Jacksonville Christmas

Upon returning to Mindy's dad's house, Christmas presents were distributed. Among the highlights for the girls - fishing rods and a tackle box; two kiddie laptop computers and a heap of craft supplies. On top of the stuff they bought at Disney, they had quite a good haul for the week.

Saturday was spent hanging out at the house as avoiding crowds, lines and people in general was a priority after the past week. We watched a few movies with the kids and a number of episodes of "Cash Cab", easily the best game show on TV. For those not familiar, it is set in a New York taxi and passengers/contestants get to answer questions for money on the way to their destination. Sounds simple and it is, but the host is funny and upbeat and the people often end up being fun as well. So we will certianly keep our eyes open for the cab when next in New York.

Dinner was had at Sonny's BBQ, another of our regular stops when visiting here. The family feast consisting of beef; pork; chicken; ribs; bread; 3 sides and 4 drinks for $36 was seen as being good value. This was made even better when we were told that the option to make this "all-you-can-eat" for another $6 was still available (I remember this from a previous visit). A little concerning was the news from our waitress that we were not going to get any beef as "the beef was nasty and had to be thrown out". Hopefully the pork/ribs/chicken were OK as we ate enough to be quite miserable tomorrow if there is some sort of problem. So far, so good!

Vacation Day 10 - Hollywood Studios

The 4th and final park of our trip was Disney's Hollywood Studios. This park was always likely to be a quick visit for us - there were a couple of rides we wanted to hit and a few shows for the girls, so we decided to plan to get there for the 7:00am Magic Hour and try to be done by lunch time.

We awoke at our usual time - 5:45am, so easily made it out of the hotel and to the park for the 7:00 opening. I went straight to the Aerosmith Rock 'N' Roller Coaster and grabeed some FastPass tickets, then immediately went on the Tower of Terror ride (Mindy was not interested in this on, so took some more time walking with the kids). The Tower of Terror's back story is that you are on an elevator in an old-timey hotel, when you suffer a sudden drop. The atmosphere and suspense are quite well developed and the drops are well done. Apparently there is a randomizing element programmed in so no two rides are exactly the same. It is certainly a highly recommended attraction for the park.

Next, Mindy and Naomi went on the Aerosmith coaster. I had ridden it before when on a work trip to Orlando and figured it would not be too scary for Naomi. Fortunately I was right - she loved it, especially the fact that you went upside down 3 times. It was her first "grown up" coaster and I think whe will be back for more! I then took her on the ride...and then we both took her again - so she rode it 4 times in about 40 minutes!

Next stop was the courtyard for a Playhouse Disney show. Fiona especially loved this and was singing and dancing throughout. At the end, she spent her time performing one of her favorite activities - cleaning up! Paper leaves were dropped from the ceiling during the show, and she loved collecting them and trying to straighten the place out. Takes after her Nan in that way.

One more show after this - Beauty and the Beast on stage. Again, both girls enjoyed this. We then decided to call it a day - we were tired and I think the girls had had enough also. So, following one more stop at a giftshop, we left and drove the 3 hours back to Jacksonville.

Overall, I was quite impressed with Disney. They certainly have perfected the art of getting you to part with your money quite happily. The whole operation of staff; transportation; FastPass; Magic Hours; Photo Pass etc is amazingly well coordinated and you feel like you are being well taken care of while you are there. I cannot see us going back anytime soon - there is really not much else to do there with kids around this age - but we all thoroughly enjoyed our stay and were glad that we did it with the girls being as old as they are.

Now time to take a vacation from our vacation and relax before 2009.

Vacation Day 9 - Animal Kingdom

Considering there were Magic Hours beginning at 7:00am, we did all we could to get to the park ASAP. Considering the big day yesterday, we did pretty well arriving at 7:45. Then, we found that I had misread the sheet and there were not any Magic Hours...so we were actually 15 minutes early for the park opening!

We were told that this park was not one that would take all day to cover but when we looked at the map in closer detail, there were actually a few things we wanted to do. First stop was Asia where I grabbed our FastPass tickets to Expedition Everest, considered one of best, if not the best attraction in all of Disney. Then we went to DinoLand where there were a few kid friendly rides. Naomi really enjoyed the Primeval Whirl coaster there, a spinning coaster that was perfectly suited to her age and tastes - nothing in the dark and nothing too scary. She rode it with both of us. Fiona liked the TriceraTop Spin, another version of the Dumbo/Aladdin rides, just with dinosaurs.

We then rode Everest...and it lived up to all of the hype. Forward drops, backward drops, twists, turns and a few surprises that I had not experienced on a coaster before certainly make this ride a "must do" attraction. We were hoping Naomi might ride it but there were too many indoor scary things for her right now. Following this, we took our first ride on the Safari. This was OK, the kids liked seeing the animals and it was another attraction suited to Fiona's taste.

After this, the grandparents arrived and we all went to the Lion King show. This was great and the kids really enjoyed it - costumes, singing, dancing and acrobatics were all excellent. Mindy's dad got pulled out of the crowd to help with the pre-show hype and he showed us all what a great elephant impression he could do. We then rode the Safari again and had the "pleasure" of sharing our row with a family that had not seen a bar of soap in a while. To give you an idea of how bad we are talking here - the rhino stink was like a rose in comparison. I am not going to say the nationality of the family involved...however, we are not sure when we will be able to eat Indian food again.

Just the kind of thing to get you in the mood for lunch! After eating, Mindy and I went on the Dinosaur ride - a dark, bumpy ride with dinosaurs trying to "get you". I commented to Mindy that if you were trying to make the absolute worst ride for scaring the pants of naomi, this would have been that ride. Naomi wanted to got on the We then hit Everest one more time before attending Finding Nemo - The Musical. The kids and I quite liked this, however the others were not so impressed. Perhaps I am easy to please.

And this was all we felt like doing. We were out of the park by about 5:30, and the kids were completely wiped. They both crashed in the room and I think are ready to go back home. Only one more day here now, and we plan to start early while they are still fresh. If things go to plan, we should be on the way back to Jacksonville by early afternoon.

Vacation Day 8 - One More Thing

One more thing I forgot. After getting off the Splash Mountain Ride, some Disney employees told us that we were winners in the "Year of a Million Dreams" giveaway and presented the four of us with a set of Mickey Mouse ears! Certainly nothing mind blowing, but it is always nice to get something for free...and they will make a nice keepsake, especially for the girls.

Vacation Day 8 - Magic Kingdom Again

Today we hit Magic Kingdom for the 2nd time. Our plan was simple - get there early and get on all of the rides we enjoyed from the first day...and make sure we rode the few that we missed. To do this, we took thorough advantage of the two best Disney features - Extra Magic Hours and FastPass.

Extra Magic Hours are additional park hours open to people staying in Disney hotels. On this day, Magic Kingdom was open an hour early for this reason, so we were there waiting for the 8:00am start. FastPass is a great ticketing system where you can book a slot at a pre-appointed time for a ride and then come back later for little or no wait. Our tactic was going to involve me going straight to Splash Mountain to get a FastPass for the family...while Mindy would follow with the kids to Thunder Mountain (right next door). We would then ride this without the use of a FastPass before the lines formed. All was going well until I hit the rope barricade indicating that Frontierland (the section of the park with these attractions) would not open until 9:00. Denied! So our options were limited to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Plan B was hatched - we grabbed some rides on the stuff the kids liked there - Mad Tea Party; Dumbo; Winnie the Pooh and the Indy Speedway.

We were then right there for the rope drop for Frontierland at 9:00 and managed to enact our earlier plan - FastPass for Spash Mountain then 3 trips on Thunder Mountain - once with the whole family and then Mindy and I switching off with Naomi. This coaster is a lot of fun and about as intense as the girls could handle I think. I really enjoyed Splash Mountain. The log ride part was good and unlike a lot of similar rides, you had something to look at while passing through. The entertainment was the Song of the South characters and music which kept you occupied until the final drop, always the highlight of these rides. By 10:00, we had ridden pretty much everything we wanted to do for the day, so the early start was a huge bonus.

After this, another trip across the park to Toontown for some more character meetings. We waited in line for a while to see another couple of fairies, the kids were quite excited at this. While Mindy was waiting in line, I raced out and grabbed 4 FastPass tickets to Space Mountain, thinking that we could each go on it with Naomi as she met the height requirements. After the fairies, Snow White was signing as well so we lined up for this. This is where Mindy and I had to yell at some people to keep them in line. There was a family with a kid who had some special pass allowing them immediate access to the fairies we had just waited an hour to see. All of this was OK...however, when they also wanted to cut in line to see Snow White (despite being told by the staff that they could not do this), we had to say something. When Fiona was getting her picture taken, they sent their child up to see Snow White, before going in. Seriously - Fiona was right there posing and their kid was tugging on Snow White's dress. This made Mindy and I quite mad at them (not at the child...we knew it was not her fault...but the parents should know better). I shouted something a tthe dad like "How about you get in the line and wait your turn". Mindy said something similar. This on the back of telling a "line cutter" at Epcot to go away and we are showing the results of living in New Jersey for a few years I think!

After lunch we were going to go to Space Mountain. When Naomi found out it was indoors and dark, she was scared...but then when she found out you rode alone, she bailed on the process. So Mindy and I rode solo, trading off with the kids. I was SO glad Naomi did not ride it - she would have been terrified on that thing...but WHAT a cool coaster. The darkness adds to the effect and there are quite a few nice drops and turns. We both rode it twice - why waste the 4 FastPass tickets? Certainly my highlight from the park and a real must-do attraction.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in Fantasyland and Toontown. I called my family for Christmas and had a nice chat. Mindy was watching the kids and I think was ready for a break after the call. Soon after this, Mindy's dad and Terry arrived which, combined with the cooler temps, gave the kids a 2nd wind. We went on a few more rides and finished up with the fireworks at 9:00. It was a great show and worth the wait...but then the crowds getting out were ridiculous. Even more ridiculous was the fist fight that broke out not too far from where we were - two grown adults - WOMEN, nonetheless, grappling with each other, headlocks, flailing arms and lots of shouting. I wish I saw what caused it! Of cours, this only added to the difficulty in moving. It took forever to get back - fortunately the kids fell asleep in the stroller (thanks again Holly and Gary!).

Not much more we could do at Magic Kingdom. We certainly got our money's worth there. Tomorrow is Animal Kingdom - Magic Hours start at 7:00am - we will see how well we do then!

Vacation Day 7 - Epcot

Today started with a little bonus in our hotel. When we booked at Pop Century, we expected it to be the bare minimum but this was not the case!!! This morning we found a couple of extra bonus features of our room that we were not previously aware of. When Mindy closed the door of the bathroom for her shower, she noticed that there were two towels hanging on the back of the door...from the previous guest! Now there was a card about them not washing towels if you leave them hanging up, so I guess our housekeeper is particularly environmental...or perhaps just lazy. We decided to complain, hoping they might offer us a free dinner or something but the lady at the front desk was too polite for us to get really angry at her and so we left with an assurance that our room would be thoroughly cleaned during the day.

After this, we headed off to Epcot for the day. The slogan for the park should be "At least we have Soarin'!". Seriously, this was the only ride that was any good that we went on. To be fair, there were a couple that our kids were too small for...and the Test Track might have been fun but the Fast Passes were all gone before we got there, however, this was BY FAR, the least interesting "fun" park we have ever attended. It is small which makes it too crowded. there is really just a whole heap of lame rides and attractions to attend - I mean, the cruise through the hydroponics farm might have been interesing in the context of a museum visit...but as a Disney attraction?? The only that was good was "Soarin' ". This was a ride where you felt like you were flying, complete with winds and smells as well (apparently when we flew over the orange orchard I was assured by Mindy that there was an orange smell piped in...however I completely missed this). It was a truly fantastic ride, however due to the lack of anything else of note existing in the park, the Fast Passes on this ran out quite quickly as well so we only got to ride it once.

There was also a Nemo ride which was pretty much appropriate for absolutely nobody. Older kids/adults would surely have found it kind of bland...and then they threw in a moment with an anglerfish that would have scared younger visitors. What attractions there were were all crammed into Future World...the rest of the park is the World Showcase, a series of themed areas about the countries of the world. This pretty much amounted to being a sequence of overpriced shopping and dining areas. We decided we to leave about 1:30 and go and get some reasonably priced food for lunch and found an Indian restaurant. After this, we spent some time in a souvenir store letting the girls pick out some stuff and have some fun playing with the toys in the store.

Overall, we knew that this would be a quiet day at the park...I just had no idea about exactly how quiet! The girls got to sleep early and we hope that they are ready for another day at Magic Kingdom tomorrow! The weather was also quite nice today - Monday was quite chilly - and it should be quite warm for the rest of the week.

Vacation Days 5, 6 - Magic Kingdon

Sunday was another quiet day in Jacksonville, getting ready for our trip to Orlando. We left about 8:00pm for the 3 hour drive. Our first night was spent offsite about 30 minutes from Disney. Fortunately, the kids slept well in the car as we had a big day planned for Monday.

First stop on the agenda was our hotel to get our park tickets. Our hotel was the Pop Century Resort, one of Disney's budget category of hotels. The theme of the hotel is that it is divided up into decades with the pop culture elements that define those decades prominently displayed. We actually saw this hotel on a travel show about Disney and thought that the cheesy style might appeal to the girls. Also, we assumed that being a Disney property, it would certainly be clean and well maintained. So far, we are quite happy with the choice. The decor is in the retro style you would expect and it will certainly provide us with a place to crash after long days at the parks. We are in the 80's section so we have nice views of several large Rubik's Cubes, a Roger Rabbit statue and a large computer keyboard.

Next stop was our first park of the week - Magic Kingdom. This was the park with the most things of interest for the girls and the one park we plan to hit more than once. We were quite excited when we pulled into the parking lot, only to see that our stroller would not fit on the shuttle trolley taking people to the park. No problem - it was just a 5 minute walk we were told and then we would be there, So we get the the end of the parking area, ready to enter the park and then find that we need to take either a ferry or monorail to the actual park. A 10 minute ferry ride later and we were indeed at Magic Kingdom, although Mindy and I were feeling a little like Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" at this point.

First stop in the park was Fantasyland. First stop in Fantasyland was to go to Ariel's Grotto to meet her. The girls really enjoyed this although Naomi was a little shy. Following this, we hit the other attractions there that we thought the kids would like - Dumbo the Flying Elephant; Mickey's PhilharMagic (a 3-D movie that took you into various of Disney's fantasy worlds); Peter Pan's Flight (an indoor flight over scenes from Peter Pan); Cinderella's Golden Carrousel; It's A Small World (quite long but the kids really enjoyed this one); The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and finally the Mad Tea Party (the kids loved spinning around in the tea cups here). Overall, we thought that the PhilharMagic show was a highlight here, the kids also really enjoyed It's A Small World and the Mad Tea Party...and of course, meeting Ariel.

We then simply proceeded around the part - Buzz Lightyear was a good ride but a little old for the girls. Naomi was pretty much terrified throughout this one. They loved the Indy Speedway as well. In Toontown there was a roller coaster - "The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm". This was suited to young kids and a good way to get them back into coasters. We then stepped up a bit and hit the "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" coaster. This was the best ride of the day for all concerned. Nothing too crazy but for the kids it was quite exciting. Fiona only just met the height restriction, so we were lucky we did not come 6 months ago. We then went down to Adventureland where we rode Aladdin's Carpet, walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse and went on a Jungle Cruise.

Adventureland also brought us one of the surprises of the day. Walking around we saw Aladdin and Jasmine posing for photos. Along with Ariel, she was probably the princess that the girls most wanted to see. It was great to see all of the kids and their parents enjoying the moment when we saw something kind of strange. An Indian couple, probably in their 20's was in the line to meet them. Mindy and I were stunned...I mean, I could understand meeting a rock star, movie star or sports hero...but a couple of actors dressed up as Disney characters??? Also, it was more than that - not only did they pose for several photos but they then were taking more shots of other kids with the characters as well. It was really quite strange. I wanted to ask them about it but Mindy would not let me.

We finished up the night lining up to meet some more princesses/fairies. Autographs and pictures were obtained from Cinderella, Belle, Tinkerbell and Silvermist. This took the girls through until about 8:30. We really wanted to wait until the fireworks at 9:00 but the kids had just had enough by then. So a quick walk, ferry ride, walk and drive later and we were back. The kids crashed quickly and we were not far behind them. Epcot tomorrow!

Vacation Day 4 - Jacksonville, Florida

Today was a very welcome relaxing day. The main activity was a family fishing outing to the creek behind the house. The girls all had fun and were both successful on the day. The fish that were caught were way too small to keep...and we did not intend to keep any in any case, but they got a great thrill when reeling them in.

In keeping with the fish theme, dinner was had at Gene's Seafood - one of our favorite local places here in Jacksonville. We filled up and then spent the evening relaxing on the couch watching Cash Cab and Antiques Roadshow initially, then the first two episodes in a mini series on Saddam Hussein. The story so far...Saddam was a prick who killed anyone who did not like him and a lot of people who did! No stunning revelations yet but some of the moves he made to gain and hold onto power were interesting to watch. All of this is assuming there is a reasonble basis in fact for the show but I will give HBO the benefit of the doubt here.

Now I am suffering through the cricket. I kind of feel like we are destined to lose but I have seen us pull games out from worse positions than this. However, a few key players have retired since then...

Vacation Day 3 - Jacksonville, Florida

Today we knocked off the rest of our drive in about 6 hours. So far, we have logged over 1000 miles and should end up over 2000 by the completion of our trip. The evening was spent with Mindy's family and it was nice to not have to think about more driving tomorrow! We are enjoying the warm weather - we went from snow in NJ to T-shirt weather here in Florida.

The cricket is still going OK. It would have been nice to see one of the top order get a century and put the game beyond doubt, however as long as we bowl well we should have enough runs. Haddin has certainly shown he belongs in the test side right now.

Vacation Day 2.5 - AC/DC

Once again, a brilliant show! I met my friend Errol outside of the arena and we took our seats. This time, I was quite high up and over the side of the stage, so in a strange way, we still felt relatively close to the action, as it was all happening directly underneath us. And as you would expect, hearing the band was not an issue!

The show was a carbon copy of the other two shows I saw this tour but was still fresh and intense. The best thing about AC/DC is they deliver every song like the audience is hearing it for the first time. Plenty of fist pumping; pointing; flipping the "devils horns"; screaming; singing and chanting made for a great evening.

Now I guess I am done with them for this time around. Three shows in three months was a great mix - and all 3 shows had their good points. The crowd this time was the most intense of all of the shows, with people still screaming as we were walking out of the arena. Hopefully they swing back through the USA after they tear up the rest of the world, as they have done on their last two tours. You have to think that this will be their last tour, considering Brian is now 61...but I am still holding out hope that they find a way to continue for a few years yet.

Vacation Day 2 - Charlotte, North Carolina

Today was pretty much spent driving. Of course, as we have both lost the ability to sleep in at all, we woke at the crack of dawn and were on the road by 8:30. Lunch was a nice surprise. We asked our navigation system for some restaurants close to where we were driving and chose a Mexican place just off the Interstate. we were a little nervous getting Mexican food in the mountains of Virginia, however the place looked nice so we took a chance. The food was excellent - all 4 of us enjoyed it, which is quite a rare event. One thing that really stood out was that the place had a smoking section. Smoking in restaurants in NJ has been banned for quite a while and I guess you get used to that. Places like Virginia and North Carolina will probably be among the last to ban smoking (if they do it at all).

The drive was quite uneventful, although we did notice some evidence of being further south than we are used to...a lot of crosses on the side of the road and prominently displayed on car bumpers. Not that Virginia is in the bible belt as such...but we are certainly a lot closer to it than in New Jersey.

Arriving at the hotel, we checked out the pool. It was OK but WAY too cold. We spent most of the time in the hot tub next to the pool so all was not lost. Naomi was the only one brave enough to swim in the cold water.

I was also happy to find a live internet feed of the cricket test. I am missing the first two tests on this trip so hopefully I get the chance to catch at least some of it over the next couple of weeks. Johnson has put us into a great position - if we can knock over the last two wickets quickly then bat for a day and a half, we should be able to press for a win on the 5th day.

Finally, tonight is the AC/DC concert, so clearly I am looking forward to that. Full report on this tomorrow!

Vacation Day 1 - Strasburg, Virginia

Today was my last day of work for 2008! In fact, I received a nice bonus this morning when Naomi's school was closed due to the snow, which meant that I had no reason to drive into work and so spent the morning at home on a conference call to plan January's activities. As a result, we were able to get away a little earlier than planned for our first driving leg.

The destination was Strasburg, Virginia, a small place in the northwest corner of the state, on the way to our real first stop of Charlotte, North Carolina. The kids were quite excited about the hotel pool which I was talking up for the whole 5 hour drive. So when we got there and found that the pool was being renovated, it was quite disappointing. However, they took it quite well and are now happily playing with their modeling clay. There is virtually nobody else staying here from what we can tell. There are no cars outside and the place is completely silent. I guess we should not be surprised considering how far from civilization we actually are. Tonight we plan to watch some Babylon 5 movies and enjoy the quiet hotel, really living it up!

I am sure I mentioned it to her before but I think it just dawned on Mindy that going via Charlotte for me to see AC/DC tomorrow night is adding another two hours of driving to our trip. Hopefully the kids continue to travel well and the pool is in operation at our next stop or I might cop some grief about this later on. If things don't go well, I think I will still be OK - I will be at the show tomorrow night and should be pretty much deaf all day on Friday - a nice defence against a possible ear bashing! :-)

Certified!!

On Friday I attended a certification exam, required at some point by mid 2009. I was not that hopefuly that I would pass as I have not been working as closely with the software as I would like over the past 6 months and also, there are some aspects of the exam that I had not touched. I spent a couple of nights skimming the manuals but really saw this as a fact finding mission - to hopefully find out what I needed to study for next time. I guess I must have absorbed enough while flying through the materials as I managed to pass the test. This basically means that I will not have to worry about this again for quite a while, so nice to know that my evenings and weekends will be mine for the forseeable future!

Saturday involved bringing the kids to their first ever time at a bowling alley. They had a great time. The lanes were set up with bumpers to make gutter balls quite unlikely however sometimes, due to the lack of velocity they got on the ball, the pins would pretty much stop the ball when it got down the end! They both had a great afternoon and both made a spare at one point in the day which was enough to make their day! I had my normal bowling experience - falling somewhere between 125-160...on this occasion, closer to the 125 mark.

Sunday was spent at Gary's house, "watching the kids" and also watching football all afternoon while Mindy and Holly had an afternoon off. It was a nice, relaxing way to finish the weekend and to set me up for my last (1/2) week of work for the year. We leave on Wednseday for Florida!

Ready for the Holidays

Work has been quite busy over the past couple of weeks as we are wrapping things up for the end of the year. Fortunately I now see the light at the end of the tunnel. The rest of the year is shaping up quite nicely.

Today (Thursday) will be busy but one more busy day I can handle.

Tomorrow I am off work attending a certification exam for SAP in the morning. I have done some preparation for it but am really hoping that a combination of skimming the manuals; 2 hours of solid cramming tomorrow morning; multiple guess...I mean...choice questions and some vast recent experience performing quizzes on Facebook will get me through. Actually, I really don't expect to pass - this is more of a fact finding mission for determining what I need to read up on - but if I could get through it would save me a lot of hassle.

The weekend will be busy preparing for our trip next week. I am then only working until Wednesday lunch time when we leave for Florida. We are doing the drive in 3 legs, stopping in Charlotte on December 18 to see AC/DC for the 3rd and perhaps final time and finishing in Jacksonville to spend a couple of days with Mindy's dad. We then have 5 days in Disney planned before a few more days of recovery, arriving back in NJ on December 31. The kids are excited so hopefully it all works out well.

I have been reading one of my early Christmas presents. The Onion book "Our Dumb World", filled with delightfully politically incorrect observations about a great number of countries around the world. Just when you think they are as inappropriate as you can get, you turn the page and are confronted by something even worse (a.k.a. better). I guess I will be doing a lot of reading over the next few weeks - Mindy also bought me Artie Lange's book "Too Fat To Fish" as well as a John Lennon biography. Throw this in with the shape of the package I received from Australia and I have a lot in front of me!

So...better get back to it so I can get out of here and begin winding down!

I Am Thankful For Alcohol and Butter

The Thanksgiving gorge fest has just ended and I think I participated in the correct spirit. This year we stayed at home and shared lunch with some friends who also are without an extended family in this area. All of the traditional foods were consumed - turkey, ham, potatoes, beans (green), sweet potato casserole, stuffing and other stuff I cannot remember. Pretty much everything had lots of butter in it, so it tasted great! A new dessert highlight was the pumpkin cheese cake that Mindy made - top notch. Much beer and wine was also consumed making for a great day. The football was horrible, fortunately the cricket came on at 7:00pm!

The rest of the long weekend involved "watching the kids" with Gary while Mindy and Holly went shopping on Friday. And by "watching the kids", I really mean sitting in front of the College football, drinking beer. Saturday involved more football (and beer) with Gary (Gators v Seminoles). Sunday was largely spent relaxing at home, although we did attend a friend's child's birthday party for a couple of hours. Now back to work for 2 1/2 weeks, before our Florida trip.

Welcome To The 21st Century

Slowly but surely I am being dragging into the 21st century. Last year my 8 year old mobile phone quit working, so I got a much more modern replacement. Now our 14 year old TV has packed it in. I certainly cannot complain with the life I got out of it...but had to find a replacement.

Fortunately, with the struggling economy and year-end deals, I think it was a good time to be in the TV market. Through my employer, I found I could get a deal on a Sharp 32" LCD model for $470 PLUS free shipping. From what I had seen, this was likely as good of a price as I could get and so I took the plunge. Also, despite a preoccupation with size (of screen) that most people seem to have, 32" was actually a perfect fit for our room.

It arrived last night, just in time to be set up enabling a great view of the 2nd day's play in the Australia v NZ cricket test. It is amazing to me how poorly both batting lineups are playing. To be fair, it is a helpful pitch and both teams' bowling attacks are doing a good job, however, the lack of application of many of the players is a worrying trend. We will not be able to get away with this when South Africa visit, so hopefully it is just a case of some early season rust. The positive is the bowling, especially Watson who is certainly a much improved player. If only he could score some runs! I will of course be there again tonight, enjoying the big(ger) screen and perhaps consuming a Tim Tam or two. Mindy will be out this evening with the kids, not that this changes much, although she will be far happier at her belly dance party than (hopefully) watching Katich and Haddin grind them into the dirt.

Next on the agenda to be replaced has to be the car...but hopefully not for a little while yet!

Rocking East Rutherford

Last night saw AC/DC again with Tim (an old work friend) and about 15000 other rabid fans. Amazing show, certainly much better than when I saw them in Pennyslvania a month ago. Our seats were better last time but the band was more intense this time around and the crowd was much better. The set list was virtually identical except that this time around they added the classic "Shoot to Thrill", which is never going to hurt a concert.

Amazingly, the only section in the arena with people remaining in their seats was the section immediately in front of us. Tim theorised that perhaps we were in a "wheelchair section"...it was very strange.

I love seeing shows in this venue. It makes a nice addition to the back of the concert shirt and reflects the lack of large cities in NJ. You will see the tour: Chicago; Boston; New York; Washington DC; Philadelphia; East Rutherford - always strikes me as being out of place.

The band is seriously good and has not lost a step. Angus was totally wiped out as always after the show and they certainly give you all they can over the 2 hours. Try to get to see them if you can...this might be the last time they go around.


Oh yeah, purchased another t-shirt and hooded sweat shirt for my wardrobe. I think I am pretty much decked out for the next 10-15 years now, which is a great relief for Mindy I am sure!

Party Time

Saturday was quite a busy day. The morning was spent running errands and the afternoon was spent with friends visiting from out of town. They have two kids about the same ages as Naomi and Fiona and they all played quite well together. The evening brought us to a 50th birthday party for a friend...or more accurately, a friend of a friend. The kids were left with a sitter and off we went, stopping at a local bar with Holly and Gary for a round of drinks. We left and made it to the party where, other than the person the party was thrown for, we only knew two other couples - Holly and Gary and Bob and Marcie. I felt like we were the only people intent on having fun and proceeded to pound drinks, eat food and laugh a lot. By the end of the night, more drinks were being spilled than consumed, always a good sign!

Sunday involved drinking a lot of water and taking a lot of headache medicine (for both of us). There was a meeting of the "humanist family" group which went well, followed by having to do some work from home to prepare for a meeting for next week. On Sunday night I decided to try to find a companion to attend another AC/DC concert with me, right here in NJ. I found some reasonably priced tickets on the web and so will be going to see them once again on Wednesday night with a work friend from a previous customer. I am certainly psyched about this prospect...a nice bonus splitting the PA and Charlotte shows that I already had tickets for. I think I will have to buy another t-shirt to mark the occasion!

Tim Tams

Tim Tams are far and away the best Australian biscuit (or cookie to any American readers). A chocolate centre, chocolate wafers and wrapped in chocolate, what could possibly be better? It was always something I would bring back with me from my trips to Australia and also, any visitors were requested to stash a few packets for me when they came over. Mindy and the girls are also both converts - these things truly are amazing. So much so, that we had always wondered why they were not being marketed over here.

Well, now they are! Through the company Pepperidge Farm, Tim Tams (still retaining the name) are being sold exclusively at Target stores in the USA, starting on November 1. I think that if the sales go well, the program will expand. On my way home from work, I stopped in to grab some...still kind of expecting something to go wrong...that they would not be stocked at my local stores or that they would not be exactly the same in some way. However, my fears were unfounded! They are being sold in the USA and they are identical to the Australian version.

On a press release I saw, I found out an interesting fact about Tim Tams:

They hold the title of "world's most popular biscuit" based on per capita consumption. Nearly 1/2 a billion Tim Tams are eaten each year in Australia alone, not bad for a 20 million population.

Now the one concession to the American market is them being marketed as "cookies" over here. In fact, the tag line of "Australila's most popular cookie" appears on the packet. I am willing to overlook this blasphemy figuring that whatever keeps them in the American market is a good thing. Any Americans reading this, go out and grab yourselves a packet and spread the word...you will be glad you did!

Halloween

The girls had a great night on Friday. Fiona had her first real trick-or-treat experience after spending last year hiding inside after seeing a scary mask early on in the evening. This year they both raced around with some friends, quickly figuring out that the faster you go, the more free stuff you get! Naomi was dressed as Jasmine from Aladdin and Fiona was Wonder Woman.

After about 30 minutes, Fiona was done so we went home and sat outside to give treats to the kids who came by our house. I really think Fiona enjoyed this more than she enjoyed collecting herself. By the end of the night, both of them had quite large piles of candy and I think fully expected to be able to simply devour it all right then. We have been rationing it out to them over the subsequent days but you can be sure they are getting quite enough sugar to keep their energy up.

Hello Wilkes-Barre!!!

Tuesday night was the tour opening show for AC/DC's Black Ice tour (there was a secret pre-show two nights before for a small group of contest winners...but this was the first shoudl you could buy tickets for). Mindy and I made the two hour drive out there to welcome the boys back after 8 years away. Of course, we left in plenty of time, 4:30 for the 7:30 show...and it was lucky we did as the drive ended up taking 3 hours due to ridiculous amounts of traffic. I have to think there was an accident somewhere up ahead but it must have cleared by the time we got there. For a while, I was going crazy, wondering if we might be late...but as it turns out, we were OK.

Avoiding the opening band, we instead enjoyed the atmosphere outside the venue and hit the t-shirt vendors. I bought a couple of shirts, Mindy got one for herself and we bought shirts for Naomi and Fiona as well. Additionally, 3 sets of AC/DC glowing devil horns were purchased...for Mindy and the girls (as I had a set from their last tour).

Our seats were amazing. By far the closest I have ever been to a top act like this. We were in the lower section, just to the left of the floor, 6 rows back. Literally, 15m to the front of the stage and right under the speaker bank. The band's arrival was announced with a small cartoon video, launching into an explosion on the stage and the riff of Rock N Roll Train. I found this on youtube which was taken at the show we attended...but from much further back than where we were! :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsBGbHpmKg

The concert was fantastic. They played 5 songs from Black Ice and I was very happy about this as I think it is one of their best albums - Rock N Roll Train; Big Jack; Black Ice; War Machine and Anything Goes. They also played a nice selection of classics, the highlights for me being Dirty Deeds; TNT; Let There Be Rock; Highway To Hell and of course For Those About To Rock, complete with cannons.

Their new stage prop was a huge train that blew smoke during Hell's Bells and spat fire during TNT...but unfortunately this melted the inflatable "Rosie" from the secret show a few days before, so Rosie was just a "beautiful" digital image during her song. I would say that the only problem was the crowd - they were not as crazy as past AC/DC crowds, I guess this is what you get for going to small town PA for a show. We both had a great time (yes, Mindy too)...and now I cannot wait until their Charlotte concert on December 18!!!!

Black Ice

This morning was the first day of release of AC/DC's new album - "Black Ice". It was being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart in the USA but fortunately there was a Wal-Mart near to my work and Naomi's school.

We hit the place at 7:45 and went straight back to the CD/DVD department, expecting to see a display selling the CD. Nothing was in sight. So I went to the AC/DC section of the CDs...still no Black Ice. I was about ready to go postal...but I asked an employee and was directed to the AC/DC section at the front of the store. I missed this when I came in as it is effectively behind you when you go through the door, but they are certainly doing a good job of promotion. Huge AC/DC signs, t-shirts, all of their CDs, DVDs and of course a huge rack of Black Ice CDs. Presented with a choice of red (standard); yellow or white (limited edition) lettering, I let Naomi make the decision. She chose white because "it looks like ice". Kind of logical I guess.

Heard a great quote from Angus Young about the meaning of their song "Rock N Roll Train"..."I think it’s based ‘round a train. You know, like a rock n roll kind of train. Something a bit different.". Classic stuff - Spinal Tap could not have said it any better themselves!

Oh yeah - and the CD is GREAT.

Nice Weekend

After a week of colder temperatures, things have picked up nicely late in the week and into the weekend. We Saturday doing inside stuff (cleaning, basically) in and around a birthday party for one of Naomi's friends from school. Sunday was spent going on a fishing trip with some friends for the day. The kids had a fun time but did not get close to catching anything. Naomi had fun playing with the different lures in the tackle box and Fiona enjoyed collecting shells and rocks. Alongside all of this, I have been watching the baseball playoffs along with the Australia v India cricket, so lack of sleep is an issue right now. The nice temperatures are expect to get even better over the next few days before leaving us in the downward spiral of winter.

Madonna

I learned something on the weekend. There are two kinds of guys who attend Madonna concerts - those who are there with a wife/girlfriend, and gay men! For the record - I was attending with Mindy! Perhaps I should not have been surprised by this, but I expected plenty of guys in category 1...I just had not idea how big she was in the gay community. There was quite the range of outfits as well - fishnet body suits, outrageous hair styles etc. For the concert, it was quite a good thing - they were clearly enjoying this live-clubbing experience and were much more energetic than most of her female fans.

Our seats were actually very good. We were directly to the side of the stage, so at times we were looking at her from behind, but we were very close, only about 15 rows from the stage so we were in the middle of things and got a good view, especially when she was on our side of the stage. Not that I am a fan of her music but I have to say I enjoyed the show quite a bit. The coordination of the dancing, props, costume changes etc were of the level of a Broadway show and I can only imagine the level of rehearsal and back-stage management that has to go on to make it work so seamlessly. Mindy really enjoyed the night, which was a relief after her less-than-enthusiastic reception to me getting the tickets. She assured me that this was just due to her having ad a rough day and was genuinely excited and had a great time...but I (of course) will still remind her of this from time to time :-).

Now it is a matter of detoxing from this pop experience and getting ready for AC/DC in a few weeks. I am amazingly keen for this show and also their album release. Their 2nd single from the album "War Machine" has just been released and it is a great song, much better than "Rock 'n' Roll Train" I feel. I have been listening to AC/DC radio on Sirius (24x7 commercial free AC/DC music), and they periodically play the new songs. Due to my radio allowing me to skip back, this morning (much to the complaints of Naomi), we listened to "War Machine" about 6 times! I am hoping that the new album will contain another few gems, perhaps another "Ballbreaker"??

In other news, we did download a couple of ringtones for Mindy to use on her phone. An Indigo Girls song for most people...but for me, whenever I call, her phone loudly proclaims "I don't want anybody else. When I think about you I touch myself.". I am hoping to catch her in a group of people when I call!

Done for 2008

Saturday was the last cricket match I will be playing this year. My club, The Mad Dogs, played its 2nd "Old Dogs v Young Pups" game. We broke up the club on age lines, which this year turned out to be 39...so I was one of the oldest players on the "Young Pups" team. Fortunately, unlike last year, the young boys were able to hang on and win, so the title and the more important bragging rights will be ours for the next year. Once again 3/4 of the family had a great day out, however Mindy can now enjoy tthe winter with no more days out in Connecticut (at least for a while).

Mindy's Phone

Mindy lost her current mobile phone, kind of hard to understand how this might have happened since the dimensions resembled a house brick. We decided to get her a new phone and add her to my current plan, so there would be the added hassle of porting her number from her current company. I was assured by Sprint (my provider) that this would be an easy process. On Wednesday night I spent the best part of 3 hours on the phone getting transferred around, getting disconnected etc trying to get this resolved.

In the end, I was told that the process was underway and to call back in "24 to 72 hours" to check on the progress of this. The stupidity of how to call in "24 to 72 hours" just added to my frustration. So if I call in 30 hours? What does this really mean? Anyway...I guess I will find out tonight - that will be 48 hours - so hopefully it will be straight and we can put this behind us. I did complain loudly enough to get offered 100 bonus minutes, so I guess that is something.

The biggest question for Mindy is what song should she use as her ringtone. I suggested that for the ring whenever I call, The Divinyls "I Touch Myself" would be quite appropriate - not sure if she will go for it.

Car Troubles

The good news is that my car is fixed...the bad news is that it cost over $1200. Apparently the water pump broke, causing the engine to overheat, causing the head gasket to blow, causing them to have check the head to ensure it had not warped or cracked. Of course, all of this could be completely bogus as I know pretty much nothing about car repair, however I do, perhaps foolishly trust my mechanic not to rip me off.

Naomi told me that she is looking forward to getting back in the Neon to go to school. "It has the most AC/DC music ever and has rainbow colors on the seats.". Her opinions on the merits of cars are not to be trusted however - she has also previously said that she likes the Neon "because it squeaks"!

AC/DC

On Friday afternoon on the way home, about two blocks from the house, a warning sounded in my car. I noticed that it was overheating, so made it home and checked the engine (not that I was really checking for anything other than a REALLY obvious leak or something). The coolant in the car was boiling, probably not a good sign. So, booked the car in to get checked out for the Saturday.

Saturday morning was devoted to the vital task of securing tickets for AC/DC's upcoming tour. Everything was set - I was to get tickets to their show in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania (the first show of the tour) and Errol was to get tickets to their show in Charlotte. All was set, waiting until 10:00 for the onsale time to tick over. I even had my home PC and my work laptop logged in in case one internet connection had issues. Good thing that I did - my PC hung on the Ticketmaster site so the backup PC was needed. I managed to get the seats, as did Errol for the Charlotte show...which was actually not a guarantee as they sold out in 20 minutes. So now I have proclaimed that I will be celebrating the next month by wearing AC/DC shirts only for the next month - Mindy is thrilled at the prospect. However, it is a great chance to update my wardrobe - 2008 concert shirts!

After this, nothing much could happen to deflate my good mood...except, perhaps finding out that the head gasket on my car had blown and I was looking at an approximately $900 repair bill. Having 135000 miles on the car already, I briefly considered getting a new one but then decided that there was still another 70K miles left in it (completely arbitrarily) and so am going to get it fixed. Fortunately one of my friends was able to lend me a car for the week while it is in the shop, which seriously reduces the inconvenience of the week.

Sunday involved a picnic and a hike with a few friends, enjoying the early Autumn weather. It was quite relaxing and the kids had a great day exploring. I would have spent some time watching football but it is under the "you can't watch cricket, rugby AND American sports too" ban. Instead, we now are almost finished our Babylon 5 adventure. Only two episodes left in the final season and then we will be done - except, of course, for the DVDs that my brother Mick has sent me for my birthday. Thanks Mick! This, combined with the new fall TV schedule will give us no shortage of couch time in the coming months.

Tito Just Shit In The Sun Room

Tito is still having stomach problems. It has been getting better lately but he still has the occasional lapse. The other day Mindy and I were sitting in the living room when Fiona walks in and proudly announces: "Tito just shit in the sun room!". Perhaps we should not have laughed, but when your cute, little 4 year old daughter says this, it is quite tough not to. Also, she did use the word correctly I guess!. We asked her to repeat herself and I walked in to investigate. Fiona pointed and said: "See, there it is...Tito's shit". We then asked her where she heard that word and she told us that "Naomi said it is a word for poopy". We had a talk to her (and Naomi) about the need to not say this word at school, to her friends etc...and I think she understood. Perhaps we will find that we were wrong when we get called into the school one day!

The Feud

Last night, while channel surfing, I decided to stop at GSN (Game Show Network) and watch an episode of "Family Feud". Not really sure why but I do have a fascination watching people struggle to blurt out the first thing that pops into their heads. And the results of this blurting can be quite funny...

Q: "Name an activity that people begin when they retire."
A: "Skiing".

Q: "Name a phrase that BEGINS with 'turn'."
A: "How about...'It's my turn'?".

Q: "Name a COUNTRY that women feel has the most exciting men.".
A: "Paris".

All of this in one 30 minute show...truly TV gold (at least in my opinion!).

So Near and Yet...

This weekend became a weekend of near misses. Saturday morning involved watching the Australia v NZ rugby. We played well in patches but made too many silly mistakes to deserve the victory. However, losing by such a close margin considering the soft tries we allowed is a little frustrating.

Saturday was also the first playoff game for one of my cricket teams, because of my bad back right now, it was decided that I would sit out the Saturday game and be ready to play on Sunday. The catch was that we had to win on Saturday to get the chance to play on Sunday. Apparently, we were chasing 160ish and were 5/140ish when a message got sent out to our captain who was batting at the time. We were ahead of the other team on run rate and the light was quite bad, so we should ask the umpires about the light. If they agreed it was bad, we would win by run rate. So, the light was bad and they called the game...but when they did the calculation, we were 1 run short, so the other team got the victory. Our captain was shattered after the match. I was annoyed that my ill-timed back injury kept me from playing. All in all, a disappointing way to end the season.

So, Sunday was not a family day - we spent it at the house and with friends in the afternoon - so it was a nice, relaxing day. Kind of quickly coming to the end of summer, you feel that the warm weekends are coming quickly to an end. Of course, I will then be able to burn all of the wood I have been stockpiling...so I must admit to looking forward to it in a weird way.

Welcome to 36

Last weekend I turned 36. This Friday I got home from work and mowed the lawn. After coming inside, I noticed my back was a little sore. This proceeded to get worse for no reason whatsoever, pain also shooting down my leg. The most frustrating thing about all of this is that I have no idea what caused it, other than simply being 36! So, no cricket on Sunday and a weekend of lying around hoping that it gets right for next weekend when we are set to play our cricket playoff game(s). The only positive is that it pretty much excuses me from most household chores for the week, so every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.

School Days

On Thursday, Naomi began the school year at her new school - Unity Charter School. The location of the school is about 30-45 minutes from our house but we thought the benefits of the school outweighed this inconvenience. Making it more appealing, at least in the short term, is the fact that the school is around the corner from my current client...so I will be able to bring her to school saving Mindy a trip.

She was a little nervous about everything but the day largely went well. In the evening, she was talking about her friends and the things that she had done during the day...so hopefully it will be a good experience for her.

A surprise for us was Fiona's transition to going to school without Naomi for the first time. Mindy noticed that she really missed her sister during the day. It was good for us to know that even though they fight occasionally, they really are good buddies.

Last Days of Summer

Over here, summer officially ends over the Labor Day Weekend, which includes the first Monday of September. So this was the last weekend before the kids go back to school and summer hours (half day Fridays) end at work.

Saturday brought a trip to Mad Dog Park for a cricket game. One of our team members works for a beverage company and so had brought along a few cases of a new energy drink - "Burn". As the day was quite hot and I wanted to drink something with a little more sugar than water, I ended up knocking back three of these things in about an hour. I was to find out that each can was the equivalent of over two Red Bulls...so I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the afternoon. I certainly got my daily allowance of caffeine...along with "taurine" and a bunch of other healthy sounding chemicals. As to the game, it was a very satisfying victory. I bowled shockingly and now officially have the "yips". Fortunately I had a good knock, getting 39 before getting fired on a dubious LBW call. This is the team that we have beaten in the final for the past two years and while we will not be there to defend our title, it was nice to score a win over them.

In the evening I downloaded and watched the Australia v South Africa rugby match. What a waste of time that turned out to be. A horribly bad performance that cannot be defended. Hopefully we sort things out again before the decider v NZ in a couple of weeks.

On Sunday, Mindy was doing henna at a street fair, so I spent my birthday with the kids. We ran some errands, grabbed lunch and played a few games at home before I took a brief nap on the couch (a 30 minute TV show was the diversion for the kids!).

Monday was also a busy day. We went to a local nature reservation with some friends to (we thought) have a picnic, walk to a stream and let the kids play there before heading home. Well, it turned into a serious hike...not really a problem except for the fact that none of us were wearing appropriate shoes and I did not bring any water. We ended up walking around for 3+ hours, carrying Fiona for the last 1/2 of the journey as she had a blister from her shoes. Eventually we made it back and all set upon a watermelon that our friends had brought.

The evening brought more Babylon 5...we are now almost done with this and are about 1/2 way through the final season. I think Mindy is enjoying it even more than me! It will be like losing an old friend when we finish it I feel. Fortunately, we should get through it right when the new seasons of our TV shows will be starting up, so we will still have plenty to keep us occupied!

Win-Loss-Win

This weekend ended up being amazingly busy. Friday night I was with the kids as Mindy went out with a friend. Gary came over with his kids and the evening was spent getting them fed and watching baseball.

Saturday morning brought the Australia v South Africa rugby clash. We had not won there since the early days of this century, so I was hopeful but not getting ahead of myself. Well, we cam away with a nice victory. SA did not play their best game but our play was solid and we did enough to be comfortable winners. This sets up a showdown with NZ in a few weeks for the Tri-Nations title, so we have a chance to win it all if we continue to play well. I was extremely impressed with Elsom's game - he has blossomed into a top class #6, right when he is leaving to play in the UK. Hopefully it will only be a short leave of absence.

In the afternoon we went over to a friend's house for a few hours to hear their annual concert that they put on. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I also tried Sam Adams "Octoberfest" beer for the first time and really enjoyed it. All of their seasonable brews are top class. Their "Summer Ale" is also great and I quite like their "Winter Lager" as well. America really does produce some nice beer, you just need to go past the regular mass-produced stuff to fine it.

Saturday night was poker night. A few friends and a few new arrivals made for an interesting game. We certainly had 3 of the craziest hands I have personally witnessed occur. Once we had 3 all-ins after the flop - two made flushes and an over pair...for the board to then go runner-runner 6 to put a full house out there. Also we had a full house, Kings over 7 beaten by 4 7's. Finally, a full house, Aces over Kings was beaten by a Royal Flush! I had a losing night unfortunately, partly due to bad luck but mainly due to some poor play. I will need to adjust for next time.

Sunday brought a trip to Connecticut with the family for a league cricket match. My team batted first, I did OK before being caught to a good catch for 27. Our team posted a score of 224 in the end which is quite a nice total. They got off to a great start with their chase and looked like they were going to get the runs before their best batsman sliced a catch to me at backward point. After he went, their side lost their way and in the end, we won by 20 runs. It was a really good fightback over the last 1/2 of their innings. I was playing again for Norwalk, the 2nd team I am a part of, and they look like making the playoffs in their league...so hopefully there will be some more wins to come.

A Lovely Surprise

This morning, about 5:00am, I woke to the sounds of Tito (our oldest Chihuahua) scratching at the door of his cage. Based on his recent "stomach problems" ... a polite way of saying his "crapping all over the house problems", I feared the worst. Sure enough, upon investigation, there were a few special nuggets waiting for me. A brief cleanup and an escourted trip for them outside to make sure it was the end of it is not really what you want to be doing so early in the morning...I am REALLY hoping he gets over this soon.

Work is pretty busy now as well. I am currently juggling Colgate's needs as well as remotely testing the latest version of my company's software, due for release later this year. So much for feeling rested from last week's vacation!

Vacation Part 2

The 2nd leg of our trip was a trip to Hershey PA. There is the chocolate factory there, an amusement park and many other family related activities to keep us busy. Fiona was still not feeling the best, but we decided to head out there and see how things went as all of the bookings had already been made.

Our first stop was to visit the "Indian Echo Caverns", which was a big underground cave near to where we were staying. The tour was OK but really spent most of the time making bad jokes about the different features in the rocks "Here you see the bunny rabbit", "Here you see the dragon" ... etc. I think more discussion about the actual formations themselves would have made the trip more interesting. Towards the end of the trip, Fiona's fever came back again so we headed to the hotel to rest...again. It was quite bad that night and into the morning, so we made a decision to bag the planned day at Hershey Park and to go to the movies and the hotel pool instead. We saw "Wall E", quite enjoyable but much of it was aimed at an older audience than our kids. They enjoyed it though, I guess.

Saturday we drove back to get the dogs from the boarding kennel and catch up on everything that needs to be done around the house. The delightful bonus from the trip was that Tito, our oldest dog, has been farting and crapping all over the house since his return. He did this once before at a different kennel, so I guess he simply frets so much he destroys his system. Certainly makes for a fun few days cleaning up behind him.

Sunday was cricket - we got 223 and bowled them out for 110 - so a crushing victory for the good guys. Mindy and the kids were at a pool party and had a good time as well. I am now back at work, and struggling to get through the day. Things should be busy for the next month as I am working on an extra project for another client and catching up on what went on here last week.

Vacation Part 1

The first part of our vacation involved a trip down to the Jersey Shore, specifically Atlantic City. The reason for the selection of Atlantic City was not because it was a perfect beach community, however it was somewhere on the coast where we could get a hotel room for a reasonable rate at short notice...and it also has some casinos!

Our trip was a joint effort between us and the Howell family, who have 4 girls in the same age range as our kids. We arrived down at our hotel around noon on Sunday, enjoying the drive up Atlantic Ave past the liquor stores, check cashing places and adult movie peep shows - Atlantic City is nothing if not classy. The Flagstaff "resort" was located at the "top of the boardwalk" and was also right near the beach, so we figured it would suit our needs. We decided that a walk on the boardwalk in the direction of the casinos would be a good option for lunch. Taking a right out of our hotel, we began the delightful stroll down the boardwalk, stepping over the rotting and 'not nailed down' deck boards, jumping over a barrier blocking off a section which was under repair, enjoying the view of a particularly delightful green building which was rusting and pretty much falling apart and avoiding the quite rundown streets heading back from the boardwalk.

We all ate lunch at some street stalls, quite good, and enjoyed a parade celebrating something to do with Puerto Rico. Lots of people shouting things in Spanish over loud speakers and some cars with people waving at us. After this, we headed back to our rooms and hit the beach for a brief visit. The walk in the other direction was quite nice - new housing developments and certainly a much nicer and cleaner feel to it. The kids enjoyed themselves and so I guess that was the main thing. Sunday evening was quite tame - I was actually quite tired - so no hitting the casinos.

Monday took us to the "Atlantic City Aquarium", which was really an overly grand term for what should have been named the "Atlantic City Couple of Fishtanks". It was really quite poor, even the kids were a little bored with it, although the "touch tank" where they could touch some rays was nice I guess. A quick lunch and then a trip to the beach for the afternoon. We headed back the other way as the beaches around there were open to the ocean rather than an inlet. The waves were quite nice and the kids had a lot of fun, although all of them slipped at some point and got a face full of the Atlantic for their trouble. We headed back to the hotel and got the shuttle bus to the main casino strip to find somewhere to eat. The bus was horrible inadequate - 18 seats and there were always about 25 people waiting for it. We managed to get on and ate at a foodcourt in Caesar's Palace. Another crowded ride back and then Gary and I hit the poker tables. It was a successful evening, finishing $225 up. Always good to make a profit.

Tuesday began with another trip to the beach where Fiona started to not feel well. We headed back to the room where I volunteered to make the "sacrifice" of not attending the Imax cinema in the afternoon, instead napping with Fiona in the room. The rest of the afternoon involved Gary and I watching the kids while Holly and Mindy enjoyed some shopping time. The evening brought another trip to the poker room, a lot of fun, but due to some bad luck and a few silly decision, I finished $75 down. Still, positive for the weekend, so not too disappointed.

Wednesday was supposed to be another beach day but with Fiona still not 100%, we simply headed home a little early to rest up for the 2nd leg of our trip.

Birthday Girl

Today we celebrated Fiona's 4th birthday. She does not turn 4 until the end of the month but due to other commitments, this weekend was the best weekend to have the party...and there were no complaints from Fiona about having it early. In fact, she has been looking forward to her birthday party for a LONG time.

The theme she chose was a "Magic Party". The entertainment was a magician that a friend had recommended, who was to perform a 45 minute show for the kids. He did a really good job. He engaged the kids, was funny and kept the show moving at a nice pace...and he was a good magician into the bargain. The audience really enjoyed the performance which included an illusion of him cutting through my arm and the grand finale, Fiona levitating on a table. Naomi was one of the assistants for this trick. The look on her face as he was describing the fact that she was about the fly made the whole day worthwhile. A combination of confusion, panic and terror all rolled into one!

After the show, the kids had a craft station, Mindy gave them air-brush tattoos and made some balloon animals for them to play with. All of the kids seemed to have a good time and now Mindys stress levels can get back to normal.

Towards the end of the party, I left with Mindy's (and so I guess my) nephew Ben to tak him to see New York. Gary also came along for the day trip. It was interesting to see what a 13 year old kid was interested in doing...he wanted to see Chinatown and also the big shops in Times Square. We accomplished both of these goals, and had dinner at a pizza restaurant as well. I think he enjoyed the day, even though I don't think he was prepared for the amount of walking involved.

Tomorrow we head off with Holly, Gary and their kids down to Atlantic City for a few days at the beach (and casinos!). Hopefully the Sunday beach traffic is not too bad. Also, hopefully, I do well enough at the tables to pay for the trip! We will see if the poker gods are watching over me.

Swedish Massage

On Friday, Mindy and I finally used the gift certificate from her father and step-mother from a local spa, to get a "couples massage". I had never had a massage and Mindy only a few, so we were both more than a little curious about how it was going to go.

The spa itself seemed quite nice, although to be fair, I really have nothing much to compare it to...attending women's beauty spas is not really a common activity for me. Our massage took place with us both in the same room, however since you are face down or have your eyes covered for it, I did not think this really mattered.

I guess it really worked to relax me - Mindy said that I was snoring for much of the time! I could tell I was falling asleep but was kind of catching myself and waking up...or so I thought. The whole thing lasted about an hour and was certainly quite a nice experience. Not sure that I will become a regular customer but it was something I was glad we did.

Eddie Vedder

Last night was went on a date. We were trying to figure it out and I think it was probably about the 5th date we have had since Naomi was born. Seriously. Mindy's mother was visiting and looked after the kids so we could go out.

The night started with a quick meal at a local Thai restaurant. The food was excellent - curry puffs, chicken satay and a chicken massaman curry - and it was all quickly devoured as we had to kind of hurry to get to the show on time.

Next, on to the New Jersey PAC for the show. The venue is quite magnificant, kind of out of place in Newark in many ways. We bought some merchandise in the lobby - t-shirts and a set of stickers for the car - and found our seats for the support act, which was Liam Finn. Genetically he was always likely to have some musical talent - son of Neil Finn and nephew of Tim Finn (of Split Enz and Crowded House fame) - but I was amazed at the show he put on. He played with one other band member (EJ Barnes, daughter of Jimmy Barnes) but really did pretty much everything himself. He would play an instrument (guitar, bass, drums) and then record it, looping it around...and then pick up the next instrument and begin playing that. It really was a nice effect. Songs would build slowly with him playing a riff...then before you knew it, he was playing another instrument giving the illusion of there being a full band there. His voice was great also, very much like his father's. This was certainly a good start to the night.

A short break and then Eddie Vedder came out. We both really liked his solo album for the "Into The Wild" soundtrack and so this, combined with some Pearl Jam songs and a few covers should make for a good show. He certainly did not disappoint. His performance was outstanding, his voice was amazing and we both thoroughly enjoyed the show. He spoke of being inspired by Tim Robbins to write a song for the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack, which kind of broke him out of a creative funk he was in and joked that their manager now has Tim Robbins on speed dial, ready to be called if he does not contribute enough songs.

At one point he took a question from an audience member "Can you tell us what the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter are?". For any non-Pearl Jam fans, this song is one of their live standards but is notoriously incoherent. He also often changes the lyrics on the fly. In any case, once the initial laughter from the crowd died down, he made the joke "Does that song even have lyrics? Let me think...something about people on a porch not waving if I recall". He then gave the serious answer about what the song was about and it was quite touching. 2000 people in perfect silence while he related the story, he almost broke down as he said the words. One of his friends had a brother that was killed in the first Gulf War. His family received the yellow letter from the military and he was shattered, walking around the streets near his home, kind of in a daze. Apparently, he saw a house with an older couple sitting on the porch under an American flag. The young kid gestured to the flag, kind of saying that it meant something to him, that this was the flag his brother died for...but the old couple, seeing a young, scruffy kid misinterpreted this as him being disrespectful in some way and indignantly ignored his gesture. So quite a sad story...but hearing him tell it in such a heartfelt fashion was quite incredible.

Not to imply that the night was a downer in any way. The "Into The Wild" songs were done amazingly well, especially Guaranteed. The Pearl Jam songs, in general, were some of the more obscure songs in their catalogue but were also very well done. A few highlights from this were: I Am Mine; Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town (THE show highlight for me - got everyone out of their seats and singing along with him...quite cool); Porch and Lukin. He also played a few covers and I was especially glad to hear him play Throw Your Arms Around Me. The Dylan song Masters of War was also great. So overall, a fantastic experience. We both enjoyed it and I cannot wait until he comes back this way again, hopefully with Pearl Jam.

Full setlist, as noted on a Pearl Jam chat forum, in case you are interested:

MAIN SET: Walking the Cow, Trouble, Don't Be Shy, Around the Bend, I Am Mine, Dead Man Walking, Sometimes, I'm Open, Man of the Hour, Unripe Fruit, Driftin', Masters of War, Setting Forth, No Ceiling, Guaranteed, Far Behind, Rise, Small Town, Goodbye (You're True), Soon Forget, Forever Young, Porch

1ST ENCORE: Society, Throw Your Arms Around Me (w/ Liam Finn), (Q/A), Growin' Up, Lukin, Let My Love Open the Door, Arc

2ND ENCORE: Hard Sun (w/ Liam Finn)

Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary - 9 years. Crazy how quickly it has gone, just seems like yesterday that I was jumping up and down like an idiot to "Take A Long Line" at the reception.

Plans for tonight are to go out for dinner (perhaps Thai or Indian food) and then to go and watch Eddie Vedder play a solo concert. Both of us have been looking forward to this show for a long time so hopefully it lives up to our expectations. Of course, there is always a possible issue - collecting the dogs from the vet and getting the kids home from gymnastics will make the later afternoon a panic in the Quirk house. Hopefully when I get home from work, all of the panic is over and Mindy has handled everything!

Losing Weekend

So, this past weekend was pretty much the same as the one before...except instead of winning the rugby, winning at poker and playing 1/2 a game of cricket, we lost the rugby, I didn't play poker and cricket was completely rained out!

The rugby was horrible. It seemed like the team forgot everything they had worked towards over the previous few tests. I am willing to consider this loss the result of a key injury, playing away from home and also playing the 3rd consecutive match...but I hope there is improvement for the South Africa leg of the tour, otherwise it will be a very long trip.

We all piled in the car on Saturday to drive to Westchester NY fpr the cricket. Just as we arrived, the area was hit by a massive downpour that caused the game to be abandoned. So, 30 minutes after arriving, we turned around and drove the 90 minutes back home. The rest of the day was spent running errands and catching up with friends, so not all was lost.

On Sunday, Mindy went shopping with a friend so I was with the kids. We spent most of the day at home although Naomi did get a chance to ride her new bike. I also finished chopping up the last of the wood from our tree, so we are quite prepared for the winter.

We are also 2/3 of the way through the 5 seasons of Babylon 5. A marathon session was had last night. We are both quite addicted, me for the 2nd time.

Winning Weekend

This weekend was quite enjoyable and successful. First thing was to wake up and watch the Wallabies play New Zealand in rugby. What a super match! Not only did we beat them, buw we won easily (15 points). It was refreshing after a few years of poor results to experience a big win over New Zealand again. The rest of the day was spent running errands and with some friends in the afternoon, unsuccessfully trying to work out a possible joint family vacation.

In the evening, Gary, Kevin and I went to a friend's house for a poker game. It was a lot of fun and an interesting experience. One of the female players at the table seemed to feel that it was a smart thing to do to throw money around like it was meaningless and to disregard odds when making her bets. For much of the night, this tactic worked quite well for her, constantly hitting her miracle cards and winning some big pots. At one point she had worked her $60 buy-in up to about $700...then her luck began to change. Her silly bets and outrageous bluffs began to not be rewarded. I doubled up through her twice and on the last hand of the night she pushed all in, only to be called and lose. So, in the end, she walked away with nothing, and from the way she played, was lucky to only lose her original $60. I ended up with a $120 profit, a nice return for a fun evening.

Sunday brought a drive to Norwalk CT for a cricket match. I am playing a few games this year with a side in the Southern Connecticut League which is proving to be rather interesting. This particular game was against the Bridgeport side, known as the best team in the area. Their fans were certainly also an interesting group - about 50 Jamaican men hanging out, playing loud music, yelling at the players, drinking rum and smoking pot. One of our players swore you could get high from just fielding on the boundary! They batted first and had a very strong batting lineup. Every time we got a wicket, another good batsman would walk out. One of their players is a current representative for the USA side and his ability was quite clear also. I actually bowled quite well, the best I have bowled in a while taking 4 wickets. However, before I got a chance to test myself against the USA bowler (who could bowl at 90 mph according to several people who had played him before), the rains came and the match was abandoned. A draw was not a bad result for us...but I was looking forward to facing a truly fast bowler like that. Maybe next time...

Ashes

Every year, a team of local Aussies plays a team of local English in a battle for the Ashes. For various reasons, I missed the game for the past two seasons so was looking forward to this match very much. Also, the Poms held the trophy amid much controversy last year, so we were all well motivated to try to win it back in 2008. Another twist to the match is that many of my regular team mates played on the English team, so it was a chance to get bragging rights for the rest of the year as well.

The day was one of the hottest days of the year and unfortunately, we lost the toss so had to field in the worst of the conditions. We all bowled and fielded well, bowling them out for 172 in their final over (35). One of their players who is a Mad Dog as well carried his bat scoring 106 n.o., quite an achievement in the conditions. I picked up a couple of wickets and bowled OK, but still too many full tosses to make me happy.

I opened the batting and we got off to a flying start, reaching 60 after 6 overs. A couple of wickets fell and then I got out for 39 with the score around 90. Things were chugging along nicely, we were 6 down with 13 to get for the victory and still 10+ overs to go when they took a hat trick! Fortunately our #4 Darren was still there and playing well so we felt that if our #11 could survive, that Darren could get us home. A few defended balls, singles and a hurried two set up the finale, when Darren hit consecutive balls over square leg for 6 to bring up the win! It was a great result, despite us almost throwing it all away at the end.

Earlier in the day, I had watched us beat South Africa in the rugby. Certainly a good result but I feel the real test will come this weekend against NZ. I think we have improved over every game this season so that is positive and also, the newer players seem to be showing they are worth their place.

Sunday brought another hot day and I did not feel like doing anything much at all. Mindy spent the afternoon with her friend Holly, so Gary and I got together to watch the kids. It also seemed like a good time to test out his two new reclining chairs and we both grabbed some nap time while the kids were playing. We had two when we arrived and we left with two, so I guess nothing bad happened while we were asleep!

Mindy and I are also slogging through my recordings of Babylon 5 from years ago. I have all of the episodes on tape from when it first aired in the USA and it is actually good to watch them again. Mindy has not seen it and I kind of remember the basic plot, but not well enough to spoil the viewing this time around. It is quite intimidating though...110 episodes lined up and waiting for us. Right now we are about 35 episodes into it. I think Mindy is enjoying it...if not, it will probably be a pretty rough 6 weeks or so for her.

Feeling Better

I think we are all well on the road to recovery. I still have a very annoying cough but feel much improved over last week - so I am back at work. Fiona seems completely better and Mindy is improved but still not 100%. Naomi's cough is still there but it appears to also be improving.

Not a lot happened over the rest of the week other than resting and coughing. On the weekend I watched the last ODI cricket games...quite impressed with Luke Ronchi and David Hussey. I have to think that these two players, along with Shaun Marsh will become regulars in the side in the relatively near future. I also watched the rugby test v France. A good result and some improvement compared to last week but the scrum is still a concern. The only way we will really know where we stand is in the Tri-Nations...so hopefully we are ready for that.

I went down to Atlantic City for a quick trip on Saturday. Ended up even after playing for 4 hours...so not a horrible result. I paid for it the next day though and probably should have rested instead of making the trip. Live and learn.

Sick

We are all sick. The kids have had a cough for a few weeks now. Mindy caught it soon after them and I got it a few days ago. On Monday night I woke up with a fever so we all went to the doctor yesterday. I have pneumonia and am on antibiotics and off work for the rest of the week. mindy has an upper respitory infection and is also on antibiotics. Naomi is OK apparently...her lungs are clear. Fiona's sounded a little like she might have the beginnings of pneumonia as well...so she is on antibiotics as well!

Today we are all feeling a little better but I am planning to enjoy relaxing at home for the next few days.

Switching Off

On Friday afternoon, Gary and I headed down to Atlantic City for a night of poker. Our other usual partner in crime, Kevin, was to pick us up at a train station along the way. Due to some fouled up train schedules and some horrible traffic, we did not get down there until about 7:30. Still this gave us about 6 hours of gambling time. I was actually quite successful. We were playing $1/$2 NL and by the end of the night, I was up $330. So I was quite pleased with my efforts. My biggesy hand was doubling up with a set of 5's. I was quite patient and basically waited until the others at the table were overplaying their hands and tried to win a big pot.

Saturday was Mindy's day. She went shopping with Holly (Gary's wife) and was gone the whole day. Gary and his kids came over for lunch and dinner and Mindy did not return until about 8:30. She was tired but had a good day and enjoyed her downtime I think.

I also watched the Australia v France rugby game. Robbie Deans described it as "progress" but I really did not see much improvement. If we don't start playing a little better, it will be a painful Tri-Nations to watch.

Sunday was a lazy day at the house. I watched the ODI between Australia and the West Indies. I thought we played quite well and was very impressed with how Watson batted. I think we have a good side and have covered the recent retirements quite well. In the test side, it is another story...

Pearl Jam

On Wednesday night I got the train into New York to see Pearl Jam play at Madison Square Garden. I am a big fan of their music but for a variety of reasons, I had never seen them live before. From talking to my brother Mick who has seen them many times, they put on a good show so I was expecting big things from them.

I got to the show a few minutes before the support band was due to start and planned to get a t-shirt. There was one with a particularly good design, a not-too-subtle design showing their feelings about the war and the current administration, however they had NO XL shirts available. Apparently the delivery had not arrived for the New York shows. A little disappointing but I am sure I will get over it - it is not like I don't have other concert t-shirts to wear from time to time!

I decided to ignore the support band and save my ears a bit which was quite easy as they only played for 30 minutes. I was sitting in one of the upper sections - not all the way back but closer to the roof than to the floor. There was nobody in the 4 seats to my right until near the start of the show when two early-20ish girls walked up to take the two vacant seats furtherest away. It was clear that one of them had had WAY too much to drink as she was swaying all over the place and struggling to hold her head up. Next thing I knew, she was throwing up in front of the now two vacant seats to my right. Fortunately nobody came to sit in them though. After this she passed out for the first 1/2 of the show and then sprung to life and began dancing! I was impressed with her recovery.

Pearl Jam went on at 8:45 and the crowd went crazy. 20000+ people screaming like crazy and singing along with every song made for quite the atmosphere. The band was amazing. I was actually surprised with how much guitar Eddie Vedder played, I guess I had always thought of him more as a singer, not a singer/guitarist. They always mix up their sets, so you never know what you are going to get. This is good in one sense...but also could be frustrating if you did not get to see some of your favourite songs. However, the songs they picked were great and I was more than happy with the result. There were only a few songs I would have liked to have seen that they did not play but with their catalogue, you are always going to miss out on a few. They played for 90 minutes, had a 5 minute break, came back for another 30, one more break then a final set of 30 minutes. I think they had planned to end the show with a great version of Alive and were performing their final bows when Eddie said something to the rest of the band, prompting them to play one more song - Yellow Ledbetter, one of their frequent closing numbers. An instrumental of "Star Spangled Banner" wrapped it all up and I was able to get out of there in time to make my train home.

Highlights of the night - Do The Evolution; State of Love and Trust; Even Flow; Better Man; Rearviewmirror; Alive; Yellow Ledbetter. Sounds like a lot, but they played 29 songs in their set. Certainly good value for money and they will be a band I will make sure I catch whenever they are in the area.

A Night With Allan Border

Through a cricket playing friend who works in sports marketing over here, we had received word that Allan Border (Australian cricketing legend and on of my childhood heroes...for any non-Aussies reading this) was travelling to New York and was looking for some Yankee tickets for Sunday's game. As it turns out, he was able to get tickets through Mastercard (a sponsor of his) but still, through his representative, had indicated that he was happy to have a drink with us on Saturday night.

I clearly jumped at the chance to do this and so the plan was for us to meet Allan and his family in the lobby of his hotel at 7:30 on Saturday. Two of us were there by 7:15, and two more were on the way, so we were simply waiting and looking for Allan to make an appearance. Deep down, I had not let myself get too excited about this and was kind of thinking that it might not end up happening for some reason. I guess the first sign that I might be a bit of a psycho fan was that I saw a lady walk past and recognized her (from his book) as Allan's wife Jane. I then turned around and there was Allan, standing there looking like he was looking for someone. In somewhat of a surreal moment, I approached, stuck out my hand and said "Hi Allan, my name is David, I am one of the people here to meet you tonight.". Getting a much better response than my "meeting" with Pete Sampras (an arrogant jerk) a few years earlier, he shook my hand, introduced his family and we began chatting.

After all of us had arrived, we discussed the plan for the evening. They were only in New York for a couple of days and did not know their way around the city at all. One of our group suggested a casual French bistro a couple of blocks away and so off we went. Now the initial message was that he would meet us for "drinks", so once it became clear that he was happy to have dinner with us I knew we were in for a much longer evening.

I ended up sitting next to Jane and across from Allan, so I felt like I had a prime position. The dinner conversation was quite fascinating, some cricket related but a lot was just general dinner conversation. He was interested to hear our perspectives since we had lived in the area on 9/11. Also, there was much discussion about differences between Australia and the USA and changes in Australia since we were all last there. Among the cricket topics touched on were David Boon's 52 can beer drinking record from Sydney to London. All true...in fact, apparently, other players in the team were acting as "pace setters" for him, sitting in and drinking a few cans at a good pace to keep him moving. In the end, a ring pull from one of the cans was gold-plated and engraved "52 not out" and presented to Boonie by Allan on the tour. I guess a second sign I was a psycho fan was that when the topic of State of Origin League was being talked about, I reminded him of a promotion he did for Channel 9 in 1985 with Dirk Wellham for this event. He had no memory of having done this but I remember it like it was yesterday. Mindy told me later that I was a little bit "Single White Female-ish" :-).

After a couple of hours, the table was cleared off and we were asked about dessert and coffee. I was assuming that this would be a good time for him to lead things to get wrapped up. Instead, he said "I think I wouldn't mind having another beer". My response was pretty obvious - "I think I'll have one too!". We then all sat and talked for about another hour before feeling the need to leave and give up our table since there was a line waiting to get in at that time.

We walked back to his hotel and chatted in the lobby for a few minutes. I (of course) had brought a picture for him to sign and also had a couple of photos taken with him to mark the occasion. We then said our goodbyes and left - it was, by then 11:15...so we had spent the best part of 4 hours with them all. Anyone who knows me will understand how this truly was a life highlight for me. He and his family could not have been nicer or easier to talk to. Truly, a fantastic night that I will never forget.

Top 7 Songs

A blogging friend of mine asked me to respond to one of his entries about his favourite 7 songs of the moment. This list, as with everyone's list, could change in a week...but for right now, I guess this is it (in no particular order).

Midnight Oil - Warakurna . Great, underrrated song. Best version by far is the live version for their Unplugged show that is available on their "The Real Thing" CD. Great stuff.

AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie. My favourite song of theirs and a true classic. Awesome riff and great, sophisticated lyrics ("42-39-56...you could say she's got it all!").


The Angels - Mr Damage. Have been on a bit of an Angels kick since I heard about them reforming for a tour back home (which unfortunately I will be missing). Quality song from my favourite album of theirs.


John Lennon - Imagine. Never far from my playlist. Kind of hard to find much wrong with this one.


Alan Jackson - Remember When. I hate country music but I love this song. One of the few love songs I really like and I find it tough not to get a little sentimental when listening to this one.


Pearl Jam - Spin The Black Circle. I love what this song is about and then to throw in the total intensity of the music and you have a classic. I have been listening to Pearl Jam a lot lately to prepare for the concert I am going to next week.


AC/DC - Back In Black. The kids love this song and often request it to be played. They both know how to "head-bang" and learned it from this track. The sight of them punching the air, flipping the "devil's horns" etc is quite priceless. I guess this one will always be considered kind of special for me.


So, Willow...hopefully this was a satisfactory attempt...

Team Juice

On Saturday down in Virginia and I was asked to play golf with Mindy's brother Ben and her uncle Austin. There was a tournament organized by some people Ben worked with and they wanted to round out their group. My golfing ability is fair at best but when I found out the format was a "Captain's Choice" format (all 4 golfers hit their shot, you pick the best one then all four hit from there) I was really looking forward to playing.

We got the the meet up point, a bar near the golf course. It was described by Ben as a "smokey, divey bar"...and this was quite accurate. The "Harbor Inn" was nothing more than a glass door shop front with a small (and very smokey) bar area inside. Most pubs have a decent selection of beers - the only two taps in this place were for Budweiser and Miller Lite. Kind of like a Blues Brothers moment - "What kind of beer do you have?". "We have BOTH kinds - Budweiser AND Miller". Anyway, we paid our money to the organizer - "Buzzy" - and were told that "Juice" would be our team captain and 4th member. We left for the course and began searching for Juice.

Juice turned out to be a nice guy in his late 50's, having quite a large belly and (from his own admission), of dubious golfing ability. However, winning was not the intention of the day but he was quite friendly so all should be fine. Our plan was simple - try not to get any bogeys, figuring that we will get the odd birdie along the way which might get us to a competitive total.

After a few pars we started to play a little better. I was mixing in some good shots with some amazingly bad ones but because of the format, this did not hurt the team. My main aim off the tee was to put a 3-wood on the fairway which would then allow the other guys to take a rip with the driver, knowing that we had a ball in good shape if they were not accurate. This was working well for much of the round, setting us up for the toughest hole on the course...quite a long par 5. With my drive in play, Ben took a rip and drilled it down the left side of the fairway. He then drilled his approach shot to about 10 feet from the hole. After Austin hit the putt for the eagle, we found ourselves at 5 under. We made the turn at 6 under and were thinking we were in good shape to maybe get a place.

We scrambled well for much of the back 9, making some tough pitches and putts to get pars and keeping us in the round. On the 17th green, we were sitting at 7 under and facing an 18 footer for birdie. We all took a shot at the putt and narrowly missed. However, we still had a few "mulligans" available to use and we figured that this was a good time to try to get back another shot. I had two to burn and so figured that putting was where I could use them best. I lined up the putt again and pushed it a few inches to the left. Grabbing the ball and lining up again (for my final mulligan), I made an adjustment and tried to push it more to the right...it worked, and the ball dropped in the hole to send us to 8 under with one hole to play.

The final hole was a 270 yard par 4. Again, I hit first and put the ball about 50 yards from the flag in the middle of the fairway. Ben then took a crack at the green and absolutely creamed his drive. We watched the ball bounce and roll right up on the green in the direction of the hole. The group in front of us was still putting at the time! So we knew we were looking good but not sure exactly how close we were. When we got up there, they were finishing their putts and told us that the had marked where the ball went, adding to the suspense for a few more seconds. Then they placed the ball 6 feet from the hole! Ben walked up and knocked in the putt for the eagle and a final score of 10 under. We felt this would be quite competitive so back to the bar to get the results.

After eating, they annouced the winners. In first place, with 10 under, "Team Juice"!! 2nd place was 9 under, so the eagle made the difference for us. It really was a lot of fun. Our prize was $50 a piece, which paid for the $40 entry fee and my lunch...so a good price for a day of golf. Ben was the star of the team but we all contributed throughout the day at different times. Whenever he would hit a poor shot, one of us would hit a nice one and keep us in the hole. Not sure if it can be arranged but it would be nice if the "Harbor Inn Golf Tournament" was a regular stop on my golfing calendar.

Ballet and a Road Trip

Tuesday was ballet recital day. Fiona in the morning - it is truly very cute to watch 8 3-4 year olds try to remember a dance routine. She did very well and had a good time. After lunch it was Naomi's turn. Her class did a ballet routine AND a tap routine. Again, all very cute and fun to watch.

On Wednesday, the kids had their last day of school for the year. After this, we jumped in the car and drove down to Virginia to see Mindy's family. The main reason for the celebration was to see Maurita (her sister) graduate from high school. We are down here for the weekend and I just found out that there might be a golf outing planned for Saturday. Considering I have not swung a club in a couple of years, that might prove to be interesting!