I’m feeling nostalgic today.  This weekend is the first Alumni Weekend for my high school, and I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends.  They sent out an email reminder about the weekend last night, and I looked through the names in the list.  I remember most of them, and it’ll be fun catching up a little bit.

I got an email from a girl in my graduating class tonight.  She wanted to know who else in our class of 15 or so would be there.  Of course, I have no idea.  She and I were really close friends in high school, and I haven’t seen her in a few years.  She’s got kids now.  I’ve got kids now.  Man, this growing up stuff is scary.

I remember when I was a kid, we’d go meet somebody my dad knew when he was growing up, and I’d have to smile and act well behaved while Dad and the long lost friend caught up with each other.  This weekend, I’ll be putting my kids through that misery.

They’ll probably not care that Mr. Crosby and I had loogie spitting contests when I was in high school, or that Mr. Robinett was my basketball coach, that Casey and I were in class together from grades 1-12, or that Marty and I were inseparable 13 years ago. I’m ok with that.  My hope is that they see the value of good, solid friendships that are easily rekindled after years of silence. Those good friends we have are too hard to come by.

The trivial bits about these people I’ll see this weekend are just the surface of the relationship that exists below.  Mr. Crosby was the teacher that you could really relate to.  Mr. Robinett was always encouraging me and challenging me to do my best.  Casey is one of the oldest friends I have.  And Marty is that one guy that I could always talk to about anything.

We’ll all be together again this weekend, and it should be a lot of fun.  We’ll have fun laughing and talking and remembering our younger years.  And if there are any loogie spitting contests, I’m quite confident that I’ll be able to defend my championship with honor.

Today we celebrate 11 years of marriage.  That’s kind of a long time.  We’re dropping the kids with our super awesome friend Nicole, and then we’re heading up to Chattanooga for the weekend.  It should be a blast.

This week also marks the 3 year anniversary of when I turned moreron.com into a blog.  I can’t believe it’s been 3 years already.  I enjoy going back and reading the old posts to see what was going through my mind back then.  Gotta love the archives…

Soccer season is over now, except for the awards ceremony next Saturday.  Mom and Dad will be in town for that, and while they won’t get to see me hobbling* all over the field, they will get to see the kids’ teams.

* Yeah, I said “hobbling.”  I pulled (maybe just strained) my hamstring last night running to first base.  Let it be known that I actually hit the ball to left field.  (They put the “Giambi shift” on me.)

We didn’t have any extra players last night, so when my turn came to bat again, it would be an automatic out if I came out of the game.  I switched to DH to stay off the field.  When it was my turn to bat again, there were 2 outs with a runner on 3rd.  I got up to the plate (feeling a little like Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series) and hit a line drive to right field.  They tried to throw me out at first as I was literally hopping on 1 foot down the base line.  I beat the throw by a half step (hop).  A 3-for-3 night with 4 RBIs and a run scored was a fun one, but I could have done without the injury.

School is out, (some of the) stress is gone, the weather is awesome, and I don’t have to work Monday.  Life is good.

My sister came to visit on Friday.  We went out to eat Friday night, and then went home.  We’ve been limiting red meat, so I was quite thrilled to have that steak.  I think cows may be my favorite animal.  My softball game was cancelled (again) because of weather.  That’s life, I suppose.

Saturday we found ourselves at the Apple store, which would have been fun if we were buying something new.  Instead I had the opportunity to replace my wife’s iPod.  And it was 2 months out of warranty…how convenient.  I really like their setup, with the whole “Genius Bar” appointment thing.  I made an appointment, and they got right to me - ahead of time.  The guy was really knowledgeable and very helpful.  A lot of other retailers could learn something about service from the guys at Apple.

Anyway, today after my sister went back home, I took my little girl out to ride bikes.  She logged 8 miles on the Silver Comet Trail, which is pretty impressive for a 7 year old.  (Last time we went, she did 5 miles, but that was about a month ago.)  I’m going to try to take her regularly this summer, and we should be able to get her up around 15 miles per ride by the end of the summer.

After we got home, I mowed the back yard and burned my finger really badly when I grabbed the mower’s engine after it had been running for a long time.  It’s already blistered and it hasn’t quit hurting since I did it 2 hours ago.  That was easily the dumbest thing I’ve done in a month.

Tomorrow I hit the bike trails with Aaron.  That’ll be about 10 miles or so (off road - the good kind of riding).  Then I’ll come home, eat lunch, and clean the garage.  Aaron and his wife are coming tomorrow night to celebrate freedom, grill chicken, and play Wii games with us.  It should be a fun night.

I hope you’re all having a great weekend.  Be thankful for the freedoms you have and for those people who helped make those freedoms yours to enjoy.

I got tickets for tonight’s Braves game against the Mets.  This is cool because the Braves fan in me and the Yankees fan in me both hate the Mets.  It’s also cool because I got the tickets for half price.   I’m meeting Travis at the stadium, and hopefully it’ll be a good game.

Then I’m meeting Shane, Chris, and Joel for a 12:01 a.m. showing of the new Indiana Jones movie.  Seeing it right away like that will be pretty cool, and I fully expect to see Indiana Jones nerds dressed up for the occasion.  (I don’t expect Chris to be one of those nerds, but he may show up with his Sean Connery accent…)

So it’s been a while since my last post. Life’s been busy…that’s the only excuse I’ve got. Here are some highlights of life since my last post:

• I had the chance to eat lunch with and to get to know J.R. Lee, the pastor of a new church near my office. He’s got a vision for reaching the area and the not-the-normal-way-of-doing-things approach that could really make a difference.
• The world’s greatest grandfather turned 81. It’d be a privilege just to know him, but I get to be related to him. That’s pretty special.
• I rode my bike to work (11 miles each way). I’m going to try to do it regularly, weather (and temperature) permitting. We’ll see how that goes.
• My office’s “Biggest Loser” competition kicked off. My team: Shane, Travis, and me (coached/encouraged/scolded by Sarah). There’s prize money to be won (and bragging rights to be had). Pass the salad.
• I ate spinach pizza. I did it for the “Biggest Loser” competition and will never do it again. It was pretty bad.
• I’m playing church softball again. Man, that feels good. I’ve spent some time on first, some behind the plate, and some as designated hitter. That’s the way it goes being the new guy, and it’s fine by me. I’m just glad for a chance to play again. (That’s something not even Barry Bonds has…)

The rest of the month is sure to be busy as well, but I hope to get some more regular posting going on here. I know you’re on the edge of your seats.

This morning I awoke to the sound of voices in the back yard. Then I heard a noise that sounded a bit like static on the TV. Neither my cat nor I really cared much about the voices, but the loud static noise really concerned me (and the cat). I went into the bathroom toward the window, wondering what I was going to see outside. What I saw was the last thing I would have ever expected to see - the Remax hot air balloon.

Yes, you read that right.

I watched from inside, and I snapped a few pictures before going out to talk to my surprise visitors. When I got out there, the pilot was laughing. I asked him if he was ok, and he wondered why I would ask - as if the Remax balloon frequents my back yard. He said they were flying and “it was time to bring her down” so since my yard is big and free of power lines, they landed in it.

There was a Remax van in my driveway. I guess they use it to transport the balloon. It had all sorts of GPS navigation equipment mounted in the dash. They backed the van up to the balloon, loaded it up, and drove away. It made for quite the bizarre morning.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

There are very strict regulations on who is allowed to coach in my kids’ soccer league. They won’t let just anybody do it…

First, you have to have a kid in the league. This takes at least 4 years of planning since the kids must be at least 4 years old.

Second, your kid’s team must be in need of a coach. This is easy (if you’ve completed the first requirement) because it’s a Baptist church, and though we love the Baptists, sometimes getting them to volunteer can be tricky.

Third, you have to watch the 20-minute coach’s training DVD.

Once you’ve completed all 3 requirements, you are a fully trained and qualified soccer coach. I am in the small minority of those who have completed all 3. I guess that makes me Coach Ron.

We had our first game today. Technically, we won, but officially we don’t keep score. I have 8 little guys aged 4-6 that are on my team. I was somewhat (ok, extremely) nervous about how today would go, but thanks to the soccer moms who helped me herd the children around the field, it went ok.

Next week, we will be trying to improve my coaching record to 2-0, which shouldn’t be difficult since they don’t keep score.

We’re home from our Christmas trip to the Carolinas.  It was fun, but it’s always nice to be back.

I’m on the bed right now, catching up on some email and all of my regular reads.  I hear Randall Goodgame singing “Tractor Tractor” in my son’s room.  My wife is in my daughter’s room, training Trevor, our new virtual dog (the best kind) on the Nintendo DS.  The cat is by my head, purring very loudly, thrilled that her people have returned.

And now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a Wii in the living room just begging to be played with.  I guess I should get right on that…

This past summer, I visited (and fell in love with) Australia.  I was mostly in Melbourne, but we did take a weekend trip up to Mount Buller to go skiing.

Yesterday when I was digging up that video of water going down the drain in Australia, I realized that I never finished uploading my pictures from my trip to my flickr account.  I’ve finished uploading my Australia photos here.

The newly uploaded pictures include shots of St. Kilda, Melbourne, St. Paul’s Cathedral (from the outside), Flinders Street Station, the Yarra River, and the Arts Centre.

This blog post is the closest thing you’ll get to a Christmas card/letter from me. If you’re one of those sappy, sentimental people, print this post, put it in your mailbox, and pretend that I mailed it to you.

Chances are good that if you read this blog regularly, you’ll know most of what’s going on with me. It’s been a fun year, so I’ll recap the highlights.

January - looking for new job.
February - left old job and took new job. Now I keep kids safe online.
March - spring training trip with Dad.
April - moved our company from the old office building to a new one.
May - celebrated 10 years of marriage.
June - turned 30.
July - family vacation to Pigeon Forge, TN.
August - spent 2 weeks in (and fell in love with) Melbourne, Australia. My girl turned 7.
September - mostly recovered from the AU trip and the extra long hours.
October - the boy turned 4.
November - got into mountain biking. Also ate much turkey.
December - spent most of the month figuring out what this post would say.

It’s been eventful, but it’s been fun. I’ve learned a lot this year, both on a business and on a personal level, and I hope 2008 brings even more fun and learning. I could do without another job change or a month full of working 18+ hours per day, but other than that, I’m ready for whatever 2008 has to offer.

I hope you’ve had a good 2007 and that you have an even better 2008. Take time to spend this season with your family. Reflect on the reason we have Christmas (if you need help with that, click here). Tackle 2008 with much fervor, and make it the best year ever.

Blessings, hope, love, etc., to you and yours in this holiday season and throughout the coming year.