Quote of the Day

Lou Piniella (for the two or three people existing in the world that don't know who Lou is, he is the manager of the Cubs), expressing his opinion on the potential problems of MLB's recent implementation of instant replay, said, "Do you throw out a red handkerchief or something (referencing the way NFL head coaches challenge plays on the field)? I would love to be able to throw out a red hanky. Imagine throwing something out on a field and not be ejected."

Lou Piniella has a total of 61 ejections in his career as a manager.

Cubs On Top...Again

Yesterday the Chicago Cubs continued a streak of domination by shutting out the Cincinnati Reds 5-0. That win, combined with a timely Los Angeles Angels loss, gave the Chicago Cubs the best record in the entire Major Leagues, with a record of 77-48 and a winning percentage of .616. The Cubs have been the best team in the National League for a long time now and are 6 games ahead of any other team (Milwaukee Brewers). They also have a cool 8.5 game lead on long-time division rivals the St. Louis Cardinals. The Angles are now second in the American League (.613) behind the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who have an identical record to the Cubs. With only 37 games left in the regular season, the Cubs are looking pretty good for another run at a world series championship, 100 years after the last time they won.

Stress!

This is another weekend assignment for my Technical Communication class. The weekend was pretty busy but it really wasn't as stressful as I made it sound. We loved seeing Mom and Dad, Brother and Sister Goodrich, and Daylen and Ashley and Brooks. The blessing went very well and so did Brother Goodrich's lesson in Elder's Quorum. I knew he was coming so I volunteered him to teach the lesson. Then I told the quorum that we flew in a specialist from Seattle to talk to them about getting out of debt. On Saturday we all went to eat at the Garden in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building on Temple Square. It was good. Oh and by the way, Johnny's name is now officially John Bradley Perkins. No last second blessing changes. So here's my weekend assignment post:

The weekend assignment was to find someone more stressed than myself and then to do something nice for them. It turns out that I was pretty stressed this weekend with family in town for our baby’s blessing, trying to finish up a research paper, working hard to not get behind in my other class, and going on very little sleep for some reason that I cannot even remember. Oh, and I had a couple of softball games and work. It was great having family in town, but the inevitable loom of the research paper complicated everything. I guess it all comes down to time management, which has been hard coming into crunch time of the semester.

I am sure my wife was even more stressed than I was as she has a lot of responsibilities, such as cleaning up my messes, making sure I am fed so I don’t get cranky, and making sure I get enough sleep. She also takes care of our two-month-old son, Johnny, but he’s a pretty good kid, so I am sure that I cause even more stress.

Well we got home Saturday night at about 11pm after having spent the evening with my parents and my wife’s parents. I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed. Then we remembered that we needed to get some milk and other food supplies for the next day. My wife offered to go, but seeing as how she was also very tired, I insisted and went.

I was cranky the whole time, thinking mean thoughts about some weird-looking teenagers behind me in line. Then my Smith’s card did not give me the 5% student discount so I had to wait a long time while the cash registrar guy figured it out. Finally I went home irritated and ready to sleep.

My wife must have noticed that I was pretty tired that day. She was very nice to me and let me go straight to bed. She woke up with the baby in the middle of the night (instead of making me get up) and she did the same thing last night as well. When I offered to get up she just said, “No, you need your sleep.” And all that time she needed sleep just as much as I did.

So I begrudgingly did an act of kindness. Then that person (my beautiful wife) turned around and lovingly did three acts of kindness for me.