In which our son walks out of the clubhouse for the last time, and we begin life after baseball.

Many famous athletes have written eloquently about the first day after a career in professional sports ends, so you can go to Amazon to get books on the topic if you want to know more about their experiences.

As the weeks go by, we’ll find out first hand what it’s like not to have a son stepping up to the plate on Opening Day. We’ll ponder our original love of the game and see if it endures after this chapter has closed. We will discover whether we become bitter or simply philosophical.

We’ll think about all the players and their families we have met along the way. We’ll remember the team managers we met, the thoughtful ushers and ticket booth managers who gave us great seats in all the ball parks we visited, the generous host families and boosters who have always supported our boys as they progress through the minors.

You can never know when the last game you watched may be the last time you see him take the field.

And even though you always knew that one day you would reach the last day, you discover that such an awareness does nothing to reduce the sorrow in the moment it happens.

Related: links to the rest of posts from the series “11 Halos”

11 Halos Part 9—2nd Spring Training Season

11 Halos Part 8—End of the first full season in the minors

11 Halos Part 7—Epicenter

11 Halos Part 6—First Spring Training

11 Halos Part 5—Trip to Orem

11 Halos Part 4—Short Season in Orem

11 Halos Part 3—Reporting and Fans

11 Halos Part 2—Signing Day

11 Halos Part 1—Drafted!

Andrew was 13. He and I returned home from his birthday weekend in Phoenix to find it in our driveway.

A garnet 1994 SR5 5-speed Toyota 4-Runner. The first new car I’d ever owned, purchased that weekend by my husband-to-be as our new family car.

I freaked out.

It took me at least six months to relax and begin to enjoy it, and then the fun began.

It took us on family vacations and romantic weekend getaways. It became the sought after prom-mobile for our four boys through its earlier years, and later the dog no one wanted to drive since it had no get up and go.

But it kept running and never asked for anything but an oil change.

Once all the older kids had left home and I had a different vehicle, Dillon acquired it for his around town driving.

The terms were that he could use it if he paid registration and insurance and it kept running. Though we knew its days were numbered, it still was when he took it to off to college in Tucson and later to work in Tempe and California.

We cracked up whenever he pulled into the drive to visit. Now he was a big tall 24-year-old man still driving that Runner with “Women Leading Arizona” bumper sticker.

Till a week ago during what turned out to be our last roadie in that vehicle. It suddenly just stopped right there on the 17 at the I10 exit near McDowell, sending up a little smoke to let us know it was done.

It was good run and I’m sure I’ll never get as much pleasure from another vehicle.

Does Barbie have ANY place in the life of a modern, grown up woman?

I know that when I got MY Barbie in 1960, I didn’t see her as an unrealistic role model for myself in the future. All I knew was that I was the luckiest seven year on earth since my Barbie had the best wardrobe ever, made by my Gramma and my Mom.

Yesterday I learned that one of our little grandgirls got a Barbie for her birthday. I got out all my own Barbie duds, and laundered and mended them for the first time since receiving them 52 years ago!!

I examined each one more closely as they were drying, and thought about the time my mother and Gramma spent that year, creating all those original pieces just for me. I imagined my mom telling Gramma what I was getting for Christmas, and the two of them planning these outfits over coffee, months in advance. They would never have believed that I would still have all those treasured garments all these years later. (1960 Barbie is pictured in her very “Jackie Kennedy” suit above right.)

We’d been struggling with what to get Layla for her birthday, and I realized right then that I should make her some Barbie handknits of her own. (2012 dress and beret on my 1960 Barbie below, right).

When another of my grandgirls came over after school today, we played Barbies for two hours! Our approach was “Dual Survivor Barbie,” and our dolls (attired in those 52-year-old outfits) built a tent, went canoeing, went swimming, put up a teepee, built a fire, roasted a duck, and made friends with a sheep and a rhinoceros. At the end of a long day of camping, they rode the rhinoceros to a nearby restaurant for fish and chips, coffee, and some relaxing Barbie knitting.

I have to say, Barbie can be whatever you want her to be, and her body doesn’t have to negatively impact your self image if you were born with a creative, adventurous mind.

This very mild Northern Arizona winter means there’s a lot of green everywhere already. That converts to sneezing. Often.

Never mind that February is usually pink and red. To commemorate this very green and sneezy month, here are two green projects just off my needles.

Whether your professional collaborations consist of committee work with peers, or you steer all your company operations via a team that’s spread throughout the globe, in this century many of us have occasion to work with people who aren’t in our same zipcode or timezone.

We have the technology and need to communicate across distance. Some among us have formalized our “virtual teams” and this approach to work has become routine.

If you’re doing it, you already know the challenges. If you’re just now thinking about building your own virtual team, you’re likely wondering about some of the logistics and you already know there’s more to consider than which online meeting platform to use.

The University of North Carolina’s online mba program has produced a white paper which focuses on developing the skills essential for virtual teams.

Written by Meena Dorr and Kip Kelly, the article begins with the premise that virtual teams are here to stay, and then dissects the challenges and identifies the keys to creating successful collaborations in the virtual team model.

Here’s the article, “Developing Real Skills for Virtual Teams”

Let’s discuss it, here in the comments or over on the AZVAs Facebook page.

Overlook railing at Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

One of the coolest gifts my parents ever gave me was my first camera, a Polaroid Swinger. (If you haven’t heard of the Swinger, all you need to do is watch this commercial to know when it was popular!).

I appear stiff and lifeless, some might say ridiculous, in photos, but absolutely love making pictures.

Noe instinctively climbed up to find her own moment, almost as though she could read the inscription.

Grafitti is bad, right? It is, after all, defacement and a crime.

It’s also an ephemeral art form, and can serve to temporarily inspire. These two examples of written grafitti have likely been removed by now, but they set the theme of our recent New Year’s Day hike with loved ones at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve, so I’m glad to have captured them.

Gilbert Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch is a part of the Riparian Institute.

A great place for families, cyclists, hikers, birdwatchers, astronomy lovers, and photographers. Anyone who wants to live in the moment.

Solopreneurs must periodically hone skills and tools, and even retrofit their service offerings. These changes can be driven by new skills and interests, technology advances, and client needs.

My friend Christy has been on this journey for the past four years when she went from hard-driving real estate professional to dedicated mom and homemaker. She manages to create a loving (and immaculate) home, which is both inviting and stylish. That’s the art display area she has created just inside her front door pictured above.

She’s already thinking about her next entrepreneurial adventure, which this time around will combine her love of cooking, kids, and community. It’s a few years off, but it will be terrific when it happens.

I’m making my own changes here at Loosely Speaking.

I’m going to use this space to spend more time exploring personal creativity, and the ways I find to integrate the things I love in my life and work.

You’ll see less emphasis on specific industries (such as virtual assistance) as I take a broader look at all solopreneurship. While I pursue and share the creative activities that I love (knitting, kayaking, knitting, kayaking, knitting), I hope to continue connecting with my readers who have found their own ways of combining their work and special interests.

Spa Cloths in Katia Jamaica, crocheted

I am up to my ears in brown yarn, and therefore brown knitted items. For several months prior to November, I did the same thing with olive and lime green.

I formerly had dark brown hair but these days it is decidedly un-brown. I own one brown garment (and zero green togs) so I can’t understand why I keep picking up random skeins everywhere in assorted shades of BROWN, my least favorite color of all.

On the needles now are a nice spring green cotton and wool cardigan and another set of fingerless mitts (“Toasty”) in Bugga!’s crazy looking Black Witch Moth colorway…. hoping to work out of this brown funk and get some real color back in my world.

Check out these and the rest of my colorful projects over on Ravelry, where I am called “LooseKnit.”

Blanket for Dillon, Vanna's choice, knitted

Dillon's blanket

Straightforward fingerless mitts, Madeleinetosh Tosh Sock, knitted

Season 2/Episode 16 Program Notes

• Discussion/Announcements/Tips: Tara checks in from a conference, so we Skype-chatted about where to find quality, affordable continuing education.

• Interview: Katie interviews Mary Hawkes, Director, Yavapai County Branch Better Business Bureau on how to evaluate your choices when it comes to professional education. By the way, during the interview you’ll hear a strange noise, which is the sound of an earthquake, quite rare for our area. The epicenter was approximately 15 miles away. We left it in the recording for interest and context!Links Mary shared during the interview:
• U.S. Department of Education
  www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation
• Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
  www.chea.org/search
• Distance Education Training Council (DETC)
  www.detc.org
• Also, here is a link to the Better Business Bureau information on the BBB Code of Business Practices (BBB Accreditation Standards):

  http://www.bbb.org/us/bbb-accreditation-standards/

• October Poll: Last month’s winner was Jennifer Holstad (again!)
  • How to win this month’s prize:
    (1) leave your question as a comment at the end of this post; OR (2) post your question on the AZVAs Facebook page discussion tab or wall; OR (3) send your question to us via email to azvas.katie@gmail.com.
  • This month’s poll question:Last chance to tell us who do you suggest as your “dream interviewee?” for our first episode of 2012 (Katie’s thinking Larry Fitzgerald)?

How you can be a part of AZVAs the Podcast!

Want to be the subject of one of our interviews or sponsor an upcoming month of AZVAs newsletter & podcast? Click here to retrieve the details.To receive an announcement by email when a new podcast is available, azvas.katie@gmail.com

Thank you to this month’s sponsors:

Candy Beauchamp is the owner of 2 Minutes with a VA and provides our GoToMeeting access during our monthly REAL TALK conference calls.

Craig Cannings co-owns VA Classroom.com with wife Kelly. If you are a Virtual Assistant who’s looking for affordable training, check out the new tiered membership options available at VA Classroom.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (12.7MB)

I need to take moment for a personal aside to my mom, who’s had a heck of a spring and summer…

Mom, to prepare for next spring color, I planted a bed of Shirley Poppies in your honor. I’ve always loved the crepe paper poppies for sale on Veteran’s Day, but never realized they were based on the same flower.

The inside of the seed packet says, “This packet is dedicated to those men and women who fought for the allies during the two World Wars.”

Just goes to show you never know what you may find if you take a closer look.