The Girls of Summer

Just a quick post for today. Softball season officially started last night with Reagan and Abbie both playing their first games, and we're all pretty tired this morning.

Abbie's team, TNT, won their game (3-2), but there was a little confusion toward the end. The games are timed, and they have a rule at her age about not starting another inning within 5 minutes of the time running out or something like that. So even though we were ahead, when the home team finished their last at bat with 4 minutes left on the clock, the game was called. All of our girls got ready to go shake hands with the other team when our coach was called to the mound for a conference with the other coach and the ump. Shortly after our girls took the field again.

When the coach came back over, I asked what had just happened. I thought we had just one the game. She said that the other coach recognized that we had won, but hadn't been able to bat her whole lineup during the game, so she wanted to use the last few minutes to let them have a chance at the plate. "So, we're just being nice?" I asked, and the response is why all of us Templins would love this coach: "I'm not really all that nice when it comes to winning, but I didn't want to hear her whine about this all season."

Reagan's game was a little more exciting. Her team is the Reds, and for her first game out they got to play the Pink Flamingoes (at least that's what I'm calling them). The interesting thing is that most of the opposing team was the girls from Reagan's cheer squad. The other wild card for the night is that we discovered that the girls can steal bases at this age. No lead offs, but they can steal after the pitches releases the ball. Now, I don't know if our coach knew that or not, but I can tell you that we didn't practice for it, Reagan didn't know, and none of the parents knew until the first kid from the Flamingoes got on first and stole second. Uh oh!

They walked and stole their way around for 5 runs in the first inning and that ended that half-inning with the 5 run rule. Our team came out with a better hitting lineup, and pounded the ball back to them to bring around a few runs ourselves.

Next inning we changed out pitchers and had started having success with strike outs, and pretty soon our team really started coming together. It was 9-9 with less than a minute to play, and at this age they keep starting innings until the time runs out (and of course home team, which was us, always gets last bat). We went ahead and took a third out to get another inning of play and brought the Flamingoes back to the plate. They managed 3 runs and then we were up again. It didn't work out so well for us. We brought a couple of girls around to 2nd and 3rd, but we couldn't bring anyone home. Final score: 12-9.

A New Fashion Trend?

Perhaps inspired by Peyton's fun with Photoshop, Sydney decided to do a little makeover of her own today. Just thought you would all like to see what I got to come home to today.

BTW, that's Sharpie ink, so it'll be with us a for a while.

Advanced 6th Graders

Nearly every day Reagan or Abbie asks if they can get on the computer. Generally, they spend their time browsing the Barbie website and imaging new outfits, hairdos, love notes, or whatever else Barbie enjoys, but sometimes they want to make something all their own. Reagan does this more than Abbie, and Reagan loves to make things in PowerPoint. Now I'm a pretty computer savvy guy, and I can tell you that I am impressed when I see some of the things Reagan "makes up" on the computer. She'll have moving images timed to music dancing around the screen telling us how much she loves something. It's all girly, but it's also impressive.

Now keeping that in mind, imagine my frustration when a grown man can't figure out how to type a simple message in a blog comment. How hard could this really be? And no, I'm not talking about Jeffrey.

After reading yesterday's toothpaste entry, Dad wanted to post a comment. He went right in and typed everything up, hit publish, and was told that my blog doesn't allow anonymous comments. Of course he got me on AIM immediately to see what was the deal, and I explained that he needed a login.

He went through the process and got his login setup, and after checking on whether or not this was like a "CB" he chose "Mike" as his display name. After I racked my memory and recalled that CB's were the cell phones of the 70s, I suggested that he make his display name "double nickels" (that's CB lingo for "55mph" if you're in Megan's cousins age group) and it could double as his age in a couple of years. He didn't think that was nearly as funny as most of you do right now. :)

On with the story, though. So he gets his username setup and goes back to my blog where he retypes his comment. Then he tells me to go read it. Remember that I'm at work during all of this, so I didn't go out there immediately, I just figured I'd read it when the system emailed it to me, and shortly after I got an email notification of a comment. It was Melissa, though, not Dad. I started thinking something was amiss, so I actually went out to my blog to check. There was no comment there from Dad either, but he had asked me to read about five minutes earlier.

I got back on AIM and told him that I couldn't see a post from him. Was he sure that he had posted one? He wrote back...."do I have to push the publish button for you to see it?" Now didn't he already do that once back at the beginning of this story? Regardless, he finally got his comment posted, but the story doesn't end there. And I'm not even going into the "<lol>" issue, but I'm sure Dad's wondering how I got that to print.

Anyway, since he now had a login, he decided that he wanted to go ahead and have his own blog. He went through the whole process, and then contacted me on AIM again. "How do I put a link to your page on my blog?"

I asked if he had any sample links on his page and he started talking some crazy stuff about link colors. I said, "Just go to your blog site and tell me if you have a sample link to Google." Same crazy talk in response.

"Okay, let's do this a different way. Go to your dashboard."

"My dashboard? Don't I need to be at my computer to do this? I can't do it from the car."

"Yes, you need to be at your computer. Go to your blog dashboard." It took a bit, but he finally found it. I told him next to click on settings (the gear icon) and then to go to the template tab. He missed the part about the template tab and clicked settings and then the settings tab. We went round and round for several minutes about there not being any HTML code on the page when I finally told him to just call me on the phone.

We got this figured out, and he made it to the template tab. Now I just had to help him find his sample links that may or may not exist since we still hadn't see his actual blog. We found them. He complained about how "normal" people couldn't do this correctly. I quietly agreed that it took at least an Advanced 6th Grader.

He added our links, we published the blog, he got an error. What had gone wrong?? Something had been deleted during his changing of the sample links. How hard can it be to cut and paste? Apparently, it can be pretty difficult.

Finally, we got the links piece taken care of, and it was time for me to head home. We'd been at this for nearly an hour. On my way home, I called Caci to see how things were going. She asked me to hang on for a sec while finished talking with Dad. When she got back on the line she told me that she had just been trying (with little success) to help him fill out his profile information for his blog. Perhaps she'll post the details of that event for us all to enjoy.

Last thing: Before you even post a comment, Dad, I know that I may not have recalled some of the details exactly right, but as you always say, "My version is better."

Are My Teeth Clean?

After reading the recent posts on A. Patti's blog and on Windy's blog, I just have to bring back a memory for my childhood. While their's are stories of accidental mixtures, mine is a tale of evil genius. Well, maybe the genius part is a little generous. Decide for yourselves....

It all happened back when I was about 9 years old. That would mean Caci was probably 8, and Jeffrey was 5. Back then, Caci, Jeffrey, and I all shared the same bathroom, and we were all responsible for helping to keep it clean; maybe that was the motive. Who knows. Anyway, on the evening in question, Caci and I were instructed to go brush our teeth before bed. Just like any other night, we obeyed without question or talking back (we were the "good" kids).

As we started brushing, we both thought that the toothpaste tasted a little funny. What made it even stranger was that the tube appeared to be brand new. And of course, the suds were insane. This new toothpaste was really not going to work.

We started trying to complain to Mom who happened to also be in the room, and she just said, "Keep brushing. Your teeth can't be clean yet. The suds just means it's working."

Holding back our gag reflex we continued on. Suds like crazy. Terrible taste. What was the deal? Mom finally clued in that something was amiss when the foaming around our mouths approached levels normally only seen among rabid animals, and what do you think she did?

Of course! She asked Caci and I what we did to the toothpaste! What we did? Was she serious? Maybe we intentionally sabotaged the toothpaste so that we'd never have to brush our teeth again, and to make her feel bad we decided to use the poison on ourselves. Surely she could get us to the emergency room quickly enough to keep us from danger. Yes, our plan had been foiled. NOT!!

Caci and I were not fooled by the circumstances. It was not the first time that strange events had occurred since that little imp had been born. We blamed it on Jeffrey!

Jeffrey just smiled and explained to Mom that the toothpaste tube was really dirty. So he washed it. With soap. And then he had noticed that it was getting a little empty. So he refilled it. You guessed it. With soap from that handy-dandy refiller (the hand soap container). He just stuck the end in the tube and squirted until it was full.

Caci and I are nervous to this day about using any white toothpaste. The only way to be sure, if you ask me, is to get a colored gel.

Meet the Family

I know that most of you have already met the family, but some of you haven't seen us in a while. Here's our most recent family photo. Of course, I'm in the center, the one guy in that sea of females. Reagan (9) is in the top left, Abbie (7) is in the top right, Emma Joi (3) is in the lower left, and Sydney (2 now, but this was just before her b-day) is in Leah's lap.

Reagan and Abbie are both playing fast pitch softball this season. Abbie played in the fall, and Reagan was doing cheerleading at the time. After watching Abbie play, though, Reagan decided that she wanted in, too. It's a little frustrating for me right now because they still want to dodge the ball rather than actually catch it, but they are getting better every day. Their season starts this week, so we're all excited to see how they do in an actual game.

Emma and Sydney still stay at home with Mom. They spend most of their time watching The Wiggles or Dora the Explorer, playing with their baby dolls, and chasing the dog around the house. They are both a load of fun!

Leah is still working at the church. She is the Director of Outreach. Right now we are planning our upcoming VBS week, and I am wondering what kind of crazy outfit they'll want to put on me. I'll be the emcee for the week, and I'm sure that her team will want me wearing something that gets the kids attention. Last year we had a circus theme, so I was a juggling clown. There might be pictures of that floating around somewhere, but you won't be seeing them here anytime soon.

Finally, I'm still at Ecom. Late last year I was talking about leaving here and going into business with some friends of mine, but some issues came up that caused Leah and I to reconsider that choice. It was in the last few days before my actual resignation, so I talked with Cade (Ecom's owner) and they graciously allowed me to retract my resignation letter. I'll probably be here for a little while longer.

Charlie Daniels of the torque wrench

One of the things that I do in my spare time is volunteer with the high school kids at our church. We call the group 180, and I have a small group of about 10 freshmen guys that I'm connected with. It's really one of the few times in my week that I get to act like a boy, so it's great fun.

Last night we decided as a group to walk over the Taco Bell near the church to hang out a little. While there, the freshmen took the conversation to "The Talk," and if you don't know what I mean then a) you've never been around a high school guy or b) you're not old enough to know, and I'm not going to tell you. Anyway, most of these guys have no volume control and although the conversation was not graphic, the one other guy sharing the dining area with us had to know what was going on at our table, so when he walked over most of my group tried to hide under the table assuming that he was going to reprimand them for the subject matter.

In a surprising turn of events, though, he smiled weakly and asked, "Do you have a torque wrench?"

What? You want to borrow my torque wrench? At Taco Bell?

I politely informed him that I did not have one with me. Assuming that it's polite to talk while trying to stifle a laugh.

At this he responded by describing a torque wrench. Like maybe I wasn't sure what he was talking about, and if he just explained it to me I would say, "Oh, one of those. I've got one right here on my key ring for emergencies."

Again I let him know that I was familiar with the tool, and I was sure that I did not have one.

"You can borrow tools from Auto Zone," he said. Did this guy think I needed a torque wrench? Who started this conversation anyway? I just smiled and said that information would be useful the next time I needed a tool.

"It's getting kind of dark outside. It'll be hard to see what you're working on soon." Where's this guy going with the conversation? Is he trying to ask me to do something for him? Does he think we walked to Taco Bell because our vehicle broke down?

No. Nothing that simple, my friends. "Can you tell me how to get to Auto Zone from here?" All of that just to ask directions. You'd be proud of me for not replying, "In a car," I was trying to set an example for high schoolers after all.

The Wait is Over

So, here's my first blog entry. I've enjoyed reading the blogs of my family members so much that I can't let my corner of the family be the only one out of the loop. I'm a technology professional after all. How embarrassing is it that my younger siblings got into this before me?

Just because my brother can't figure out spell check and my sister says she can't find the time is of little comfort when you consider the fact that they were still on here first. Of course, I like to think it's more like the old Heinz commercials: "The best things come to those who wait."

To all of you...my family, my friends, my fans, the relentless paparazzi, and even that weird stalker chic from elementary school (and middle school and high school and the other day at McDonald's)...the wait is over. Michael is here!