The Latest

We don't really have anything interesting to share right now, but I just wanted to post something or else this blog would officially become "inactive" in my mind......

We haven't been up too much lately, just working and enjoying Fort Worth. We've been trying to get our house and yard in order before the busy summer season gets here. Jennifer has been training for her 1st triathlon (Iron Girl in Irving, July 20th), and I've been trying to help her along with her biking and running (I'm no help with the swimming). That has been fun running and biking together along the Trinity River, especially with the beautiful spring weather.

My sister bought us some outdoor speakers for our backyard, and we finally got those hooked up. Introducing Jennifer to the wonderland that is the attic crawl space made the whole experience worth it. If you've ever done it, you'll appreciate the image of crawling through a superheated space that is a maximum of 30 inches high, with nails pointed at your head from above, fiberglass insulation all around that is irritating your skin, eyes, and nasal passages while trying to balance on the narrow end of widely spaced 2"x6"s. Priceless.

We've also got some family birthdays coming up. My sister Anne is turning 27 on April 26, so we are making the trip to Canyon for her party. Our nephew Sam is turning 1 on May 31, so we will be heading down to Evadale for his party as well. Also, Christina Whitaker (May 7) and Christi Fling (May 31) are having birthdays soon.

It's Sunday afternoon now, and Jennifer is taking a nap. We went to church this morning, and then stopped by Central Market on the way home. We had a great lunch on the back porch. All things considered, life is pretty good right now for us. I hope you can say the same for you.

Softball

Jennifer is on a softball team with our small group, and I am an alternate by default. So far, I've played in both games. We won the first game by a run rule and lost the second by a run rule. Jennifer played in high school, so she has some experience. She was a little rusty the first game, but is really coming on strong now. On the other hand, I haven't played any kind of baseball since elementary school, and I wasn't any good then. Tonight was a pretty rough game......already losing big and about to get the game called by the ump, I led off in the 4th inning. I got on base and had in my mind that I was going to push for extra bases every time since we were so far down. Our next batter hit an infield grounder and was thrown out at first. I made it to 2nd by about the time the short stop was throwing to 1st, so I turned the corner thinking I could make it to 3rd. They had a girl on 1st and I figured there was no way she could get it to the 3rd baseman......well, she did. I was just about there and I heard the 3rd basemen catch the ball. All I could see was the base, and knowing I should have stopped at 2nd, I wanted to justify myself. So I dove.....

I actually made it to the base, but I went to fast and came off the base and got tagged. OUT!!! Double play. And now I have a scrape on my knee, a strawberry on my side, and beat up hand.

Let this be a lesson to you readers out there (if there are any left): don't slide in slow pitch softball. It's not worth it.

Satisfied?

Congrats Coach Lombard

This is pretty amazing. My high school won the Class 3A state championship (again). With the title game, our coach won his 1000th game (and 14th state championship)--and he is only 55 yrs old. He has a winning percentage is almost .920 You can't write a script better than that. You can read a whole article about him here, but for starters just consider these facts:

No team he has coached - two boys or 30 girls - won fewer than 25 games in a season.

His "losingest" season came in 1991-92, when the Lady Eagles lost eight games. That team won his first Class 3A championship.

There have been 17 girls teams in UIL Texas high school history that have recorded unbeaten seasons. Lombard has coached three of those (1984 and 1985 at Nazareth and 1996 at Canyon).

He has won titles in Class B, Class A, Class 3A and Class 4A.

He has a 61-9 record as a boys coach, leading Nazareth to back-to-back state runner-up finishes the two seasons before moving to Canyon High.

In his last two seasons at Naz, Lombard compiled a 129-9 record and coached in four state championship games.

His 2002-2003 Canyon team produced two Division I players and was declared USA Today's national champions.

1-800-555-8355

This is the best thing I've found out about in a while. A FREE number you can call to get all sorts of information. They have news, stocks, weather, but most importantly.....SPORTS! Want to know who won the game but you can't get a hold of your buddies? No problem, just call the info line. Apparently, this service is provided by subsidiary of Microsoft. You can read about it here. Try it out, you won't be disappointed. Did I mention it was free?

Update on Rebecca

At the request of Rebecca, we have decided to dedicate a post to the youngest sister. In honor of this momentous occasion, we created a slideshow to show some pictures of her apartment in Amarillo. After graduating from A&M, Rebecca moved back to Amarillo and got a job managing clinical trials. Being in Amarillo, Rebecca is able to help out with Anne and Will, which is a great situation. We are really proud of her and grateful for her commitment.

B&B in Granbury

We took a weekend trip to Granbury, Texas to celebrate Valentine's Day. It was a nice getaway because its only about 30 min from our house, but we still felt like we were on a vacation. It was a very laid-back trip....we didn't even take our camera. We just looked around in some of the shops on the square in Granbury, then we saw a movie, and went out to Line Camp Steakhouse. At Line Camp I got by far the best steak I've ever had (Line Camp was included in Texas Monthly's recent list of best steakhouses in the state). Even more, it was an interesting experience because the restaurant was 4.5 mi outside of Granbury and then another 2 mi down a county road. Literally in the middle of nowhere. We would not have known about it had our innkeepers not recommended it. If you are ever within 60 miles of Hood County, it is definitely worth the drive for some great food.
Iron Horse Inn was a special place to stay and we definitely enjoyed it. The hosts Bob and Judy do a great job of really giving the guests an authentic bed and breakfast experience. (Disclaimer: my expert opinion is based upon two (2) stays at B&B's). We stayed in the wine cellar room. It was cool.