Maria’s first Meet (CRT Level 3) @ TWIGS

Maria competed in her first meet today in Dayton/West Carrollton, Ohio at TWIGS.

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As meets go, it was definitely the smallest we’ve ever been too. TWIGS does have a very nice facility. However they don’t have any level 3’s so we took our troop up there to compete against themselves. TWIGS had gymnasts in other levels, just not level 3, and I think we (CGA) brought 50 girls? (Doesn’t really make sense too me, in all my life playing sports, we never traveled somewhere to have our own team play themselves)

I think there should be a rule; if at least one other team in our level isn’t there, we don’t need to go, just send us the ribbons.

Any way, photos are in the Google Gallery. Same thing if you need/want a photo that’s more high-res than what is up there let me or C know.

Attic Part 2 of ???

Alright, so yea, we started this Attic project back in uhm March/April.

We framed out the supports for the mighty fine pine 4×8 tongue and groove pattern 166 siding.

All summer long something else has been happening, like the barn, or finding a horse, or getting a new motorcycle. Always something!

This weekend I found some time to get up there and make some progress. It’s coming together nicely. No I have no idea yet what I’m going to do with the skylights. 🙁 But I’ll work something out. Having a complete plan is never a prerequisite, nor is it usually possible with this old house. You’re going to run into something any way.

Larger images in the Gallery here.

Yesterday I battled the Paslode. My favorite TOOL in the world. It jammed up and until I broke down and read the directions, was nearly impossible to un-jam. But if you simply follow the directions, it’s a piece of cake. So that’s one jam in about 2000 nails when you consider it was used quite a bit on the barn too.

See: Attic Part 1 off ??? & Progress in the Attic, as well as: Home Depot and Customer Service

With some luck we’ll wrap up the north side in the next couple weeks. (Hey! It’s possible 😉 )

We’re going to come up short on the siding because it sat outside in the driveway too long and even though we had it covered well (or so we thought) a significant portion of the wood is now stained from water damage. However, if we decide to paint it as opposed to stain it we should be alright.

CGA 2006 Level 5 Mock Meet

It’s that time of year again. Time for the gymnasts to warm up and demonstrate their skills. CGA puts together a Mock Meet, a mini-meet where the girls go through the motions. They invite (pay) real judges to come and score the girls so that the coaches have a feeling for where the girls stand before the actual meet season starts.

That day was yesterday.

MocMeet

I have posted the photos that I too online in my/out Google Web Album space.

I broke the photos out into two galleries.

(1) Mock-Meet General Photos, which is a non-specific lump of photos that are not Molly centric. If I took a photo of your daughter, you’ll find it in here. Nearly all of the photos are of girls in my daughters rotation, though I did snap a few candids here and there as well as a couple of other girls who were still doing their thing when Molly’s rotation was sitting.

(2) Molly – Mock-Meet , this lump of photos is Molly specific.

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The photos are what they are. Not nearly as good as I would have hoped to turn out. Essentially I had a very bad ‘photographer’ day. Every location I started to take photos from had some sort of issue to deal with, from the #$%@ balloons at the judges table, to people opening the rear door and letting significant light in (It was very, very bright outside) too simply being too close for the lens that I had and having an over head light be right behind the girls to mess with the meter readings. In any event, the photos are posted, most are still very enjoyable.

You can download fairly high resolution images from Picasa Web/Google. If there is a specific photo that you want the original HighRes photo for just let us know, simply email Claudine or me and we’ll get it to you one way or another.

Bengals 7-5 smother the Raisins

What an excellent game! Broadcast locally in HighDef even 😉

If Jonathan Joseph could catch a football the Bengals would have slaughtered them.

The worst D in the league steps it up and plays 7 straight quarters of shut-out D. Again if Jonthan Joseph could catch, they’d have 2 back to back shut-outs.

Still, a HUGE win! Huge for the schedule and things to come.

Next week look for Baltimore to lose to KC, and the Bengals to beat the Raiders. that will put them only one game behind Baltimore, with still a long road to hoe.

If the Bengals D is up to the task, the end of this year could be very very good. Perhaps the Bengals are peaking at the right time like Pittsburgh did last year. 😉

I don’t however see them going *bust* next year like the Steelers and Big Jen.