You can tell a lot about a woman by her hands. For example, if they're around your throat she's probably upset.

This Sunday afternoon the good people of Pathway Bible Church will meet with the folks from Grace Bible Church in Glendale at Roselane Park for a co-ed softball competition. The winner takes home nothing more than bragging rights and we'll get to know each other at a picnic after the game.
Normally I would play for our team but, discretion been the better course here, I will not take the field as part of our effort for the following reasons:

• There is no position on the field where I could be guaranteed that Ryann wouldn't throw me the ball. Ryann played semi-pro ball in Oregon with designs on the bigs before he had a shoulder injury. But even with a less-than-perfect shoulder he can still throw with enough heat to have me cowering in the fetal position praying the ball sails safely over my head.
• We have any number of gals who can hit and throw better than I ever could, including some who were scholarship athletes in college. I'm fairly secure as a person but going down swinging in a slow pitch game, only to be followed by one of those gals who hits it out of the park may be a bigger blow to my ego than I can absorb.
• I am not ready to hear, "Throw it to first, gramps!"

So I will cheer our players from a safe distance behind a chain link fence, ideally one at least 6' tall. Besides, it gives me a chance to hang out with our preschoolers, where I can still feel like a stud.

I needed to focus this morning without the "shiny thing" distractions here at the house so I went up to Starbucks, did my best imitation of someone who speaks their language, and got a seat at a table facing the window. Grande Peppermint Mocha Skinny Latte (???), Earbuds and Pandora Mozart, hunker down and get 'er done. 

Alas, the window I faced looked out over the drive-thru lane. 

There is an endless supply of 30-something blond women driving huge black SUV's getting their morning brew and heading on to...? 

From there to Super Cuts to get an overdue haircut. I meant to go yesterday but it didn't seem like a good idea to let someone hold clippers to my head while I was coughing uncontrollably. The two gals working there were talking about Mardi Gras, wondering what it was about. I wonder how many people don't know the connection between that, Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent. I briefly explained and told them to be on the lookout for Catholics who had been to mass today and who had the ashes on their forehead.

Did you know that, if done according to strict tradition, the ashes this year are supposed to come from the burned fronds from last year's Palm Sunday? 

When I saw the headline that Albert Pujols is upset with his new team, the Angels, for a series of billboards they've put up in the L.A. area calling him "El Hombre" I expected something about racism. Not the case. Pujols is moving to L.A. (for HUGE bucks) from St. Louis where he spent the previous 11 years breaking records and winning over the fans. During that time the Cards had planned to use the same slogan to engage their Hispanic fans but Pujols asked them not to... out of deference to Stan "The Man" Musial. Pujols doesn't want to be compared to Musial, for whom he has great regard because of Musial's service to our country. Musial served in the Navy and has always done a lot of charity work for service men and women. Nobody else should be called The Man.

How many pro athletes have that much class?

I spent some time this afternoon working on the galley hatch frame. I knew from the start that this was going to be the trickiest part and I wasn't disappointed. Not only did I have some trouble getting the angles correct (don't look too closely) but the glue holding the laminated frame arcs together gave way. I re-glued and clamped the bejeebers out of it. We'll see how it is when the clamps come off tomorrow.

This cold has already lasted three years. I'm ready for it to be GONE. Among other things it has sucked the energy out of my body. I could sleep all day if I could sleep.