Contented

The big news this week is that I had an article published on the Baseball Prospectus web site. It is, however, part of their premium content, so if you don't subscribe to the site then you won't be able to read it. Still, it's very exciting! It only got a slight bit of editing (new title, a little extra context to one of my paragraphs), which is also cool.

The article is about Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Pat Burrell and his 2003 slump, and 2004 rebound. It was fun to write, and it sounds like they'd be interested in more, so I'll see what I can do, time and ideas permitting! (A lot of the ideas I have are in a sense "research projects"; I spent an hour last night running some numbers for a project, and got no usable results. Oh, well!)

We had a very productive weekend, starting with a nice dinner at Frankie Johnny & Luigi Too!, and ice cream at Baskin Robbins on Friday night.

Saturday Debbi went off to pick up her bridesmaid's dress for her friend Lisa's wedding, while I went next door to trim branches from the trees hanging over my neighbor's (and my) patio, which should give her lemon tree some more sunlight. I also learned (tonight) why some of the branches seem to be dying: A squirrel has been pulling off and nibbling on the bark! So the core of the branches are getting sunburned. Argh. I don't know if there's much I can do, since the branches are so high I can't even reach many of them with my extension pruner. Hopefully it's just the one squirrel and he'll die off soon. (A little callous, I know, but I don't really want him killing trees either.)

In the afternoon we ran some errands, including getting the screws I need to repair my bike (not that I've done so yet; I hope to finish it tonight). In the evening we spent some time at the coffee shop, and then went and played minigolf. Yes, we've been doing a lot of that lately!

Oh, and in-between we went over to see our friends Becky and Chris, who have a week-old baby girl whom we hadn't met. We gave them a baby gift, and I also gave them a copy of my novelette to read and critique (Chris is also an SF writer). Today we got a lot done. We went to the farmer's market, and I replaced my flowers with some new roses (I love roses). Then we hit Home Despot where I bought a new pump for my pond, and a new fan. We also went to a clothing store Deb wanted to check out, and bought everything we needed for dinner. At home I put in the new pump and put together the fan. Then we grilled bratwurst and corn and cooked rice pilaf for dinner, and ended up very full! Mmmm-mmm!

All that and plenty of baseball, too, now that the All-Star Break is over!

All things considered, I'm feeling remarkably content with life lately. I have fun things planned for the summer (like finally getting a new computer), things are going pretty well at work despite the occasional bouts of stress, I'm happy with my home and relationship, and I'm making some progress on some long-term projects (like my patio & porch, and my writing).

It's not often that I feel like things are humming along pretty well, both in the parts of my life I can control (i.e., that I'm not being a slacker) and that I can't (i.e., that I don't feel like circumstances are conspiring against me).

Hopefully I haven't just jinxed it!