Say it ain't so

This weekend has been as close to perfect as they come in the middle of December in The 'Ville. ... The only thing that could have improved it would have been a semifinal football game yesterday featuring our 'Cats. But we lost that opportunity last weekend. 

Friday night, I had my last graduate class of the fall trimester. I was dreading it because of the teaching assignments that are part of each class session. It's not that I don't like teaching; it's the fact that we're thrown a chapter from our textbook at the beginning of the class period, given 30 minutes to prepare a lesson about it and then have to teach it to the class -- and a simple straight forward lecture with the pre-made PowerPoint slides that come with each assigned lesson doesn't cut it. ... In the end, I had nothing to worry about. My friend, Angel, and I were assigned to teach the chapter about leadership ethics, and we rocked it.

Thankfully, for the next four weeks there will be no text to read and no papers to write. Best of all, I can now say I'm a quarter of the way to earning a master's degree.

* * *

Saturday, we slept late. Spent an hour at the church for our Christmas play rehearsal. And spent the rest of the day preparing for the office Christmas party we hosted last night ...

We had a full house. It was one of those great nights where the adults hung out in the living room and kitchen, and we left the kids to terrorize the downstairs play room (We had to break just twice for a crying child. But none of them left with broken bones, so that was good ... ) ... Best of all, there were many, many moments I found myself nearly laughing to the point of tears or laughing so hard I was having trouble breathing. It was a good time.

My world was perfect. Until ...

* * *

As Kates and I started getting ready for bed, I switched on the TV in our bedroom and turned to ESPN. Sportscenter was on, and the anchor had just spoken a set of words I never expected to hear in my lifetime ...

Ryan Braun reportedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

My heart sank.

Since Ryan Braun came up from the minors in 2007, there is no baseball player I've admired more. There's no athlete I've admired more, although Aaron Rodgers comes close. ... On the surface, Braun has always appeared to play by the rules. He's been one of the truly good guys in the game.

So the news that he may have broken the rules, especially after the summer of fun he and the Brewers served up this year, really stings.

For now, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Reports coming from sources other than ESPN seem to be pointing fingers at the behemoth sports enterprise for jumping the gun on the story without all of the facts. And Braun's side appears to be staunchly protesting the ruling, in a sense that I didn't get with previous accusations ... Even ESPN's reporting last night did seem to have some holes.

I'm praying it's a case of bad reporting.

(Updated 12.13.2011) Good reads ...
aBaseball turned upside down by Braun allegations
aBraun's reputation at stake
aSource: Braun didn't take PED
aBrewers slugger, who won 2011 NL MVP, is appealing finding