Visitors

I haven't done a post describing the visitors to the blog in a long time....really, it's the same stable of folk now for the most part.  Grandma and Aunt Melanie; Niceville; a few Lansing IP addresses (Aunt Christine, Kathy) every now and again.  Those are the regulars I know...you walk into a bar I guess, and the same gang is always there.

There's a fair smattering of random visits that don't last that long related to internet searches.  Been a few recently looking for 1st grade spelling tests...I think there was one for "Babenhausen elementary school"....had a run on "dangers of tubing" searches for a while that referred people to the infamous Crab Island post.  Not so many visits from far off places due to the 'next blog' button....that only happens about every 6 weeks now.

I guess the most interesting thing on the visitor front gets to the casual approach I've taken towards the blog over the last 13 months.  At first, I took great pains not to mention certain phrases....the home town, the last name, the schools, because I knew, search engines would pick those names up, and I might get visitors from the community who know us and thought that avoiding that was a good thing.  But, over time, I relaxed, or, got lazy, or whatever, and those words began to creep in (the basketball post a few posts down has the school, for example).....it's just harder to always remember to write generically.  And I may have to dump the blog at some point if the worst case happens and someone from the community gets out here, discovers it, and somehow someway it turns out to embarrass Kevin or something like that.  But, I guess the chance of that is pretty remote.

That being said, there's the regulars I know, and there's the regular, now, that I don't.  98.208.53.130.   Found the blog after doing a search on the busing cuts and saw my post to the superintendent that went nowhere, and now, not every day, but, every couple of days, there's a visit.  So, we have one fan in Okemos at least.

Welcome to our corner of the internet.  Say 'hi' if you see us at the Meijer or something!

Washington - Video

The video camera, at least for me, isn't the best way to capture a sight-seeing trip like the recent trip to Washington (in fact, in Europe, it only really came in handy on the river tour...the rest is better captured through photographs).

It's good for catching moments (I wish I had taken some video of the Schoolhouse Rock songs) and this is one of them...it's the first day, we're on the way to the Capitol, and have stopped at the Grant Memorial.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Weekend Update

Friday:  Kevin had his winter recital.  Kevin was going to do the fourth movement of the Telemann concerto that he's been working on, but, due to some miscommunication with the accompanist, he ended up doing the 2nd movement again.  I think this was a good thing, because, now I have a version of that movement on tape that isn't dreadful.

 

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Saturday:  Boys had their first soccer game in a while, won 6-0.  Both boys played well; Christopher, I thought, really had a good game and did exactly what I wanted him to do, so, that was a good thing.  Matthew, I hear, scored a goal, but, I didn't see it (I think I was too busy tying shoes...oh well).

Finally got the plumbing connected on the sink, so, that's operational.  Need to make a tweak to the hot/cold supply lines (I did it exactly how the directions said, but, Suzanne would like to push the faucet backwards for hot, not forward, so, I'll have to make the switch).  Disposal is installed...plumbing is a little bit goofy, especially the drain from the dishwasher, so, I'm going to have to look at it a bit more in the coming weeks.

Sunday:  Most of today was lost to trying to get the basement ready for baseboard and casing installation; we've been trying to get the bulk of the painting done.  Ripped out the carpet on the stairs (20 years of dirt under that!...yuck).  Been painting the doors, etc.  We got our Christmas tree last weekend; finally started putting lights and ornaments on it this weekend. 

Basketball

Well, today was Christopher's first basketball practice.  You might have thought it was the end of the world.....or close to it.

The big guy came home sick from school Monday afternoon, and spent the next 8-10 hours alternately drinking Sprite and water and puking his guts out.  So, even getting to basketball practice Tuesday night was in doubt.  But, he woke up Tuesday, exclaimed "my tummy doesn't hurt!" (he was literally writhing in pain Monday evening..) and, after spending the morning at home, went to school at around 11 am.  The last thing I told him was "I'll be getting you at Kids Club and then we'll be going to basketball.  I know you don't want to go, I know you've been complaining....let's not have any problems."

Hah.  Like that was going to work.

So, I get him, and immediately he's at it..."I don't want to go...you can't make me go....I'm not going to do it...I'm not going to do it"....and on and and on as he gets in the car...he hits me with his backpack, he pouts, he yells, he's not convinced by Kevin, who played 4 years of rec basketball and liked it, and is not swayed at all by understanding that Kevin had to try all the sports...that's the rule.  Remind Christopher that we went through this before we went to the basketball clinic he wasn't happy about it and afterwards he said he had fun....no dice.  No No No No NO!  No means NO!

Steadily goes downhill from here....Christopher gets increasingly nasty towards me on the drive there and then, we arrive.  He's still saying he's not going to do it as we walk in to the school and he barely can acknowledge the coach.  He stands, on the side of the court, and doesn't participate for 10 minutes.  He threatens to leave...I threaten him with a punishment of no TV for all of basketball season, and, that threat convinces him to stay.....I leave the gym for a while to leave him there by himself just watching and then, eventually, he goes over and begins to participate.

Let me backtrack here....the team, I see upon arriving, is a 2nd grade / 3rd grade team.  Christopher knows some of the 3rd graders from Bennett Woods, but, that's about it.  He's still the tallest kid here.

They start off doing suicides.....there's three pretty athletic third graders, they finish 1-2-3 and Christopher is 4th of the 7 that are there.  They do a dribbling drill, he does ok....they do another dribbling drill with switching hands and he does, to me, awesome, some very nice switching of hands and moving through the slalom they set up.  They do a passing and shooting drill and he scores a basket.  And practice ends, and we go home, and I call Mom...and he takes the phone and tells Mom that he scored a basket(!) and had fun.  And after the phone call ends, and the car is quiet for a moment, and we're listening to the radio, the big guy reaches over, takes my hand, and says "I'm sorry Dad"....

Flomax anyone?

For many men, Flomax, can make a difference in just one week.  That's what the commercial says at least. 

Matthew, who is slowly but surely learning to "hold it" a little bit longer each day, is utterly fascinated by this claim.  These commercials come on, and he's asking Mom and Dad if we can get these magic pills for him ("Come on Mom, they help you to hold it for 12 hours!").  Suzanne and I bust out laughing when he starts asking for the medicine for old men

Most road trips are dominated by the need to stop on Matthew's behalf.  Typically, at least once, there's an 'emergency' where he didn't give us notice and we're struggling to stop before an accident.  This latest trip, despite visiting the bathroom in Warren right before we left, we weren't even to Akron before having to pull off the road (literally, he told right as we were passing an exit, and the next one was a ways off) to find a tree with his name on it. 

Washington - Epilogue

(blog note:  This is the first post using Windows Live Writer as opposed to Blogger's online editing tool.....we'll see how it looks and whether this is an improvement or not.  Posting images with Blogger's tool is a complete pain-in-the-butt....I'm hoping using this is a lot easier.)

Forgot to mention two things that we'll always remember about the trip.

1)  The boys were really really really taken with the songs from the musical.  So much so that they were memorizing them the second night, and so much so that they would walk down the street with Kevin singing the songs.  This was cute, and nice, as any time spent singing was time that wasn't spent bickering and fighting with each other.

2)  Kevin was really really really fascinated with the Washington Metro system.  He begged (and begged, and begged, and frankly, grew to be damned annoying about this) to take alternate routes home from certain places.  He had a map of the Metro system and laid out a new line, the Gray Line.  He cried in anguish as Suzanne and I told him that the Underground and Metro in London and Paris were way more advanced and cooler than Washington's system.  I finally relented and let him go by himself once and take a different train (red) to a different train (green or yellow) to the train we started on (orange/blue) to get back to the station near the hotel.

Oh yeah, this Live Writer is way better than the Blogger tool!

Chocolate Cognac

Suzanne's Christmas Present Arrived Today!

Installed by two Eastern European gentlemen. The smell of glue and epoxy rules in the house.

from the doorway. No lights on, no flash

the picture above, and the rest of them, have the overhead light turned on

The Trip Home

Left Washington DC about 8 am Saturday morning......spent more than my share of time driving around WashDC missing the GPS turns because the traffic was too heavy or they weren't marked very well, or, because I'm an idiot, and the drive out wasn't an exception. Oh well. We made the decision to take I-68 west instead of coming up to the PA Turnpike....turned out to be a good call; I knew that way was more scenic and less crowded, Dora the GPS Explorer ended up telling us it wasn't any longer, and we ended up driving up near Fort Necessity and Braddock's Grave in Western Penn....continuing our visit of historical George Washington places (the video at the Mount Vernon visitor center about George actually shows part of this battle......should have planned to stop here in hindsight, oh well).

Made it to Grandma's and had some awesome lasagna and apple squares. The lasting highlight of the visit will be Christopher's adventures on the recliner.....he finally got the recliner deployed, and then crawled down on the floor to check underneath it, and, then, later, he has his giant pencil and is fishing under the recliner trying to get something

Dad "What are you doing?"
Cpher "Getting the $20 that's under here"
Grandma "??? There's not $20 under there!"
Cpher "Oh yes there is!"

So, Christopher is still 'fishing'.....Kevin comes over to help out, and Grandma is saying, no way, there's not $20 under there. Kevin looks under and confirms that, yes, it is money, and finally helps Christopher claim his prize....cold, hard, US Greenbacks. Twenty of them.

Christopher, earlier, had discoverd Grandma's two stuffed animals, one, Franklin, a smaller version of the big cat that was no where to be found during out stay (thus, avoiding some serious science-ing and a painful introduction of claws and teeth to Heckyl and Jeckyl's science efforts) and, more importantly, a walrus that had captured Christopher's interest and started some not very subtle discussions about how that walrus might look better in Okemos, not Ohio.

Grandma, quick to seize an opportunity to cash in on the situation(!), offered to 'sell' the aforementioned walrus for a cool $20. Christopher, with walrus in his eyes, quickly agreed, and both parties walked away happy. Joe and Mom spend some time trying to figure out which of their guests may have misplaced $20 and come to the conclusion that it had to be one friend, but, it was surprising that it was only $20, it probably should have been $50 or $100! Can only imagine the big guy's expression if he would have stumbled across those big bills!



Got home around 9 pm. Boys very happy to be home....cats very happy to be released from their imprisonment in the house....cats not very happy to have the resumption of collection for science-ing.

Washington - Part Last

Thursday:

Monument: To go up the Washington Monument you have to have timed tickets, so, Suzanne went out early (letting all of the lazy males sleep in!) and was in line at 8:30 to get the tickets....we made it over there for the approximate 10 am start. The tour is pretty simplistic, in through the ever-present metal detectors, up the elevator, look out the windows, and down you come, with a slow stop on the elevator around the 220' level to look at the blocks states, organizations, cities, and countries donated and had placed in the monument.

Christopher in front of George inside the base of the monument

Looking West from the top of the Monument

Under new occupany soon.

WWII: We proceeded to head west from the WM to continue our monument tour; stopping at the World War II Memorial. The quotes and the murals were pretty impressive; the use of the water in the fountains and in the still pool in front of the stars was pretty cool also. Sadly, despite repeated warnings, one boy couldn't keep his feet out of the water, so, the rest of the memorial walk this day was marred by a Christopher-time-out and continued sulkiness.

This tree provided an irrestible break for the boys after the trip up and down of the Washington monument.

Literally, 10 seconds after this photo, his foot hit the water and, well, Christopher got his turn at the nadir of the behavior-biorythym scale.....

Lincoln: A long walk down here, but, worth it. Christopher, at this point, still wants nothing to do with the rest of the family, and that's why he isn't in the picture below.

There was a moment where we couldn't find Matthew and Christopher; they had moved off to the side to sit and reflect on the day's events.

Vietnam, Embassies: Left the Lincoln Memorial and walked up the Vietnam Memorial....not sure how much of this the boys understood. We explained why all the names were there to Matthew and Christopher, but, I probably will ask tonight if they remember it and why the names were there. We'll see. Hutsell's split up after this; Kevin and I stepped up the pace to catch a subway to get back to the hotel to get the car, Mom and the boys took a small side trip to the Natural History museum until we got back. After we got the car and picked up everyone, we travelled up "Embassy Row" checking out the different embassies and the neighborhoods.

Turkey: Returned to the hotel for dinner and football.....had some turkey and some sides from Boston Market...had stuffing (with sausage!) Suzanne had made. Leftover chinese food? yep, had some of that. Leftover Nachos? Matthew was all over that! Strangest Thanksgiving dinner in a long time.

Nighttime: Everyone came out in the car in the evening as we did a nighttime drive by the sights.....don't know why, don't know if it was normal, but, there was quite a police presence around the Capitol, we passed at least 5 manned patrol cars as we circled around the Capitol. Headed down past the White House and the WM; drove by the Lincoln Memorial and stopped at the Jefferson Memorial. Parking was closed, but, the monument was still open and I think I enjoyed the look of the Jefferson Memorial a lot. Sadly, a boy tripping on the stairs required a return trip to the car for Dad, so, I didn't get to see the museum there, but, Kevin and Mom report that it's pretty impressive as well.

Friday:

Holocaust Memorial: The Hutsell's split up again this morning; Suzanne and the boys went back to the Natural History museum for more animal close-ups, and Kevin and I went over to the Holocaust Memorial. Kevin had watched the movie Freedom Riders recently, so, at least had some idea of what we were going to see, and spent a lot of time reading the displays and watching the films (so much so that I felt like I was rushing him through the museum....we were going to meet the otherHutsell's for lunch and I didn't want to leave Suzanne with Heckl and Jeckyl for too long). The museum was really really well done, they have a display geared for children on the first floor that's really good, and there's a tower of photographs from a shetl(sp?) that depicts life in the town in the and the people and the sad note at the bottom of the tower that the village ceased to exist in 1943. Very moving. I think I'm going to get Schnidler's List to watch with Kevin in the next week or two to reinforce the lessons learned today.

Swimming Pool: Headed back to the hotel after lunch; went to the swimming pool for the last time. The swimming pool at the hotel was a major bust....closed for 24 hours from Sunday afternoon into Monday, and then Wednesday/Thursday Matthew and Christopher are complaining of 'itching'....their skin is all red and we realize the chemicals in the pool are 'burning' them.....Friday, we take a long look at Christopher's swimming trunks....what once were kelly green and blue are some funky aqua-marine shade because they've been bleached out.

Washington - Part Two

Tuesday:


BEP: Tuesday begin with a visit to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. During 'peak' season, you have to get tickets in advance....since the Hutsell's avoid peak season anywhere like it's the plague, we just arrived, waited 10 minutes, and the tour begins. Not surprising for an assembly-line process like the BEP, but, the tour runs like a swiss watch...watch the video, head into the plant, watch the money get printed on one side, printed on another, cut, diced, sliced, etc and so on. Was closer to more money than I'll ever be again in my life.....actually, that's not true, it's not money until the Federal Reserve accepts the money into the system, but, still, something neat about watching sheet after sheet of $100 bills go buy..uh, bye.

BBS you ask? A 7.....about as good as it will ever get I guess.



White House: There's things that the federal government has done well on the touristy front here....we like that the museums are free (as opposed to the high price of tourism we encountered in Europe) and the Capitol was done well and the BEP was done very well.

But the White House? For all of the run-a-round to get in (you can't bring any type of bag on to the grounds, never mind having to arrange a time and submitting you name, birthdate, and SSN) you only get to see about 5 rooms of the building and that's it, you're done. I understand security, I understand it's a 'working' building, but, man, that's it, the center of the free world is walking through the blue room, the red room, the green room, and the dining room, and getting to stand outside three others and look in? Only thing that would have made it worse would have been being charged for it.....

BBS: 5. Still wonder how far Matthew would have made it if he would have taken off down one of those hallways. Would have been higher except for the the Matthew "I need to use the bathroom" five minutes after we had just asked and he said 'no'......and, well, the White House has no public bathrooms.

Bolt: Drove to Alexandria Tuesday night for dinner and to see 'Bolt'. The movie's very good, enjoyed by all....I think Mom gets more of a kick watching Dad enjoy the animated humor movies than from watching the movie itself. Too much Looney Tunes I guess....

Wednesday:

Mount Vernon: At the start of the trip, we had planned on Wednesday being the go-to-Williamsburg-for-the-day day....but, upon reflection of the drive (3 hours with no traffic) and the prediction for traffic (horrible), we decided to save Williamsburg and points south for another trip. So, we moved up our schedule and went out to Mount Vernon. The land and buildings are all owned by the "Mount Vernon Ladies Association", and, if they deserve all of the credit and the feds none, fine, but, the whole complex and the center and the museum are really well done.

BBS: 3 Back to the Monday's issues; Matthew and Christopher playing hide-and-go-irritate your parents by fighting with each other on the guided part of the tour, Kevin with teenage angst I guess.

One of the very nice stained glass windows in the visitors center.

The mansion from the Potomac side.

Mansion from the front. Bowling Green directly in front of the mansion.

Dead President

Washington: Oh yeah, I should mention that well, anybody would have some reservations about coming to Wash DC....and I'm sure that there are parts that I wouldn't want to be in after dark (or even during the day) in a million years. But....I've been pleasantly surprised with what I've seen...especially with Paris and London as recent memories. The Metro has been extremely clean and pleasant, the sidewalks in the city and around the Mall have been clean and friendly, no begging, no strange people walking up.....really, two thumbs up.

Washington - Part One

First, the much-anticipated All-State results were posted tonight. Kevin is the 5th chair viola in the Middle School Orchestra. He'll report to Grand Rapids on Thursday Jan 22, 2009 and rehearse that afternoon and all-day Friday with a Saturday morning performance. Kevin's selection, and my volunteering to participate on a long range planning committee for the school district, has effectively hosed a full family vacation that week in January...perhaps Suzanne and the boys will go and leave me and Kevin to the January cold....

The trip to Washington: Went fairly well Sunday....departed Michigan a little before 8:30 am and landed at the hotel just after 6 pm. Nothing spectacular to report about the trip; I guess the most outstanding thing was that we're staying at a Residence Inn and due to our residual 'gold' status on my account from the timeshare purchase we received an upgrade from our 1 bedroom suite to a 2 bedroom suite, which, will go a long way towards making this week go easier.

Monday: Started the day with breakfast at the RI; they do a good breakfast, not the continental deal at most hotels, but, hot eggs, sausage, pancakes....the boys do well here so paying the extra money sometimes to stay at a RI is worth it.

View on our walk to the Capitol

Christopher and Dad in front of the Grant Memorial

Walked over to the Cannon House Building to the offices of our Congressman (Rogers, the 8th district in Michigan) and went on a tour of the Capitol guided by one of his staff. And that was good, but, a little weird. I wonder if we would have learned more doing the regular tour with the big group but able to have the audio tour and listening.....I wonder if we would have been able to enter the House Chambers if we weren't on the tour...our tour guide, Lauren, couldn't take us into the Senate Chambers because, she, working in a House office, didn't have access. It was nice being in a smaller group, but, Lauren hadn't done the tour in a while, and didn't have the answers to relatively easy questions at times. Oh well. We're glad we were one of the first tours from the House buildings....we walked right into the Capitol but the tours that had started later were stuck in a long long line. The BBS (Boys Behavior Scale) was a measly 4.....ok, it's the Capitol, and it's not expected to have appeal to Christopher and Matthew, but, the 4 is only because Christopher was a little angel...Matthew was a whiny terror and Kevin, strangely, wasn't nearly as interested or appreciative of where he was.

The family in as close as we'll ever get to a good, posed, picture. Notice Matthew already trying to screw things up.

A much more typical family pose.

Air and Space Museum: Made it to the ASM about lunch time and spent the rest of the afternoon here. Boys seemed to really get into all of the sights here and particularly enjoyed the section about what living in space was like. Attended the IMAX showing of fighter pilots at the Red Flag exercises at Nellis AFB, which was really awesome (Kevin enjoyed a few of the scenes that showed sky diving....Mom, later, admits that she missed this, and other parts of the movie as she snoozed...) But, very typical of their ages, it soon became more a mission to get through it as quick as possible, and Mom and the boys left about 30 minutes before Kevin and I did.

Kevin, whether enjoying the subject matter more, or responding to his parent's commentary about how he was going to get the most out of the trip after his rather poor performance at the Capitol, really took his time going through the ASM, particulary enjoying the meterology/satellites sections and the WWII aviation section. The real highlight for Kevin was the trip through the full-motion flight simulator...he was the pilot, I was the gunner, and I took great pains to tell him that upside-down rolls should be held to a minimum. We only rolled twice, but the shoulder harness only keeps your head and torso in place, my legs would end up bent over the harness on the ceiling/floor, and I'd be yelling "KEVINNNNNNN!" and he'd be laughing.
BBS: A solid 8.




Dinner: Went to the ESPNZone.....service was really really slow, and the games were ridiculously priced and expensive, but, the boys all responded that this was the best restaurant ever, so, I guess it couldn't have been that bad.

what happens when you let a boy near a camera

times two

....the night of nights....

"Overture, curtain, lights! This is it, the night of nights! No more rehearsin' or nursing a part, we know every part by heart...."

First, let's get updated on everything else that's going on:

Kitchen: Countertop installation scheduled for December 1

Basement: Was going really well until dry wall hanging began, and then it reallllly slowed down. It's not going to be done before we leave, and construction will drag into the week after we get back.

All-State: Still no word. The web site says we'll know late Monday or Tuesday...we'll see about that.

Cats: The boys have been on a feline kick lately.....catching the cats and carrying them up to their room for some in-depth petting and 'science-ing'. Madison has been remarkably patient as the boys have done this, but, the we've been intervening more recently in trying to stop it. Not surprisingly, incidents of cats at the door meowing to go outside are on an upswing.

Second...well, tonight was opening night. Below you'll find 'highlights'....about 7 minutes of the performance. Kevin's microphone didn't work at first, but, kicked on after a while. We'll be taping again tomorrow night and hopefully that part will work out better.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Metro

(ok, I admit it, I'm not getting back to finish this.....I started it Tuesday night).

Another evening, another layover in Detroit. I've flown frequently enough this year that I easily qualified for Silver Elite status on NorthDelta and, with the end of this flight and the scheduled flight to WashDC in three weeks, I'll have enough segments for Gold Elite.

Anyway, here's the news:

Kitchen: Called the countertop place...they were scheduling to be out next Tuesday for installation, but, we won't be there, so, it won't happen until we get back after Thanksgiving. Will be really glad to finally get that done and have the kitchen return to almost normal.

Basement: Drywall is mostly done in the basement....that looks to be all done before we leave for vacation as well.

Time to board...will finish this later tonight.

Weekend Update

Haven't blogged in almost a week, so, this will be a long one.

Hockey: Well, Kevin and I had a blast at the Penguins - Red Wings game on Tuesday night. When they were down by 3 with 12 minutes left in the third, I was seriously considering how early was too early to leave to beat traffic, but, happily, the Penguins scored 4 of the next 5 goals and won in overtime. Might be the most exciting game I've been to, period. We doubled up on hockey this week and went to see the Spartans with the school on Saturday night. Sadly, they lost, and doubly sadly, the boys (all of them!) didn't do well in the behavior department. They were just south of ok, they weren't totally bad, but, they could have been a lot better.

Soccer: The boys played Saturday and won 11-0.....Christopher is still without a score, but, did a good job in goalie (okay, he only touched the ball once..). Matthew had a goal, and, also had the scary moment of the year....indoor soccer is like hockey, there's boards, and Matthew is running along and trips on another kid and the next sound you hear is his head hitting the boards...and the sound after that is every parent going 'oooooh'. I don't think he had hit the ground before I was on the field, but, thankfully, he cried his way off the field and was pretty much ok after a minute or two. But man did it sound and look awful. Suzanne, thankfully, was off with Kevin, and missed the sight and sounds....

Viola: The aforementioned 'off with Kevin' was at Kevin's Solo and Ensemble performance. This is the piece that the orchestra teacher wasn't sure was appropriate.....and Kevin was very nervous, and will cheerfully agree that he did the worst that he's done recently on the piece and was very distraught afterwards because he thought he didn't do well. So, he was completely surprised that he received a '1' for his performance (that's the highest you can get). We've learned a few things from this outing, one is that we'll always arrange for his accompanist outside of school from now on; Kevin barely practiced with her and said she was slower than he was used to and it threw him off.......she was rushing from performance to performance and Suzanne and I will cheerfully pay a little more to make the experience easier for Kevin and 2) Kevin will keep working on that 2nd movement and do that for his winter recital...I have to have a better version on tape than this one!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kitchen: Installed some doors, installed some cover panels. Fixed that one cabinet that I had messed up, got the door swinging the other way. Got the countertop quote back; came in almost $1500 less than the shop in Lansing, especially if you consider the 10% discount we were able to get on all the purchases we had made since Oct 4th (that ended up being $500!). We're supposed to have the counter in less than 2 weeks...hopefully we can get it next week, we'll see.

Chicago: Was a chaperone for the annual 7th grade trip to Chicago. This is worthy of a post of its own....and I'll do that tomorrow while I'm in Charleston (again...)

More Viola: Kevin participated in the Chamber Music concert in school on Thursday. A lot of the same groups performed as ensembles on Saturday....Kevin's did not. They are playing 'Divertimento' by Mozart....and Kevin is pretty well blocked by the violin on the tape, but, you can enjoy the music.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Performances?: The boys have been in a performing frame of mind themselves recently.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's a great night for hockey!

More later....it's late, and we just got home. But Kevin and I spent Tuesday night here.



Oh yeah, and the first pictures of this REALLY IMPORTANT THING showed up on the internet today.