Iphone Photo Dump – It Has Been A While Edition

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while; I just realize I’m not taking as many random pictures any more.  Really need to work on that!  Pictures not presented in any kind of order….

Since my promise of a puppy is on hold until the saga of Wiley is over, there are a few things that have been done around here to thank a boy for tackling cross country.  One of those things is a trip to Potter Park Zoo; he loves it and it is pretty quick.  We went early one Saturday morning…it was kind of cool out (thus the sweatshirt) and the animals were all out.  Had a good time with the big guy.

 

This is from the week I was in Boston with Kevin for orientation; both Fric and Frac were signed up for lineman camp (it was cheap and an easier way of dealing with them for the three mornings I would be gone).  The trophy belongs to Matthew; who won the award in his age group. 

 

Wiley, master of the car ride, journeyed out a Sunday or two ago to help the boys run the cross country course before the first meet.  Wiley, well, he struggled to walk all the way out here from the parking lot but did it.  No leash necessary at this point…..

This series of texts occurred during that same lineman camp…..Cpher ended up getting a hold of Mom and talking through it.  We still aren’t sure what was going on; didn’t eat right in the morning, ate something funny…who knows.  But he did sound like he almost fainted doing the wind sprints at the end of the day…

Finally, after hanging onto my 4S for a loooong time, I have moved on to the Iphone 6.  Suzanne is going to get the Iphone 6 Plus…we’ll have an update on just how big that thing is later…..

 

When this boy crashes, he crashes hard.  Marino was happy to have him there!

This came in the mail….might as well post it here. 

 

This wasn’t the last photo when I started the post, but, I had to put it here, since this photo has the most ‘story’ to it…..

As Kevin has left, a great cleanup of the Kevin “stuff” left in his car has occurred.  And this week, I found this slip of paper at the bottom of a stack of papers in the center storage of the CR-V between the driver and passenger seat.  Resolve to myself to ask the boy what the heck this is the next time we talk! 

Had a nice talk with the boy; at first he is like “I don’t know” and then after I say I guess I’m going to have to traipse down to the East Lansing “"PD and get the police report his memory returns!  He “slightly bumped” someone on Grand River Avenue!  There was no damage to the other car but the woman insisted on filing the report because it wasn’t her car that she was driving.  Kevin says it happened because he was adjusting the defroster and misjudged the stopping distance.  Said he was hoping this was something that he could confess to at Thanksgiving five years from now.

Sigh.

Whale Watching – Cape Cod Edition

We’ve gone on whale-watching cruises in Alaska, Washington, California, and Hawaii.  We’ve pretty much agreed; this trip in Massachusetts might have been the best!

Why?  Well, there were lots and lots of whales, and that’s always a good thing.   But, in marked contrast to Hawaii, when the whales were close by, the operators here didn’t seem to have any, um, qualms, about firing up the engines and chasing after them.  In Hawaii, it was repeatedly, no engines with 100 yards, and so, encounters were at a distance and if you were lucky and the whales were heading toward you, great, but, if not, tough luck.

That being said, we’ve NEVER had whales head toward the boat like they did at one point on this trip.  And that video is totally awesome!  So, if you don’t normally click on video on this site, you really should watch the first one.  It’s only a minute, and you can see the people on the boat in the last twenty or thirty seconds to provide some contrast.  Click on any of the pictures to see the video.

By the way, those are not my kids ooh’ing and aah-ing…they know better!  Glad that boy was having fun, but, come on, really??

(the videos are presented here in chronological order….except this first one, because it is so awesome!  And you can see another whale spout out in the distance as these three cruise in towards us!)

(Yeah, that’s three whales in one screen-shot!  With people in the foreground for contrast too!)

(a whole lot of whale tails on this trip!)

(on any other trip this video would be the best we have….here it is almost the worst of the ones I chose to save because the whales are moving towards the boat and I have to track them towards the people…I was standing on the second deck in the very front)

(after trailing those 3 whales for a while we moved off and checked out these two.  Just a ton of whale out here today!)

From The Sports Desk – Gloom, Despair, Agony Edition

Cpher:  Lost, 37-0, to Grand Ledge.  I stopped taping after the 3rd quarter.

For all of that, I’ll say he played…better.  The majority of the time was holding his blocks; not placed in a bad position where he had to deal with a quick guy outside.  Came away from the game feeling pretty good about how he did. 

The Offense huddles….

I didn’t take either of these pictures; this one is not from Grand Ledge, but is from the Holt game previous….

Matthew:  A long drive on Saturday (1 hour 45 minutes) to lose 2-1 to a team that we probably should have beaten. 

(Matthew has been starting more recently.  I don’t know if I read too much into the coaches decision regarding starters…I do know that any concerns I had about Matthew in August are long gone!)

Our failure-to-convert problems still exist and they really caught up to us this game….if you don’t score you let random factors influence the game.  And that ref up there in the picture above….he was bad.  Atrocious level bad and he made several decision that cost us.  Add a goalie-disaster to that (still not sure what he was thinking…) and that’s that.

(A lot of his teammates are hitting their growth spurts….if Matthew is like Kevin, and I believe he will be, he will hit it late.  So, kind of surprising to me sometimes to see him still a bit taller and heavier than his opponents.)

A lot of our players, and parents, spent time during the game and after the game bemoaning the ref and how he cost us.  Am happy that Matthew was not one of those doing it during the game and Suzanne and I talked a long time to him on the way home that it is a reason but it is not the only reason you lost and Matthew (and his teammates) have to be good enough to get past events like that.  And that we were very proud of him for not reacting during the game….but instead doubling down on effort trying to make things right!

All that being said, Suzanne and I agree…..this was Matthew’s best game in about a year.  He was everywhere; you can really see the cross-country and how it has changed his stamina and his running stride (a lot of other parents…and his coach…have noticed it too….Matthew runs completely different now).  The other team was taking it to us in the second half; from the moment Matthew subbed in until he was subbed out late he was a ball of energy and we were back on top of things again because of it.

 

(being a little heavier is a good thing in very physical games…which is what this turned into because of the ref.  Combine that with the extra ‘speed’…that’s the wrong word, I’ll talk about that when we get to the cross country section…but Matthew had an advantage on some of these kids)

If the goal for this Fall is to make Premier 1 in the spring we are quickly reaching the point of ‘must win soon’.  I think next Sunday is a must win.

The Game Report (includes the note from the email as well): 

“Hi All,

Please find attached that game analysis from this weekends game vs Wolves East. Obviously this was a very frustrating game in many ways and we just need to have a good week in training and get things right for the trip to Carpathia.

It would be easy to bemoan the ref this weekend, as he had a massive hand in them getting there goals and effecting the game. However we were good enough to win this game and did not finish our chances and must play up to our standard for the rest of the season not down to the opposition.

Thanks for you continued support and we as coaches will get it right over the next few sessions.”

DATE:  20th of September

TEAM:  02 Boys Blue VS Wolves EAST

RESULT: 2-1(AWAY Loss)

ATTACKING

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

Possessed the ball well at times in the game and made some good runs off the ball.

Had numbers up in the final third and good runs in behind them.

Created more chances then the opposition and had some lovely touches and ideas in the final third.

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

Didn’t finish the chances; we certainly had enough.

When confronted with attacking 1v1 situations we didn’t make the right decisions often enough.

We had too many players making runs and not demanding the ball.

We need better runs into the channel.

DEFENDING

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

Aside from the goals we dealt with them very well as a back 4. Their strikers were not able to turn and get at us which was pleasing.

Some good individual tackling especially from midfielders.

We stepped up better then ever as a unit and this was pleasing (although once or twice we stepped a little too high).

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

The big lad on their team walked through 3 players to create the situation in the box that led to the penalty kick.  We needed to do a better job defending him.

Individual errors cost us today in a game we should never in a million years lost.

OVERALL COMMENTS

Thought the boys played well enough in this game to get at least a point if not all three. We looked good at times and had some nice play in the final third without really making it count. We lost a little patience towards the end of the game and this was frustrating as it would have been nice to have had a little more composure in the final third to get the goals that we needed. Obviously the field played a massive part in the game and we need to play a little more direct a little quicker on fields like this. We have to fix a couple of little things for the next few games to turn dominating teams into wins.

Cross Country:  The second meet of the year is at Holt.  I remember this course as the one where Kevin won the rest-of-the-kids race; Kevin, when told where the boys were, remembered a) that he won and b) “that course sucked!  It had so many hills!”

The boys, they would agree.

(Matthew and his buddy Nick.  First time Matthew has beaten him…although Matthew says Nick was “hallucinating”???)

(wish he had a better outing.  Oh well, there is always next week.  I’m just glad he’s doing it!)

I think the day was a success for Matthew, who was only 17 seconds off of his last time (they aren’t publishing the meet times here but the general feel is that most kids were way slower than the last go at it).  Cpher should have listened to his parents who said he should go for a short and not very strenuous run Sunday night….he ended up struggling with all of the ups and downs and walked a bit when the runners were out of sight of the parents.

A note about running:  as mentioned earlier, others have noticed a big change in Matthew’s running…Mom and Dad don’t see it as much as others claim too.  But I see a huge change in how Christopher runs….much more ‘normal’.  Before he liked to just bounce along, hands flopping any which way.  At least the cross country has helped that improve for both boys!

About that Matthew-speed comment above:  I’m not convinced he’s any faster…I don’t have any real proof one way or the other.  What I do believe is that he is now more willing to drop into a flat-out sprint at any moment and he’s willing to do that over and over and over.  Think he has completely embraced the “you have to work outside of soccer to be good at soccer” mantra…..in hindsight, am very glad he is doing cross country and not football.  Much better for him.

Boston, A.K. (After Kevin)

After dropping Kevin at Northeastern, we hung around Boston until Sunday morning. 

Walked down to Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall for dinner.  Grabbed this picture of what is now the Marriott Custom House….

 

The North End, as we walk back, is a very Italian neighborhood.  And the Feast of St. Andrew was Friday through Sunday night; this picture is earlier in the week.  A big open air market, lots of fair-type foods (zeppoles.  they are awesome!).  This street was impossible to get through over the weekend; just tons of people and every Italian stereotype you can think of….

The view from Bunker Hill monument.  This climb was a lot more strenuous than the one in Provincetown…it is all stairs and there are really no landings for breaks.

 

The monument.  Raising my irk-level to high, the boys and Mom decided not to walk across the street to the actual museum but instead hung out in the shade.  I guess they had a good time; I enjoyed the walk through history.  At least made sure that both boys knew we lost this battle to the British at the end of it!

 

Thursday morning was devoted to a “DUCK” tour…one of those half land half water deals on a DUKW based on designs from World War II.  Always had been on our list to do one of these (the boys in particular had seen them in other cities and clamored to do one.).  So off we go….

 

A really nice day.  Got a lot of nice views of Boston and Cambridge as we motored around….

 

Not having fun….

 

Better….trotting out one of his ‘newer’ looks, duck face!

 

 

 

We passed this bridge about twenty times this trip but never went on it to go over it…it is the Bunker Hill Bridge and carries I-93 north out of Boston.

 

 

Our DUKW.  The driver is all in costume and is a little over the top for my taste.  Nevermind that he damned near got us rundown by a Boston bus almost first thing!  But it was a good way to see Boston…..

Thursday night was a sunset cruise of Boston.  This is Castle Island; once an island with a fort protecting the harbor (not an island anymore.  Never realized how much of Boston was ‘made’-land…..).  Will talk more about this later…..

 

It was pretty, but, I thought the cruise was kind of…boring…just tacked back and forth and there wasn’t really much point to the cruise other than being out on the water for sunset.  Not even a lot of touristy pointing things out.

 

I will say that we did tack and forth between the city and Logan airport.  And I did enjoy getting the close up views of planes taking off and landing.

 

Friday morning, because my wife is awesome, we travelled back out to Castle Island for the the USS Constitution turnaround.  Once or twice a year they ‘sail’ the ship out to Castle Island and back so that they can turn the ship around and have it weather evenly in drydock.  Because the ship is going in for refitting for four years, they did an extra turnaround.  And we got to see it.

When they get to Castle Island, they do a 21-gun salute and, well, turn around.  You can click the next picture to see the video.

 

Things that surprised me:  1)  how notable the police presence was around the ship.  Any ship you see in these two pictures is law enforcement. and 2) when the ship came into view I was under the impression that it was under it’s own power.  Turns out that there is a tug boat on the other side near the stern (much more visible in the video which occurs when the ship is turning).

We hung out on the grass, played some Hearts, and then called it an afternoon and headed over to the USS Constitution museum (because of the turnaround we weren’t going to get to go on the ship).

 

Saturday morning was a walking tour of Boston.  Again, this isn’t Suzanne and my usual thing…we much prefer exploring on our own.  I think the boys liked it; Matthew and Cpher have both spouted off information passed along by the guide so I guess that means it was worth it.

 

The Old State House…site of the the Boston Massacre and where the Declaration of Independence was read once it made its way to Boston (and is read aloud every July 4th since then as well).

Boston – The Skinny House

Decided this house needed a post of its own.  After three nights on Cape Cod, five of us in one hotel room, it was a good thing that Suzanne had found this sweet little house as our ‘home’ for the time we were in Boston.  Because five of us in one room is just…well, it’s not good.  Too cramped, no room, too much noise, not enough space. Ugh.

Anyway, Suzanne found The Skinny House on VRBO.  At roughly the same cost as a hotel room during our stay (hotel room costs were outrageous…every college in the are is moving in this week and hotels are priced accordingly) we had prime accommodations in a historic district and in fact were able to live in some architectural history as well!

It certainly will probably be the only house we stay in that has a wikipedia entry!     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinny_House_(Boston)

Oh forget it….I’m just going to put most of the Boston Globe article that is referenced in the wikipedia entry here!

Living sideways

By Jim Cronin, Globe Correspondent  |  February 13, 2005

The second thing you notice about the North End house is that it has no front door.

To enter, you walk down a narrow alleyway, open a side door, and promptly climb a steep set of stairs, which open into the kitchen. A 3-foot-by-6-foot kitchen.

Which is next to a very tiny dining room and, on that floor, nothing else.

Which has a lot to do with the first thing you notice as you stand outside: It's incredibly narrow.

At its widest point on Hull Street, the house spans 10.4 feet. In the rear, it tapers to 9.25 feet on the outside, while the interior rear walls are a mere 8.4 feet wide.

Inside the four-story building, the walls are no more than 9.2 feet wide.

The place has the "uncontested distinction of being the narrowest house in Boston," says "The Boston Society of Architects' AIA Guide to Boston." With its figurative belt tightly buckled, the home's thinnest point is 6.2 feet across, letting an occupant touch opposing walls.

Its owners, Jennifer Simonic and Spencer Welton, live a vertical life.

"We can't have any ballroom dancing," said Simonic, who, with her husband, bought the home four years ago. "We had a party of 10 one New Year's Eve, and when one person has to go to the bathroom, everyone has to move."

Living in the house also has a public component. "We've had people just walk into our backyard and sit at our picnic table," said Simonic. "They say, 'We'll just be a couple of minutes, we just want to take a couple of pictures.' That was bizarre."

……..

There are only five doors in the house.

"Instead of doors, we have floors between each space," said Welton, 35, who has a degree in architecture and works for an apartment development company.

The second floor holds the living room and the bathroom, one of few spaces separated by a door.

…….

The origin of the house, which apparently dates to the Civil War era, is obscure. Local legend says two brothers inherited land from their deceased father. While one brother was away serving in the military, the other built a large home, leaving the soldier only a shred of property that he felt certain was too tiny to build on.

When the soldier returned, he found his inheritance depleted and built the narrow house to spite his brother by blocking the sunlight and ruining his view, giving rise to its nickname, the "spite house."

The footprint of 44 Hull St. appeared in "The Hopkins Atlas of 1874, Boston Proper," according to Kristen Swett, assistant archivist at the Boston City Archives. In 1884, the land was split into five lots, with one measuring only 274 square feet, which corresponds to the size of the house before renovations that lengthened it.

"In a city where there are many narrow lots, this far exceeds the norm," said Ellen Lipsey, executive director of the Boston Landmarks Commission. "As far as we know, it is the narrowest house in Boston."

The views of Copp's Hill Burying Ground across the street and Old Ironsides floating on the Charles River are constant reminders of Boston's storied past. The attractions also bring visitors to their door.

As she spoke, a small group of people across the street pointed to the house and then to their maps, perhaps wondering why it was not marked.

"I think because it's so odd, and the cemetery is right across the street, people think it's just part of the Freedom Trail," said Simonic, gazing outside from the living room. "So many people look through the window, and I'm not sure if they expect to see Betsy Ross sewing a flag or Paul Revere's wife cooking over an open hearth."

 

It was weird.  Suzanne commented when we got home that “it was great to have the bedroom and the bathroom on the same floor!”.  We were worried that it would be hot but they had some kick-ass wall mounted air conditioners in the two bedrooms that made it almost arctic at times.  The people taking pictures of the house was kind of freaky at times but Suzanne also got a thrill out of going back to the house once and having to ask a bunch of tourists on a tour to move out of the way so that she could go in the house and have them gasp and say “She lives in that house!”…..

Anyway, you can click on either of the two pictures below for the video outside the house or the video tour inside the house.

(The Old North Church.  You can see the Freedom Trail in brick on the sidewalk on the left)

(Skinny House means some narrow staircases!  No passing allowed!)

From The Sports Desk – Two Points You’ll Never Get Back Edition

Cpher:  Football was not good; lost 32-12 to Holt.  Did not play well and was left in some very bad spots by his coaches.  Let’s talk about both of those things!

Cpher consistently did not hold on to his blocks….we’ve talked over and over about this and sometimes it is better but today it was definitely worse.  I can completely understand how the coaches can be very frustrated by this.

You’ll note in the picture above that it doesn’t matter what Cpher is doing, the Holt DT blasted our guard and is tackling the back 3 yards in the backfield.

 

His stance, while better, is still maybe not optimal.  That heel should be on the ground.  And I know Christopher’s speed in getting out of his stance was a big issue this week.  In that first picture above you can see #7.  He was Holt’s QB; he is big and he is fast and nimble.  And Holt lined him up at DE. Not opposite Cpher.  2 or 3 yards outside of Cpher. 

And it went really well for Holt.  Cpher could not get out of his stance quickly enough to get out to block him all the time.  If he could get there, he was able to block him.  But he couldn’t get there often, and would get yelled at for it.  I think that’s wrong…that’s on the coaches.  Holt created a mismatch, and if, no matter how hard Cpher tries, we can’t cover it, than bring a TE over or have a RB stay in to help.  We didn’t, and Cpher got abused a lot, more and more as the game wore on.  Only one time did we do something designed to stop that bull rush…we threw a screen pass to that side.  Scored one of our two touchdowns!

Matthew:  Brimming with confidence after a hopefully season-defining win in our first game we play again at home against what everybody things will be the worst team we play this year.

And despite outshooting them about 50 to 2 we walk away with a 2-2 tie.  The only worse result would have been actually losing!   We wasted so many chances, well, it’s hard to write about even now.

Matthew?  Well, I think he made a huge mistake that turned into the turnover that led to the first goal….underhit a ball trying to do something cute instead of clearing it forward when we were back in our end.  Not a good moment.  But it was the only bad moment in the game….he played well and controlled the middle and had a lot of nice distribution.  

But that’s 1 point, instead of 3 points.  And so that’s 2 points we will never have, while the other teams in our division will certainly get them.  Because that team stinks!

The Game Report is below:

TEAM: 02 Boys Blue VS AC Milan

RESULT:  2-2

ATTACKING:

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

Created a lot of penetrating attacks out wide.

Created a lot of goal scoring chances and had a lot of one on ones with the goalkeeper

Looked to take on the opposition 1v1

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

Very poor in front of goal today. We created but wasted too many chances today

Didn’t look to swing the ball often enough. We had a wide open player in front of the goal but would choose to force balls into 3 defenders

Poor decision making from center mid’s in final third

DEFENDING

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

Handled their speedy player for most of the game.

Won most headers in the second half.

Gave options to play back, although we never really spoke to the players in front to encourage them to do it.

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

Poor defending for both goals. Allowed players to get open and we were ball watching and too reactive rather then proactive after the turnovers.

Passes back to goalkeeper were not at a good speed

Lack of communication from goalkeeper to center backs.

OVERALL COMMENTS

Well we had enough chances to score 10 -20 goals in each half today. Most of the chances were scrappy but we just were not switched on today. Too many players showed up today feeling this would be an easy game and then we wee rattled by their early goal. Before they scored we looked good and moved the ball; as soon as they scored we lost our focus and shape and didn’t move the ball well enough. They sat a lot of players back and if we want to be a good team we have to deal with this and learn to break them down. We can’t just force it we have to learn to be more patient!