Halloween Parties

One of the (many) benefits of being a stay at home, Mr. Mom, is that I now get to participate in school activities. I volunteer at Conner's school every second week.

Both Conner and Parker had Halloween festivities for most of the day today. I spent the morning at Parker's school, playing with his friends, watching the school parade and then watching all the kids in his class decorate cookies. Superman (aka Parker) was very impressed with both his costume and himself. Here he is with his best friends Aiden and Brady.

The parent turnout was huge, probably 100 parents at a school with about 100 kids.

At lunch, I was off to Conner's school to help with an hour long activities project. The first game was to dress a mummy as fast as possible. The first group through a roll of toilet paper wins. For the rest of the hour, the kids broke into groups and did short activities and then rotated around. Conner had a great time and it was fun to hang around with his classmates and get to know them for a while.

This evening Mom and the kids are off to hang out and trick or treat with the old Orange Blossom gang. I'm holding down the fort, handing out candies at the house.

High School Has Been Very Very Good to Kira

Just opened the mail tonight and got a shocker. Kira's grades for the first quarter just arrived.

In case you were wondering about the picture, it's of Kira's Statistics Book, placed on the counter somtime at the end of August and yet to be opened, moved, or dusted. Stacked on top are miscellaneous pieces of paper belonging to Conner and a set of I-Pod earphones.

I have yet to see Kira study for one class. She is rarely home, off with social activities of one sort or the other. Her driver's license passed the one year mark without incident, so she can now stay out past 11:00 p.m. and drive friends around. She has taken on her new found freedom, albeit in a responsible manner.

For the record:

Theater A+

Yoga A

Statistics B+

English A

Economics B+

Theater Arts A

Teaching Assistant A

GPA overall 3.86

Tom's Training Update

October is coming to an end and I know that Dianne is looking for my annual training recap, so without going into great detail as I would normally like to do, my year to date stats look better than I thought. Above is a graph of my weekly training time for swimming, biking and running from January through October. Lots of ups and downs, with a peak in the Spring as I topped out for my Lake Placid Ironman in July. Overall, maximum weekly hours were 18.5, minimum hours 0, and a weekly average of 8.8 hours. Year to date totals; biking 251 hours, running 127 hours, and swimming 37 hours.

I'm just starting my training for my next Ironman, which is going to be a return trip to Couer d'Alene, Idaho in June 2009. For the next 10 weeks or so the plan calls for short duration, high intensity bikes and runs. After this plan runs out, I'll ease into a little more volume building through the Spring until the June race.

More details and analysis available upon request. Be sure to ask for pie charts, bar graphs, power and pace details, and any other type of analysis you may want. My software tools have the answers!

My online coaching service: http://www.endurancenation.us/index.php

(As a side note, training analysis does not count as training).

Drama Department Halloween Party

On Wednesday night we all attended a Halloween party put on by Kira and the Drama Department at the high school. The event was designed as a fund raiser for their upcoming trip to London and the kids were invited to come in costume and have a little fun.

Parker was thrilled to finally be able to dress up in his Superman costume and as we drove all the way down to the event he kept saying that Kira would be so proud of him for wearing his very cool costume. As you can tell from Conner's costume, Star Wars is back again and a lot of kids are dressing the parts.

The kids had a great time at the party, collecting a small bag of candy, getting hair decorated, playing a few games, and as noted in the next picture, a fortune teller gave them some good news. Not sure what was said, but the boys seemed happy with the results. The grand finale included a very good magic show, and then we parted ways, stopped for pizza and then headed back to the house for bed. (Well, Dianne and the boys anyway). A great evening indeed!

Homecoming Fall 2008

This is a super secret post that Kira must not find out about. I was told in no uncertain circumstances that this silly blog I have started may not discuss or otherwise post pictures of Kira. I may not also contact her via my new Facebook account. Hanging with parents is still uncool.

I understand Kira had a great time at her third homecoming event, but details have been a little sketchy. I need to have some of her friends over to get the scoop I guess.

From Valerie:

I know these pictures aren't very good. Lita took them last week when I was home with Baby Hobbs. But I wanted to show you how incredibly cute Jescie is in her Palau swim club cap. She takes swim lessons twice a week now with Tina (from Japan). She is in the Water Babies class with Daisy (our babysitter Lita's daughter). Too cute!

Max's 12th Birthday

It has been a while since our last visit to Santa Cruz, and so it was great to get a birthday invitation from Max to come for dinner and celebrate is 12th birthday in style.


On Saturday we drove down, carpooling with Kent and Ben. It was good to get caught up with Kent for the couple of hours we were trapped in the car.


The Santa Cruz Glynns all seemed to be doing very well (at least they put on a good show!) and I think Max had fun at his party. We went out to a local pizza place. Attendees included the Danville Glynns, Kent and Ben, Mom and Julian, AK, a neighbor - Dianne, and the Santa Cruz Glynns. It was a hit because it had games for the kids to play and win useless prizes. Over the course of the evening Conner won about 40 tattoos, which he is now wearing, two at a time, until we go through them all. They had beer for the adults, so the restaurant did a good job catering to every one's needs.


After pizza, beer and then cupcakes for dessert, we headed back to the mail room (aka the Glynn residence) to hang out with a glass of wine for a while. The boys all played together for a while and then Parker and Everett split off to battle with swords until we dragged him out to the car.


As always, the trips to Santa Cruz are too short, but fun was had, none the less.

Five Litttle Pumpkins

Keeping things on the straight and narrow

In an effort to ensure that our family blogger, AKA Tom, is providing the full insights to all his blogs I thought I would add a couple of clarifying comments:

(1) Parker and swimming - while Parker certainly has attempted, on at least 1 occassion, to participate in swim classes, of late he has clearly communicated his lack of willingness to continue. As such, Tom acquiesed to the smile (and presumably tears) of a 3 year old and determined that resuming such classes at a later date was more feasible. What a tough dad!

(2) Dianne and the San Jose Olympics - While I certainly should known in advance that climbing up, over, and through an inflatable obstacle course was not intended for overweight 40 something (or 29ish) moms the mere fact that I completed the course (albeit in a somewhat lesser fashion than I started) should be applauded! You should also note that 3 weeks after the event I am healing well and almost able to walk down stairs normally - YEAH - YES I am as stubborn at work as I am at home

(3) Tom continues to live in his dream world that training for multiple iron man events on an annual basis requires roughly 12 hours per week - although I do not track the data to the level that he most certainly does, I can tell you that this is an "average" time thoughout a whole year, does not normalize for vacation, holidays etc, and does not consider the incremental "getting ready" time - but it is fun to dream!

(4) Conner continues to amaze us all with his broad range of interests - most recently the Food Network (I am sure he gets this one from Grandma Verna). Recently, when questioned whether or not any of his friends even knew of the Food Network, he proudly announced that his good buddie, Addison, knew the history behind Alton Brown (one of the more notable Food Network hosts) including his winning of an Iron Chef competiton - yes we support great diversity in our home!!

(5) And last, but certainly not least, Kira has attended her final Homecoming dance (while final one that she qualifies to go to). The remarkable thing about this was the lack of "warm up" to the event - no need to have a special hair appt made, no need to go out shopping for expensive dresses, shoes, or other accessories, and no need to open our home for photo ops - either we are growing immune to this or she has moved onto bigger social events - wonder what Junior Prom and Senior Ball will bring this year!

Cub Scouts Airplane Racing

Conner is officially a member of the Cub Scout Organization. With two pack meetings and one den meeting under our belts, Conner has decided that this is a fun thing to do. A couple of days ago was the official balsa wood plane flying championships.

At the beginning of the year, each Cub Scout was given a small kit containing a block of balsa wood, some plastic for wings/fins, a propeller and some rubber bands.

It took us a while to get the plane sanded down to the shape we wanted, painted and fully assembled. In the end it actually looked pretty good.

At the pack meeting the planes are attached to a fishing line, the propellers wound tightly, but not too tightly, because if they break, your done, and then at the count of "three" all the planes race down the lines to the other wall.

We were pretty good at finishing second. In the four or five races we had, we came second all but once. The second last race, the plane flew backwards when released. Note, to self for next year, remember to wind rubber band the right way). After the last race, our plane was ready for a rest, having lost all it's wings to various traumatic crashes.

Some of these planes were definitely "Dad" projects, but most kids had a great time and everyone traded notes on how to make things better and faster for next year.

How Far Would You Go for a Hamburger?

Really, how far would you go for a hamburger; not just a plain old hamburger, but one of the best in the country?

Odd as it is to say, Conner has become a huge fan of the Food Network on television. We now record all "Iron Chef - America" and "Ace of Cakes" episodes. Once these have been seen, Conner scans the channel for other shows to watch.

I was joking around the other day with Conner, telling him he was probably the only kid in the school watching the Food Network, when he replies rather calmly, that in fact, one of his buddies, Addison is a huge fan also and knows way more than Conner. The world is a changing!

I digress. As he is scanning the channels, Conner hones in on a food competion show, trying to find the best burger in the United States. Just riviting viewing! Well, what do you know, but one of the best burgers happens to be in the Napa area at a place called Taylors. A quick check says its about 75 minutes from our place. Dianne and I confer for a minute or two, and announce "Road Trip". About two weeks after the show, we head up to Napa for a burger (so we tell the kids; for a couple of wineries too, which we neglect to tell them).

Best burgers in the US? We have directions and you can find out for yourselves!


www.taylorsrefresher.com

Pictures from Palau

Just received a couple of pictures from Valerie. Looks like all is well in the tropical island of Palau :)

Mount Diablo Challenge

This Sunday was the annual Mount Diablo Challenge. This bike race includes close to 1,000 riders, starts at the Athenian School in Danville at the base of the hill and climbs about 11 miles to the top of the mountain. Free T-shirts to all that break the elusive 1 hour mark. I've never made it up that fast, having about 1:03 as a personal best.

The hill has been closed most of the summer to repave roads and so I haven't had much practice.

Final Results: One hour and twenty nine seconds! Just over one hour is kind of a bummer but it is a PR by almost 3 minutes, so it's hard to complain. I passed the first toll booth and knew I was pretty close. I hit the junction and was still ahead and kept motoring along. It wasn't until I passed the Devils Elbow right near the end that I was pretty sure that one hour was not going to be. I hammered anyway. My power was really consistent all the way so I either need 10 more watts or I need to drop 5 pounds. Next year!

For all you power file enthusiasts (I know you're looking!)

Conner's New Room

When we first moved into this house, Conner and Parker were given the choice; sleep in the same room and have a downstairs playroom, or have separate rooms. The boys chose to bunk in the same room.

A short time ago, Conner asked for his own room. We agreed, cleaned out the playroom and moved a bunch of stuff to the garage and then, after Conner asking everyday for a long time, we moved his bed into the new pad.

He is thrilled to have this temporary quarters (he does get Kira's room when she is off to college next year - as he's mentioned many, many times.) The decorating has just begun. If you look hard so you can see those silver things hanging from the ceiling. They are lightening bolts as used by Zeus. In a short while, the Greek god pictures will be arriving and his room will begin to look more and more like Mount Olympus, home to all the Gods and Godesses of Greece.