Haiku on the Eve of the NFL Draft

Hope springs eternal for NFL fans as their favorite teams get ready to pick a new crop of players.

Especially us KC Chiefs fans, who got a big upgrade in the GM office when Clark Hunt fired King Carl Peterson and hired Patriots personnel guru Scott Pioli. Now it's time for Pioli to work some magic and bring us to the promised land!

Hope springs eternal
when Chiefs new boss makes his picks
Pioli, you rock

Who will the pick be?
Curry, O-Line, or trade down?
The suspense, it kills

Kansas City Chiefs
a fan since I was a kid
Will this be the year?

New faces, tough vets
major stadium rebuild
look out twenty ten


One for you Raiders fans out there ...


Oakland Raiders suck
till they are blue in the face
or, black and silver


And finally, a Haiku for Tony Gonzalez, traded yesterday to the Atlanta Falcons.


Tony G traded
Will miss TD crossbar dunks
Next stop, Hall of Fame

p.s. The plural of haiku is haiku ... who knew ???

Bring Your Child to Work Day

Had a great day at work volunteering for the Bring Your Child to Work Day (BYCTW). Lots of privacy and health issues prevent most hospital staff from bringing their kids into patient rooms or surgery suites, so we set up some tours and simulated events to help them get an idea of what their parents do at work.

Our theme was health and nutrition, so we geared the activities towards that: there was lots of exercise, a healthy snack workshop, a tour of radiology, chicken stitching--suture practice on the skins of chicken parts, and guest speakers included an Olympic pole vaulter and a national champion baton twirler.

I work in IT, so I found some fitness and nutrition websites for our 2nd through 5th grade guests. Not as cool as the Olympic guy, but hey, you work with what you got. The first was the MyPyramid BlastOff. The site taught kids about eating a balanced diet with a visual of a rocket blasting off with the right fuel.

http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/Resources/game/Blastoff_Game.html

The second was a popular event in the computer room. It was basically a timer that had ten activities like sit ups, hopping on one foot, and jumping jacks. The kids played it over and over and shouted out their times. It wore me out just watching them!

http://www.kidnetic.com/Kore/Fitness.aspx

A handful of "adults" herded around 74 kids for the whole day. (We made jokes about cat herding through the day) Any of you who have participated in such a group activity for kids probably have your own stories for those events.

We had a rather odd coincidence involving the the color groupings we used to split the kids into four groups; red, yellow, blue, and green.

Earlier in the day, a member of the red group got a minor nosebleed. I commented on the ironic nature of the red group and blood connection to the adult who took care of the youngster. I payed dearly for this comment at the end of the day.

My group for the day was the yellow group ... please take a moment to dream up your own punchline ...




Let's just say that my yellow group payback was cleaning up after someone whose macaroni and cheese did not agree with them!!!

Before I became "married with child," I volunteered with grade school kids at Science Fairs, as a field trip chaperone, and helping at Girl Scout Badge workshops.

Our daughter is now 2-1/2, and I can't wait to volunteer for all her field trips and other fun stuff. Even in spite of the yellow group incident.

Again Daddy, Again ! ! !

Six inches of snow plus a super cool SlideWinder sled from gammy equals little baby girl's first sledding experience.

We'd been waiting all winter for a good snow, and finally got one. Time to bundle up the baby girl and head out the door.

This little daredevil had a great time going down the hill ... however ... Our little baby girl got stuck with old parents.

After too few trips down and back up the hill I was already huffing and puffing, and she was ready for more.

It probably did not help that she sat down on the sled and had me pull her back up the hill. Her little legs just did not make much progress trying to trudge through the snow.

Great fun was had by all, and then we went back inside for some hot chocolate.


We plus-forty first-time parents have a saying in our house: "She's either going to make us feel younger, or she's going to kill us."

I think this sledding outing leaned towards the latter.

Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This year's Martin Luther King Day carries a special meaning with the inaguration of President Barack Obama coming tomorrow.

As many TV comentators have said, the first black president is not a realization of Dr. King's dream, but it is a big step in the right direction.

Take a moment out of your day to give his "I Have a Dream" speech another listen:
http://www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-speech.html

And, if you would like to do your part to help build the Washington, D.C. King Memorial, you can download a search toolbar from the following link:
http://www.mlkmemorial.org/

The toolbar installs on Internet Explorer, and every time you seach, 5 cents are donated to the building of the memorial.

Family Christmas cards through the years

Merry Christmas to All ! ! !

Thought I would share this year's Christmas card with everyone,

and post our past cards just for fun.

ENJOY

2008

2007


2006 Family card

2006 birth announcement

2005 card with our wedding picture


As you can tell, we like to get creative with our cards.

Photoshop Rocks!

Plus, .19 cent 4x6 prints from Walgreens are nice on the budget too.

Ding, Dong, the King is Dead ! ! ! ! !

After 20 years worth of 5 year Super Bowl plans, KC Chiefs general manager/CEO/Grand Poobah/King for Life Carl Peterson has resigned.

That great cheer you heard echoing across the land was from all the KC fans who have suffered under the regime of King Carl.

The prayers of thousands of message board trolls, bloviating bloggers, and talk radio ranters were finally realized the afternoon of Monday, December 15, 2008. The day after a forth-quarter meltdown loss against San Diego, following a year filled with disgraceful games, Carl saw the writing on the wall and finally and thankfully fell on his sword.

To be fair, Peterson did a lot for the Chiefs in the first half of his reign in KC. He took a dismal franchise and made it a winner. Going from half-empty stadiums to season-ticket waiting lists is no easy task. He opened up the parking lots early and started the best tailgating scene in the NFL. The Chiefs, under the coaching leadership of Marty Schottenheimer, had one of the highest winning percentages of the 90's, with several playoff appearances and one trip to the AFC title game.

But Carl peaked around year ten. The second half of his tenure featured desperate free-agent signings, zero playoff wins, and first round draft busts year after year. Dick Vermiel's team set many offensive records, but a laughable defense that could not get off the field. The defense set a dubious record for futility in a playoff game against the Colts in which the Colts punter never took a snap in the game.

Some say Carl's biggest failure was to never develop a franchise quarterback during his time in KC. The bottom line is that he failed to have a coherent draft strategy year after year, and was forced to make desperate moves in the free agency market to bandage over all of his draft shortcomings.

The king's reign is over and now it is up to Lamar Hunt's son Clark to show KC what kind of owner he is going to be. With the stadium renovations due to be complete in 2010, let's hope Clark will make a bold move to make this team a winner again, to go with the new era in Arrowhead!

Repeal of Prohibition - 75 Years Ago

Sippers, tipplers, chuggers, and guzzlers Rejoice! December 05, 1933 marked the repeal of Prohibition. Happy 75th Anniversary!

This date also marked the start of the long rebuilding of Missouri's wine industry, decimated by the 13 year nationwide ban on alcohol.

Before the 1920 start of Prohibition, Missouri was the third biggest wine producing state in the US.

Many of the vineyards destroyed by the "revenuers" have been replanted and are back and better than ever. The caves used to age wine have been rediscovered and put back into service. A new generation of viticulturists and enologists have been perfecting their art and Missouri is back on the map as a producer of great regional wine.

But don't take my word for it ... come and see for yourself what Missouri wine has to offer.

http://www.missouriwine.org/

http://www.missouriwinecountry.com/