Mondays with Earl

One of my favorite books is Tuesdays with Morrie, by Mitch Albom. It is a great story of a man who spends every Tuesday with an older mentor and friend. For the past eight or nine years I have been able to enjoy a similar relationship with my good friend, Earl Weaver. Earl and I met at my night job running recreational basketball leagues for the County. We struck an early friendship based upon our mutual interest in basketball, but our interests have grown well beyond sports. Tonight we discussed the President (and our mutual disapproval), the media, recycling used CD's and DVD's, and the need to slow the ball down against Sunrise Land Development. Maybe we don't solve all the world's problems, but I wouldn't miss a Monday with Earl.

Guess Who Dropped By

Kennedy was very excited tonight to see her Nana and Papa, fresh up from New Harmony. My parents stopped by earlier and we all enjoyed Kennedy's talents. Crawling, laughing, talking (her brand of talking anyway), and rolling around on the ground were all on the program. No one complained about our star and I'm sure there will be many encore performances.

Even better, before my parents left, Brant and Kerrin came by so that everyone could see little Madison. What a cutie! While they were here, Madison provided the second act of entertainment. She sighed, tooted, and gave the binkie a good workout. Everyone enjoyed that little one immensely, although Kennedy was a bit curious why her Mama was holding another baby!

Wait Til Next Year

Somehow those words don't seem quite as painful as they have in years past. Life has changed as a Red Sox fan, since the championship of 04'. Suddenly, getting swept out of the playoffs doesn't hurt as much as it might have a couple years ago. I told Tara weeks ago that this team just didn't have the same magic as it did last year. Even though most of the same players were back, there was just something missing (I think most people call it pitching!)from the 05' version of the Sox.

Yesterday's final game encapsulated the entire season for the Red Sox. Somewhat shaky starting pitching, Manny/Big Papi as the only offense, and a depleted bullpen. It was fun to watch the games again this year and our trip to Fenway was awesome, but overall it wasn't the same as last year. Oh well, as has been said many times - Wait Til Next Year.

FSA

So what's the one thing everyone wants to do on a Wednesday evening when the Red Sox are in the Playoffs? If you said speak in front of a room of strangers about the most important event of your life over the past eight years - you win the prize. Tara and I went to an FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) meeting earier this evening. We were asked to share our story about adopting Kennedy to prospective adoptive families. It was a little wierd since last year, at this time, we were in the classes. We saw a few of the same faces from the classes, only this time there were some smaller faces along with them (I think we saw about five couples who received children!). It was neat to have Tara share our story and let everyone know how adopting Kennedy has changed our lives. Even though I didn't say much, I never thought I would be so glad to have the chance to talk in front of strangers.

After the meeting, we went downstairs to look at Kennedy's picture on the Wall of Fame. LDS Family Service has their walls covered with pictures of adopted children. She was so cute and really loved looking at a picture of herself as a baby. It was fun to be back at the agency and to let Kennedy experience some of the joys of being an adopted child.

BTW - the Red Sox lost again and are down 0-2 in the 1st round of the playoffs. I'm glad I didn't stay home to watch it.

Hard at Work

Earlier today Ross and I were preparing for a GPS class he's teaching on Saturday. So, against my will, he and I went geocaching to find some locations for the class to visit. One of the caches led us up into the foothills near the "U". I know the picture isn't great (I don't know what the deal is with our faces!), but all we had was a camera phone. Looks like I have a pretty tough job, huh!