-izzys new dress-

Chloe decided that she HAD TO buy this for Izzy. goodtimes.

-THE d-bag. a follow up-

another story of someone being exposed. someone "apologizing"...but then blaming an addiction. so..."im sorry. but its not my fault. so i guess im really not sorry. im the victim here."

-flying by-

this month has gone by so quick. i called in to jury duty to see if i had to report next week. my service is over! woo hoo. 4 months of jury duty and i didnt have to go in once. not a once. i got called in for 2 trials, but both of them settled the day before. so...round 2 with jury duty is over. hopefully my name is never again drawn.

this week has been way too long. im so glad tomorrow is finally friday.

my mom, mandra and i are taking the wee ones up to valleyfair on saturday. should be fun. gonna try to get a softball practice in at some point too since fall ball starts on thursday. i was asked to play in a big softball tourny this saturday. $1000 for 1st place i guess...but...valleyfair. wish i could play.

im blabbing.

-vintage-

with fallball coming up in the next two weeks here we tried to arrange a softball practice for yesterday. as usual we had a turnout of 3. me, rick and phil. (the usual 3) in the middle of practice we were approached and asked to play in a baseball game. the st peter team happened to be short by 3 players. turns out it was a vintage baseball game. so all the rules and uniforms were taken out of the 1860's. (i think i twittered 1840's...i was wrong its the 1860's) the rules are drastically different in a few ways. we got about a 5 minute overview of the rules and then played 9 innings. we lost 14-6. but considering the other team plays this style of baseball well over 50 times a year and most of our team was playing for the 1st time ever, i think we did ok. it was kind of fun. different of course, but fun. the team we played has a website here if youre interested in checking out the rules and teams and all.



click here to read the mankato free press story about the game. there are no pics of me here...but in the story i am the "slugger from saint peter" who lines out to the 3rd baseman in the 1st inning.



click here to see the keyc news story about the game. i am in the video. and woo hoo...its the video of me lining out to 3rd base. yup..i am #16. be on your toes, it happens pretty quickly.



also...ive replaced the replacement. i didnt like my new bat. its been a disappointment. the rebound just wasnt as pretty as gunnar. it didnt perform as well as gunnar. it just wasnt as attentive to my needs as gunnar was. i was wrong to expect it to be another gunnar...but i guess thats what rebounds are all about. long story short...i rebought gunnar. i know its not THE gunnar. but its the same bat. so...i choose to call it gunnar. for the sake of the story gunnar was healed suddenly of his brokeness and is now game ready. im expecting big things from the new and improved gunnar. godspeed little fella.

d-bag of the year-

today i would like to introduce a new segment to my blog. im calling it "d-bag of the year". if you need to know what the d stands for...ask your mom or dad. theyll tell you. anyways. i realize its only august...so i should probably wait until the year is over to officially decide on d-bag of the year, but this guy is just the obvoius choice for 2008. many of you are probably thinking im going with george w bush. i am not...he gets d-bag of the decade which disqualifies him from the yearly contest.

(drum roll)

this years d-bag of the year award goes to Pastor Michael Guglielmucci!!! not sure who he is? no worries, i had no idea until i read this news story. michael, you are a d-bag. good luck to ya.

-J Lo-

i didnt think it was possible for me to like jennifer lopez less then i already did...BUT this article changed my mind. i now like her even less. how full of herself can one person be? seriously?

-el champions-

welp...we played in the championship game tonight. first place team (them) against the 2nd place team (us). they beat us last week so we were coming in from the losers bracket...and they were in the winners bracket. what does that mean you may ask?...it means they only have to beat us once tonight and they are the champs. we would have had to beat them twice tonight. long story short, we lost by 1 run. we played terribly for the 1st 2 innings but managed to come back and make it close. i can think of 3 or so big plays right now that guys missed that cost us...and there was 1 terrible call by the ump that hurt us really bad. those 2 things i could do nothing to control...but heres why i am hanging my head. i was 0 for 4. i pulled an 0 for 4 on the last game of the season. the worst game i had had up to this point this season was a 2-4. i honestly dont even remember the last time ive had a game where i didnt get at least 1 hit. its been years. everyone whos been playing with me for a long time commented on how theyve never seen me go hitless. out of all the nights i could go hitless i pick tonight. im our clean up hitter and go 0 for 4 in the championship game and we lose by 1 run. argh! 1 hit from me and its tied or we win. 2 hits we win. all i had to do was have an average pablo night and we win. just average. even a slightly below average night and we probably win. but i go 0 for 4. god, i feel bad about this one.

at some point i will realize that its just softball...but for tonight...im pouting.

-just now-

"look what i just found in my car", said my mom.

"what?", asked chloe.

"your dirty underwear, with a streak", replied my mom.

chloe quickly replied, "thats not a streak gramma, thats poop".

-minneopa-

-blue eyes-

-slower please-

its turned out to be one of those weeks again. yeah..one of those. i took monday off in an effort to just slow things down a little. work has been stressful...the kids have been stressful...im just gonna skip the list and go with this: life has been stressful.

when i get stressed out life feels like its coming at me too fast. something happens...and while im still processing whats happened, something else happens and before i know it im dealing with a whole list of problems. these last 2 or so years have been that to an extreme. just one thing after another until im begging life to just slow down for a little bit, at least let me get caught up. give me a week of sleep and rest and then we can get back into all the problems of the world and what little old me can do to solve them.

long story short, even with monday off, life has not given me that rest. a mistake was made on chloes adoption paperwork. her birthdate was listed as one day earlier than it really is. i did not make this mistake. but its going to cost me $500 to have an attorney fix it. im not even mad at the person who made the mistake. i can see how it was made...to a certain extent anyway. im just mad that the one thing in my life that finally seemed to resolve is now back to feeling unresolved and stressful. back at it i guess. someday, rest.

tomorrow. im selected for a one day jury trial. pablo the juror they call me. i have to call in about a half hour here to see if the case has settled. i hope it settles. part of me wants another day break from work...but a break on a jury? no thanks. im thinking a beach sounds better...or a mountain. im also scheduled for a meeting with a social worker to work out chloe and dylans insurance. since they both came here through foster care they are eligable for county/state help including free full medical and dental coverage. which of course beats my insurance plan by a ton. but...if im on a jury...no meeting...and no phone calls to the lawyer to get this mistake fixed. theres just flat out too much going on that i want to get resolved asap...please settle the frickin case.

before you start calling me "boo hoo pablo"...i am doing just fine. stressed? yes. but i feel lucky in a lot of ways too. and there are things in life that i am enjoying. our church softball team is in the championship game next monday. so we are guaranteed at least 2nd. (with a slight chance to take 1st.) this has been the best softball season ive ever had at the plate. im hitting better than i ever have and it feels good. chloe is growing and learning new things every day. she can just be a blast to spend time with. and i love it.

if life could just slow down a little. just a little. that would be great.

-still sick of it-

last weekend at church the guy filling for dave read a sermon about the signature of god. it started with 2 baseballs. one had nothing on it...so it was used in games...thrown in the dirt...whatever..at the end of the day if the ball was lost or thrown away no one would care. there was another baseball that was locked in a case...why was it locked in a case? cause it was signed by hank aaron. this is a ball that is worth something. it will never be used in a game...never thrown in the dirt...and if it were lost or thrown away...fits would be thrown. anyways. same ball...but one is worth a ton more because of the signature on it.

he went on to say that people are all worth a ton because we are all signed by god. we are all created in his likeness. it was kind of a feel good sermon i guess. but it left me feeling a little weird. there was a point where he suggested that if we cant see the signature of god on people that we are being prideful, arrogant, self righteous, religious, etc.

my thoughts...when a man on a bus looks over at the guy next to him...sees that hes sleeping...pulls out a knife...stabs him repeatedly, beheads him...uses his head to taunt the other terrified passengers...cuts off parts of the dead mans flesh and eats it... ummm. i dont see the signature of god on this man. i just flat out do not. am i being arrogant in saying that? self-righteous?

the dead man was 22...a husband and a father...on his way home from working a carnival. working to support his family, tired enough to sleep on a bus...and he gets stabbed, beheaded and eaten by a stranger. and for what? for nothing. a random act by a psychopath. "mommy when is daddy coming home?"..can you even imagine those conversations? can you even imagine what you would feel? i can hardly even imagine this happening.

i can not doubt creation. but what im wondering now...how far did humanity fall? did we fall far enough to lose that originial signature? cause i do not see it in or on a lot of people. i see it in nature. i see it on newborn babies.. i see it in friends and family. but i do not see it in this kind of violent men. i do not see it in people who harrass a teenage girl and then fracture the skull of the girls father when he stands up for her. i do not see it on 40 year old men who kidnap, rape and kill 5 year old girls. on these men i see a different signature. am i being self-righteous in saying that? am i being arrogant?

-sick of it-

if it wasnt friday today i seriously think i would just have to hang it up for the week. how much can go wrong in one week? how many mistakes can be made? how much blame can be transferred off of the person who made the mistake and onto someone who did nothing wrong? how many irresponsible people can responsible people be forced to take responsibility for? (how many times can you say that last line really fast? i barely made it through the first one.)

i need to stop watching the news too. its just to the point where it makes no sense to me. i love my friends and my family. and even if i genuinely dislike someone i am pleasant with them and would never hurt them physically. where do these people come from? these people who beat strangers with baseball bats. these people who stab, behead and eat parts of a stranger on a bus. these construction workers who beat a man (whos married to a woman) because they apparently thought he was gay. you are that full of hate for other people? are you kidding me? where is it that you come from? or how about the kids who get in a fight at a park and come back later with guns shooting away. who got shot? a 5 month old girl. a baby is playing at the park with her grandma and gets a bullet in her leg because of some... ...honestly, i dont even know what to call them. what are they? and where do they come from? im so sick of the stories. im so sick of knowing that this is the world i am trying to raise kids in. my friends and family are at risk every day because of idiots like this. who will hold these people accountable for their actions?

-my plans and their suckiness-

i usually go to AT LEAST half a dozen twins games a season. before yesterday i had only been to one this season. i decided that that needed to change. so chloe, my mom and i drove up and went to last nights game against the cleveland indians. long story short we left after the 7th inning. thanks for playing your worst game in a long time on the day i decide to come watch. what a boring game. i did eat a lot though. and yes, it was all delicious.

after the game we drove over to maple grove and found our hotel. our coffee maker was broken...out towel rack was falling off of the wall...but other than that it was a nice place. this morning we got up and went to church at 9 am. the let down there? dave was not there. for those of you who dont know dave is the pastor of the church of the open door and his sermons are crazy good. he has a scary way of making you feel like hes talking to you. ive left there at times going "that sermon was all for me...the other 1000 or so people here got nothing out of it". and i know others who have had the same experience. when he is not there church is just average at best. when he is there...it has the potential to be great. but, he was not there.

twins lose. dave is a no show. it was still nice to get away for a little bit though.