First night of school at UOP

What a day. Once again I got started early. But this time I went to the gym and had a great workout. 20 minutes of legs and 30 minutes of cardio. Lots of sweat. I was home by 7:15am and on a conference call by 7:30pm. The call was the last online class of a 6 part series called "Creating Visual Messages with PowerPoint" It was all about creating better slide presentations and I took it as part of my "careeer development" plan for work. This was a class offered at Nortel and my homework assignment was to do a before and after slide and then present it to the class online. The instructor and the class provides feedback. Lots of good ideas. And I think mine came out pretty good.

Claire met with her math tutor after school today and Heather said she is really improving and everything is starting to really click for her. The Making Math Real program that Heather teaches has really helped both of my girls get more confident and sharpen their math skills. It has been worth every penny ($60/hour) to see them go from being frustrated with math to thinking its fun.

After homework and a quick snack we were off to Claire's All Star scrimmage. She did a great job as catcher. I had never seen her play that position before -- she was terrific. But honestly when it comes to softball, she's pretty terrific at all of it. She had a great hit off the pitcher. Line drive right down the third base line. Then IT happened....One out, Claire's on 1st, another kid is on 2nd. Pop fly between 1st and 2nd and the 1st base coach (not Geoff, somebody's Grandfather who is apparently senile) sends the runner on 1st (Claire). Duh. The ball is caught. Go Back!!!!! Both girls freeze and then Claire gets out at 1st. Needless to say. She was upset. Partly because she doesn't like to make mistakes, but mostly because she HATES to get out. She started to cry in her mitt on the sidelines so Mom went over to talk to her. At first I tried to console her and tell her that its OK and it wasn't a big deal. It happens to everyone. But that just made her mad. So then I tried to get tough and said things like "Hey, there's no crying in softball!" and the gem of all gems, "Your a great granddaughter of a Marine. They don't cry." (Bob Jacobs quote). She looked up and rolled her eyes at me and we both tried not to laugh.

I had to leave the game a little early because tonight was my first night of school at the University of Phoenix. If all goes as planned I will finish my BS in Business Administration in Sept 2009 (5 months before my 40th Birthday). Wow. There is so much to tell about the four hours I spent in class tonight. But at this point it's 11pm and I'm tired. So in a nutshell my teacher is very nice and the class of 8 is a mixture of folks from different industries, races and ages. I will be attending class once a week for 4 hours and meeting with my learning team (Marco, Rene, and Ildi) once a week for approx 4 hours. Somehow I will have to work that all in around my family life and 50+ hr/week job. No problem. Piece - O - Cake.

Well I better get to bed now. I leave tomorrow for downtown Sacramento and my annual girls trip with my friends Julie, Debbie, Cindy and Leann. But first I need to workout, weigh in at weight watchers, pack, get gas and prepare my liver for hours and hours of drinking and peeing my pants.

Peace out. ;-)