Thank you, youtube

This morning started out with me getting to work, walking into my cube, cursing and walking back out the door so I could go back home and grab the stuff I worked on last night and left on my floor by the couch. This video made up for that.

4-star game

Without a doubt, the most popular post on this blog was the one that introduced the world to my fantasy baseball team, the Handsome Men's Club. From Florida to Washington, people raved about my no-nonsense-sport-savvy drafting style. This week marks the symbolic halfway point of the season, known as the All-Star Game, so I figured now was a good time to report how the season was playing out.

Surprisingly, to no one other than myself, I am not in first place. More surprisingly, to everyone else in my league, I am not in last place either. I am currently in 10th place (out of 12 teams). And the HMC has four, that's right...four players in the All-Star Game.

Joe Mauer (obviously the best drafting decision I could have ever made)

Justin Morneau (proof that my drafting strategy was good for the first 2 rounds...admittedly the wheels fell off in the 3rd round when I drafted Mark Teahen)

Chirs Young (a lucky break for me as far as stumbling on to this base thief)

Joakim Soria (somebody from the Royals had to be represented)

Hopefully we can really turn up the heat the second half of the season and break into the middle of the pack...ever mindful though of our team motto, "We don't care how good you play, so long as you're really, really, ridiculously good looking."

**Bloggers Update: I think I forgot to mention Jose Bautista being an All-Star so technically this should have been a 5-star game post...oh well. I never claimed to be accurate.**

Happy Birthday Momma!!

Today is a very special lady's birthday...Momma's!!!

I thought I would switch it up and list 10 things that I love about her.

In no particular order...

1. She has shown me how to be a woman of faith.
2. She makes the best french toast.
3. She taught me how to draw and always encourages the use of my imagination.
4. For as long as I can remember her perfume has been Charlie.
5. She celebrates the small stuff.
6. She spoils me ;)
7. She's a K-State fan!
8. She makes the best spaghetti pie.
9. She knows how to make someone feel special.
10. While fixing breakfast/lunch after Sunday mass she'll hum the songs from that days liturgy. ;)

Happy birthday, Momma! I love you!

And that's why yellow makes me sad, I think.

"My friend" Ashley, who used to live in KC, but now lives in Jacksonville, is in town on business so a group of us met up for wings at B-Double-Dubs (aka BWW, aka Buffalo Wild Wings).

Ashley has been an avid Unfiltered reader since day one, going as far as creating an "app" on her iPhone for my blog. I felt it was only right to do a blog shout out to her.

Her and her husband Matt are big nerds and Tivo Jeopardy. She told us a Jeopardy story and so I thought it would be fun to post a SNL Jeopardy skit on here...but I got bored waiting for the video to load on hulu. However, I did manage to sit through the intro ad which was the new Drill Sergeant commercial from Geico. I love that commercial, so instead...

...this video is for you Ashley. Hope you like it. Thanks for being such a fan of this nonsense :)

Up and down the boulevard

Somedays you just need a cute little group of children from Brooklyn to sing you into your long holiday weekend.

If any of you say you don't like Journey you're lying to yourselves.

Papa's tree

As a family, we were overwhelmed with generous donations from friends and family when Dad passed away. With his memorial we were able to give back to those who helped take care of him (and us) Hays Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes (rehab hospital), as well as set up a guardian angel fund at our family church where parish members, who have to be away from home for extended periods of time because of medical problems, receive some money to help with expenses.

One of the "funner" ways we get to honor Dad's life is by planting a tree in Park's new city park...i like to call it "Papa's tree."

Here is the ground crew working hard on starting the hole...

Here is Kory, the littlest one, working hard and Payton using all her weight trying to use the shovel...

...let's be honest here, if I had used the shovel like that I would have hurt myself. So as you can see it was probably for the best if I held Maddie and supervised :)

Abby helped us decided when the hole was the right size.

Getting ready to put the tree in the ground.

Time to put some sort of important root stuff in the bottom of the hole and fill in the hole.

Paul makes sure it has plenty of water.

So there, in a nutshell, is our Memorial Day weekend. According to Google images this is what the autumn ash will look like in the fall...

The leaves turn a beautiful purple in the fall...just in time for K-State football, right Brian? :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Papa Bear. I love & miss you.