[ Saturday, March 29, 2008 ]
Some interesting videos sent to me during the week...Awareness Test - Amazing!
iRack - Hilarious!
RoboDog - This thing is freakishly Incredible! (esp. the part where it's walking on the ice!)
yam [10:46 AM 0 comments ]
[ Tuesday, March 25, 2008 ]
March MadnessThis blog seems to be turning into more of a sports blog than anything else! Last night Matthew's baseball team won its first game of the season, blowing out the other team 19-3 in only 4 innings, as the game was called due to the 2-hr time limit. The win was capped with a 3-run home run from our big guy (who is also named Matt and has a dad named Brian) when he hit the ball over the fence and smacked the scoreboard! My Matt was 1 for 3 with a bunt single and an RBI ground out. He never touched the ball on defense today in 3 innings of work.
I forgot to mention that over the weekend I watched or listened to lots and lots of basketball since this is March Madness month of the NCAA Mens basketball tournament. I'm so happy that UCLA is going to the Sweet 16 this weekend, although they are making a habit of giving their fans a heart attack at every game! Speaking of that, the Lakers are still in first place in the west in the NBA and giving the LA fans the same treatment, playing some really close games.
On a final sad note, tonight is the funeral of a local Japanese-American boy who passed away last week at the age of only 9 years old. I had heard about Dale Inouye's fight more than a year ago as there were requests sent out for Asian bone marrow donors to help him with his leukemia. His mom was blogging his struggles and asking for prayers to help him out but unfortunately he didn't make it. Interestingly though, the cancer was gone but he died from liver failure, due to the treatment. His family was very active in the community, so they are expecting a huge turnout. I don't know the family (Although, now that I think about it, I think I went to school with his mom and was a close neighbor) but know a few people who will be attending. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family. It touches me because he died on 3/16, which was the same as my wedding date to my late wife who died from cancer on Christmas 2000.
yam [10:27 AM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, March 23, 2008 ]
Happy Easter!
Weekend Update
Going back to Thursday evening, Matthew had his first weekday baseball game. Unfortunately they lost 8-3, although Matthew had a really good game, making more good defensive plays at 2nd base. He was 0-1 with a walk but didn't strike out looking at strike 3 as he has done in the past, so I was happy. He's been the "team leader" for the past week, and wears the black leader jersey during practices, and I think it's really helped his self-confidence.
On Friday we FINALLY finished up that project at work that we've been killing ourselves over for the past several weeks. I was so exhausted from the ordeal that I took the afternoon off and just chilled. I was actually looking to get some new "shoes" for the ride, but the tire store was out of the ones I wanted, so I'll have to go back another day.
In-between lots of baseball practice, we went to the Clippers basketball game on Saturday night at Staples Center, with some free tickets we got from our previous basketball league. Matthew and a handful of kids were lucky enough to participate in "High-5 with the Clippers" and got to stand in the runway to "High-5" the Clippers as they ran out of the locker room onto the floor. They didn't let the parents go down, so I don't have any photos. :-( Matthew said that he got to high-5 Corey Maggette! It's too bad that this was the WORST NBA game I've ever been to. The sorry Clippers are so depleted with injuries and only had 8 players in uniform (and half of those guys were just scrubs!). They lost 83-72 and looked so pathetic.
Getting ready to see the Clippers
Going down to the arena floor
The Clippers at Staples
A Rolls waiting for it's owner outside of Staples
Wow, it's a Lambo!
Today we had a nice quiet Easter at home, which has been the first time in years that we stayed in town. The weather has been really warm the past several days, so it was very nice to just hang out and relax.
Matthew's Easter Goodies!
Coloring Eggs
Easter Egg Hunt!
I Found An Egg!
Easter Dinner Special - Chicken-Fried Lamb Chops w/ Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans
I know, not healthy, but wow, was it good!
yam [10:35 PM 0 comments ]
[ Monday, March 17, 2008 ]
Happy St. Patty's Day!
Tonight we had homemade Reuben sammiches for dinner, made from fresh corned beef that I cooked last night, and fresh coleslaw and Russian dressing that I made tonight. Yum!
yam [10:02 PM 0 comments ] Opening Game
Sunday was Matthew's first "official" baseball game of the season and it was a really exciting way to start! The Cubs got out to a big 5-0 lead in the first. Matthew grounded out but drove in a run. Overall he was 0-2 but made some good plays on defense at second and third base. He got whacked in the leg with a fastball in the top of the 6th (last) inning, cried a bit but stayed in the game and limped to first base to make the bases loaded, when the game was tied 7-7. Unfortunately it was all for naught as the next batter flied out, our runner at third got caught off the bag for a double play and we lost in the bottom of the inning on a wild pitch and throwing error, 7-8. :-(
At least he was able to pick himself up and still make it over to basketball practice after the game for the next hour and a half!
yam [12:05 AM 0 comments ]
[ Saturday, March 15, 2008 ]
Baseball Season Is Back!Today was opening day of the baseball season! Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks, getting ready for the new season.
Warming Up
At Bat During a Practice Game
Picture Day
Holding The Runner On Third
Leading Off Of Second Base
Opening Day... Every Player On The Field
Testing Out His "Golden Arm" In The Throwing Competition
Opening Day Party!
yam [10:48 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, March 09, 2008 ]
Not Over YetThat project at work that has been eating up my precious few brain cells is still going. I had to pull myself away from the office late on Friday because we were still trying to get things done. Lots of very tedious reviewing up to the end of the day and it's going to continue on until next week. *ugh*
Ahh, But This Is Over
After lots of soul-searching and weighing the pros and cons, I decided to resign as Matthew's basketball team coach, and pull him off the team. I knew that it would be the catalyst to break up the team for good (since we had already lost 4 of our 10 players after our winless season) and, it has. It would have been a big struggle to try and find new kids for the team, to deal with the disparity of talent, deal with the varying levels of commitment (which was mixed at best). I figured it would be best to start over and try to find him a new team. So, that's what we're starting to do now. I've begun taking Matthew to a new basketball clinic to keep him sharp, improve his game and hopefully make some new contacts.
And Then There's.... BASEBALL!
Yup. It's that time of the year again (another reason to quit the basketball team) and we're just about to get into the full swing of baseball season. Matthew's new team has been practicing twice a week for a few weeks now and have played two pre-season games already. There go our weekends for the next 2 months! At least the weather was great this weekend for his second game (he went 1 for 3). But we were at the baseball field for about 4-1/2 hours (including team photos). *sigh*
More Sports
OK, to end my entry, I gotta do my shout-outs to the Lakers and Bruins who are both playing some awesome basketball. It's so much fun to root for my teams and they both have great shots at winning a championship!
p.s. Thanks for all of the welcome backs!
yam [10:30 PM 0 comments ]
[ Sunday, March 02, 2008 ]
So, Where Have I Been?Still here, still around. Nothing much has changed, but it's just been an incredibly busy stretch of time since I last blogged regularly. Oh, and before you ask, no, I'm not married yet, and no we don't have a date set yet. But it will happen sometime in the future.
Let me try to give you a brief summary of what's been going on:
December - Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, coaching basketball practices and games, Matthew's school band and holiday concerts, and a Winter Break trip to Vegas pretty much wiped out the whole month. But I'm not complaining as it was a great time!
January through February has been the busiest I've ever been at work in the 10+ years that I've worked there and hopefully it will finally ease off later this week after we're done with our most recent project.
In January I bought a new computer and had all sorts of issues with it, including transferring data from my old computer to the new one, installation problems with my Treo and iPod, improperly formatted hard drive from the company, non-functional card reader and miscellaneous other software installation problems that took me off-line for about 3 weeks.
We had a very rough basketball season from December through February and we finished 0-10. We were mistakenly placed into the wrong division for our level of play and we couldn't get the error corrected. With all of the practices, games (way out in Orange County), team meetings etc., we couldn't put it all together. We are on the verge of disbanding our team so I'm trying to find other alternatives for Matthew to continue playing hoops.
Along with basketball in February, Matthew has started baseball season (including two practices a week) and today we had our first full uniform practice game. Matthew and the team didn't do so great, but hopefully we got out all the jitters and mistakes before the season starts in 2 weeks.
Also in February, in addition to all of Matthew's sports activities, we also went to a Super Bowl party, three birthday parties, and I had a romantic Valentine's weekend!
So, that's where I've been.
Hopefully I can get back to some blogging again shortly.
Out.
yam [8:50 PM 0 comments ]
