Spring Showers

Tip Off

The boys both played well again tonight and got the win against Lake Braddock. They seem to have more energy with the bigger crowds at the games.

Another Step

The boys made the rising freshman basketball team and they had their first game yesterday. They both got good playing time and loved playing in front of a big crowd of their middle school classmates. They beat the Robinson raising freshman team as well.

Raising Freshman

The team paused for a picture before the first game yesterday. Two games a week until June.

Hef

I just need a robe.

Venice

I mean Las Vegas. Staying at the Palazzo which is part of the Venetian and has the grand canal shoppes in it. Almost like Venice. It's been a couple years since my last trip here and I always forget the the slice of America you find here. It's frightening.

Spoofing

Some bot or maybe a bunch of Russians have been sending spoof email to my contacts again.  This happened a few years ago.  If you get an email from me with a link, just delete it.  I will never send a link unless I'm very specific in the message about what the link is all about.  I think the contact list if out of my Yahoo account that we all know was compromised at some point in the last few years.  They don't have my current password  and can't send from my actual account, it just looks like my account, thus a spoof.

Good luck

Confusion

We got a decent enough snowstorm to cover the ground and cancel school. The boys were thrilled until we sent them out to shovel some of our Nieghbors driveways because Nicole wasn't able to do it and they needed community service hours.

Last Season

The end of an era party was tonight. We celebrated a tough season with three players and one team mom sustaining season ending injuries. Crutches for everyone.

4 Years

Coach Bosley has coached the boys for the last four years and they have grown as players and young men. Good coaches will do that for you.

24 hours out

Let's hope this holds together and over delivers a bit. We need a good snowstorm.

Before the Snow

These came up about a week ago and if the weatherman is correct will be covered in snow in a couple days. Of course, storms have had a habit of just missing us this year. It had gone from the 70's to the 30's this weekend and that change seems destine to hang around for a while.

Bad News Bone

Nicole fractured a bone in her ankle on Friday. Stepped on one of those round, spiky things that fall from trees this time of year. Got an x-ray and no surgery is needed which is good news but she won't be driving or running for a little while. She may be able to remove the boot for driving later this week.

Springish

The dogwoods are popping and the cherry blossoms are predicted to be at full glory between the 14th and 17th. This is all too early.

Fun Times

Great Basketball

Warriors lost this one but it was a great game. The boys got to meet coach Kerr after the game and ran into a couple of the players as well. Uncle Adam knows how to spoil those kids.

Just Because

Wasn't Workin

The Patriots dropped their first playoff game to a team they had beaten 5 times in the last few years. 3 times this year alone. Besides missing the three amigos, the remaining crew were not shooting well and getting some bad bounces. It was a disappointing end to a promising season. The boys are disappointed that the 4 years of LMVSC Patriots is over. They will be playing against some of their teammates in a High School the four years.

Birthday Night

Celebrating two birthdays tonight

Orchestra

The days of strings are fading. He looks good holding a viola, maybe he will reconsider.

Band

Counting down the number of concerts left for Dylan in band. Neither boy seems interested in continuing the music education in high school. They may change their minds.

Shoes

Nicole and my phones dump photos into a shared photo stream. I'm always getting pictures of shoes against nature or monuments. I filtered this one a bit and found it interesting. I guess it's a mom's run this town thing to post pictures of shoes.

Thinking

Both boys played well but were frustrated with the whole situation.

The Missing Three

We were actually down to six kids today with one still out with the flu and another with an ankle issue. The remaining six played well but were pretty winded by the end. We lost but not as badly as I thought it would be. 59-46.

Sickness

Well, I'm finally recovering from the sickness Sam passed to me on Monday. Sam caught a really good bug at Cotillion a week ago Wednesday and missed three days of school and a basketball game. I thought he was faking at first but it caught me on Monday night and beat me until yesterday afternoon. Nicole and Dylan seem to have missed out.

We lost a third player to a season ending injury this week. It was a knee this time. Now we have sustained, tibia, vertebrae and knee injuries to this cursed team. We had a game today but we were down to 7 kids because Marcus had the flu. The remaining kids hung in and played great ball but lost. We have one more regular season game tomorrow that would be good to win but can make the playoffs with a loss by two different teams tonight.

Sent from my iPad

New Confidence

The Patriots were down 4 players today, including Sam with a 101 temp. It recall was a must win game against Herndon and the remaining 7 played with purpose winning 52-36. Dylan played really well and had a lot minutes. Everyone was passing aggressively, driving to the hoop and shooting well. They also played team defense on a team that traditionally shots extremely well beyond the arc. Things were definitely going our way when Braylon hit a first half buzzer beater from our own three point line. A 3/4 court shot. It was wild.

Scary Stuff

I got a new car a couple weeks ago and non or you will be surprised, it has all the latest technology on it.  In fact, maybe too much but it has been fun to start using.  I've been back the dealer a couple times and spend a bunch of time talking to Volvo support to get things working properly but after sitting in the XC90 with a technician, we finally got everything working and communicating to all the services it grabs from the cloud.  

One thing Dylan and I tried today was the pilot assist feature.  It's an autonomous driving mode or driver-less car capability. The computer will get the speed limit from the internet database, the cameras and distance sensors will read the road and environment and I can take my hands off the wheel and it will steer it's way down the road.  It sounds cool but it's a little freaky when you are in a curve in the road and cars are coming at you.  It stays in the lane and follows the curve but you can't help but to have your hands about four millimeters away from the grabbing the wheel.   It won't steer it's way to a destination with turns but will read a stop sign, red light or car in front of you.  Fascinating thing but slightly scary and may not be used much in my case.  

Great car anyway.  Those Swedes know what they are doing.

Give and Go

What's left of the team had a lot of energy at practice tonight. We lost another kid for the season to a back injury. Melvin is one of the boys good friends and a great player. It's a shame he will be out the last few games of this teams history.

Cotillion is back

We missed the winter ball but the boys were back to learning some manners tonight. They have three sessions in March and they are thrilled.

To Remind Myself

I need to remember what is worth reading and this seems pretty comprehensive.

Trends

I've been tracking my weight since September when I was about 240 pounds. I had lost about 25 during the summer, before I knew I was diabetic. I weigh 212 today and I found out my A1C was 5.5 at my annual physical this morning. The A1C is a 90 day blood sugar marker that was 10.3 in September. (Normal is 4.8 to 5.6). All my cholesterol numbers were in the healthy range, which hasn't been the case in a couple decades as well.

How much of this is changes in diet and weight loss or the introduction of new drugs is unknown. I did drop one of the diabetes control drugs a month ago with no downsides. I'm hoping to drop more in the future.

Weekends tend to cause a little weight gain but I can't be good everyday. Time to open some wine.

Rough January

January marked my lowest blog post total in a long, long time.  I try to keep writing and sharing pictures on this thing to remind myself of everything that's going on in our lives and provide a source of joy in the future as I flip back through the years to remember all the fun things I've done and witnessed.  It's a sort of memory keeper, a diary, a blog and requires some discipline to keep it going.  

January 2017 is a sorta dark month in my opinion and it has been hard to get myself to post many days.  The election and inauguration of Trump has been a definite downer, a stain on the march to enlightenment and progress towards caring and just society.  The cloud of anti intellectualism and fear is dampening my spirt and making it harder to post the little things that make up life.  That needs to end.

January has also been rough on the kids sports arena.  Their basketball season with so much promise but has turned really rough due to a injury.  The team lost a team leader and all conference point guard to a broken leg early in the month and have had other injuries that have made it very tough to compete.  It's just a game but wins definitely raise to spirt more than losses.  The season is almost over and we can now look forward to flag football and soccer which offer a fresh start and endless possibilities.  

While the month will be remembered for some less than stellar events, it is important to remember the things that were nice about the month.  First off, my campaign against Diabetes is going really well.  I was able to drop one of my medications on January 1st and have not seen an increase in blood sugar levels.  This is one of 5 medications that I was prescribed when first diagnosed in August and I will continue to try to drop a couple more and reduce the amount of a couple of others over time. I also made my weight reduction goal I set for February 1st.  I've lost 52 pounds since this time last year and weighed in at 213 yesterday (2 pounds better than my 215 goal)  My next goal is 210 by April 1st and then somewhere near 200 this summer.  I'm eating better and have added a little more exercise to my already daily exercise habit.  I feel better too, Diabetes is the healthiest disease I've ever had. 

I also took delivery of a new computer, I mean car.  I got a Volvo XC90 last week and it is the most technologically advanced car I have ever owned but like a computer, it has some bugs that I'm still trying to work out.  It does have every bell and whistle available on it and it really is a great car to drive. Once I get all the technology issues addressed, it will be awesome.  I have always understood that being on the leading edge of technology innovation has it's costs but I'm learning from trying to fix the fairly frustrating issues.  I have heard that Swedes have always been a little temperamental, Swedish cars included. 

 So, heres to February and the march towards spring.  We have a lot of good thing planned and I'm going to get back to writing and adding pictures to this diary that I've been keeping for nearly 13 years.  

Love Trumps Hate

Women's March 2017

Marchers

Linda and Nicole came back from the women's march on Saturday with more energy than when they left.

Day One

I'm seeing this on Facebook so I decided to post it here so I can remember.

Inauguration Day: 1/20/2017 (COB)
Gas (National): $2.33
Gas (San Francisco): $2.91
Gas (Texas): $2.14
Dow Jones: 19,827
NASDAQ: 5555.33
US Unemployment: 4.9%
91% of Americans have health insurance
FY17 National Debt: $20.1 Trillion

Let's see what these number say in a few years.

Hoping for the best

Transition

It's grey, damp and dreary in DC and the roads into work are all closed down. The district went into lock down mode early this morning so I worked from home, like I will tomorrow. The red hats will be ruling the streets tonight and tomorrow before Washington reverts back its business self on Monday. It's a little depressing to think we will have a man-child in the White House the next few years but with expectations so low, it's possible something positive could come out of it. At least it's going to rain on his parade tomorrow.

Sent from my iPad

OT

It took overtime but the young Patriots pulled out a 45-40 win over Mount Vernon. The team was a little sluggish without Scott but pulled it together at the end to get a W. they have another game on Wednesday and again next Sunday. The season is moving fast

Jud

Went out last night with Modean, Donkey, Bruce and Jud showed up for a while. I hadn't seen Jud in almost a year. Good times.

Worse than a Loss

The boys friend and all county point guard broke his tibia tonight. He (21) got caught in a tangle of people and went down a few seconds after this picture. He was clearly in pain and the bone was creating a big bump on his shin. The game stopped for 45 minutes as the paramedics got the leg stabilized, inserted an IV
with some pain meds, so they could move him to the cart. He is having surgery tonight.

The team was shaken but finished the game.

It's Something

The snow started a little later than anticipated but we are getting a nice new white coat.

Snow Hope

Not a big snow storm but some white stuff while still have the holiday lights up is always a good thing.

Happy New Basketball Year

Got the year off right with a 43-31 win over Burke. It's less fun to beat Burke now that Corbin plays on the team. We have been playing flag football with Corbin for years and he was on the championship winning Vikings team I coached this past Fall. His parents are great two so while beating Burke is good, not as good as when we didn't like any of the players. The Patriots started a little slow but came on strong in the 4th quarter to win comfortably.

Our new year was pretty low key with an early evening visit to the McCarrick's house. We've been doing that for a few years now and we usually get home around 9pm and ring in the new year in front of the fireplace.

Runner up

The boys won three hard fought games, then ran into a killer team and lost twice. The Patriots beat this team last year at the same tournament but they added some talent from Maryland and most of the kids grew 3-4 inches. They were all Sam's size and we are overall slightly undersized for this age group. The other team was also making pretty much every shot and we didn't shoot well at all. It was good practice for the rest of the season. We shouldn't run into a team this big again. Besides, 2nd place ain't bad.

Hanukkah 2016

Nasty Hombres

Another lovely Christmas Eve and 1st night of Hanukkah.

Endless Bridge

A great view from of the Mississippi from the back of the Guthrie Theater.

Theater Boys

Waiting for the Christmas Carol to start at the Guthrie.

Frozen Tundra

Made it to Minnesota without any issues and were greeted with plenty of snow. We haven't had much snow over Christmas the last couple years so it's nice to have a foot of the stuff covering the ground this year. We even have a chance of some new stuff in the next couple days.

Little Guy

The boys just got back from their physical with new official heights. Sam is 6-3 and a half while Dylan is 6-1 and a half. Basically 6-4 and 6-2. Dylan grew a little faster than Sam in the last year but I've actually shrunk a half inch over the past few years. They are bound to stop growing very soon. I know I stopped at about their age.

Sent from my iPad

Full Holiday

These cold, clear mornings are just beginning but the suns slow march back north starts in just a week. I like getting into the office when it's still dark and all the buildings have their holiday lights on. The almost full moon was nice too.

Winter Strings Concert

They sounded good this evening.

Merry Huesos

Bones got a Christmas upgrade.

Running Elf

It was a cold 5 miler this morning and I'm pretty sure she did it for the medal. Basketball game later today then dinner out.

Jimmy and Dent

Attended Micheal's Christmas party last night. Had some quality time with jimmy T and saw Dent for the first time in years.

Winner

The Patriots controlled the game against Herndon most of the evening, up by 11 at one point in the third quarter only to lose the lead and trail by 3 late in the fourth. They did manage to rally and finish the game strong, winning 43-40 but they made us parents pretty nervous for a while. We have added some new talented players but the core team and the new players are still trying to learn each other's styles. Lots of wasted opportunities with passes going to where one player did something different than what the other player thought they would do. The mojo will improve.

Dylan had a few rebounds and a key steal. He started and as always played ferocious defense. The guards were getting the ball inside to Sam pretty well and he had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Next game is Saturday.


Sent from my iPhone

Flat Start

We were missing our starting point guard again and fell to Gainesville 50-40. The Patriots brought almost zero energy to the game and were very hesitant most of of the afternoon. Sam did end up with 14 points and a dozen rebounds while Dylan nabbed 4 rebounds and played tough defense. The team wasn't all there mentally today, I hope they pull themselves together for Tuesday nights game.

Training

The boys are going to be working with Coach Scott the next few months. This is a good additional workout with skills training as we head towards high school ball.