Airport Mornings

Another early morning at the airport but I can’t say that I’m complaining.  I got an egg white sandwich and coffee from Dunkin Donuts…

…which apparently now comes with a free banana (score)!

And I was on my way to meet Brian in St. Louis where we both had layovers on our way to Oklahoma City!

Today marks the beginning of our next stop along this baseball life as Brian will report to his first game with the OKC Redhawks, the AAA affiliate of the Houston Astros.

Bring on the new city, the new team and the new chance for a successful 2012 season!

Daddy-Telli Time

Yesterday afternoon Brian and I took Telli for a trail walk at a local reservoir for some exercise.

It was our first official family outing since we had gotten back from Korea and Telli loved the extra attention and was so well behaved throughout the whole walk.

Such a good boy!

After our walk, we went to my parents house to see how our little buddy felt about the pool.

He loves to get in the water at the reservoir and prance around so we were anxious to see how he reacted to the pool full of water.

At first he was extrememly tentative but eventually gave in to having his feet on the top step (all in the pursuit of a tee ball).

When we finally got him completely in the water, he wasn’t such a fan but was an extremely good doggie-paddler and made his way back to the steps and out of the pool in a hurry.

After some more Daddy-Telli time running around outside followed by a bath, he passed out hard last night! Poor little guy was exhausted from all of the run!

The extra play time with Brian and Telli was definitely needed since this morning packed luggage once again decorated our kitchen.

After two days at home with our family finally together again, Brian is back off on his next baseball adventure and Telli and I are stuck at home without him. Womp Womp!

I’ll be meeting up with him again soon but Telli has to hold out until July to get more Daddy play time. He’s going to be one sad pup when he realizes it!

Breakfast

Breakfast this morning was again the common theme since getting back home. An English muffin egg sandwich with an over-easy egg, turkey bacon and cheddar cheese.

When I sat down to eat, I, of course, forgot that it was an over-easy egg and not a fried one on the sandwich and bit right into the runny yolk. I lost have of the delicious gooey-ness all over the table. Whoops!

Telli has doggy school this morning and then I’m hoping to hit the gym for an afternoon workout.

Have a wonderful Friday everyone!

Question:

If you have a dog, do they like water and swimming?

Turning the Page

From what I understand, my post titled, “One Bad Apple”, was published on a Korean website which brought a ton of publicity to the negative comments that Brian and I were receiving prior to leaving Daejeon. In response, there has been an outpouring of apologies for how we were treated and the things that were said to us and for that we are beyond appreciative.

There was absolutely no way that I could reply individually to each 100+ comments and emails received so I wanted to address everyone here that expressed their sincere apologies, support and well wishes to us. Those individuals will help us to remember the good about our trip to Korea and not the few negative people who had hurtful things to say. So thank you to the good apples! You are the people that we met and valued our encounters with in Korea and we thank you for making us feel welcome and for helping us to experience your country in a positive light.

Lastly, before closing the door on this past chapter of our baseball life, I would like to address those who have expressed concerns that Brian did not care about his job in Korea and believed he was only visiting the country to sight-see and have fun. Just to make it clear, once Brian was sent to the minor leagues, he still went to practice every day just like the other minor league players. He worked out, strength and cardio trained, pitched and watched every big league game on TV to analyze pitchers and try to learn from their pitching techniques, strategies and pitch sequences (if those are comments understandable to non-baseball people). Just because he spent time eating or exploring did not mean that he wasn’t working out and focusing on baseball as well. Each day has 24 hours to it and MY blog does not highlight each and every one of them. Not to mention, MY blog is just that, MY blog – it also doesn’t focus on Brian’s workouts, career, etc. If I would have known the outrage MY blog would have caused some of you Eagle fans, I would have made sure to document Brian’s training schedule for you as well. My apologies. And I will make sure that going to the zoo or playing Jenga is never in our schedule in the future as I wouldn’t want it to interfere with his baseball playing ability as you all have so nicely informed me that it may do.

With that being said, as we move on to the next chapter of our baseball life, we again want to thank the supporters and the nay-sayers alike. Because of all of you and our few months in Korea, we will move on as stronger individuals. Best of luck to the Hanwha Eagles in the remainder of their season. I hope they can pull it together for the loyal, dedicated fans they have.

And finally…we get back to life at home with our family, friends and this guy…

Who is beyond happy to have his Dad home and baseballs around the house again.

He sure does fit in nicely with this family, right?!

Cards & Abs

This afternoon was occupied mostly by a ton of card playing by Brian and me. For two people who never played cards together before we got to Korea, we sure have been playing our fair share now!

However, today, instead of just sitting on our butts through numerous hands of Rummy 500, we decided the loser of each hand and the loser of each game had penalties.

• Lose a hand = 15 crunches
• Lose a game = 100 crunches

Might as well get a workout in while entertaining ourselves, right?!

And with all those hands of Rummy that were played, we both got our fair share of ab work in for the day. Crunches with weights, stability ball crunches, planks, leg lifts…we kept it interesting!

And tomorrow was supposed to be a core day for me…let’s hope they aren’t feeling my insane amount of lost hands today. Even though someone else lost more complete games… 😉

Dinner

While we were busy playing cards and getting in our ab workouts this afternoon, I had two tilapia fillets marinating in lime juice and cajun seasoning in the fridge. Once we were ready for dinner, I put them in the broiler for 11 minutes until they flaked easily with a fork.

And then they were made into fish burritos with rice, black beans and corn.

Topped with shortcut guacamole, salsa and lettuce.

And cheese…we can’t forget the cheese!

The tangy flavoring from the lime juice mixed perfectly with the spicy cajun seasoning for just the right taste for a fish dinner with Mexican flare.

Question:

Do you ever find ways to add extra activity into your day, like in friendly card game competition? What are some of your best ways to add exercise to usually sedentary activities?