Greetings, friends. Here’s the latest from ATX.

Travel Plans

The school year and baseball seasons are nearly over, and we have been busily coming up with our summer plans. The day after school gets out, the family is flying to Cincinnati. We’ll spend two nights there, taking in a pair of Reds games. Next, we rent a car and drive up to Columbus where we’ll spend the day hanging out with our old friends the Barts. On Monday, we’ll drive up to Cleveland and take in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a Guardians game. Lauren and Edie fly home on Tuesday, while John and I drive west to Detroit, where we’ll take in the Henry Ford Museum and a Tigers game. Oh, but the trip doesn’t end there! We’ll hop aboard a plane Wednesday morning and head to Chicago where John will make his Wrigley Field debut. On Thursday, we’ll fly from Chicago to Watertown and spend a little time with the family, including the twin cousins’ second birthday. While I fly back to Austin on Saturday, John will remain on the farm and spend two weeks with Grandma and Grandpa! And then, in mid-June, Lauren, Edie and I will drive or fly up and spend a week and bring John back home with us. Exciting!

That’s all that’s written in stone for now. Other summer ideas include getting back on the parent/kid solo trip idea, which we each did with John in 2022. If it comes to fruition, Edie would pair off with me, while John and Lauren get some quality bonding time. Where we would each go is TBD. A Minnesota trip could be delayed until Labor Day weekend this year, as we’ve never taken the kids to the MN State Fair before.

Baseball Season

John plays for the Rebels this season, coached by Dan Wright with me assisting. I stepped aside from head coaching for one season, thinking I’d try coaching Edie’s team, the Cheetahs. It hasn’t been as rewarding as I hoped, honestly. Spending time with Edie and her friends is great, but going from coaching competitive baseball down to inconsequential, unscored games has been quite a change. I feel like I have taught these kids well, though. They are a fearsome bunch, diving around for balls and always knowing which base has force outs.

John is typically his team’s starting pitcher and pitches two innings before giving way to relievers, per league rules. When he isn’t pitching, he’s catching. As the veteran of his team, having him involved in the pitching one way or another is important. At the plate he’s leading the team in many offensive categories, typically batting cleanup. The team is 3-3-1 with four games to go before the playoffs! Unlike last year, he will forego any “select” teams—that was a huge commitment and a lot of weekends lost.

Work

You know, there is a lot to be said for my work situation. Working from home, getting to kick back in the backyard shed, avoiding the grinding commutes, etc. But I wonder if I am coming up on a limit to how much shed time I can handle. I am craving some human interaction during the day, or even just the ability to get up and move around. I am feeling very unfulfilled of late in this work setup. The company has done a great job trying to help me advance my career beyond email and lifecycle marketing, but I can’t really let go of that until a huge email migration is complete, and the end is still months away. I should probably just shut my yapper and take the paycheck and benefits and enjoy this posh situation, but I think mentally it’s wearing on me a bit. The aforementioned time off should help with a bit of a reset, but I have had to have quite a few of those lately.

House Talk

As was always the plan, last year’s home improvements with bathroom and kitchen remodels have paved the way to start talking about what’s next. I have made little secret since 2014 of the fact that I wished to return to Minneapolis or even just start a new chapter in a new city for the excitement of it. But an alternative plan has me reconsidering all that. Having now been in Austin for a staggering 14 years, and the kids utterly attached to friends and rooted here, and all the tight friendships we’ve formed, I am open to considering the following: selling this house, getting a bigger better Austin house, and at the same time beginning the search for a Midwest summer cabin or vacation home. I would not entertain a plan to simply stay in Austin without the summer home idea. It wouldn’t have to be fancy, just a place to spend six to eight weeks of the worst of the summers. Maybe something that could be rented out the rest of the year, or co-owned by other family members. Who knows! But the talks are heading in that direction as opposed to a complete relocation.

Dog

Minnie is growing fast and straightening out. We’re finding fewer and fewer accidents. She likes going for walks now. She’s still extremely playful and drawing blood from the family daily. She is in dire need of training because as of now she’s a Baxter clone, leaping at every guest who walks through the door. She’s a good mutt though, loyal as there ever has been. Lauren is currently Minnie’s favorite, while Edie just riles her up and then cries when she starts biting. John and Minnie will be attending a dog-kid summer training camp the week after he returns from his stay on the farm!

Podcast

As you may know, I have been doing a baseball podcast called Fan of Your Team where each week I interview a fan of a different team and I give them my broad take on their club as an outsider looking in. I’m now 12 episodes in, quite an achievement. Listeners are few and far between (about 20 plays per episode so far) but this is just a hobby for me and I am doing next to nothing to market it. I have done episodes for Astros, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Phillies, Rangers, Reds, Tigers, Twins, White Sox and Yankees so far, with Royals, Pirates and Mets due up. If you are a fan of another team and want to be on the show, please hit me up in the comments!

And if you don’t care a lick about baseball, you can listen just for the John and Edie “youth correspondent” segments each episode! John, who is super serious about his fantasy team, can talk at a high level about each team, while Edie just reviews their uniforms and logos.

Keto 2025

Mostly posting this for my own recollection, but having come back from our spring break trip at a 16-year high in weight at 265, I knew it was time to go back to a keto diet and shed some pounds again. This time around, I stuck to it for 20 days, going from 265 to a low weigh-in of 249.8. I quit it over the weekend when it simply became unavoidable with too many social gatherings and kids birthday parties. I’m sure it will all be back in a week or two. Oh well!