August Report

Brandon started football with a vengeance. Monday morning 7:45am after arriving home at 2am from Alaska he was at practice for 4 hours. His routine everyday is get up, be to practice at 7:45pm, practice till noon, come home eat, either sleep or do something with friends (food is usually involved), eat more, sleep and repeat. They are working him hard, but he is loving it. I have to admit it brings back fond memories of my high school football days. I can have fond memories, probably because I don't have to feel the pain. Tuesday evening after I got home from work Bran says to me, "Dad I hurt here" pointing to his arm, and "here" pointing to another spot on his arm, and "here, and hear, and hear, and hear, etc.... pointing to every part of his body. I'm proud of how dedicated he is and how hard he is working at it.

Chayce returned home to a busy time at the Seeing Eye. They have a big fund raiser each year and he spent many hours working to prepare and then spent a long Saturday supporting the actual event. While it wasn't as fun as sitting around playing video games, he did seem to enjoy working the event. The people at the Seeing Eye love him and I'm sure would love to have him working around there for a long time.

As I'm sure you are all aware the Olympics started on 8/8/08. What you might not be so aware of is what an Olympic addict I am. It has been a growing addiction for many years, but seems to be getting worse every two years. This year I have achieved a new level of obsession due the the recent acquisition of a DVR. Now I have the capability of recording events at all times of the day or night and then completely ignoring the rest of life's events from the time I get home from work until I collapse from exhaustion at the end of the night. No commercials, limited gymnastics and NBC spotlight pieces, just non-stop action, it doesn't get any better than this. I don't know about you, but I thought this years event was excellent. In spite of the fact that the Chinese faked IDs and opening ceremonies, and stole every "Judged" (now there's a joke) sport (also a joke). I have to admit they did an excellent job overall. NBC even did a pretty good job.

I was in LA this month for a couple of days and visited my new favorite taco stand.
I discovered Tito's earlier in the Summer and I am now a regular customer. This place is unreal. Any time you go there are lines up and down the block. People are leaving with boxes and boxes of tacos. If you find yourself in the LA area and want directions let me know and I'll hook you up. FYI don't be expecting any corporate feeder chain, this is the real stuff and the real experience, sticky tables, broken chairs, the whole enchlada!

The final weekend of the month was packed full:

1. Brandon had his first football scrimmage on Saturday morning. On the opening play Brandon caught a pass and ran 80 yards for touchdown. On the next series on defence he almost got an interception, he did knock down the pass. Later in the game he caught another touchdown and also kicked an extra point. So he is off to a great start this season.
2. Right after Brandon's game we took off to the Jersey Shore. Kim found a nice house for us to rent on LBI (Long Beach Island). It has become one of our favorite places on the shore. Beautiful beaches, great surf, fun family oriented town and great restaurants. We spent Saturday - Tuesday at the shore and had a great time. The weather was perfect. The waves were awesome, perhaps higher due to the storms brewing further south. We spent a ton of time at the beach and in the water and got a little too much sun. It was also my birthday so Kim and the boys took good care of me and we went out to dinner for some great seafood.

Our trip to the shore made me realize that we should plan a future family reunion to the NJ shore. We could get a nice house on the beach and also take some fun trips into NYC. Think about it.

Have a great September!