Somewhere over the rainbow...

We’ve been back a little less than a week and I still have not had time to get back into the textile studio. While traveling I did a good bit of hand work quilting with embroidery floss through all seven pieces from the series. I’m also adding a line of hand dyed silk through the series and I’ve got three of the seven of those sewn on. Beyond this point I don’t know what is next. It is an improvisational series, that is certain.

This is "Green" before quilting:

With some machine quilting and some hand work plus the row of silk:

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This is "Blue" but I'm thinking of it more in terms of "Cyan." This is before quilting: This is what it looks like with machine and hand quilting plus the row of silk.
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This one is Indigo before:
After adding some pieces to make this piece the right size, plus some machine and hand quilting. (The top photo's colors are showing more true than the lower one.) This one also has the row of silk along the horizonal line.

I hope to get back to these soon but I don't get the hand work done very quickly when I'm at home. Being stuck in an auto for hours is the perfect time to do quilting, that or mid winter in front of the fire. But this time of year it just doesn't seem like the work I gravitate toward. It will come.

My Soap Rocks


"Jasper" hand carved soap rocks... as you use them the carved edges disappear and they look more and more like river rocks.

Independence Day Soap

My Independence Day collection of soap.
"Old Glory" is pure and simple apple pie. Yes indeed, it just doesn't get any better than that!
Some fresh sweet apple, a hint of floral and sweet almond in a combination of goat's milk and olive oil soap.
"July 4th" soap featuring fireworks of red apple, blue spice in sweet vanilla goat's milk soap.
Lapis clove spice with a sweet French vanilla center that makes for a sweet and spicy “Shenandoah Moon.”

Traveling Home Again

We made a trip to the midwest to enjoy friends and family and I enjoyed taking photos out of the car's windows. Here are a few:
The wild fog shrouded mountains of West Virginia.
The mountains give way to the flat lands of Ohio though you can still spot some small rolling hills in the distance.
But when you get to Indiana, it's really just flat for miles. This is big sky country out here, which is just so unlike my Virginia home. I really do like the wide open places.
A little taste of small town U.S. heartland, I'm guessing that this is in Ohio somewhere. It always looks the same, each time we drive by.
Cool sky, though I don't know where we were when I took this photo.
This was early evening in Indiana, a mild thunderstorm. I was standing out in the rain with my flip cam hoping for some big lightening or bold crashes but got nothing. (except a little wet)

I started playing "tourist" on the way to our friend's home, taking photos of the Amish buggies.
This one is a convertable buggy? LOL!
A little extra peace and quiet, just for you.
There is something about these big monster tower type thingis that fascinates me.
Such clean lines, symmetrical, orderly... which is strange because I think symmetry is a cop out. An artist can use balance without needing to rely on symmetry... but the lines on these things are cool. And on the road home, we passed through the mountains of West Virginia once more.
Our drive home was a long one but very beautiful!
It was a lovely trip, full of great food and connecting with dear friends. It was good for the soul! Yes indeed, nothing like some beauty, great food and excellent friends. Just nothing like it.

Bethany Christian vs. Berrien Springs



So coming off our loss to Buchanan, we travelled 15 minutes up US 31 to take on defending Regional champions Berrien Springs. The Buchanan coach had told me that they would be a really solid team, probably a favorite in the area to win the Regional once again, and the Berrein Springs coach let me know that they returned all but one from their State-qualifying team in 2008. After our poor performance against Buchanan, I wondered how we might do against a team who supposedly would be even better.

At Subway, between matches, I let the team know my assessment of the first match. We needed to play with ease, looseness, energy and confidence. Swing like we do during practice and warmup. Play with the belief that we belong on the court with whoever we are playing. And with that we went out to play.

Ben Mast played the type of match that I love. He played so well, dictating the match with the placement of his shots, playing to his opponent's weakness, staying in the points where his opponent was able to swing through, and finishing points when given the chance. The problem is that when you dictate with placement instead of pace, the opponents often think that the only reason you win is because they were playing poorly. That's what happened with Ben. He was so in control with his placement that the match breezed by on a steady stream of stretched out errors for his opponents and net putaways for Ben. He dropped 1 game this match, but still dominated 6-1, 6-0.

Seth had a little less trouble. Really coming over his groundstrokes and playing with heavy topspin, Seth moved his opponent back and forth and picked on the inconsistent game of the Berrien Springs player. Though he had to wait before playing his match because of Berrien's lack of a 5th court, Seth did a good job of staying loose and concentrating during his resting period. At tennis camp, we talked about visualizing and staying positive, and I was glad to see Seth get to practice that.

At #3 singles, we switched and let Claude play the singles match. Against a solid opponent, Claude ran down every shot and put the ball back deep time and time again. At 3-3 in the first set, Claude told me he was too sick to his stomach to continue. I told him to try to win the first set. He did. 6-4, the first set went to Claude as his consistent strokes and fancy spin were able to induce errors. But in the second set he couldn't make it. Tied at 1-1, Claude had to drop out.

The #2 doubles players played much different in this match. I could tell that they took my little speech to heart (or just had more energy because of getting something at Subway). They were always prepared for the next shot to come back at them. I was impressed with the net skills of and reflexes of both Jake and Blake. Many times they would have the ball pounded at them, and would quickly bounce it back into the court. Their consistent return gave their opponents more chances to make errors, and they eventually did. It was a very close match, but Blake and Jake pulled out the 7-5, 7-5 victory.

#1 doubles made me most happy of all. After looking afraid and timid in their first match, not communicating and generally putting out poor attitude and belief, Austin and Kyle started this match the same way. Down 5-1 in the first set, I communicated to them that they could not just stand and expect to win a varsity doubles match. They had to be active at the net, they had to poach, they had to take their chances and hit putaway volleys. They had to move their feet and be ready. They responded awesomely (that's a cool word!)

Austin began to boom his forehand returns, Kyle committed to getting low and hitting great volleys. Both players came up with big putaway volleys and attacked their opposite net man. Storming back into the match, Kyle and Austin won 6 straight games to win the first set 7-5. After the rush of energy from the first set, Kyle and Austin briefly returned to their tired, less active ways. Hugely to their credit, they refocused and behind some big serves from Austin and a final big forehand from Kyle, they took the match 6-4 in the second set.

I left tonight feeling awesome about the growth of our team within one day. In the afternoon, no movement, looking scared, just not hitting as we were capable of. In the second match, we pulled it together and began to do the things that we will need to continue to be a competitive team this season, and hopefully make a push for another Sectional crown. That type of progress is the thing we need to build on. Now we hope to wrap the whole team up into this upward progression.

Scores

#1S - Ben Mast --- 6-1, 6-0
#2S - Seth Krabill --- 6-0, 6-0
#3S - Claude Stickler --- 6-4, 1-1 (forfeit)
#1D - Kyle Miller/Austin Loucks --- 7-5, 6-4
#2D - Blake Shetler/Jake Gerig --- 7-5, 7-5

Bethany Christian vs. Buchanan

Last night, we began our quest to stay undefeated in the Michigan League "Border Wars."  Playing with a completely different varsity lineup than last year, it seemed like it may be a difficult task.  Playing minus four members competing for varsity this year made it an even bigger task.  Not playing with energy and footwork, form or confidence, that sealed it for us.  Just barely, our match versus Buchanan became our first loss in this summer league.

Not that it wasn't close, well, for the team anyways.  Ben Mast and Seth Krabill collected two points for the Bruins, easing through a pair of 6-0, 6-0 matches.  Their equally inexperienced opponents had trouble keeping Ben and Seth's "consistently consistent" groundstrokes in the court, and had the same trouble with Ben and Seth's rapidly improving serves.  While their matches came to a quick end, other matches seemed like they were just starting.

Kyle Miller and Austin Loucks found themselves paired together at #1 doubles.  Missing their normal partners to other obligations, Kyle and Austin had to adjust their similar games to playing with one another.  Both have similar strengths, and similar weaknesses.  In the heat, it looked as if Austin and Kyle were struggling to find energy, and struggling to believe in their own games or in each other.  On the other hand, their opponents attacked the net together with ease, pounding powerful volleys and when forced back, unleashing big forehands.  Despite not being overwhelmed in the talent category, #1 doubles fell 2-6, 0-6.  

Other matches were closer.  Jake Gerig and Claude Stickler played #2 doubles.  They too had trouble moving and looking like they had energy (maybe due to the fact that neither of them thought it was important to bring water to a 2-out-of-3 set match in the 90 degree heat!)  However, they battled through the first set due to the many errors from their opponents.  When they kept the ball in the court, Jake and Claude were right in the match.  When they were tired and not moving, when they were surprised by a shot coming back, when they dropped their hands, they made their own errors and ended up with too many in the second set.  After a tiebreak loss in the first set (perhaps due to their unfamiliarity with the format), they succumbed 2-6 in the second.
 
The match then came down to Blake Shetler playing #3 singles.  Buchanan only had 4 courts, so Blake jumped in a car with his opponent (despite the threat of kidnapping according to Kyle) and traveled a half mile to a "ghetto court."  That's the name we affectionately attach to courts that are pretty much un-taken care of.  Blake's court had cracks aplenty, but more affecting the match was the fact that the net had no center net strap, meaning it was probably 6-10 inches higher than a regular net.  It seems like this wouldn't affect the match, but Blake had trouble hitting his flat serve over and getting an advantage from that stroke.  

Also, like many of his teammates, Blake had trouble with the heat, movement and consistency.  I didn't get to see much of the match, but what I did see looked tentative.  A common newbie on the varsity often plays not to lose, and that tentativeness throws off their game.  The player who wins most varsity matches is the one who swings through in the match just like they do in the warmup.  Blake suffered from this, Austin and Kyle suffered from this, Jake and Claude suffered from this.  It's a common mistake.  Unfortunately for each of them, including Blake, it cost them the match.  

So we finished up with a 3-2 loss.  I was a bit disappointed, because we had the chance to win, but didn't bring the energy, confidence, and form that we've worked on through camp and summer sessions.  On the other hand, that's what the summer league is for.  To get experience, to learn what it means to play 2-out-of-3 set matches, to know what it takes to be a varsity player, and etc, etc.  And our success in the league will hinge more on whether we learn these things and carry them on, rather than our wins and losses.

Scores

#1S - Ben Mast --- 6-0, 6-0 
#2S - Seth Krabill --- 6-0, 6-0
#3S - Blake Shetler --- 3-6, 4-6
#1D - Kyle Miller/Austin Loucks --- 2-6, 0-6
#2D - Claude Stickler/Jake Gerig --- 6-7 (3), 2-6

Summer Journal: Threats of Rain

Q: When you are scheduled to play a match, why should you cancel it?
A: If it is raining.

I wish that was true.  Apparantly, the correct answer is "If it is raining, or might rain, or if you can't find enough players to play."  

Over the past week we've had matches cancelled for a combination of all three of those reasons.  It's been frustrating to say the least.  These summer matches are difficult enough to arrange, what with my players never answering their phones, not anxious to rearrange schedules, etc.  So it is kind of difficult to get 7 players around to play in a match.  And invariably, as soon as I get everyone committed to playing, it rains or the other team cancels because they don't have enough players.

It makes me want to quit, but I know that these matches could be important in developing our varsity players for next year.  And it stinks trying to convince players to come for this match, talking them into how much they need it, blah, blah, blah.  I don't want to feel like a nag.  On the other end, we have players who are really excited to play and then don't get the chance and they end up feeling like the whole league is kind of unorganized and not as committed as they are.  So anyways...

Tonight we play two matches, a rescheduled one against Buchanan and regularly scheduled match against Berrien Springs.  I'm looking forward to it.  We're probably not taking our tip-top lineup (Mikey and the Rebecs are missing), but I'm still looking forward to seeing how we play.  Here's to no rain, not even the threat!

Summer Journal: Camp Top Ten

10.  Brittany at Ruby Tuesday not being like we remembered her, but she remembered us!
9. The Pizza King waitress scaring Austin and Matt Ebersole.
8. Practicing on the "Ghetto" court.
7. P90X - "Bring It!"
6. Our new team members, Sam and Damien, or wait... Samantha and Jerome Bettis...
5. Another fight during Speedball? Yes.  Apparently it's group therapy.
4. "Whatever turns you on."
3. Kyle Miller - 3 time Hide-and-Go-Seek champ.
2. "I have to fart but I think it might be poop!"
1. Chowing down on KFC during Yoga practice...

What did I forget?  What will you remember?

Wild Orchids and Flowers

We recently got a little flip cam and I took it along on a walk in the woods a while back. I'm not very good at using it but here are a few highlights from our adventure. Mr Wild Man and I go way back and he gives wild orchid tours. It was a lovely morning being shown around the forest meeting the lovely flowers of the wild wood. Here are some pink lady slippers:



And some putty root orchids:


And some pink mountain laurel:


Maybe I'll get the hang of this sometime. Right now it's like being on a roller coster ride to watch any of these and the quality isn't great.

New Business Card Design


In the process of working on a printing project for my congregation I decided new business cards were in order. I'm almost out of the old ones and it's such an easy way to point people to my website or blog. So I played around with it for a few minutes and see what you think, I removed the phone number before I posted cause let's face it - I hate phones and I can barely stand that it has to be printed to begin with, let alone putting it out there on the net. The card matches my website, so that's cool. They should be here shortly.

Lovely photos

I sell soap on Saturday mornings at the Farmer’s Market. My lovely friend Paula Delaney blogged about her visit to the Farmer’s Market here. She's got some lovely photos of produce, one of those dogs that's the size of a small horse and me selling soap.

Rainbow Progress

These are the first three in the ROYGBIV series, magenta, orange and yellow.
So I finished up the green one and started getting a little bored.
So instead of moving on to the blue (cyan,) which would have been next, I jumped to the violet on the end. And instead of straight stripes, I started into a very fractured section of fabrics going every which way. It made the project interesting all over again.
Then I moved back to the Indigo one, where I blended the fractured stuff with the straight stuff for an interesting mix of shapes.
Finally I moved back to the cyan where I moved more back to the stripes but kept a bit of the fractured look. So one end of the series will have more of the striped look and the other end becomes more fractured as the series progresses.
I'm into the quilting now and this could take a while. I'm also thinking about my living room walls and what color the walls should be to show these to their best advantage. I've got a stack of paint chips, I'll figure it out.
The only furniture in my "living room" is an upholstered bench and a bunch of gallery pedestals for art glass left over from when I was a gallery owner. Living rooms tend to be a little useless, when we hang out we're in the family room where the fireplace and piano are. So we might as well enjoy the living room as a gallery space. I will look into some gallery lighting and see if I can add that to my hubby’s to do list while he has the summer off from teaching. I would love to replace the blue carpet with hardwood but that’s not really the top priority while we're raising money for our adoption. (I’m just grateful that the carpet is not mauve ~ I really really hate 1980's mauve!) So I'm off to do some more quilting and see how this series turns out. It's all about real saturated lusious color and I can't wait to hang these on my wall, light them up and stand back to enjoy them. Yes, yes, YES!

One Quilter's Heritage


I wanted to share my first quilt with all of you. It’s on our bed now, now that we live in a house where we can fairly easily keep the dogs out of the bedrooms. It’s a double wedding ring and the fabric is all commercial cottons in teal, cobalt, blue-violet, purple, red-violet, and magenta. I designed the color ways, the layout and cut all the fabrics. My mother-in-law sewed and I think my sister-in-law may have helped by ironing. The three of us have made a number of quilts together in this way, I design and cut and keep the process moving and the two of them (or maybe the Mennonite grandmas instead of the SIL) keep the assembly line moving.
It’s pretty intense but we’ve made some pretty cool quilts this way and we can come pretty close to making a full bed sized quilt in a day. That’s important since we live in different states and very rarely get together. This quilt was quilted by my mother-in-law and my husband’s Mennonite grandmothers, some of their friends may have added some stitches here and there as well.
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This quilt is one made by my father’s mother. The colors are washed out by direct sunshine, an overcast day would have made better photos. My grandmother was a beautiful Mennonite woman with her ultra conservative dress, a covering with strings and wire rim glasses. She made many beautiful quilts, always with an amazing degree of excellence. Her corners were always perfect and her stitches were tiny and ultra even.

I remember as a child that there was a gathering in Ohio where the quilts were distributed, one for each grandchild. I was the youngest child of her youngest child, and so I got the first choice though I have no idea why they did it that way. I may have been about five or six and when they asked me to choose I pointed immediately at this one. Someone muttered that I had good taste and had chosen the prettiest one. I guess even at that age I responded to colors like these. I have a variety of old quilts, some really amazing examples of Mennonite and Amish artisan design and execution and they are among my very favorite things. I count these quilts along with my heritage as part of my development as an artist and a quilt designer.

Summer Journal: Observations

So team camp is well under way, Wednesday morning and we're waiting for the typical Wednesday rain to pass through.  Don't know how it always decides to rain on Wednesdays, but it has the past three years at least.  I think everyone is pretty excited for visiting Ruby Tuesday's tonight and seeing if Brittany still works there.  Last night we enjoyed a waitress at Pizza King who really told it like it was... and somehow knew Austin's name without being told... weird.

Anyways, here's a list of early observations from camp:
- Our groundstrokes really look good when we are concentrated and swinging through with confidence
- We go through many stretches each practice where we are not concentrated
- The ability to stay focused and positive will be huge for this group, it's the number one mental aspect we need to develop
- A preliminary lineup is starting to take shape within my head. 
- Mikey was afraid of the net two years ago when he started doubles.  He dominates the net now.
- Our biggest weakness in singles is going for too much, too soon.
- Our biggest strength is when we settle down and play consistent groundstrokes.
- Some of our freshmen and new players are developing quickly, some are not.  It's all about desire and focus.
- Julian and Matt ate 10 donuts between them the first day before lunch.
- Jake can't figure out who keeps stealing his donut holes (it's Kyle).
- Kyle and Seth know how to "Bring It," P90X style! 
- Kyle Miller has never been found in three years of Hide-and-Go-Seek
- Some people on the team really like reading... that's cool.
- They really like reading vampire love stories... not cool.
- Jake = loudest snorer.  Seth = wheeziest snorer. Kyle = inconsistent snorer.  What a beautiful symphony they are.
- Andy Slagel throws really hard in dodgeball, Austin makes funny noises combined with jacked-up ninja moves, Evan crashes hard into folding chairs.

And on and on and on.  Camp is going well, and hopefully we're all getting better.  Until later...

Rainbow... Green

Ok, so these are starting to feel a little predictable. Next one gets changed up somehow!
Green... in with the rest of them so far. My design wall is full of lots of wonderful color!

Rainbow Series - Yellow

Well, I’ve gotten a little behind on posting these. I think yellow was next, right? This is the third one in the ROYGBIV series. It’s the yellow one.
Here are the first three together... though in order to crop them it throws off the line that runs through the series. At this point they are only pieced, not quilted and I'm not sure if I'm done or if I'll be adding some other stuff yet. They are hand dyed cotton, linen and white on white fabrics plus a bit of commercial batiks. They are roughly 18 x 18 though the first one is the smallest one and it seems like they get bigger and bigger as I keep working on the series.
If you want to join in the challenge, it's not hard. Just make one small quilt for each color of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. Let me know if you decide to play along.

Lucky Me!

I am the winner of a bracelet by the talented Ms Joanna Curley, see her blog here and her photos of the bracelet.

And this is me wearing the delightful little confection! It’s light as a feather, you don’t even know you’re wearing it. It fits me perfectly and came in a cute little gift box. The detail is marvelous and the color… oh YUM! It could not be more perfect for me! Thank you Joanna! What a lovely treat!

Summer Journal: Visualize

The mind believes whatever it is that it sees.  We can't escape this.  That's why school's are trying to be more experiential, the sciences seek to prove through experiment, and our experiences teach us more than what people describe to us.  Our mind tends to believe what we put in front of it.

But one neglected part of our mind is our imagination.  The root of imagination is image, meaning that our imagination is the images that we put into our mind.  Imagination doesn't mean make believe, it means the images that we think about and visualize.  The thing is, that when we use this visualization, the mind sees these images and begins to believe them to.  It makes life much richer when we use our imagination.

This is easily applicable to life.  When people constantly see themselves in a certain way, they can never overcome it.  Kobe Bryant has talked about watching himself hit big shots in big games, people struggling with depression often replay negative images and project negative futures, and these things become fulfilled.  So I wonder as I think about tennis next year, what do we visualize?

I've started working out with guys this week, Mikey, Ben, Seth, Kyle, and Andy Slagel have all showed up at some point to begin to work on their games.  When I see people working hard, it's easy to imagine success. 

October 3rd, the air is a bit crisp in the morning as we warm up with anticipation.  In our minds are visions of success, and in our strokes an essence of confident ease.  We've worked hard all season long, and we're ready to play hard for our final goal.  As the first match moves along we conquer our nerves with well-played strokes and strategy and move on to the Sectional final.  In the final, we pump up our energy and get ready to play in a fun match that we've waited all season for.  Our singles players stroke the ball to all corners, running their opponents back and forth and finishing points with well-placed volleys and confident fist pumps.  Our doubles players attack, from baseline and net.  At the end of the day, we stand around with arms on shoulders singing Sarasponda and holding the trophy high.

Is that what we visualize?  I can see it.

Orange

Here is the second one from my Roygbiv series: I’ve made some progress on “Orange” and this one is also about 18 x 18 square pieced. It’s hand dyed cotton, linen and white on white plus some bits of commercial batik. I have sold one piece out of a series in the past and always regretted it, the moment for creating the set had passed and now I’m forever one shy in a series that shouldn’t have been broken up. So I don’t think I’ll be making these available separately, and for a while at least, they will hang in my living room – but maybe talk of such things is premature when I have so much work to do to finish the series.

Next? Yellow!

Want to join the challenge? Create a series of seven small quilts, one for each of the colors listed here: Red, (think Magenta) Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue (think cyan) Indigo and Violet. Post each one as you finish it and please contact me if you're going to join in. I think it will be fun!

Website Update


This is a mixed media piece I made a while back, watercolor, colored pencil, ink and metalic ink on paper. It's now in my bedroom and I love it there.

I have spent some time today working on my website. I spent the afternoon at Oasis Gallery in Harrisonburg, VA where my glass, photography and soap can be found. While I was there I was able to get some work done. There is now content on the painting, cake design, glass, drawing and mixed media pages of my new website. Click here to take a look. It just takes a while to get through all the details of designing a website and getting all the information filled in. You should see my "to do list" now!! I know most people would complete the whole thing and then publish, but I like to work on it as I go because some things just don’t translate very well and require tweaking and experimentation, it is less overwhelming this way. Check it out and if you have problems with the site, please let me know! Feedback is helpful, so please do let me know what you think. Thanks!

Magenta

I’ve started a new quilt series, this one inspired by my quilting hero Melody Johnson. It’s based on the traditional “ROYGBIV” rainbow, otherwise known as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. I’ll be focusing more on Magenta rather than Red, Cyan rather than Blue and beyond that it should be pretty straight forward. I expect to use this series of seven quilts as the focal point of my living room gallery space when they are complete.

I started out by hand dying and painting a series of cottons, silks and linens. I’m thrilled with how they turned out and have had them laying out on a table in my studio for the better part of a month or so, just waiting for the time and emotional energy to sink myself back into them. May was a difficult month around here. It has been some time since I’ve found “the zone” where the work consumed me and brought me the joy it once did. One of these days the mojo will return, until then I am no less an artist. And so I create.
I’ve started with the Magenta and have an about 18x18 square pieced. This is hand dyed cotton, linen, and white on whites plus some bits of commercial fabric - mostly batik. I am considering all my options at this point so it will be interesting to see where the creative process takes me this time.

Summer Journal: Rainy Days


It's the first day of summer, and as my wife and I got up this morning, a thunderstorm rolled through Goshen.  It was frustrating, but it was really fitting.

Last night, I made the rounds to graduation parties.  I got to go to four different parties yesterday, all for tennis players.  It was supposed to be a grand celebration of things accomplished, but I had the feeling of a parent letting their children go.

I have to be honest, I'm not a fan of graduation parties.  First of all, I pretty much only go to the parties of tennis players.  So I care deeply about all of my players, and there's a bit of sadness watching them move on from the team, knowing that I won't see them at practice or school.  Going to graduation parties reminds me of what our team is losing.

Of course, like anything, it's not one sided.  There's also a pride in knowing that I've been privileged to be a part of such special guys lives.  I wish there was a better place to share this with all of them, but at the parties there are so many people talking to the graduates, it feels like an impersonal setting to discuss what a graduate has meant to the team, what I hope for their future, etc, etc.

So, yesterday kind of felt like the real end of last year's team.

And therefore, today was to be the first day of this year's team.

We were going to get together this morning and start some workouts.  I am actually really excited about some of the morning workouts that we've got planned this year.  If guys commit to it, I think it will make us really competitive next year.  And so I got up early with my wife to workout so that I could be ready to hit with several guys at 7:30.  I was pumped, and that sounds stupid, but I'm already ready for the tennis season to start.

Then the rain.

Oh well, better rain this week than during Team Camp next week.  I hope this doesn't continue, because I'm starting to get nuts about not being able to play!