Second Place

Shock and Awe! After winning their semifinal game by a time-shortened 9-1 score, The Lightning lost the final game by 7-4. They only gave up 4 runs altogether in the four previous games (one run, each game), but their defensive errors could not be overcome by their hitting. Coincidentally, we'll see the same team that beat us yesterday, in our first game next Saturday, in New Jersey. If our normal team shows up, we should be able to even the score. On a personal note: The coach tends to move girls around in qualifying games, especially girls new to this team (like Kenzie) to give everyone a chance to play, but he puts the strongest players in when we really need a win. For what it's worth, Kenzie got to play the whole final game. She didn't contribute much with the bat, but at least she did put the ball in play and made no errors.

If It Was Easy, They'd Call It Baseball

The travel softball team that Kenzie plays for, the Lake Shore Lightning, started their tournament season today. They won all three games they played. They beat the Loudon (Virginia) Storm , 5-1; The Delaware Magic, 13-1; and the Bayside Blues (from Souther Maryland), 9-1. Kenzie had six at-bats. She got three RBIs, and scored two runs. Her batting average for the three games was .400, and her on-base-percentage was .500. The highlight of her day came in the second game when she came to bat with the bases loaded, and knocked in two runs with a double to left field. From second, she stole third. From third, she stole home. Here's some pictures of her batting, playing first base, and playing short stop. What an awesome day for her, and her team. Tomorrow, they go for the tournament trophy as a #1-seeded team in single elimination.

Happy Easter

He is Risen!

Good Friday

He suffered and died for us.

Governmental Chemistry

I found this on another blog. I don't know who originally wrote it, but I just had to copy it, and put it here.

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neuron, 25 assistant neurons, 88 deputy neurons, and 198 assistant deputy neurons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every action with which it comes into contact.

A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neurons and deputy neurons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neurons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Holy Thursday

Do this in memory of Me.

Living Stations of the Cross

On March 14, 2008, our church youth group performed a Living Stations of the Cross. They did an awesome job. Our youth group leaders did an incredible job putting this together in only a few, short weeks. The pictures at the above link do not do them justice, but it's the best I have. Three of our kids performed: Kenzie was a Weeping Woman in the eighth station, Alex was a soldier that escorted Jesus to the cross (and hammered the nails), and Connor was Jesus.

Parental Rights Are Out the Window in California

As a homeschooling family, I guess we won't be moving to California, where a judge recently ruled against homeschooling your children. With the expense, waste of money, and demonstrable failure rate of our public schools, I can't believe people will allow this ruling to stand. In that state, now you must be a "credentialed" educator to teach kids, even your own. Of course, the state will determine who gets those credentials, and what requirements must be met to receive such credentials; as if a credentialed government employee is better suited to take care of children than their parents, including all areas of their education.

I can understand the need to fix abusive situations, but you need to show abuse before you start denying all parents the right to raise and educate their own kids.

I'd go into this more, but I have to get back to homeschooling my kids...

Stupid Cat Is Back

After two days and three nights in a tree, the cat showed up this morning. I really thouight we'd seen the end of it. I'd love to know how it got down without breaking something.

HAL

It appears we have adopted HAL, the Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computer, as our washing machine. After comparing these images, there's no doubt about it.

HAL 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey:

HAL, from our laundry room:

Economic Stimulus Rebate

I was initially perplexed at the government's plan to send us money that isn't ours through this economic stimulus package rebate. Upon further thought, we decided to stimulate the economy by buying a new washer; the new steam, high efficiency, front-loader type. It's supposed to use a fraction of electricity and water compared to old washers. It just arrived. Now I have to spend the next few days reading the manual. I think this thing was designed by rocket scientists. It does kinda look like Hal fro 2001: A Space Odyssey, doesn't it? I hope it doesn't start talking to me.

Cat In A Tree

Our stupid cat has gotten stuck in trees before, but never like this. You can't really see her in the picture, but she's higher than I can reach, even with my longest ladder. The firemen couldn't even reach the tree because the yard is a swamp from the rain last night. This could be the end of our stupid cat. I saw some giant bird (I think it was a Turkey Buzzard) dive-bombing her a little while ago. It would serve her right to get eaten by bird after all the dead birds she's left on our back deck in the past.