Category Archives: Fun

Majorette and Band Festival – 2014

Audio, Family, Fun, WV, ,

Tuesday night was the Majorette and Band Festival where all of the high schools in Kanawha county come to show off their field shows.  We joined several hundred other folks in watching 8 great bands play their very best in the University of Charleston stadium.

Our band
Our band on the field

This is our first year to have a band member on the field and we were super excited for all of the build-up and preparation for this show.  The season started with band camp in August where the entire band went away to set up their marching field show and practice their music.  It’s amazing how fast (a week!), the band came together to produce a really nice show.  Since that time, they practice daily and have refined their show incredibly!

Us with the other bands
Us with the other bands
Video007
Click to play the small version

Here’s a better version if your machine will play it

We are very fortunate to have a really great band director who expects a lot from the kids, and leads them demand a lot from themselves.  Their pride and hard work that the director instilled in them really showed as they  took the field Tuesday.  The band exhibited fantastic precision in marching and delivered as crisp a performance as I’ve ever heard/seen.  They were in synch and smooth and just looked first-class.  I couldn’t be more proud of how these kids performed!

Youtube video with bits from all of the bands

As a special treat, Marshall University’s Marching Thunder performed the finale at the festival and showed the bands at the festival what the next level of play might be for them.  They were great and dynamic and made a lot of sound (in a great way) as you would expect from a good sized university band!

Marshall Marching Thunder
Marshall Marching Thunder – Click to play small version

Here’s a better version if your machine will play it

Among other songs, they played Big Noise from Winnetka, one of the songs that Isaac’s jazz band played last year…both were great renditions…it was a lot of fun to hear the different takes on the same song.  While we were disappointed that our band wasn’t awarded the grand champion trophy, I am so proud of Isaac and his friends and look forward to many more competitions!

Who is right?

Fun, ,

Emily and I are having problems.  We’ve been married for 20 years now, and this problem has festered beneath the surface for as long as we have been together.  She thinks that she is right and I know I am right.  I just don’t know that we can ever come to an agreement on this.

Green bananas...an atrocity!
Green bananas…an atrocity!

You see, she likes bananas when they are obscenely green.  Truly, it is a crime against nature.  I prefer bananas as God intended them…yellow with slight hints of brown.  Although we have not yet sought out counseling for this problem, we may have come across a solution.  I am not sure why it didn’t occur to us until this week, but Emily and I are planning to start buying two bunches of bananas at a time…one that she will (incorrectly) eat immediately, and one that I will let age (like fine wine) for a few days and then eat.  We should be able to manage our troubles this way.  It appears she will not open her eyes to what is good and right, so I think our best shot is to accommodate her imperfections as best we can!

Ripe bananas...the right way to eat them!
Ripe bananas…the right way to eat them!

Scout camp…a long time ago!

Adventure, Fun, ,

Way back when, I was in the Boy Scouts.  My Dad was the scoutmaster for a large portion of my scouting career so it was doubly neat to be involved together.  I grew up in the boonies, so scouting type stuff was pretty much what we did anyhow…it was just organized.  We were outdoors all the time.  We hiked and canoed and camped seemingly every weekend.  Many kids growing up before the computer age lived like that I guess and I am fortunate to have been a part of it.

Anyhow, we went to scout camp each summer.  As I got older, the time got to be a lot more fun.   I guess we all got confident and a little cocky.  We went to camp and sort of looked for mischief…good mischief, but mischief none-the-less.

Camp Custaloga Town 1986
Camp Custaloga Town 1986

We went to visit my parents this weekend and my Dad turned up an old camp picture from 1986.  Where I lived, our scout camp was called Custaloga Town Scout Reservation.  I have all sorts of fond memories walking about the woods at the camp, mucking around in the lake and rappelling off the water tower.  I did my mile-swim at camp and had a grand time staying up too late acting stupid.  It’s fun to look at this old pic and see faces of me, my dad and my brother…all when we were a lot younger!

Scouting is stuck in a no-win political mess and has to compete with so many activities that are available for young men.  My kids are not involved in scouts because of all of the other things they are in, so they get a similar experience I hope.  I know they find plenty of time for mischief so that doesn’t worry me…it isn’t Camp Custaloga Town for my kids, but rather band camp now…it’s all good!

Ab Challenge

Awesome, Fun,

Back in May, a friend of mine posted a “30 day ab challenge” event on her facebook.  Isaac and I decided to give it a go.  After losing a bunch of weight, I decided it was time to get back into guided activity, just to see what would happen.  Here is the schedule we tackled:

Ab Challenge

It started off pretty easy and neither Isaac nor I had any trouble keeping up with the program…we pretty easily sailed through the routine until somewhere around Day 22 or so.  It got to the point where just sheer number of movements got tiring…I know that sort of makes sense…it is exercise after all.  But it was more in our heads than anything.  On the last day, we did 200 crunches.  What gets in your head is when we hit 100, we are only half way done.  It’s hard physically too of course but working our way into it made it doable.  Since we completed the challenge, we have decided to just keep doing it.  Three days a week, we just do Day 30 again.  It’s not easy, but it is definitely easier than when we first got to day 30.  We added push-ups to it too, just to add a little something outside of the ab part.  It’s been a really cool workout for us and only takes a little time each week to get it done.  I know you may be wondering…did it work?  The answer is yes, it definitely did.  I think it is probably best that I do not post pics of my abs on here, but you’ll have to try it for yourself and see!

It’s a little late for this year, but start now and get ready for Beach 2015!

The surfer look?

Adventure, Awesome, Family, Fun, , , ,

We’ve been back from the beach for a few days, but my head is sort of still halfway between home and the ocean.  I was looking back over the pics I took and there are far too many of the pier.  The other trend I think I found were of the four of us looking like wannabe surfers.

On the beach

On the beach

Really, it is more of a matter of wearing rashguard shirts so we don’t get sunburned, but that’s not too sexy so we will go with the surfer look.

On the beach

Abigail in particular, is the water-dog when it comes to body-surfing.  We had several days of pretty rough waves and she didn’t seem to even notice.  I was getting beat to death, but she kept going out into the surf.  Of course, she, too, was getting beat up, but it just didn’t seem to bother her.  And heck, scars and scabs on my little girl’s knees and feet are kind of cool.

On the beach

On the beach

Well, beach time is over I guess so I will have to get back into real life mode I suppose.  Really though, I suppose I will have enough sand it my delicate parts to be reminded of the beach for some time to come!

Beach 2014

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We go to the beach every other year or so and this is our year.  This is weird I know, especially since I never went to the beach as a kid, but it truly doesn’t feel like Summer to me on beach years, until we actually go to the beach.  Of course, this year we have had screwed up weather so it really hasn’t felt like Summer until now anyhow.

Topsail Island 2014
Topsail Island 2014

I am not sure why I need to go to the beach to feel Summery but I am definitely on holiday and enjoying my most favoritest season – Summer!  We have been to Topsail Island, NC the last few beach trips and I think it has become our new favorite place.  When we do the beach, we do the beach and nothing else.  Topsail is mostly houses on the beach and not much touristy stuff to do.  It’s mostly not crowded and suits perfectly my need to lay on the sand in earshot of waves crashing so I can sleep properly.  It’s perfect!

Topsail Island 2014
They were so happy to get here that they actually posed!
Topsail Island 2014
Isaac is always hungry!

As the kids get older, I think that we have found that it is as much fun to watch them at the beach as any other thing.  They like to people watch and body surf and read and all the stuff we do.  It’s just total fun!  It is contagious and we all just relax and kick back.  We are here this year with Emily’s family and it’s a great opportunity to spend time with cousins and stay up late and eat too much rich food.  I used to be able to add “get sunburned” to that list but we have taken that out of the mix…we are very diligent about keeping everyone slathered in sunblock…funny how times change and we get smarter.

Topsail Island 2014
The freckles have appeared!
Topsail Island 2014
Feed us!!!

Anyhow, I love the beach and need to re-charge every couple of years.  And like they say, even a bad day at the beach beats a great day at work!

MANKs

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This week, Emily and I are MANKs….Married Adults, No Kids!  The kids went home with my parents last weekend after a visit here in WV.  We have done that several summers but this year is a good bit longer…all told, they will be in PA for 12 days!  Emily and I do not know what to do with ourselves!

My lovely kids!
My lovely kids!

Of course, we love the kids and love being with them, but we have had very little time for just the two of us.  It seems like there were just two of us when we got married, but that was a long time ago so it is hard to remember!  It’s a little weird, but it sort of feels like when we were first married!  We went out to eat a time or two, saw a late movie, stayed up too late, went grocery shopping in peace, ate without breaking up a fight, took walks, and talked about whatever we wanted to, whenever we wanted to.

While it is fantastic having kids and being with the kids, I gotta say, being a MANK again is a nice change…but just for a little while…

Old school popcorn

Family, Fun,

I wandered the grocery store awhile back, probably hunting for something important.  That’s why I found myself in the snack food aisle.  I hadn’t noticed it in a long time, but before my eyes, hidden on a low shelf, was a Jiffy-Pop popcorn pan!  I didn’t know they still made Jiffy-Pop!  I really thought pretty much all popcorn had gone the microwave-bag route…an American tragedy I say.

Jiffy Pop!

Jiffy Pop! It’s still a thing!

Well, I was so excited that I just had to buy the formerly-metal-now-space-age-fireproof-cardboard  pan of popcorn.  Of course, with this magical new pan, it recommends not cooking over a grill or a glass-top range…but that’s all I have so I dared the popcorn fates and fired up the glass range (which we hate).  Heck, we use a huge canner on it breaking that rule too!  I ain’t skeered….and darned if it didn’t pop just fine!

It's alive!
It’s alive!

I was so excited to hear the sizzle of the faux-butter and the first pops.  I dragged the kids in to hear, fully expecting they would be as delighted as I was when we made Jiffy-Pop at home when I was a kid…it was a magical time, the 1970s.  My kids were less inspired by the magic.  It’s a shame I guess…they know Led Zepplin, Rush and Jim Croce.  They know how to dial a rotary phone and have seen all episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard!  They now know Jiffy-Pop but are not as enamored with it as they should be…or as they are with the Duke boys.  I don’t understand kids these days I guess…Oh wait…did I just say that?!

In the middle of tweendom

Awesome, Family, Fun, Thoughts,

My little baby girl turns 11 today.  That places her squarely in the demographic known as “tween”.  My mom always used to say that she liked my brother and me best at the age we were, whenever someone asked.  I have to say I see it now.  I loved Abigail as a baby and as a 5 year old and I am really enjoying her as a budding young woman right now.  It’s fun to see her interests begin to shape and her soon-to-be-adult ideas begin to form.  She is strong willed and determined and sometimes emotional and always just a lot of fun to be around.

Abigail! Abigail!

Emily and I had to beg her (as we always do) to give us some gift ideas.  Our kids have the most awesome responses when asked what they want for gifts.  Typically it is just a small thing or two.  I wrote about  a few examples awhile back…sort of a funny read I think.  Anyhow, I do not think they have ever just “gone wild” asking for things.  They see value in certain things and also are beginning to see and understand the value of money.

Birthday knife!
Birthday…knife?

Birthday Presents!

Birthday Presents!

So this year, Abigail asked simply for a pocket knife, an iTunes gift card and some Gobstoppers.  I think that’s a pretty cool list…not a typical list by any means.  Of course, the pocket knife surprised me the most but hey, who am I to question my daughter wanting to buck stereotypes?!  I got her exactly what she wanted and surprised her with it this morning.  As of breakfast time, she had not yet cut herself.  I know it will happen at some point.  Folks have to learn things and sometimes it has to be learned the hard way.  We will teach her safety of course so it will be up to hear to learn, one way or another.  It’s good to have a little danger and responsibility too…she is 11 after all…growing right up into a real person a wonderful young lady!

Regional Jazz Band Festival

Audio, Awesome, Family, Fun, WV,

I post a lot about Isaac’s middle school band but they are just so good, I can’t help but post more.  This weekend, they attended the Regional Jazz Band Festival in Huntington, WV and played as awesome as they always do.

Jazz Festival

In the Mood 

Ballad for Zoe

Malaguena

Big Noise from Winnetka

(Try the links below on your phone or if the links above do not work)
(Warning! They are huge and will use your data plan if you download on your phone)

In the Mood 

Ballad for Zoe

Malaguena

Big Noise from Winnetka

The band director is a fantastic guy and loves the kids…they love him too and it shows when they play.  The amazing thing in my opinion, is that there is no official jazz band program in the school.  The kids and the director work before school or after school or on weekends…on their own time.  I think they are amazing regardless of age, but even more impressive is that this band is 6th-8th grade kids.  It is just unbelievable I think!  I wish my phone captured the dynamics and quality of their sound better than it did.  In the end, they got a “superior” rating which is as good as it gets.  We will find out soon how they rank state-wide…here’s hoping for a top finish!