Hitting 300

Blog Insider - A look at the widgets, gadgets, and what-nots of Home School Dad.


Tonight's Episode: I'll Take Labels for 300.


I started this blog back in January of 2009. It took me less than 6 months to hit 100 posts. Click here or on my 100th post page to harken back to that time. 4 and a half months later I came in with post #200. Now, I have hit my 300th post.


I have labeled those posts with 71 distinctive labels. A label is a way of indexing the blog, so that it is easier to look up older posts by topics. A post can have many different labels at the same time. Today's post has 3: Blah Blah Blogging (Which is how I describe when I post incessantly about inane blogging practices), Blog Insider (where I talk about different gadgets, apps and tools I utilize) for this blog, and Posting in the Hundreds (Where I commemorate my posts that have multiples of one hundred). In a sense, all of these labels are very similar and there is a degree of overlapping in my labels.

If I could direct you to the label section of my blog you will see that instead of all 71, I have only 26 listed. This is because in celebrating my blogging longevity I plan to post about my 25 most popular labels in the weeks and months to come. There are 26 because there was a 7-way tie for 20th place. Instead of making a label for these labels, which would seem superfluous, I will be creating a page that will link to these homage posts. Until I have completed all of these I will have the label list show only the top 26.

Not listed in the top 25 are some of my favorite labels like: Hockey Lessons, An Open Letter, A Poem and FAQs of Life. But the 25 labels listed do give a pretty good insight to the kind of blog this has been the past year and a half. I hope you will enjoy the closer look behind the blog in the posts to come.

I plan to finish my D.C. trip remembrances before unpacking these labels, but as usual, prepare yourself for the randomness which is me.

As I bring this post to a close, I just want to give you links to my favorite posts of 4 labels that just missed the top 25:

Amy Roller Guest Blogger with Trudi's Garden.

Awana Scouts featuring Turtle Cake is Best.

The Labels Lincoln and Our Kid's Write are both featured in the post: In praise of Home School Kid's Write.

Next Time: Washington D.C. Day 8

Frogs and Toads and Friends

As my loyal readers know our family loves libraries. One of the things I love most about them are the presentations they have for kids. This past Saturday Randy Korb, a wildlife educator and author came to our library with a live frog demonstration for kids. He brought in many samples of amphibians native to our area.

Mr. Korb told the story of Blinky, a frog who got hit by a car. His grandson found him and brought it to him and now Blinky makes the rounds with Mr. Korb as an ambassador for frogs.

In addition to Blinky, There were salamanders,



newts,

small frogs,

and big frogs.

It was an informative presentation and very hands on. Sometimes it was even frogs on, as this video will attest.

Charlie and Emma loved every minute of the presentation. Especially when the show was over and they made a presentation of their own.

Next Time: Hitting 300

Randy Korb travels through the Midwest 3-4 times a year with his live frog & monarch butterfly presentations. Learn more about what he does at stcroixwildlife.org.

Jefferson and Washington at Sunrise.

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Next Time D.C. Trip Day 8

One inning down eight more to play

A baseball season is a pretty long time. In order to put it in perspective, I put it in bite size chunks. The 162 game schedule lends itself to dividing it up in these chunks. In the past I have thought of it in 6 segments of 27 games each. This has been pretty easy to do as the season is spread over 6 full months (April to September) and each team plays around 27 games each month. This year I am dividing the season into 9 18 game units. I have done this, because baseball games are divided into 9 segments called innings.

I will now analyze the Chicago White Sox in their first 18 games. I hope to breakdown the Cubs and the leagues themselves in the next few posts.

When 7-11 and the Sox decided to end their affiliation with each other this year regarding their starting times (The past two seasons they vegan their home nights games at 7:11. I didn't think it was because they were going to start sponsoring their record. Yet, after the first 18 games the ChiSox find themselves at 7-11 and not for the Slurpees!

The Sox started the season out with a beautiful 6-0 slaughter of the Cleveland Indians at home they then dropped the next 4 games (two to the Tribe and Two to the Twins) before beating the Twinkies to end their initial 6 game Home Stand. It looked as if the White Sox were getting back on track after splitting 4 games in Toronto where they had not won for years. Unfortunately, they left Toronto on a losing note and then got swept by the Indians in Cleveland. The Sox came home on the right note beating the Tampa Bay Rays then dropping the next 2 games to them. They ended their first inning of the season with back to back walk off homers against the Seattle Mariners bringing them to a not very respectable 7 and 11.

Here are a few reasons Sox fans should be concerned.

• In their first 13 games the White Sox sustained 2 four game and 1 two games losing streaks while only putting up back to wins on 2 occasions.
• The Sox are second last in the AL in Hits, last in doubles and last in batting average.
• The Pale Hose did not win their first series of the Season until April 24th. As of that date they have won 1 series tied 1 lost 4 including being swept once.

Here are a few reasons no one should jump off the ship quite yet:

• It's still early! 18 games does not a season make.
• Every team has one or two bad patches a season. There is something to be said about getting one out early.
• The Sox are tied for first in the American League in Home Runs and Stolen Bases. They are tops in the AL in Strikeouts.
• The Sox generally play well against the AL Central where they are now an awful 2-7. They have yet to play the Tigers and Royals who have they fared well against in seasons past. There is every indication they will play near the .550 mark they have had in the Central over the past two season. The Sox are currently above .500 against the rest of the league. If they can maintain that while they catch up in their own division, there is hope they can get right back in this.

I'll be back in 18 more games to give you a second inning synopsis.

How I feel about getting older

I discovered a new meme recently. It is called the Men's Monday Meme. It is at Families Again which was the winner of the 2009 HSBA for best Home School Dad blog. To see how I really feel about losing that particular award to him, go to my website I'mnotbitter.aargh!


Each week he asks a question or two on a topic. This week's question:

How do you feel about getting old? Do you relish it? Hate the thought? Are you somewhat scared?


Old is a relative term. When I was 23 years old and essentially beginning college, I felt old. I was around 17-21 year olds and while those ages remained the same year after year, mine just grew until I was 27, graduating with people 5 years my junior. When I was 32 and in seminary I didn't feel old at all. In fact I quickly realized what a pup I had been during my college years. Sure there were plenty of seminary students 10 years younger than me, but there were plenty who were 10 or more years older than me.

One thing that remained constant in my 20's into my 30's was that my body was in pretty good shape. Now that I am 45 I am having trouble with most parts of my body. 45 definitely feels different than 30.

In many ways I like my age. At least I like the stage of my life that I am in. I think kids keep you younger. My oldest child will be entering 6th grade in the fall and my youngest kindergarten the fall after. That means by the time Lucy is a senior in high school I will be 60. I did some math the other day and realized that when my Dad was my age I was graduating high school. I did a little more math and figured that when my Mom was my age my older sister was graduating college.

One thing about age is that it can be used as a measuring stick for accomplishments. When I was in my late teens early 20's I thought I would be married by the time I was 25. It's a good thing I didn't because I didn't meet Amy until a few weeks before my 26th birthday and marring her at 25 may have been rushing things a bit. I married her when I was 33 because that was God's timing.

When I did marry Amy, I started calling her my wife of 65 years. When you want to spend a lifetime with someone, you want that lifetime to last as long as possible. We just celebrated the 12th of those 65 years. Next year I'll be at the one fifth mark when we hit lucky number thirteen.

God gives us no guarantees on how many days he has in store for us. I am looking forward to spending a long life with Amy, our kids and any future family member He has in store for us. Growing older might not be all it's cracked up to be, but growing older with them certainly is.

For more of the Men's Monday Meme click here.

Next Time: Jefferson and Washington at Sunrise.