Sunday

Hello all,

Mom got on her way back to Iowa on time and now I'm looking at some home repairs on the house. Oh joy. I just can't wait to get to tackle this one.

-Andy

Good games

Hello all,

The games were great today. I could not be happier for my teams. Zac took a couple pretty good bumps in his game, but all in all, he did well. Ali really gets after the ball on defense. She is a real dynamo!

It was great having Larry and Patti-Anne and my mother up to watch the games today. The kids enjoyed having so many members of the family up to watch them hustle around the floor.

-Andy

It's Friday

Hello all,

I hope that both of my kids have better days today. Yesterday left Jennifer and I scratching our heads as we tried to figure out why both Ali and Zac had such poor attitudes. It is my sincere hope that our conversation last night at the dinner table will alter their behavior and get them back on course.

-Andy

Reset button

Hello all,

Have you ever had one of those nights when you wanted to have a reset button for your kids? Well, that was tonight. Both kids came home from school with bad attitudes. Ali didn't want to be picked up from Adventure Club at 5:00 and Zac had gotten in trouble at school for day-dreaming in class when he should have been working. I will PRAISE my wife for doing a brilliant job in communicating to our children that their behavior was unacceptable and they were acting much younger than their true age. After Jen had finished explaining all of the things that will be taken away from both of them if their behavior continues be foul, amazingly the behavior started to improve. I hope it continues.

-Andy

Back to Work

Hello all,

I was scheduled to be in the training class Communication and Listening today, but it was canceled due to lack of enrollment. I did not receive the email due to being out yesterday which would have saved me some time in walking to the Thayer building this morning. I enjoyed the walk. I wish it would not have been so cold, but it is January in Missouri.

This afternoon I started to work on a ticket for the Report Batch system for the DSS application. My knowledge is continuing to expand as I am exposed to more and more applications that my team supports. I have been at DST for almost two years and have learned about one system. Now I will be responsible four more. Wish me luck keeping them all straight!

-Andy

Home With Ali

Hello all,

I was home all day with Ali. Her fever subsided by noon today. For lunch I made pancakes and sausage. Her appetite was back for the most part. In the afternoon, I finished up the laundry and played some Wii to pass the time.

-Andy

Picked Up Ali From School

Hello all,

This afternoon Jennifer received a phone call from the Clardy Elementary nurse. Ali is running a fever of 101.6 and complaining about a soar throat. I took her to Gashland Clinic for a strep test which turned out negative. It seems that she has a bug and it should work its way out of her system in 24 / 48 hours.

-Andy

Batting Cage is Up!

Hello all,

The batting cage that Santa brought Zachary is now up in the basement. Now all I need to do is get some protective covers for the lights downstairs.

-Andy

Basketball Games

Hello all,

What a LONG DAY! I was up by 6:00 and at the gym by 7:40 for the Little Rattlers first game of the season. It chaos in motion. Everyone wanted the ball. I had teammates guarding each other instead of the other team. It was the keystone cops on a 1st grade level. In my teams defense, they were doing what they had practiced. They guarded the person they normally guard and the concept of guarding the other team is 'new'. All in all, it went as I thought. The person who got the rebound took the ball down the court and shot the ball. Then the other team came running the other way. I am looking forward to Wednesday to continue the process.

As for the Lady Gators, these girls like to shoot. They LOVE to shoot the ball. Not a lot of defense being played though and very little rebounding was practiced. The offense will be changed to be more intuitive. The defense does not guard the player, so ball screens do not create an advantage for the offense. I'm thinking we will do something of a swinging-gate where the ball will be lobbed over the top of the defense to a cutting player off of a back door. Dad, you would be happy with this play I think. It is just how you and Danna use to work on it in the back yard.

OK, for the record, Ali had 2 baskets, 2 blocks and 5 steals.
Zac never had the ball to shoot, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.

I was very tired by the end of the afternoon!

-Andy

Friday Morning

Hello all,

When will Kansas City see the sun again? Hmmm... It has been over a week since the gray clouds have lifted. I know there is blue sky up there somewhere, but it is hidden from all of us. I think it is effecting the mood of some of the people I work with. That is just a random observation. I hope the sun comes out soon. My office could use a little pick-me-up!

-Andy

Great Report Cards

Hello all,

Ali and Zac had great report cards for the second quarter! YIPPEE!!! To celebrate we went to Red Lobster for a special dinner to reward their hard work. Way to go kids. Your mother and I are VERY proud of how hard you worked last quarter and can't wait to see what you learn going forward!

-Andy

Making Pizza with Zac

Hello all,

It was guys night. What do guys like to eat? Pizza. So, chef Zac and Dad decided to make pizza at home. We baked the crust and then added lots of cheese and pepperoni to the crust and put it in the oven to bake. What else do guys like to do on guys night? Play video games. So we did that too. We played Mario Bros. Wii until the pizza timer rang. The pizza was good and Zac's laugh really put a smile on my face. Thank you Zac for helping me feel like a kid again.

-Dad

Late Night

Hello all,

It was a late night for Jennifer at work. When she arrived home, it was almost time for the kids to go to bed. We stayed up and talked about her day. She had a lot to get off of her chest tonight. I wish I could make it all better Jennifer. Sometimes things are not always fair. It will get better.

Love you,

-Andy

DST Closed / School Closed

Hello all,

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day and school and DST are closed in observance of that holiday. I played more Wii with the kids this morning and went to the dentist this afternoon. This evening I coached Ali's last practice before her first big game this Saturday.

-Andy

Mario Brothers Wii

Hello all,

Danna and Nicole: Do you remember all the hours I would spend playing my Nintendo in the kitchen and mom and dad would say "Oh, the will never help later in life." Well, they were wrong. All the tricks and skills I learned when I was in the 7th grade have paid dividends today while I schooled my kids and wife in Mario Brothers. Yep, all the cinnamon rolls that fueled my conquest of the Mario world have been validated. I will conquer this new game as well!

-Andy

First Dance Class

Hello all,

Tonight Jennifer and I attended our first adult dance class. We learned a Swing-Cha-Cha. I must say that I am not the smoothest dancer on the floor, but I had the most fun with making mistakes. Thank you Jennifer for letting me be your partner tonight. I hope I didn't embarrass you too much!

-Andy

It's Friday!

Hello all,

You have to love Friday's. Everyone is in a good mood. This Friday is an added bonus since DST is closed on Monday due to the Federal holiday. I hope that you have a good weekend. Tomorrow will be a fast day with both kids having practice at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church.

-Andy

Almost Friday

Hello all,

You know it has been a long week when you are looking forward to Friday as much as I have been. Since Tuesday night, my week has been all screwed up. I got home at 1:00 Wednesday morning and was up by 8:00 to take the kids to school. Then I came home and ate breakfast and went to the office by 11:00 Wednesday morning. Wednesday was a blur. I don't remember much about what happened at work that day. Today is getting better.. I am REALLY looking forward to the Royals Fan Fest on Friday night with the kids. It will be good to think about baseball and the warmth of the sun again.

-Andy

Zac's basketball

Hello all,

I am now an assistant coach with Zac's team for Upward Bound. His team has 8 players on it and they are all very energetic. Tonight we worked on bounce passes and dribbling. I hope that next week coach Joe and I can start putting the offense into play and working on defense.

-Andy

Install

Hello all,

It is 9:30 PM and I'm at a DST install. I am getting accustomed to the install process here. Unlike with SODS, everyone is in the office on the night of installs. The client team is here as well. I don't think anyone is having a night cap while testing the software tonight unlike many installs with the SODS clients. And yes, I do remember hearing the sound of a glass being refilled while being on the phone on many nights while testing out the PAT application...

-Andy

3rd Pactice

Hello all,

Tonight was my 3rd basketball practice with my daughter's team. It was a great 55 minutes. I introduced the girls to the offense. We are running a simple ball screen system. The point begins the play. The 2 and 3 screen down to the 4 and 5. The 4 and 5 then roll into the lane to receive the pass. If it works, I'll be very impressed.

-Andy

I have found concrete!

Hello all,

This afternoon Jennifer and I worked on the driveway and sidewalks until we found concrete. Yes, it looked like a glacier had moved into our neighborhood, but it was just several inches of packed snow. Ahh... the sound of driving on cement is nice. Now if the city would only have cleared the streets when they had a chance. Now everyone needs to wait on the warmer temperatures coming the week to melt some of the icepack.

-Andy

Fun Day.

Hello all,

Let's see.

8:00 Zac basketball
9:00 Ali bowling

Back home for lunch.

2:00 Ali basketball

Back home for the night.

Played Wii with the kids and mom.

Great Day!

-Andy

Jen's car is finished

Hello all,

Let's have a cheer for Jen's car being fixed! Yippee! The thermostat and intake manifold gasket were replaced. The van is running much better now. Thank you Dan York. I appreciate all of your hard work.

-Andy

Long Day...

Hello all,

Today was an afternoon full of meetings after a slow start to the day. The kids are out of school again today. I dropped the kids off at Adventure Club and then dropped Jen off at work while her car is in the shop. Then I drove slowly downtown. My afternoon was filled with meetings that were delayed due to the traffic that was slowed by the snow packed streets. I can't wait for the weather to change so some of this snow can melt.

-Andy

Leaving Early

Hello all,

Well, the kids do not have school today. A winter storm is ready to roll through town this afternoon. Kansas City just can not catch a break. It looks like it will be a long trip home tonight.

-Andy

Cold

Hello all,

You know it is cold outside when your nose hairs freeze when you take a deep breath. That is cold. It was 9° F outside and felt like -6° F with the wind chill. I am glad that I am not working outside in this weather.

-Andy

Bad Day

Hello all,

You know it was a bad day when:

A) You forget your first practice with your girls basketball team.
B) Your wife's car goes into the repair shop.
C) It is 1° F at noon.
D) The forecast is for another 3-6 inches of snow.
E) School has already been canceled for tomorrow
F) All of the above.

Not to spoil it for you all, but it was F! Yes, the answer that feels like a grade. Yes, I managed to forget about my daughter's first practice tonight. I also had the opportunity to check the van into Sam's Service Center to have the defrost looked at. And YES it was that cold today... And YES Kansas City is scheduled to get snow on Wednesday! The kids are looking forward to another week of Winter break, but this is a little excessive don't you think?

-Andy

Snow!

Hello all,

The snow that was not suppose to amount to much turned into 3 inches of fine powder. Perfect... I shoveled snow for an hour and cleared the driveway and walk to the front door. It is suppose to snow more this week. I think this is the most snow we have had in KC at one time in the 10 years I have been living here.

Oh, and the temperature is dropping like a rock! Today the high is suppose to be 10. On Wednesday it will be zero! YIKES!

-Andy

Starting To Snow

Hello all,

Just like a bad penny, the snow has returned to KC. It was light. The weatherman said it would not accumulate. So far, he is right. I'll let you know more tomorrow.

-Andy

Happy New Year

Hello all,

I didn't do a whole lot today besides clean up the kitchen and get some laundry washed and put away. I was shocked to hear Zac up and playing Wii at 7:30. If Zac is one thing, he is dedicated to his Wii games. It is cold today in KC. It did not snow today, but the cold air is sitting on KC like a rock. It was 20° F and felt like 10. I am very glad that I have somewhere I can go to get away from the cold.

-Andy