Another few busy weeks have passed in the Northwest as the spring quickly takes full hold of the region. Gorgeous blooming trees and flowers are out as the sun has peeked out a few times and we are starting to have a few warm days here and there. We had such an amazing summer last year in terms of weather, I hope we have some of the same luck for this season with chances to get out and enjoy all the region has to offer. The sports seasons continue to march along. Soccer I would rate "OK" as we have hit a rough spot with the team with some tough games, not our best play, and personality conflicts. I am trying to take a new attitude to the rest of the season to end on a high note. The men's indoor league has ended well, we have our last weekend for this round next Sunday and we go in with a a comfortable lead, we will win the league once again no matter the outcome. Really a nice way to end as we stepped up our game quite a bit I thought. The coed 6's ended with a 3-game loss in the finals of our tournament. We played just fine and the other team played what I consider their best match of the league season, hats off to them. We still had a blast with our group and I would not change our line-up at all. We also had a successful regional men's indoor tournament that was well received and had some great play for all involved. My team finished 3rd (our seemingly favorite spot) but played great all day in my opinion. On a personal note this was perhaps one of my best attitude days in years for a whole day. No blow-ups to speak of, anger was almost non-existent and just was a positive experience. It really feels good to be able to go into an event focused on my attitude for the day a to be able to maintain that for the whole day win or lose. The move has been great for me and Janelle and love our new space as we continue to make it our own. I think we are almost ready to event host someone over to check out the new duds and show off what we have. I am really looking forward to it. A quite week coming up with no Wednesday soccer, Thursday v-ball, so a clean slate for the evenings, looking to get lots of other stuff off of my list.

Sports Update:
Indoor soccer: 6-2-2 (3rd in the league)
Coed 6's Volleyball: 21-6 (Finished 2nd in league)
Men's 6's Volleyball: (Finishing 1st in league)
Men's USAV traveling Team
Tournament finishes to date: 7th of 11, 2nd of 9, 3rd of 11, 3rd of 11, 3rd of 7

Another fun-filled week in the Emerald City. This last round of sports went quite well as we had a double-header in soccer versus the next 2 best teams in the league record-wise. We had a hard-fought 2-2 tie and a 13-10 win in a finale for the night. The only bummer was the fact that my bro tweaked his knee once again that night on a hard tackle. He has his Dr.'s appointment this week and I am keeping my fingers crossed for the best news possible. Thursday in coed 6's volleyball we had our buddy Alan Wittren from our USAV men's team fill in for John in a fun-filled match as we went 2-1 and have the first place seed going into the tournament for that league. We were also able to get all 4 of our Sunday night match to continue our newly-acquired lead there as well. This last weekend we had a men's USAV tournament in the Portland, OR area. Our improvement continue as we finished 3rd of the 11 teams in the AA/A bracket and knocked out another of the top OR-based teams in the elimination rounds. Good way to end the day. We proceeded to hurry from there back north to the Bellevue gym for league play and finished 3-1 versus one of the other tough teams in the league to finish the night. I am also working a little each day to get my new condo I am sharing with Janelle into shape. We are looking to add a desk to our furniture for the computer gear that we currently have and another bookcase so that we can fit all of our massive book collection into the space without having just packed boxes piled on the side. Some pictures included here of the gorgeous cherry tree in bloom right outside our balcony window. Also you can clearly see that our cat Missy is making herself right at home in the new place and even comes pre-packaged, sealed for freshness!! Crazy feline to be sure but she seems to fit well with us and we have really enjoyed having her around since the end of last summer. This week I have another round of indoor soccer and the start of the coed 6's volleyball elimination rounds. I also have tix for a concert this coming Saturday as we go see a local favorite, the Paperboys for their annual St. Patty's Day event at the Showbox in downtown Seattle. I also am helping to plan the next indoor men's event in the region on Sunday, March 25th. We are hoping to build off of our success in the last Seattle event and have been really pleased with were we have been headed to date, just really seem to be gaining momentum. So long for now and more to come!!

Sports Updates:
Indoor Soccer: 5-1-1 (Tied for first)
Coed 6's V-ball: 17-4 (1st place seed in elimination tournament)
Men's Indoor 6's V-ball: 27-5 (First Place)

One more week in the books and it has been a busy one for sure. I am 99% of the way done with my move with all of my stuff cleared out and the apartment cleaned, keys go back today. Janelle is in the final stages as her lease comes up on the 14th so a little time to breath with that one. I would say 98% of her stuff has been moved into the new place as well by this point. I was pretty happy with the Craig's list by the end as we sold Janelle's coffee table and TV stand and my computer, computer desk, desk chair, pair of couches, full bed set, bike rack, dresser, and headboard/foot board combo. Much of this happened all on the weekend during the move...craziness as we ran between places and helped load up stuff into people's trucks and such. A huge thanks to Janelle's parents Bruce and Lisa who came all the way up from Port Orchard to help with the moving of big furniture in their truck during the weekend. It sure made for quicker work on our end and saved a nice bundle of $$ that we would have spent on a rental truck otherwise. They are great people and have been really supportive of me. Nice to be able to pair down this much though, only way we will be able to fit all of our stuff in at this point, organizing here we come!! I will get up pictures of the new place and the gorgeous cherry tree out front ASAP. In the meantime my thumb has improved quite a bit, I have since played in the men's indoor 6's league twice with little to no discomfort. The indoor soccer continues well as I played field in our latest rout (we won HUGE) and I felt pretty good afterwards. I will give the thumb another week at least to heal up as I play in the field before moving back to goal where I am a little more comfortable. Rick played great there in my absence (I would even rate him higher then me actually) and we all had a lot of fun. We have a big double-header this week versus the next best teams in the league, should be interesting to see how my lungs/legs hold up to the extra work. This weekend I am off to Portland area again as we hit another men's volleyball tournament with Team Madman, should be a blast. I would think we will have a big target on our back after our great play last week so it will be interesting to see how we respond to the challenge. Regardless I am anxious to hit the court once again with our fun team and my bro for this one!! All for now, updates to come!!

Sports Standings:
Indoor Soccer: 4-0-1 (First Place)
Coed 6's V-ball: 15-3 (First Place)
Indoor Men's V-ball: 24-4 (First Place)