No pictures, just a few words

        As I settle in, on this last Saturday of March, with my FP at my side I am thinking that writing a book can become an obsession!  It seems that the only thing I have thought about for the last few weeks is the book and a bit of tennis.  I have pictures scattered all over in the house.  When I first made contact with LuLu the guy mentioned that there was a $6 charge for each picture and the reason was pictures are more work to put in a book and some people wanted to make a book into a 100+ picture album!!  I mentioned that I did want to put in maybe a total of 25 pictures/sketches.  He gave that to me because there was a special going on and I did purchase the middle package, not the low end one!  Well here I am up to 34 pictures/sketches and there are MANY scattered about the house that I would like in the book.  BUT I may even end up putting less than 34 in.  I am locked into the sketches as I hired the sketches done.  Just like a person who has to eat the last food because I paid for it and it can't go to waste, I have to use the sketches that I paid for.  AND they are turning out to be outstanding in quality so sure, they go into the book.  I just am so sad that that darn Lee family had such cute kids, if that had not been the case I could cut out more pictures!!!!!  Anyway I will insert picture captions this weekend, change some pictures if I can get better quality and submit everything Monday.  I do not want to work on the book much next week as we will have company Monday night-early Saturday morning.  I don't know if Gary/Mary get up early so I suppose I can get up early and work.  I have been doing a lot of work from 5-8 AM.  

        Now the negative side of this book.  I tend to eat when I am focused on a project so I have put on several pounds these last couple of weeks.  They HAVE to come off soon!  The other negative side is I tend to focus and sometimes do things before I think through what I am doing.  A few days ago I wrote an e-mail which never should have been written. The words came across in a way that I did not even believe.  BUT, as we all know, once the spoken or written word is out you can not erase it.  I did what I could to change it but I hate it when I do things like that.  All I can say is this book is getting to me but soon it will be history.

          It was Terry's and my 4th anniversary yesterday.  It does not seem like it has been four years.  The amount of things we have crammed into 48 months seems unbelievable.  It has been a wonderful time and I hope/pray that it continues for many more years. I have become really excited about this book and, for sure, it would not be in the works if not for Terry. 

       I have reached another level of tennis I believe.  The down side is I had so so many levels to reach! Early this week a friend and I played a match.  If a person were to match us with the other team you would say the better player on the other team was better than me.  The less skilled player on the other team would be better than my partner.  In the end we won 10-8 in a one set 90 minute match.  It was one of the highlights of the winter tennis.  Of course all the matches here are friendly and in the end you say good match and look at who you will be playing the next day BUT that match was special and it certainly is fun to have those once in a while.  

      I do not play tennis today but I rode over to the courts to see what was happening.  We got at least an inch of rain last night but the courts are fine.  The clay actually needs water.

      We are starting to think about our return trip to MN.  We will take in 4 national parks on our way and probably take about 3 weeks but we still have about 6 weeks here.  One has to be sure that life isn't what will happen instead of what is happening.

      It does not seem possible but that delicious FP is gone.

Spring has sprung!

Here are the 2 pictures I am considering for the cover of my book.  Which one do you think?
Terry finished editing chapters 42-51 last night so now I need to make changes today.  She was up past 11:00 PM doing it as I could not keep my eyes open after 8:30.  I will interject that I am usually up by 5:00 AM or so, sometimes earlier and sometimes later while Terry likes to sleep in some.  Just had to say that so people don't think I am real lazy!!!  I can not locate some pictures I would like to put in the book.  There is one of my birthday and one of me in the crib smiling.  Travis has looked for them in St. Paul and they are nowhere to be found.  I know they are in the house but where, I can not say.  I don't think I have seen them for several years.  I want to have a page or two in the middle of the book with pictures in but at this point I don't have as many as I want.  I know, I should have thought of the pictures before we left in the fall---but I did not think of it.
Summer like temps have arrived here.  Most of the next week it is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80's. 
A fun thing in the Naples paper today.  Each week they have a section on "wheels" and in that they have a "U-Ride" part.  Terry and I, with the camper, are in the paper today.  The pictures they printed are not good quality in the paper but still it is fun to see.
No, on to those edited chapters.

Happy Birthday Mary

Happy Birthday Mary.  You're looking better each year!
We love you and have a great day, week and month!!!!
Dad and Terry

Another Day in Sunny Florida

Tomorrow we have our tennis team party and then the team things are finished.  Terry has been working hard at baking and cooking for the 11 AM brunch.  It should be fun.
We finished our league play last Monday by winning one of three matches.  Our record for the season was 7-20.  I am told that is good for a first year team but in my mind we should have had a record of at least 12-15 and perhaps as good as 14-13.  We did not have the use of a couple of our better players for several of the matches.  We also were involved in at least 7 tie breakers and came out on the short end most of the time.  One player left at the end of February so he missed the last 2 and was not available for another one.  A second player is battling cancer and only played a third of the time.  Anyway it was fun and I know everyone enjoyed it.  Today we had a mini fun/competitive tournament and my partner and I won the first set 5-1.  We then played a second set against a couple who would be considered much better than us.  I felt we played them even up but lost 2-5.  They won 2 one point tie breakers and there were several very very close calls that went their way.  Sometimes the tennis Gods do not shine on the line for you and today was one of those times.  It was fun.  It cemented in my mind that the players that are "in the upper level" are not any better than many of us
Sister Joan called yesterday.  I guess we had better start to work on the July family reunion.  I am looking forward to it.  I guess I am at the age where it is important to see people as next year I or they may not be with us!!!!!  I do not have a doom and gloom attitude but way too many people I know who are in their 60's have died.
I continue to work on my book.  I figured out how to put two writings together in the same writing.  I need to submit ALL the chapters in one unit.  I was excited about that.  I put things away until Monday as this party is overtaking Saturday and Sunday.
Our weather is WARM.  I think we were up to 90 or so yesterday and maybe today too.  That is high for this time of the year. It has been warm on the courts.
Enough for now.  I actually thought of a FP this afternoon but then I may be up in the morning at 4 instead of 5!

Happy Birthday Amy

Happy birthday Amy.  I will not say which birthday it is as I don't know if you have stopped counting yet!  My guess is you might say I have not stopped yet!!
We love you.  Have a great day.  Am wondering if you took the day off just to do what Amy likes to do? 

In rough form now

As I start the week there is a beginning and an end in sight.  Our last league tennis match, if there is no rain, will happen today at 1:30.  With the team party scheduled for next Sunday it will be an end to a fun time.  Next year, we will see.
I also start, for real, on getting the 55,000 words into book form.  I have hopes that it will happen by early to mid summer.  I made a decision on who to go with for publishing and in the process paid, what I considered, a hefty amount of money so I had better not back out now.  I am expecting a call on Tuesday or Wednesday from the tech people at LuLu Publishing so I have been trying to tie up the last chapters.  I spent most of the weekend on the computer and will be on it today and tomorrow as well.  I would not be surprised if I am in for a humbling experience in the next weeks but we will see.  Maybe I will be surprised.
Enough for now as I have 2 more writings to work on.  I think they may be short.
My FP, it has inspired me to work hard this morning!!!

New Info, Fun Stuff!!!!

As I write my final stories I continue to look up info so that I can include it in stories.  I am currently writing about chicken poop on the farm.  I have always wondered WHY it stunk so so so bad.  Cleaning the chicken house was the worst.  I found the answer this morning, perhaps an answer most people know.  Chicken poop is very high in nitrogen and as that decomposes it emits ammonia gas.  I think I knew the smell was ammonia but I did not know why--now I know and I am happy.
I also found out where the term "shot glass" came from but will leave the answer for others to find it!!
I am thinking I need 2 pots of FP this morning as I have an hour tennis clinic, an hour and a half match and then this afternoon an hour team practice.  Maybe I should pray for rain!!

It is more real

Looks like our Ford tractor from the farm!  It is the first of 15 sketches that will go with the writing I am doing.  I made progress yesterday with phone calls and getting questions answered.  A classmate of my daughter, Cynthia, will do the sketches and I am excited.  He is a professional "art" guy and does a great job.  Time is running short so things need to happen sooner than later. 
I have not written about our Monday tennis match.  I had hoped to come away with maybe 2 of the possible 3 points BUT we came away with zero!!  My partner and I lost the first set 4-6, made some needed adjustments and won the second set 6-1.  Then the 10 point tie breaker and in those darn things an inch here, a mishit there and you lose, I guess those things happen.  Anyway next Monday is the last match of the season and I have hope once again!  We will see.  In our last Monday match, Jack, went down in a 7 point tie breaker and I think we will find out from his MRI that something is torn in his left leg.  He said he heard something "pop" as he went down.  We are hoping for the best but.......
It is almost 5:00 AM and I need to make my FP.

Happy March

Standing at the entrance to JetBlue, 126 acres of ball fields

Terry standing in shallow left field with third base behind her

The view from on top of the Green Monster wall at JetBlue, 37+feet high

We ended February by going to JetBlue Park, which is the training camp for the Boston Redsox.  It was their annual "free" day where you could park free, roam the entire stadium and field and then have lunch with $1 sodas and $1 dogs!  The open house was 11-3.  We arrived at about 10:35 and there were MANY people there already. It was a great way to end the month of February.
I enter March with hopes, plans and regrets! 
The hope is that I will practice the guitar daily and actually make progress towards playing.  I guess I could also hope for a repeat of our thrilling match last week when we won in 2 1/2 hours of sweat and endurance and came out on top of 2 tie breakers.  I am not sure I want to do that again! 
The plans are to get MUCH done with my writing.  Another plan is to drop the weight I have added this winter.  If the scale does not lie I am looking at 6 pounds.  I am not sure how that could be with the tennis I have done so maybe that darn scale is lying. 
The regret is that our winter tennis league will be finished March 9th.  It has been a very fun time.  Even though we have a match record of only 6-15 we have improved each week and had FUN.  The way we played we easily could be 9-12 BUT we are not! We have two matches left and I am hoping to finish with at least a record of 10-17.  That may be a tall order but why not shoot for the moon!  For sure winning is not the measure of success but it helps a little.  We are at home tomorrow and then away on the 9th.  It seems like the season just started a short time ago.
No FP as it is late and I need to get out and enjoy the sun and 85 temps.