Luke’s Notebook

Everyone seems to be caught up in the low-carb craze nowadays. I’m going to add my name to that list for a couple weeks. Today, my brother Paul and I began a two-week low-carb diet, in which we are not to exceed 50 grams of carbohydrates a day. Evidently, the reason that carb dieting works is because if your body doesn’t have carbs stored that it can burn, it will begin to burn fat and thus help you lose weight. That’s my understanding, anyway.

It’s not like either of us are in dire need to diet or drop some weight, but I think we’d both be happy to lose a good 10 pounds or so. Ironically, we both weighed in at 194 this morning. I probably have an inch or two on him (standing at 6′2″), but he probably has a little more muscle than me. So I think it’s pretty even. Of course, I used to tip the scales at upwards of 250 (the highest I can remember ever weighing in at is 248) a few years ago. Since we’ve been working out lately at the Y, we decided that why not just go ahead and try to shave off any extra poundage, especially after coming this far? It sounds like a good idea to me, so I’m giving this a shot. This first day was pretty easy, as I only had 35 (grams of) carbs. I bet it will get harder, though, as my body starts to crave carbs. We’ll see how difficult it gets as time goes on.

October is next. We have three months left to go, and it ought to be a beautiful three months! We get fall and then the beginning of winter and Christmastime. There’s a lot to look forward to.

On to sports now. We lost tonight by a score of 12-10 against the Bandits. We played decently, but our defense made some big mistakes which led to several of their runs. They are definitely a good team, but I think we could have beat them if we played tighter “D.” I batted 4-4 with a three-run homer in the first inning. I hit a fly ball to right field, and I was surprised that it kept carrying and cleared the fence. I’ll take it, though!

This morning, our family was visited by Barton, Eleanor and their three kids, Stephen, Audrey and Nathan. They are visiting Belleville after just returning from staying in Kyrgyzstan to do missionary work. It was great to see them again! We last saw them about one-and-a-half years ago, so a lot has changed since. We talked about different things that have happened since, and we also gave them a tour of the house. The last time they saw it it was just framed and the siding was starting to get put on.

Hey, guess what! I finally received payment from the buyer on eBay! Thank God! Now 18 empty toner cartridges are on their way down to Oklahoma.

Tomorrow, Mom is going to spend some time with Jenny at the hospital — basically filling in for Rob in the morning. I’m going to be chauffering Mom over to St. Louis, so we’ll be leaving around 5:15 in the morning. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to, but if at all possible I’d like to say hi to Jenny. I guess there’s a good chance she’d be sleeping at that hour, but we’ll see.

Oh yes — this evening, I watched the first of three debates between John Kerry and George W. Bush. The topic was foreign policy, and it seemed like nearly every question had something to do with Iraq. I guess that was the idea, though. Anyway, I didn’t think either Senator Kerry or President Bush did an outstanding job debate-wise, but I still agree with Bush on his reasoning and his determination to stay the course until the job is completed. One thing that I have to admire about him is that he’s sticking with this war through thick and thin. Even though it may not be popular or even helpful politically, he feels this is the right thing to do to protect America, and you have to admire that boldness. I don’t like the thought of having Kerry in this situation, as he seems to change his positions far too often, and we need somebody who will stand firm, whether people like it or not.

As I type, it’s a cool evening of September 29th. Not too long ago, we were enduring the hot, sticky summer afternoons. All of a sudden, we find ourselves nearing the end of September, with the year 2004 being three-fourths of the way over. Fall is always a beautiful time, and I’m very eager to experience the season out here in our new house. We’ve experienced, winter, spring and then summer, but this is our first fall out here. It should be great.

Tonight, Paul and I went to the YMCA again. That brings the total up to three for me. I definitely did not want to go to the Y, but I knew that I had to just do it anyway, because if I only went when I wanted to, I would probably just have a handful of visits in a year.

I’d like you guys to keep my 21-year-old cousin, Hannah, in your prayers. She’s spending the night in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital over in Belleville. I’m not sure what exactly was bugging her, but I know she had an onset of some pain and was admitted for the night. I think it had something to do with her lung, but I believe the problem is supposed to clear itself up and she should be good to go tomorrow. But anyway, please pray that she is healed right away so she could get back to her work! I sent her a text message this evening just to let her know we’re praying for her, so hopefully that’ll help brighten her day — or night, I guess.

By the way, I added a new feature to the journal. Or not so much a feature, but a cosmetic tweak. You’ll notice that now the first letter in every entry is large and in a box of its own, a la a storybook or something of the sort. I think it looks kind of neat. Do you like it? Does it look strange? Click on that “E-mail Luke” link at the bottom and let me know! Thanks.

Tonight we played against the Xsox at 6:30 on the lower diamond over at Citizen’s Park. The game only lasted four innings, as we were able to beat them 19-1. I had three at-bats and went three-for-three, pulling my season average up to .524. I also scored three times and had three RBI’s. We played very well offensively, and our defense was solid enough to hold them to one run over four innings. I’m seven for my last seven after having a string of batting 0-6. Strange how things work, isn’t it? Anyway, we’re now 3-0 in the Tuesday night gold league. An interesting tidbit is that our team scored four runs in 11 innings last Thursday. In the nine innings following that game, we scored 53 runs. Go figure.

Setting softball aside, there’s another thing that’s been going on. Approximately four weeks ago, I sold some empty toner cartridges on eBay. The buyer has been really bad about contacting me and thus paying, so I finally called him on Saturday. He assured me that he would mail out the money order on Monday and that I should receive it Wednesday. I’m eager to get paid and ship out the box of cartridges. I hope he actually has sent out the payment, but I’ll just have to wait to see if the money arrives in the mail soon. I sure hope it does! I haven’t sold too many items on eBay, but when I have it’s all gone smoothly. Let’s hope we can salvage this one. I really don’t want to have to relist the auction, especially since I got a good price on the cartridges. I’ll be anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s mail.

Tonight at 7:30 we played against a team named the Beer Bellies (no joke). Well, the game started off slow, and we found ourselves defending a 4-2 lead after the first inning or two. We put up a few runs here and there, and we ended up leading 18-6 entering the fifth inning. Well, our offense absolutely exploded, as we put up 16 runs in the fifth inning! My dad had 9 RBI’s in the game, my brother Jude was six-for-six, and another brother, James, was 0-0 with six walks! That’s a record for him. I batted 4-6, actually getting hits in my final four at-bats. So I broke an 0-6 streak dating back to last Thursday. That was encouraging! Anyway, when it was all said and done, we had scored 16 additional runs in that inning, and the final score was 34-6 in five innings. Not too bad considering we scored all of four runs in 11 innings last Thursday!

One highlight of the game is when my 14-year-old brother, Philip, stepped to the plate for his first-ever at-bat. The game was already a blowout by thie time in the fifth inning, so Dad put Philip in with the bases loaded. He swung at the first pitch, and plunked a hit in shallow right field. In his very first at-bat, he had an RBI hit! He ended up batting a second time in the inning, in which he grounded out. But it was awesome that he was able to get a hit! I think he enjoyed the special moment.

Anyway, it’s a shame we can’t save some of those extra runs for a “rainy day,” but we’ll just have to go right back out there tomorrow and try to string together some more hits. If we hit like we did today, we shouldn’t have any problem scoring runs.

That’s all for now. I’m super tired, so I’m going to finish up my website work and go to bed.

P.S. I just realized that this is my 100th entry! I’m amazed that I’ve had 100 entries since I began this journal, in June or whenever it was. One thing I like about it is it is very easy to make a new entry in. Everything is automatic, and all I have to do is type what I’m typing here! It’s a cool setup. I’m liking this journal thing.

Today has been quite the busy day. Let’s get down to business, yes?

This afternoon, my family went to attend the baptism party for our two newest cousins, Elizabeth Ann and Natalie Marie, in the basement of St. Peter’s Cathedral church. We ate pizza and cake and had a good time talking with family and such. One awesome highlight is that Jenny was there with her family! I was so happy to see her again, especially in a normal environment. Things are far from over with her leukemia treatment and such, but it is just so great to see her acting normal and being around people.

At 4:30, Paul and I arrived at the FOX 2/KTVI television station in St. Louis. We were meeting up with Dave Sharp, who is a videographer there. As I said in a previous entry, he invited us over for a tour, and we gladly accepted. Dave was running a little bit late because he was videotaping the Saints/Rams game over at the Edward Jones Dome, and since the game went into overtime it delayed him a bit in getting back to the station. So Paul and I waited for a bit in the waiting room until he arrived. Then, the tour began.

Dave showed us the cubicles where the reporters and anchors work and put together their stories. He also showed us different editing computers that they have set up where he and other cameramen edit their stories and get them ready to air.

The highlight of the tour was when Dave too Paul and I to the actual studio where they have the newscasts. As we entered, we saw Nancy Pasternak and Tom O’Neal behind the news desk as they were recording a teaser for the 9:00 news. What was weird is Tom recognized Paul and I, and he called out, “Hey, is that the Arndts?” Dave confirmed that that’s who we are, and we walked up to the desk and shook hands with the anchors. We talked with them for a little bit before we were shooed by one of the producers or directors. The reason Tom O’Neal knows us, by the way, is he did a story for FOX 2 nearly eight years ago, when my sister was born. He also joined us in the Softball Classic last year, so we know him fairly well.

Dave took us upstairs after that to a room where they do all of the mixing, titling and sound work. We saw as the director cued different tapes and would say, “Cue 3. Roll 3.” and stuff like that. It was very interesting! We walked around and saw a few other rooms, and then we came back to the empty studio. Dave said Paul and I could go sit behind the news desk, and he volunteered to take our picture.

News AnchorsPaul and I behind the FOX 2 News desk.

I thought the photo turned out great! It’s amazing how many different lights they have in that studio. We also got to see the weather center and the green screen, which is where the meteorologist stands in front of as they superimpose a weather map behind him.

We had an awesome time there, and we’re really grateful that Dave was kind enough to give us the tour. It was fun to get to see behind the scenes and also gain some knowledge on the technical side of things.

Anyway, soon after we came home, I left for volleyball. I had a 7:00 game, and again we won all three matches. I played better than I did last week, so I’m steadily getting back in the groove of playing. I had a couple nice spikes, and I’m starting to get my timing back. Soon enough!

Well, that about does it for this post. As you can tell, it’s been a full day and a very fun one at that.

In last night’s entry, I forgot to mention something huge that happened: our old house sold! The old house in downtown Belleville has a buyer! Thank God! It’s a beautiful old (100+ years old) house that we lived in for many, many years. Dad and Mom bought if shortly after they were married, so they have owned it for maybe 24 years. We spent pretty much the first half of 2004 doing all kinds of repairs to that house — everything from re-plastering to painting to staining to replacing floors to painting the outside. It looks awesome now, though. I think the buyer is getting a great home!

We also own a house on Main Street in Belleville that we are currently beautifying and plan on putting that up on the market soon. This house was our former office but we had rented it out for the past year-and-a-half. It’s an attractive little brick house.

This evening, I went to the wedding reception of my second-cousin, Keith Karban, and Carla Stein. I don’t see the Karban family all that often, but it was nice to see them again, and I’m happy for them! I’m praying that God will watch over them and be #1 in their lives. But, congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Keith Karban! It was fun to do the hokey-pokey, the YMCA, electric slide and such. I had a good time there.

Well, I am very pleased to announce to you that I made it up to the Y again this evening. Paul and I went over to the East Belleville center to get in a nice workout. I mostly used the free weights, using weights from 15 to 60 pounds. I also used a couple of weight machines, and at the end I ran a mile or so on the treadmill.

It’s a good feeling to have hit the Y two times in three days. If I can consistently have two or three visits a week, I think that would be great. It’s going to be difficult to make it up there on weekends, though, since they close at 6:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. We’ll just have to see how things work out.

Well, tonight the Atlanta Braves wrapped up the National League East Division. This makes the 13th straight division title for them! That’s incredible. Especially to do it this year, after they lost so many good players in the offseason. Coming into 2004, they were without sluggers Javy Lopez and Gary Sheffield, and they also lost ace Greg Maddux. But, somehow they managed to clinch the division again, and in convincing fashion, too. Two players on the Braves that have to be team MVPs are J.D. Drew and Johnny Estrada.

Drew is having a career year. He has over 30 homers, his average was .311 coming into tonight, and he’s just an all-around great player. Him staying healthy this year was huge for the Braves.

Johnny Estrada is a first-year starter as catcher, and he has been awesome! Though not a power hitter or a speedster on the bases, this guy knows how to get base hits in clutch situations. He has been great this year.

Anyway, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves on making the playoffs yet again! It should be interesting to see how they do this fall.