You win some. You lose some.

Tonight FPC lost to St. James 13-2. Overall we didn't play badly we just couldn't hit. Everyone made solid contact we just it to the wrong place...the place where there was a fielder. We had 8 players to start the game and had 9 after the first inning. I started in left field and played there for an inning then moved to third. Only one ball came my way all evening and it was a hard grounder that hit my glove and went into left field, why I couldn't catch it I have no idea, argh. Tonight I batted second, you can tell we were down a few players if I'm batting second. My first time up I grounded to short and was beaten by the throw by a step. My second AB I made great contact and popped to center and the fielder dropped it and I made it to second but a runner was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. I'm not quite sure how that would be scored, probably a single with an error. My last time up, yeah only three ABs and I was the second batter, it wasn't a good game, I hit a hard grounder that should have been in center field but the pitcher, who was having a great fielding game, scooped it up and threw me out at first (how's that for a run on sentence). It looks like it's going to be raining again Thursday night for the third week in a row but hopefully it won't. Our game is at 7:30 vs. Hayes Barton Baptist at Buffaloe Road Park if you're in Raleigh and bored.

Get Outdoors!

It's been a couple of months since I really was out in nature. Today I went to Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area in Hillsborough for some fishing and hiking. It was a beautiful morning when I arrived around twenty after ten. It wasn't too hot yet and there was a slight breeze. I fished for about 2.5 hours throwing everything I could think of at them (except plastic worm which I should have also tried) and ended up with one bite that threw the crankbait when it jumped (also caught a small bream when messing around with a fly). I had a first time experience as well, the park ranger was checking fishing licenses and luckily I renewed mine this morning so things were all good. Two interesting nature points of note are that there was a largemouth bass at the other end of the pond that jumped out of the water three times just out of the blue. I guess he was busting on some forage fish or something. The guy fishing down on that end using real worms didn't catch it though which I know was frustrating for him. Also I saw a ginormous snapping turtle floating in the water about 2 feet from my feet. One time it even chased my lure but I noticed it moving towards and got it out the water before it could chomp on it, I surely didn't want to mess with that sucker. I was hoping I would get to see it eat some fish but it never chomped it any of the yearling bass and bream swimming around it's head.

After fishing I hit the loop trail around the "mountain" all 800 something feet in elevation of it. Supposedly it's the tallest peak between the coast and Winston-Salem and has species on it that are only usually found in the mountains. I was surprised to find the trail wasn't crowded today as I only came across one couple at the overlook. The overlook was pretty neat, being that high over the surrounding Piedmont. I have hiked the trails before but for some reason missed the overlook, I think because it started raining last time, but the overlook is way better than the summit which just has a communications tower and a bunch of trees. Below are some pics I took along the way, including a toad that hopped across my path and the Eno River Valley.

Turtle! Turtle!

Toad

Looking NE towards historic downtown Hillsborough

The Eno River is down there amongst the trees

Obligatory feet picture

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!

This morning on my way to church I stopped by the apartment dumpster to drop off some trash. When I got back in the Explorer I shifted into drive as usual but I heard a pop and the transmission wouldn't shift. What now?!? So I mess with it for a minute it or two shifting the column shifter up and down to see if it reengages which of course it didn't. My next move was my typical car broken down move which was to call my dad for advice. He said it was probably a connection between the shifter cable and the transmission. I broke out my maintenance manual and started flipping through when a man walked up to drop off his trash. He asked if it was about time to trade. I laughed. Turns out he is a salesman at Capital Ford where I had the truck serviced this week. I explained the problem to him and he volunteered to climb under and see if he could fix it. After about 10 mins I was shifting and rolling again. Thank God for Pat! He saved me a lot of money in towing and repair bills. It turned out to be the problem that dad said, a coupling just came loose on the shift cable. I'm blessed every day but it's time likes these, though it sounds cliche, that I know that somebody is watching out for me. It's the small things but being a good Samaritan and doing good deeds for random people can make somebody's day. Pat made my day. I didn't make it to church but I definitely feel like I should be there offering thanks for the blessings I received today. Capital Ford will be receiving a letter commending Pat's work and Mark now has some competition when it's time for me to buy a new/used vehicle.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

This morning I was craving some exercise so I decided to to a trial bike to work. I'm not sure if I'll do it since it's almost summer and humidity is rolling in but it's nice to know that it's doable (if I don't get run over). It took me about 20 mins each way to cover a little over 3 miles on the sidewalks and roads. I know sidewalk riding is against the law but I'm not getting out in the 45+ mph traffic of Six Forks and Falls of the Neuse on my bike. I may give it a try some Friday since we can wear shorts during the summer. It also felt good to actually be going somewhere while riding my bike unlike when I was consistenly riding on my cycle trainer, speaking of which I need to start doing that again since I'm not sick anymore and my ankle is almost healed.

Here's the route I took: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=204014

The rest of the day involved some major cleaning and filing of papers since the G-units are visiting tomorrow afternoon. In the almost three years I've lived in the Triangle they haven't made a trip to my place be it in Chapel Hill or Raleigh so this should be interesting (they're old so I haven't given them too hard a time for not visiting).

Tonight I took some pictures for the My Small Space contest that the News & Observer is holding for people's creative ideas for apartments and other small dwelling units. I took pictures of my cool Ikea kitchen cabinets that I'm not using as such. It'll be interesting to see if they make it in the paper and/or website. I'll keep you all posted.

Moment of Silence

Please have a moment of silence after you read this in honor of the Tan Van which is no longer in the Oxford family after joining in 1991. Today my dad sold it to the brother of a guy that works for him for $500. The 1986 Astro had almost 200,000 miles on it and that's the one regret I have for getting the Explorer when I did, that I didn't get to roll it over. The Tan Van wasn't the coolest car to drive but it had an aura about it that most vehicles don't. It was something special. It was my first car, it drove gear to many a camping trip, hauled my stuff during many collegiate moves, and was something unique. Today's sale was provident as well. As I posted in the previous post, the Explorer is in the shop and will have a fairly sizeable repair bill due to replacing the fuel pump, all of the fluids, having the oil changed, and tires rotated and balanced. The money from the Tan Van which is still running because of many hundreds of dollars in repairs will go to pay for the repairs on my current vehicle. Now for a moment of silence as you scroll through the some memories of the beloved Tan Van.

Photos taken of photos in my scrap book:
Summer 1998 before heading out for my second summer as counselor at Bert Adams Scout Reservation


Summer 1998 before heading out for my second summer as counselor at Bert Adams Scout Reservation in Covington, GA


I think this is the first day of school of my senior year in August 1998 (man I need to lose some weight now)


These pictures are from a rainy day in February of the Tan Van parked next to my dad's office. I had better pics from a sunny day at home but they were lost when my laptop hard drive crashed last September.







That's 198,635.2 miles!




Moms fault! Argh, she was driving the Tan Van for some reason and cut it too close to the mailbox and permanently damaged my sweet ride.


My fault :) I was driving through a campsite (off road) at Bert Adams and hit a stump that was buried in a pile of leaves.

Four Days

We lost our softball game last night due to being one player short. The frustrating part, other than having 21 people signed up and only having 7 show up, was that we were delayed by the heavy thunderstorms and lightning that was passing over Raleigh at game time. We had a 10 min grace period for our players to arrive since we were playing the 6:30 game and at the same time it was bad weather and we wouldn't have been able to play anyway. At 6:40 the other team ran over to the umps and demanded that the game be called a forfeit. I can see their point but at the same time fairness would have dictated calling the game because of the weather. I would hope if I were in their shoes that I would say call because of weather and make up the game later, but who knows. They are in last place and a win will help them out.

Today I'm taking the day off to get some errands and car maintenance taken care of. It feels good to have a weekday off and even better knowing next Monday is a holiday too. Four day weekend baby!

One of my tasks today was getting my drivers licence updated with my new address. I had tried a couple of times to get the new license online but it kept saying I had duplicate records so I had to do it in person. After dropping the Explorer off at Capital Ford and getting a rental Taurus I drove up to the license place on Capital Blvd. I was able to get my license with no problems and found out what the deal was. Apparently somebody else has my SSN associated with their license, her name is Teresa. The agent that was helping me said it was probably a typo and whenever Teresa tries to get a new license it'll get corrected. Luckily the SSN isn't on the license.

In other news, several of us have talked about getting together for the Tech games at UNC and NC State. Tickets are on sale right now and probably won't last long, the VT game is already sold out. I know our usually MO for the UNC game is get tickets day of but I'm all for having tickets and not having to fool with trying to get tickets that day. NC State is a harder ticket to get so it probably makes sense to order those now. If you want to come to the game, let me know and I'll order them. The NC State game is Nov. 4 and UNC is Nov. 11.

Rambling Wreck Ticket Order Page

Obligatory Post Game Recap

Last night FPC beat First Baptist Church Red 15-9 in extra innings. We held the lead the entire game and FBC tied it up 9-9 in the bottom of the last inning but thanks to some bad pitching we were able to carry a six run lead through the extra inning. I went 2-5 with a single, walk, fielder's choice, single, ground out. I led off the extra inning and was also the last out, pretty cool to bat around. We actually had subs last night as well which led to me starting at first and then shifting to right for the last two innings for defensive purposes. It's kind of nice to be considered reliable enough to move around, that has never happened before. On another positive note, it seems like we're really gelling at the right time and it's great to see people that have struggled some have a great game. Our next game is at 6:30 on Thursday vs. Crossroads Green.

Growing up

Here's an interesting Washington Post article republished in today's N&O.
"Too Busy for Love"

Zowie!

Saturday morning I ran a few errands and bought some delicious strawberries from a roadside stand on Creedmore Rd from Lyon Farm. They are actually red all the way through and are the essence of how strawberries should be. As I walked up to the stand I began smelling the scent waffting through the breeze twenty feet away. Unfortunately I got strawberry juice on my shorts but thanks to my Tide pen it all came out, the wonders of modern technology!

Saturday afternoon Joel and I played golf at Quaker Creek Golf Course in Mebane, NC, a new course for both of us. It followed the typical pattern of rural NC courses with relatively wide open fairways, but the real challenge came in the form of the toughest greens either of us had played. The greens were very quick and undulating which made for some frustrating putting.

We teed off around 2:00 to walk the 18 and a random guy in front of us that was riding and playing by himself asked if we wanted to play with him so we warned him of our skills or lack thereof but he signed on anyway. He went to NC State and was a CE major specializing in construction and working for a construction company in Winston-Salem now. He turned out to be a nice guy and even put his cart to good use as a ball finder while waiting on our walking up the fairways. Unfortunately Tech fell yesterday to State. State shot a 101 and Joel and I shot 133 and 120 respectively. As with each round analysis so far it feels like I'm improving. I definitely gave up some strokes on the putting but my driving and middle game greatly improved yesterday. The highlight for me was shooting my first par on a normal, non-par 3 golf course. Then it happened two more times!!! Overall it was generally a triple bogey day with only one hole in double digits. The course was pretty good too and you can't beat $13 for 18 holes.

After golf I headed to the G-units in Elon to have dinner with them and my sister who is taking classes at UNC this summer to get her pre-med sciences knocked out. After a great dinner, I headed over to Katie and Joel's to visit and we busted out Trivial Pursuit Volume 6. it turned into a long game and we our working selves were showing the wear and tear of a late night. We're getting old. :) I ended up winning after a valient comeback by Katie.

Today I went to church and picked up what has become my standard post-church fare, a chicken salad sandwich with lettuce and tomato on wheat and toasted and a fresh homemade orangeaide from Pharaoh's at North Hills. That's some good stuff right there. The weather was beautiful today, though it's starting to warm up. I was drawn to the porch to do some reading and to tan my feet which are ghostly white compared due to my golf shoe tan from yesterday. The weather made me wish I didn't live in an apartment and had a yard of my own. To combat my desire I headed to The Home Depot and bought some plants for my porch. I ended up with two ferns which I'll hang up in traditional southern style and a "Zowie! Yellow Flame" Zinnia which I thought looked nice. I also transplanted my basil plant from it's tiny pot to a much larger pot in hopes of it growing to a big bush o' basil. That was my weekend and here are some pics of my plants.

Mmmm...

Tonight I finally got back in the real cooking mode after being sick the past two weeks (feeling much better now). As many of you know I watch the Food Network a lot and have started to enjoy trying out the recipes from Everyday Italian in search of healthier fare. One of the recent episodes featured vegetarian dishes and one caught my eye, baked penne with roasted vegetables by Giada De Laurentis. I made it tonight and it turned out to be pretty good and not to hard to make. The recipe says it feeds six and that's probably about right, I have way too much food leftover. I may freeze some of it now that I think about it. I highly recommend this recipe.

A great desert/snack I saw her make the other day on the Sandwich episode is a Nutella sandwich. Instead of breaking out the grill pan I've just put a couple of slices of ciabatta bread in the toaster and then smeared the Nutella (wondering what Nutella is? Click here) on one side of each piece. The only downside is trying not to break my veneers on the tough bread. Boy is it good though. I also want to try to the strawberry bruschetta which looked great on the show as well. Just need to get some fresh strawberries at the roadside stand tomorrow (a coworker brought some to work on Wednesday and man they were the best strawberries I have had in a good minute, they were actually red all the way through!).

My dinner on the ottoman:


Way too much pasta!


Edited to add: I like Fridays at work because beginning in May we can wear shorts! From June 1 - August 31 we can also work half day Fridays if we make up the time elsewhere in the week. Yes you government job people can do that type of thing all the time but it's nice to be able to do it during the summer. I'm not sure how often I'll take advantage of it but it should come in handy some.

Cancellation

Last night was a beautiful, cool spring evening, one perfect for a softball game vs. Hayes Barton Baptist. Unfortunately the umpires didn't show up for our game at 6:30. Apparently one was in a wreck on the way, but what about the other two? Well one showed up riding his bike to the field about 40 minutes late and since there were two games after our's they cancelled our game to be made up later. Since we had the field until 7:30 we decided to just play for practice but the umpire just sat there and watched which really infuriated a couple of people on our team. I agree that he could have at least called some balls and strikes for us but no reason to get mad, just make the most of it. Though I do understand that people are taking time away from their families to be there and want the games to count.

If we had actually played yesterday we were missing several of our normal starters and had a couple of new people come out. I would have played third and batted second (a big jump from 6th or 7th in the order). During practice I had two good hits, a double and a single. It feels good to make good contact. In the field no balls were hit my way, but I had the opportunity for a great play that I bungled. There's a guy on second and the batter hits a long fly to left. The runner tags and the left fielder makes an absolutely perfect throw to me at third so I can get the tag. I don't know what happened, maybe lost the ball in the sun which was setting behind the left fielder or blinked or what but the ball hit my glove and I started going down for the tag but I didn't have the ball. Man that's one of those plays you dream about, now it's a bad dream :) Pretty frustrating to not finish the play, especially after such a great throw.

For Jacs - I had fun, met some folks, and got outside!

ATL

I finally finished reading Atlanta Rising - The Invention of an International City 1946-1996 by Frederick Allen. It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it to anyone that has lived in Atlanta or just wants to learn more about the history of the south's primary city. The book goes into detail about how the business power structure headed by Robert Woodruff of Coca-Cola drove many of the changes and how Atlanta was different than other southern cities during that time. Much of the book details the Civil Rights movement and illustrates that cool heads prevailed in Atlanta when the rest of the state was going in another direction.

My favorite quote from the book in regards to seeing the plans for 285, Ben Massell, the largest individual land owner in the city and brother of vice mayor Sam Massell said, "Like the Chicago loop! Everything on the inside, chicken salad! Everything on the outside, chicken shit!"

For my next read I'm going tackle The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, the updated edition that mentions Tech (see article) and Death of a Salesman.

Pomp and Circumstance

A big day one year ago today.

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty good as I was actually social. Friday night the apartment management hosted a cook out for the complex which was well attended by people of all ages (well not really many people my age but that's beside the point). I ended up meeting several neighbors and ate a hamburger. One thing that I couldn't help thinking was what brought these people to this apartment complex. I guess my thinking has always been geared towards apartments being temporary places for me to live until I grow up and buy a house. I met a couple of long term residents, one that has lived here 13 years and another 9 years. My life has been so transient the last 6-7 years during school that I have no concept of staying in one place that long. There were also quite a few families with their kids in attendance as well. Even though I work in apartment finance and think higher density development is a good thing I don't know if I could do apartment living for that length of time. It's a very different mentaliity I guess and one I haven't fully grasped. It was an interesting revelation. It's also pretty interesting to people watch, especially people that have something in common like living in an apartmnet complex yet do not know each other and to ponder what brought them there, what they do for a living, and who they really are. I gained some insight on Friday night but still have a lot of questions. That sociology class I took at Tech still is kicking around in my head.

Saturday I was pretty lazy during the morning, wanting to take easy as I'm still recovering from being sick last week. I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a new comforter and sheets set since I've been using Emily's down comforter since I got the queen bed she used at UNC when she moved back to Wellesley this spring since she'll probably use it this summer during summer school back at UNC. It helped that I had a 20% off coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond. I'll post pics when I put it on the bed.

Saturday night was another social event. One of my friends from the Planning/MBA program graduated this weekend and had a party at his house in Chapel Hill last night. It was good to get out of the house and see old faces from my graduating class and to meet some new folks. I really missed out being a teatotling fuddy duddy during my 2 years in Chapel Hill. I should have made myself go out and get to know more people in my department. I guess it's never to late to build those friendships though and having a common bond through school definitely helps. Talking to some people about school and I realized that I was just burned out on school that whole time and it gave me an overall negative impression on school. While I'm glad I went straight through undergrad and grad school and happy with the job I got as a result of the masters program, I think I would gotten way more out of it if I'd worked first then gone back to school. At the same time I wouldn't have met the people I did or had the experiences I did if I had waited. Things happen for a reason.

Today I went to my grandparents' to celebrate Mother's Day. My grandmother surprises me sometime, they're both really frugal people but every once in a while I'll go over to their house and I'll see a random something she bought off a tv commercial or one of the home shopping channels. Today's surprise was that she bought a pilates exercise machine because it is supposed to be good for people that have had heart problems (she had a bypass a couple of years ago). I put the machine together for them and tested it out and it seems like it would be a good exercise, I just have reservations about an 80 year old woman that hasn't really exercised in a long while getting on the floor to do strenous exercises when she has problems walking on the treadmill. I told her my reservations and if she gets stuck to call me and tell me she's fallen and she can't get up and I'll come help her out. If things don't work out for them I said I'd take the machine of their hands.

Overall a good weekend capped by seeing a couple of rainbows on the way home from Elon.

Edited to add: I stopped by The Fresh Market today before heading to Elon to get my gmother some flowers and I ended up picking out a potted white orchid. I think she liked it. The other day I noticed when I drove by they had a stand of herb plants outside so I also picked up a small basil plant. It'll be nice to have some plant life around the apartment and now maybe I can make some homemade pesto. If this herb grows well I may branch out into something more exotic as well. As an aside, on the care tag it said basil insites passion, so if you're looking for something passion inducing here ya go.

Edited again to add: That's a sorry looking plant, I watered it and over night it perked up a lot.

Game on

Tonight FPC won 15-9 over St. James! It was a great game that was interpreted by heavy rain for a few minutes but we prevailed. I think our slump from last week is definitely over. I'm feeling about 90% after battling both a sinus infection and twisted ankle this week and it was nice to get outside for the first time since Saturday. Tonight I went 2-4. I walked my first time up, my second AB the bases were loaded and I got a triple and 3 RBIs (!), third AB I flyed to center, and forth AB I hit a long single. I guess I'm getting in my grove now because I was actually making good contact tonight. It's a world of difference between dinky hits and getting lucky to get on base and making solid contact. I played right center in the field tonight and caught two flys and a couple of grounders that made it through the infield. We all played a great game overall. On top of everything we're in 2nd place in the league with a 5-3 record! The first place team is another Presbyterian church that is 6-1 and we handed them their only loss.

To answer Jac's questions from my last game recap. Yes I'm having fun, I think I'm at least getting to know the people in my church, probably not getting friends to hang out with out of it since I'm the second youngest on the team and I don't have kids, but it's still a great time! I hope I'm making a positive impact on their lives, I give a lot of encouragement and high fives.

Dream On

The past week or so I've had some strange dreams. Last night continued the trend with two very weird and random dreams. The first was pretty long but basically it involved me winning a contest to go to space on the shuttle but I first had to get from Carrollton to FL. Sounds easy enough but the launch was scheduled to be shown on ABC at 8:30 pm and it was already the afternoon of the day I was supposed to be there. For some reason I wondered around Carrollton and went to Josh's house where his dad made a small pond (like a fish pool) and filled it with clear plastic instead of water and started ice skating around on it. Then I flew to NC and my grandparents' house and then a couple of teeth fell out (my veneers) which freaked me out because I couldn't be on national tv with missing teeth. I think the dream ended with me watching the tv while trying to get packed. I'm sure the teeth falling out has some psychological meaning but I'm not quite sure what.

The second dream involved a church service at some church which I didn't recognize, kind of a modern design and really big, but there were people from all stages of my life involved. Skipping a lot of the back story, essentially I had to play cello during the service and obviously I have no clue how to play cello and there were a couple of other people playing instruments that would start to play then get scared and stop then people would clap and they'd start playing again. Very very strange. I woke up before I had to start playing.

I told you they were strange dreams. I'm pretty sure I know what the second dream was about, but if you have any interpretations for either one let me know.

Get your grub on

Each week somebody at work is assigned breakroom duty and this week is my turn. Duties include cleaning up at the end of the day and bringing breakfast for the office on Wednesday. This week I decided to make some sausage balls, get some bagels from Panera, and I also found a really good deal on a fruit tray at Kroger since the company no longer provides a fruit tray. Here is a picture of the sausage balls.




P.S. I found $5!

Hail to the Chief

My sister sent this to me today. She thought it was funny, but I think it's pretty cool. (Guess who got the looks in the family ;) )

Fore, Ouch, Mooo, Charge, Blah

Today was a long and fun day. Katie, Joel, and I teed off at Cedar Grove Golf Course in Hillsborough around 10 AM and got our exercise walking 18 holes. I think we're all improving though our scores didn't really reflect it, at least we're consistent. Katie ended up winning with a score of 122 to Joel's 124 and my 125. Unfortunately I twisted my ankle when I stepped in a hole on the cart path. Hopefully it'll be recovered by Tuesday's softball game.

After golf we went to Tupelo's in downtown Hillsborough for a late lunch and I think both of the newbies really enjoyed it, not much of a surprise. After lunch Joel wanted some ice cream and the waiter suggested Maple View Farm since there isn't an ice cream shop in Hillsborough. I had to rack my brain for awhile to figure out how to get there from downtown but we made it. Yet again the newbies were impressed. I had a great waffle cone of cookies and cream ice cream.

After rocking on the porch listening to an accordian player we parted ways and I headed to downtown Durham for the Bulls game. We were fortunate to be offered the use of one of the skyboxes for tonights game and about half the office showed up with their families in tow. The evening was beautiful for baseball but here comes the blah reference in the title. The past two weeks I've been feeling a little run down but I figured it was just that the work load at work has increased plus some allergies but it's finally caught up with me and I think I have a sinus infection. I wasn't being much fun at the game and the constant sniffles weren't fun for me so I left in the 6th inning and headed home. Overall I had a great time today and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Here's to hoping I feel better.

Bad pic of my ice cream cone and the view of the Maple View Farm fields.

Whammies

FPC is now 3-3. We lost to First Baptist last night 18-8 ARGHHH. We were up 8-3 in the 5th and last inning (due to time) and then then they found their bats. Nineteen batters and fifteen runs later we lost. That's two big losses in a row. I played decently well. I was 2-3 with a fielders choice and a single. I lined to the pitcher for my last at bat. We've been playing decently well but just have given up two big innings in the last two games. Hopefully we'll get back on track on Tuesday.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

The feeling is still growing inside me. The anticipation of annual changes in mid-May but they aren't going to happen. I know I posted on this before but now that it is finals time and friends are selling their books, packing boxes, and moving home it's only made it worse. Last year on May 13 was my department graduation followed by a great dinner at the Angus Barn. That was a capstone. May 15 brought on the university graduation and other significant life experience events. I officially summitted the mountain of education and passed the milestone. Even though I didn't know what I was going to do (other than fish at OBX the next couple of days) it was the periodic end that comes every spring.

How are the years defined as one grows older? Shaun and I once talked about always referencing events by what grade were in when they occurred and pondered how we would talk about things after school. At this point I still don't know. I know it'll get easier after I get through this first year of work but I still think I'd like to have a defining moment or two or three a year. Whenever I have kids I know my life will again revolve around the school calendar and I bet that will again feel normal. This whole period of being a young adult, twenty-something is a very interesting time. I still have friends in college (though that number is quickly dwindling) and I have friends that are members of the working world like myself. As the academic friends move into jobs I think I will have less and less pulling me to the old transitions and more pushing me into the new stage of life.

It's an interesting time.

"Oh mercy mercy me" - Marvin Gaye

Last night we were mercy ruled by Hudson Memorial Presbyterian. The battle of the Presbyterians is now 1 to 1 this season. The final score was 16-6 in the 6th inning. We were getting close to our hour time limit but still it's never fun to get the mercy rule. Our normal pitcher wasn't there but I can't blame it on the backup. Hudson definitely has some big bats and we were having an off day. As far as my game went I was 2-3 with a pop to the pitcher on my first AB, a single on a bloop to center, and then an infield single to short and no errors(!). Hopefully we'll get back on track on Thursday vs. First Baptist.