Monday, November 26, 2007

Bengals/Titans

I only made it to one game this year (and fortunately it was a good one). It was cold and windy though. The sun was supposed to come out. It never showed up. But, amazingly, both the Bengals offense and defense did on the same day!
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Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanksgiving/Kayla's Birthday

Kayla's birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. One of her birthday wishes was to spent the day with her cousins in Columbus. We headed up in the morning and came back Thanksgiving evening. The only reason we still live in Ohio is so we can be near family (is there any other reason to live here?).

The trip was nice. Traffic was light. We took Zoe up for the first time ever. It might have been the first time she was ever in anyone else's house. She was great. She loved all the attention and the scraps. She was so distracted by all the people and the food that she didn't eat her own food. But, she didn't jump on anybody or try to take food off the counters (and she could). Mom was so proud of herself that she allowed a dog to be in her house and didn't freak out.

Shayna insisted that Kayla wasn't 11 until noon. So, during the morning or when we first arrived, she would correct anyone saying that Kayla was 11. I pointed out to her that she would not be so happy with that rule on her birthday since she was born at 10:45PM and most likely she would be in bed before she actually turned 8. Kayla told her her little rule was going to "bite her in the butt".

Ty made pecan orange french toast casserole for Kayla's special breakfast. Kayla wasn't too thrilled with the way it sounded. But, it turned out great. So good, that Kayla wants it again for her birthday party next weekend.

Yesterday, we smoked a turkey and we'll be making a Thanksgiving feast (including cranberry salad for Kayla) today. Shell and the boys are coming in today to spend the night.

Here are pix of the day: .Mac Gallery of Thanksgiving

OK. Time to make the cranberry salad!

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Friday, November 23, 2007

Thanksgiving and Kayla's Birthday

Kayla's Birthday is always right around Christmas and the Ohio State/Michigan football game. As everybody knows, I threatened to miss her birth if she had waited until her due date, which was 11/23, the day of the Big Game in 1996. Fortunately, for all involved, she was born a day early.

This year we celebrated with an orange pecan roll that Ty made for breakfast then headed up to Columbus to spend the day with the family.

It was a historic trip for Zoe. She came along with us and did great. It was her first time out of West Chester.

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Playing Dolls

I love the way the girls get along with each other. While they are way beyond their years in some ways, they still love playing dolls and what they call playing "Voices". In "Voices", they essentially play dolls, just without the dolls. They have a running narrative where Kayla will say "Pretend she said..." and Shayna will respond in her character. They can do this for hours.

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Gods don't want that...

Last night we were watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (of the movies in the trilogy, it's by far the darkest and most violent- I hope I didn't warp the girls for life). During the scene where the priest is sacrificing an innocent victim, Kayla looked at me and said "Gods don't want that."

Just yesterday I posted on The Beautiful Heresy about all the unlearning so many of us have to do as adults due to the religious baggage we carry around. I was so proud to hear Kayla at 10 with her simple understanding of what it has taken me years to unlearn.

Kaysha Kids

We're about to launch our new line of products for kids (girls). Not quite sure what products we're going to have yet. But, we know we're working on the branding. Yesterday we received mockups for the logos. HIred a firm out of Argentina for next to nothing to create this for us. (Ain't a global economy grand?).

Kaysha is a combination of Kayla and Shayna and the logo will feature caricatures of each of them. They've both complained about how the girls look and the nicknames we're going to use for them. Kayla and Shayna think they own the characters.

Here's the first mockup.

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Monday, November 12, 2007

Mixed Bag Football Weekend

Oh man! What a disaster for the Buckeyes. They didn't show the Steelers/Browns in Cincinnati (weird) and they didn't show the Bengals/Ravens in Columbus (not so weird, I guess).

The Buckeyes were actually outplayed on both sides of the ball by Illinois. I expected a competitive game. But, our defense shocked me with their poor play. It was almost like the Florida game all over again.

I'm trying to find the good news in this defeat. It, of course, dashes any hopes of a national championship no matter how everyone else finishes. They will never give the Buckeyes a shot since they no longer have an unblemished record. Since both OSU and Michigan lost going into the Big Game, I actually expect that game to be a great one as each team tries to prove we're the better team.

This was supposed to be a rebuilding year anyway. No one expected us to even win the Big 10, let alone the National Championship. I guess rather than taking this defeat as a huge disappointment, we should look at the earlier part of the season as an unexpected bonus. Next year is our year.

OTOH, the Bengals did manage to pull off a victory over what has turned out to be the lowly Ravens. Their defensive secondary has been even more decimated than our linebacker corps. Yet, we managed zero touchdowns against them (a troubling statistic). Even with them giving us six turnovers again, we only managed 7 field goals, which was enough to win the game only because their offense was even more inept and self-destructed every time they got close enough to score. The game was an effective shut out, with Baltimore putting up one touchdown near the end to only lose 21-7.

The good news is we know our defense can stop someone. The not-so-good new is it's the worst offense in the NFL. But, a W is a W.

Peace,
Brian

Friday, November 9, 2007

Kayla's Skirt

Kayla is really getting into sewing.  She goes to a class one weekend a month and has a class weekly.  Here is her latest creation, the skirt.



Kayla's Skirt

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Snugglin'

Even though Kayla is nearly as tall as Ty now and the girls present quite a lapful, they still love curling up next to us.



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Sunday, November 4, 2007

Anniversary Trip

Ty and I made it to (gulp) 17 years!  We took a trip to Columbus and dropped off the girls with the grandparents.  We then spent the weekend shopping, catching a movie (our first and only "adult" film of 2007) and went to the Ocean Club and Bon Vie for dinner.  We met Kevin and Julie the first night and saw "The Kingdom".  

The girls slept in my old room.  Still the original furniture from something like 42 years ago!



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