Before I get to that, I have to take my hat off to the Celtics! I’ll be very honest. I have not given the NBA much of a thought since Jordan retired (no, not the FIRST time or the Third time, I mean his REAL retirement from the Bulls in 1999… I strongly believe that both his time with the White Sox and Washington Wizards was all just a strange dream… kind of like Paul McCartney’s time with Wings). Anyway, like I was saying, I did not pay much attention to the NBA since 1999, despite some decent Celtic teams from 2001-2003. Regardless, the Celtics of this season deserved attention. They were fun to watch and not just because they were winning. How could you not watch a Celtics/Lakers finals, no matter who you were rooting for? Paul Pierce vs. King James? Wow! One of the best NBA playoff games of all time and to have that in a Game 7? If we could have the NBA back to the Celtics/Cavs or Celtics/Lakers series, the NBA would be back in the spotlight again!

Our Trip to Boston…

Well, as I said above, our trip to Boston this summer was an adventure all on its own! Let me set the stage by saying that my family are seasoned travelers. I have averaged 4-6 long plane trips a year since 1992. My family travels from coast-to-coast at least 2-3 times a year. My two sons were on a plane from California to Massachusetts mere months after they were born (Casey 6 months old and Quinn 3 months old). We have had delays, missed connections and more. With all of those trips behind us, the trip to Boston this summer was the WORST trip we have ever been involved in.

- More set-up:

It started the day before we were supposed to fly to Boston… Jenn went back to work this year. She is teaching 4th grade. Jenn is a veteran teacher who spent 8 years teaching Jr. High at Pinewood School (the private school in Northern California, where we met). She earned her teaching degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is credentialed in Illinois.

Jenn is now teaching for the California public school system. She needs to be credentialed in California. Now, I could spend an entire post (or more) railing on the dumb-ass hoops that teachers in California need to jump through to get their credential… NONE of the hoops, despite what “they” tell you, are designed to make teachers better or help our students, by the way. Anyway… Jenn was given an emergency credential last August. Since then she has been working VERY hard at not only educating her students, but dillegently jumping through the hoops to get her credential. Knowing what you need to do to get the credential may seem a simple question, but it is not an easy answer. Jenn is close to completing all of the requirements, but again, I am tempted to digress… moving back to the topic at hand…

So, Jenn has been working at getting her credential (Professional Clear Teaching Credential). She forgot all about her emergency credential. It is only good for a year. She was not notified, as she was supposed to be, nor is there anyone to help you with the process. So, she found out that the only way to extend the emergency credential is to either take 6-semester units of some approved college classes or pass a test. California changes the college course requirements this past January and none of the colleges have updated their courses yet (most launch their new classes this fall), so Jenn could not try for the course credits even if she wanted to. That left her with the test… She found out that the test is only given twice a year. Once in December and once in July (three days after we were supposed to be in Massachusetts)!

Jenn confirmed with her school district that if she did not complete the requirements that she would not be allowed to teach in the fall! We had only one choice, Jenn had to stay and take the test. So, not only did we have to change vacation plans, but Jenn had three days to study! The “test” she has to take is really three tests. She has to pass all three sections in order to get her credential, she just didn’t realize she needed to take it this soon! She only needs to take and pass two sections in order to extend her emergency credential.

We found this out and made the decision at 4:30pm on Tuesday. the deadline to register for the emergency late registration was 5pm that same day! We were scheduled to fly to Boston at 7:40am the next morning! We decided that I should take the kids and we would reschedule Jenn’s flight for the morning after the test. Jenn was worried about the cost of changing her ticket, but I said whatever it may be it is far, far less than losing your paycheck next year!

- The Actual Trip:

Now, I said earlier I have flown a lot. I used to be an American airlines Platinum Member with an average of 150,000 miles at any given moment for a few years. I have flown as far as Korea, Japan and Australia. All that being said, I am no longer a good flier. Since Casey was born in 2000, I do not do well on plane flights. I went through a particularly bad spell in 2003-2004. I am much better now, but still not a good flier. So, at the 11th hour, having Jenn bail on our flight and leaving me to take the kids myself was not a happy moment for me!

Before I give the details, let me sum it up and say that a trip that usually take 8 hours (including airport and travel to/from time) took 17hours 35 minutes!

1. Leaving the house:

I was up at 5:20am and we left the house at 6:09am. I tried to check us in online, but I could not. My company paid for my ticket since part of our trip is a business trip. Jenn and the kids were on a seperate itinerary that I paid for on Expedia. Jenn dropped off of the itinerary with the kids and was now on her own. Since the kids had no adult on their itinerary, I could not check them in online. Other than that, leaving the house was uneventful.

2. Checking in

The line at United was long and VERY disorganized. Our flight was San Jose to Denver and then Denver to Boston. We were due in at 6:15pm Boston time. Now, I learned long ago to avoid changing planes in Denver like the plague (along with Houston). It could not be helped this time. My family had just taken the same flights to Boston (then on to Nantucket via Cape Air) at the beginning of June for Jenn’s sister’s (Jackie) wedding and we had no flight delays.

I finally managed to check in, but my seat was not with the boys. I was told that they could fix it at the gate.

3. Security

The best part of the trip… a breeze to check through security! I only mention it here because it is not normally the case!

4. Getting seats together

The gate agent was very nice, but ultimately he did not actually care if we sat together. If I hadn’t been such a pain in the ass, we would not have had seats together! Casey and Quinn were put in the United Economy Plus section in an isle and middle. I was given an Economy Plus middle “near” them. I kept on the agent until I finally convinced him to give me an Economy Plus window seat (it didn’t matter to me where). When we got on the plane I took the row with the kids. When the person came who had that window seat I told him that he could have my window seat a few rows back and I would sit with my kids. He was more than happy to take the switch, since he didn’t lose out on anything!I had already spoken to the flight attendants and they were on my side in case the person I needed to switch made a stink.

5. The FIRST delay

Sitting next to the boys was the easy part. Getting to Denver was the tricky bit! Our 7:40am flight was delayed. Apparently we had a broken altimeter! A slightly important piece of equipment! Now, it is part of a redundant system, meaning that there are two altimeters. However, we were still not allowed to take off without both working. Now, I have no problem at all with that decision. What I take issue with is that they did not have a spare in stock in San Jose! They had to drive one down from San Francisco!

So, we did not finally take off until 10:30am!

6. Re-booking my connection

Of course the delay meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Denver. So, I got us confirmed on a 6:30pm flight from Denver to Boston, but if we were lucky I could get us on via standby for an earlier flight.

7. Anyone for a visit to Colorado Springs?

I have never been overly impressed with United Airlines, but I do like that they let you listen to the pilot talk to Air Traffic Control on one of the audio channels. About 30 minutes outside of Denver ATC was telling our pilot that Denver International was closed due to high wind shear. They told him that he needed to circle Denver for a while (the next update was due in 30 minutes) and he responded, “Ah, we’re pretty low on fuel, we’re not going to be able to do that. Requesting a diversion to Colorado Springs.” That is not a conversation you would like to hear! The entire time we headed for Colorado Springs, I kept looking out the window thinking, “there is a long empty looking road.. We could land there…”

Colorado Springs did not have the facilities to handle a plane our size, but they did roll out some stairs for those who wanted to get off. They said, “You can get off, but if you do yo are on your own. We also have no way of getting your luggage, so it will end up at your final destination.” I was VERY tempted to get off of the plane and rent a car and take a road trip with the boys!

8. Finally made it to Denver!

A two hour flight turned into an 8+ hour ordeal! In Denver I tried to get on an earlier flight, but it couldn’t happen. So, although we were confirmed on the 6:30pm, we were not sitting together. I had to go through two gate agent shifts before they finally sat us all together. The airlines just do not care about people any more.

9. The flight to Boston

Well, 6:30pm came and went, but our plane stayed put on the tarmac. In fact, we hadn’t even boarded! Yes, our flight from Denver to Boston was delayed! The fourth member fo the flight crew was late and we could not fly without the fourth member of the crew. So as we waited, we watched a severe looking storm front move towards the airport! The gate crew said a front like that would close down the airport.

Luckily, we got off the ground 20 minutes before the Denver airport was clsed due to a major storm front!

10. Finally in Boston!

Well, the flight from Denver to Boston was mostly uneventful. We had to fly around storms and there were bumps “Light to Medium Chop” as the pilot would say. We actually landed a bit past 1:30am.

At the end of this ordeal, I was ready for our luggage to be lost. Amazingly, it was there!

11. One last glitch…

Ah, the karma of the trip had one last jab to give… My parents were late picking us up. How could this be at almst 2am? The normal roads and exits to the airport were closed! As you may have suspected, it also took us longer to get home than normal! Ugh!!!

12. Made It!!!!!

Well, we finally made it to my parent’s house. It was after 2am. Casey and Quinn were AWESOME the entire time!

Jenn flew in on the following Sunday. Oh yes, she was delayed twice as well. That is a story for another time.

Phew, it probably took you as long to read all of that as it took us to get to Boston!

Bill

So let me sum up July-December 2007…

Waves-to-Wine Bike Ride

Amazingly, I made it! 155 miles in two days with about 10,000 feet of climbing! I had a big plan to blog my training experience as well as the race weekend. Oh well… Here are my scattered thoughts and tales regarding my training and the 155 mile ride…

• My first bike (a hybrid not a light road bike) almost killed me!
• It has been 4 months since the ride and my ass still hurts!
• On my first training ride with the team, my bike chain snapped 4 miles into a 40 mile ride! Luckily I was 6 blocks away from a bike repair shop!
• On four of the first five training rides, I got lost! The worst part of that is that I rode an extra 5-8 miles each time (after 40-50 miles, that makes a big deal)!
• I LOVE the camel pack (water in a backpack)! Combine that with my iPod and I cold ride all day!
• A real road bike with all the accouterments makes ALL the difference in the world!

Some tidbits from the ride weekend…

• We started at around 7:30am from PacBell Park (alright, it is really AT&T Park now, but I can’t cal it that).
• The first 30 miles had the most climbing, but I was fresh and powered through it.
• I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before the race (we had a pack meeting and couldn’t sleep because I was still wired and had to get up at 4am). Around mile 34 it began to hit me.
• It was a great party, going from rest stop to rest stop every 15-2o miles until… MILE 56!
• FYI there was a woman that rode the ENTIRE 155 miles on a unicycle!

At the rest stop at mile 56, I really didn’t think I was going to make it. I was out of gas. Completely out of gas. I still had 24 miles to go! I sat at the rest stop at mile 56 for 45 minutes. I drank my fortified water, ate oranges and GU (basically sugar with electrolytes and such) and peanut butter on bread. Then, suddenly, I got a second wind! I jumped on my bike and plowed through the rest of the first day!

• The end of the first day was a rush. I had a tent set up for me by some volunteers form Bank of America. They were awesome!
• I ate a good dinner, drank 5 pints of Blue Paddle (the Pislener from the makers of Fat Tire, New Belgium Brewery) and racked out about 8:30pm

The second day was a lot better. It was freaking freezing in the morning. By the afternoon it was warm. Ah, California! The second day was not a bad ride. I was with a friend that was slower than me (if you can believe it). I stayed with him most of the day. That coupled with the fact that there was not too much of a climb made it a fairly “easy” 80 miles.

• It was not until bout 45 miles into the second day that we finally saw grape vines (Waves-to-WINE, remember).
• Over the HUNDREDS of miles I rode when I trained, I got ONE flat tire and that was because I was careless and hit a curb.
• Between mile 55 and 66 on the second day, I blew my tire THREE times (and I only had two spares).
• I was on the side of the road all alone until a few people rode by and gave me spare tires and tire patch kits!
• My buddies came back and I rode my ass off the last 15 or so miles and finished strong! Although, I had been going so slow most of the day riding my another friend of mine, I missed most of the end party!

Jenn, Casey and Quinn were at the end waiting for me! The guy that talked me into it all (John Connolly, an AWESOME guy) stayed with me most of the day. He was an inspiration to me the entire time we trained. Thanks John!

It was a LONG hard ride, but it was worth it. Not only to me personally, but I also raised money for a very worthy cause. Finding a cure for MS is no joke. If I can be part of that it was all worth it.

Finally, thank you to all of my AWESOME donors. Without you, I could not have done it!

Bill Got an iPhone!

Yes, I got an iPhone!!! It could be the greatest piece of personal technology EVER! One of these days I will create a blog post just about the iPhone. I setup a special website that I can send pictures to directly from my iPhone. Check out the link on the left side of this page!

Jenn Goes Back to Work!

Jenn started teaching again. She was hired less than a week before school started!! She is teaching 4th grade at the school Casey and Quinn attend. It has been an adjustment for all of us, but I think we are finally starting to settle into a routine. More importantly, Jenn is finally feeling like she is getting a handle on 4th grade.

Quinn Starts Kindergarten and Casey Starts 2nd Grade

It was a big school year for us. Quinn started kindergarten. It was an emotional day for me. Seeing my little guys growing up. Jenn had to get her own class started, so I took the fellas to their classes. I put pictures in the gallery, if you haven’t seen them yet. They are some really cute ones!

The Holidays Were A Whirlwind…

Halloween came and before I knew it, we were watching the ball drop in Times Square! What the heck happened with the time?

• We had a great Pumpkin Palooza 2007! I took al lot of Halloween pictures with my iPhone. You can see them in my iPhone link.
• Thanksgiving was a good time. Jenn’s parents came up from Palm Desert. We watched football, ate Turkey and played games!
• Christmas was a great time! Jackie and Jonah came out, Jenn’s parents came up and we had a really good time! The only bummer was that Matt and Sanne couldn’t make it out.
• New Years was spent in Massachusetts with my family. It was so awesome to see everyone!

Other Tidbits

Of course there was way more that happened than I have written about. I am having a great time as Cubmaster of Pack 374. I am coaching Quinn’s basketball team and baseball starts in a few weeks, I’ll be coaching Casey’s team.

Well, that is a quick summary of events since July.

Bill

Visit my Waves to Wine Website to see more!

I joined a 12 week training program, but I have missed the first three weeks! I have done a few rides on my own, but I feel very behind. I’ll try to keep things updates to let you all know how I am doing.

I went on a short ride today (about an hour and a half). I haven’t measured the distance of the ride yet, but

I will this week. It had some small hills. It was a hard ride. The rest of my team is riding for 3-4 hours. I am not worried about my conditioning yet, but if I can’t catch up in a week or two, I will start getting concerned.

Cub Scouts

Casey has been involved in Cub Scouts for almost a year now. He really enjoys it. I was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout when I was young. My brother Tom and I both attained the Eagle Scout rank. In fact, I was very involved with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) program for many years as an Assistant Scoutmaster in my troop and on camp staff. So I was VERY happy when Casey showed interest in scouting.

I joined the Cub Scout Pack with Casey last summer. The big leader in a Cub Scout Pack is the Cubmaster. As of last month, I took over as Cubmaster for our pack. It is a lot of responsibility, but I really enjoy doing it!

Sports: Basketball to Baseball

January and February both Casey and Quinn played basketball. I coached both teams. It was a lot of fun and I had great co-coaches and parents on the teams. The people who ran the league were also excellent! I look forward to coaching basketball again next year.

As for baseball, we are now in full swing. I am coaching Quinn’s T-Ball team through the YMCA and Casey’s baseball team in our local Little League affiliate. On top of Cub Scouts, it is a lot of time and effort. Some days I barely have time to eat dinner! It is worth it though. I enjoy working with the kids and being with Casey and Quinn as much as I can. Again, I have excellent parent help and assistant coaches or I would not be able to do it.

Quinn likes T-Ball, but I think he likes basketball more. Casey loves all of the sports he has played, but baseball seems to be his favorite. Well, that is, his favorite next to golf! As much sports knowledge as I can bring my boys, golf is not a sport I can help them with. That one we will have to leave up to Jenn and her side of the family.

New Video Technology

I am playing with new video technology. Windows Media sucks and I’ll only use an .avi if absolutely necessary. For most video I use QuickTime and .mov files. When I post videos on the web, I also use QT. That has worked very well for me, but it does require you to have QT installed. With the spread of the iPod and iTunes in the Windows world, that is not to much to ask. Still, I am always on the lookout for new technology.

I have been playing with converting my videos into .flv the Flash Video format. You can embed these videos quite easily and 99% of web browses have flash installed (especially now that everyone is going YouTube crazy). I have not made any new videos for a while (no time and my seven year old Macintosh is showing its age). I did convert a movie I made of the kids in 2005 just to see how well it works. My movie is not the highest quality video, but that is not a reflection on the FLV format, but on the source quality of the web video that I used. I embedded it right into this post. Let me know what you think.

I have a lot more to post, but I think I better publish this and add more soon. Tom, Colleen and Christian were in Cali visiting us at Easter and I have great pictures and some video clips of their visit. Until then, enjoy!

Bill

Bill

New Turkey Recipe

I tried a new turkey recipe this year. I brined the bird. For those of you who do not know what that means, I soaked the turkey in a salt water solution for about 8 hours. The brine I used was more than just salt water, it was made up of vegetable stock, brown sugar, all spice berries, candied ginger, peppercorns, and plenty of salt (kosher salt to be precise). After you brine the turkey, there is no need to baste the bird, because the juices are locked into the meat.

The funny part of brining the turkey is that you need a non-reactive container large enough to hold the brine and the turkey. We had a 19 pound turkey this year, not the largest one we have cooked (we had a 28 lb. turkey more than once), but it is still a large bird. A five gallon bucket from the Home Depot worked very well!

I thought that the turkey came out very nicely. I wasn’t blown away by the results, but I also made two grave errors. One, I did not realize that I used low sodium vegetable stock, so my brine was not as salty as it should have been and two, I left the turkey in a bit too long. It was not overcooked, but I think I should have taken it out about 20 min earlier. I will try the brining again for Christmas and then make a final decision on whether this will stay part of our tradition.

As for everyone else’s review… they all thought the turkey was good. No one was blown away by the results, but people did say they thought it was juicer than our previous turkeys.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving was not as hectic as previous years. We have traditionally spent part of the day making a Christmas themed craft. That worked out well when Jenn’s parents were in charge of dinner, but since the holiday moved to our house, it has been difficult to do! We won’t skip our Christmas crafts, we’ll just do them closer to Christmas.

We watched some football, but the hit of the day was playing hangman with Casey and Quinn. The kids have an art easel/chalkboard/whiteboard that we brought into the living room. We used the whiteboard side and played hangman as a family. It was a lot of fun and even Casey and Quinn were able to play!

While we were at at the dinner table I asked Quinn what he was thankful for. He replied, “I am thankful for all of my family and being together.” Even with family members scattered across the country, it was a good way to sum up the day!

Thanksgiving Weekend

The Friday after Thanksgiving was a very mellow day. We relaxed around the house. I have been working crazy at work lately and Jenn has been doing the same. It was good just to have a break for a day. Than night, Jenn’s parents watched the kids and we went to a movie.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was a major “let’s eat leftovers” day! Mimi & gramps and Matt & Sanne came back over later in the day to watch the USC vs. Notre Dame football game. We also preformed the traditional ritual of cooking up plenty of bacon to make turkey sandwiches! Three pounds of bacon to be exact!

The other tradition that we have is to decorate the Bates Compound for Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. We no longer get a real tree. They are beautiful, but a real pain in the butt to keep up (and clean up after). We found a fake tree a few years ago that looks really good. We only got about 50% of our decorations up, but the tree is done, which is a big project.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was another semi-rest day. As Quinn and Casey like to say, Sunday is football day! It was a big game this year, Patriots vs. Bears. Wow, the game was sloppy, but the Pats pulled it out! Some say it is a SuperBowl preview, but I don’t think so. No offense to the many Bears fans in my family, but I do not think they will make it past the NFC Championship game (and I have a feeling that they could go out first round). I think the Pats have a shot, but more realistically, it is a Colts year.

Wrap-Up

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and we managed to have a great time. I did not add any pictures to our online gallery with this post. Honestly, I was so busy all weekend, I only took a couple of pictures.

All of the pictures that correspond to the events in this post have been put in the BatesFamily Gallery: Halloween 2006

Dad’s Birthday Week

Both my mom and Dad had birthdays in October. My dad held to a long standing tradition and had dinner at The Maui in splendid Brockton, Massachusetts. The Maui should be your first stop for fine Chinese and Polynesian dining! Well, at any rate the teriyaki strips and scorpion bowls are pretty good!

Dad has been going there for easily the last 20 years on his birthday. I wish that I could have been there. I love you dad!

Mom’s Birthday Week

My mom had a big birthday milestone this year and it would be ungentlemanly for me to reveal any more than that!

My dad orchestrated a huge surprise this year; he flew me out for the weekend. Dad tried to get Jenn and the kids out as well, but the expense of the short trip and schedules didn’t work out.

It was a huge surprise just to have me there and dad capped it off with a surprise dinner with a small group of family. Mom and I went out one morning for a mother-son breakfast. Mom and I have not been able to spend time like that in a long time. It was a great time. I love you mom!

While I was there I also got so spend some quality time with my brother and his family, especially my Godson Christian! Boy is he getting big!!!!

Pumpkin Palooza 2006

Pumpkin Palooza 2006 was a multi-weekend event this year. While I was in Massachusetts with Bates East, the rest of the Bates West was making Halloween crafts back in California. Jenn’s sister, Jackie, was out for the week from Washington DC for business, but was able to find a good amount of time for family. Jackie and the gang had Pumpkin Palooza Part I and made a great assortment of crafts.

I had our digital camera in Mass, so I am not sure if anyone took pictures of the first part of Pumpkin Palooza 2006. I will post pictures to our gallery if I dig any up.

Pumpkin Palooza Part II was a low key event this year. Last Halloween we had spooky punch, beer tasting, scary snacks, and more. This year we had spooky punch and only carved pumpkins while Jenn’s dad cooked pumpkin seeds. Even more subdued, it was still a good time. Since there was not a lot going on, I didn’t get a lot of pictures this year, but I posted the best in the gallery. Including a shot of all of our Jack-O-Lanterns.

Fall Festival 2006

The biggest event at Casey’s school is the yearly Fall Festival. It runs from 5pm until 9pm and there are games, food, contests and more for kids and their families to take part in. It is and event that is meant to build relationships throughout the school community between families, staff and administration. It is a great time and a MASSIVE event.

Guess who was in charge of the event this year? Jenn. Yes, Jenn was the co-chair of the Fall Festival with a friend of hers, Faith. Jenn and Faith did an incredible job we all had a wonderful time!

I didn’t get a lot of pictures from the Fall Festival, but I did get a bunch of video clips of the kids. I haven’t posted the videos in the gallery yet, but the pictures are there.

October Cub Scout Pack Meeting

We had to leave the Fall Festival a little early because Casey had a Pack Meeting the same night! So, we dropped Quinn of with Gramps (Jenn’s dad) and Casey and I ran over to the meeting. I am the Activities Committee Chair for the Pack, so I had a few responsibilities of my own.

Since I was so tied up with my duties at the Pack Meeting, I only got a couple of pictures. They are in the Gallery.

Halloween

Well, Halloween finally came! Casey was Darth Vader and Quinn was Obi-wan Kenobi. To Quote Quinn, “Not the old one, the new young Obi-wan.” Apologies Sir Alec Guinness. Anyway, Halloween was a good night, except for one thing. Quinn was sick! He had been throwing up that morning, poor guy. He still went trick-or-treating. I pushed him house to house in a stroller. He still had fun, he just couldn’t have any candy Halloween night. He felt crummy enough that no having candy did not bother him at all.

Our house looked pretty good. We had cobwebs and spiders all over the front porch. The jack-o-lanterns were out, we had a dancing pumpkin guy my mom got us a few years ago among other decorations. Aunt Sanne took some two by fours, kids pants, kids shoes, big styrofoam balls and some white sheets and made what looked like a little kid wearing a ghost costume. Sanne made three of these “ghost kids” and we put them out front. They looked like three kids standing there wearing costumes. At night, it was quite disturbing to see these three kids just standing in front of the house. They were AWESOME!

To cap it all off, I had a smoke machine and spooky music hidden in the bushes. The effect was great! We had a pretty spooky front yard! It was hilarious to see kids and grown-ups carefully walk past the “three ghost kids” waiting for one to jump out at them in the fog!

In fact, people kept taking pictures of our house all night! I didn’t intend for it, but we ended up having “the picture house”! I posted some pictures of the house in the Gallery. The pictures do not do it justice. I also took some video that I will post.
Uncle Matt and Aunt Sanne came out with us and the kids Halloween night. While we were out trick-or-treating, Uncle Matt snuck a jedi lightsaber out with him. While Casey was walking back from one of the houses, Uncle Matt attacked Darth Vader! It was pretty funny to watch and Casey was happily surprised! I posted a couple of pictures of the lightsaber battle in the Gallery.

Wrap-up

Well, as you can see October was a pretty full month for us. Add on soccer, work, school, den meetings, working around the house and all of the other daily life tasks and I am not sure how we got it all done! I am especially impressed with Jenn and her handling of the Fall Festival. She was awesome!

I hope you all had a great October as well. As I said, I posted pictures to the gallery (main link at the top of this post). Here is a direct link to the Halloween Albumn. I’ll post the video clips soon.

Enjoy!

Bill

Quinn’s session was first and he had an awesome time! It was a lot of fun to see him running around and trying to use the inside of his foot to kick the ball and not his toe. His teacher was amazing! She was able to control twenty 3 and 4 year olds with ease!!!

Casey’s session was next and he also had a great time! Casey was able to convince two friends from school, Cole and Cash, to joint the clinic with him. Casey luckily got the same teacher that Quinn had.

It was a great morning of soccer and the apprehension that both Quinn and Casey had faded away quickly. In fact, Quinn, Casey Cole and Cash stayed after practice and played soccer for another hour!!! After that we bought the kids shin guards and soccer socks. The next day (Sunday), Casey wore the shin guards and socks around all day!!!!

I posted pictures and some video clips in the gallery: Album: First Soccer Practice

Enjoy!

Bill

I was planning on customizing the gallery site to look and feel more like our main site, but I just can’t seem to find the time. Regardless, it will now be a lot easier and less time consuming for me to post new pictures online. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I still won’t be great about posting pictures immediately ;-), but I will be much better!

Features of the new gallery:

• Better organization into albums
• Movie clips (okay, the old gallery had them too, but they are much cooler now!)
• Pictures and albums are searchable
• There is an RSS feed (for the real web geeky types)
• Has a way cool random picture and most viewed picture
• You can upload directly to PhotoWorks and Shutterfly (the quality I use on the web is good for 4×6 and 5×7)
• More features will be added as I play with it

I still need to improve the look and feel a bit. I think navigating around the gallery pages could be more intuitive. For now, I thought it was good enough to go live with the site and improve it as I go.
To get to the new gallery site you can use the link in the “Pages” section of the website or use this BatesCentral Gallery link.

Enjoy!

Bill

Our Bates Family pictures have moved!

You should be automagically redirected to our new gallery pages. If the redirect does not work, please click the BatesCentral Gallery link.