Hurray! It's been over a year and over 50 posts since my first entry. And just like in that entry, I'm coming back from a business trip. While I like to explore new places, I must say that Tulsa in August is not a great place to be. First of all, the hotel was located in the downtown business district, which actually features some impressive buildings. But unfortunately there is nothing to do there. Nothing. The whole area essentially closes down at 5:00 p.m. Convenience stores aren't even open, and they close on the weekends. There are no book stores, movie theaters, malls or anything around. I went for a walk the first night and after a while I stopped looking both ways because there were no cars (or people) around anyway. It's a very odd place. Oh, and it's brutally hot - one day it was 106F! Even at night it's 90F. Ugh. I can't imagine why anyone would choose to live there. But it made coming home that much sweeter.

Well, I'm flying to Oklahoma today for a work convention, so I won't be able to update the blog for a few days (yes, I know that won't be all that different from my update schedule lately). But before I left I wanted to share my excitement over my favorite F1 driver (Jenson Button) getting his first win at a very wet Hungarian GP this past Sunday. Formula 1 is always at its best when it rains, as it equalizes the cars somewhat and allows for overtaking and generally makes it hard for drivers to keep the car on the track. It was an exciting race to watch, and when Button came to the front and it looked possible for a win I was jumping off the couch rooting him on (Jazzy was looking at me like I was crazy). Then, when he had a nice lead with 10 laps to go I was praying to keep his car on the track and his engine in good shape (he had to replace an engine in practice because it "done blowed up", resulting in a 10 place grid penalty). But he crossed the line for his first victory in his 113th race in F1. He's still only 26, so hopefully I'll be jumping off the couch in celebration many more times in the future.

At the risk of alienating half of my already small audience, I must confess to being a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. I'm not an obnoxious fan though (as far as I know) and I don't speak with that horrible Boston accent (my apologies to those who do). Truth be told, I always found baseball boring when I was younger. Even though I always signed up to play, I never wanted to go to practice. Of course, the way my baseball “career” started, you can hardly blame me. On my very first day in farm system, the coach decides to see if I would make a good catcher. So he gives me the mitt, but no mask. After a couple of pitches, one nicks off the top of the mitt and hits me square in the face. Being young and therefore somewhat indestructible, I shook it off. But the next year I was called up to Little League, thanks to a mandatory promotion system (since I had an older brother on the team the previous year). So here I am at 9 and the smallest kid on the team. In our first preseason game I had to bat against the biggest, hardest throwing 12-year old in the league. I didn't figure I had much of a chance, but I gamely went up there to give it a swing. The first pitch he throws (a fastball, of course) is coming right at me and instead of turning away and taking the hit on the shoulder or back I open up and tried to avoid it (dodgeball style - did I ever mention that I was the third grade dodgeball champ). Well, it didn't work (so much for my dodgeball prowess) and instead it hit me in the worst possible place (so much for being indestructible). I still played baseball after that, but it was never going to be my favorite pasttime as an athlete. These days, I'm more than happy to watch the Sox on TV (though I have to flip to something or have reading material as well) and am positively thrilled when I have a chance to head to Fenway Park for a game.