2011, year in review...

i try to start each new year with a short-recap of the previous year, at least hit the highlights of what was deemed blog-able. as has been the trend, the blogging frequency has decreased over time, replaced with other, lazier, social media outlets (see twitter, @harvardx, facebook, etc.) what follows is a break down of 2011, as documented or recalled by me. happy 2012!

january

• owen turns 8
• 18 year wedding anniversary
• st charles chargers 8th grade girls win the presentation basketball tournament in maple grove, and defeat the team my company's ceo daughter's plays on - double score!
• daughters quiz bowl team wins local tournament

february

• dude,  i got a dell. replaced previous boat anchor with vostro mini-tower
• st charles girls snap off 13 straight wins, impressive run

march

• st charles girls basketball team finish 2nd in mcyo league, 4th overall all in the mpls\st. paul catholic league
• other daughters dance team (representing fridley) finishes 1st in jazz, and 2nd in kick
• i turn a young 43
• i predict a twins central repeat championship! (fail)

april

• we inherit bailey, probationary period has since expired (she's staying)
• daughters dance team kicks but in regional tournament, in rochester (AA division), 1st in jazz, 3rd in kick.

may

• owen's first communion
• oldest turns 14
• st charles quiz bowl national tournament in chicago, chuckies finish 10th out of 36!
• a tour of target field
• alaina's confirmation

june

• middle child turns 12
• ben and christina's wedding
• mom & dad's 50th anniversary!
• 8th grade graduation
• piano recital
• owen's first twin's game
• alaina's traveling soccer st. anthony huskies team finish 3rd of 10 teams

july

• uswnt fever! women's team wins our hearts and silver medal at world cup in germany
• noelle's softball team dominates, owen's soccer team dominates due to excellent coaching
• twin lakes michigan vacation, plus grandpa, minus me

august

• parent\daughter softball game
• st. louis vacation! (many highlights here)

september

• 1st day of school (and high school)
• INATG golf invitational, al, michael, jeffrey, and me
• noelle playing soccer for 7th grade st charles chargers

october

• coached son's fall soccer team
• cardinals win world series championship!
• noelle nails "thriller"

november

• i re-upload every picture ever stored in my gallery on this website to my google account for storage and use picassa as web viewer
• noelle playing basketball on st charles 7th grade girls team 
• modern warfare 3

december

• snow ball
• wife's birthday
• alaina's choir concert at st. anthony
• noelle's christmas band and choir concert
• owen's st charles christmas program
• enjoy christmas break with family

christmas 2011...

enjoying a great christmas holiday with family this week. looking forward to taking a break from work, getting in some winter related activites, and genrally relaxing with some down-time with the family.

love this...

and on the 7th day, he blogged a recap...

 just completed maybe the busiest week of this year, which included a major project implementation at work and events every single night of the week (and two on monday night). we start monday with my oldest daughter's concert chior at st. anthony highschool, as well as a st. charles basketball game for my other daughter which sadly i was not able to attend (thanks grandpa). tuesday night was the christmas band and choir concert at st. charles school where noelle tooted the flute with elegance and grace in the advanced band portion. wednesday night was dinner out with the family to celebrate my wife's birthday, thursday night was my son's advent program at st. charles school, and friday night was a holiday work party. today i ventured as far as the mailbox which  was a-ok with me. one more crazy work week ahead and then christmas break - bring it on!

22nd annual snowball...

we enjoyed another fine "snowball" at the st. paul hotel last night. i've come to discover i have a pair of dress shoes that i have only ever worn to the snowball. they shall henceforth be known as my "snowshoes". anyway, always fun to catch up with friends and people watch at this holiday glam event.

christmas tunes...

one of the best things about this time of they year is that i get to pull out my rather substantial collection of holiday tunes. i'm picky about my christmas music, usually the older the better, but there are exceptions. i decided to list my top 5 songs if i were ever stranded on an island of misfit toys, and none of these are "new". a good christmas song is classic and can stand the test of time. it sounded good years ago, it sounds good now, and it will sound good for years to come. here they are, in no particular order:

harry connick jr. - sleigh ride
harry made a big splash in the 90's but the dude can flat out bring it. he's silky smooth and sinatra-like without the boozy, adulterous, mafia connotations.

luciano pavarotti - adeste fideles (oh come all ye faithful)
ok, never been an opera guy but you HAVE to appreciate the pipes on this old italian. if this song doesn't move you, sorry, you don't have a pulse.

sufjan stevens - once in royal david's city
the only "new" song of the bunch and by new i mean in the last 5 years. sufjan is cool but you'll never hear this on 24\7 christmas radio. this even passed the wife's christmas music test and she has more stringent standards than mine.

ray charles - rudolph the red nose reindeer
among all the reverent standards you need some christmas funk. ray is here to deliver with his jazzy-soul style and signature chops.

vince guaraldi - christmas time is here
if i had to pick an all-time favorite christmas album, this is it. i think it get's better every year. it stands alone as the ultimate christmas record, but pairing it up with the "charlie brown christmas" special earns it extra points.

worth a thousand words...

i am wrapping up a week of vacation during which time i was able to accomplish several chores around the house and a task i have been putting off for sometime. i finally decided to cut the chord on zenphoto, a free open-source web gallery management program i have been using for this blog for several years. it seemed like a great idea at the time, but as with many other tasks, such as blogging, (there was a time when i manually coded this site using html and a text editor!), publishing pictures on the web is extremely easy now, especially when there are tools built into google to simplify this task. i have re-upped all of my archived photos to my picasa web gallery. it's easy, will be simple to manage, and it just makes sense. instead of breaking up the albums by season, i have archived all of the photos by year (and a few misc. events), starting with 2002. clicking an album gives you a page of thumbnails to easily preview the pics within that year. i am keeping my zenphoto gallery archived for now here. the new photo gallery can be accessed here or by clicking the pictures link above. that seemed like a lot of work for a task that will impact very few people but i just feel better knowing i have all of my best pics stored in one location now.

thriller!

world champs!

if you know me, you know i have 3 baseball teams teams that i root for every year. before you call me an opportunistic fan, know that these teams all have one thing in common and that is, they are teams from cities i live in, or once lived in. this fact gives me an undeniable right to claim the team as my own and i am often fortunate enough to find one or more of these teams playing in the post season. this year was no exception although the route to an eventual st. louis world championship was a very unlikely scenario. my current hometown team, the twins, made it obvious that this was not a year for which they would contend, losing nearly 100 games and becoming the doormat for the rest of the a.l. central. the red sox, although very talented, saw a team that was ensconced in inner turmoil and personality issues, folded late and failed to reach the playoffs. the cardinals on the other hand, battled back from 10.5 games back in august, claimed a playoff spot on the last day, and than proceeded to go on an unthinkable run that saw them beat the favored brewers, phillies, and ultimately, the rangers to capture the world series championship. i had the fortune to attend my first ever game at the new busch stadium this past august and when i left town, the cardinals looked far from a team that would eventually be a playoff contender, let alone a world champion. fans were questioning, and even booing manager tony larussa for decisions he would make, or not make.  something that i had never heard of happening before in st. louis. they then proceeded to go an epic streak that culminated with an eventual championship. a world series like this one, proves that talent alone can never predict the winner. it comes down to chemistry, timing, and sometimes acts of god (see rain out in game 5). in the end, the cardinals never-say-die attitude, coupled with strong pitching, and timely hitting, proved that it doesn't matter who's favored to win, it's about getting it done when it matters the most, and that's what they did. congrats to the cardinals for another world series ring. a great team,  great fans -  a great baseball town!

New Brighton Chargers

click the link below to view the video...

New Brighton Chargers

fall soccer wrap...

my 3rd & 4th grade squad finished up our season this past saturday. i had a great group of kids, including a few first-timers who showed much progress over the coarse of our practices and games. it was a co-rec league but we played half our games against all-boy teams and represented the new brighton park & rec well! seeing players improve and watching the kids develop and deploy some strategy that we work on is the most rewarding part of coaching. great year new brighton chargers!

go cards!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

go chargers!

i would rather spend the day watching my kids play sports, win or lose, than waste time watching the pathetic pro sports teams in this town (lynx excluded).

golf at least once this summer,...check

hit the phalen golf course with a few buddies yesterday. it's a late summer\early fall annual tradition that has survived over the years. compared to the last two years, the weather held up nicely. mild and overcast on the front 9, sun peaked out in the back 9. there was the usual array of truly horrid golf, intermixed with flashes of mediocrity, and occasional brilliance. no broken or lost clubs, no injuries, although i did nearly get hit on the 18th hole by an approach shot from the group playing behind us.a fun day and a great annual tradition.

a day of firsts!...

first day of high school for alaina (note: no uniform), first day of 7th grade for noelle, first day of 3rd grade for owen.

st louis vacation 2011...

above are some pics from our recent trip to st. louis. the images have lost some resolution in the slide show, particularly when viewed in full-screen, but it does contain a snappy show tune from "tom sawyer", the musical. i also have a 33 minute multi-media presentation with even more pictures and video created in idvd that you have to be related to me to even want to see. this gives you a good idea of what we saw and did. had a great time in st. louis!

hi-res photos can be viewed here

what 6 years looks like...

picture taken exactly 6 years and 7 days apart. the wife must be shrinking.

good times in the gateway city...

having a great time in st. louis. will do a proper recap when we get back home