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Monday, April 30, 2007

One week down, one to go...

Log Entry Stardate 60043.0
The kids are feeling the long week. Monday was supposed to be soccer practice for Thomas only. However, I got a call from his baseball coach. He scheduled a practice after soccer practice. Thomas did pretty well at baseball. It’s machine pitch, and he managed to hit a few of them. After we got home he and I threw a ball around for a little while.

Tuesday was the most difficult. I dropped Rachel off at tennis fifteen minutes late. The instructor called April in L. A., even though we told her to call my cell phone. I picked up Thomas after running home to get Patrick’s soccer uniform. Patrick himself was picked up by a friend. Then I picked Rachel up and headed to Roy for Patrick’s soccer game. He was not there yet, so I dumped the uniform on a fellow parent (Thanks Bonnie). Well I ran to get Rachel and Thomas something to eat. The boys played kind of lazily, and the game ended in a tie. Then it was hurried to the scout meeting. I was not mentally prepared for the meeting, especially when the new scoutmaster called me up as den leader for the Tigers. They got their badges, though, and so did the Bears. Next month is the graduation to the next level.

Wednesday was much easier. Just a soccer game at mount Ogden park. The boys played better this time, but lost three to two. I should mention that we are down our starter keeper and one for word. The keeper was hit in the face with a baseball, which broke his nose bee in three places. The forward is out for hernia surgery.
Friday Rachel and Patrick Soccer practice. Rachel had also been invited to a birthday party/sleep over. I stayed late after her practice to talk to them all know about picking her up early because Thomas had a game the same time I was supposed to drop her off. Hence, we missed most of Patrick’s practice.

Thursday was pet day at saint bens. Thomas had been talking about it all week. I put it on the calendar, and he was counting down the dates. On the day, Leo was pretty popular. Someone brought some sort of baby birds, and another brought a small python. Dogs were the most common pet to be shown.

Volleyball was late on Friday. The first game started at 9:00 PM. We lost that game, but managed to win one set of the second game at 945. Unfortunately, we lost the next game and were forced to play a third tiebreaker. This game didn’t end until 1030, meaning we did not get home until after eleven. Thomas had baseball practice the next day at 8:00 AM.

Saturday we were up by 7:00 AM and out the door by 7:30. We made it to Thomas's baseball practice in plenty of time, but left a little early to get Patrick to his game at nine. Once again, the other team didn’t have enough players so Patrick played on the other side. He didn’t have breakfast that morning and had a breakdown at the quarter. I’m not sure what’s going on, but none of the games has he played another full team. Every game so far this spring season we have needed to lend players to the other team. Rachel’s game was next at 10:00, a friend brought their new puppy and Patrick spent the rest of the game playing with it. Rachel then went with her birthday friend. The boys and I got something to eat and then went to play Thomas’s game. His team is improving, although there are only three games left. Then we did a little bit of grocery shopping where I picked up a new toy that I will get to later.
Rachel has been doing homework until eleven PM a couple of nights. One night she had to pick out a news item from the newspaper. That was a lot of trouble for her, because she was looking for a positive piece to report on. Most of the news was negative as you can probably imagine.

Sunday I had plans on catching up on some things I needed to get done, but after running around picking up or dropping off kids, I didn’t get to it. We did go see “meet the Robinsons”, because one of Patrick’s friends called and wanted him to go. Thomas and Rachel told me they wanted to see it as well. So I took them. The movie was OK, I was just expecting a little more humor. I did manage to get most of the line mode and a few plants in to the ground.

While picking and groceries, I bought a cheap microphone for my computer. I installed speech recognition on word and am now dictating this log entry, which is why it gets so long. It's much like a original Battlestar Galactica episode where Lorne Green is dictating to a computer with a large microphone (this is much smaller), and you see the pauses and then the text show up on the computer screen. Similar, but Word seems to get things wrong more than they did.

(the title, by the way, is a quote from Patrick. Rachel was apologetic "Not that we don't like you Dad, but we miss Mom." I miss my wife.)

End of entry

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Single Parent Mode

Stardate 60042.5
April is in L.A. for two weeks. She left on Saturday. So I am in Single Parent Mode (SPM). It's not too bad, but it can get tiring. There is a lot of coordination to do with other parents. This makes it worrisome if another parent does not show to an activity. Saturday was one case. Patrick has soccer practice at 9 AM. I needed to get April to the airport by 10, so I was looking for one parent to keep him. She forgot about practice, so April worked out something with another one. As I thought about it, the other parent's kid would play the AYSO game later in the day with Patrick, so it worked out much better.

The one I feel a little sorry for is Thomas's baseball coach. He has been trying to schedule practice, and I keep going nope, I have something else going. I think I am driving the guy crazy.

Started and finished Tyrannosaur Canyon, by Douglas Preston.

End of Entry

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Boise, the Next Day

Stardate 60041.7
The team won the game at 7 on Saturday easily, and won the semi-final on Sunday morning. The championship was at 1 PM. I was amused that we were in Idaho, and the teams in both the U9 and U11 boys championship games were from Salt Lake and Ogden soccer clubs. Patrick had been running around all morning, so the coach asked if he could play. I told him fine, but I didn't bring his shoes or shin guards. One of the mothers suggested going to the First Aid station to tape his ankle. Suddenly the whole team was involved in getting him ready to play. This was my favorite part of the whole weekend. One offered an extra pair of shin guards, and everyone offered other pieces of uniform. Jordi, who has never said a word to us before (he seems shy), asked me what size shoes Patrick wore. I told him, and he said he wore the same and had an extra pair. We cobbled Patrick together, and as I walked him to where the rest of the team the assistant coach asked if we had everything. I told him yes, and who gave what. When I got to the shoes, he had a strange look on his face. He then told me Jordi had a $100 pair of shoes he had not worn yet, and was very careful about. Patrick did well, although not at his best. The Salt Lake team won, though. Ogden got second place. Not bad for a first tournament.

Favorite Quote: "That was a fun vacation." - Thomas, upon getting back from Boise.

Finished Dark Lord, The Rise of Darth Vader.

End of Entry

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Boise Tournament

Stardate 60041.4
Patrick, Thomas, and I are in Boise for a soccer tournament. It would be really fun, but Patrick landing wrong on the trampoline and sprained his ankle Monday. So he can't play. He did want to come up and cheer on his team. He came out to the game on Wednesday, just after we picked up a pair of crutches. It takes a little bit to learn how to use them, and going over grass is harder. I went slightly ahead to talk to one of the other parents, and turned around to see him flat on his back, arms and legs waving. Sorry to say, I burst out laughing.

The team won it's first match this morning, and plays the second at 7 tonight. We then play up to two championship games tomorrow.


Finished Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

End Of Entry

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Out of the closet

Stardate 59070.1
Now I've done it. On Monday I could not find the plain brown jacket to wear to work, so I opted to wear my 5th season Star Trek TNG jacket. This, put together with the micro-machine NCC-1701 (no bloody A, B, C, or D), pewter NX-01 model, and various ship wallpapers, alerted coworkers that I am a fan. So I been getting the standard questions; Do you speak Klingon, go to conventions, wear strange costumes, etc. I think it makes some people nervous. I've never quite figured out why, but I guess it's just not what would be considered normal. I don't treat fandom as a religion, just something fun to do. Ah, well, they just have to get used to it.

Finished Teeth of the Tiger and Voyager: End Game. Started reading Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader.

End of Entry

Monday, April 02, 2007

Volleyball wins

Stardate 60040.2
Our team, "Who Cares?" won our first set Friday. The first set of games went as always, although we did take the lead for a about a minute. The second set started out like the first, we lost the first game. We managed to win the second game by one point, so forced a third. The third was also won by one point. I was pretty tired by that point, but everyone was congratulating me at the end. I guess the other team tried to spike it for the win and I popped it back over to their side. I don't remember. All a know for sure is we managed to win over a team called "Older than dirt". Win or lose, it's still fun.

Saturday was filled with soccer. Patrick had a practice with OFC, then Rachel had a game. She played a little lethargic, and we were to find out why on Sunday. Thomas then had his first of a double -header AYSO game. The team still has a long way to go, but there was some aggressiveness there. Patrick then had his AYSO game, except the other team didn't show. Someone said the coach had moved away. So Patrick's team played a scrimmage. April was amazed at how much better Patrick plays. A couple of parents volunteered to be keepers, and he scored two of the three goals in the game. Thomas had his second game next, against some second graders from St. Joe's. The bigger kids handed them a loss, although the coach had them slow way down. Like I said, they have a long way to go.

Sunday Rachel had a 101 degree temperature, thus explaining her lackluster game Saturday. We made her stay home Monday, over her protests of ruining a perfect attendance.

The hard disk on the DVR died, so DISH Network is sending us a new DVR. Rats, due to a lull in network programming, it had recorded a few Decisive Battles. Oh, well.

Finished "Heretic!". I haven't decided yet whether I want to reread "Star Trek Voyager: Endgame" or Tom Clancy's "Teeth of the Tiger". Right now I am reading both.

End of Entry