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| Played a double header of softball today... Game 1 had plenty of energy despite getting killed by a trainer at the gym during the "warmup" We're hitting in the bottom of the 5th (not sure on the inning...) 2 outs, down by 1, I'm up. I hit a ball into the right center field gap that rolls to the fence. As I'm huffing a puffing around the bases knowing that I'm the go ahead run it dawns on me, just few years ago I'd be at home without a throw! I get to third, take a wide turn, and when the throw comes in it gets bye the catcher and I make a mad dash for home and score the go ahead run. We end up in extra innings tied going into the bottom of the inning. We have a guy on 2nd with 1 out. I'm up and hit the ugliest cue shot out to the edge of the infield that the second baseman can quite get to. The ball trickles into the outfield and as he chases it down I figure maybe I can get in a run down and get the runner home. The 2nd baseman picks it up throws to the 1B and I do my best to jump over the ball as it is coming in from the OF, just enough to distract him to miss it and allow the winning run to score. Another sign of my age when I resort to chicanery. Would have been so much easier to just hit a clean single! By game 2, I'm not worth a flip, 0-3 in my first three AB and I misplay a ball in LCF that goes for a grandslam. Fortunately, we hit like crazy and won by 14. So.... was I sucking wind b/c I forgot to eat dinner and worked out before the game or am i just over the hill  | | |
| For the first time in 3 tries I actually made it out of the juror assembly room! I was actually quite excited by the fact that I would at least get to see the inside of a courtroom.
I left around 7 to get downtown by 8am. My first drive on the newly widened I-10. It was busy, but we were close to the speed limit all the way into town. (same experience coming home @5ish) Unbelievable!
Suffice it to say, I got there around 7:45 and was disappointed to learn that the "real" cutoff time is 8:30. You get "locked in" for 30 minutes to say an oath and then the people in charge hand out courtroom assignments. (Man, I could have used the extra 30 minutes of sleep!)
15 minutes after the first groups were called away, my number came up! Off we were to the Harris County District court #208.
Right up front, I learned that the case was a Capital Murder Case. Immediately I started thinking.... "could I actually send someone to Death Row?" I've always believed in Capital Punishment.... until this morning when faced with the possibility that I may need to decide the fate of the defendant. Man, my heart started racing a bit. I've seen enough "lawyer" shows on TV to know that someone would probably ask about my ability to send someone to the death chamber. Fortunately a few minutes later we found out that the state was only seeking life w/o the chance for parole, which I could do with no problem. I'll have to wrestle with the death row issue some other time.
After 2 hours with the judge asking us questions like our knowledge of the court system, simple legalese, and our relatives, etc... we broke for lunch and then each of the attorney's did the same.
I didn't really say much and started to think I might actually get picked even though I was #49 out of 65 and you really only need 12 people and each side can only strike 10 people each for no real reason.
When the time came to find out if I made the "cut" I was really hoping that my number would come up. When the second juror was in the 17-20 range, I started to think I had a real chance. Ultimately, I didn't get into the juror box.
Maybe next time!
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| After our annual New Year's Day family lunch with Julie's side of the family, Julie's sister's family and us decided to go to Fry's Electronics. We got there first and Jenny and Doug parked a few spaces closer to the store. While we waited at Jenny's car they returned some pots and pans we had left at their house over Thanksgiving. I took the pots and pans back to our car and when I got back they were still unpiling out of the car. Kyle wasn't out of the car yet and Doug and Julie and my kids start heading to the store and I hang back a bit to help with Kyle. As Jenny, Kyle and I are walking in to catch up to the others, one of our friends from the neighborhood pulls up to me with this bewildered look on her face. I inadvertantly added to her confusion when I said in surprise(as I always do when I run into someone I know across town) "Weird running into you guys down here..." The wife then quickly asked where's Julie and I casually pointed towards the store. When we all gathered in the store the wife shared that she thought I was leading a double life with another family in Sugar Land. She was freaking out that she'd have to tell Julie that I had another family on New Years Day! Haha! | | |
| 10) You think you've made it big because, Sting, Ted Nugent and Ozzy Osbourne are in your band.
9) Your music is never loud enough
8) Calf cramps
7) You're motivated to work out so you can look as good as the "rocker" you created.
6) Strummer's elbow and a sore forearm.
5) Weird callouses on your finger tips.
4) You look for rock stations on the FM dial.
3) Your disillusioned into thinking "How hard could it be to play a guitar with strings?"
2) Your 4 year old kid singing Bon Jovi songs from the 80/90's....
1) You realize what your kids want to grow up to look like... A really large guy with red skin. Yes, Noah created his rocker to have bright red skin.
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| Each year the Woodlands YMCA hosts a Dragonboat competition that my company participates in. There are a variety of games like dodge ball, human foosball and the main event of Dragon boat racing.
Dragon boat rowing is probably the most strenuous activity I've ever been involved in. If you've never rowed as hard as you can for 2 minutes, go rent a canoe and try it. Every year I do this thinking, I'm never going to do it again. My heart literally feels like it is going to leap out of my chest. One of my buddies wore a heart monitor and he was pumping over 180 beats per minute. Beyond that, my poor technique also causes me to cramp up at the end of each heat. We learned that you are supposed to use your back muscles and for 4 years I've been using my arms and pecs. The cramps in my side are so severe that I feel like I'm having a heart attack from the sheer pain of it all. (The first year I thought I was actually having a heart attack...)
Here are a couple of shots from this years event. The second one is of me playing goalie. Nice hip action but not quite wide enough. (Noah took this picture, pretty good for a 4 year old.) 
 The small world story is that there was a little boy playing dodge ball with our kids (the blonde kid in green). Turns out HE's on Noah's T-ball team. I was talking to his dad the other day and he mentioned he worked for Apache. Apache happens to be one of the best rowing teams in the competition and I randomly asked him, you ever "dragon boated?" Sure enough Rob participated this year and his wife and kids were out there. So I dug up the pictures from this year's event and sure enough there's Noah's teammate..
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