Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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End of a Great Summer...
August is drawing to a close and I find myself facing my 40th birthday (tomorrow), though I find that to be far less interesting than all the fun we've had this past summer with sports, a trip to the lake, more sports, lots of time of the boys playing with their friends, barbecue after barbecue, and a visit by mom and dad. The boys caught several fish with Dad when he was here and the resulting fish fry that evening was delicious...
Now that the leaves have started falling on the front lawn, I am beginning to prepare myself mentally for the oncoming fall and winter. I'm crossing my fingers for a long fall and a short mild winter. We had our share of severe late August weather on Sunday night. We ended up with three tornadoes that touched down between here and Grand Forks, one of which was just 18 miles north of us. There were 80-mph winds near Crookston, about an hour west of here. We just had a ton of lightning and thunder in our immediate area of Thief River.
For my birthday, I elected to buy myself one gift I've sort of held back on for some time due to the stuff I've gotten the boys and finally got myself a "grownup" game for the desktop computer that although the boys can play is really more exclusively "mine." The game is Microsoft's Flight Simulator X, which allows you to put yourself in the cockpit of some 30 different aircraft including a tricycle ultralight out of Friday Harbor, a Kenmore Air float plane out of the Seattle area, a Lear Jet out of the Thief River Falls Regional Airport, and a 747-400 jumbo jet (the Thief River runway is a tad short, though, for that one...). It has airports all the way from Vietnam to SeaTac with incredible graphics all the way down to a rain soaked flight tarmac in a thunderstorm. It even downloads "realtime" weather for your local area every 15 minutes so you can fly literally in the weather you see out the window. If I sound excited, it's probaby because it's my first genuine professional flight simulator game I've ever owned since the earliest versions of the program back in the 1980s and the difference between then and now is nothing short of breathtaking. I guess I'm also happy to have something I don't have to fight the kids to play (at least for now). And for $30, it's more than worth the splurge. Now if I can just find enough time to actually play it with all the work on my plate and everything else we have going on as school begins.
The Challenger open house is tonight, so we'll be heading out there to say howdy to the teachers we already know and love from Aaron's past years, Mr. Schafer and Mrs. McGeary. Aaron already scoured the house for the books he didn't return to Mr. Schafer last year and I'll be bringing back one of Daniel's books that eluded me for the better part of last Winter. Although the summer has been fun, I am looking forward to the boys learning some new stuff in school and continuing the regular lunch engagements with Aaron on Fridays, though I'm going to try to get more days in with Daniel this year, as he's growing so fast and he always has so much to say when I see him at school during the day.
Aaron is only about three and a half 500-shot days from achieving his goal of 10,000 basketball shots to earn his 10,000 Shot Club t-shirt, thanks largely to his Nana's help when she was here this month. He has shot well over half of the 10,000 total in August alone and will hopefully have it all done by the early part of next week. It has taken a lot of discipline and confidence in himself to get this far and I have no doubt he'll make it. He has really done well in improving his shots too, especially when he takes his time to set up each shot. He hasn't said anything yet about participating in fall flag football, but we'll do it if that's what he wants to do. Daniel still has another year before football opens to him so he has some time to think about it himself, but other than that, it looks like the boys will play basketball again this year.
It's about time to head out for the open house at school, so I'll sign off at this point. I at least wanted to get two blog posts done for the month so people that read this don't think we've fallen off the flat edge of Minnesota... Happy Labor Day to any and everyone reading this.
Now that the leaves have started falling on the front lawn, I am beginning to prepare myself mentally for the oncoming fall and winter. I'm crossing my fingers for a long fall and a short mild winter. We had our share of severe late August weather on Sunday night. We ended up with three tornadoes that touched down between here and Grand Forks, one of which was just 18 miles north of us. There were 80-mph winds near Crookston, about an hour west of here. We just had a ton of lightning and thunder in our immediate area of Thief River.
For my birthday, I elected to buy myself one gift I've sort of held back on for some time due to the stuff I've gotten the boys and finally got myself a "grownup" game for the desktop computer that although the boys can play is really more exclusively "mine." The game is Microsoft's Flight Simulator X, which allows you to put yourself in the cockpit of some 30 different aircraft including a tricycle ultralight out of Friday Harbor, a Kenmore Air float plane out of the Seattle area, a Lear Jet out of the Thief River Falls Regional Airport, and a 747-400 jumbo jet (the Thief River runway is a tad short, though, for that one...). It has airports all the way from Vietnam to SeaTac with incredible graphics all the way down to a rain soaked flight tarmac in a thunderstorm. It even downloads "realtime" weather for your local area every 15 minutes so you can fly literally in the weather you see out the window. If I sound excited, it's probaby because it's my first genuine professional flight simulator game I've ever owned since the earliest versions of the program back in the 1980s and the difference between then and now is nothing short of breathtaking. I guess I'm also happy to have something I don't have to fight the kids to play (at least for now). And for $30, it's more than worth the splurge. Now if I can just find enough time to actually play it with all the work on my plate and everything else we have going on as school begins.
The Challenger open house is tonight, so we'll be heading out there to say howdy to the teachers we already know and love from Aaron's past years, Mr. Schafer and Mrs. McGeary. Aaron already scoured the house for the books he didn't return to Mr. Schafer last year and I'll be bringing back one of Daniel's books that eluded me for the better part of last Winter. Although the summer has been fun, I am looking forward to the boys learning some new stuff in school and continuing the regular lunch engagements with Aaron on Fridays, though I'm going to try to get more days in with Daniel this year, as he's growing so fast and he always has so much to say when I see him at school during the day.
Aaron is only about three and a half 500-shot days from achieving his goal of 10,000 basketball shots to earn his 10,000 Shot Club t-shirt, thanks largely to his Nana's help when she was here this month. He has shot well over half of the 10,000 total in August alone and will hopefully have it all done by the early part of next week. It has taken a lot of discipline and confidence in himself to get this far and I have no doubt he'll make it. He has really done well in improving his shots too, especially when he takes his time to set up each shot. He hasn't said anything yet about participating in fall flag football, but we'll do it if that's what he wants to do. Daniel still has another year before football opens to him so he has some time to think about it himself, but other than that, it looks like the boys will play basketball again this year.
It's about time to head out for the open house at school, so I'll sign off at this point. I at least wanted to get two blog posts done for the month so people that read this don't think we've fallen off the flat edge of Minnesota... Happy Labor Day to any and everyone reading this.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
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The 2007 Baseball Season Has Ended...
After a slow start to the Park & Rec baseball season here in TRF (lots of rained out games and practices), the season ended with a bang, so to speak. This week was the final week otherwise known as "tournament week." Daniel's Reds team went down quickly in the tournament, dropping two games to the Cubs. They didn't go down without a fight in the second game this week, though. It was a real homerun derby of sorts with each team scoring high. There were two very funny plays in that game to say the least. I was sitting next to Sam Mosbeck's dad as we watched the game and Sam came up to bat and got on first base. Then the next play, Sam took off first to steal second. They had overthrown second, but were throwing it back, so Sam went into his slide, but unfortunately just a smidge too early. He disappeared in a cloud of dust on the baseline and when the dust cleared, there was Sam sitting on his butt with his feet stretched in front of him about 10 inches short of second base. The really funny part is had he had his wits about him before the Cubs second baseman, he could have just gotten up and touched second with his hand, but as he stayed where he was, the second baseman put two and two together and tapped Sam on the helmet with the baseball tagging him out. His dad and I were really laughing at that one... :) Then when Sam was out playing third base on defense, he appeared to be somewhat bored standing in his position and at one point, he stretched his arms out to his sides like he was just working the kinks out. He's a lefty and it just so happened as he was stretching his right arm with the fielding glove out to his right side on the third base line, the Cubs batter hit a line drive to left and the ball landed smack dab in his glove. Sam just kind of looked over at his glove with the ball in it as if the ball belonged there the whole time and it didn't even phase him until about 15 to 20 seconds later when he went into a little dance laughing and shouting at how he caught the ball. Daniel did well in both of his games, hitting at least a .300 average and scoring a few runs in the process. I think he was happy to have the tournament week end early for his team, though, so he could play more with his best bud from school.
Aaron's Twins team had a rocky tournament week, as all the teams in their age group had a tough time coming up with enough players to field a team. Apparently some parents decided to take a vacation right at the end of the season, so the Twins forfeited at least one game and Yankees forfeited around three games for lack of players. In fact, the Twins were supposed to face the Yankees this afternoon at 4:00 and had to beat the Yankees in order to get in the championship game tonight at 7:00. The Yankees again came up short of players, though, so the Twins were in the championship game by default. We had dinner at the church for Vacation Bible School tonight and while Daniel stayed with his buddy for the rest of VBS, I drove Aaron out to the college to play the championship game, which was supposed to last until about 8:30.
While the Twins had enough players to avoid forfeiting again, they were still three players short of the Dodgers team who had 10 kids to the Twins' 7. They had wide open holes in the field with Aaron playing center field and nobody in left or right field and then just the basemen, catcher, and pitcher and shortstop. Aaron got at least four balls hit way out to center field where he was, so he was busy hustling after the ball a fair part of the game and did a good job. He was walked with one of his at bats and managed to score a run in the latter half of the game. His team has really been supportive and cheered him on every time he came up to bat. He was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, so obviously was having the time of his life. Toward the end of the game, the lights came on, as they played well past 9:00 p.m. and Aaron looked up at all the bright lights on the field and mentioned something about "being in the big leagues" now with the lights and everything. In the last inning, I filled in as announcer over the PA system at the ball park, announcing the new Twins pitcher when he took the mound and at one point I announced the score, which was 18 to 12 Dodgers going into the last inning. Right after I said, "The score is 18 to 12 Dodgers," I snuck in under my breath "Go Twins!" and about a half dozen Dodgers parents looked over at me from the bleachers and smiled or laughed. Then in the last inning, the Twins had a player on second that tried stealing home and was thrown out by a razor's edge and that was the game. When they announced the Dodgers had won the game, I grabbed the PA microphone one last time and announced, "Twins win the pennant!!" :) I was actually hoping I'd have a chance to announce Aaron when he came up to bat in the last inning, but he didn't get a chance to bat thanks to the throw out at home plate. Oh well... It was a great season topped off by an exciting final game. Now we'll have our Monday mornings free and all the afternoons free until school starts again a month from now. I'm sure we'll find something else constructive to fill in the time like Aaron's 10,000 basketball shots he has to catch up on.
We also had a fun time last Thursday evening when we had a nearby celebrity pay Thief River a visit. Ned Beatty of stage and screen (father of Rudy in the movie of the same name and star of the movie "Deliverance") was here playing the guitar and singing gospel music in the park across from Danny's Pizza just down the street from us. Since one of Aaron's games was forfeit that night, we drove over and took in the show. He of course looked different in person than on the big screen. He had a full white beard and none of the makeup of Hollywood. He was every bit as genial as he appears in his movies, though. I introduced hte boys to him, as they had seen him in the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, Rudy, and a couple other movies, one of which in just the previous week so his face was fresh in their memories. He shook both their hands and talked to us for some time about a movie he did with Rupert Grint, the boy to plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. He called Rupert one of his good friends. After the show was over in the park and most of the crowd had gone, we raced home and grabbed our copies of the Superman and Thunderpants DVDs and drove back to the park and had him autograph them for the boys. I got him on video with the camera with Daniel helping him open a DVD box he had trouble opening. He asked Daniel at one point if he had the "secret code" for opening DVD cases. I'm posting a picture of Ned with the boys here even though most of you already have the picture already via e-mail. I'll also be posting a picture of the Twins after their final game tonight at Northland.
That's all for now as we start to look ahead to another year of fun with back to school shopping and more fun school activities. Speaking of school, I was tapped this year to teach Daniel's Sunday School class at Trinity (last year's class was so huge they decided to split in half this year with me teaching one half and a couple of high school girls teaching the other half). So rather than the occasional substitute session, I'll have to make sure I'm there every Sunday or else... I'll have to also be on the ball with choir, as I won't be able to practice anymore betwen services. We've just got VBS for now, though, which ends tomorrow night with a pizza and ice cream party. Mom and Dad will be out here to visit on the 11th, so we're looking forward to their visit.
Aaron's Twins team had a rocky tournament week, as all the teams in their age group had a tough time coming up with enough players to field a team. Apparently some parents decided to take a vacation right at the end of the season, so the Twins forfeited at least one game and Yankees forfeited around three games for lack of players. In fact, the Twins were supposed to face the Yankees this afternoon at 4:00 and had to beat the Yankees in order to get in the championship game tonight at 7:00. The Yankees again came up short of players, though, so the Twins were in the championship game by default. We had dinner at the church for Vacation Bible School tonight and while Daniel stayed with his buddy for the rest of VBS, I drove Aaron out to the college to play the championship game, which was supposed to last until about 8:30.
While the Twins had enough players to avoid forfeiting again, they were still three players short of the Dodgers team who had 10 kids to the Twins' 7. They had wide open holes in the field with Aaron playing center field and nobody in left or right field and then just the basemen, catcher, and pitcher and shortstop. Aaron got at least four balls hit way out to center field where he was, so he was busy hustling after the ball a fair part of the game and did a good job. He was walked with one of his at bats and managed to score a run in the latter half of the game. His team has really been supportive and cheered him on every time he came up to bat. He was smiling from ear to ear the whole time, so obviously was having the time of his life. Toward the end of the game, the lights came on, as they played well past 9:00 p.m. and Aaron looked up at all the bright lights on the field and mentioned something about "being in the big leagues" now with the lights and everything. In the last inning, I filled in as announcer over the PA system at the ball park, announcing the new Twins pitcher when he took the mound and at one point I announced the score, which was 18 to 12 Dodgers going into the last inning. Right after I said, "The score is 18 to 12 Dodgers," I snuck in under my breath "Go Twins!" and about a half dozen Dodgers parents looked over at me from the bleachers and smiled or laughed. Then in the last inning, the Twins had a player on second that tried stealing home and was thrown out by a razor's edge and that was the game. When they announced the Dodgers had won the game, I grabbed the PA microphone one last time and announced, "Twins win the pennant!!" :) I was actually hoping I'd have a chance to announce Aaron when he came up to bat in the last inning, but he didn't get a chance to bat thanks to the throw out at home plate. Oh well... It was a great season topped off by an exciting final game. Now we'll have our Monday mornings free and all the afternoons free until school starts again a month from now. I'm sure we'll find something else constructive to fill in the time like Aaron's 10,000 basketball shots he has to catch up on.
We also had a fun time last Thursday evening when we had a nearby celebrity pay Thief River a visit. Ned Beatty of stage and screen (father of Rudy in the movie of the same name and star of the movie "Deliverance") was here playing the guitar and singing gospel music in the park across from Danny's Pizza just down the street from us. Since one of Aaron's games was forfeit that night, we drove over and took in the show. He of course looked different in person than on the big screen. He had a full white beard and none of the makeup of Hollywood. He was every bit as genial as he appears in his movies, though. I introduced hte boys to him, as they had seen him in the original Superman movie with Christopher Reeve, Rudy, and a couple other movies, one of which in just the previous week so his face was fresh in their memories. He shook both their hands and talked to us for some time about a movie he did with Rupert Grint, the boy to plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. He called Rupert one of his good friends. After the show was over in the park and most of the crowd had gone, we raced home and grabbed our copies of the Superman and Thunderpants DVDs and drove back to the park and had him autograph them for the boys. I got him on video with the camera with Daniel helping him open a DVD box he had trouble opening. He asked Daniel at one point if he had the "secret code" for opening DVD cases. I'm posting a picture of Ned with the boys here even though most of you already have the picture already via e-mail. I'll also be posting a picture of the Twins after their final game tonight at Northland.
That's all for now as we start to look ahead to another year of fun with back to school shopping and more fun school activities. Speaking of school, I was tapped this year to teach Daniel's Sunday School class at Trinity (last year's class was so huge they decided to split in half this year with me teaching one half and a couple of high school girls teaching the other half). So rather than the occasional substitute session, I'll have to make sure I'm there every Sunday or else... I'll have to also be on the ball with choir, as I won't be able to practice anymore betwen services. We've just got VBS for now, though, which ends tomorrow night with a pizza and ice cream party. Mom and Dad will be out here to visit on the 11th, so we're looking forward to their visit.
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