Well the holiday season is officially arrived as it is now Halloween. I must admit this is one of my favorite times of the year with the Fall season, football on TV, grown women wearing sexy schoolgirl outfits...what can be better for a 30 something male? Janelle and I carved some sweet pumpkins on the weekend with a cat from Janelle and a glasses-wearing dude from me. Not sure how the lit-picture will come across but I thought we did a good job nonetheless. I played in a reverse coed 4's volleyball event as well this last weekend and had a blast with Stacey Terry, Christina Hengtgen, and my baby bro. We placed 4th and played tough to the very end. We were dressed as the "Service Industry" with the TGI Friday's waitress (Christina), the Pizza Delivery Guy (Myself), the Starbucks Barista (Stacey) and the all-important Hooter's Girl (John). Great time was had by all. Perhaps the best moment was realizing that one of the teams was dressed up as myself!! That is right, they were the official "Matt Weaver Tribute Team". Great shirts, shorts, socks, sweatbands, headbands, and tattoos adorned them all. Great laughs for all and I felt really honored to have made such a mark on the Northwest Volleyball Community with my goofiness and antics on and off the court. Who knows what really the future might bring but I do know that we will be having good times with those we love and care about with planned trips to Seattle, Denver, and beyond. Hope you and yours enjoy a great holiday season!!

Has it really been over a month since my last post?!? Man I am bad at this message thing. Oh well. Life has been the usual hectic fun here in the lovely Northwest. Volleyball continues to be the usual big part of my life. Currently between my 4's league (2nd place at 14-4), Coed 6's league (1st place at 18-3), and 6's men's league (1st place at 21-3) and 6 reverse 4's tournaments in the last 8 weeks or so (2nd, 3rdx2, 5thx3). I have pictured here one of the fun tournaments I played in, I am the goofy one with all of the temporary tattoos, wristbands, and the team all got funky socks from me as a little present for the event, they were all well received. I have been on the court a lot as you can tell and with pretty good success I would say all things considered. Janelle has had some good news as well as she is moving to a new job that is closer, pays more, and has better benefits. She gets a nice week break before the start of the new event in her life. We are busy getting ready to attend some sort of Halloween party and coming up with some fun costume ideas. I have a costume tournament scheduled for the 28th with my brother that should also be a a fun one. I plan to do pumpkins and fun as usual, pics to come of all the costumes and fun!! I am also in the process of planning a "turkey-tournament" for the holiday season and currently have 7 slots filled of the 12 we were hoping for with almost a month left to plan....that is a huge success so far based on the northwest scene and how late teams seem to like to sign up, should be a fun one and we plan to raise some money for a local highschool program and food for a local foodbank. Work has been hectic as I aim to finish up the loose ends here at the lab before my next career move, your guess is as good as mine!! ;-) In the meantime I am working on no less then 3 separate manuscripts as we speak to round out my time as a postdoc at BRI. I have had what I felt was a great run here and look forward to some new challenges. Hope all is well with you out there.

Indoor volleyball season is staring to heat up as I have now 3 leagues running. I am 11-2 so far between the 3 of them after a week and a half so not too shabby. I forgot how much I like to play with brother John and good friend Mike Repka for the indoor 6's. I also get a chance to play in some much more intense games on Tuesday's for reverse 4' s with buddy Mike Walton and some new ladies Anna Dudek (Old friend of John's from UPS college days) and Nicole Cauble. We went 2-1 to start versus a tough squad and look like we will be very tough for the league play. On Sunday nights is my men's 6's in Bellevue with Jesse Paulson and the rest of the boys. We are 4-0 to start off and have only added to last season when we finished 40-0 for a true sweep!! Looks like some additional competitive teams for this round which will increase the fun level a lot for our guys to be pushed a little. Last weekend I had a very nice time going to the WSU Cougar game at QWest field with the help of my friends in the ticket office there. Janelle and I were able to see the Cougs pull off one of their patented cardiac wins with a final play field goal. We had great seats, great weather, and great fun, laughing with all of the cougs sitting around us. I think I ran into something like 8-12 people I knew from WSU there as well, fun to catch up. On Sunday it was a little more lazy with laundry, watching the Seachickens on TV and a BBQ later with Moses and Laura Lundquist to kick off our favorite reality TV show, the amazing race!! We played their DVD game version with them, John, Amy, and Steph Paulson (Jesse's wife) and had a great time. Overall a fun weekend. Missy, the new feline addition to my life, is getting along well as an urban apartment cat and keeps me smiling all the time. I have added a catnip-filled "slug" to her toys to give her the Northwest feel. She loves it all right....A true Seattle cat!!

Crazy last weekend and a short week after the 3-day weekend. Saturday I went with Janelle to the local Humane Society and found a cat to adopt!! I went home very happy having chosen a 9 year old grey tabby to join the fray at my apartment. She goes by the name "Missy" and seems to answer it so we might or might not change it for her new life with us. Janelle was able to pick her up the following day and she was sitting in our laps by the end of the day, she looks to be a great fit. Litterbox, food, and her first vet visit are all sorted out so it looks like a go to me. Sunday I played in a reverse coed tournament with Steph Hinkle. She is a long-time NW player and is leaving mid-week for grad school back in the Midwest, she will be missed. It was a great opportunity to play with her before she left. We had the usual slow start but also had the usual pick-up in the old losers bracket top win 3 in a row to finish 3rd on the day in AA. Not to shabby. The usual issue with NW Volleyball company for the tournament with grumbling all around. I still think this might be their last summer. The next day (Labor Day) I ran a reverse 4's grass event for a local charity (Hope Worldwide) and had a great time. I played with Alan Wittren, Vikki Vandyne, and Bri Haight. We played great until Bri had a serious leg injury on a slightly exposed stake and had to be taken to the ER by the local EMTs. Never something you like to see at a tournament and a real reminder of how lucky you can be just to walk off the field, win or lose. We finished in 3rd for the day with some very strong teams in attendance. Report back from Bri was just stitches and a 2-week break before playing again, just what we had hoped for when we all feared the worst. Later in the week I was able to see my godparents the Allens at the new home of their daughter Trisha and husband Craig in Issaquah for dinner. A great time was had by all and we talked well into the night with silly stories of days gone by. This coming weekend includes a scavenger hunt party in Seattle, helping a good v-ball friend move, and a BBQ with the Paulsons. Job hunt, volleyball, manuscript writing, and good times all lie in the weeks to come....Stay tuned!!!