Visit to Kansas City First Day

I flew to Kansas City on Thursday April 7.  Leaving Rochester was delayed due to low ceilings and visibility at O'Hare in Chicago.  I learned that when a flight is headed into challenging weather, it takes on extra fuel in case the flight needs to divert and spend time in a holding pattern.  As a result, my fully booked flight was overweight. Since I had a four hour layover at O'Hare anyway, I volunteered to take a later flight, still able to get my original connection.  Result?  I got a $200 voucher!  An excellent beginning to the trip.

I found Mom in good spirits and looking great.  I will post some images soon.  Fortunately Terry, my brother, had proceeded me and had left some roasted chicken breast and plenty of fresh fruit.  I will have lunch with him Friday.

Pleasant Hill Fourth and Last Day

I am writing this as I sit in the United Red Carpet Lounge with Sean. He is leaving at 8:00 on a flight to Copenhagen and I am leaving at 10:30 for Rochester and home. I had a wonderful visit. I had some great times with Sam, playing indoor and outdoor games. He has quite an interesting personality and a nicely cultivated sense of humor. He and Julie left for a Tiger Scout pack meeting just before we left for the airport.

We all survived the switch to DST although the day did get started a little slowly. I went up to the Pleasant Hill City Hall to take some pictures but the overcast light frustrated my efforts. However, next time I can see that a visit around sunset with the accent lights turned on will produce some very nice images.

I had two helpings of Julie's muesli--very delicious. We went on a field trip to a wildlife museum and then had a lunch of lasagna leftovers and delicious lamb chops.

See all the pictures in the Picasa album.

Pleasant Hill Third Day

The big activity for Saturday was Sam's birthday pictures. We had a 10:00 appointment at Sears Portrait Studio. Sam is getting quite good at this. He takes direction very well and has such a sweetness about him along with a "big boy look" that the results are quite stunning. After that we all had the traditional after photo shoot lunch at Johnny Rocket's in the mall.

We returned home and Sam got back to work on his 1000 piece Lego kit that he had gotten for his birthday; the rest of the household took some naps! Sean and I walked up to the Ace Hardware Store to get some closet hardware for a project that he will tackle Sunday. Sam and I got in some play time in the backyard: baseball, soccer, and football. Later Sean and Sam played some basketball.

Julie and I went to 5:00 Mass at Christ the King and then came home to a yummy lasagna dinner followed, of course, by some ice cream for dessert. The two big events in the evening were

the completion of Sam's Lego project which he proudly showed us. The other was the inaugural voyage by the new hamster, Speedy McNibbles, in her exercise ball. She quite good at it and seemed to be actually steering around the house. Tonight is the night for day light savings time to begin. When we went to Starbuck's Saturday

morning, the barista reminded us to set our clocks ahead one hour and then observed that it gives the farmers an extra hour of daylight. For a minute there, I thought I was in Indiana.

To see more pictures, visit the Picasa album.

Pleasant Hill Second Day

Because of the three hour time difference, I am up at a very early hour and learned of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Following that news was a constant all day. However, life went on here with Sammy getting off to school and Julie to work. Sean had a couple of phone meetings in the morning. Ana electrician came by to give an estimate on work they needed done as well as an arborist looking especially at the black walnut tree in back. Then Sean and I transported several cartons of books to contribute at the library.

Wiht all that accomplished, we went to the movies and saw Battle: Los Angeles. It was an entertaining action flick with awesome special effects. Of course, the good guys won. We picked up Sam who had stayed for an after school celebration of March birthdays, picked up some great Mexcican food, and had a leisurely dinner at home.

Saturday the big event is Sam's birthday photo session at Sear's followed by lunch at Johnny Rockets. I am looking forward to that.

Pleasant Hill First Full Day

While I arrived on Thursday, things didn't get cracking until Friday, which was Sam's seventh birthday. Sam went off to school while Sean, Julie and I spent the day around the house getting a number of tasks done, mainly lightening the load at 167 Cynthia Lane. We made numerous trips to the Salvation Army, the recycling center, and the Crisis Center in Concord. We dropped off supplies of bottled water and toiletries Sean collects on his travels which they packaged in packs for homeless persons.

Sam had a great day at school sharing yummy cupcakes with classmates. We picked him up and went immediately to his favorite place to eat, Sweet Tomatoes.

We came home and he and Sean--mostly Sean--assembled one of the gifts he received at his party last Sunday, a table top foosball game. Sam and I played three games as soon as it was ready to go. After a game of checkers and then some soccer scrimmage in the backyard, Sam visited with Grandma on Skype, followed by birthday cake and the opening of presents that had accumulated at home. His favorite was a 1000 piece Lego Kingdoms Castle. He will get right on that when he gets home from school Friday. After watching some Arthur on TV, he was read a story and went to bed. Grandaddy actually beat him to bed after this long day of activity.

View the Picasa photo album of the trip.

Trip to Cleveland February Third Day

This was a day devoted to snowboarding and the Super Bowl. Brendan and I took Brock to a snowboard competition. We arrived at the ski area around 8:30 and left around 3:00. Fortunately it wasn't terribly cold although my feet certainly felt the effects on standing on ice and snow for five hours! I was able to get inside for lunch, some rest, and the award ceremonies. Brock competed in the border cross and slope style and took first place in his age class. No surprise to me that he was the youngest competitor in both.

When we got back to the house, we got cleaned up while the kids played out in the snow. Eileen had fixed some awesome chili for the game. Brock is rooting for the Steelers while Brendan and I are pulling for the Packers who are leading at half time. Well the Packers pulled it off. Congratulations to all the cheeseheads I know and love.

You can see more pictures of the snow boarding on my Picasa album.

Trip to Cleveland February First & Second Days

Normally I go to San Francisco to visit the Pleasant Hill Picketts and watch the Super Bowl with Sean. However, this year his international travel schedule made that impossible. So I drove over to Cleveland--sunny and dry road all the way--to do the same with Brendan. Friday was my first day and it was very relaxed; we just stayed home. Brady--shown at left--provided us with his humorous perspective on life while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive home. Brock and then Braden arrived from school. They got their grade reports last week and did very well. Braden got all A's with a couple of A+'s! She is in middle school. Brock is still in grade school where they try to downplay academic competitiveness but still everyone knows that a "+" is the equivalent of an "A" and he got all +'s! Eileen got home from her job after a hectic week there. We went out to dinner at a very good Mexican restaurant. After the kids went to bed, we watched Restrepo, a documentary about an outpost in Afghanistan directed by Sebastian Junger.

Saturday was a typically active day in the Pickett household. We went to Braden's basketball game, Brock's soccer game, and then Brock skateboarding at Chenga 2 indoor skate park. The basketball game started out pretty lopsided with Braden's St. Raphael's team up 8-2. The other team closed the gap and tied the game in the fourth quarter. St. Raphael ended up winning 13-11. Braden played tough defense and had at least two assists.

We got to Brock's soccer game in progress and unfortunately missed his goal. His team ended up losing 5-4 with the winning goal scored in the final minutes. He really enjoys playing and is quite good. After that we spent a couple of hours at the skate park as he demonstrated another sport he is good at and enjoys.

That evening they had a birthday dinner for me. Eileen's parents--Tom and Peg--came over. It was good to see them and to celebrate with the family. Tomorrow is big day with Brock competing in some snow boarding events and Braden in soccer. It won't be possible to catch all or even any of her game unfortunately.

View the photo album.