From Francesco to Frank

We made a good bye presentation for Frank. It made him cry.

The video is too big to post as one file, so I divided it into 5 parts.

Frank's Graduation

Our foreign exchange student, Frank, graduated from Scottsbluff High School today.

Gering Courior Newpaper Soccer

Woo-hoo, we made the newspaper!

Rachel high centers the car.

Rachel was at tennis practice when it snowed very heavily. She tried to leave and managed to high center the car on one of those cement guards for the parking spaces. It took a tow truck to get it off. She claims she was not going that fast but I don't understand how it could be that far onto the block.

Patrick opening his Christmas present

Every year I try to have a little fun with Christmas presents. Last year I gave Rachel a bunch of video cables and a note that said "I always support your dreams". She talked April into buying a projector and texted me that her dream was to show movies. It got a lot of use.

This year I packed Patrick's gift of a small XBox HD in a large box with a bunch of other stuff I found around the house. This is the video I took of him opening it:

Laramie Turf wars 2013

The weekend of January 4-6 Thomas, Patrick, Frank, and I went to Laramie for the Cowboy Turf Wars. I coached two teams of 11 and 12 year olds in the U-14 silver bracket. Considering they were playing 12 and 13 year olds they did not do too badly. The first game for Thomas was won 11-6. The next game for the 11 year olds was lost 5-6 on a last second corner kick. It was a lucky shot. Both teams went on to lose the rest of the games by one goal. The last game for the 11 year olds was at 11:45 at night. They were doing pretty well until the other team stuck a big kid in the goal.

Patrick’s team had a rough time. They played in the high school junior varsity gold division with all freshmen. All of the teams they played were either juniors or seniors, so they were a little outmatched. They did play well against the teams.

Frank’s team had the best time, eventually winning 1^st place. Frank played well, flipping a ball over a keepers head and into the goal. In the final game, he bounced the ball over the head of a defender about three or four times so that the guy had no idea where it was.

Here is a picture of the 1st place team:

And one other photos I took:

Patrick and Ethan Parks

Frank at the NBA Nuggets vs Lakers game

Frank wanted to see an NBA game, specifically Kobe Bryant. April managed to get tickets to the Lakers at the Denver Nuggets.

Frank, Patrick, and Thomas

The Good Times

I like that blogging is passé now. I can write about things and nobody will read them although I should keep in mind it’s still public.


As I write this, a hawk is circling outside my backyard. It screams every 30 seconds, at what I do not know.

Browsing in Google Reader, I noticed a theme in several entries. Yes, I still use an RSS reader, mainly for comics since I no longer get a newspaper. Personal blogs are no longer updated, though, and I can’t keep up with tech news anymore. Anyway, in one comic a daughter tells her dad she would like to be like him when she gets old. He replies that he is not old. She uses as proof that he remembers a time before the Internet and that he refers to it as good. Another artist put a video together where his 12 year old self makes a video tape in 1992 to be watched 20 years later. His 32 year old self wonders what he did before the Internet. His 12 year old self holds up drawings and the 32 year old remembers it fondly.

This is the obsession that the past was better. I’m not immune to it, but I do analyze it and list the pros and cons.

In 1992 I still read comics. They came from a newspaper and I was at the mercy of the publisher as to which ones I read. Bloom County came to an end in 1989, and the local paper did not pick up Outland. I pick the comics I read now. A couple, Irregular Webcomic and Starslip, have come to an end. I am sad about that, but I will survive.

In 1992 I could still look forward to a new episode of Star Trek on TV and would continue to do so for another decade. I can’t say there is much in the way of Sci-Fi on TV that I would watch. I can still watch reruns of Star Trek either by recording them or just streaming them from a service. There are lots of other shows to watch and I record everything and watch it when I want.

Mom and Dad were alive. I miss them now but there are always memories.

For me, music reached a peak in the 80’s and 90’s but I remember being very frustrated that the radio stations only played a selection of about ten songs. I love the music of ‘Rock of Ages’. The upside is now I just buy them from ITunes. I don’t have to wait for them to come on a ‘classic’ radio station or search a collection of CDs. The fascination does wear off.

In 1992, I was by myself. I have a wife and kids now. Now I’m always with people who love me.

It was interesting that the guy in the video had to watch his 12 year old self on VHS tape. I do have a VHS player anymore. It was a good idea, though. I wonder what I would say to myself now from then.

I will close by mentioning I was 27 in 1992.

Not much

It's the middle of the year 2012, and this is the first post of that year. Blogging is out so I don't get much inspiration to write. I should not depend on that.

There is a lot going on, yet nothing gets written down. Still doing soccer. The U-14 traveling team had a break up and lots of hurt feelings. The U-12 coach got a promotion and moved away. There was some discussion about bringing someone from the local college in, but when nothing happened I volunteered. The team went to Denver a couple of weeks ago. We lost all 4 games although some issues I saw in earlier tournaments seem to be resolved.

It's been hot the last couple of days. In the high 90s.

Spearfish Soccer

Second place yet again.

Christian B, AJ, Quentin, Christian, Nate, , Carson, Caleb

 

Forced Perspective

I love to hear other's perspectives on things. I often ask for them in Facebook comments. The past few weeks have brought some interesting views. The BNSF railroad runs though Scottbluff and there are five railroad crossings. A few weeks ago they closed four of them. At least one was in bad need of repair. This sent a lot of people into ranting, like (WARNING: PICTURES OF DEAD ANIMALS) Rich here. I found it annoying that the signs telling you the crossing were closed were not very obvious. Beyond that, it was a minor inconvenience. Coming from Layton, Utah, where I could sit through five light changes at some intersections this time of year and barely move, there was not that much extra traffic through the one functional crossing. All of them except the one in bad need of repair are open now.

As far as being like Katie Bradshaw, Rich, we already have her posting pictures of Farmer's Markets. I don't see the need for another one. Not that Katie is bad. I liked reading about her education on guns. It's good to see other people's point of view. I've never heard the term 'Smells like money'. Again back in Layton we lived just south of an Air Force base. The noise of the F-16s causes some to complain and other to reply that's the 'Sound of Freedom'. By the way, an F-22 (it has a distinctive diamond shape) passing over one day had a 'Sound of Freedom' that rattled the windows. That's progress for you.

One final note to myself. If the squirrel in my neighborhood ever succeeds in it's quest to be part of Rich's blog on road kill, I need to make sure to send the photo. So far it's 0 and 3 since September. It apparently didn't consider my excellent reflexes honed from years of video games.

Halloween 2010

Halloween this year went better than last year. Last year Thomas told me he was meeting some friends at school to go trick or treating. We got to the school and no one was there. As we were still new I didn’t have anyone to contact. This year I made sure to check with parents on his arrangements. He went with Sam who went around the school again. He came home with a pillow case halfway filled.


Patrick did a little worse this year by his standards. He went to Owen’s house, which is a little isolated. He didn’t get as much candy as Thomas because the houses were fewer. He wanted to continue trick or treating around our house but by then it was after 9 o’clock and we refused. He did get dinner at a local restaurant.

Rachel spent the evening at a friend’s house watching movies. She’s done with trick or treating.

April brought home a cool ghost cake. Tastes good too!

Voyagers!

I finished watching the last DVD of Voyagers! I remember watching them when it first aired. The show had some cheesy elements to it typical of the 1980s but was well done. Some of the history is also wrong, but in general they did okay. It was fun to watch. It’s sad that it only lasted one season. I don’t think it ever showed in syndication. At least I finally got to see the episodes I missed when it was broadcast.

There were no extras on the DVDs, either There were some nice detail shots of the omni time travel device. I always thought whoever thought of it was pretty bright. It seemed like a simple, unobtrusive device to use for traveling through time. I also like the detail of the time travel itself. The characters were always dressed in whatever clothes they were wearing when the omni was triggered. No stock shots except for the last episode. I guess they knew at that time there was not going to be a second season.

I also bought a DVD of A More Perfect Union: America Becomes A Nation. It's a really good story of the Constitutional Convention especially considering it was from BYU :). Shot on location with excellent acting. I highly recommend it.

Netflix has decided to not split their DVD service off into a separate company. I am not sure how it would help except to make it easier to phase out the discs. Not everything is available for streaming, though. Case and point the above. I prefer streaming, but still want to watch things like this.

Pick up soccer games

Every Sunday for the past month or so the boys and I have go to the local soccer complex to play a pick up game for about two hours. Sometimes I have only one of two adusts, other times there there are three or four or more. The first time I played I was out of breath halfway through the game. For the next few games my legs and feet hurt so bad I could barely walk for days afterward. Slowly it's been getting better. I am not a good player, but I do have fun.

Harry Potter Lego

When the boys and I went to Laramie for an indoor soccer tournament in February, Blockbuster sent us the game Harry Potter Lego Years 1 – 4 for the Wii. April had put it in the queue about a year ago. She and Rachel started to play it, and spent the whole weekend on it. After about three weeks, they finished the main game. There are still a bunch of side games they could play, but they are done.

Two Teenagers

At the beginning of the year it hit me… I have two teenagers in the house. Patrick turned 13 on December 30, 2010. Rachel is 15 now. I took her down to the DMV last week to get a Learners Permit. She had been taking the practice tests online for more than a month. Initially she wanted to go on a Saturday. It took a while for her to understand that they would not be open on the weekend. Then again, I just accepted it as absurd that a government office would be open on a weekend. Anyway, one afternoon I drove her down. I had her birth certificate and a couple of pieces of mail with our address on them. I headed back home to get her social security care and some other pieces of paper with our address on them after dropping her off to fill out the application. I hear its worse in Utah, where they want W-2s, mail, bills, birth certificates, and all manner of documentation before handing over the card. The guy who examined it all wanted to know why the birth certificate was from the department of health instead of biostatistics. I thought all of these came from the department of health. I am not sure I like being a statistic. They then sit her down to take the test. She told me it said she passed, but didn’t say by how much. Rachel can now drive legally so long as a licensed adult over 21 is with her.

Nebraska

We are coming up on seven months living in the Nebraska Panhandle.
The house in Utah was sold on January 28. Not for as much as we were hoping, but we made some money at least. As I told one person here, I guess we are now committed to living in Nebraska. Right now, we have been renting a small 3 bedroom, 1 and ¼ bathroom house. It presents some interesting challenges as far as bathing. Everyone needs to be aware of when everybody else wants to take a shower. Most of the time it works out, but there are the inevitable conflicts. I think when we do buy a house; the kids will appreciate the extra room for a short time.
Of course, everyone asked how I like it here. It’s different, both good and bad. The biggest difference when we first got here was the lack of mountains. The kids commented on that immediately. There is a lack of variety of businesses. For grocery, there is Walmart, Safeway, and the Panhandle Co-op. There are a number of Mexican restaurants, a few Oriental, and a couple of chain ones (Chili’s and Applebee’s). No Starbucks, no Burger King. I think one of the biggest annoyances for me is the directions. If I ask a local where something is, the answer is in relation to something else instead of an address or street. The Walmart? It’s by the Home Depot, not Avenue I off highway 26. It’s ok if you know the town, and I am getting better with it. But I still like to know at least the street, and I still Google things for the address a lot.
On the positive side, everything is no more than five minutes away. It took about two months to get over the anxiety that if a Scout meeting was at 7, I didn’t need to be ready to go at 6:30. Even when the distance was the same, in Layton I needed to allow for traffic. Although sometimes I don’t know what to do with an extra 25 minutes.

Rachel Tennis Team Picture

McCain at the next Star Trek Convention

The Christian Science Monitor ran this poll:


Even more amazing was the landslide of 93 percent who said it would be "a hoot!" to hang out with John McCain at a Star Trek convention.

BSA Camp at Aspen Ridge

Patrick got sick with a fever on day two so I had to take him home.
Looked like a lot of fun was had.