouse of one of the newer women in the group was a high school friend of mine (Matt Young, for any of you Cyclone Class of ‘93ers out there). Our wives had been interacting for around a year and he’d met Meron and I’d met his wife, but the connections were never made. So that was a lot of fun, catching up some.

Saturday, we went to Little Rock and got Benjamin’s birthday gifts. We first wanted to go to eat when we got down there about 11, but the place we went to was packed. It took us a little bit to realize that the Race for the Cure had been down in LR that morning, and so all the women were scattering out and filling up restaurants! We found a place that wasn’t too crowded and ate there instead.

Got a number of things for Benjamin. The biggest issue was the digital camera. There were two that were kid-appropriate and they were very similar. Meron wanted the Diego camera, which was for 3+ and professed to be very durable, for example having an attached lens cap. I was a little turned off by the fact that each time you took a picture, Diego said some English or Spanish phrase. Personally, I don’t want my camera talking to me, especially in a foreign language. Also, it came with the Nickelodeon photo editor, which would prominently feature Spongebob, which we don’t care for.

I wanted to get the Cars one, because it held double the pictures and came with the Disney/Pixar photo editor, which would make for some good photo effects, I thought. Meron thought that it was too small and more likely to get damaged since it said it was for 5+. I thought the lens was small enough and inset enough not to get scratched, but she’s the one that 1) is the camera expert and 2) is the toy expert for kids. So, after much discussion and back and forth, Diego won.

Last night, we went to the local Popeye’s for the first time. If you never get a second chance to make a first impression, they really lost out. First off, we ordered everything, got our drinks and sat down. After a minute or two, since we were new there, Meron went ahead and waited at the front for the order. And waited. And waited.

Ten minutes after we had ordered, she finally got our food. The holdup had been that they thought they were out of macaroni and cheese, which we had ordered for Benjamin. However, one of the workers had used the last of the mac and cheese and put it in a container for our order. They just hadn’t put it with the rest of the order. It took quite a while before they realized that it was sitting right in front of them.

On top of that, Meron had ordered the mashed potatoes without gravy, and of course they came with gravy. They quickly exchanged them and apologized for both, but the manager didn’t offer any discounts or dessert or anything, which I thought was pretty standard. I know Taco Bell has always offered Cinnamon Twists or something when they’ve messed up our order.

The food wasn’t too bad, though. I got a po’ boy sandwich, which was pretty good. Meron ordered the chicken strips, and when presented with the mild, spicy or naked options, chose the latter figuring that they wouldn’t be spicy at all. Turns out that just meant no breading—they were plenty spicy. We wound up switching out one of the strips in my sandwich for those strips, since I can handle spicy better than she can.

Finally, the weather seems to be changing. The highs this week are supposed to stay in the 60s, with lows hitting the upper 40s. It’s a welcome change from the recent 80s that we’ve been having. I love being able to break out the flannel lounge pants when I get home from work, having hot chocolate and chili, and just generally enjoying fall.

Another busy weekend coming up, or at least a busy Saturday. The downtown fall festival will be going on, so we’ll get up early and get down there for custom-made omelettes and all the various activities down there. The last two years they have had pony rides, pictures of which have been posted on the blog before. Then I’ve got tickets to the Razorback game, so I’ll be leaving around 10 to go up the hill. Still looking for someone to go with me or meet me up there. (If interested, let me know!)

Softball tonight (well, scheduled, but it's raining so that's probably out) will probably be pretty cold, since it’s a 9:30 game. We’ve then got our makeup game at 6:30 Wednesday, so we may get a chance to really play this week, which is good, since it’s been about a month (it seems like) since we played a real game.

That’s about it from this neck of the woods. Hope you have a good week!

Potty Trained!

Yeah, I know, I'm probably going to go home and have to clean up an accident now, but I feel fairly safe in saying that our son is fully potty trained! He's not had a full-blown accident in quite some time. We still have to ask him occasionally if he needs to go, but on the whole, he does it by himself. Momma is especially excited, since she wanted that done by his third birthday and here we are with basically a month to spare.

Speaking of birthday, his party stuff came this week. We are renting out the Depot for a Thomas party on his birthday, which is a Saturday this year. He was pretty disappointed that he didn't get to play with the stuff right now, but seemed to enjoy helping with the invitations when Meron did them this week. I think it'll be a lot of fun, really, and he should enjoy it a lot.

Sarah is doing well, but she's gotten into a stage of not sleeping much more than an hour unless she is on one of us (usually Meron) or in bed with us. Which really limits our evening activities--Meron's been wanting to blog for some time now, but she never gets the chance. Sarah also tends not to be fond of her daddy when she's tired. The last couple of weeks, if I get her at the wrong time, she will scream and scream and doing everything not to fall asleep. Usually after 15-30 minutes, Meron can't handle it anymore and takes the child, who then immediately quiets down and usually falls asleep. Makes a person feel great, you know?

Meron took the kids to the pumpkin patch at my parents' church this week. Maybe we'll get some of those pictures up this weekend if we get a chance.

Fairly big weekend starting today, at least in comparison. This evening, Meron's mommy group is having a picnic at our church. We are cooking out burgers on the church's BBQ pit and somehow I got put in charge of that. So that could be quite interesting. I've cooked burgers at home but not usually for a group. Not that much to it, though, so I'm sure everything will go fine.

Tomorrow, Mom and Dad are taking Benjamin for the day so they can go to the Tech homecoming game while the rest of us make a quick trip to Little Rock to do some birthday shopping. I think he'll have fun out there watching the game and playing around, but I've decided not to take him to the Razorback game next week. Still looking around for someone to go with me to that game.

Anyway, tomorrow evening is poker, as far as I know. I hope to be a little better than I was last time, but odds are I'll be home early.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Illustrations

OK, here are the pictures. From the post above, here's Pillow Daddy:

And here's the story about the Hog hat. In town, there is a store called Collectors Gallery. It's a place where people can rent space and sell their stuff, kinda like a standing yard sale, though more focused (baseball cards, maybe antiques, etc.) Anyway, there's a subsection called the Razorback Shop. Most anything Hog-related can be found there.

I'd not been there in years, so last Saturday we decided to go and look around. I was hoping for a new shirt or something, but their clothing selection was more limited than I thought. After Meron took Sarah to look elsewhere, Benjamin and I were wandering around the Razorback stuff when he says, "Daddy, Hog hat!"

I didn't see it, so I asked him where it was. Turns out it was hanging up with some other hats. I tried it on him, and I knew we had to have it. I asked him if he liked it and he enthusiastically said yes. So I said, "Well, let's find Momma." Knowing, as I did, that his Yankee mother was not going to be real excited about her son wearing pork on his head.

Still, when she saw him in it and saw how excited he was, it was just a matter of time before she caved in.

I believe I took the picture while he was calling the Hogs. The Tech shirt comes from my parents. My father graduated from there and likes to get him things from his alma mater as I do with the Razorbacks.

Just for kicks, here's the guy being a pitchman for CardsClubhouse, thanks to my friend Wayne sending us a gift:

Sarah got a gift too, a onesie that says "St. Louis Baseball":

Softball game tonight was forfeited to us when the other team didn't have enough to play. We loaned them a few and played a scrimmage. The stats don't count, which is good because I went 1-3 with a liner to the pitcher that was caught, a solid single, and a double-play ball. We're 4-6, so if we win out, we can finish above .500.

Catching Up (Again)

I've been waiting until I could get a couple of pictures uploaded to illustrate my point, but I'm not sure when and if that'll happen, so I'll just go ahead and blog. I know you've been wondering where I've been!

Let's go back to two weekends ago. That was the real beginnings of Pillow Daddy.

Meron and Benjamin went with our friends Tiffany and her son Tyson to Heifer Ranch, part of Heifer Project International. It's only about an hour from our home, so they went to look at the animals and everything and left Sarah and I at home.

Now, a couple of months ago, that'd have been pretty problematic. Sarah and I didn't tend to get along with each other as well as possible. But as she's gotten older (getting close to five months now!) she and I have a lot more fun together, so I figured I was up for it.

After Meron and Benjamin left, we hung out until she got a little fussy. Then I ran to the bank and got a drink at the Hastings cafe and went back home.

She fussed some more, so I rocked her until she fell asleep on me. And slept. And slept. Thankfully, I had provided for this eventuality and gotten the last half of the fourth season of Alias ready to watch. I finished it up (and now have to buy the fifth season to see how the cliffhanger was resolved!) and finally got her up.

Benjamin and Meron got back around mid-afternoon after having a great time looking at animals, having a picnic, etc. However, that wound up tiring Benjamin out. I think he started to fuss and I picked him up, and soon he was asleep on me. He slept for a while (long enough for Meron and Sarah to go to Wal-Mart) before finally awaking.

Later that night, Sarah fell asleep on me again. Notice a trend?

It happened again last weekend. Sarah was fussing, so Meron was going to take her for a walk around the neighborhood. However, by time she got the stroller ready, got Benjamin to the bathroom, and did a few other things, Sarah was out on me. Since Benjamin was all ready to go, they took a spin around the block.

Later on, while Sarah's still asleep, Benjamin crawls up on the couch, gets between my legs and falls asleep there. It was a good thing that there was baseball on (it was the last day of the regular season) and I hadn't had too much to drink that day!

Why the kids find me such a good pillow, I'm not sure. But it doesn't bother me much!

Our softball game last week was pretty good. We scored three in the top of the first, they scored two in the bottom. We scored another two in the second, they scored three in the bottom. Then they pushed a couple more runs across and we just couldn't catch up.

I singled my first time with no one on and two out, moved up to second when I should have been thrown out (I went halfway on a fly ball that was dropped, but the outfielder could have thrown me out at second if he'd paid any attention at all) and was forced at third on a grounder.

Second at-bat, I came up with the bases loaded and two outs and hit a fairly hard ball, but right to the shortstop who forced a runner.

My last time up, the bases were loaded again. I again hit a hard grounder, but this one was too much for the fielder to handle and I reached with an RBI, but was left on. I was in the on-deck circle when the game ended.

So now I'm 5-8 (.625) with 3 runs, a sac fly, 2 RBI and an assist. Could be worse, I guess! Another game tonight, so we'll see how that one goes.

Meron and I have gotten into the TV show Heroes. A friend of my brother's let us borrow the DVDs and I will say we're pretty much hooked. If I owned the set, I'd probably let my friend Ken borrow them and see if I could hook him again on something. So far, he's borrowed SimCity for the computer, Firefly and Lost. He's often said it's a good thing I don't deal crack, or he'd be addicted to that as well.

Anyway, we are just past halfway through the first season, having 9 episodes left after we watched one at lunch. It's been very good and I'm anxious to see how the season resolves.

That's most of what is happening here. My friend Richard has given me tickets to the Razorback homecoming game (as he did last year for another game) so I'm debating whether to take Benjamin up to it or not. If they didn't have the "ticket no matter the age" policy, I have my dad go with me and the three of us would watch the game while the girls (Mom, Meron, Sarah) shopped. But that's not going to work now, so I don't know if he'll pay enough attention or want to stay long enough to justify a two hour drive each way.

On the plus side, we finally got him a Hog hat. That picture will be up soon as well and I'll tell that story then.

Potpourri

Various things from the past few days:

• Besides our family photo shoot, we had a fun day Saturday, first heading to Stoby's for breakfast, then stopping by the Rubles to see our friends the Disneys, who were in from Kentucky for the Razorback game. Phil started our Promise Keepers group at Wesley before circumstances allowed them to move to Kentucky to be closer to their kids and grandkids. While we weren't able, in good Christian tradition, to break bread with them, they did bring us a loaf of pecan cinnamon from Kentucky that I've quite enjoyed with my breakfast this week! It was very good to see Phil and Terry and perhaps the next time we head to Ohio, we'll swing by and see them on the way. And at least they enjoyed the Razorback game. Most Hog fans sure didn't!
  
  
• Softball last night was an interesting game. I actually forgot my glove (it was in the wrong car since the whole family went to the game instead of just me) so I started out on the bench. We had a perfect top of the first inning, then scored 5 in the bottom. We built a 12-2 lead, including a fence-clearing monster home run by Jason, before the other team started coming back.
  
  It was 14-5 when I came in to catch. Bobby was pitching a great game overall, so it might have been either he was tiring or, more likely, the backup catcher threw him off, but they climbed back to 14-8 before the end of the fifth. We batted in the bottom of the fifth, but a line-drive double play ended that inning with time on the clock, so we had to play the sixth.
  
  They kept coming, hitting balls in the right spots. We didn't give them too much with errors or misplays, but they got it to 14-13 with one out and runners on the corners. At least we were the home team, but it didn't look that good.
  
  The next batter, after a ball, took a pitch from Bobby that the umpire called a strike, making the count 2-2. However, he and his team seemed to think that was a ball as well, because he took the next pitch. It was a little outside in my mind, but he called it a strike and we had two outs. After a popup, we had a win.
  
  Since I came in late, I didn't get to bat, so my average still looks good!
  
  
• Sarah had her four month well baby visit this morning. She's 17 pounds 9 ounces, which puts her in the 97 percentile for weight. She's a chunk, no doubt about it! The good news is that her height (25 and a half inches) is in the 90 percentile area as well, and the doctor has told us they don't care as much about which percentiles they are in as long as the height and weight are pretty close to the same. The cereal has not helped, though, as she's starting to fuss at that and sleeping perhaps even worse at night. I was up much of the night with her, as she got started screaming and wouldn't stop until we took her into the den with the lights on. It took quite a while before she actually got back to sleep.
  
  
• Meron's going to the ear-nose-throat doctor today to have him look at her ears. She's been battling them for quite a while and they've recently gotten to hurting more. Hopefully he'll be able to clear that up for her.
  
  
• My parents are off on a trip with a church group to Niagara Falls. They actually took the same route that we take to Ohio, spending one night in a Columbus suburb. They should be back on Sunday and I'm sure they are having a great time.

I think that's about it for now. Hope you are having a good week!

The Family That Roots Together

Benjamin is supposed to take a family picture to TLC this week. Since we didn't really have one since Sarah had come along, Meron decided to have a family photo shoot. And it was really her idea to go all Cardinals. Not that I argued much. (The Fredbirds were my idea, though!) Some of the better pictures:

(We've been told Sarah looks like a baby doll, and in this picture, it's confirmed. She hardly looks real!)

(She can be a happy baby!)


(Look at that group. Any wonder I'm proud of them?)

(Sarah is sometimes able to get a hold of Mommy's hair. For some reason, Mommy isn't fond of those occasions.)

(A man, his boy, and their Fredbirds.)

(She does smile when she's around me! We really are getting along better these days!)

(Look at those kids! Aren't they just the cutest ever?)

Shoptaw Family Vacation 7: Finishing It Off

After our visit in Meigs County, on Thursday it was time to head back to Columbus for two nights and then back home to Arkansas. We stopped and saw Meron's dad on the way out of town, stocking up on snacks and, for me, some local root beer before hitting the road.

Between the Pomeroy/Middleport area and Columbus is Athens, home of Ohio University, Meron's first college (and the one she really claims, though she finished her coursework and got her degree from Arkansas Tech). Meron doesn't get to go back there every time we get up to Ohio, but likes to check in occasionally.

We made it up there and walked down the main strip of restaurants, college bookstores, etc. before heading to campus. We got Sarah a pink Ohio onesie, Benjamin picked out a stuffed bobcat (their mascot) and Meron selected a coffee tumbler.

After we got lunch at a burger place (the name of which eludes me now but I know it was a regional chain, because I'm pretty sure St. Louis has one), we went over to the college. Meron worked in the library when she was going to school there, on the first floor in the Southeast Asia section. One of the ladies that she worked with still is there, so we went to show off the kids. Needless to say, she was suitably impressed!

On the way out, Meron wanted a picture by the school sign. So we didn't have to try to flag down someone to take it (and because I was hot and tired from lugging Benjamin around!), I volunteered to let it just be her and the kids.

We then completed the trip to Columbus and Meron's friend Shawn's apartment, which we found with relatively little difficulty. Shawn was nice enough to let us camp out on her floor on an air mattress. Thursday night, Meron's friends came over for her homemade macaroni and cheese (a legend within the group) as well as burgers and hot dogs. We had a good visit with everyone.

Friday, we were pretty much on our own but we did get directions to Meron's friend Jody, who thankfully (because we know how I hate driving in big cities) lived pretty close to Shawn, close enough that we didn't have to take any real major roads. We stayed over at her place much of the afternoon, letting her son and Benjamin play.

Whenever we go to Ohio, though, we have to go at least once to Max & Erma's, Meron's favorite restaurant. It's her favorite for one big reason--the cheese fries.

Meron gets them with extra cheese and then goes to town. This time around, Benjamin was old enough to have them. He enjoyed them as well.

After dinner, we hurried over to a local mall. We got there at nine and found out it closed at 9:30, so we had to do a quick shopping trip. The mall has a chocolate store and has puppy chocolate snacks, which we always take back for Dax to have. Meron, Shawn and Sarah went there, while Benjamin and I stopped at the Disney Store.

That was a real kick for him. Not only did they have a lot of Cars stuff, but he'd really gotten into Toy Story on the trip, and there was a lot of that around as well. I told him he could get something, and after much deliberation, we finally settled on a Woody doll that talked when you pulled the string. And, apparently, any other time he wanted to. (Before I get into that, we also got Benjamin a couple of hats there, so he did well.)

OK, so we are leaving the mall and the bag we have Woody in keeps going off. We get it to Shawn's and find out that apparently the stomach area is sensitive as well and you can bump him and the toy will talk. Lovely, we think. That wasn't the half of it.

Once we get it back to Russellville, we find out that Woody will go off whenever he feels like it. No one can be anywhere around it when you'll hear, "There's a snake in my boot" or some other phrase. (Speaking of, the first time Benjamin played with the toy, he pulled the boot off looking for the snake.)

The last straw came one night. We had the toy in Benjamin's room when it went off. Scared him into crying (after he woke up hearing it) and I brought it to the other end of the house and put stuff on top of it. It still was going off (and was still loud) so I finally got the batteries out of the thing. Like Meron said, it might not have been so creepy if it had been from any other movie. Now Woody is silent (though I was half-afraid it'd talk without the batteries) and everyone is better off.

Sorry for the digression. Anyway, we left out Saturday morning later than I had planned since we wound up being up later Friday night than I thought we'd be. We left around 5:30-6:00 from Columbus, really had no problems getting home, and rejoiced mightily when we saw the Pyramid in Memphis, the Arkansas border sign on the Mississippi River Bridge, Little Rock, and the exits for Russellville. The trip home took about 14 hours, I think, but it really was an easy trip.

So that's the vacation. Once I get Benjamin's pictures/scrapbook scanned, I'll get that up as well.

Beatdown

So we played softball last night. Well, at least, we showed up to play softball. You can see by the score over to the left, it wasn't much of a competition.

There is no way that team should have been a Division III team. Or, alternately, if they are a Division III team, we should be a Division VI team. They were smashing balls to the deepest part of the park on a regular basis. Their one allowed over-the-fence home run was a grand slam, and later in the game they hit an inside the part grand slam. But usually it was double, double, double.

And apparently they were big on scoring as much as possible. I can't complain about that as much as I did with church league teams, but still, there comes a point where it's just rubbing it in and it's very unsportsmanlike.

Though their greed did let me pull off a nice play. A guy smashed another one to the outfield, and the runner on first came all the way home. The throw actually came in to me catching for once, but it was up the line and I couldn't get to it. "Great," I thought, "this guy's going to come all the way around as well."

But we got, literally, a lucky bounce as the ball hit off the fence post behind home plate and bounced straight back to me. As I'm getting the ball, I'm hearing people yell, "Third". I grab the ball and turn. Their coach was between me and the bag, so I can't actually see our third baseman, but I heave it anyway, figuring I've probably overthrown him, but not really seeing that it makes much difference.

However, our third baseman reaches up, grabs the ball, and tags out the guy that was five feet from third. Of course, that guy got lots of grief from his team, because making an out against us was apparently a terrible crime against the team.

Their pitcher also liked to "quick pitch", i.e. throw the ball without a windup and as soon as he could. He really wasn't that good at it, as balls sailed high and low, but enough looked good for us to swing at and usually hit at someone.

I went up planning to take pitches, so even though the first pitch was good enough that my front foot came up to start the swing, I took it. Turned out to be a strike, so I knew I didn't have the luxury of waiting now. The next pitch was about the same as the first, though, and I smacked a hard ground ball between second and short, moving Bobby to second.

Jon was up next and he stung one. It was one of the hardest hit balls all night. Unfortunately, it was right at the third baseman. Bobby and I both scrambled back to our bases.

The next batter hit a grounder similar to mine. As I'm going to second, I can see that the outfielder has misplayed the ball, so I turn for third. I pick up Jason, the third base coach, as I get close to the bag and he puts his arms up. This is good, of course, because we know how my physical fitness is, and I can't imagine going from first to home.

However, as I'm slowing down, the fielder must have made another error, because Jason then starts waving me home. Which means I have to shift gears and get my speed (such as it is) back up. This is not good.

I hit third and start coming down the line. I see the catcher in front of the plate waiting for a throw, very much like this game. However, the throw never comes and I stumble across the plate with our second run.

So I'm now 3-5 (.600) with 3 runs, a sac fly, an RBI and an assist on the season. Most people do think I'm OK in small doses!

Jury Duty

Back in the first part of the year, I got a note in the mail telling me I had been selected for a jury pool. Months passed, and I didn't hear any thing more, so I started to think maybe it had passed me by, but last month, a letter came with the dates of service, and today was the first of them.

Now, of course, it is traditional to moan and groan about jury duty, but I was at least a little intrigued. Of course, I've always had a legal interest, at least the fictionalized versions seen on Law & Order and Perry Mason and read about in John Grisham novels. So this was a chance to see just how close to real life that stuff was.

I was supposed to be there at 8:45 this morning. I left work a little after 8:30 and drove over to the courthouse, which is just a couple minutes away. I didn't expect that the parking lot would be packed, and by time I found a spot a couple of blocks away, it was 8:42. I hurried in and went up to the third floor, which is where I was supposed to be.

Of course, with anything governmental, there really was little reason to hurry. The hallway was filled with people waiting for notification. We stood around until about 9:15, when they had us all go into the courtroom.

I knew that the attorneys would have to go through the process of voir dire, but I wasn't sure how they were going to examine all 60+ people. The judge came forward to where we all were sitting, lined out how things were going to go, told a couple of humorous stories, then asked some basic questions to the group. ("Do you still live in the county?" "Have you been convicted of a felony?") No one was dismissed after these questions.

Then the lawyers introduced themselves and listed off the witnesses they would be calling. Then the judge asked if anyone knew any of those people. One guy had gone to school with one of the witnesses, so he was excused.

After that, it was the random drawing of 18 people to be questioned further. I really figured I'd get called, probably "rivered" by being the last one chosen. However, I wasn't selected, so those that weren't sat in case more people were needed while they interrogated the chosen ones.

One woman was excused due to illness, so another name was drawn. Again, I figured it'd be me if my poker luck extended to real life, but it wasn't.

Turns out the case was about a car accident that happened in February of 2004. The plantiff already had a pre-existing condition that he was apparently claiming was aggrevated in the accident. After listening to the lawyers' questions to the panel, I'm pretty sure that if I'd been selected for the 18, I wouldn't have made the final 12 after I told them we had clients that were liability insurance companies.

So the whole thing took about two hours. I have four other days in December I have to show up for, so odds are I'll be on a jury on one of those days.

Softball tonight. I've not played in two weeks, so this could be interesting. Just having one game a week is kinda rough, especially if you miss that one.

The kids are doing well. Benjamin is starting to get the hang of potty-training. He still won't volunteer that he needs to go and, especially when he has diapers on, is bad about taking the lazy way out, but he will often agree to it if prompted and can usually keep underwear dry, if we are risking that. He also worked more on his vacation scrapbook this weekend with his momma. Sometime we'll get those scanned in for you to see.

We took him to the fair last weekend and he had a great time seeing the animals and riding the kiddie rides. When we went to see the chickens and bunnies, they were moving some chickens into a crate from their pen. One chicken got loose and flew off to the corner of the building. Benjamin still will say, "Remember, the chicken got loose? You said 'wooo!' That was funny." Amazing what they hold on to.

Sarah is almost four months now and has a well-baby visit next week (complete with shots). She is happier a little more often now and even gets along with her dad from time to time. But if she gets worked up, just get out of the way. That kid can scream longer and harder than Benjamin ever thought about! She started cereal this week and took to it like that's what she'd been wanting for years. And one night after eating she slept until 4 in the morning, so hopefully the cereal will keep working its magic!

I've gone ahead and taken the Feedburner suggestion from the comments in my last post. As you can see now, there's a box to get this delivered to you via e-mail. I don't know if pictures, etc. go with it or not, but at least you'll know when the blog has changed. Let me know how this works out!

Weekend Stuff

Just a quick post about a couple of things.

First, I actually was able to go play some poker this weekend. The guys at the PPT were, I'm sure, ecstatic that I was coming to donate my money. Turned out, at least for a while, that four months off was just what I needed, as I was able to hang around and stay in the game.

The game then turned for the best when I hit a huge pot with two all-ins. Both, I believe, flipped A-K over, while I had K-J. With all those kings, I thought I had a shot and, sure enough, the jack came on the turn.

After a few more hands, it got down to four-handed action with me holding probably 70% of the chips on the table. Ken and Russell then helpfully started the mantra of "Well, he can't blow that chip lead....it's basically a lock....no way he could do it."

In life, you always look for the storylines. In this game, there were a choice of two. There was the "4-months-off and big winner" line and the "epic collapse" line. I think you know which was going to happen.

It finally came down to an all-in by Craig in front of me. I look down at pocket kings and call, which left me with $200. (Blinds at this time were $10K/$20K, so you can see the amount left was basically immaterial.) Craig flips A-x and, of course, an ace comes out.

Needless to say I wasn't excited about the outcome. All in all, though, it was a good night and it was fun to play again. I don't know if I'll get back in two weeks or not. Maybe I need to take five months off so I can finish the deal!

Sunday was the first day of our new worship schedule at Wesley. While I wrote the devotional on the site about change and how we basically have to deal with it, you'll notice I didn't say we had to like it.

Being a stick in the mud, as I am, change doesn't come easily to me. Some things I can handle, but changing up how I've gone to church for 30 years is not something that I'm necessarily going to cotton to overnight.

Take for instance, our small group. Used to be a Sunday School, now it's a small group. Anyway, when it was the Koinonia Sunday School, it was a good 20+ people strong for the most part. Obviously, it fluctuated Sunday to Sunday, but we had a good group of people in there and most of the people that we were social friends with at the church.

The problem with a class like that (younger, involved people) is that most of them took leadership roles in the new paradigm. So some are in this group, a couple lead that group, someone else runs this group, and what we were left with were five people on Sunday looking at each other.

Not to say that our leader did a bad job--Joe was great on talking about the changes and everything. And I'm sure that our number will grow. But something was lost there, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.

During the social time between the two services, that discontent, that sense of loss, seemed to grow. I really don't know what it was. It seems that it'll be possible to miss people that you didn't miss before, though maybe that's because attendance was down a little on Sunday.

The idea of the small groups is to create deeper connections. Yet, after the first day of the transition, I felt more disconnected than before. Perhaps the mud needs to loosen so this stick can go with the flow, I don't know. Meron and I are trying to figure out exactly what we want to do. The new group emphasis on sharing more deeply bothers her even more than me, and that's saying something. You'd probably be surprised (unless you've actually met me in person) but we are very shy people. We've been in our class--well, what was our class--for seven years, know all of the people very well, and Meron still has trouble speaking in front of the group about anything. I'm not quite that bad, but anything in the "touchy-feely" realm is, well, out of my expertise.

I know what some are thinking. "Give it time, you old coot." "Things will get better." And I'm guessing they may. But change is not always for the good, no matter how many times people suggest it is. Change is sometimes necessary, but that doesn't make it good.

Enough of that. Wish I had a picture of Benjamin or Sarah on this computer that you've not seen to lighten the mood up.

Softball team plays tonight. I won't be there due to Promise Keepers, but hopefully the guys can field a little better and pull out a win.

Tomorrow night is a Church Council meeting (where, I'm sure, the new setup will be roundly hailed and I'll be keeping my mouth shut in the corner), then Wednesday is my brother's birthday and we'll eat with him and my parents. Then the county fair is this week, so we have to get Benjamin out to see the animals sometime. It'll be a busy week!

BTW, if you want an e-mail when this blog is updated, leave a message in the comments. Don't have to leave your address--if I don't have it, I'll find some way of getting it from you.

Softball Update

Another game last night, but this one didn't turn out nearly as well as our prior win.

Actually, the 26-15 score is really a bit deceptive. They scored three in the first, we countered with five. The second, we swapped, as they scored five and we scored three. They got one in the third, but we couldn't answer. The fourth is when it got ugly, as they scored 11. We got three more to make it interesting, but the fifth (and last inning), they got insurance and we couldn't get quite enough.

Fielding was the biggest issue. A number of dropped balls, bad throws, etc. But they were a good team and got plenty of clean hits, including the first one over the fence that I've personally witnessed playing softball. We had some trouble closing things down after 2 were out, as probably a good 10 runs in the game scored in those situations.

As for my personal batting, I got in to the game in the fourth. My first AB, I hit the ball solidly. If it were a baseball configuration, it would have been a single between the outfield and the infield. Being softball and having that 10th man, though, meant that I hit it right at the rover.

In the fifth, I actually was the last out of the game as I hit a weak roller to third, which was really easy for them since we had runners at first and second.

So that leaves me at .500 (2-4), with 2 runs, an RBI and a sac fly on the season. Looking forward to seeing how we play Monday!