Hall of Fame Voting Commences!

Wow...I haven't posted in weeks and now I have two posts in less than 24 hours??? What's up with that???

When I first began blogging, my very first post was about last year's ABA BMX Hall of Fame vote. Well guess what, sports fans? It's that time of year again! Anyone can vote, and all you need is a valid email address. So take about 60 seconds and cast your vote! Here's the email that The HOFFER sent out recently about how to vote and who he voted for:

One of the great honors of my life was to be inducted into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame. My time in bmx was meaningful to me as a kid and then again later as an adult. Many of you were helpful in submitting votes on my behalf, and I am still so thankful for that support.

The 2008 Hall of Fame is upon us and I would appreciate if you would take a moment now and vote for some very worthy nominees. It just takes a moment and it helps a very worthy cause.

Here is how I am voting this year:

Early BMX Pioneer: Danny Oakley. Danny was on the Mongoose Team during my own time there and was instrumental in so much about bmx, it is really hard to figure out how he isn't already in the HOF. He helped numerous companies get off the ground, was a bmx inventor, and most importantly, was a GREAT champion of bmx racing. Danny was one of the few guys to have a custom bike made in his honor by the legendary Mongoose Factory and to this day, he is one of the most respected racers and innovators in the history of BMX. Oh yea, he grew up to be an actual ROCKET SCIENTIST!

BMX Racer: Tim Judge: Tim Judge was one of the few riders from the East Coast to get excellent magazine coverage in the early days. Tim won numerous titles including a World Championship in the early 80's. Tim had perhaps the most dramatic style of any racer of his era, and frequently you would see kids imitating him "doing a Judge" over a jump. The BMX HOF has overlooked many east coast riders and the vote for Tim Judge is very worthy for that and many other reasons. Tim went on to be a Jet Ski champion and is to this day regarded as one of the finest racing talents of any sport.

BMX Industry: Roger Berg: Roger Berg was the inventor of the UNI Seat that stormed the US and the world during the 80's. His constant innovation in bmx was fueled by his experience at GM where he invented the square headlight and was near the development team of the famous Corvette. Roger was one of the first to use wind tunnel technology in the invention of bmx equipment. His products are some of the most copied to this day and his induction into the bmx hall of fame is just recognition for all he has done.

The link to vote is this: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=voeEegM28gVFX_2bOq56seqw_3d_3d

Please take a moment to vote now as the voting ends soon. Thank you for participating in bmx, one of the greatest sports for kids! BMX is in the Olympics this year as well so stay tuned on August 19 for some awesome racing! Thanks again! Oh, and if you have some friends who would like to help make history, please feel free to forward this to your address book! Anyone with a valid email can vote. You can vote from any valid email address! Have fun!!!

Another Video--This One's REALLY GOOD!!!

I had hoped to do more posting over the weekend, but we had a friend in from Wisconsin as well as a shin-dig in his honor, and I am still pretty much a worn out cookie. So for your listening and viewing pleasure, and until I get back to posting more stuff, here is a video of our friend Jessica. She is a senior in high school and is performing here at her school's version of American Idol. Not only is she lovely inside and out, she has a beautiful voice. As if that's not cool enough, she also races BMX with us and is rated #3 in the nation. She's the whole package. I think you'll enjoy hearing her sing, even with Grandma's cell phone going off in the middle of her song!

More stuff--baby, Chester and otherwise--to come soon. Oh, before I pass you on to the video, I have to tell you about what The Hoffer did today. He left for Augusta, Georgia this afternoon. Those of you who are golf fans have a pretty good idea of what I'm about to tell you: YES HE'S GOING TO THE MASTERS!!!! Tuesday only, but WHO CARES???? If you're not a golf/sports fan, The Masters is the most prestigious PGA tournament of the year, as well as the most sought-after and difficult ticket to get in ALL of sports. I can assure you he will be driving up Magnolia Lane in tears Tuesday morning. I'll be in tears with him. He made a short post about it on his blog, so check out Cash Flows when you get a minute.

One final thing: if you are in the mood for some good romance, check out the blog site for Christian romance writer Kristy Dykes. I must embarrassingly confess I have never read Kristy's books, but after reading her blog about her and her husband, WHO NEEDS TO???? (No offense, Kristy!!! I promise to read your books, but are they half as romantic as you and Milton???) These two are the sweetest couple I have ever seen. Kristy was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, and you should read some of the posts her husband Milton has written. Even before her diagnosis, these two are just sick in love with each other. I have been lurking around her blog for a good while, posting only on occasion, but since her diagnosis all I can do is watch and pray. Their absolute devotion to each other is a beautiful thing to see. Please check it out, and keep them on your prayer list.

Alright, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, performing Misty, I give you the lovely and talented Jessica.

The Walking Wounded and Other Miscellany

Please forgive the length of this post. I really do try to keep my posts relatively short (CLEARLY I have failed in that endeavor!!!), but I've had a lot on my mind and a lot going on! So here we go!


My home, of late, has been THE place to be for the physically afflicted. First of all, both The HOFFER and Little Bit have really bad allergies anyway, but this allergy season has been horrific for them. I have never seen them suffer like this. One of Little Bit's teachers recommended a pediatric allergy doctor to us, and we had our first visit today. He agreed that Little Bit needed to be tested to see exactly what she's allergic to, but tests can't be run until all Claritin and Benedryl are completely out of her system. It only takes one week to get completely off Benedryl, but 3 WEEKS to get completely off Claritin. Poor girl. She's going to be fairly miserable for a while. That means her parents are going to be fairly miserable as well! He did give us a few other medications to help her get through till her testing.

As if that weren't enough, Little Bit tripped coming down our staircase yesterday and hurt her foot. Oh my goodness, you should have heard those screams! Miraculously, nothing is broken or even torn. Not even really sure what's hurt or what happened to it. We gave her some Motrin and kept her foot elevated all day Sunday, and there wasn't much, if any, swelling. Today she was able to get her shoe on for school, although it was quite painful. By the end of the day, she was walking on it pretty well. Still hurts, but she's doing really well in spite of it all.

Okay, want to hear something spooky? The HOFFER was walking down the stairs about a week ago, took one step too many, slipped and landed wrong on HIS FOOT! Is that bizarre or what? The really scary thing about it was that shortly after I got to him, he very quickly turned white as a sheet, started sweating profusely, then promptly passed out. I was worried he was having a heart attack and couldn't breath. He had slumped over forward, then he fell back against the wall with his chin touching his chest. I had never seen anything like it and was TERRIFIED. He was out for about a minute (although it seemed like an eternity!), then he came to and slowly regained his color, stopped sweating and was okay. He didn't remember passing out and was understandably nervous about going to sleep for the night, so I stayed up to read for a while and kept an eye on him. He slept for about 45 minutes when he woke up again. I told him I thought he was okay for the night since his color was back and his breathing was good and steady. So he slept, albeit a bit fitfully, for the rest of the night (only about 3-4 hours). Needless to say, what little sleep I got was also full of fit. After getting up and getting Little Bit off to school the next morning, I came back and joined The HOFFER in getting a bit more sleep. We slept till noon, but we needed it. Here are the God-parts: as with Little Bit's foot, nothing was broken or torn...it just hurt like the dickens. Lots of Advil, Vitamin C (my mother's cure-all) and rest helped it heal pretty quickly. He was putting weight on it in just a couple of days. AND--The HOFFER already had a doctor appointment scheduled a couple of days later! He was able to talk to his doctor about what happened, and he reassured us that everything looked just fine. The passing out was even a normal occurrence.

With all that has happened to The HOFFER and Little Bit...I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen to me!!!

***********************************************************************************

As I mentioned in my last post, Little Bit and I went to see the new Veggie Tales movie on Friday after school. I had invited several friends from school and church, and we had a great turnout! Even better, the movie was HILARIOUS! Even if you don't have any little kids to take with you, GO SEE IT! You won't be sorry! The only thing I didn't like was audience-related. Apparently, a man sitting in the row in front of us didn't think the people at Big Idea had done a good enough job, because he kept adding his own sound effects! At least his kids enjoyed it...!

************************************************************************************

Have you ever had to put a pet to sleep? We had to do just that on New Year's Eve. We were adopted by a mama cat and her three kittens when we first moved to Austin. That was in 1992. Mama Cat passed away about four years ago. Birdie disappeared right after Thanksgiving and we haven't seen her since. We wouldn't see Mulligan for days, then he would reappear just fine. Well, this last time he reappeared he wasn't so fine, so Little Bit and I took him to the emergency animal clinic right away. Given that he was around 15 years old and any kidney treatments weren't guaranteed to set him right (renal failure is very common in elderly cats), I made the decision to let him go. It was really difficult for Little Bit to understand, and she took it very hard. They gave us a few minutes to say goodbye to our sweet kitty. They also gave us his paw print in clay for us to have as a keepsake. It was a lousy day.

At least we still have one kitty left.

*************************************************************************************

I believe I have previously discussed the fact that my favorite sports are, in order, baseball and football. Notice there is no mention of basketball? Would you care to guess what sport Little Bit is drawn to? Of COURSE it's not baseball or football...it's BASKETBALL. No offense to you basketball fans out there...basketball just never "clicked" with me. Austin has a minor-league basketball team, and we had been talking about taking her to a game when one of The HOFFER'S business associates gave him four tickets--and very nice ones, at that!--to Saturday's San Antonio Spurs game! Is that cool or what? We picked the worst possible night to go. San Antonio has a HUGE military presence, and Saturday night was Military Appreciation Night at the Spurs' game. Don't get me wrong...our military is ridiculously under-appreciated. I think our military deserves far more thank you's than they get. We civilians have no clue about what these soldiers AND THEIR FAMILIES have to put up with. It humbles me and I get really emotional when I hear about the sacrifices made by these people, the incredible feats of heroism, and the fact that these men and women see it as just doing their job. There were at least a couple of guys from a nearby burn unit at that game...others with missing limbs or other wounds. They honored as many soldiers as they could. There was a Purple Heart ceremony at halftime. Standing ovations throughout the game to say thank you. It just wasn't enough.

I spent nearly the entire game crying my eyes out.

*************************************************************************************

And last but not least (hey, what's all that cheering about???), I finished two books from my "Big Christmas Box O' Books". One was really good and one was GREAT! But I will save that for my next post. Until then, here's hoping I continue making it down the stairs safely!!! Thanks for making it through to the end with me!!!

October Baseball

Once again, the Boston Red Sox have risen to the top of the baseball world and were crowned CHAMPIONS on Sunday night. The Colorado Rockies, in spite of how well they played, were swept under the rug in only four games. I was actually pulling for the Rockies in Game 4, simply because I wanted the Series to go on for a few more days, as well as see Josh Beckett pitch ONE MORE TIME this season. It would also have been nice for the Sox to win it at home instead of on the road. It was a reasonable hope, given the Rockies had 45 come-from-behind victories this year, a pretty incredible feat in and of itself. But alas, it was not to be. So congrats to both teams for winning their respective league pennants, and to the Red Sox for winning it all!

Baseball is my favorite sport, but things didn't start out that way. I grew up in a family of football fans. As I mentioned in a previous post, I watched the Dallas Cowboys during their heyday when Tom Landry was coach, Roger Staubach was QB, and they were considered not only America's Team but God's Team. Ah, those were the days...except they never did beat the Steelers in the Super Bowl. Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Franco Harris...I hated them. In spite of how good those guys were, I despised them. I was and still am a Cowboys fan through and through. The hard part for me about being a Dallas fan in those days? Riding to school with Steeler fans. The morning after the last time Pittsburgh beat Dallas in the Super Bowl was the worst. The Steelers at that time were 4-0 when playing in the Super Bowl, and the kids I carpooled with were not mere Steeler fans...their dad was a former Steeler player. They didn't have to say a word about the game, they just rode to school, quietly staring out the window. Ouch...it still stings. (Yes, Charlie and Beverly, if you're reading this, I'm talking about you!)

In the midst of all this great football, I started going to Texas Rangers baseball games. It was my payment for babysitting for my sister. She really got a bargain, but I learned to love baseball. Texas rarely won, but Texas had some fabulous players that were heroes: Buddy Bell, Steve Buschell, Jim Sundberg...the list goes on.

To this day I still love baseball. In my opinion, it is THE all-American sport. There is something beautiful and poetic about a 6-4-3 double play that mere words cannot describe. And while summertime baseball is beautiful, October baseball is amazing. October baseball is an all-together different level of play, and it is awe-inspiring.

I say awe-inspiring, and yet I have never personally experienced post-season play with the Rangers. To see fans at a baseball game wrapped up in coats, gloves, hats, etc., is a foreign concept, something strange and wonderful never experienced in Texas, a truly miraculous event that I get down on my knees and beg God to give to the Rangers. This team is in a league of its own, and I don't mean that in a good way. Let me explain: first you have the farm teams--A Ball, AA Ball, AAA Ball; then there's the Rangers, then there's the rest of major league baseball. The Rangers are the final stepping stone before making it to baseball greatness. Lest you should think me completely out of my mind, do the names Slammin' Sammy Sosa, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, or Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez ring a bell? All three of these guys played for Texas before going on to bigger and better teams. Sammy Sosa ran head-to-head with Mark McGwire in 1998 to see who would break Roger Maris's home run record. Pudge Rodriguez, a huge fan favorite, was about to be traded when a "SAVE PUDGE" campaign throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex kept him on the team. He was traded a few years later and has won two World Series since leaving the Rangers (Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers). Alex Rodriguez--if you pay ANY attention to baseball, you know what's going on with him. The salary he commands boggles the mind. And yet, my poor hapless Rangers remain in the cellar, barely seeing daylight. It's the curse of a Rangers fan.

Thankfully my secondary team--the Red Sox--has what it takes to make it to the championship game. And while some fans see the Sox as the second coming of the Evil Empire (sorry folks, that honor has been reserved for the Yankees), vacationing with friends up on Cape Cod has made me a bit of a Red Sox devotee. The Rangers are still "my" team (perhaps at this point out of pure pity), but I am excited that Red Sox won the Series this year. After all, as Rangers fans eternally cry out, there's always next year.