Halloween

Here it is after midnight now on Halloween. Kids are all asleep. I think most had fun today. Rose & Angie went with their uncle & cousin to a pumpkin patch and had lunch and picked some apples. Thomas hung out with me today, hitting the library, the optical shop to have a pair of his glasses repaired, the hardware store--they gave him an extra pumpkin they had, to an oil change place, a park, and then a couple of grocery stores. Thomas didn't like trick or treating though. Not sure of the reason but it was the same thing last year, maybe need to try to do with a smaller group instead of all of his cousins, not sure. Rose & Angie were fine. Rose went with cousins to more places while Angie & Thomas helped hand out candy at home. A good day all in all.

Missing entries

I am running behind my 31 for 21 and have been pretty much from the start which I kind of expected anyway. No really big deal but I might try to get a few extra entries in today and maybe get close to 31 for the month. It is Saturday morning, Halloween, so it will be a busy day of doing stuff around the house & grocery shopping. Figured I would get this quick one in now & maybe get back here later too.

Seasons In Hell-The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers--#66 finished

I grew up as a Texas Rangers fan and have stayed a fan throughout the years, sometimes more of a follower than a fan but still my AL team at least. These years were prior to me following them though, I first started collecting baseball cards around 1978 so a lot of these players mentioned in the book have moved on. I still recognized their names though from other teams and just kind of being a baseball junkie.

The book itself is really very good, a lot of funny stuff and real characters of the game. The writer followed the team for those 3 years and had great insight and obviously connections to the players, manager and owners back then. Also the descriptions of the cities and especially the spring training site were very good. I really enjoyed this book and it is a keeper for me. In other words, I am not posting it on PBS even though there are a couple of people that have it on their WL. I am pretty sure I will be re-reading this book at some point, but it would be a keeper anyway just because it is about my Texas Rangers.

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had our parent/teacher conferences tonight. All is good with the kids & school. Rose is getting all As and teacher just loves her & the work she does. We had Thomas' IEP yesterday so this was just a little rehashing and a little about what we heard after we absorbed the IEP stuff. He is doing good and working hard, but he has his days where he is a challenge and/or just doesn't want to do much. I guess that is kind of typical in my mind except other kids might be better at hiding it. I guess I don't really want to go over all of that now, just don't feel like it--so I guess I know where he gets it.

Kind of fun though, I was going over geography with Rose beforehand and somehow got into that the US is involved in 2 wars right now. For some reason she said she didn't know this. I am sure she knew it on some level but I guess didn't know or hadn't heard it put that way. Anyway that eventually led to a discussion of WWII and the Holocaust and Hitler. After the parent teacher conferences, she asked to hear more about this so I talked for another 1/2 hour on it before it got past bedtime. Sounds like she wants to hear more still on it. It is fun when she takes an interest in something I like.

Books

I know it was just yesterday where I was saying I was going to slow down on ordering books from PBS & just kind of wait for things to happen. Well, that didn't last long. I did have an order come in for A Shadow in the City, this was a WL book that timed out twice and sat here for about a month. Then I checked the Book Bazaar, just to see if anything jumped out. Well a person was on there looking for a deal on Angels & Demons so I offered a 2 for 1 & it sounds like it is going to happen. Then I also found a 4 for 1 deal with a person who only had 40 books on their bookshelf but with some interesting ones, so I placed an order. What can I say, I certainly didn't slow down at all. Once the 2 for 1 order comes in that will be 3 packages to mail this week, probably best not to let my wife know. I think she is wondering about all of this.

World Series

A world series of the Yankees and the Phillies, okay two very good teams so could be an exciting series. I am a little burned out on baseball right now, probably because I am a Yankee hater and really wanted to see them lose at some point. Yankees have home field advantage also, thanks to that stupid All Star game rule. I am sure I will watch some of these games but I doubt I will be glued to the TV watching them. I didn't want either of these teams really but now I guess I will have to cheer for the Phillies so that probably means the Yankees in 6.

The Legend of Bagger Vance--#65 finished

I wasn't really impressed with this. I sort of remember the movie, a Will Smith one, and liked it. The movie from what I recall was probably better. The book was good with the golf parts, really pretty interesting with Hagen and Jones and the stuff about the golf course itself. It was the mystical or god like person/entity of Bagger Vance that I didn't really understand and seemed to me to take away from what would have been a good story. I guess golf doesn't have that otherworldly feel to me so I see no connection with make Vance a timeless god like person who jumps into peoples lives and uses golf to him them live a better life. It makes no sense to me. It is really too bad because like I said the golf story was really very good.

I have already posted this book on my bookshelf. There are a hundred and something already in front of it but I will hold onto it for now to see if it moves in a few months or a year. I really have more than enough books right now and enough credits to cover any of my WL books that come up so I have no big desire to move books right now. If my account on PBS is quiet for a few weeks that will probably be for the best. I am reading The Saffron Kitchen that has 1 WL for it so that might be the next one I post. I do have to mail the T Boone Pickens book yet this week also.

Potty issues

I don't think I have mentioned it for some time but we are still dealing with potty training with Thomas. Today though he went #2 on the toilet after telling me he had to go and he told me early enough that his underwear was clean. This is a big day. It is only the 3rd time he has gone on the toilet. First being a year & half ago, an almost by accident one after he had already started going and had messed his underwear--long story on this one that maybe I will tell sometime or maybe already have & need to check back on this. About 1 week ago, Debbie got him on the toilet after he messed a little and he finished up there. This is his first real one though. We are so proud of him & have let him know it. Well getting ready to take him grocery shopping with me in a minute, he will basically get what ever he wants tonight. I have been waiting for this day for a very long time.

The First Billion is the Hardest--#64 finished

This is a book by T. Boone Pickens, who was most recently in the news during the last election cycle pushing for wind energy. Before that I really hadn't paid much attention to him. I am sure that I would have seen his name regarding his big donations to Oklahoma State for both athletics and academics as well as some of his corporate raider activities in the 1980s.

It started off interesting because I really had little knowledge of him. I was certainly impressed with much of what he has done in his lifetime. After a while though, reading page after page of his accomplishments, it really wore on me. That is fine, if I am 80 and have accomplished what he has, I am sure I would kick out a book about it as well. The end of the book talked a little more about energy independence and getting into wind technology. Before that much of the book talked about his commodity trading and corporate stuff that just wasn't really interesting to me. An okay read overall. I do want to follow wind technology more since reading it as well as alternate energy sources in general. I agree with much of his final chapters about how a true energy policy has to be formulated and pushed from the top down. I guess I wish the book had been 200 pages about these alternate energies and 50 pages about his life, but still a good read anyway.

I have posted it on PBS, I think it was on something like a dozen WL so it should be moving soon. I hope it gets accepted quick since I am just wrapping up the 2 earlier ones tonight to get into the mail Thursday.

Good Day

It has been a pretty good day. I was able to get into a class tomorrow that had been filled up. It is a kind of continuing education type thing for work. Normally the classes are only offered in evenings or weekends so you have to go on your own time. There were a couple of classes this week during the day, but were filled. I put myself on the wait list & got a call today that they could fit me in.

I ran 4.15 miles tonight while Rose was at VB practice. Was a little stiff after yesterday's run but all was good. I think it was around 12 minute per mile pace again.

Thomas went number 2 on the potty for Debbie today after school. I hope this is a kind of break through, but we will have to see. He was pretty excited and happy about it also.

The weather these last 2 days has been great. I think the afternoon highs in the 70s and the evenings in 60 or high 50s. After a few cold rainy weeks it is kind of nice to have some fall days again. I think rain is coming later this week though.

Fantasy Football

I just scored a big victory tonight with Tony Schiefler's TD reception. I beat the guy I was playing this week and won the week overall also. I really wasn't expecting this. Schieffler is my 2nd TE, I have Dustin Keller as my main starter, but after Keller was ignored last week with Braylon Edwards joining the Jets, I felt it was time to switch to Schieffler. I guess if I am going to start playing him I better learn how to spell his name also. Not sure yet if this week is going to put me in first place or 2nd place in the league, but doing much better so far than I had in recent years.

8 miles today

It was a beautiful day today. We were supposed to have Thomas' IEP, but his special school district coordinator is out sick. I had 1/2 a day off, the afternoon, so I instead went to Creve Coeur Lake for a run. I ran 8.1 miles, averaging a little more than 12 minute miles. It felt really good, and I felt good the rest of the day as well. Since tonight was also PSR, I didn't run. Just went to the library and read. I also picked up 4 books that are on WL too.

The Lace Reader--#63 finished

The Lace Reader is kind of a confusing read. It is done purposely in that the main character, Towner, has a pretty screwed up life and it is mostly written in her perspective. I am still not too sure about everything that was going on, because for the longest time I believed Towner had a twin sister Lindsley, but at the end come to find Lindsley died at childbirth, so not too sure who all of those memories were really associated with. Like I said kind of confusing.

Overall, not too bad, some kind of interesting things done. I didn't really like the religious simpletons playing such an easy put down group that eventually became almost evil cult at the end. To me it was kind of a slam on religion but I guess it was more just that group and not all Christian religions. It did seem to make all the cool people in the book witches or "readers" of some sort. This was really more of a mild complaint that I noticed, it really didn't stop my enjoyment of the book. The confusing stuff is the bigger negative in my mind. Not that I don't mind being confused while reading the book, but to me it didn't really make sense in the end. Oh well, I still overall thought it was a good book, especially when I keep in mind it is the first book for the writer Brunoni Barry.

It is a book that has around 60 some WL for it so I should be able to post it & mail it off pretty easily. I might hold off on it & instead wait till I finish the Boone Pickens book & mail it with the Infidelity Pact saving the Lace Reader for the next mail out or not. I will decide later. Looking at a couple different books now, but no decisions have been made yet.

Trivia Nights

We did a trivia night tonight with friends. It was a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Foundation, I think that is the name. A very good organization and a disease that unfortunately with our(America's) lifestyle it is hitting more and more people. The trivia night was fun, our team came in like 4th out of 10 tables. It was a small trivia night, the first year it was put on so it will probably grow in the future. For a first time event, it was good, well organized and went pretty smoothly. Like what seems to be the theme for the trivia nights we have gone to lately, there is always 1 or 2 categories where we do terrible & that is what keeps us out of the lead or being close. Oh well. I am off to do some reading, I hope to finish The Lace Reader tonight so I might even have a 3rd blog today--do a little catching up.

The Infidelity Pact--#62 finished

Not a very exciting book. Just another kind of chic-lit romance lite book that is really just not that good. It has some good parts and some kind of funny parts and maybe a twist or two but overall just not that good. I won't, but I would guess if I look back on the others: Chasing Harry Winston, The Spy with the Silver Lining, The Au Pairs and there was probably another one in there somewhere, I probably typed about the same things. Story is so so, characters are so so or less, it was almost to the point where I wished the worst on each of them and everyone else involved in the story. Nothing really great here at all.

It is still on something like 24 WL at PBS so I will be posting it and mailing it off in the coming days, which is always a good thing. Still working at the other 2, The Lace Reader and the T. Boone Pickens book. I will be getting a 3rd book started but no idea at this point which one.

Runs Tues & Thurs

I know I have been missing my "daily" blogging so I am going to do this one right now & maybe a 2nd or more later tonight.

Tuesday I was able to get 5 miles in, I don't remember the pace but pretty sure it was under 12 minute pace. Then Thursday I was able to get 6 miles in. The first mile was slow around 13:35 but that included a bathroom stop so maybe a minute for that and then after that it was about 12 minute pace. The last 2 miles were at 11:42, the fastest of the night. It was cold and misty. All in all very happy with these runs. It puts me at 14 miles for the week so far. Not sure if I will get a run in Saturday or not yet.

Missed Monday too

Another missed day, oh well at this point it is just about doing my best. At least that is what I am saying today. Busy at work. It is raining again but at least it is not snow. Got a good run in tonight of 5 miles. Did a very slow 3 miles on Sunday. Kids didn't have PSR Monday, I guess the Columbus Day gave them the day off. Still plugging away at my books, no 4th book yet.

Sunday stuff

Just a few quick lines about some things.

--Yes I am still running behind on the 31 for 21 by a couple of posts. I will probably try to make these up, just not today.

--Ran 3 miles, pretty slow, but I have eaten too much last few days & it was very cold. When I started my run I wasn't sure I would do a mile and then I talked myself into 2 and then 3. So just glad I got it in.

--Today's run starts this week. Last week I ran 8 miles & week before it was 12 miles. Not too bad on the mileage I guess. Really only thing missing is no long run of 6+ miles on the weekends.

--Started reading T Boone Pickens book, The First Billion is the Hardest. He is the former gas & oil guy who has been pushing wind technology. It is time to get this book read since the numbers of WL is dropping also.

--Still working on The Lace Reader & The Infidelity Pact. All 3 books are WL books, this is probably a first for me. I might add a 4th yet, but probably not for another day or so.

--I have 27 credits now at PBS and 2 books mailed last week and 2 to be mailed. The credits are adding up, just waiting on some of my WL books to come in. I think my WL is now up to 39 but quite a few of these(at least a dozen), I am not expecting for at least a year.

--I won my fantasy football game this week, but it was really close to this point. I still have a couple of players going tomorrow so maybe I can to my total points, which also come into play in the standings as well. It is a little complicated how so I won't be providing an explanation on this today.

--From little I watched & heard of the Rams game, it seems they moved the ball, but turnovers really killed the game today. Oh well, this team needs talent and another high draft pick will be a good thing. I am guessing not too many more home games will be on TV, the blackout rule will probably come into affect.

The Brethren--#61 finished

The Brethren is a Grisham book that was published in 2000, so a pre-9/11 book that talked about some interesting things. First off it is about 3 ex-judges that are now in a minimum security federal prison running a scam trying to snare in the closet men and extort money from them. One of the men they snare is a Congressman just before the CIA director talks him into running for President as a strong on defense candidate. The CIA director promises him money & basically the election.

The kind of interesting parts to me were, that the book was written as if Clinton was leaving office--surplus money, weakened army/defense, VP running, etc. It was somewhat enjoyable to think back to that time and be reminded throughout the book of what that election of 2000 was like and also some of what the mind set was then.

Also interesting in that this was basically a sex coverup and thinking of how many there have been of these in the last few years--Foley with the interns, Craig with wide stance, Stafford and Argentine mistress, NY governor with his mistress, New Jersey governor with his gay boyfriend and others that I am just not coming up with yet. Of course I have just remembered Edwards and Sessions too, wow it has been a lot it seems.

The Brethren is not one of Grisham's better works--the ending seemed a little to quick and the small surprises were just a sentence or two. The premise itself also seems unlikely, especially with the internet around back then also. Also the CIA director knew about everything going on in the world, but some how didn't find out about a secret mailbox the Congressman had rented in an assumed name. Not a bad book, but not really that good either.

I have posted it on PBS, but there are like 1800 copies on the system already so I am not expecting it to move. Maybe if I ever run a 2 for 1 or some kind of deal--that is how I got the book in the first place. I did get the person to accept my ex-library copy of The Boy of Good Breeding after I had already mailed 2 other books. But then I also had someone request the Brooke Shields book I had down so I will be mailing them early next week. That will get me up to 31 credits. I really need some of my WL books to come in. I am trying to stay away from the deals because I already have enough books here to read.

Eating too much

These last few days I have been eating too much. I think the same thing happened last Fall too. I know as I am eating that I shouldn't take as much as I do, but I don't stop myself. Maybe by putting it down in words here it will help me reflect on this & stop some of my over-eating. I need to lose some weight but I am not in terrible shape either. But losing 10+ pounds would probably help my running quite a bit as well.

Tonight was a rehearsal dinner, yesterday NE football and Wed was baseball. Throw in some free food this week at work and here I am typing up something on eating too much. Tomorrow is the wedding so that will probably be another day, but maybe after that I new me will emerge, at least on eating.

Missed a couple of days

I am just not getting the hang of this typing something up each day. I missed Tuesday & Wednesday now also. I guess in the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal since I don't think I have anyone following this blog anyway, so no real harm.

Tuesday was VB practice & I got my run in. It was a very good 5 miles. Not sure after that what I did at home, but I guess I didn't make it downstairs to the computer.

Wednesday I had a meeting at church and after getting home I stayed up and watched the Cardinal game. I eventually fell asleep on the couch and then woke up and went to bed.

Tonight was VB again but it was raining all day long so no run. I instead did some grocery shopping and then watched some of the VB practice. Once home watched the end of the Cards game and just now finished watching Nebraska beat Mizz. That was good.

Well, I am not worried that I am running behind. I may try to make them up later but not doing it tonight.

Ex-Library Books

I had to reject another WL offer because the person has requestor conditions stating among other things they do not want an ex-library book. I understand that they are free to have an RC, I just think it is unfortunate that they don't want my copy because in general my copies are in very good to almost excellent condition--excluding library stamps. Now if they want it as a keeper book and don't want the stamps okay but for just reading it is very good. Oh well. At least in the case of A Boy of Good Breeding, there is a 2nd person wanting the book so it now goes to them to request. Of course it is possible they will also have an RC, but will just have to see.

The Marcia Brady book is all accepted and just needs to be wrapped up and mailed. Just waiting to see if I can mail the two books at the same time or not--hopefully this next person won't take almost 2 days before deciding.

a boy of good breeding--#60 finished

This was a quirky, good book. I noticed that I have been kind of attracted to these types of books, the Poe Ballantine and the Ivan Coyote among others. Books with normal type back grounds doing things in quirky manners, not the outlandish or action packed adventures. While I still like the adventure and other type books, these quirky character books are kind of fun. This one, A Boy of Good Breeding certainly qualifies. Set in a small town, or the smallest town in Canada--to be a town you have to have 1500 people and the mayor Hosea is obsessed with keeping his town right at 1500 throughout the book. Interesting people come and go and just kind of normal small town things going on. It is a fun book with characters that certainly come alive and grow somewhat, as much as possible in a 237 page book. I will probably be looking for other books by this author.

It is a book that is on 2 WL on PBS. It is different than others though because when I first bought the book, I don't think it was on any WL and then it even had a copy or two on the system for a while. It is kind of funny in that there has been some movement on the book. I find this really interesting about PBS. I also like passing along these small in number books to others who might enjoy them as well. Of course, it might end with the next person since it might be that person's keeper--kind of like me at the Poe Ballantine books, but I do sort of feel bad about this. Not bad enough yet to mail them on but bad enough that I still think about this once in a while.

Debbie had finished My Story by the original Marcia Brady and so I have posted it also. There were around 40 people still waiting for this book. I hope to get both mailed later this week, if all goes well. A Shadow in the City was on WL hold twice and timed out both times and is now just sitting there, I hope it moves also, but now it is a waiting game. I feel I probably have about 7-10 books of my 50 posted that should move in the next few months but will just have to see.

Missed on 2nd day

I just realized I missed on the 2nd day of the 31 for 21. I am looking at a calendar we got from MO Recycling and it shows Sept having 31 days, so I thought Saturday was the 2nd. Oh well, I guess that is what you get when you depend on something from the state.

Oh well, so I am doing a quick double post for Saturday. I don't think I had anything important to say yesterday that I missed out on either. I am struggling trying to think of something to type about and really nothing is coming up. I was almost asleep earlier so I would have been 2 days behind. I have a feeling, I will be doing these catchup double post things quite a bit this month. Well, I will try to come up with something interesting next time at least.

Buddy Walk--St Louis

Today, Saturday was the Down Syndrome Association's Buddy Walk here in St Louis. This is the one at the ballpark with the Cardinals. Last year because of my wife's tremendous fundraising Thomas was able to throw out the first pitch at the game. We had around 60 people there and it was just crazy. Also, Thomas wasn't on his medication for ADHD, so he was basically an emotional wreck. In the end he had fun or so he says and he remembers it, but it was a battle that day.

This year was much lower key. It was our family, with Debbie & Rose coming late because Rose had a VB game, Debbie's parents and a friend from work & his girlfriend. It was nice not having any pressure of making sure finding everyone, getting Thomas in the correct place and everything else. This year the only thing was it was cold. Our tickets ended up being behind home plate but at the very top row, so we had the wind all day long. We bundled up best we could and managed. It was good, too bad they didn't win but it was close enough to keep our attention at least. It was a good time.

31 for 21

October has been the month of 31 for 21, a kind of blogger movement to increase Down Syndrome Awareness. The idea is that you will try to post 31 times or once a day for the month of October. I am not too sure about everything on this. I know I tried/did this last year but most days were just about the regular day, not much Down Syndrome talk here. I might try to increase that this time around but will just have to see.

Last year I know I didn't make a post every day so I doubled up a few days to make up so I think I had at least 31 postings during October. I will probably try that again this year. It should be a good exercise to help me expand beyond what I normally type about--books reading & running. Well it is time, actually past time to get the kids in bed so let me go fight the good fight. I might be back and try to post something else later tonight also.