Elevenses

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-26T11:32:00.004-05:00

We had a great Christmas yesterday, I hope everyone else did as well. If you don;t celebrate Christmas, well then, I hope it was a great day. (But you really should think about celebrating Christmas, it's a great holiday).

I'll post our Christmas letter soon, but I wanted to put up some pictures from the day.

We had a lot of fun, we go over to my parents on Christmas eve, and then have Christmas morning at our house. There is a new slideshow on the left of our pictures from our house.

Long overdue update

2008-11-25T08:03:00.003-05:00

Wow, has it really been over a month since I last posted. Guess so, man I'm a bum....

All are doing well here, the kids are all doing their own thing more and more. Leland just finished working on the crew for his first high school play, they did a punk rendition of 12th night. Cheri and I went to see it on opening night, and I must say it was a very entertaining and enjoyable performance. Leland had a great time and has already signed up to crew for the next one, a musical.

William has a part in the Seusical the musical performance for the middle school, he is playing one of the Wikersham brothers, and is really enjoying the practices at least.

Jonathan is kind of biding his time right now, soccer is over, and the middle school dropped it's wrestling program. We are going to try and find a indoor team he can play on, but for now, he is just doing schoolwork and playing computer games.

Ethan is working hard in first grade, and is having fun at everything he does. I'll put together a list of some of the funny things he has said, Cheri keeps a list, some of them are a riot.

Welcome to the Republican Party

2008-09-29T14:08:00.001-04:00

I just got this from my Dad in an email, I thought it was funny.

I was talking to a friend of mine's little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?'

She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'

'Wow - what a worthy goal,' I told her. 'You don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds 'cuse she's only 6. And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'

Bellhaven

2008-08-08T18:22:00.000-04:00

Dinner tonight is looking much better...

Dinner in Manhattan

2008-08-07T23:05:00.000-04:00

I am in NY for work and since it's pouring down rain I am eating at
the close and open restaurant next to my hotel instead of one of the
much better choices in Chinatown or littl Italy a few blocks away.

French restaurant in chinatown staffed by a Spanish speaking staff for
the loose ... at least it's expensive. <sigh>

Cool new assistive technology

2008-07-22T11:54:00.003-04:00

I was tempted to title this, "... put one foot in front of the other, and soon you'll be walking cross the floo-ooo-oor" but that seemed to make too light of what is possibly the coolest assistive device I've seen in a while.

ReWalk, developed by an Israeli company is pretty darn cool, check it out here, along with a video of a man who was wheelchair bound after an accident left him a paraplegic, walking with the help of the device.

Went canoeing last week

2008-07-21T14:43:00.003-04:00

Sorry again about the long delay between posts, I'd blame it on something, but I can't think of anything besides myself to blame it on, so I'll leave off blaming anything...

My dad and I took the three older kids canoeing last week, which they enjoyed greatly, I have updated the rotating image browse on the sidebar to reflect those pictures, fwiw.

A good time was had by all, even though the canoe "accidently" tipped over a couple times...

This blog is not abandoned

2008-06-23T12:45:00.002-04:00

Hi all, and sorry for my vast silence lately. Work has been slow of late, which means I need to work much harder to make sure we get busy...

The kids are all doing well, they are at camp this week, which means it is work-a-palooza for me this week.

I did read an interesting news story recently, for those of you who still sleep well at night, this may fix that.

This is not an approved use of duct tape .... I mean really, dude ....

William practicing staging for his play this spring.

2008-05-08T19:01:00.000-04:00

He is playing the fox in Pinnocchio (sp?)...

At Jonathan's soccer game.

2008-04-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

And recovering after surgery.

2008-04-24T14:46:00.000-04:00

drinking his sprite...

Ethan waitng for surgery

2008-04-24T14:28:00.000-04:00

Here he is reclining in his ben waiting for his time to get his ears
cleaned out. We are also having his tounge clipped from the bottom of
his mouth since he will already be out. He is very tounge-tied, and
this should help quite a bit.

At the camp banquet

2008-04-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

Cheri and Ethan singing with the high school kids at the Scioto Youth
Camp fundraiser dinner.

Jonathan's soccer game.

2008-04-10T18:01:00.000-04:00

Actually this is just his team warming up.

At the flow...

2008-04-05T14:18:00.000-04:00

Jonathan went to the flow after his soccer game today, his brothers
didn't want to go.

Dinner at cracker barrel

2008-03-29T16:10:00.000-04:00

And us waiting for the second...

2008-03-29T14:40:00.000-04:00

The first tunnel in VA

2008-03-29T14:39:00.001-04:00

Morning update, no picture.

2008-03-29T08:09:00.000-04:00

A quick update on our tripnthis morning. Webstopped at a hotel last
night. A Quality Inn, who's name is not well deserved. At least we now
have had a good night's sleep and should be home some time tonight.

Court Bowman

Sent via mobile

The Eva has landed.

2008-03-28T18:15:00.000-04:00

Waiting for Eva...

2008-03-28T17:47:00.001-04:00

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

2008-03-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

Time to hit the road.

Oh the people you meet...

2008-03-27T18:13:00.000-04:00

Imagine that. We ran into friends from back home at Gatsbys, a pizza
place near Naples.

Our day at the pool

2008-03-27T14:34:00.000-04:00

Big meal

2008-03-26T21:51:00.001-04:00

After an afternoon at Bowman's Beach we went Cheeburger cheeburger.
It's a burger joint on Sanibel. Very good burgers. If kids 12 and
under eat a complete half pounder, they get their picture on the wall.

Here is Jonathan's picture....

We did finally make it to the beach

2008-03-26T20:48:00.000-04:00

The kids had a great time, and the afternoon sun was great.

Our trip to Sanibel island.

2008-03-26T12:54:00.000-04:00

Don't even get me started.....

Dinner with the Bressler's

2008-03-25T19:42:00.001-04:00

On the water.

2008-03-25T17:06:00.001-04:00

Cheri and William recline, while Lelans keeps a look out.

Our ride is here.

2008-03-25T17:04:00.000-04:00

Brad is driving, kids up front.

Waiting for our ride.

2008-03-25T14:50:00.001-04:00

We rented a boat for the day, and Cheri, Ethan and I had to go to
shore for an errand. I'll tell about it later. And while waiting to
get picked back up, we saw some birds.

At the skatepark

2008-03-24T11:18:00.001-04:00

A pretty good skatepark near Brad and Kathleen's house.

Kid's room

2008-03-24T10:34:00.001-04:00

This is the room that Brad uses as an office by day but that gets
filled with mattresses by night for the kids to sleep in.

Two pictures at Ralph and Chris's pool on Easter.

2008-03-24T10:33:00.001-04:00

2008-03-24T10:32:00.001-04:00

The front of Ralph and Chris's house.

2008-03-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

We had Easter lunch with them and their family. Very fun.

Going to church

2008-03-23T10:18:00.000-04:00

All dressed up for Easter.

Dinner at R. J. Gator's

2008-03-22T20:24:00.000-04:00

I had a bucket of shrimp, Cheri had a platter with scallops and stuff.

Rain during the drive down

2008-03-22T20:04:00.001-04:00

Almost there...

Dinner at P. F. Changs at the end of day one drive.

2008-03-21T19:01:00.001-04:00

Cheri even drove leaving lunch.

2008-03-21T13:12:00.000-04:00

Lunch at Wendy's in Kentucky.

2008-03-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

On the road to Florida

2008-03-21T12:25:00.000-04:00

Catching up

2008-03-09T16:43:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the long delay, obviously I am not posting daily as was my intent. I thought I would catch everyone up with the latest tho.

It all started last year, we got some snow off and on, but nothing great, and Ethan asked all winter if this was a good day to build a snowman. Even the slightest dusting of snow sparked hope in his young eyes that today would be the day, however we never really got the good day we needed.

Fast forward to this year, again, some snow here and there but nothing really good, so last week Ethan, child of God that he is, went to prayer to solve his woes.

"God, pleas send the perfect snow to build a snowman." Simple and child-like faith.

Fortunately for Ethan, God loves him, unfortunately for me, God loves Ethan, for I had a trip to New York this week.

It was a good trip, met some really great people at the New School, sounds like we may be able to help them, and they look like they may be a good client. I had a great lunch, lentil soup with roasted pork, and a fancy mac-n-cheese with a hand made mozzarella and bacon, very good.

I went to the airport, got checked, and waited for my plane to arrive. It got listed as a bit late, so I asked if they had a definite sense of the arrival since I had a connection to make to get home. The kind lady at the counter checked and told me that no delay would affect my connection, as my connecting flight had been cancelled. It seems that God sent Ethan's snow... in spades.

We got about 12 inches over the course of Friday and Saturday, all good packing snow for making snowmen. But all good packing snow for keeping planes from landing as well.

I could give you the long version, but the short version is I got home not Friday evening, but six cancelled flights later, Saturday night.

I got up Sunday morning, church had been cancelled, and we went out to make Ethan's snowman.

As we started, the snow was a bit fluffy, and non-packing, so we asked Ethan if he wanted to build a fort instead.

"Yeah sure", the way he says it almost sounds like one word yahsure...

So we filled a trash can with snow, packed it tight and got busy. The fort was looking good the sun came out, and we noticed the snow was really packing well.

"Ethan, you want to make the fort an igloo with a roof?"

"Yahsure"

About 4 hours later, with a brief break for Jonathan's bass lesson for him (the rest of us pressed on) and we ended up with a pretty passable igloo. There should be a slideshow on the right side of it, or you can see it directly here.

The lesson, covet and respect the prayers of your children.

...and Ethan asleep at the restaurant afterwards.

2008-01-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

At the skate park

2008-01-30T17:27:00.000-05:00

Jonathan going down a half-pipe.

Slideshow

2008-01-03T12:40:00.000-05:00

I added a slideshow of pictures to the left, it is easier to add pictures to than the movie I did earlier.

The ones there now are from Christmas at Cheri's parents, I will try to add new slideshows with some regularity.

Merry Christmas!!

2007-12-25T23:11:00.000-05:00

We all had a great Christmas here. Cheri wrote a great letter to all our friends and family that we tried to send to everyone we had addresses for if you didn't get one, just get us your address!

I'll post it tomorrow for anyone who got missed, it wasn't intentional, and you may see it sooner this way rather than by post.

I hope you all had a great Christmas as well.

Christmas with Cheri's family

2007-12-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

We went down and spent Saturday evening with Cheri's family, well the
Morgan side anyway. We ate and sang. Cheri played piano for our
singing, as you can see.

The best flash animation ever

2007-12-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

This may be the best flash animation I have ever seen, a great bit of work.

I got a link from my dad and now I share it with you all.

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviant ART

William at his concert

2007-12-16T14:50:00.001-05:00

William is in the back row, he is liking choir (Maryland melody singers they are actually called) quite a bit, he is also in a play this week, so maybe I'll get some shots of it as well.

Jonathan at his concert

2007-12-16T14:48:00.001-05:00

Jonathan is in the middle in orange, playing the trombone. He likes it ok, but will likely quit it next year to focus on the guitar more.

And the angel on top.

2007-12-08T16:16:00.001-05:00

Decorating the Christmas tree

2007-12-08T15:37:00.001-05:00

We all decorated the tree today. This is probably our last year for
this tree, it is a fake tree. We love it, it is very open and has a
very realistic looking trunk, instead of a green or brown pole. So if
anyone has any great tree recommendations let me know.

Seattle Update

2007-12-06T13:02:00.000-05:00

So I posted less frequently than I would have liked while in Seattle, but about as often as I should have expected.

I got there late Friday evening, and pretty much went to John's house and crashed. We went out for a bite at John's brother's pub, a nice place where we had nacho's that were excellent.

Saturday morning after getting a bit of work done (I always forget that on the west coast you always wake up to work since the world has already started their day before you.) I went to the hospital to visit my sister Pam.

She was a bit groggy from the s

urgery Friday night, but it was nice to see her and Stevie ( my other sister, pic right). Saturday afternoon we went kayaking which was a lot of fun, cold, but fun.

Late Saturday there was a bonfire at the camp site, the highlight of which was one of the safety boaters who evidently got drunk enough to think swimming in the bay was a good idea. As he ran to the beach of very cold water, through the very rough bushes and rocks, the quote of the trip was heard, "I don't need shoes, I'm naked!"

As it turns out naked is not proper protection from sharp things, so he was very sore Sunday.

John did well in the race, finishing in 88 minutes, about the middle of the pack for the sea kayakers, and ahead of his friend who raced with him, so that is good. I also met a friend of his

Dub Side who was a cool guy and probably the best Greeland kayaker in the world right now. a picture of his finish is on the left.

Monday and Tuesday were about the same, up in the morning, work a bit, go to the hospital, visit Pam (and Stevie on Monday) and then hang out with John. His wife joined us for dinner out Tuesday (she had a work thing Monday) and we went to a great small plate restaurant (like tapas but it was french) where I had a few dishes, the absolute best of which was a bowl of mussels that we soft as butter, covered with a big handful of frittes (like a french french fry, I don't know how they do them different than we do, but they are). It was like fancy fish and chips, and crazy good.

Pam looked great by my last visit, and it was hard to say goodbye, but she will stay with Stevie for a week when she is released from the hospital.

That is about it, except for my 2 hour turned into 8 hour layover in Chicago on the way back, but such is travel....

John rounding the second island

2007-12-04T18:40:00.001-05:00

John, my friend in the green kayack to the left, rounding the second
island of three in the race.

Ready, set, GO

2007-12-04T18:38:00.000-05:00

The race begins...

Kayaks on the beach

2007-12-04T18:37:00.000-05:00

All, or at least most, of the racer's kayaks lined up on the beach
getting ready to race.

After kayaking

2007-12-01T23:17:00.001-05:00

John and I getting something to eat after kayaking in Bowman Bay.

Update on Seattle trip

2007-12-01T10:48:00.001-05:00

I landed safely in Seattle, which I guess the last post implied, but was a bit soon to confirm.

I went to a kayaking party with John last night, and I am going to head over to the hospital this morning to visit my sisters.

John and I are planning on heading to the water this afternoon to get set for the kayaking race tomorrow. I am not racing, but John has a kayak for me and we will do some paddling and rolling I'm sure.

I'll post some pictures this afternoon after I get back from the hospital.

Landing in Seattle

2007-11-30T17:39:00.000-05:00

Now that is skydiving!

2007-11-29T12:41:00.000-05:00

All I can say is wow....

Click me for amazement.

All I want for Christmas

2007-11-26T13:31:00.000-05:00

I know I have been an infrequent poster of late.

I am going to get out to Seattle this week and see a friend and visit my sister when she has surgery. In the meantime, if you want to get me something for Christmas and are stumped for ideas, I'll take one of these...

Edit: for those with trouble clicking to see the video, it's original is here...

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T14:46:00.000-05:00

We are at Cheri's parents for Thanksgiving today and the power is out.
It is a bit odd to be able to post to the blog while the lights don't
even work, but here is a picture of some people playing a board game
while waiting for the power to get restored.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

General update

2007-11-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

So, it has been a long time since I have said anything useful here, I know. I have tried to put a few pictures up, now and again to keep anyone who reads this blog (if indeed anyone does) up to date a bit.

The kids are still doing all their kid stuff, and I have put a few pictures of them up lately, so to balance that I thought I would put a couple pictures up that I have from a while back.

William's haircut

2007-11-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

Class today

2007-11-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

We rolled out a system for a client (Mead) today and I helped out with
the training.

Saturday bowling league

2007-11-03T17:15:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of Cheri bowling in our saturday church league.

Ben Geiser's birthday

2007-11-02T19:33:00.001-04:00

Ben playing guitar with his friends at a party at his house for his
40th birthday party.

Ethan and Leland

2007-11-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

Here is Leland taking Ethan trick-or-treating.

Ethan for halloween

2007-11-01T18:09:00.000-04:00

A picture of Ethan as taz.

Beard or no beard

2007-10-19T17:07:00.000-04:00

All,

I have been growing a beard lately, and I wanted to get some feedback. What do you all think, beard or no beard?

I have a poll on the right, so vote away, if I missed an option just let me know.

Here are a couple pics for comparison, I tried to make them of similar quality.

Orwell, Koontz, or the dawn of a new era.... you decide.

2007-10-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

"Angela Belcher leans in to watch as a machine presses down slowly on the plunger of a syringe, injecting a billion harmless viruses into a clear liquid. Instead of diffusing into the solution as they escape the needle, the viruses cling together, forming a wispy white fiber that's several centimeters long and about as strong as a strand of nylon. A graduate student, Chung-Yi Chiang, fishes it out with a pair of tweezers. Then he holds it up to an ultraviolet light, and the fiber begins to glow bright red."

OK, I am leaning towards Dean Koontz, master of the horror genre. The idea that the fibers in my clothes, sutures or whatnot are engineered viral strands structured with directed evolution has me wondering when we will be welcoming our new viral robotic overlords... ;)

Actually it is very cool technology, and quite groundbreaking, it just that viruses have never seemed like our allies before.

Read more here.

Catchall

2007-10-16T09:20:00.000-04:00

So, this whole one post day thing is really working out well as you can see.

It was hard to realize what the addition of football would do to our schedules. That is almost over, Jonathan's team has their last game Thursday. Work has been very busy lately, which is better than the alternative that is for sure.

By the time everyone reads this the good tickets will likely all be gone, but Skybus (www.skybus.com) just added some more flights to their schedule, which means if you want to go to one of their cities they fly to, from another, you may be able to grab a $10.00 seat. I grabbed two seats for Cheri and I in April from Columbus to San Francisco, so we can go see Ben W. and get a mini one day vacation for way cheap.

I got an iPhone as a gift from a friend of mine, which has turned out to be one of he best designed and most useful tools I have gotten in a while. They are a bit pricey still but if you need email or information on the road, they are unparalleled.

I can't tell you how the phone part is, I still haven't made a call, all email web and calendar for me so far.

We went down to Cheri's folks house this last weekend, had dinner Saturday night, then went to church with them Sunday. A good time overall, plus there was a birthday party for our nephew Sunday after lunch, so we got to go to that.

Sunday Afternoon, William and Jonathan had music lessons, Jonathan learned how to play Ironman on the guitar, so he is on his way. ;)

I guess that is it, type to you all later.

OLPC - What it's all about

2007-10-05T17:01:00.000-04:00

I have posted before about the one laptop per child program. It is an attempt to build a laptop that can be successful in all environments, for all ages.

They are about ready to launch, and the biggest concern they have to face is not technology, but social blockades. I have read a number of commentaries, many denegrating the laptop it's self, but a review by David Pogue here seems to be even, fair, and by someone who "gets it".

I suggest everyone read it if you have time, and plan on getting a laptop when they go retail under the "buy one, get one" program. You'd get a great, super efficient laptop for $400 bucks, and so would someone who neads it a lot more than you.

Ethan

2007-10-05T08:32:00.000-04:00

Again, sorry for all the delays, work, blah, blah, blah.

Ethan is 5 now, and is in his first year of Kindergarten. He has a blast there, and more than any of the other kids was really ready to get out of the house on his own every day. I'm sure it has something to do with being the youngest, but whatever the reason, he is having a blast at school.

Often he walks in with his brothers, William especially is good at helping him get to class, they have a turtle (Shelly) in their classroom, and the school has a dog (Glasier) both of whom Ethan thinks are cool. Shelly eats slugs (Brad, if you read this blog I'm sure that sentence is amusing) which the kids get to feed her, and that is always good for a retelling from Ethan when he gets home.

Apart from school, he is not involved in any other formal activities, he is a big fan of cartoons, but really, who isn't, and loves playing video games with his brothers.

He especially likes playing wii sports, I would guess bowling is his favorite, but he likes them all.

Even a year or more later they can be hard to find, but I strongly recommend a wii for anyone who is thinking of a video game system, the motion sensitive controller makes the games so much more interesting.

Sorry for the quiet

2007-09-28T09:22:00.000-04:00

I have been incredibly busy at work lately.

Just for something amusing, someone sent me this, which you might enjoy.

Legos, and robotics, who can resist.

Jonathan

2007-09-20T11:17:00.000-04:00

So, as I mentioned before, it has been a long and crazy week. My mom ended up in the hospital for a pulled or strained muscle in her leg, and is now laid up for a few days recovering. Anyway, sorry for the delay in getting an update on Jonathan.

We went to lunch last Friday, and as usual we went to Rubino's pizzeria in Bexley. Best pizza in the world.

Jonathan is in 6th grade as well. He is liking school, although not as much as Leland or William, he would be a great student but for his organizational skills, we're hoping Cheri can help him along there, as I certainly can't.

He is playing the guitar (electric) and is taking lessons from a student at Capital university who comes to our house once a week to teach him. He is getting better every week, just have to keep after him to practice.

Jonathan's schedule is the fullest of all the kids, as he is also playing a sport, he was playing soccer earlier this year, for the second year, and is very good at it. Now he is in football, and while he is a natural athlete, he is having some coaching woes in that his head coach isn't very good. I won't get into it any more, but it is less fun when your team hasn't gotten a first down in 3 games.

He is also taking care of his dog, Buckeye, and that on top of everything else has him full of activities all the time. Cheri told me that they are all too young to mention any thought of them seeing anyone socially, so I won't address that anymore I guess. Which is a shame, as Jonathan is the only one who has anything worth mentioning happening on that front.

I guess that is about it. Any questions, just ask.

And congratulations Eva.

Down time

2007-09-20T08:56:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lag in posting all who read. I have been under the weather the last couple days and haven't been ahead of the work at any point in there to do non-productive things like posting to my blog.

The folks are here today taking the tree down, I'll try to get pictures of that and post them later today.

A giant waste of time

2007-09-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

I get news from Blogger, the folks who let me (or anyone else) publish my blog for free, when I log in, today the news was:

Shortly after Blogger launched photo uploading two years ago, one of our engineers whipped up a web page that would show us the pictures that were being uploaded in real time. The result was fun, often beautiful, but above all, compelling. We couldn’t stop watching.

Over the years we’ve kept this photo scroller as part of the Blogger offices, on a monitor or projector, as an interesting (distracting?) slideshow, and a reminder of the diversity and vivaciousness of Blogger blogs. The fame of the scroller spread within Google, until one day we were asked, “so, when are you launching this?”

“Um...,” we replied. But we knew a good idea when we heard one. We got our UI people to come up with buttons and fadey effects and we got our engineers to make the whole thing fast and robust. A bit of work later, and now we can share it with all of you:

Here

Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it. We also wrote a Blogger Play FAQ with more information.

A caveat: we use many techniques, including Google’s SafeSearch technology, to keep the images clean. Nevertheless, on rare occasions an image that you may find vulgar or obscene will slip through our algorithmic filters. Google does not pre-screen the images that appear in Blogger Play, nor is it responsible for their content.

It is very mesmerizing to watch.

Tough?

2007-09-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

So we had football practice last night, for the 5th and 6th grade team here in Bexley. Now we have some great kids on the team, and some pretty talented ones as well, but we have a real weakness, and that is just general toughness, which led me to the thought, can you teach toughness?

Jonathan is a pretty tough kid, he is playing with a broken finger, and tries his hardest on most plays, we have a few other kids who do as well, but we have a lot of kids who don't. they are afraid of the tackle, they are afraid off getting hit, and they are really afraid of being near any big kid.

I think all three of my older kids are pretty tough in their own way, but for kids who are meek, can you teach toughness?

Our head coach seems to think you can, he runs a lot of drills designed to 'toughen' the kids up, blocking drills mostly, and conditioning which is good for condition, but I wonder if anything short of a lifestyle change can toughen someone up.

This has been dealt with in a ton of movies, mostly kids sports movies, where kids toughen up when pushed, but I am starting to question the validity of the process.

I saw a lot of folks in the Marine Corps, many of whom didn't make it out of boot camp, and all because they couldn't gather the intestinal fortitude to dig it out and finish the fight. If the Marine Corps can't toughen up someone who doesn't have it in them, I am not sure any process can.

What do you all think, can someone be made tougher through reasonable training, or is it something you have to have in you to begin with, and can only be discovered or built on, but not implanted?

A truly american art form

2007-09-13T10:16:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update today, it is shaping up to be a busy one.

I did think that a news article I saw recently was very cool tho. There is an artist who discovered he was a wonder with the Etch-a-sketch. See for yourself.

William

2007-09-12T10:48:00.000-04:00

I had lunch with William last week, and haven't had a chance to get around to an overall update for him to catch everyone up.

He is currently in the 6th grade, and is in the GATE program (GATE is an acronym for Gufted and Talented E(ducation I think)) which basically means he is taking some accelerated and honors classes.

He is really liking it, it is his first year with the program, and while we had some concerns, it is working out well. Mostly we worried that accelerated learning means accelerated exposure to mature topics, which we are somewhat against. Not that we are hoping to isolate our kids from the world forever, but we tend to think society is too anxious to push kids into adulthood.

Apart from school, William is studying the drums with a capital student who is a drummer and music major. He is liking that, and he has a drum set at home to practice on, so us and the neighbors for a few houses each way get to enjoy his lessons.

William took a drama class this last summer as well, playing the lead in an adaptation of the play "A Mid-Summer Night's Dream". He missed one of the performances, but he really enjoyed it and is likely to do it again. The same troupe is doing "Scrooge" this winter and he is hoping to get the lead in that as well.

He isn't into sports much at all, but is in the choir at school, so it looks like he is on the performance path more so than any of the other kids. He loves to do it, and he has a real knack for it as well.

By the way, the picture is from his first day of school this year, and yes, all the girls are jealous of his hair. ;)

Buckeye's Game

2007-09-09T20:57:00.001-04:00

This is a picture from our seats at the Buckeye's game.

I sent and posted this from my cell phone, so no guarantees on the quality.

Weekend Update

2007-09-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

Well, it was quite a full weekend for us, some great friends of ours, Rex and Betty Ann gave us out of the kindness of their hearts, two tickets to the Buckeyes game Saturday, so our morning was a quick prep and a dash to the stadium to watch OSU win.

It was a great game, and they had very nice seats, 5th row in C deck, level with the goal line, looking down on it nicely.

We had gone to dinner with Ben and List for our 16th anniversary to a restaurant we like a lot, called The Burgundy Room" which is a great tapas restaurant.

Saturday evening was our bowling league and then home with the kids for dinner.

After church Sunday we came home for lunch, then William had his first drum lesson at Capital University, which he liked.

Overall a full but very enjoyable weekend.

Ethan

2007-09-06T11:40:00.000-04:00

Ok, first things first, I did spel chek the qost, nything I mised is jost part of mi charakter. However the idea of putting a picture is a good one, so I added a picture for Leland.

I was going to do the kids in order today, but I picked up Ethan from school today, so I though I would share his insights from his lessons of the day.

The first thing he told me was he learned how not to kick kids today, which is a very useful lesson I imagine. Then he told me he learned that "kids don't like it when the they get hit, like in the nuts." Also good to know.

He says these lessons were not based on any particular events, just something they learned today. That kid is always good for a laugh.

So there you go, everything you need to know you can learn in kindergarten.

Leland

2007-09-05T10:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I mentioned that I would give more meat in posts for a bit, since mostly family reads this (at least I imagine, I don't really know who reads this) I thought I would take each of our kids in rotation and give everyone an update on what is going on in their life.

Leland is currently in 8th grade, having a good time in school, he is taking the usual array of classes, and doing quite well as always. His foreign language of choice is French, which he took in 7th grade as well. He took Spanish in elementary school a bit, but seems to like French better.

It was a minor of Cheri's in college, and I took it a bit in college as well, so we can help some, although it doesn't stick with you as well as I wish.

Apart from class, he is involved in the youth group at our church, he is helping with the promotion of a concert we are planning for the community, when that settles out a bit more, I'm sure I'll share about it here. He has also taken some classes on web site development and will like lt make the site for the concert when we get to that point.

He isn't playing any sports right now, he played a bit of baseball a couple years ago, and although he broke his arm before the final tournament, his team won the whole thing, so he got a first place trophy for that.

He is more interested in bowling, which is a letter sport in High School for us, which he is looking forward to next year. We are starting a bowling league at our church soon, and he and his brothers come with us when we bowl. Although they aren't old enough to bowl with us they bowl on their own whenever they can.

He is pretty interested in computers, maybe not as much as I was at his age, but those of you that knew me then know that isn't saying much. I'm not sure there were many 13 year who were more interested in computers in 1981 than I was, except maybe my best friend, Ben Walls. ;)

He has a number of friends in the area, but isn't dating anyone yet.

I think that about covers it for an update, I am sure I missed something, but if so, he'll likely correct me, and fell free to ask questions, and I'll try to answer them.

Light posting schedule

2007-09-04T12:48:00.000-04:00

Sorry all for the light posting lately, it has been quite busy around the Bowman household.

I will try to get you an update tomorrow that is of some interest, I just haven't had the time.

Just so there can be something of interest in this post, check out this news article, there are so many things to comment on here, it boggles the mind.

A new flight sim

2007-09-03T14:01:00.001-04:00

There has been a tool out for a while, called Google Earth, from the same folks who brought you the famous search engine.

Google earth is like Google maps, their mapping software, which is a best of class tool for finding directions to where ever you want to go.

Google Earth is a desktop appliaction however, and it can show you a semi-3d view of anywhere on earth.

They has a new version of the tool out, and it includes a flight simulator. The reviewer I read said:

Some time last week, Google expanded Google Earth with Google Sky. As fascinating as Google Sky is, that's not the focus of this post. Along with the latest update comes a hidden feature of which I cannot seem to find any other information about. It's not in the release notes and a search on Google produces no results. Seems Google have done one of their unpublicised updates they're becoming well-known for.

What I'm talking about is a flight simulator embedded within GE. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? If the thought amazes you as much as it did me, then might have run off and tried it for yourself. But there's a problem. Remember what I said above - it's a hidden feature!

First of all you'll have to install the latest version of GE. Once you've started it all up, explored Google Sky a bit, then all you have to do is hit Ctrl+Alt+A (if you're running OS X it's Command+Option+A; some people have reported that Ctrl+A or Ctrl+Windows+A work when the standard Ctrl+Alt+A does not).

So any of you out there who like Google tools, or flight simulators should check it out. This picture of flying over the Himalayas was taken from it.

Lunchtime

2007-08-31T11:58:00.000-04:00

During the school year, I have lunch with one of my sons every Friday. Today was Leland's day, next week it will be William's turn on Friday, then Jonathan the following week, and so on.

Next year, Ethan will work into the rotation between Jonathan and Leland.

I cannot tell you all how great it is to spend time alone with your kids, one-on-one, to get a chance to talk about their life, and life in general.

We always go to Rubino's a local pizza place, where they know us by name now, and get a large pizza to split and talk about whatever. I am currently walking Leland through the process of defining manhood, and the implications of that, and it is great to get a chance to talk with him apart from his brothers and other distractions.

When the other boys turn 13 I will wank them through this process as well, but for now, I am just eating lunch and hearing about their day. I am very blessed to have a job where I can eat lunch with my boys when I want, to eat lunch with Cheri most every day, to work from home often and to get to be active in all their lives.

So could this as a public expression of gratitude to God for the life He has blessed me with.

Rules

2007-08-30T15:37:00.000-04:00

I read a few friends blogs every day, or nearly every day, and something I say on Brad and Kath's blog amused me. It kind of reminded me of something I showed a friend of mine, Ben G, with four daughters.

When my boys start dating, I'll show it to them.

10 Rules For Dating My Daughter

Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package, because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two:
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three:
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose his compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, in order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact,
come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilising a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five:
It is usually understood that in order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."

Rule Six:
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven:
As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight:
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka - zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which features chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.

Rule Nine:
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a pot-bellied, balding, middle-aged, dim-witted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten:
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy near Hanoi. When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car - there is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged face at the window is mine.

Lawn mowing blues

2007-08-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

I spent the day at church yesterday working from there, it was a long day, full of lawn mower issues.

We have two mowers at church, a old large International Harvester that I inherited as property manager, which has never really worked, and a Huskee riding mower that we got at the beginning of the year to mow reliably.

Well I found a good lawnmower repair shop since our 14 acres of lawn were beating the riding mower to death not so slowly. They have been great, and I would recommend them to anyone ( Sally's Hearth and Home ).

Well they also repaired our old international harvester, and got it running, so I went out there to meet Ben G. for a day of catching up our mowing.

Well both tractors went down again yesterday, and we were kinda bummed, but the guys at Sally's helped out in a big way and let us borrow a demo of a real commercial mower, chariot style, and man can that thing book.

It cuts the grass at 12mph, and is super efficient, however I found out the downside real quick.

Our fields at church are not very level, or smooth, so every bump, and there are a lot of them, have to be taken standing up.

That in and of it's self wouldn't too big of a deal, however, the part you hold on with, is also the part you squeeze to go faster. I think you can see where this is going, hit a bump, hold on tight, go faster, hit a bump harder, squeeze harder .... lather rinse repeat. I mowed one section in about a quarter of the time, but nearly got thrown off a couple times.

I am resting today.....

Our first house

2007-08-28T10:45:00.000-04:00

Many of you may know that the first home Cheri and I ever owned was a small cape cod near, but not in, Bexley. We had Leland already when we bought it, and if memory serves, we mover into it because William and Jonathan were on their way, so they were born while we were in the house.

When we moved out of the house, we tried to sell it, but the old adage "location, location, location" in regards to the value of a house came back to haunt us, so we couldn't find a buyer.

We turned to a property manager, and started renting, well a few years later, and one murder in the house later, and we had had enough, so we sold the house on land contract. The couple who we signed the
land contract with were nice enough, and they were on a 5 year contract to buy. We had some problems, one event where their house went into foreclosure, but it is five years later this past March, and we had expected to be out of that house for good.

Welllll, as you can guess by now, we still have the house, the woman's husband left her a few years ago, and she doesn't have a bank account so she can't get financed through a bank to buy the house. We now have to decide what we want to do.

Cheri and I have no interest in being in the banking or rental business, but a bird in the hard being worth two in the bush kind of principle leds us to want to work it our with the original buyer.

Technically she has lost her option on the house, but we don't want her to loose her equity if she doesn't have to, but now she is upset that all her payments haven't gone to principal, some have gone to interest, so she is thinking of just walking away.

Anyway, we are dealing with carrying a second mortgage with no rental or payment help, and trying to get out as quickly as posible, so your prayers and advice are welcome.

Tree update

2007-08-27T12:07:00.000-04:00

Quick update today, it has been a heck of a day with work.

We got a quote on tree cleanup, and some advice from a tree expert, and it looks like we will end up taking out whole tree out, as well as the apple tree.

Fortunately it is not going to be as expensive as we feared, but still more than we wanted to spend to get rid of our favorite tree.

So a couple weeks from now, our back yard will be a lot more open that it used to be.

Football strategy

2007-08-26T18:46:00.001-04:00

OK, I am the first to admit that I don't know as much about football as some, I am more a fan than a fanatic, however, when I do my homework, I like to think that I can come up with a good plan, so for any of my football fanatic friends, what do you think of the following defense strategy.

Under the heading of full-disclosure, much of this has been leeched from other sources, and is just my take on others ideas and philosophies. I drew most heavily from John T. Reed and a coach named Derek A Wade, both of made their thoughts available on the web.

This is, in essence, a rehash of a letter I sent to the head coach proposing this defense as Jonathan's team's primary defensive lineup, so if some of it seems like I'm selling it, I kind of am. ;)

Comments are always and here especially, welcome.

In defense of the gap 8 defense

First is the premise, there was an article in the January/February 2000 edition of The Extra Point which contained the following comment about college football. “If you can’t pass today,” said [Don] Nehlen [Head Football Coach at the University of West Virginia], “you'd better learn how to block nine, or 10 or even 11, because they're all going to be up there.” I would add, “Unless you are a youth coach, in which case they will not all be up there because youth defensive coordinators are too ignorant and too timid to take advantage of inability to pass by increasing the number of defenders ‘in the box.’”

I tend to agree, the youth pass game is a joke, mostly because it requires a ton more practice to get a good pass-based offense than most youth teams can dedicate with other obligations and the inability to platoon 100% or anywhere near it.

Therefore the prevalent defense against both the sweep and other run plays is the gap-8 sometimes called the gap-air-mirror, or the 8-2-1 defense. It is not my defense, but has been tested by a number of very successful coaches.

I think the gap-air-mirror version is a bit too complex for our players at this stage, and am advocating a gap-8 or 8-2-1 defense. I will walk through the positions and assignments below, just to give everyone a feel for my thoughts on the routes and strategies.

The basic lineup against the wishbone is as follows, eligible receivers are numbered on the offense, and the assignments to said players are also numbered. (Click image to see larger.)

For this lineup, and all others, the triangle players are the down linemen. They are named that for two reasons: They play on the line of scrimmage, and they begin every play in either a three or four point stance, which means they are down below the other defensive players.

Each down lineman has a specific name and responsibility, which I'll go into a little more in a bit. For now, just note that when you see a triangle, that’s a person who plays on the line, in a specific down position.

Also note where the down linemen are positioned. They are not lined up facing the offensive players; instead, they are lined up between the offensive players. I’ll go over that in more detail a little later too.

The players represented by squares are linebackers, Sam and Willie for strong and weak sides, as normal. Notice that they are lined up directly across from the end man on the offensive side of the line of scrimmage. Since that man is eligible to catch passes. Sam and Willie are there to make sure that he doesn’t.

They need to be up in a two-point stance so he can see and react. He’s got to be a fast, strong player with good instincts. He’s got two jobs in this defense: Stop the run, and prevent that Tight End from catching a pass. They are responsible for defending any runs that attack the gap just inside him.

These outside plusses are the Cornerbacks. Sometimes the Gap-8 is called the 8-2-1 defense, like it is shown above. In that case, the Corners are the 2 in the 8-2-1.

Like the Linebackers, they have to cover receivers. In fact, the Corners are usually smaller, faster Linebackers. Their job is to stop the deep pass first, and then react and support on the runs.

Cornerbacks and Linebackers must communicate with one another. They must each know which offensive receiver they cover, and how to respond to motion by the offense. Corners usually don’t switch sides to cover the strengths of the offense, however as the season progresses, I would start having them do so.

This last plus is the Free Safety. He is the last man on the field and the 1 in the 8-2-1. It is very important that this player is a strong, fast player with good instincts and sure tackling skills. Primarily, the Free Safety is a pass defender, but he has to be ready and able to make a tackle on a runner who gets past the defensive line.

The Free Safety must also communicate with the other backs. When the ball is snapped it is his responsibility to read the play and inform his teammates whether it is a run or pass, and where the ball is going. The Free Safety must never, ever let an offensive player get behind him. He’s the last line of defense for his team.

In regards to the down lineman, there are three different roles, These two guys on the outside are the defensive ends. Their job is one of the most important on the field, and they have to do it right, every time.

The instant the ball is snapped, both ends must immediately penetrate to the depth of the ball. They have to take an “L” shaped route to the ball carrier.

The reason for this is to put the ends in a position to stop sweeps. If the Defensive End starts to shortcut to the inside, then the offense can run outside him. Defensive ends must be absolutely disciplined to do it right.

Defensive Ends must also trail sweeps away from them through the offensive backfield. The reason for this is to prevent reverses.

The Defensive Ends are very important to the Gap-8. Because there are so few players in the defensive backfield it is important to keep the offense from getting across the line of scrimmage.

One of the plays that offenses do well at the youth level is the sweep. Another is the reverse. Stopping these two plays is the Defensive End’s primary responsibility.
In order to make sure the Defensive Ends get to their sweep stopping spot as fast as possible, they need to line up one yard outside a tackle or end, and one and a half to two yards outside a wingback.

The Defensive End must not be touched until he’s in the offensive backfield. Don’t try to hit the Tight End, and don’t let anyone block you.

Moving inward, the next two guys are the defensive tackles. There is both a right tackle and a left tackle. Because we are looking at the defense from the offense’s point of view, the right tackle is on the left, and the left tackle is on the right.

Both tackles have to be disciplined, just like the defensive ends. When the ball is snapped, both tackles must blast through their gaps, but they can only go one step. The reason for this is to defend against Off Tackle plays. The tackles must remain in their gaps and tackle the ball carrier, or any offensive player pretending to be the ball carrier and trying to get through their gap.

The key to them is to remember, Penetrate only one step! Find the ball carrier and protect your gap!

The next two players are also defensive tackles. From the offense’s point of view, the player on the right is the “Strong Tackle” and the player on the left is the “Power Tackle”.

The job of the two inside tackles is a tough one. On every play, they must explode through their gaps and tackle the ball carrier, or any offensive player pretending to be the ball carrier and trying to get through their gap. Unlike the outside tackles the inside players can, and should, penetrate as deep as the deepest offensive player.

These two players must be both physically and mentally tough. Because they play “in the trenches” they are vulnerable to double teams by the center and offensive guards. Strong players who aren’t afraid to hit are the best sort for these positions.

All the defensive linemen should rush a passer with their hands in the air to block his vision and distract him.

Now, let’s talk about the Linebackers. Both Linebackers line up straight across from the ends they cover, or the tackle on that side if the end is split. Earlier I said that the Linebackers have two jobs: stop the run, and keep their receivers from catching any passes.

They can do both jobs at the same time. When the ball is snapped the Tight Ends will try to do one of two things: block the linebacker, or run out for a pass.

As soon as the ball is snapped, the Linebacker must hit the Tight End. The goal here is to keep him pinned to the line of scrimmage so he can’t run a pass route. The Linebackers must keep the ends on the line for two seconds. Do not hold him - just block him.

If the end does manage to get free, then cover him man-to-man.

On running plays the Linebacker has a much tougher job. He has to keep the Tight End at arm’s length and read his block. He has to go where the Tight End doesn’t want him to go.

If the Tight End puts his head to the inside of the Linebacker, then the play is going to the inside. If the Tight End tries to put his head on the outside of the Linebacker, then the play is going outside the Linebacker. This has to be taught.

The weakness is there can be huge gaps between the Defensive Tackles and the Defensive Ends. Those are the Gaps that Sam and Willie have to defend. It’s a big area, so they have to be good “football smart” athletes with a lot of discipline.

We’re back to the Cornerbacks. Corners have the tough job of covering any split out receivers man-to-man, and also providing run support, especially on sweeps.

Cornerbacks line up on the line of scrimmage, head up on the receiver farthest from the ball on their side. If there’s no receiver split out, then they cover the closest offensive back. If that offensive back is lined up between the offensive tackles, then the Cornerback lines up behind the Linebacker (like above).

If a wide receiver tries to block down on our Defensive End or Linebacker, the Corner must blitz and stop the sweep while warning the End or Linebacker that a “crack block” is coming.

The last man on the field is the Free Safety. He has one of the most important jobs on the defense. He lines up 4-6 yards off the line of scrimmage and directly in front of the Center. If the offense is in a “trips” formation he’ll line up head to head with the inside receiver and cover him man-to-man.

The Free Safety must make a read on every play immediately after the snap. If it’s a run, he’s got to make sure his teammates know it, and he must come up and help make the tackle.

If the other team is passing, the Free Safety must first notify his teammates by calling “Pass! Pass!” Then he has to read the Fullback. If the Fullback stays in to block, the Free Safety plays a deep zone. If the Fullback goes out for a pass, the Free Safety covers him.

He has to be taught, the Free Safety is the last line of defense!

I have only shown the lineups against the most basic offense, but others could easily be drawn up given the principles above. As an example, here is one for the same wishbone with a tight end out as wide receiver.

The Gap-8 is a sound, successful defense for the youth levels of football. It has the advantage of deleting the running game, while applying tremendous pressure to a passer.

At first glance, it would appear that the Gap-8 is weak between the guards. This is actually inaccurate. Although there are no linebackers behind the defense to make tackles, the presence of a defensive lineman in each gap prevents the offense from running inside in most cases. However if the defensive linemen are not properly conditioned to remain low at all times to clog the gaps, the middle will become vulnerable, especially to tight formations running wedge action plays. Our linemen actually did this fairly well today.

In all actuality, the Gap-8 is weakest where it seems the strongest: sweeps and off tackle plays can be successful against the Gap-8 if the defensive ends do not properly run their contain routes and the defensive tackles do not halt and guard their gaps after crossing the line of scrimmage. This is what killed us today, the ends were not running their routes, either because they did not know them well enough, or because they did not trust them to work, and got caught in the pursuit of the action, which is more likely.

Reverses too, are a weakness of the Gap-8, not because the defense is unsound, but because the defensive ends tend to abandon their training and go into “pursuit mode” once they see a play going away from them. Other coaches experience has shown that the defensive ends must be burned at least twice before they remember to trail sweeps through the opposing backfield as deep as the deepest offensive player. I believe it is best, therefore, to burn them numerous times in practice.

Another play that causes some difficulty for younger players is the halfback pass. Once the ball has been handed off they assume the ball carrier is always going to run with it. This is not always the case. Defending the halfback pass at the lower levels is relatively easy. Teach the corners to cover their receivers until the back crosses the line of scrimmage, and teach the free safety to flow towards the motion while remaining 10-15 yards off the line of scrimmage. Mostly it is a matter of discipline and repetition. Plenty of the latter will breed the former.

If you read all this, thanks, and in an effort to keep Cheri content, I will not bring this topic up again. ;)

Game Day

2007-08-25T13:28:00.000-04:00

Jonathan had practice last nigh, last one before the game today, and then a game today.

His game was at 10:30, we got there about an hour early, and the whole thing was disorganized. They added a coach between Thursday and Saturday, and had him calling the plays, which was probably a poor choice, and the players had no idea what plays they were running half the time.

They also switched head coaches, and the old head coach took over DC so I am now assisting him on defense, and they pulled my defense, and went back to a 4-3 cover 2 zone, which works fine in JR. High and High School, but isn't effective at the junior level, since it is best against the pass, and worst against the sweep. Anyways, needless to say they got killed.

Jonathan did well personally, as the free safety on defense he had several open field tackles and was awarded player of the game, which is a big accolade.

The coaches are meeting tomorrow to plan the real strategy, hopefully it will go better next game.

Cool trick with lasers

2007-08-24T09:33:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy little hacks that anyone can do to accomplish what would seem like incredibly hard tasks.

While not immediately useful, you never know when a tidbit like this could be a great little lesson in electronics for some class or something.

This shows really anyone with even the most basic of skill to take a laser pointer, some simple electronics gear (available at any radio shack) and make a laser sound recording device that lets you listen to sound on the other side of glass from far away. MacGuyver would be so proud.

Enjoy.

Laser Microphone (how-to)

Timberrrr

2007-08-23T15:24:00.000-04:00

Well Wednesday was a big day, first of all it was the first day of school for all the kids, including Ethan. He has officially started kindergarten, he was excited, and had a great time.

It is half day, every day, and his teacher is really good at her job, so we are all excited.

Here he is heading off for his first day, book bag at the ready.

However the real excitement was earlier that day. I had to head out of town for a full day of training and consulting with a new client, so I was up at 5 getting ready, when amidst the storm blowing outside i heard a large crrrraaaack and a thump.

We had a large, very large, limb split off one of the largest trees in our yard. The tree sits along the back fence, and the branches brushed the house on it's way down.

We are in the process of getting some quotes to get it removed, as I think it is too big a job for a small chainsaw. The first picture gives you some scale of the size of the branch that peeled away, the second shows the branch in scope with the house.

If anyone wants some firewood, just let me know...

Overdue update

2007-08-23T10:14:00.001-04:00

Sorry for no update yesterday, I was on the road for work all day.

From Tuesday, Jonathan had a scrimmage in football, they did pretty well. I have stepped in as one of the defensive coordinators, and since Jonathan is playing both offense and defense, I am coaching him as a safety on the defense.

He got injured a couple times, but nothing major, maybe a cracked ring finger on his left hand, but he can still write and catch, so all is well.

The kids however spent most of Tuesday evening getting ready for their first day of school on Wednesday, all their work got finished up, and the book bags packed.

I'll update everyone later today on the happenings of Tuesday night and Wednesday, including our downed tree...

Part II

2007-08-21T10:54:00.000-04:00

The third day of our camping trip was supposed to be much simpler, in theory.

We had picked up the van Saturday evening. The mechanic had found a small leak in the radiator, which he was able to weld closed. So we were all set.

We got up Sunday morning, had breakfast (pancakes and sausage, as well as cereal and fruit). I cooked the pancakes, while Cheri cooked the sausage.

After breakfast we packed up all the gear and tents, loaded the trucks and van, and headed out. We normally go swimming in the river after climbing on Saturday, but we planned to go to Summersville Lave Sunday, so we headed that way for our swimming.

It took a bit of driving around, but we found a good place to park with tables and paths to the lake, that wasn't too crowded. All the kids and I went down to the lake and swam for a bit, dad came down first and took a couple pictures, then Cheri came down and watched for the rest of the time.

There were a couple good places to stand and jump off into the water, and all the kids had a good time there.

Ethan even warmed up to the idea of swimming in a lake and found a good place to stand on a rock. He also scored a couple trips around the area on my back. By the way, swimming with a 5 year old on your back while he is trying to hold on to your neck as hard as he can is toughtr than you would think. I have been swimming for a while, and it took it right out of me. ;)

There was a good time had by all, just as a test to see how it works, here is a movie of us swimming there.

Hopefully this is viewable by everyone. Let me know how it works.

After leaving the lake, we started the drive home, unfortunately that is where things don't go as well.

The van started overheating again, and while the weld seemed to be holding, we had to make a decision on what to do. Fortunately we were able to stop at a travel center with some restaurants, including a Burger King, where Leland was able to score a crown.

We decided to pack all the kids from the youth group into the two non-overheating vans and send them home at full speed, whil I took our kids and limed home at 60 mph, keeping the van cool that way. William and Jonathan, being tired were a bit upset, and Brian, good guy that he is offered to stay with me so they could go home.

So Brian and I headed back with Ethan, and we made it home a couple hours later thamn they did, although by the time they dropped the kids off, and Cheri got Buckeye our dog from Ben and Lisa who were dog sitting for the weekend (and chatting there for a while) she only beat me home by a few minutes.

So at the end of the trip, no injuries, and a good time had by all.