Twin Battle

Only six kids at practice tonight so Dylan and Sam have to battle it out at center in the three on three battle. A little pushing and an elbow or two but nothing more serious.

In Bloom

GW 10 Mile Race

Nicole got up early and ran a race this morning. I got up early, took her to her friends house and went back to bed. It was a glorious day for a run and some grilling for dinner.

Big Win

Today's team was a totally different group that played last Saturday. We sent 4 pitchers to the mound that all threw well, we only walked a handful of batters and we hit the ball. We still have some fielding kinks to work out but we came away with a tough 8-7 win.

Dylan played well in the field and had a single, RBI and two K's. He was swinging well but gave the pitchers a couple strikes by swinging at a couple in the dirt. Sam went 3 for 3 with a great run out of a chopped ball in the infield, a single into right field and a long home run ball hit into deep center field (with an error at third). He had 4 RBI's with three of them coming from the HR ball.

He also pitched the last two inning in a strong showing on the mound. He walked a couple batters in the 5th and allowed the tying run to score but struck out two. He begged to pitch the 6th and took a one run lead, allowing a walk, two K's and catching a runner coming home on a short chopped ball up the middle.

It was all very exciting.

Tropical Day

A school theme day that they sorta participated in. I guess the Hawaiian shirts didn't last long but they do look good in them.

Batting Practice

I made it back to DC in time to feed the machine at batting practice tonight. The boys are hitting better than last week. I'm hoping for a big outing against the Red Sox this weekend.

Chelsea

Reception at the McKittrick Hotel on 27th between 10th and 11th. A strange little place but a perfect night for a rooftop party.

Pretty Saturday

I would have posted a picture of the baseball game this afternoon but that was to ugly. The boys were hitting the ball, Dylan had a walk, a single and struck out. Sam had two singles including running out a ground ball to first that was fielded. They both pitched but like all five pitchers we sent to the mound, we threw lots of balls and gave up walk after walk. The end result was a 17-8 loss which was all about horrible pitching. The whole team batted pretty well but you can't walk everyone and expect to win. Nice day for baseball anyway.

Ft. McHenry

The boys had a day off school today so they drove up to Baltimore to visit Fort McHenry with a semi-retired Momma. It looked like a nice day for a visit.

Picture Day

Team photos on a beautiful day.

Vienna

I'm already missing our fun trip to Central Europe but that just makes me want to plan the next getaway. Enjoy the Vienna album here. https://flickr.com/photos/76997459@N00/sets/72157651705087441

Drink Up by Mark Carpenter on Flickr.

Just follow this link to see and comment on this photo:
http://flic.kr/p/s5b5MK

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Field of Dreams

The little Orioles won the opening day game this morning 8-7 over the Pirates. Sam went 0-3 with two strikeouts and a fielders choice at first. Dylan went 1-1 with a nice bunt single and a strikeout. They really didn't get any batting practice the last few weeks so it's not surprising they are a little rusty. Both teams were a little out of sorts since they really only got two practices in before this game. I'm sure things will improve.

Prague

I posted a number of pictures from our time in Prague last week. I plan to do the same with the Vienna pics later tonight. Follow this link. https://flickr.com/photos/76997459@N00/sets/72157651718043785

Top of Petrin Tower by Mark Carpenter on Flickr.

Just follow this link to see and comment on this photo:
http://flic.kr/p/s4dnQf

Sent from my iPad

Glee

All the area grade schools that feed into Edison High School are performing tonight in the high school gym and they don't have beer vendors. Thanks Obama.

Easter Boys

We didn't force them to run around the yard looking for eggs this year. We were all too jet lagged.

Long Day of Travel

Early Flight

Good thing the Vienna airport has these sweet seats.

Goodbye Vienna

We had a great time.

Belvedere

We had our last dinner in Vienna tonight and have an early car to the airport in the morning. It's been a fun trip but it's always good to head home. This shot is from the upper Belvedere Museum. It's looking at the lower one with St. Stephansdom to the left.

The Kiss

We saw a lot of Impressionism this morning, including the famous Gustave Klimt painting, "the kiss". I wanted to see   the  Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I which is the painting at the center of the new movie "Woman in Gold" but she is in Paris right now. We did see lots of Monets, Degas and other artists but our time was limited due to fidgety boys. We made our way to another neighborhood later so the Sam could get an Austrian soccer jersey, but when we got there, he decided to get an Italian jersey instead. 

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We Keep Going

After the Hapsburg winter palace this morning we climbed the 343 steps to the top south tower of St. Stephansdom. This is the third tower with 300 or so steps we've climbed this vacation. The new knee is handling the stress just fine but my calfs hurt. We went to a concert with pieces from Strauss and Mozart played along with some dance and opera at a 16th century palace tonight. The boys were not thrilled but I think they enjoyed it a little. One more day then back to DC.

Fountainhead

Some early morning snuggling in the cold Viennese weather.

Schonbrunn Palace

We got up early to beat the crowds to the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It was a quick Ubahn ride away and was beautiful. Not sure the boys appreciated it much but it was worth a visit.

St. Stephans

The weather has been cold but mostly dry. We have a full day planned tomorrow.

Four Horseman

We slept in a bit this morning the took the trolley up to see Nicole's school apartment, the Naschmart and the Austrian History Museum. We had a little lunch then did some shopping on the way back to the apartment.

Znojmo

We left Prague with Pavel in his mini-van at about 8am for our trip to Vienna with a planned stop at Mikulov for some sightseeing. It was snowing when we left and only got worse and about an hour out of town we hit standstill traffic. We believe the highway was closed so we managed to get off the main road and headed straight south through the countryside. The snow gradually turned to rain as we got closer to Austria and we decided to visit a little medieval town called Znojmo. It was a quick visit but a very pretty town. We arrive at our extremely spacious apartment in Vienna at 2:30 and have been snacking and getting ready to go out for dinner since.

Charles Bridge

We have crossed this bridge a dozen times now and their is always something interesting going on. We are heading back over it tonight for dinner the back again with gelato in hand no doubt.

Jewish Cemetary

We toured the Jewish quarter of Prague this afternoon and then had lunch at a very Czech restaurant. It has gotten cold, but the sun was out for a lot of the day. We could spend another couple days here but it's on to Vienna in the morning.

Spring in Prague

From the Prague Castle.

Golem

We met a Golem on the way down from St. Vitus. Got up there early and did a nice walk thru the cathedral, golden walk and the palace. Taking a short break before heading to the Jewish quarter.

Terezin Walk

We have gotten a lot of walking in the last couple days. My dogs are barking.

Terezin

Too much to communicate in this blog about the Terezin camps but we learned a lot in our tour with Pavel Batel. He picked us up at 8am in Prague and told stories for the entire 40 minute trip north to Terezin. He has written a book about the camps and filled us with a ton of information about what went on there from the Middle Ages to Soviet Occupation. Most of the tour focused on the Nazi occupation and the use of the camps. Fascinating stuff but we didn't get back until 4:30 and we were tired.

Family Selfie

We had a great visit to the castle this morning then took a little time to recuperate then took the funicular to the top of Petrin Hill where we walked up four hundred stairs to the top of a tower overlooking the city. We also climbed the 300 stairs of the bell tower in the castle so are legs are feeling pretty good right now. It's been a great full day in the city and we have a reservation at a great Italian restaurant tonight. It's number 10 out of 2418 restaurants in Prague according to Trip Advisor.

Trdelnik

The boys favorite me food.

Old Town Square

They have an Easter Market going on. I have a feeling we will be back but first, sleep.

Winging it

We had two really smooth and on time flights from DC to Geneva and then to Prague after a morning of a lot of commotion of getting new passports for the boys in a record setting 5 hours. We found out about 22 hours before the flight to Geneva that the boys passports were invalid for entering most of Europe because they were set to expire in two months. They needed to be valid for three months. That set up a harried slew of events at the passport offices and new documents about 4 hours before take off. The passport office was extremely helpful and professional and we couldn't be happier with the help we got there but are still amazed that we only found out about the rule when checking into the flight and blame united airlines for that. Come on, they knew the boys were traveling on that ticket and had the passport info on their record. We got here but man are we tired.

We're Off

We made it, with some serious complications, but we made it. Btw, renew your passport even if it has a few months left on it. More on that later.

Spring is Winning

Got home at 2 today. It was nice to pock the boys up. Spring is popping up around here.

Heading Home

After 4 days in Denver for our twice yearly national meeting. It was spring like the entire time I was there with highs in the 70's. I'm going home to chillier weather and then off to Central Europe for a while. I'm happy to be on a plane home.

Bragging Rights

I think the teachers win the 6th grade vs. staff every year. I think the staff is significantly taller but this class only lost by 10 points. Sam is teacher height and scored 24 while Dylan is almost teacher height and scored 8 in a 79-69 loss. They had fun.

Basketball Bake Sale

The big 6th grade vs. teachers basketball game and bake sale is on Friday. Nicole has been had at work creating stuff to sell. Sam and Dylan have been talking trash about how they are going to take the teachers to the hoop.

Twin twins

Jack and Zack Everly are buddies from school and a pair of the four twin sets in the boys class at school. They were going thru evaluations for baseball this morning. Dylan and Sam both did well on the fielding and pitching part. They didn't bat all that well in the cage but the pitching machine was set for shorter kids. They had to swing at pitches below at their knees. They should go in a high round of the draft.

Longesh Week

Lots going on at work this week and while the boys were athletic team practice free, we did go to two rec games. We went to our travel coaches 2nd grade teams game on Tuesday and our friends 6th grade rec team championship game on Wednesday. They were both exciting games and the 6th grade team won. It's odd to be between sports but baseball tryouts are tomorrow and the basketball team starts up again soon to prate for some spring tournaments and the summer league.

Fire season is getting short but I'm going to squeeze a few more in this spring, including tonight.

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Patriots Party

While basketball season never really ends anymore, we celebrated the end of the winter league games tonight. The boys had a good season and really started gelling as a team. We will play a few tournaments this spring and jump into the Fairfax summer league in June. It's basketball all the time for these boys.

Ready for Action

More hitting and pitching instruction today. They are a little out of baseball shape but it's coming a along.

Warming Boots

The boots needed to dry out after some sledding this afternoon. Warm temps are coming and the fie season only has a few more weeks left.

Snow Fun

The boys finally made it outside.

Toasty Warm

Nicole brought in some firewood and then went at the driveway. I offered to help but she didn't want me touching "her" snow. The boys were too busy playing Minecraft.

Snowy Day

Woke up this morning to school, work and government shutdowns but no snow. It started coming down at about 8am. Good call to close stuff, the less people driving around the better.

Next Sport

With the county basketball season over and just some tournaments left for that sport, it's time to start getting ready for the spring ritual. The boys spent a couple hours hitting and pitching tonight.

14 Years Plus a Day

Nicole and I celebrated our 14th anniversary yesterday by going to work, then leaving the boys by themselves and having dinner in Alexandria. Hard to believe 14 years have gone by but we are still having a good time and partnering to raise some pretty terrific children. At least we think so.

W are waiting for another winter storm tonight and very likely another day of school closing. The boys are getting some hitting and pitching instruction in at Strike Zone. Baseball tryouts are just days away.

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In like a Lion

We are starting out March with an ice storm. Winter started out kinda slow but has been delivering something new every few days lately.