Que' Pasa?

As George Carlin used to say "Que' Pasa?"
My answer, not much this week, pretty quiet here, At work I had orientation for two new library employees, I think they will work out well, they both seem to be a lot of fun and have a lot of enthusiasm.
At home, Winter sports awards- Anna received an all conference academic athlete award for having a grade point of 3.2. She also received an MVP in Cross country, I think all three of the Seniors did for being good role models for the younger team members.

Anna went bowling with the Cross country team on Friday and shopping in Lansing with one of the girls on Saturday. She and Shonda are Christmas shopping again today.

Charlie got a couple more pictures of deer on his trail camera- I think they are of the same deer he got pictures of last week.

Noting else- pasaing here.

Quiet Week

A quiet week. Anna had a cross country meet on Monday the Jenson meet at Sharp Park
Anna came in about 30th , with a time of 22:20, her personal best.
She is trying out for basketball. Practice starts tomorrow, she has never played American Basketball, but has played German Handball, which I guess is played as a team sport, We’ll have to see how it goes.

Shonda and Anna went Christmas Shopping yesterday- Shonda says she didn’t want to wait until the last minute.

Charlie moved his trail camera and got a couple of pictures. He moved it to a new spot the other day and when he checked it today there was a big scrape and rub across the “trail“ from the camera.

Anna asked me if other people could go out hunting, with hunters, I told her sure, although Charlie hasn't hunted yeat this year he would probably take her out and let her see what it is like. I told her they really don't do much except sit and wait for something to walk by.

Talk to you all later. J.

Technology Woes, Football woes. Movies and books

Not much happened this week. I spent most of the week trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. I think it got some kind of virus, or spyware (I have McAfee anti- virus program and update it at least every week) but it was really really really slow. It took days to make sure I had everything backed up. then I had to run the recovery disk. It is finally working but It takes a while to get everything re-installed etc.

Friday night football, The Springport Spartans, played at Sand Creek in the first round (pre-districts) of the MHSAA Football playoffs.
The weather was pretty nice for Football, but the game was not so good. Final score Sand Creek 35-Springport 14. Sand Creek has some tall kids on that team, one of them was listed as 6' 10". Spirngport needs to learn how to tackle, not around the waist and shoulders - around the knees and feet guys. On one play a Sand Creek player made 5 yards with 3 Springport players hanging on him. If Springport wants to use a running game they better have some blockers clear some room for their runners.

Cross Country Regionals was Saturday- at Ann Arbor Huron. Anna came in 21st in a field of 85, not bad, but only the top 20 go on to State. Her time was not great 23 minutes or something, It was raining and cold and they had a huge sledding hill.

The Jensen Run is Monday afternoon, with a banquet for that on November 5th. The school fall sports awards is November 8th.

A couple of weeks ago we watched the DVD Wild Hogs, with Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy and I can't remember the other guy. Oh yeah, Martin Lawrence. Not bad, Charlie, Anna, and I watched the whole thing. It was one of those, where I said, OK, I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see, (but it would take a lot for me to say it was worth $10 ) but it wasn't bad for $1.00 I paid at the library.

Charlie and Anna wanted to watch a video last night, and Charlie thought Anna would like to see The Gods must be Crazy. About an African Bushman, trying to return a soda bottle to the God's and all of the things going on around him that he doesn't understand. Charlie and Shonda thought that was the funniest movie when they first watched. it about 10 years ago. I watched it with them once, it was OK. I watched about 20 minutes last night and went back to working on the computer. Anna watched about half and decided to go to bed. We have a VHS Copy of that one and The Gods must be Crazy II if anybody wants to borrow them. I don't think you can rent them anymore.

I just finished reading (listening) to a book that Jackson has chosen for the "Big Read" Project in the Spring. Bless Me Ultiama- about a young Catholic, Hispanic boy in New Mexico right after World War II. I really didn't like it. It was about the clashing of cultures- speaking only Spanish at home- English at school, his catholic faith (his mother hoping he would be a priest) vs witch-craft, and paganism, changing cultures. For one thing I couldn't identify with any of it. It was dark, and I did not find it at all enjoyable or uplifting. Ed do you know anything about the story? If you want to try reading maybe you can get something out of it I didn't.

I didn't get any good pictures of fall color but there was an awesome sunset on Tuesday. Got some nice pictures, The sky was purple ( it didn't come out well in the photos) before it turned orange. A beautiful full moon this week too.
Keep on keeping on- JB

Week-end happenings.

I was a real slacker last week, and didn't write anything. and worse yet, I have no excuses, except that not much happened.

I can't even remember what we did last week-end. We did not go to the Springport Union City football game. They lost but only by one touch down. - Oh now I remember, we did one of my favorite things- we went shopping !!! Anna needed a new winter coat.

On Saturday Anna had a cross country meet in Constantine. Then she went to Grand Rapids and spent the night with a friend from Germany. I did laundry and grocery shopping- two of my other favorite things. On Sunday we drove half way to pick her up.

Monday Shonda, Anna and I went to meet baby Benjamin Murphy. What a cutie, even if he did sleep most of the time, except for the few minutes that Shonda feed him.

Tuesday, the 16th, Anna had a Cross Country meet at Homere, she has her best time at 22:40. but finished, I think 11th.

Sometime in there the computer started acting up, it is being really slow and takes for ever to get anything done.

Thursday, I took Anna-Lena and Christina to Charlotte, to shop (yeah) for Charlie's Birthday gifts, one of the first things they stopped to look at was make-up, I had to remind them that we were there looking for something for Charlie. The weather was terrible on the way home. I apparently missed the worst of the storm, the tornado siren went off in Springport about midnight (Friday somebody said it is the first time they remember it going off in 40 years.) I never heard a thing.

Friday, the 19th we went to Bellvue, actually Olivet for the Bellvue-Springport football game. I was afraid we were going to get really wet, but it wasn't too bad. Springport won 31 -10. They played much better than they have the last several weeks and got, what seemed to me, like many fewer fouls. Which means they made it to the play-offs for the second year in a row.

If anybody from Gobles in reading this, Do we have any "Gilberts" on the football team this year? Cecilia says Hi to your exchange student.

Saturday-another Cross Country meet, at Whitmore Lake, Anna- didn't do as well, time wise, but she did finish in the top third and got a medal. Charlie went to a horse clinic up the road, learned a little about who to "de-sensitize" horses, in other words get them to be less afraid of new things and distractions.
We went up to MSU to the Draft horse show on Saturday evening, Saw some awesome looking teams of 6 and 8 huge horses pulling their wagons. How cool. I told Charlie I'd ride in the wagon with him if he ever wanted to compete in that kind of show. (I will try to post some pictures later)

Shonda and Brian came over on Sunday and we had Charlie's Birthday dinner. They bought him a trail cam for his birthday so maybe I will have some deer pictures to post if I ever get the computer to work properly. (I am posting this from work, by the way-shhh!!)

Next week is regionals, I think ours is at Ann-Arbor Huron, not sure if it is Friday or Saturday. Football at Sand Creek Friday at 7:00. I know we used to have some relatives that went to school there, but I don't know if we still do or not.

Leaves are finally getting some nice color, maybe I can get out and get some pictures of those too.

That's all for now -

Ciao, J.

Catching up- Odds and Ends

Photos
I took this first picture- on the left, on the way to Jonesville one evening, couple of weeks ago, The one on the left, I took on the way to work, while waiting at a stop light on airport road.

Football
Springport lost their football game last night, really lost- 44-0.
There was a nice article about the freshman quarter back in the Jackson Paper on Thursday, I was going to put the link in but I can’t find it at Mlive.com, The regular QB got a concussion, his second, and hurt his shoulder in the second game of the season, they brought up a freshman, to replace him instead of taking a couple of the other kids who were doing well in their current positions and leaving holes where they would have been. Nic was doing well.

This was a big game– a chance for the league championship, the first time since 1973- Springport’s record 5-1 overall, 5-0 in the conference. Reading 4-1 in the conference, and Union City 5-0 in the conference. We knew it was going to be a tough came, but this was really really ugly, after Reading’s second touchdown, it was like they just gave up.
The poor quarter back, the whole team was having a terrible night.
Anna-Lena said that one of the kids was so mad about it he pounded something and went home, instead of hitting somebody, but the rest of the team had an Oh, well attitude.
There was a big article in the Citizen Patriot Yesterday (Saturday) too.

They have win at least one of their next games (Union City and Bellevue to make it to the playoffs.)

Cross Country
Anna had a meet on Tuesday at Jonesville and finished well, with a time of 23:15 At the meet this morning in Bellevue, she finished 8th in 23:30 her goal is to finish in under 21. They have I think 6 more meets, and it should be a little cooler so she still has a chance to make it.

She is at a horse show in Delton, this afternoon and tomorrow I’ll let you know how that goes.

Tom, Kathy and Michelle, came to the meet to watch cheer Anna-Lena, Michelle is still very pregnant, but it could be anytime. I was rooting for yesterday, (October 6, Mom's birthday,) but I guess not.

Christoph
We got an e-mail from Christoph, he says he has been busy with school, but now as a break or a vacation for 3 weeks. He also says he is trying out for a football team in November, American Football.

Shonda
Still attending JCC, working 3 days a week for Spartan Motors in Charlotte. Between that and her boyfriend, we don't see much of her, but that's what happens at 20 years old.

Don't we lead an exciting life?

Oh I have written a couple of book reviews for the Jackson District Library Webpage Blog, not because the books were so great or because I am an expert, but because we needed to put some new stuff on our webpage. So far, I have reviewd The Nanny Diaries, The Earth, My Butt and Ohter Big Round Things, and Playing for Pizza.
If you would like to read them, the reviews, not the books, look on the left hand side of the page, click on the ones, with book review in the title.

Cross Country

Cross country meet at Concord, Anna cut another 15 seconds off her time. She was not thrilled but the coach pointed out that this was the first time she had run this course and she cannot expect to take a full minute off her time at each race.

Cross Country, Baby Showers, and Homecoming Floats

Well, another busy weekend
Friday Night Football, Springport beat Jonesville, after a scary first half, going into half time behind 7-14, they came out pumped, and beat them 35-14.
Yesterday Anna, had a cross country meet in Pittsford, she came in 5th of 50 and cut another minute off her time – three miles in 23.2 minutes. Her goal is to get under 21. There are 5 more weeks in the Cross Country season, so she has a good shot, if she keeps up that pace.

Shonda and I went to a baby shower for Michelle, my niece. Her due date is October 10 but there are lots of family members with birthdays in September and October. An uncle today, and apparently he, the baby has missed that one. My brother has a birthday next week, Arthur, the baby’s uncle on October first, one of my aunts on the second, my mothers on the 6th, and two of my uncles on the 9th. I guess we have a no money, pool going. Here is a picture of “the girls” Anna went to a battle of the bands last night in Jackson. She says it is not her favorite kind of music, (the head banging screaming kind) but it was fun.
Anna had a YFU meeting today
And it is homecoming week, the seniors are building their float at our house. That is always fun, one of the kids, Justin, is what Charlie calls a back yard engineer, give him a few supplies and he can figure out how to make almost anything. I think Justin was amazed that Charlie had so much stuff, he would say do you have…?, by the end of the day, he finished with “of course you do.”
Sometimes, it seems like a lot of work, but it is fun, and I think it helps to keep us active and involved. Here are couple of pictures, I can't show you too much. We don't want the competition to know what we are doing, too soon. :-)
Later, J

Cross Country and Horse shows.

Friday September 7, 2007.

It has been a busy week. School starting, getting into a routine, cross country practice, equestrian practice, cross country meets, equestrian meets, we have had something going on every night this week. Tonight a football game. Tomorrow the first equestrian meet. Wow, and I thought I was through with all this running around.

Anna had her second Cross Country meet on Wednesday, the Springport invitational, I would guess there were about 350 kids competing. She finished in the top half of the pack and cut about 2 (TWO) MINUTES off her time from last week, but now her knee is bothering her (an old injury that she has had surgery on.)

Saturday September 8, 2007

Our first equestrian meet today- WOW. We got there about 8:00 AM and didn’t get home until after 6:00. Anna was supposed to compete in 6 different classes, or events but the horse she has borrowed, was not cooperating today. He was good in the first event, showmanship. In the first riding event, he was “being very uncooperative, he was bucking and jumping around, they had to take him out of the ring so he would not endanger other horses and riders. They managed to get him calmed down and a little more cooperative, in time for her to ride in one of her scheduled events. She placed third in showmanship. The event she competed in they had to split, (two heats) then called back the top 12. She was called back for the final group but did not place. At least now, she knows what to work on and we know what to expect at our next horse show Satruday and Sunday next week.

That's why I don't ride horses- arguing with a 2,000 pound animal does not sound like fun to me.