Blog
Tuesday, August 7, 2008
Quick update to say we had a great time in China! See photos from our trip here. It took a full week adjusting to the time change on the way home. Alex is in San Antonio TX and comes home Friday and starts school Monday. Alex called today and said he just shook David Robinson's hand.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Wow, it's HOT once again in Phoenix! 109 yesterday... Alex and I went swimming last night, for the first time this season. The pool temperature had been hovering around 80 for a few weeks, but warmed up to 85 over the last 2 days.
Alex turned 16 on March 16th! He had a party at our house. David, from Texas, came to visit for spring break so he was able to attend the party and meet Alex's other friends. I took the kids skiing in Flagstaff for a day. Alex, David & Niam hiked up Daisy Mountain to watch the sunset. David brought his iPhone, so it was the first time I was able to get my hands on the real thing. Pretty intuitive... I didn't have to read the manual... some day.
Anne, Tim, Hannah & Griffen came to visit. Hannah & Anne came into town a few days early and stayed at our house. Alex & I got to play Griffen & Tim in a few games of tennis. We also went to watch UCLA's 76-57 win over Xavier. UCLA moved on to the Final Four in San Antonio. Tim found some great seats... about half way through the game Maria & I joined them (by sneaking past the ticket attendants).
Grandma Jane and Emma came to visit over Emma's Spring Break. We went to see Alex play tennis, but arrived late and saw the last 2 minutes... just as they lost the match. The highlight of the trip was Aunt Maria taking Emma for a horseback ride in the desert.
We also had visits this spring from our friend Lauren and my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Carol.
Unfortunately I had another hard drive crash again... this time it was fatal... no chance of reviving the drive and I lost all my photos since February! Can you say "BACK UP"? Duh! Let's hope I have learned my lesson.
Alex ended up playing the last five tennis matches on the varsity team in the 6th position. The men's team ended up first in the regional’s and fourth in the state. Alex received his Varsity Letter at a recognition dinner that Maria & I attended last week. Good Job Alex!
Alex is now off Accutane and his acne is better. His red, dry skin is finally healing! The treatment definitely had an impact on his tennis, as he tired quickly. It seemed to affect his memory and vision some. I am very relieved that he is off of this stuff!
Alex and I went out and completed a 2.5 mile run just 2 days ago. We finished with a 8:10 pace. Alex was not able to make it more than 1/2 mile while on the medication. All is looking good!
Maria has 5 more days until the end of the semester. We are all looking forward to her dropping down to 1 class a semester for the future!
I bought my first American car in 20 years... a gas guzzling Jeep Wrangler! It's a lot of fun. I have had the windows off of it since the day I bought it. Well there was actually a problem with the zipper on the back window and I had to take it back the next day and they sewed on a new zipper! This past Saturday Maria & I were on our way to COSTCO when Maria decided to turn on the A/C for the first time. What do you know? The A/C doesn't work! Good thing it's a dry heat! :-) I better call today and get it fixed!
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Well, Yesterday went well. Maria & I went shopping to Fashion Square Mall and Maria got some new work clothes. We both made it to see Alex's tennis game. The other team only had six members show up, so the JV team didn't get to play... but Alex got to play 6th man on the Varsity team. Alex won 6-0 & 6-0.
Maria left this morning to the airport to fly out of town for work. She had a car accident in the parking garage, where the air bags deployed. She was talking on the cell phone. She ended up on a later flight out. Her neck was a bit sore, hopefully she feels better by this weekend.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Happy Birthday Maria!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The weather here in phoenix has been perfect lately... high 75 to 80 degrees. Perfect running weather... and I've been running daily now for about 8 weeks. It feels good!
I've decided I like October, March and April the best for outdoor activity in Phoenix. The high temp seems to be between 80 and 90. I put the cover on the pool a few days ago and the water temperature is up to 69 today... I'm guessing it will be 80 and the kids will be swimming by Maria's Birthday on Tuesday. Not a bad season I guess... last I went swimming was November 1st and the water was still 74, but two weeks later and it dropped to 65. Alex and his friends would still jump from the hot tub to the cold pool, then swim quickly to exit the pool and back to the hot tub. By Thanksgiving the Pool was down below 60 degrees, and by December 15th the leaves fell from our Ash tree. The leaves fell quickly and there was only a one week period where I had to empty the pool skimmers out each day. I guess that's why many people have cacti in place of trees. The leaves came back on the tree about mid-February and it's starting to look like summer! I'm looking forward to the warmer weather and getting the boat out.
Last Fall, we bought a portable fire-pit that the kids have been roasting marshmallows over. It has been too cold to sit out there the last few months, but the nights are starting to warm up enough to do it again.
Friday, February 29, 2008
So if a leap year or leap day (as in today) has been around since 45 BC, why does my watch read March 1st? Don't you think Timex would have figured this out by now??? I have to say it's only a $20 watch, but I thought my watches in the past adjusted themselves appropriately. Guess I'll have to change the date just twice every four years... That's once for the leap year and once when I replace the battery. Let me know if your watch automatically adjusts!
So, It's been a while once again. I need to update this more often, so I can remember more details of events. I enjoy reading this every couple of months to remember what I have done recently. Can't imagine what my memory will be like when I'm 60.
Turns out Maria's dad is fine. The bone test turned up negative for cancer. He is in Florida and enjoying the warm weather.
Speaking of Florida, we went to Palm Beach Gardens to visit my mom, dad, Brad & Emma for the winter holiday break. We had a good time. Alex got a new electric R/C car for Christmas. Very fast!
We drove down to Key West and stayed at the old Hilton, now the Westin, down by Mallery Square. We got a great deal thanks to Diane Schmidt, Maria's old boss at the Casa Marina (Now GM of all the Starwood properties in KW). It was definitely great to be back in Key West after 8 years. It's nice to know what there is to do and how to get around. We took Alex on the Conch Tour Train so he would learn some things about the city where he was born. Thanks Kevin for the free tickets! We ate dinner at Margaritaville Cafe and Kyushu Japanese Restaurant. For lunch, we had Cuban Mix sandwiches "All The Way" at Sandy's Cafe and Paradise Cafe. For breakfast we ate at Croissants De France, the restaurant one morning and take-out pastries the next...Yum! We watched a sunset on a partly cloudy evening and I participated in the activities with the street performers. Maria & I made it to a bunch of bars looking for good entertainment, but couldn't find any... not even at Hogs Breath. Rick’s upstairs was still closed from hurricane damage, but we made it up there for 5 minutes to lookout over Duval St and Sloppy Joes Bar. We also made it to the top of the La Concha for a night time view of the city, as well as the next day with Alex. The Casa Marina was just opening again after 2 years from hurricane damage and we heard the Reach was permanently closed. We didn't particularly like the renovations at the Casa. We looked for "big fish" in the water at the pier house, but the lights were out, maybe because they were doing some renovations above the restaurant. We did have some conch chowder there, but it was bad! Major gastrointestinal discomfort… Yuck! We went to the Red Barn Theatre to see if we could see a play, but we missed the show by a day. We walked up and down Duval 10+ times and managed to stop for some Sorbet at Flamingo Crossing. Although they don't have as nice as stores on Duval Street as they used to 25 years ago, we picked up some nice placemats at Fast Buck Freddies. We drove by Jimmy Buffets old house and our old rental house on Riviera canal. We showed Alex the condos at 1800 Atlantic and Key West by the Sea, as well as his first house in Sugarloaf. We drove by lots of homes with Christmas lights... somewhere around 10th street... but they didn't seem quite as big and bright as they used to. Overall, a lot was the same and yet a lot has changed. Hard to believe they can still keep building so much on such a small island. Oh and the old county offices where I worked were demolished...gone...nothing but grass! Noticed the Conchs got a new high school, Benihana closed, and the old Key Wester was replaced with a time-share.
Back in Palm Beach Gardens, we went out with Brad & Emma to Palm Beach Sailing Club to play some poker for charity. We also went to the dog tracks and I lost all my bets.
Alex's jaw has improved some, his acne keeps getting better, slowly. Three more months of accutane. Alex was practicing tennis with me a lot, when he developed an ingrown toe nail on both large toes. After more antibiotics and just a week before tennis tryouts he had to go to the podiatrist to get both nails cut back. One toe is still infected weeks later.
Alex started back on the tennis team and won his first match, then lost his second. The next week Alex was home sick with Strep Throat and on MORE antibiotics! It has been two weeks and Alex is feeling better and won another tennis match this week. He now plays first on the JV team.
Alex has been hanging out with some new kids. He has a girlfriend now... or at least he brought some girl a card and flowers to school on Valentines Day. Alex passed the classroom portion of his drivers ed class and has completed 1 of 4 of the driving portions! He drove all the way to Scottsdale the first session and will be driving on the express-ways this weekend. Alex's friend David from San Antonio is scheduled to visit us over his spring break (Alex's too). We plan on celebrating Alex's 16th birthday with David and maybe some other friends and going to Dave & Busters. I plan on taking the kids skiing that week, as they have had over EIGHT FEET of snow this season in Flagstaff and should still be open.
We've made reservations to go to China this summer with our friends from Maryland. I'm looking forward to that!
I've been following the presidential campaigns this year more than ever before. Maybe it's because we have a Tivo-like device and I watch much more news. BTW I definitely recommend a DVR so you don't have to watch the stupid commercials. I didn't realize how much I appreciate it until I went to Florida and had to watch commercials. No wonder I didn't watch TV at all for 15 years. Anyway I watch the news everyday now and Alex watches Nash Bridges, Happy Days, The Apprentice, How It's Made & MythBusters. Great for catching the SPURS games and skipping through the commercials, while finally catching up to the live game towards the end. Just seems more efficient to me.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
I was in charge of sending out the Christmas cards this year, so that was the end to the nice letter that Maria did each year. Since more people are reading this, I figured I better make an update.
Maria's dad visited us at Thanksgiving. We had a great visit. Maria got tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, starring the world-famous Rockettes who are most famous for their eye-high kicks and precision dancing. We all enjoyed the show. Maria's dad had broken his arm before he came, and they discovered a brown spot on the x-ray. It could be cancer or osteoporosis. He has had a CT scan and blood test that turned up negative for cancer. They are drilling into his arm today to get a bone sample for a final test. He definitely seemed older to me this last visit, but then he is 83.
Alex has one more day of exams left, before the holiday break. He's got all A's going into the exams so hopefully he can keep up the effort. Alex has been struggling with severely painful acne the last 6 months and we have tried everything from over the counter remedies to vitamins & herbs to two types of antibiotics to Levulan Photodynamic Therapy. Nothing worked and we have resorted to Accutane. After 6 weeks we haven't noticed any side effects other than the severe drying of his skin. We haven't seen great results yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Alex remains upbeat and at least the pain has gone away. Alex has also had problems with his jaw popping since about 1 year into wearing braces. At one point it sounded like a popsicle stick snapping and could be heard 30 feet away. The orthodontist insists it doesn't have anything to do with his work, and is beyond his knowledge of expertise. Alex recently got his wisdom teeth extracted, and the popping has subsided from every time he chewed to only when he opens his mouth completely. Hopefully it will continue to improve. From this experience, I would not recommend orthodontic procedures for minor work, like Alex needed. And I definitely would not recommend his orthodontist to anyone. On a lighter note, Alex had a band concert last week that can be viewed here. In January, Alex is scheduled to start drivers' training and tennis camp.
Maria just finished the first semester of her MBA. She is currently enrolled in the CSU Distance MBA program. She expects she'll receive 2 A’s and 1 A-, but official grades won’t be out for a few weeks. Maria is doing well and continues to enjoy her work on the Marriott regional team. Not sure if it’s because she tries to do so much, but she doesn’t sleep very well these days. She’s been looking forward to 4 weeks off of school.
I have continued to work all year with the adobe web development products, and have spent a great deal of time struggling to learn their actionscript 3 language. Object oriented programming is so much different than what I learned with. I got a tip from my friend Kevin that I could use Google Mail with my own domain Himebaugh.com. This has helped tremendously with dealing with spam, and is completely free. I have recently done some work with Historical Tours of America, based out of Key West, and another company from Tucson. They were previously working with Chuck, the graphic artist turned computer guru who recently died at age 50. Chuck did a lot of work for our old company, Global Audience Providers.
This past year we started up again with a tae kwon do school near by, but I dropped out after 3 months due to back problems, and Maria & Alex quit when Maria went back to school. My back is much better now, and I just run occasionally.
Alex & I went skiing in Flagstaff this past weekend. Ski conditions were good. It was 38 degrees with perfect snow. But I had a headache and my stomach was queasy, I think from the altitude. It is 12,500 feet and Phoenix is only 2,000 feet. I didn't really enjoy it… sad to say. Alex had as much fun as possible, hanging out with grumpy old me.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Well, it’s been quit a summer.... lots of traveling. We went to Michigan 1 week to visit with Maria's family and then a second week to visit with my family on Coldwater Lake. Alex stayed for the whole time and worked on his wakeboarding. Two weeks later we went on our first cruise. We enjoyed the cruise experience, seeing our friends, seeing Alaska and getting away from the Phoenix heat. I'm not sure I would take a cruise again, since it is an expensive way to travel (compared to frequent flier tickets and Marriott employee rates). Once we returned, we made some last minute plans to visit San Antonio and tag along with Maria while she had to work. We stopped in and saw David's new house in the Dominion and went out with Linda & Bob.
Hard to believe it all over and Alex has been back to school for 4 weeks! Alex's freshman year GPA was 4.43 (it doesn't even seem like a real GPA because those honors classes really skew it) He's enrolled in 4 honors classes this year. It really helps to keep out the kids who disrupt the classes constantly. He is taking band again this year, but chose not to march. So far all is going well with school. He currently plays "World of Warcraft" with David... a bit too frequently. Alex can take a test in 30 days that will allow him to start taking drivers’ training. I'm hoping this will take some time away from the gaming!
Maria started her MBA program about 2 weeks ago. This added about 20 hours/week to her schedule. I hope she can keep it up. I've been cooking and we have someone to help clean.
I posted some new photos today of our summer trips.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Less than one week of school left... Alex is staying focused on school and final exams, but he is looking forward to summer. We've booked an Alaskan Cruise for later in the summer. We're all excited, as we have never been on a cruise before!
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Maria and I attended Alex's band concert last night. They sounded ok. :-)
Friday, May 4, 2007
Alex and I went to the tennis banquet last night. Alex received a certificate for participation in JV Tennis. We found out the men's varsity team placed 6th at state and the women's varsity team placed second at state. 4 members of the team are leaving/graduating, so Alex has a good shot at varsity, next year.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
We had a great time in Florida. The weather was mid 70's with some rain. The humidity helped to heal my dry, cracked skin. I think I was looking five years younger, but I'm drying out again! Alex went to a St Louis Cardinals spring training game with Grandpa Larry, while I stayed home to get Emma's Ipod setup and do some computer maintenance. We went to the Palm Beach Boat show, Boogie Boarding with Uncle Brad, and out to eat a few times. Alex enjoyed fresh squeezed oj, cinnamon rolls & chocolate chip cookies, and a ride in the MGB. We celebrated Alex's birthday a day late and eventually found the tennis racquet he was looking for. (Now his coach says he needs a second one just like it incase the strings break.) Maria stayed for the first half of the trip and managed to get some shopping done before flying Jet Blue to California to a meeting. I tried some of Jimmy Buffett's LandShark Lager. It seemed like a mix of Heineken and Corona. I think it's made by Budweiser... anyway one beer gave me a headache! Photos will be uploaded as soon as I get them from Grandma Jane's Camera.
Maria was awarded an annual companion ticket for SWA. I think I'll send thunder along on all her trips now! :)
Alex played in a JV tournament, this past Thursday, with a few other schools. He won 2 & lost 2 matches.
Maria & I were judges for the belt testing last night at AK Tae Kwon Do. Maria demonstrated the Koryo form. I'll get the video online soon.
Maria received her acceptance letter for the MBA program at Colorado State University, today. She starts online/distance classes this fall.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Happy Birthday to Alex! He is 15 today.
Had some more computer problems recently and spent all week reformatting hard drives and reinstalling software. Still not done. Problems with viruses or spyware maybe, or might just be that my 2 computers are 5 years old and windows got a bit bogged down by all the software I've installed and uninstalled over the years. Things just kept hanging up. Plus, I've been constantly fighting to free up disk space on the laptop. So like I've done for so many other people’s computers over the years, I've taken some time out to redo mine, and give Alex the laptop. It's amazing what a memory upgrade does for an old computer!
So we had a great time in San Francisco for Maria's B-Day. Non-Stop shopping! I even bought a shirt, and Alex got a few things... but Maria won. She was practicing for a 'What Not To Wear' shopping spree! :-) We got to visit with Michael Kahn and family, as well as eat some great food. Be sure to check out Citizen Thai, if you like that type of food - Outstanding! Also, it just happened to be the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations and we managed to catch the parade. I'll post video and photo updates soon.
Tuesday March 6th Maria & I made it to Alex's Tennis Match to watch him win 8-1. He played away on Friday March 9th but lost 6-8. I watched Alex win this Wednesday March 14th 8-6. His opponent put up a real fight the last game, as he tried to tie it up. The last 3 points, they hit it back and forth over 25 times! Alex was the only one on his team to beat his opponent from North Canyon. He played doubles with Max and they won easily as Alex's serve drastically improved over his singles games. Alex played for 2 1/2 hours straight with about a 2 minute break between the two matches. Oh... Alex has been demo-ing some racquets this week, which seems to improved his game. We'll be getting him a new racquet for his birthday (Grandma Jane is contributing too - it's expensive). We also got him the new Darren Shan book 'BEC'. He got hooked on the author when we visited London a few years back, and we've been buying books from Amazon.co.uk, as they come out 6 months earlier than in the US.
Off to South Florida, tomorrow for Alex's spring break.
Friday, March 2, 2007
My internet was down for 48 hours. I determined it was the cable modem, and after a trip to wal-mart, I'm back online. Alex had an away game on Tuesday. He won singles 8-0 and doubles (with Max) 8-1. Yesterday was a home game. The team won, but Alex won by default as his opponent no-showed. Alex played a 'practice game' with the 3rd place JV player from the other team. I watched as Alex took the lead 2-1, then strugle with the rest of his games. Each game was close, reaching deuce before Alex would lose. Frustration set in at one point and he lost a game 45-0. They ended the practice match early, on this windy day, with the score 2-6 at deuce in the middle of the 9th game. Alex will finally get to challenge a teammate at practice this afternoon. This evening we're off to San Francisco to catch up with Maria for some Birthday shopping.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Anyone a Joost Beta Tester with an Invite Token to spare? I'd like to get a preview.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Alex traveled to Scottsdale to play yesterday. His opponent no-showed, so he won by default. All the other team members lost their games. Alex and David played doubles and they lost 8-0.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Alex got back at 10:30PM after a long day of travel and fast food. He played 6th on JV again today and won his single match 8-0. He and Max won doubles 8-2.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Alex played 2nd on JV today. He beat his opponent 8 games to 1. The next match is Tuesday. They travel out of town... somewhere on the border of Mexico. Alex will miss the full day of school... he's happy.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The opposing tennis team no-showed yesterday. They had another match scheduled for today. Alex beat his opponent 8 games to 2 games. (They match players of the same rank on the opposing team and play first one to win 8 games, wins.) Alex is currently ranked 6th on JV. He feels he should be ranked higher and will challenge the number 5 on the team on Friday. Next match is on Thursday. Go Alex!
Friday, February 09, 2007
I sent this list to a friend today for advice to a teenager:
- Sleep 8-9 hours a night. No naps. That means no hand held video games at night in the bed room.
- Eat/Drink less sugary junk food.
- Exercise 1 hour/day, right after school to help focus.
- Quit playing the video games after school.
- Write out a list every day of home work that needs to get done and dates of upcoming tests.
- Do the homework first. Study extra. Have your mom or dad or friend quiz you, to prepare for tests.
- Only if you have spare time, watch TV or play video games for 30 minutes to 1 hour max.
- You have to have a desire to be successful. Look to the future. Set Goals. Have something to work towards. Develop good habits.
- Knowledge builds upon itself, so the harder you work now, the easier it becomes later on.
- Brush your teeth twice a day… especially with braces.
These are the things I focus on, or harass Alex about each day for many years. Alex still watches too much TV, but overall he is becoming much more independent.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Look for more photos & videos to be added over the next few days.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Alex made the JV Tennis team today! Now it's 2 days of competition to get his ranking. Go Alex!
Thursday, February 01, 2007
I've recently completed 3 training videos at www.trainsimpleonline.com (Introduction to Flash 8, ActionScript 2.0 for Flash 8, Introduction to Dreamweaver 8) After the ActionScript course, I was able to write the code for my Video Gallery page to emulate the New York Times website. Each course is about 8 hours long. $20/month gives you access to all their courses. Also consider lynda.com & vtc.com for online training.