Last night was the combined concert for 5th and 6th grade band and strings ensembles. Emily played in the 6th grade band and even had a couple solos. Below is the video of just the 6th grade band.
Great job, Emily.
http://youtu.be/v_BqwDpIduc
Each afternoon finds the Anna & Emily perched over their textbooks and worksheets – about an hour of homework that comes home each day.
However, it does pay off as they are both doing very well in school.
70 degree weather and dry trails in November can only mean one thing – the mountain bike must be ridden. More importantly, I had just retrieved the bike from the shop several days ago after having a much-needed tune-up and replacement of the rear cassette and chain.
I took the bike to the closest trail, the Shawnee Mission Park mountain bike trails. This is a 6.5-mile collection of trails that range from easy to moderately hard. These are also the trails that introduced me to the love of dirt trails. I think back several years ago to when I had no endurance or cardio conditioning. The few steep grades would make me winded and I’d have to stop frequently. Yesterday found me cruising along with greater ease.
The weather was perfect – I just wished I had friends along with me to enjoy it.
The last home game of the 2010 season wrapped up nicely with a 39-14 win over the Texas Longhorns. Despite their #4 ranking at the beginning of the season, Texas has spiraled out of control into a losing season. So, we weren’t the only team to beat them this year, but we have beat them in each of our last 3 meetings. Very few team can say that when talking about Texas.
Instead of our standard Manhattan meal at Hillside Cafe, we chose to tailgate. Brats, sauerkraut, chips & dip, and chocolate cookies hit the spot. It was a bit windy and almost cold, but it was excellent in the stadium. Perfect football weather. Looking forward to next year.
Linda and I enjoy dancing – we don’t get to do it very often, but we do enjoy it. Most opportunities are provided at weddings; sometimes we can dance at parties or dinners. Sometimes we get silly and dance in the kitchen.
I love holding Linda close and dancing along to slow songs. Every time we dance to slow songs, I close my eyes and think back to dancing on our wedding day.
Finally, there are few things more fun than dancing like a fool and singing along loudly with songs from the 70s and 80s. Man, that brings me back to carefree days of middle school and high school.
In the immortal words of Kenny Loggins:
Loose, footloose
Kick off your Sunday shoes
Please, Louise
Pull me offa my knees
Jack, get back
C’mon before we crack
Lose your blues
Everybody cut footloose
I obtained my first large humidor in 2007 (the one on the left in the above picture). Over the years, it has become very full. I often joke that I can be more accurately called a collector of cigars rather than a cigar smoker. I enjoy sampling the many different offerings available from around the cigar-producing world.
A very good alternative to the spanish cedar wooden humidor is a large wine fridge – Vinotemp being the most common brand used. I’ve wanted one for several years, but didn’t want to spend the money on one nor did I want to spend the money to customize it to hold single cigars.
A friend of mine from my cigar forum put his up for sale. The great part is that he lives in Topeka. Great price, already customized, and he threw in all the different accessories used to keep it humidified. We met up in Lawrence at Centro Cigars to share a cigar and make the transaction.
After moving cigars into the new humidor, I find it completely amazing that I had all my cigars crammed into the one humidor.
After many years of wanting to be evil zombies or witches or vampires, Emily decided this year she wanted to Miss America. She teamed up with best friend, Paige, and looked absolutely beautiful.
The Cowboys came into Manhattan and took advantage of turnovers and penalties. Playing a game that we were supposed to lose, the Cats actually looked pretty good during the first half. We actually were tied 7-7 going into the locker room. The second half, however, found a heartbreaking stretch of 3 straight drives that ended with interceptions (one for a touchdown return). Final score was 24-14.
Well, one more home game (against another team in orange) to get us win number 6 for a bowl appearance.
Anna officially left the tween status behind. She is now 13 and can call herself a teen. To celebrate, she invited 10 of her best friends to a Japanese Steak House for a fabulous lunch.
We watched as the chef gave a fantastic show with fire and knife-work. Chicken, shrimp, and steak all smelled great!
Anna made the cake for her party – and decorated it, too. Seems kind of weird, but that was what she wanted. She did a great job on it, too. Simply stated, “Happy 13th”.
All of her friends brought presents wrapped in pink. They sure know her well.
However, the biggest present of all was the gift she received the day before (as mentioned in yesterdays post):
Over 1000 texts in one weekend – how can someone do that?
Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you very much!
Last week found me landing solidly in middle-age. I turned 40 years of age. However, I feel great. I eat better. I exercise. I’m spiritually fulfilled. And I’ve got a great family.
My parents came to visit – which is always nice. Dad and I spend most of our visits talking tech and taking trips to MicroCenter. Mom is always a loving person and has the grandmother soul – a good thing.
I was post night-shift, so it was very possible I’d spend the whole day walking around like a zombie. But I was awake and felt great. For starters, upon arriving home from work, I found this sign hanging above the kitchen entry:
For my birthday, I took Linda and Anna to the AT&T store to get Anna a new phone – her birthday present. Then we got Linda a new phone also – an iPhone 4. She hates it, but I’m planning on it growing on her (just like the Blackberry did).
My parents took us all out to dinner for the birthdays. Our choice was Texas Roadhouse – a steak joint where you can eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. Plus, one can get prime rib at a decent price.
Of course, Mom had to tell the waitress that we were celebrating birthdays. Dinner was completed with a saddle attached to a sawhorse and a request for us to sit on it while swinging a napkin over our head like a lasso. Anna absolutely wouldn’t do it, so I jumped on and yelled Yeehaw in the best Kansas voice I could.
Angelfood cake with 40 black candles greeted us upon returning home. The picture at the top gives testament that it was quite a glow of fire. We had to open windows and turn the ceiling fan on to disperse all the smoke.
I had a wonderful 40th birthday. Can’t wait to celebrate someone else’s 40th in the next 6 weeks…