Monday, February 27, 2012

Go Tottenham


Go Tottenham
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We are hoping to get tickets to a Tottenham Hotspur football match in London when we are there in April and Dylan is pretty pumped up about it. He brought this home for me the other day and he is watching all their games on You Tube now. We also watched them lose to Arsenal on Sunday. He gets funny when he gets something in his head.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Tennis Anyone


Tennis Anyone
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Beautiful day for tennis, baseball, soccer and football at the park. With the basketball season over, it's time to start preparing for the next team sports, maybe even tennis.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Rough Game, Again.


Rough Game, Again.
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We were the 4th seed in the tournament and we played the 3rd seed and we were pretty evenly matched. The boys played hard and we took them into overtime where we lost by a point. Sam had 10 points and Dylan had 4 but it wasn't enough to beat the annoying little team. My only real regret was that I should have kept score like in most games. It's supposed to work that one parent from each team is at the scorer's table to kind of keep each other honest. One does the book and one does the clock. They had two people doing it and I figured it would be fine. Big mistake, they didn't calculate fouls correctly (in their favor) and the clock was suspect. It actually could have been the difference in the game and I'm kicking myself for letting it happen. The good news is we don't have to play a team tomorrow that beat us twice this season by and average of 20 points and even if we beat them, we would have to play a team that beat every team in the league by and average of 40 points.

It was a good season, we went 4-5 including the playoffs and I think all the kids got better. Next year the boys will be the older kids on the team and hopefully we get a couple talented 3rd graders joining us.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Accidental Photo


Accidental Photo
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I snapped this photo by accident while in front of St. Mathews the other day and for some reason I like it. I'm not sure what it says but it caught my eye and it is now part of my blog.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

February 23rd?


February 23rd?
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

This had to be the earliest these have ever on up in the yard. I bet they are a month early. I sure felt like spring out there today but we still have a decent chance of snow or really cold temps in the next few weeks. I just ordered some more wood.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Noon Rush


Noon Rush
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

St. Mathews is between my office and the gym and it was a mad house at lunch time with all the ash being placed on people foreheads. It the same every year, i want to inform the first person I see with a big black blotch on their head but quickly realize it was on purpose. I must have seen 200 people with ash on their forehead on the short walk to the gym. It just amazes me that so many people believe that's an important task on ash Wednesday. I put in 45 minutes on the elliptical because I'm a deist and I know that nature is catching up with me.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Grandpa Gil's Birthday


DSC_0487
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Adam made it down for the basketball game and dinner in Old Town yesterday which made Grandpa, the boys and Nicole really happy. I was happy to see him too but it wasn't my birthday and I wasn't playing basketball. The boys did well on the court and won their second game of the weekend 19-16. It was a defensive struggle with a horrible ref that was equally horrible to each team. He just never let the game get going. He blew everything, including a beautiful layup by Sam in the last few seconds that gave the other team a chance at winning. Sam came away with 6 points and 28 rebounds, and 6 steals. Dylan had 4 points, 8 rebounds and 8 steals. Dinner was good at Virtue Feed and Grain.

Everyone is gone now and school and work start up again tomorrow. Good times.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Monopoly


Monopoly
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I played Monopoly with them last week and I came in last. Dylan won which is why I think Sam wanted to play today. I'm just the banker in this game but they are learning some valuable capitalist lessons which is good.

Double Double


DSC_0403
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys played well today, each getting a double double. Sam had 22 points and 12 rebounds and Dylan had 11 points and 10 steals. We played a team coached by the kids flag football coach and they have had a rough year. We have another game tomorrow and then the playoffs next week. We can hopefully get a win or two in the playoffs but one of the teams in the league is pretty unbeatable and it's not us. I posted a few more photos here but it's hard to keep score and take pictures at the same time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157629373267533/with/6897673927/

Friday, February 17, 2012

Aria


Aria
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

I had what was probably the best meal I'd had this year at Sage in the newish Aria Resort. The whole place is pretty nice with a number of great looking restaurants that I will have to try at some point. It was fun to be on an expert panel at the Ragan Social Media conference. It had been a while since I'd done a conference event like that. I used to do 3 or 4 a year for a while when I was at AARP. 1 or 2 a year would be enough these days.

I played blackjack a little longer than I planned last night because I couldn't lose. The cards were flowing for me and I was making back the money I lost on Wednesday. Didn't get to bed till 1 and I had to get up at 3:30am to catch a 6am flight. The only saving grace in all that was that I got the last first class seat on the plane. I'm tired but glad to be home.

Distraction


Distraction
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Planet Hollywood tries really hard to distract you from the gaming table but it didn't work. I killed at Blackjack tonight.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Brucepipes


Brucepipes
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Bruce with his new bag piper friend on the strip. Great dinner at the Social House and o. To the blackjack tables soon. The panel I was on at the social media conference went well. Rume to do the Vegas thing.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Valentines


Valentines
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys readied their valentine cards for their classmates today. You bring them for the whole class or not at all.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Valentines Dinner


Valentines Dinner
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Since I'll be in Vegas on VD day, we are doing a valentines day dinner today.

Kennedy Center


Kennedy Center
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

We saw the Wings of Icarus Jackson at the Kennedy Center today and the boys liked running around that giant building. It was a very nice quick show in the family theater. Out to dinner in oldtown now.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Twin Speak

Sam was home with me again today with a fever, a little fever at this point but enough for the school to call me and ask to come get him like they did on Thursday.  I don't know what he had but it was pretty much a headache and a 100.5 temp, maybe 101.  I just worked and he watched movies.  We went out for lunch and when we came back we were talking while we walked up to the side door and Sam started talking about the fun he had about 6 months ago when we took about 30-40 old beers that were in the basement and emptied them over the rail of the deck so that we could recycle the cans and bottles.  I usually consider that alcohol abuse but they were really old cans and bottles of beer.  I thought it was odd that memory came to him since it had nothing to do with anything we were doing today.

Anyway, I left Sam at home and ran out to get Dylan at school and on the car ride home, Dylan started talking about the fun we had emptying the beer over the rail of the deck.  Isn't it odd that out of the blue with no reason they both decided to talk about something that happened 6 months and I barely remember.  Both boys remembered on the same day and found it important enough discuss a few hours apart.  They hadn't talked since breakfast and they didn't talk about that so how they both came to that memory is beyond me.  Do they somehow share some connections that most people will never understand or is it random chance?  Who knows but I'm going to keep my ears open for more stuff like that.  I like listening to them anyway.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Bed Bugs


Bed Bugs
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys like hangin in bed with me when Nicole is gone. They had a good basketball practice tonight, they worked hard.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

All About China


All About China
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Kids these days celebrate Chinese New Year, learn Chinese songs and are taught to speak and read the Chinese language. The only thing I learned about China as a child was that I needed to finish my dinner because their were starving children in China.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Occupy Mostly Gone

So, last week I posted Bye Bye Occupy but it was a little pre-mature.  They mostly stayed put last week by not sleeping in the tents and keeping the flaps open on one side.  That mostly ended this weekend when the Park Police came in and evicted most of the people and tents for violating the no camping rules. Now the park has just a dozen tents and will likely be empty soon.  The park is totally trashed and hopefully everyone will be gone soon so they can start re-sodding for spring.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Coaching


Coaching
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The team getting some reminders during a time out in today's game. They ended up winning 33-4 with many of the boys having good games. Dylan had 8 points and Sam had 6. It was good to get back in the winning bracket after a couple loses an the whole team is playing well. The coach is doing a good job.

Friday, February 03, 2012

POTUS


POTUS
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The President is in one of these two limo's heading to the back door of the Jefferson Hotel across the street from me. They shut down M Street and 14th a half hour ago and cleared everyone out for his arrival. It's unfortunate these days that he couldn't just walk the four blocks from the White House on a nice day like today but I guess even that would be dangerous. This was taken from my office window and I was being watched by a bunch of guys on the rooftops as I took these pictures. I waved but they didn't seem amused.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

La Cage Aux Folles


La Cage Aux Folles
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The show was a lot of fun and George Hamilton was very entertaining. I think one of these wigs, the boots and boa are calling my name for Halloween. Nicole informed me that we are heading back to the Kennedy Center next week with the boys. Lots of culture in a short amount of time.