And So It Begins...

It's opening weekend! The Demons play this weekend, tournament style, in Monroe, Louisiana. They kick off tonight at 6pm, and play Sat & Sun as well. The kids & along, along with a friend & fellow coaches wife will head out tomorrow morning to catch the weekend games. It's still cold here (okay, 50s & 60s) but hopefully we'll feel the sun on our faces and pretend it's summer.

I'm really looking forward to this year's season as I feel like I know what to expect. We've got one year as Demons under our belt, which gives me a good perspective. Lots of away games this season and we probably won't travel with the team again for awhile. At least until it's a little warmer!

In the meantime, we'll enjoy the weekend, which will happen to also include swimming, shopping & eating. So no, I have nothing to complain about!! Laissez Len Bon Temps Roulez!

A Story...

Okay, so I will finally admit that I'm not a great driver. I don't really enjoy it anyway. I do it a lot, especially during baseball season as we head to away games, but I get over it. I'm horrible with directions, and have been known to get lost - horribly lost - more times than I can count. Kelly keeps promising to get me a GPS, but as of now, my dashboard is empty.

What I really don't like, though, is driving with another adult in the car. I get nervous. After driving for 16 years you'd think I'd be okay.... but no. That said, I have a little story, and it goes like this:

One day, a beautiful young maiden was driving to work. She had just attended spin class and was feeling good. She was making the short drive from the wellness facility to her office on campus. She got a little distracted however, when she noticed the car in front of her. She saw that it was her co-worker and was just pondering the thought that he was in front of her. (The maiden, being so young & beautiful had to have at least one little fault, and that fault just happened to be that she didn't always pay attention. Trivial, really). In order for her to enter the faculty/staff parking lot, the maiden had to roll down her window and swipe her card so the gate would raise. And she did all of these things. About the time that the gate was to go up, she realized that her co-worker didn't turn into the parking lot. She turned her lovely face to see where he went, and when she didn't see his car, she proceeded forward into the parking lot. Alas, the gate never went up (the card-swipe thingy can be quite tempermental) and the young maiden drove right into it. It scraped the front bumper, the hood of her car and finally smashed into her windshield. The maiden backed up, the gate went up and she pulled into the parking lot. After she assessed the damage to her vehicle and called to report the damage to the gate, she went to work. Fortunately, the young maiden wasn't really a maiden, as she was happily married to a prince of a guy but liked to refer to herself as a maiden, and her prince reassured his love for her. Despite years of damage to the various vehicles they've shared.

...They will live happily ever after, just as soon as they find a way to buy the prince a new truck.

THE END

beauty queens & basketball

This weekend was a busy one. Saturday brought us the Miss Northwestern Lady of the Bracelet Pageant - a scholarship program for university students that our department puts on, which is also a preliminary to the Miss Louisiana and Miss America Pageants. Hours and hours of work had gone into the pageant, and this year being the 50th anniversary of the pageant, it was a very big deal. I had the opportunity to serve as a preliminary talent judge, as well as a mock interview judge, designed to help the young ladies "fine tune" their interview skills. Not being a pageant girl myself, I came in pretty clueless. But now that I have 2 under my belt, it's all very interesting, really. Our winner gets over $6000 in prize money & scholarships. Claire came with me to the pageant and had a great time.

Claire & Miss Northwestern Lady of the Bracelet 2009

Saturday evening was also the Demon Baseball Banquet, their big fundraiser of the year. It was the first time this group of coaches hosted a banquet and I'd venture to say they learned a lot. All the wives and girlfriends helped out and by Friday night everyone was spent - and the banquet wasn't even until Saturday! I didn't get to attend, but the event was a hit, I heard the food was great and they made some solid dough.

Saturday morning the kids played basketball - Nolan scored a basket for his team (which is huge, since he hadn't even touched the ball much in his previous games) and Claire was the high scorer on her team with 6 points. It's 7 year olds, people. They both played great and I can picture Claire on the court in five years and beyond. Nolan... well, I don't think basketball is his sport, football is where he wants to be.