Kevin's Ramblings…

Today is my dog Blondie’s birthday. I am not one of those insane dog owners who has a party for my dog. My insanity ends at a post on Facebook and an entry on my blog with her picture.

Happy 4th Birthday Blondie !!!

It is already March 1. The year is flying by it seems. They do say that time seems to go faster as we get older. That might be true. If it is going by this quickly when I am 43, I can’t imagine how fast it’ll be moving 20 years from now.

Today is draft day for Babe Ruth Baseball. We have to draft pretty wel an entire team. Should be an interesting day. One of our main coaches wasn’t present for any of the evaluations so he won’t be a lot of help. We will draft the best we can I suppose and see how it goes. 

Back to work tomorrow. I was off work Wednesday through Friday, was not feeling well at all. It was either a nasty cold or a touch of the flu that I picked up somewhere when I was off. I started feeling crappy last Friday. I am feeling “almost normal” now which is good.

Hopefully with the draft taking place and indoor workouts starting in a week, Spring will be rut around the corner.

The weekend is here, that’s a good thing. Two days off of work, the possibility of sleeping in. I say possibility because I pretty much wake up at 530 regardless of what day of the week it is. I let the dogs out and then we go back to bed. The dogs go back to sleep, they can sleep anywhere it would seem. I might doze for a bit, if I’m lucky.

We have the draft this weekend for baseball as well. We have to draft deep this time around, we lost a fair number of players. Hopefully we will be able to draft some talent. Time will tell.

No other plans for the weekend, other than the excitement of getting groceries. I lead a pretty exciting life…

I’ve been working from home almost full time since September and 100% since the beginning of the year. It is pretty good, I will admit I do like it. 

I get up around 6, take the dogs for a walk, have a shower and then a 20′ walk I am in my office. I don’t get any interruptions during the day, no one coming to my door asking me to help them with something. I am going to go to the office every 6 weeks or so just so my co-workers in the Calgary offic don’t forget who I am.

It is nice not having to commute and not having to either pay for transit or pay for parking. Transit is around $100 per month and parking is more like $250. Nice having that money in my pocket. Work also covers most of the cost of my internet so that adds up as well. 

All in all, there aren’t too many downsides to working from home. I do miss some of the interactions wih people in the office. I also miss some of the nice things that we get in the office – occasional lunches, snacks, free coffee… I am sure I will survive paying for and making my own coffee though. 

So, I am back to work this week. It hasn’t been too bad which is good. It is the start of the accountants “busy season”. This typically means it is a bit quieter for us since they only report major issues. 

The Babe Ruth draft is this coming Sunday. The league has increased the minimum number of players to 27 per club so now we need to draft 12 instead of 11. The last pick or two might be a little weak, we will have to see.

As I’ve indicated, we don’t draft until the 2nd round, 8th overall. No telling who we will pick up. I am aiming for a catcher. 

Nothing else going on. The relatively warm temps remain in Alberta. We’ve been sending out crappy weather to Ontario, you’re welcome.

One of the things I wanted to do while I was off for the all was to get my dog, Zeus, a set of steps so he could get into the bed without my help.

I finally made it out today to pick up a set. The only place I knew that had them was Bed, Bath and Beyond. I guess this is one of the beyond things.

My sister said that get dog refused to use a set when they bought them, but I figured Zeus might, seeing as he’s so much more talented than Chloe. 🙂

He doesn’t seem to like them to much, but he is using them. I’m praising him big time when he does, hopefully that’ll help. I used biscuits this afternoon when I had him try it the first time.

So, now, during the day, he’ll be able to get on the bed for nap. What more can a dog want?

It has been pretty relaxing, I think that is one of the ideas of a week off.

I compiled the ratings from the other coaches so that we can come up with some sort of draft strategy tonight. We are all getting together at Boston Pizza. We don’t draft in the first round so our first pick is sort of up in the air.

I have been doing a bit around the house here and there. Who wants to work hard on a week off. One FUN job I need to take care of is picking up dog poop. What fun that is. There is no snow on the ground so it is a good time for it. I am really looking forward to it.

I’ve been playing Clash of Clans and Boom Beach, too much likely. Both are very addictive. They are free though, so that’s good. Another friend suggested Game of War, so I will give that a try as well.

Yesterday was the last evaluation day for Babe Ruth. I did see a couple of players who hit the ball a lot better than their first trip in the batting cage. That being said, it is still a batting cage. It doesn’t compare to live pitching in a game.

I accepted the trade of draft picks with the Indians club. I gave up our first round pick this year and in exchange, the Rockies get their 1st, 2nd and 3rd picks next year. The GM for the Indians is going for a AAA Championship this season. He says he won’t be coaching next year so he’s putting it all on the line. They are not going to have a lot to choose from in the draft in 2016. It’ll hurt us a bit this year but it is a strong draft.

We don’t pick now until the 2nd round and pick 8th overall. Our draft strategy is sorta thrown for a loop, we really won’t have any idea on who will be available. We pick pick up whoever we can I guess, if there is a catcher available, I think we will grab him.

I don’t think one of my coaches was too happy that I accepted the trade but I did what I think was best. I did ask everyone for their input so everyone had their say. Time will tell if the decision was for the best.

Today is Family Day. My immediate family, my dogs live with me. Hope my sisters have a good day, my brother as well, not that I’ve spoken to him in a bit… I’d call JB, but she might be watching TV… 😉

Well, it is probably better than the Valentine’s Day Massacre.

We have the second round of defensive evaluations followed by pitching and catching evaluations.

We need a catcher for sure. The AA club will have one this year, the AAA club will have two. We also need pitching, at both levels. We badly need pitching. I am hoping we can develop some of the pitchers we currently have, but we do need to draft some quality pitchers, if we can.

Running two clubs and having to plan for future years is interesting. I have never before had to plan out anything beyond the current year. There is a lot in play.

I need to also decide on a trade that has been proposed. One of the other clubs wants our 1st round pick, 3rd over all and he’ll give us his 1st, 2nd and 3rd round picks next year. I am tempted by the offer, I think it is going to depend on what we see with the pitchers today. It might weaken us this year but could pay off next.

Those are the plans for today. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. For those of you with a Valentine, I hope it is a good day for you.