This Is Spring?

OK, who turned off the heat? I know we've not had the cold and yuck that some people are battling with (like Cleveland, which had the entire weekend of baseball snowed out) but it's still been pretty darn cold down here. Glad to see it looks like more spring-like temps will be there this week. Digging out the long sleeves and jeans was no fun. Once I hit shorts, I like to keep it that way!

Easter went well. We had lunch at my aunt and uncle's in Conway Saturday. Benjamin got to find some eggs there and got a couple of small things, which he enjoyed. More enjoyable was the visit to the pet store, something we are contractually obligated as parents to do every time we hit Conway. There's no good-size store like that in Russellville, so we go to the PetSmart in Conway to see the birds, dogs, cats, fish, etc. Benjamin loves the place--mention Conway and his first reaction is, "Pet store?"

Sunday's services were good as well. Good crowd at church and Benjamin enjoyed the egg hunt they had there during Sunday School, even if he decided against doing the Living Cross tradition we have at Wesley. (The Living Cross is an empty cross that the kids fill with fresh flowers during the first hymn, symbolizing the change from the death of Christ to the resurrection of our Lord.)

Benjamin then went out to my parents' that afternoon and hunted eggs again and got more gifts, including one of his current favorite movies, Curious George. He was very disappointed when we had to take that rental back, so my parents got it for him and he's already watched it once. I'm sure it'll be on numerous times in the next couple of weeks, but that's OK, it's not a bad movie.

The great room swap is moving along as well. If I haven't mentioned it before, we are having to move the office stuff (computer, etc.) out of one room to the current scrapbook room so that we can move Benjamin into the current office so that Sarah has a room when she gets here. Our friend Jon is supposed to come down tonight and help take the computer desk apart, move it, and put it back together. Being that it was constructed in that room and that it wasn't top dollar when we bought it, I"m not entirely sanguine about the reconstruction part.

Once that gets moved, though, the assorted other junk in the room will get moved, tossed, or boxed and we'll move Benjamin's stuff. Meron is going to the Women of Faith conference in Little Rock this week, so my goal is to get Benjamin's room set up and ready to go Saturday while she's gone. It's probably going to be a push, but I think it can be done if I can get a lot of the junk out of the way in the evenings before the weekend gets here.

Meron is doing well. Sarah apparently moves constantly, much more than Benjamin did (at least, according to her memory). It's hard to really fathom that it's just six more weeks. I think we are prepared as in clothes, etc. and we're about to have the room ready, but other than that, I'm not sure if we have a clue. We'll find out, won't we?

Friends League draft went pretty well. Got a few players I really wanted and so far it's panning out, as I'm leading the league after a week. It's not a big lead, though, and if Carpenter is down for any extended period of time (see below) that's going to cause problems. Same thing in the URL, though I had a good first week there as well and am tied for first.

The Cardinals really have struggled out of the gate. They scored 10 runs yesterday, which was more than they had scored in the first five games combined. Chris Carpenter is having elbow troubles. Things looked good earlier this week, but it has flared up again. It looks like my pick of Blake Hawksworth being up this year is going to happen earlier than I thought, though I'm sure it'll just be a temporary thing.

The offense is really an issue, though. Pujols hasn't been hitting yet, though he had a good game Sunday and has always hit well in Pittsburgh, where they start playing today. But any time So Taguchi and Preston Wilson are getting major at-bats, there's trouble. Taguchi seems to have lost some of that fielding cache he had as well, as I've seen him really look bad on two balls already this year. There are some players at Memphis that could help, most likely John Rodriguez, but if Rick Ankiel starts off strong, there will be pressure to get him up to the majors as well.

Speaking of the Cardinals, one of those little things that makes you ecstatic happened last week. I went to sign up for the cable internet, and the guys that came to put in the outlet a couple of weeks ago told me that when I did that, tell them I needed an amp because the cable signal is so weak. I told them that and they sent a guy out Friday. Turns out it was a bad cable, which the guy fixed and that improved the signal as much as an amp would. And, best of all, the channel they use to show the Cardinal games now comes in full color! After three years of watching it in black and white, grainy and trying to make out what's going on, this is probably the best news I've had in months. It still blows me away how sharp and colorful it is. All of our other channels improved as well. We didn't even know how bad they were until they improved. It's like having HD (to us) without the cost!

OK, that's enough for the weekly update. I'll try to post more often, though likely they'll be Cardinal-dominated entries.