May

The list of Weil's marching up the aisle on a given Sunday just grew by one, Steven Weil - happy First Communion. Could the kid look any older in his suit and clip-on tie? :) Too damn cute. He did great, reading a petition during mass: loudly and confidently. He's not a baby anymore, and judging by the markings on the back of the bathroom door, his height will attest to that. 3rd grade, here he comes. His list of what to spend his first communion money on continues to grow. Confirmation can't get here soon enough. :) Also pictured is Kelsey, celebrating her 6th as part of a 3-way Weil party bundle yesterday afternoon. Happy Anniversary sweetie. No one I'd rather race around the streets of Covington with.

Also yesterday, sisters Becky and Emily busted out the flying pig 1/2. (Emily pictured, sorry Beck - didn't see you with my camera. Send me a picture and I'll post). Remember, this was the race I wussed out of, preferring instead to sleep in on weekends and eating large amounts of Doritos over the last month or so. They looked great running and both did very well. Emily in 2:02 and Beck around 2:16. Emily was very sore immediately afterwords, you could tell she pushed thru some pain. Becky was tired, but looked like she could go another 1/2. Nice going Weil ladies. Let's go 5k next time, and I'm with ya. :)

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In other news that must be noted. Matthew's baseball team put down an epic, "legendary" beat down on the Pirates last week. If there is a team to enjoy beating - let's just call it a history between coaches - it's them. (Pirates head coach, if you read this and are offended, I'm sorry. But, next time your 9 year olds win a game, don't jump up and down like a maniac, screaming loudly, and treat it like it was the final out of your perfect game in game 7 of the world series.)_ They struggled pitching and we hit like crazy. We hit thru our lineup almost 3 times in OUR FIRST AT BAT, scoring 21 runs. Matthew had 3 doubles (2 legit, 1 with some poor defense) in the first inning alone. Final score, 25-1. Epic. Karma is a bitch.

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Speaking of Karma, ... or caramel. I'm heading over to Garrard street in a bit to talk to some pissed off tenants. That should be great. We sanded down the wood floors on the 1st floor, and put down 2 good coats of polyuerethene. That's all well and good - except for the poly that dripped thru the floor and into basement, splattering all over the place and all over their stuff. I don't know yet the extent of the damage, and hope to find out today. From the pictures I've seen, it's not pretty. Some day this will all be worth it, today is not yet that day.

Apr

Easter Sunday pic of kids in front of flowers, trees. Looking good (both kids and flowers).

I can't say I'm a big fan of my monthly blogging schedule - but, it is what it is for now. What's up in Weil land....

- I've officially wussed out of the half marathon with my sisters. Let the public shaming begin. After calling out Becky in this space, she continues to power thru on her training, and it is I that has tossed up the white flag. I had been staying pretty much on schedule, even running 7 or 8 a couple of times. So, I was there, I was close. Then the kids sports season kicked up a notch, my side work got busy again, and I realized the race day was on Steven's first communion day. How hard did I want to make life. I'm out. Power thru Weil girls - make me proud. I'll be on the couch, bag of Doritos in one hand, 2-liter of coke in the other watching on TV. :) So, my running is back to what it normally is, 2 or 3 times a week, couple miles each time. I did run for some speed yesterday, knocked out a mile in 7:46, rested for about 3 minutes and came back home in 7:36. Not too bad for an old guy.

Kids sports are going good... Matthew's baseball hasn't really played actual games yet, with a couple of reschedules, and a lot of practice. He's hitting much better in practice after some tips from Coach Chet - so, hope that carries forward into the season. His glove is still good. Steven's had a couple games already, including his first appearance on the mound. Pretty exciting stuff, he was brought in mid 4th inning with a runner on and 2 outs, against the other teams huge kid. Pretty sure he was an 8th grader. Struck him out baby, the giant couldn't handle the crafty left-hander. He's not throwing with a ton of gas, I think he has more in the tank, we're just not seeing it all yet. But, he is throwing strikes. At this age, that's as important as anything. The game reached its time limit before he could come back out in the 5th, so he's only face 1 batter so far. So, bottom line, anyone who has ever faced him, has struck out. :) Kelsey's soccer team is going well, she knocked in a goal on Sunday, as we begin making plans for her U8 fall team. Looks like I'm back to coaching 2 teams again. Matthew's team has officially decided to move to select, we're going to the Kings in the Fall. The time is right, should be fun.

Other news... Went the Reds/Cardinals game last week with most of the Miller extended family - minus one important one. Was neat to see Uncle Dyar, now back in the majors, down on the field, throw some BP. Just would have been nice if they didn't kick the Reds butt. They are back in St Louis for 3 starting tonight, it's early in the season, but they really could use to win a couple of them. With all the money the big guy is throwing at the club, they need to start putting up some W's.

Any apt news now? Hmm, still a giant pain in my butt, on a daily basis. Check. Taxes due today, so that means a ton of envelopes mailed out, 11 bucks on postage to get Covington, Kenton County, KY, and the Feds all they need. Good times.

All for now, I'll try more later. Lots to do today.

Mar

Let the madness begin... Beginning in about 15 days, the spring sports season kicks under way.

Monday: Steven soccer, steven baseball practice
Tues: Matthew games - dad dickmann's
Wed: steven baseball games
Thurs: matthew baseball practice
Sat: steven baseball/soccer game, matthew baseball/soccer game.
Sun: kelsey soccer game

Of the 5 sports they're playing, i'm head coach of 2 of them, and assistant on 1. Mix that in with half marathon training, a job that wants me to work a lot, managing apartments - and I'll talk to you in July. It's all fun, but it's not easy. I know, quit whining...

The boys are pumped for their sports to begin for real, thus far we've had limited practice. Kelsey landed yellow shirts for what will be her final U6 session, and with an assist from Matthew has brainstormed the name: The Dandilion's. Should be crazy fun - basically the same team as last fall: Bailey's, Rollins', Schaeffer's, Back's, etc...

Our men's indoor soccer team is on a roll, with only a handful of games left. We brought home a late night winner last night: 6-3. Uncle Paul set me up with a beautiful ball for a tap in goal, that I believe has sent me past Uncle Mike for the golden boot. (Granted, I'm behind about 4 others, but climbing).

Spring has sprung around here in full force, it's been in the low 80's the last few days, even setting a few records. Someone remind me to ask Al Gore what the problem is again. The Hanover Park trees have all bloomed white flowers and it makes for a very nice, peaceful walk down the street. Here's hoping it continues, and we don't have a early April snow fall.

Lastly - and most sadly. Attended a funeral yesterday on the Miller side for the first time in 22 years. Uncle Lowell died suddenly and tragically in a logging accident. 71 years young: 6 kids, 17 grand kids, a handful of great-grand kids. One of the happiest, friendly, most content people I've ever met. A wonderful role model to follow; how leading a life of hard work and integrity can bring rewards of close friendship as well as success in business. Simply, he was always a big smile and geniounely cared about what was going on in our lives. A good lesson in many ways, especially knowing I'm already an uncle to 16 kids.

Feb

What's up in Weil-land lately? Suprisingly much. With a calm section of the kids sports calendar on us, we're staying pretty busy doing other fun stuff that we otherwise never have time to do. Matthew's basketball season wrapped up a couple weeks ago with a loss to a St Joe's team in the St Pius tournament. He had a pretty good game, I think he scored half our points (8 of 16 if I remember) and only took like 5 or 6 shots. We'd like to see him getting the ball out away from the basket more and using his driving/jump shot more, hopefully more of that will come next season. Steven is the only one currently playing anything, his upward basketball. He borders on domination out there(ok, this is his dad talking). He does really well if he decided he wants to - that's the tricky part with him. Looking forward to him playing for IHM next season with his classmates and better competition. Should be great fun to watch.

We're in the calm before the storm hits us now - baseball on the verge of starting up for real (had some indoor practices, and a few trips hitting at the cage), combined with Spring soccer for Matthew, Steven and Kelsey. March, April and May will be a blur. After arguably the mildest winter ever - high is 60 today, and we've had exactly 1 hour delay this school year - I'm still looking forward to warmer/longer days.

As for the other fun stuff we've been doing lately, let me try and list a few that I remember us doing:

CovCath/HolyCross basketball playoff game - we drove over to NKU last night to watch the Ash Wednesday clash of two Catholic schools in the playoffs. Packed gym, we had to stand the whole time. Carson is a trooper man, hanging out in his stroller, and Kelsey spending half the game down entertaining him. CCH won in triple overtime, it was crazy. Holy Cross almost won it in regulation with a full court, last second, one armed missle throw Brett Farve would have been proud of - off the back iron.

Turfway Park - been wanting to do this for a while, and finally got around to it. We up there on a President's Day, Monday for an afternoon of racing. It was sunny and warm enough that we could stand outside and watch the horses run. It was easy to kill the 20 minutes between races while standing down there- watching the winner in the winner's circle, jockey's weighing in, the next race horses getting ready, feeding the guide horses mints, etc... The kids loved it, we watched 4 races, and gambled on 3 of them. We only had 1 winner - Steven hit a 9-1 shot to win on my 2 dollar bet. Standing at the finish line, and seeing his #6 horse pass Matthew's at the last second, steven was shouting with pumped fists in the air - ya, 16 bucks baby!!! (at that time, we thought it was 8-1). Hopefully we didn't create a monster here... (Note, his new glasses, he just got them last week. He couldn't read a digital clock from 15 feet away. He's adjusting pretty well to them so far, and hasn't even lost them yet- impressive). In the final race, we all made 2 dollar bets - 9 horses in the field, we bet 5 of them to win - and we all lost. Total lost on the day, probably 20 bucks - pretty fun.







TMC - we went and watched the Thomas More women's team play last week. Cindy's co-worker has a daughter on the team, so we've been meaning to get to one. Again this year, they're really good, so it was a fun game to watch. All was going fine and dandy, until team mascot - Tommy Mo - came to pay us a visit. Carson didn't like Tommy Mo. He spent the rest of the game, 3 quarters of it, tucked in Cindy's arms, facing away from the court to avoid making further eye contact with Tommy. (pictured)



hmmm... anything else? I'm trying to remember other fun things we've done lately. We did go roller skating a few weeks ago, I can't remember if I already wrote about that. Kelsey, Steven and Matthew spent about an hour and a half on the skates, doing circles. Steven spent considerable time on the ground, Kelsey was moving at about .0005 miles per hour, but stayed on her feet well.

In running news - trying to maintain half-marathon training. So far it's going well (talk to me in another month when kids sports have consumed our lives). Ran 7 again on Monday, did 7 last weekend too. Mix that with a 3 or 4 miler during the week, my men's indoor soccer team on Monday nights, and I'm getting some good cardio going. I went up to Central Park to run my 7 Monday, first time I've done that since marathon training 3 years ago. So, that was nice little trip down memory lane. I got up there around 9:00am, and the gates were still locked. So, I parked down the road semi-legally - and hopped the fence. I had the whole damn park to myself. :)

Things going alright at rentals, a vacancy at our real nice place on Garrard begins April 1st, so I'm actively advertising that - 2 showings today at lunch time. We have a small tile/shower issue at Greer (pictured). We rehabbed almost that entire apartment last year, but didn't touch the shower. Maybe we should have. So, that needs fixed... I think last post, I mentioned the tenant that owed us money from 3 years ago contacting us out of the blue. He's moving in to another vacancy we have May 1st - so, that worked out nicely. Ok, that's enough - back to my portugese.

Jan

Just received a nice email, thought it I should talk about it here - help me remember it someday down the road. Next time I've lost faith in humanity, maybe I'll remember it...

Roughly 3 years ago, I had a tenant move out on me with no notice. I don't remember all of the details anymore, but I do remember about 50 conversations with him on the phone trying to track down owned rent. They started out, concerned and willing to help a nice guy who was hurting financially. Over the course of a month or two, my voice mail messages got harsher. He ditched me, and walked out on his commitment of close to 1400 bucks to me - not a small amount of cash.

He just emailed me, detailing what all was going on in his life then, how he had hit rock bottom and how he genuinely felt bad about screwing me, after I had (initially) been kind and willing to help him out. He's offered to begin making payments on what he owes me to make it right. How about that for your faith in society - maybe we're not all going to hell in a handbasket afterall.

All else going pretty well at the apartments, our smelly tenants - lots of animals - have gotten their act together. They got rid of a problem cat or two, and from what I hear, the place no longer reeks of urine - and that's a good thing. We're also looking at a couple refinances under some new federal program to help lower rates on people that have been paying on time. Could be a good monthly cash-saver.


Had a good lunch meeting with a local, Burlington web/mobile development company. They're looking for some freelancers to help pick up extra work from them. And, they're based in Burlington. What are the odds on that. So, could here something on that soon...

aMind work is going pretty well, I'm still working for my Brazilian client. After spending all of 2011 with them, it's looking like most of 2012 will be there as well. Travel won't be required, but if I wanted to go, they'd let me go. It'd be a 2 week trip - ouch. I'm debating if the "once in a lifetime" experience would be worth being away for that long... Also looks like I'm moving more into a "team lead" role on the project. I'd be managing a group of about 6 developers, and making sure we get done what we're supposed to deliver. It's still being hashed out, and someone or even two guys would have to be hired to take my developer spot. It's rumored they'd get 2 offshore guys from the Ukraine, to go along with 3 Brazilians already on the project. Toss in the Russian guys from Latvia that we work with already on the database side, and it's quite the We Are The World moment. (the video of which Matthew has recently loaded on his iPod...)

Carson was massively sick today, throwing up all over the house, Cindy, and the minivan. He just sits there like a lump if he's not sleeping. Pretty sad to see. As I type (about 10:00 when I started), he and Cindy are out cold in our bed. I'd consider just sleeping on the couch to avoid waking them up, but I'm pretty sure its been puked on multiple times today. Not exactly conducive to a restful night.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the passing of Cindy's grandpa Scheper last week. Exactly 100 days from the day Grandma died, George joined her. His funeral was equally impressive. 9 kids, 34 grandkids, 41 great-grandkids, all good, productive members of society. A successful and well respected businessman, father of 9, World War II veteran. In a society that seems to value only 1 of those 3 sometimes, the other two are more impressive. Very moving moments at the cemetery with a veterans group there, presenting arms, folding the flag from the coffin, 21 gun salute, and a trumpet playing Taps. Very, very cool.

My lasting memory of meeting Grandpa Scheper was back in the early days of Cindy and I dating. I was working up at JD's in Edgewood, working behind the cash register. He lived maybe 1 mile down the road, but as I came to know him more wouldn't call him a JD's regular customer. As he put his items on the counter for me to ring up, he introduced himself, "I understand you've been spending quite a bit of time with one of my granddaughters". A busy man, with lots to do, took the time to come check me out and make sure I was ok for his granddaughter. Lesson learned.

Xmas 11

Merry Christmas - a few days late. Santa came and visited us again, and the kids all seemed happy with the results. I put my video editing skillz to the test again, and came up with the following effort. Make sure volume is cranked up, to both get into the background music, and hear the voices intentionally kept lower. Guess the band, win fabulous prizes. Listen/watch a few times, it gets addicting...

I think Matthew has officially crossed the fence on a certain large man and his 8 flying friends, but Steven seems to still be on board. 4th grade for Matthew, not bad. Seems about normal, but still sad to see that completely innocent 5 year old drift further in the rear view mirror.

Big gift this year was a ping pong table, slightly undersized, to fit in the basement play room. Steven scored another DS, his last one made it until about August before he lost it. Santa and Mrs Claus debated hard on not getting one, to prove a point. We (I) caved, it's Christmas for goodness sake. Let the kid be happy, it's all he really wanted. Kelsey scored some barbies that she really wanted, I think it pained Cindy to get them. Her not being the barbie type. We'll see if she keeps playing with them, so far she has... Carson scored some Elmo gear, everything he got he hugged and/or kissed. Too damn cute.

Merry Christmas to all family and friends. We're lucky to have such a large, tight knit family on both sides - something I have to remind myself of sometimes - especially if I get little too much Hubey time. :)

In other street news - a little street trickery took place last week. A certain neighbor who will remain nameless, played a little trick on Neighbor Tom - strategically placing his inflatable Santa and the birthday toilet in his front yard. Two nights later, I arrive home to see our inflatable Santa-Tigger literally on our roof waiving at us. See here that night, and the following morning before Tigger took a header into our bushes. Well played Mr Tom. This could rival the large aluminum foil job you did on my truck a few years ago...





Looking forward to a good 2012. Plans for a pig half marathon are on track, ran around 14 miles last week (over 4 days, nothing crazy). I'll inch that number up to about 20 a week, and I should be fine. My plate is running over with side work right now that I've been putting off over the holidays. (including the video and writing this blog post instead of working on it...) All apartments are full now, know of 2 people moving out at the end of Feb though. So, hopefully it's warmer out in early March. Hard to rent places in the snow...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Go hug someone.

our society gone wrong?

Couple thoughts today, felt like sharing. First - the musical inspiration for the blog post: new MMB music released last week, just heard about it today. Crank it up baby, when's the tour coming to Cincy?

2nd thought - on the heels of the UC/XU Crosstown Punchout over the weekend, I've read some stories and heard the talking heads comment on it. The general consensus seems that society as we know it is coming to an end. Civility, respect, sportsmanship are all things of the past, and we're headed back to feeding people to the lions. As usual, I'm with everyone on how bad it was - to a point. I feel like we're crossing that point. I don't think this was the first, nor will it be the last fist fight to break out in a basketball game. Has no one seen Hoosiers - based on 60's Indiana basketball? What about the legend Larry Bird - a guy I'm a big fan of. The guy was a hustling machine. He'd also deck you square in the face if you elbowed him. Another good thing about watching shows like Boardwalk Empire - based on the 1930's prohibition era. It's based on reality, but embellished a bit, but you learn that human nature really hasn't changed all that much over the last 100 years. Anyone see any KKK lynchings in the news lately?

The fight was bad - people should be suspended. Andy Furman is an idiot, radio show host who quietly helped start the whole mess. Anyone upset about the comments the UC player made before the game should take the time to actually read his full comments from the radio interview to realize it wasn't that bad. The fight was not good - but society isn't going to end... Now click the replay button the Bosstones musical link from above and dance around the room for 4 minutes. :)