Valentine's Day

Since today is Valentine's Day, I thought I'd make mention of it. I've never been a huge Valentine's Day person, myself, though I have always worked somewhat hard to observe it, since the female I've been with has usually placed some sort of value on it. Heidi and I actually got a night to ourselves last night, as one of her friends (whose husband is deployed, and who does some childcare for extra money) gave a "Parents' Night Out" for her friends. She took all the kids while we all went out and had a good time. These days, Heidi and I don't get a lot of time just to ourselves, where we can enjoy each other's company, so it's great when we can take the opportunity. We went and got our hair done, which is much easier when you don't have the kids. We then went to the casino, but didn't have much luck there. We finished off with a late dinner and great conversation at Chili's. It was a wonderful night out with my special lady.

Alas, it's snowing again here today, though there's not supposed to be much. I told Heidi last night that Oklahoma is such a wonderful place, it's working hard for her, even providing greater-than-average snowfall so that she'll feel right at home. So we're not going to be going outside much...yesterday was much nicer. Instead, Heidi's going to get some rest this morning, and later I'll be trying to finish getting our junk moved out of the garage and into our storage unit, then I will be trying to take my online baseball rules test. We also need to get some laundry finished, and I have to get my gear ready for umpiring, since scrimmages start this week (assuming the weather cooperates). I have to wash some shirts and get Heidi's help in hemming my new umpiring pants. A word to any men out there who might be interested in a secondary career in officiating: it's good work, pays pretty well, and is lots of fun, but the up-front costs in training time, mileage, and equipment are non-trivial. I've been through this before, so I wasn't too shocked. But I did just spend $350 on new baseball clothes for umpiring...and I didn't even need the expensive stuff like a chest protector, shin guards, or mask. So be warned. Doing football isn't quite as bad, but I think I still spent about $150-200 to get ready for that.

You know what they say: you gotta spend money to make money. That's definitely the case here. Well, at least I'm having some fun, too. I have two jobs I love...not many folks can say that, especially these days when lots of folks would love to even have just one job that they hate.