Today is the birthday of a very special person in my life: my 3-year-old son, Robbie.
Robbie's birthday was celebrated with a day full of predictably Robbie-suited activities. Drove to a park in Wichita this morning because it had a train ride (we rode it twice), listend to Veggie Tales on the way home, had nap time, opened presents and had cake, then played in the infltable kiddie pool my parents have, ate pizza with cheesesticks and peas for dinner, watched Veggie Tales (Josh and the Big Wall) on Netflix, played with some cars, and then went to bed.
All that was missing was a special trip to a construction site. And those are harder to line up for a 3-year-old's birthday.
Therefore, here's a summer fun mad-lib inspired by my son:
Summer Fun
Every summer, people head to Lake Robbie near Wellington. There are so many things to do at the lake. Lots of people snorkel, hoping to catch a glimpse of the energetic cebus that live in the lake.
On Saturdays, people have swimming relay races. Each team has three members. Swimmers carry swimming trunks that are passed from one team member to the next. The winning team is awarded excavators and trains. Lots of people come to watch the races. They cheer on teams by shouting, “IGOO!”
After the races, people paddle their cars around the lake. Then everyone comes back to shore for a picnic of cheese stick sandwiches and hard-boiled egg white sundaes. Someone usually plays the hug while people eat.
People are sad when the summer ends. But everyone looks forward to the next summer at Lake Robbie when they can snorkel above the energetic cebus, swim for prizes of excavators and trains, and paddle their cars.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
v2, d106: Vay-Cay
Good day of sleeping in, watching World Cup sadness, following the NHL draft via Twitter, sitting around and talking with parents, reading a library book, eating good food, and playing with my son. Very, very nice day.
Don't count on daily blogging during this vacation. I'm a busy man right now :-)
P.S. Dear Tropical Storm Alex, please don't wipe out my hometown. I need an apartment to come home to. And friends. I need those, too. FEMA won't get new friends to me for at least a couple of years.
Don't count on daily blogging during this vacation. I'm a busy man right now :-)
P.S. Dear Tropical Storm Alex, please don't wipe out my hometown. I need an apartment to come home to. And friends. I need those, too. FEMA won't get new friends to me for at least a couple of years.
Friday, June 25, 2010
v2, d105: I'm Checkin Iiiiiin....
Kudos to anyone who immediately recognized the reference.
Anyway, just wanted to check in to let you all know I made it home all right. We are all very, very tired. Tomorrow the grandparents are taking the little boy all morning long, so we parent types should get to sleep in till noon or so. That will be nice.
Watched the first round of the NHL draft on Versus tonight. Always surprised at how much I enjoy the draft.
G'nite.
Anyway, just wanted to check in to let you all know I made it home all right. We are all very, very tired. Tomorrow the grandparents are taking the little boy all morning long, so we parent types should get to sleep in till noon or so. That will be nice.
Watched the first round of the NHL draft on Versus tonight. Always surprised at how much I enjoy the draft.
G'nite.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
v2, d104: Less bleh
Feeling a little better today. Better enough to go to work, anyway, which is good, because there are a few loose ends I needed to tie up before leaving for vacation.
Oh yeah, that's tomorrow.
I think we're all really excited about going. Somehow, Robbie got it in his head that we were going today, so when we told him we needed to get in the car to go to school (instead of, say, Kansas) he started crying. Poor kid. Tomorrow, little guy. One more day.
Oh hey, here's a movie I'd heard about but knew nothing about until I saw this. You should know about it, too. I guess it's kinda like The A-Team meets The Bucket List?
And since we're having fun, here's the fantastic US/Canada clip from last night's NHL Awards show. Possibly the best part of the night:
To quote a character from my son's favorite movie, "I don't care who ya are, that's funny!"
I was also going to embed or link to the Cirque du Soleil performance from last night's show, because I know some of my readers are into that, but that particular clip is not linkable or embeddable, so if you're interested you'll have to go do video.nhl.com and search for it yourself. It was from the Beatles show in Vegas.
Okay, I'll drop a note when we get where we're going tomorrow!
Oh yeah, that's tomorrow.
I think we're all really excited about going. Somehow, Robbie got it in his head that we were going today, so when we told him we needed to get in the car to go to school (instead of, say, Kansas) he started crying. Poor kid. Tomorrow, little guy. One more day.
Oh hey, here's a movie I'd heard about but knew nothing about until I saw this. You should know about it, too. I guess it's kinda like The A-Team meets The Bucket List?
And since we're having fun, here's the fantastic US/Canada clip from last night's NHL Awards show. Possibly the best part of the night:
To quote a character from my son's favorite movie, "I don't care who ya are, that's funny!"
I was also going to embed or link to the Cirque du Soleil performance from last night's show, because I know some of my readers are into that, but that particular clip is not linkable or embeddable, so if you're interested you'll have to go do video.nhl.com and search for it yourself. It was from the Beatles show in Vegas.
Okay, I'll drop a note when we get where we're going tomorrow!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
v2, d103: Bleh
Sick all day. Had to stay home from work. Reading a boring book.
Great win for the U.S. soccer team to win their pool in the World Cup, though. Also, I hope you watched the NHL awards show. Awkward moments aside, it was actually pretty entertaining this year. Once the Bobby Ryan/Ryan Getzlaf US vs Canada spot gets on youtube, I promise I'll post it. 'Cause it was awesome.
Off to try to get some rest. (Come along, boring book!)
Great win for the U.S. soccer team to win their pool in the World Cup, though. Also, I hope you watched the NHL awards show. Awkward moments aside, it was actually pretty entertaining this year. Once the Bobby Ryan/Ryan Getzlaf US vs Canada spot gets on youtube, I promise I'll post it. 'Cause it was awesome.
Off to try to get some rest. (Come along, boring book!)
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
v2, d102: "You play ball like a GIRL!!!"
Or "puck," as the case may be.
The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its 2010 class of inductees today, and for the first time ever, the "Players" category included women. Two of them. Canadian Angela James and American Cammi Granato. (The only other Player inductee was Dino Cicarelli, who despite scoring over 600 NHL goals was on his eighth year of eligibility) I kept reading what a weak year this was for first-year-eligible players, so guesses were flying around the Internet as to which less-than-worthy former NHLers might get the nod. Very few people even mentioned the national heroes of the women's game, so I think today's announcement came as a surprise to a lot of people. (Also, the exclusion of former coach etc Pat Burns was a surprise to many, and not a pleasant one)
Granato and James. They were kind of the same influence in the only two powers in women's hockey. Angels James was the elder stateswoman for an entire generation of Canadian hockey players; Cammi Granato was the same for a generation of Americans. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call them the two most dominant players in the history of women's ice hockey. (I'd throw Haley Wickenhiser in there someday) There aren't enough credible players in the world to put together a solid professional women's league (I know Canada has or had a very small league at one point) so the loftiest goal a female hockey player can aspire to is Olympic glory. (Even that's in doubt; as the rest of the world refuses to close the gap between themselves and the Big Two, there's really not much in the way of competition. American players also have a competitive NCAA program; I'm not sure what Canadian players play for) James and Granato, however, were the faces of the women's game even before the Olympics had hockey for women.
Unfortunately, Angela James never got to play in the Olympics, but she won just about everything else there was to win. She's also the only African-Canadian to captain a national team. They called her the "Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey."
Granato never received quite the fanfare that James did, mostly because she was in the U.S. and not Canada. But for many, she was the one who caused folks to start taking women's hockey seriously in America. I guarantee that just about any woman currently playing the USA Hockey program has idolized Granato at one point or another. About a week ago, I wrote a guest blog from fictional character Slapshot, who briefly recounted her reaction when her parents explained she'd never grow up to play for the Blackhawks. That story is actually Granato's. (Her older brother, Tony, went on to have a great NHL playing career and has some moderate success in coaching as well) While James campaigned all of her career for women's hockey in the Olympics, it was Granato who actually got the chance to realize the dream, leading the American women to the first ever gold medal in the event in 1998. (Last gold we've won in hockey) In 2006, in a controversial move, Granato was left off the roster, and the U.S. finished a humiliating third. (And yes, for the U.S., third in women's hockey is humiliating) I'll never forget how pissed off analyst Ray Ferraro was following the U.S. loss to Sweden (I think it was Sweden): "I am going to admit my bias right up front: Cammi Granato, the long-time captain, team leader, and best player for Team U.S.A., is my wife. That said..." Ferraro posited that the lack of Granato-leadership cost the American team a chance for the gold. Very, very strong chance he's right.
I've long thought these two ladies were worthy of admission to the HHOF. After all, it's not an NHL Hall of Fame, but a Hockey Hall of Fame. I was also pleased a couple years back when the HHOF was getting a bit more generous toward former Soviet superstars who never played an NHL game in their life. (Tretiak had been in there for awhile, but a few others have trickled in more recently) I hope that this doesn't become a mandate, however, like "Every year, we will include 3 men and 1 woman," because I think that cheapens the honor that these two ladies have earned.
I really hope I get to go to Toronto to visit the HHOF someday. At one point, they even had a couple of Wichita Thunder goodies in there. (Do Jackson and Jobe still hold the record for fastest 50 goals?) Add it to the list of things I'm going to do once I get either rich or famous ;-)
(All of this, by the way, is not to take anything away from Cicarelli's induction. Congrats, Dino! Only second former Lightning player to be enshrined in the Hall, and well-earned!)
The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its 2010 class of inductees today, and for the first time ever, the "Players" category included women. Two of them. Canadian Angela James and American Cammi Granato. (The only other Player inductee was Dino Cicarelli, who despite scoring over 600 NHL goals was on his eighth year of eligibility) I kept reading what a weak year this was for first-year-eligible players, so guesses were flying around the Internet as to which less-than-worthy former NHLers might get the nod. Very few people even mentioned the national heroes of the women's game, so I think today's announcement came as a surprise to a lot of people. (Also, the exclusion of former coach etc Pat Burns was a surprise to many, and not a pleasant one)
Granato and James. They were kind of the same influence in the only two powers in women's hockey. Angels James was the elder stateswoman for an entire generation of Canadian hockey players; Cammi Granato was the same for a generation of Americans. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to call them the two most dominant players in the history of women's ice hockey. (I'd throw Haley Wickenhiser in there someday) There aren't enough credible players in the world to put together a solid professional women's league (I know Canada has or had a very small league at one point) so the loftiest goal a female hockey player can aspire to is Olympic glory. (Even that's in doubt; as the rest of the world refuses to close the gap between themselves and the Big Two, there's really not much in the way of competition. American players also have a competitive NCAA program; I'm not sure what Canadian players play for) James and Granato, however, were the faces of the women's game even before the Olympics had hockey for women.
Unfortunately, Angela James never got to play in the Olympics, but she won just about everything else there was to win. She's also the only African-Canadian to captain a national team. They called her the "Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey."
Granato never received quite the fanfare that James did, mostly because she was in the U.S. and not Canada. But for many, she was the one who caused folks to start taking women's hockey seriously in America. I guarantee that just about any woman currently playing the USA Hockey program has idolized Granato at one point or another. About a week ago, I wrote a guest blog from fictional character Slapshot, who briefly recounted her reaction when her parents explained she'd never grow up to play for the Blackhawks. That story is actually Granato's. (Her older brother, Tony, went on to have a great NHL playing career and has some moderate success in coaching as well) While James campaigned all of her career for women's hockey in the Olympics, it was Granato who actually got the chance to realize the dream, leading the American women to the first ever gold medal in the event in 1998. (Last gold we've won in hockey) In 2006, in a controversial move, Granato was left off the roster, and the U.S. finished a humiliating third. (And yes, for the U.S., third in women's hockey is humiliating) I'll never forget how pissed off analyst Ray Ferraro was following the U.S. loss to Sweden (I think it was Sweden): "I am going to admit my bias right up front: Cammi Granato, the long-time captain, team leader, and best player for Team U.S.A., is my wife. That said..." Ferraro posited that the lack of Granato-leadership cost the American team a chance for the gold. Very, very strong chance he's right.
I've long thought these two ladies were worthy of admission to the HHOF. After all, it's not an NHL Hall of Fame, but a Hockey Hall of Fame. I was also pleased a couple years back when the HHOF was getting a bit more generous toward former Soviet superstars who never played an NHL game in their life. (Tretiak had been in there for awhile, but a few others have trickled in more recently) I hope that this doesn't become a mandate, however, like "Every year, we will include 3 men and 1 woman," because I think that cheapens the honor that these two ladies have earned.
I really hope I get to go to Toronto to visit the HHOF someday. At one point, they even had a couple of Wichita Thunder goodies in there. (Do Jackson and Jobe still hold the record for fastest 50 goals?) Add it to the list of things I'm going to do once I get either rich or famous ;-)
(All of this, by the way, is not to take anything away from Cicarelli's induction. Congrats, Dino! Only second former Lightning player to be enshrined in the Hall, and well-earned!)
Monday, June 21, 2010
v2, d101: Sobering reminder
In lieu of actual blogging (since I've got to get up a bit earlier than usual tomorrow) I'm going to pass along this somewhat creepy story about the unprecedented World Cup coverage in North Korea.
That place scares me, man, but it's a pretty interesting read. I could go all "blah blah blah, we Americans don't appreciate our freedoms," but you know what? We really don't. Sometimes it's scary to remember what goes on in "the rest of the world," especially during something like the World Cup, which should really be a time of international celebration, win or lose.
That place scares me, man, but it's a pretty interesting read. I could go all "blah blah blah, we Americans don't appreciate our freedoms," but you know what? We really don't. Sometimes it's scary to remember what goes on in "the rest of the world," especially during something like the World Cup, which should really be a time of international celebration, win or lose.
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