Normally I don’t review a book, let alone mention it, until I have read it cover to cover.  My current book is an exception.  The book is called To The Last Man.  I am addicted to Shaara books but normally it’s been a civil war type addiction.  This is Jeff Shaara’s WWI book.  I, like many Americans, are not familiar with WWI.  We are trained to think Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWII.  Self admittedly I do not know much about the first world war.  

I am about half way through this book and am enjoying every minute of it.  Only reason I am writing a blog about it is based on one quote.  This is an historical fiction novel so I can’t claim that this statement was actually made by John Pershing.  I have written the quote below:

“The speakers had come and gone, the words of the American ambassador to Belgium now drifting out over the crowd.  Pershing could see his soldiers still fumbling with the flowers, some of them discreetly slipping a blossom into their shirt, something to carry to a place……not nearly so pleasant.  The thought shocked him, and he focused on the men, could see faces now, men in glasses, some with moustaches, some with freckles, most of them very young.  He felt embarrassed at himself, so much concern about their appearance, thought.  What does it matter?  If anyone doubts our resolve, and dares to judge us by our martial experience, to hell with them.  I have had enough of the parades and luncheons, and petty arguments about which of our allies we prefer.  In a little while, these men must be prepared for anything that awaits them.  It has been so in every war that we have fought, and it will be no different now.  They will learn discipline and they will learn mechanics, they will shoot and march and become proficient with the bayonet.  But more, each man will know in his own heart why he is here, and what he must do.  He had thought of it often, what it was that made a man fight, what propelled a man to step into the line of fire.  We have had it in us since the beginning, he thought, since Boston and Chapultepepc and Gettysburg.  It is something in being an American, perhaps, an anger bred into us, defiance, rebelliousness, a kind of strength we draw upon when the cause is just, when the challenge is set before us.  Some would say it is the worst part of man, and anyone who lived through our Civil War would understand.  We don’t always require an enemy beyond our borders to call out to fire.  The inspiration comes from the heart, and the cause might divide us, or even destroy us.  In the Civil War, we suffered a cost that was beyond any horror we could imagine, because we poured that fire into each other.  That fire is still in us, in every one of these men.  If I did not believe that, I could not lead these men into this fight.  Out there we will face an enemy who knows what it is to win.  We will stand up to the soldiers who have become accustomed to the face of death.  And when this Army marches out onto that ground, there will not be a man among us who is not prepared.  If the French doubt us, if the English doubt us, it will not matter.  The enemy will discover what these men can bring to this war.  Every one of these men, and every man still to come, will come here to fight.”

Something about this quote really brought me to life.  It’s a typical American quote that is enjoyable to read.  But in the context of the war and the context of John Pershing, the quote is priceless and a great moment of history.  I hope that folks reading this can take the initiative to really understand the impact that WWI placed on our country and our history.

One of my favorite times of the year has come.  Not Christmas….Not my birthday…..All are great times but I am referring to that sweet spot of the year when the Redskins hype train begins.  The time when large chunks of my days become filled with reading Redskins articles and blogs, watching videos of camp, and basically anything else that has to do with the team and the upcoming season. 

This has been a very quiet offseason for a team that is normally very “loud”.  No huge offseason moves, no wild free agent spending.  Nothing!  For awhile I almost gave up on the Post putting out a new article regarding the team.  Nothing was happening outside of the draft.  I welcomed this as it gave hope that previous failed philosophies were a thing of the past (see previous Redskins post). 

That time has come and gone and the bandwagon is loading up with excited and overzealous fans including myself.  Training camp began this past Sunday in which I was lucky enough to attend.  Not only attend but attend with VIP passes (Thanks Trav!) which allowed us to stand where the media was.  This really got me going – being able to see the players running plays and drills.  It really made me realize how the season had crept up.  Hell, the Redskins play a preseason game on August 3rd which is just over two weeks away.  By the way, August 3rd happens to be my wife’s birthday.  Anie – the game is at 8pm so I promise we will celebrate a football-free birthday until then! : ) 

Anyway, with much dismay, I watched a key player go down on Sunday for the season.  I was unhappy, making sappy statements such as:  “Why does this always happen to us?”, “What are we going to do now? – This sucks!”.  The Skins quickly answered by making a nice trade for a player almost certainly destined for the hall of fame.  So I was back to being optimistic.

The articles and blogs just keep coming now.  I can usually spend a good hour each day reading updates from camp, checking out the post articles, or watching videos of Chris Cooley talk about his beard growing competition. 

So it’s on!  I am pumped and I can feel the whole Redskins fan community getting pumped.  Next step is my season tickets arriving.  That is another stop on this wagon – when I can open up that package and stare in admiration at a season’s worth of tickets.   

Bring on the Colts!!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY LILY!

I can’t believe that a year has passed already and Lily is 1.  It has been such an amazing year that went by so fast.  Lily is such a great baby and has been such a blessing to our family.  I’m so glad that we have SOO many more years to celebrate her birthdays.  We love you Lily!

Birthday Girl

So it’s always easy to say something is your BEST when it’s also your FIRST!  But wow, this was a great father’s day weekend.  I have to give props to Anie for making it happen.  First off, I got to play some golf Saturday morning.  This is my new father’s day weekend tradition, I like to call it guilt-free golf.  The one day of the year when I can go play golf and not feel any guilt that Anie is taking care of the baby.  : ) 

As you have read earlier, I am not good at golf.  However, I didn’t play half bad this time around.  Well, not bad by my standards at least.  So I come home from golf and am hanging out a the house thinking this has been a great day and a great start to the weekend.  Little did I know I had two surprises waiting for me!

We had plans for Sunday to go out to dinner with Anie’s parents and I thought all along we were going out to a restaurant.  Turned out she had other plans….Anie actually ordered Maine lobsters so we could have a father’s day lobster feast as our house.  So here I am, unwinding after some golf and now have the excitement of eating lobsters the following day.  Then to top it all off, the most unexpected surprise……Anie (It was from Lily too!) bought me a WII!!  Unbelievable – I had been talking about this since I tried it out at one of my friend’s houses.  Problem is that you can’t find them ANYWHERE…nowhere….except maybe ebay for a 50-100% markup.  Turns out Anie called a million places and found one small place that had only ONE left.  With baby in hand, she treked out to this store and got it.  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get it set up.  I’ll have to blog more about the Wii later……

After the surprise excitement, A & L took me out to dinner.  It was nice and relaxing at one of our favorite places – South Austin Grill! 

Sunday came and the fun continued.  We went out to my dad’s house to surprise him for a father’s day brunch.  My bro and Kim came.  Lindsay and Matt were there.  Dad and Melissa.  Dad aka Poppy was very surprised and had a great time – especially with Lily! : )  We really enjoyed it – good time all around. 

After a few hours of relaxation and a nap for Lily, we geared up and enjoyed an amazing lobster dinner.  Wow, I love lobster but don’t have it enough mostly due to the excessive cost.  Sometimes you just have to live it up though.  Anie’s rents came over and we hung out with Lily and then feasted!  We ended the night by watching Tiger Woods sink a putt to send the US Open into a playoff round – even the non-golfers were excited about that. 

All in all it was a great weekend to be a dad in the Baker household.  Thanks to Anie for making it such a great weekend for me.  We also can’t forget about sweet Lily who doesn’t just make me a father, but the happiest and proudest father on earth. 

Every now and then I have an “Old Moment”.  I think we all have them.  Those times where you do/think/say/hear something and realize how old you have become and how fast time has passed.  I will post these here from time to time as they come up.

Old Moment of the Day:

When you find a bunch of drunk kids in your front yard at 10pm (one of which is on the ground in a sad state of drunkenness) and actually get mad thinking how late it is, how much you hope they don’t wake the baby, and whether or not you should call the cops or not.  

ugh! 

My golf game is terrible. 

Most people claim their golf game is terrible.

Mine is really terrible – this is no joke. 

I am relatively new to golf (started last summer) so I guess it is expected that there would be some growing pains.  My friends who do play golf are good instructors.  Each have good tips and when I execute using their advice I usually hit a better ball.  Head down, don’t swing too hard, follow through, rotate the hips, don’t move your feet, etc, etc.  I guess the key is being able to incorporate all these minute details into one swing.  Easier said than done, especially when your at the tee and people are quiet and looking on. 

I like to have an excuse why I’m not doing well.  “Wow, I shouldn’t have worked out yesterday”, “The ground is really wet”, “My mind is elsewhere”, “Man, that bird won’t stop chirping”, blah blah blah.  I think I’ve found the newest reason why my game sucks. 

I always wondered how much a good golf ball actually helps you.  Maybe those golf pros out there can give me their opinion.  I buy the cheapest balls possible as I tend to lose a lot due to my inexperience (see comments above).  I always figured it wouldn’t impact me that much – how much can an expensive golf ball really help you?  Well, I have now decided that my golf game has been terrible up to this point because of the balls.  I’m swearing off the Cougar brand for a slightly more expensive brand – maybe Nike. 

How did I come to this revelation you might ask.  Well, I took a closer look at the box of balls this weekend (after a mediocre showing at the driving range) and noticed the most egregious spelling mistake on the side of the box.  See the picture below:

No good golf ball would have this kind of mistake on their box.  There is no way my game will be “Leadign the pack” with these.  I even went back to Target (where I bought the balls) and saw that every other box had the same mistake.  I did not get the runt box.  

I’m certain that my game will be taken to the next level once I buy some decent balls.  yeah…..right…….

Given that it’s Mother’s Day, I wanted to give a quick shout out to my wife Anie.  Our daughter Lily just turned 10 months.  Being new parents is tough and in my opinion there is no way I could have done it without her.  Anie puts so much into the well-being of our daughter.  She has put in way more hours studying/reading up on “baby stuff” than I ever did for a college class.  She has really come into her own as a mother and is simply doing a tremendous job of it.  I couldn’t have asked for someone better to take care of the center of our family.  Her job is the toughest in the world and I admire her for how she puts her all into it each and every day.  

And finally, a shout out to the other Mom’s I know:

My Mom, My Gmom, My Gma Joyce, Mimi, Melissa, Alicia, Tracey, Cindy, Melissa, Michele, Jessica W (How could I have forgotten!?!?!), and anyone else I may have forgotten.  Big props to all of you. 

I love music.  Anie and I used to go to concerts all summer.  We used to stay up late and watch DVDs of our favorite bands.  This hobby has taken a serious hit post-baby. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lily and would never go back to life before her.  Lily likes music and we listen to music with her all the time.  

In the craziest places you find random items that can help you link your pre and post baby lives.  In a random store in Old Town we came across this:

You can imagine my excitement.  A combination of one of my favorite bands in a way that Lily can enjoy. Great for the whole family.  We immediately purchased this and played it the whole way home.  The results with Lily were astonishing:

This is pure genius.  I actually did enjoy it and felt as if I would fall asleep.  Maybe you parents out there had heard of these but it was new to me – after researching this I found that they are quite popular.  I googled this company and was amazed to find a website that had this same idea applied to TONS of bands. Led Zeppelin in a lullaby anyone?  I found that their newest release (early March) was AC/DC.  Hells Bells rings my baby to sleep?  And for those counting down the days, the Pixies is to be released this June.  Kanye West is on the horizon too for all those hip-hop lovers.   

Dear Male Locker Room Patrons,

I joined a new gym a couple months ago and there seem to be some alarming trends that I have noticed. Each of which (in my humble opinion) is a violation of locker room etiquette.  I want to start with informing you that I am not a gym virgin.  I have used a gym all through college and have belonged to a various assortment of gyms/clubs since.  My point is that I have used locker rooms and do understand that men have to change, shower, etc.  I myself use the shower when I use the gym in the mornings.  With this in mind, I have outlined the violations I have witnessed below:

1.  The hair dryer is for the hair on your head.  Use on any other part of your body, especially areas below the waist, is strictly prohibited.  

2.  I am more than willing to talk about the weather, politics, sports or any other topic.  However, boxers (at a minimum) are required to start a conversation.  

3.  Leave the nail clippers at home.  You are old enough to realize that when you clip, the nails shoot off into mystery land.  This mystery land normally encompasses the area surrounding my locker.

4.  The sign that says “No Exercises in the Steam Room” is not a joke and references any and all exercises. Stretching, lunging, and squatting are not exceptions to this rule.  

5.  Rule #4 applies to the sauna as well.  

6.  Please be conscientious of others around you especially at adjacent lockers.  You do not need to have your gym socks, flip flops, towels, gym bag, belt, shoes, etc strewn around you in a 4 ft radius.  

7.  Washing gym shorts or bathing suits in the gym sink is not allowed.  You have a washing machine at home – use it.  

8.  If you decide to lay down in the steam room or sauna, please lay in a position that is considerate to those around you.  Legs facing a wall and flat are preferred.  If this is not possible, a minimum of 3 towels is required for coverage.  

Please review your locker room habits and behavior and ensure that all rules above are followed.  There have been many other violations but these are the most egregious.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or require further clarification.  

Kind Regards,

Dave

Hey Fred, ever heard of this?