If You Can't Be An Athlete, Be An Athletic Supporter

I’m going to be honest with you.  This post is a puff piece written by a proud father.  I’ve made mention of my daughter’s participation in volleyball, mostly through photo captions in my “365 in 365” projects, but haven’t written at length of her experience with the sport.  Obviously, I look at her through the lens of a parent, but I honestly believe she is a talented player.

Her mother got her enrolled in a club team in the Maplewood area.  This is a huge commitment in money and time for both of us, not only for the club fees (which G-Bug’s mom is handling), but also traveling to various venues for overnights and weekend tournaments.  Most tournaments are in the Twin Cities, but there are a couple in Rochester, MN; one in Wisconsin Dells; and the Grand Finale in Orlando, FL in June.  Both of us beamed with pride when we saw her be selected by the 16-1’s coach to play on his team.

Playing club volleyball is an entirely different experience than high school and less expensive clubs.  The competition is intense, the conditioning grueling, and the coaches demand the best from every player.  They also instill a sense of team spirit, which I felt was a little lacking in the club team G-Bug played for, but was better when she made it on the JV squad as a sophomore.

If there is a downside to this club team, it’s that G-Bug is playing with other quality players who have shown a more competitive fire.  Her coach has commented how she is too nice and she has to find a way to “release the beast.”  I’ll tell you this though, you can’t ask for a better 11^th player off the bench.  Plus, at 6’1”, she is the tallest on the team.  She has been projected to be a middle blocker, but there are two other middle blockers ahead of her; so she doesn’t get much court time.

However, she has made the most of her time when she is competing.  A couple weeks ago, she was playing middle when an errant pass from the other team floated toward the net.  G-Bug jumped and spiked the ball with authority.  The ball didn’t bounce, but cratered!  Her whole team cheered and her coach jumped out of his seat.  A few people in the crowd, who knew G-Bug didn’t compete much, but was patient for her opportunity, cheered as well.  The parents of one of her teammates came by and gave me a congratulatory pat on the shoulder.  After the match, G-Bug was all smiles.

This past weekend, the team was participating in the President’s Day Festival and G-Bug was put in the rotation as an outside hitter.  She looked a little confused on the floor as she didn’t practice much at the position, but she did a very good job; not only as an outside, but serving as well.  In truth, I think she is more suited at this position and the mother of one of her teammates said the same to me during the tournament.

Every Wednesday night, we go to LA Fitness to play volleyball during the open gym time.  There is a regular group of Hmong people who play, both men and women, with a sprinkling of others for diversity.  The play is first come, first serve, so every night is a different mix of teams.  The rules are six players per team who rotate around a permanent setter.  This person is in the middle, so the other two players at the net rotate from the left outside to the right.  This is where G-Bug has gotten most of her outside hitter experience.

I think when we first played, the other players weren’t quite sure about us.  G-Bug is tall, but young and might not have been up to the level of competition.  She proved herself in short order.  In fact, she has developed a little bit of a fan club that cheers and claps whenever she puts down a good spike or serves an ace.  I’ve played against her a few times, too, and she is an excellent server.  She’s dumped a couple right in front of me and I’ve watched others whistle passed to get misplayed by one of my teammates.  I’ve thought about creating short videos of her playing so I could send them to her coach; but then I thought he might not want his players involved in the seamy underbelly of back alley volleyball.

Hey, that might be a good movie idea!  Dibs!!

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 027 through 033

This week of pictures could only be described as a week of bitterly cold. Unfortunately, for this winter, the week was trumped by subsequent weeks. We do what Minnesotans do, keep on and wait for the weather to get warmer. It's only a matter of time as the earth continues to rotate around the sun. It will happen. In the meantime, some cold weather photos.

No. 027:  01-27-2014 

In celebration of Mom's birthday, an arch in downtown St. Paul.
I don't know how the two are related.

No. 028:  01-28-2014

A winter version of St. Paul from the High Bridge

No. 029:  01-29-2014

How Minnesotans "gleam the cube."

No. 030:  01-30-2014

An ice sculpture from St. Paul's Winter Carnival event.

No. 031:  01-31-2014

A ship in the bottle ice sculpture from the Winter Carnival.

No. 032:  02-01-2014

An old Grain Belt brewery building.  Now an architect's office.

No. 033:  02-02-2014

Got myself in trouble on a shoveling project.  Can't tell from this
angle, but there is about 7 inches of packed ice at the entrance
to my driveway.  I was only successful in creating a deep divot
that scrapes the bottom of the car.

The Dirty Dozen: SitRep 02-20-2014 “Then There Were Nine”

Since my last SitRep in July, there have been few changes to my stock portfolio.  I bit the bullet and reduced my stake in Kraft by 16% to take an early disbursement, which is always galling.  The last major move I made was to sell my share in Pitney Bowes (PBI) as the stock price was exceeding the level where I would get one re-invested share per quarter with the dividend; in spite of PBI cutting the dividend in half in June.

I used that money to re-re-invest in Crown Crafts (CRWS) and Town Sports International Holdings (CLUB).  I learned what a mistake that was over the 34 trading days of 2014.  All indications were good with CLUB at the beginning.  The stock just instituted a $0.16 per share dividend and the price was low enough to get well above my one re-invested share per quarter threshold.  By the end of 2013, I had made $1 per share profit.  The stock price started to drop in the early days of 2014, but the entire market was seeing a downturn at the time, so I figured CLUB was just “one of the boats on a sinking tide.”  The high for the year was on 1/3/14 at $14.37.  On 2/5/2013, the price hit a 2014 low of $10.36.  Still, I held onto it, hoping the pricing would start to bounce back and I wanted to reach the ex-dividend date to at least get some payment from my investment.  I did select to have my dividends put into a money market fund, rather than reinvested, and put a Stop Loss order at $10.

Yesterday, CLUB reported it missed Q4 EPS by $0.06 and YOY Revenue was down 0.3%, which was an improvement of $230K from expectations.  This announcement occurred after the market closed, but I knew the implications as I suffered a couple big hits with B&G Foods (BGS), Mattel (MAT), and Waste Management (WM) when they missed EPS.  Sure enough, CLUB tanked 17-18% to start the day.  My Stop Loss order triggered at the opening price of $8.48.  I took that money and increased my stake in NutriSystem (NTRI) so that I would get over two re-invested shares when the stock pays in March.

Here's how the Dirty Dozen looks like now:

First Month of Quarter Payers

B&G Foods (BGS)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +$8.09

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  6.50

• Increase dividend to $0.33 per share in January

Kraft Foods (KRFT)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               -$1.00

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  4.75

Xcel Energy (XEL)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +4.07

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  6.50

• Increased dividend to $0.30 per share for April

Crown Crafts, Inc. (CRWS)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +$0.49

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  6.50

Second Month of Quarter Payers

Paychex (PAYX)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +$18.64

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  4.00

NutriSystem (NTRI)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +$4.08

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  8.75

• First dividend payout is in March, then again in May

Darden Restaurants (DRI)                           

Profit/Loss Per Share:               -$0.13

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  5.50

Third Month of Quarter Payers

Mattel (MAT)

Profit/Loss Per Share:              +$9.56

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  5.75

• Increased dividend to $0.38 per share in January

Waste Management (WM)

Profit/Loss Per Share:               +$8.17

Annual Reinvested Shares Pace:  4.25

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 020 through 026

Well, let's try this again.  In my effort to be a perfectionist, I was making changes to how the blog looked on the page and somehow duplicated my previous post under this title.  I will try to rewrite the original blog post.

My wife and I were invited to a birthday celebration for a friend of a friend. We've actually partied with her the past couple of New Year's celebrations and a couple other birthdays, so I suppose she has become a more direct friend; although we hang out with her and her boyfriend when we hang out with my friend and his . . . you know what, let's say we're Facebook friends and leave it at that.

At any rate, the plan was for a group of us to meet for dinner at Khan's Mongolian Barbeque on Friday night.  Yet another winter storm had rolled in that day, so I had left work early to have enough time to pick up my wife and head to the restaurant.  That part worked okay, but we still left late and the snow had not let up at all.  Worse yet, we almost hit a deer crossing the four lane road by our house, so my nerves were pretty frazzled when we arrived.  The parking lot hadn't been plowed, which left for some creative, and sometimes stupid, spacing issues.  I had my wife ask an employee for a read on the situation and we were told to park any way we could and all would be forgiven.  I had visions of scratched quarter panels and headlights as we went inside.

The interior of the restaurant was as crowded as the parking lot and did not seem conducive to this unique dining experience.  For the uninitiated, Khan's is a combination buffet and Japanese steakhouse where you negotiate a series of bottlenecks to prepare your meal then have it cooked in front of you.  This seems just a step away from actually making dinner, of which I'm not a fan.  

You start with loading a bowl with a selection of meats, raw and freeze dried. You then decide from a choice of two different noodles. The vegetables are next.  The final step in the preparation is creating your sauce, which is the culinary equivalent of mixing paint to get just the right hue.  The next bottleneck is waiting to hand your bowl of potential salmonella to a chef who dumps its contents onto a round grill.  After cooking for the right amount of time, the chef puts your meal on a plate and sends you off with a good luck.

For all the ball busting I'm doing, the food was excellent and I had no digestive issues afterwards.  I made two trips, the second of which was very easy as we were beyond the dinner rush.  I particularly liked the lamb during my second pass.  I tried a little spicier sauce, and although still pretty mild, caused thick drops of sweat to form on my bald pate.  Fortunately, I wasn't the only one - either sweating or having a bald pate.

Unfortunately, my wife and I couldn't continue with the revelries after dinner. She had to work early and G-Bug had a volleyball tournament that started at eight in the morning - on both Saturday and Sunday!  We wrapped up the dinner by playing the "in bed" game with our fortune cookies.  Mine just read "You're lousy."  A-oh!

The subject of my blog came up and I was asked when I would be making only post.  I said I had already made three for 2014.  I was surprised to learn that a few there had already read them and were waiting for the next installment. Those who didn't know about the blog were curious about it.  I was happy to hear people were reading and enjoying my work.

So, it may have been your birthday, Cassie, but I also got a gift that night!  It was a really great time.

After the jump is a week's worth of pictures, although I have to admit these are a weak crop.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

If the expression is true, I would like to thank Cheyenne (I went with the traditional spelling) for making me stronger.  Let me explain why.

My heart skipped a bit when I read the following headline last weekend:

Minneapolis Good Samaritan murdered trying to help stranger                      

This happened last Saturday afternoon and grabbed the attention of my wife and work friends because I told them a similar experience that happened to me, and just two nights prior to the news story.

As anyone who has read this blog religiously would know, Thursday is my bowling night. This is also the night my wife works a late shift with a client and doesn't get home until after 11p.  Last week, I was upstairs surfing the Web and listening to music when the dogs started to bark furiously.  This isn't uncommon as Jack will wait in the kitchen until one or the other of us returns home and offers a loud and rambunctious greeting.  What was odd on this night was the barking started at 10:30 and became progressively agitated.

Annoyed, I went downstairs to see what was the matter.  Through the large window of the kitchen door (for which we need to get a curtain), I could see a black woman in her late teens to early twenties standing on the back porch. I opened the door and asked the key questions including "who are you?" and "what are you doing here?"  She was concerned the dogs would bite her and when I told her they wouldn't, asked to come inside.  The temperature had dropped below zero and I wasn't going to have a conversation with the door open, so I let her in.

She claimed she was with a couple friends in a pick-up truck and they were driving by the lake a block away.  They saw a police car at the far end of the street and her friends asked her to see if they could get through.  There was heavy snow that morning and our neighborhood streets hadn't been plowed. When she approached the police car, her "friends" threw her bag out of the truck and took off.  Somehow, the police found her bag and searched it, but didn't find anything, so left it with her.  They also refused to give her a ride home.  So, she was reduced to knocking on doors to find someone to help her.  I used to think I was required to be in a needy person's line of sight to be harassed, but I guess I just exude "sucker" like a clarion call.

Right away, her story didn't add up.  I couldn't understand why her friends couldn't drive up to the police car, rather than have her get out of the truck. The police searching her bag was a little unsettling and their refusing to give her a ride seemed cruel, but not beyond the realm of possibility.  

I asked her if she had someone to call.  She said she could call her brother, but he was working until midnight.  She called him, but when he called back there was no connection because both handsets of our land line lost their battery charges.  I had my cell phone, but I didn't want to go through the process of calling her brother and waiting for him to call back again.  I asked if she had any money.  Of course she didn't and conveniently had loaned her bus pass to her sister because her car wasn't working.  Faced with the choice of having a stranger in my house until the witching hour or throwing her out into the cold, I decided to offer her a lift home (SUCKER!  SUCKER!  SUCKER!).  Looking back, I had a couple bucks and some change in the car; which I could have given her, along with a ride to Sun Ray to take the bus. Instead, I took her from St. Paul to this area of north Minneapolis:

Yes, this is a crime map of the area.  I take heart there was only one murder in the area (the black "M" in the upper right hand corner).

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 013 through 019

The winter isn't even a month old and the season has already weighed heavily on most Minnesotans.  There are the die-hards with their outdoor hockey and ice fishing and extreme jogging (this is the same as regular jogging, but in sub-zero temperatures), but I don't associate with these people.  The ones I do are as tired of the cold and snow as I am.  I had to shovel snow again this weekend, but had some help with a very sunny day. The front walk looks better, but all I could manage on the driveway was to make the snow pack as flat as possible.

Although I'm not part of the cold weather crowd, I did have a run-in with one of their number.  Friday night was a special hockey night as I believe both the women's and men's U of MN hockey teams were playing outdoors in TCF Bank Stadium, the regular home of the college football team and the temporary one for the Vikings starting next year as the new stadium is built (the Metrodome/Mall of America Field was deflated on Saturday).  I was stopped at a red light on University Avenue on campus when a taxi pulled up next to me.  I heard some sort of vocalization and when I looked, there was a lumberjack-looking man, complete with auburn Viking mustache, leaning out the front passenger window.  I rolled down my window with trepidation.

"Game time," he said.  There wasn't any sort of inflection in his statement, so I didn't know if he was asking or telling me.

"I'm sorry.  I don't know," I replied.

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

A look of shock and confusion suffused his face.  "You don't . . . you're not going to the game?"

I was dreading where this line of questioning was going.  Mercifully, the light turned green and his taxi sped away.  Nothing more was exchanged between us, but I'm sure he said "what an asshole" to his fellow passengers.

I'm still not sure what he was wanting from me.  I suppose to engage in some pre-game ritual to get each other fired up for the upcoming contest.  Unfortunately, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and he chose the wrong person.  I guess my response should have been something like "OH, IT'S ON NOW!  FUCK YEAH!"  This would be followed by a series of grunts, shouts and hoots.  

So, I missed my chance to bond with the hardcore Minnesotans.  Maybe I will practice this type of exchange at G-Bug's next volleyball tourney.  I'm sure I can get away with some rough cursing around teen aged girls and their parents.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Until then, here are the next week of pictures.  Enjoy!

No. 013:  01-13-2014

The only other time I could get this picture would be in a canoe.

No. 014:  01-14-2014

Near full moon behind an apartment building in NE Mpls.

No. 015:  01-15-2014

A view of Mpls overlooking Lake of the Isles

No. 016:  01-16-2014

The imposing edifice of the Cathedral of St. Paul

No. 017:  01-17-2014

TCF Bank Stadium hosting Gopher hockey

No. 018:  01-18-2014

Growing up in West Hartford, CT, there was a small, two screen
theater called The Elm that showed late run movies for $.99.
The Riverview reminds me of The Elm.

No. 019:  01-19-2014

The Intimidator back at the net.  She doesn't need to jump to get
her hands over the net.  A force to be reckoned with.

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 006 through 012

A fairly quiet week this week, if you call surviving the Polar Vortex and traveling to Rochester, MN quiet.  The Vortex was something to behold.  I read one post on Twitter that the temperatures in Minnesota were colder than some places on Mars.  Mars!  I'm no astronaut, but I think that's even farther than the moon.

Other reports said this was the coldest air mass to settle onto Minnesota since 1996.  I moved here in 1995, and that year I was initiated to Minnesota winters with record snowfall.  Why I didn't leave after the second winter with record wind chills is beyond me.  By 1998, G-Bug was born, so I've been pretty much anchored here until she goes to college.  Where and when we decide to move will be dependent on where she decides to matriculate and how much we have to spend to help her go there.

Below are the first full week of pictures for 2014

No. 006:  01-06-2014

On the Sunday before the Polar Vortex hit, I was shoveling
the front walk.  Afterwards, when trying to clean a smudge
from my glasses with my shirt, they snapped in my hand.
I think the cold made them brittle.

No. 007:  01-07-2014

Rice Park still in its Holiday finery with the Landmark Center
seen in the background.  For those of you who might be worried
those are not frozen victims of the Polar Vortex.

No. 008:  01-08-2014

Overlooking Phalen Boulevard with the Hamm's (later Stroh's)
brewery buildings in the background.  St. Paul enjoyed
a "golden hops age" when the city was a major beer producer.

No. 009:  01-09-2014

A favorite lunch spot, the Smack Shack in the North Loop of Mpls.
I usually get the lobster mac & cheese, but they do offer a
Connecticut style lobster roll.  Growing up in CT, I didn't think
the state had a style of anything.

No. 010:  01-10-2014

A large pedestrian bridge connecting Boom Island Park to Nicollet
Island in Minneapolis.

No. 011:  01-11-2014

G-Bug had scared the competition off the court in the first day
of the Rochester Scrimmage.

No. 012:  01-12-2014

The Intimidator moments before she does her Dikembe
Mutombo "not in my house" finger wag.

365 in 365 for 2014: Images 001 through 005

Yes, I'm going to give this "project within a project" another chance for the New Year.  I'll keep my fingers crossed I surpass the number of posts I made last year.  Here is the first batch of five photos.

No. 001:  01-01-2014

The shot glass that helped me ring in 2014.
Filled it with "Baby Guinness" shots - Bailey's
with coffee flavored Patron.

No. 002:  01-02-2014

The yardstick by which we will be measuring the amount of
snowfall this winter.

No. 003:  01-03-2014

The start of what was to be a very exhausting
weekend for the Wifey.  Fortunately, everything
worked out well, although she still has some
recovering to do. 

No. 004:  01-04-2014

We had a spectacular view of St. Paul's Cathedral.

No. 005:  01-05-2014

There really isn't that much more to downtown St. Paul.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2014.  A New Year and a new opportunity to start a project I don't show enough discipline to complete.

Dammit!  One of my resolutions for this year was to be less hard on myself.  Man, I'm such a failure.  Dammit!

I'm looking forward to what 2014 might bring as 2013 ended like the denouement a few hours after a large meal.  The weather turned bitterly cold to start December with a couple days of snowfall.  The weather put a damper on any plans, such as getting a Christmas tree or getting ahead of gift shopping, because, really, who wants to go shopping in that crap?  So, although the holidays occur the same time every year, they sneaked up on us yet again.  

Fortunately, I had some vacation days saved, so I was anticipating Friday, December 20 to be my last day of work for 2013.  Alas, it was not meant to be as my last snow shoveling efforts exposed me to the flu virus.  During my peak gift-getting season (the week before Christmas), I spent two days in bed.  I could have stayed home an extra day, but I didn't want to come to work on the 30th AND the 31st, so I dragged myself into the office to finish the week.

We also had a family trip planned for the weekend prior to Christmas to visit with my wife's grandparents as my father-in-law and his wife would also be in town.  The problem was the trip wasn't as simple as over the river and through the woods; it required a 5 hour jaunt through America's Dairyland, Wisconsin.  The night before we left, the slapdash efforts I made months ago to squeeze a little more useful life from our bed frame finally gave way, so we spent the night in our living room on a thin air mattress (I actually slept on the couch).  By the time the whirlwind holidays were done, we were glad just to relax; although I did have, like so many parents on Christmas day, "some assembly required" activities, namely rebuilding the bed frame.  We should be good for a longer time, as I used longer screws, mounted a curtain rod bracket to the head board and cross beam, and wrapped the whole deal with box tape.

That should be enough of the holiday blues.  There were moments of joy among all the angst.  We had a nice round of bowling with my in-laws when we were in Marinette.  The Wifey and I may have started a new tradition of going to Costco together before Christmas and picking out things each of us would like.  G-Bug and I had a "wrap-up Christmas" excursion to the Mall of America (perhaps another new tradition) to fill in any gaps in the list of things she wanted.  Also, I got an unexpected bonus from work, which helped me fulfill my end of the new family traditions.  All things considered, I'm glad to be in 2014 now.

One of the things that really bothered me as we got to the end of the year was my inability to keep updated on this blog.  I had great intentions and a lot of good ideas and experiences to blog about, but procrastination got the better of me.  I was pretty good with taking daily pictures, but I didn't want the 365 in 365 posts to be the only things for my followers.  To wrap up 2013, here are a select group of pictures taken during the year.