World Baseball Classic

What is the World Baseball Classic?

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is the premier international professional baseball tournament, sanctioned by the WBSC and held every few years (currently a 3-year cycle) to crown a world champion. Featuring 20 nations, it showcases top MLB and international talent competing for their countries, similar to the soccer World Cup.

Pool play and two of the quarterfinal games were hosted at Daikin Park. Before the brackets were determined, I had already bought tickets for the Friday night game (quarterfinal game 1) with the expectation that it would be the US vs (TBD). 

There was a mini-scare as the US had lost to Italy during pool play, meaning that were actually at risk of not advancing. But in the end, they did advance so we watched the US vs Canada.

ACL reconstruction surgery (again)

Another year, another ACL reconstruction surgery.

Year of the horse

Our traditional picture with grandma.

Arigatou gozaimasu (Japan)

Tokyo Station

Pickleball is a brutal sport

Jacob's birthday

We made a trip to College Station to celebrate Jacob's birthday.

Andrew injured again

On January 23, 2025, Andrew tore his ACL playing soccer. After ACL reconstructive surgery and many physical therapy sessions, he was back after eight months. Back to playing soccer.

On January 23, 2026, Andrew tore his ACL playing soccer once again... exactly one year later.

I missed this latest injury/game since I was driving home from Amarillo during the winter storm madness so it was a crazy day when I came home to find out that he injured the same knee.

We went to school the following morning (Saturday) to meet with the team physician and after the examination and MRI, it was confirmed that he tore his ACL.

His soccer career came to an abrupt end. 

Winter madness (Amarillo, TX)

I'm in the middle of all that nastiness. 

Random weekend pics

Andrew (and his friends) at the DECA district competition. He will be advancing on to the state competition. 

Houston Half Marathon V

We completed our 5th half marathon and are halfway to legacy status (10+ races). 

We also hit a personal record, beating our previous best time by seven minutes (2:39) and that's with three port-a-potty stops during the run.

The weather was perfect, in the 40-50s.

I didn't have any knee issues or pain during the run, which was a first. 

I actually trained better than I did in previous years, as I had vowed last year. 

We actually did long runs during our training block and got up to running 8 miles. 

The training plan was created by ChatGPT.

New Years Eve (San Antonio, TX)

New Years Eve in San Antonio (sans Andrew).

Andrew is officially an adult

Celebrating Andrew's birthday at Judson Park.

Christmas 2025

Christmas Eve.

Work trip (Amarillo, TX)

On my way to the Texas Panhandle.

Lynn's birthday

Happy birthday to my love.