I Started My New Job Today!

I’m now officially on the payroll at Hanfield UMC as their Information & Technology Director.  It’s funny, most of the time when you start a new job, someone comes and tells you what you email address is, what your login and password is, and all that fun stuff.  They told me - YOU set up your email account and your login and password.  That’s OK, that’s what they hired me for!

The first day has been good.  Got the new laptop in on time so I have a computer to work on.  I’ve spent most of the day setting it up (along with my email address and login to the network).  I still need to get some more software to finalize everything.  And I got treated to lunch a Ivanhoe’s, so that was good.

Renee and I have attended Hanfield for 17 years, and Pastor Tim officiated our wedding in 1993 when Hanfield was at its old location in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere.  So most people know us here, and we’re good friends with the staff and many of the people in the congregation.  There are about 550 people here for worship on Sunday mornings, so we’re a decent size church.

I’ve got lots of ideas to bring to the table here, and I’m looking forward to getting going with things!  So far, so good!

The Season is Over…

Collin’s baseball team lost their tournament game last night 10-2.  We played a team that was just playing very well.  Our kids were hitting the ball hard, but right at their players all night.  Not a whole lot you can do about that.  And the other team was just hitting the ball hard and well.  Our defense was good, but their hitting was just better.  Collin did get on base both times up and scored our first run.

So, another season ends, and I’m sad to see it end, because this was the last year for Collin to play in that league - he moves up to Little League now - and I won’t be coaching him any more.

I told the team that they have nothing to hang their heads about.  They played so well all year, and by the end of the season they were making plays and hitting the ball so much better than they were capable of at the beginning.  And that’s the main thing.  And I know they like it better when they win, but I think they all had fun, too.  This is the first year we’ve won more than we lost, so that helped.

Tonight, we go to an ice cream social at Matter Park to register Collin for school and meet his teacher.  At least we won’t have to worry about also having a baseball game at the same time…

One Game Down, Three to Go

Collin’s team played their first tournament game last night. They played one of their best games defensively, swung the bats well, and won the game 13-8.  Collin got on base every time, and made a few good plays to get outs at first base.  Our shortstop and third baseman made some great catches, too.

We play again tonight against a team that we were beating 10-3 before the storms hit us a few weeks ago.  Hopefully we come out swinging the bats well and keeping that defense up!

End of the Season Close

Collin’s baseball team played their last regular season game on Friday.  Today, they play their first game of the tournament.  It is single elimination, so they keep playing until they lose a game.  If they keep winning, we have games on Mon, Tue, Wed and Thu.  The first game is against a team that beat us this season, so they’ll have to be focused and play a good game tonight!

Collin’s been playing first base most of the season (although he’d rather play pitcher).  he’s not the tallest one on the team, but he’s one of the only ones that isn’t afraid of the ball when it’s thrown toward him.  Plus, he has a knack for knowing when to come off the bag, and when he can try to stretch to get the out.  he’s gone a very good job over there!

I finally took some pics of the action (at least until the batteries died in my camera, and I didn’t have the case with me that has the spares).  But here are a few of them:

The team before the game, listening (hopefully) to Coach Scott:

Collin getting ready at first in his own way:

Collin and his friend Micah manning first and second, getting ready for the next batter to hit:

Collin gets ready to hit:

He connects… it was a ground ball, but he was safe at first:

Collin makes the play to get the out at first:

We Got Wii Fit!

So, we’ve been wanting to get Wii Fit for a while now, but not bad enough to pre-order it.  Renee had a birthday June 27, and I took the day off work.  She said that whenever I could find Wii Fit, I could get it and that would be her birthday present.

Since I was off work, we went to the mall for her to look around at some other things she might want to spend her money on.  In the process, she suggested we stop a GameStop and see if they had Wii Fit.  So we got there and the kid comes up and asks us if he can find anything for us.  I asked him, half feeling stupid for even asking, if they had any Wii Fits in.  To my surprise, he says “Yes!”  They had just gotten a shipment in that morning and they had one left.  So we took it.

Combine this with the story of how we found our Wii the Christmas they came out, and Renee just seems to have the most Wii luck of anyone.

The game itself is pretty fun, except for it keeps telling me I’m overweight, which I knew in the first place.  But the games are fun, and the yoga is A LOT HARDER than it looks.  I’m going to try to do at least a half hour on it a day.

The kid at the store also told us that there were going to be several other games coming out that will use the Wii Balance Board, so it’s good to have it now.

Feast AND Famine

Well, my 2 other baseball teams, the Rays and Pirates, ended up on the opposite ends of the spectrum last night.  The Rays feasted on the Marlins, while the Pirates got it handed to them by the Yankees.

The Rays scored 10 runs in the 5th inning and won 15-3.  They’ve been concerned about their offensive slump recently.  Hopefully this gets them going.  Not to be overlooked was an impressive start by James Shields, giving up only 1 run in 7 innings.

The Pirates - well, let’s just say it was a game to forget.  They lost 10-0, which I guess is OK because hopefully the Yankees wasted those 10 runs when they only needed 1 to beat us.  I find it interesting that the Yankees decided to give Joba Chamberlain his first start against the Pirates.  Not much of a risk there, I guess.

One more game for each against their current opponents, and then the Rays and Pirates mix it up against each other in Pittsburgh this weekend.  Not sure how I’m going to handle that.  At least ONE of them will have to win each game…

Rained Out!

A small thunderstorm popped up at just the wrong time last night to rain out Collin’s game.  We were going to play what I think was a pretty good team, and we were looking forward to playing them.

There’s a chance of rain in the forecast every day this week - let’s hope that we’re not rained out Friday, because Paul & Marsha and the girls are coming to watch!

A Good Baseball Season

All 3 of my favorite teams are playing good baseball this year so far.  The Tampa Bay Rays are knocking on the door of first place in the AL East after they beat the Marlins last night (an ugly win, but they won).  The Pittsburgh Pirates are still flirting with .500 after they beat the Yankees for the first time since Bill Mazeroski hit the home run that won the 1960 World Series.

But those are only 2 of my favorite teams.  My absolute favorite team is also having a good season.  Collin’s PAL Club coaches’ pitch team is now 9-5 after winning another game last night.  And against a team that beat us pretty good earlier this season.

The kids played stellar defense all night.  They also hit the ball very hard and very well, scoring 16 runs.  They started by building an 8-1 lead, scoring 4 runs each in the first and second innings.  Then, they broke it open with a 7-run 4th inning that did not include very many cheap hits or errors on the other team.  Collin’s friend Micah cleared the bases with a double for 3 RBI, and then Collin doubled him in, and then Collin got doubled in.

Collin played his usual first base position and made some great plays over there, including catching a line drive that was headed to right field and extra bases for the other team in the bottom of the 4th inning.  That inning, we let the bases get loaded, but then got a strikeout and caught 2 line drives to keep the runners right where they were.  And one of our littlest guys, Christian, caught a pop up at pitcher and threw to first for a double play to end the game, which we ended up winning 16-3.

I’m so proud of this team!  I remember writing blog entries the past couple of years sharing my frustration with the team at times because they just weren’t “getting it.”  Not this year.  They’ve come a long way since last year, and even the beginning of this year.  They’re playing great TEAM baseball right now, and it’s a lot of fun to coach.  We play again tonight, but I see rain to our West - hope it doesn’t rain us out!

A New Job!

Yesterday, I accepted the position of Information & Technology Director at Hanfield UMC, the church Renee and I have been attending for the past 17 years.  It is a newly-created administrative position with lots of responsibility.  I’ll be doing some of the same things I’m doing now, such as managing their web site and computer technology.  But I’ll also be taking care of all the communications, marketing, and some other administrative tasks for the church.  It’s a big job, and I’ll be hitting the ground running with it, but I’m excited about it and looking forward to the challenge.

Many larger churches (attendance of 500 or more) have started hiring staff in the area of communication and technology.  They’ve started realizing that while volunteers are good (and still needed!), the church really needs a staff person that has the gifting and talent to oversee the areas of communications and technology.

One of the first things I’ll be doing is healing their web site - it’s sad and needs lots of help.

I never thought I’d ever work on a local church staff, but God works in mysterious ways!

We Had a Tornado!

First of all, no, we didn’t have any damage, and we’re all fine.  But I was checking out this National Weather Service story, which indicated that an EF1 tornado touched down briefly only about a quarter mile north of our house during the storms we had Friday night.

Here’s an excerpt:

Damage patterns indicate that at least one brief tornado did occur just to the northwest of Marion, Indiana in Grant county.  A EF1 tornado touched down around 733 pm EDT in a heavily forested area just south of the 4 Mile Bridge, west of State Route 15 and lifted immediately just across the road at 735 pm EDT. Damage was confined to mature trees and roof damage with a peak width of 50 yards and a path length just shy of two tenths of a mile. Extensive tree damage and terrain prevented a more accurate assessment of the path length. Winds were estimated between 90 and 100 mph. Wind speeds of a EF1 range from 86 to 109 mph on the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale).

The tornado mentioned above appeared to have occurred coincident with a microburst wind event which originated to the southwest in a subdivision north of West Harreld Road and west of Frances Slocum Trail. This wind swath widened out to three quarters of a mile after it crossed State Route 15 and impacted another subdivision with substantial tree damage. Winds were estimated at between 65 and 85 mph.  Additional sporadic wind damage was noted through the remainder of the county, with one more extensive area of straight line wind damage found near the town of Fowlerton. Winds were estimated at up to 75 mph.

We live in the “…other subdivision with substantial tree damage.”  The 4 Mile Bridge is only about a quarter to half a mile away from us.

And to think we were just looking out the window at the wind and rain to the north, and never saw the tornado!  Maybe we should have been a little further away from the windows…