Month: March 2017

Whenever I’m captain of an ultimate team, I keep track of our defensive plays on something I call the “D Board”. I’m a firm believer that defense wins games, so it’s important to reward* those plays.

Last night were the first games of the spring season. We rocked the D Board.

We won the first game of our double-header, then tied the second in a grueling match under high winds. They were both good, balanced games, and I really like my team this season. We’re going to have a lot of fun together.

* The “reward” in this case is eternal glory.

I was running some errands just now and stopped by Jimmy John’s to buy a cheap “freaky fast” sandwich for lunch. As I was ordering, one of the sandwich-making guys behind the counter called out, “Hey, Jeff, how’s it going?”

I looked at him but had absolutely no idea who he was. Sometimes people say hi to me and they seem familiar but I can’t quite come up with a name… maybe from ultimate? Church? A client from work? One of my kids’ teachers? Even then, I get a sense that I know them from somewhere. Not this time. It was weird.

Anyway, I played it cool and chatted with him for a few minutes. After leaving, I thought maybe he was the Jimmy John’s delivery guy who had dropped off a sandwich for me at my office on Tuesday. If so, do the delivery guys actually remember the names of people requesting delivery? That would be either creepy or really cool customer service.

This is going to keep me stymied for a while…

Today marks twenty-one years of legal partnership with the most amazing, gorgeous, thoughtful, kind, loving, patient wife I could ever hope for.

As John McClane said so famously, she’s “the best thing that ever happened to a bum like me.”

Laralee and I were out on a lunch date today, and stopped by Kohl’s because we’d heard from a friend they have some super sweet suit jackets in stock.

Indeed they do.

The question is which one looks better on me. La liked the flamingoes, although I think I preferred the crazy colored pattern.

In the end, we didn’t get either because they were $100 and I couldn’t think of an event other than an 80’s party where I’d honestly wear them. And we don’t have any outstanding invitations to 80’s parties.

In the photo below, #7 is Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for the Spanish national soccer team. Check out the kids.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could all feel that way about once a day?

Today I had some free time this afternoon, and since spring is a few days away, I figured I might start on some “spring cleaning”. For a long time I’ve thought we could probably get rid of some stuff that’s been in our crawlspace for years.

I was right.

We tend to keep boxes for expensive electronics we buy (mainly computers, but also audio equipment and the like). I guess we figure when we move, we’ll want to use the original boxes with their padding or something. Well, about half of our crawlspace turned out to be comprised of such boxes. Many of them were for things we didn’t even own any more! (VCR, anyone?)

I tossed them out of the crawlspace into the basement, then up the basement stairs to Laralee, who tossed them out the side door into the driveway.

There, we removed three trash cans’ worth of styrofoam packing and crushed many of the older boxes. A friend of mine is getting ready to move, so I asked him if he’d like some of the nicer boxes. He said sure, so we managed to pass off many of these to him. Nice!

Oh, and let’s not forget things like 3.5″ floppy disks with video drivers that I found in one of the computer boxes. Yeah, that’s old school.

The rest of the crawlspace awaits another lazy afternoon when I have some time for more spring cleaning. I happen to know I have at least two big boxes of old college papers and assignments…

A few days ago I ordered some power cords for my servers. Today they arrived, neatly packed in a box, along with a small bag of M&M’s.

Brilliant! It probably cost the guy less than fifty cents, and it made me extra happy. When I need more power cords, you’d better believe I’ll head his way so I can get more candy.

This was a conversation I had with Kyra yesterday.

I talked to Kyra for a bit today as I was navigating Denver traffic on I-25. She told me that it’s official: she’s decided to serve a mission for the church. Although it’s strongly encouraged for young men, missions are optional for young women. So this isn’t something she has to do, but rather that she wants to do.

She’ll start filling out paperwork in the next few weeks, and will be eligible to leave for the 18-month stint sometime after her 19th birthday in July. It’ll be interesting to see if she leaves before Alex comes home from his mission (sometime in October)… that would mean the two of them don’t see each other for three and a half years!

I’m really proud of her for deciding to do this. It’s going to be amazing.

Today I was playing ultimate at lunchtime, and I managed to score a callahan. BAM. That’s the first time I’ve done it– despite playing for almost 27 years– and definitely something I’ve wanted to cross off my bucket list.

(A callahan is when the opposing team is on offense, deep in your territory, and makes a pass that a defensive player– in this case, me– intercepts in the end zone for a score. It’s very rare. And also very awesome.)