Yesterday was Naomi's 6th birthday. She had already received a gift from us (a new pair of ice skates) but we had a small party at home. She nominated Indian food as what she wanted to eat and must have enjoyed it as she said she was too full from the food to eat any cake!
Today she has her "birthday walk" at her school, where she has a little celebration with her classmates at school. First is the walk itself where she walks around her classmates 6 times, carrying a candle, signifying her 6 years on earth. Then cake with all of them. So she is looking forward to this but is also a little nervous about getting up and "performing".
After work I leave for Philly for a weekend of beer, food and some cricket. We are scheduled to play 5 x 25 over games over 4 days, and then a possible final at the end of it all. I feel OK now, surely not in a couple of days.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
I Hate Huckabees
Just when I was set to do some more yard work this weekend, my troublesome knee locked up on me again on Friday. As of now, it is a lot better and should be OK for the Philadelphia Cricket Festival starting on Thursday but it was still quite annoying to have happen. I still did a little on Saturday, helping Mindy in the garden which now has vegetables growing in it. Carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, beetroots and squash - now we just need to keep the local wildlife from eating it. Our willow tree is starting to shoot as well, which is a good sign.
Sunday was Mindy's first henna street fair for the year. She had a willing helper in Naomi and despite the poor weather, did better at this one than her attempts last year. Fiona and I spent the day playing games at the house, going out for lunch and visiting the bookstore.
Watched, or rather attempted to watch a few movies this weekend. Firstly - Casablanca...which neither Mindy nor I had seen before. We both really enjoyed it and while there were still the typical stylings of an older film, the dialogue and flow of the movie were quite good. I certainly understand why it is considered a classic. I then watched a movie from a few years ago - "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead". At times this threatened to be OK but never was able to get to any great heights I thought...but reasonably entertaining I suppose.
Then, in the evening, I tried to watch a movie that had been recommended by a friend "I Heart Huckabees" (or I Love Huckabees...who really knows or cares). I made it through about 40 minutes before consigning this movie to the "unwatchable crap" category. To be fair, there have been other movies that I felt deserve this rating that have been quite well received ("Being John Malkovich" springs to mind), but I challenge anyone to seriously tell me why this movie is any good. Contrived, unnatural dialogue and plot, pointless in every respect.
Sunday was Mindy's first henna street fair for the year. She had a willing helper in Naomi and despite the poor weather, did better at this one than her attempts last year. Fiona and I spent the day playing games at the house, going out for lunch and visiting the bookstore.
Watched, or rather attempted to watch a few movies this weekend. Firstly - Casablanca...which neither Mindy nor I had seen before. We both really enjoyed it and while there were still the typical stylings of an older film, the dialogue and flow of the movie were quite good. I certainly understand why it is considered a classic. I then watched a movie from a few years ago - "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead". At times this threatened to be OK but never was able to get to any great heights I thought...but reasonably entertaining I suppose.
Then, in the evening, I tried to watch a movie that had been recommended by a friend "I Heart Huckabees" (or I Love Huckabees...who really knows or cares). I made it through about 40 minutes before consigning this movie to the "unwatchable crap" category. To be fair, there have been other movies that I felt deserve this rating that have been quite well received ("Being John Malkovich" springs to mind), but I challenge anyone to seriously tell me why this movie is any good. Contrived, unnatural dialogue and plot, pointless in every respect.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Splitting, Digging, Hitting, Bowling and Missing Teeth
This morning I am completely exhausted and pretty much my whole body aches in some way. The weekend started on Friday night with some work in the garden, splitting some of our tree wood for a couple of hours after work. I am having success with this, even the pieces 4 feet across...although these require the 8lb splittng maul followed by a number of blows with the 16lb sledge hammer.
Also, on Friday, Naomi lost her first tooth! She was very excited about the tooth fairy visiting and was carrying her tooth around in a plastic bag. Unfortunately, the bag must have had a small hole in it as when she was outside in the early evening, she noticed her tooth was missing. We spent about 30 minutes looking at the driveway but could not find it anywhere. In an attempt to ease the situation, I tried to convince her that a tiny, white rock we found might be her tooth. After some convincing, she bought into this (I think deep down inside she knew it was a rock, but convinced herself that it was a tooth as she knew she was pretty much out of options at this stage). So, crisis averted I guess. Fiona seemed a little unsure about the tooth fairy but Naomi reassured her - "There really is no tooth fairy, some kids believe in it but it is really just mummy and daddy pretending.". So I guess that mystery is solved!
In the morning, Naomi came into the room with her gift, happy that the tooth fairy had given her 50c. We then explained that it was actually $5 and not 50c! Another donation to the Naomi bike fund. We then spent another of hours in the garden (splitting wood again) before I headed off to cricket practice for both a practice and some digging out weeds in our pitch to get it ready for the season. While this was going on, the kids went with Mindy to a birthday party. Back home in the late afternoon and then joined Mindy in the garden again to move the wood off our yard and continue with the seemingly endless task of splitting it all. We also did our bit to compensate for having the tree cut down by planting two new trees in our yard - a weeping willow tree and a red maple. We got the trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, they are not kidding about sending baby trees - these things are basically twigs, so it will be interesting to see if we can get them to grow at all (before they get eaten by deer).
Sunday morning - yes - more splitting...then off to play a cricket match for the Norwalk club in Connecticut. We were playing a side from New York, containing a couple of members of the USA national side as well as several other quite good players. I bowled OK, had a catch dropped off me and also a missed stumping, so could easily have picked up a couple of wickets. Some great fielding kept us in the game and had us chasing 167 to win off 30 overs. I also batted OK against some good bowling, I think I got about 20, and some good time at the crease to start the season. Unfortuantely, we came up just short, scoring 165 from our overs. It was a lot of fun - hopefully I will play some more games with them when my Mad Dog commitments allow. Mindy and the kids were at another birthday party on Sunday so everyone was busy.
So now I am paying the price for all of this activity. Sore arms and back from the splitting. Sore shoulder and legs from cricket. As well as a sore right hand from a knock in the field and also a knock to the finger while batting. I guess a necessary evil for this time of the year and if it clears up in the next couple of days, it will be OK. I hope so, as I am only about 1/3 of the way through the wood...so much more work to be done.
Also, on Friday, Naomi lost her first tooth! She was very excited about the tooth fairy visiting and was carrying her tooth around in a plastic bag. Unfortunately, the bag must have had a small hole in it as when she was outside in the early evening, she noticed her tooth was missing. We spent about 30 minutes looking at the driveway but could not find it anywhere. In an attempt to ease the situation, I tried to convince her that a tiny, white rock we found might be her tooth. After some convincing, she bought into this (I think deep down inside she knew it was a rock, but convinced herself that it was a tooth as she knew she was pretty much out of options at this stage). So, crisis averted I guess. Fiona seemed a little unsure about the tooth fairy but Naomi reassured her - "There really is no tooth fairy, some kids believe in it but it is really just mummy and daddy pretending.". So I guess that mystery is solved!
In the morning, Naomi came into the room with her gift, happy that the tooth fairy had given her 50c. We then explained that it was actually $5 and not 50c! Another donation to the Naomi bike fund. We then spent another of hours in the garden (splitting wood again) before I headed off to cricket practice for both a practice and some digging out weeds in our pitch to get it ready for the season. While this was going on, the kids went with Mindy to a birthday party. Back home in the late afternoon and then joined Mindy in the garden again to move the wood off our yard and continue with the seemingly endless task of splitting it all. We also did our bit to compensate for having the tree cut down by planting two new trees in our yard - a weeping willow tree and a red maple. We got the trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, they are not kidding about sending baby trees - these things are basically twigs, so it will be interesting to see if we can get them to grow at all (before they get eaten by deer).
Sunday morning - yes - more splitting...then off to play a cricket match for the Norwalk club in Connecticut. We were playing a side from New York, containing a couple of members of the USA national side as well as several other quite good players. I bowled OK, had a catch dropped off me and also a missed stumping, so could easily have picked up a couple of wickets. Some great fielding kept us in the game and had us chasing 167 to win off 30 overs. I also batted OK against some good bowling, I think I got about 20, and some good time at the crease to start the season. Unfortuantely, we came up just short, scoring 165 from our overs. It was a lot of fun - hopefully I will play some more games with them when my Mad Dog commitments allow. Mindy and the kids were at another birthday party on Sunday so everyone was busy.
So now I am paying the price for all of this activity. Sore arms and back from the splitting. Sore shoulder and legs from cricket. As well as a sore right hand from a knock in the field and also a knock to the finger while batting. I guess a necessary evil for this time of the year and if it clears up in the next couple of days, it will be OK. I hope so, as I am only about 1/3 of the way through the wood...so much more work to be done.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Artie Lange
Last night I went along to Union High School to watch a charity comedy night featuring Artie Lange from the Howard Stern show. I was meeting a friend there but when I arrived, he told me that he had to leave as his son was sick and going to the hospital. So, I ended up going by myself.
The show was supposed to start at 6:30 but the first comic came on at 7:30. This guy (don't know his name) was a young local kid and was OK but nothing really special. Fortunately he was only on for about 10 minutes. He was followed by the Reverend Bob Levy, a part of the extended Howard Stern family I guess. He was really funny and completely crude and disgusting. I guess Bob was on for 10 minutes or so as well. Then it was Artie Lange's turn. He was great. His act involved telling stories about his life, some prepared comedy bits and sharing some behind the scenes stories of the Stern show. He performed for over an hour and kept up the momentum for the whole time. It was everything I had expected and a very entertaining evening.
The show was supposed to start at 6:30 but the first comic came on at 7:30. This guy (don't know his name) was a young local kid and was OK but nothing really special. Fortunately he was only on for about 10 minutes. He was followed by the Reverend Bob Levy, a part of the extended Howard Stern family I guess. He was really funny and completely crude and disgusting. I guess Bob was on for 10 minutes or so as well. Then it was Artie Lange's turn. He was great. His act involved telling stories about his life, some prepared comedy bits and sharing some behind the scenes stories of the Stern show. He performed for over an hour and kept up the momentum for the whole time. It was everything I had expected and a very entertaining evening.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Timber!
So while I was at home on Monday we had a tree service come by to cut down our huge walnut tree in the back yard. It had simply become unmanageable, dropping the nuts all over our deck and all over the yard. Add to this, our squirrel population will break them up, the end result was shards of broken nut casings all over our yard, making it impossible to walk on. We plan to cut up the wood and use it in our fireplace for next year, so some good is coming from the tree's sacrifice.
Watching the guys cut it down was quite the show. One guy literally climbed to the top of the tree, with a support rope of course, but still, quite a feat. Then took the chainsaw attached to his belt and began cutting the limbs. After this was done, it was time to take down the trunk, which was managed by a few strategic cuts and people pulling on some ropes. There is now quite a divot in our back yard from this but everything came down safely. Now I need to figure out how I am going to split all of this wood...
We also plan to plant a few trees in the yard to make up for this loss, so hopefully the long term impact of removing this one will be offset. We have a willow tree for our damp section of the yard and also a red maple that will go in a TBD section. We got them from the Arbor Day Foundation. They are not kidding about them being baby trees - they are literally twigs right now. I hope that they grow quickly and we see the benefits of these plantings in the next couple of years.
Watching the guys cut it down was quite the show. One guy literally climbed to the top of the tree, with a support rope of course, but still, quite a feat. Then took the chainsaw attached to his belt and began cutting the limbs. After this was done, it was time to take down the trunk, which was managed by a few strategic cuts and people pulling on some ropes. There is now quite a divot in our back yard from this but everything came down safely. Now I need to figure out how I am going to split all of this wood...
We also plan to plant a few trees in the yard to make up for this loss, so hopefully the long term impact of removing this one will be offset. We have a willow tree for our damp section of the yard and also a red maple that will go in a TBD section. We got them from the Arbor Day Foundation. They are not kidding about them being baby trees - they are literally twigs right now. I hope that they grow quickly and we see the benefits of these plantings in the next couple of years.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Cricket Business
This Saturday was picked out as the date for our annual team meeting. We typically have these annula meetings about once every 3 years. After another practice (bowled a lot of balls, starting to feel like they are coming out OK), we went to the pub to eat, drink and spend a small amount of time discussing team business. Nothing much has changed for 2008. I am still the club captain and our schedule has pretty much already been set. It was nice to have a drink with the guys and now I feel that the season is underway.
After getting home, Mindy went out for a few hours with a friend, doing their usual trek to our local main street (Route 22) and visiting some random stores, coffee shops and restaurants. They had a good time and she enjoyed the break.
Sunday involved getting back into the garden to finish digging out our plot. We now at least have a plan for what we want to do, which is a start. A lot of this will be learning from our mistakes, of which there are certain to be more than a couple. We also got Mindy some new running shoes as she steps up her training for the triathlon. There is much work to be done between now and the race but she is certainly persevering with the training.
On Monday, she potentially has jury duty...so I will be working from home just in case.
After getting home, Mindy went out for a few hours with a friend, doing their usual trek to our local main street (Route 22) and visiting some random stores, coffee shops and restaurants. They had a good time and she enjoyed the break.
Sunday involved getting back into the garden to finish digging out our plot. We now at least have a plan for what we want to do, which is a start. A lot of this will be learning from our mistakes, of which there are certain to be more than a couple. We also got Mindy some new running shoes as she steps up her training for the triathlon. There is much work to be done between now and the race but she is certainly persevering with the training.
On Monday, she potentially has jury duty...so I will be working from home just in case.
Friday, April 11, 2008
NJ Free Poker
On Wednesday night, Gary, Kevin and I went along to a local bar to play in the New Jersey Free Poker league. Essentially, you play for free and win points depending on where you place in the tournament(s) held that night. At the end of a 6 month season, the top 200 points getters compete in a winner-takes-all tournament to win an entry to the WSOP Main Event. So, clearly the chances of winning anything out of this are pretty much zero but we thought we would check it out in any case.
The play, as you would expect in a free tournament, was wild and crazy. In many respects, you simply need to catch cards at the right time to win as bluffs get called down and raises really don't normally force people off hands. I busted out in the middle of both tournaments, both times I had my opponent dominated and got sucked out on. Gary actually won the first tournament and Kevin was still playing in the 2nd one when we left, so perhaps he did OK there. Overall, it was a fun night. Not sure I will be a regular but certainly it is something different to do from time to time.
The play, as you would expect in a free tournament, was wild and crazy. In many respects, you simply need to catch cards at the right time to win as bluffs get called down and raises really don't normally force people off hands. I busted out in the middle of both tournaments, both times I had my opponent dominated and got sucked out on. Gary actually won the first tournament and Kevin was still playing in the 2nd one when we left, so perhaps he did OK there. Overall, it was a fun night. Not sure I will be a regular but certainly it is something different to do from time to time.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Mad Dogs Time
The first cricket practice of the season was on Saturday. The weather cleared up nicely and we had a good hit out. I was quite happy with my batting after not having had a hit for a few months. My bowling was also OK but I did not do too much of it due to a sore knee (great way to start the season). I was accompanied to the cricket by Naomi and Fiona due to Mindy attending a belly dance workshop. Mindy was a little apprehensive about me taking the girls to a practice and was doubtful that I could keep an eye on them and play at the same time. After many assurances from me, she relented and allowed them to attend. Both of them made it home, injury free, so I guess it was a success.
The Dogs are looking good for the Philly festival. We have a good team going, a change from some recent years where the team was a lot more social than competitive. Our 1/2 of the draw has a couple of tough games, both played on the first day, so we should know quite quickly where we stand. One interesting fact is that a team in the other half of the draw is called "Trinidad U21". Now, it is not clear whether this is "the" Trinidad U21 team or simply "a" Trinidad U21 team...however, considering that 1/2 of our squad is over 40, and having played 5 games in 4 days before (possibly) making the final, if this team was our opponent, one would think they might have a little more spring in their step at that point.
The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at home, relaxing. Played some poker and finished in the plus column. Watched the Waratahs win their Super 14 match and looked quite good in the process. The biggest improvement was in the scrum - it was refreshing to see an Australian side with a solid scrum giving a good platform for attack. Hopefully we can get a good combination in the front row for the Wallabies but the NSW 3 did their chances no harm this weekend. At this stage we look like having a good chance of getting at least one and perhaps two of the Australian teams into the finals, however they will need to play well over the remaining weeks to ensure they qualify.
The Dogs are looking good for the Philly festival. We have a good team going, a change from some recent years where the team was a lot more social than competitive. Our 1/2 of the draw has a couple of tough games, both played on the first day, so we should know quite quickly where we stand. One interesting fact is that a team in the other half of the draw is called "Trinidad U21". Now, it is not clear whether this is "the" Trinidad U21 team or simply "a" Trinidad U21 team...however, considering that 1/2 of our squad is over 40, and having played 5 games in 4 days before (possibly) making the final, if this team was our opponent, one would think they might have a little more spring in their step at that point.
The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at home, relaxing. Played some poker and finished in the plus column. Watched the Waratahs win their Super 14 match and looked quite good in the process. The biggest improvement was in the scrum - it was refreshing to see an Australian side with a solid scrum giving a good platform for attack. Hopefully we can get a good combination in the front row for the Wallabies but the NSW 3 did their chances no harm this weekend. At this stage we look like having a good chance of getting at least one and perhaps two of the Australian teams into the finals, however they will need to play well over the remaining weeks to ensure they qualify.
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