School’s Out

Much to the delight of Ben and Delaney, the school year officially ended last Thursday marking the beginning of their summer break.  It also marked the end of Karen’s substitute teaching for the year and the beginning of a much needed break from the school schedule.  Both of the kids had another great quarter with Ben attaining straight A’s and Delaney getting all S/S+.  We are so proud of them for sticking to their studies and doing well across the board in school.

Over the weekend, we celebrated Father’s Day with some nice leisurely time at home.  After the week I had last week, I was ready for a break!  Even with a day off (Monday), I still put in 50 hours at the office.  And even though I put in all that time, I wasn’t even able to keep up with my two work e-mail accounts (unclassified and classified).  I have been putting together 6-year program budgets totalling over $500M and developing acquisition strategies for two upcoming contract efforts.  Add to that several on-going technical issues that we are working to resolve, and it has been crazy!  So enough about work!  On Sunday we planned to go to the Silver Diner for a late breakfast and ended up skipping the lines and going to the Macaroni Grill instead for an early lunch.  The kids love the Macaroni Grill because the tablecloth is a sheet of drawing paper and everyone gets crayons with which to write.  We all drew funny pictures and played tic tac toe while waiting for our food to be delivered. 

Afterwards, we spent some time shopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods and returned home for some X-Box gaming.  Ben had challenged me to a hockey challenge on X-Box.  We played 5 straight games, in which I lost 5 straight times!  Only one game was decided by more than a point and two of the games ended in sudden death.  So, it was a lot of fun!  It is particularly impressive on the 55″ screen (I can only imagine what it would have looked like with XBox 360). 

Today while I was at work, Karen erected a 10′ round, 3′ deep swimming pool in our garage.  The kids wanted the pool like we had in Florida, but I was reluctant to set it up on the lawn because it is not level, and it would kill the grass.  Since much of our garage is open, and unused, I figured it made a perfect spot for the pool (as long as it doesn’t spring a leak)!  The kids will appreciate it  as the weather gets hot. 

I am really looking forward to the family vacation at the end of July.  It can’t come soon enough!  I am envious of my friend Mr Papa who is currently cruising with his family.  After we return from our vacation, we will be traveling to Illinois for an extended weekend to attend my cousin’s wedding (his name is Paul too).  It will be nice to see he and his parents (my mom’s brother) as I have not seen them for years.  In fact, the last time I saw my cousin was when we lived in Los Angeles in 1995 and he came for a visit. 

Karen’s parents have moved into their new home in Virginia and we plan to stop in for a visit next weekend.  It will be nice to have them close enough for an occassional visit.  Even with a 2-hour drive, it will be the closest we have lived to a family member in over 15 years.