Camping out tonight with Harwood, Rothgeb and some other Actives and Alumni at Frat Retreat... Coming back into town to see I-Man's first Soccer match of the Spring on Saturday...

I got to speak to another old friend last night. She has gone thru some things on a personal level that I cant even begin to fathom what it must be like. But I was encouraged to hear a positive lilt in her voice as she seems to be moving forward quite nicely.... Looks like we will get to spend some time with her in May...

Throw back jersey

So one of the Actives asked me to bring my "Jersey" to the Retreat this weekend. The official white one with the nickname and number. I think they want to start getting those again or something. It is kinda odd in the NO ONE in the chapter for a few classes has gotten that type of jersey. I always hear the "I cant afford it" claim from these guys while they constantly go out on the weekends and blow cash on things... anyway, I tried it on.. a tad bit tight. It has shrunk, I hope...

... need to calibrate the eye...

..got a wedding coming up... need to start seriously practicing...

Ok... so... Event O-rama and non stop action is on the horizon... I-Man's soccer starts back up this week with practice twice a week and a match every weekend. So first match coming up this weekend and will run thru April. Also have the Frat retreat this weekend and I am curious to see how his goes.. will the kids take it seriously, or will they just want to sit around and play Wii ( although I hear that the Wii has been eliminated). I think the leaders of the chapter have a definite plan and want to achieve things, but will they be willing to pull the rest of the chapter with them?....

Early Candidate for a stocking stuffer...

I-Man will be ALL OVER THIS like white on rice...

they gotta go

charter cable/moxi box went belly up again... this is getting sad... i will get us to satelitte by Fall even if i have to put the dish up myself... interesting that dish network was able to put a dish on our neighbors... looks like i will investigate them... charter is just crappy... will keep their internet, though...

ok.. so...

what do you get when you cross a stream and brook?

wet feet...

But I should just believe what I am told, right?

on facebook the other day, i mentioned that I was skeptical of the Global Warming crap we keep getting rammed down our throats everyday. I was bombarded with links to data, etc. but not assailed with very much response as to why if it looks fishy, and smells fishy... it might just be a fish... well here is just more of that smell test not coming up roses....

happy valentines day...

happy Valentines Day to Jessica and the twins... also a quick shout out and Happy V day to my mother too in case she reads this anytime soon...

workin'

oh.. just found a decent app on my Droid that will allow coherent posts directly from my cell...

this evening was spent at Family Night at the twins school... of course in typical fashion here in South Carolina, it snowed 4 inches... which touched off a lively discussion on Facebook with the Climate people getting all hacked off because every time it snows, people go "what gives?" on their entire argument... as a matter of fact, more and more people are calling them out

Anywho, Family night was amusing. Elvis sang.. plenty of games and prizes in every room and hotdogs and coke for dinner. It is also kinda weird when you see your kids go running up to their friends because, as adults, we see so much more into simple friendship than perhaps we need to...

And we wrapped it up by watching the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics... these things might just be getting a tad too long....

Interesting...

What does the word 'Iran' mean?
It means "Aryan" and is derived from this word. Iran used to be called "Persia" - Land of the Aryans - before 1935 and the Shah changed it to Iran.

don't believe me? look it up... interesting that it is Iran that constantly talks of destroying Israel. Now, I am not some Israeli fanboy.. but.. certainly makes me think....

11 days, 2 hours and 29 minutes will pitchers and catchers report....

why would anybody do the Star Spangled Banner anymore? the Whitney Houston 1991 version still stands as the standard...

Personally, I think this Time Travel thingy with Lost is a copout....

Busy times...

So... My mother had some slight computer issues and we got those resolved over the weekend. SO I went thru good ole Fountain Inn the other day and saw the drug store I used to always go to was closed... ah, the Sgt Rock and Shogun Warrior comics that were 25 cents back then... oh, and Richie Rich and an occasional Batman comic... but the store, now shuttered... then as I left town I passed the same little house where chicken/dog fights STILL go on every Friday and Saturday night. Then I passed by the A frame house that I thought was so odd then, but now is just another A frame house...

I think the thing that strikes me every time I return home now is just how different it is there. So quiet. I mean, you walk outside and you dont hear the cars/trucks and bustle that you hear even in this small suburb/town we live in. Just absolute quiet... maybe off in the distance I can hear that superhighway... an occasional dog barking off in the distance. But...So quiet...and also... it is SO DARK. I look up and its like so many stars....

I find it humorous to hear my son tell Brian "Say Hello to My Little Friend!!!" as he guns him down in Call of Duty. But I i am wary of how much I want to let him play that game as it has a lot of violence and graphic depictions of killing. I am also struck how quickly he adapted to the dual method of controls you have to utilize to play the game. While Brian was pretty much mopping him up, occasionally I-Man would take him out. I-Man was classic in his inexperience... thinking only to look at what is straight ahead of him, and not taking any consideration as to what is behind him, above him, below him or beside him... Kinda reminds me of the current ACTIVES in the Frat... But I think we will guide him back to his Nintendo DS and Penguins games...

Many thanks to Harwoods for letting me use his lift to change the brakes on Jessica's car. And it is also fun to see Ryles and I-Man play with the Harwood kids, more so with his daughter. She obviously enjoys getting to play with the twins. They then came over for Hamburgers on Saturday...
... I cooked a legitimate one pound hamburger on the grill and ate the entire thing. It was quite tasty but it was at teh limit as to what I could pound thru at one setting. It did shrink while on the grill and I was able to get it on an oversize bun. thru some chili and bacon on it and man, it was a handful...

HARVICK WINS THE BUD SHOOTOUT...ok, still pondering a change to the #14 but if the #29 is competitive, I wont change, especially since someone else is already pulling for the #14... but if Stewart can lay off the red in his paint scheme, maybe I can stomach it...

On the record

I am going to go on the record... I am ALL IN for the Braves this year. It is going to be a dogfight (sorry, Michael Vick) but the Braves will make the playoffs, then go deep into the playoffs this year. THEY. WILL. MAKE. THE. PLAYOFFS. Notice I didnt say win the Division. If they do, cool. But it will be at least the wildcard....

How is it that we can spend three hours cleaning Ryles' room and I look up and it looks like I have'nt done a single thing?

On Deck...

February doesn't have much on the official schedule until a Frat Retreat the last weekend of the month. March then starts to heat up with a trip to New Orleans and a trip to Ann Arbor Michigan, as well as a potential Bristol NASCAR race in the middle... This will then start a stretch of things to look forward to in each month until the worst month of the year.. AUGUST!!! (see previous posts about August)

The snow storm of the century!!!!

Quick updates... Got snow/ice/sleet/freezin' rain over the weekend. While the kids seem to think this is a big deal, I just now view it as an inconvenience that disrupts schedules and causes panic. But I do remember the excitement as a kid so its all good for them... The twins continue to seem to do well in school... last Report card has I-Man with all A's while continuing to work on his handwriting, which is just a shade better than horrible. He also continues to to be the more scattered of the two in terms of just who he is, going from a tech oriented whiz with his DS, Lego's, kinetics, dinosaur books and computer games to reading his Kid's bedtime Bible every night before falling asleep.. with random emotional outburst and mood swings mixed in. Perhaps... that IS who he is.... and will be. Meanwhile Ryles latest Report card echos a general direction she has been heading in this year... A's and a B with a little note that the teacher feels she is under achieving. I ponder if she is bored in school... She continues to trend in an Artsy direction, being very interested in making things, drawing and music. But she is more even keeled, calculating and at times downright covert and conniving. At any rate, they BOTH clocked in with perfect attendance and Honor Roll. And to think that we were told that any potential kids we could have would be at a disadvantage. Interesting. Where are those comments now?

Spring is going to bring Soccer again soon for I-Man while Ryles is deep into her gymnastics and Dance/Tap. Oh , and lest I forget I-Man is into his tap too and actually seems to be better at Tap than his sister. The end of the year will see us have to seriously consider where/what to continue and what to drop as I-Man wants to do Scouts (which I think he will excel at) and time constraints will mean a choice for Ryles of one or the other going into the Fall. I want to start this Fall with a less regimented schedule in regards to there having to be SOMETHING everyday.