World Baseball Classic

I see from this morning's paper that it will be Japan vs. South Korea in the World Baseball Classic. But honestly, I haven't cared a bit. I caught a few innings of a Netherlands/DR game at the hospital 2 weeks ago while my wife and I were waiting for the baby to be brought back to the room after some tests and that was it.

WBC = one big giant yawn from this baseball fan.

Honestly, the real World Baseball Classic is in October. Its called the MLB post-season and culminates in the WORLD Series. The best players from around the globe are represented...they make up the rosters of the teams that play. Why try to create a spring marketing tournament where players can get injured playing for NOTHING. It is time MLB calls this fiasco off. Let spring training be spring training and let April bring us "Play Ball!" and summer bring us to exciting afternoon and evening games and October bring us another fall classic.

Life-long Readers

My oldest son and embarked on a journey a couple of weeks ago. Instead of the usual nightly reading of a books that were short, wherein we could read 3-4 entire books each night, he opted to start a much longer chapter book, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, and so each night we would read a chapter or two until last night when we finally finished the book. The challenge for him was to remember where the story left off and pick it up again the next night, sometimes with major cliff-hangers. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience (and of course, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing a love of books with my son). Our middle son would join in too on several nights, though he's not quite ready for stories that don't end right away. So after we would finish reading a part of the Peter Pan, I would usually read a short book or two with him as well.
Last night my oldest was so thrilled to have actually finished the book that he immediately wanted to start another long one. He dashed off to his room and retrieved another classic from his bookshelf, this time Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. We embark on our journey to 12th century England tonight!

Upon a Porch

An aging bulb flickers, then lights,
As it does on many summer nights,
Several moths come in to sight,
Attracted to the weak porch light.

The rhythm of a metallic creak,
Accompanied by occasional squeak,
Provided by the porch swing chain,
As it swings with nary a strain.

Forward, back, and forward again,
The swing returns to where it has been,
As cicadas buzz, and bull frogs croak,
A breeze rustles branches of a nearby oak.

Evening cool gentles the scene,
Darkness falls upon the green,
The porch is now the perfect nook,
Time again to crack open the book.

March Madness

Congrats to the UNI Panthers! My alma mater is back in the big dance this year! Go Panthers. Now we have to wait a whole week until they release the brackets to see which team they'll have a shot a upsetting in round one!

My Three Sons

Call me Fred MacMurray...I've got three sons. As of 6:53PM Friday, our third son, Trey, and what better date of birth for third child, named TREY, to be born on 03/06/09! GOD IS GREAT! Mother and son both doing fine.