Well, since even Elsie is telling me I need to blog (I’ve had others tell me in person - HA!) I figured that I would take some time on my flight back to Houston this morning to catch up…

I’m not exactly sure where the last two weeks went! Basketball season is in full swing and between that and Thanksgiving, I just never got around to blogging. Starting back on November 16th I was on the road for games three straight days — and unfortunately these are games that you have to drive to as the game fee does not allow for a flight! Thursday was Lamar State in Port Arthur - a relatively close assignment - then Wiley College in Marshall on Friday and Jacksonville College, in the city of the same name, on Saturday. So, those days pretty much flew by with me driving or sitting in a car — not exactly a great opportunity to blog! However, these long drives do provide a good time to catch up with officiating friends, so that was enjoyable.

Then, last week started off on a very sad note for me. When I woke up mid-morning I saw a ‘pin’ (a sort of BlackBerry text message) from Brendan. The subject read “Not good” and I didn’t even need to read the message, but I did and it confirmed what I already knew — that Julie’s chemo had not slowed her cancer (or Rufus as she calls it). Not good. Quite the understatement.

I talked to Brendan (Carrie would say of course I talked to him — she and Julie tease us that we are like girlfriends we talk so much — but, hey, we are both on Cingular and it’s free minutes! ) and he told me about the different treatment options and decisions that they had to make in the coming days. I told him, “I don’t know what to say.” and his response was simply, “I know — I don’t either.” There are simply no words for dealing with something like this.

So, I did the only thing I could do — I took the game that Brendan was scheduled to work that night — at least I could feel useful in some sense.

Please visit their blog at lyonsfamily.org and read the rest of their updates and leave them a comment of support, prayer, and encouragement. Julie started her treatment yesterday and will be staying at MD Anderson for the remainder of the week. With three kids — Hallie (6), Jack (3), and Kendall (~6 months) — that has to be pretty tough. And if you know Julie, you know that she is not the type of person to sit around — she is always doing something! So, leave a bunch of comments so she has something to read!
Part two will come later — other stuff happened last week and we got to spend some time with family and friends — but that all seems pretty trivial when compared to Rufus.

Hugs Jules.

Filed under: Personal
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While on the way to the airport in Houston I received a phone message from my Dad. Now, my Dad isn’t exactly a text-messaging machine, but he is pretty good with his cell phone. In fact, he had sent me a picture using his camera phone! (The one feature missing from my BlackBerry)

Yeah - he sent me a photo of donuts. Not just any donuts - Tastee’s Donuts!! Of course, if you live outside of New Orleans or south Louisiana, that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but Tastee’s is a New Orleans’ institution - much like Popeye’s, Schwegmann’s (which is no longer around), and drive-through Daiquiris.

I spend most of my formative years overseas in Europe - growing up in Norway, England, and Holland. Every summer and many Christmases we would return to “The States” to visit relatives and do things that we couldn’t do in Europe - like drive on the right side of the road!
My dad never failed to wake us the morning after arriving in Belle Chasse with Tastee’s! And us kids were up early too, due to the time difference. We wouldn’t have to fight over the type of donuts we wanted, because Dad always made sure to get enough of each kind — especially one of each of the SPRINKLES variety!! That is, a donut covered with chocolate and then sprinkles. Note that there are no sprinkles donuts in the above photo — I hope that means that they were already eaten! You are never too old for sprinkles!

The special occasion — and one that I was very sad to miss — was my great grandmothers 100th birthday! Wow - a centenarian! Maw Maw Batt (my father’s father’s mother) officially turns 100 this Friday, November 19th!

Born in 1906, it is amazing to think what she has seen in her life! She still lives alone in her home in Kenner (near the New Orleans airport for those of you not familiar) — back after having lived away for a few months with family because of Katrina. She is in good health, great spirits, and has a sharp mind. I always enjoy visiting with her and talking with her — especially getting a political jab in now and then just for kicks (she is a staunch Democrat!)

Left to right in the photo are Marshall and Natalie (my youngest sister), who is holding Samantha, my youngest niece (belonging to Richele and Michael). Then Pawpee, my grandfather, and Michael and Richele (my younger sister). Seated is my Dad, Maw Maw Batt, my mom, and my other niece Alyssa (also Richele and Michael’s).

Yes — that’s FIVE generations right there in that photo — pretty amazing! So rare that a photo with Maw Maw, Pawpee, my dad, Richele and Michael, and their kids made it into the local paper. For Alyssa and Samantha I think it is really something special to know your great-great grandmother! I still remember visiting “La La” (pronounced “Lay-Lay”) when I was a kid, my great-great grandmother.

Happy birthday Maw Maw!!!

(Updated to remove one too many “greats” that I had included … Not a reflection of Maw Maw’s greatness!!!)

Filed under: Personal
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There is something special that happens in November. The weather cools down. The night starts earlier. And the sound of sneakers and whistles can be heard in gyms and arenas around the country.

I started my season Wednesday night at UTSA and continued it this afternoon with a game at UTA. Officiating men’s college basketball is one of my great joys. Sometimes when I am traveling to a game or figuring out travel plans, I start to wonder why I do this — sometimes it can be a real pain! However, when I get to the arena, hear the warm-up music, the band playing, the cheerleaders cheering, and the crowd getting rowdy before the game, I remember.

Today was simply a great day. I work up early - 7am - earlier than I normally get up on a work day! I got ready, packed my officiating gear, threw on my sports jacket, and headed to Bush Intercontinental to catch a morning flight. Along the way I called my grandmother and caught up with her - always enjoyable!

I got to IAH and stopped by the P-Club for a quick bagel, coffee, and apple juice - then headed down to my gate. A short 45-minute flight later and I was at DFW.

Originally I had planned to stay over and come back home Sunday, since Continental’s last flight out was at 6:45pm - not giving me enough time, since I had a 4:30 tip. However, last night I had an epiphany and tried American to see if they had a flight back. Sure enough, they had a 8:40pm flight back to Houston and I went ahead and paid the $120 to book the one-way ticket. I figured that was about what I would pay for a hotel and I really wanted to be home! (Next time I will be a little smarter about booking my travel — live and learn!)

After landing at DFW I headed over to terminal C to ask someone at American to change my seat assignment. When I booked my flight last night the only seat available was 31E - a middle seat in the second-to-last row! Yikes! A very nice conversation with an AA agent later and I had seat 21D - an exit row seat with plenty of leg room, as well as room to use my new Mac to compose a blog entry

After getting my new seat assignment, I headed for the rental car shuttle. I thought I heard someone yell, “BATT!” and was sure the second time I heard it. It was another official - Kelly Self - who was on his way to work a game at Kansas. We sat and chatted for a few minutes - then he went to check on his flight, which had been delayed - and I made my way to my rental.

I’ve definitely gotten better at figuring out how to travel, as this year I obtained an Avis code that gives me pretty good rates (thanks to another official). Also, I joined their preferred plan - it’s a free program that allows you to complete bypass the line at their desk and go straight to your car. You just look for your name - BATT B - and car assignment and you go! Sweet!

I had a few hours to kill and had scouted out the closest Panera Bread last night and printed out maps from DFW to Panera to UTA and back to DFW. So, I headed over to Panera for some lunch and free internets. I had lunch, read the WSJ left in the car by Avis (nice touch!), and then worked a little on my Mac — getting my web development software setup. Before I knew it, it was 2:15pm and I needed to head over to UTA.

I got there in plenty of time and with no problems. There was a women’s game before ours and it was at half-time when I arrived. So, when I entered the locker room the officials were in there - I knew two of them - and said hi and hung out for a bit. One of my partners showed up and we went upstairs to watch some of their game before getting ready for ours.

One of the cool / strange things about working at UTA is that they play on a stage. Yes, a stage. Think Sound of Music - with an orchestra pit (which is thankfully covered!), an auditorium, and a balcony! They do have thirteen rows of bleachers on one side (the back of the stage) - yes, thirteen, I counted. It is a little strange when the ball goes out of bounds and into the auditorium seating - and one of UTA’s players came dangerously close to falling off tonight, himself!

The game itself was pretty easy to work - the coaches and fans were not bad at all. The coach at UTA is brand new, an assistant that just took over this year, and younger than me - something that I thought I would have to work Division I a long time to see!

(I composed the above on the plane, but didn’t get a chance to finish the rest until this morning)

I was happy to get home last night and just chill out with Carrie — although she was in a pretty bad mood because of the Texas game last night. I got home just in time to watch the failed onside kick. Then we just hung out and watched Grey’s. It was nice to sleep in this morning instead of getting up to catch yet another flight. You know that you are flying too much when you are receiving check-in and TripAlert emails for your next flight as soon as you land! Carrie and I are going to head over to Cheesecake for a little brunch and to catch up.

Tomorrow morning I head out for another game.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Filed under: Officiating
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Big congrats to Chris and Ali Edwards!!! Chris beat out his incumbent opponent in his race for the Oregon house. I’m sorry, did I say ‘Chris’? *ahem* …
I meant, Representative Edwards!

Many of you reading this met Chris and Ali at our wedding… We’re glad to have them as friends, even though they live way over on the other side of the country!

It has to be cool to see your name in the news and to be blogged about … and it has to feel good to have your hard work pay off!

Chris — I’m sure that you’ll do a fantastic job — remember that every journey begins with the first step.

This is yours.

Congrats!

Filed under: Personal
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If you know me at all, you would have figured out that this post was coming, based on a post from a few weeks ago. Yes - my new Macbook Pro arrived today (one day early - thanks FedEx!)

I made the decision last week to officially make the switch and move completely to a Mac and abandon my old Dell running Windows. Now not only do I have a nice looking laptop, but since Macs now run OS X (a variant of UNIX), I can be one of those condescending computer users…

So, I have pretty much been working all day on the process of transferring everything over to the new notebook, installing programs, and basically just geeking out! (Laura, since I know you will be bored if I type much more about this, just scroll down and look at the pretty pictures!)

The notebook shipped on the 2nd and I was wondering why it was taking so long — until I realized that it was shipped from Shanghai! It was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, but the FedEx guy rang my doorball at 9am today! WOOHOO!

Ahh…. The very cool box of the Macbook Pro, sitting next to the display box - and yes, it really is HUGE! Oh yeah, picked up some Harman Kardon Soundsticks also - they sound sweet!

I’m always impressed with Apple’s packaging - very cool.

I setup the new speakers first so that I could jam out to some tunes (rap, of course!) while I set everything up… I booted up the laptop first and set everything up — after a few screens asking for my name, etc. it was ready to go - 10 minutes, max!

Now time for the screen!!!

No installs. No device drivers. Just plug it in and it works — awesome!

I decided that I didn’t need the laptop open as well - although it will work with both screens at the same time!

I had to check out a DVD on this screen. When I put a DVD in it brought up Front Row — an Apple program that allows you to use your notebook to play back DVDs, show photos, and play music and videos. Oh yeah, it comes with a remote.

LOST looked awesome on this screen!!

That’s all for now… Going to go grab a bite to eat with Carrie and then head back here to finish geeking out!

Filed under: Business, Personal
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