Hey Sweetness, 

It has been wayyyy to long since the last post. I blame teaching an overload (for a colleague who was on medical leave), then intensives, for keeping me from being regular. Here’s the bare bones…..

I really enjoyed coaching your first sport team experience – basketball!  It was Kristina – Alex’s Mom’s idea. She’d done it last year and was asking for other coaches to share – so I volunteered. We had some practices to try to teach what it means to dribble, how to perform different passes, the BEEF of shooting (balance, eyes, elbow, follow through), and how to play defense, then we got to play games, usually every Tuesday and Friday. In terms of experience and ability, you were in the middle – you scored some baskets, played great defense, and played in every game. Alex was our one ringer – he scored nearly every point, and there were a few teammates who never really got the idea of defense or the fact that you have to dribble to advance the ball. All in all, everybody got better and enjoyed being on the Cougars. 

I grew as a coach as well. Early on, there was a lot of bickering about who got to take the entry pass out of bounds and dribble the ball down the court. To solve this problem, I brought a whiteboard and marker and wrote each person’s name down so that we took turns getting that experience and it was clear who was to get to touch the ball first. 

Africa recap – Man, we went to Africa last summer. Did I mention that?  Landed in Kenya, then Tanzania (Arusha, Serengeti, Ngororo Crater), then Uganda (visiting Miles and Theo, rafting on the Nile, Merchuson Falls National Park), and finally Zanzibar. What an opportunity to visit a continent I never thought I’d visit – and to have Mommy as our “host” as someone who used to live in Uganda, it was a once in a lifetime visit. Here are some shots. 

 

 

The latest 1 Second Everyday Video:

Here’s my combined September and October 2019 1 Second Everyday Video

What you’re doing these days:

Sleeping Queens – your favorite game of late. A colleague at work told me about this game….it is perfect for you. You try to “wake up” as many queens as you can to get to a certain number of points, all while keeping your opponents queens asleep and fighting them off with dragons and sleeping potions. When you win, you shout “Victory!” 

Lemony Snicket – you tore through these audiobooks during the summer and in Africa. They’re narrated by Tim Curry and are just corny and super entertaining. 

A recording

Here’s you treating us to a post-Halloween 2019 show. 

And here’s you reading to Gaga during her visit in February 2020

In my life these days:

I participated in leading a Men’s Conference at my school this year – trying to redefine the narrative for Men in our world. 

After getting back from Africa, I trained for two weeks and completed the Lake Stevens Triathlon in September, 2019. 

One of the Math teachers went on medical leave, so I had to switch my classes and take on two  new statistics courses mid-semester

In the news:

Seattle elections

Ukraine investigation and impeachment proceedings

A summary of a book or podcast I liked:

If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin