Omaha

I just returned from a four-day visit to Omaha.  My good buddy Steve was home visiting his family, and since I'm not working right now, I figured why not drive over and see some old (we are old) friends.  I brought my camera, but I was not a good photog, likely because so many people were giving me a hard time about my old cell phone (circa 2008) that I didn't want to further embarrass myself and bring out an even older camera (or just a camera in general since most peoples' phones serve that role).  Fortunately, some others took pictures and forwarded them to me.

Friday night was a mini-reunion from Papillion-LaVista class of 1991.  A group of us--me, Steve, Jon Peterson (and his wife Shelly), Dave Alati, and Aaron Thomas met at BW3's; Scott Lauritsen (Steve's older brother) and Jerrid Derr (class of 1992) were also there.  We stayed out well past our bedtimes--I think we got home past 11--and reminisced and told stories and made fun of our past behaviors.  Sadly, there are no pictures to document this.

Saturday, I went over to the Wolfe-pack's house and went to lunch with Kristine (Sharp).  This name is probably familiar to all the blog readers, as the Wolfe-pack spent New Year's 2017 at our house.  We had a lovely lunch, and then played three games of Scrabble, all of which were won by yours truly, making it something like five in a row (not that I'm counting).  Sadly, again, no pictures.  Saturday night, Steve, Kristine, and I met up with Jenny Lashier (Montgomery), who was in town with her family for her parent's 50th anniversary.  We met up for drinks and what not, telling familiar stories from days long ago.  Fortunately, there are some pictures.  First, a nice shot of the four of us from the bar.

Around 10 pm, Big Stiv convinced Jenny to take us back to her parent's house.  I can't imagine how I would react to a few clowns coming to my house late at night--I think Jenny's husband, Andy, and one of her daughters were already asleep.  However, they could not have been more gracious, and it was simply lovely to see Peggy and Arlyn (Jenny's parents).  At some point, Peggy mentioned something about a Ping-Pong table in the basic.  Immediately, Steve and I had our engrained Pavlovian response to the words "Ping-Pong" as we spent many hours playing in my parent's basement.  One thing led to another, and soon, we were all in the basement playing games and such.  Andy (Jenny's husband) suggested a game of doubles.  Steve and I versus Arlyn (who is 70 years old) and Andy.  Sadly, we were smoked, and smoked badly.  In the first three games, I don't think we scored in the double-digits, as is evident by my exasperated look.

We think Andy and Arlyn just wanted to go to bed, because we actually won the forth game, at which point we realized we should let this poor family sleep (although we feel we could have played for many more hours due to the rabid fan we had in Jenny's daughter who kept chanting "Jeff and Steve!  Jeff and Steve!" any time we did something good.  We took time for one more picture, and made our way home before we turned into pumpkins.

Sunday was a golf day, and like a moron, I again left my camera in the car.  I played with Jon and Shelly at their country club.  I hadn't played in over five years, and boy did it show.  I should have paid more attention to Shelly, who doesn't crush the ball, but she just hit the ball straight and true.  I'm sure she got tired of having to wait (multiple times) while we looked in vain for my ball.  Something must be wrong with my driver because most of my tee shots had a horrific slice.  After golf, we ate Mexican, which was awesome.  Yesterday was my last day, and I spent some time driving around Papillion.  The place is nothing like it was back in 1991.  Then again, Colorado Springs is nothing like it was back in 2000; I guess that's just what happens as we get older.  I also got to see Ken and Mary Peterson (Jon's parents), who are doing great.  And Monday night was a quiet night at Steve's Mom's (Sue), watching her beloved Spurs get eliminated from the playoffs :-(

Today, I came home and was reminded that, despite what the news will have you think, most people are quite nice.  Case in point:  As I was leaving Ogalala, Nebraska, where I filled up with gas, I left my wallet on the roof of my car.  I had no idea I had done this until I got a call saying my wallet had been found in the middle of the street.  The effort these two people went through to track me down is amazing--I don't have my cell number in my wallet, but an hour after it was lost, I got the call.  At first, I was just mad at what I'd done, but when I thought about how bad it could have been, I realized I was quite lucky.  Yes, I had to turn around and drive back, which added about 100 miles to my trip, but it was worth it, both to get my wallet back and to have this subtle reminder that nice people do exist in the world :-)  I had a lovely trip to Nebraska, and must thank Ashley and Bode for letting me go have fun while they slaved away at the home front (although they did forget to put the trash out...)  Pleasant week to all.

Snow!

It is the 18th of May, and it is simply pouring snow outside.  And it's not a nice gentle snow where everything melts when it lands.  It's cold, it's accumulating, it's heavy and wet, and I have already been outside (twice) to try to knock the snow from tree branches and my garden net.

I moved some of my pumpkin plants outside over the weekend.  I didn't move them all--I figured on the off-chance it got cold, I didn't want to risk them.  I had no idea we'd get three or four inches of snow, and a potential for a bad freeze tonight.  It's the second part of May.  Farmer's says the last freeze (50% probability) is 4 May.  A good rule of thumb has been 15 May.  But this much snow?  Now?  My poor garden...

Bode's final game of the season was last weekend.  The team played awesome together, passing and really doing a lot of the things we talked about.  Technically, the teams tied 2-2, but we declared victory because Bode (yes, our little dude) had a shot of goal that was clearly a goal, but the ref did not rule it as such.  Oh well--the boys had a great time, and finished with some post-game pizza.

I don't know what I'll do the rest of today--certainly not yard work.  Perhaps I'll go to the gym or clean the house (nah).  Pleasant day.

Early Mother's Day

Even though Mother's Day is next weekend, we decided to celebrate a week early.  The reason we did this is because we wanted to go to the Broadmoor for brunch.  The place was booked solid for Mother's Day, so we opted to skip the crowds and go this past Sunday.  There were two mothers (Ashley and my Mom) and two sons (me and Bode).  Bode had a make-up soccer game before the meal, so by the time we got to the table, the kid was starving.

We feasted like kings (and queens) on crab claws, shrimp, bison, meats, cheeses, fruits, and who knows what else.  All told, Bode had seven (seven!) plates of food and three cups of ice cream.  We definitely got our money's worth.

Afterwards, we managed to get outside and hang out for some pictures by the lake.

Needless to say, we didn't have much for supper :-)

Today marked a big event.  My car--a 2004 BMW 325--was starting to show some signs of wear.  The Christmas tree-like dash board (numerous indicator lights illuminated) was probably the most urgent sign for me to realize it was time for a replacement.  After some careful searching and hard negotiating, it was time to say good bye to the silver steed...

and say hello to Baby Blue.

It almost the same car--a 2014 BMW 328.  It's an automatic vice a stick-shift (bah!), but otherwise, it's a very nice little piece of machinery.  I'd go into the technical specs, but I don't want to bore you (embarrass me) with my car knowledge :-)  Happy driving.

Spitz. Phelps. McGuirk?

Bode had a swim meet last weekend, and he put in a performance for the ages.  Sort of.  The meet, admittingly, was not a large one.  "A great meet for early swimmers" is how it was described.  Still, there were other kids swimming in Bode's age group in all the events.  To spoil the ending, Bode earned three first-places, and likely would have had a fourth one had he not been DQed :-)  The first event of the day was the 25-yard butterfly.  Here's Bode getting ready to swim.

Note the boy next to him--slightly taller and older.  The heats were not done by age, but rather qualifying time.  Bode was near the top in all his events, so he was swimming against the older boys.  I tell you this because in the video, it's obvious he doesn't win the heat, but the boy in the lane next to him was 10.  Thus, Bode had the best time for a 9-year old.

Next up was the 50-yard backstroke.  Here's Bode's start

I thought he might have been DQed on his turn, but I think the judge was feeling generous (being a small meet and all).  I was scared when I went to see the results, but was thrilled when I saw Bode's name at the top of the list.

Bode also swam the 100-yard freestyle.  Here he is executing one of his turns.

Bode managed another first in this race as well.

The final event was the 50-yard butterfly.  Bode would have won this one (he was the only 9-year old in the event), but he was DQed due to a bad kick.  When he gets tired, his legs start to come apart which cannot happen.  The other three first-places softened the blow of the DQ :-)  All winners got a first-place trophy, but they only gave one trophy per swimmer, so Bode only got one trophy even though he won three events.  I was outraged and had to be dragged from the pool--do the Olympics do this?  I think not :-)  Here's Bode with his trophy

School is almost out; soon he'll be a 4th grader.  Pleasant day.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

As you know, I have a garden.  I planted some things in mid-March.  Watering is a bit of a pain, because I didn't want to turn on the outside spigot until it was warm enough.  I decided to do this in mid-April, but as I was doing so, I reminded myself to turn the water off in case a freeze was forecast.  Fast forward to last night, when temperatures got down to 21 degrees.  Sadly, I forgot to drain the pipe to the spigot.  Around 11 this morning, Ashley hears water running, and sees a volcano-like eruption of water from beneath our back deck.  She was able to shut the water off, but sure enough, one of the pipes burst.  Sheesh.

We received some snow, but nothing too terrible.  It was cold, and I am worried about my trees--they had budded up so nicely and were starting to bloom.  I hope the hard freeze didn't do any irreparable damage.  I will check on them tomorrow.  I'm hopeful the carrots, lettuce, and peas that were coming in survived--they are fairly hardy, so I'm not too worried.  I have some raspberry plants that have been around for a couple of seasons, and I think I'll get a lot of fruit from them this season as long as they weren't too damaged.  Here's hoping.

My indoor plants continue to thrive.  Pumpkins can grow and grow and grow.  We could have our own pumpkin farm here this fall.

The corn is going great, and I hope to transplant it to the garden in two weeks.  Perhaps this year we'll get edible cobs and have a nice meal.  The corn from the last two seasons just wasn't ripe enough when we had to pick it.

I also have some honeydew melons...

and some peppers.

I'm very excited about the honeydew.  I had two or three on the vine last year; one got to the size of an apple, but then the weather started getting too cold at night.  I didn't plant the honeydew inside last year, so I'm hoping to get some good-sized melons.

I spent yesterday building a robotic arm.

I'm teaching an introductory robotics class this fall.  My department bought eight of these arms, and it's up to me to put them together and figure out what to do with them :-)  Actually, I already have most of the syllabus and lectures done, but learning the hardware will take some time.  I guess it'll give me something to do this summer because in two short weeks, I'm technically unemployed (at least til August :-)  Pleasant week to all.

USAFA Swimming

The coach of the Air Force Academy's men's swim team, Rob Clayton, has some children that swim on the same club team as Bode.  For the past two years, Coach Rob has held a clinic with the Rapids and some members of the USAFA swim team (who, for the past two years, have won the Mountain West Conference Championships, so these guys are pretty good swimmers).  Friday night was this year's clinic, so we went and had some fun.  Here's a picture of Bode at the first station learning how to improve his streamline on turns.

Next is a movie of Bode practicing what he learned.

There was also a quick session on starts.  Bode's start is a bit tentative--I think he could explode a little better of the block, but I guess he is only nine... :-)

And of course the accompanying movie...

They also swam some fun relays, but I didn't get any real good shots of those.  At the end, the team posted for a group picture.  Bode is on the far left, second row.

We had a snow storm yesterday--we didn't get much accumulation, but it was cold, and I'm worried about the trees that were budding out so nicely.  It's forecast to warm up today, so I'm hopeful everything survived.  Pleasant day.

Eli

One of Bode's best friends is a wild little dude named Eli.  Eli has spent the night at our house a few times, and every time he does, the boys have a great time.  Eli came over Saturday after Bode's soccer games (team played twice--great effort from the boys, but they were whipped, so we won't dwell on the outcome).  Bode and Eli currently sit near each other in school, which I don't think is a good thing for their academic progress :-)

We colored some Easter eggs Saturday night.  The boys did an even two dozen.

The big bunny came and hid them during the night, in addition to two more dozen plastic eggs.  The boys sent off on the mighty hunt at the crack of dawn (well, 8:30).

Amazingly, we found all the eggs...except one.  We think a bird or a squirrel made off with it (or the bunny just hid it so well that none of us could remember...err, find it :-)

We didn't do a whole lot after Eli went home.  The boys stayed up well past midnight, so I think Bode is a little worn out.  There are a little less than five weeks of school left for Bode, and three more weeks of classes for me.  We can both smell summer :-)  Pleasant week to all.