I'm partially back to normal after the first week of work at the new job.  So here is 1 update on what's going on around here.

This week was picture day for the 8th graders.  A special group picture was taken for some reason.  I expect it will be in some kind of memory book or some such nonsense.  Any way after the picture there was an 8th grade social  where the kids got to hang out in the cafeteria.*  It was a half day of school so they didn't have a lot of time there all dressed up.  But they did have time to get pictures.  This is Jimmy and Krystal.  His ex.  I know I never got that close to an ex.& 

Either way it's a nice picture her friend took for her. 

After the social the leaders in training group had an afternoon at Cheesie Charlie's.^  So in 6 weeks or so 8th grade is done for the oldest.

* I almost put breakroom down.  Weird how the name changes when you start working

& Not that I'd want to

^ Family Guy reference

Saturday was fun.

Last year Jimmy joined a group call WNY United agaist drugs and alcohol.  They have meetings and fun outings and raise money for chaities.  Saturday was WNY United day at the ball park.  The Buffalo Bisons (AAA team) let the group on the field before the game to present award to the principals of the participating schools.  All members got free tickets for the family.  That means all 4 of us were there free.  Jimmy was asked to help carry out the banner with the signatures of all the members.  It was cool to see Jimmy on the Big Board

Even before this when we first got there the boys played some $1 games in the concourse.  Philip won 2 free tickets for a game in May spinning a wheel. 

Then he played Plinko and won 2 more tickets.

Then after the 1st inning they had a race between 2 of the kids from the group out on the field.  We look and there's Jimmy on the field.  The race was sponsored by Adams Mark hotel; the winner gets dinner for 2.  They raced with a suitcase to another suitcase.  They had to throw on a shirt and hat and run back.  Somehow Jimmy won at the end with a big burst of speed.

Back in 7th grade Jimmy did a newscast for Engliss class.

Catching up on the week.

Thursday was a meeting at Jimmy's high school for next year. The top 20% on the entrance exams received scholarships. Jimmy was one of 2 kids that received 2 awards. The pic is from the reception. It was a nice way to bring some of the class together to let them get to know each other.

This morning was sign up day. We mad the registration payment and made it official that he's going to Timon. We have a parent meeting in May and he will have an orientation in the summer.

Philip has years to go before we worry about all this for him.

Jimmy is at the birthday party from last month. Seems that Crystal was in trouble last time too so the party was postponed. So today Jimmy is with Crystal and one of her friends at her house watching movies and eating pizza with her parents. He's supposed to home by 10:30.

Can't wait to here if he actually watched the movie.

Girl Trouble.

Back To December.

Jimmy has a thing for a girl in his class; Krystal. So before Christmas we took the 2 of them to the mall to spend time together. Then they spent time at the house playing Game cube and sitting all close and stuff. The wife was not pleased. They were way too close for a 13 year and at the time 14 year old.

We had dinner and Jimmy starts choking. I end up using the heimlich maneuver to keep him alive. Krystal freaks out. She spent 30 minutes in the fetal position crying because she almost lost him Then she just sat on the kitchen floor for 20 minutes crying. It took forever to get her back home.

The wind is gone for now. It's still cold here. 14 F when I left the house.

Buffalo schools are closed to today. The wife is stuck at home with the boys. Not sure I wanna go home today.

Tonight is the scholarship reception for Timon so we have a busy night. Philip will be downstairs with grandma while we are gone. He gets to miss religion class to night; it's ok since they will have a substitute tonight. Lisa is his teacher and she will be at Timon.

It freezing out but in just a few weeks it will be baseball signup for Philip.

16 blogs in 3 days and still more to go.

I’m working on a couple in Word and will be sending them out soon. So far it seems people want to know about the kidnapping more then anything else. Oh well that is one I’m working on.

This weekend I’ve had a bad cough. Saturday morning I was up at 4:30 and tried sleeping on the couch so the wife could sleep. Sleeping sitting up helped but laying down was torture

I did make it too the gym for an hour on Saturday but not Sunday. This coming week will be tough to get there.

So this past week: On Tuesday Jimmy hurt his knee at Tae Kwon Do. It’s only a hyper extension but he’s still having pain. We stayed home Wednesday. Thursday was the usual I get to stay home for a little while when Lisa taught religion. Philip is one of her students and Jimmy helps out in class.

Friday was the dinner so I skipped the gym. Saturday Jimmy took class but he had some pain. This sucks because he has a Level test for Tae Kwon Do on Wednesday at 7pm. If he passes he will be a 1^st Dan level 2. That leaves at least 2 years until the next black belt test.

Sunday was not pleasant with Jimmy. Girl trouble but that will be a different blog.

Philip had a great time watching AFV this week. He couldn't stop laughing.

Stuff from November.

It was the bomb.

Well ok it wasn’t a bomb but the school was locked down anyway. HA.

The boy’s school had a bomb threat and went into lock down on a Monday. No bomb was found but they kept the place locked down anyway. The next day the school gets another call. Gain no bomb but police from at least 5 agencies were at the school dragging some kids off the bus in cuffs.

On Monday the police got the phone records and found that the call came from a cell phone. The call was made that morning from inside the school. They got the name of the owner of the phone and did voice analysis on the little girl. They got her story. One of the older boys asked to borrow her phone for a minute Monday morning. On Tuesday they expected the call and waited for them. Turns out it was 3 boys working together on the calls. They were taken away and haven’t been back. There was a small article in the paper but the kids couldn’t be named because of age. Trouble is this is an elementary school and the kids were 15 and in 7^th grade. I could not imagine being 15 in 7^th grade. They would get out of High School at 20. I doubt they will make it that far though.

Blogger's block sucks.

In general; I have very little to do at work so the boss has me doing his work which means work on the computer.  To do all that work I need to be on the corporate network which means no blogging.  Not that I would have time any way.

The rest is just the same thing every day.

Sunday Jimmy has an official date fo the first time.  He and his girl are going to spend the day at the mall while his mom trys her staling skills.

Saturday was the annual Tae Kwon Do tournament at Buffalo State University.  It starts with the 9 and under kids at 8am.  At 12:30  each of the 4 Buffalo Master Chong schools have team competitions..  Our school came in last.  A video is of them doing the YMCA form is posted in the in the video section. 

After the team its the kids 10 to 15 turn.  They compete in 3 areas; form, board breaking, and sparring.  Every year it's the same thing; no one from the Orchard Park school leaves happy.  The groups are supposed to be based on size, gender and level.  In form Jimmy was against a 2nd degree and someone that will test for 2nd degree in a few months.  Jimmy is 3 years behind them.  It was the same group for board breaking.  Jimmy got all his boards.  One kid should have not been allowed to attempt since he had a broken foot.  He did 3 hand techniques which is against the rules.  He had an injury and was not supposed to try any techniques.  Another kid that missed all his breaks several times got the silver.  The gold winner used a board for under 13 year olds.  He's 14. 

For sparring they made Jimmy take his glasses off.  How do you kick a target you can't see!!

Every year there are [problems, I know it's a whiny post but after 4 years you get fed up. 

Certain board breaks are not allowed because of the danger.  Well of course I saw a kid do a speed break.  The wood flew 50 feet into another ring and just missed someone.  I saw a girl forget her form and win a gold.  It's such a joke.  It's the only thing about the place that makes me mad.

Jimmy carving his pumpkin

Philip with the pumpkins

Here's a review of the weekend.

Saturday Philip had his Reading Rocks ceremony. The mayor of Buffalo has a summer reading program. You read 7 books and do a quick summary that gets sent to the mayors office. All participants get invited to the ceremony. We thought it would be a quick run in get a certificate and then leave. We get to the convention center, check in and get the certificate. We are told to go upsatirs. Upstairs is 250 tables and over 100 volunteers directing people. You get a free shirt, book (Treasure Island for Philip) pencils, note pad, game, and bookbag. We also get tickets to the Chineese auction and door prize. Philip won a $10 gift card to kaybe toys.

Other prizes were 55 bikes donated by #55 of the Buffalo Bills, 10 $50 bank accounts, 10 Ipods, and a ton of other things. The 1st prize was a $500 multi game set from ESPN. The grand prize was a $1250 college scholarship.

Only 900 kids in the city participated. There are over 40,000 eligible students.

Sunday we went to another open house to help Jimmy pick a high school. The Catholic schools go all out.

This video was shown at the school for one of their clubs. It's also used to promote how much technology the school has.

Black Belt Presentation Day Jimmy and the twins before the start. Black belts on hand to welcome to newest member to their level. The twins waiting to give their speeches. Kevin’s kid. He thanked his dad and only his dad.

Bailey wants to be an actress. Samantha

Jimmy’s testing partner Nick.

Mr. Quigley getting his belt from Grand Master Chong.

Jimmy getting his belt.

Matt

Jimmy again

All the new black belts from al 4 Buffalo schools. Orchard Park newest promoted black belts and 2nd degree black belts with Master Kim and Mr. McDowell.

Had very little time to blog today.

Right after work the family went to America's Fair. Also known as the Erie County fair to normal people. Here's the link http://www.americas-fair.com/index.php. We went today for 2 reasons. 1 it was cheap today. 2. Kurt Busch was signing autographs.

The line to see him was huge. My future ex brother in law once removed was guarding Kurt's wife. (So he was watching Kurt's Busch.... Yes a very bad joke) But on the upside he got Jimmy a personnalized autograph.

Philip walked around with mom while I stayed in line for 2 hours with Jimmy. We missed a lot this year but we still have a week.

Monday - Was Philip's last T-ball game. After the game all the kids got a medal for playing. Then we had a pizza party. The coach bought pizza, one partent gave hime some money for it, we brought little hugs to drink. No one else brought anything.

For the past couple of games Jimmy has been helping out with the little kids on the team. He sets up the tee and helps with hemets.

Tuesday. - As said before Philip's soccer team won again. They played a bigger team and still pulled it out. One thing I noticed about the games: our coach makes sure every kid gets about the same amount of playing time and everyone gets a water break. The other coaches call plays and yell a lot. Interesting. Our coach tells the team to have fun; they see to like kicking the ball into the net.

Wednesday - the usual TKD for Jimmy. I went to the gym during his class.

Thursday - Double class at TKD. Extra time at the gym.

Both boys had back to school dr. visits that included shots. Glad I was at work for that.

Friday - Double class again. More time at the gym. One of his friends got hurt in class. She landed on her ankle. She seemed ok but was going for x-rays just in case.