Saturday, August 26, 2006

Pop Warner


Jamie's age group only has one scrimmage.

He did great. He played defensive end and offensive tackle. He was lined up against the biggest kid on the field. The kid held Jamie on almost every play, but Jamie still made plays. Jamie's team's offense was very efficient, so they spent more time on defense. Jamie made lots of tackles, confidently. He recovered a fumble. The coaches talked to the big kid about holding a few times; and after the head coach gave him a more stern lesson, just before what proved to be the final play, Jamie smoked through the line and crushed the running back before he took even one step forward.

Jamie was invited to practice with the next age group for the rest of this season.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Snakes on A Plane

Snakes on A Blog
Someone Tell Sam Jackson He's My Bro (R) Language
Early Auditions (R) Language

WI GPS

Geocaching in Wisconsin

Three Days by the Lake

We left Rhinelander at 9:30 on Saturday morning. We drove through Green Bay and picked up lunch at Arby's, then zipped down 43 to Glendale, Wisconsin.

We arrived at Bill & Annemarie's at about 1:45, unloaded our luggage, and reloaded for Irish Fest.

Bill & I dropped off the women and children, and headed downtown to park the cars. When we got there, we visited for a bit with Paul & Marrianne and Mark & Alice. Soon, they had to leave for Uncle Mark's 50th high school reunion.

We did arts and crafts, watched Irish dancers, tug-of-war, saw an interactive play with Sister Bernie and her Bingo. We played environmentally educational games and watched currach races. We saw parades of clans and family reunions, and heard all manner of Irish music.

Paul & Marianne returned, and we ate corned beef and potatoes fair-style (although we won't name names, some ate Italian and Greek foods.)

We finished the evening watching a gay comedian/storyteller talk about his Irish Milwaukee upbringing. (And a walk back to the cars.)

Sunday began with Annemarie & Jacob going to an early Mass at their parish's sister parish, where Annemarie helps out. The rest of us went to an 8:30 Mass at a nearby parish.




We drove (surprisingly easily) to Miller Park in order to catch some batting practice. We planned to tailgate after the game, with Paul & Marianne coming for supper. Except for Roger Clemens, everything went well.

Bill suggested that the wind might be right for a sailboat excursion. So Bill & The Ronyak's (performing nightly at the Eagles Ballroom) drove back to the lake. The wind was almost too light to sail, but we got to see the sun set behind the Milwaukee skyline from Lake Michigan.

We played a board game at Scobey-Polacheck's. And after the kids went to bed, the adults visited.

The next morning, the kids played outside and swam on their lake. I read and looked up a few geocaches for our drive to Green Bay. We went over to Scobey's for a picnic on the screen porch, and headed North.

We stopped in Knellsville, a village mostly erased by the freeway, in Ozaukee County. We saw the War Memorial at Sheboygan City/County. And the Visitor Center at Manitowoc City/County.

Dave & Nicky fed us in Green Bay. I helped Dave install his new refrigerator's ice-maker water line. We packed up Mary Baxter for a week Up North. And ice-cream at Marty's in Birnamwood rounded out a nice three-day vacation.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Aye, and More...


Irish Fest.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

What a Wonderful Weekend



...more to come...

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Continue

Visualize power as sparks flowing out of the ends of electric cables. Nature, the laws of the universe, require that this power is not lost. It becomes into something else.

When a community exists, when persons come together, a power greater than the sum of its parts is created. Something or someone will come to harness this power.

We watched Cold Mountain tonight. As I lay in bed, I thought about the societal norms that had broken down on a massive scale. The characters did what they had to, in order to survive. The power of the community left for war. A corrupt faction filled the politcal void. The woman took over the men's labors in order that the community survive. Chaos theory. Life force. Gaia. The individuals and their systems adapted, lest they perish.

Monday, August 14, 2006

Idle Time?

OK Go

Four Second Fury

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Hello, Again

Long week.

Jamie at Baxter's in Platteville. Michaela at Malone's in Apple River. Shelly and I had colds, but we did go out to eat one night, and to a movie another.

Two weekends in a row, driving to Platteville, one - further to Illinois, the other - returning via Marshfield.

Let's see how I return to blogging after breaking a good habit.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Reach

Maybe, the goal is to be reaching across the line as we fall.