Catch up!

First and foremost, I will honestly tell you that I didn't even realize that I had not posted anything for...64 days. What does that mean?

Well, first of all (being the stat guy I am) it means that there have been 352 visits by people in that timespan that have gone away with zero of our life happenings. Secondly, it means that life has surely been busy!!!

-I must admit that the reason I am blogging is because I felt guilty after being in church yesterday. Should I feel guilty after leaving church....? I think that's a little too deep of a question for today. Anyways, I got a shout out from Uncle Ken during the sermon, and then when we were eating lunch he reminded me that I hadn't blogged since "1 week to go...", and he had expected to see something around the time when the Twins won game #163 against the Tiggers. So here's my shout out to Uncle Ken in the blog post that he inspired.

-School is going well. Definitely a different set of kids this year than last...different interests, different personalities, but that's a good thing I guess. If all classes ended up being the same, I don't think I would teach very long.

-Since I last blogged, I've had the opportunity to hit a number of baseball games. Linds and I went with a couple friends to watch our Kane County Cougars take on the Beloit Snappers in late August. Beloit is the Class A affiliate of the Twins, so I guess I was rooting for the visitors. We got to see a couple Top 5 Twins prospects play...which apparently only excited me, and got to watch an extra inning of baseball, also which excited only me.

-Kirk, Cody, and Tim made the drive out in late September to watch the Twins take on the Sox. We got some pretty sweet seats for a decent price, went home with two batting practice balls (thanks to Matt Guerrier and Jason Kubel), and a TWINS WIN!!! It was the first time I got to see the Twins win in Chicago, so it made the walk through the parking lot a good one. Its amazing how many high-fives and fist-pounds we gave to random Twins fans when we saw them walking out of the stadium.

-There were a couple days in the past few weeks where I was stuck watching games by myself on T.V. Linds has been busy with volleyball, so I had to watch game #163 and Game 3 of the ALDS by myself for the most part. Seriously, I think #163 was the best game I have ever watched from start to finish. I still have it saved on our DVR so I can watch it over the winter.

-Like I said, Linds has been really busy with volleyball, along with work and school. I've gone to most of their games, a couple tournaments, and a few practices. They're doing REALLY well. Volleyball as a whole isn't the most popular sport at school, and I think part of her goal was to make it a bigger deal. The last game I was at there were quite a few students there watching the game, which is good because then I don't have to pump up the crowd by doing backflips during timeouts.

-kidding

-One good story (as it turned out) from the past two months concerns the Beretta. I thought she was dead. Well, not dead...dying in an ungraceful way. It sounded as if there was some sort of fan or belt that was going out (not a mechanic, so I had no idea). But the weird thing was that it happened for 1-2 sec and then stopped for about 5 sec, and then it would start again. It was so bizzare that I wasn't sure how to explain it to the mechanic when I took it in for a routine tune-up. Well, he heard it as well but couldn't figure out what it was from, so I took it home and we started looking for a new vehicle. Now you need to know (and it sounds rediculous), but I really like my car. I've had it for 8 years and 4 months and its the only car I've ever called my own. If it was dead on the side of the road or I couldn't get it started in the morning, then I might've felt differently, but it just wasn't that unreliable. I felt pretty good about getting an Equinox for it, realizing that I would let Linds drive it and I would probably take the Regal to work. Anyways...back to the story... We were driving to school together on a Friday, and the next day we were planning on going to seriously look at vehicles. As we were driving, it was like I had an epiphany (as Mr. Vanderaa would say) and I shut off the defrost of my car. The noise stopped. We sat in silence for about 10 seconds before Linds got the courage to say "There's no way." Then she decided to turn it back on. It wasn't more than 2 seconds later that the noise started again.

Moral of the story? Still kinda excited about getting an Equinox, so is there anyone interested in a '93 Beretta with a duct taped front end, no AC and (now) no defrost? Heater still works for now, so jump on it before that dies too!

-I think I'll probably try and do a Twins season recap sometime. You know me and blogging, so hopefully it happens. I think its more of a "get away from it all and somehow still feel productive" thing.

Just want to leave you with a few stats since I began tracking the visits to the blog.

Total visits since Jan 1: 1,838
High visit day: 19 (January 5 & September 8)
1000 visit day: May 28th

So long everybody...

1 week to go...

Well, summer is almost over. You always wonder where the time went and (maybe more importantly) what you did with all of it. Well, what I did was...

• very little schoolwork
• start refinishing a coffee table
• knock off another MLB stadium off the list (Miller Park)

Now, it may not seem like a whole lot, but here's what I came up with after summer's close...

• i teach for 9+ months out of the year and put in more time than your typical 8-5 job, so I was ready for a break
• i know that this coffee table will eventually end up in the basement of our future house (which i also picked out and found this summer...add that to the list), so there's no real sense in rushing it (this might be procrastination, so I'm riding a thin line)
• i want to see every major league stadium in my lifetime, so one new one a summer is a solid pace (plus the two Chicago stadiums I made it to before the summer began), and now my total stands at 8

The list goes on to include fishing trips, a wedding (maybe I should write it as a fishing/wedding trip), camping trip, trips from friends, trips to friends, trips from family, and trips to family. Minor league baseball, NFL training camp, a Taste of the city, and travels in six different states.

So as summer comes to a close and people ask me what I did, I struggle to come up with a really good answer. Depending on the person, I usually respond with "Nothing...absolutely nothing." to "Little bit of this and a little bit of that..." to "I hit the books and revamped my whole curriculum and view of teaching."--only to school board members, of course...

Hope all of you had as busy of a summer as we did. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty exhausted, I could use a break before school starts...

So long everybody...

A shot of our latest Kane County Cougars game, former Twins draft pick Tyler Ladendorf batting...

Trip, Trade Deadline, Twins

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to update you on our lives and what's been happening the past few weeks. We just got back from a camping trip with my extended family to Lewis & Clark Rec Area by Yankton, SD. The trip was bookended (is that a word? it sounds really literary, or something, so I'm going to use it because it makes sense) by stops at the Van Wyk residence to break up the drive, construct a couple bonfires (one sub-par and one simply amazing), and spend some time fishing. During the trip I managed to play a total of 36 holes of golf, 10 of which were great and will keep me from disowning the sport forever, 26 of which made me want to crack my driver over my leg and run over it with the cart.

I'm blogging from our house again, which means that our laptop is fixed, complete with a new motherboard and a hole in my wallet.

Thanks to the fixed computer, I was able to follow along on one of my favorite days of the year yesterday, the MLB trading deadline. I don't know if its something to brag about or not, but I feel like I was one of the first Twins fans to know about the official accquision of Orlando Cabrera, which wasn't discussed on MLB Network for another 15 minutes, or posted on the Star Tribune website for another 2 hours.

I'm glad the Twins made a move, if nothing else, I hope it keeps Mauer in Minny beyond the end of his current contract, which runs through 2010. He mentioned a few weeks ago that its going to be hard to sign an extension if the team doesn't show that its willing to make the moves necessary to keep up with the other big boppers of the AL. Now I don't think that all the needs were addressed (just look at the bullpen's line last night...4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, but none bigger than the game-tying homerun that Guerrier gave up to Mike Napoli leading off the 8th inning)

The Twins' move looks even less significant after watching the Tiggers add Washburn, a solid starter. I must admit though, I don't believe that Washburn will continue to put up the same numbers for the final two months that he has through the first four. Neither do I think that the Sox accquision of Jake Peavy is as great as everyone is saying. He isn't supposed to come back until the end of August from an ankle injury, so he'll get at most 5 starts this year, so I'm not that convinced he'll have that big of an impact on this year's regular season outcome.

A quick look at his Home/Away stats for his career:

Home: 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP

Away: 3.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP

I am in no way trying to say that he is horrendous away from PETCO Park, but it just shows how playing in a pitcher-friendly ballpark helps out your stats. Not to mention moving to the AL, which is much more hitter friendly with the DH in the lineup.

On a positive note (well, not for Twins fans I guess) Peavy is one of the premier pitchers in all of baseball when he's on. Kinda like Mark Prior was when he was on. Also, he's not a rental player for the coming year, the Sox control him through 2013.

Finally, just a look at his stats against other top AL teams:

Yankees 0-2 3.60 ERA 1.30 WHIP

Red Sox 0-1 5.40 ERA 2.00 WHIP

Rays 1-0 0.00 ERA 0.71 WHIP

Tigers 0-1 4.50 ERA 1.00 WHIP

Twins 0-0 2.84 ERA 1.34 WHIP

Angels 0-1 3.38 ERA 0.75 WHIP

Rangers Never faced

Take the record (1-5) with a grain of salt, because don't forget he was playing for the Padres.

So long everybody!

Picture time...

I just wanted to share a few pictures with you, some have been on facebook, and some have been on Lindsey's blog, but for those of you who haven't seen them, I thought I would share...


We took a trip to the Field Museum (Natural History) and I kept waiting for a little Owen Wilson (Jedidiah...Night at the Museum) to pop out and try to "manhandle" me. (If you don't get it...watch the movie) So here's a picture of Linds and I in front of Sue...



The Field Museum is right next to Soldier Field, so me being....me, I decided to take a picture in front of the monument outside of the stadium.



On the second weekend of the season, the Twins came to town to play the Sox, and I was able to get 4 tickets from a student of mine. It was a day of surprises, because it was Linds' birthday the next day and I managed to keep secret that her parents would be coming up to join us. The other secret was that the tickets I got were 8 rows up from the field, see below for the UNZOOMED view from our seats...



One of the highlights of the day was meeting Joe Nathan and getting his autograph and a picture. It wasn't the warmest of days (which you'll see in a couple pictures), so I asked him for his stocking hat, but he turned me down saying that he wouldn't give it up until they were back in the Dome.


Here's the shot from our seats...the game was alot of fun until Lirano gave up a TON of runs in the bottom of the 5th. The Twins ended up getting absolutely shallacked 8-0, but it was fun nevertheless.



The main reason for adding this picture isn't to show you the wonderful scoreboard of U.S. Cellular, or how close we were to...just about everything, or to show you how many people were there, but rather for you to look at the number at the top left-hand corner of the scoreboard. (Click on the picture to zoom) That number will explain why we left after the 8th inning of a 8-0 game and went straight to Famous Dave's for ribs and mashed potatoes.....mmm....ribs...mashed potatoes....baked beans....more ribs....oh, sorry...off on a little tangent there.



Since we saw such a poor game the first time around, when the Twins came back to town a little over a month later we decided to go to another game. There were a few differences (instead of 8 rows from the field, we were 8 rows from the top, the weather was MUCH nicer, and the Twins scored), but there were also a few similarities (Liriano pitched, Liriano got shelled, Liriano didn't make it through 5 innings, Twins lost again)



Finally, here's a picture from when we went back for Nate & Nicole's wedding. Ben and I went fishing 4 different days, and this was on Day 1. Just to clear things up, I caught mine first and we were both pumped about it because it was the biggest one we had pulled out of that pond. When Ben pulled his out 45 min. later and we decided that his could probably eat mine, we got even more excited. All in all, it was a VERY successful fishing weekend where we caught 40-50 fish, mainly bass, and the biggest ones were about the size of the one Ben is holding.

So long everybody...

#2-Little Things I miss...driveway basketball

I can't even count the number of nights I spent outside shooting hoops...all by myself. Now many of you close to me know that I'm not a person who enjoys being around a ton of other people...but this has nothing to do with that. I spent countless hours between 9-10 p.m. taking shot after shot after shot.

There was a lone light shining on the driveway from where the right hand baseline met the sideline.

There were the cars of those driving around the "square" flying by time and time again.

There was the music (started as 99.7...moved to 101.9) blaring from the garage, where the van's windows were rolled down and volume turned up.

But these late-night one-on-none contests weren't the only form of driveway basketball. With 3 boys in the family I know there was a fight to see who got to play with me (or was it a fight to see who was stuck with Tyler...) Everyone had their "spot" on the floor. I was lucky enough to have two, 1) the right corner of the truck's garage door, and 2) three big steps to the SE of that, more of a long elbow jumper.

Finally, driveway basketball wasn't only a family affair, it became a makeshift gathering place. More often than not, a few buckets were in store before taking off for the night, sitting down to watch a movie, or just simply to start off a night of hanging out before doing...nothing.

That's what I miss...

#1-Little things I miss...bonfires

I've decided to write a series of posts on things that I enjoy, but don't necessarily experience as much as I would like. Most of these things have some sort of memory connected to them, so they may be more memorable to me than to others. I'm just picking from a list and writing them in no particular order, so today's post, bonfires, is not necessarily the #1 thing I miss. I figure that the one I pick will most likely be the one that triggers a memory while reading down the list.

So here goes...

I've heard that there are two things that guys can sit and stare at for hours...just because. Falling water and fire. They both have the same strange quality...they are constantly in motion, never looking the same. Its amazing how quickly people become mesmerized by a fire, no matter the size.

What I miss most about bonfires, however, is sitting down after a warm summer day and relaxing as it moves into a cool summer night, sitting in front of a glowing, crackling fire while holding a campfire fork with a couple mallows lightly browning on the opposite end.

I miss poking the fire with a stick or piece of iron and spraying sparks all over. I miss laughing when a spark lands on someone's clothes or making fun of someone when the rubber soles of their shoes begin to heat up and melt.

I miss crispy and sometimes blackened apple pies, a cold Mountain Dew and sticky fingers and faces from the uncountable number of marshmallows consumed.

I miss the conversations that come up, the memorable stories that are told, and yes, even the smoky smell of pretty much everything when the night is over and the fire has been reduced to flickering embers.

That's what I miss...

Summer Freedom-Part 1 (of hopefully more)

Hello all all of you faithful he-hasn't-posted-since-March blog followers...

I know I haven't posted in literally what seems like forever ago, and honestly I didn't even realize how busy I had become. I would love to update you on everything that has been going on since....let's see...MARCH 23!!! But I won't.

I'm currently at school at 8:45 p.m. waiting for Linds to finish up her volleyball open gym, so I figured I would type a bit now that I have some summer freedom from lesson planning and coaching!

I'm not going to start an attempt at hitting the highlights of the past few months (yes months), so stay tuned for some lengthy posts and hopefully some pictures. I plan on posting either Tuesday or Wednesday, so look for it sometime in the middle of August...

...kidding...

One thing that has been on my mind lately is even though I am SO grateful to God for providing us with a wonderful place to live, great friends to enjoy it with, and jobs to keep us going, I really do miss all of you A LOT.

I miss...
...movie nights
...Friday night pizza
...driveway basketball
...fishing with friends
...Cranium
...watching a Twins game with Twins fans
...bonfires
...Pizza Ranch
...backyard volleyball
...sweating while I work
...peach malts
...cheap (free) entertainment
...fast-pitch softball
...the people I know who aren't within 30 min of me

I have a feeling that list will grow before too long, because just thinking about some of those things brought back some great memories. But you know what's the most amazing thing? I can't even believe having to miss all of that by myself. If I didn't have such a wonderful wife of now 1 year and 1 day, it would make living so far away really hard. Because of her, I can say that where we are living in fact IS a wonderful place and I can't think of anywhere else I would rather be.

So long everybody...

It's been awhile...since I've...blogged upon this site

I was going to say something along the lines of "I can't wait for April and Spring Break to come...but realized I never really said hello to March...since the last post was on Feb 26...wow!)

So hello March....


...alright...


...and now I'm looking forward to April and Spring Break!

There have been a couple of reasons I haven't posted lately, the main reason being we no longer have consistent internet at our house courtesy of our neighbors. They have decided to become very un-courteous and password-protect their WiFi. I would like to think that if I had internet access of my own, I would be very willing to allow people to "borrow" from me. But on the other hand...I would also like to pay credit cards, do some banking, and set up all online-bill pay options. So maybe that wouldn't be such a great idea.

Another reason is that school has become rediculously busy again. I've been helping out with Science Olympiad, a middle school afterschool geek (we prefer that term) program. We finally had our regional competition a week and a half ago and we qualified for state! So on April 25th, we'll be taking on 38 other teams across the state to try and qualify for nationals....(notice there wasn't an exclamation point at the end of that).

I'm kidding...it would be great to spend a weekend in May down in Georgia with 15 geeky 6th, 7th, and 8th graders...

My final reason...and maybe one a little more on a serious note, is because life has been filled with a bit more stress lately after we found out that there was a job opening at Denver Christian teaching Middle School Science and P.E. It's actually at the K-8 school that I didn't teach at, but I know a number of the teachers there and it would have been phenomenal to have the opportunity of working with them. After a crazy amount of prayer, discussion, and conversations with others, we decided that we needed to stay at Timothy and in the western suburbs for more than one year and continue God's work here.

It killed me...literally...to think about having to say no to Denver, because I know I left some of me there after student teaching, so...VACATION!!!! We're (I'm) hoping that we can spend some time there this summer. One way tickets from Midway to Denver are about $50 each, so it all depends on Linds' class and work...and somebody's wedding that we have to go to this summer...and Twins games...and maybe Cubs games...and hopefully heckling at White Sox games.

Anyways, Linds is looking to leave school...and I guess I am too after being here a solid 12 consecutive hours...

So long everybody!

End of February

I realize that it's been awhile since I've posted. I guess you could say there have been a couple reasons for that...

• About a week and a half ago, our neighbors decided to secure their internet, and I'm still Dutch enough (or smart enough) to try and get by without giving in to Comcast and fork over $50/month for internet access.
• There hasn't been a ton of writable material. Ever since I can remember I always feel that the time of Feb-early Mar has been super slow. The snow is disappearing and its not quite warm enough to spend a ton of time outside yet...what's there to do?
• It's pretty much been raining here all day today...I got a text from Wes this morning saying it was snowing and blowing there. Looked it up and saw 4-6 inches forecasted with 30 mph snow. Doesn't seem like Spring Training weather to me!
• Speaking of Spring Training...Twins are 2-0 right now with wins over Boston and Cincy. I know...its only preseason and it doesn't matter....but its better than being 0-2. With Boof going under the knife this month and supposedly missing the whole season, I'm going to make a bold prediction...R.A. Dickey will be in the Twins bullpen on Opening Day. Not Juan Cruz, not Chad Cordero.
• Other Spring Training note...Doug Mientkiewicz signed with the Dodgers this morning. Somehow he keeps picking up jobs year after year...
• Speaking of baseball, I'm helping out at Timothy with the JV team this year. I agreed (for some reason) to help out for little/no pay. I guess that also means I don't have to be there everyday. But I'll guarantee that next week when pitchers and catchers report at 6:30 a.m....I'll be there.

On a totally random note...I just wanted to say how much I appriciate all of you. It's been a little difficult living here at times...away from family and friends...and sometimes I wonder why God led us here. I still don't know, but I know that soon enough he will reveal Himself through our lives here.

So long everybody...

Culver's

You know its gotta be good when I post 2 times in one day...and believe me, it is. This has been my latest ice cream obsession...Culver's Concrete Mixer with Cookie Dough and Nerds. Yes....Nerds. The story is...we keep getting Culver's coupons in the mail...buy 1 get one free butterburgers...free fries and drink with the purchase of a butterburger...and the main one "buy 1 get 1 free concrete mixer. Well...we went the first time and I didn't know that I got 2 choices of toppings...so I asked for cookie dough. Linds (knowing how dutch I am and that if I could get more for my money, i would do it) let me know that I could get a 2nd topping for free if I wanted. Well you could imagine that the first thing that would cross my mind would be..."What goes well with cookie dough?"

But it wasn't.

So instead of saying something like M&M's, Oreos, Chocolate syrup, or anything like that, I choose the next most flavorful thing that appeals to my tastebuds...Nerds. Now I can't imagine this, but maybe some of you don't know what Nerds are...or haven't had them in awhile. So...what you need to do is next time you're at the store, just pick up a box. Don't think of it as a waste, or splurging money. Think of it as a wakeup call for your tastebuds...and be prepared for an explosion of flavor.

For those of you wanting a taste, I can't give that to you, but what I do have I give... (this particular coupon gave us a buy 1 get 1 free two-scoop sundae, so its not all mixed in really well)

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since I've posted, but if I can recall, there hasn't been a ton going on lately.

• We made a trip to Iowa the weekend of the 6th-8th. Linds' reason was for Tori's baby shower...I really just wanted to go ice fishing one more time before the weather warmed up. I will admit, it was a little eerie walking in 3+ inches of water on top of the ice. Then sitting out there in 50 degree weather listening to the ice pop all around you... But it was nice to sit out there with no shack or heater. We went for about 7 hours, and didn't catch much of anything until the last 1 1/2. But when we did start catching them...boy did they keep coming! We ended up keeping about 25 bluegill, but easy caught 2 or 3 times that much that we threw back. I would post a picture...but since Linds already posted it on her blog, I'll just tell you to click your way over there to see it.
• We made it up to the low 60's for one day this past week, which, I will admit, was pretty nice. As much as I love the ice and snow, I forgot how gratifying shorts and a T-shirt were.
• This week we have President's Day off, so its a short 4-day week. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to spend the free day. I have this sinking feeling that I'll spend it sitting around getting some school stuff done. Its tough...because I know Bass Pro Shops is a short 15 min away, and with all the thawing that's been going on...a new fishing pole has been added to the wish list.
• Finally, I want to wish everyone a happy official start to Spring Training 2009 for the Twins!!! I will admit that before church this morning, we (I) watched on the Twins website as the minutes counted down to zero. Now there's a new countdown...

10 days, 2 hours, and 14 minutes until the first Spring Training game!!!!

So long everybody...

Free Breakfast

I'm not sure how many of you paid attention to, or noticed, or even watched for that matter...but Denny's had a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday that offered a free breakfast to America on Tuesday the 3rd. So naturally, being the true Dutchman that I am...took them up on their offer.

Now this is a little embarrassing, but I actually woke up a number of times during the night afraid that I somehow overslept and missed my all-important breakfast date with my wife. (Who didn't have to work that day, yet still woke up with me.) But when the alarm went off at 5:30, I could almost smell the hot plate of pancakes, eggs, sausage, and bacon sitting in front of me...dripping with syrup...chased down by a hot cup of coffee. Wow...was that a fantasy...

Reality set in at about 6:01 when we drove up to a packed parking lot.

We parked across the street in the Target parking lot and walked over in the frigid cold. I believe it was somewhere close to zero on the thermometer, and I was beginning to wonder if a free breakfast was really worth standing in the cold for. Well, we walked up and didn't see a line that supported the number of cars in the parking lot. We walked in the door and saw only a couple people in line. We put our name on the list and it wasn't long before we were enjoying our warm, free Grand Slam breakfast courtesy of Denny's.

The day just kept getting better in that it was high school preview day for the 8th graders, so we went with them to tour the high school, meet teachers, and look at extra-curricular activity options. Why is this a good thing? It means a little more relaxed day in that we didn't have any morning classes, I got a free pizza dinner, a free T-shirt, and....it was jeans day. Boo-Yah!!!

So long everybody...

A short week?

I heard on the radio this week that if you go on a diet, your ability to remember things increases due to your body less focused on digesting food and more focused on brain activity. Now, I find this a little hard to believe because if I'm right, your body now has to search through fat storage to get the energy it needs instead of the readily available sugars that are digested at each meal. Why do I bring this up? Because I can't for the life of me remember what I did this week. Here are some of the things I do remember...

• This was the first full week without basketball, so I finally had time to sit and relax a little for what seems like the first time in awhile. (I think I said that not too long ago, but it still seems true.) What I mean is...my blanket added on about a foot this week (laugh all you want...but when the world runs out of fuel to heat homes...I'll have a desired profession--crocheting)...and I started to read a book I've been wanting to read for some time...Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Its a book written by a guy who follows a season with Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland A's. He writes how some stats (batting average, homeruns, and ERA) are overrated and how others (OPS, walks, WHIP) are drastically underrated. He also talks about how you don't need multi-million dollar All-Star players on your team to win, and how you can develop a consistent winning team simply by drafting smart players every June. (You can see how this would be my type of book.)
• We're planning on a Super Bowl party tomorrow...which should be a lot of fun. I've always been somewhat of a Steelers fan...especially in the days of Greg Lloyd and Levon Kirkland. I can honestly tell you that at one point, I knew all the starters (offense and defense) of the teams of the late 1990's...and I have no idea why or what drew me to them. On the other hand, I've always been fascinated by the Kurt Warner story and love cheering for the underdog in games like this. Then there's always Larry Fitzgerald who is from Minneapolis...can't ignore the MN connection there.

Well, I hate to cut it short, but that's all the news I can come up with for this post. If anything interesting enough happens in the next couple days, I'll be sure to post again, but until then...

So long everybody...

The week behind, ice adventures, and blog stats

Well, after the exciting weekend of travel, ice fishing, and car issues last weekend, we were due for a bit of a slower week...

• Tuesday morning I scheduled practice for 6:30-8:00 a.m. so we could have a time to get together before the tournament later in the week. That's one of the main reasons I'm glad that the season is over...those early mornings (although they woke me up) really hit hard mid-afternoon.
• Wednesday I helped take some Science Olympiad kids to Benedictine University to look at some fossils and stuffed animals (I first typed taxidermied animals, but it just didn't sound right, or look right for that matter). It turned out to be VERY cool. I struggled to find an animal that they didn't have on display in one way, shape, or form. They even had a skeleton of a baleen whale suspended from the ceiling! Our guide told us that they bought it from another college for $50...the price it took to ship it. Man...for fifty bucks I would've taken it and stuck it in my future basement. How many people that you know have a life-size skeleton of a whale in their basement??? Huh? Huh? That's what I thought. Anyways, it was complete with bison, lions, mule deer, baboons up to whazoo and even dinosaur bones. It was quite the experience.
• I think Thursday was a boring day. I say that because I can't remember what happened during the 30 sec. I thought about it.
• Friday night we had Game #1 of a tournament at a local middle school. We played another school that was much, MUCH larger than us. Not that it should've made a difference, but we lost by 30, so I'm going to say that it did. After the game we stopped at Timothy to check out the Homecoming festivities. We couldn't even find a parking spot on the school's campus, so we parked illegally in the church parking lot across the street. We walked into the school but couldn't see a spot to sit looking at the bleachers from the doorway, so we watched for a few minutes and decided to call it a night.
• Saturday we had Game #2 of the tournament, and it felt like more of the same after being down by 3 at half to a team who I know can't shoot an outside shot. At halftime...here was my speech..."Alright guys, we're switching to a 2-2-1 press and falling back to a 2-3 zone. Whatever you do, don't let #30 dribble down the middle anywhere on the court. Let's go." (Not even kidding...direct quote) Some of the parents commented on it after we got back out, and all I said was..."Not much to say, they know what we need to do." Well, turns out Coach K Jr. did his job at halftime after we outscored them 28-5 to take a 46-26 lead into the 3rd quarter. The bad news...I should have given that 10 sec. speech at the quarter break as well, because we scored a measly 3 points in the 4th quarter to squeak out a 3 point win. Great way to end the year.
• Saturday night we decided to make our way to the Darien Sportplex. A place we've driven past many times, but never before entered. We decided to spend the night doing a little ice skating, which took a little convincing of Linds to go. I already knew I was a natural at ice skating...you know...simply because I'm from MinneSOOOOta and you knOOOOOOw, that's all we do up der in dem woods. (I think I've gone twice...maybe three times) When we walked in the building, we expected the public skate to be packed, based on the hundreds of cars in the parking lot. What we didn't know, however, was that there were not one, not two, but THREE ice rinks in the complex, and that two of them had league hockey games going on...and there were all of a dozen people on the rink for public skate. (they also have a full soccer field fieldhouse somewhere in the building...not to be outdone) So for the next 1 1/2 hours, we spent some time mastering how to 1) not fall (which we didn't, despite some close calls), 2) avoid the REALLY good skaters playing tag & weaving in and out of us, 3) trying to figure out how they do that sweet slide stop like you see the pros doing (I think I need lessons from Luis Mendoza), and 4) being showed up by the next Michelle Kwan...age 4 (honestly...the whole triple reverse quadruple lutz double axel combo put her a step above me)
• Here's a picture from our last date night...
  

Well, that seems to be about it as far as adventures for for the week. On another note, however, I had always wondered how many people actually read my blog...and at times I wondered if I should even bother write. Although I will admit, even though none of you would take this seriously, I've always aspired to be one of those sports columnists in the newspaper. At least...write enough that I could eventually become one of the Baseball Writers of America and be eligible to vote for Hall of Famer's. Maybe Bert would make it in then. Wow...off on a tangent, back to the blog... I learned from Justin Van Zee that you could get a program called Google Analytics attached to your blog to see how many people look at your blog daily and where they're from. I was slightly surprised...here is some rough data:

• I've had 194 visits since Jan. 3, and by Bert's California Math, that comes out to about 9 visitors/day.
• I've had 48 unique visitors (which means from 48 different computers)

• State by State breakdown:
• 55 visits from Iowa
• 47 from Minnesota
• 33 from Colorado (little shout out to Gwyn...Go Rockies!)

• There are a few iffy stats on there...like hits from Vietnam, Venezuela, and Estonia (1 each), but also from some random states (FL, AZ, UT, ND, NY-1 hit each) and cities (Eldridge, IA, Seahurst, WA, & Detroit Lakes, MN). Now I apologize if I know people there, or if your internet service runs through there, but I don't know who you are...which is sweet! If I don't know you, I hope you enjoy reading my blog!
• I must admit though, I am a bit curious, so if you do want me to know your true identity, feel free to shoot me an email or comment on my blog to let me know what you think!

So long everybody!

Adventures of the past week

This past week has been quite the whirlwind...or should I say wind chill (hehe). I'll end the cold jokes now...everyone knows it was cold.

• Last Tuesday we had our semifinal basketball game at Wheaton against Benjamin. We started a little slow, but built up a 1 point lead at the half before extending it to 11 after the 3rd quarter. Final score ended up with us on top 55-47. Everyone made it into the game for at least 1 1/2 minutes and we won. Goals accomplished.
• Wednesday was fairly cold and snowy here. The forecast called for 4-5 inches at school, but I'm not sure we got quite that much. During 4th period, the principal announced over the intercom that all after school events were canceled because of the expected snow and freezing temperatures...except for the 8th grade boys basketball practice in light of the big game tomorrow.--direct quote, no lie. So everyone else went home while we stuck it out in the gym.
• Thursday we had our championship game against Wheaton Christian. In the first meeting, we lost by 18, in the second meeting we won by 3. It didn't look very promising after the first half with us down 24-16, and only thanks to a banked-in 3 pointer at the buzzer on our side to keep it to a single-digit deficit. Thanks to a stellar halftime speech by yours truly, we cut it down to 42-38 halfway through the 4th quarter, but thats as close as we could make it, eventually losing by 6. Three guys didn't make it in the game and we lost. Neither goal accomplished.
• Yes, Friday we did have school despite all, and I repeat ALL of the public schools around us closed. It didn't bother me much...as long as the Beretta started in the morning and I was able to get all of the ice off the inside of the windshield. A number of kids came up to me and asked why we had school but none of their public school friends did. My well-thought out response? "Well, its a good thing that we don't hold our classes outside like they apparently do. Aren't you glad for warm buildings?" All I got were these incredibly confused stares that read "I thought you were on our side here Mr. V."
• Friday night we made a trip to Mom & Dad VW's house. The trip initially was so I could get in one last ice fishing excursion before the season was over, but turned into Matt & Linds bonding time in the car because we probably saw each other a total of 4 hours in the previous 3 days. We left pretty late and got to Grinnell around 12:30.
• Saturday morning we left for Pella in the morning to help Nate & Nicole move into the house they bought. We had to admit to ourselves...having our own house now sounds even better than before. That afternoon, after the wind died down a little, Nate and I took to a farm pond to sit on the ice for awhile in hopes that a fish might find our little grubs appitizing. A couple hours and two non-keeper fish later, we decided to call it a night and hope for better luck the next afternoon.
• So Sunday we went back out in the afternoon. A different time of day, a different location....therefore a different result. We quit counting after about 20 fish each, but I figure we caught between 75-100 fish in the span of 2 1/2 hours. It was an abolutely glorious time, and I know I'll definitely remember some of the memories we made, including the 99% blugill catch that Nate pulled in, and the writer of this blog unsuccessfully attempting to hold in either a bass or a walleye above the ice by using my boots as some sort of trap door.
• For those of you who wish to know, or maybe just because every good post includes some sort of picture, here are the two fish we caught...the top one is a smallmouth bass and the bottom one is the ever-plenty bluegill
  

• Of course it wouldn't be like us to have nice weather driving anywhere, and for about an hour around the Iowa City area, traffic was moving about 15 mph, so we got home way later than we hoped.
• Today was supposed to be a wonderful day of doing errands, planning lessons, and getting some stuff done at school. All of which is difficult to do if you don't have a car. Let me explain...I needed an oil change, so I brought it in at about 9:30, hoping that they could get at it right away, but they said that it would be an hour until they could get to it, and he told me to come back at 11. So I came back a little before 11 and he told me it would be another hour. Well, at this point I just figured that I would just sit there and wait it out, hopefully "save my spot in line". Sure enough...the guy brought the Beretta in 20 min later. Well, that's where the good news ends. He comes back out and asks me if I had seen my tires. Well, I honestly told him I hadn't so he took me back to look and sure enough...the back ones were pretty much completely bald. He asked me if I've been having trouble stopping or sliding at all, and when I told him I didn't, he said I must have been driving really good. (Yea me!!) Anyways, I told him to put two new ones on, and then he asked me if I wanted a new battery because the one I had was at like 30%. Well, I figured why not...add it to the list. (Along with the fact that it probably wouldn't survive another cold spell like the last one.

So long everybody...

Loyalty...or not?

Lately there's been a reoccurring topic that seems to be coming up in my daily life. The funny part is that most of it seems pretty random to me. It comes up while talking to my colleagues at school, while listening to the pastor at church, while reading an article on the upcoming World Baseball Classic in March, and while thinking about the future. The topic that keeps coming up to me?

Loyalty.

To me, it seems human nature to trust people who you know to be loyal. As soon as someone goes back on their word, doesn't show trust in you, or acts in such a way that makes you question their integrity, they lose a little bit of your trust in them. Because I think in terms of baseball for many of life's great mysteries (kidding, but seriously now), the names of Edgar Martinez (18 years), Tony Gwynn (20 years), Cal Ripken, Jr. (21 years), and Ted Williams (19 years) come to mind as players who dedicated their lives to one team, one city, and one lasting legacy as a player who dedicates their career to bringing home the championship to their team. To me, that's a definition of loyalty, sticking with a team through thick and thin (Ripken's Orioles struggled through a 0-21 start to the '88 season), peace and war (Williams left baseball twice to join the army).

That's loyalty...

On the other hand I think of a couple of modern players. Manny Ramirez being...well, Manny. Showing up to Spring Training when he deems it convenient and hustling only....um....when high-fiving a fan in the seats. More recently, I think of Alex Rodriguez who announced that he would participate for the Dominican Republic team during the upcoming World Baseball Classic. I'm not doubting that Felipe Alou is going to turn down a talented hitter like A-Rod, but manning the hot corner during the '06 Classic was Adrian Beltre, the only Dominican named to the all-WBC team after leading the team with 4 HR's and 9 RBI. He is expected to be back on the team again this time, along with left-side infielders Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes. Two years ago, Rodriguez competed for the United States team which failed to make the semifinals. Rodriguez "led" the U.S. team with 0 HR's, 3 RBI, and 7 K's. This time, Rodriguez plans on planting himself in a lineup surrounded by speedseters Carlos Gomez, Hanley Ramirez, and Jose Reyes, and sluggers Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz.

I just find it astonishing that A-Rod considers himself Dominican after living there for 3 years of his life (ages 5-8).

This morning in church the pastor was talking about how Jesus picked his disciples and they followed him immediately. As he was talking, a question ran through my head. "Did the disciples think that they were going to get something out of joining Jesus' crew?" If I place myself in their position, I thought of the following:

• They (Jews) were looking for a savior from the Romans
• The disciples had seen and heard of the amazing things Jesus had done
• On a number of occasions, Jesus asked them questions such as "Do you love me?" and "Who do you say I am?", which leads me to think that they might have thought he was testing them in some way.
• Finally, I recalled the mother who asked Jesus for one of her sons to sit on his right and one on his left when he took his place as ruler.

So again, I ask the question...were the disciples really that loyal, or were they more like A-Rod, hoping to jump on board with the winning team?

Now I don't want to go and criticize these men, or begin to think that I know what was running through the minds of Middle-Eastern taxcollectors and fishermen. I don't know if they first wanted to become rich and famous and then later realized what this Jesus guy was all about. What I do know is that they continued to follow Him, and after his death, they lived to spread His teachings to the known world, and died attempting to do so. I do know that because of them, because of their LOYALTY to keeping the last instruction He gave them. I know I can have hope, that my faith means something, and that my live has a purpose.

Am I loyal to all people all the time? No
Do I know that I will let people down sometime? Yes
Does that stop me from living my life as an imitation of the life of Christ? No

So long everybody...

Holiday travels/Back to School

After I wrote that last entry, spending hours investigating, searching baseball statistics, and trying to come up with some sort of evaluation process for each of the players in Part 1 (Oh yes, there's more to come!!!), Linds pointed out that I didn't even say anything about life, which is probably way more interesting to people than what I think about the Twins (or so I'm told, it's a way of thinking that I'm still trying to comprehend).

Well, after driving over 1500 miles (according to MapQuest) and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 28-29 hours in the car thanks to less than ideal weather conditions for Parts III and V of the trek, we came up with a path that trumped any of my college road trips.

One of my biggest take-homes from the Christmas season was a hat similar to the one below. Mine's gray with red marks on it, but has the fur and ear flaps nonetheless.



Another article of clothing I now posess (not from a gift, but rather my uncanny ability to smell out a bargain) is this sweatshirt shown below, modeled by yours truly.



School starts again tomorrow. The new topic for the new year....Chemical Compounds and Reactions!!! Get excited, and we hope that there aren't any headlines like this anytime soon in the Tribune...