Cool Thanksgiving Holiday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this year. The long weekend offered an excellent opportunity to connect with family and recharge one's batteries.

Driving in from Cleveland, Ohio, my parents arrived Wednesday evening in time for dinner. On Thanksgiving Day, we watched the Macy's parade, the Detroit Lions', and the Dallas Cowboy's games on television while dinner cooked. Everyone pitched in this year in the kitchen, making it extra fun. Gavin and Erick made buttery-almond carrots and set the table; Hannah cooked the green beans and two types of dinner rolls; Mum mum cut the apples and threw together a yam & apple casserole; and Grandpa made the mashed potatoes. It was a real team effort. During the cooking, Hannah and I got into a spatula duel using pot lids as shields. Pretty cool. We finished the day by watching Miracle on 34th street.

On Friday we celebrated Hannah and Mum mum's November 15th birthdays by going out to dinner at Amelia's American Bistro in Simsbury. As we were getting ready to go out to dinner, Susan snapped the really cool photo (top paragraph) of the three kids. Evangeline and Sarah Moore joined our motley dinner party. Erick modeled a flat bread mustache for us. Returning home after dinner, we opened presents and wolfed down cake & ice cream before watching Jim Carey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

On Saturday, we took my folks up to see the town fireworks during Simsbury Celebrates - the traditional kick off to the holiday season. It was a little cold, so we parked behind the cemetery at the top of Plank Hill road. This gave us the perfect vantage point to see the fireworks from the comfort of our car. Mum mum and grandpa left on Sunday morning for the long drive back to Cleveland; life around the house slowly returned to normal. Sigh, back to work. We'll look forward to seeing Marisue and Carolyn for Christmas.

New York City Trip

Last Monday, Susan, Hannah and I made an educational/enrichment visit to the Julliard campus in New York City. We completed a nice tour of the school, learning more about the music, drama, and dance programs offered. At this point, Hannah is just in the information gathering stage. She knows that she wants to dance and get a solid education. Whether she'll want to dance for a career is undetermined.

Adjacent to Lincoln center, Julliard is just a short walk from Central Park and the wonderful homes on Central Park West. After the conclusion of our tour, we stopped at a local deli and purchased subs (heros), sodas, and fresh tomato and mozzarella salad before walking to Central Park. Once inside the park, we found this cool rock outcropping to be an excellent place for our little impromptu picnic.

Following our picnic, we hopped the subway for Ground Zero. Having never taken the subway before, we didn't get it quite right. Rather than reaching Ground Zero, we found ourselves in Chinatown. As we walked, Susan and Hannah were continually assaulted by women hawking knock-off purses, clothes, and wallets. "You want Gucci?" repeated over and over and over again. We eventually walked our way to Ground Zero.

About Ground Zero: Susan and I had visited the site about one year after the attacks. New York was a different place then. Soldiers and concrete barriers were everywhere. Today, fences erected as a safety precaution make it hard to see too much from the ground. One can still get a pretty good bird's eye view from the Winter Garden in the nearby World Financial Center. I am amazed by the sheer size of the footprint. Those two buildings were absolutely massive. The current construction project to build the memorial is enormous.

For more information about what they're building at Ground Zero, check out this site.

Erick & Evangeline Rent an Apartment

Well, it's finally happened. The first of our kids has moved out; Erick and Evangeline moved into an apartment on Saturday afternoon. The two have been a couple since September 2005, dating all the way through High School and into college. Evangeline is a great young lady

The apartment is cute. Located next to a large home on a hill in Simsbury, it offers panoramic views. We tried to get good photos of the view from the main windows, but the light was uncooperative.

They have done did a nice job setting up a home. As you can see from the photo, the kitchen is a little small but should suit them. The main room is roomy enough for a bedroom area on one end and family room on the other. That's my bald head in the photo with Erick watching the Waterboy on Sunday.

I must say that it is weird having him move out. I think back to changing diapers, playing catch, coaching baseball, and chasing him to do his homework. Ah good memories. We're excited for them as they take this next step in their lives.

Harvard Ballroom Competition - The Simmons Get Good News

Last Sunday, Susan, Hannah and I set out for Harvard for the Harvard Ballroom Competition. Leaving at 8:30 am, we drove for about 2 hours: just in time for the 11:00 am start. Hannah's friends Sarah and Danny drove with us.

Prior to that, a group of eager young ladies had descended on our home for coffee and last minute practicing at 7:oo am. Watching how much energy they had made me feel even older and grumpier than usual.

Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, and others we present. Simsbury High School was one of only three high schools that fielded teams.

Hannah danced Bronze Swing, Rumba and Foxtrot with Saira: the young lady in the video that I posted earlier. she switched to another partner for the Waltz. I'm sorry I can't remember her name, but she's featured in the picture here. Hannah received call backs for all of the dances except the Waltz, made most semifinals and placed in the Swing and Rumba. We're happy for her.

The next competition will be held at Yale on November 14th.

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Many of you know about Owen Simmons. For those that don't, here's the run down. Owen is my cousin Andrea's son. He was born with HLHS, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (1/2 a heart) and has made it through 2 open heart surgeries. He is currently in heart failure which is managed by medications until he receives the gift of a new heart.

Owen and Andrea have recently been to Stanford, for what they thought might be hospitlization leading up to a heart transplant. However, they weren't sure that Owen was strong enough to make it through surgery. Carson, Andreas husband, remained at home in Arizona to with their daughter Kamryn.

As it turns out, Owen's heart is stronger than they thought, and he was released from the hospital. Looks like Mommy and Owen will be at home for Halloween. For the complete story, check out the Simmons Family Blog here.

Take care Simmons family, you are in our prayers.

Sadie meets the water

Two weeks ago, Susan and I took Sadie for a walk down to the Farmington River. We wanted her to splash around and go for a swim. She's a Labrador after all.

Well she wasn't too sure about the water. She went to the edge, drank a little water, dipped her toe in and flopped around on the muddy bank. Didn't even chase the people in the canoe drifting by. Maybe she'll grow into it eventually.

The picture attached is of the old bridge over the Farmington River, that serves only foot traffic now. Volunteers from the community maintain the flowers and plants that you see. We needed to cross the bridge to get to a place where we could easily descend the bank.

More to come soon.

UCONN Ballroom Competition

Hannah competed in the UCONN Ballroom competition last weekend at the University of Connecticut. This was, I think, her first competition dancing at the Bronze level. It was also the first time that she didn't lead every dance.

Hannah and her partner, Saira, are jiving in the semifinals in the video below.

Allow me to explain a little about these competitions, for those of you who don't compete or don't have children competing in them. They are all day long events, typically starting at 08:00 am and wrapping up about 12 hours later with an awards ceremony. This means that Hannah gets up around 3 am, to shower, primp and power slam coffee before connecting with her team at the school around 5:45 am. When the day is over, they're just pooped. This time around Hannah danced in shoes that were slightly too small with resulting blisters roughly the size of Montana. I carried her inside around 8pm. Gritty performance.

September 27, 2009 Draft Blog Posting

It is almost the end of September, and I have not updated the blog since July. A slacker, perhaps. I had intended to post a new entry after returning from the cottage in late August. We had a nice time visiting with family in Michigan. Located in The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore, the Jillson cottage is a nice retreat. While there, I played a few rounds of horrible golf and visited the Cherry Republic with Susan and the kids. Erick's good friend, Derrick Magnun came along and was a good sport. He even survived unscathed the nearly famous Peanut Butter war at Dearing's grocery.

On the way home, we were able to spend a few days with my folks in Cleveland before I needed to return to Connecticut with the boys; Susan and Hannah went to stay at her Mother's house before driving to Indiana pick to up our newest family member, Sadie. A sweet little black lab, who was born on July 1st, Sadie endeared herself to the family quickly. Here is a photo of the little girl on the 7 hour car ride from the breeder. She found the nape of Susan and Hannah's neck the ideal place to cuddle: never seen a dog do that before. Since her return to Connecticut, Sadie has gained about 5 pounds per week. Her paws keep getting bigger.

Hannah has started high school! She is earning good marks in the ninth grade at Simsbury High. This morning Hannah and her team had their first ballroom inter district of the year. The UCONN Ballroom competition is next weekend, as is homecoming. Hannah will be dancing the weekend away! The UCONN team asked Hannah to join them but she had already committed to the high school team. She will try to practice with the UCONN team on Sundays.

Erick is enrolled at Tunxis Community College. He and his longtime girlfriend, Evangeline have classes two nights a week. Erick also got his driver's license earlier this month. He took his written test in June but had to wait until September to take the driving part. He passed on the first try. As we were walking out to the car with the new license in hand, Erick tells me that we need to go back in an stand in line again. Why?, I ask. The DMV had marked “female” rather than male on his license. Just about no one wants to go back and stand in line again at the DMV, but our other options weren't very attractive.

Gavin is not enrolled in Tunxis yet as he simply waited too long to get the ball rolling on his transfer from Northwestern prior to registration deadline. I'm fairly certain that he plans to start up there in the spring. He is working lots of hours at Andy's Grocery Store.

Susan is still loving her job and it is going very well. Once a week her co-teacher Denise, “Nise”, comes over for lesson planning. They put out a monthly newsletter about what they are covering in the classroom so the parents are kept up to date through the school year.

Leaves are starting to change color and fall. The temperature is also falling. I am hoping to have plenty of cool New England small town photos for the next posting.