Silent Auction Day

Each year Andrew's baseball league does two fundraisers, a candy sale and a silent auction. Today was the silent auction and as usual it was a big success. Andrew and I had to be there by 7am to help set up and then he had a game to umpire before his own game.

As team mom I was responsible for our teams basket and me being me it had a science fiction theme. I also got NASA to donate some stuff and was gratified to see it go for a good price.

We bid on and one a basketball themed basket for Adam that included tickets for a Clippers game next season so he's a really happy guy right now.

Spring has finally arrived with a vengeance and it was a beautiful sunny day. It was the first day everyone in the stands wasn't bundled up in jackets or sweatshirts. Andrew hit another home run his first at bat today. He followed that with a double and single to go three for three with 6 RBI's.

He's really been on fire this week because at Wednesday's game he also went three for three with a triple and 4 RBI's. The Braves won both games to close to being half a game behind the Dodgers. They'll be playing them several times over the next three weeks so it should be an interesting second half of the season.

What a Laugh

I'd read something briefly a couple of weeks ago about the efforts of a parent in Georgia who wanted her childrens school district to remove all copies of any Harry Potter books from school libraries in that district.

This weekend I finally got around to reading some more about that. It seems that she feels the Potter books promote witchcraft. I laughed so hard I cried-- she has never read any of the books personally and has no intention of doing so.

Great Weekend

Stephanie was home briefly this weekend. It's always like a breath of fresh air when she breezes in full of news about what she's been up to. The spring semester is quickly drawing to a close for her with only two weeks left of classes before finals begin. Her last final is May 12th, so Saturday the 13th we'll help her pack up her dorm room and move back home for the summer. There's a possiblity that her roommate Talia may spend a few days with us before she heads home for the summer.

Saturday Mel joined us and we all went to Andrews game together. He's been having a great season so far but Saturday he really went crazy at the plate. His first at bat he hit a monster home run over the fence in right field. His next at bat was a double and his third a single. He was intentionally walked his last time up which ticked him off because he hoped to get a triple too.

It's going to be crazy the next five weeks with all the games that need to be made up due to rain outs but right now the Braves stand second in the league with a record of 5-4-1.

After the game we all went out for dinner and then Sam, the boys and myself went to see a movie, The Sentinal. It was okay, not great but not terrible either.

Big News Day for Trek Fans

I had made myself an appointment for early yesterday to have my annual eye check. I was running behind with the housework so I didn't check my email until I got back from the appointment and had done the errands. When I finally sit down at the computer I notice my email icon telling me I have 63 new messages in my in box. That's when I knew something big had to be happening.

After a quick scan of the subject headings my eyes widen in shock. J.J. Abrams will be helming a new Star Trek movie and the speculation is that it will be a prequel. So I start to work my way through the messages and already people have started to debate the prequel idea.

In the midst of all this a reporter from the LA Times wants to chat. So we start to talk about fandom and it's obvious she's fairly clueless so I try to explain how seriously many of the long time fans take their Star Trek. I point out that the long time fans are the backbone of the franchise and to go backward again would make it very very difficult for the production team to come up with a story that would satisfy the fans without pissing them off.

When she wants to know why that would be I tell her that I think the fans love the characters and they all have strong opinions about the characters and that many, based on what we saw onscreen in TOS, believe that Kirk and Spock could not have been at Starfleet Academy at the same time and even if they were somehow it was obvious from the series that they weren't friends then. These characters are like old friends I tell her but I don't think she got it.

Going backward would be like a minefield for whoever writes the script. The fans would pick everything apart and compare it to their own interpretation of established canon. It's my own belief that that is one of the reasons the last series ENTERPRISE did so poorly. I know folks who had never before missed a second of Star Trek that refused to even try the show because it was set on the Enterprise before Kirk was in command. Other fans I know were like myself, willing to give the producers the benefit of the doubt and try the show, but quickly got fed up with what they viewed as continuity errors and stopped watching.

I think JJ Abrams has the ability, vision and creativity to something special with Star Trek. My personal preference would be for a story that isn't a prequel but I'll reserve judgement until an actual script has been written.

Disneyland

It has been several years since we went to Disneyland so on Thursday the boys and I left early to head down to Orange County. We figured it would be pretty crowded being spring break but it wasn't too bad. We all had a really great time.

The new Space Mountain opened earlier this year and the previous version was always a favorite of mine so I was looking forward to seeing what improvements they had made to the ride. The effects in the new ride are awesome and it's very, very fast.

Something new at Disneyland since we were last there is something called a fast pass. Rather than have to stand in line for hours at some of the more popular rides like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones etc. you can get a fast pass which gives you a set time to return to ride without the long wait. We collected fast passes for as many of the rides we wanted to do as we could and that meant we could sort of plan out the rest and really maximize our time there.

The ride I was most surprised to really enjoy was a Buzz Lightyear ride that's interactive. As you ride through you shoot the targets and depending on what you hit and where you hit it you accumulate points. The first time through I hardly hit a thing but the second time I managed to break 10,000 points so the boys could no longer tease me about the really low score our first time through had generated.

Old favorites like the Tea Cups, Peter Pan and the Jungle Cruise are just as much fun as ever but we did decide to give Small World a pass. The only real disappointment was the Pirates of the Caribbean was closed.

By the time we left just before the park was closing at midnight we were all pretty tired but the sore feet from all the walking and standing was worth every little ache. What a fun day!

Success

The doctors knocked Sam out Tuesday and were able to create a narrow opening so he can swallow again. He was home the next day and everything seems to be fine for the moment.

Broken Bat

We had a nice sunny weekend for a change so the Braves got a game in but everything here is still muddy and soggy from all the recent storms.

Andrew's hitting coach has had Andrew working with a wood bat lately to try and challenge him. By the third inning they were up 9 runs so the coach told Andrew he could use the wood bat if he wanted to and he hit a beautiful drive that went out to the fence for an easy double. His next at bat he did it again but the bat broke.

It's cold and cloudy today, more storms are on the way, which matches my current mood. Sam had to be readmitted to the hospital today. The constriction in his esophogus has gotten much worse over the past three days and today he couldn't swallow at all, nothing will get past the constriction. First thing in the morning they are going in to try to remove some of the scar tissue.

I called Mel and he's arriving in the morning to hang out with the boys who are on spring break this week. He'll keep them company while I'm at the hospital.

Arrrggg!!!

It's raining--again!

I am so sick of rain!!!!!!!!

Where does the time go?

This week sure flew by faster than I expected. I can't wrap my head around the idea that it could possibly April already but I did remember to change the clocks--go me!

After rain off and on all week it's sure nice to see the sun shine again. The storms played further havoc with Andrews baseball schedule. Another game was rained out but they did manage to squeeze in a make-up game Thursday after school. Andrews team was down by three runs going into their last at bat and he was the first batter up. He got walked but then stole second and third which got his team fired up. Greg got a solid hit through the gap to bring in Andrew and that started them off and they came back to tie before the game was called for darkness. Sam had to be down at UCLA for most of the day so Mel picked Andrew up and took him to the game, then when I got him home again I ran down and caught the last four innings.

After the last of Sam's tests were through we meet with Dr. Cooper to discuss where things go from here. It was a good news/bad news kind of discussion but the bad news wasn't nearly as bad as we had feared.

The bad news is that approximately 50% of his lung tissue is irreversibly destroyed by this point, so he's got he equivalent of one lung. That's not as bad as we'd prepared ourselves for so we're very relieved. The good news is that the new medication seems to be doing it's job. The enzymes in his lungs are reading normal again.

Sam's definitely getting stronger. He still tires quickly and easily but he's been able to work a bit from home which has done wonders for his overall mood. I know he is hoping to get cleared to start back to work, at least part-time, soon. He has been advised to go on disability but that's not something he is willing to consider.