Dancing The Day Away At Starpower Seattle!

The first dance competition of the season is in the books. Starpower Seattle was first up on the list this season. We were down a dancer (stupid flu season!) but the girls did a fantastic job. They rated a 4.75 out of 5 and won just about everything under the sun for the weekend in their category. They took first in their category, 5th overall in their division and also won awards for Girl Power and top entertainers! It was a total blast and everyone had a great time. Now for 5 long weeks off until the next one. Maybe I can get some golf in if the weather gets a bit better!

The Official Start Of Our Year–The Reveal

This weekend was the official launch to our year. It’s not a big party or anything normally associated with ‘new year’ stuff, but rather a dance event. This big event is known as “The Reveal”. The Reveal is the showcase that is put on just before the start of competition season for our dance teams. This is Evie’s second year on the Mini-Elite squad at Platinum Dance Center. This year’s theme is Rosie The Riveter, and they are performing to a fun song called Whistle While You Work It. 

The routine went off without a hitch, even though Evie didn’t perform her signature Kick-over move due to a strained shoulder – yes, my 7 year old dancer has been to a physical therapist to have her shoulder looked at already… Wow! – and the company members looked amazing! This is going to be a great competition season for all of them. The official season begins next Saturday, so wish Evie luck!

It’s Been A Long Time…

For a brief period last year, I made it back to blogging here. I didn’t keep it up for long, but what has happened since then has been pretty much amazing. I didn’t do a 2016 recap, nor do I find it likely that I will, but maybe it’s time for me to make a weekly post again, or at least it might be time for me to visit here a bit more often. Let me bring everyone up to speed on life and the two cent version of our year in review, then I can get on to keeping up with what’s happening now. I’m going to kill this off right here, after I’ve edited the post about 12 times, but let me start my Sunday evening posts with just this thought… This year is going to be amazing!

Yesterday, They Lost Their Leader…

Yesterday, we received an email from our dance studio that our littles had lost their leader. It was shocking to read, and even harder to comprehend. It’s especially difficult for us to deal with since Evie had developed such an amazing relationship with her. Her subtle change from drill sergeant to mom in 2.2 seconds was something that made her the perfect fit for our baby. Maybe the issue was she spent a bit too much time in mom-mode and not enough in military mode for some parents. Maybe there was a family  issue that wasn’t able to be worked out. Perhaps it was something all together different, but all I know is that I am devastated that Evie won’t get the chance to experience everything that this amazing woman had to teach her. 

From the few private lessons that we were able to sneak in this year, to the competition days where we lost our child for hours to the incredible person, we felt it was the absolute best place for Evie. Even though I have a feeling that she will never see this post, I just felt the need to say this. For what ever reason there is behind your departure, just know that you are loved, missed and we will always remember the lessons that you taught your littles! Thank you for being you and don’t ever change.

Back In The Swing Of Things

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know me pretty well by now. Of course, since this started, the golf course hasn't exactly been a huge part of my life, in fact, after 2007, I haven't spent much time there at all. This year, I've decided to make a change and start going back to the game that I love and trying to get out once a month or so with my dad or some friends. So far, 2016 has been pretty good as we have played 4 rounds this year, two of them were even dry!

Getting out has led me to put my 2005 Ping S59's and break out my 1988 Wilson Staff irons, as well as helped me learn a bit more course management. Playing some of my old haunts, I've found I'm not long enough any more to get far enough into trouble to make an easy escape, but I'm not in control enough to stay completely out of trouble with longer clubs. This means more irons off the tee, especially my perfect draw 3 iron that moves about 230 yards down the fairway when I hit it. I can turn up the distance on holes that need it and keep up with the big boys with that unconventional thing in the video, called "my swing" but really the yardage only helps when I leave myself a solid 100 yards in. Anything shorter and I start guessing on half or three quarters swings and such.

My lesson for the day, don't be afraid to be different. Don't confine yourself to the "golf box" and have a picture perfect swing. Go with what makes you consistent. For me, it was setting my feet, then the club face, and then following through, or the triple F's... Feet, Face, Follow through. While I'm not back in the 70's yet, I have a feeling with a few closer approaches, and a few putts dropping, I will be very soon.

Here's to getting that single digit handicap back!

Remember When I Used To Be A Golfer?

 

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a pretty good golfer. Heck, I’ll throw pride out the window here and say that I was a pretty terrific golfer. Someone that can go out and shoot in the upper 60’s on a regular basis deserves to gloat a bit about it, don’t they? Of course, that was a long time ago, like I said in the opening. Anyway, life certainly go in the way of my aspiring pro touring career, or at least my weekend tournament participant mode, but that was probably a good thing. This stuff gets expensive and we all know that, in golf, keeping up with the Jones’ is a serious issue.

When my Mom passed away 3 years ago, my Dad found golf again. It was something he had given up to enjoy more time with her. It was the same thing I did when we started our photography business and then continued through Evie’s early years. For some reason though, late last year, the bug bit me again and I found out that he started playing again too. I still had my old stuff in the garage, though I’m not sure how it made 2 moves over the last 5 years after never being used… I guess I know now…

To make a long story short, in December, I played my first round of golf since 2008. It was really 2007 when I stopped playing, but who’s counting. I packed up my 2005 era Ping S59 Tour Blades and some Nike One Gold balls and headed out to the course I played 1000 times in high school. The trees had grown up, but the course hadn’t changed too much. It was still Riverbend. Shockingly enough, I shot pretty decent until the last few holes. The weather moved in and we got drenched, but my game was still there.

We played a few more rounds, one at Maplewood in Renton and one at High Cedars in Orting. My game had the obvious rust on it, but overall, I was comfortably coasting in with mid to upper 80’s scores. It was then I had a crazy idea, so I dug something out of the corner of the garage where I had my 1988 Wilson Staff Tour Blades hiding. I mentioned it to dad and he said he would love to see them out on the course again, so I had to run with it.

These little beauties, while not the exact set, are the same irons that Dad bought me for Christmas back in 1991. I had drooled over them at Christy’s driving range in Federal Way for almost a year before they disappeared from the shelf. The owner told me some guy had come in and bought them. Everyone was pretty sneaky about the whole thing. That set was stolen from my car in Canada, but I found this set at Puetz a few months later and instantly grabbed them. Of course, they had been sitting wrapped with a velcro tie for the last 11 years, not hit, not used, just sitting, so they needed a bit of cleanup and a set of grips thrown on them.

After a bit of de-rusting with a high grade sanding block (the foam blocks with a very high grit work great for this) and about $6 in paint pens, I had them cleaned up and ready for the course. If you’ve never given your irons a paint job, it really makes them look new, even if they are beat to death. All that needs to be done is to scrap out the stampings, clean them well, let them dry and then fill them with paint. Paint pens work the best for this, but you can use a brush if you would rather.

The end results were quite stunning and I couldn’t wait to get these beauties out on the course. Riverbend was just two days away and I was ready to go.

The weather we encountered was perfect. Sunny, warm and not much of a breeze. They course was playing more like July than April, but I was not about to complain. I found that the lost distance that I was suffering from was quickly made up with control over the forged blades. My draw had returned in a consistent fashion and hole by hole, my distances got stronger and stronger. As the round progressed, I worried that this would be the first round I had ever shot with a set of Wilson Staff’s in the 90’s. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and I carded an 84 for the day.

Round two the next week was exactly the same, but the 84 I carded in that round was in far less optimal conditions and included 3 double bogies that didn’t need to be there at all. I’m fully expecting to return to the 70’s by June, even without practicing much. I can only imagine what I could do with enough time and a decent driving range to practice at. Scary stuff there! But for now, I’m having a blast spending a few hours with Dad and just getting back out there.

Starquest 2016 And A Weekend In Portland

As we ventured off for the first out of state competition of the season, we had a list of amazing things to do in Portland and the outlying areas. From our usual hangouts of Peet’s Coffee and Powell’s Books, to our new found cool places like the Portland Saturday Market and Pine State Biscuits, our trip itinerary was filling out very quickly.

Our trip down was very uneventful. We arrived at the hotel well before we intended to, checked in and were ready to go check out the dance venue. After spending a bit of time there, we decided to hit Pine State Biscuits for our first night’s dinner. After a careful perusing of the menu and a few questions to guy behind the counter, the Reggie Deluxe was on my plate and a side of sausage gravy fries was along side it. I finished off the meal by adding a gorgeous IPA to it. It was perfect. We ventured back to the hotel for the evening and settled in.

On Saturday, we had the entire day to check out things around town. We started downtown in the Pearl District with Peet’s and Powell’s. Peet’s always delivers a decent cup of coffee, and Powell’s Books is one of the best places to go to find something to read. We grabbed a cup of coffee and a few books.

Powell’s also had an amazing story time setup for Saturday morning. There’s a Giraffe in my Soup was the title of the first book. We didn’t have time to stay for the second, but the reader did a wonderful job of presenting the story to everyone, even in a noisy bookstore.

From there, we moved on to the farmers market and a beautiful day at the Riverfront Park. The trees were blooming, the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 70’s. It was a perfect day to be outside. It was so nice out, we even took a bit of a detour to the Splash Zone of the park.

Evie decided to get seriously drenched at the park, so before we had lunch, Ara snuck off to grab her a new outfit. Once we got dried off, we grabbed some lunch from one of the on-site trucks and ate. After that, we headed back to the hotel to change before going to catch some of the performances and awards for the girls that evening.

Evie ran into a teammate and took some time to get a few selfies before we went in to watch some of the performances. After seeing how far ahead of schedule they were, we decided we better get dinner and get back before all the acts we wanted to see went on.

Bistro 23 was where we ended up for dinner. Their burgers, pizzas and sandwiches all looked incredible. For the second night in a row, We had nailed our dinner choice. Even their Brussel Sprouts were great. If you’re even in the Parkrose area of Portland, you need to hit Bistro 23 for one of your meals. You won’t be sorry on that one. After we finished up dinner, we went back to see a bit more dancing.

With Sunday morning now upon us, we were up early and in makeup and hair for the big day. Show time was 11:00 ish and awards were scheduled for about an hour after it. The girls did great earning a High Gold and nailing their performance. They were quite amazing! We then had the afternoon to watch a bit more dancing and finally shuffle off to Target so Evie could find her toy for the trip.

The evening ended with a trip to a sushi belt place, which isn’t even worthy of mentioning. It was back to the hotel for another night before we headed back on Monday. The trip was a huge success and we had a blast. We’ll be back on the road in a few weeks taking our Spring Break trip to Cama Beach again this year. Can’t wait to settle in and disconnect from things for a few days, but that won’t stop my blogging!

So, We Got A Second Vehicle…

Yes, it’s not glamorous or vintage, but this “manivan” as it has been dubbed is truly a blessing. First off, it’s in amazing shape, especially for being 13 years old. Second, it was dead in our price range thanks to an extremely wonderful seller. Third, we got in house financing on it from said seller that makes it perfect for our budget. It couldn’t get much better than that for our little family.

Now for the good part… I did some checking on this one, and the towing capacity on this model is 3800 pounds. That means that it should work for pulling a little trailer like an Rpod or something similar. Of course, we may not need that trailer since it’s been pointed out by so many that we can just sleep in the van.

To say am excited about having a car again would be an understatement. It’s not what I expected us to get by any means, but as I said earlier, this just worked out to being a great fit for us, both financially and comfort level. Now, Evie’s biggest problem is figuring out what seat she is going to be sitting in.

What’s Wrong With America: My Own Version

I cannot wait for the election to be over... I am so tired of people thinking that "free college" or "companies paying more taxes" or "closing the borders" will help this country. The facts are, we are no longer making our own stuff, buying our own stuff or taking care of our own stuff.

Most American's feel entitled to a better life without thinking they have to work for it. What made this country great was people that worked hard to build something that someone else needed. People that broke their own backs so their children could have it just a little bit better than they did, and that their parents did before them. It was a generation of people that worked to earn what they needed, not a group that does it on credit to pay it back later.

The problem with our country today is that everyone is looking to politicians for answers when they should be looking at themselves. What are YOU doing with yourself? How are YOU making this country better? What are YOU going to do to make today better than yesterday?

Sure, you might be struggling under college debt, but how nice is that car you drive? Sure, you might be having trouble finding a job, but how hard is searching for one from your iPhone at Starbucks? Sure, you might even be having trouble putting food on your table, but then why are you reading this on Facebook instead of spending this 20 minutes flipping burgers at McDonalds? Stop thinking life is unfair and tragic and start doing something about it.

We've become a generation of lethargic, self entitled, former Americans that are just out for our own good. The only problem with our country is that we think someone else has all the answers to fix what's broken, when all along, we are the ones that are broken. Free college won't fix us. Raising taxes on businesses won't fix us either. Heck, giving every American a million dollars won't even fix us. The only thing that will fix us is making the decision that we will work harder than ever to make today a better day than yesterday.

Dance, Dance, Dance...

Well, today was the big day. Evie's first dance competition, or at least the first one that she was able to participate in. The Energy National Dance Competition started bright and early with us arriving at 7:30 AM all made up and ready to go. Showtime was due to be 9:30. I wasn't able to snag a photo of their performance due to the 'no photography' rules, but they did very well and ended up placing 5th in their category.

As the day went on, we were basically talked in to letting Evie perform during the open dance improv, which is where about 60 petite and junior dancers joined about the same number of senior members to dance it out on stage. Evie not only did us proud, but she was the only petite to advance to the second round. She was amazing.

The day was just about perfect. Awards were fun to watch, and seeing them take 5th place was great. After a few quick shots in front of the Energy banner in the lobby and we were off for the day. Of course, we didn't just have to end the day there. It wouldn't have been fun if we didn't somehow make the birthday party that we didn't think we could becuase we thought we would be at the competition too late. We did make it though, and it was the perfect way to end the day.

A Dinner At Big Daddy John’s

About a month ago, we heard from a friend that a new burger place had opened up in town. Being a big fan of a good burger, we ventured out one cold evening to give the place a try. First off, finding the place was a bit of an adventure in itself. Big Daddy John’s isn’t in a typical location where you’d expect to find a burger joint – in fact, it’s almost impossible to find. Buried between a home brewery supply shop and an office, BDJ’s didn’t exactly stand out.

The bad part, once you actually go inside, it didn’t get much better. The strange room that houses BDJ’s is more fitting for a wedding reception hall than a greasy burger house, but who am I to judge. Walking in, I got the feeling it was a sit down restaurant, until I saw the hand written “order here” sign above the counter. We were then greeted with a paper menu that highlighted a few burger options, a few main dishes and a few other eating options.

Let’s just get this out of the way right here, I love the people at BDJ’s. I love the food at BDJ’s. I don’t like the fact that while my family was trying to enjoy a nice dinner out, we had to put up with an episode of CHiPs, playing on a 20 foot projector on to the wall right in front of us. I think that’s where my issue is with BDJ’s. The food is pretty good, though at $15 a plate, some may question the value, but the atmosphere just kills it quickly.

From the nice tables with centerpieces worthy of much higher class foods, we move directly to the plastic wrapped to-go plastic utensils sitting in front of the patrons. The self-serve drink options are also a bit weird as the 6 ounce plastic water cups barely hold enough for a real drink. The canned soda also doesn’t quite fit the room as well as a nice pint glass filled with ice and soda would either. Overall, it’s just a bit of a mess of good food and weird locale.

That said, the actual food is good. I had the amazing Blue Cheese Burger (just add the bacon and don’t argue) and waffle fries on the first visit. For our second go round, I jumped on the Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich and the waffle fries again. The first meal was about the most perfect thing I had ever had. Burger was perfectly cooked with just the right amount of tangy blue cheese and the fries were crisped to being spot on.

The second visit didn’t go quite so well. We were brought a sampler plate with a few appetizers to much on while we waited for our entrees. The bummer deal was the onion rings were overly crisped to the point of being inedible and the waffle fries were soggy to the point of feeling undercooked. The Mac N Cheese bites that were in the tray were very good, but that was the highlight of the appetizer plate. Of course, it was free, so the only thing they made sure of was that after two not so impressive onion rings they won’t be finding their way back to our plates.

The lowlight of the night for me had to be the sandwich. After the raging success of the Blue Cheese Burger the first time through, I was pretty disappointed in the soggy-fied experience of the Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich. It wasn’t that it was a terrible taste, in fact the flavor was pretty spot on, but it was just too soggy and had no crisp.

Big Daddy John’s will certainly remain on the radar for quite some time as the people more than make up for the atmosphere, but they need to make the food worthy of the price if they are going to hang around as a long term dinner hotspot for us. Otherwise, we will just go for the burgers once in a while and continue to visit our regular hangouts instead.

This Girl…

10 years ago, this girl emailed me about an advertisement for a singer that I ran on MySpace – bonus points for anyone who remembers MySpace… Well, unfortunately, the ad was from 2002 and this was 2006. Bummer, the band had brokent up years before, but that didn’t stop this completely crazy girl from asking. So, she emailed me, I emailed back. We messaged, we then got brave enough to swap phone numbers to text. Finally, we started talking. This whole process took like two long weeks to get going.

We then proceeded to share our evenings together on the phone. I was at home, usually doing nothing and she was either on a commute or sitting around her place. It was a strangely comfortable place. There were a few offers of going out passed around by her casually, but nothing that really seemed like this would be a ‘relationship’ since I wasn’t looking for one. Ha, what did I know though…

Finally after about 3 months of this craziness, she finally started to actually ask about when we would really meet. Like face to face, on a date, together meet, not just, talking and stuff on the phone. Her birthday was right around the corner in July and she asked me one last time if I could come out with her for her birthday, and I actually had something planned so I couldn’t. She got a bit frustrated and was about to cancel everything until I mentioned I could the following weekend. And we set the date.

I still have a firm belief that the world had no idea what was instore for itself from there. We met in July and instantly clicked. I still wasn’t looking for ‘the one’ but if there was going to be ‘one’ this was going to be her. So, after a month, I made the decision to put a ring on her and hang on for the ride. In September, at our favorite date night hangout, we became engaged. Not the way it was planned at all mind you, but that was about perfect for how this crazy romance came together.

Still, to this day, as she sleeps, passed out on the couch from a long weekend of fun, this girl is the one that captures my heart and soul. They say show the ones you love a special day on Valentine’s Day, but I’m more hopeful that the amount of love I try and show her every day is more than any Valentine’s Day has given her before.

I love you sweetie! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Welcome To Willawong Station!

One of our favorite spots to travel through at Woodland Park Zoo is Willawong Station. It’s basically a tropical bird exhibit with a pretty cool twist. During the weekends, you are able to take advanatage of a program that allows you to feed the birds for a very small $1 donation.

For that $1, you get a popsicle stick that has bird seed attached to it. The birds fly around the room before landing on you or a neighbor to visit and have a treat.

The colors in Willawong are well worth the trip in, but there’s not much more exciting than having a bird come to visit and stay for a bit on your shoulder or arm. Not only is it fun for the kids, but there is hardly a time where the adults don’t have a giant smile on their faces as well.

Willawong Station, is a 1200 square foot enclosure that contains more than 150 birds. Most of them are budgies or parakeets, thought there are some cockatiels in the mix as well. Willawong Station celebrated it’s 10th birthday last May. For more information or for seasonal hours visit the Zoo’s website at the link below.

http://zoo.org/exhibits#willawong