Memorial Day Recap

It was great to have a 3 day weekend with my daughters. I didn't have to take them back to their mom's until Monday morning, so we made the most of our time together. Saturday was the day to celebrate Brittany's birthday. She turned 11 the weekend before. Her little sister made the chocolate fudge cake that Brittany had picked out the night before. The cake was great and after we served that, Brittany got the one gift she truly wanted this year...a KC Chiefs jersey. Yes, I'm raising her right as a Chiefs fan. She wore the jersey Saturday, Sunday after church, and since I washed it that night she wore it again Monday. I'm glad she likes it. She also got a gift card from her grandparents for a bookstore in the area. We went shopping at the store that afternoon and she was able to get three books that she was anxious to read. She was on page 30 at one point in the car on the way home Monday. Brittany made dinner on Sunday. I had purchased some chicken breast and she was anxious to see if she could cook it. I laid out some seasonings and she made the best chicken breast I've probably ever had. She used some cinnamon, honey, and a touch of basil. It was first fried in butter to brown it a on both sides. It was then baked in butter for about 20 minutes as the corn on the cob and mashed potatoes were being made. I hope she does that again soon. We played outdoor as much as we could. It kept taking breaks to rain on us all weekend so during the sunshine we made up a volleyball/ping pong style game in the driveway. It was great to at least have some time outside in spite of the weather. Every extra minute with the girls this weekend was just great. We watched movies, made popcorn, and did about every other kind of goofing off we could think of indoor. I'm anxious to see them again this weekend and hope to take them to see X-Men!

Spoke Too Soon

Well, it's official. The team I play with in church softball doesn't care if we win or lose. There isn't but one player who showed up for practice on Sunday. During the two Monday night games, the first we expected to lose to an upper level team, they showed that a little practice could do some good. We only lost 15-8, but could have done better. We could have even planned out ahead of time to field the best team possible for all upper level games. During the second game, our coach even gave the team a runner that was obviously out. He didn't step on second when he was going to go for a double play. I caught this and got the ball, stood on second, and then tagged the runner. That should have been an out, but he said the runner could stand since he missed second base on the play. I caught that he missed second and did what I was supposed to do for the out. Even the umpire called her out after seeing the play I made. Instead, our coach said it was all in fun and let her stay on second. It didn't affect the inning, thankfully. At that point, I realized that even the people leading the team don't care if we win or lose. We were the home team and after that inning, the game was over and we had won it 8-7. We had played 60 full minutes and by the time we would have batted since we were up, it would have been 65 minutes. Instead, they opted to play yet another inning which brought the outcome of losing 11-8. My first pitch, I made it obvious that I didn't care in that last inning. I threw it about 15 feet high and about 6 feet short of the base. If you ask our catcher, the assistant coach's wife, she will tell you that I didn't even try in pitching. They were behind by one and scored 4 runs. I gave them two of the runs by walking a batter. I figured if my team really cared, they would come back in the bottom of the inning and show me they wanted to win. Instead, we didn't score any runs and the game was over with two losses for the evening. I handed the other team that game on purpose by serving up wild and flat pitches. If anyone on my team asks, they will get this same explanation. I don't walk batters and it was obvious that I gave them their inning. I was so disgusted that the team didn't want to walk away with a win, gave a call to the other team, and throughout the evening showed a lack of any practice or desire to practice.

I've never played anything to lose, unless that was the object, of course. I wasn't taught to play to lose, I was taught to play to win. Life is about winning, not just getting along. I wish that others who paid to play this season wanted to get their money's worth as I do. I wish other's realized that life is about winning in all areas, not just some. I'm tempted to call it a season and ask for my money back for the other half of the season. I'm tempted.

Live In KC

Derek and I left for KC about 3pm. We got away a tad late, but it was all good since we had tickets for seats. Apparently, it's unusual for Live to have seats instead of general admission. I would have been fine either way, but was glad for a place to sit. Overall, it was a very professional show. This is Derek's favorite band and I like a few of their songs, but it was cool to see a bit of what Derek sees in this band. I'm glad I went.

I wasn't my typical concert self at this show since it's really not my style of music, but Live certainly pleased their fans. They did all the songs I knew, several new ones, and apparently a lot of fan favorites. They didn't talk between songs except to mention the new CD or to say thanks, but they certainly looked like they were enjoying what they do. I think we got a few extra songs out of the band since the crowd was good. The Uptown Theater seems to be built in such a way that they could hear their fans quite well as they were very appreciative.

The best part of the night for me was the opening act. Michael Shapiro and his backing band rocked. They have some great songs in more of a heartfelt, heartland rock vein. My favorite song, I'm Not Alone, even had some rhythm guitar in the vein of .38 Special. We hung out after the show to see if Derek could meet Live. Since we figured it would be a while, we were fortunate enough to meet Michael and his band. They are great guys from the Portland, Oregon, area. Michael is from Las Vegas originally, I believe. We got the 5 song EP that was available and they autographed it for us. I've had it in the CD player since and it's a CD I highly recommend. I hope the next CD that should be out soon is as good as this and that Shapiro's career only grows. We need more artists like this with such great songs. Catch his band opening for Live for the next few shows or catch them if they are in your area. You will be glad you did.

Finally - Softball Practice

We played again last Thursday night. We won the first game 7-6 and got beat badly in the second 28-11. I played Left Centerfield the first game for a few innings and pitched the second game. The second game was played against a team in the Upper division so we were outmatched badly. They scored 10 runs each of the first two innings and had two guys that could slam it out of the park. It's not fun to be matched up that way, but I guess we play each Upper team once this season. We will play one team in the Lower and one in the Upper tomorrow night as well.

I did get a certain bit of satisfaction in the second game. There was a girl who came to the plate and had half of her front foot over the batter's box line when I pitched the ball. The rules state that both feet must start completely inside the batter's box. During the swing, you can stride as big as you want as long as your foot is at least touching the line. If your foot comes completely out of the box, then you are automatically out. If your foot is half out when the ball is pitched, though, it's either a strike or a no pitch. I made the umpire aware of this so he'd call a strike on the girl, but he didn't know the rules enough to enforce something like that. The guy who pitched for the other team claimed to be an ASA certified umpire and wanted to argue about what I said the rules stated. I'm not sure if he thought I was talking about the swing or before, but the foot print I pointed out made it obvious that I was talking about her beginning stance and I was not asking for an out, although the strike would have made her out. The call stood as the umpire didn't know the rules and the girl was on first. Later in the game, a league rep heard about the dispute and brought out a rules book. He came over to me to explain that a swing could take you to the line, over the line, but you can't step out of the batter's box. I had to reiterate that this was not the rule I was talking about but the initial stance when the ball was pitched. He turned a few pages back and said that I was absolutely right about the rule, but that he had never seen it enforced for the men's league. I told him that it's not only an issue of following the rules for fair play, but it's also a safety issue. Pitchers tend to pitch away from the batter if they are crowding the plate in a recreational league so as not to hit the batter or risk that. We had a girl who crowded the plate during a practice last year and when I pitched the ball where it should be, she hit it on her hands and it bounced back and broke her nose. I certainly don't want to see that happen in a game, either. He went to the other dugout and as far as I know explained the rules over there. The guy who wanted to argue with me didn't even look me in the face when the teams walked by each other to say "good game". I'm not sure if it was embarrassment for being wrong as an "ASA Certified Umpire" or what, but I was satisfied that I do know the rules and was right about the rules and the guy that wanted to argue was corrected.

Now, during that particular night, our assistant coach made everyone aware that we will start having regular practices on Sundays. Our coaches won't make it and a few others work weekends, but I hope that those that want to will take advantage of this. We are paying to play and many of us would love to get our money's worth from the season. By this time in the season last year, we had all taken so many more swings, made so many more plays, and I believe it helped us to have a decent season. This year we have many new players and it would be good for everyone to step up their game so we can quit splitting the night with one win and one loss. A winning season is always a fun season. After being 10 games into the season, it's about time we started practicing.

Mother's Day Weekend

Although it was short, Mother's Day weekend was very good. The girls had fun mostly indoor due to the weather, but they did get outside a bit. We played games, watched movies, and grilled out again. To top off the day we called my mom and wished her a happy Mother's Day. I hope that made her day.

One of the hard parts of being a single dad so far away from family is the holidays. It could be Mother's Day, Easter, Christmas, Father's Day, Thanksgiving, or even a Memorial Day or Independence Day when you have certain plans you'd love to share with family. I always miss my girls when they aren't here for one holiday or another, but I also think about my parents. I grew up in a great family and didn't realize it until several years of being out on my own. I treasure each moment with them and miss them dearly.

My Sunday with the girls was cut short since I needed to have them back to their mom's at noon. I hope to make up for it Memorial Day weekend, but we shall see. It was a nice quiet day when I returned and I got a lot of TV watched.

Last night was a good night. I had downed two hamburgers that I fixed with barbecue. Not ten minutes later, my roommate calls asking if I've eaten supper. Of course not, I said. He was out getting things to clean his grill with and wanted to see if I was interested in a steak. Oh, yea, was I interested in a steak! He brought home rib eyes about an hour later that were in a Jack Daniels marinating bag. They marinated for quite some time while he cleaned the grill and got it going. We didn't eat until several hours after I'd had those burgers so it worked out fine. It was fantastic food. I even made some potatoes to go with it. I had to stay up a bit later, but it was quite worth it.

Today was an interesting day. I love my job and do a great job at it. After two years there, I may be ready for some more challenges there and hope to see what is around the corner.

Tomorrow is the Live concert. I'm off work at 2pm and Derek and I hope to hit the road by 2:30pm. Should be a good show. This is his favorite band so I'm anxious to see what it's all about. They have a few good songs and I will have a full report up later this week with pictures, too.

Softball Week 4

We finally had an evening that we won both of our games. I just acted as a base coach in the first game which we won 12-2 and pitched the second as we won that one 11-5. It was a very cold and windy night. The first game saw the other team going 3 up and 3 down for the first two innings and one of their runs was by a very nice home run by a guy who also struck out once. Our hitters were doing well with line drives and hard grounders while the other team kept popping it up in the wind. The second game wasn't much closer as their first pitcher had control problems in the wind. The wind seemed to die down when I was pitching. It was a weird feeling. We held them the first few innings to no runs and they scored their runs over two innings in the middle of the game. We had a lot of walks as I was walked twice. My first at bat was a double that was called an out by mistake. The call stood. The girl playing second took a throw from left field, reached across the base and tagged my hip. We froze in position and it was obvious my leg was curled up on the base as I had slid in. Her arm wasn't long enough to have tagged my hip in an outstretched position as she had to reach across the bag to do it. The call was missed by an inexperienced umpire. My last at bat was a line drive that was caught on the run. We had two guys on our team hit homers in this game, too. It's always fun to win, that's for sure. The season at a glance...

4/20/06 - Fort Des Moines 16 - Fellowship Community I 9
4/20/06 - Destiny 9 - Fort Des Moines 1
4/24/06 - Fairview Christian Union 8 - Fort Des Moines 6
4/24/06 - Fort Des Moines 10 - Martensdale Community 6
5/4/06 - Fort Des Moines 16 - Hartford 12
5/4/06 - Indianola Christian Union 6 - Fort Des Moines 5
5/11/06 - Fort Des Moines 12 - Indianola Community I 2
5/11/06 - Fort Des Moines 11 - Center Chapel 5

That puts us at 5 wins and 3 losses and in 3rd place of 9 teams in our division. It's a three way tie for third right now. Not a bad start for a team that has had only one practice and is as disorganized as we are. Two of those losses should have been won, too, to we are better than the record shows. Hopefully, we start winning more as we are probably the best team in the division.

Softball Disfunctionality

The other night we won our first game 16-12 and lost the second 6-5. We were ahead in the second game 5-3 until the bottom of the last inning. We beat ourselves. We made errors after having 2 outs that cost us the game. We had several missed opportunities to get that last out and we made a few infield mistakes. I couldn't believe it and was so ticked that we let that one get away that I threw my glove from the pitcher's mound to the top of our dugout. I wasn't furious at anyone in particular but to lose like that is a travesty.

We had one throwing practice before our season started and one practice where we hit some. We have played 6 games so far and they finally scheduled a practice for today. Out of over 20 people that could possibly have shown up, we had 4. Four people showed up for practice. One of those four left early and the rest of us stayed to try to get some hitting and fielding done. That is pathetic that 3 people on our team actually took time out of the day to practice out of everyone that was called and even said they'd show up.

These things speak to the poor leadership and the poor participation of all those who said they wanted to be part of a church softball team this year. I'm truly disappointed that I paid to play on what I thought might be a team that cared about playing and this is what I get. I may call and ask for my money back. I'm truly that disappointed. I hope the fall season goes much better.

Immigration

The biggest issue the last couple of weeks on the political spectrum is the fact that we have millions of people in our country illegally. Here are the stats:

1. 40% of all workers in LA County (LA County has 10 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This was because they are predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3's of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal aliens, Mexican's on Medi-Cal whose births were paid for by tax payers.
5. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers are Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in LA are Spanish speaking.
10. In LA County 5.1 million people speak English. 3.9 million speak Spanish (10.2 million people in LA County).

(All 10 statistics are from the Los Angeles Times according to an e-mail chain letter. Snopes says this isn't so, but says it could be attributed to others. Check out their site and decide for yourself as they show many of the numbers to be accurate, but call others into question.)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. (http://www.cis.org)
Over 70% of the US annual population growth (and over 90% of California, Florida, and New York) results from immigration.
The cost of illegal immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay) $70 billion a year. (Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University - Snopes states two sides to this number, but it's obvious that Huddle is the more accurate as Snopes represents Social Security as a Pay As You Go program. We all know that's not true at all because so many receive benefits who have never paid in and so many receive above or below what they have contributed. Social Security doesn't even add a percentage of interest as a bank account would so it's a flawed program for anyone to contribute to, but that's another subject.)
29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

There was also an article attributed to Charlie Daniels that seems to express things quite well.

"God Bless America And The United States Marine Corps"
by Charlie Daniels

I don't know how everybody else feels about it, but to me I think Hispanic people in this country legally or illegally made a huge public relations mistake with their recent demonstrations. I don't blame anybody in the world for wanting to come to the United States of America, as it is a truly wonderful place. But when the first thing you do when you set foot on American soil is illegal, it is flat out wrong and I don't care how many lala-land left heads come out of the woodwork and start trying to give me sensitivity lessons. I don't need sensitivity lessons. In fact I don't have anything against Mexicans, I just have something against criminals and anybody who comes into this country illegally is a criminal and if you don't believe it, try coming into America from a foreign country without a passport and see how far you get! What disturbs me about the demonstrations is that it's tantamount to saying, "I am going to come into your country even if it means breaking your laws and there's nothing you can do about it." It's an in your face action and speaking just for me, I don't like it one little bit and if there were a half a dozen pairs of gonads in Washington bigger than English peas it wouldn't be happening!
Where are you, you bunch of lilly livered, pantywaist, forked tongue, sorry excuses for defenders of The Constitution? Have you been drinking the water out of the Potomac again? And even if you pass a bill on immigration it will probably be so port laden and watered down that it won't mean anything anyway. Besides, what good is another law going to do when you won't enforce the ones on the books now? And whatever happened to the polls, guys? I thought you folks were the quintessential finger wetters. Well you sure ain't paying any attention to the polls this time because somewhere around 80% of Americans want something done about this mess, and mess it is and getting bigger every day.
This is no longer a problem, it is a dilemma and headed for being a tragedy! Do you honestly think that what happened in France with the Muslims can't happen here when the businesses who hire these people finally fun out of jobs and a few million disillusioned Hispanics take to the streets? If you, Mr. President, Congressmen and Senators, Knuckle under on this and refuse to do something meaningful it means that you care nothing for the kind of country your children and grandchildren will inherit. But I guess it doesn't matter as long as you get re-elected. Shame on you.
One of the big problems in America today is that if you have the nerve to say anything derogatory about any group of people (except Christians) you are going to be screamed at by the media and called a racist, a bigot, and anything else they can think of to call you. Well, I've been pounded by the media before and I'm still rockin' and rollin' and when it comes to speaking the truth, I fear not. And the truth is that the gutless, milksop politicians are just about to sell out the United States of America because they don't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to face reality. And reality is that we would never allow any other group of people to have 12 million illegals in this country and turn around and say, "Oh, it's ok. Ya'll can stay here if you'll just allow us to slap your wrist."
And I know that some of you who read this column are saying, "Well, what's wrong with that?" I'll tell you what's wrong with it. These people could be from Mars as far as we know. We don't know who they are, where they are, or what they're up to and the way the Congress is going we're not going to.
Does this make sense? Labor force you say? We already subsidize corporate agriculture as it is. Must we subsidize their labor as well?
If these people were from Haiti would we be so fast to turn a blink eye to them or if they were from Somalia or Afghanistan? I think not!
All the media shows us are pictures of hard working Hispanics who have crossed the border just to try to better their life. They don't show you pictures of the Feds rounding up members of MS 13, the violent gang who came across the same way the other folks did. They don't tell you about the living conditions of the Mexican illegals some fat cat hired to pick his crop.
I want to make two predictions:
No. 1: This situation is going to grow and fester until it erupts in violence on our streets while the wimps in Washington drag their toes in the dirt and try to figure how many tons of political hay they can make to the acre.
No. 2: Somebody is going to cross the border with some kind of weapon of mass destruction and set it off in a major American city - after which there will be a backlash such as this country has never experienced! And, the Capitol building in Washington will probably tilt as Congressmen and Senators rush to the other side of the issue.
I don't know about you, but I would love to see just one major politician stand up and say, "I don't care who I make mad and I don't care how many votes I lose, this is a desperate situation and I'm going to lead the fight to get it straightened out."
I don't blame anybody for wanting to come to America, but if you don't respect our immigration laws why should you respect others?
And by the way, this is America and our flag has stars and stripes. Please get that other one out of my face!
Pray for our troops!
What do you think?

God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
April 19, 2006

Pretty strong words, eh? I tend to agree. If the first thing you do is step in our country illegally, you've started on the wrong foot. How much respect does that show? With the statistics above, it's no wonder we have some of the national financial problems we do. These illegals cost our country $70 billion in 1997 and think what it costs us 9 years later as the problem has just gotten worse.

I've heard a lot of ideas and that's all well and good, but nobody is solving the problem today. We had a chance to but our politicians would rather have an issue for this year's midterm election. It's nice that people want to offer solutions, but the fact is that we don't have any solution currently but one. That solution is to enforce our laws. It does seem that it is starting to be done in some areas, but we need a united national effort to enforce the law. Yes, it's great to talk about changing the law, but we are wasting our breath at the time and the energy would be better spent enforcing what laws we have on the books.

I've also heard people come up with some various ideas to defend the illegal aliens that are here. I find it a slippery slope to defend criminals and criminal behavior no matter what you think of current laws. You can't defend criminal behavior successfully.

Here are the only two things we can do currently:
1. Enforce our existing laws vigorously.
2. Persuade our politicians to change the laws as we think they ought to be. If you don't like the law, don't break it or encourage or support those that do. Persuade others who feel the same way as you to vote for the politicians that will do what you would like them to.

That's all we can do. There is nothing else that can be done at this time. No need to waste time and energy on anything else, but those two options.

I vote conservative as I believe in the values and dreams of the founders of this country. If you agree, vote the same way.

Two Weekends In A Row

It was so cool having my daughters up two weekends in a row. I was supposed to have them for Easter weekend, but since they were in Florida I just got to see them Easter day. The weekend after Easter was the best. We spent most of Saturday outside. We rode bikes, grilled out, played dodgeball, Paige got a motorcycle ride, and we even raked leaves. Derek joined us for most of that day and ran the grill. It was a blast all weekend. I made taco salad on Sunday and we had homemade chocolate shakes each day. This last weekend it rained outside, but we still were able to grill out on Saturday. We ate indoor and played games and watched movies. It was still great fun.

It looks like the oldest has a band concert next Monday so I hope to attend that. It will be her second this school year and I'm anxious to hear how her sax playing has progressed.

In other news, it looks like Def Leppard and Journey are adding Ames to their concert schedule in September. Looks like I'm seeing that tour twice this year. It looks like I may see more shows this year than last by far! Keep checking back for reviews!