New York City – Trip Two

 

Last Saturday was my second trip to the Big Apple..

The Little Silver Train Station……circa 1890? 

Always end up going to NYC on cold rainy days.  This time I had at least one ‘purpose’ before going to the concert…wanted to see the 9/11 memorial.  So hopped the subway from Penn Station and away we went.  Walked past St. Paul’s Chapel on the way….in the churchyard is the 'Bell of Hope', given to St Paul's by the Lord Mayor of London on the first anniversary of 9/11.

Kind of spooky for a February mid-afternoon……

the weather was not good…..

but the weather probably suited the day pretty well.  There is still a ton of construction going on around here rebuilding so you have to walk quite a ways to get to the alternate entrance.  You can see the museum there on the right…it is not open yet.  The one pool is straight ahead in the foreground before the building on the left, the other pool is almost directly to the right……

Each pool is surrounded by panels of names…..

I think each pool sits on the site where each tower was….these are the largest manmade fountains in the United States.  I had to check, sweet gum and swamp white oak trees…not sure which still has brown leaves in February but thought that was an interesting touch…..

After the memorial, headed back over to Brooklyn for concert number two, Lord Huron.  Three kids from Okemos, first album, critically acclaimed, happy to get to see them!  Slightly more expensive than They Might Be Giants though….

And they rocked it!  Great show.  For They Might Be Giants I’d guess 2/3 of the crowd was younger than me….here?  95%, easy……

what do they sound like you ask?  From a review in the Guardian (London, UK)

The buzz: "Ambitious, beguiling stuff" – Rolling Stone.

The truth: It's the best album of choral Americana since Fleet Foxes.

From The Sports Desk – Bonus Basketball Edition

 

The league offers a second short spring season for 6th graders for basketball; not every community participates and last year our community only did it for the first time.  So I wasn’t even sure if Cpher would have a chance to play an additional four weeks (plus the tournament).

And Cpher, the first time I mentioned it, has been quite adamant.  No, no, no, no, no.

Turns out, we’re fielding two teams.  While I’m home I’m slowly working on Cpher….hey, I’m going to sign you up, but, if you don’t like your teammates or coach we won’t do it.  Most of the better players are off playing spring AAU basketball, so, Cpher, this should be your time to really try and shine….

Tutoring interferes with one practice a week, so, he’s happy that there’s only one practice a week (we made the conflict work during the regular season but man, for four weeks I’m not asking his tutor to change the schedule and Cpher to run from one place to another).  And he’s happy about that. 

The first weekend is two games, back to back, in Pewamo-Westphalia.  The games are listed at the junior high, but, it turns out they are at the elementary school.  Mom and Kevin both describe P-W as pretty much the back end of nowhere…..

Now, Fric and Frac have practiced at the elementary schools around here at times.  It is not optimal because the basketball court is not full-size; I’ve never ever seen either Fric or Frac play a real league-game on a small court (..ok, maybe Cpher in 4th grade).

PW is that small court.  It’s a small gym.  A really tiny gym.

Game 1 is against Dewitt.  Mom reports that Cpher touched the ball more in one game that he did all of the winter season.  8 points in all….

I finally get the video downloaded Tuesday night; watch it Wednesday.

OMG.

(told Cpher that in these extra games that he had (HAD TO) work on getting the rebound and going back to the basket with the ball.  It’s understandable to kick the ball out to the better players on the ‘A’ team, but, not here.  First basket is this one, he has the rebound, and is going to go back up with the ball for the basket)

I’ve always wondered, Cpher has always been on the back end of the A team….how would he look against B players.  He’s solidly been on that ‘A’ team, but, always on the back end. And he’s a role player on that team.  But this team, in the spring, is a mix of low-A, high-B players. 

The answer?  He looks good.  Damned good.  And the boy definitely was used a lot, no Mom-playing-issue comments….played all of the 1st, all of the 3rd, over half of the 2nd and 4th….

(this is right before the 2nd basket, we are inbounding the ball.  The Dewitt guy is making a mistake, he should be between the basket, Cpher, and the ball, but, he’s a little too high.  Cpher just takes this ball, turns, seals the guy out, and scores.  Another has to (HAS TO) moment….has to be able to do this better…and he did!)

Turns out he had ten points.  A ton of rebounds.  Some highly amusing dribbling.  A few nice picks.  And just a mass of defensive stops and altered shots as kids came into the middle and met the big guy.

When I watched it, I was marking out the times of the plays for highlights…wanted rebounds, wanted shots, wanted good picks, wanted the baskets.  There were 10 minutes of highlight!  In a 40-minute game.  Just amazed how active he was…really like moment where he is inbounding the ball (and he is good at this…he is aware of the five seconds but is very patient about it..) and we score immediately off of his pass.

You can click on the this picture to go to the video….

(this is the piece de resistance of the whole deal…the moment that Suzanne said made the whole long drive out there worthwhile.  Cpher is passed the ball and he is looking to pass the ball to someone else, and Mom and Matthew start yelling “dribble.  dribble!  DRIBBLE!!”.  And so he does…..I wish the play ended better, but, the whole sequence is really funny….)

They won that game 59-38.  They lost the next one 61-46….that game was back to back and the boys were tired…I understand Cpher played a lot but not as many results…I have not watched the video as of yet.

Amazing Dreamcoat

 

Cast list was posted today; Kevin is Naphtali.  Who?

“The Brothers: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Naphtali, Issachar, Asher, Dan, Zebulun, Gad, Benjamin, Judah. Although acting usually as a group, they have their own different personalities, talents, and flaw. As a group they sell Joseph into slavery, but as individuals they deal with the following years and how they can make amends.”

So away he goes; rehearsals start tomorrow.  Apparently there is a whistling solo….and Kevin, unlike his father, is quite the whistler.  So he hopes to be doing that as well…..

Fric and Frac

 

A few knicks and knacks from Fric and Frac to talk about here.  Mostly Fric…

Fric:

Cpher’s second text, in gray, is the discussion point here. 

One of Cpher’s gifts for his birthday was a new phone.  He very promptly capitalized on the new unlimited text thing and started trading texts with, well, Mom says it best…

He had sent that gray text I was talking about to Mom and Dad; that was the ‘clincher’ that after a day of back and forth that he liked her and she liked him….

I’d bet, easily, that they have sent at least 2,000 texts to each other in the last three weeks.  She came to one performance of Almost; they said ‘hi’ but didn’t really interact….both would prefer to avoid embarrassment at school. 

Of course, this means that Valentine’s Day would be a little different this year….

We have to, *have to*, beat the bus to her house to drop off the bag.  Dad gets in the car line (I arrive 45 minutes early, I’m still third…what do these other people have, no lives?  or were they doing the same thing?); Matthew knows to be out of school ASAP and we are off.  Drive to her house, Cpher dashes off, drops bad with card, dragon, and chocolate at the front door, and we dash home.  

As of today, texting still continues in full swing…..some minor embarrassments at school but nothing too major.

The other Cpher news is that since I was home I was able to take him to the movies; he has been dying to see one movie in particular, and has specifically asked to go for his birthday.

So, we went Friday.  Had some trepidation about the ‘R’ rating; but, the whole family has been watching Walking Dead recently…this movie was nothing on that! 

It was OK.  It was not good, and it was not bad, just OK.

Cpher also asked to adopt one of the wolves at Potter Park Zoo for his birthday; so, we did.  After the movie, on a cold winter day in mid-Michigan, we did just that. 

Let’s be honest; it doesn’t take long to walk completely through this zoo….A cold day like that Friday means a few things.  1)  There aren’t many people there  and 2) The people that are there aren’t lingering….

Surprisingly, to me at least, some of the big cats were outside…

Of course the penguins were out…

There were some unusually good photo opportunities of the cats inside today….

And we walked by the wolves twice……because well, we had to.

Last Fric item:  getting very close to passing Mom and Dad for the title of 2nd tallest in the family…

Frac:

Yeah, neither Fric nor Frac.  But wanted to put this in here somewhere….

We had talked about going, as a family (minus Kevin), to Chicago the same weekend that Kevin and the orchestra went….bailed out of that after a careful reexamination of weather and costs.  Matthew has asked, if we didn’t go, if we could take him snowboarding.

So, on Sunday (after Kevin was back), the three of us trudged down to Mt. Brighton.  Props to Kevin, he went and did everything with his little brother (I think he is now beginning to realize having another snow-sport fanatic in the family means more time on the slopes for him).

The boys are in that picture above.  If you look at the exact center and go just to the left you will see the two of them.

Am completely impressed by Kevin’s skiing….he is very good.  Matthew looks very good on the snowboard as well…..probably not ready for the big hill behind them but they took that lift there to the top and came down to the right of it on what I guess is the 2nd biggest hill out there with no problems…

But it was windy and cold, and Matthew had some rosy cheeks.  He has asked for the same type of headgear that Kevin has for the future….

Almost – Photos Part 2

 

Again, more photos than words. 

 

I might have to rewatch the video; the fate of that bag between Emily and Kevin always interested me; she walks off without it, comes back, but I don’t remember if she walked off with the bag in the end or not.

The next orthodontic check-up (and we haven’t been going with Kevin to these 30 minute adventures for some time; he just leaves school, drives over, and drives back) we have asked Kevin to specifically ask what the schedule looks like for removal of braces….think it is very unlikely they will be off for senior pictures, but, we can always hope.

Matthew starts his journey through orthodontia next week.  Seems like Cpher will avoid the Dad/Kevin/Matthew jaw issues…..