Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Hits Keep on Coming

A post script to Life's a Pitch:
Coco has now decided that he likes the clinic but doesn't want to play baseball this spring. Caz loves the clinic and now wants to play baseball this spring. Go figure. I am glad that Caz kept with his pattern of denial and then acceptance/desire. I can't quite peg Coco on this one though. Something has to be up. It's out of character for him. He loves to play, talk, and/or watch sports, all the time. He loves stats associated with sports. He loves movies about sports. He loves books about sports. I think maybe he is nervous about his first year in kids pitch. He made an offhand remark about getting nailed by a pitch a few months ago. It's not much, but it's all I have to go on now.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Life's a Pitch

Winter baseball starts. It's not a fanatical, "my kid must play baseball year round" type thing. Basketball is winding down soon. Wrestling is once a week, for 4 weeks. That is ending soon. I really want to keep the kids active until baseball starts for town league. Practice starts in April and games start in May. That is a long time. Might as well start with some spring training. It's a low key, one hour a week pitching clinic. Caz needs to work for his control. This will be Coco's first foray into the kids pitch league. They both need to working on their batting but that clinic would have overloaded them. The place we go to for the clinic will likely offer hitting again at the end of this one. The kids were split on the idea at first. Coco was all fired up and ready to go. Caz gave me his "(fill in the upcoming season's sport) isn't my thing. I don't think I will play this year - speech. Every time at time of sign up it happens. I tell him he doesn't have to play this sport, or any sport, but he needs to choose an activity. I would prefer he keep an active lifestyle for good general health, but he can choose whatever he likes. I really think he gets nervous for whatever reason and the speech is just an automatic defense mechanism. I guess time will tell.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Movie Review - Avatar

Don't get me wrong, the CGI and effects were very cool and impressive.
I am sure it was something else in 3D. But if you go to see Avatar and
have never seen the movie Ferngully, go rent it. It's an animated movie
with the main character voiced by Christian Slater (before celebrity
voice's were all the rage) called Ferngully - The Last Rainforest.
Avatar will take on a whole new perspective after that.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Everybody's Not Working For the Weekend

I took today off to chaperon Coco's class field trip to Plimouth
Plantation. I had not been there in decades. I figured I would be one
of 7 or 8 adults, as I was when I volunteered to call Bingo during their
class holiday party a few weeks ago. No such luck. A limit of 2
chaperons per class was capped by the Plantation. 44 kids (2 third
grade classes) and 6 adults. I started worrying the minute I left the
classroom to board the bus. But all that worrying was for naught. The
kids were terrific. Not only were they well behaved, they were very
engaged. They were spouting facts about Plymouth colony, period attire,
John Alden and Governor Bradford faster than Usain Bolt. They really
knew there stuff. This of course was to the delight of their teacher.
And those teachers should be proud of the job they did. It was great to
see and be a part of.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Patriots Playoff Power Outage

Probably the worst game I can recall a Patriots team playing since the
days of Hugh Millen and Tony Eason. It would have been nice if the team
showed some heart. It's one thing to get out played. It's another to
not care. The only players that seemed to be care were Kevin Faulk and
Julian Edelman. Leadership will be questioned after this one. And
rightly so.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Bowden's Farewell

It was sad to see the end of an era. Bobby earned the right to go out
on his terms, but alas, was a victim of the times. "What have you done
for me lately?". It was appropriate that Chief Osceola let Bobby throw
the burning spear into the mid field logo. Fortunately the Noles
decided to show up and rally to let Bobby exit with a W. Having the
ex-Noles on the sidelines was a nice touch. It was great seeing Bobby
hug Neon Deion and Warrick Dunn at the end. Where was Weinke?
It was great to share this with the boys. They were really into it. I am
sure they understood all of it. I believe they got the important piece
of it.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Holiday Recap

I always think one of the best parts of the holiday season is giving out great gifts. I love the look on some one's face as they open up a present that truly moves them. So it was great to see the kids loving a few key items this past Festivus.
For Coco, Demi and I put together a box for the Little Chef full of cooking related items. Since Coco has really taken an interest in cooking, we really wanted to be supportive of that passion. It also didn't hurt that Coco requested an apron that was monogrammed with "Little Chef" on it. I actually found a real chef's coat. It's not monogrammed yet, but it really was perfect. We included a cook book by his idol, Bobby Flay. There was a journal that he can bring to restaurants and record his meals, including writing his own review. The got a recipe card holder, with note cards and some recipes already supplied. He has a few of his own cooking tools now. He really got a kick out of it. And it didn't hurt that he wanted to put his new gear to work on Christmas to help make chocolate bread pudding. He also made chili for the Rose Bowl. We all win there.
For Caz, Santa brought him a new bike. I recall growing up that having a Mongoose BMX bike was the gold standard for kids. That is why I really got a boost out of browsing the web for his bike and seeing Mongoose still out there. Then I kept seeing them on sites for Target, WalMart, and such. I started to wonder if Mongoose had become the Huffy of this generation. Caz really only had a couple of criteria for his "grown up" bike. The bike had to be bigger than his last bike and it had to have gears. Gears was the big draw. He really couldn't tell me why, but gears were the deal breaker. He loved seeing that bike in front of the Christmas tree that morning.
I would call these a great success. But then I would be remiss in not adding that I got Demi a new cell phone. Sort of like the gears, Internet access was the deal breaker. Texting was just gravy. Of course she uses the texting now, more than the Internet. But that is besides the point. She was happy.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy 2010

The boys have been making it to midnight on New Years Eve for the last few years and this was no exception. Actually, the exception was that Demi was awake all evening and not sleeping soundly on the couch. We were split up for the first time. Caz was at his friends house down the street. I think Coco was actually awake longer, since he lasted the whole ride home from our friends, the Lacey's. Coco was a trouper. He was the only child with a bunch of adults. He helped make the appetizers. He hung out for some conversation before going to watch football and play with his DS. He got to watch a movie in the hosts bed. He got his own special "champagne" at midnight. The kid was living the good life. Caz pretty much made it to midnight and then to bed at 12:05 AM. Demi and I had a great evening with friends. It was really a nice night. A perfect way to spend the holiday.

2010 Preview

The following is a list of things that I am looking forward to in this coming year:



The conclusion of Bowl season - I will still complain about the ruination of the whole Bowl system. 6-6 teams, including my beloved FSU, should not be in a Bowl. Period. There are too many bowls and it is way to spread out now. New Years Day is a farce now. Hey, I haven't played in a bowl this year. Where's my bowl?



"Looking forward to" is not quite right. But nothing short of complete Armageddon is going to keep me from watching Bobby Bowden's last game coaching FSU. I have never known a FSU team without him in my lifetime. His era may not be ending as he had hoped, however he deserves all the accolades being bestowed at this time.



Patriots play-off run - Here's to hoping we start the new decade in grand fashion



Spring Training - The Sox offseason has been interesting so far. Nothing to really get excited about over all. While it was a big deal to sign Lackey, losing Bay negates that. So we will have to see what the promise of Spring Training will bring the Nation. There will be drama to be sure.



Celtic Pride - Here's hoping 'Sheed will not disgrace the green and white, and take a page out of the Patriot book like Corey Dillon and Randy Moss.



Stanley Cup - The B's are struggling. Sure we set the bar high after last year. However, the B's have the potential to live up to expectations.

A new kitchen......and bathroom....and front hall...and floor in the Den.....and so on and so on and so on. I do look forward to the renovations being complete. I am very much looking forward to cook on a new gas stove. Bring on the wok, baby.

For Coco -Will the Little Chef get a shot at a Throwdown with Bobby Flay? Chili cook off?

For Caz - Will this budding artist get his first gallery showing? He's really showing some skill.

For Demi - Will this prettiest woman in the world run another half marathon? Will she challenge Jack Bauer to a Tae Bo Boxing match?

For Chinny - Will the stubborn Coach finally deal with his bum knee?