Our company is promoting our MLK Day activities coming up via a website. Kelly & Claire showed up in this flash animation…
Kelly & Claire In Flash
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Author Archives: jeb
Grant Juggles
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DC Returns to the Mound
Each fall, Spring Hill’s baseball team has an off season competition called the Purple and White Series. Half of the baseball team plays the other half for a best of 7 series. This comes at the end of fall practice and helps determine who will start in the next season, which begins in February.
Danny landed on the purple team, which I figured was better if only because it involves more color. He was hoping to get to start a game, but was sure he would at least get to be a reliever. The series started on Friday night. Saturday night was Kelly’s chorus performance in Athens, but Kathy, Grandad, and Gramlie were all ready to head down early on Sunday if Danny was called up for the Sunday night game. (Gramalie and Grandad would drive down the next day as reported here.)
Late Saturday night the word came in from Danny. He would be starting the Sunday game pitching against his friend Mike Scanino, but the coach wanted to move it to a day game, so he would start at 3 p.m. That was just too early to drive down, so I sent instructions for Danny’s roommate, Patrick, to get some good photos. I let it be known there would be a bounty of brownies.
Danny was stiff for the first inning and pitched 29 pitches, but only one run scored. He was able to settle in the next four innings and keep the White team from scoring. He had a total of 71 pitches for a total of five innings before a reliever came in. Scanio did not fair so well, the Purple team scoring 6 runs in one inning against him. The final score was 8 to 3, Danny taking the win. Although he felt bad about it being one sided, he still enjoyed his first official trip back to the mound. The Brookwood playoffs seem like a long time ago (and 20 less pounds ago.)
Danny was able to play in two more games. He came in as first reliever in the 6th inning on the Wednesday game. He had 8 pitches and no one got on. The Purple team won the series 4 to 1, but the coach wanted to play one more game. Danny was the starter for the last game on Friday. While it did not “count”, he still had a good showing pitching 4 innings. He did not allow any runs and had several strike outs.
Meanwhile, Patrick has some camera problems, so the only two known photos are seen here. One is just after Danny pitched on Sunday. That’s ice on his arm.
I’m glad we got these two photos, though. It’s good to see DC back in an official uniform… and a Purple one at that. Patrick will get his brownies.
“The Run Of Her Life!”
We had to get up early this morning for Kelly’s last cross country meet. The freshman boys would race at 8 am and the girls would race at 8:30 am. Kelly and I left first because she had to be there at 7:30 a.m. , and the drive was more than 30 minutes away. Our destination was the same course that had wiped Kelly out for her first meet.
Kelly was bundled up in a ski cap and parka. As we approached the field (which is in the Chattahoochee river basin) Kelly observed that the frost on a golf course and the fog made everything look like snow. I told her to hold up her fist at the course, shake it, and say “I defy you!” (Inside joke… she laughed.)
The sun rose and warmed things up a bit. Kelly and her friends huddled together during the boys’ race, getting themselves psyched up for their race. Kathy, Claire, Clyde, and Stout arrived just in time for the beginning of Kelly’s race.
Kelly intentionally started off slower than the pack so that she could choose a target in front of her to pass. This was an approach her coach had recommended. Sure enough, she started passing one girl after another. While three orange-suited girls from Parkview broke way ahead, Kelly was one of the leaders of the Brookwood team by the 1 mile mark. By the two mile mark she had passed all but 6 girls, holding 7th. She was the lead Brookwood runner. Her coach spotted her and yelled… “Look at Kelly! Cashel is having the run of her life!” He was very surprised and excited about how well she was doing. He started shouting encouragement to her at the various bends that would snake in towards the crowd.
“Don’t look back Cashel! Keep pushing Cashel!” As she approached the end of the 3 mile race, he shouted, “She’s going to break 24!” She not only broke 24, but she stepped on it with a 23 min 30 29 sec strong finish. She placed 7th and earned a medal. Her teammates all congratulated her on such a strong finish, and her coach was amazed. (We decided he was surprised because he had not noted her time last race and did not fully realize the progress she had been making. He must not read this blog.)
After some socializing, the four of us celebrated at a nearby Waffle House. (Clyde and Stout had to celebrate in the car.)
And her coach was right. This really was the run of her life. Way to go Kelly! What a great way to finish the season!
Claire Earns Blue Nano
Claire has worked very hard in her first semester of middle school. Many many long and late nights to keep up with all of the homework. More than one night involved a few tears as she tried to figure out how to get it all done. Her planner has a lot more planning in it that my own work calendar. She scratches off each task as she completes it, and as I flip through it now, her calendar looks like every day is filled with scratch marks.
Her probe math class was a real challenge, but she slowly built a B into an A, finishing with a 90, so she landed straight A’s and made honor roll. Hurrah!
As a reward for all the hard work and starting middle school off so well, she is getting to trade in (with me) her iPod shuffle with an iPod nano. She was very excited and decided to get a blue one. Seems like blue has always been her favorite color (including the blue iMac Grandaddy now uses… we ordered an orange one, but it arrived blue. At the time 4-year-old Claire was so excited Apple had decided to send a blue one.)
When I ordered Claire’s new iPod I realized the lowest priced Nano only comes in aluminum. The colors are a step up in price. Clever Apple. No matter, offer stands. I get a shuffle out of the deal and Claire is getting a pretty good lesson in how hard work can pay off.
She’s been watching it on the FedEx website shipping from China to Alaska.
Big Brother’s Home For The Summer
The recording: Listen
The transcript:
6/7/2006
D = 18, K = 13
You have two old messages.
Old message.
One. Wednesday. 5:50 pm.
K: Can you tell mom to come pick me up?
D: No.
K: Why?
D: You can just walk home. Bye.
K: What?
D: You can just walk home.
K: But we don’t have the key.
D: To what?
K: Mom took the key with her so we can’t get out.
D: Well just… well does someone else have the… well tell the lifeguard you want to get out then just walk home.
K: Why can’t mom take me home?
D: She’s painting.
K: What?
D: She’s painting.
K: Ugh…. bye.
D: Bye
(pause)
K: I’m not coming home.
D: What?
(click)
Kelly Shaves Time to 24:32
Kelly has had remarkable improvement in the month of October. At this rate, I told her she would be able to run 3 miles in 0 minutes 0 seconds sometime in June. Her goal is to get into the top 20 so she can be Varsity. She thinks she is top 27 right now and needs to get down to about 23 minutes.
(And yes, this was another non-throw-up race. Thank goodness.)
Claire Helps Avoid Shutout, Kelly Clocks 26:19
Kelly had to get up at 6:00 am this morning to catch the 6:30 team bus for a cross-country meet at Marist. I dropped her off and made sure she got checked in. Then Claire and I headed down to Decatur for a soccer match. It was cold and foggy, but the sun came out in time for the game. Claire’s team did not play well, and 3 balls got by Claire who played goalie most of the game. Towards the end of the game, Claire came out to play forward. The good news, is Claire got some things happening. At one point she was threatening, and the opposing goalie came out to challenge her along with two defenders. The ball suddenly popped out of the group of four players, and Katie, one of Claire’s teammates, kicked the ball over the group of four and scored. So at least it wasn’t a shut-out. Final score 3 to 1.
Meanwhile, Kathy headed over to Marist to watch Kelly. This course was the the most “country” so far with lots of hills and woods. Kelly ran well and did not get nauseous this time. Even though the course was tough (and a lot of her peers lagged behind) Kelly was able to finish with her best 3-mile time yet: 26:19. Improving her time and improving her stomach control. Good race.
Claire and I ended up going over to Ted’s house, since we were in the neighborhood, and we got to meet Austin. Austin is smaller than Katie, which I did not realize. Austin likes to jump up on Ted and let Ted hold both of his paws. Dogs aren’t supposed to like having their paws held this way, but Austin doesn’t mind. Both dogs seemed to really enjoy Claire and I coming over. Ted didn’t seem to mind either.
Claire Takes Mathlympics
Excerpt from this week’s electronic progress report:
Total possible points for Mathlympics 1st 9 weeks was 55. Congratulations to Claire Cashel who had a class high with 52 points. — Ms. W
Each week, Claire’s math teacher hands out a sheet of 5 problems that are part of “Mathlympics”. With the final 9 week progress report, it looks like Claire is going to win.
Most of these word problems are pretty tough. Kathy quickly resigned from the coaching position, and recruited me to be the math coach. Reminds me of when Danny’s throws got too hard for Kathy to help him warm up. Claire and I will work on 2 or 3 problems two or three nights after she has done all of her homework. The sheet is due each Friday.
I help Claire think about the problem and think of ways she could solve the problem without doing the problem myself. Ms. W. provides clues mid-week, but Claire tries not to use those. Instead she works the problem until she gets and answer. She then looks to see if the clue is similar to the way she solved it. We’ve spent as much as 20 minutes on some of these problems.
As the weeks have gone by, she has gotten quicker and better at solving the problem and understanding any suggestions I give. In fact, on this last round, she solved one problem before I even had an idea of what the answer would be. (She bragged about this to her mom.)
From 50 whole numbers, 1 to 50 inclusive, choose the X and Y that will make the largest fraction:
X + Y
Kelly Finishes 26:36
Kelly competed in her second cross-country meet determined to finish and she did! This event was at the Olympic horse park in Conyers and included some hills and woods. It was very crowded and the meet got behind, so the JV girls passed the time giving each other massages in a giant circle.
Kelly paced herself better this time, and at the 1 mile mark I was able to snap a picture of her smiling:
She was feeling pretty good at the 2 mile mark as the course went from open field into the woods. She liked running in the woods because it was in the shade and it felt more isolated. It helped to be isolated when at the 2.5 mile mark her stomache became so sloshy she had to throw up. She didn’t have any food in her because she had not eaten anything for breakfast and reported being very hungry before the race.
She quickly recovered and finished the race very determined to finish (and not throw up again.) This is a photo of her approaching the finish line, and as you can see, she is ahead of everyone behind her.
The next photo shows her on the left crossing the finish line including a “zoom” of the time clock showing 26 min 36 sec, which is her best time for a 3 mile run. After finishing she had to bend over and throw up again, so this is a pretty rough sport. (Other girls throw up before the race because they are nervous!) However, unlike her last meet Kelly was back up and quite chatty and very happy about her race. The two of us went to a waffle house (her choice), and she ordered a table full of food.
