This year marks my first foray into the world of fantasy baseball. Some friends invited me to join their league, and I eagerly accepted, knowing that as the only Yankee fan in a league of Red Sox faithful, this would be an excellent opportunity to do some missionary work. I grossly underestimated the intensity of fantasy baseball. These guys put some serious time into researching players, analyzing, hypothesizing, conjecturing, etc. I'm more of a gut feel type of fantasy player (read: minimal effort/research). However, my team has been performing quite well thus far (first place in the league after two days). While startled by this success, I am not completely baffled. There is a precedent here. For the last two seasons, my sister Laura has dominated our family March Madness bracket competition. Her knowledge of the teams and of basketball in general is limited, yet she's remarkably accurate. Last year she was ranked number 1 on ESPN.com after the first day of play, and she finished far higher than any of us ever has. I wish I could offer some explanation as to the causes of these sports phenomenon, but I've got nothing. My apologies to Jessica Hagy for blatantly mimicking her graph approach. Meanwhile, keep cheering on Los Mulos, the most successful and least managed team in the league!
The boy and I have been in an Outdoor Recreation class. What this means is that BYU gives us two credit hours to do the things we'd be skipping class to do anyway. Very considerate of them, don't you think? A couple of weekends ago, the class went on a field trip of sorts to Capitol Reef National Park. The purpose of the trip, as I understood it, was to walk around in the desert, take pictures of us being Extreme, and practice Safety. The scenery, it turns out, was actually breathtaking. Cassiday Arch, pictured to the right, is now my favorite arch. The on-trail dialogue, for which the boy and I have become legendary, was superb. 
Unfortunately, there were no wild animal attacks or serious injuries, but other than that it was a great trip. I feel so lucky to be living in Utah, so close to awesome stuff like Capitol Reef. I feel for all those kids who live in boring places like Missouri or Kansas with no scenery anywhere.
