Austin's 2007 Spring Chorus Concert

This happened last month, but I am a busy guy. Here are several shots taken before, during and after the Chorus Concert. See if you can pick him out of the group photo.

The Old Girl

Pepper has been having a few problems lately, but before everything gets too bad, I thought I would put one shot out there for everyone to see. She will be turning 17 this fall, so she is older than most.

The Beach

In April, we went to the beach with our friends, Ron and Amanda. The first picture offers a clue as to where we went. It was only for 2-3 days, but at least I wasn't at work!

Taken on the Boardwalk.

We took a drive over to Assateague National Park to see the wild horses. While not as accessible when the weather is warmer,we did manage to see a few. Here Tracy and Kara are seen on the Western end of the Island.

Kara and the Old Man

Here is a picture of a wild horse that was feeding right next to the road as we were leaving.

We saw this deer next to the exit to the Federal portion of the Island.

Back at the house, Millie and I are in deep discussion about John Gribbin's "Science-A History". Millie thinks that Gribbin is somewhat effusive in his description of British Scientists. I would tend to agree.

Tracy running her toes through the sand.

Here is Tracy - about to get her ass kicked in Air Hockey.

This picture was not digitally altered in any way. No, I'm serious.

Here is Austin, mere seconds before we narrowly escaped a Velociraptor attack.

Pleurodynia

This is a new word for me, but we all learn something new each day. Last night, Tracy took Kellie to the ER because of continuing chest pains over the last 4-5 days accompanied by severe headaches. In the end, we learned that she had contracted Pleurodynia. This is being treated with Antibiotics.

The important thing is that she is all right and there is nothing serious to report. The one difference from the information that I linked to above is that her viral infection is in the heart wall vice the lungs indicated in the description. She is even back in school today.

3rd Quarter Report Cards

Report cards are here, but there is something special about them. For the first time, all three children have made the Honor Roll in a single grading period!

Kara

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Reading	B	B+	B
Writing	B	B	B
Mathematics	B	B	B
Social Studies	A	A	B
Science	B	B	B

Austin

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Social Studies	B	B	B
Math	C	C+	B
Science	C+	B	B
Language Arts	B	B	B
Art/Study Skills	B	B	A
Physical Education	A	A	A
Chorus	B	B+	B+

Kellie

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Pre-Algebra	A	A	B+
Spanish	B	B	B
Science	B	B	B
Language Arts	B	B+	A
World History	B+	C	A
Physical Education	A	B+	B
Advanced Chorus	A	A	B

Honor Roll

I've been sitting on this one for a week or two so that I could scan the certificate, but it has been misplaced. So without further ado, let me state here that during the last grading period, young Austin officially made the Marsteller Middle School Honor roll! Please take a moment and congratulate Austin on all the hard work he has put so far this year. He is waiting for the adulation to start pouring in.

Jamfest 2007

Yesterday, the whole famdamily went to the Washington, D.C. Convention Center for the 2007 Jamfest cheer competition. Recently, Kellie's Cheer organization, Cheer Dynasty, underwent a reorganization and it seems to have worked. Cheer Dynasty took First Place in six of the seven divisions they entered, and remaining finish was second.

Kellie's team, the Cheer Dynasty Kings placed first in their division, and Kellie took home a T-shirt and a first-place medal to add to the bragging wall.

As exciting as the whole day was, the most attention grabbing event was my performance on stage during the "Crazy Dads" dance competition. I did not win, but that was entirely due to judging incompetence rather the lack of talent.

Cheerleading (Atlanta 2007)

Today, Tracy and Kellie returned from a cheerleading competition in Atlanta, Hotlanta, or 'ATL' as it is known in the Hood. Aside from the competition, there were two trip highlights. Tracy met Doug Williams, the former Redskins quarterback now employed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The second big event was that during their stay at the Marriot Marquis, Oprah Winfrey reserved the entire 42nd floor. Kellie & friends took the elevator to that particular floor but were told that "Miss Winfrey is not expecting young uninvited guests".

As far as the competition goes, it was not one for the books. Dynasty Kings placed 11th out of 14 teams. Kellie plans to forget the entire event, but she had a ball running around the hotel every night.

Pictures:

Kellie during the event

Hitting the juice

Posing with a few team members

No Comment

Waiting in Atlanta for the flight home

Snow Tubing (Pictures Added)

This past weekend, the Clark Clan visited Ski Roundtop so that the kids could go snow tubing. This marks our 4th year visiting the PA slopes.I hope to have pictures posted later this week. As usual, we had a big group. This year we went with the McCormick, Gallant, Estes, and Bramble families. Total group size: 19 people.

Before we came back home, we took the kids to Chocolate World in Hershey Park for a brief respite.

Pictures:

2nd Quarter Report Cards

Updated grades appear below. Both Kara and Austin held steady or improved in every class. Kellie had mixed success this term. She bumped her Language Arts grade up a notch. On the other hand she dropped in both History and PE. Her history grade was the result of a particularly bad midterm exam. It's time to buckle down. On the other hand, Kellie's superlative math grades were maintained.

Austin put his head down this term and the results are shown here. For three separate classes, he raised the bar a half letter grade. Congratulations Austin!!!

Kara held her good grades and even bumped up her reading grade. Way to go!!

Kara

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Reading	B	B+
Writing	B	B
Mathematics	B	B
Social Studies	A	A
Science	B	B

Austin

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Social Studies	B	B
Math	C	C+
Science	C+	B
Language Arts	B	B
Art/Study Skills	B	B
Physical Education	A	A
Chorus	B	B+

Kellie

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Pre-Algebra	A	A
Spanish	B	B
Science	B	B
Language Arts	B	B+
World History	B+	C
Physical Education	A	B+
Advanced Chorus	A	A

Baltimore Cheerleading Results

Kellie and Tracy just arrived home from a 13 hour day in Baltimore for the 2-day cheer event at the Baltimore Convention Center. The protocol for such an event dictates that you stay until the awards are made. In this case, awards were handed out at 10:00PM on a Sunday night. Add the travel time, and Kellie arrived here last night at midnight. If that's not bad enough, there were teams from Pennsylvania and Florida in attendance, so maybe we didn't have it too bad. Kellie even made it to school today.

The Cheer Dynasty Kings earned 2nd place in their division. That is a worthy position, but not what they expected. Nonetheless, Kellie and here teammates can hold their heads high. They made a good run at the title, but just came up a little short. It's clear from the reactions of the coaches and other teammates that they take these events very seriously.

Kellie put in two grueling days and managed to come out with a smile. The biggest event of the year (Atlanta, GA) is in two weeks.

Upset

Today the whole Clark clan went to Baltimore for Kellie's first big cheer competition of the year. The event was held at the Baltimore Convention Center. For more details, please see the later post above.

Yesterday, Chuck called me to tell me that he and Dad had tickets to the UNC/NCSU game at the plush RBC Center in Raleigh. Today, as I was filling up for the trip to Baltimore, Dad called me with the same news. At the time, they were on the road to Raleigh.

At 5:00PM tonight, a group of us left the arena to look for a place to have dinner. As luck would have it, the restaurant right across the street was a sports bar. When we arrived, the game was on TV. I was able to quickly determine that the Wolfpack was up by 9 points with 10 minutes left in the game. I watched the the remainder of the game and witnessed State's first victory across the Tarheels in nearly 4 years.

The crowd stormed the court and the Sendek curse was broken. NCSU's new coach, Sidney Lowe took his first big step in returning the Wolfpack to glory. What Herb could not seem to do, Sidney did immediately, that being handing our cross-state rivals a loss. Sidney, welcome back to the ACC.

UNC was ranked #3 in the nation prior to the game, although that doesn't mean much in interconference games these days. We will find out if this was a fluke when the teams meet again later in the month on UNC's campus.

Final Score:

Carolina Tarheels at NC State Wolfpack
79		83

He shoots, he scores!!

Good News - Bad News.

Bad News: Austin's basketball team suffered a devastating defeat last night as they were blown out 47-19.

Good News: Austin scored his first points of the season as he scored the first points for the team. 12 foot bank shot from the right side of the key. Well done.

Best Commercial of the Year

I just saw the year's best commercial during Pardon The Interruption on ESPN. The ad opens with a man cutting clippings out of newspapers that describe several UNC victories over Duke's basketball team. He is using the clippings to make something out of paper mache. The commercial ends when we discover that he has made a Piñata in the form of a Carolina mascot (Ram) that kids are beating with a stick at a birthday party as he cheers them on. Freaking hilarious.

Roadrunners - Game 2

On Saturday, Austin and his 2006-2007 GDBA team (The RoadRunners) dropped their second game of the year. The team got out of the gate slowly and the 12 point hole they dug for themselves in the opening 5 minutes was enough to keep them from coming back for the win. Team defense was good despite the opening run, but once again the offense sputtered.

Austin, known as James to his teammates, continues to play point guard very well and is rapidly becoming accustomed to the responsibilities of handling the ball.

First Cheerleading Competition This Year

On Saturday, Kellie competed for the first time this cheer season. This was a tuneup for their first big competition next weekend. Kellie's team took first place in their division, and Cheer Dynasty took seven first place finishes from among the seven teams they entered. They had a good day.

Cycle World International Motorcycle Show

Yesterday, Austin and I went to the 2006 Cycle World International Motorcycle Show at the Washington D.C. Convention Center. We rode downtown with Ron McCormick and his two boys. All the kids had a ball, but the stunt show was clearly thier favorite event of the day. I was able to pick up an Arai helmet bag, and Austin grabbed every flyer and poster that he could find.

This is the same event that I attended with Ricky last year. With the exception of Triumph, all the manufacturers were there. I was able to get my first close look at the 2007 Yamaha R1. Another bike of note was the Ducati Desmocedici RR, the production version of their MotoGP bike. A new one will set you back a cool $65,000. No sitting on that one. The Yamaha TTR-230 was there and I was able to get a feel for the seat height. Verdict - I can ride this machine. If I was to get a dirt bike this year, this would be it.

Just before we left, I ran into Raphael Jones. Raphael is a friend of Dad's that went on the James Bay trip last August. I shold not have been surprised to see Raphael in motorcycle heaven, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

Christmas Picture 2006

Pictured above is the Clark Family Christmas Portrait for 2006. This is the picture that we used to print our Christmas cards this year. What makes this unusual for me is that the time needed to take the picture, have cards printed, and place the cards in the mail was less than 24 hours.

Amanda McCormick took the picture, we uploaded the picture to Costco.com, selected our design, and had the cards delivered to our local store. We picked them up the next day and they were out. Truly amazing.

Austin's Chorus Concert

Tonight we attended young Austin's 6th grade Chorus Concert. This was a big deal for Austin because he had to dress up for the occasion. The school took this seriously because we saw them ask 2 boys to leave the stage because they were not wearing a tie. The picture below was taken just before we left for the concert. Austin is wearing the shirt, tie and pants that were purchased just for this occasion. This marks the first time since Preschool that I have seen him don any sort of neckwear. Once we got to the school, it was little strange to see all of the kids due to perform that night sporting dresses, shirts and ties.


Here Tracy and Kara pose for another shot.

Sick

Last week Tracy was under the weather, then over the weekend I felt ill. Today, the entire House of Loca is under the weather. All three of the Clark kids are home from school today. Tracy is none too happy about having to take care of three sick kids, but as I see it, she started it, so it's her fault.

Kellie has a staph infection on her thumb, Kara has Pink Eye, and Austin just doesn't feel well. On top of that, Tracy still hasn't recovered from the bug she caught last week. She has my sympathy.

Kellie has a Chorus concert tonight, but she may not make it. It seems that she really doesn't want to attend. She proved that point last night. When told that Kara had Pink Eye, Kellie rubbed her finger on Kara's eye, then proceeded to rub her on eye with the same hand, in a blatant attempt to contract it as well. We'll know today if she succeeded.

Redskins Game

Austin and I were invited to attend the Redskin game on Sunday to see them host the Philadelphia Eagles. Going to FedEx Field is an all day affair as we departed for the stadium at 10:00AM and arrived home shortly after 6:00PM. As guests of Jimmy Gallant, we were able to gain access to the Redskins Radio VIP Hospitality Tent for free food and drink before the game. We sat in Section 231 in the South End Zone Lower Level right in front of the Jumbotron. Austin was able to see what a very large television screen looked like up close. The screen pixels are so large, you really can't tell what you are looking at. The seats were superb and Austin was able to see an NFL game at a new angle.

As it turned out, the Redskins continued their dismal season, allowing to the Eagles to win a game in which they were statistically beaten. The Redskins running back Ladell Betts ran for 170 yards and the team still lost! That's not supposed to happen and doesn't happen to a good team. The highlight of the game was watching the stadium police forcibly remove two unruly drunkards from the end zone stands below us.

Elbow Dragging

It's been a bit of busy week for me. Last weekend, Suzuki called me up to ask me to ride their new 800cc MotoGP bike in Jerez Spain. Here is a shot of me riding on Sunday. The test went well and I was able to point them in the right direction. The only problem I had was scuffing up the elbows on my new leathers.

2006-2007 GDBA Basketball Season

The new GDBA basketball season is still young, with Austin having just completed his third practice of the year. The team will practice a few more times before the Christmas break and his games will begin next month. The first practices have gone well, and just last night Austin was named the backup point guard, which is a tremendous improvement from last year. He is much more confident handling the ball and is clearly one of the better ball handlers on his team. He has taken a big step in improving his game and his learning to take advantage of his small size. In an after-practice scrimmage last night, he was repeatedly fouled as some of the taller players attempted to steal the ball. In frustration, several of the opposing players simply try to push him out of the way to get the ball. Although not quite Rodman-like he had perfected the art of Hollywooding the foul, making it look like his was fouled much harder than he really was. Given his size, this is very believable and he will make good use of it this year. His playing time is sure to increase this year because he has also improved his shot and is much more aggressive in taking a shot. Last night he broke off the ball, got the pass and buried a jumper, making one of the few shots for his team. He is clearly learning to move without the ball. This looks like a good year.

This is also his first year playing on a 10-foot goal and using a regulation size basketball (29.5", Size 7). Last year he was shooting on a 9-foot rim and using a youth (28.5" ball, Size 6, also the same size ball used by collegiate and professional women).

2006 Winter Chorus Concert

Last night Tracy and I attended the 2006 3rd Grade Winter Chorus Presentation. The theme for Kara and her classmates this year was Dinosaurs. The program was centered around Dinosaur songs and skits.

Xmas Lights

I just spent the weekend decorating the exterior of the house. The job remains a work in progress as the results are just not "Griswald" enough for Tracy. As it stands I have what I feel is an amazing number of items plugged into the 2 outside outlets at the front of the house. To date, I have used every extension cord I own as well as 6 outlet multipliers. I have 23 lighted items plugged into the outlets and haven't blown a fuse yet. I will try and put some pictures up later this week.

2006 1st Quarter Report Cards

The 2006 First Quarter Reports are out. Overall they are pretty good. This is Kara's first year with letter grades and she has adjusted well. Austin has made the transition to Middle School better than expected, and Kellie continues to shine.

Kara

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Reading	B
Writing	B
Mathematics	B
Social Studies	A
Science	B
Physical Education	A
Chorus	A

Austin

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Social Studies	B
Math	C
Science	C+
Language Arts	B
Art	B
Physical Education	A
Chorus	B

Kellie

Course	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Pre-Algebra	A
Spanish	B
Science	B
Language Arts	B
World History	B+
Physical Education	A
Advanced Chorus	A

Black Friday

This year marks the first time that I have participated in that most American of traditions, Black Friday. Attracted by the low price offered by our local Target for one of the gifts we had decided to buy for the kids, Tracy and I decided to go shopping. Accompanying us on this expedition was our friend Donna. Thanksgiving night, we heard news of 300 people waiting outside the local CompUSA to be first in line once the store opened the next morning. It seems that the flame that attracted these moths was a $99 laptop computer. I don't know how many of the units they had in stock, but I am sure that there were not enough to go around. I later found out that a neighbor of mine parked himself in line at 6:00PM last night in order to get one of these low-priced units. He made the cut. I read the ad and I wonder how many of the prospective buyers realized that included in the price was a required 12-month subscription to Vonage priced at $300?

I did not expect to see anyone outside the Target, but after we arrived at 5:30AM this morning, there was, indeed, a snaking line of people outside desperate to feed their hard-earned money into the coffers within. So, after privately ridiculing my Brother in his failed overnight attempt to give the local Wal-Mart an absurd amount of money for a Sony PS3, here I stood at O dark thirty outside a retailer, trying to get in to drop my own cash. Ironic, isn't it.

Tracy, Donna, and I stood outside for 30 minutes watching the line triple in size. We were about 70 people back in line and I don't know how long some of these people were queued up. Promptly at 6:00AM, the doors opened and the crowd streamed in desperate to grab the $4 DVDs, the $180 LCD TVs, and assorted other items of interest. To make matters worse, I found myself sprinting to the section of the store that held the items I wanted to get. I had scouted the store Wednesday night, so I knew where everything would be. Tracy grabbed a cart, and obviously not trusting my ability to pick up the items of most interest, grabbed the two units we were looking for herself.

The reason for all this was news outside the store that Target only had 21 of the sub-$100 items we were looking for. It turns out they had more, and we got what we wanted. Most everything we went to buy was sold out in less than 15 minutes, so the day was a success.

Kara Clark - 9 Years Old!!

Kara turns 9 today! The baby of the Clark Clan is 9! Shocking, but true. While I struggle with the obvious signs that I am getting older and older every year, it still surprises me that the youngest of my children is 9. I can't possibly be this old can I? A question for another day.

Kara had her birthday party last Saturday at the Clay Time Cafe. She invited 11 of her closest friends. People that know her, and know how personable she is, won't be surprised that the list of 11 was hard to get to. If I could afford it, she could have had 25 people at the party. A party at Clay Time Cafe consists of painting a clay figurine and the store will glaze and fire it for you later. As the birthday girl, Kara will also receive a plate painted and designed by her friends. Kara selected a small jewelry box with a Sun lid, and I am sure that she can be persuaded to show it to all interested parties. We will be picking up the creations tomorrow.

Continuing a tradition among our circle of friends, we are all going out for a celebratory birthday dinner at a location selected by the guest of honor. Tonight, Kara has selected Famous Dave's in Chantilly, VA.

Thanksgiving 2006

Tracy had an unavoidable medical procedure the day before Thanksgiving and given her condition our options for travel were somewhat limited. In the continuing saga of her kidney problems, young Tracy had a Lithotripsy done on Wednesday. It was an outpatient procedure, but we couldn't travel because if a stone was to be passed or dislodged it would be within a few days. Relief came in the form of our good friend Molly who was kind enough to invite us into her home for Thanksgiving dinner. Speaking for myself, I had a great time. Molly is consistently good company and on top of that proved to be an outstanding cook.

James Bay Photo Album #6

The bikes at James Bay - Mission Accomplished!

James Bay.

Local fishing boats at the Bay.

Abandoned snowmobiles.

James Bay parking lot.

Cultural center - Chisasibi.

Cree - Chisasibi.

The day we left. Look at the size of the gas can mounted in the CBR1000RR to the left!

James Bay Photo Album #5

The sprawling village of Radisson.

A sunny day it was not.

The spillway carved out of the Canadian shield.

Rock filled damn to contain the reservoir.

Dad and Raphael on the power plant tour.

A map of the hydro power plants in Northern Québec.

Laughing it up on the tour bus.

On the bridge atop the spillway.