Hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We really missed having friend’s Thanksgiving this year, but we did get to host our first family Thanksgiving at our house.
It went really well and Aaron ate more than he’s ever eaten before. Afterward he needed a shower. Here are the pictures.
Last week during spring break I drove from Colorado Spring to Houston. On the way back I stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument. This extinct volcano is located in northern New Mexico, about 60 miles from the Colorado border.
It is one of the least visited National Monuments due to its relatively remote location. The highway that I was on was three miles from the main gate so I figured it would be a good chance to stretch my legs and see a new NPS site.
At 9 AM on a Tuesday morning I was the only person at the monument. I think that the Rangers at the visitor center where a little surprised to see me.
There is a two mile long road up the volcano.
The road up Capulin Volcano
Once you get to the top there is a 1 mile trail that loops around the crater’s rim. On this day the trail was snowpacked in some places but still passable. I would have like to have had some waterproof boots but I made do. As I came down the far side of the trail I saw a few deer. I stopped to watch them and then I saw more and more. It ended up being a herd of 12 or more mule deer.
There was also a trail that went down into the crater but I decided to save that for another day. I was excited to get home to Mandy and Caleb after three days away.
The Red Sox signed pitcher Boof Bonser to fill in their bullpen. For some reason I like Boof and hope he pitches lights out for the Sox.
Happy 30th Birthday to my friend Regan.
Regan in New Hampshire the day before my wedding.
Here are 10 of my favorite things/memories of our friendship. In no particular order.
1. Regan loves to pee in the backyard. I only wish he wouldn’t do it while he was talking to my wife on the phone. Mandy – “Regan, are you peeing?” Regan- “Um, Maybe a little bit.”.
2. Playing wiffle ball in the front yard of his house growing up. It was the all time best yard for home run derby.
3. Chocolate Gravy – Everything is better with gravy. Gravy is better with chocolate.
4. Serious talks about important stuff. If you don’t know Regan well then you might not understand but Regan is a great person to talk to. He can disagree without arguing and has a way of making you clarify your arguments so that you even seem smarter to yourself.
5. Watching Regan mentor some of the younger guys in our church was cool to watch.
6. Wyldewood. – Regan was Mr. GQ even before Ryan. Not many people know that.
7. Getting in trouble in high school and a cop calling Regan “Mr. Smiley”. Scary but still funny.
8. Watching Regan play with Caleb. He makes a good Uncle Regan.
9. MTV Video VHS tape. I think that I could still name every music video on that tape.
10. Regan+Joey+Ice+Wheelchair=Awesome.
Happy Birthday Regan. You are a great friend. I can’t wait until you guys come and visit.
I was going through my goodreads account the other day and I started counting the authors that I have read the most. There are 18 authors that I have read at least 4 books from. Here they are in order of books read.
13 Books – John Steinbeck
8 Books – C.S. Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, Vince Flynn
7 Books – Jack Kerouac, J.K. Rowling
6 Books – Stephen Ambrose, Roald Dahl, Madeline L’engle, Shakespeare
5 Books – Nevada Barr, Dan Brown, Bill Bryson, Paulo Coehlo, Brian McLaren and Stephanie Meyer.
4 Books- Cormac McCarthy, Jon Krakauer
This does not include biographies of these writers. I have read several biographies of Kerouac and one each of Hemingway and Lewis.
My brother in law came into town and we took him fly fishing at a place on the South Platte River called Deckers.
Here are some pictures.
If the Baseball Writers of America gave me a vote I would not vote for any guy who had been caught or admitted to using steroids.
It seems like we would be keeping out some of the best hitters of all time (A-Rod, Manny and Bonds to name a few), but we really don’t know if they were among the best because they cheated.
I think that by not voting for steroid users voters give an incentive for good players to think twice about using. If they knew that if they got caught there was no chance they would get a HoF vote they might refrain.
Not voting those players in also honors the game and the players who played the right way.
