( continues...) swinging hard. He fouls off the next pitch. Next ball is low. Full count. I keep yelling to him, "Just three hard hacks," but Emmett fouls off five more pitches. Each time having to gather himself, stop himself from crying to get back in the box. He fouls off six pitches altogether and then there's an outside pitch and he's earned a very, very difficult walk.

He comes down to first base where I'm coaching, and he's physically shaking and his heart is beating wildly.

Next batter up gets hit in the arm on the second pitch. Emmett tells me later he almost lost it when he saw Graeme get hit. But he keeps it together. Wild pitch and they both move up. We load the bases and break it open. Score five runs in that inning.

We bat around so that the next inning we're up, Emmett leads off again. Great. Well, at least it's a new pitcher. Emmett starts to freak again in the dugout. "I'm not going to do it! I can't!"

"Three hard hacks!" I yell over my shoulder and run to coach first base. He stands in, fouls off two with some nice hard swings and strikes out on a good curveball. He took three swings.

Our last ups in the game. We're up 7-1. We get a couple guys on. Emmett is going to come up this inning again. We have runners at first and third. Again, he doesn't want to bat, but if he comes out he can't catch in the last inning.

Our manager tells him to just stand there and take three strikes. It doesn't matter, we tell him. We just need him to catch the last inning.

He goes up to bat. Fouls off a pitch. Takes a strike on the knees. Takes a ball. "Three hard swings," I yell.

He fights off the next pitch, a grounder to the second baseman. He's thrown out but gets the RBI, knocking in the runner from third.

So his line for the day: Hit by pitch, walk, strikeout, groundout, one run scored and one RBI.

And the manager gave him the game ball for valor.

We got milkshakes to celebrate.

Then he went home, took a long shower, and made us take multiple pictures of the ugly looking bruise on his back.

Now he's playing with Matilda and making her laugh hard.

Tonight we have our end of season party. Whee!

Then we've got another ToC game on Monday. We play until we lose. Or, you know, win the championship

Wow, that's an epic, Hec. Go Emmett!

Last summer at a softball tournament, I saw the ump take a pitch in the collarbone. It hit him so hard we were going to call 911. He was all crouched over and grey, but eventually he was better and went back to the game. Still, scary. Same tournament, the pitcher took a line-drive in the face. Now she pitches with a catcher's mask on.

Softball ain't slow-pitch anymore, not at the upper levels. Those girls throw fast.

Hey Jesse - holler if you do motivate to go to Target. I think I can convince mac and we could Outback it for dinner, or cold stone it, or BOTH!

Bah!! I totally went! Bummer.

I was just thinking I've spent a lot of money today, and I kind of did, but I got a ton of stuff! Suitcase, frying pan, sheets, skirt, spanx, drugstore type stuff, etc... $150.

well poop! no worries.

In addition to scrubbing the bathroom (I still have to do the shower) I cleaned up a bunch of pin-sized paint splatters on the tile floor with goof-off. Whoever painted the bathroom for the last owners did such a shitty job I have been cleaning up these tiny splatters for years.

So I was in Bloodbath&Beyond looking for a sheet I can use on my futon for the time being (the batik tore.) Didn't find one BUT my very favorite sateen beech sheets are on clearance for $40, down from $60 (the new stock has a different package. That's it!) Score! So I grab two sets, and an extra set of pillowcases.

I get to the checkout and there's this older trio. The uncoupled woman is buying something but the husband and wife aren't. The wife turns to me and asks "How many items do you have?" Uh, three? And she pulls out her coupon book and proceeds to give me 3 20% off coupons!! "I wasn't able to use them, but someone should!" !!! I thank her profusely. The other woman says "I once saved a guy $400 with my coupons. He was outfitting a 4 bedroom house and was spending thousands and I wasn't using the coupons." They were so sweet and sounds like they make a habit of this.

So my originally $60 sheets cost $30. They saved me $20 total! Yay nice people!

House is clean, new bedskirt on bed, new sheets and after I eat, a manicure.

It is seriously freaking HOT. And I have 28 items left on my to do list that have to be finished by 8 AM on Wednesday.

Pray for me.

Hello, I just woke up from an accidental three hour nap.

Happy Birthday to tiggy and epic tangent.

I walked to the library and got a copy of Green Mars which I proceeded to read about a hundred pages of. It's like I discovered I liked reading again, or something.