Blowing Kisses

About a week ago, I was in the office at about 11:00 at night doing some family history research. Then, from behind me, I heard this soft noise like someone blowing a kiss at me. Surprised, I turned around expecting to see LeAnn or one of the kids messing with me. There was no one there! I shouted out to LeAnn to see if she was still in the vicinity. She was nowhere to be found. I stood up and looked around. Nothing. I started getting the goosebumps. Was I going crazy, or being pranked - or was it some kind of ghostly experience? I HAD been working on Family history- maybe someone was thanking me?
When I went into bed a bit later and confided in LeAnn what had happened (wouldnt talk about it to anyone else because they would likely question my sanity- LeAnn already knows I am a bit kooky! :)), it creeped her out a bit as well.

Fast forward to this past Monday. I was again in the office helping Austin with his Algebra. Autumn was on the other computer working on something when I heard almost the exact same 'blowing kisses' noise. I turned around abruptly and asked Autumn if she had done that. I figured she must have been the one pranking me last week. She told me then that that was the noise that the computer made when she received a Facebook email!

As I animatedly exclaimed to her that I had heard the mysterious 'blowing kisses' sound last week and thought it might have been a ghost, she got quite a kick out of it. She is probably still laughing about it at this very moment!

Austin selected

Austin went to Federal Way select tryouts again this year. The league was a bit devious in getting everyone of the U-11 age to come out. They said that ALL boys needed to come to the tryouts as this coming year they would be separated into teams based on skill level. This would give some of the less-skilled players better opportunities if they were playing against players of like abilities. There was much concern among the parents of the Pirates team that I have been coaching that they would be breaking up our team which has been together for 5 years.
Austin shined in the tryouts (played over 3 days -Fri, Sat, Sun- except we wouldnt go to the Sunday tryout) He ended up getting put into the top-performers scrimmage along with two other kids from our team. He scored a couple and impressed the coach enough that he pulled him aside. I saw Austin over there talking to him- Austin told me that the coach told him he was a great player and wanted to make sure that he would be there on Saturday. Austin said he would, but that he would not on Sunday. We got a call from the coach on Sunday afternoon offering a spot on the top-level select team to Austin. I told the coach our concerns about Sunday games and he said that could be worked around. He said they only played a few games on Sunday over the course of the year. (Hard to believe if they were doing tournaments) We also discussed our concerns with the 2,000 yearly fee. We dont have that kind of disposable income. He said they would waive the registration fee- $225, and that they do a bunch of fundraisers as well. Still a bit much for us. I told him I would talk to Austin and LeAnn about it. I was almost to the point of trying to pull it off, but LeAnn was the voice of reason. I think Austin would have really liked to played with the select team, but he was quite understanding about the money part of it. I had LeAnn call the coach back as I figured I might break if he tried to further convince me when I called back. LeAnn ended up talking to the coach for a good 20 minutes, but we ended up sticking to our guns. I know Austin would excel in that environment, but we still see plenty of growth opportunities for him over the coming years. He continues to improve in the league that he is in, and we have been putting him in some clinics as well. He is one amazing kid!

Duped

Jaylin (7 YO) came up to me yesterday afternoon and asked me to show her how I write a capital K on a notebook. I wrote it down for her. 'Hmm.' she said. 'That looks exactly how the easter bunny writes his K!' She totally tricked me. The easter bunny had written the kids initials in pen on the cardboard box of a chocolate bunny in each of their baskets. (so they would know whose basket was whose). I think she is onto me!

Rough Ride

Rode the Sounder Train into work and brought my bike along. The train is quite relaxing to ride in on. Brings back memories of riding the trains in Japan. The train lets out near Pioneer Square, then I backtrack a mile to SODO. They have a bike cage locker at the Starbucks building where you have to have access to enter, but everything is quite secure in there. The weather was perfect for a ride- 65 degrees. I left work around 3:30 and used 'iMapMyRide' app on the iPhone to track my route. It uses GPS coordinates to track how fast, how far and the route you take. I had thought the ride from Seattle back to Kent Station was around 20 miles, but it turned out to be 17.

The new and old bad knees held up pretty well. The worst part was my whiney heiney. Had to stand up a number of times to relieve its protestations. Overall was a good first ride of the year. I will be ramping up to ride the RSVP again in August. I had checked for tickets, but they were already sold out as of a few weeks ago. So, we will be going solo. I have talked with Austin and Autumn about training for this and riding along with me. We will see how that develops.

Bribed

Recently, I told Austin if he completed the requirements for two more activity badges - Artist and Geologist, that I would take him to the 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' movie- both he and I have read and enjoyed the book. I also told him he needed to finish his 'art collage' project for the Artist badge before we could play Halo3 together again. It was quite effective. I will be employing similar tactics with Autumn and her Personal Progress projects.
LeAnn started playing into the bribery Ive been dealing out on the kids. A couple of days ago, after I told her the doctor wanted me doing 100 leg lifts a day to rehab my knee, she used my own tactics on me. She said if I do them for a week, that she will take me to see Avatar. Ive been trying to get her to go with me since it came out. Jaylin ended up making me a chart and even has stickers that I get to apply when I have completed my task. :)

Beautiful Princess

Highlight from my surgery last week. When I was taken into get the Anesthesia, I found that the anesthesiologist was Japanese. I asked her if I could practice my Japanese on her. She said I could, but she likely wouldnt catch very much of it. (Must be second generation :)) So I threw out the following: "Kyou wa tottemo tanoshimii ni shite imasu!" or "I am really looking forward to today! After she heard that, she said: "So you are feeling like a beautiful fairy princess!"? Thank you Dr. Watanabe for lightening up the mood of a not-so-fun situation. :)

Spilt Milk

Spilt milk all over the kitchen at work yesterday. Didnt cry. Just cleaned it up. :)

D'OH! A deer!

We drove to Coeur D'Alene, ID this past weekend to go see our new niece, Willow's baby blessing. We stayed at the condos on the lake again with LeAnn's parents. We had a pretty much uneventful trip up until we started the windy trip around the lake to get to the condos. It is about 11 miles and takes about 20 minutes from I-90. I figured I had driven long enough by that time, and pulled out to switch with LeAnn. I think she was quite surprised as I had already driven about 5 hours, so why not finish it up? Anyway, we switched and she started driving the final leg. There was some snow on the edge of the road but it didnt feel to treacherous. We were just a few miles from our destination, when LeAnn suddenly shouted: "Oh my gosh! There's a deer!" It had bounded across the road and she started hitting the brakes to make sure she wouldnt hit it. Then, just as suddenly, another one appeared right in front of the right front bumper of the van. I saw its head briefly before we nailed it. It made a tremendous thump, and LeAnn screamed a bit more. We were doing about 20 MPH as she had slowed down to avoid the previous one. We couldnt tell if it was dead or not, as by the time we stopped we couldnt see anything else. I went out to inspect the damage and saw that our front headlight was hanging from the wires. Luckily, it wasnt significant damage and none of us were hurt. Scary stuff though.

Situps

Austin has been working very hard on his Activity Badges for Webelos over the past few weeks. One of the badges is 'Athlete'. For this, he needed to do a number of physical activities and keep records of his improvements. These include: Pushups, situps, pullups, 1/4 mile run. It is fun to see him strive so hard to reach and then surpass his goals. The first week he did the situps and completed 25. The next week he did 50, then 75 and 100. Amazing thing is, now that he completed the 4 week requirement and demonstrating improvement - he was still doing the situps to try and beat his record. I sat and watched in awe as he completed 200 in my bedroom last Thursday. Then on Friday, he did 300 in a row!! I watched as he had a pained expression on his face from the time he hit 100. This is one driven kid!
I told him I wasnt sure if I had done that many total in my whole life!

Bike Post

1983 - I had been swimming at the Alta Canyon pool with some friends. We stayed a bit later than we were supposed to, and I was supposed to have been home an hour earlier. It was now dark, and I was riding my Duster 200 home as fast as I could to hopefully alleviate any extra punishment I might be in for. I was up off of the seat pedaling with all of my might, when my back tire went right through one of the sewer grates in the gutter. I was going so fast, and the impact was so severe, that my bike post came up through the plastic seat of my dirtbike! Guess where it nailed me? Thats right-- right in the most sensitive area of the male anatomy. I pretty much crumpled right there. After getting my wind a bit later, I still had to pedal the rest of the way home without sitting down because of my broken seat. Such a 'painful' memory!

Fire Hydrant

When I was 13, I was playing football at Buttercup park in Sandy, UT. I was playing receiver and went long for the hail mary. I was going full blast and had the guy covering me beat. I looked back over my shoulder for the incoming pass, and.... ran straight into a fire hydrant. I think it was worse than a brick wall. The brunt of the impact was taken by my right thigh. I had never hit anything so hard. So lucky I didnt break my leg. I remember the bruise was the biggest I had ever had and covered the bulk of my quad. Limped around for quite a while after that.