Busy month... but someone wanted an update

So Kevin is the starting catcher for the freshmen baseball team at his high school. He is taking this year very seriously, both school and sports. I think it's funny how the school's eligibility standards are so low. If he is failing 1 class he cannot play... My ex has a much higher standard. If he has a C he cannot play. We'll see if she'll buckle if that happens. I am betting so. Kevin is still in 2 honors classes, band, and now sports. Yesterday he tells me that the coach wants him to play on the JV team this week to see how well he does. He is an awesome catcher, but I am not expecting him to get much playing time on JV. He is also on the freshmen team. So he has 6 games this week. UGH!

His grades are very good, not perfect, but I don't care that much about having straight As. If he gets them I will be extremely proud, and reward him in some way. He's been continuing his drum lessons away from school, but is about to put those on hold until after baseball season is over. He still plays trumpet in band, but I can tell he doesn't like the teacher. I have a feeling he is going to want to drop band unless this guy is less of a dick. I was going to have to call the guy because he was going to fail Kevin in band because he missed a concert. My ex sent a note stating that Kevin had a huge English assignment that needed to be done, so she was note allowing him to go to the concert.

I totally agree that he needs to make his best attempt at being at all concerts and contests for the band, but when an academic class is suffering, you have to focus there first. What an asshole. Kevin asked for his number so I could call him. He apparently chickened out and gave Kevin a writing assignment to do to make up for the concert. Coward! I am going to track down his number anyway, or at least his e-mail.

Erik tried out last week for little League. We find out which team he is on this week. He is excited. He is doing well in school as well.

He got his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do a couple weeks ago, which he is also into very much. I think it is teaching him a lot of good things.

Erik is a reading machine these days. It's hard to believe that he was considered well below his class just a few years ago. Thank you J. K. Rowlings!!! We still need to work on his writing.

So work is again kicking my ass. The main reason I was hired aover 18 months ago was to implement some pretty substantial process changes and new tools. Well, most of the process changes require the tools to change. We JUST got the company to buy the tools a couple weeks ago. We've had a year to prepare for this, but there is only so much prep you can do ahead of time.

We've been working a lot of weekends lately getting things ready, and upgrading the servers to accommodate more people using them. Now I am going into presentation mode, trying to explain all of the things that we are putting in place, and of course dealing with all of the resistance that comes along with change. My stress level is way up.

One of my guys is under so much pressure (not from me) that I am afraid he is going to crack. His wife doesn't work, and she got into an accident (not her fault) totaling the very nice SUV he bought for her. She is now traumatized and is afraid to drive. He works a second job on the weekends. The only car he has now is a piece of shit 15+ year old Nissan Sentra. And now that is giving him trouble. The guy seriously works 70+ hours a week.

I was talking to a friend of his (we all play World of Warcraft together). Scott is a good guy. I've never met him in person, but we had a talk last night about Mike. He works with Mike at Mike's other job. He is concerned about Mike too. He also thinks Mike's wife needs to get a job. Apparently she does nothing. I guess one of the reasons Mike doesn't mind working so much is because if he had idle time at home, she would dream up projects for him to do on the house. I know this year he has built a deck, started finishing his basement, replaced a number of appliances, etc.

On top of all this she calls him ALL THE FUCKING TIME. I give Mike shit for leaving his cell phone on his desk, but now I know why. He doesn't answer it if he doesn't have it on him. I remember when my ex used to call me all the time at work. It drove me crazy. He is such a nice guy, I hear some of his side of the conversations, and she sounds like the neediest woman on the planet. I also think she is a hypochondriac.

So what's going on with me, besides kids and work? Nothing really, but there is something coming up.

I have casually asked the lady from work out, was it she that asked me out. She only works in the office 3 days a week. She works from home the other 2 days. I told her about 9 months ago that I owed her a drink for helping me with something. I never followed through with going out for drinks. I was just trying to tell her how much I appreciated her hard work. Sure there was a little flirting there. I am a flirter. What can I say? But the fact was, I was seeing MS.

The last couple weeks she's been helping me out with some other things. Her department needed some stuff from me, so she's been giving me shit about it. Our IM conversations turned personal. I've learned a lot about her recently. She's asked a lot about me. She thought I was still seeing MS. When I told her I wasn't she said she figured I was most of the way to being married. She then told me I looked married. What the hell is that? She then said something about making me look single again. I still don't understand. She then reminded me that I stilled owed her a drink. I took this as her giving me a not so subtle hint to ask her out. I didn't right then, but I told I do need to do that.

She is always there on Fridays, but yesterday I wasn't. It snowed something like 5 inches here over night, so I decided to be a chicken and not risk the drive. I sent her an IM that spurred a long conversation which she was disappointed in me for not being there. She said she didn't need to be home for the kids. She wanted me to take her out for that drink. I asked if I can take her out on Monday instead... so we'll see.

I am still very nervous about seeing someone from work. I just get the impression from her, that even if we don't work well in a relationship we could still be friends, but then again women are unpredictable.

What will go wrong next?

So, the Rockies got their asses handed to them last night, then the Broncos lose to the Packers in overtime tonight. What can possibly go wrong next?

I am on vacation this week. That seems like a good thing, and it really is. I just wanted to take my vacation on a week I don't have the kids. Not that I don't like being around my kids, but if I have to be here to take them to, and pick them up from school I would rather be working.

My vacation is a result of a shitty vacation policy at work that states if you don't use your vacation time by Dec 31st, you lose it. I don't think they'll even pay us out for the time. So this is the only week I have available to me. We have shit scheduled from now until the end of the years at work, and fitting all of my guy's vacations in before the end of the year as well. Personally I give us only about a 50% chance of getting all of the major things done that we have planned.

I am taking the 21st through 31st of December off as well. Obviously I haven't been taking off enough time this year. I miraculously got permission from my ex to take the boys to Michigan with me. My family is very happy about that. I was too until I started looking into plane tickets (over $1600 for all 3 of us). They are raping people this year. So I decided to NOT fly this year. Last year after getting stuck on a business trip due to blizzards, my brother and I drove straight through as soon as I got to town. I hope we don't have a repeat. Mike isn't coming this year.

I was thinking about taking the train, but even that was going to cost me close to $800 without even getting a sleeper. Looks like I'm driving it solo.

I went to MS's best friend's Halloween party Saturday night. Again we came up with a last minute costume. This one wasn't nearly as good as last years, but it worked.

Sorry for blocking out her face again...

You like where I bite?

What I've been up to...

First of all...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
I have been dealing with baseball, baseball, and more baseball.

Then there is the endless work stress, but I'll bitch about that some other time.

The season has started and is looking like it's going to be an exciting one.

Kevin is mainly playing 3rd base, but has been put in as catcher on occasion. He loves playing catcher, but he has a great arm and great reflexes, so 3rd base is a good choice for him too. I wish I would have remembered to take my camera to one of the games a few weeks ago. They lost, but Kevin caught a screamer at 3rd that would have resulted in a double or triple. He stretched out and caught it perfectly.

He had a game earlier this week where for 2 innings straight every time the opposing team got a hit it went straight to Kevin. I had to leave before the end of the game because I had to get Erik to his. These guys are running me ragged (that's a mom saying).

Erik is playing 1st base almost exclusively. He seems to have a better glove and understands what it takes to be a good first baseman. The level he is at in Little League still has a lot of kids who have hardly or never played before. I was afraid his coach was going to be a problem due to not showing up for opening ceremonies and not scheduling a practice for weeks after other teams started practicing. I guess it just had to do with not being able to get time off from work. Now things are going well.

His season so far has been flawless except for on dropped throw to him a few games ago. He isn't hitting as well as he should. I don't know if it is just him changing things or his coach, but he has a very odd stance and bat position. We're working on it.

Kevin's progress report came the other day. As and Bs. I am very proud of him. I wish I got those kinds of grades when I was his age.

THPPFT!

I am feeling kind of blah about things lately. Could it have to do with me coming down with a cold? I have semi-worked from home Monday and Tuesday. It was rough trying to concentrate with a head full of snot and cold medicine.

I am going to try to get tickets to The Police concert for when they are in Denver this June. I am a huge fan. I have just been to BLAH to get off my ass and get tickets.

Stress from work is no better, and is probably worse than ever. My new boss is grateful for all of the things that I do, but holy shit this needs to stop.

I am trying to hire someone for our Des Moines office. I don't have much hope in finding a perfect fit for a technical job in Iowa. I know it's bad to say, but there just isn't that big of a bowl to fish from. Any SCM engineers out there want to move to Iowa? I didn't think so.

The official opening day of Little League Baseball here in Colorado Springs is this Saturday. My kids are psyched. Kevin (14yo) has a scrimmage game that day after a hitting competition. We'll see how that goes. I am still not sure what is going on with Erik's (9yo) team. I think they've had 2 practices now, it might just be 1. Not that I want to coach, but if you're going to volunteer to coach these kids, then schedule some practices.

PLAY BALL!!