Basketball – Preseason Tournament

The Ugly:  The 4th Graders lost all of their games; once to Holt, once to Grand Ledge, once to the other Okemos team, and once to Ionia.

The Bad: The team’s got a long way to go; one guy put up 90% of our points and the rest of the kids were varying degrees of ok; some good moments, some not-so-good moments.

The Good:  Except for the big guy in the middle; who had four very good games.  He had more rebounds than I can count; certainly between 5 and 10 in each game.  He had baskets in two of the four games; he would have had more but his teammates seemed unwilling/unable to pass him the ball AND there were times he did exactly what he needs to do, get the ball passed into him and if there isn’t a shot make the pass back out to wide open teammates (our center had two assists!).

There’s some video of the first two games; I’ll try and get some of that uploaded this week.

Because he’s the big guy he’s playing a ton of minutes.  This is something that I hope goes down over time; he doesn’t need to play 95% of each game and only come out when he requests to come out because he’s tired BUT it is a switch from wondering if your son is getting enough playing time and why the coach isn’t playing him more.  He’s one of the few that knows his position and what to do on both offense and defense, so, he gets the playing time.  Plus, if he’s not there, the other team’s big guy just tears us apart….the few times we did take him out and ask someone else to play Center it inevitably ended up with the other team’s center scoring basket after basket until we have to relent and put Christopher back in.

The Future:  We were missing two players from our team for these four games; one of them is certainly our best player and his return will mean nothing but good things.  I think as we learn to run more plays and to pass the ball more we’ll improve…

One Last Thing:  Christopher and I had many “cracker barrel mornings” for football….we trudged out extra early for a good breakfast.  A staple of those days before football games was Christopher, over breakfast, and on our drive to the game, telling me how nervous he was before the game.

Today, no such talk.  Asked him about it over dinner, and he said, yup, not nervous.  Asked why…he thought about it, thought about it again, and said “I know what to do in basketball”.

Pittsburgh Trip – Sunday

Kind of a gray misty morning as we woke up and started our trek downtown for the game. The original plan was to attend the game, but, I had scrapped that plan after seeing how much tickets were going for online (approx. 4x-5x face value….it was going to be at least $800 for Christopher and I to have two tickets in peanut heaven). Thankfully (another thing I have to be thankful for!) one of Rob’s group of tailgaters decided they weren’t going to go to the game and two tickets opened up for me and the big guy…at face value!

I decided to go to Station Square and take the Gateway Clipper across; figured Christopher would enjoy that and it would probably be the best route for ‘escape’ after the game. The misty and gray started to burn off as the boat left the docks and took us over to the game.

The Fort Pitt Bridge and the West End Bridge (Civil engineering note here: Wow have they reconfigured the West End Circle approaches!)

The big ketchup bottle, as they say on ESPN. Stadium doesn’t open up until 11 am for a 1 pm game time; we arrived at about 10:20 am. That’s ok, we hiked up the river walk to the PNC Park and the Mason tailgate….Christopher had some light snacks (including bacon!) and Dad had a nice omelette (cheese, ham, onions, green peppers….can’t beat that!)

You can still see the misty grays going on here…

a panorama….

One of the best things about coming to the game was seeing all of the various pre-game activities at the stadium….Christopher enjoyed hearing the band from Boardman playing Lady Gaga outside the stadium as we walked up. This picture is from the concourse on the north side of the stadium which hosts the Coca-Cola Great Walk of Fame (or something like that..). Just a lot of Steeler photos and memorabilia.

View from our seats…..under cover (not needed today) but in the sun for the first half (should’ve brought a baseball hat). I was worried that Christopher would be cold and he was layered up but this turned out to not even come close to being a concern and his jacket spent the entire game under his chair.

A panorama….about an hour maybe before game time. Christopher had a good time checking out the pre-game warm ups (“they warm up like we do!”) and I got a kick out of the scoreboard stuff that I’m sure is just plain annoying for people who come every week but was fun for me (I really liked the two minute game ‘intro’ they did right before game time, Steeler highlights, fans talking, and shots of the ‘Burgh….one of the last images I remember was taken from the Ohio River side looking back at the city with this big CSX locomotive moving into the picture)

Christopher was seated to the left of me and wasn’t very pleased with the dude with the antenna headphones. This picture was one of the first plays of the game….

This picture was the first play of the 2nd quarter. I recall it being the pass play, but, maybe I was wrong. Anyway, the Steelers scored shortly thereafter

“2nd and 10 at OAK 16
R.Mendenhall up the middle to OAK 12 for 4 yards (R.Seymour).

3rd and 6 at OAK 12
(Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass short middle to M.Moore to OAK 5 for 7 yards (Q.Groves, R.Brown).

1st and 5 at OAK 5
R.Mendenhall right guard for 5 yards, TOUCHDOWN.”

I think this play was this “3rd and 9 at OAK 12 (Shotgun) J.Campbell pass incomplete short right to D.McFadden (L.Timmons).” Raiders punted, 5 plays later we scored again, and again to end the quarter. Good way to end the half.

Christopher has been focused on swear words recently; he received a master’s level course in their use during the game! The referee-ing was bizarre to be kind and just horrid at other points (we saw a record-setting game; most penalty yards by the Steelers in a game! And we still won by 32!)

The top moment was this…..“(No Huddle, Shotgun) B.Roethlisberger pass deep left to E.Sanders for 22 yards, TOUCHDOWN. Penalty on OAK-R.Seymour, Disqualification, offsetting. Penalty on PIT-C.Kemoeatu, Personal Foul, offsetting. #92 Seymour ejected from the game.” We had no idea what happened on the field; we were watching the TD celebration in the end zone and they initially eject #93 from the game. That got Tomlin to run across the field to yell at the ref to get the number right, and they eventually got the right guy, and he walked off to a chorus of boo’s and Christopher and I waving “Bye Bye!”

You suck.

Anyway, back to the swears…between the guy behind Christopher who complained about everything and anything using a wide variety of words, to the “Bullshit” chant that echoed through the stadium at times, the “Referees Suck” chant that dominated the fourth quarter, and the two guys behind us in line on the way back to the boat after the game (I mean, really, they couldn’t end one sentence without it!….Christopher just kept looking over at me…..) he certainly got an ‘ear’ full!

But, all’s well that ends well. Christopher decided Polamalu was “his guy” and followed him everywhere he went on defense in the 2nd half. This play was a big hit:

“3rd and 10 at PIT 24 (Shotgun) B.Gradkowski pass deep left intended for J.Ford INTERCEPTED by T.Polamalu at PIT 8. T.Polamalu to PIT 46 for 38 yards (J.Veldheer)”

Christopher was pretty disappointed when Troy’s day came to an end with about 5 minutes to go in the game as they put in Mundy for scrub time. I asked him when we were shopping if he wanted a jersey and he didn’t, but, at the end of the game, he wanted a white #43 that I’m pretty sure will arrive in time for the playoffs.

We left at the 2-minute warning; didn’t need to see the victory formation. Random things that Christopher liked:

• those tipping ketchup bottles as the Steelers entered the Heinz red zone. “Dad, they’re open! They’re tipping!”….
• He saw a set of Steeler Uno cards in one of the shops at the field; I said ‘no’ at the game but again, think that this will arrive on or around Dec 25. Might make a perfect Kris Kringle gift though…hmmmmm.

The ‘escape’ went well; I was on the parkway at full speed by 4:45 pm and we were on our way to Michigan. Made it back by 10:10 pm (that’s some seriously good time!).

Thankful

As we sat down at the table I was thinking about what I was going to say.  Turns out I didn’t have too…both Matthew and Christopher had some words prepared…

Matthew:  ‘Dear God, thank you for my family and this meal that this turkey died for.  A.M (hastily corrected to Amen.)”

Christopher:  “Rub-a-dub-dub, let’s get to the grub!”

BUT….I was thinking that I had things that I wanted to say, but didn’t.  So, we’ll say some of it here.

• I’m thankful for my wonderful wife.  I could (and probably should) spend paragraphs on this, but, won’t.  I’m thankful that I am lucky enough to have someone to share our family’s experiences with, and there have been enough great events in the last twelve months to last a lifetime.
• I’m thankful for Matthew.  I’m thankful that he has spent the last week with a football in his hand and has asked (repeatedly) to go and play catch so that he’s ready for tackle football (which is 10 months away!). 
• I’m thankful for Christopher.  I really enjoyed my weekend away with him last week and couldn’t help but smile when he suggested earlier this week that next year we should make a trip to see Penn State play.
• I’m thankful for Kevin; I’m thankful he hasn’t killed me driving yet and that he continues to laugh and laugh as the separation between the top of his head and the top of my head continues.  I’m thankful that it’s hard for me to think of someone else in his grade who is more successful in the three A’s: academics, arts, and athletics. 

Pittsburgh Trip – Saturday

Morning: Started off the day down in Homestead, at the hotel

Looking West, down the Mon

Looking East; you can see the Homestead High-Level Bridge in the background and a Gantry Crane from the old Homestead Works in the foreground. I think it’s pretty amazing that 20 years ago I was down here surveying the steel mill with Beirwerth, Barton, and Burr and today it’s this huge shopping/entertainment complex.

The Mon: a tourist attraction? Who would have thunk it?

Saturday morning began with breakfast at Eat & Park with Dad; I guess the strangest thing about the meal that I haven’t shared in other conversations was that Dad had nothing, zip, zilch, nada, to drink with his meal. To me, who dings waiters/waitresses when the water isn’t refilled as needed, this seemed really weird…I don’t think I could eat a meal without drinking anything.

Made our first stop for sports swag before the museum. Collected a Nittany Lion jersey for Matthew (picture forthcoming), some Steeler fleece pajama pants and a nice sweatshirt for Christopher and a Penguin Winter Classic t-shirt and a Pouncey jersey for Dad.

Christopher asked to return to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, so, that was the plan once it opened.

Christopher was very clear; let’s skip the Roman and Greek architecture that we did last time and go straight to the good stuff. So, off we went, walked right through the first exhibit and onto the crystals and rocks.

this one is pat of a display that is backlit from behind

these are fluorescent

and this one I was told to take a picture of…

Rocks and Crystals done; off to the Dinos. Don’t think we spent more time here than last time, but, that was enough. Because we weren’t tired from all of the Greek and Roman stuff, we headed upstairs to a part of the museum we hadn’t been to before, the animal exhibits/dioramas.

It’s not big surprise that Christopher really liked this section. Having been with Kevin to the Natural History museum in Chicago, I have to say that I think these exhibits were way better than Chicago’s…just more action and better poses (those poses seemed very 1950-ish…these seemed much ‘newer’ and ‘fresher’.

This one, however, is a famous reproduction of an attack in the North African desert.

“Dad, look, these leopards are tearing this apart!”

One of the nice things about these exhibits was the detail in the landscape; the written description mentioned small animals in the landscape that were camouflaged that you really had to look for.

A panorama of an African landscape

There’s a hands-on Discovery Room in the basement; I wouldn’t have thought we wouldn’t have ended up back there but, Christopher asked for another trip down there.

Afternoon: Headed to South Fayette to see my cousin Jodie and her family. I have no pictures of this, but, am sure that I will see some pictures of Christopher, Garrett, and Colin online somewhere and grab them for here. They haven’t appeared yet though (grin!….probably some advanced lens issue delays their posting and I’ll have to ‘wiki’ to figure it out…).

After a few, uh, um, geographical issues, we finally arrived at the right house (….woman comes to door, says, can I help you, Scott looks at phone again and goes, oh, wrong address! Kevin would have just called me a ‘dork’…Christopher thankfully passed on that..). Had some worries about how Christopher would do; he can be awfully shy around new people at times, but, the words ‘Wii’ and ‘Hide-n-Seek’ seemed to do the trick. He’s asked when he can go back and see Garrett and Lil’ Dude again (Lil’ Dude being the name Christopher chose for Colin after forgetting his name for a while…) and enjoyed looking at Garrett’s swimming photos with me the other day….so, the next time we'’re in the ‘Burgh we’ll have to stop by again.

After leaving SF we headed over to the Mason’s for a quick “hey there” before heading to the hotel. Swimming, pizza, and sleep ensued.

All-State

Found out on Friday night that Kevin made the High School All-State Orchestra.  They took 16 violas; he’s 14th and he’s one of 6(!) violas from the high school to make it.

The Good:  It is impressive that he made the orchestra as a freshman.  I did tape him performing his etude….I know it sounds weird at times but that’s exactly how it’s supposed to sound.  You can see and hear Kevin here.  He’s happy about it, and this is the third year in a row he’s made it into the All-State orchestras.

The Not-so-Good:  Mom and Dad are both left with this nagging feeling that he could have done better…..never really thought that he practiced enough and especially with the sight reading story relayed here (the other boy wasn’t penalized for it so maybe that means they did have different pieces on different days…if so, Kevin really got the short end of that stick because playing in the more difficult clef had to be an issue) it makes us go hmmmmm.

Hard to be say more on this, since, well, he did make it.  He is the lowest chair’d of the 6 from is high school though….three freshman, and he’s the lowest of them.  Wouldn’t have thought that they were ‘better’ than him.  Kevin is right when he says the difference between 10 and 16 is tiny tiny tiny and, I guess it’s all how you sound on a certain day.  In the last two years Kevin has had as a ‘stand partner’ another boy, Chris (that means they sit right next to each other in chairs…Kevin has been ahead of him by one each year).  This year, Chris was 3rd chair…..you’d have a hard time convincing me that that placement relative to Kevin is correct.

In the end, he *did* make it, and that’s a big deal, and I’m looking forward to hearing him perform with the orchestra in January (and it’s a full symphonic orchestra too..winds, brass, etc.). 

Pittsburgh Trip – Thursday-Friday

Thursday: Pick up Christopher at school at lunch time and hit the road. One stop at Taco Bell for his lunch before we hit the freeway and go go go. Christopher pulls out the Ipad and tries out the Netflix application to watch a Justice League movie while Dad listens to some podcasts and listens to a work conference call as we make our way east.

Stop for the night at Grandma’s. Meet the new cat, Quincy, and in a very Harry Potter like fashion, don’t get to meet the cat “who shall not be named, or seen for that matter”.

Had some great lasagna for dinner; I was really happy that Christopher enjoyed the meal. Immediately after that, Christopher starting campaigning for Uno! Christopher won the race to 500, but, didn’t storm off to his room crying so that means the game was a success. Still a few problems with the basic rules of the game for some participants, but, a fun time had by all.

Christopher asks to sleep in the lower level near “the cat that shall not be named”. Dad is up in the breezeway. The middle of the night is the witching hours…and the cat that shall be named makes his displeasure with the accomodations (very similar to a small boy who has to live under the stairs I guess) known. Turns out, if you’re sleeping in the breezeway, you can hear this really well. Christopher sleeps the sleep of the dead and hears nothing at all.

Friday: Head our for Pittsburgh around 8 am after a breakfast of giant pancakes and bacon. We arrive at the zoo a little before 10 am.

Thing 1 about the trip: was really surprised that it was still late fall down here. All of the leaves are long gone back home, but here they were still hanging on in places, like these red ones in the foreground.

The tiger was pacing back and forth…if you look at the first photo you can see he(?) is heading to the right…at the end of that ‘run’ for him is an observation window where this picture was taken; he’s about to turn around and head back the other way. Apparently he was worked up because this guy….

was being very noisy. Because, it turns out, he was trying to get very busy! As we walked up, he came over and mounted his friend and from our angle, it was as clear as day.

Turns out, noisy = frustrated.

As we left, they settled down together….

Thing 2: Either the animals were off-exhibit (no sightings of the giraffes, cheetah, or polar bear) or they were out and active. So, we got to see many of the animals moving around and that’s always a good thing. The zoo wasn’t very crowded at all, so, that was also a good thing.

Larger than a baby elephant!

Gorillas at snack time

Pittsburgh penguins….hah!

Christopher took his share of photos but as the trip wore on he relinquished these duties to me…

This is the best of my ‘through the glass pictures’. The (Nittany) Lionfish was looking good….

The baby sea lion never was in a good position for a photo; I snapped this one right after the second one crawled up on the rocks and the two of them started jawing at each other.

After the zoo we met up with Rob for lunch at Jerome Bettis’ Grille 36 down near the stadium. Christopher enjoyed his trip to the bathroom (there is one-way glass above the urinals…). After that Christopher and I headed to the hotel for some early afternoon swimming (more on the hotel in the next post). For dinner, we headed back downtown for Light Up Night.

Figured we needed to head up the incline earlier, not later, so, we did that first thing.

Took the ‘T’ over to the city and then hung out around the Clemente Bridge waiting for the fireworks. This picture stinks, but, PNC Park is lit up in the background and Donnie Iris and the Cruisers are performing in the structure on the center of the bridge. I wanted to make it to the main firework display after the concert, but, there was an earlier one at 8:40 that we could see (they shot them off down near the Point) and Cpher, who had been sniffling, crashed on me at that point and requested to call it an evening.

Probably a good thing that he called it a day, about the time I was taking this picture as we waited for the trolley there was a shooting going on above us (@ the Wood Street Station). I don’t think it was really crowded for Light Up Night, but, it seems like everyone from the age of 16-25 decided to hang around the station….we literally had to snake our way into the station to begin our journey back to the hotel.

Holly

Recent events have made this post a must do.

In two weeks she’ll be one year old, so, it seems like a good time to review Holly’s presence in our household.

Diva:  I’ve made the comment that we didn’t name her very well; Princess or Diva would have been better names given her personality.  If you are petting Wiley, she will do anything and everything to get you to stop that and start petting her.  She’ll nose her way in and push against the hand you are petting Wiley with (to make you stop petting Wiley and pet her); she’ll nose against your other hand to get you to start petting her.  If these ploys don’t work, she’ll try to climb up on you…..if that doesn’t work she’ll go and bite Wiley’s legs until he has to react to that (if she can’t get petted, nobody will!).

 

My move to working at home has been a boon to the dogs; they frequently come out and sleep at my feet during the day at the desk….this is one picture with Holly splayed out all over Wiley.

Crate Time:  Wiley, as we’ve discussed here before, has never been a big fan of the crate.  Holly is the exact opposite; it’s her little home and she’s very happy to climb in at any time.  A lot of this is probably because her crate is in the living room, so, she’s not so isolated from the family in there.  But even when Wiley’s crate was upstairs, he did not like to go there.

Dominance:  Up until four hours ago, she ruled the roost.  She bit Wiley whenever she wanted; she’d be the first one at the food dish and didn’t have any problems with eating his meal too.  And Wiley never seemed to really mind.  Wiley always used to bark at dogs walking by the house; he doesn’t do that anymore…Holly is the noisemaker.

But today, around 4:15 pm, that all changed.  Not sure how much it has changed….before I explain this I need to go back into pet history…..

When Suzanne and I started out together, Ernie and Katie had to learn how to live together.  For the longest time (in fact, it was almost a year I think…) Katie would push Ernie around…make him move from where he was, chase him away from things, be first at the dish, etc.  Never mind that Ernie was bigger; Katie had the way of things for a long time.

Until, one day, in a fit of spit, growls, and hair, Ernie turned on Katie and from that point on it was the big orange guy who ruled the roost (and the neighborhood, after a while).

Today, I’m sitting at the desk working, Wiley and Holly are sitting nearby and I’m not sure what happened to start it, but Wiley had Holly pinned to the ground, full on growling, and would not let go.  Holly’s squeals were getting progressively louder.

Get up, yell at Wiley to get away.  Nothing.

Kick Wiley a little bit.  Nothing.

Kick Wiley about as hard as I think I can without really hurting him.  Nothing.  Holly’s squeals are pretty loud at this point; Wiley is growling like I’ve never seen him before.  All the kids are here and they are either a) shocked or b) freaking out.  Go to the kitchen and get some water, throw that at them….didn’t do the trick at first, but, after he was wet, Wiley finally let Holly go and trotted off.  Might also have been Holly pooping everywhere; she was so scared she lost control……

Get Holly outside away from Wiley (who just calmly went back and sat on the couch) to check her out…a few bite marks where Wiley drew blood but nothing serious…can’t even really see the wounds, just blood on her white fur….

Dog relations are a little frayed right now…..Holly has kept her distance for the most part and (wisely) just taken to hanging out in her crate.  We are on high alert to see how their interactions go….I’m guessing it will be awhile before Holly starts gnawing on Wiley’s ears and back legs again.

The downfall of immediate feedback

So, Kevin took some parental abuse last week when his science test showed up online as a C-.  He was stunned; couldn’t understand how that happened.  We were stunned; couldn’t understand how that happened.  A few stern words…let us know what went wrong when you get the test back.  This was on a Friday.

On Monday, Kevin comes home and reports that the teacher screwed up entering the scores in the system…they are fixed now.  All is well.  Apologize to Kevin for the stern words and we move forward.

I was doing my random check on Kevin’s facebook activities and saw that the teacher’s screw-up created a huge discussion there; it made me laugh and I decided I’d save it here.

AM

Mr. williamsss, i want to hurt you.

RP your just out to get everyone aren't you?

MF hey whatd u get on ur science test?

TL Does it say on powerschool that you got an E? It does on mine...I can't believe it...

AS it said i got a D-.... what the heck?

AS maybe he just only put in the multiple choice, because mine is 30/50, and there were only 30 MC Q's, right?????

TL I thought the test was all multiple choice...was it? Mine is 25/50...

AS no, remember how there was the short answer part? well that has to be graded by the teacher...aka mr williams

AM IKIKIK TIFFANY. I GOT A E.

AS really do NOT him right now.... but i still have an A!!!!!! :) ur jealous. hahaha

AM I HAVE A B!! UGH. I HAD AN 94!! I GOT A 55 ON THE TEST.
AND I STUDDIED.
AND THOUGHT I DID GOOD./

AM yeah annika thats probably what happened/

AS you got a 55? it was out of 50... i thought that you and tiffany would do better than me... me and my dumb little brain

AM I GOT AN E!!! omg, i felt i was gonna cry.
no the percentage was a 55

AS oh. my percentage was a 60..... really mad right now, and i feel the same way

AM ikikik, but im gonna check and see what number it wz

AM I GOT 27.5

AM wait i know what happend, he probably graded them by hand, (hence the .5) and he hasnt done the scan tron.
that or we are all insanley dumb.

AS not bad, i guessed on a lot of them

AS i think we are all insanely dumb. hahaha JK!!!

AM theres no way, we all got d's and e's.
its gotta be a mistake.... you 2 are the smartest in the class soo.

AS me? no way! tiffany is really smart though.. i don't want new seats cuz whenever i have a problem i turn aro d and ask her about it.

AM HAHAHAHAH ME OTO!

TL Really? I'm that helpful? I still got the worst grade out of the three of us. :P

AM tiifff.
i have an e too :)

AS so? you always help me, and maybe we both fl ked the other part, and you aced it.

TL Maybe. but I have a sinking feeling about that...I don't remember that there was a part that wasn't multiple choice.

AM it was the back page...

AS uh oh..... there were quite a few of them..... i myself had to look for the because he didn't really say where they were

AM tiffany. do u remember the electronic configurations? 1s2, 2s2........

AS or looking at the periodic table to find facts about certain elements?

AS or drawing atoms?

AM yeah.

AM ions and stuff

AS tow of the questions were really long, they had parts e and f on them

TL Oh no...I don't remember seeing any of those on the quiz!! Was I missing a page or something?! I'm going to freak out.

RP HAHHAHAHAHAHHAAHA!!!!!! You all got E's on your tests!! You make me feel so smart. I've never gotten an E on a test! :D

KH I feel your pain, I got a C-, I'm not sure how that's possible but I'm hoping that he just hasn't graded everything yet

KH Ravi, laugh while you can, what's your grade in that class right now?

RP I take Chapman and I have a C-.....but thats okay because Chappy is a MEANIE.

TL It's looking bleak right now. I only have a B+. But really, if I fouled it up I think I did, this is the worst test grade in my school history.

AM im so frighteneddd

CJ it says i got a 12.5/50

AM chevelleeee..... we aall got at least 25s :P)

KH was the Scantron broken when he graded our tests?

AM yeah probably.

AM hes so screwed for quarter grade.ssss

TL If he doesn't fix it, let's gang up or something.

AM YES.

KH Seriously though, this better have been a mistake. I can't believe that no one got a C or higher. Imagine what the principal would think if she saw that the average score for the test was a D-

AM YES IKIKIK!! FIRED!!! :))

AS hahaha a better teacher at last!!!!

AM omg. annika. yessss

AS remember when he said that there was a really bad acne medication that he used and people died from it? i said to tiffany "too bad... JK"

AM HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAA :)