What kind of name is Perpika?: End of softball, countdown to summer and why I wouldn't eat off the floors at the trade center...

It's been an absolutely gorgeous weekend...which I will admit I fully needed...not that last week was so hard, with MCAS and all, but the end of softball season is always a tiring time. My girls had three games in a row; the first was game 4 with an undefeated team...I think they plated over 100 runs against in four games. The second was a loss...I was trying to preserve my pitcher, putting all my eggs in one basket for the final game. I figured, we've had a tough season...our record is...unremarkable, but if we could end on a win, all would be well. Our last game of the season involves, of all places, a trip over the Cape Cod Canal...What a hike for a Hockomock League team!! So I make a little "psych-up" bag for each of my girls for the bus ride and spend the hour-plus ride strategizing about how to minimize my weaker players' impact...We get there and can't find the team on the field, so I track down the athletic director. He knows nothing about a frosh game; his JV and Varsity traveled to our house for a game. This is why I have my AD on speed dial; he swears the game has been scheduled and both Varsity coaches confirm it. But that doesn't put an opposing team on the field. And it doesn't shorten an hour bus ride home after no game. "Can we just run around the bases and slide into home?" my girls ask. The AD at the school pulls a $50 bill from his wallet and holds it out to me. That's a first. Not sure why I said no. So that was our season...Luckily we have a parent/coach vs. player game scheduled for Wednesday.

And I'm relieved that the season is over...it'll be nice to have my life back a bit. Especially as the Tweeter season kicks off.

Brody needs a bath bad, man...It's all this outside time and warmer weather. Poor little stinker...should Fabreeze his butt.

I think we're down to four weeks or something like that...three full weeks maybe...like no time basically. I think I am teaching summer school though, so I won't have much of a break till July. This year really can't end fast enough.

So yesterday was the big day: Rob, Guy and I ran the Run to Remember's Half Marathon. What a neat course...From the world trade center, up Atlantic Avenue and then blah blah State Street to Cambridge along Memorial Drive and then back again, over the bridge, around the Common and then back again...13.1 miles, so a lot of it was a blur. Not Memorial Drive though, I remember most of that pretty well. But I did it, and I'm still just a bit sore. Nothing terrible. My new pair of Asics were good so I'm happy. After the race, which was thousands of people, everyone was collapsed on the blue carpet at the trade center and it just made me wonder if they would shampoo it before its next use...because it had to be pretty gross! That place had a funk to it!

So it makes me realize that I will need to do a bit of training before a full marathon, but I think I can do it. After that we pigged out at Maggiano's, which I love. Put back a lot of those calories. I can't wait to eat my way through a marathon's worth of calories!

Speaking of other momentous undertakings...I finished Moby Dick. Wow was that a slow read. I think I started it in February or March, and granted I've read about 10 other books at the same time, but even these last 200 pages I've been reading nonstop and it just took awhile. It's an interesting book...man am I glad I don't have to teach it. There's just a lot of pages, like 100s, with nothing happening. And it's amazing how quickly everything else moves after reading that.

Jackie and I did a little mini-golf the other day, which I wasn't sure I was in the right mood for, and I was right. I did have two holes in one, which is amazing, but I bogeyed like 5 other holes! I nearly threw my club a few times...and this kid behind us kept teeing off before we were off the hole...I almost chucked his ball in the water hazard (which is under a pirate ship). Maybe woulda been a better driving range kind of day...we hit the cages after that so I could get out some frustration.

Anyway...think I still have a few spare calories from yesterday (at least my sore muscles are telling me that better be the case after what I put them through) so that's where the chocolate cake enters...