My professional volleyball career begins

FIRST of all, I'd like to apologize to my many ones of fans who have been checking this blog day in and day out; waiting, agonizing, praying for a new posting. I'm pretty sure there has been thousands of hits on this site in the mean time. Don't believe me? Check my web counter. Look at the bottom of the page - see where it says "ERR2"? That's my counter. I'm pretty sure that's what happens when like a million people click on a page, and the counter can't keep up.

Anyway, the reason that I haven't posted since my first is that I have been very busy travelling (more on this in my next posting - likely a few months from now) and playing volleyball. I love volleyball - it's pretty much my favorite sport. One of the goals that I set for myself when I began this year was to compete in a two on two beach tournament. The opportunity first presented itself at the end of April when my friend Derk and I played together in Siesta Key, FL. We placed 4th that weekend - not too bad for a first attempt, I thought.

Two weeks later, we found ourselves at Clearwater Beach, attempting to better our record. We were proud of our 4th, of course, but if we had only placed 3rd, we would have won Sand Socks. Just imagine! Sand Socks! With a bounty such as this at stake, we knew we had to try again.

There were 5 teams in our pool, and we finished with a 3-1 record. That qualified us for the final match which we eventually lost in a close game, 27-25 (the games are played to 25, win by 2). This left us in second place in our division, winners of the lovely prizes shown on our model below:

There they are: my first official earnings of my beach volleyball career. Not that we are satisfied to rest on our laurels - quite the contrary. With a small taste of success we are all the more motivated to play in another tournament to earn a first place finish, to gain more experience, and of course, to someday win those Sand Socks.

Welcome to the year 2001, Mr. Jamieson!

FOR a long time now, I've kind of scoffed at the idea of a blog. I mean, my life is very busy; I don't exactly have a ton of time to go wasting reading about the day-to-day minutia of other people's lives. But then, I realized that I was being selfish. What if other people's lives aren't as interesting as mine? Don't they deserve to know my feelings about the endangered Florida Puma (puma concolor) ? (Stop coddling them! They have fangs and claws!)

So, kicking and screaming, I've been dragged into the 2000's. Interesting fact: there still is no universally accepted name for our current decade. Several have been proposed; the nil's, the naughts, and the zero's, not to mention the suggestion by the General Assembly of the United Nations - "The International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World." Catchy.

So, I hope you are excited that I am finally joining the craze that is sweeping 2001. Please check back often, and I'll try to keep this up-to-date with the goings-on of my family as well as the interesting tidbits that I pick up here and there. Enjoy!