This and That

Stephanie is really enjoying her job as a counselor at Camp Kinerite. Everyday is an adventure and she always has a few funny stories to tell us when she gets home in the evening. She's also pretty tired when she gets home. As she quickly discovered, running around after little kids all day can be exhausting.

Sam's office moved into their new building over the weekend. The boys went down with him Saturday to see the place and take over his personal items. It's about the same distance from home at least, just a few blocks from where they were in Santa Monica.

On the home front we bought a new fridge and the boys have been helping me with some gardening projects. We've also been reorganizing the family photo's, putting together some new albums and photo collages which is always fun. It's like taking a trip down memory lane.

Baltimore/DC

Adam and I will once again be attending the Shore Leave convention in early July out in Baltimore. We're going to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. again.

Today I finished finalizing everything. Adam really wants to visit the National Zoo and we're all set for that now including a reserved time to see the Panda cub. The car rental is all arranged and the hotel booked so we're good to go when the time comes.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. Not only is the break going to be very welcome but I'll get a chance to see some friends and get caught up with them.

School's Out

Yesterday was the last day of the school year for Adam and Andrew. Monday was the last day of class and then they had three days of final exams. Needless to say they are pretty happy to be done for a little while.

Adam decided to do a summer basketball league. The first practice is tomorrow. I'm glad he decided to sign up because he loves to play with the kids in the neighborhood and between basketball and Karate he'll have plenty to help keep him busy and occupied for the next couple of months.

Betty

As I mentioned in my previous we've got a cat named Betty who likes to bring gifts home.

Betty came into our lives 11 years ago as a kitten when someone left a basket of kittens at the library where I worked as a substitute. We found homes for the others but decided to keep one ourselves.

Betty is pure black with long hair and as best we can tell we think she's part ragdoll and part maine-coon. She's a tiny little thing, despite her age you'd think she was only a few months old. But she's incredibly sweet and good natured.

Betty loves to hunt and she brings a variety of critters home for us. Mice, birds, rats, rabbits, lizards, moles etc. Usually she just leaves them at the back door for us but sometimes she'll bring home live prey. It's a rare day when Betty doesn't leave some kind of gift.

I've lost track of how many times she's brought something live home and into the house. We try to remember to make sure she doesn't have anything when she scratches to come in but sometimes she still sneaks something by us and then the chase is on.

Never a dull moment around this house, that's for sure.

Showcase

It's late and I'm physically pooped but my brain is racing away. Got home about an hour ago from Showcase for Skaters, the skating event I mentioned a few days ago. It was held, as it always is, at Pickwick Ice Center in Burbank.

Dumped my stuff to be dealt with in the morning (thank god I don't have to be up early) and then chatted with the boys about their day before they went off to bed. Apparently they had a little excitement when Betty, Andrew's cat, brought a baby bunny in the house. It took a while for them to lure it out from under the furniture and out the door. I'm kind of glad I wasn't here truth be told.

Stephanie and I were there both yesterday and today from early morning. Yesterday we finished up about 7pm but tonight was the finals so by the time the last event concluded, the final awards given and everything was packed up we didn't get out until about 8:30pm which actually isn't bad, I'd expected to be later.

It was extremely gratifying to have so many people tell me how well run this years event was but I can't take all that much credit for that because it's all due to the fantastic people who donate their time year in and year out to make it happen. I'm extremely proud to be a part of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club, they are a great bunch of dedicated families who work really hard to make Showcase the premiere skating event in Southern California.

The LAFSC pioneered Showcase skating competitions 30 years ago. It was a revoluntionary idea at that time to stage a theatrical skating event. It took several years before USFS sanctioned Showcase but it became a model that other regions in the country followed and last year the first National Showcase event was held here in LA.

Showcase is the equivlant of staging a full theatrical production for 12 straight hours, two days in a row. It takes a small army to pull off but it is SO worth the trouble and effort when you get to see how these young athletes respond to the experience.

We had some wonderful guest judges this year. We had three instructors from the theatrical department of Cal State LA, Shiz Herrar, Bruce Zwinge, and Jose Gonzales. From our local high school I invited the dance instructor, Sharon Kipnas. (Sharon's son Greg is one of Steph's good friends) We also had Colleen Williams who anchors the local NBC news, Mark Lund the former editor of International Figure Skating who judged "Skating with Celebrities" which I have to admit I didn't watch. (Thankfully he didn't ask and I didn't volunteer that information.)

Last but not least I invited David George. David is the author of several wonderful Star Trek novels and a really nice guy. David's lovely wife Karen came with him and it was really nice to see them again. I'd meet David briefly and casually a couple of times but first got to know he and Karen at the Jimmy Doohan tribute convention where he was a guest and I moderated the author panel of which he was a member.

All the guest judges really seemed to enjoy the experience and the skating and indicated they'd be happy to be invited back again.

Now I'm ready to go put my aching feet up and read for a little bit to finish unwinding and then I'll probably pass out--but it's a good kind of tired.

Recent Reading

It has been a while since I commented on what I've been reading, in part because I haven't been reading as much lately as I usually do for a variety of reasons, but I have been reading.

Sometimes I'll find myself thinking about a book I've previously read and I decide to read it again. Recently I felt like rereading Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" so I dug it out and enjoyed the story again. Also reread "The Eight" by Katherine Neville.

I first read "The Eight" years ago and if you enjoy or historical fiction, thrillers and/or chess I recommend giving it a try. "The Eight" is a fictional story that revolves around the fabled chess set of Charlamange. Set in both the 1970's and the 1790's there are dual, interconnecting storylines populated by a lively set of characters both historical and fictional.

Also read the latest Hamish MacBeth mystery by M.C. Beaton, "Death of a Dreamer" which was a very amusing light little mystery. Beaton's Hamish MacBeth series is set in a little Scottish village and if you like British cozies you'll love Beaton's writing.

From the Star Trek universe just this week I read the latest two Starfleet Corps of Engineers eBooks, "Echoes of Coventry" and "Distant Early Warning". Both were enjoyable for different reasons and they'll get positive reviews as soon as I get a chance to write them up.

Next on my reading agenda is the new Peter Robinson novel, "Piece of My Heart". I just picked it up from the bookstore last night and I'm saving it for the weekend.

Winding Down

Yearbooks were distributed at school yesterday, a sure sign that the school year is winding down. Adam picked his up but Andrew will have to pick his up in person today.

Monday Andrew called me from the nurses office at school. He wasn't feeling well (upset stomach) so I picked him up and brought him home where he promptly crawled back into bed. He was better yesterday but still not great so I kept him home one more day even though I was reluctant to because they are reviewing for next weeks finals in class this week and Andrew needs all the review he can. He's back to school today though.

Adam also picked up his summer work assignments for Honors English and AP European History, both of which he will be taking next year. Over the summer he has to read Silas Marner, Pygmallion and Frankenstein for English and Fall of the Third Reich for History.

Team Party

Yesterday afternoon we had Andrew's team party. The family of one of his teammates Greg Mundy, was nice enough to offer their home for the party, which was pot luck. They've got a pool and a big back yard so we BBQ'd and swam.

Thank goodness for the pool it was a real scourcher yesterday, hitting the high 90's. Today is projected to be over 100, tomorrow too and then it should hopefully start to cool off a bit.

Anyway the party was lots of fun and the food delicious. John Coulsell, the team's manager had written each boys stats on a brand new ball which he presented to each of them along with various awards. Andrew won the leagues triple crown.

His last game at VCAA is next Saturday when he'll play in the All-Star game which is part of closing day. Andrew has had a great experience playing at VCAA these past few years and I'm really going to miss watching him play there. It's a well organized league with a great bunch of families that always put the kids first.

Andrew is too old this year to play on a summer tournament team but he's going to go work the snack shack during the summer tournaments and he hopes to continue to umpire there for them next year if his schedule permits. There's a 16 to 18 year old league up in Chatsworth that contacted him and they want him to come play for them in the fall and we've heard nothing but good things about that league so he'll likely give that a try.

Ever Have One of Those Days...

...where it seems like almost everything that can go wrong does? That was my day on Friday.

I had quite a few things to do for the upcoming Showcase competition, most of which required the computer and printer and I also had a book column to write so I got a very early start and everything was humming along quite nicely when the printer suddenly stopped.

A few years back we bought an all-in-one printer that in addition to functioning as a printer is also a copier, scanner and fax machine. I send and receive a lot of faxes so that's an essential piece of equipment for me.

So I fiddle with the thing, get out the user guide and try all the troubleshooting tips but it still won't work so I called the HP tech line for help. Just my luck that they were having a heavy volume of calls that morning so I patiently wait and wait on hold for over an hour before I get to talk to an actual human being and not a recording.

So I answer all the ladies questions about what I have already tried etc. am given a case # and told I'm being transfered to the next available tech support specialist. Another hour on hold and at last someone picks up but it turns out I was transfered to the wrong department so my call is put back in line.

By this time I'm starting to fume with frustration and worry because I notice that the battery on the phone is almost gone. As usual nobody bothered to put it back in the charger and I begin to be afraid that the battery is going to die, I'm going to be disconnected and have to start all over again.

Then I have what seems like a good idea, why don't I just copy and transfer my files to the computer we recently bought for the boys and then I can get everything printed on theirs while I'm waiting on hold and still get everything in the mail on time. Turned out that wasn't such a good idea after all.

I needed to use both Microsoft Word and Excel and when I put the files on their computer the programs wouldn't work. I kept getting a you need to activate this product message which I found a bit confusing as I knew the boys had done plenty of school work with the new computer since we bought it about 6 weeks or so ago.

So I find and enter the activation key that came with the Microsoft Office version that was preinstalled on the computer. Nothing but another error message telling me it's the wrong number. I retype it a couple of more times very carefully so I'm sure it matches but still no luck.

At that point I am at last connected to HP tech support only to be told my printer is dead, the problem can't be fixed and I'm realizing that if I'd just gone straight out and bought another printer by this point it would be connected and good to go and I wouldn't have wasted almost four hours on hold. But of course in a last ditch effort to avoid having to go and buy another printer since there was a perfectly good one already connected to the boys computer I was silly enough to call Microsoft support to try and get the programs I needed to work.

Major mistake! They were even more of a pain in the butt than the HP folks and once again my call got sent to the wrong place. By this point I'm ready to start banging my head against the wall and after I calm down I try to decide which will be faster and easier: disconnect the printer from the boys computer, haul it to my office and reconnect it which will mean installing the driver before it will be good to go or just go out and by another darn all-in-one printer since I'd have to do that within a day or two anyway since the boys printer is just a printer and I really need the fax machine.

I opted to go out and buy what I needed. It's connected and working just fine which takes care of my immediate work needs but I still have to figure out why Microsoft Office won't work on the boys computer

Showcase

Showcase for Skaters is an annual competition held each year in Los Angeles. Showcase isn't your usual skating competition where the judges are rating who does the most jumps and spins. Showcase programs are judged solely for their entertainment value.

Showcase is a competition skaters really look forward to because it's so much fun to participate in. In addition to singles events, there are also pairs and group numbers. The normal costume rules don't apply, props are allowed and the ice surface lit just like a tour show. Attendence is always very high.

This year I'm one of the co-chair's for Showcase which will be held next Saturday and Sunday, June 10th and 11th. Most of the folks involved in organizing Showcase have been doing it for years so getting the event up and running isn't as big a job as other competitions but for some reason this year we're having trouble coming up with enough judges so this week I've got to find three more bodies who can donate their time to judge next weekend.

For Showcase in addition to the usual United States Figure Skating judges we invite various celebrities, teachers or folks in the entertainment industry to judge. I've already utilized all my own contacts so I'll likely start contacting local colleges and universities to see if anyone in their theater or music departments might be interested in judging for us.