It's tough to put into words how much a person's life can change once he/she has a child . . . ever since Joel was born on Wednesday all I want to do is hold him close to me and kiss him all over the place, but I know that someday soon he'll tell me to stop doing that because it's totally uncool and he doesn't want his friends to see me doing it, so I guess I need to get all of them in now before they go out of style.
Memorial Day weekend was very, very long for me and Jill . . . her water broke on Sunday at 4 am so we somewhat rushed to the hospital where they checked us in and for the next 48 hours we were in a holding pattern. The Drs. didn't want him to be born just yet, the more time he was inside of Jill the better off he was going to be, good point by them. But for the next 48 hours she was on so many medication it wasn't even funny.
After the 48 hours had past we thought that since her contractions had settled a bit that we would be at the hospital for some time, so I went home to get a few things. Guys, a note here, get a suitcase packed BEFORE you have your kid, even if it's two months ahead of schedule, just do it. On my way back I called Jill's mom to find out how she was doing and her contractions kicked back up again to where she was having one every 10 minutes for the last hour . . . not good. I rush back to the hospital to find her in a lot of pain. After two more hours of this we get sent back to our labor room that we had first started off in, and they said that she was measuring out at 3 cm and we were going to have him tonight.
As the hours past, everything was going pretty good, but then all of a sudden her contractions for some reason stopped. For the next 2 and half hours she was pushing without the help of contractions. At 7:52 am little Joel Pierce Garner was borned into this world. I'm still pushing for another kid in 11 months, but . . . . just kidding.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sad . . .
This is really sad, at least I heard from the horse's mouth that we were done:
By Joe Strupp
Published: April 30, 2009 10:02 AM ET
NEW YORK This may be a first, sportswriters who were laid off in the middle of a game they were covering.
Three writers and a photographer from The Baltimore Sun -- which has slashed some 61 jobs since Tuesday -- were reportedly informed Wednesday in the middle of a game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels, The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. reported.
The Guardian cited an online report from fellow baseball scribe Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register: "Tough times in the newspaper biz. Two writers for the Baltimore Sun in the press box here got the news -- by phone, during the game -- that they had been laid off in the latest round of cost-cutting. Stay classy, Baltimore Sun management."
The story did not identify the writers. Tribune and Sun officials have not responded to repeated E&P requests for comment on the layoffs, which included at least 18 editors.
By Joe Strupp
Published: April 30, 2009 10:02 AM ET
NEW YORK This may be a first, sportswriters who were laid off in the middle of a game they were covering.
Three writers and a photographer from The Baltimore Sun -- which has slashed some 61 jobs since Tuesday -- were reportedly informed Wednesday in the middle of a game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Angels, The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. reported.
The Guardian cited an online report from fellow baseball scribe Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register: "Tough times in the newspaper biz. Two writers for the Baltimore Sun in the press box here got the news -- by phone, during the game -- that they had been laid off in the latest round of cost-cutting. Stay classy, Baltimore Sun management."
The story did not identify the writers. Tribune and Sun officials have not responded to repeated E&P requests for comment on the layoffs, which included at least 18 editors.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tired and other things
For some reason I haven't been sleeping well the last two night . . . Sunday night it was my fault, both Jill and I went to bed at 1130 and we didn't actually go to sleep until 1, but last night I just kept tossing and turning.
I did get good news on the severance package that we are suppose to get from Scripps, I'm getting more than I thought so as usual Jill was right and I shouldn't be worried about it as much as I was, I need to know that she's going to be right nine out of ten times.
Nice win for the home town five last night, I missed the first half because I was at my meeting but I guess the game was over with at the end of the first quarter, I was listening to the game on my way home and it was at the half and I was blown away when I heard the score was 61-39. Let's hope that they can continue the winning ways tomorrow night.
The Redhawks got its first game of the season in last week, and thank god we had the 1230 game because if we had a 4 pm game we would be sitting at home again wondering when we'll get our first game in. We won 15-5, I didn't hit so well, 0-for-3 with a run scored, a walk and two reach on errors. The good news was that I didn't strikeout, bad news was that I didn't get a hit. Oh well, one game down and hopefully another 17-19 more to go.
I did get good news on the severance package that we are suppose to get from Scripps, I'm getting more than I thought so as usual Jill was right and I shouldn't be worried about it as much as I was, I need to know that she's going to be right nine out of ten times.
Nice win for the home town five last night, I missed the first half because I was at my meeting but I guess the game was over with at the end of the first quarter, I was listening to the game on my way home and it was at the half and I was blown away when I heard the score was 61-39. Let's hope that they can continue the winning ways tomorrow night.
The Redhawks got its first game of the season in last week, and thank god we had the 1230 game because if we had a 4 pm game we would be sitting at home again wondering when we'll get our first game in. We won 15-5, I didn't hit so well, 0-for-3 with a run scored, a walk and two reach on errors. The good news was that I didn't strikeout, bad news was that I didn't get a hit. Oh well, one game down and hopefully another 17-19 more to go.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
It sucks...
Just woke up, good to sleep in a little bit, but it sucks that Jill has to work today when yesterday we were suppose to have our OB appointment but a few hours before we were to have it they called and said with the snow they didn't want anyone to risk it so they moved it to Monday. I think we could have made it, it was warm enough that the roads weren't turning to ice, it's just that really wet and heavy snow.
Then before she left she got upset because her only pair of pants tore down the middle and she doesn't like to go shopping so she left mad which I don't like because on top of her having a long and probably useless day she started it off by being mad.
The job search is about as alive as my career as a journalist . . . been looking and applying since January and have yet to get a real hit, and my pay from the News is coming to an end at the end of the month, still no word on the severance package, my hours at the Post was cut since I'm not a actual employee but a free lancer I can't work over 30 hours so I lost 16 hours.
And with the snow it's looking like another Sunday without playing baseball, we started our season a month ago, the first two games were canceled due to snow, last weekend was Easter and now this. I am also thinking our game next week will not be played as well because that's being played in Conifer, a mountain town and the mountains are just getting hammered with snow. Guess the good news is if we are not playing tomorrow is that I can watch the Nuggets game on TV.
Then before she left she got upset because her only pair of pants tore down the middle and she doesn't like to go shopping so she left mad which I don't like because on top of her having a long and probably useless day she started it off by being mad.
The job search is about as alive as my career as a journalist . . . been looking and applying since January and have yet to get a real hit, and my pay from the News is coming to an end at the end of the month, still no word on the severance package, my hours at the Post was cut since I'm not a actual employee but a free lancer I can't work over 30 hours so I lost 16 hours.
And with the snow it's looking like another Sunday without playing baseball, we started our season a month ago, the first two games were canceled due to snow, last weekend was Easter and now this. I am also thinking our game next week will not be played as well because that's being played in Conifer, a mountain town and the mountains are just getting hammered with snow. Guess the good news is if we are not playing tomorrow is that I can watch the Nuggets game on TV.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Catching up
Well it's been a while since I've blogged about anything ... not too much has happened lately. My wife, my wonderful wife, is once again beating me in the NCAA March Madness pool. She's picked Mizzou last night to be Memphis, and yours truly had Memphis going on in all three brackets (yes I said three) including one of them having them win the national championship. Yeah, that good. So needless to say there's going to be bragging around the house for another year.
Redhawks baseball was suppose to start on Sunday, but for anyone that lives in Colorado or has been watching the news, yeah, that's not going to happen with the wonderful blizzard we had, and looking out the window the 18.5 inches of snow we got, it's melting like crazy. Again, that's just super.
Found a great web site that I could get myself into trouble, it's babyfans. com ... just check it out and you'll know why.
Well, Jill just got home and we are going to have a date night, so I'll write more later.
See you on the flip side.
Redhawks baseball was suppose to start on Sunday, but for anyone that lives in Colorado or has been watching the news, yeah, that's not going to happen with the wonderful blizzard we had, and looking out the window the 18.5 inches of snow we got, it's melting like crazy. Again, that's just super.
Found a great web site that I could get myself into trouble, it's babyfans. com ... just check it out and you'll know why.
Well, Jill just got home and we are going to have a date night, so I'll write more later.
See you on the flip side.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Watchmen, credit cards and other things
Went and saw Watchmen for my birthday, it's not till Wednesday but we thought it would be nice to do it before the actual day and since the movie that I wanted to see doesn't come out until the 20th (Knowing) I thought that this would be a good movie since it so far has made a good profit at the box office.
After seeing it I think that it was way too long, almost three hours and it took a while to get to the point of the movie. That being said, I think that if I would have read the comic book I would have probably enjoyed the movie a lot more than I did, kind of like having some start watching the Harry Potter movies without reading the book, they are all good movies but it would be better to first read the books than see the movies, but isn't that true in most cases anyways?
As for credit cards ... these companies want you to get credit protection for your cards, which I completely understand, but when that comes out to costing nearly $70, plus the finance charges added on, it's costing me more for those two things then it does for what I'm suppose to pay for the minimal payment ... I know that I'm preaching to the choir about this but it's just one of those stupid things that just bugs the living you know what out of me.
Daylight savings start in, what, less than an hour, and I don't care too much for this time of year. Yes it's nice to be able to have an extra hour of sun light, and yes it means that summer is right around the corner and yes for my friend Paul this means that there's that extra hour to get a game of 1-on-1 in, but what I don't like is that I lose my one hour of sleep. Yes I' m being a big baby about it but I love my sleep, always have and always will ... well, that us until Joel is born than what sleep I had will for sure be gone.
What else can I rant on about .... spent the last two days covering Jefferson Academy basketball, not too bad, the boys really disappointed me in how they played today. I think they should have won but a bad quarter and half did them in, but they are a young team and I'm sure that they'll be back again next year.
As for the girls, hope that coach Porter will not read this, but I'm really surprised that they made it out of today's game, hell they should have lost on Friday night but some bad plays from Denver Christian allowed them to squeak by with the win. Beyond the starting five and maybe one other player this team doesn't have much of anything else, which is sad because I really like this team, but from what I hear the Jags will have their hands full with St. Mary's on Thursday, even though they played them once this year, I hope that they take what they learned in that loss and put it to good use. I hope they can win a state title for the seniors, especially Kathleen Porter, she's a good kid, great interview, and above all, it would be nice for her to leave her high school career holding up the gold ball with her dad and coach, Kevin Porter.
After seeing it I think that it was way too long, almost three hours and it took a while to get to the point of the movie. That being said, I think that if I would have read the comic book I would have probably enjoyed the movie a lot more than I did, kind of like having some start watching the Harry Potter movies without reading the book, they are all good movies but it would be better to first read the books than see the movies, but isn't that true in most cases anyways?
As for credit cards ... these companies want you to get credit protection for your cards, which I completely understand, but when that comes out to costing nearly $70, plus the finance charges added on, it's costing me more for those two things then it does for what I'm suppose to pay for the minimal payment ... I know that I'm preaching to the choir about this but it's just one of those stupid things that just bugs the living you know what out of me.
Daylight savings start in, what, less than an hour, and I don't care too much for this time of year. Yes it's nice to be able to have an extra hour of sun light, and yes it means that summer is right around the corner and yes for my friend Paul this means that there's that extra hour to get a game of 1-on-1 in, but what I don't like is that I lose my one hour of sleep. Yes I' m being a big baby about it but I love my sleep, always have and always will ... well, that us until Joel is born than what sleep I had will for sure be gone.
What else can I rant on about .... spent the last two days covering Jefferson Academy basketball, not too bad, the boys really disappointed me in how they played today. I think they should have won but a bad quarter and half did them in, but they are a young team and I'm sure that they'll be back again next year.
As for the girls, hope that coach Porter will not read this, but I'm really surprised that they made it out of today's game, hell they should have lost on Friday night but some bad plays from Denver Christian allowed them to squeak by with the win. Beyond the starting five and maybe one other player this team doesn't have much of anything else, which is sad because I really like this team, but from what I hear the Jags will have their hands full with St. Mary's on Thursday, even though they played them once this year, I hope that they take what they learned in that loss and put it to good use. I hope they can win a state title for the seniors, especially Kathleen Porter, she's a good kid, great interview, and above all, it would be nice for her to leave her high school career holding up the gold ball with her dad and coach, Kevin Porter.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Thoughts on my few days at the Post and my interview ...
Ok, it's still weird even after day 4 of being employed by The Post the same paper I've spent the last 11 years trying to kick its ass across the newspaper.
Things are noticeably different in the preps department ... first example and probably the biggest difference is that there's only three computers truly dedicated to preps compared to the nine that we had at the News, but part of that three at the Post also includes the preps editor.
Another thing is the database they use ... it's more simplified than what I had at the News, which can be good and bad. A good thing about it is that when entering games it's a hell of a lot easier to do it since all I have to do is just type in a school and you're done while at the News it took several steps to enter the one game ... but a bad to it being simple is that when it comes to entering a box score, such as basketball, the only thing needed to be entered is just the points (2s, 3s, FT made and attempted) while at the News it you could everything that you can think of in it.
Of course like many things, change is good and it takes time to get use to ....
Ok, now for my interview. Some know of my "fun times" at the last marketing interview that I did so I had since stopped applying for anything that had to do with marketing, but I did get a call that same day about another marketing company that wanted to interview me. Knowing that it could be a repeat of the previous company I still went ahead with the interview, that was pushed off twice. So I get there and was a few minutes late because I had forgot to get the directions to the news place, but I waited for a little over five minutes and the guy came out and he seemed cool at the start, but it all went downhill from there.
Basically I'd be going to a retail store and selling Direct TV, getting paid minimal wage plus commission, first down fall.
Second was the hours, now as he said these were "Good hours". I'd work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 12-730 and then Saturday and Sunday from 10-6. Now this would stop any chance of me writing for the MetroNorth Newspaper, which since the News is no longer I get my writing fix from that paper. Secondly this would screw up me playing baseball, which isn't a good thing to do that. Third, it sounds like after the 6 months they'd be relocating me to a new office they have, which I don't think would make my mother and the in-laws too happy that just before their grandson is born we are picking up and leaving somewhere, which from what the guy was saying somewhere in Florida.
Some good news though is that I've got a phone interview with a factual data company that a friend works for ... I hope I can get on with this company because from what I hear, the pay is really, really good and even though the drive is to Loveland, I'd suck it up to make some good money. If I get past that part there's a face-to-face and if I get past that the job is mine, so everyone keep your fingers cross!
Things are noticeably different in the preps department ... first example and probably the biggest difference is that there's only three computers truly dedicated to preps compared to the nine that we had at the News, but part of that three at the Post also includes the preps editor.
Another thing is the database they use ... it's more simplified than what I had at the News, which can be good and bad. A good thing about it is that when entering games it's a hell of a lot easier to do it since all I have to do is just type in a school and you're done while at the News it took several steps to enter the one game ... but a bad to it being simple is that when it comes to entering a box score, such as basketball, the only thing needed to be entered is just the points (2s, 3s, FT made and attempted) while at the News it you could everything that you can think of in it.
Of course like many things, change is good and it takes time to get use to ....
Ok, now for my interview. Some know of my "fun times" at the last marketing interview that I did so I had since stopped applying for anything that had to do with marketing, but I did get a call that same day about another marketing company that wanted to interview me. Knowing that it could be a repeat of the previous company I still went ahead with the interview, that was pushed off twice. So I get there and was a few minutes late because I had forgot to get the directions to the news place, but I waited for a little over five minutes and the guy came out and he seemed cool at the start, but it all went downhill from there.
Basically I'd be going to a retail store and selling Direct TV, getting paid minimal wage plus commission, first down fall.
Second was the hours, now as he said these were "Good hours". I'd work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 12-730 and then Saturday and Sunday from 10-6. Now this would stop any chance of me writing for the MetroNorth Newspaper, which since the News is no longer I get my writing fix from that paper. Secondly this would screw up me playing baseball, which isn't a good thing to do that. Third, it sounds like after the 6 months they'd be relocating me to a new office they have, which I don't think would make my mother and the in-laws too happy that just before their grandson is born we are picking up and leaving somewhere, which from what the guy was saying somewhere in Florida.
Some good news though is that I've got a phone interview with a factual data company that a friend works for ... I hope I can get on with this company because from what I hear, the pay is really, really good and even though the drive is to Loveland, I'd suck it up to make some good money. If I get past that part there's a face-to-face and if I get past that the job is mine, so everyone keep your fingers cross!
Monday, March 2, 2009
I FELT HIM!!
It finally happened tonight, I was able to feel my baby boy kick ... or it might have been a punch, one can never tell. I was up in my office working and Jill said she could feel Joel kicking (or punching) pretty good so I went to see if I could feel him and sure enough, not even a minute later I felt him ... and felt another good kick (or punch). It may seem dumb but just wait till you are expecting a child and you feel him/her do that for the first time, there's nothing like that feeling!
Ok...
I understand when someone is moving into a new place, it takes time to get everything organized, but for the love of what's all good DON'T tell someone to come in for an interview after you already had to postpone the first one to come in and then call and reschedule again ... ugh, the only bright side to this is that I've got all the time in the world since I don't have a job, well, I do but I don't.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
First thoughts on March 1, 2009
As I sit here and get into the "blogging world" like so many other people before me, I start to think that this is like a diary of sorts that you get to write whatever you are thinking, the only difference is that everyone in the world can read it.
So here I sit on Sunday night a little after 11, one of my two dogs are wide awake, my guess is that it's my yellow lab ... yep it's Max ... but he went to go join his brother in the dog room that soon will become little Joel's room, and no, the boys won't be too happy about that but they are just going to have to deal with it.
After having a little bit of time to digest what happened on Thursday, watching my 11 year career at the Rocky Mountain News flash right before my eyes as some jerk from Scripps says "Tomorrow will be the Rocky's last edition" (of course don't quote me exactly on those exact words, I didn't have a pen a paper in hand, yes, bad journalism I know but sue me).
The best way for me to tell people how I feel about that is think of something that you have given 110 percent to for an extended amount of time and then one day someone comes to you and says "You're done, you won't have that thing anymore." That's how I feel, that I gave the Rocky 11 years of my life, my heart and my soul to have one person walk in and say your done. It sucks. I don't know how long it'll take me to get over it, if I ever do.
Now my second thought of the night is that not matter how down I get about life, I've got my wonderful and caring wife Jill and my soon-to-be son, Joel (yea!!) there to cheer me up. I can't wait to be able to feel my son kick my hand when I have it on Jill's stomach. Just the other night, well, it was more like morning, we both were laying there and I had my hand on her stomach and she said that she felt Joel kicking at my hand ... first thing that came to mind was that I didn't feel anything, then the second was that little turd is kicking my hand! Oh well, what do you do huh?
I'll stop here for tonight, there's plenty of stuff on my mind but I think for the first blog I'll keep it someone short.
Good night and see everyone on the flip side.
So here I sit on Sunday night a little after 11, one of my two dogs are wide awake, my guess is that it's my yellow lab ... yep it's Max ... but he went to go join his brother in the dog room that soon will become little Joel's room, and no, the boys won't be too happy about that but they are just going to have to deal with it.
After having a little bit of time to digest what happened on Thursday, watching my 11 year career at the Rocky Mountain News flash right before my eyes as some jerk from Scripps says "Tomorrow will be the Rocky's last edition" (of course don't quote me exactly on those exact words, I didn't have a pen a paper in hand, yes, bad journalism I know but sue me).
The best way for me to tell people how I feel about that is think of something that you have given 110 percent to for an extended amount of time and then one day someone comes to you and says "You're done, you won't have that thing anymore." That's how I feel, that I gave the Rocky 11 years of my life, my heart and my soul to have one person walk in and say your done. It sucks. I don't know how long it'll take me to get over it, if I ever do.
Now my second thought of the night is that not matter how down I get about life, I've got my wonderful and caring wife Jill and my soon-to-be son, Joel (yea!!) there to cheer me up. I can't wait to be able to feel my son kick my hand when I have it on Jill's stomach. Just the other night, well, it was more like morning, we both were laying there and I had my hand on her stomach and she said that she felt Joel kicking at my hand ... first thing that came to mind was that I didn't feel anything, then the second was that little turd is kicking my hand! Oh well, what do you do huh?
I'll stop here for tonight, there's plenty of stuff on my mind but I think for the first blog I'll keep it someone short.
Good night and see everyone on the flip side.
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