With the wind at my back on the way to work this morning, I covered the 7+ miles in 25 minutes, my fastest time ever, for an average speed of 17.5 mph. Not bad! :>
Soccer time
The next half of the soccer season has kicked off with brisk weather. I’m assistant coach for both Wren’s U8 Waves team and Reiley’s u12 Sirens team. I have backup assistants for both teams, since I am not sure of my down time, but I’m ready to be there whenever I can, don’t want to miss the fun! We’ve already had a great practice for each of the teams, I think this season is going to rock! :>
I am going to try to get the Sirens and Waves websites updated with the latest schedules, news, photos and videos (since I have so much free time on my hands, ha!)…
Ryan stars in “A Numb3r”
Andrea and I went to see another great performance by my coworker buddy Ryan Brock, again with The Raleigh Ensemble Players, who tend to put on the more interesting material in really intimate settings – you can’t find better entertainment. This one dealt with cloning, challenging Ryan to play three different characters differentiated only by their accents (which were great and enough reason alone to see the show). Ryan’s intensity made the hour fly by, leaving you wishing for more. Enough said. One week left, don’t miss it!
Reiley and I play war
Yesterday we decided that Reiley was old enough to play a Real Time Strategy war game with me. She and Wren have been playing multi-player Age of Empires ][: The Conquerers for a long time now, and they’re very skilled at map building and playing in a friendly mode. So Reiley kept up with me just fine. And it’s fortunately not too graphic, especially compared to many, many other games. You get to choose from a variety of actual civilizations, so it’s educational, too (yeah yeah, that’s the ticket).
I sent over a few soldiers to attack her early, and she sent a sneaky counter-attack around the back of my colony. She’s a great opponent, and a really good sport to boot. There’s a little bit of guilt on my part, for 1) letting her play wargames and 2) for not holding back more when I’ve played the game a lot more than she has. But I guess there’s plenty of time for her to surpass her old man (and whip his butt). :>
9.0 The Office
Watching the Office is like watching a train wreck in slow motion: it’s too disturbing to look away. Tons of awkward pauses and inappropriate behavior will keep you squirming. Hurts so good.
Wren And Dad hang time
Reiley had a youth group “lock in” and mom and gram went shopping, so Wrenny and I got to hang out tonight. We watched Dreamer and had pita chips and raspberry tea, we played animal yatzee (and both won with a tie of 42-42!), and told stories before I tucked her in. I tried to turn a “prissy princess” into a more-respectable girl who sold her jewelry and pink clothes for a couple of horses (she shared one with her new friend named Wren, of course), while Wren stuck to the “dainty death” stories of prissy princess that, instead of finding redemption, met untimely demises. Oh well, there’s no reigning in kids’ imaginations. :> Thanks for hanging out, Wrenny!
Gary’s Pizza Shoppe
“I made these fantastic pizzas tonight. I’m finally getting a pizza that’s flavorful enough to share with friends.” – Gary
Poker passion
The local tournament-style Texas Hold’ Em poker game last night was great fun – I knocked a couple people out and ended up in 4th place. Keith made it to 2nd place, which is typical, and Chris was the first one out, definitely NOT typical. Just goes to show – even though it’s a great game requiring both strategic and bluffing skills, you can’t remove lady luck from the equation. :>
Pop has a publisher!
This is BIG news! My pop has gotten to the point where he’s pretty happy with the polish he’s applied to his first novel, The Boxcar Kid. He’s been working hard on it for quite some time now, and he has serialized it into three separate books. He’s taken the job of finding a publisher very seriously, researching the “right” way to go about it, attending writer’s conferences to get networked, and even working up an extensive marketing plan.
It’s finally all paid off, as he’s been approached by ArcheBooks Publishing with a serious offer to get published! I really like the look of the publisher – they’re targeted at helping new writers establish long-term careers. They publish only nice hardcover editions, but complement that with ebooks with generous licenses, and have lots of other smart approaches to publishing. Way to go, pop! I’ll update this as more news rolls in. In the meantime, check out the website I set up for an introduction.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Love ya! Hope that free lunch at Iguanamia hit the spot!
UPDATE: Not content to share the spotlight with me mum, my dad decided to smash his car into bumper-to-bumper traffic, causing the three cars in front of him to take damage. Poor guy! Talk about your roller coaster day. He’s recovering now, with a sore chest thanks to hitting the seatbelt and airbag pretty hard. I know you’re on a roll, pop, but slow down and take it easy for a bit! Hope you feel better soon.
9.0 44 Scotland Street, Espresso Tales
These two Alexander McCall Smith novels were originally written as a serialized newspaper column, just like Robert Louis Stephenson used to do. I’ve really enjoyed his light touch and wonderful character development – he floats effortlessly between dozens of characters, with lots of interesting perspectives on life.
In one of Alexander McCall Smith’s short stories, I remember him talking about a poet who wrote under different pseudonyms, each with a different personality. The protagonist stated that in our day, the poet would have been psychoanalyzed as a schizophrenic and his poetry would have been sterilized into diagnostic fodder. Luckily, Smith can get away with displaying multiple personalities in such a masterful way that we can all just indulge.