Something has gotta give

Morning to ya.

I just have couple of minutes to spend. I have a conference call in 20 min.

So far this week I have worked probably 70 hours and counting. I have figured out at least one contributing factor to my alzheimer's like symptoms; Stress. The harder I work the dumber I seem to get. I need to change something but unfortunately no matter what I do will probably mean a pay cut.

My weight has not changed any in the past week, thus the lack of reporting. Sorry bout that.

Looking ahead. Tonight the kids have a football game to march. It's the last chance to clean up the show before the competition tomorrow.

Tomorrow Tyler has to be at school at 7:00 to prepare for the parade competition. (Kyle is not marching in the parade) The parade steps off at 10:00. In this competition they have a parade that is part of the overall band competition. They will march their field show that evening (At like 10:30 PM). The band with the best combined Parade and Field show score wins the Band of the Day award.

Meanwhile Michelle and I have a soccer game at 8:30. We will miss the parade.

Sunday Michelle, Karen and I have a Girl Scout meeting. I THINK I am signed up to do something at that meeting I am just not sure what it is. I guess I should check on that.

Karen is picking Bob up at school this morning. He has to work at Apple at 5:00 tonight and again sometime tomorrow.

Congrats go out to Tyler

Tyler was nominated to attend the North Carolina Governors School.

The Governors school is a state funded, 6 week program where the students live on campus at Meredith College. It is intended as an enrichment for the most talented students in the state. I do not know how many students from his school were nominated but it was a select few.

And the winner is...

There were several contests to report on this weekend:

Friday night was Home Coming night at Jordan High School. The football team lost their game to Northern Durham. However the band had a contest on the field of their own. As I indicated in my last post, The marching band has a tradition of having each section compete against each other in a costume contest. Tyler and he trumpet section dressed up as Richard Simmons and a group of exercise buffs from the 80's; short shorts ripped sweat shirts, sweat bands etc.. They looked more like a gay exercise troop but that is besides the point. Kyle and the front percussion ensemble (The Pit) dressed up as Dr. Seusse characters. Kyle was a Sneech; one with a star on his belly of course. They also had Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, The Grinch, and even Cindy Lou Who. The percussion battery (drum line) borrowed uniforms from the cheer leaders. 3/4 of them are guys mind you. The Mellophones dressed up as characters from the Nintendo computer games; Mario etc.. The winning section, Saxes I think, dressed up as Lord of the rings characters. Their costumes were pretty detailed. They did a good job. The Mellophones came in second, and the PIT came in third. The best individual costume of the night was awarded to the Richard Simmons look alike from the trumpet line.

Saturday Morning Team Israel played Team Peru. It was a battle down to the wire. There was lots of good physical play. Again we managed to control the ball the majority of the game. The result was 2-2 tie. We played hard and Israel continues to improve and that is what this is all about. (he keeps reminding himself.) Michelle played well though did not find any opportunity to score this game. Every time she came down the field there were three opposing players on her; which is a good thing actually. She draws the other team out of the middle of the field. She just needs to figure out the timing of when to serve the ball into the middle.

Saturday afternoon, Michelle, Nancy (Ma-In-Law), Karen and I headed to Raleigh for the Capitol City Band Expo. Jordan was one of 18 bands competing. We arrived around 2:30 so we could watch all of the bands in Jordan's competing class. Athens drive was the first band we saw. They beat us earlier in the season and they played well again Saturday. Jordan performed around 3:45. It was not the cleanest they ever ran the show but over all they performed well. After all was said and done, Jordan won first place in Music Performance in their class, First place Visual performance in their class, Second place Flags in their class, First Place Drum Major, in ALL classes. And More importantly they qualified for the finals competition that evening. The finals were comprised of the 4 band that finished first in their class, plus 4 additional bands with the next highest scores total scores. Jordan played better their second performance. No major mistakes, that I saw at least. At the end of the evening Cary High School came in first, Concord HS came in Second and Jordan came in third place overall.

Sunday Karen Tyler and I played Carcassone, with the expansion pack Karen received for her birthday. It was the first time we played and there were some questions about scoring at the end so we are not absolutely sure of the winner. For that reason, and of course humility, I cannot say who came out on top in that contest.

Top-o-the morning to ya!

It's Friday morning. After a greuling week, the weekend is almost here. So to that I raise my mug, of water because I am cutting back on Soda, and toast "To another successful week!"

At work I have gotten rather behind in my customer issues over the past several weeks because of internal issues that management set as my priority. We pretty much have a handle on those now so I can go back to my regular duties. I cleared several of the customer issues since Monday so I am feeling pretty good about my contribution this week. I even made a concerted effort to not work at home after work. I ended up having to a little last night because a new issue came in. I had to prepare for a morning conference call to discuss it. But I think the rest of the week I did pretty well. I didn't work after I got home but I did get home late 3 out of the 5 days. So I still have some area for improvement eh?

Tyler and Kyle tried out for the HS jazz band on Wednesday. Tyler was selected. He made 3rd chair?... I think. Anyway he is pleased. Kyle did not get selected. He was disappointed. Not so much that he did not make it but more that he did not do as well in the audition as he thought he could have. The neat thing is that it just made him come home and practice that much harder. If we can only get him to do that with other homework.

Speaking of other homework; First Quarter grades came home this week. Michelle had a very nice report card She received a 'B' in math but other than that she had all A's. Tyler also did very well. He also received one or 2 B's but they were in his AP classes. His GPA still hovers around a 5.0. Kyle, well, he has some work to do. He had 2 grades we were disappointed in. We will have to work with him a little to help him manage his computer and TV time so he spends more time in the books. It's his first quarter of HS. He is taking honors level courses. He just needs to figure thing out. He will do ok.

Team Israel Had a productive soccer practice last night. We worked on defense and goalie skills. These areas we have obvious opportunities for improvement. (You like that management speak?) We have a game Saturday Morning at 11:00 against team Peru.

Tonight is Jordan HS's Home Comming. The band has the tradition of dressing up in costumes for the homecoming game. The costumes are judged by the band director and band alum and the section with the best costumes win. The different sections try and keep their costume plans secret until the game so I cannot divulge what Tyler and Kyle's costumes are.

Saturday, After the soccer game, We head to Raleigh for the Capitol City Band Expo. Jordan has won this competitions several times but not the past two years. The level of competition is going to be high again this year. Cary HS, Concord HS and Athens Drive HS, who beat us earlier this year, and other great bands will be competing. The band is ready. We shall see how they do.

Tim's Orange Cranberry Almond Pancakes

(serves 8)

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups - fresh, coarsely chopped cranberries
• 2-3 Tablespoons - sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon - finely grated Orange zest (optional)
• 1/4 cup - water
• 1 cup - your favorite orange juice
• 1 1/2 cups - low-fat milk (whole milk works too)
• 2 - eggs
• 4 cups - Reduced fat Bisquick mix (regular Bisquick works well also)
• 3/4 cup - coarsely chopped almonds (pecans work well also)
• 1/2 cup - fine shredded coconut (optional)

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat griddle to 325 degrees, prepare surface with thin coat of butter or shortening and wipe off.
2. In a microwave save bowl, place the sugar, cranberries, orange zest and water, combining slightly. Microwave for 1 - 2 minutes or until cranberries are slightly soft.
3. Combine in medium bowl, the eggs, milk and orange juice
4. Right before ready to cook and serve, in a large bowl, place the bisquick. Add the milk mixture from step 3. Folding quickly but not mixing . Can be left a little lumpy. Don't over mix or the pancakes will be flat. Fold in the coconut and almonds. Finally fold in the cranberry mixture.
5. ladle batter onto the griddle and cook like normal pancakes.
6. Serve with butter and Syrup to taste

The weekend under the sink

I have been swamped at work so I have not been able to take the time in the morning for a blog. Thanks to those of you who have been patiently waiting and, well, still came back to read this one.

We had a full weekend so I could write for pages about what transpired. I will try and keep it brief, or at least as brief as I am capable of.

Friday night the five of us went to our friends Alison an Bill's house for dinner. We met them 9 or 10 years ago. Rob, their son, was in Tyler's Cub Scout Den. Before dinner, Bill taught Michelle how to mix martinis. Hopefully that will not become a habit. It was a nice dinner, we took a walk and just chit chatted. The boys spent the night and played computer games; most of the night from what I hear.

Saturday morning team Israel had another good soccer game. We had possession of the ball literally 75-80% of the game. We had 12-15 shots on goal, the other team had only 4. We passed the ball, used open space, and lost 3 to 1.

Saturday afternoon we had Girl Scouts. Tyler taught the girls how to play Disc Golf. Then we broke them into 3 person groups and played 9 holes. The girls seem to have a good time.

Saturday evening Howard, Nancy, Bob, Tyler, Kyle, Michelle, Melodie and I helped celebrate Karen's birthday. After dinner Karen opened presents, had an awesome Ice cream cookie cake that her mom made and a rousing game of hand in foot, which Melodie and Howard teamed up to win.

Sunday, I made Orange Cranberry Almond Coconut pancakes. They were yummy. Karen went, with her mom, to the Parade of Homes while I tackled the new sink and faucet. I won't go into details but it took 2 trips to Home Depot and hours of completely redoing the plumbing because the garbage disposal... Oh never mind. It looks good. It still has a slight leak but I will take care of it.

In a nutshell that was the weekend.

The week plods along.

Michelle was just saying this morning "This week has gone by really fast." I told her "Time flies when you are having fun at school." She didn't buy that. For me this week seems like it is taking forever.

Not to much interesting happened this week so far. I worked through the night Monday night. Michelle went back to school this week after the 3 week intersession.

Karen had a Dr. appt. to talk about her PVC issue. She has another appt. next week to be fitted for a monitor that she will wear for a month. The PVCs have gotten better but flare up occationally still.

Tyler received the flu shot yesterday. His asthma puts him in the high risk category. The other kids in the family were SO disappointed they could not get the flu shot this year (yea right!). He finished the medicine for his cough. Now it is getting worse again. We will have to get another appt. next week.

We watched the presidential debate last night. I thought Bush probably won, discounting whatever disinformation that may have been spoken. Kerry won the first two, IMHO. I base this more on which annoyed me with snide, or un-related remarks/responses. Who stayed on topic more... George still can't speak worth a darn and his little smirk drives me nuts but if I didn't watch and just listened, he annoyed me less last night. Mind you that does not reflect, one way or the other which way I am going to vote in November.

Looking forward:

Karen and her mom have their bowling league this morning. They, last I heard, were in first place but it is close.

Michelle and I have Soccer practice tonight. The field is double booked again tonight so we will have to be a little creative again in practice tonight. Unfortunately the things we most need to work on require a bigger field than is available.

Jordan HS has a home football game tonight. Which of course means the boys are marching. It is another opportunity to clean things up a little before the next competition on October 23rd.

The next two competitions are the big ones for our band. The events previous to this were just warm ups for these two. The band does not go to the national "Bands Of America" competitions, but these two are large regional competitions. Many of the better bands in the state will be competing. I listened to all of the judges tapes from the last competitions. They all were very impressed with the difficulty and complexities in the music and drill and were overall impressed with the performance. There are just areas that need to be cleaned up to get it to the next level. If they can clean up some key parts of the performance, the hope is that because Jordan's show is more difficult than most other bands they will be able to fair well against some of the traditional powerhouses, better funded, more polished bands in the area.

Bob comes home this afternoon. He works Friday and Saturday. Sunday he wants to go watch Jamie's Horse riding competition in Blacksburg Va.

The boys have Friday off of school. They get to spread mulch in the yard. It's their last chance for kid points. The Kid of the Month will be awarded Saturday!

Michelle has a Soccer game is Saturday morning at 9:30 against team Senegal. Saturday afternoon Michelle has a Girl Scout meeting. Karen and I volunteered to organize this meetings activities. We are going to take the girls to play disc golf. Tyler was gracious enough to agree to help with this meeting. He will teach the girls the rules and general technique. After the event we will do a quick park cleanup. We gotta leave the place in better shape than we found it.

Saturday night we are going to Howard and Nancy's for dinner and to celebrate Karen's birthday. I know, again. We have been busy weekends so we could not celebrate with her family any earlier.

Sunday I am installing two of Karen's birthday presents. We bought a new Kitchen sink and faucet. I would have done it last Sunday but I discovered I was missing a part and it was two late to run to the Home Depot and back and install the sink before bed time etc..

Monday morning I'm back here. Sound exciting?

A New Leaf... Again. Medical Updates

I went to the Dr. on Thursday for a follow-up on the Strattera and to go over test results from blood work done last a few weeks back.

I have pretty much figured out the Strattera. I have been taking it right before going to bed so I do not get nauseous. Before I started taking the medication I could usually fall asleep anywhere, any time without too much trouble. Once asleep I may get up once if nature calls or if I am snoring and Karen aims her elbow just right. ;-) It may sound funny but before, if I ever had a night that I dreamt a lot, I had a restless night. One of the side effect of taking Strattera, specially at night, is that I dream really vivid dreams and I dream A LOT. It took a couple of weeks but I have gotten use to it for the most part. I still feel like I wake up more in the middle of the night but overall I do not feel fatigued in the morning so I guess I am getting the sleep I need. On the upside, I have been much more focused at work and have been more effective. My last performance review with my manager was very positive. *Lets see if it gets me through this round of lay-offs

On the negative side, I have gained quite a bit of weight back. I am not back up to my pre-Weight Watchers days but heading in that direction. And, my cholesterol is up significantly. I am still under the dreaded 200 mark but the change in my numbers from my last physical was notable to my Doc. SO, More exercise, more fruits and veggies and Less trips to the candy vendor. She suggested fish oil supplements.

She also suggested (again) that I get off the caffeinated sodas. ( He types as he takes a sip of his Diet Dr. Pepper) Mostly because of the ADD thing, not for any other specific reason. This is one area I will definitely have some trouble. I can eat healthy food. I love healthy food, probably too much. I love a good salad. I adore apples, specially this time of year. Bring on the asparagus, even if it does make my pee smell bad. I can even manage to reduce the amount of food I intake, if I tryreal hard. But I can only drink so much water. I like sodas. I drink diet sodas at least. OK, OK. I will cut back.... some... right after I finish this one.

Today, on the scale at home, I was 212.5 lbs.. I will, once a week, post my G-factor so you can berate me when I go up. * and send me candy when I loose weight ;-)

Enough about me.

Karen's PVC have gotten better. They still come and go. She is planning on discussing this with the Dr. this week.

Tyler's cough is better but still is not completely gone. Today he took the last dose of medicine. He missed a day or two and he said he could tell a difference on those days. Keep your fingers crossed. He has an appt. on Wednesday to get the flu shot. He is high risk due to the asthma. The rest of us will have to fend for ourselves.

Bob was sick late last week and into the weekend. They don't know exactly what it was but it sounded like food poisoning to me. But that is just a guess. I was better yesterday when we talked to him.

Michelle lost a tooth Sunday. She kept messing with it all morning, driving us nuts and getting tooth blood all over her clothes. It was really loose and bothering her but she would not let me pull it. Finally she let mom. It was out before she knew it. No muss, no fuss. (I could have done it.)

Weekends go too fast.

Here it is Sunday night again. It just does not seem fair. We all work so hard all week and it drags on. Then Friday comes, you blink your eyes, catch a breath and it is Sunday night again.

Friday night, team Israel had a soccer game. We played well but lost 3-0. I think we overplayed a bit. Perhaps I overcoached a bit as well. Michelle did not score this game but I must say she played hard. I am proud of her efforts. She was key in setting up the one goal we did score. She took it to the corner like we have talked about so many times. She passed it in to Kayla, who then past it across to Michaela who was on the far post, EXACTLY were she should have been and BOOM, into the back of the net. It is that type of moment, that makes a season, for a coach.

Saturday I got up and made peach pancakes for breakfast. They turned out pretty well, specially for a first try. I had to work much of the morning. I was already working on a overdue issue when I was paged to work on another.

The boys had to be at school at 12:30 to get ready for the band competition. Karen and I dropped Michelle to spend the night at Nanny and Pappa's then headed west around 3:15 PM. The drive took around 3 hours. We arrived in Lincolnton around 6:15. If you are ever in Lincolnton North Carolina I would recommend a place call "FATZ Cafe." This place for a nice meal. It is basically a fern barn but with a local style and hospitality. Good food and quick service. After we finished our desert, a decadent Chocolate brownie with walnuts and icecream, The manager came by to ask how our meal was. He noticed Karen and I were wearing our Jordan band shirts and asked about them. We told him we were heading to a band competition at the high school. He started to give us directions but as it turns out, in the booth right across the isle, was the Athletic director from North Lincoln High School. He gave us great directions to the school. We would have found it, probably, but perhaps not quite with as much confidence.

I digress. At the competition, the band performed pretty well. They cleaned many of the issues from the previous week's performance. Tyler did not run into the base drum, Kyle had the whole 5th movement down and the guard looked sharp. After all was said done, Jordan HS won first in their class and was awarded Grand Champion of the competition.

Karen and I picked up the boys at the school at 2:30ish AM. We were in bed by 3:00 ish AM.

Sunday we all slept in a bit, as you might expect. Karen and I washed the cars then we all headed out for Karen's birthday lunch. It is our tradition that each birthday person gets to pick a restaurant, within reason, and we all go out, as a family, for a nice meal. So Karen, Tyler, Kyle, Michelle and I had lunch at "Champs". Of course after the meal we all indulged in another decadence; a slice of "Mile High Icecream Pie." This is one big dish. All five of us shared in this indulgence and we still left some melting on the plate. We were stuffed.

After lunch, Tyler went to Melodie's, Kyle practiced his drums, Michelle watched some TV and Karen and I took the van to Home Depot for some Mulch....

Now, it is Sunday night. Michelle is in bed, not so ready to go back to school after 3 weeks off. The boys are upstairs reading or watching TV or talking on the phone, and Karen and I are watching Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" on Tivo.

Another Controversial School Board Decision

A month or so ago I blogged a complaint about how the NC state legislature put a limit on the school calendar. (not-good-decision-governor-easily) Well the Durham School board stuck their foot in it again. The difference is, this time, I actually agree with it, for the most part.

Karen and I attended an information session at the High School last night. David Christenbury, principal of Jordan High School and Patrick Rhodes, Executive Director for High School Curriculum and Instructional Services for Durham Public Schools, presented the new "4x4 Block Scheduling" program the majority of the Durham High Schools will be adopting next year. The presentation was well attended by probably 350 parents and even a few students.

The new schedule format is basically this; Students would take four, ninety minute classes each semester instead of the six, fifty-five minute full year classes they take currently. A net gain of 2 additional classes per year.

I won't go into great detail of the pros and cons of the new schedule format. The reasons the school board is giving for the new schedule format can be found here.

The meeting opened with a presentation of the problems the school and the district in general is facing as far as academics, drop out rates, failure rates etc.. The crowd was quiet but impatient for the main presentation, their charges, arguments and complaints at the ready. Once the presentation of the new schedule format began the crowd unleashed their volley of complaints and pointed questions. The principal did a reasonable job of containing the questions, indicating that most, if not all the issues being raised would be addressed in the upcoming presentation. And indeed the issues raised were not new to anyone in the room and were addressed at some level by the slides. Specific details like how AP courses would be implemented on the semester calendar when the AP tests must be taken in May, have not been finalized. But a good generalized plan for moving forward was presented.

I do not know how many slides the principal prepared but after probably 75 minutes of presentation and constant interruption and even heckling, one parent stood and yelled "How much longer are you going to talk? We want to get to our questions." I, personally, about lost it. If the parents would just shut up and let the presenters speak maybe the answers would be forth coming. The principal at that point said "Fine." He shut of the projector, indicated he would field general question but requested specific questions about your child's circumstances be taken off line. Let the rants begin.

You know what happened after that. The parents laid into the both of them for "jeopardizing their child's education" and asking questions about how their son or daughter could take AP course Blah if Blah blah blah....

In all fairness many of the parents concerns were valid but the details are yet to be worked out. Much of the rest of the noise from the parents was centered on not moving forward with the new scheduling format. To me, that ship has sailed. There was no need to waste my time or the rest of the crowds time with bickering over something that is mute.

I think this plan has good potential. I can see that Kyle will benefit greatly. With all of the required courses, with the current format, he would not be able to take 4 years of band or any other elective courses. It does change Tyler's plans for next year. He will actually have an extra elective or two that he will need to figure out what to do with. Technically he could even graduate in January if he wanted to.

I went to the meeting, understanding that, for the most part, the block scheduling was going to happen. I was a little frustrated that they did not have all the specifics worked out yet but I now understand that the plan was just recently adopted and it will be, for the most part, up to the principals to implement scheduling details that make the most sense for their school population on the whole.

I left the meeting feeling bad for the principal and Mr. Rhodes and embarrassed to be a parent. I think the parents at the meeting, at least the most vocal ones, missed that the school system is already broken; They failed to see that this is an effort to do something rather than accepting status quo. At Jordan HS, of roughly 500 of last years freshman class, 100 students were not promoted to the 10th grade. Roughly 2/3 of the class failed at least one course last year. At Jordan, one of the best schools in the system, and even in the state, there is a large gap in the success rate between the white and black population. The state graduation requirements are getting tougher each year and with each new requirement, that many more student do not finish high school.... The system is broken.

I do not blame parents for being concerned and wanting the best for their child, that is the parents job. But it is the school systems job to do the best for the whole student population. Sometimes it means that the very brightest of students, and those students the very bottom of the academic ladder may suffer one way or the other. If these parents are sincere about wanting the best for their children, there are opportunities within the school community to influence the implementation details by joining the "Sight Based Decision Making committee", a committee made up of parents and administrators formed just for this purpose.

What a Weekend

Friday, I was able to finish up my 2 hot issues for work so Michelle and I took off around lunch time to finish up Karen's birthday shopping. Michelle is fun to shop with. We have similar styles, we both like to wonder around looking at lots of different thing, finally picking somthing out, or not. Karen is a much more efficient shopper and gets frustraited at times with me because I slow her down. Anyway, we had a nice lunch at Jason's delli and shopped a couple of hours while Karen and her mom drove to Greenville to pick up Bob.

Bob Worked Friday night then went out with Jamie to meet up with one of the returning heros from Iraq.

Karen, Michelle and I got up early Saturday morning because we had to be at the soccer pitch at 8:15 and it's a good 25 minute drive. Tyler and Kyle had to get up and be at the school at 8:30 in order to prepare for the marching competitions that day.

Right before the Michelle's game, I was warming the team up. I was in the goal and, well, I did somthing, and my back went out again. Not a great move, specially since I would be in the car and in football stadiums all day. It made for a long weekend for me. I will survive however.

The game went well. We played a strong team and did well against them. We didn't win but overall played well. We identified some areas we need to work on for sure. Michelle did score one of the three goals our team scored. She also had a good defensive game.

Right after the game we drove on to Mt. Pleasant High School, located this side of Charlotte; around a 2.5 hour drive. We rented 2 movies for Michelle to watch on the way there and back so the time went quickly for her. The band marched in the first competition around 3:00. There were some issues in the second half of their show but overall the band played well. They took first place in their division and second place overall.

In between competitions Karen, Michelle and I went to "Sonic Drive-In" for dinner. It is a 50's style drive in where the waitresses wear rollerscates and bring the food to your car. Michelle liked that.

The second band competition was right down the road at Central Caberrus High School. The band performed around 8:30. Their performace was 10 times better than the afternoon performance. But again there were a couple issues. For instance, at one point in the show, Tyler is marching very quickly and has to squeeze through 2 other folks, at least one carrying a base drum. His citation cord on his uniform got cought on the drum as he passed. No one fell and they both were able to recover but it was a tense moment. The band came in third place in their class and third place overall. The competition was tougher than in the afternoon. Overall they were pleased. These were the first performances of the year and the first year ever the band has marched the whole show this early in the season.

Michelle Karen and I arrived home around 1:00 AM. We were bushed and I could barly move. The boys did not get home till around 3:00. It was quite a long dayall around. I have to tell ya, Michelle was an angel the whole day. We were afraid she was not going to enjoy herself. Driving so long then sitting in the stands watching the bands. It's not for everyone. But she was terrific and said she really enjoyed it.

Sunday morning everyone Slept in... alittle. Michelle was the first up. I think she got up around 8:30. Karen and I got up around 9:00. I made Chocolate Chunk Pancakes for Karen's Birthday breakfast and did some laundry (I had to wash the soccer uniforms for the game at 1:30.) We spent a long time talking to the boys about Saturday's performances (when they finally woke up).

Michelle's game Sunday was just amazing. We played another tough team. We got off to a slow start with the other team scoring a quick 3 goals in the first half. But in the second half, my goodness, we really came together. Michelle score FOUR goals in the game. We ended up loosing six to four but I was very proud of the team and how they played. It was really tough to come up with player of the game, even with Michelle scoring 4 goals. So the other coach and I picked 3 players of the weekend, including the Saturday game. Michelle was among the honorees.

We got home from the game around 3:15. I wrapped some of Karen's presents and took a minute or two to relax. Bob got home from his carousing at 4:30, we opened presents and then off we went. Karen, Bob and I headed back to Greenville. The three of us ate dinner then we dropped Bob off at his dorm. Karen and I got back to the house just before 10:00, watched a little TV then off to bed.

Karen's heart thing was getting better before the weekend. But we found that the loud booming of the drums and blaring brass started the PVCs up in full force. Interesting.

My back is a little better. I still have pains dowm my legs but as long as I don't move around to much I am fine.