Jambo!

Beez asked me recently to join this blog and I'm thrilled. I haven't read all that's on there yet but have a moment to update everyone and am taking it. Will catch up to everyone's postings later and am looking forward to it.

Marcia (Johnson) and I were married for 15 years but divorced 4 years ago. We both still live in Omaha (lived in Houston for 10 years before that) and do a good job sharing our kids Julia (17), Eric (15) and Zach (11), who live with their mom. We've both remarried very well and operate a good extended family situation; I'm sure people look at us kind of strangely when we're all sitting together at a game or something rooting on our kids. Hopefully Beez contacted Marcia about the blog (mblome@westside66.org) or if not one of you can contact her. She is now a 7th grade science teacher after going back to get her teaching certificate.

I've been working in the baseball industry as a scout/writer/analyst for the last 20 years, the last 5 for Perfect Game USA (think of Rivals.com for baseball, same thing). I do some work with ESPN and Major League Baseball (mlb.com) along with various others specializing on the amateur draft and probably have written more scouting reports than anyone in the history of baseball. Not a good way to make lots of money but for traveling, managing time and enjoying what you do it can't be beat. I was able to visit Beez on a trip to the NW about 8-10 years ago; I can remember some of the players still (my memory of regular every day stuff isn't as good).

My current Peace Corps connection is my daughter, who is a HS junior now. She's pretty much decided that she's going to be the next generation PC volunteer. She's very intelligent, very enviornmentally concious, artistically gifted/creative, along with being a vegetarian since she was 12 years old. I'm glad that Marcia and I have left such a positive impression on her.

I can be reached at rawnsleyd@aol.com. Best to everyone and thanks Beez!