Alex has done a few really cool things in the past week or so. First, he has learned how to put his hand/thumb in his mouth. This is a good thing because instead of us having to always be at the ready with a pacifier, he can now pacify himself quite a bit. He sucks really loud a lot of the time, which is kind of cute (unless we are trying to sleep!).

Secondly, this morning he rolled over from his belly to his back for the first time. He has rolled from his back to his belly several times, but this was a first. I did a double-take when I noticed he had rolled over.

Michelle just sent me a picture of Alex holding his key ring. She says he picked it up on his own and started shaking it. That is hilarious.

Michelle went to the doctor yesterday to see about the infection in her leg. The diagnosis is that she was bitten by a spider. Yuck! She is on antibiotics, but we can't tell if they are doing any good. I hope she gets better soon.

I was supposed to work the clock at Houston High School tonight, which is about 20 minutes from where we live, but I got moved to a different game. However, an official broke his arm last week, so I got reassigned to his game. I will be the Line Judge tonight, which means that I will be at the line of scrimmage on the home team's side of the field, opposite the Head Linesman. The game is in Halls, TN, which is actually not part of our association. Apparently, the association there is short on officials, because we have been covering several of their games this year. It's a much longer drive for this game, but it's better to be on the field than to work the clock. The preferred hierarchy goes on field-->clock-->chain crew-->sitting at home.

Both of my JV games this week were in the rain. That's unfortunate because the supervisors do not come out to evaluate when it's raining (which is understandable). To my knowledge, my crew has not been evaluated yet this year. Although the referee is one of the more-respected people in the assocaition, so he may be reporting back to the bosses on the crew's performance.

I had a funny thing happen last night. I was the Head Linesman, which means that I was in charge of the the chain crew. My referee was immdiately upset with the chain crew, even before the game started. They were high school kids, and had their pants halfway down to the ground, iPods blaring. I gave them a quick tutorial on what to do, although they did not listen (as teens are apt to do). So, after the second play of the game, the referee fired them. Just told them to leave. We got some adults to work the chains, and unfortunately they did not do much better. But, I got through the game OK. I have fired a couple of chain crews in the past, but never so quickly. It was kind of funny. A good chain crew can make all the difference in how smoothly a game goes. I had a game last year where the crew wanted to quit, but I refused to let them. They were kids who thought it would be fun, then realized there was a little work and concentration involved, so they wanted out. I had spent the first quarter-and-a-half getting them straight, so I was not going to let them walk out on me. So, we made it through OK.

While I am ranting, let me give a shout out to Mike Clark. Mike is scheduling the umpires for a baseball tournament this weekend, and only got the final schedule from the tournament director YESTERDAY! That is absurd. I am sure Mike is pulling his hair out, trying to line up umpires at the last minute. We've had problems with that tournament director in the past, and I sort of half-jokingly told Mike to kick him in the knee for me. Jeez.

I got my first couple of papers of the semester back, and did well on them. It's nice to get off to a good start. Gotta keep the momentum up.

I hope everyone is doing well. Peace...