Hidey ho, neighbors!

Hi, folks. Just wanted to update you all on what's going on in my life. Coaching is still going very well. We're into the actual season now with our first game having been Friday night. It didn't go so well as we ended up losing by 16. The other team played an aggressive game while LCA, to say the least, did not. Unfortunately, there isn't much practice time now to change a lot of things. We have three more games this week so the guys are going to be forced to grow up fast! It's delightful to be out on the court again and to be coaching. There's just something about working with kids in a situation like that, that I really love. It also helps that I occasionally get the opportunity to play in practice. How can you say no to playing? I'm also starting to really like the challenge of having to come up with ways to make these guys better thinkers, players and people. The mysteries of motivation and drive really come through when one coaches.

In other news, I have an interview this week. On various trips back from western Massachusetts, the Wrights and I have seen the New Balance headquarters from the turnpike coming into Boston. This gave us the idea to look at their website, search their careers/employment opportunities and see what popped up! Well, I got a call from New Balance and they were interested in me for a customer service position. If I were to get the job, I would be working at the headquarters in the call center with around 35 other people fielding calls from happy, mad, furious and apathetic callers. It might seem like a weird route to go, but I don't think that I would mind the position after having the positive experience of making numerous phone calls at the JFK Presidential Library this summer.

Yesterday, I attended a performance of Handel's Messiah at Boston Symphony Hall. It was quite an experience and a very good concert. I especially enjoyed the trumpeting during the concert. The Hall is a very ordinary brick building looking at it from the outside but a very rustic, beautiful thing on the inside. The seats are old leather with minimal padding and held together by those little fabric rivets and they sit on old wooden flooring. It's quite easy to imagine people from yesteryear enjoying concerts in the Hall.

Perhaps it's just my attitude, but I still find it hard to just marvel at things like the concert yesterday or Fenway Park in terms of how people generally think a small-town Kansas kid would act. I mean that in the sense that many see a picture of bright-eyed kid with mouth wide open wondering if it can get any better than this. It might be that I don't get as emotional as some, or as caught up in things, but I find myself thinking, this really is just another stage and those are just people. I have watched baseball games from Fenway on TV and heard about these wonderful civic centers in the big cities while growing up, and being at a distance does give them a mystique. But coming to them, there is something normal about them. They are unique due to their history, but we are all human in what we do and therefore, somewhat predictable. For me, that means that we do act, cook and talk differently in many respects, but in the end, we turn out to to be very similar in what we do and how we do things because we have one Creator and one image that we all come from. I guess you would all tell me at this point to start enjoying the intricacies and uniqueness of things in life. Maybe you're right.

Well, now you know why I'm not a great author or the next guy in line for Prarie Home Companion but I hope that gives you a glimpse of things for me here in Boston. I would appreciate your prayers in connection with this interview. It is Tuesday morning at 9:30 by the way.

Take care, all.

Turrble

For those of you familiar with Frank Caliendo, here he is doing different sports figure impersonations such as John Madden, Jim Rome and Charles Barkley.

All is well

This evening marked the end of the second day of practice for the LCA boys' basketball team. Both days have gone well. We've had close to 30 boys come out for the team, so unfortunately, for the first time in the tenure of the head coach, Mr. Heintz, we are going to have cuts. These two days, we three coaches have spent our time surveying the field to see what areas the guys are not so good in and what areas they are. This has also sped up the process of getting to know their names.

Once we do get the final teams set, it looks like we'll have some solid squads. I'm looking forward to these try-out practices being over so I can actually get to know the kids I'll be working with and so that we can jump into the meat of what we'll be doing this year. So far, we've just been doing drills and scrimmaging.

As a team activity, the varsity is going to the Mercer vs. Harvard game on Friday evening. I'm looking forward to that as well, as Mercer knocked off USC last week. Coach Heintz knows the Mercer coach and Harvard is a local university so it's just as helpful to us to make an appearance.

Well, tomorrow brings about day three. I may have to practice my whistle-blowing before I get there. My first shot at it today was not all that impressive. Later, folks.

A part-time job

For those of you who haven't heard, I was offered and accepted a coaching position at Lexington Christian Academy, the private school where many of the Wrights have gone/go to school. I'll be the assistant varsity boys' basketball coach, which puts me in a position to do a lot of learning. This is the first long-term assignment I've received in Boston and I'm looking forward to it. It is only a part-time thing so I am still looking for work to do in the mornings before the afternoon practices and games.

Getting this job, I needed to have a car, so right now I'm in the process of driving my car from Kansas to Boston. Tonight, I am in Indianapolis. Tomorrow night I hope to be back in Walton, New York, for the first time since 2000. My short stay in Kansas did allow me to surprise Violet for her birthday, which was fun for us both.

My next post will hopefully be from Boston. 'Til then!

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

Being in Boston has its perks. One of them being that since the Red Sox just won the World Series, I was able to attend the celebration parade today. It was oh so joyous to have the crowd start throwing tennis balls and T.P. across the street followed by pencils, pens, coins, open water bottles and Boston creme donuts. One of those donuts got a guy behind me right in the face leaving behind a good amount of filling. Fortunately, the parade came along somewhat shortly after, right as the frozen chickens were being loaded into modified potato guns. As a well-established member of P.E.T.A. (People Eating Turkey Always), I was glad to see the chickens slowly lowered to the ground. Then the ducks came...

The aforementioned T.P. There was also some P.T. That's paper towels for you rookies out there. I sure hope they used Bounty, because everyone knows that's the strongest three-ply out there...




I was just outside the Park Street "T" station for you familiar with the area. This is an attempt at a shot of the crowd looking down Tremont Street with the Boston Common on the right. I was about four rows back of the barricade so I had a pretty clear vantage point.


The owner, John Henry, and others as you can see by the signs. I don't remember all of their exact positions.







Theeeeeooooo! As only the Boston faithful can put it.








Franconer. His head is very shiny. And the guy in the middle looks like he's part of the Secret Service, not the Red Sox. Smile, big guy!






Tim "Knuckleballer" Wakefield. Curt "Probably Gone" Schilling. Josh Beckett? On the other side of the duck...how disappointing. The problem? This wasn't the only time that happened.




Yooooouuuuukkkk. That sounded really cool at the parade. Click on the picture to blow it up so you can read the sign based on the Priceless MasterCard commercials. I didn't see this until I looked at the pics at home. Also, look directly right of Youkilis' butt to see a part of Pedroia's face, which is important because...


In this one, you can only see his back. Darrrr! He looked to my side only ever-so-briefly. But hold on, pard'ner, there's another hidden gem! Check out the faux movie flyer on the stick.





Dice-K was pretty excited. I never saw the grin leave his face. I'm sure you don't get this type of treatment in Japan. Or, he could have spotted the Boston creme filling on that kid's face and that made him happy...




The mobile "Black Pearl." For those of you who watched the Red Sox playoff games especially, these hooligans put up quite a challenge to the Blue Man group with their rhthyms. Again, they didn't disappoint.




This is the best I could get of Okajima. He was on the front of the flatbed truck carrying the band, Timlin and Papelbon so I had to take the shot before he got up on me. This meant shooting into the sun. That's all the way zoomed in, too. Sorry. Side note: looks like he keeps his head down in public, too.


Ellsbury looked a kid that just found $20: happy, but not quite sure what to do. The satellite shot shows Bucholz as furious. At first, I thought the guy on the left was Drew, but upon further review, the color of the hair has me thinking its Kielty.





Manny was the only one not wearing red. Manny and Kyle Snyder were the only ones to make use of the PA systems on the ducks. I felt like shouting out to Snyder, "How 'bout them Royals?" And of course, Ortiz was on the other side.

Hey, look! It's the Jordan's furniture guy! See ya next season, bud. We can count on it.

Lugo holding the hardware. He wouldn't let me take the picture with his face uncovered unless I threw some change in his hat. I was without.






This is the statehouse with a large...well, you can see what it is.








And it was over. I don't know that there was quite as large of a crowd as there was in 2004 but I'm sure that I just spent a couple of hours of my life standing with the greater part of the population of Kansas. My apologies for where my camera work came up lacking and for not catching everyone. I really wish I could have seen Papelbon dance. The only shot I really got of that truck was with a hand obstructing the view. Oh, well. Here's to next year, I suppose.

This movie I actually want to watch

I was surfing the web today and decided to check out the trailers at apple.com. In doing so, I came across this one about two guys running a video rental store. Their tapes go blank so they're about to go out of business... Or are they? Watch and see. Looks hilarious.

Here's the link. Be Kind -- Rewind

Even if you aren't normally a fan of Jack Black, I would still take a look at it.

Interesting Quotation

As I was finishing up "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis this afternoon, I came across this passage which I found humorous:

Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid even fights) with Cor, but they always made it up again; so that years later, when they were grown up they were so used to quarreling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently.

Long Time, Really No Talk

Well, it's been a while since I've really put anything substantial up here but I've got some time now to just sit down and put some old stuff up. I am back in Boston after my two+ weeks in Kansas. I'll fill you in on that some other time.

First off, the trip to New York for the White Lake Reunion. I enjoyed that weekend immensely. First of all, the actual trip on the way there was just full of exciting things. We were without an atlas (which just bothered me :]); we had to stop for a bathroom break no more than a half hour after a previous stop; it was my first time in Connecticut; we saw a dog walking across I-84 just get nailed (not a fun sight); Peter and I, while listening to Another One Bites the Dust, named the dog, Dum Dum, after the lollipops Anna had given us before we left; it was Rachel's first day of driving, so the boys' car consistently sped away from the girls' car (irony: Drive Faster by The Killers started playing); we stopped at a gas station that sold cigars and school supplies (it seemed like a mini-Wal-Mart).

And that was all just on the way there! On the way back, we stopped at a gas station that had to be the best looking one I'd ever seen. The landscaping was well done. It was clean. And the bathroom was amazing. I told everyone else that I hoped the bathroom in my future house would be that nice. It was nicely tiled. There were flowers on the top of the toilet (fake or real depending on who you talked to). There was a TV in the corner! What gas station has a TV in the bathroom! I could try and describe it more fully, but I'll just say that it was just very well done, that's all there is to it.

As for the conference, it was very good as well. I met Brad Johnston, who is the current pastor in Walton, NY, where my family used to be. We (well, at least me) had a good time talking about the current events in Walton. Brad spoke on Hell and Heaven, of which I was only able to hear about Hell. I had to miss the lecture on Heaven because I was preparing devotions for after supper, which I was assigned that afternoon after the eldest Trexler injured his shoulder, meaning that the middle Trexler had to leave. Sorry, there were Trexlers in my high school and only their first names are coming to mind right now.

The kids were good and we all had a fun time being with each other and fellowshipping. Paintball was alright, too, I guess.

Well, I'll leave you with that and hope to get back to more regularly scheduled posts. Take care, folks.

Juuuuuust a bit outside

Ummmm, Brian....we've got some competition.



Here's 2006 NL batting champion, Freddy Sanchez, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, trying to hit last year's USPPBA's (The United States Perforated Plastic Baseball Association) MVP.

Westward ho!

Tomorrow's the big day. I'm going back to Kansas for the first time since I left for Boston a little more than three months ago. It will be a fairly long day with my travels starting around 10:30 a.m. and ending around 10:30 p.m. (both EST).

I was able to finagle some last-minute work as I returned to JFK Library for a couple of days of work. I was back on the phones again making calls to celebratory and some not-so-celebratory people. The event that I was calling for this time was an upcoming forum with Ken Burns where he will show clips of and discuss his new documentary, "The War," which is about World War II. I'm sure it would actually be a pretty interesting program.

Last weekend was the White Lake Reunion as I had written about before leaving but I have failed to get anything up about that. I hope to change that in the near future. The trip there was quite eventful (in a good way). Teaser: dum-dums and the parking lot of doom.

For those of you who have been praying about the Draper position that I applied for, I found out on Friday that they chose to go with someone else. It would have been nice to have received the job just to have work in a field that I'm fairly comfortable with but I'm OK with moving on to something else. Since I have Draper behind me and nothing really on my "desk" at the moment, I am heading out to Kansas for a couple of weeks. I leave this Friday and return on October 8. As you could expect, I'm really looking forward to it.

A little brown stain

Today, I water-proofed/stained the third floor deck at the Fishers' house. I started out pounding in nails that were protruding from the boards and then sanded the surface to "open the pores" as the stain can suggested. The project was then finished off by applying the stain. I thought that this would be a multiple-day project but it actually only took me six hours. With the deck being entirely exposed to the sun, I was glad that it was only a 72-degree day, even though it felt hotter than that on the deck. My construction-working brother may now officially call me a wimp...With that humiliation behind me, here are the pictures I took with my cell phone to archive this wonderful adventure.

This is a little past halfway through. Despite what may look like a shadow, that is the part that has already been stained. The previous stain was well-worn, but the right side is that light due to sanding. I was saved on the sanding as Tom had a contraption made up of a push-broom handle attached to a piece that allowed you to stick the sandpaper on. This was store bought; not to say that Tom couldn't have come up with this on his own. The point? It made the sanding go fairly quickly.

The picture to the left is of the other side of the deck at the same time. The pounding and sanding took me two hours and the staining four. I had so much fun all day trying to lean over those railings attempting to apply stain to the edges of the boards. They were so wonderfully designed to be a couple inches longer than my legs so that I had to wedge my toes in between the rails and then lean over. I felt like I was mooning the clouds all day long. I did appreciate Tom providing me with good materials, though. The stain was quality (Cabot--that's Australian, mate!) and a I had a brush made all the in Italy. The can had suggested applying the stain with lamb's wool but alas, after the lack of rain in Boston in August, all our sheep were shipped to Kansas where the grass is green.

Here's an attempt at a picture of the deck completed. Perty, isn't it?

The one downside of the venture? Having to bend over to apply the stain, I was left with a wonderful plumber's...you thought crack, didn't you? Alright, you didn't. But anyway, I'll call it a plumber's sunburn. Insert comments of humiliation again.

In case you were wondering...

Just as an update, I still have not heard back from Draper. I would ask that you continue to pray that they would give me some sort of response soon. In the meantime, I'll be working on waterproofing Tom and Martha Fisher's third floor deck. This will definitely be an experience for me. Finally, this weekend, I'll be traveling with a group here from Cambridge to serve as a chaperon at the White Lake Reunion (aka youth retreat). I'm looking forward to it.

HI-YAH!

Needless to say, this Japanese baseball game gets a little ugly...Editor's correction: It has been pointed out to me a couple of times that this is clearly Korean. Heaven forbid the Japanese should have their names dragged through the mud like this. My deepest apologies. :)

Return to Fenway

Last night, Mr. Wright took me to a Red Sox game at Fenway vs. the Toronto Blue Jays. It was the second time that I have been to Fenway. Before the game, I walked the entire way around the outside of the park looking to buy some t-shirts. Unfortunately, my search turned out to be futile. However, I was able to see the "parking lot" where the Red Sox players' cars are parked, of which I've read about in various sports publications in the past. I'm sorry to report that I did not think to take pictures of it for you, the audience of this blog. I was impressed by the parking skills (and kinds of cars in the lot). Everything that is said about the Red Sox valets appears to be true from 40 feet away.

It truly is amazing to see how the park is made to fit into such a tiny space, which is reflected in the shape of the field. The limited amount of space also makes for the activities outside the park being rather cozy. To steal a description of the Cubs' Wrigley Field, if you're a Red Sox fan, the outside of Fenway certainly does lend itself to being some friendly confines.

The game was a good one, with Josh Beckett lining up against Roy Halladay. There was a stat in the Gameday Publication that Mr. Wright pointed out to me about how long Halladay had lasted in his previous starts. To keep it short, this guy has stamina. It was easy to see why, too. One, he's a big guy. And, two, his follow-through seems so effortless as compared to other pitchers. Whereas their momentum carries them halfway to first/third base, Halladay releases the ball and then looks like he just took a sip of Coke. As could be hoped/expected, both pitchers fared well until they each had one bad inning in the middle of the contest. It was fun to see, or kinda see. That brings me to the one problem with last night was (and one major problem with Fenway):

This was my view of the field, which I didn't get too uptight about. I could see anything in play but as you can see, the section 9 pole perfectly hid home plate. It was also a packed house so Mr. Wright and I couldn't move anywhere else. Despite this, I had fun keeping score, conversing with two young Corps-men who were working on getting drunk next to us, and watching a good game. (As I said, the pitching was good but there were also three homeruns, a triple and some good base running.)

Well, I think I've written enough for this one "little" update. Buenos noches, mis amigos.

Hot Hot Hot

I wanted to pass along some grrrreat YouTubes for you today.

This first one is a promo for Appalachian State, the football team that knocked off Michigan this past weekend.



This second one is also football related. Apparently, the Raiders selected a two-year-old in this year's draft with pick 100.

A little squirrelly

For those of you interested in the Red Sox-Yankees series last week, one game the cameras captured a squirrel stranded atop the right field flag pole in Yankee Stadium. The crowd on that side of the stadium was raucous while watching this squirrel contemplate going down or staying put, even while the game carried on. Reading through Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback this morning, he provided a great quote from one of the sportscasters covering the game, the Yankees' telecaster Ken Singleton. "We should stop showing the squirrel,'' Singleton said. "It'll only encourage other squirrels to do the same thing.''

ahhh...

It has been a good and restful Sabbath. I've enjoyed the number of people that I have been able to talk to today and realized that I have many more to talk to yet. Here's to a day off for everybody tomorrow/today!

I'm from Dixie!

Well, over the course of the past two days, I've made over 400 phone calls helping people to deal with their glea of getting to see Alan Alda up close or the disappointment of having to sit in an adjoining theater in overflow. I can't wait until I get to tell people that they can't even come to the JFK Library for "A Conversation with Alan Alda," which is the event. I've been asked to come back for tomorrow because the job hasn't been completed and there are still bunches of people to call. By the end of today, I was starting to lose my voice. I tried at one point to go into my "broadcast" register and, put bluntly, failed. It was rather discouraging. I have thought about calling some of you and leaving my speal but I didn't think that would be appropriate.

But you're all dying to know why I am from Dixie. I called a woman today who picked up and said that she didn't have much time to talk. Well, it turns out that she did. Towards the end of me answering her questions about the event, she quickly asked, "Are you from the South?" I replied, "No. I'm from the Midwest."

"Ohhh. That was my second guess."

Over the next five minutes (which seemed like a long time since my conversations up to that point had all probably been less than one minute long and focused on business), the woman explained to me that she very much enjoyed accents and dialects. She had served as a receptionist at one point where she greeted international travelers and enjoyed trying to pronounce their names correctly. She was very confident of her talent, which I don't doubt that she has, as many of these people were glad to have had their name pronounced correctly by a dumb American. I also found out that she would ask these travelers to leave behind alphabets for their language so she could be better prepared for the next time. At least, that's what I got out of it. Anyway, this kept going on and on, with it being very interesting, but I wondered how did this woman suddenly become graced with plenty of time that she didn't have before? She then told me she was getting a new frig and was moving things around for it to be delivered. She was very concerned about the delivery men hitting anything, especially things on a window sill. Some folks interpretation of not having time is sometimes mind boggling.

So, who knew I would be learning so much about one person from one little phone call to a stranger! Back to it tomorrow.

Hi, you've won!

The first day on the job at JFK Library went fairly well. I spent the majority of today jotting down info from voicemails of people calling in reservations for upcoming events this fall at the library. Some people can really just rattle off their phone number...incredibly quick. The last part of the day I then took the compiled list which had been scrambled and started at the top telling people that they had been selected to come to an event featuring Alan Alda (M.A.S.H. and PBS star). Responses ranged from ho hum to very excited. People had known they only had a chance at getting in for this forum. I continue the calling tomorrow working with winning reservations for about 200 more calls, then moving on to overflow people and finally finishing with "losers". The manager and myself are responsible for calling each and every one of these people who requested tickets to the event, telling them the news, and sending off the tickets to the winners. That's what the next two days will be like.

The library is in a very nice spot. It's right on a point facing a part of the Boston Harbor with lush grass and weeping willows around the outside. The building was designed with the corner facing the water being made entirely of glass and the offices inside the building are set up to look out of that. That allows for a nice view at least. Here is a picture of the huge flag that hangs by the windows looking out to sea.

Picture notes: the pipes you see are framing of some sort on the inside of the glass. I assume it is some type of steel. Down on the grass you can see JFK's sailboat. Click on the picture for an enlarged view.

In case you're interested

Found this today on Apple's trailer site. Just no one tell Scott Metzger, ok?

Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Movie Trailer

Job Search Update

Two-and-a-half months into my job search here in Boston, I am finally starting to break through a bit and get a little work here and there. Last week, I finished up a stretch of working for Blackwell Publishing for two weeks. They simply ran out of work for me so they let me go. I wasn't terribly heart broken but it was nice to get a paycheck for that time. Last Friday, I interviewed for a photography/videography position at Draper Laboratory where Mrs. Wright works and where Violet has interned in the summers. The man that I interviewed with liked the photos and videos that I showed him. At the end of the interview, he said my stuff looked promising. They are interviewing a few more applicants this week and then I should hear back from them. In the meantime, I was able to find three days of work for this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). I'll be at JFK Library in South Boston calling people to tell them whether or not they were able to get tickets for an event that is coming up. Essentially, I get to make or break people's days. I'm glad that this worked out so that I'm not just sitting around the house waiting to hear back from Draper. You can continue to pray that God would grant me the Draper job as it seems like it would be an enjoyable position and would provide stableness with it being a permanent position.

Billary

The last two posts here have featured material that Harold Milligan of Hebron RPC in Clay Center passed on to me while I was at K-State. He told me not to use this photo in school while I was student teaching. He didn't think it would go over very well with people. I don't know. It's very well done...

Lots of C's

This is a clip from Johnny Carson's days about a Clapper Caper. Enjoy. I did.

A Draper Project

I didn't have much video of my own going into my interview with Draper this morning so I decided to make one. I ended up making an instructional video on Wiffle ball pitching. It is based on my pitching style so for you hard-core players, the pitches may look different than yours. Also, I had to shoot all of the video with the Wright family digital point-and-shoot camera so the video is not of the greatest quality. Anyway - I hope you enjoy.

El primero

I had nothing else to do this afternoon after going to an interview this morning at Draper Laboratory, so I decided to start a blog. I must admit that this is a bit of a copy cat of Esther's. In my defense, there really aren't that many choices of how to do things on here.

I guess there could be a bit to actually update you all on. Last Saturday, a group of us held a going-off party of sorts for Brian before he headed off to Geneva. We started out the group fun by playing soccer. However, the fun started long before then. About three hours to be exact. Brian pulled out his soccer/futbol jerseys and we all decided we just had to wear them to play. The following are the results of such craziness.





Sportin' the fauxhawks. Brian didn't have much confidence in mine - that quickly changed.


Sylvia unfortunately was stuck taking the photos. She ended up sporting a pretty kickin' England kit. In the end, we all got laughed at.