Preparing for Vacation

Tomorrow morning, we leave on our family vacation. We will visit my brother and sister in Washington, DC and both of my grandmothers and uncles and aunt in New Jersey (they live at different exits - if you are from Jersey you know what I mean).

In Washington, we will meet our first nephew E. J and C are very excited to see a baby that is family (C was the youngest before E). J expects to have a great time making E laugh. He will be surprised when E doesn't talk to him with "goo goo gah gah."

My mom is along for the ride with us. Even though we have a large SUV, we decided that carrying 5 people and stuff for 3 locations in a week, particularly 2 young kids, was going to be a space problem. The aero drag is bad enough already in an Expedition, so I decided against a cargo carrier on top. I did my usual analysis and settled on a hitch carrier. It looks good, but now that we are packing up the car tonight, we may have thought bigger than what we need. We won't know until tomorrow whether we need the extra stuff. According to my parents, my grandma near ACY has a lot of freebies from the casinos to give us. We probably won't have a lot of room for that stuff.

Stay tuned. I will try to post about our fun each day and maybe some pictures.

Away at Office this week

I had a rare opportunity to be a real office worker this week. I was in town but working at an office. I had to find my way around commute traffic and try to get home before dinner.

The important thing that I missed this week is watching J get better and better at riding his bike. Now, he is ranging farther and farther away and able to stop, turn, and everything else needed to be a safe rider. Rather than a bike helmet, he is wearing a football helmet. Therefore, I don't have any trouble spotting him when I drive up. J is growing up fast; in just 1 week he has moved quite far.

Riding his bike

J is very proud tonight. I missed it while I was at a church meeting, but he was riding his bike all by himself down the street. With his big front tooth missing, he was very excited and had a huge smile when I got home to hear the news. Way to go J!!!

The Summerville Y Athletics are ...

Runners-up. The A's played a hard game and carried a lead to the bottom of the third inning. They were up 7-4 against the RiverDogs. By the way that the parents and coaches of the RiverDogs were yelling, they weren't used to being behind at least not after their first at-bat. But, we will say that the heat took its toll along with some questionable calls by the ump to sap the energy of the A's. Then the RiverDogs steamrolled for the next couple of innings. The final score wasn't close.

The RiverDogs are coached well and the coaches are good sports and teach sportsmanship very well to their team. They played a great game and deserved the championship.

The U8 Coach Pitch season seemed short, but everyone on the team improved each week and you can't have higher expectations than that. Maybe a couple of kids will go to a different league and a couple will go to a different team, but next year this group will be the "RiverDogs" and the team to beat. Unlike the RiverDogs where the kids have played 4 seasons together with the same coach, the A's were a first year team.

Each player contributed and seemed to have a good time. Looking forward to next season. But first, the parents are going to beat the kids on Thu night in a parent / child finale game.

With proper note to show how proud we are of J, he was selected as Most Improved player. He was surprised and thrilled to be selected by the coach. Along with us, the coach has noticed how much better J is fielding and throwing. We will keep working on it and next year will be even better.

Championship Game on Saturday

J's team has made it to the Championship game in U8 Coach Pitch for the Y. The A's play the vaunted RiverDogs. #1 vs #2. The RiverDogs have blown everyone out because they have returning players since age 4. It is amazing to watch the light bulb click on for 6 and 7 year olds on how to do something and to get better at something. Sometimes the bulb flickers on only for a second, but you take what little steps you can get. What a difference a couple of months and practice makes.

Each team that the A's played in the playoffs the last few days have improved tremendously since they played earlier. Early in the season, J and his teammates just needed to hit the ball and they could score because there wasn't much fielding. Each team except the RiverDogs. To get back to batting you could survive waiting on the other team to strike themselves out. Not in the playoffs. Just about everyone now makes good contact and if you don't run fast you can get thrown out. The A's picked up their game to beat the Rangers on Thu night and now are big underdogs on Saturday. The Rangers played a good game. The A's used what they remembered from practice to get a triple play in one inning and a double play the next to win the game. Their coach was a very good sport and came over to congratulate the A's after the game and wished them good luck against the RiverDogs.

Fizzled Out

The idea of the lemonade stand and the idea of writing a blog has passed for J at the moment. So, I will use this blog for myself. If any of the contributors feel like hopping in, they can.

I usually don't like to enjoy or comment on anyone else's pain and suffering, but I have to help pile on the loads of sympathy for Paris Hilton. Can you see the violin that I am playing for her? You can't? I can't either because I am not playing one. The judge and prosecutor did the right thing. Unfortunately, Paris is the product of our society. Maybe her time in the spotlight is now over. She certainly has a good publicist that knows how to say the right things, but she herself lacks a lot of sincerity. When the spoilutante is faced with reality she cries like a baby for her mother. The spin people are around for the rich-and-famous just like politicians. You can tell the slant of reporting by whether she had five days in jail (as she was credited by the Sheriff) or 3 days in jail which is the rounded time of her protected incarceration.

I agree that LA has an overcrowding problem, but Paris is dangerous. What if she had hit someone while driving intoxicated with a suspended license? Who really believes that she was heading out to a burger joint? She has no credibility.

Wow, quick post became wordy. I feel better to say it. S doesn't want to hear me say anything about it. We basically boycott the Paris Hilton stuff, but we cannot avoid it. I agree with the people that are requesting a boycott of Hilton hotels whether it really impacts her or not. She has benefited from it before if not now. I am not staying at any more Hilton hotels.