I spent the weekend at a camp in Maryland for a church retreat and had tons of fun not showering, smoking out the mosquitoes, getting sunburned on half my face while taking a nap. No really, all of those things actually were fun. Singing around the campfire, roughing it (as much as this city girl will anyway), playing games and spending time with some great people.

There is a baseball diamond at the camp, so I brought along my glove (I'm left-handed and play infield, so I always have to have my own glove). I was excited to find out a couple other people all totally into baseball and was looking forward to participating in a pick-up game or two. That is, until I found out who I would be playing with:

1. A guy in decent shape who played ball in high school
2. Another guy who coached his company team to a league championship this summer
3. An all-state fast-pitch catcher from Texas who throws like a pro
4. A guy who's being scouted by Denver because of his 93 mph fast-ball

Yeah, way out of my league. Not only am I totally out of shape, but I also (a) haven't played a full game for almost six years, (b) was in a roll-over car accident five years ago that messed up my rotator cuffs, (c) haven't played on a regular team for more than 10 years and (d) wasn't that great to begin with.

So we just tossed around the ball for a couple hours to get back into practice, but mostly I think they were just taking pity on me and didn't want me to embarrass myself by picking up a bat. And now both my arms hurt, my shoulders are stiff, my hand is bruised and I think I pulled a muscle in my thigh.

Conclusion: I make a much better bleacher bum than wannabe player.

Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Life is full of defining moments, and baseball is no exception. From Walt Dropo’s 15-hit run, to the immortal plays of Tinker to Evers to Chance to learning how to eat a hotdog (mustard and NO KETCHUP!), Mudville breathes new life into baseball legends and tells a great story along the way.

It’s all about the percentages. There’s a one in a billion chance that it will rain 8,030 consecutive days in a little town in the Dakotas, but with more than a billion towns that have existed on the earth, Moundville is the town that gets drenched. And it’s proof-positive of percentages that the rain started just in time to cause a rain-delay in the bottom of the fourth inning of the big game between Sinister Bend and Moundville. It has nothing to do with an old Indian curse or even the long-standing rivalry between the settlers and the natives, at least that’s what Roy McGuire would like to think.

So when Roy comes home from baseball camp to find his room invaded by his new foster brother, a descendant of the now-flooded town of Sinister Bend, Roy puts forth a worthy effort to make room in his life for Sturgis. But Sturgis doesn’t make himself easy to love or even like. While the boys finally connect with Sturgis playing pitcher to Roy’s catcher, there is still the issue of the unfinished game and Sturgis’ past standing between them.

Roy McGuire is my new favorite catcher—sorry, A.J. You know I will always love the 2005 White Sox, but I’ve got to make room in my heart for the up-and-coming players—and Moundville is my new field of dreams. Full of humor, great plays and characters that jump off the pages, Kurtis Scaletta has created a defining moment in baseball literature. And you don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the romance of the game and feel a connection to the players that you hope both win and lose the big game.

(And you know this book is good when a White Sox fan gives it five stars even though the Cubs win the Cross Town Classic that Roy watches. At that moment I knew this was a fantasy novel.)

View all my reviews.

Baseball season is once again in full swing. And I am planning to catch a couple of games this summer. Being in DC offers both good and bad elements to baseball season.

Bad: The Nats are a terrible team. I don't plan on attending any games they will win or even come close to winning.

Good: Tickets are dirt cheap. When you already know the outcome of the game, not many people are willing to pay in excess of ten bucks for a ticket.

Bad: The Sox are in the American League while the Nats are in the National League. This means I won't be able to see the Sox play this summer as I won't be going to Chicago until Labor Day when ticket prices will be well out of my range.

Good: My neighbors have the MLB channel and have promised I can actually watch games. They think my obsession with the Sox is highly entertaining, so they will more than likely spend most of the game watching me watch the game.

Bad: I won't be able to watch the games with my dad, sister or brother.

Good: I will have plenty of excuses to call my dad, sister and brother to discuss plays, stats and standings.

The life of a baseball fanatic has its ups and downs, but mostly it's just about the love of the game.

With one game left in the regular season, the White Sox need to win their last game to tie up with Minnesota. Then they'd play the Twins in a special game to clinch the AL Central League title.

Please, please, please, please, please…

I just checked the scores, and the Sox are down by half a game. For the first time this season they are not number one in their devision. I know this week would be tough, but I didn't expect this. The worst part is that they aren't even playing today, so even if the Twins fall to Mariners, the Sox still can't regain their lead.

Excuse me, I think I'm getting a little verklempt.

I had a blast at the Utah Art's Festival where I went to some amazing concerts and performances. The kids from the Wasatch Music Coaching Academy were as amazing as ever. The blew the audience away with songs like "Empire" by Queensryche and some Red Hot Chili Peppers as well.

I also found out my friends' indie/folk band The Mollies were playing, so I went to their concert. Their first CD Yours Around the Rosies comes out in August, so I'll have more details about that later. Because, you know, I have no qualms about shamelessly promoting my friends, especially if they are as talented as Becky and Vivian. For your entertainment, I have included a music video of their song "Float My Boat."


One thing I regret missing at the festival was the poetry slam. It has been years since I have been to a slam, and I was hoping to see some good performances.

In other news, my friend Brenda finally had her baby! He was 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 19 inches long, for any of you who care about that kind of stuff. I just think he's cute. Check out this Mama Sandwich little Brandon and his big brother Andrew made.

Aren't kids just the cutest thing ever? I mean, as long as I can give them back to their moms and have no responsibility for them and don't have to change diapers, pay bills or go through the teenage years, I love kids. Especially when they have huge gummy smiles like Andrew or cuddle up to sleep on your chest like Brandon.

Seriously, I don't know how Brenda does it. She and her husband build Web sites (and their pretty amazing at it--honest--I'm not bias at all), her husband goes to school full time, she is active at church and still manages to find time to be a good friend to me. There are so many super-women out there, and I'm lucky enough to know a few.

I am also relieved to announce that the temperature has now hit about 90 in Ice-burg, I mean Rexburg. I have to carry around sunscreen and wear at hat all the time, but having warm fingers and toes is well worth it. After all, I have a pink Sox ball cap I got last summer, and because the Sox swept the Cubs this past weekend, I wear it proudly.

I have a geology field trip to go on tonight, so maybe I'll get some styling pictures of me in my hat standing on R Mountain, surveying the land made of calderas, cinder cones and floodplains. You'll be able to see scoria and basalt. Maybe I'll even spot some dendritic drainage patters as well as oxbow lakes and point bars. Okay, I really need to stop now. I'm even scaring myself.

I've been rewriting a section of my novel that just hasn't felt right to me. Really I think I'm rewriting sections because I'm kind of stymied at the moment. After three months of writing that has come fairly easily and characters that speak in my head all the time, I can't seem to get anything more on paper. (Yes, I know how crazy it sounds when I say I hear voices in my head, but it's still true.) I guess it's time to pull the old "suck it up and write" trick where I just put something on paper, whether or not I think it's very good, and then try to fix it later or just start over when something better pops into my head.

My summer reading list is officially getting shorter rather than longer. I know it's only the middle of May, but I only make a summer reading list and a winter reading list, so this list covers books published from March through September. So far I've really liked "Wake" by Lisa McMann and "Fire Study" by Maria V. Snyder, but I haven't been impressed with anything else yet. I hope I find something that absolutely blows me away this summer, so if you have any suggestions, I'm all for them.

The Sox are going for lucky number seven tonight. After almost a month of heartbreaking games, the Sox are finally back on top, having won their past six games. It's at times like these that I wish I had cable or at least an online membership to MLB.TV Gameday Audio, but I guess I will just have to live with checking the score every ten minutes.

The Sox lost to the Minnesota Twins, 13-1. To the Twins?!!

I am so depressed right now I don't know if I will be able to get out of bed in the morning let alone get any writing done. I think I will go cry myself to sleep now.

I have begun the think about how limited my vocabulary is. Sure, I like words and know a lot of them, but how often do I really use the full extent of my vocabulary and do I actively pursue the expansion of my vocabulary?

Apparently there are more than 500,000 words in the Oxford English dictionary (not including the nearly half million technical terms also defined), and the average college graduate has a vocabulary of 20,000-25,000 words. I'm not so good at math here, but I'm pretty sure that means that I use less than five percent of the words in the English language. That means that I have at least another 475,000 words to learn how to use.

I bought a vocabulary builder when I graduated from high school and even started reading it when I was a freshman in college. But with so many great books out there to read, a vocabulary builder just didn't seem like the best way to allot my personal reading time. I still have it, so maybe I'll pick it up again. Yet I think I'll need to actually use the words I learn in everyday conversation before I can actually consider them a part of my vocabulary.

On a happier note, the Sox won again today. They are keeping their spot at the top of the division. I sure hope I get to see a game when I go back to Chicago in August. (That is a hint for you, Dad.)

I love baseball season. Seriously, there is no better time of year. So maybe it goes through most of the year, but any other time of the year it snowy and wet and who cares what is going on in the wide world of sports if the Sox aren't playing.

There's just something about going to a ball game that gets me excited. And it doesn't even have to be a Major League game. I love going to the Salt Lake Bees' games with friends and getting lawn tickets. You can watch the game or talk or eat, it doesn't matter, just as long as you're at that game. It doesn't even matter that the Bees never win; the games are just fun to watch, especially if you stay for the fireworks show after a night game. I went to a game two years ago on the 4th of July, and I had way more fun than I would have had doing anything else.

Because I don't watch a lot of TV, nor do I have cable, I mostly just look at stats online or go to live games. When I go home to visit, I'll make sure to go to a Sox game and live vicariously for all of you who don't have the privilege of leaving so close to Cellular One Field.

I'm happy to report, I just checked the American League standings, and the Sox are first in their division. Sure, they’ve only had eleven games thus far and the Athletics (whom they’re playing tonight) have a better record this season, but I really think the Sox have a shot at another World Series win this year.

If you don’t agree, I don’t want to hear about it.

P.S. Gooch, I love you and will miss you. I know you didn't abandon us for the Padres. You had no choice.