BALLER

I've always been a big basketball fan, I enjoy watching it, playing it, and now coaching it. I've been coaching youth basketball since I was 16 years old (holy cow - I've been coaching for 23 years!). I've coached everything from 4 year olds to 15 year olds, girls teams, boys teams, travel teams and school teams. I've been coaching at St. Francis for the past 5 years, and it's been a ton of fun. Sure there have been some unhappy parents, maybe a few frustrated kids, but the majority seem to have had a wonderful time.

But this season is going to be different. The Big O tried out for the team. We prepared extensively for the tryout, as she made over 1500 layups and 1500 jumpshots in the 4 months leading up to the tryout. HOLY COW O!!

The tryout came, and Mr. L, the athletic director said to me how excellent she looked. He commented on her progress since his camp in the summer. It was a great lesson for O about how how work and dedication can turn into results.

We've got 15 girls on the team, 6 of them from O's class. As any season, I'm sure there will be ups and downs, but it will be exciting to get to coach O and her friends as part of the school team.

First practice is today!

FLY EAGLES FLY

Today was a big day in Philly sports. The Iggles played the Giants at home in the early afternoon, with the Phillies hosting the Yankees in the evening. The Phillies are defending champs, but are heavy underdogs to the Yanks. The Iggles were also underdogs, so it was shaping up to be a long day.

Making it more fun is that Uncle Rob roots for the Giants and Yankees. We talk all the time on the phone, texting, and via email. We've done a few baseball trips together, we've know each other for over 20 years now, and both really value our friendship. That's what makes the ribbing about the sports teams so much fun.

The Eagles went out and pounded the daylights out of the Giants, winning 40-17. The last time they scored that many against the Giants at home was 1959!! As I am writing this the Phils are losing 4-3 in the 8th of game 4, and are down 2-1 in the series. Safe to say a loss here and the Phils have Mt. Everest to climb to win their 2nd straight title.

It looks like Uncle Rob and I are going to get a split in our NY vs Philly matchup, which is probably for the best as that gives us both something that we can change the subject to if the sledding gets to tough.

CUZ I AM SMARET

Grades came out about a week ago. The Bear grabbed 3rd grade honors, the only level of honors awarded in 3rd grade. Nice job Bear!

The Big O, she tallied the Franciscan Honors, given to those students in 4th-8th with grades in all classes being 95 or higher. She is the only student in the school who has received this honor more than once in the past year. Three students total have won it - the Big O, and two other girls.

So yeah, Daddy is pretty proud of his little girls.

The title of this post comes from a homework assignment in first grade. She was asked to solve a math word problem, then give the explanation of how she knew the answer. She wrote down the answer to the math problem, then wrote "cuz I am smaret" as her explanation - how great is that?! We saved that paper of course, and showed it to her in 4th grade when we were going through some old stuff. She laughed, which was great as she is pretty good for a 10 year old at being able to chuckle at herself now and then.

Keep up the good work ladies!

MS. COOL

The Bear is very particular about her clothes. VERY particular! One of the things she is most particular about is her socks. They absoultely, no questions asked, without exception, must be pulled up as high as they possibly can. Big O has teased her over the years a little about wearing her socks like a retired man, but that didn't seem to bother her much. However, recently a boy in school has teased her, saying she looks wierd. So that kind of does bother her. I racked my brain to think of someone famous who wears his or her socks high. I settled on one of the coolest dudes ever to play hoops (which The Bear also enjoys). Sure Doctor J was less than a stellar father, but as far as having a flair on the basketball court, he was second to none. That night, after Bear had gone to bed, I was watching some hoops and they actually showed a clip of him playing, with socks pulled all the way up. I taped it to show the Bear in the morning.

She woke up, and I told her that she could tell this boy that Dr. J wore his socks this way, and nobody was cooler than Dr. J, so he should check his facts a little. She got out a little notebook she keeps, and wrote down "Julius Erving = Dr. J", and gave me her famous smile. It was as if she was saying "thanks Dad for having my back". It's those hugs and smiles that make being a Dad so great!