Back

Third time back in the office since March 2020. Trying out a Tuesday and Thursday schedule right now to mix things up a bit. The building has been open since August 1st on a voluntary return to the office policy and I figured a change of view would be nice. I do have windows on three sides of my office and nice views of DC with a lot of light. While the commute is still annoying, the change in space is kinda refreshing.

Grays Lake

We did a lot of walking in Des Moines including Grays Lake. Lots of public trails in that area that all hook up to other trails. Good walking city.

First Drake Football Weekend

Not the game result we were looking for but fun to see Sam for a few days.

Pre Game

Bulldog Rally before the boys head to the locker room.

Earth Drawings

The fields on the way into Des Moines look like some sort of massive art project.

Parents Weekend

Arrived in Des Moines this afternoon and checked into the Hilton across the street from the Drake campus. Nice fall weather and dinner with Sammy soon. Haven't seen that kid in over 7 weeks.

Game Day

Dylan had a good first outing on the pitch last weekend in a loss to Penn State. He was thrilled to be playing again and with his new teammates. Nicole and I had dinner with him and a friend of his on Friday night and with just him on Saturday before the post game team party. Rugby players tend to party a bit.

Morning Calm

Nicole gets up at unreasonable hours to get her long runs in before it gets hot. The benefit of that is quiet pictures like this.

Miller Time

Miller, the dog hanging out at the mountain house.

Birthday Week

Started it out in the Shenandoah around a fire pit. Always nice to get away to our friends Bryce house.

First College Game

Sam and his roommate CJ. Not a lot of playing time for either of them but hey, they are freshman and likely to have four years of eligibility at the end of the season.

28 Days

After 4 weeks of Drake football training, classes finally begin. Sam was good enough to send this first day of school photo.

Bulldog Blue

Not sure if someone styled his hair or not. I think he's happy that the all day practices are coming to an end soon.

Having Fun Yet?

Nicole texted Dylan at around 9:30 last night when we were going to bed and got this photo response. Said he got his homework done already.

College and Eggs

Dylan has been on campus for rugby practice a week now but his first classes were today. He's already learned how to eat eggs at school. Hard to believe he went over 18 years without ever consuming an omelet but has had one a day since moving to fredericksburg.

Where’s Sam

The clue is middle of the pack and smiling again. His roommate CJ is #5 in the front row.

Roster

The Drake football roster is up. Smiling is in this year for football players.

First Practice

You can Dylan's face in the back row slightly right of center. 6am start time for practice all week. Go Mothers!

Empty Nest

Dylan is with his four suite mates now and doing his rugby thing. There dorm is two rooms that share a bathroom. Andrew, to the left of Dylan is his roommate, the other two are rugby players as well and share the soon to be really disgusting bathroom between the rooms. It's possible that one of them will keep it clean but it probably won't be Dylan.

It was a smooth drop off and included Ben, a rugby player from Scotland who stayed with us for a couple nights before all of us drove down to Fredericksburg. It was tough leaving him there but he hugged us and hustled off to meet some friends he met this summer that had arrived Sunday as well.

First Scrimmage

It was drake defense against drake offense today. Sam got some playing time but wasn't thrilled with his performance. Hang in there tiger.