it's been a while

since i posted, but things are kind of just shuffling along normally around here. we went to o'charley's last friday, to a church picnic and then organized the garage a bit last saturday and to church on sunday, but the rest of the weekend was pretty much just hanging out.

ut won in amazing fashion on monday nite and the nats got over their 'we didn't make the wildcard' mourning and thumped the marlins for 26 runs as the marlins were in their own 'we didn't make the wildcard' mourning (plus there seems to be a lot of internal strife). thanks to those 3 wins, we'll have at least a non-losing record this year. ah, what could have been.

we're headed to knoxville this afternoon for a good weekend of seeing family. i just finished a really good book (The Last Night of the Yankee Dyansty by Olney) and I've got a couple with me to hopefully get started on this weekend. i've got a paper due for my on-campus class next friday, but i don't really want to start it until i get back. we don't have class this tuesday anyways and the online doctrine class hasn't been a burden yet.

take care and have a great weekend. go nats!

i know when...

the nationals were unofficially, but for all intents and purposes officially out of the race for the nl east and for the wildcard.

on the morning of july 26, the nats were tied with the braves for the nl east lead and were headed to atlanta for a three game series. they lost all three by one run apiece, were 3 games behind atlanta in a matter of days, and - for all intents and purposes - were effectively eliminated from the nl east race.

on three consecutive games beginning on sept. 17, the nats had the lead with two outs in the 9th and only needed one out to secure a win in each game. they lost all three heartbreaking games and are now 5 games behind houston with only 11 left to play. combine those three games with the same only-need-one-more-out loss to atlanta on 9/11 (eek!) and we would be hanging right with houston.

so, we have 77 wins, with 11 games left. my online nationals aquaintances were pointing to 87 wins last week as the number we'd need to get to for a shot at the wildcard. now, 81 wins would give us a 0.500 season, but i'm shooting for 83 wins - the same number we've had 2 out of the last 3 seasons. we've had sooo many close calls this year and it really shows that if we had that little something extra along the whole way we could've had who knows how many more wins. we went 50-31 in the first half. if we do that again in the second half, we have 100 wins. if we just break even in the second half, we have 91 wins.

after watching (or listening on the radio sometimes back in dc) a baseball team everyday for 6 straight months, this offseason is going to be very odd for me. the baseball postseason will provide a way to detox and football will hold my interest somewhat, but i've never had more fun being interested in sports (and that's saying something for me) than this past baseball season. it's really sad that it's coming to an end.

so i think pitchers and catchers report to spring training a couple weeks after the super bowl.

look what i found

wow - pretty wild website.
patent stuff
it looks like a list of almost all (all that are published so far?) of the patent applications i allowed. no comments on the cases, just a data repository kind of site.

good first week back to school

whoops - i didn't mean to let it go a week there. i meant to post after our opening convocation on tuesday when the pres gave a kind of state of the seminary address. it was really good. my first on-campus class at asbury was on tuesday nite and was enjoyable. the prof fully understood what makes evening classes hard and brought snacks. there was a free picnic before class that lindsay and jake came to so i was good to go with food all around.

after class i wasn't able to do much besides wind down and go to bed. on wednesday nite i got my doctrine assignment done for the week and now i just have to respond to my classmates' posts (continue a conversation...) now and thru the weekend. last nite i did half of the reading for the week in my women class and i'll do the other half this weekend. no response to it, just a paper in 3 weeks over the first 3 weeks of materials.

i see that i forgot to recap the labor day weekend of visitors. my dad and his parents were in town and we went out a few times, but we mainly just let jake play with everyone. we cooked out on monday and lindsay (and dad some) made great food all weekend. we'll just say that the weekend was long, but it's always great to see my dad (is that subtle enough? i'd like to be more open and vulnerable in my blog, but you never know who's reading...)

today is my and L's 7th anniversary of the day i first asked her to be my girlfriend. time flies... 3rd anniversary is coming up in two months!

in addition, L's family is coming to visit for the day tmrw - should be great.

oh and ut - uf next weekend! i'm thinking of having some people over for the game. we'll see...

back on my feet

so i went to my post-op check up yesterday and the doc said everything looks good, but don't do any heavy lifting for another 2 weeks or so. he also said one of my gall stones was 1.5 inches big (around? i dunno) and that there's no way it wasn't there in december and that in the december ultrasound they probably just didn't realize that it actually was indeed a gall stone. he's pretty sure that december was the same thing and that it was definitely good to get my gall bladder out. i'm just glad i can bend over and stand up straight again.

the only digestive differences i've noticed is that sometimes it takes longer to digest food and thus i feel fuller longer. i guess this makes sense since i don't have the power punch of the gall bladder anymore to help the digestion. i've been bad and kind of eating whatever and it hasn't really affected me so it looks like i'm doing good on the 'what can you eat?' front.

what a blessing!

i just experienced my first chapel service as a student / staff member at asbury and it was wonderful. i had been once before when on a tour in october 2001, but something about today was special. maybe it was sitting near the back and seeing the 500+ people i was worshipping with in front of me. maybe it was when we had holy communion for every one of us (now that was some interesting logistics - they had the back half go to the back). maybe it was hearing one of my previous professors speak and having her hit many of the key points from our class while reminding us of how we became a community of christians. maybe it was being a part of the community for the first time whereas 4 years ago i was an outsider considering whether to attend this seminary. whatever it was, it was a blessing and i felt my "heart strangely warmed" by the spirit today.