Friday, October 17, 2008

Homecoming Game - Theirs (and Kyle's birthday party)

Tonight we went to "their" homecoming game. This was Chris' high school and the school the boys and their buddies will go to when they get to high school. It was not cold but it was rainy. This was also part of Kyle's birthday party. We started at grandma & grandpa's and had pizza. Then we all climbed into the cars and went to the football game. Here are the boys at the beginning of the game. The stands progressively became more crowded as the game started but emptied out quickly after the half time homecoming festivities.

The boys had a fun time. We left in the 4th quarter with 5 minutes left and the other team had just scored and was now ahead. When I posted this, we did not have the final score yet. Although I do have to admit, it would not hurt my feelings none if they lost their homecoming game too.


Homecoming Game - Mine

Okay, I'm a little late with some of my posts. Last Friday was my high school's homecoming game and I made my family go. Yes, actually I had to beg and plead to go to a football game in this football crazy house because it was not "their" high school's game. Anyway, we met up with an old friend, Nate and his wife and family. They have two adorable little girls and of course, I did not take pictures of all of us.... But I did catch the boys being silly.
We had a good time catching up and running into old friends and if you could not tell, it was COLD that night. I think it was the reason we lost. Not really but it sounds good, doesn't it. Smile.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Colonscopy

Today I was talking to a co-worker from Florida and told her I needed a laugh. She sent me this and it was PERFECT! Enjoy the giggles...

Dave Barry's Colonoscopy Journal:

... I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an
appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed
me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over
the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis.

Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough,
reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really
hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO
STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'

I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for
a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a
microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it
to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America 's
enemies.

I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.
Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In
accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I
had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.

Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder
together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water.
(For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.)

Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because
MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and
urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.

The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great
sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose watery bowel
movement may result.' This is kind of like saying that after you jump off
your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.

MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but:
Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep
experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the
commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the
bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you
figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of
MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the
future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.

After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my
wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried
about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of
MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you
apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.

At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and
totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a
room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little
curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital
garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on,
makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.

Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand.
Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already
lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.

At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered
what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom,
so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no
choice but to burn your house.

When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where
Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the
17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I
was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side,
and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my
hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was

'Dancing Queen' by Abba. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that
could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' has to be
the least appropriate. 'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from
somewhere behind me.

'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time,the moment I had been dreading for
more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am
going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.

I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, Abba was shrieking
'Dancing Queen! Feel the beat from the tambourine ...' and the next moment,
I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood. Andy was
looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even
more excellent when Andy told me that it was all over, and that my colon had
passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.

COLONOSCOPIES
Colonoscopies are no joke, but these comments during exams were quite
humorous...... A physician claimed that the following are actual comments
made by his patients (predominately male) before or after their
colonoscopies:

1. 'Take it easy, Doc. You're boldly going where no man has gone before!

2. 'Find Amelia Earhart yet?'

3. 'Can you hear me NOW?'

4. 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?'

5. 'You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married.'

6. 'Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?'

7. 'You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out...'

8. 'Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!'

9. 'If your hand doesn't fit, you must quit!'

10. 'Hey Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.'

11. 'You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?'

12. 'God, now I know why I am not gay.'

13. 'How far up did you go? I now have a sore throat.'

And the best one of all..

14. 'Could you write a note for my wife saying that my head is
not up there?

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Soccer Pictures

Kevin at soccer last week. Look at that sun. It was gorgeous.
Kevin at soccer this week. It was wet!! and cold.
Kevin as goalie throwing that ball back out into play.

Week in Review

The week in review....

Monday, I had a Renton Class of '89 reunion committee meeting. We've almost set a date and a location then we can start planning the fun stuff and leave the finding classmates and dealing with the menus and facility to someone else.

Kevin had a Cub Scouts meeting that Kyle helped at. Almost forgot about that meeting, remembered at 10:00 so Kevin did not have his uniform. We're also selling popcorn if anyone is interested in buying.

On Tuesday, I had a Renton Little League baseball meeting. We're getting ready for the 2009 season. Our general membership meeting to elect the new board is in a couple of weeks. I can't believe I'm planning for spring ball in October.

Thursday was soccer practice day for Kevin and Kyle helps out there too. Kyle joined the basketball club at school and played basketball after school was done. He's so funny, he can't believe how out of shape he got over the summer with no gym or sports. He does not have gym until next semester. The biggest event of the night was Chris going to the "Wrap" party for Sig Hanson (see the post below).

And today is Saturday which means soccer and football. Kevin played soccer in the pouring down rain. I mean it was pouring. One of the first time parents asked if I thought they would stop the game early since it was cold and rainy. I thought, poor man, soccer does not stop. I'll post some pictures once I get them from Chris. Then of course we watched the UW Husky game, which they lost. But we're purple and gold in this house all the way until the end. Maybe next year.

Deadliest Catch - KOMO TV - Sig Hansen...

Okay for a bit of a setup to this....


Chris's Uncle Mike, an attorney has a client and family friend who owns a chain of Mexican restaurants called Torero's. They were shooting a TV commercial there last week and wanted a group there eating lunch to use as "extras" so they invited Mike's entire office down and a few others. Chris gets there and the cameraman is an old friend, Mark. Mark is married to Debbie, not only a very old friend of Chris' but they also dated in high school (yeah this is really going way back). Mark works for KOMO TV and has for a long time and Chris sometimes bumps into him at Fisher Plaza when he is there for meetings or doing his radio show.

The funny part was that morning Mark tells Debbie that he is shooting a commercial at Torero's in Renton, Deb says hey the first time I went out for Mexican food was with Chris at the Torero's in Renton. So Mark thought it was pretty funny when Chris walked in. Mark was part of the crew from KOMO TV that just finished up a special on Sig Hansen and the Northwestern of Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" that is taking the world by storm. Mark was one of the people behind the scenes of this special and they were having a "wrap" party for the crew and cast to watch the show as it aired Thursday night at the Salish Lodge at Snoqualmie Falls. Mark invited Chris to tag along and meet Sig. Apparently he had a good time, didn't make it home until well after midnight and had quite a few stories about Sig to share.


Here is a pic of Chris and Sig


And here is Mark with Sig

Friday, September 26, 2008

High School Football

Tonight the family went to the local high school football game. This game is one that we try to go to annually as it is Chris' former high school against my former high school. The winner gets bragging rights for the rest of the year. This year we left the game at 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter due to the score. It was 43 to 0 with my school winning. Yea!! Chris is not really happy but I am. Go red & white!!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Kevin Soccer - September 20, 2008

Saturday was another soccer day. This time, it was a true soccer game as it rained. Fall is here. Kevin played goalie during the first half and then played in the field the second half. He had a fun time but did say his hands were COLD when we were going back to the car at the end. We have to remember to buy him goalie gloves this week.

Here is Kevin kicking the ball out of the goal box.
Kevin throwing the ball out. You will notice his teammate is running hard to the other side as Kevin throws the ball past the half mark and almost to the other goalie each time. We're working on getting his teammates to run hard the other way as soon as Kevin has the ball and working with Kevin to slightly rein in his throw to over the half mark but not quite to the goalie. It's a work in progress.
Look at Kevin trap that ball.
Have a great week. Tomorrow Kevin will go in for a root canal. Keep him in your prayers. Thanks.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Firsts....

Today had three firsts...

First, Kevin is at a his first sleepover at Aden's house. He and Aden have been great friends since Kindergarten. Kevin rode the bus home with Aden (the second first) and when I called to check and see how he is doing, I was told the boys were having a terrific time.

The third first is that we took Kyle to Ipanema Brazilian Grill in downtown Seattle. This place has anywhere from 12-17 different meat type items that are served on skewers by passodores. We all left there STUFFED. This is not the place for vegetarians, it is a meat (beef) lovers paradise. They also serve lamb, buffalo, boar, chicken, turkey and grilled pineapple. Yum Yum.

Kyle at the middle of the meal before he had the tummy ache from too much food.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Kevin's First Real Soccer Game of the Season

Today Kevin had his first real game of the season. They play 4 on 4 at this age, 1 goalie and 3 field players and it has 25 minute halves. There are 7 boys on the team and they take turns coming in and out of the game. Today it was 75 degrees out and the boys got hot quickly.

Kevin played for about 10 minutes and then came out to "rest" and drink some water then he went right back in.
At the half, the first half goalie said he was tired of playing goalie and the coach asked who else wanted to play. Kevin volunteered and had a blast.
Kevin did a pretty good job. I guess the funniest part was watching Kevin throw the ball out over the heads of all the boys on the field and almost to the other goal. He had to learn not to throw quite so far and the boys on his team had to learn to run fast to the other side of the field if Kevin made the save and grabbed the ball.
Next week, Chris will be at the game and can take much better pictures with his camera. He can get the good action shots.

Kyle's Award

Friday Kyle brought this award home from school. He was recommended by one of his teachers. While he was in class, the vice-principal and the counselor came in, asked Kyle to come to the front of the class and made it sound to the class and Kyle that he was in BIG trouble but then they presented him with this certificate and told him one copy would go into his permanent school file, one would stay with his teacher and one came home.

We are very proud of him. He also was pretty excited.


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Chris' Knee Surgery

On Monday Chris got his knee fixed. Chris injured his knee during our vacation to Alaska. Something about a moose? That and some scar tissue and old tear from an old injury meant that he had to have some arthroscopic surgery to try and clean things up.

For those of you into the the gritty details, he had two tears in his medial meniscus, an old tear in his lateral meniscus and a grade 2 tear of his MCL (medial collateral ligament) there was also a lot of scar tissue on his ACL from an old injury (likely the same time he tore the lateral meniscus). The Doctor wasn't sure if the ACL would need repair or not, fortunately she thinks its stable enough on its own. She did cleanup the meniscus tears as much as possible which should keep his knee from locking up on him. The MCL tear was already starting to heal and had not completely torn through so she decided to let it heal as repair would increase the healing time and require physical therapy.

Chris either being a little twisted or maybe a lot twisted, opted for a spinal anesthetic and remained awake through the surgery so that he could watch. Yuck!

This is Chris just a little while after surgery, wide awake and ready to go home other than a very numb left leg.

One of the tears on his meniscus as seen through the arthroscope.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Soccer Jamboree

Today Kevin had his soccer jamboree. They played three games. The first one was about 9:40 a.m. then he had his second and third back to back at 11:20 a.m. then 11:40 a.m. The boys were hot, sweaty and worn out by the time we took them home.
Here are some pictures. It's my first slide show so hopefully it works okay.
After the games we came home to watch the UW vs. BYU game. It was a great game and a heartbreaker for the Huskies but they did great and we're proud to call ourselves Husky fans!!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

School is Back

Yes, it is that time of year where the boys go back to school. Kyle is in middle school and Kevin is still at his elementary school. We don't take first day of school pictures as it is "dorky" according to the boys. Kyle was extremely excited to go back as he has had such a boring summer (I think not, but the past 2 weeks have been pretty slow). Kevin was looking forward to seeing his buddies again.

I've started school again too as Kyle's social studies teacher decided that the parents should be assigned an essay to write about their child. It is due on Monday, yes, it actually has a due date. I've been practicing my penmanship as I have signed an incredible amount of paper as each class has a syllabus that both Kyle and I must sign. So I think I am ready to write my essay now. Smile.

Kevin has started soccer and has his jamboree on Saturday where he will play in three 20 minute games throughout the day. Kyle has been helping with practices and has decided to try out for the team at school as he has enjoyed learning the sport.

Scouts will start up soon as of course with the start of Scouts, we have our annual Scouting Popcorn Sales. Anyone interested in ordering popcorn??

Have a great week! We will update soon with photos.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Football is Here

Saturday we went to the Cougar Gridiron Classic. If you know us, we are NOT Cougar fans but Dawg fans but since the tickets were $2 each and we could watch a game at Qwest field, we went. It was actually fun. There was a lot of crimson and grey but if you look, you can see orange. That bit of orange was Oklahoma fans. Yes, there were actually Oklahoma fans and most of them sat in one section but there were some spread out the stands. They made lots of noise for such a small group.