Happy Mother's Day to My Moms and All Mother's!

Happy Mother's Day! What a beautiful time of year! The grass is green, the trees are green, and the flowers are in full bloom. Makes me wonder if having Mother's Day this time of year was planned. What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than with new life everywhere we look this time of year.

Happy Mother's Day to both of my moms! I am so fortunate to be able to see my mom frequently and I try to talk to her everyday. I am able to see my mother-in-law frequently and we do a lot of things together. I love how she checks in with the kids frequently and works out time to get us together each week.

Over the course of the past year, I have had friends that have become mothers. It is so great to see them enjoying their families and being wonderful mom's to their children. Often times I reflect back on when I grew up and how much my mom did for me and my siblings. Cooking meals, doing laundry, cleaning up after I made a mess, or simply making sure I was doing my homework. Seeing my friends with their kids always makes me think back to myself and my mom.

Back in 2002, I was fortunate enough to marry into the Shirron family and gained another mom. So wonderful to have two moms who are both wanting to take care of us in old old age (of middle 40s). Both are always available to answer questions or help with a decision. Wonderful having two mothers!

The holiday also makes me think of those children that do not have mothers in their lives. Or, even worse, those that have mothers but the mother does not care or tend to the child's needs. As with any holiday, I am left wondering how those children deal with this day when they do not have someone to honor.

I am happy to honor my mom, Nancy, and my mother-in-law, Joan, on this day. I try to not only honor them on this day, but throughout the year. I know how much they do for us and their impact on our family. I am also happy to honor my friends that are mothers and I see the work that they do for their children.

Happy Mother's Day!

Losing Track of Outs, Missing Pop Ups, and No Focus for Kansas City Royals

Should have known prior to the Kansas City Royals not playing well the past 10 games. We are 3-7 and just got blown out today by the Washington Nationals 13-2. Should have known when early in the season in a few separate games, our Royals had no clue how many outs were left. Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer both were caught on camera heading back to the dugout not knowing how many outs.

Below is the clip of Hosmer when he lost track of how many outs. Really?

Thinking back to last year, when the Royals won the World Series, or even the year prior to last year, when the Royals made it to the World Series and went seven games, I do not recall any Royals player forgetting the outs. Seems like a thing as a ball player I would track and know how many outs. Remembering back to prior to 2014, I remember watching games and seeing players forget how many outs. Back then, and possibly now, our teams were not focused.

I get it! They play a lot of games and might lose track from time-to-time on the field. But to me it seems like when they are losing track of outs, those are the times we are bad and playing bad. Those are the stretches of time when as a spectator it appears they do not care.

It is time to focus on baseball and get our mojo back to playing Royals baseball. They are off tomorrow and back at it on Friday. Come on Royals!

Paper on Johannes Brahms Done and Preparing for Final

It has been a while since I posted. It has been a busy two weeks since my last post. Truthfully, I did not feel like posting while I was writing my paper for class. That is finished, so now I am back to posting again.

My Beginning Piano class is coming to an end. We are done with all the tests in the class. I finished my paper on Johannes Brahms. I finished the paper well in advance of when it was due. We also had to give a short speech on the composer too. Both went fine. I had to remember how to write in MLA style, but I think I got it and wrote a descent paper. The full paper on Johannes Brahms can be read by visiting http://www.haverty.net/documents/Johannes-Brahms.pdf.

The last part of the class is playing the final piece. As you may recall, I selected Minuet in G by Bach. I have not spent much time on practicing the piece at this point, but will be practicing today and hopefully everyday between now and Monday, May 9. We have to perform our piece for the class on May 9. I still plan to record it to post here on my site. However, I need to practice a bit more before posting anything.

Read through my paper on Johannes Brahms and let me know what you think. Carrie read through it and thought it sounded OK with a few minor changes. Hoping we get it back tomorrow or Wednesday in class so we can see what we got on it. It is a test grade, so see how I do.

First Week of Back into Exercise Done and Thinking of Future Runs

I ran three times this week. I was supposed to run today, but decided to move it to Tuesday instead. Celebrating Carries' birthday today with good brunch and then a movie. So, I decided to not get up early to run.

Last week when I started this process, I said I would run a different route. Well, for the most part I ran the same exact route I have been running the past three years. It is a habit and I like the route. So, instead of trying to change it up and run a new route each time I got out, I will likely stick with this same route.

My first run of this process. It went well. I felt good after wards. My legs were killing me the day after. It went very well though and I felt motivated to get out and run again to keep the process moving.
The second run also went well. I decided to take my dog Oliver with me. Thus, a slightly adjusted route. I ended up only taking Oliver about halfway as he went number two once which I was carrying with me like a respectable pet owner. So, I was doing the Couch to 5K with the leash in one hand and a bag of poop in the other. Oliver was starting to drag behind as I would run and I was headed back toward the house. I decided to go ahead and take Oliver home and I would continue on. Overall, he did very well. He was exhausted following the run. It was his first run of the season (or ever) too, so I know he will need to ease into the running too. Granted, I cannot take him on many runs as it continues to get hot. See how he does though.

Final run of the week was Thursday morning. We had plans that evening, so I got up early to go running. I did not take Oliver on this run. I really enjoyed getting up early and running. I need to do it more often as it really feels like it started the day right.

Other than not running today, it was a good start to the process. I will be out running again on Tuesday and look forward to progressing back to being able to run a solid 5K without stopping.

Piece Selected for Final in Piano Class and Now Practice Practice

The piece I will be playing for my final has been selected. I plan on playing a piece called "Minuet in G" by Johann Sebastian Bach. There were a lot of options provided by our instructor and we were free to select anything. I had some piano books that came with the piano and then some that my Mom had sent home with me one evening. I actually played this same piece when I was young, but it was a long time ago.

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period.

The piece was selected because I enjoy the piece and I think it will be challenging for me to site read and play for the final. The plan now is to begin learning the piece focusing on left and right hand reading the music. As I mentioned last week, we do not have to have the piece memorized, but it is fine if we do have it memorized. If I can get to the point, I would prefer to do so instead of having to rely on reading the music.

Piano at Home with Lights ... Need Music Light Instead

Below is a recording of my warm up and then first few bars of the piece. Not a very good recording, but you get the idea. You can hear a vibration sound which is actually coming from the two lamps on the piano. I already told Carrie we are going to have to replace this with something else as I need something where it provides light on the music and then also does not vibrate. The ones she picked out look great, but need more light and no vibration sound.



I am excited to begin practicing this piece and be able to provide a recording in a few weeks with the final product. I have really enjoyed my piano class. We get a third test back in class tomorrow and will begin chapter four. I came out of the last test feeling happy, so we will see how that turns out with the return of the test tomorrow night.

A lot of practice for me and I also need to start working on the paper that is due in a few weeks. I need to get over to the library to do research and write up that paper. I keep telling myself not to procrastinate and yet the days keep going by and I have not started the paper yet. The plan is to start the paper next week and it should not take more than a night or two to write it up and proof.

For now, I will continue working on "Minuet in G" and plan to post a update in a week or two with my progress.

Championship Game is Set with North Carolina and Villanova Facing off Monday Night

The NCAA Championship game is set. The games Saturday were not exciting at all. Oklahoma forgot to show up and Syracuse got close, but could not catch up with North Carolina. Monday night will be Villanova vs North Carolina. The only one seed, North Carolina, will face off against the two seek Villanova.

The Big East facing off against North Carolina. I expect it to be an exciting game to watch. Both teams have no problems scoring. Sometimes for the NCAA championship game, I will not watch. I will likely watch this game as I am pulling for North Carolina.

Yes, all brackets are busted at this point. I did not have one bracket with either Villanova or North Carolina winning it all. I do have UNC in a few brackets playing Kansas or Oklahoma. Not this match up though. How are your brackets?

Are teams are no longer in the tournament, but it was still a lot of fun watching basketball the past few weeks. A fun season and look forward to watching the game Monday night. It will all start again before we know it in the fall.

Enjoy the game Monday night!

New Subscription via Email and Navigation Added to Site

Option to Subscribe via Email to the Right

A few minor changes to the site that maybe you have not noticed. Added a option to be able to get email notifications with the posts in your email. I use this for some sites that I follow and thought it was a good addition to my site too. It uses Google FeedBurner to deliver the feeds. Easy way to get new posts when they are posted.

Cleaned up the right side of the page to remove unneeded items. The main thing that was added was an About page and a Social Media page. Also cleaned up the image at the top of the site to extend the full length of the content on the site. Also added a link to the top navigation to link back to the Home page.

If you have any suggestions for the site, please post a comment to let me know.