Not Much Going On

Except for volleyball

We're still in the volleyball thing and I'll be glad when it's over. It seems like there has been a large dose of it lately. Other than that we haven't done a whole lot.

I finished up another class towards my masters, or as I like to refer to it "getting poked in the eye". With that done I hope to pick up the guitar again and give it another shot. I feel like I'll be starting at square one, but I don't think I ever got off square one to start, so it won't be too bad.

We're still playing the Wii and it's as much fun as it started out to be. Both Alex and myself have made it to professional Wii bowler status and I think Emma is well on here way. She, Emma, kicked my but playing baseball the other day. Which made her pretty happy.

Wii fitness age: 29

Casimir Pulaski Day

Not sure why

Yesterday was Casimir Pulaski Day and the girls had the day of school. According to Wikipedia Illinois enacted the law to celebrate the his birthday back in 1977. If you want to get more details click here. More or less it has to do with the Polish population wanting to celebrate the day. We're not polish but I'm sure the girls are happy to have the day off.

Wii fitness age: 30

Sports Weekend

It's OK if you win

This weekend was the annual sixth grade volleyball tournament. The last couple of years Alex has played in it. Since she is part of a pretty small school she started playing volleyball in the fourth grade. Last year the team won the consolation medal which means they lost the first match to go into the losers’ bracket then won the next two matches.

This year they won the first match, on Friday, to get into the winners’ bracket, yeah us. Then we went on to game 2 which was on Saturday. If we win that we go to play for the tournament win and at least a second, if not we get to play for third. The girls did well and won in two games. So for the first time in school history the sixth grade girls have a chance to win.

On to the championship game. Not only is it a big deal for the girls but it's also a big deal for the towns involved. For some reason there has always been a big rivalry between the two towns. There is always tension when they play, no matter what the sport. So the girls where pumped up and I actually thought that they wouldn't do as well as they did. Therefore I was very surprised and proud when they won the game. Not only a win but it only took two games and they weren't that close. 25-9 and 25-14 or something like that. My numbers may be a little off, but I'm pretty sure we got to 25 before they did on both games.

I very proud of Alex, I think she played well and I'm happy she had the opportunity to be part of a winner. We have a rematch with the team we beat this week, but I don't think it matters how that turns out since we've already got the medal and trophy.

It's a Winner

but still going on

I enjoy going to watch Alex play volleyball, but the season seems to be dragging a bit. Maybe it's just me but it seems rather long. We had another game last night. The sixth grade team won their match to break the losing streak. I'm hoping they get better and use more of the bump-set-spike play instead of the just-hit-it-over-the-net-and-hope-the-other-team-makes-a-mistake play.

Emma is still playing basketball, I think. She missed the last practice because of a volleyball game. I'm not sure how much the kids get out of something like that at such an early age. It seems that around here they want the kids to get into organized sports pretty early. I don't have a problem trying to teach kids some of the fundamentals but it seems to cross over into more of a competitive thing that tends to drive away some people, namely me.

More Volleyball

Another Loss

Alex had another volleyball game last night and they lost in the third game. They play a best of three games using a rally scoring format. That is a point is scored on every serve. Back in the old days you could only score if you served the ball and you played to 15. They play to 25 for the first two games then only to 15 on the final game.

The girls won the first game then went on to lose the second one and only scored one point in the third game. It was painful to watch. In the last post I said something about the girls going backwards in their abilities. I'm not so sure about that. I think, now, that they just haven't gotten any better. The teams we're playing seem to be getting better and we just stay the same.

Anyway, as long as Alex is having fun I suppose that's all that matters.

Long Weekend

Sorry about that

It was a semi busy weekend, so my posts were a little lacking. Saturday Alex had a clarinet recital that she has been looking forward to for a while. Did I say looking forward to, I meant dreading. Although she does pretty well she doesn't like doing it and it has been horrible leading up to it. Of course she did fine and got a first place. Unfortunately I had to miss the event.

I went to one of Angela's cousins bachelor party. The most fun was racing "go karts". All of my time playing racing video games has paid off in kicking a bunch of young kids butts. Then Sunday was a day of trying to motivate myself to finish up a paper for a class I'm taking. I really need to stop putting off my papers to the day before they are due.

Alex had a volleyball game Monday. Angela seems to think that the girls are going backwards since they lost another game. I tend to agree. Alex does really well in receiving servers but her serving has been lacking. Hopefully they'll pick it up for the tournament they have this weekend.

Wii fitness age: 27

More Wii

Sorry...

I got more Wii news. I talked about the Wii being able to cross boundaries between the ages. I think that this article pretty much sums that up.

Wii Invades Retirement Home

Maybe the Wii could be a fantastic donation item to local retirement homes. Of course you have to be able to find them first.