Claremont

Claremont
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Spent a bunch of the day sweating and lunching at the Claremont Hotel. It's a lovely place with a great gym and nice restaurant overlooking Berkeley and San Francisco. It was a good start to a week off of work. Nicole and the boys went to a movie and we are all going to dinner a little later.

On the way out last night our flight hit some major turbulence about 45 minutes from Dulles. I remember thinking at the time that weather system was probably heading for DC. Turns out that it was a Derecho that moved across the country at high speed and battered DC at about 11pm. 1.5 million without power but according to a friend in the area, our property looked like it survived without damage. Mr Woo did just finish the yearly tree maintenance and cut down a dead 50 foot pine over in our wooded section that surely would have gone down with 60 mph winds.

Happy to be in Nocal with 68 degree temps and sunshine.

In Flight

In Flight
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

On the ground in California. Can't wait to see the kids.

35 degrees cooler

35 degrees cooler
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

In Berkeley.

Bubble Boy

Bubble Boy
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

...via PhotoToaster, using these settings.

Dylan getting all cleaned up in the bath.

Great Dinner

Great Dinner
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Had a nice dinner with craig, donkey and thom and jenn who came down from Boston as a nice surprise. Good time all around.

Up, up and away

Up, up and away
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Grandpa and the boys are off to California and Nicole and I are empty nesters again. The drop off was fairly traumatic due to completely worthless and incompetent United Airlines employee. Kathy Conlan (agent at IAD) should be sent down to the janitorial division of UAL for her utter incompetence. For the last three years united and delta provided us with accompanied boarding passes so that we could get through security and get the kids to the gate. Kathy was extremely rude and refused to help and in the end just abandoned her post and disappeared. After some work we found competent help and got the needed passes. She wasted 40 minutes of my life with her stupidity. I expect more from an airline I spend 20-25k a year flying.

Now, what to do without kids for a week.

Harmony

Harmony
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Gil was getting into the backup vocal action with Dan at the show on Wednesday.

Meeting Reflections

Meeting Reflections
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

All day meeting in a local hotel.

Hanging Around

Hanging Around
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

...via PhotoToaster, using these settings.

Fun night at Wolf Trap last night but I was tired today. We all got home after midnight and we all had to get moving at 6:30 or so. Adam came over for dinner on Tuesday so we all got a double dose of AD which was nice. Its always fun to have him here. We'll see if we can get to another stop on the outlaw road show this summer.

Rockin Out

Rockin Out
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Sammy and I getting down at the crows show.

It's gonna get hot

4 Eyes

4 Eyes
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan sporting my reading glasses. He looks good.

Whole New Season

Whole New Season
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

It's a short weekend tournament but it's a whole new season for the boys. They came from behind and tied Prince William Sports Club 2-2 this morning and then came back from a 0-4 deficit to beat Burke Sports Club 6-4. Dylan started slow and seemed lost out there but came roaring back with a great shot on goal and some solid mid-field play. Sam played some good mid field in the first half and was outstanding in goal in the second half, not allowing anything to get by him.

We are in a solid position with 4 points in our group going into tomorrow. The team we play tomorrow has two wins and six points. We are going to need a win to move on to the championship game. Go Patriots!

Teammates

Teammates
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

This is some of the iron birds after their heartbreaking loss to the pigs. They won the regular season but fell a couple runs short in the playoffs. The nice thing about kids is that they forgot about the loss about 5 minutes after they got to fuddruckers.

Mom's Away

Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Nicole is in Philly tonight so the boys and I are on our own. We first had to take a cab to the Toyota dealer and pick up the new minivan. Got the sienna this time. We needed a change after three honda's and the back seat of the limited model we got has the lazy boy type seats in the back and a rear sunroof. The boys like that.

We headed over to Lucky's for dinner and video games after that and then to the All Star soccer practice. The All Star team they are on is playing in a tournament this weekend. Never a dull moment in kids sports.

Last Game

Last Game
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys last soccer game was today and they lost again. It was a rough 0-8-1 season but the nice news is that the boys made the All Star team that plays a tournament next weekend. The 10 and under team from the Lee Mt Vernon Soccer Club has 14 boys from the 100 plus kid league. Not bad for their first soccer season.

Sports Saturday

Sports Saturday
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

The boys played a baseball game this morning and a soccer game in 90 degree heat on artificial turf this afternoon. Very hot. They lost both games but still won the league title in baseball and, well soccer, they are still looking for their first win. Another soccer game tomorrow.

America's Pastime

America's Pastime
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

League Champs

League Champs
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

With one game to play, the Iron Birds have wrapped up 1st place and a number one seed in the playoffs next week. Both boys played well in a 7-4 win and each scored while Sam got an RBI. The pitching was impressive on both teams with a lot of strike outs making the game go by quickly which got me back home to drink some wine.

Big Hitter

Big Hitter
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan's extra work with the baseball tutor paid off in practice today. He was really getting a hold of a bunch of them. I hope he connects in tomorrows game.

Ancient Boys

Spartacus and King Tut on their way to school this morning.

Gladiator

Gladiator
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Dylan and Sam have an ancient cultures presentation on Tuesday and Nicole worked all weekend to create the costumes. Dylan in part of the Roman Legion and Sam is an ancient Egyptian. Hopefully we can get pictures of both of them tomorrow.

Storms

Storms
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

All practices have been cancelled tonight due to nasty storms. We are all hunkered down watching weather radar, listening to music, sipping wine, doing homework, watching soccer on you tube and blogging. Sam is over there on the far end using google to look for for shields. They have some sort of roman project due on Monday. Dylan is watching some old soccer game on You Tube when he should probably be helping Sam with the shield thing. How did we do homework back before the Internet?

This is about my favorite part of a typical week. All in the same room unwinding from a long week of work and school. We will move on to a movie soon unless one of the tornados out there wipes out the power.