On three...

This one was a good example of our team's odd ball nature. We were getting set for kickoff of our first game of the year, and had finished the pregame prayer, and we had everybody come in as a team and put their hand in the huddle. Now that I type that, I wonder why do teams do that? It doesn't necessarily help them play better or anything, but just something I thought of just now. Anyhow, at the game, we had 17 kids, so I had 6 substitutes. 15 kids from James Valley, two from Mitchell. So, I said, "Alright guys, lets go out there and have some fun..." and my sweeper, Tyler from Mitchell Christian pipes up, "Ok everyone, Eagles on three!!" A lot of laughter ensued, and then, one of the James Valley kids said, "Ok, Eagles it is!" I just had to chuckle, and let them do it. It is nice to see that there isn't a divide between the kids based on the schools. They have formed some bonds already, and that's made it a lot easier to coach the team.

Soccer. Cold. Sunburn

There is just something about being sunburned on a cloudy day that makes me angry. Isn't the point of a cloud to block the sun? So let me get this right: The sun can't shine through the clouds to make you warm but it can still burn you? I don't like how that works. Once again, I didn't wear sunscreen despite the fact it was overcast, and am sunburned. Thankfully, it's not too bad, but still doesn't make me too happy. If I've got to be cold because of the clouds, there should be no way the sun can still burn you. I'm going to be taking that up with someone here soon, but I don't think God's complaint department is going to take up my issue. Well, we did win our season openers this past weekend. The first team we played was from Mitchell. It was quite fitting since there are a couple kids that play for me that were going to play there, but decided they didn't like the way the program was headed, so came with me instead. We won 8-0, and could have doubled that if we'd have wanted to, but I put a stop to it before it got too out of hand. Still, more than I'd like to put on the board, but not much I can do about it now. It was interesting putting restrictions on some of the kids that could only do this or could only score one way. We never did after I started restricting the older players, but it was nice to get the younger kids in and get them lots of time too. So, we took a break, and played immediately again. Game 2 was ugly. The good old saying is, sometimes you have to find a way to win ugly, and we did. We won 2-0, but played very poorly. It is nice to know now we have some things to work on it practice come Tuesday, before we hit the field again Saturday, for our "home games" in Huron. Will be nice to actually see us get more than 10 fans there, or at least I hope we do.

The big day approaching...

I'm already anxious to get to Saturday! My first games with my team, and I'm really excited about how we've looked after just three practices. I'm looking at this group wishing that we'd be able to keep everyone at the practices that will be playing. Who knows how it's going to turn out for us Saturday, but you never know. Our first game of the year is taking on Mitchell. There happen to be a couple of us that would like to prove superiority, and take that game home, but it's supposed to rain, and you never know, weather could be the great equalizer. We'll find out Saturday!

Soccer!!!

Boy, I'm wound up pretty tight today. We'll be having our first full team practice this afternoon/evening and getting set for our upcoming spring debut. I'm a head coach! I'm really anxious for Saturday, when we make our debut in the East River Soccer League. I'm quite excited because we've brought almost the entire 4th place team from last fall's state tournament, and have added two player who are just as good to the roster from here in Mitchell. It's going to be a great time, I only wish we got a chance to do more games at home in some way. We have an entire road schedule, but one of those "road games" is in Huron, so that's not that bad. So, you'll want to come out and watch our incredibly fast defense play, and see how the offense can respond to that.

Sushi

I had my first expirience with sushi tonight. It's really not bad at all. We found a place here in Portland, and tried it out. The stuff that I liked had cream cheese, cucumber, and salmon, and then the other stuff had something a little more exotic, but not necessarily earth shattering. I'm not going to go out of my way to find it again, but I'll sure eat it next time when the situation arises. Now tomrrow, we head back home. I'm ready to be back, and this weekend, we start spring soccer! I'll wrap up the plans for that tomorrow on the planes back. Not looking forward to the 4:30am wake up, even though it's only 6:30 in real time (central), but when I'm almost used to this time zone, now I'm going back. I'll just be glad to be back home.

Oceanside Supper

(Very similar view as we had for supper tonight)

Well, we finished up work slightly early to day, and took off to the Oregon Coast. We were in Newport, and got a chance to go walk on the beach, and touch the Pacific Ocean. It was a fun time. We got to watch some sea lions, and taste some local foods. The fresh clam chowder was unbeatable, and the seafood platter I got for supper was great. Got to see a cool sunset over the Pacific before taking off back for the hotel here tonight. My hotel is quite interesting too. We are in Corvallis, Oregon, and out my window is the Oregon State University football stadium, and there was a big event there tonight. It's been a fun week, and tomorrow we head back to Portland after we finish work, and we fly back out on Friday Morning. It's going to take all day Friday to get back home, but I'll be ready when I get there.

Planes, Bathrooms, and Polar Bears

Hello from the Pacific Northwest. I’m spending the week working in Portland, Oregon, and will be here through Friday. It is my first trip out to this part of the country, so it’s all brand new to me. Flights were good getting here, and now we settle in for work tomorrow. Got to fly on a fairly large, very full plane. It is a Delta/Northwest 757, and there are a whole bunch of people in here. I’m sure this is the biggest plane I’ve ever been on. I kind of feel ripped off, because I even got to go to Belize in 2004, and that was a smaller plane than this was. Also, got a 3.5 hour layover in Minneapolis, so I got to spend some time watching people. It’s definitely one of my favorite activities, and I get to do it again for 3.5 hours on the return trip. I’m not a fan of layovers, but I do enjoy getting to see the people and just thinking what they must be like. You so many oddly bizarre outfits, goofy shoes, and all kinds of other things. I did come up with a question for lady readers of this little domain, why on earth would you wear high heals to walk through an airport? Actually, let me cut that down. Why do you wear high heals? They cannot possibly be comfortable, and they surely can’t be good for walking in. I cannot for the life of me figure that out.

One other fun activity I did while in the airport was to sit and watch the people going in and out of the bathroom. I’m sure you’re wondering what makes that entertaining, and I’m going to tell you the look on the people’s faces that come out of one, and go to the other because they went to the wrong one for starters. The label above the entrance showed a picture of the women on the left, and the men on the right, however, the bathrooms were actually the opposite with the guys on the left, and the girls on the right. At first I laughed when I saw a lady walk right into the men’s bathroom, and then made me wonder if I was right. It actually took about 45 seconds for her the sheepishly walk back out and across the way to the women’s. It wasn’t even 5 minutes later, and a guy did the same thing. Walked into the women’s restroom. He was in there for a couple of minutes before he came back out. I don’t think he even realized he was in the wrong one until the lady that was at the entrance when he came out looked at him really funny. I was sitting about 30 yards away just laughing. Man, that’s a good time, as long as it’s not happening to you.

Then, just before boarding the plane, CNN brought on the story of the lady who apparently jumped into the polar bear exhibit at a Germany Zoo. Have you heard this?!?! They were portraying this story of the lady getting attacked by the polar bears as they tried to lift her to safety. Ok, isn’t there something in your mind that as your about to jump into the area where the bears are that you’d stop and think, “this may not be the best idea.” Well, apparently the part of this lady’s brain that says that was not present and accounted for that day, because she hopped right in. Well, they found a guy who gave his commentary on the story about how dumb this lady is. I turned to the guy I’m travelling with and said amongst the other passengers who were laughing that this guy’s accurate but funny perspective on this situation that he’s stating exactly what everyone else is thinking. He said, “This lady is beyond stupid. Why would you jump in with polar bears at feeding time? They didn’t attack her, she deserved what she got. She tried to invade their turf, and they were just defending it. This is….this is just way beyond stupid!” I hadn’t laughed that hard since, well, since the bathroom incident I guess. Hope the rest of the trip is as fun as the first day has been.

Why I Like the Small Town

Obviously, there are reasons why small communities have their drawback, such as alot of times people try to stick their noses in other people's business, which does indeed get annoying. But my story today is a good reason why I do like the small town.

As many of you know, I have a different automobile then I started 2009 with. I've had it since January, and my 3,000 miles on the oil is here, so it's due for an oil change. I have changed my own oil every time in all of my previous vehicles except for once when I was out in Minneapolis and couldn't make it home for quite a while, and had to pay to have it done. That only happened once for obvious reasons. I made it a point after that to do it myself. So, now it's time to relearn how to do this with a new car. First step, make sure that when I get home, I've got an oil filter to put in. So, I called the trusty Car Quest in Huron to check and see which filter I needed. It should be noted that my dad maybe can't make a trip to Huron without stopping at Car Quest for some reason, and naturally, with good service, that's where I do my parts buying too whenever possible. So I called today, and got Bob. I asked Bob to check on an oil filter for my 2004 Grand Prix. So I can hear Bob enter the number into the computer, and pretty soon he gets the result. "Ok Tyler, the part number you need is 85040, and your dad has lots of them!" When your parts store managers know exactly what your dad has in his shop for oil filters, you know your at the right place!

Warmer Weather Please and BASEBALL!

I'm sure I'm not the only one that is having the issue with the cold weather. Talk about getting old. I decided to brave things and take the bike out last night. After about 20 minutes, I was cold enough that I didn't want to be out and about anymore. It's nice to have the option to ride (as in there isn't a couple feet of snow on the ground anymore), but it needs to get warmer faster! One nice perk is that baseball season is back in full swing. I'd been waiting a long long time for it, and now it's here. Now, if I could only remember it's on in the evenings. I've been so used to it not being there, I forget to tune in. The other night, I got to watch the cool comeback, and it reminded me when I saw all the people streaming for the exits with the Twins down 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th why you NEVER leave a game early, because amazing things happen. I love to see that, when they make the comeback in front of half the number of fans that started the game because some didn't want to have to wait in traffic. Serves them right! Let that countdown begin to horribly cold outdoor baseball this time of year next year in Minnesota!

What happened here?

You gotten to the end of a day, and can't remember what you did in the middle part of the day? Ok, so I'm the only one with that issue. But this week has seemed just nuts and i feel like I can't remember anything that happened between Sunday afternoon, and 10am today. Maybe I've tried to just keep the rest of it all blocked off, but still, it's just crazy how the mind works. I can remember obscure things, and then can't remember very basic essential things. And I get distracted. Ohh, cottage cheese pockets....

Enjoyable People

One nice thing about work is some of the enjoyable people you get to encounter. This week I spent the entire week in Brookings, where we didn't get snow. Two of the ladies we worked with the entire week teaching them a new way to do their jobs and showing them new tricks and tips were a delight the entire time. My favorite moment of the whole week was when we explained that "Cntrl + F" key combination would bring up a search window. Without even thinking about it, the blonde in the group piped up, "Can i do that anywhere on my keyboard?" Side splitting laughter ensued, including the girl that had said that. She had meant to ask if anywhere on the screen could she use that search function, but with a slip of the tongue, it set a fun tone for us all week. While certain parts weren't very exciting, working with these people certain was worth the time spent.