Boys Day

I had a coaches safety meeting this morning, so the boys took off today for some bonding time in DC.  I get to spend so much time with Zack between school and crew that John is making a real effort to do more things with Zack.  There's been some real competitive chess matches going on, they've hit the movies and today they went to breakfast at the Silver Dinner and then to DC.

Neanderthal John

Neanderthal Zack

They seemed to have a great time visiting the Natural History Museum.  I'm not sure how I feel about the Neanderthal pictures... weird, creepy, bizarre... 

What a sad, sad day

Today Leonard Nimoy died.  He was 83.  I can't believe Mr. Spock is dead.  Star Trek is and always has been such a part of my life.  I always said Star Trek TOS was like mashed potatoes, a total comfort food.  Something I could watch whenever I didn't want to have to work at paying attention or concentrate.  When I just wanted something to be comforting.   I remember when DeForest Kelley died.  He was the first one of the group to die and I remember thinking, now they can never make another movie, they'll never be altogether again.  The end of an era, and now Mr. Spock is gone.  I feel very sad.  I think I'll be watching a lot of Star Trek in the next couple of days.

When I went to my first, and only Star Trek convention.  Leonard Nimoy was there and I remember I planned on being all cool and collected.  No big deal.  But then I saw him come out on stage and I was giddy as a school girl.  I wanted up jump up and down and scream, I didn't, but I wanted to!  What a sad, sad day.  An amazing Sci Fi Icon!

It's Bragging time...Brenna Hyzy version

So my precious baby girl, the same girl who once took a zero in Spanish, because she didn't know which basket to put her homework in, the same girl who was thrilled when she got a B, who was happy to be "average" if it meant it didn't interfere with her social life.  The same girl who refused to take her Algebra book to class with her because it was "too heavy."  This girl has decided she's going to graduate school, she's taken the GRE and she's been accepted to the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point!

She's been working with her advisor at Radford and the man she worked for this summer at Virginia Tech and they both suggested this program and actually they spoke with the director.  Apparently he was so impressed with Brenna and her work and skills that they pretty much created this graduate program for her and her skill set!  That's pretty freaking amazing if you ask me!  She will work as a TA and they will be giving her a yearly stipend which should help pay for a good portion of her tuition and living expenses.  I mean Duh!  No brainer!   She didn't want to do it at first, I think she's a little worried about about being pigeon-holed with bats which probably aren't her first choice.  But for now, it's what she knows and what she's good at and what they want her for, so she's going with it.  She'll be 24 and have a masters degree and can do whatever she wants.  I'm very excited and very proud, but I'm also just a tiny, toosh sad.  She's going all the way to Wisconsin, that's a long way away! :o(   AND she has to go up in May, right after graduation... so we don't even get to hang out over the summer. :o(  She and John are going to go up in May and make sure they get everything settled and then Zack and I will road trip up and visit later in the summer.  Its going to be hard to have her so far away.  I like hanging out with her, we have fun together and now she's going to be far, far away!   I don't like my babies growing up and away! 

Tryouts

We made it through tryouts.  In the school, it certainly wasn't any fun for the boys to run the mile around the school hallways, but they did it.  We had 4 brand new boys come out and 2 that did Fall so that was a little bit exciting.  We ended up keeping everyone.  Didn't make any cuts.  I'm not sure that's the right decision, but there were really only 2-3 that should have been cut and we just didn't have the heart to do it.  We have enough boats, so we kept them and we'll see what happens.  Even so, I still got an ICBTS (I can't believe this shit) email from a mom who insisted that we shouldn't cut anyone because we are a club and paid for by the parents of the team members and she didn't want us to get into any trouble cutting a kid who wanted to participate in the sport.  First of all....WE ARE NOT A CLUB, we are a VARSITY SPORT!  Secondly, it's such a relief to know this mom is looking out for us, so that we don't get into any trouble.  Here's a big can of Shut the Hell Up!  Made me want to cut her kid, just because.  Just proves to me that no matter what we do - someone is going to give us shit.  No win!

Zack did great, of course, there was no doubt.  We ended up with 50 boys and 35 girls.  The girls cut 3 and that was it.  We hit the magic number, 80 - that's what our Treasurer needed to make the budget work.  So, I guess everyone is happy....

I just love this picture.  So many Ergs, just waiting.  Representing so much hard work, so much potential.  It's going to be a great season!

Spring means Spring....seriously

Tomorrow is the first official day of the Crew Spring Season, starting off with tryouts and this is what we're looking at...

It's not a lot of snow, but it's freaking snow!!  Which means we'll be doing all the tryouts, including our mile run inside the school.  That sucks for everyone.  Even the dogs are like "what the hell??"  Plus, it's not helping the ice melt down at the boathouse.  Come on Mother Nature... cut us some slack!

What the hell Mother Nature....

4 snow days and 3 2-hour delays later, we are all pretty shell shocked.

We are not used to this shit.  Seriously 3 degrees!!  That doesn't take into account the wind chill.  We've had lots of wind, temps at -17 with the wind.  Yuck!

The best way to spend the snow/cold day!  Even the Naked Gnome (courtesy of Gp Bud) needed to come in and warm up!

Scrapbook success!

We've had a pretty crazy winter lately.  It's not that there's been so much snow, but it's been icy, windy, cold and just miserable for the most part.  The very first "snow day" of the year, the school system didn't call it and they were lambasted about it.  I think they may still be licking their wounds.  The result... if there's even a flake in the air, heck if they even predict a flake might come down, they are canceling school or at least delaying us!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, at least not  yet, we haven't gone over our allotment of days so okay so far.  The result of our last 3 snow days...

#1 - I discovered The Blacklist on Netflix!  Totally addicted.  I have literally watched 30 hours straight of this stupid show.  33 episodes in the first season and 11 episodes in the 2nd season to get caught up and current.  Much to my shame and humiliation... I actually paid $1.99 for the last 6 episodes on iTunes because I couldn't wait!

#2 - I have pretty much single-handedly eaten every scrap of unhealthy food in this house!

#3 -  My 2014 scrapbook is done!

Before

After

I really need to take stock in Shutterfly... those orange envelopes just seem to multiply of their own accord.  I'm feeling pretty good, I still have a couple "special" projects that need completion.  Zack's sophomore year of crew and John and the kids trip to Alaska, but otherwise I'm caught up.  Maybe if we get a few more snow days I can get those taken care of as well.