We got a Wii!

It was a huge surprise that we received a Wii from my brother in law. He's so resourceful finding such a hot commodity :-) We had a great New Years Eve party with the Wii - including the highlight of Grandma playing Wii Bowling. Looks like we will play again tonight! Weee

Geez! It's been awhile

Okay, so somebody told me they actually read this blog.. So for you I will add a new post (the first since August).
Things are cruzin' along here. Cross Country coaching was fun, and the team did much better this year. The jazz band is hoppin' with the chance to split into 2 bands next semester. I interviewed for the new high school in our district for the assistant band director spot. And I didn't assist HS band this year at the old h.s. It was kind of weird to not go to the football games, but it was a nice change of pace.
Thanksgiving was all about family with a huge meal each day of the break - ending with my b-day party - a great time!
Grad. school is in full swing and I'll earn 7 hours this fall - which kicks me up to 20 of the necessary 32 hours.
Christmas break is right around the corner and we're heading to Houston and Corpus Christi which will be our first time back since moving from there 4.5 years ago.

So now you're caught up - my one reader! :0)

Funny

I haven't laughed so hard since I left TCU! Tonight we saw John Pinette - a standup comedian that's made quite a name for himself. It was 2 hours of constant laughing! In the first 20 minutes I was laughing so hard I was coughing - like a smoker would. You'll have to check him out if he is ever in your city. www.johnpinette.com

Summer is about to end and we have one last thing planned - a trip to San Fran and Carmel Valley.

Marathon Entry

So I signed up for the Kansas City Marathon. I've been running quite a bit to prepare for coaching cross country kiddos. I guess I feel guilty making the kids race and then sittin' back not doing a race on my own. The race is October 20 and I've been using this Garmin GPS device to chart my progress. Really cool!


I also recommend www.mapmyrun.com to set out running routes.

July 5th

It was a nice 4th and I got to play around with my Air Hogs brand airplane. It's a remote controlled plane that a bunch of friends have gotten into.

On Saturday is our 7-7-07 party. My good college friend Rob will be in town.

Not much else to post except my 2 graduate classes are finished and July brings 2 more. School Law - Yikes!

Uh Really?

The good and bad

Okay so the problem with teaching is the pay scale - but I'm not talking about the pay rate yet. See, in order to get across the salary schedule you need a buttload of graduate credit hours. I just finished my Masters degree last spring...and that isn't enough... There are advantages to getting across the pay scale sooner than later, so here I sit preparing for what is called an Ed. Specialist degree. It's 32 more graduate credit hours on top of the 32 I just finished. It's a race.

I enjoyed my last degree because it dealt with technology and was able to win 2 grants - but I'm not sure if administration is really where I want to end up - but it does give me some flexibility down the road

Spending money to make money.

2 weeks

So the track season is comin to a close. Several meets were canceled due to our crazy cold weather. I don't know if I did a very good job as a coach, but I definitely enjoyed it. It makes me want to run some more...

I'm considering grad school starting this summer, but not sure what's next for me.

yo yo yo

I'm not sure what's going on but I'm now the assistant track coach. I'm having a good time running with these kiddos as spring is springing.

I saw RENO 911 the movie and look forward to Sunday's season premiere.
Nobody does a better job of not doing their job better

Spring break is over and we have our final push for the end of the year

Neato Burrito

ok
We have been chillin here. Like REALLY CHILLIN! Yesterday was the first time in weeks that it kicked above 40 degrees. Even though I teased Kookie about her house being 56 degrees - we had our thermostat down to 61 for most of the month. Last Tues and Wed we had hopefully our last push of winter with 2 days off from school. We may have to make up one day at the end of the year. Yuck

I'm taking students skiing on Wed, but the temp will suddenly be in the 60s. Geez - it'll be a slush fest. I'd like to head out to Colorado to ski over spring break - we'll see.

I'm mucho excited about my friend Rob who will have a short video shown on the Discovery Channel!

Seattle Wedding

We're getting ready for a nice family wedding near Seattle this weekend

It's been chilly here so I installed a gas fireplace. It was my first adventure working with natural gas. (no jokes please) I had to get a special cut of piping made so that it would fit. I went to Lowes and they did it for FREE! It was quite amazing watching the worker cut the pipe and then thread it.

I saw Nacho Libre the other night - uhh ouch

I'm getting ready for my MS band individual competition. I can't wait!

Tijuana Brass

The sweet sounds you are about to hear are from the Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album. There are few sounds that are more energized than the ones devised by this mysterious group. I first experienced listening to the Tijuana Brass sound while listening to my parent's LP. I revisited their sound during college (my BMG CD Club - free music era) when I was getting free cd after another while signing up my friends. Anyways, my cd collection had my standard listening and I was ready to branch out. I ordered the Best of the Tijuana Brass cd and my college buddies and I were hooked. Good times always were around with the Tijuana Brass.

http://www.content.loudeye.com/scripts/hurl.exe?clipid=001724501030006900&cid=600109

This is great gift wrapping music.

Holiday Crossword

Enjoy our Christmas Crossword Puzzle -

while listening to my favorite Messiah recording

ACROSS
1. both taught three weeks of summer ___

4. he coached & tried to keep up with 19 runners

7. one of 7 landmasses of the globe

8. visited Gateway Arch w/ TCU buddies in_

9. plays this instrument in community band

10. Jessica’s creative talents shine as a ___

13. Jeremy earned this after 2 years of work

16. heard Billy Joel at the Coliseum in ___

17. rode the Millennium Eye here

18. toured St. Mark’s Basilica here

19. visited cousin in capital of Wisconsin

20. we ran our first __
DOWN
2. Jeremy recently became one at the church

3. saw the Eiffel tower here

5. whohastimeforthisblog@blogspot.com

6. cat's name

11. happy to be so close to ___

12. look forward to spending more time with Kansas City __

14. Jessica took an art course in ___

15. visited Uffizi and took a moped trip to Chianti region

Word Bank
Mastersdegree

Friends
Europe
StLouis
FiveKRun
Paris
Rome
Carddesigner
Madison
School
Horn
London
Florence
Blog
Simon
Family
Crosscountry
Choirdirector
Sketching
Venice

St. Louis is a hop, skip, jump away

So my wife and I made a spontaneous decision to get out of town and see some good ol' TCU friends in St. Louis. It's been since our wedding (almost 5 yrs ago) that I've seen them. These two brainiacs are finished or finishing terminal degrees - which sounds pretty serious :-)
Their heads are about to explode!

I completely forgot to take pictures of their great dogs and hand crafted bed frames, but I got some good pics atop the Gateway Arch. I've been wanting to go to the top for years and the experience was everything I hoped it'd be. St. Louis is a great city with tons to do - no matter the recent news report.

Hopefully in the first picture you noticed the twinkies in their Michigan State sweatshirts -flashing the Horned Frog. I'm sure they were making up for that judgement error with TCU Alumni boxers on...




More happy moments at the Arch

Weight lifter Huh?

As puny as I may be, I am now the weight lifting/cardio training coach for an after school program. It's only on Monday and Thursday with jazz band on the other days. I figure that I might as well get paid to work out.

on another note -
Here's what I've been watching
Friday Night Lights
The Office
Mythbusters
It Takes a Thief
The Dog Whisperer

Season's almost through

This is the last week of two big seasons. Cross Country and Marching Band will end soon. Marching's been tough with the 6:30 am rehearsals, but I'm really going to miss CC.

I can't believe I get paid to run with these great kids! On Saturday I finally ran my first 5k and had so much fun I plan to do it again.

Grant Rant

So I won this grant last year and last week they had me present it at a special breakfast. I knew over the summer that it was going to be a big deal but I had no idea that I'd be speaking to all the princials in the district and the school board members (the president sat at my table) and local business owners (Time Warner Cable was at the table) and state representatives. My presentation was on this cool music program that I did my graduate work on. Things went well, but I never thought I'd speak at anything quite like it.

Choir Director

Church Choir Director? Huh??

Yep I just won the position of choir director at the church I already play organ and piano at. This is a totally different experience, and luckily it's pretty low pressure. The choir is small and all very nice. Today was my first day leading the anthem.

Tuesday is my first MS band concert and Thursday is my first Cross Country Meet. Yikes! I don't have time to be doing this blog....

Running

Cross Country Coach huh?

yep I'm in my first week as a cross country coach and I'm having a blast. So far I have a dozen students that are all really slow... which is good.. I'm not a huge runner like my friend Dave, but these middle school students only have to run 1.5 miles in their races...that's like jogging for less than 12 minutes I can do that.
I bought a GPS system yesterday that should be incredible. My father in law went in on purchasing it since he bikes a lot. It's amazing the amount of data they can generate. http://www.garmin.com/products/edge305/

Band's going well since I have a lot of help..

Out of Summer

Well, I could consider this my last day of summer. Tomorrow is teacher in-service and I'll be back in the routine. Europe was great with memories for a lifetime. Some highlights that I just have to share:
The London Eye
The Producers
The Chunnel
Tour De France Finish
Louvre
Eiffel Tower Picnic
Getting lost in Venice
Gondolas
Vivaldi played fast
Florence sunsets
Chianti wine region
Renting a scooter to get there
Roman Colosseum
Seeing Billy Joel perform there
Hanging with my wife 24/14!

Maybe I'll post some pics later, because it's Reno 911 time!

Out of Country

I'm really excited about our trip to Europe that starts tomorrow. It's our first trip over there and we're headed to a bunch of cities. We hope to have great pictures to share from London, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome in a couple of weeks. Au Revoir!

Rob nearly burns down dorm

On July 5th we traveled up to Minnesota to watch Rob make us laugh in Billy Shakespeare's 12th Night. It was most entertaining. He's with a ton of talent up there.

Here's the nice dorm Rob is staying in for the summer.














Here's the innocent looking candle that was left lit for hours upon hours - by Rob!















There was an insane amount of fire sprinklers in the dorm rooms. Luckily none of them were needed this time!


















Here's the great view from his unburned apartment.
The bright light is the angel looking out for Rob and his pyro ways. :-)














We had a great time with Rob

Reno 911

Great News!

Reno 911 (a Comedy Central show) will return for another season starting July 9th. If you haven't checked this show out, you have got to see this hilarious spoof of COPS. The characters are just a little off-kilter which makes the show the funniest show since Seinfeld. Rarely do I laugh out loud at the TV, but when I watch this show I can't help myself. I'll be having a Season Premiere party at my house that evening. Give me an email if you'll be in town.

Be sure to check out the Reno 911 Website

Find the Way 3

This is an emergency! Rob's Find the Way 2 blog is down. Nobody in the blogging community knows why, but there is some speculation. As reported in The Onion the blog was hijacked by "rove-bandits" that posted in the anonymous heading after the annoying, and rarely funny jimmy fast post. We all must blog against these anonymous posters and place "scorn" on their blogs. Find the Way 2 must return. I beg of you!

Choreography

Make sure you find 3 minutes of your life to view this great video. Watch closely for the loco line.



click me

Grad School

Last night I finished and submitted my last assignment for graduate school. Hopefully there won't be a re-write..

The end of the school year is coming to a close!

Check out this Mother's Day card. I think I've seen it 10 times and I still think it's hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhcA4Ry65FU

Handel's Mess-iah

Hey Everyone!

I'm sure you are all looking forward to a nice Easter weekend - a weekend that might even include a little Handel's Messiah. Click on this link for an inspiring rendition of the last few measures of the work. Click me if you don't hear the sound clip


I'd hate to be the organist in the recording. I'd bet he/she pushed the transpose button in an earlier work and never pushed it back.

Make sure to listen for the brave clapper who started it off.

Hope you enjoy it!

Hat Trick

Rob took my hat. See how he did it.

Ultimate Post

This is the preview of an upcoming post that will combine two bloggers, two friendships, and two turntables and a microphone. Postings will happen soon!

Spring Break! Spring Break!

Ok so Spring Break is around the corner.

• Taking a bunch of students to Florida next week
• Won a small grant for my music program (one of seven awards from a district of 3000+ teachers)
• Grad school is kicking my buttocks (I just wanted to type buttocks)
• Washed the BMdoubleU and it rained the next day
• Bought the tickets to Your Rope
• Will need to work summer school to pay for those tickets
• Tired of pictures of me in an orange hat
• Want to invent a new word that rhymes with orange...Any suggestions??
• Orange - Boyange?

Europe or Your Rope?

So we're trying to decide on our summer trip. We hope to go to Europe - at least that was my Valentine gift idea. But, it's such a big financial decision that we've postponed ordering it for a week. On Friday we went to get our passport application sent in. We got there at 3:57 and they close at 4:00. Luckily we had a teacher in-service day, otherwise we would have had to take off school.

We're not sure if we should trust Go-today.com to give us the best deal quote, but so far they have. If anyone has had experience with that company or another, please give some advice. This is our first trip to EU and we want to have a wonderful time. So far the cities will be London 3, Paris 3, Venice 2, Florence 2, Rome 2 .

Cell Phone Fashion

Have you ever seen the goof-balls with a Bluetooth on their ear all day long? They're like cyborgs or something - definitely not fashionable - though there are people that wear it everytime I see them.

I can understand using the Bluetooth for driving, but going to choir rehearsal with it on --- there's something wrong!

When I last went to the grocery store I looked around the parking lot and I saw everyone's hand next to their head. We're going to look back at these years (VH1 - I love the 00's) and say, "What in the world were we thinking?!" Check it out next time you're around the masses. You'll might even see me with my hand to my ear.