Southwestern Basketball Trip

The weather was beautiful for the long-awaited trip to Southwestern for the annual Basketball Classic. It was in the mid 60s and sunny on the day I took this picture in the front of campus. I took 10 Guys Varsity Basketball players along with the coach to Texas from Wednesday the 24th through Sunday the 28th of January. We finished 3-3 with 2 losses to Forest Lake Academy (one by 33-31) who went on to win the Tournament for the 2nd consecutive year in a row.

Here is a picture of the team before we played Shenandoah Valley Saturday night. The team didn't want to stay for the supper I signed up for and so they also skipped the picture. It was a good learning experience for them as they got a shot to their ego after going 8-0 in Ohio so far.


Here is the half-time S.W.A.T. Gymnastics show performed by the Southwestern Gymnastics led by Chad Hutchinson. He has done a good job there according to everyone I talked to at S.W.A.U. It was fun to see the wall-walkers too.


Here is a picture of the informal Slam-Dunk competition after the Championship Games ended. Even though the picture is dark, you can still see all the people gathered around, also in the bleachers. The F.L.A. guys won and the CAYA girls won. The week was very tiring as M.V.A. played 6 games at the Tournament, and including our games in Ohio on Monday and Tuesday, we played a total of 8 games of 6 days! Today was our first day without a game since last Sunday. Our next game will be @ home on Feb. 6 and we finish the season the following week with Senior Night on Thursday, Feb. 15. Then the next week the Guys team will start playing in the State Sectionals. I had fun on the trip but it is also a relief it is done and all went relatively smoothly with no major problems.

Winter Has Returned

I liked this picture I took of my Grand Prix on Thursday with the water tower behind. I was loading up to head to the prime destination in this area, Snow Trails.

The snow was a lot better last week, as I went boarding on Wednesday with MVA's Ski Club and then again on Thursday. It snowed nearly the entire time I was there on Thursday and they ended up getting 1 inch of natural snow along the 6 inches they made.


The side on the left side of the Silver Triple Chairlift was closed as you can see. I rode this lift for the majority of the 3 hours I boarded on Thursday. Carrie called me about 40 feet from the top of the lift once! I took one hard fall and probably slid about 60-70 feet down the slope after I caught an edge after jumping. I got snow up my coat even from all the powder that was there.

As you can see from this picture, Thursday was very crowded. There was an estimated 1,000 students that came on coach buses. There were at least 14 buses lined up in the parking lot. But Wednesday there was only 1 lift open and the line took around 7-10 minutes every time, so with 3 lifts open Thursday the wait time was nearly gone, maybe 30 seconds at the longest. This afternoon at 2 p.m. the SoBe Terrain Park opens. Hopefully it stays open for awhile.

Snowboarding is Finally Back!

You can see other boarders here. There were a lot more snowboarders than skiiers. I haven't noticed such a big difference in Colorado. The sky was pretty. It's too bad the slope wasn't facing the sun for sunset though, it would have kept it warmer for longer too.


I liked the way the shadows were falling in this picture. You can see a little bit of snow on the hillside in the distance, but they got almost 1 inch of natural snow as opposed to 10 inches of man-made snow. Either way, the conditions were pretty good with very little ice.


This is the view facing toward the Bunny Hill. I actually rode that once and took the lift, but it sure was short, so I decided to head back over to the Mt. Mansfield run.

Another chairlift headed down, although we were actually stopped in this picture. That made it easier to get the chairlift. This chairlift was a triple, which is their biggest. There are 6 chairlift's total and 13 trails. I had thought there were 18, but the trail map says 13.


You can see the sky starting to turn colors in this picture a little. I would have taken more sunset pictures, but the snow was blowing down on me at the top of the lift and I didn't want to get my camera covered! I did take a video while riding down the run once.

Snowboarding at Snow Trails!!!

Well, I certainly have an activity worth a blog post now! I hit the slopes for the first time this season today and the snow was actually in great shape. It was hardly icy at all and the high for the day was 23, so it was not slushy either. All the runs were not open yet, but they are shooting toward having the whole place open early next week, which would be great because I'll be back on Tuesday!


There was a pretty view from the top of this run. You can see the snow on the tree was from the snow makers as well. They were making lots of snow over the last week and they have a solid base now.
I went to see the Raptors play the Cavs. on Wednesday in Cleveland and narrowly missed their big snow storm, I heard today from some boarders from Cleveland area that they got somewhere between 5-10 inches on Thursday. The Raptors now have a new #15, Jorge Garbajosa, and they have a lot of European players now, they played a great, unselfish game. The Cavs. wore their orange '86-'87 throwback jerseys.

I like this picture because you can see the sun through the trees and the snow maker to the right. It was a pretty afternoon. I spent a lot of the time on the lift as opposed to riding, but compared with living in the Sunny South this is pretty amazing to have a Ski Resort a mere 30-35 min. drive away! With my Season Pass I am certainly planning on getting my money's worth. Well, it quit posting once again. You can't even begin to imagine the pretty sight of Snow Trails from these pictures, you actually need to come visit and go riding there yourself to see!!

Thanksgiving in FL

The new Grand Prix sure looks nice, and it rides nice and is sure nice to have. This is Wednesday morning before we headed out for Zephyrhills. What a fun and short break we had.

Before I run out of room to post pics., I had to put this one on. This was taken this morning when mom was taking pictures of us shooting hoops in the driveway. Look at dad's expression! It sure was fun to be able to play outside in the fresh air and the sun. There is no place like the Sunny South. I never saw a cloudy day and hardly even a single cloud in 5 days of break... amazing, whoever says that Collegedale is rainy is crazy. Come visit me in Mt. Vernon and you will see the definition of rainy.

It was yet again an amazing sunset. That is the norm in FL every time we are there to visit. There were jet skis and boats in the water, but no surfers as the waves were not quite big enough. It was great fun to play frisbee and shop at a great sports store.

The camera was barely out of the water for this picture. I tried to capture the sun's glare. You can see the extent of the waves in the picture... maybe New Smyrna beach was better for surfing! Those lucky FLA students!

How do you like that Great Blue Heron? It was a little bit afraid of me for some reason, I didn't even do anything except for try to get a picture with it!! I got another nice close up of him straight on.

Now this was where 67% of my break was spent, driving and sitting in traffic jams. It was too short for all the time on the road! I have come to the conclusion that next Thanksgiving it would sure be nice to stay at home and avoid the traffic!


I zoomed the camera in to take this picture of mom and dad and grandma and Coleman walking down the beach. There is a boat behind them probably getting ready to pull up a wakeboarder, or maybe even go fishing. I guess you'll never know.

There must have been some racing going on here on the beach. Look at the nice tire track that was left. The break was a blast, just way too short. From the beach to the slopes. It won't be too long before you will see pictures from Snow Trails and snowboarding. I need to go get my season pass picture taken in Mansfield sometime this week.

Carrie's Visit Nov. 9-12

Carrie was able to come visit me over the weekend and we had a great time! Here is a picture of us before the Cavaliers vs. Celtics game. Cleveland made an amazing comeback to win after being down by 24. The weekend went by way too fast. Carrie got to come watch my Health class on Friday and then got a short tour of the school and got to meet a few staff and students. Friday we went shopping in Newark at Indian Mound Mall, and then came back home and had some cornbread and chilli for supper.

Here is another picture from the game. I didn't remember to bring my camera shopping Friday so I have a lot more pics. from Saturday. We sat in the 2nd row from the very top of the arena but it was pretty loud still and a great game. Sabbath morning we went to SS and Church with Oakwood performing and then went to eat at Ed Strunk's house for lunch. Then we headed out in the rain for Cleveland, which Carrie got to see for the first time in the dark only!!


Here is a picture of us infront of the Christmas tree after lunch at the Strunk's Sabbath afternoon. What do you think about the Christmas Tree being up already? It's almost Thanksgiving.

On Sunday we had Apple Crisp for breakfast that I cooked up on Saturday. Then we watched Cars on my computer. In the afternoon we took a walk around Kenyon College and the Kokosing Gap Trail. Here is a picture of Carrie next to a display on campus that reminded me of the display at Andrews that Amy and I used to climb on years ago! It was a great weekend that went by far too fast!

More Pics. of the Potential New Car

Here is a picture of the car from straight on. It looks like a race car, eh? It is just like Rodney Fulbright's car from FLA except his is a '97.

Here is a side shot of the car. I like the looks of it... hopefully it works out, I'll find out soon!

Moving on to the '99 Pontiac Grand Prix if Everything Works Out


Here is yet another '99 Pontiac at Cal's! My parents found this 1 day after the Bonneville got crushed. Hopefully this car will work out and I can get it at Thanksgiving, when my rental car runs out (November 21). I will be awhile without a car that's my own, but this car does have 52,000 miles as opposed to 98,678 that the Bonneville had.

Here is a nice side view that my parents took. It looks very nice and by what I've heard from the test drive my parents took it for it runs very well with plenty of get-up. Well, this locked up again so I'll try to post the rest in a second.

The End of One Era, the Beginning of a New One


Here is one of the multiple pictures I took of my former '99 Pontiac Bonneville. It was crushed by a giant oak tree on Saturday at the Guys dorm parking lot at Mt. Vernon Academy.

Here is a clos up picture. The entire back window is completely gone, as is the sun roof. The roof of the car is severly bent and the front winshield is all cracked although still intact. The students tell me the alarm didn't go off when the tree initially fell on the car, only once Mr. Daniels and Dean Wright came to look at the car. Some students said it sounded like a gun.


Here is the front of the car. You can see the window is smashed up pretty bad. Behind the car is the rubble of the tree.

You can clearly see here the right side of the car where the car took the biggest hit from the tree. The frame of the car is detached and bent away from the door! This picture was taken looking down on the closed door. Tomorrow is the awaited meeting with the inspector from State Farm which will start the rest of the process. I already have a rental lined up for 19 days starting Thursday, when I will return the school's Chevy Astro. That will get me through to Thanksgiving Break and hopefully to the new potential Pontiac Grand Prix that my parents have found at Cal's.

Post #3 from October 21, Cavaliers Game

Here is a photo of some amazing gymnast who were doing all kinds of flips and headstands and spinning on their heads... It was neat to see. They did a good job of keeping us entertained during time-outs. You can see there were a lot of fans courtside. I wonder how much the refs. got paid for this game?

Here is a picture of all the National Hockey League teams hanging from the rafters. The Toronto Maple Leafs are the 3rd banner from the right of the speaker in the left of the picture. You could see where the ice is usually at during Blue Jackets games. The ice is a lot longer than an NBA court. One of the students, who is about to start working for me tomorrow in the gym, said that hockey is the most exciting sport to watch, mainly because of the fights!


Here is one of my best close up pictures of the game. You can see Damon Jones, formerly on the Miami Heat. He is a great 3-point shooter and was a big part of Miami's team a couple years ago. It was fun seeing the Hawks again after seeing them so many times in Atlanta. Now I have seen the Hawks beat the Spurs and Cavaliers. The next game I will be at will be with Carrie in November!! I can't wait... finally Carrie will get to see Mt. Vernon. It will be a great time, the countdown is on.

Post #2 from the Ohio Boys Teen Retreat
Here is a picture of Nationwide Arena in Columbus, home of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets. Hopefully I'll be back later this winter to see them. There was a USHL Hockey game going on we got to see a little bit of through the windows before we went in to see the Cavs. game. I haven't skated on ice for awhile, I guess I'll probably get a chance again this Christmas at Camp Au Sable!

Here is a picture of Lebron James about to check back into the game. There is no question why over 10,000 fans came to see this pre-season game, to see LeBron live. He had a solid game with 21 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. He really turned it on in the 2nd half as he missed a lot of shots in the 1st half on his way to a 7 for 17 shooting night, including 1 for 2 from 3-point range.

Here is a picture of some of the guys that came and the guys dean. The guys seemed to have fun overall and we really didn't have that bad of seats for $10. It was a very slow start as the Hawks led 37-28 at halftime, but at the end of 4 quarters, it was tied at 79 all thanks to a Drew Gooden shot with 22 seconds left. LeBron missed the potential game winner that sent it to overtime, where Joe Johnson hit the game-winner for the Hawks with 1.7 seconds left for a 90-88 win.

Ohio Boys Teen Retreat to Columbus, OH October 21, 2006

Here is a picture from Ephesus church Sabbath afternoon after Church in the morning and potluck. We had a great lunch and then a lot of the students came in here in the sanctuary and played drums, the piano, electric guitar and sing.

Here is a picture of me infront of the Ephesus church in Columbus, OH. It was a beautiful sunny Sabbath afternoon and I couldn't stay inside all day, so I went for a hike through the neighborhood where our boys dean lives.

Here is a picture of 2 Canadian Geese I saw while walking. They were squaking loudly at me. Why do they hate me so much? Ever since I was little and at the Toronto Zoo! I guess they aren't my favorite either, so it evens out. I had a good time taking pictures of them as they ran away.

Here is a picture of a nice house in a neighborhood I was hiking in. I saw a lot of huge houses and I actually only got chased by 1 dog the whole time, which was pretty good. After the hike we had pizza at church and then headed to Nationwide Arena to see LeBron and the Cavs. take on the Atlanta Hawks in pre-season NBA action. I will make another post with more pics.

Pictures from the Wedding Weekend


Here is an awesome picture of the sunrise one morning before I headed to teach Sophomore P.E. class at 7:30 a.m. For the last 1 or 2 weeks it is nearly pitch black when I am driving to school to teach.









Here is a picture of our Girls Varsity volleyball team warming up before our match against Fairfield Christian Academy. I was the head coach for both the JV Girls and Varsity that night as both coaches were busy. It was fun, although we didn't get back until after 10 p.m. which made it a long night.





Here is a picture of my uncle Milt through the glass at Olive Garden! It makes him look slightly different than he normally would! I will put a better picture of him on this post.










What a great name for a restaurant... North Beach. This made me want to go surfing again. It was fun at New Smyrna beach while student teaching at F.L.A. and then behind the boats at Nosoca a ton this summer is where I really got hooked. The clouds were really pretty that day.





Here is a picture of part of the group at Jeff's wedding at Giordano's Pizza on Saturday night after the wedding rehearsal, and also after the Tigers took out the Yankess 3 games to 1. I have only witnessed one celebration better than that one- the Blue Jays in '93. While we were there visiting we also were able to watch the Mets and Dodgers (if I stood up and walked over near the pizza bar).