Car Accident

I got into a little bit of a scrape with my car today. I was on my way home with the girls and one of Sarah's friends. I was stuck at a 2-way stop waiting for traffic to clear enough for me to cross Appleton Ave. and there was a car on my right blocking my view from that direction. There was a van turning right coming from my left, but the problem was that the van was big enough to obscure an SUV that was just behind and to the left of the van. So as I was looking left, I didn't see it, I looked right and had an opening in the traffic, so I pulled out fast, and as I did I looked back to the left and there was this SUV. I slammed on the breaks and waited. I thought for sure I was going to get just smashed. Luckily I stopped just short enough to prevent a collision. Unfortunately, the car the was going west on Appleton swerved and as it did, the front tire pushed out (so to speak) just enough to catch the front of my bumper, hooking my license plate holder, ripping it off and tearing a chunk out of the bumper cover. The good thing though is that no one was hurt, either in my car, or in the other car.

I called a cop to file a report, never actually having to do it before (which isn't too bad considering I have been driving for 25 years). I got the other driver's information, though since there was no damage to her car at all, I told her I would just take care of it. the cop yelled at me for not making her stay. Sorry. He determined that the accident was my fault, but that based on the damage to my car and the fact that the other car wasn't damaged at all, I wouldn't be getting a citation. LUCKY ME!

So now I need to go get an estimate on the repair and get it scheduled to get fixed.

Honors Breakfast

Today was the the day of Sarah's Honors Breakfast. Just like last year, all the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who made the North Middle School Honor Roll were recognized at a breakfast in the gym. Sarah was sort of grumpy about it, and I was trying to impress upon her that this is a big deal. I think that she doesn't want to appear to be a nerd.

I think it might have been a little different if we would have got to sit with some of her friends. Last year they seated people, if I remember correctly, one sixth grader, one seventh grader and one eighth grader per table. This year they did it strictly alphabetically. So We eneded up sitting with two sixth grade kids. I let Sarah go hang out with her friends beforehand and then when it came time for breakfast, she didn't eat much. School food is sort of crummy to say the least I guess.

This year's speaker was a goalie for the Milwaukee Wave. He was much better than the guys they had last year. So all in all, it was a pretty good morning, and Kris and I are very proud of Sarah for maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

All Done

Alison finished her antibiotics yesterday and so far so good. Her throat apparently doesn't hurt anymore, but I still think her tonsils look a little large. Then again, I only play a doctor at home. Her doctor wanted us to call to make an appointment for a follow up so that he can check to see if everything has cleared up a day or two after she finished her medicine, so we will have to wait until we can get her in to know for sure. I am hopeful that this time around we have taken care of things.

No Football

Today is the first Sunday with no football since August and I have to say I am totally bored. There is nothing on TV and the things to do around the house here are just not exciting. So what did I do? I sat down to figure out how much I owe the government this year. A little more than last year, but not too incredibly awful.

Then Sunday night I did some more family tree searching. Sarah was doing a project for school so I decided to do some more searching. I am slowly transferring everything from Family Tree Maker onto the ancestry.com web site. As soon as I have enough stuff loaded, I'll link it.

Cheer Results

The cheerleading season is over (for the most part) and Sarah's team took 5th place out of six teams in her division yesterday. They had a couple of flubs, but nothing major (at least to my untrained eye) and I don't think they deserved to finish as poorly as they did. There were two teams in her division that were not even schools. They were tumbling acadamies that decided to make a cheer team. I think that putting a team like that where the girls work every day, two to three hours a day on tumbling skills into a competition with teams that work a couple of days a week for an hour or so at a time is sort of unfair. And even at that, I thought they (Sarah's team) did better than at least one of those teams. The other team was good with their tumbling, but I thought that the other part of their performance, the actual cheer portion, was pretty sad.

Sarah told us that they saw their score sheet after the competition and if they had been in the next level up, they would have finished in second place. Their score would have been better than the Falls' eighth grade team, but then again there were different judges scoring them.

I hope that Sarah and the rest of the girls take this as something to build on for next year. I think they will have a pretty good team next year. Now it is on to the Cheer showcase next month.

One more thing, I didn't feel like hauling the camera, video or still, to the cometition yesterday, so sorry, no photos or video to upload.

Furnace

Friday right before I left work for the day Kris called to tell me that the house was about 60 degrees. Apparently the furnace wasn't working. I had come to the conclusion the last time this happened, I figured there was a problem with the thermostat, but I never got around to replacing it. I thought I could wait until it got warmer outside and I wouldn't have to worry about having the furnace off. Well looks like I needed it sooner than later.

However, first we needed to run to the hospital to see how Kris's mom was doing. Kris had tried to call her mom earlier but there was no answer in her room so we figured that she was having her scan. We ran to the hospital quickly and she was downstairs having the scan done so I took the opportunity to head to Home Depot and get a new thermostat with the intent of replacing it when we got home.

It was a pretty simple replacement, the only problem is that the new one is half the size of the old one, which means patching holes and touching up the paint on the wall. It took me about 45 minutes of making sure I had the the right wires connected to the right terminal. So it looks like everything is back to normal. The house is back at 68 and holding so far. Hopefully the heat stays on. I would hate to find out there is a problem with the furnace that would require a major fix.

Final Cheer Competition

Today is Sarah’s final cheerleading competition for the year. We are going to be heading up to Jackson around noon today to watch her compete. Ali’s godmother is coming along too. She was a Purdue cheerleader so maybe we’ll get some “professional” critique today in the stands. I’ll try and get video posted and a recap of the day later tonight. Wish Sarah luck!

Kris’s Mom

Kris’s mom is going to the doctor/hospital today. She had a pacemaker put in last month and was going for a follow up on a lot of pain she has been having in her side. It sounds like the doctors don’t know what is happening, but they know there is a problem. I don’t want to disclose too much about her condition, but it sounds like her doctor thinks it is pretty serious. Please keep her in your prayers.

Tooth Fairy

Monday night also saw a visit from the tooth fairy for Alison. I got home from work and she had to show me that her tooth had come out. She thinks that now she looks like a rabbit because she only has her two front teeth on top now. The tooth fairy brought her $2, I think because she (or is the tooth fairy a he?) Felt sorry that Alison was sick with strep again. It was amazing... Ali was awake in her bed, miserable from her throat, and she rolled over and her tooth was gone and the money was there. I wonder how the tooth fairy sneaks in and does that?

Strep Throat

Monday morning we had to call school and tell them that Alison wouldn’t be in. She was running a fever and her tonsils were so inflamed you could barely see her uvula. She had just finished a 10-day course of antibiotics last week for strep throat but she even right after she had complained that her throat still hurt.

Well our worst fears were confirmed Monday morning when her doctor looked at her and told us, the antibiotics didn’t work and she had strep throat again. This time he put her on a different antibiotic, another 10-day course. So HOPEFULLY this time it will work. Kris and I are both starting to think that she may need to have her tonsils out. When we asked her doctor, he said that it may be a cause, but he didn’t think that was necessary just yet, so we’ll just keep out fingers crossed and wait and see.

Volleyball Results

Unfortunately, Sarah got the call today during volleyball tryouts. The coach told her, “sorry”. She said she (Sarah) should work on her skills, go to camps, etc. and then maybe try out again next year. This is what I want to know though, where do you go, or who do you play for to improve your skills? It isn’t like cheer where there are places you can go to work on your tumbling and stunting skills.

Kris and I tried consoling Sarah but she was sort of upset by it. Maybe this means she just dedicates herself more to doing cheerleading. I think Kris and I may look at places she can go and take tumbling lessons to work on her flips, cartwheels, etc. That may help her focus her efforts at least a little.

CHAMPIONS!

Sunday was spent preparing for the biggest football game in Wisconsin in 12 years. From about 4:00 until about 9:30 the Hahn family was on the couch watching the Green Bay Packers reclaim their trophy. However, it was hard since Alison wasn’t feeling well. She started running a fever and just wanted to curl up under a blanket and rest. This made cheering for the Pack hard. I did my best not to yell at the TV when wide open passes were dropped, or the defense blew a coverage, but it was hard.

All through the third quarter I was nervous since GB couldn’t move the ball. I just kept thinking of the Washington game, where the Packers outplayed the Redskins, but because of all the dropped passes, they let the Redskins hang around and then one big play happens and bam, they lose. And the announcers kept bringing up the fact that no team had ever come back in a Super Bowl from being down more than 10 points. I thought that was a sure jinx.

When Green Bay couldn’t punch in the dagger with 2:30 left in the game and had to kick a field goal to go up by six points instead of ten I thought would be the kiss of death. Usually when only a touchdown is needed to beat you, then it will be a touchdown the other team gets. In fact, I was having flashbacks to Pittsburgh last year when the Packers were up by 6 with a little over two minutes to play and the Steelers on their 18 yard line. I thought for sure we would be seeing a repeat of Roethlisberger throwing the game winning touchdown with no time on the clock. Luckily, the defense stepped up and pulled a stop.

Defense wins championships was never truer than in Super Bowl XLV. If it were not for the defense forcing those three turnovers and stopping the Pittsburgh offense, the Packers would not have won that game. But since they did, that means I can go out and buy up a ton of Packers Super Bowl Champions gear.

Volleyball

Sarah was supposed to have a three day tryout for the North Jr. High 7th grade volleyball team. However, since the blizzard canceled school on Wednesday, she will have them Thursday, Friday, and then I think the final day will be Tuesday. There are something like 40 girls trying out for a total of 18 spots on the team.

I feel bad there will be so many girls cut. It makes it hard for anyone else to play in the future because if you end up being one of the girls cut, it is like saying, “yeah, too bad. You suck and will never play volleyball”, because where are those girls going to go to practice their skills and possibly try out again next year? That is one of the drawbacks I guess to going to a large school.

Check back next week on Sarah’s progress.

2011 Blizzard Follow Up

The amount of snow we got the night of the great blizzard of ‘11 was a little bit more than I expected. Actually, I think the total wee got was something like 18". The big problem as far as I could see was all the drifting that occurred. I planned on getting up early to clear the snow so I could go to work, and there was a 3.5 foot drift in front of the garage door and then about 5 feet from the garage, the pavement was clear. Then as you made your way down the driveway there were two large, 5 foot drifts.

I planned on just firing up the snowthrower and tearing into them (the drifts) but I couldn’t keep the motor going. I had just mixed up a fresh can of gas/oil, so I figured I had mixed in too much oil, since the exhaust was spitting out a nice bluish haze. I let it run, and then tried filling the tank with straight gasoline to dilute it further, but I couldn’t keep the engine running once I engaged the thrower. So I started shoveling.

The drifts were much more solid that I expected. It took me almost 90 minutes to work my way a little more than halfway down the driveway. By this time it was getting light out. I had kept trying the snowthrower, from time to time, but it just wouldn’t keep running. After there was enough light to see, I finally saw why. I had the choke wide open. I wanted to just kick myself for being so stupid.

I finished up with the snowthrower and by 7:30 I was done, but the roads weren’t plowed yet and seeing the size of the drifts on street I figured I had better wait. The plow came through about an hour later and I went back out and cleared the snow from my approach and then headed out to work. Turns out only 3 or 4 people made it in besides me. It was actually a pretty nice day. Things were slow, no one to bother me while I did my work. I sort of wish all days could have been like that. Well, all except the snow part.

Blizzard '10

For the past two days we have been being scared by the weather people on the various local news stations that this was "the big one". It was going to be the worst winter storm in a decade. Well day one is over and it underwhelmed in my opinion. I came home around 5:30 PM and the roads were fine, Milwaukee was salted like crazy and once I got to the Falls, it was mostly blowing and drifting snow that was the problem. Everything is canceled for this evening, Ali's dance class, Sarah's cheer practice and her volleyball team tryouts. And school is already canceled for tomorrow. It remains to be seen however how much snow we'll actually have. I have a feeling that it is going to be a lot of drifting, and not a lot of snow.