May 30
Best Game Ever at Improv Everywhere
This is an amazing story that will always be remembered by the kids involved and their families. This event was done by an Improv group that brought in NBC, the goodyear blimp, commentators, fans, and hot dog vendors to surprise a group of kids at a little league game. What an amazing experience that must have been. See the story and video after the jump.
Best Game Ever at Improv Everywhere
May 26
Retro Night at the Millers
We took a trip in the 'Way back machine' last Friday night. On mother's day, at the Thorne's home, Matthew was going on about how great popcorn tastes when cooked in their air popper. Who knew that those were even still around after the invent of microwave popcorn? Thinking about it, I was sure I hadnt had 'air-popped' popcorn since the 80's. With that in mind, I hopped on Ebay and scored an Orville Redenbacher Air Popper. (saved about 6 bucks over what it would have cost on Amazon!). It arrived on Friday just in time for our family movie night. We had recorded E.T., and were going to watch it with the kids. It was quite the retro night! The kids were fascinated as I pulled the machine out of the box and explained to them how it worked. Of course, they had never seen anything like it, having grown up on microwave popcorn. They were thrilled when the kernels started popping and rushing out of the chute into a bowl. It definitely does taste much better than microwaved popcorn, so we have a new favorite snack. Im not totally sure that the kids bought into it though. I think the nostalgia factor had a pretty good impact on our taste buds. Now thats Entertainment!
After divvying it up, we sat down for our viewing of E.T. I told Autumn I was about her age when the movie came out in 1982. We were trying to make sure that none of them got too scared as there were a couple of scary parts. Poor Jaylin got a bit emotional when the scientists started working on E.T. And then when he stopped breathing and they zipped up the bag, there were a number of the family (I wont mention names..) that were pretty teared up. They were all asking LeAnn and I if he was going to be alright. We kept telling them to 'Just Watch'. (Although, for a minute there I was wondering if I forgot what had happened and that maybe he did die) Then came the climax, when Elliot was leaving the room and sees the flower start coming back to life. The kids started getting excited and stating "Hes Alive!" Then Elliot runs back and unzips the bag and E.T. starts excitedly saying "HOME!" . Then everyone was laughing and smiling. It was such a great contrast of emotions.. everyone is crying one minute, then laughing and happy the next. It was just like I remembered everything 25 years ago. (Yikes, did I just say that?!) ;)
Temple Square in Seattle
I stopped by a Thai place in Seattle called "Mae Phim" for lunch today. I was quite surprised to see a magazine on the counter with an ad for Temple Square on it. I snapped a pic with my camera phone, but left the magazine there just in case there is another Vincenzo Di Francesca wandering around downtown looking for the truth. ;)
May 22
Reminiscence - Tied Up
[1971] One of dads favorite stories to tell about when this Todd was a 'Toddler' begins with an evening in 1971 or 72 (not sure if I had turned two yet) when mom and dad had some friends over for a dinner party. At the time, I was still in a crib, but was starting to become quite adept at "breaking out". Once they had put me to bed, shut the door, and got on with their party, I would pull myself over the bars and escape. Apparently, I had done this a number of times when dad tired of going through the same motions over and over again and decided to implement a new plan. He got a towel, put me back in the crib, and proceeded to tie the towel to my ankle and tie the other end to a bar in the crib-- hoping that this would deter me from breaking out of my prison once again. After tying me down in this manner, he went back to enjoy the rest of the night without 'interruption'. He waited for a while to see if I would come out again. I did not. He must have been pleased that his plan had worked! A bit later, he recalls hearing me crying-- first loudly, then after a number of minutes quieting down to a whimper. He tells me he thought that I was just upset that my escape attempts had been foiled, and thought that was why I was crying. Then, after my cries died down, he figured that I had just cried myself to sleep. Luckily, he went in later to check on me. It was at that time that he saw me hanging upside down over the top rail of the crib, dangling from one leg still tied to the crib rail, and sleeping contentedly. I guess dad learned the hard way one way not to try to keep a child in his crib.
May 21
9
Last Saturday was the best I have ever seen Austin play in a soccer game. It was 90 degrees out, and humid, but the kid was running around the field like a maniac. While many of the other boys looked quite lethargic, Austin was playing hard on both sides of the field-- running back and stealing it away on defense, and then weaving through the other team effortlessly on offense. It scares me to think what he could do if I left him in for the entire game. On this day we played our biggest 'rival' team, the Lightening Bolts. This was the fourth time we played them, even though our whole season only consists of 10 games. We beat them by two the first game, tied them the second game and then won by four or five the third game. They seemed to be getting tired of losing to us. ;) So, on this hot day, Austin got off to a great start and kicked a goal in in the first minute of the game. He ended up scoring 4 of our 6 goals in the first half, and the score was 6 to 4. He kept on the pressure in the second half as each time the other team scored, he would come back with a response and he ended up scoring another 5 in the second half for a total of 9 of our 13 goals. The parents on the sideline were amazed. They kept telling me how awesome he was playing as I nodded my head and tried to suppress my pride. He has such a great talent for anticipating and reading the offense and then intercepting and counterattacking each time he gets the ball. He even hit the post a couple of times. I almost took him out because he was scoring TOO much. I actually did pull him out once, but he was eager to get back in and told me that one of the other boys had already been in for two substitution cycles. So I swapped him back in (the other boy, Richard, was quite relieved as he was pretty tired. ;) It was an incredible display of offense that I will never forget.
May 19
Wipe Out
Who needs to surf to have a classic 'wipe out'? Not Me! After I got off the bus this morning at 6:55 in Seattle, I was about to cross 2nd avenue when the crosswalk signal started flashing with the red hand. That one gives you about 5 seconds before going red, so I decided to pick up the pace and jog across. I guess my knee wasnt ready for that. My left foot caught some evil crack in the asphalt and I started going down. Luckily, I was able to get both hands down before doing a faceplant. The impact jammed my wrists pretty good, scratched up my palms and jarred me up through my shoulders and neck. Thats a big fall for a 225 pound man! I floundered for a second, while grabbing my work bag and getting up. Funny how out of the 5 people that were crossing with me, no one showed any concern whatsoever. Gotta love the 'human' race. I would definitely try to help someone out who had just biffed it in the middle of a busy intersection. Im still a bit sore, and my shoes got scraped up pretty good. I guess I will have to head down the street later and see if that shoe shine guy is out there today.
May 13
Out in the garden
Austin convinced me to get the garden going in the jungle on our backyard hillside. Such is one of the joys of living right next to a greenbelt- the constant encroachment of blackberries and other noxious weeds creeping up on our hillside. Over the last five years since the knee blowout and multiple surgeries, I have not done very well at clambering around on the steep slope. This year, Austin got really excited to plant a garden out there and started whacking away at all of the weeds where we had planted a garden a number of years ago. He did a surprisingly good job. I went out with him for a couple of hours on Saturday and we made some good progress. I decided to take some of the railroad ties I had spread out there and stack them higher up to create a better tiered and leveled effect. We ended up with about a three foot high bed that leveled the hill out quite nicely. After I got home from work I took Austin and Jaylin with me to Fred Meyer's garden center to pick up some vegetable starts (tomatoes, corn, cantaloupe and onions) and some topsoil. They each picked out some seeds as well -- we got pumpkin, zucchini, carrots, watermelon and sunflowers. We got back and took about an hour after FHE where we raked in the new topsoil and manure, leveled out the tiers and then planted the starts. Autumn had not been feeling well, so she stayed inside. Jaylin and Austin seemed to have a great time out there getting dirty and using the tools. Now we will wait and see how eager they are to work in the garden when the weeds start coming in!
*On a side note, while at the garden center, there was an older gentleman in his eighties that came in and was asking if they had eggplant starts while we were checking out. The employee checking us out said that she wasnt sure whether they had any.Austin excitedly exclaimed that he knew where they were. So I told him to walk back with the man and show him. It was quite sweet to see how he slowed down and walked and talked right alongside this old man who was using a cane and limping along. It sounds like they had a nice conversation. I was very proud to see how helpful he was.
May 12
GreAt Game!
At our Ghost Riders soccer game on Saturday, Austin finally scored his number! :) What is his uniform number you ask? -- Could it be 2 or 3 even? Nope. It is 5!!
This has been an ongoing challenge he took upon himself after he had a couple of games the last two weeks where he had scored either three or four goals in each game. I (half-jokingly) asked him when he was going to score his number. Then he scored three two weeks ago and four last week-- and he actually seemed discouraged after the game! I asked him what was wrong after we won last week 8-3. He said begrudgingly, "I didnt score my number" I was incredulous. It is amazing that he is doing so well. He has an incredible knack for anticipating the moves of the other players and some great talent with his dribbling and shooting skills. It has been such fun to watch him play and excel. So, last Saturday, when he scored his fifth goal, he looked over at me and smiled. We won 6-3 and are still undefeated this season with three games left. I have told him anytime he has a breakaway to take it in a get a good shot. He will often read the goalies anticipated goal kick and intercept it and take it back in for a score. He is very aggressive and determined. I have also been pushing him to work on crossing the ball over to the other guys on the team when he dribbles down the sideline toward the other goal- especially when we are ahead by a few goals. He has responded well and made some excellent crosses and gotten a couple of assists that way. I have encouraged him to work on setting up his teammates in that manner so they might get to experience the joy of scoring that he has felt so often. He is doing a great job and I am very proud of him.
This has been an ongoing challenge he took upon himself after he had a couple of games the last two weeks where he had scored either three or four goals in each game. I (half-jokingly) asked him when he was going to score his number. Then he scored three two weeks ago and four last week-- and he actually seemed discouraged after the game! I asked him what was wrong after we won last week 8-3. He said begrudgingly, "I didnt score my number" I was incredulous. It is amazing that he is doing so well. He has an incredible knack for anticipating the moves of the other players and some great talent with his dribbling and shooting skills. It has been such fun to watch him play and excel. So, last Saturday, when he scored his fifth goal, he looked over at me and smiled. We won 6-3 and are still undefeated this season with three games left. I have told him anytime he has a breakaway to take it in a get a good shot. He will often read the goalies anticipated goal kick and intercept it and take it back in for a score. He is very aggressive and determined. I have also been pushing him to work on crossing the ball over to the other guys on the team when he dribbles down the sideline toward the other goal- especially when we are ahead by a few goals. He has responded well and made some excellent crosses and gotten a couple of assists that way. I have encouraged him to work on setting up his teammates in that manner so they might get to experience the joy of scoring that he has felt so often. He is doing a great job and I am very proud of him.
Sounders Game
I decided I would get a team building activity going for our boys U8 soccer team last week. I contacted the parents to see if they would like me to take their sons with me to a Seattle Sounders professional soccer game. I was planning on just taking Austin initially, but thought it would be a great learning opportunity for the boys to see the professionals play. I remember going to a San Jose Earthquakes game when I was a boy and we went to a tournament in California, and it was a fun experience. With that mentality, I ended up having four boys able to go to the game last Saturday night against the Portland Timbers. In retrospect, I look back now and question my sanity! (Initially, I had five boys scheduled, but one of them had been so blatantly disrespectful and defiant at Thursdays practice that he was 'uninvited'- his mom was quite understanding and told him that if he continued to behave in that manner that he would not be on the team any more)
Austin, Autumn and I went and picked up some snacks for the game and then went down to Auburn to meet the boys. I dropped Autumn off there with her new friend, Nicole, who is the older sister of Troy on our team. Autumn and Nicole have really hit it off and have done a few things together. She then went home with Nicole and we would pick her up after the game. We had Dylan, Jace, Troy and Austin who all hopped in the van and were ready to go. I had all of the parents contact information and addresses so I could drop each of them off at home after the game. Austin had brought his Nintendo DS, so they all were pretty absorbed on the way up to Seattle. I found a good $5 parking spot about 5 blocks away from the stadium. I laid out some rules about them not running around while we were downtown and we headed to Qwest field. Of course it was a chaotic walk as it is hard enough to reign in one eight year old boy as opposed to 4, but we made it there in one piece. I picked up our tickets at willcall, got frisked on my way into the stadium, and then went in to find that the seating was practically full-- this was at about 6:45, 15 minutes before kickoff. They have General Admission for the soccer games, but only open up about 15,000 seats on the East side of the stadium. After wandering around a bit trying to find 5 seats together, I finally found a spot. The boys were pretty excited and were asking a bunch of questions about the players, the rules and seemed to have a good time watching the game. Of course they spent a lot of time messing around, punching each other, throwing candy at each other, and downing all of the snacks I had brought. It was all great until halftime when against my better judgement I let them talk me into letting them go out to get a drink. Dylan and Jace, the wild ones of the group, scooted out of our aisle and myself and the other two boys followed right behind them. They must have raced out into the concourse, because as soon as I got out of the aisle and down a couple of steps, they were gone. I didnt know if they had gone right or left. I could not believe they just bolted like that. I ran out the nearest exit and went and looked through the food lines. They were nowhere to be seen! I then spent the next 20 minutes freaking out and looking all over outside and then coming back and forth to our seats hoping they had returned. I was getting more and more upset that they had run off and I was having to hunt all over to track them down while escorting Austin and Troy along with me. I finally went back to our seats for the third time and saw them standing there with an usher while they were looking sheepishly guilty. I thanked the usher and began the scolding. Funny how they tried to turn it around on me and blame me for not following them-- Little buggers! We got back to our seats and ended up enjoying the remainder of the game.
Excluding that incident, it was a great time, and fun to go to a professional game and watch the skill of the players at that level.
May 08
MillerTimes - April 2008
I finally got a great, new job! I will be working on a contract at Starbucks.com for the next year as a QA Analyst. It was the perfect opportunity that opened up at the right time. I will be working with SQL server backend queries as well as doing some automation and functional testing of their website. That was a huge relief to finally get something that felt right after 11 in-person interviews throughout the Puget Sound area. The people I work with are great, and most of them have figured out now that I am not a coffee drinker. ;)
I passed my CompTIA Project+ certification on the 21st, which covers the core principles and practices of IT project management, this was also a huge success for me to get certified as this will give me another nice credential that will look good on the resumé.
LeAnn is working full time for the PTA at the school and Young Women's at the church. She is definitely putting in overtime for each of those organizations. It is amazing how much she accomplishes and is always going full steam ahead. For a well-deserved break, she was able to go see "Cabaret" at the 5th avenue theater. This was the last musical that was in the package that she got for Christmas. She went with her good friend Jeaninne, and they had lunch and a good time at the show. Then that evening, she went to another production called 'WOW', which stands for "Wrinkles of Washington", with her mom (I thanked her mom profusely for saving me from going! :)). That show has a bunch of elderly folks in between 60 and 90 who perform a variety of acts. One of the ladies that LeAnn visiting teaches is one of the performers who does some tap dancing.
LeAnn also completed a huge job of redoing our office. This happened due to a domino effect in our house. Last month we got a new king size bed. This basically bumped our double set of big bedside tables (which are actually dressers) out of our room due to size constraints. We passed those down to Autumn and Jaylin, who were ecstatic to get their own dressers that they dont have to share. When we moved those in their room, we had to take out one of the big bookshelves to make room for the dressers. Then we needed to move that into the office, so we re-arranged the layout there to accommodate the bookshelf. We ended up taking down LeAnn's scrapbooking table and shifting most of those items into two file cabinets that we got off of craigslist. This procedure has totally opened up the office and it is not so suffocating as it has been. It was a major overhaul and looks great now. LeAnn even painted the walls and ceiling before we put everything back into position.
As a family, we went and saw a symphony given by students from BYU Idaho. I thought they did an excellent job. It was all string instruments, and they played wonderfully. Jaylin got a bit tired and passed out toward the end-- its true that 'music soothes the savage beast'. It was nice to experience a bit of culture and expose the kids to some classical music. Afterward, we went and got shakes at Carl's Jrs. This was our FHE outing for the month. Something I would like to do more of-- just get out more often to experience the world around us during FHE.
The kids had spring break for a week during April and enjoyed playing around the neighborhood and going to the Childrens Museum. Kelly came down to pick Ruth up from the airport and stopped by to celebrate Jaylin's birthday. We went to Fatburger and then to see the Spiderwick Chronicles at the dollar theater. It was rated PG, but scared the beans out of Jaylin, so LeAnn ended up taking her out after about 20 minutes or so. I quite enjoyed it though, as did Autumn and Austin.
Jaylin turned 6 in April and had a fun party with about 6 friends. It was a "princess party" and they played pin the shoe on Cinderella and whacked at a pinata. She had asked us for a scooter, and LeAnn found her a cute Barbie scooter. I got her a Lion Webkinz and we hooked her account up online and now she enjoys playing that game just like Autumn and Austin. They have been nice and given her some help at navigating around the interface of the game.
Austin ended up breaking his arm again! We thought he had just bruised it after taking a fall while rollerskating last month. He kept complaining about it, so we took him in to have it looked at. After getting an initial scare from an InstaCare doctor that he had broken a growth plate, the bone doctor came back and said that it was a small fracture on his elbow. He had a cast on for two weeks. Not too bad considering most are kept on for 5-6 weeks. I was hoping he would still be able to play in our soccer games as he is our leading scorer. So, I ended up wrapping his cast in bubble wrap for the two weeks that he had it on! Just call him the bubble boy! (He scored 7 goals in the two games, so I was vindicated)
Autumn and Jaylin had a track meet that they both did very well in. We found that Autumn has a propensity for long-distance running and she did well in the 800, especially considering that she hadnt trained for that event. She placed 6th out of all of the 5th grade girls in the district. Jaylin ended up getting first place in the 50 meter for the Kindergarten girls. We are so proud of both of them!
I passed my CompTIA Project+ certification on the 21st, which covers the core principles and practices of IT project management, this was also a huge success for me to get certified as this will give me another nice credential that will look good on the resumé.
LeAnn is working full time for the PTA at the school and Young Women's at the church. She is definitely putting in overtime for each of those organizations. It is amazing how much she accomplishes and is always going full steam ahead. For a well-deserved break, she was able to go see "Cabaret" at the 5th avenue theater. This was the last musical that was in the package that she got for Christmas. She went with her good friend Jeaninne, and they had lunch and a good time at the show. Then that evening, she went to another production called 'WOW', which stands for "Wrinkles of Washington", with her mom (I thanked her mom profusely for saving me from going! :)). That show has a bunch of elderly folks in between 60 and 90 who perform a variety of acts. One of the ladies that LeAnn visiting teaches is one of the performers who does some tap dancing.
LeAnn also completed a huge job of redoing our office. This happened due to a domino effect in our house. Last month we got a new king size bed. This basically bumped our double set of big bedside tables (which are actually dressers) out of our room due to size constraints. We passed those down to Autumn and Jaylin, who were ecstatic to get their own dressers that they dont have to share. When we moved those in their room, we had to take out one of the big bookshelves to make room for the dressers. Then we needed to move that into the office, so we re-arranged the layout there to accommodate the bookshelf. We ended up taking down LeAnn's scrapbooking table and shifting most of those items into two file cabinets that we got off of craigslist. This procedure has totally opened up the office and it is not so suffocating as it has been. It was a major overhaul and looks great now. LeAnn even painted the walls and ceiling before we put everything back into position.
As a family, we went and saw a symphony given by students from BYU Idaho. I thought they did an excellent job. It was all string instruments, and they played wonderfully. Jaylin got a bit tired and passed out toward the end-- its true that 'music soothes the savage beast'. It was nice to experience a bit of culture and expose the kids to some classical music. Afterward, we went and got shakes at Carl's Jrs. This was our FHE outing for the month. Something I would like to do more of-- just get out more often to experience the world around us during FHE.
The kids had spring break for a week during April and enjoyed playing around the neighborhood and going to the Childrens Museum. Kelly came down to pick Ruth up from the airport and stopped by to celebrate Jaylin's birthday. We went to Fatburger and then to see the Spiderwick Chronicles at the dollar theater. It was rated PG, but scared the beans out of Jaylin, so LeAnn ended up taking her out after about 20 minutes or so. I quite enjoyed it though, as did Autumn and Austin.
Jaylin turned 6 in April and had a fun party with about 6 friends. It was a "princess party" and they played pin the shoe on Cinderella and whacked at a pinata. She had asked us for a scooter, and LeAnn found her a cute Barbie scooter. I got her a Lion Webkinz and we hooked her account up online and now she enjoys playing that game just like Autumn and Austin. They have been nice and given her some help at navigating around the interface of the game.
Austin ended up breaking his arm again! We thought he had just bruised it after taking a fall while rollerskating last month. He kept complaining about it, so we took him in to have it looked at. After getting an initial scare from an InstaCare doctor that he had broken a growth plate, the bone doctor came back and said that it was a small fracture on his elbow. He had a cast on for two weeks. Not too bad considering most are kept on for 5-6 weeks. I was hoping he would still be able to play in our soccer games as he is our leading scorer. So, I ended up wrapping his cast in bubble wrap for the two weeks that he had it on! Just call him the bubble boy! (He scored 7 goals in the two games, so I was vindicated)
Autumn and Jaylin had a track meet that they both did very well in. We found that Autumn has a propensity for long-distance running and she did well in the 800, especially considering that she hadnt trained for that event. She placed 6th out of all of the 5th grade girls in the district. Jaylin ended up getting first place in the 50 meter for the Kindergarten girls. We are so proud of both of them!
May 01
Stern Kong
This is a perfectly fitting cover for how Seattle feels after being abandoned by the NBA, they just need another image of Clay Bennett as the wolf in sheeps clothing to complete the effect. Even being the out-of-place Jazz fan in Seattle, it makes me sad to see that a greedy owner can swoop in and steal the carpet out from under your feet. It was so unfortunate to see the state held hostage for a 500 million dollar arena-- and when Clay didnt get his way, he took his bat and went home. I hope that the lawsuits that are piling up against him and the NBA come out strong and that somehow they figure out a way to keep the team here. Granted, they were pretty pathetic this past year, but it would be sweet to see Kevin Durrant continue to improve.
