Practice is also much more organized this year due to her leveling up. Or, maybe, it's upgrades? No, I'm sure it's "Level Up!" She's a "10 and under" this year instead of an "8 and under." Her team name, though, took a hit, and she's gone from being one of the "Dragonflies" to being one of the "Ducks." I don't know about you, but I can't, in my head, associate ducks with softball. It's probably because of those movies, but I just can't do it. Although... maybe there was a Donald Duck cartoon with him playing softball? I can't remember. Maybe, I'm just thinking about the wrong kinds of ducks...
Like I said, her first practice was this past Saturday. I wasn't there for the whole thing (because I had to make a coffee run (9am softball practice requires coffee for adults (just sayin'))), but, from what I saw, she's easily one of the best (if not the best) catchers on the team. Keep in mind that she hasn't picked up a softball since a few weeks after the season ended last year. That's, probably, my bad. I intended to facilitate her keeping up with her skillz during the off season, but, man, it's tough to hold that in my head with all the other stuff that's in my head, especially when it's not something that's happening RIGHT NOW, like it is now.
Opening day is about a month away. I don't watch sports, but I am looking forward to her games starting back up. I'm sure there will be progress reports.
The kids are also out of school this week. Well, two of them are. It's just their school, though, so this week promises to be one of ambivalence for me. On the one hand, I don't have to the school routine for the younger two, but I will still have to be up at 5:30am for the oldest one two of those days, because he does have school. And, since it's just their school, all of my daughter's neighborhood friends will be at school, so she'll have no one to play with, which means she'll be in the house all day bugging me or fighting with her brother neither of which is happy making for the writing. Or anything else. But, you know, no school routine. If I quit posting after this week, you'll know it's because my head exploded.
In other news, today is "Part Fifteen: Food of the Garden"!
It's FREE! today, Monday, February 18 and tomorrow, Tuesday, February 19 for the Kindle or Kindle App. Make sure you stop by and pick up your copy. I'd say to click the little "like" button, but those seem to have gone missing from Amazon; I'm wondering if it has to do with the lawsuit against facebook over their "like" buttons, but I haven't seen anything about it anywhere.
Also, FREE! on Monday:
"Part Fourteen: Anger and Laughter"
"Part Thirteen: The Clearing"
"Part Twelve: The Gash in the Floor"
"Part Eight: The Cold and the Dark"
"Part Seven: The Moth and the Shadow"
"Part Six: The Man with No Eyes"
"Part Two: The Kitchen Table"
"Part One: The Tunnel"
"The Evil That Men Do"
Charter Shorts
Ducks? Reminds me of a kids hockey team movie. But one gets use to every name - and even is proud of it in the end. We were the 'Lights' in Highschool. Never sounded right in the cheers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the name comes from someone yelling 'Duck!' rather than the bird?
ReplyDeleteSorry about your upcoming week of torture. Then again, you wanted kids!
Waking up at 5:30 I can do, but getting bugged all day and no writing? You're making no case toward me eventually having kids.
ReplyDeleteAlso, snagged part fifteen and looking forward to reading it soon!
Softball for kids always seems dumb because the best way to play softball is with mass quantities of beer.
ReplyDeleteI used to play softball as a kid. But never in February.
ReplyDeleteDownloaded Parts Fourteen and Fifteen today. I thought I had already gotten part fourteen, but apparently I did not.
I'm jealous of the ability to play softball in February.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, it was 8 degrees when I got up. Our house being the way it is, that means it was cold all day in our house and of course we didn't want to go outside and do things even though we wanted to go outside and do things.
Have you thought about getting your daughter to write? Have her do a guest post on your blog.
That is great for her that she's in softball, though. Even though you don't watch sports, do you go to her games?
I was never good at sports, but I loved softball. It was fun to be a part of a team.
ReplyDeleteHey, don't slam the Ducks. The Oregon Ducks rule! It is a funny name though. Like how intimidating can a duck be, right? well, let me tell you, ducks are vicious beasts. So maybe that's a good thing. they don't look intimidating, but they'll bite you to the ground.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the kids being home. I miss that myself!
And yeah, the "like" button went the way of the Amazon tags, I guess. I think it has to do with their efforts to eliminate author coercion, juiced reviews and sock puppet accounts. All in the name of fairness. It really should be about the reviews in relation to sales.
T.: We were a horse and half of the schools where I grew up were some kind of horse. There was one school that was the Yellow Jackets and another that was the 'Gators, and those were cool, but most were the Mustangs or the Stallions or things like that.
ReplyDeleteAlex: You know, I never thought of that.
And I did want kids. I wouldn't give them up despite the headaches.
ABftS: Oh, they're really worth it. Most of the time. Especially when they're in school. :P
Thanks!
PT: I played softball during high school but never liked it. Didn't have beer with it, either.
M.J.: They have to start practice early because they're season has to be over before the actual season begins. The travelling teams and such which some of these girls will participate in, so they can't have the local season going on while the other season is happening.
Briane: I don't think I could survive temps that low anymore. 5 years ago, I probably still could have done it but not now.
My daughter wrote one of the stories in Charter Shorts. I'm trying to get her to do another for Charter Shorts 2.
I missed one game last season because I had some author thing to do. Some thing which must have been less than important because I can't even remember what it was, just that it caused me to miss a game. You should go find my post on their championship game from last season.
Michael: I was more into volleyball.
Nancy: Oh, I'm not slamming them; it just doesn't sound like a softball name.
I know at least one person that has abused that "like" button by spamming facebook to get people to go click it. He had something like 80 "likes" but only 6 reviews. If that's why they took the button off, I'm kind of okay with that. But I bet it's more to do with the lawsuit.
February is pretty early for Softball. But I'm glad she gets to play. I picked up part eight, which I needed, and then 14 and 15... I think I'm just about caught up and I can start reading again. I'm pretty excited.
ReplyDeleteRusty: It is still just practice at this point, but the season does start next month. I froze parts of my body off during practice last night, though.
ReplyDelete