All the leaves are brown,
and the Sky is grey…

Today was my last chance to get the yard winterized. I almost didn’t make it. I was frantically raking to get the leaves cleaned up before a storm hit when I heard a tell-tale sound that made me drop my rake and look up: the whine of an F-16. Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated by jets. Sure enough, a moment later a pair of Falcons flew overhead. I could also tell that they were not alone. A different, louder scream could be heard, and shortly thereafter a pair of F-22s passed by. I watched until the quartet passed from view, then, noticing that the storm was closing in I picked up my rake and began working again. It wasn’t long before the thunder of the jets approached again. Once again I stopped and watched. For fifteen minutes I stopped working each time they flew over. I knew they wouldn’t be coming back when I saw them fly over headed north toward Rice-Eccles Stadium in tight formation, for the flyover before the Utah/Air Force football game. The storm hit before I could finish my yard work, and I was soaked. But it was worth it. Fighter jets are cool.

We also got Samantha’s soccer pictures today. Her team name is ‘The Bears’, as you can see from the coach’s ball cap. The girls couldn’t agree on a team name, so sometimes they are the ‘Gummi Bears’, sometimes they are the ‘Golden Bears’ and at other times they are just ‘Da Bears!’ But after next week they will be the ‘Hibernating Bears’, since the season will end until next Spring.
And because it is Fall, we have our school pictures. This is the first time that all four kids have had school pictures taken.

Soon we will have dance pictures. All four kids are now in dance class. Yes, Patrick too. I will post a video of his mad break dancing skills soon. Speaking of dancing, earlier this week the kids were talking about a friend of theirs that has a Wii. We do not have a Wii and probably never will. Pat has one, and it is a special thing for the kids to do over at Grandma’s house, kind of like the trampoline at Grandpa Stretch’s house. Anyway, the discussion about the kids’ friend’s Wii centered on the fact that the friend has Dance, Dance Revolution and they wish Pat had that game. Kate reminded the kids that Pat in fact does have that game. Whitney replied “I thought that the game Grandma Pat had was called ‘Dance, Dance Your Pants Off’”. It seems that at some point I might have referred to Pat’s game as that name, and the kids really thought that was what it was called. Personally I like that name better…

Weekend Getaway

In July of 1998 Kate and I took a honeymoon trip to Vegas. Whit was less than a year old, and it was the first time Kate had been away from her. We cut the trip a day short so we could get back to her. In the 11 years since, we have not taken a trip without the kids. So this weekend’s jaunt to Denver, while short, was much overdue.

We flew out Friday afternoon. Since Jim lives there he directed us to a great sports grill where we could eat while watching the Yankees play the Angels. I had the best hamburger I’ve ever eaten. I was covered in a jalapeno cream cheese spread. Saturday morning we slept late, then made a trip to the gym (fitness doesn’t take a vacation, you know!) We then got cleaned up and headed downtown to a matinee of ‘Wicked’.

I made every effort to go into the performance blind. I didn’t want to have any preconceived notions about the play. We had really great seats, and the show was outstanding. I overheard some people saying that the part of Elphaba was played by an understudy, who wasn’t as good, but I had no idea. I thought she did an excellent job. If you haven’t had the chance to see it, I would highly recommend it. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone, but it is a very clever tale, and the effects and music are very powerful. At one point during the performance, we were all sitting there misty-eyed because of a moving scene. But the woman beside me was more than just a little weepy. She was full-on sobbing. It is definitely something that is to be seen more than once. There are a great many subtle hints and suggestions all throughout that I only realized later.

That evening we ate at another sports grill, so we could watch the Yankees game. We got there at 6:30, shortly after the game started. After we had been there for an hour and a half, the Utah/UNLV football game came on. I was in heaven, with the Utes and the Yankees games side by side. I joked that we were going to be there for three more hours, until the end of the Utah game. We did see the end of the Ute game, but only because the baseball game went 13 innings. And of course the Yankees and Utes both won. We didn’t plan on a 5 hour dinner, but the food was good and the games were better, so it all worked out.

Sunday afternoon we tooled around the suburbs south of Denver, taking a walk down memory lane while visiting the house and school of Kate’s youth. Having never been there it was a short walk for me.

We got home late Sunday night, exhausted and satisfied. We definitely need to do things like this more than once every 11 years…

October Baseball

Bean learned a lot during her first season of T-Ball. For example, tonight, at the last game of the season, she learned that you play the conditions. Taking a page from the Colorado Rockies, her team played in ice cold temperatures. And the kids were troopers, toughing it out. Unlike the Rockies, though, Bean's last game ended with a trophy.

Having never played T-Ball I learned a lot too. Some of the rules I discovered: no one strikes out. The kids get as many hacks as they need. No one gets thrown out. Kids are taught that no matter who is on base, the ball is always fielded to first base. But even if the throw beats the runner (which is a rarity) the runner is safe. Everybody hits every inning. So if team A has 8 players show up and team B only has 5, team A gets three more batters per inning. The last batter of each inning gets a grand slam.


As you can see from the team picture, Bean lost her hat. I guess our new dog (named Yankee) took offense to Bean being on the Tigers and chewed the hat up. At the first game after the incident Bean's coach invoked Lou Brown from 'Major League' and told her "We wear caps and sleeved at this level, son!" Okay, not really.

The Rocket Man

Grandpa Stretch has outdone himself this time. He took a piece of ABS, a sprinkler valve, a doorbell switch, some PVC pipe and his air compressor and made a rocket launcher. Last week I took the kids over to his house to pop off some rockets in the front yard. It's a great idea, especially since the rockets are powered by air, and can't spark a fire in someone's yard. The rockets are made from construction paper and tape, with 3X5 cards for fins. We found that we could get about 10 launches per rocket, before the air pressure blew out the paper. The kids used to want to go to his house to jump on the trampoline. Now they want to go shoot off rockets.

It's the final countdown!

The boneyard of spent rockets...