13 Years

Holly and I had our first date thirteen years ago. Cool!

Love you, Babe!

Open House

Tonight was the Open House at the kids' elementary school. Unfortunately, Holly had to be in Orlando for work, so I took some pictures so she could see the work that Chase had displayed in her first grade classroom.



It was a fun time, and it reassured me that things are looking good for both David and Chase this year.

Chase will be participating in a circus in September. She will be a clown, and I can't wait to go see her. This class project is done in conjunction with another class, and this will be the second time that one of our kids has taken part - when David was in first grade, he played a lion in the same show. We are all looking forward to it.

While talking to David's teacher, he told me that he has checked out one of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books from the library. Of course, it was The Silver Chair, not the best place to start the series, so we talked to his teacher about starting the series at the beginning. She was thrilled at his reading ability, and I'm excited that I can start sharing some of my favorite books with him. So very cool. He's still too young for Tolkien, but I think Narnia is a great place to start.

The PTO at school partnered with Carrabba's Italian Grill to provide dinner for the families tonight. We got to enjoy Chicken Marsala, penne pasta, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. Yum. Thanks Carrabba's! We even got a plate to take home for Holly, who was driving back from Orlando.

So the school year is in full swing, and things are looking great. We'll keep everyone posted on progress as the year moves along.

Take care!

Back to Normal, Sorta

After Fay had moved on, Tallahassee tried to get back to normal yesterday.

We got up and moving at the usual time, getting the kids ready for school. Dressed, fed, washed, etc. All the while, I was thinking that it seemed kinda dark out. Sure enough, ten minutes before it was time to go out the door, the sky opened up and it started to pour. Add in thunder and lighting, and it was a generally unpleasant morning.

Chase asked me, "Daddy, is school going to be open today?"

"Sure it will."

"Well... it was raining on Friday and that closed school."

All I could do was chuckle and tell her that I was sure school would be open. I know she didn't realize it at the time, but she had just nailed why they shouldn't have closed school on Friday. After all, it was just a rainstorm, especially on Friday. Granted, by Saturday afternoon the sustained rain had started causing issues in low lying areas. But that was Saturday.

So between the Monday morning rain, continued flooding from Fay, the first day of Fall semester at FSU and FAMU, and did I mention the rain (Tallahassee drivers cannot drive in wet weather), it took me over 90 minutes to make my 20 minute commute. It was truly a perfect blend of awful.

Things today have evened out back to near normal. There are still roads closed due to damage from storm water, and we are all hoping that everything will get fixed as soon as possible.

Bye Fay!

Tropical Storm Fay has moved on, after dropping over 20 inches of rain on our part of Leon County. All in all, it was much ado about nothing.

They closed schools on Friday, which stunned me. I don't use that term lightly... I was seriously shocked. I got the call about 2pm on Thursday, and immediately walked back to my office to look at the forecast again. After all, there was no way they were looking at the same reports I was. I was seeing a forecast for minor wind and some rain, nothing all that urgent.

Sure enough, schools were closed, and it sprinkled all day Friday. With a breeze. Sure am glad we kept the kids safe at home for that, they might have gotten wet. Oh, well. I can only imagine the weight of responsibility for all those kids, but I wonder about teaching our kids to be afraid of some wind and rain.

Saturday was a bit more windy, and it rained solid all day, but once again, not all that big a deal. Some folks disagree, and there was some flooding in some areas around here, and I'm sorry about that, but it could have been much worse.

I'm thrilled that our current house doesn't have any drainage/flooding problems, and it got tested pretty well with 20 inches in about 30 hours. I can't help but wonder if our old house flooded. I hope not, but I'm glad that I don't own it anymore.

Take care, all!

Off to School

First and third grades. Wow.

A Return to Normal

Tomorrow is the first day of school. While this isn't as momentous as the first day of Kindergarten, etc, it's still pretty exciting for us.

The kids packed thier shiny new backpacks full of shiney new school supplies today and are ready to head out to 3rd and 1st grades tomorrow. We met teachers on Friday, and everyone is pretty pleased with who ended up where. Chase, of course, already knew where she was headed, but David didn't have a clue. He didn't get the exact teacher that he wanted, but I think he was satisfied. He has some friends in his class, so that's always a good thing.

I'll try to post up a few snapshots here of the kids as they head out in the morning. Wish them luck!

Star Wars: Clone Wars

So the family headed out tonight to take in the new Star Wars movie - Clone Wars. I have to say, I really enjoyed it, and of course the kids loved it. Even Chase thought is was 'awesome'.

While at the theater, we discovered that a bunch of folks had decided to come out in costume. These folks were, really, really decked out. Of course, I took some pictures, but I only had my smartphone, so they aren't the best, but here they are.




I gotta say, my personal favorite was the Stormtrooper. His helmet had a voice synthesizer that allowed him to sound just like a Trooper from the movies. I had David ask him if "he had seen the new BT-16", to which he replied "No, not yet". Sorry, I was geeking out there for a second.

Overall, we had a great time, and while I'm not going to review the movie here, if you like Star Wars, go see it, it was fun.

Camping in Bahia Honda

Last week, we headed south to Bahia Honda State Park in the Keys. Located just south of Marathon, the park is absolutely gorgeous - probably the prettiest beaches in the Keys.

Yes, we went camping. In the Keys. In August. I was reluctant to do it when Holly suggested it (I don't usually camp in the summer - anywhere) but agreed once I figured out I could bring an air conditioner for the tent.

We had a great time. The kids got to snorkel in beautiful waters, and see some wildlife they would never get an opportunity to see. It's a shame that we didn't have a waterproof camera, since most of that wildlife was in three feet of salt water.

I think the coolest thing we saw was a baby sea turtle, swimming out to sea. There were nests up and down he beach, and on Wednesday morning, about 11am, I spotted a dark object in the surf. David and I swam over and saw that it was a small turtle, about five inches long, swimming like crazy for open water. Holly and Chase joined us and we watched the turtle for a minute or so, before backing off and letting it get on with its business. It was awesome.

We also saw stingrays, a barracuda, and a variety of fish and coral - all within a half mile of our tent. That's a heck of a beach.

The weather was fine - hot as hades, but bearable in the shade with a breeze. It stormed pretty bad the first night, but the tent held up to the 40mph winds and horizontal rain very well.

We drove down to Key West as well, but none of us were very impressed. We did go into Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, which was very nice, but the rest of the city was underwhelming.

We hunted down four geocaches in the Keys, which was a lot of fun.

I've attached a slide show of pictures taken on the trip.

Cheers!

Bahia Honda

We spent a few days last week camping in Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. It was a beautiful place, with some great snorkeling. We'll get some details and pictures up here as soon as possible.

Cheers!