Coffee and Bagels at 8

You probably thought I dropped off the face of the earth.  Well, not quite.  I did get hit in the face with a canoe, but that's another story.  Suffice it to say we've met up with a friend we haven't seen in 12 years, spent time with some other friends in downtown Chicago and then I spent a week at Scout Camp with BDog (Canoe in the eye thing).

More to come later.

BDog's season ended yesterday.  Their team did pretty well in the playoffs and ended up in 3rd place over all.  Not too bad!  They had a 12-6 record for the season and 4-2 in the playoffs.

BDog came along quite nicely during the season.  His skill as a catcher improved a lot.  Matter of fact the coach had him play catcher for 4 innings every playoff game.  He was a little beat up and sore, but he did well.

Here is our annual slideshow that the missus put together.  I think she does a great job.

  Take a look at number 14.  That's our girl!  You can read about her game in this post.

  Our baseball weekend was cut a little short due to severe rain this morning but we still got in 3 games plus the play up game for BDog on Saturday.  We were hoping to play two more games today at 9:00 and 11:30 but we had .51 inches of rain in 20 minutes around 7:30 this morning changing all plans.

  One highlight of the weekend was MJ's first softball game.  Her game started at 1:00 after a quick Subway lunch.  It's pretty neat to see the difference in the boy's and girl's games.  The boys are rather quiet and while they cheer on their teammates, it's a little subdued.  Not the girls.  They have all kinds of cheers for their teammates and the girls are really involved.  Maybe it's the gum...

  MJ had fun.  She batted in the hole (Last) but that didn't stop her.  She struck out in her first at bat but in her second one she hit it pretty hard and made it to first. 

She also got to play in left field (Right next to Short Stop in this league), second base and caught.

  You can tell MJ has been watching her brother.  When in the normal position, she has her right had behind her back so that it's out of the way.  Not that it matters because this is a coach pitch league. 

But when a runner is on base, she got in the catcher's ready position like her big bro does.  Mom got a kick out of that.

  It was a good game all around.  Score wasn't kept so of course both sides one.  ;-)

  I think MJ is really looking forward to the rest of the season.

  Due to our busy baseball weekend, I didn't have a chance to run on Saturday.  I really wanted to get one in this morning before our early 9:00 game so I got up around 6:30 ready to go.  When I stepped outside, I saw some clouds to the North and thought I better check weather.com before going for a run.  I'm glad I did.

  Turns out a serve thunderstorm was barreling down on us.  In looking at the Warning Updates, it was scheduled to hit some towns to the west of us in about 30 minutes.  I was planning on 6 miles but I cut that back to 4 so I could get it in before the rain.

  As I was running, I kept looking to the West but the clouds didn't seem too threatening.  Even so, I ran faster than I've run all season pushing a 8:09 pace over the 4 miles.  Not too bad and it actually felt good. 

  I finished the run at 7:03 and as I was doing my cool down, it started to sprinkle.  I hurried home and the skies opened up at 7:10.  Over the next 20 minutes, we received .51 inches of rain and wind gusts over 50 mph.  It was a pretty violent storm and woke up the rest of the family.  Of course the missus knew I was our running but didn't know I was back.  She was a little concerned until she came down and saw I was ok.

  I guess being pushed is a good way to get a good time on a run but I don't know if I want to cut it that close again.  The storms around here can get pretty strong and it wouldn't be cool to be caught out in them.

  We're in the midst of our busiest baseball weekend of the year.  BDog had a game Friday night, Saturday morning, and two on Sunday morning.  MJ had her first softball game Saturday afternoon.

  So why not make it more interesting?  BDog is in the Major League for in-house 11 & 12 yr olds.  The Pony League White Sox were short handed for a Saturday night game and they are allowed to have someone play up from the league below them.  We actually know the coach and his son on the team and they called BDog when we got home from MJ's softball game.  He originally said no because of his double header today but I told him that playing under the lights might be cool and it would be a good experience to play with the older kids.  So he said yes.

  Game started at 7:00.  Some of those kids were bigger than me!  The age was 13 -15 yr olds and you can tell some hit their growth spurts early.  BDog was a little psyched out but his teammates were great in encouraging him.  (I've always love it when older kids work with younger ones like that)

  BDog started in left field.  Of course the first hit was to him.  He took a step in then realized it was over his head and back peddaled.  He did a good job of getting to the ball and throwing it in quickly.  Whew, that's done.

  He ended up playing left and center for a few innings as well as second.  He did great at second!  The first grounder to him he bobbled but he was able to get the runner out at first.  Once he settled in he made some good plays including one that had all of the parents cheering for him.  It was a quick hit to his left and he didn't have to dive but it was a good reach which he made and then threw true to first.  It was fun to watch him out there.  He seemed to be more involved in the game and knew what to do with every ball that came his was.  He was IN the game.  We asked him about that and he said he didn't want to look like a fool to the older kids so he was trying hard to play well.

  He did ok at the plate as well but those pitches were coming in fast.  He walked twice and struck out three times.  The last two strike outs he was fouling the ball off so he was starting to catch up to it.  Just couldn't quite straighten it out.  That's ok.  He did good out there and without him the team would need forfit.  They still played with 8 players but they got it done.

  I asked him if he was having fun and he said "Yes!"  He was pretty nervous to start but once he made a few plays and had a few at bats, he settled in and played a good game.

  As we were walking away from the field, I turned him around and said "Look around.  You played under the lights."  He had a big grin.  It was a fun night and I bet it will help his confidence going forward.

Today is MJ's Golden Birthday.  She turns 9 on the 9th.  For her birthday, the missus bid on a Cheer Package from our church youth group. 

The group was trying to raise some money to go on a mission trip.  One of the members is a cheer leader and volunteered her services for the auction.  She was thrilled to do a birthday party and brought a friend along to help out.
We had it all planned out.  There is a park across the street and it is the perfect place for parties.  Of course we didn't plan on the rain.  Backup was in our house.  Since we had 10 girls and some small rooms, the cheerleaders split them up.
The girls learned a few cheers (Go Vikings) and a dance routine.  By the end of the cheer part, the storm broke so they took the party outside.  I'm sure people driving by were trying to figure out what the Cheer Clinic was all about.
After a quick jump through the splash park (Because they weren't wet enough) they all came inside for presents (Heavy Heavy) and cake.
Dad was nice enough to provide the trick candles and then had to finally put them out himself.
All in all it was a great day.  Happy Birthday MJ!

I've stumbled across a few different articles of the Congressional Medal Of Honor.  The first is an article by Robert Kaplan called No Greater Honor which honors Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith.

Just a few days ago President Bush awarded the CMH to the family of Spc. Ross McGinnis.
Please remember the families of these heroes and all our fighting men and women in your prayers.

  We had a great holiday weekend.  As part of our remembering we visited the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall on Saturday. 

I read in the paper that it was going to be nearby and wanted to take our kids.  I was moved by my visit to the original all in DC back in 1986 and this visit was just as moving.  As part of the memorial, they also had a Gold Dog Tag display listing all service men who have died in the service our our country since Vietnam.  Pretty sobering.

  Yesterday was a pool party at our friends house.

The parents didn't go in because it was too cold but that didn't stop the kids!
 
  Today BDog marched in the annual Geneva Memoral Day Parade with his Boy Scout Troop.  The last time he did this it was with his cub scout pack.  Today he was asked to carry a flag and he was pretty solemn about carrying out his duties.

  I hope everyone had a save and wonderful weekend.  Please take a moment to remember our fallen heroes.

  We had a couple of close games this weekend.  On Saturday, BDog's team (White Sox) played the Cubs who are had only one loss and tied for first. 

We were missing two assistant coaches so I filled in as the third base coach.  You gotta remember, I've never called sign or even played baseball with signs so calling plays was all new to me.n  Lucky for me our sign was simple.  If the coach ended with a brush on the left arm, the steal was on.  No brush, no steal.  I think I can handle that.

  This game was tight.  No score after two innings and in the bottom of the third (We were home) we got a run in with a combination of steals and walks. Hey, maybe I can do this!

  Going into the bottom of the 7th the Sox were down 3-2.  Our first batter reached and me being aggressive, sent him on the first pitch.  Of course the catcher had a one in a hundred throw and threw our guy out.  Ugh.  I didn't like that but what can you do? 

Our next guy reached first and I figured I should send him anyway because the catcher can't make that throw again.  Or can he?

  He didn't. So we had a guy on second who I promptly send to third.  He made it and with our batter walking, we had 'em on the corners.  There was a passed ball and I sent the guy on third home.  He scored and our runner on first reached second.  Tied game. 

  A couple of pitchers later, I sent our runner from second and he made it to third but the throw from the catcher was wide and got passed the third baseman.  It's been a long time since I've jumped up and down like that yelling for our runner to go in.  He broke for home and scored.  Sox WIN!

  Everyone was jumping around like we just won the championship.  We settled our team down and lined them up for the hand shakes.  It was a good feeling.

  Today's game was similar but there were a few more runs.  We won 16-15 but again we came from behind and scored the last run to end the game.

  BDog got to pitch this game in the third.  He kept the ball in the strike zone but gave up a bunch of hits.  Basically in the holes.  It wasn't really his fault.  The problem he has is that he takes a long time on the stretch.

  When a runner is on base, he can get half way to second before the pitch even leaves BDog's hand.  So the Marlins batted around on him.  He was pulled after giving up 5 runs and I told him after that I'd rather see him throwing pitches that kids are hitting than walking everyone.

  He did a great job at the plate today with a couple of good hits and he scored as well.  It was a good game and the win made it nicer.
  On to our next game tomorrow night.