John Smoltz and the snapping turtle: the story of our spring break

Don't you just love the catchy headline?

Oh well, we are regretfully on the other side of Spring Break, but we had a great time being off. We spent the preceding weekend in Alabama at my parents house and we had a great time. I made a point to spend as much time with my dad as I could this go-round. We went fishing and caught a bunch of bream and one ol' snapping turtle. He was caught by yours truly. It felt like a fish for a while when I first hooked it, but as I reeled it in I thought I'd just snagged a limb because of the dead weight. But when I got "it" to the bank I realized "it" was a snapping turtle. Luckily he worked himself free before I had to get the knife out and cut him loose, thus saving my line and perhaps my finger. We didn't have any moving conversations-- dad and I that is--but it was nice just looking over and knowing he was there.

During the week Angie and I worked on beautifying our yard. We planted flowers, raked and mowed and had fun being outdoors all week. On Friday Wade, Angie's sister Cristy and I worked all afternoon moving probably a ton of mulch. Amazingly, at age 30, I finally like yard work. I can just hear my mom cussing me now haha.

On Saturday we saw our Dodgers lose to those pesky Braves (yes Joel, I know). We had a great time though. My niece Ashley and her boyfriend Casey met us in Atlanta for the game. She is such an adult now at 19. Amazing. We will post some pics soon. Before the game there was a line of people waiting to get an autograph from Braves pitcher John Smoltz. Being a Dodger fan I didn't wet myself to get over there to him. But this guy approached Angie and me and asked told us he'd give us an autographed ball if we stood in line with him (a person could have have two things signed), so we did and Smoltz signed a ball for us. Very cool. Anyway, that was our week in a nutshell. This weekend Angie heads with the ladies to Gatlinburg and I'll head to a shady spot and snooze. Have a good one.

--Erik