Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Hockey Update

We just received an email from Lucas's new hockey coach, and as expected, he made Novice B. One of his best friends from last year's team is also on the team so that should make things easier on Day One.

Anyway, that's all I have to say now. I'll post some more photos later since I'll be gone this weekend to Toronto to meet up with an old Army buddy.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

A Cornucopia of Random Photos

Like the title says, several random photos from earlier in the year.

First up, playing Pandemic, a board game that is way too complicated for Lucas (13 and up, I think?), but he still likes trying to play it.


Feral boy.


Lookin' good!


At TD Place prior to seeing an Ottawa Fury game (Fury = Ottawa's professional soccer team).


Bringing Eggy to one of his soccer practices. Eggy was a stuffy in his 2nd grade class. Each child had a chance to bring him home and then took pictures and wrote about what they did together during the week. This was about as exciting as our week with Eggy got.


The family that plays video games together stays together...


In hockey news, Lucas finished his hockey sort outs this afternoon. He had another solid weekend, and we'll find out which team he is on in the next couple of days. Then they have their first practice next weekend. Like I've said before, he played well with the other B-level kids so I would be surprised if he ends up on anything other than Novice B.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

A Story in Pictures

I'm going to try something a little different today. Last March, I took a bunch of pictures of Lucas playing in the snow (boo! hiss! we hates you, snow!). When I looked at them later on, I realized that they told an amusing story.

"Mmm, big icicle..."


"What you looking at, puny human?" (the fangs sell it)


"Uh-oh. I'm......"


"...falling!"


Nothing sadder than a boy beast with a broken icicle.


But wait!


Tasty!


"Mmmmmmmm"


"Me have big ice tongue!"


inexplicable ROAR!


"I'm gonna get you!"


"If I can't reach you, I'm going to eat my icicle in front of you. So there."


And the Oscar goes to...


The End. Hope you enjoyed.

In hockey news, the second weekend of sortouts wrapped up earlier today. Lucas played pretty well with other B-level kids so I expect he'll stick with them for next week's final sortout games. If you're keeping score, he ended up with 2 assists yesterday and a goal today,

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Hockey, hockey, and more hockey

Lucas's hockey sortouts went well. While he wasn't one of the best kids on the ice, he was far from the worst, which is what we expected. On the first day of sortouts last year, he looked like he didn't want to be there and played horribly. He got sorted with kids that could barely skate in the second session, and that's when he started to play like he'd actually held a stick before. By the third session, he had played well enough to make a B team. Based on this year's performance, I expect he'll be playing with B-level kids in both the other sort out sessions.

On the topic of hockey, I wanted to post some pictures that I thought I had put up back when they happened, but when I checked the blog, I realized I hadn't. Back in April, Lucas's team the Coyotes got a chance to play on the Sens' home ice at Canadian Tire Centre. Just like the year before, the kids had a great time since they got to line up at the beginning of the game and hear their names announced over the sound system. It's a pretty cool experience. Anyway, here are lots of pictures of Lucas from that game.













Say what you want about Lucas, but he's a good sport. He's almost always first in line for his team when it comes to the after game tradition of shaking hands (or touching gloves, as the case may be).



After that game, most of the team stayed around to watch that night's Sens game. Between games, we had dinner at The Ledge, a restaurant on the top level of the arena that has a great view of the ice.



I think the kids might have had more fun clowning around in the booth than at their game.


My bad. This is where they had the most fun.


In more recent hockey news, this week we received a picture of Lucas that was taken at his hockey camp just before school started.


For those of you unfamiliar with the Sens, Mark Stone was arguably their best player during the second half of last season (Andrew Hammond being his competition for that title), and being a rookie, he's likely to have a very bright future. So this picture's pretty cool, even if Lucas doesn't give a damn about the Sens. :)

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Speaking of...

In a recent post, I mentioned Lucas's desire to get his hair cut. Well, speaking of his hair, I found this photo from February of his hair in a style more to his liking.


Also from around that time, a dance party with Lucas and his friend Liam. Words fail me.


Later today, Lucas has his sort-outs for year 2 of Novice hockey. He was in B last year, and I expect he'll fall into that category again this year. I know he hasn't improved enough to make A, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't regressed. I don't really care where he ends up as long as there aren't too many 6 and 7 AM practices/games. I may have finally got my sleep schedule on track, but that's just crazy early for a weekend.

In keeping with the theme of this post...speaking of hockey, here are some photos from last winter of Lucas practicing in the driveway with his new net.




That's all for now!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

First Day of School: Third Grade

Before anyone asks, here's Lucas's official "First Day of 3rd Grade" photos. I should point out that he hates his hair this long and wants a haircut badly. However, we're waiting until class photos to get it cut since the longer hair looks so much better than his preferred buzzcut.



Click here for a comparison to his "first day of school" look for previous grades.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Hello, January

We're back! Ok, I wasn't gone that much longer than normal, but it felt that way, especially with all the data managing between the two laptops and other assorted logistical issues. However, now all the photos have been moved over and are ready for primetime.

BORING TECHNICAL EXPLANATION FOLLOWS...FEEL FREE TO SKIP
One of the first things I did was rearrange my To Do folder. In the past, I've had several subfolders in it, based on how the photos were taken (Nikon, Marilu's iPhone, etc). The problem with this is that I would have to search multiple folders if both of us took photos of the same event. So I took all the photos and dumped them together in the To Do folder itself. Then I arranged it by date so all related photos, no matter what device took them, will be grouped near each other. Theoretically, it should make things easier in the long run.

To give you an idea of the work ahead of me, there are currently 869 photos in the To Do folder. Many of those won't make the blog, but it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, so I'm going to start my way from the oldest to the newest. I will update with newer stuff from time to time (especially when it is time sensitive--for example, a hockey game), but if I ever want to get through the backlog, oldest first is the way to go.
BORING TECHNICAL EXPLANATION CONCLUDES

Now that that boring explanation is out of the way, on to the pictures. This first batch is from January, during a visit by my mom and Kevin. These were also among the first photos I took with the Nikon. What I like about many of them is that they are more candid (vs posed), which is not something I take very often, excepting sports stuff.





Goofing off for the camera.


Far be it for me to be left out.


They can't all be winners.


Kevin and Lucas on their respective iPads. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?


I have no idea what this pose is for, but in my head, I can't help but hear Lucas yelling, "Fabulous!"


Playing Head's Up on the iPhone at Big Rig.


I don't normally care for many of the photos taken of me, but I thought this one came out relatively well.


Lucas took a break from a basement game of hockey with my mom to "pose."


Some much better poses with my mom. The facial expression in the first one cracks me up, and I have no idea whose glasses he's wearing in the third one.




Here, Lucas poses with the best named beer of 2015.


No beer was consumed in the production of this photograph.


More photos soon! Oh, and on the news front, Lucas starts 3rd grade on Tuesday. Where has the time gone?

Whoops, almost forgot I have a video for you too. From sometime in January, here's Lucas channeling his inner rock star as he "sings" Iron Maiden's "Aces High" on Rock Band 2.



See you next time!