So it goes...

Only a moment to synopsize the game from yesterday. Ben's team dominated from the outset. The final score was 42-0. The first three offensive plays from Waukesha North resulted in -9 yards. On the day, I think North's offense ended up with probably -60 yards. It was really kind of sad, and I felt bad for them by the fourth quarter. Actually I was hoping they'd bust one just to feel how it felt to score. Alas, Ben's team was not that forgiving. Part of the problem was North couldn't get 11 players on the field. They often ended up with 10 or 12 players. One is short handed, the other a penalty. If you want your team to have a shot, you've got to set them up to win. Other highlights: Ben got a fair amount of playing time because it was so lopsided. Most of his time was on Defense as cornerback . They didn't (couldn't) pass much, so he was mostly just there mopping up on some of the tackles. He also played a lot on kickoffs (kicking) where he showed tenac...

It's Ben's first game as a 6th Grade Jr. Blackshirt today. It's a gorgeous 75 degree, low humidity, beginning-of-fall type day. The whole Ben/Football experience brings me back to my days as a young player. I loved everything about it and am trying to instill that in Ben. He seems to be much better with it than he was during conditioning week, but the jury's still out on whether he'll take it to the long term. I think for him, more than the playing itself, he likes the comraderie and team concept more than the actual playing, but I might be wrong. I do know that for the first time in forever, he sat and watched part of the Packer game with me on Thursday. My experience as a player was much different than Ben's as I recall. It was no where near as organized or competitive. It was an intramural program run by Wally Wescott of St. Lukes. I remember him showing up at practice time in his beat up Ford convertible with a trunk full of helmets. I can't recall for s...

I came home to a letter from the Boundary Waters Journal www.boundarywatersjournal.com accepting one of my stories for publication in their Winter 2010 edition! I can't describe the feeling. The best part is they're paying me for the piece. As you may or may not know, I've had some poetry published, but never got much more than a couple of complimentary copies of the publication for it. This is more like the real deal. More importantly than that, is the fact that I'm starting to build a portfolio and getting some recognition. It is so incredibly sweet, I can't explain it. That's pretty much all I wanted to post today. I do want to put in a shameless plug for all of you outdoor types to subscribe to the publication. It's a quarterly publication and is only about $23/year for a subscription. I intend to subscribe as soon as we recover from the financial shock waves caused by our multiple vacations this past summer. It is a great publication and supports local...

The honeymoon is officially over with Linux. I uninstalled it in a fit of rage yesterday after having it loop through a couple of boots when I originally went in. Then, once I got in, it black screen of death'd me while I was trying to work. If I needed that kind of dependency, I'd stay with windows. So that's what I'm doing. In short, it required a few gyrations to get the thing uninstalled, the details of which I won't bore you with here. Suffice it to say it took a Windows XP installation disk to reset the NTLoader and kill off the GRUB loader. If that means anything to you, well, I feel as sorry for you as I did for myself. Just got back from a training meeting at Church. I'm acting as a table captain for Boot Camp, a Tuesday Night Live ministry that starts in a few weeks. As usual, I'm having the pre-group second thoughts about whether I should do it or not. I no doubt will, just have to work through my second guessing again. Such a waffler! :-) Tomorro...

Well, lets just say the jury's still out on my whole recent infatuation with the Linux machine. It's been a crazy few days around here trying to get it all right. I'll go into a little details so you can see how utterly insane I am. Turns out the version I was using (PCLinux OS Gnome) was OK for what I was doing, but in the middle of a couple of web editing sessions, where I was editing my online memoir using Microsoft Live Office, the PC went into what I like to call the "Black screen of death". It's much like the linux equivalent to the Windows Blue screen of death. The first time it happened it left no message, no nothing. The second time it happened it said something like it was trying to find a server or something. Needless to say I can't have that happening willy-nilly. Not cool. So, after posting my situation on line, along with the specs of my 'puter, a couple of techs said maybe I would be better with a different "flavor" of linux; a...

I write this post from inside a fresh PC Linux OS install. http://www.pclinuxos.com/ For those who don't have any idea what I just said, PC Linux is an Open Source Operating System that acts like a free version of Microsoft Windows. There are a few reasons I'm test driving this new OS. Number one is that I like to fart around with computers. I'm a bit more of a geek than I'd like to admit, but to me it's kind of a fun hobby. Besides, it helps keep my skills up a bit for work. Who knows, maybe in 2012 there will be some kind of cataclysmic Windows Virus that wipes out ALL windows installs the world over. In that case, (and I'm banking on it) guys like me will be in great demand. If not, well at least I've given it a run-through. Not a bad skill to have in my back pocket. Two is that I have this laptop (thank you, Jilly) that is underpowered and I want to see if it runs any faster using an OS that has a smaller footprint than the Microsoft Bloatware we know ...

It's been a long strange week around these parts. Lots of relatives and friends (friends' kids) staying with us this past week. Early in the week it was my niece and her boy friend (a VERY nice guy) and then late in the week a friends three kids + one foreign exchange student of theirs. So in the chaos that was last week, many random things came to me. While we are a private family, we DO like our interactions with friends and family. Only if it is followed up with long periods of just us again. Why does my dog stop at every dog doo that he sees, regardless of whether he's stopped there before? Doesn't all poo pretty much smell the same? Professional Skateboarders may look like they have an ideal job, but they earn every cent. I can't imagine how beat they are at the end of a demo like I saw today. Summer is really just an ongoing battle of homeowners trying to tame God's creation known as their yard. Unfortunately chaos always prevails in the end. The U2 Conce...

So we're on day 27 of intense heat and humidity, or so it seems. What is with this summer? First torrential rain, then enveloping humidity and heat, wrapped in a cloud of mosquitoes. It is especially hard for us as we have no central air conditioning. The two window air conditioners are going all day and night. It makes the two living areas and dining room at least bearable, but the rest of the house is a sweat box. I shouldn't complain, because there's many people with much worse. I don't often wish for summer to end, but this is pushing me in that direction rather quickly. Poor Ben has had practice all week in pads in this heat. He's been a real trooper through it all. He had some big complaints early on when he was extremely sore. Now that he's in better shape though he seems to like it a bit more. I can't say how proud it makes me to see him in that uniform. It brings me back to the days when I played intramural football as a 6th grader. I loved everythi...

As I mentioned in my previous post, Colorado was amazing, fantastic, splendid and outstanding! It has enough natural beauty in it to keep you watching around every turn. I had a couple of run-ins with the law during our 10 day stint in CO. The first incident was while I was weaving my way through downtown Manitou Springs. The GPS had us taking all kinds of crazy turns in what did not look like the right direction. Donna took it off the suction cup holder and started futzing with it. I came to the bottom of a hill to what I thought was an uncontrolled intersection and then took a left. A cop was ahead of me and he pulled over to the side into a parking spot, and let me pass. Within 1/2 a block, he had his lights on and so I pulled over. Donna and the kids looked back when he turned his siren on for a short burst. "Is he pulling you over?" "Uh, yeah hon he is..." I replied. So as he's walking to the car, I reach for my wallet, which of course causes him to put hi...

I have to keep this post short, as our internet wifi connection is sketchy at best and prone to dropping at any moment. Suffice it to say that our Colorado experience has exceeded every expectation. Without a doubt the most beautiful part of this country that I've seen yet. Glorious mountains, fertile valleys, breathtaking vistas and eye popping geologic formations. I've even had a couple of run-ins with the law that I'll blog about at a different time. I know my kids are going to miss CO when we leave tomorrow, and Donna and I will too...greatly. It will go down as probably the best family vacation we've had, though we say that every time. In future posts (Perhaps even later today, as it is a "downtime day") I'll try and go into more detail about each location: Estes Park Rocky Mtn National Park Whitewater rafting Colorado Springs Garden of the Gods Horseback Riding Red Rocks Air Force Academy Million Dollar Highway Durango and Mesa Verde It's been so...