Get those kids to bed

There's an interesting article on the NY Magazine website about how important it is (scientifically) for kids (and the rest of us) to get the right amount of sleep. There is a direct correlation between how much sleep high schoolers get and what grades they get. Good stuff to know, and good motivation for Pam and me when we're wrangling the boys to bed a reasonable hour.

Snooze or Lose

Geocaching

As I mentioned in the earlier post, Pam got the boys and I a handheld GPS unit for Christmas. It allows us to trek around the woods/trails searching for geocaches hidden all over the place. We may need to wait for some better weather, but I think this is going to be a fun hobby.

Take a look at this list from geocaching.com which shows all of the caches that are hidden just within a few miles of our house.

Xmas in Lima

We traveled up to Lima on Friday to spend the weekend with GrandJane and the rest of the family. We've had a lot of fun with Ellie and everyone. GJ cooked for us mostly, but we also got everyone out to Kewpee (except for Ellie and GrandJane) for lunch on Saturday.

We also got a chance to try out the new GPS that Pam gave to us for xmas. We found a geocache that was less than a mile from GJ's house (via geoacaching.com). It was a cold walk in the woods, but all 4 of us thought is was a lot of fun. I think we'll be doing a lot more geocaching in 2008.

Click on the album below to see the pictures we collected. The last pic in the album is the one of C&Z when right after we found the cache in the woods.

2007 Xmas in Lima

Ellie looking good

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Merry Christmas

Wishing a very merry Christmas and safe travels to everyone.

We enjoyed our day, starting with a 6:30 wakeup call by the kids. We got the first wave of gifts completed by 7:15 and then the Alkires came over for more present exchanges and brunch.

The kids added to their collection of football and baseball jerseys. Pam got the 3 of us boys a new toy, a GPS we can use for geo-caching. So expect us to do some cache hunting as we come visiting everyone in the future.

Uh oh

This is going to be a long trip. That last backup was just mall traffic, but now we must be stuck behind an accident. Been like this for a mile already.

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WV here we come

The road to wv is moving pretty slow so far.

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'Tis the Season

There's been lots of holiday preparations in our house so far. And now that the kids are out of school, they've worked on a few holiday crafts as well, like these gingerbread houses.

Below is an album of the kids' pre-xmas doings (so far).

2007 December

Finally had an on-time flight!

It'l be nice to get somewhere on schedule for a change.

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Texas Honky Tonk

I went out to dinner in Austin with some people from the project. After dinner we went to a club to see Dale Watson.

Dale is bit of a legend in Austin, and a hardworking one. He and his band play at different spots around Austin 5 nights a week (Fri thru Tues), and they often play for 3+ hours without a break. He's a great stage entertainer, and even though I'm not a country fan, I liked his stuff a lot. Kind of a cross between Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. Reminded me of the music I used to hear in the car with Dad in WV when I was young. (When he wasn't listening to NPR.)

This video from YouTube isn't from the night I saw him, but it is the same place -- The Continental Club.



Here's a song of his I like better, also from YouTube. But you'll have to use the link to go see it. (I think those same people dancing the two-step were at the show I saw.) Whiskey or God

Third time is a ...

Definitely not a charm. Guess where I am this morning.

At least I'm in the Crown Room this time.

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Cole Wins Along with Bengals

So both of the kids got to go to one Bengals game this year. Zach went a few weeks back when the Bengals had a surprising 35-6 win over the Titans. Cole had a chance to go to that game, but decided he'd wait and go to the Rams game, because he figured "the Bengals have a better chance to win that one." He even passed up going to a friend's birthday part so he could go. Well he was right. The Bengals won 19-10, and Cole won on his choice.

Not a lot of other Bengals fans decided to come to the game. The weather was nasty, and the stadium had be about 2/3 full at best.

The Bungles are sitting at 5-8 with a pretty easy final 3 games. They may actually catch the Redskins who are sitting at 6-7, but have a brutal last 3 games (Giants, Vikes, Dallas).

Cole - Bengals game

Cold and raining.

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Airport - delayed again

Bad luck with my flights this week.

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Airport - delayed

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Cole's Recital Vids

Cole's Solo Song




Angels We Have Heard on High





The First Noel

Cole's Guitar Recital

We went over to Wyoming (one of the Cinci 'burbs), to see Cole in his Winter Recital. We were joined by Bob, Kay, Sarah, and Dave, so Cole had a large family contingent in the crowd of 70 or so.

He did a great job. He's really come a long way with his playing in the past 2 years. The above pics are of Cole getting ready to start his trio of songs. I also took some video with our camera, but those are taking a while to upload. So I'll follow up with a link to the video.

Thanksgiving Day Race

Congrats to Jim for winning the TurkeyDay Race, at least the Hankins/McCracken division. We lost touch during mile 1. Jim powered home in 54:11, to my 55:06. Very impressive when you consider the fact that he made a port-o-let stop at the halfway point.

Check out the results here.

The Kids' XBOX Achievements

Here's my XBOX Live Gamercard, which really lists the kids' acheivements, since they play under my profile. I've also posted it on the side of the blog so that everyone can see all of the skills they are developing.

Ellie's first Skyline

Our pre-Turkey Day dinner was at Skyline, the Cincinnati tradition. (Thanks for dinner , Jim.) It seemed like Ellie was digging the spaghetti and cheese, both eating it and flinging it. As Pam and I always said when the boys were younger, the best part about Skyline is leaving the mess behind for them to clean up. They earn those tips.

We Give Thanks for Our Family

We were happy to have everyone come to our place to celebrate Thanksgiving again. We were blessed to share our house and see everyone together for some food and fun. Hopefully nobody went home hungry.

Below is the set of photos we took from the day. We didn't get very many pictures of the actual eating portion of the day, but the ratio of Ellie to pictures is quite high.

2007 Thanksgiving

And thanks to Kay for creating the Turkey Day highlight - pumpkin pies, even in her hobbled condition!

Rounding Third and Heading for Home

The big (but sad) news in Cinci today is the passing of "The Ol' Lefthander" Joe Nuxhall, the longtime Reds broadcaster. I remember being seven years old, living on the farm, and listening to Marty and Joe on the radio every night during the summer when I went to sleep. Those were the days of the Big Red Machine, and as a little guy I had no idea how lucky I was to have such a great team to follow.

Cole and Zach were also lucky enough to catch the tail end of the Marty and Joe days on Reds radio. So they know who he was and the story about him being baseball's youngest player. Maybe someday they'll be sharing Reds games with their kids and telling them about the days when they used to listed to the young Thom Brennaman and "his dad" Marty.

Joe stopped doing the "Star of the Game Show" after Reds games quite a while back. (I suspect it was getting harder and harder to find players that would stick around and talk after games.) But, I'll always remember him talking to the great players from the Reds and other teams, and then signing off with his trademark -- "This is the old lefhander rounding third and heading for home."

There are lots of stories piling up about Joe and how great a man he was. This is one of my favorites of the ones I've seen so far. It's from John Fay, the Enquirer's Reds beat writer, on his Reds blog.

Talking about Nuxie

Dave "Yid" Armbruster, his long-time engineer, summed up perfectly how Joe Nuxhall made guys our age feel:

"He's like the best uncle you ever had. I thought of him like that. I thought of him as almost a father figure later. He was the cool uncle, who would talk to you the way most grownups wouldn't talk to you. That was my impression."

Bob Castellini, John Allen, Tom and Dick Williams, Tom Browning and Chuck Harmon were at the press gathering the Reds held to talk about Nuxie. So was the guy probably as close to Nuxie as anyone in the organization, clubhouse man Bernie Stowe.

"He grew on me like my big brother," Stowe said. "The game would be over. We'd be on the road and he'd say, 'let's go get a beer and a sandwich.' Everybody said how cheap he was. I guess he liked the little guy because he took care of me.

Stowe said through all his recent tough times Nuxie remained upbeat and was at peace.

"He'd say, 'We all got to die. They can't save me forever,'" Stowe said. "What a man."

Sunset on Lake Travis

Our project team had a dinner outing at place in Austin called the Oasis. The best part was the view of the sunset.
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Turkey Day Race

I got confirmation from Jim that he's going to join me in running the Cinci Turkey Trot. And today Rachel told me she's going to run, if she can get Leslie to do it with her.

6.2 miles burns a lot of calories on a day when we all need to burn off a few extra.

See how we all did last time we ran that race together.

Sleeping on the Chisholm Trail

The hotel I've been staying at in Austin (actually it's in Round Rock which north of Austin) is on Chisholm Trail Road. I'd heard of the Chisholm Trail, but didn't know it's history. Turns out that the Trail was the path that Texas cowboys used following the Civil War to move cattle from Texas, where cattle were only worth $4 a head, up to Kansas, where they could get $40 a head. That's a long walk for a cow, and a long hard ride for a cowboy even if he is on a horse. But I suppose that 10x price difference would make an 800 mile trek worth while.

The Trail also gave Round Rock its name. The Trail crossed Brushy Creek, and the low water crossing spot was (and still is) marked by a round rock in the middle of the creek.

That concludes your Texas geography and history lesson. Carry on.

Good (Cold) Times

Zach and I had a fun, successful campout Saturday and night. It got pretty cold, but that didn't really slow us down. Zach's favorite part was "everything", but especially the War Games, which is when all the tribes meet in a field for relay games.

There's not much else to say but you can check out the pictures I took. Plenty of Zach's smiling face in there.

Camping

Zach and I are heading off to our Guides winter campout today. This is the first year Zach gets to go by himself since Cole "graduated" last year. It looks like it's going to be a cold night for us. The forecast calls for it to get down to 33, but I think we'll survive.

Look for some pictures when we return.

Calling all WAS Fans

This one is for those folks over in the nation's capital. Now back in Week 4 the Patriots rolled into Cinci for a Monday night matchup with the Bengals. The Pats weren't ever scared in that 34-13 victory over the clearly overmatched Bengals. But, my question is, what happened last week in that Pats/Skins game?

I think it's clear that the Skins are a far better team than our Bungles. So how did they get beatdown 52-7 by the scary good Belichicks? Heck it was even 52-0 for a while. Did Gibbs do something to get them riled up?

Halloween

Cole and Zach had a very good Halloween here in Lovetown. The weather was perfect, just a bit cool, but no jacket required. The extra hour of daylight thanks to extended DST was a welcome bonus too. We normally start trick or treating in the dark, but they were almost done by the time the sun set around 7:00.

I walked with the kids through our neighborhood, and Pam stayed back at the ranch and passed out the goodies to our visitors. At the beginning they had big plans to knock off all the houses in our neighborhood and then cross the street to another set of houses. But after an hour plus of hoofing around, they felt like heading home without the trek to another neighborhood. (It was probably almost 3 miles of walking since our 70+ houses aren't that close together.) Maybe it was a combination of tiredness and eagerness to tear into the candy.

Zach was Darth Vader and Cole was the "The Scream" from the famous Edvard Munch painting.

Both were pretty intimidating. One of the smaller neighborhood kids was scared of Darth and would cry and run to his dad whenever Zach walked by. Cole's mask was attached to a "pumping heart" which would pump dripping blood into the top of his mask. Several of the adult candy givers thought the blood dripping was pretty cool.

Most of the readers here saw these already, but I wanted to post them for historical purposes too.

Exciting Game and Still Undefeated

Zach's Tiger team ended their season Saturday with a 13-13 tie against the Mason Comets. It was an exciting game, and a bit disappointing, since Mason scored on a 4th down and 25, with 40 seconds left on a trick play from about 40 yards. But the kids played a whale of a game and had a terrific season.

Cole's season ended earlier than we originally though, as they didn't play this weekend. So their win last week was a nice finish to his season.

Both kids had a great year, had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and no one got hurt. Thanks to all of the family that came and watched games. That always gets the kids excited.

(Only 4 1/2 months until baseball starts.)

A Terrific Football Weekend

This past weekend was the perfect football weekend for our family, as our teams went 4 for 4.

Zach's team started things off right Saturday afternoon, as they cruised to a 20-6 win over the Lakota Tomahawks. Zach only got to play about 5 snaps on defense, but made the most of it, with 2 tackles from his D-end position. He also did a great job on the O-line. He made another nice block as a pulling guard that sprung his tailback for a 50 yard run that was just 2 yards short of the endzone.

Cole's team then played a great game later Saturday afternoon, beating Little Miami 14-0. Cole got to play a bunch of D-line and grabbed a fumble recovery. Then in the 4th Quarter when they were up by 2 scores, he got to play some tight end on offense for the first time this year. Cole said it was his best game of the year.

Then the Buckeyes finished off the MSU Spartans right after we got home from Cole's game. And to round out our Saturday, even though it doesn't have anything to do with football, we got treated to dinner at the Montgomery Inn by Pam's parents to celebrate her birthday on Monday.

And to cap off our football weekend, the boys in stripes actually won a game, as they pulled off a nice come from behind victory over the Jets 38-31. Yeah, the Jets stink, but we'll take whatever wins we can get right now.

Doubleheader Saturday

Just a quick football schedule update...We're going to have an afternoon football doubleheader this Saturday. Zach's team will square off against Lakota @ 1:45 Saturday afternoon, and Cole's team will face Little Miami @ 4:15. Both games are at the Loveland field (for a change.)

Another win/loss Weekend

First the bad news. Cole's Tigers lost their game today against the Mason Comets 26-13. It was tied during the 4th quarter at 13-13 briefly before Mason put together 2 quick scoring drives. Cole got to play quite a bit on the D-line, but he was disappointed in their loss.

The good news this weekend was for Zach's team. They won 12-0 against a previously undefeated team from Anderson. Zach made a nice block as a pulling guard to help his team score their first TD. Later in the game he got in on D-line and got in some nice plays, including a pressuring the Anderson QB as he threw an interception.

Grand Jane was in town to witness all of Zach's and the end of Cole's game. And Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dave were able to make it to Cole's game. So that was nice to have some extra family rooting them on.

Both boys' teams will have another game sometime next weekend, but we won't know when until middle of the week.

Childhood

I get the feeling that the passing of childhood is marked by many small and often unnoticed milestones. If that's the case, then this weekend we're having one of those moments at our house.

After 7 years of declining use by our not-so-little ones, we've decided to sell the backyard swingset. A year and a half ago when we had the backyard torn up, the swingset was in a disassembled heap in the back of the yard. We considered getting rid of it then, since the boys almost never used it. But, they begged us to not get rid of it and promised that they would use it more. So we paid to have it put back up again.

But after more than a year of similar non-use, we decided to ditch the expensive lawn ornament. I answered a swingset wanted add on Craigslist, and today those folks are coming to take it away. So we'll have to find someplace else for Cousin Ellie to play when she visits. But other than that, I expect it will hardly be missed.

Two Big Wins and One Anniversary

Well this weekend was full of celebrations in Loveland. Pam and I celebrated 12 years together on Sunday the 7th with a nice dinner out at Carlo & Johnny. And the boys' football teams both celebrated nice wins.

Zach's team continued their tear through the 2nd Grade youth football league, ending their regular season undefeated with a 26-6 drubbing of Lakota. The game was actually close up until the 3rd quarter, so Zach played O-Line (his starting position) more that he has recently. But he did get to play some D-Line and D-End and made a couple of tackles.

And then on Sunday Cole's team came up with a strong showing to beat Anderson 20-7. Cole got to start on defense (D-line), since he'd not gotten in last game. The Tigers got ahead 3 scores for a while and that meant Cole got to play all over the place- D-line, D-end, and even some O-line (which he's never done before). It was great to see the team get another win and to see the second teamers get a lot of playing time.

So other than the fact that it was 90 degrees in October, it was a great weekend for us.

Different Weekend, Same Results

Well another weekend of football has played out with much similarity to previous weeks. Zach's team won a fun one, 39-26 over the Sycamore Aviators. Zach told us he played "horrible", but he did make a tackle while he was playing defensive end. They also called one play for him to run the ball, but the QB and Zach had trouble with the exchange and it ended up with a fumble to the other team.

Cole's team lost a 7-0 squeaker to the Lakota Tomahawks. It was 0-0 into the 4th quarter and we thought we were going to overtime. The Tigers had a 4th and 4 at the Tomahawk 45 (the farthest penetration of the game) with about 5 minutes to go, but didn't make it. Then Lakota marched down the field, converted a 4th and 2 at the 4 yard line, and then punched the next one over the goal line. In addition to the loss, it was very disappointing that Cole didn't get into the game at all. Because of the close game, Coach Woehler kept the first string guys in the whole time, and about 5 of Cole's teammates didn't get in. The Coach claimed he'd make it up to those kids next game, so we'll see how that turns out.

Deep in the Heart of...

TEXAS. If anyone's looking for me during the week for the next few months, I will be in Texas. Austin to be specific. I started this week working on a project that will go for at least a few months, maybe more. I'm also working part time on a client back in Cinci, so I'll have my hands full for a while.

Tigers win/lose

Zach's football team won again on Saturday, beating the Lakota Tomahawks 30-12. Zach didn't get to play any tailback in the game but did get 5 or 6 nice tackles while playing defensive end.

Cole's game on Sunday wasn't as enjoyable for Tiger fans, as they fell to the Mason Comets 12-7. They scored first and were leading 7-6 until halfway through the 2nd half, but they couldn't hold them back on a hot day.

Cole's Game

Cole's football team took another tough loss today, as they dropped one to the Milford Eagles 20-13. Cole got to start on the first string D-line again, and played quite a bit, getting a couple of assists on tackles. But it wasn't a good day for the Tigers as they just couldn't come up with enough offense to keep up with the Eagles.

Zach's Big Game

Zach's football team rolled to an easy win on Saturday over the Mason Comets 26-0. That Comet team is the team that Zach's friend Ben Wendell plays on. The great thing about this win for Zach was that they got a big lead early. The first squad offense scored a TD on 3 of their first 4 plays from scrimmage. Because they were up by 18 or more, the league rule is they have to play their 2nd string until the score gets closer. So Zach got to play a lot at spots other than O-line during the game. He made 4 tackles, 3 for a loss, at defensive end, and also recovered a fumble. On offense he had 3 great running plays, and one he almost broke for a TD, but had to settle for a 25 yard gain. It was a fun game for Zach, but we did feel for the Wendells, as their team had a long day.

Toothless Wonder

It happened a couple of days ago, but I'm just now getting this posted. Zach lost both his top front teeth in one fell swoop. Both had been loose for some time, and one was just about ready to fall out, but each time I tried to finish the deal he wasn't quite ready for it to come out. So then one day on the bus ride home from school, his seatmate, Christian, elbowed him in the mouth on accident, and both teeth came out. (Luckily they didn't fly out of his mouth and onto the bus floor.) He thought it was pretty cool. And now he's sporting the classic look of a 7 year old getting some new teeth up front.

So How Hot is it in Phoenix, Andrew?

Andrew's just started his college career in Phoenix (Tempe, actually). August/September in PHX is like being in an oven, but I'm sure his newly built dorm has some pretty good AC cranking.

Here's Andrew describing how things are going so far.



And don't fret Andrew, there are lots of us who care.

Two Win Weekend

It was a great football weekend for both boys as their team each won.

Zach's team had the longest game of the weekend. They managed to beat the Milford Eagles 12-0 with a lightning delay thrown into the middle of the game. The delay was about an hour long and all told we were at the field for 3 hours. But the win made it worth the wait, and Zach also got his first rush attempt of the season. He got to carry the ball for the extra point attempt after their second score. He did everything right, but didn't get much blocking from his line and got stopped short of the end zone.

Cole's team got their first win of the season, as they topped the Indian Hill Braves 6-0. The Tigers scored a TD with 10 seconds to go in the game and held on for two more plays to win. Cole got to start the game on the D-line, and played all the snaps on D except for one series. He got assists on about 3 tackles.

Learn something new...

In addition to Cole's team losing today, there was another unfortunate event today. Zach was at the game playing with the other kids and he scraped his arm against a chain link fence. Nothing too bad, but it was about 6 inches long and was bleeding some.

We weren't sure from his immunization records for sure if he'd had a tetanus shot (they have lots of abbreviations on it), so we took him to the urgent care just to be sure. So we learned from the doc that he'd had one 3 years ago and they are good for 5 years. In the DTP and DTaP immunizations, the T stands for Tetanus.

The something new that I learned while checking into the situation was that association of Tetanus with rust is misleading. The tetanus bacteria can be on just about anything outside, and anything that punctures the skin, rusty or not, can transfer the bacteria inside the skin where it can grow.

Bonus Football

On this long holiday weekend, Cole's team got to play 2 games. This time it was at home against the same Amelia team he played yesterday. The Tigers definitely played much better but didn't quite get enough offense, losing 14-6.

Thankfully, both boys have a day off from games and practice on Labor Day. We need it.

Football Saturday

In addition to the big news today that the Michigan Wolverines apparently lost to some high school team, there were a couple of other games today that received a bit less attention from the media.

Zach's team started our day off with an 18-0 victory over the Edgewood Cougars. Zach had 1 tackle and also broke up a pass, but did not get any shots to "tote the rock."

Cole's team then traveled to Amelia and didn't fare so well. They went down 26-8 to the Barons. Cole got a couple of assists on tackles. Hopefully they can get back on track as they play another Amelia team on Sunday (at home this time.)

House Guests

Rachel and Ellie have joined us in Loveland for a few days. The boys are ready for Ellie to play football with them, and the cat seems to like the way she smells.

Here's a pic for Jim. (Eat your heart out, Daddy Mac.)

Win some, lose some

The boys each started their regular season schedules in football this weekend.

Zach's team got off to a good start on Saturday, as they thumped the Sharonville Eagles 31-20. They had a good lead for most of the game, which was good for the kids as a lot of the 2nd teamers played a lot. It was also tough on Zach, because the kid who usually swaps into his spot on the offensive line was not at the game. So, I think Zach played every snap of the 2nd half (offense and defense). He made his first real tackle while playing defensive end, which was a nice one for a five yard loss. He also went in for a series as a half back. And on the first play of that series, they called the one play in which he gets the handoff, but on that play the QB fumbled the ball and they lost possession.


Cole's team wasn't quite as lucky on Sunday. They fell in a heartbreaker to the Kings Knights 7-6. They had the lead up until about 1:30 left in the game, as Kings marched down the field on their last possession and scored to tie it at 6-6, and then pushed in the extra point to take the lead. The Tigers got about half way to the goal in their last drive, but ran out of clock. Cole got to play some D-line, nose guard and tackle. He likes to play the those spots even though he's usually the smallest guy on the line.

I'll follow up with some pics also.

The First Win of the OH HS Football Season

I don't usually cover HS football here on the What's Happening, but I had to relay this news item. The first win of the OH High School Football Season goes to .....the Loveland Tigers. Loveland played the first OH HS football game of 2007 and beat the Roger Bacon Spartans 10-7 on a FG with 10 seconds to go in the game.

Pam & the kids and I went to the Skyline Crosstown Showdown at Princeton HS to watch the game. The Loveland Youth Football org sold tickets as a fundraiser, so there were a couple hundred or more youth footballers running all over the stands. It was blazing hot for the 6:00 start, but the Tigers played well and scored 10 points in the 2nd half to take the victory.

A Tough One

Zach's Loveland Tiger football team had another pre-season game Saturday. They took on a tough squad from Kings, and the Knights gave them all they could handle. The good news is the Tigers didn't lose, but the bad news is they didn't win either. It was a back and forth game that ended in a 13-13 tie. That's a big deal, because Zach's team won every game they played last year. I'm pretty certain the coaches will have some extra work for the kids in practice this coming week.

(Cole suits up for his first game on Sunday morning.)

Zach's Football Debut

Zach enjoyed his first formal game on Saturday, although it was technically a preseason game. Zach's Tigers took on the New Richmond Packers in the "Death Valley Bowl" at Mt. Healthy, which is about 30 minutes from Loveland. It wasn't quite Death Valley but it was close to that hot. It didn't seem to bother the kids too much. The Tigers rolled over the Packers 28 - 0. They were up 20-0 midway through the first half.

Zach got to play offensive and defensive guard (he's the 2nd biggest kid on the team.) He did a good job and thought it was fun, because he could hit the other team as hard as he could (as opposed to practice where they tell them to take it easy quite often.) Hopefully he'll continue to like it as he's got a game every weekend for the next 2 months.

(Cole's first game will be next weekend.)

My Running Partner

Some of you who read this site were kind enough to give me some Amazon gift certificate $$ for my birthday. I used that head start to buy my Garmin Forerunner 305. It's my full time running partner.

It has built in GPS so that is tracks my position and speed during my runs. It can tell me how far I've run, how fast, etc. This version also has a heartrate monitor that works with it (unlike my old 205 model), so I know how close I am to having a heart attack (just kidding). When I get home from my runs, I can download all of the workout data to my pc and track my progress (or lack of progress) over time. The picture here is a map of my route on the run I took today near our house - click on it for a bigger version.

It's not helping my get any faster, but it's definitely a fun gadget to fool around with and makes the runs a bit more fun. Dad has the older 205 model that I bought for him a while back and he uses it on his bike rides. (If anyone would use my old 205, let me know. It's just gathering dust right now.)

Cousin Ellie's First Baseball Game

Cousin Ellie went to her first baseball game last night. Much to her dad's enjoyment, she got to see the Nationals beat up on the Reds as the Nats were in the midst of a 3 game sweep of the suddenly again hapless Redlegs.
Jim better take her to another game soon against the Mets or Braves, because I'm afraid Ellie will start to get the impression that the Nats are a decent baseball team.




















I believe that's Griffey Jr. striking out in the background.

R U Ready for Some Football?

Football practice has started for both Cole and Zach. Cole's in week #2 and Zach started this week, and of course it's nice and hot and humid.

Below is the game schedule for Zach's team.

			Game
Date	Type	Location	Time
Aug 11	Death Valley Bowl	Mt. Healthy	4:30 PM
Aug 18	CYFL Preview Game	LYF Field	10:30 AM
Aug 25	CYFL Week 1	LYF Field	5:30 PM
Sep 1	Tiger Bowl	LYF Field	10:00 AM
Sep 8	CYFL Week 2	Milford	4:15 PM
Sep 15	CYFL Week 3	LYF Field	12:30 PM
Sep 22	CYFL Week 4	Lakota	1:45 PM
Sep 29	CYFL Week 5	LYF Field	12:30 PM
Oct 6	CYFL Week 6	Kings	4:15 PM
Oct 13	CYFL Week 7	TBD	TBD
Oct 20	CYFL Week 8	TBD	TBD
Oct 27	CYFL Week 9	TBD	TBD

Here's the link to Zach's Team's webpage. It should stay up to date with any schedule changes.


We don't have a full schedule for Cole's team yet, but his games will be on Sundays. Will post them when we get them. Here's the link to the (so far mostly empty) site for Cole's Team.

Kings Island

We headed to Kings Island when it opened today. Pam had taken the boys last week and they wanted to go back with me, and I hadn't even been yet to pick up my (paid for) season pass. So we got there right as the rides opened at 10am. For the first hour you can ride the coasters that the boys like (Adventure Express and the Racer) as often as you like, since there's no line for them. I couldn't talk either of them into the Beast this time around (or any previous time). After the coasters we did the speed pitch - none of us won. Then we walked over and did the log flume (Wild Thornberrys) and then waited for them to open up Whitewater Canyon. After those two we were soaked (my shoes were squishing water), and we called it a day. It was a fun and very efficient 3 hours.

And this one belongs to ...

the Reds!

The four of us plus Bob and Kay went down to GABP to watch the Reds and the Cubs last night.

It started out looking like it might be a short night, as it started raining right as we walked into the park around 6:00. So we hiked up to the top of the section where the roof covered us and waited things out. We got to hear a strong medley of rain songs from the Reds music guy - where else could you enjoy Elvis's Kentucky Rain, 10,000 Maniacs' Thinking About the Weather, and OAR's Fool in the Rain all strung together? Then they put an old Bugs Bunny baseball cartoon on the big screen, followed by This Week in Baseball, which the kept the kids attention.

Then after almost an hour and a half delay the game started. It was a good one. The Reds had a 4-1 lead late which they squandered and the Cubs tied it up in the top of the 9th 4-4. The Reds came back with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, which sent the ton of Cubbies fans in the park home unhappy.

That's two exciting wins in a row for the Redlegs. They beat the Brewers in 10 the day before. Maybe Pete Mackanin, their new manager, is better than we all thought. They are actually beating some good team lately. Seems like they could be really competitive if they had about 3 more good arms in the bullpen. Maybe next year it'll come together for them.

And then to cap it all off, it was Fireworks Night. We stayed put for a cool music and fireworks show, and got home late - around 1:30. So a night that started out looking like a disappointment ended up being a very good night all the way around.

The End of a Long Day in the Car

Here's two quick movies we took of the kids at the end of out 12 hour car ride back from Hilton Head a couple week ago. (This shows why we only do that trip once a year.)

Car Ride #1


Car Ride #2

Switching to Feedburner

I don't think anyone is using the RSS feed for this blog besides me right now, but just in case...

I'm switching the blog over to FeedBurner today. You can get the new feed here http://feeds.feedburner.com/LukesWhatsHappening

There will also be a new FeedBurner badge on the right side of the main page.

(Email me or call me if you want to know how to use the feed to keep track of new postings here.)

Over the river and through the woods....

Zach and Cole have been taking turns at GrandJane's house this weekend.

Zach got to go first. Pam dropped him off in Vandalia with GJ Thursday and he spent two fun packed days in Lima. They went to the Neil Armstrong space museum in Wapak. That's a pretty small sized museum, so it's perfect for Zach. He also went swimming (twice) at the SCC, visted the Sqirty Worm for putt-putt and some arcade time, and also to a Loco's game. GJ reported that he only lasted for about 3 innings at the baseball game. We met in Dayton on Saturday to swap Cole for Zach, Cole will come back on Monday, and GJ will be ready for a week of quiet, I bet.

Vacation Week Pics

We had a great week at HHI. We had rain for part of one day, and while it was hot it wasn't too bad. Only got to 90 a couple of days.

As usual we took pictures in spurts during the week. Here's the link to our collection.

Hilton Head Vacation

4th of July at the Beach

We enjoyed 4th of July fireworks from the back deck of our house in HHI. We were a mile or more from the fireworks at Harbor Town, and we had to watch them through a few trees. But, what we lacked in closeness we more than made up in convenience.

Salty Dog Boys

First night in town we had dinner at the Salty Dog. Pizza and drinks with the guy playing guitar for us. Not a bad way to kick off the week.

Here are the boys soaking up the atmosphere at the Dog.


After dinner, Pam and her folks and brother headed to the grocery to stock us with provisions for the week. Cole, Zach and I headed back to the house, then we walked over to the beach to make sure the ocean was where we left it last year (it was.)

And then to wrap up the evening they hopped in the pool back at the house. It doesn't get much better than an evening like that if you're Cole and Zach. It's no wonder why they think this vacation thing is a good deal.