Had another practice last night. Went much better this time... more organized with better hitting and fielding all around. I wish we had a few more practices before the season starts, but we don't. First game is next Thursday night.
The running around didn't bother me at all this time, but I didn't really stretch before starting and playing shortstop (or the infield in general) you crouch down to get ready and end up springing to your left or right depending on where the ball goes. Well, springing my weight suddenly and often wasn't something my quads in my thighs were used to doing, so the lactic acid is really taking it's toll today. The fronts of my thighs feel like they're locked up tight. I'll probably try to go walking tonight or hit the bike to loosen them back up. Been a fun day at work though going up and down the stairs.
Needless to say, if this league does nothing else it'll help get me into a little better shape, right?
Mom flies in tomorrow morning. We're picking her up a little after noon. And at 9am we have our termite booster for the house... supposed to take a couple hours she said. As much as that costs, it's not even close to the cost of putting a bond back on the house if we let it lapse, so you do what you have to I suppose.
I think we're heading to Charleston with my Mom tomorrow since she's never seen the city. It'll be all kinds of cheesy touristy, but I guess that's something everyone visiting the state has to do at some point. Besides, look at it this way... it could be worse and it could be Myrtle Beach.
Woo... time to go home. You have to love 4 day weekends.
Man, what a long weekend. Up until 2am Friday for some reason. Then I got up at 5:30 that morning when my brother got into town. Guess I should't complain about a lack of sleep when he drove straight through from Michigan and didn't sleep at all. Then we were out late Saturday night after dinner. Needless to say, I slept pretty well last night.
Brian and Tasha are in town for the week. Christina and I still have to work Monday through Thursday. We're taking Friday off though because my Mom is flying down then. Brian and Tasha are taking off Sunday, but my Mom will be here until the following Thursday. Odd how the timing of days off work ended up for everyone, but there'll be a couple days with all of them here.
Anyone else have picks on the NCAA tourney? I was doing okay... 27-5 in the first round of 32 games. But I only went 9-7 in the second round. That's not terrible unless you look at my bracket and see that I had Kentucky (lost to UAB last night) going all the way to the final game and Miss. State (lost to Xavier) playing them in that game with Kentucky winning. So, I'm completely out of the last round of points. But at least picking Kentucky isn't going to hurt that much... lots of people did that and were killed when they lost.
Nothing's more fun than finding out how out of shape you are. /sarcasm
I'm in a softball league and our first practice was last night. Lots of running around. Playing shortstop so far and I tell you want, it's infinitely harder to throw a softball than a baseball. I actually don't like softball that much, but since you don't find baseball leagues out there, it's the next best thing I suppose. However, when you spend your whole life playing baseball and throwing a baseball with your thumb on the bottom and your index and middle finger split on the top, throwing a softball is something that must be learned. I feel like I'm throwing a basketball or something... throwing with my entire hand.
Anyway, it should be a lot of fun. We're not in the most competitive league and it's coed so it's not like we're going to end up on ESPN or something. In fact, going out for beers after the games seems like a goal that's a close second to actually winning.
However, after last night I am pretty sore. Not just the running, but hitting 30-40 times in batting practice twists your lower back in ways that haven't been used since I last played ball 9 years ago in high school. Then there's the diving for grounders up the middle.
Speaking of diving and sliding, I'm probably going to need to get some pants and cleats for this league. Instead of tearing up all of my jeans and falling down sliding as I round a base in tennis shoes.
Even with that, the ball will still be too big, the basepaths too short, and the pitches too slow. Such is softball though.
Yes, I'm wearing green today. And I think we're going to go to Delany's (an Irish pub we go to a lot) for lunch. How's that for cheesy? All I need is some green beer and the day is complete!
We took this morning off to go contest our property tax reassessment. The county reassesses property values every 5 years and ours increased just shy of 20%. Since they appraised it 3-4K higher than what we paid, we got them to lower the tax value to the actual market value. The guy was nice about it and everything, even if he was a Clemson fan. Bah.
Also, yesterday was the first day for Matt, the new guy working with us. This is a great thing since he'll be doing a lot of user support and therefore taking a little of that off my shoulders. Which is good since my job is going to be reworked to be taking care of servers more than user support. We're at 6 servers now (3 Netware, 3 Windows) and we're adding 2 Windows servers right now and possibly ending up with 3 or 4 more after that. On top of that, my boss is talking about finally getting some money for professional development and training for an MCSE in Windows Server 2003. Which means lots of studying... something I thought was over once I graduated.
Here's a picture of the new rack (mostly empty right now) in our server room:
Sorry about the quality of the picture, it's from my cell phone and there's really low light in that room.
Went out to the Vista Friday night with a few friends and saw the Blue Dogs at Sundance. Good band I suppose. Kind of mostly rock with a bit of country mixed in. It's so hard to classify bands these days. They had a good sound though, that's all that matters.
The last couple of days have been the tale of two weekends.
Saturday was horribly lazy. Sat around watching some basketball (damn Wildcats) and didn't do much else. However, Sunday, I scalped the lawn with the mower to get rid of all the fuzzy growth on top of the Bermuda. That'll give the new, younger shoots some sunlight and air. I started to bag the clippings since I knew there was a lot of thatch and growth on top, but the bag had to be emptied every row. After 3/4ths of the backyard, that got old. The rest was just mowed using the recycle insert.
Anyway, after that I put down some 10-10-10 fertilizer. Nothing that turns your lawn instantly green overnight.. just a nice base fertilizer. Also sprayed our shrubs again for whiteflies... which keep coming back. I also watered the lawn after the fertilizer and washed and polished the truck.
The whole time I'm working outside, Christina did laundry and vaccuumed inside.
For the first time since my senior year of high school I have a pair of glasses. Scary, eh?
Now don't get me wrong... they're not daily wear. I got them for nights or weekends when I want to give my eyes a break from contacts. Since my health insurance picks up the eye exam and frames I figured why not, right?
Went out last night to introduce our friend Dave to a girl that worked with Christina for a week before she had to leave for another job. She didn't show, but the three of us had a good time out at the Saucer.
My beer record is a little off now. They're missing a day with 3 on the 20th of February. Oh well...
Ever have those days where you just don't want to be at work?
Our building hasn't kicked on their AC yet and it's 80 something outside. Feels even hotter inside and it's starting to feel oppressive. Is it 4:30 yet?
No, not the lottery... wouldn't that be nice though? Christina and I hit Flying Saucer last night for 93.5FM's Tuesday night music club event. They were giving away Finger Eleven CDs since that band was playing in the Vista later that night.
They give you a ticket before it starts and then they play the band's entire album and stop inbetween a few tracks to draw 2-3 tickets. We actually have pretty good history at these things... 2 for 3 if I remember right. Christina won a few years back when they held it at another bar we used to go to on Thursday nights.
Anyway, so I got a Finger Eleven CD (or a voucher for one since the CDs didn't show up - I have to go to the station to get one), a headshot of the band signed by the two members who were there, and a 93.5FM tshirt. They also had the stripper there from one of the local clubs who does their voiceovers for their morning show on the radio. She was pretty nice.. signing tshirts of the winners too. But I'm not going to write what she signed. She even gave us a couple of free guest passes for where she works!
Finally dumped Cingular. Got tired of dropped calls in my house. The frequency they use is great if I'm right in front of my house, but the minute I go inside it's down to 1 bar of signal strength.
So I went to Circuit City and they had a $130 Verizon picture phone for free after a $130 rebate with a two-year contract. The signal quality is a lot better with the new phone and the built in camera is fun. Not the best quality photos, but still pretty cool.
