September 2006 Archives
Photos from the boys' get-away. We missed Bob and said so several times, although Ted did a pretty good job of cooking bacon.
Click to view: Photos
Drink: Lime Beer
Phrase: "You idiot!"
Come backs: UGA, ND
Loser: Falcons
Winner: New Orleans
Crossword: Irony vs. Coincidence
Driver: Grant
Before Dinner: Alligators
Center of Dinner: Hole / Trashcan
Snack: Peanuts
Dessert: Susan's Brownies
Nourishment: Mom's soup
Forgot: Beach towels, sunscreen, bug spray, beach chairs, PAL
Frustration: Cemetary Geocache
Danger: Swim to pelican sandbar
Distraction: Biting flys
Irritant: The guy from Jersey
Find: 4 bottles with messages
Excess: Sand dollars
Lost: Michael's football
Disputed: Definition of lost
Pew buddy: Aunt Margie
Most missed: Bob E.
The game: Bocce
Saved this voicemail since July 12 2005. It was not my "big five oh" as the singer suggests. We would all head down to the beach for vacation the following week.
I've saved this in my voicemail for over a year-and-a-half.
Kelly participated in her first cross country meet this morning. This was a county meet, so there were hundreds of kids participating. While the morning was cool at first, it warmed up, and unfortunately for Kelly, the JV girls ran last.
The course wove in and out of a huge soccer field complex and included a couple of tricky hills and bridges. Kelly started off strong, pulling well ahead of her Brookwood peer group. In fact, she pulled too far ahead and clocked a 7 minute 16 seconds on her first mile. While she has been able to run 3, 4, and 5 miles in practice fine, by the time Kelly passed her second mile mark, she was in bad shape with a terrible side ache. Getting dizzy, she sat on the side of the course almost about to pass out.
A kind dad (not me... I was waiting to photograph her around the bend and didn't see) carried her to the Brookwood tent to recover. She felt awful and took about 15 minutes before she could even try to stand back up. She napped all the way home (with air conditioning turned on to max.)
It probably didn't help that she had been sick earlier in the week, and was still a little on the mend. But we are still proud of her, and doesn't she look like the real athlete with her race number and her uniform? For at least a mile-and-a-half she looked like a pro!
The Start
Going Strong At 1.5 Miles
Earlier in the summer, Mary Claire asked if she could mow the yard when Danny left for college. I told her I thought that would be fine, and we even had a training session where she mowed the top part of the back yard. She learned how to open the shed, back out the mower, check for gas, adjust the wheel height, prime the engine, and start it.
I also showed her how the blade worked under the deck so she had a sense of what was spinning under there. Before actually mowing, she wanted to practice without the engine running. That was a pretty good idea. She "mowed" several rows, practicing how to turn the mower. Finally she started it up with only three pulls, and mowed the practice session. She put the mower back up, and ran in to report to her Mom what she had done. That was several weeks ago.
With Danny off to Spring Hill, Claire mowed the entire front and back this weekend. She really did a very good job and earned full pay. Grandaddy and Mr. Pink both reviewed her work and were impressed. Grandaddy wants to know if she will learn to edge.
