July 2026

The summer baseball season officially has come to a close this month. My oldest's team got seeded in the top tier bracket and were eliminated in their first playoff game against a very good team. It was a great game of actual baseball but ultimately they just didn't have enough to pull it off. How they played in their final game might be one of my favorite things about the oldest's season this year, everything coming together on the ball field. Both teams pitched well, hit well, knew what to do with the ball. There were several players thrown out stealing, several close plays. It was an exciting game. It was a grown up game of baseball.

We experienced something that game that was completely new and shocking: one of the opposing players was ejected by the umpire for using foul language. Per the rules, that is an ejectable offense and blue had had enough of that kid. It was a little surreal and a little sad.

I'm thankful that I never ever had to worry about that happening to one of our boys. They were always polite, respectful, and uplifting to each other; an amazing team to be a part of. We have a little break before getting ready for the fall baseball season. We'll officially be registering a team soon and gearing up for a fun mini season.

We had a great 4th of July. It's crazy that it's America's 250th birthday this year! I've reflected on that number a few times this month, pausing and thinking about historical democracies. Personally, I think the cracks in our democracy are really starting to show. There are some alarmingly unchecked items that make me apprehensive about where we're heading as a nation. It's something to be mindful of, to appreciate what we have and to fight to keep it. On July 4th, all of those thoughts were set aside for time with family, "dressing up", enjoying a giant slip-and-slide, and launching off some fireworks.

The 4th kicked off a much needed week-long vacation for me. It was relaxing to put all the stress of work away, focus on myself and family, and enjoy life. We capped my vacation off with a trip to Valley Fair as a family. It was soooooo awesome. We were there all day and hit every ride. By the end of the day I was really feeling beat up by the rides. It's been a very long time since I was there and it was great to enjoy the rides, relive memories, and make new ones.

I also busted out some retro PC games this month that are near and dear to my heart: Warcraft II, Starcraft, and Warcraft III. Getting them up and running on Linux was pretty easy compared to the hoops I had to jump through in the past. Wine has come a long way!

I really enjoy Warcraft II and have a ton of fond memories from playing it when I was younger. I was able to get an IPX network game going against the two boys and share my "enjoyment" with them. I totally dominated them in an old-school LAN party game of combat between orcs and humans. Once again proving, I am in charge. For my own future reference and others, I wrote up what I had to do to get things working here.

We also started watching Phineas and Ferb as a family. I laugh so hard at the antics in that show. One of my favorite scenes is when the sister character, Candace's, voice drops so low she becomes a blues singer. I was in tears and everyone was right there with me. A line from the song, "those boys are evil [...] E-V-I-L B-O-Y-S" is frequently heard around the house. Ironic when the house is dominated by boys... We are plowing our way through the show and having an absolute blast!

In case it wasn't clear, this month was incredibly refreshing. Full of rest, fun, family, and enjoying summer. I haven't had a "summer break" for a very long time. This break definitely checked all the boxes. In a somewhat poetic way, it mirrors getting a summer break as a kid. I "graduated" from being a developer and now I'm entering my next phase as an Enterprise Architect, with an awesome summer vacation in between.

- Ben