"Go Cubs Go..."

"...Hey Chicago, what do you say?  The Cubs are gonna win today!!!"  That song will be blaring at the Vosberg household at approximately 1am.  "1am?!?!?" you ask?  That's right.  Thanks to the brilliant scheduling of this year's playoff games, the Cubs game will be STARTING at 10:00pm tonight and will probably end around the 1:00 hour.  You better believe that I'm staying up for this one.  I'm not going to let the silly execs in baseball's front office rain on my parade.  The Cubs have waited 99 years and I've personally waited 30 to see the Cubs get to the World Series.  I think I can go without sleep for a couple of days.  Didn't they invent the weekend to catch up on sleep?  Besides, I'm getting used to not sleeping through the night, so why would staying up late be much worse?  You might say, "Matt, you have a 7:00am meeting the next morning."  My response is, "The meeting is at Starbucks and that should get me through it."

For all of you who are in school, this will be a tough situation for you.  How can you stay up and watch the Cubs, which is important, and still be alert and ready for school the next morning?  Well, thanks to the Chicago Tribune, your answer is here.  Below is from their sports section.  It's a letter that you can print off and have someone drop off at school for you.  After all, isn't staying up to witness a once-in-a-century event worthy of missing a day or two of school?  The Chicago Tribune and I certainly think so...

Dear Teacher,

The Cubs made the playoffs. This has to be as historic of a moment as anything you're teaching these days. The Continental Congress will always be there, but we don't know if the same can be said for Carlos Zambrano. So we all stayed up late to watch. Think of it as a history assignment, and remember, it was your suggestion that we, as parents, get more involved in our kids' education.

Signed,

Lou Piniella

How about a few more Arizona pictures?

The Rockies minor leaguers working hard after their game

Hanging out at one of the nicest rest stops I've ever been to

A pretty cool shot from the edge of the Grand Canyon

Climbing out over the edge of the canyon on a very old tree

Currently Watching Happy Feet (Widescreen Edition) By Carlos Alazraqui, Lombardo Boyar, Johnny A. Sanchez, Robin Williams, Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving, Jeffrey Garcia, Elizabeth Daily, Magda Szubanski, Miriam Margolyes, Fat Joe, Alyssa Shafer, Cesar Flores, Anthony LaPaglia, Danny Mann, Mark Klastorin, Michael Cornacchia see related

We're back from Arizona!  The trip was really fun.  Here are a few pictures to give you a taste of our 5 days in the desert...

Here's us trying to get to Washington D.C. the night before our flight out.  Did I mention that this was while we were getting 12 inches of snow?  Did I mention that it took us 5 and a half hours to get from E-town to D.C.?

At the D.C. airport ready to get to a warmer climate.

A beautiful desert evening at the end of our first day in Mesa, AZ.

Hanging out with David Bechtold at Rockies Spring Training Camp in Tucson.

Allow me to present, for your viewing pleasure, The Grand Canyon!

Just in case you weren't sure if we really were at THE Grand Canyon, here's the sign to prove it.

At the Cubs game in Mesa.  It was great sitting in 80 degree tempuratures, in the sun, watching my Cubbies win with a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Sammy Sosa returning to Cub-land.  This was his first game against the Cubs since they shipped him out.  He was mostly booed and his only hit was a 50 foot dribbler down the third base line.  Not exactly the same ol' Sammy, huh?

More pictures to come.  Stay tuned...

Currently Watching The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition) By Jeffrey Wright, Pablo Schreiber, Anthony Mackie, Dorian Missick, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Teddy Dunn (II), Joaquin Perez-Campbell, Tim Artz, Denzel Washington, Robyn Hitchcock, Liev Schreiber, Antoine Taylor, Joseph Alessi (III), Raymond Anthony Thomas, Bill Irwin, Kimberly Elise, Al Franken, Jon Voight, Meryl Streep, Paul Lazar see related

March Madness is officially upon us.  A couple of questions... Will the Hoosiers make it out of the first round this year?  They seem to enjoy the once and done thing.  I'm trying to not to be cynical, but I won't celebrate until they make it out of the first weekend.  Will people quit talking about Duke like they are still really good?  Is anyone going to pick someone other than Georgetown to win the whole thing.  In my mind, that's the kiss of death for them and I absolutely WILL NOT put them as the winner on my bracket.  They can thank ESPN if they don't win it all.

Marianne and I are leaving for Arizona for a week on Saturday.  I'm excited to go to where it's warm.  I'm excited to see the Grand Canyon again.  I'm most excited to get to see the Cubs play a Spring Training game.  College basketball is great, and I love March Madness, but baseball is in my blood right now and I need to scratch this itch.  We're also going to hang out with David Bechtold as he trains with the Rockies in Tucson.  I'm excited to get to see the inner-workings of how an organization runs its Spring Training.  Since I'm a baseball enthusiast, I'm really excited about this trip.  I'm sure MANY pictures will follow when we get back.

Lastly, as if losing in the Super Bowl wasn't bad enough, the Bears decided they didn't need the Defensive Coordinator anymore.  Not only that, but they trade their best running back to the Jets for a draft pick.  Not only that, but one of the stars of the defense declared yesterday that he won't ever play another snap for the Bears.  The first two I can handle ok and move on.  This one really gets my blood going.  Lance Briggs is a first-rate MORON!  Don't take my word for it, read this blog on the Chicagosports.com website.  If you don't read that and think that this guy really needs a new persepective, I don't know what will do it for you.

Lastly, this weekend was really a good weekend of ministry.  I'm really proud of our students and all the hard work they put in.  Saturday was NAC and More Til 4:00, which was a lot of fun.  I thought everyone did a great job at NAC.  Saturday night was the High School Musical which happened to be Beauty and the Beast.  I thought that every did an awesome job!  That was one of the best theater productions I've been to in awhile.  Sunday was Sunday Youth Worship, Church, Youth Staff Meeting, Mandy Long's Sweet 16 Party, Worship Team Meeting and REAL Time Groups.  Needless to say, I slept until 10:00 yesterday morning and probably could have slept longer if I really would have wanted to.

Currently Listening See the Morning By Chris Tomlin see related

That picture pretty much says it all.  It was a great run and a tough game.  I have to give props to the Colts and say they outplayed our beloved Bears.  I was disappointed, for sure, but the Bears accomplished way more than anyone every said they would.  I think they have a good shot to be back there again next year.  By the way, I'm happy for the residents of my home state and all the Colts fans that I know.  Enjoy your win...

So, i got tagged by Jetta77.  I guess that means I need to come up with 6 weird facts about myself and find 6 people to do the same.  I'm not really good at coming up with stuff about myself on the spot, so these might not be that great, but I'll do my best.

1.  I can't stand eating sweet and salty things together.  Prime example:  Sausage and syrup.  I know lots of people that love that combo, but it really doesn't work for me.  I'm not sure what it is.  Marianne has to give me a separate plate when we have pancakes and sausage so my sausage doesn't touch the syrup.  And the McGriddle sandwich from McDonald's, don't even get me started on how gross I think that is.

2.  The way other people drive is a huge pet peeve of mine.  I'm constantly criticizing people that just don't use common sense on the road or don't follow the simple traffic rules of normal driving.  I've found that people drive poorly in different ways in different places.  Back in Warsaw, the number of people that would run red lights would really get me going.  It always seemed like when a light first turned red it was optional and/or even expected that you don't stop at it.  The dangerousness of it all really bugged me, as well as not being considerate of the people who get the green but can't go because of people that run the red.  Out here in PA, most people refuse to let you in when you are merging onto a highway.  Even if the lane next to them is empty, they won't get over, speed up or slow down to let you in.  Instead, the geniuses that drive here get to the end of the merge lane and do the most intelligent thing possible... They stop at the end of it.  And that makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever.  What's the point of a merge lane if you speed up to get into traffic and then come to a complete stop?  Out here, people seem to think that's proper driving.  I've also noticed that many people here don't know what to do when you get to a stop sign the same time as someone else.  The driver's manual says that the person on the right has the right of way.  However, I don't think many people read it, so instead, they just all sit there and start waving me through the intersection with these big emphatic waves like "hurry up and go so I can go."  I sit there and think, "Do you not know what to do and you just get ticked off at me?  Is that how it's supposed to work at a stop sign?"  As you can see, I feel very strongly about these things.

3.  I love to do little dances at home.  I'm not exactly the "clubbing" type, but I do actually enjoy moving to some music.  I've come up with a few little moves that are a blend of cool/nerdy.  It's a style that's all my own.  Marianne is usually the only one that gets to see my moves.  Once in awhile I'll pull out a move or two for the students in the youth group, but they don't get to see all of my full arsenal.  Marianne tells me that my spontaneous, break out into dance moments make me a silly boy.  Whatever... All I know is that my moves have moves and that makes me a pretty fly guy.

4.  I have a hard time following through on things that I start.  Not all things, just things that take dedication and hard work.  Case in point... I've had a guitar since I was 17.  For those of you keeping score, that's 12 years and counting.  And in those 12 years, do you think I've been able to become a proficient guitarist?  I wish I was, but sadly, I still can't play.  I can strum you a few cords.  If you asked me to play a song that only had the cord of E in it, I'd be more than capable.  This is an example of one of those things I'd love to change about myself.  I'd love to start something like that and just do it until I'm good at it.  For some reason, even though that sounds great in my mind, my personality is a huge obstacle in actually making it happen.  I wish I knew why I was that way, but I don't.  I'd love to see myself grow out of this and be the kind of man that puts his mind to something and follows through until it's done.  Maybe someday...

5.  Until last summer, I'd been to Wrigley Field every summer since I was 2 years of age.  There were even years I went up to 6 or 7 times.  My guess is that I've probably been there around 50 times or so in my life.  (This is a conservative estimate).  I know this isn't much of a record because there are probably people who have been many more times, but I like that fact that for 27 straight years, I was able to see the Cubs play in their beautiful home park in fabulous Chicago (my favorite city in the world).

6.  The first date I took my wife on was to Paris, France.  Now, we went out a few times before that, but she had no desire to date me or make it an official "date" at that time.  We had planned to already go (as friends) with our great friends Tim and Brandi.  Marianne decided that she actually wanted to date me (after a year and a half of telling me she didn't want to) two days before we left on our trip.  So, it seems that our first date was a week long trip to Paris, France.  That's how I like to look at it, anyway.

Ok, I fullfilled my tag requirements.  I haven't tagged 6 other people because this took too much out of me.  How about this... If you'd like to tag yourself on my behalf, feel free.  This whole tagging business is a lot of work.

Until next time...

Currently Watching Yours Mine & Ours By Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Louise Troy, Sidney Miller, Tom Bosley, Nancy Howard, Walter Brooke, Tim Matheson, Gil Rogers (II), Nancy Roth, Gary Goetzman, Morgan Brittany, Holly O'Brien (II), Michele Tobin, Maralee Foster, Tracy Nelson, Stephanie Oliver, Jennifer Leak, Kevin Burchett see related