Little League Lawn

Is your home suffering from Little League Lawn? This time of year, a drive around neighborhoods all over America will reveal the afflication affecting so many front yards... LL Lawn is characterized by brown spots from lack of watering. When a LLer begins the postseason run in mid-June, many of life's chores get put on hold. Perhaps only the biggies are taken care of: mortgage, car payment, cases of Gatorade. The house takes a backseat and right around now, it really begins to show. I never really got the pots on the front porch planted with beautiful annuals. The lawn gets watered only when we are home for a few hours. It hasn't been edged since Spring Break.

Teams at the LL Regionals for Baseball and Softball have been on the road for weeks. Even if they didn't have to travel far, they have been playing almost every night, practicing in between, and preparing for games and probably just getting "the biggies" done. Working parents are sneaking peeks at Unpage.com during the day, an awesome website that follows all of the LL tournaments across the nation. In fact, if you click over to Unpage right now, I guarantee you will spend an hour dinking around, looking for your local kids, finding out how the team did where you grew up, your nephew's team in Ohio, and maybe if there is a game going on where you might be travelling in the next few weeks. Side note: My family has sat in bleachers in Redding, CA, Medford, OR, and other I-5 stopovers between Portland and San Francisco when we see a game going on and want to check it out.

I know some of you are thinking: "she needs to get a life." Well, you are right :) So, we are taking off for the coast this afternoon and will share a cabin in Lincoln City with NEIGHBORS WHO DON'T DO LITTLE LEAGUE. I might not even take my laptop... I hope I can again find my way back to everyday conversations like the price of gasoline, the weather, Back-to-School, and upcoming soccer and football seasons.

Enjoy the weekend. After you mow your lawn, you might want to check out and cheer on teams at the LL Softball West Regional in Vancouver, WA (looks like a great match-up Friday when OR and WA meet) or maybe the Junior LL Baseball West Regional at the THPRD Rec Center on Walker Road in Beaverton. These are the 13-14 year olds playing on the big diamond. We really enjoyed watching this style of baseball and can't wait to get playing it! All of these tournaments, as well as all of the World Series' have free admission, which is LL policy. How can you beat that?

Monday, John heads back to work to re-open his school for the new academic year and Jack starts football camp. But don't worry, I'll still be your connection to LL right on through to the Big Show in Williamsport, with an extended and extensive stop at the LL Softball World Series in Portland beginning August 9.