We've Moved!!!

I have moved my blog. If you did not receive an email it is because I might not have your email address. So here is a link to the new site:

Running Roundup (Week 2)

It has been a good week but I am having to slow down because my shins are starting to hurt. I think it is because I have been running in my neighborhood on the concrete. Next week I will be able to run on our track. Today I just walked almost 3 miles and tomorrow I will probably walk as well. I just don't want to lose the momentum I have started.

Anyway, here's the update on my goal. With 15 days remaining, I have run 23.4 miles. This puts me 12 miles ahead of where I should be. I guess after tomorrow I will set a new goal.

What If?

If you have been watching sports or even news at all, I am sure you have heard about the "Big 3" Commissioners of sports. Let's play a game of what if...

1. What if you were Bud Selig? Would you attend Barry Bond's games until he broke the record? Would you participate in any on-field activities?

2. What if you were David Stern? How would you handle the Tim Donaghy situation?

3. What if you were Roger Goodell? Would you do more than tell Mike Vick to stay home from team camp? If found guilty, what punishment would you hand out?

So, what if you were these guys, what would you do?

Friek Accident

Our local baseball team, the Tulsa Drillers, lost a member of their family last night in a friek accident. Hitting coach Mike Coolbaugh was hit in the head with a line drive last night in Little Rock. Witnesses say he barely had time to move out of the way when the ball caught him right in the temple and dropped him. When medical personnel arrived he was not breathing and he was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after. Coach Coolbaugh was 35, married with 2 children and one on the way. Read more about this tragedy here.

I am amazed that stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Maybe not with the coaches but the pitchers. I assure you I will pay more attention when I am in the coaches box now.

Oh Yes I Did!

I got the new Harry Potter book last night at midnight. I went to Wal-Mart around 9:00 to get a bracelet to guarantee me a book and then went back at midnight to get my book. I was amazing how many people were there waiting to get their book. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the front and get my copy. I hope it was worth it. Stay tuned.

What amazed me though was the people waiting in line at 9 when I got there for my bracelet. These people already have their bracelet but they were waiting for the book. Some were reading, others were watching a movie (Polar Express...not sure why they weren't showing Harry Potter), or just talking. When I was in line last night, one the employees mentioned that people had been waiting since 5:00 to get their bracelet. Wal-Mart didn't start handing those out until 8:00.

What possesses people to stand in lines for hours?

Back, Back, Back....

That one is gone!!!!! I thought of Chris Berman tonight from the homerun derby as the Team Park Plaza hit 3 homeruns in our nightcap.

I have been playing summer league softball with my church team and things have been up and down. We either hit well or have solid defense, rarely do we have both. I would like to challege Team Laurel to a game (to bad we have that major distance Jim).

I have been hitting quite well in fact I can only think of about 3 times that I have not gotten a hit to be on base. Tonight was a first though, tonight I hit my first over the fence homerun!!!! Unfortunately in our league they don't let you round the bases, so I didn't get to do my homerun trot that I have practiced for so many years. You may say big deal, a homerun. Let me lay this out for you. I started playing softball at Harding as a freshman in 1994. I have played ever year since then save 2 summers. Tonight was the first homrun!!! I also realized that in our doubleheader, I hit for the cycle. One single, one double, 2 triples and a homerun. What fun.

Now tonight was our first game in three weeks because of rain. I needed that time off because I was heading for the DL. Here's what happened and it's okay to laugh. My first night to play I hit a ball that allowed me stretch the hit into a triple. I thought that there would be a play at the bag so I slid. Now, if you know me at all you know I like to slide head first and did quite often in college. I am not sure what possessed me to do it this night but for some reason I felt young. I slid safely, but I knocked the wind out of me something major. The last time I tried to slide I was not as fat as I am now. I also bruised my ribs real bad. Needless to say, I will not be sliding anymore in the future. I will just get out!

Running Roundup (Week 1)

Well it hasn't been a full week since I started my goals, although it has been over a week since I started running. Last Friday and Saturday, I was able to run a full mile without stopping. That probably doesn't sound like much but when you are fat and out of shape it's a start. This week I raised my distance to 2 miles and hope that by the end of next week I'll be running that distance without stopping.

Here is my goal update. I started these goals last Friday. Remember my first goal is 25 miles in 4 weeks. I have run 7.4 miles which is 2.5 miles ahead of schedule with 23 days remaining.

My second goal has already been obliterated. I set the goal to burn 900 calories in 4 weeks. I have already burned over 1100. So I probably will not reset that goal, although I could up the amount, I'll just stick to the distance.

Daily Trivia

I got this idea from a friend of mine, Richard. He set this up on his blog and I have joined. I thought it would be fun for some of my following to have a little tournament to participate in. It is very simple, click on the link to the right and sign up (it's free). Each day has a new category with about 10 questions. It will keep a running tally of who is winning. The tournament starts today and each week I will change the categories, varying difficulty.

The tournament will run for 30 days. So you have until August 15 to win. A prize will be rewarded!

Are You Kidding Me?

What's with the crazy stuff that ESPN shows at times on their channels? Don't get me wrong, I love ESPN and don't know what I would do without it. But, is there really nothing better to show than some of things they show? We have all seen the Scripps Spelling Bee. And I am sure we have all seen highlights (I have never watched) the hot dog eating contest. But today, I flipped over there and saw the Rock, Paper, Scissor League Championships (check out this story)

Are you kidding me? Is that really considered a sport of any kind? Can any of you really argue that it should be on television? Can you even argue that this "league" should even exist?

Nike + iPod

I don't know if you have heard of this before but Nike and Apple have joined forces to make running shoes. I recently learned about it and since I have started, this week, running on a consistent basis (I know can 4 days straight be considered consistent?) I decided I needed a pair of these shoes. Here's how it works. You buy a sensor that goes into the sole of your shoes, of course, you must have certain shoes made by Nike noted with a + sign. You also with the same sensor purchase receive a receiver that attaches to your iPod nano. The sensor sends data to your iPod telling you how long your have run, how far your have run, and your pace for a mile. When you are done with your run it will also tell you how many calories your burned. At various times throughout your run a female voice (male voice if your prefer) comes on and updates you on how you are doing. Now you can set perimeters for your run (i.e. distance, time, calories) and the little voice will let you know when you have completed your perimeter. Once you are done you can download your information to the Nike Plus website and it will keep a record of your progress.

One this website you can set goals for yourself and even challenge other people. I got my shoes today and already ran with them. I must say...I AM OUT OF SHAPE!!!!! I won't tell you all of my stats except to say I can't even run a complete mile without walking a little. I hope that will change in the coming days and weeks. My goal is to lose some weight and get in shape. After two years of coaching, I hate the fact that I am not in shape and I coach.

So, I plan to keep my faithful listeners up to date on my progress. Every Wednesday I will update you. Here are my goals for right now:

1. Run 25 miles in 4 weeks

2. Burn 900 calories in 4 weeks

Sooner Nation

The talk around this area is the Sooners. Not the upcoming season so much as the 2005 season. Many of you remember this past year two of their players being kicked off the team because they were paid for work that they did not do. One of those players being Rhett Bomar. Now I guess the Oklahoma Sooners are receiving major sanctions from the NCAA.

What are your thoughts about the punishment or the act that caused the punishment?

What Are You Worth?

I found this website on Mark Elrod's Lame-O Weblog asking "What you are worth if you were for sale." I was worth $1,991,570. Wendy was worth $2,257,570. (There was one question that asked for my face the jury value, I guessed because I did not want to sign up for a dating service.)

Take the quiz and let me know what you are worth.

Also, on this little quiz you are asked How dumb you are according to Am I Dumb.com. I am smarter than 57.11% of the population. Wendy was smarter than 72.07% of the population. I missed some that I realized when Wendy was taking it so I have retaken it and now am smarter than 78.48% smarter.

How much are you worth? How dumb are you?

We're Home Again!

Well we made it back home from vacation on Sunday night. We had a great time. It is always fun to get together with Dawg and his family. We didn't actually do a whole lot but just being with friends was fun enough. Schlitterbahn was a blast and the girls loved it. The girls all went to see Disney's Ratatouille. Time always seems to fly when you are on vacation. I could have spent another several days with the Dawg but had to come home.

Why you might ask? Well yesterday morning Bentley had surgery. Now it was not anything major but it is still considered surgery at the hospital. Her tear ducts had not opened and so they had to go in and open them up for her. Pretty common procedure that took all of 10 minutes. In fact, within 20 minutes of leaving her we were back with her in recovery trying to calm her down. All went well!