1. 0/0 Fast ball 75% of the time- Trying to get ahead, establish dominance
2. 1/0 Fast ball 85% of the time – Still trying to get ahead, trusting his defense
3. 2/0 Fast ball 95% of the time – trying to battle back into the count
4. 3/0 Fast Ball 100% of the time – Trying to establish something to build on
5. 0/1 Fastball/Curveball , 65% FB, 35% Off Speed –aim is to disrupt hitters timing
6. 1/1 Fastball/Slider 50/50 this pitch decides who is winning the battle (runner on-FB, no runner: off speed)
7. 2/1 Fastball/slider 50/50 if you’ve seen the fastball, expect offspeed (runner on-FB, no runner: off speed)
8. 3/1 Fastball 93% FB hitters count thinking fastball all the way
9. 0/2 Fastball 50/50 pitcher is looking for a cheap out, fastball low/away, or curveball/CU
10. 1/2 Fastball/Slider/Curveball 60/40 percentages are too close to call, protect outside
11. 2/2 Fastball/Slider/Curveball 30/70, no reason to throw you a FB unless you are way behind, if you haven’t fouled off a FB yet, expect one, if you have, think off speed
12. 3/2 Fastball 95% – he doesn’t want to walk you, so expect his best FB for a strike, the 2/2 pitch was a setup pitch for his FB if he showed you off speed at 2/2

As a youth league coach, it’s important to remember that your players shouldn’t have this in their head while at-bat. That’s just too much thinking. Instead, you should be aware of what an opposing pitcher is going to try to do to your hitters and have them generally prepared for what may be coming.

Below you’ll find the interesting tidbits for 2010-08-26 through 2010-09-03:

• Step-By-Step Kegerator Plans – Popular Mechanics
  Must read.
• 21 Unbelievable Photographs of Mars | Presidia Creative
• Let us help you find free booze. | Thrillist
  You can sign up to receive updates about open bars (and other events) in your area.
• Image of the space shuttle taking off.
• xkcd: Orbiter
  Occupied North Texas
• Houston … the space shuttle's homecoming
  There's a letter-writing campaign working to get one of the retired Orbiters permanently located at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
• Why working at home is both awesome and horrible – The Oatmeal

Below you’ll find the interesting tidbits for 2010-08-12 through 2010-08-26:

• Tour of The Solar System (Part 1)
  I'm also addicted to the Wonders of the Solar System series on the Science Channel.
• 9 Restaurants That Will Kill You
  Glad to see the Big Texan made the list.
• John Miranda's Photography Site Grand Canyon Page
  This is definitely on the to-do list.
• 10 Things to Do Before You Start Your Start-Up
  "Is your great idea really good enough? Find out before you launch a company."
• Monster Completes Acquisition of HotJobs and Enters into Multi-year Traffic Agreement with Yahoo!
• The 48 Laws of Power
• Supernova’s Spin on Life

JoJo’s first locker.

Below you’ll find the interesting tidbits for 2010-07-21 through 2010-08-10:

• Relive your misspent youth with these Transformers USB drives
  Seriously.
• Girls = Evil
• Bierstick: Two beers in under two seconds
• Law of hurricane power discovered
• Baseball's transaction rules explained
  This should help you through this part of the season.
• Avoiding Second Startup Syndrome

Below you’ll find the interesting tidbits for 2010-07-14 through 2010-07-20:

• The Great Sugar Shaft
  Not so sweet.
• The End of the Best Friend
  Apparently schools are trying to stop children from forming best friend type relationships.
• Yes, wins really are overrated!
  Sing it!
• BBC News – Sperm whale faeces 'helps oceans absorb CO2'
  Yay, poop!
• 'Much more water' found in lunar rocks
  I like how nonchalantly, she says, "Mars-sized space body collided with the young Earth."

Who are we?

The family for our family vacation is really two families combined. In addition to my wife and two sons, we also have our old college roommates and their two sons. This mixing of family and friends is really important for us. Our kids look forward not just to spending time at the vacation destination, but to spending time with the people they consider as close as aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Taking another family on your family vacation is not something to be considered lightly. We’re fortunate to have another family that we are very compatible with. Not everyone is so fortunate. The thing to remember is that you are going to be spending a lot of time with this other family on your vacation. If you’ve only spent a few hours together at a time, perhaps at dinner or kids’ events, you might find that sharing a sink in the bathroom is not quite what you expected. Consider a weekend trial vacation before going on a week long excursion!

Where are we going?

Over the last six years, we’ve been to Colorado twice, Florida, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah. Our first trip was to Destin, Florida. This was a huge learning experience for us. Destin is a popular tourist destination. A lot of our activities turned out to be either tourist traps or things we could do at home. Going to a water park 14 hours from home is pretty disappointing when you live near one of the best water parks in the United States. Although we had a lot of fun in the sun together, we learned a few key tips that would guide our decision-making process for future vacations.

1. The more tourists are in an area, the more likely you are to find activities with a high cost and low return. In other words, tourist traps are a waste of money and should be avoided.
2. Activities that are unique or not common in your area are the most fun for kids and adults. When you go to a great water park every summer, it’s hard to get excited about a mediocre water park on the other side of the country.
3. Free or low-cost activities can be the most rewarding. The most fun we had on that vacation was at the free, public beach right down the road from where we stayed.
4. Kids love learning, but enjoy it the most when it isn’t happening intentionally. Kids tend to get bored quickly at museums. A cave tour, on the other hand, includes a lot of learning mixed in with a sense of adventure.

After that first vacation, we decided that spending time together outdoors was really important to us. Summers in Texas can be brutal, and just being outside is a bit of a luxury. We started choosing scenic locations with lots of outdoor activities, like hiking, biking, and ATVing. Our desire for cooler weather tends to send us to the mountains which provide both excellent scenery and cool weather due to elevation.

Where will we stay?

When we started planning our first vacation, we were not sure where we would stay. Most vacationers are used to staying in hotels, but a single room for a family of four for seven to ten days is both uncomfortable and cost prohibitive. Hotel rooms frequently do not include a kitchen. That means you have to eat three meals a day in restaurants. Not only is that really expensive, it’s unhealthy and younger children tend to make restaurant visits as painful as possible. Finally, how would two families of four spend time together if they had separate hotel rooms?

The solution we hit upon was to rent a house large enough for our family of eight. One big house solves nearly all of our housing problems. It’s more cost effective than two hotel rooms. With everyone in the same house, people can spend time relaxing in the way they like. Playing outside, reading a book, or watching TV are all options. Finally, eating at home is both less expensive and more enjoyable than a restaurant. If your family has good cooks, everybody wins.

It’s important not to underestimate the value of the kitchen when it comes to spending time together on vacation. Just like events you have at home, the vacation home kitchen tends to be the central point for spending time together. When we choose a vacation home, we care about the amenities. A flat-screen TV and hot tub are nice, but a big kitchen and outdoor grill are absolutely vital. If we’re awake and at the house, we’re likely to either be standing around the island in the kitchen or poking the coals in the grill.

Most of our vacation house hunting happens on Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO). We’ve used other websites in the past, but VRBO has been the best. House hunting can be a fairly extensive process. In addition to finding listings that meet the qualifications, there is usually a fair bit of interaction with the home owner to hammer out availability and rates. This planning takes a detail-oriented person who doesn’t mind doing a lot of leg work. Fortunately for us, we have just the right person for the job.

How will we get there?

As I mentioned above, cost is an important part of the family vacation decision-making process. Although flying to your destination may be the fastest way to travel, it is anything but the cheapest. Additionally, flying requires a rental car which means even more expense. We decided early on that driving was really the only viable alternative. Unfortunately, driving has its own drawbacks. It takes much longer than flying. It puts wear and tear on your vehicle. And unless you own a really large vehicle, it’s hard to fit more than a family of four in one car.

Although there is little that can be done about the amount of driving time between locations, we decided that a 12 passenger van solved most of our other issues. It’s much cheaper than flying, and can be used while we’re at the vacation location. Since everyone is in one car, we can take advantage of the larger driver pool to drive farther in a single day. We also get to spend more time together.

What are we going to do?

This is what the vacation is all about! We work hard to fill our days with family-friendly activities that are either unique to the area or that can not be easily reproduced at home. At night, we cook together, play boardgames, and generally just goof off. We want our vacation to be as full as possible, but relaxing together in the evenings can be more rewarding than anything else. Most importantly, remember to have fun!

This is your vacation and you should spend it the way you want.

Below you’ll find the interesting tidbits for 2010-07-06 through 2010-07-12:

• As Afghan Fighting Expands, U.S. Medics Plunge In – NYTimes.com
  Dustoff crews are hard at work in Afghanistan.
• Life on Titan? Maybe – but only a lander will tell us
• Marines use new Sharpshooter rifle in Afghanistan
  These are Royal Marines, FYI.
• 50 Awesome Logo Design Resources Online
  This comes up more frequently than I would expect.
• The Simple Dollar » Review: The Other 8 Hours

My youngest son and I have been reading The Complete Adventures of Curious George on my 6″ Kindle. The book is designed for the larger Kindle DX, but we’ve both been pretty happy with how the images and text lay out. If you’ve been thinking about getting a picture book to read with your young ones, this book works out nicely and is less than $6.

You can use all the money you save on this cheap picture book collection to indulge in something a little more adult friendly. For example…

I’ve had a bottle of The Macallan 12 Year sitting in a cabinet for the last ten years. I don’t know why I’ve been hanging on to it for so long, but I’ve been sipping on it for the last week. Although the gift basket pictured to the left is pretty crazy, I highly recommend you grab a bottle if you are a Scotch drinker (or get the gift basket if you know one).