June 1, 2013 - Jessica and James graduation party!

I carefully picked a day that would work well with Jessicas busy schedule.  June 1 was the day I picked. A nice Saturday, one week before graduation.  Jess leaves for camp very soon after graduation, so it was now or never.... And then I realized the Prom was Friday night!

Jess was a trooper though. She showed up on time even! I told her she could be late if she wanted.

Bronwen and I made chicken skewers and chilled prawns for the party.    Kelsey was a great helper,  keeping food rotated, checking temperatures of food that is out cooking off more skewers and refreshing the prawns as needed. It was very good.

Cousin Cap came up from California.  He was hoping to bring Joyce, but she was under the weather, so he came by himself and stayed at my house.

Uncle Ed and Blanche came. They gave us the news that there will be no Swalling picnic this year. This has to be the first time in 50 years or so... wow. I wonder if it will happen next year?  Ed is aging...  

A surprise guest, Cousin Craig came from Olympia! He made it just in time to see Ed and Blanche off.  I was happy to see him, in my recollection, this is the first time the three Cousin Craigs have been in the same place before!  It was the only picture I took!

The Three Craigs!

We decorated the place up with Bainbridge and North Mason colors and I created some posters of Jess and James over the years

Jessica's High School Water Polo Career comes to an end

It was an exciting week. The girls had to play in the Wildcat Tourney just to get to State. They won the Wild Card and ended up finishing #6 in the State Tourney!!!!

I remember when it all started. I was driving the girls over to have lunch with their Grandma. Jessica says "Dad, I joined Water Polo".. Water Polo? say what?  Jessica is a gifted swimmer, they have tried to get her to join the swim team many times. Jess tried it, but was just not that interested in swimming laps over and over again. Water polo? I know nothing about Water Polo. Never seen it, don't know anyone who has played it. My reaction was mixed, but happy for Jessica to get involved with something. 

Jessica joined the team in 2012, weeks before the regular season started. She was very inexperienced, but she made up for it with effort. It was a long first season, they lost every game.  They played an exhibition game after the regular season,  and they girls finally won a game!  It was a great way to end the first season and get some momentum for next season.

Jessica went to Hawaii to compete over the Summer. I don't know how they did, but they were in Hawaii, so I don't think winning or losing was that big a deal..

Senior year, Jessica worked out in the Winter program, while working an after school job and several babysitting jobs.   I dreaded the decision Jessica needed to make.  I encouraged her to stick with Water Polo. Don't make the same mistake as me when I dropped out of Wrestling my senior year.  I told her she has her whole life to work.  I don't give myself any credit for her decision, I just told her what I believe, but she is 18, and can make her own decision.  She chose to play Water Polo!!!!!!!!!

The season started with an away game at Mercer Island. I was there of course, and the girls did show some signs of improvement, but they lost.  Here we go again?    The girls then had 6 games at home. They won most of these!  The girls were getting better each and every week!  Jessica scored some goals!!!!!  Due to injury and a new JV squad this year, they had no bench to speak of. Jessica played most of the entire games. She was getting a lot of playing time and it was paying off.

The final regular season game was in Newport. Newport is the best high school in the State and their water polo team is very good. Anchored by all Seniors,  all going to play collegiate polo. Needless to say, they beat us. In the 4th period, with Newport up by at least 10, they ran a trick play to get a cheap score for  one of the girls who had yet to score.  The girls were demoralized.  It was a low class move by the coach of Newport.  I remember one game with Bainbridge, when everyone on the team had scored except Jessica. Coach Drew ran legitimate plays for Jess to get her open and she did get a score.  After Jess had scored, Coach Drew had the team stop scoring.  They passed the ball around and before the shot clock would run out, they would lob it in the corner.  A practice known as "Dumping' the ball.   These girls and their coach displayed true sportsmanship. It was an impressive feat and even the Bainbridge fans showed support for the other team by cheering their late goals.

The girls finished the regular season in third place, behind Newport and Mercer Island.   They earned a spot at the wild card tourney to compete for a chance to play in the State Championship!

The Wild Card Tournament opened on on May 10 at Lakes high school. The pool is a deep pool, no shallow end.   They played their first game against Emerald Ridge. Bainbridge beat ER earlier this year convincingly.  I was still a bit concerned by the last game at Newport, and how that would affect them. It was 4 days later, so hopefully they are ready to put it behind them.

The game started slowly. Tied 1-1 at the end of 1. Then the girls started to get their groove back. They won 10-5!

The next day Bainbridge played Auburn. If BI wins, then they won't play again today. They go on to State.  They WON!  15-2!!!!  Jessica had  3 goals!     Here comes State!

The State Tourney kicked off on Wednesday at Lakes vs Gig Harbor.  Gig Harbor has won the State Championship 4 times in a row, and is enjoying an undefeated season.  Needless to say, it was too much for our girls. They lost 24-4.  Jess was disappointed.

The second game of the day was vs Enumclaw.   The girls jumped to an early lead and never let go. Jess got a late goal.   This game was memorable because of the ending. Bainbridge was up 10-2 in the 4th period. It looked over..  Madeline was putting on a defensive clinic, pushing the ball handler, back, back back... time was running out, the Enumclaw girl was nearly in back court, she somehow gets off a shot, a high arching lob.. it goes in!  The entire crowd gasped! Everyone, including Bainbridge, cheered this goal. It was an amazing shot.  Enumclaw was fired up, they scored 3 more quick goals before time ran out.  WOW!

Since they beat Enumclaw and Gig Harbor beat Enuclaw, that puts them in Fridays games.  Friday started off with a game against Auburn Mountain Ridge at Curtis. Jess and I broke down the competition and bracket on Thursday and she felt this was their best shot to beat a #1 place team. 

They played Auburn Mountainview tough the whole game, but AMV was too much for them.   It was a good game to watch but the outcome was not what we wanted, but it was expected.  The Curtis pool seemed huge. It is a beautiful aquatic center with high tech score boards. Even the goals looked bigger.  The fan seating in upper deck, in the end zone. They seemed so far away!

Since they lost, they had to stick around to play the last game of the night, at 8:50 but it didn't start till 9.  This was a match up I was very interested in. It was vs Puyallup. Puyallup was the wild card winner of their pool. They never played Bainbridge, they both advanced to the Tourney in 2 games. The remaining two wild card teams had to play a third game to get in.

The Puyallup game was great! The girls dominated and won 9-3. They proved they are the best team to come out of the wild card!  This put them in a final game on Saturday to play for 5th or 6th place!

The final game on Saturday was a tough one, against Mercer Island again. MI beat Bainbridge twice in the regular season.   It ended 15-6. Bainbridge went on a run in the 4th period, but couldn't close the gap. Jess had one shot on goal, but missed. Her defense was stellar though, as it was in every game.

All the Bainbridge fans stood up and gave the girls a standing ovation at the end.  We all crowded the rail as they made their way to the locker room for the last time.   Jessica had a big smile on her face. I was glad to see it. 

We all waited outside the locker room for them to come out.  Jessica came out first and the whole crowd erupted in cheers for her!  It was a moving experience.  I hugged her and told her how very proud of her I was. I asked her if this was better than working at the Dry cleaners.   She smiled and gave me an emphatic YES! 

I met a Curtis fan at the game, she was the former Secretary at Bainbridge High when I was there. We vaguely remembered each other. She retired and moved to Tacoma and her granddaughter was playing on Curtis team.   I wished her good luck against Newport.  They beat Newport.   HURRAH!!!!   Curtis went on to beat Gig Harbor 4-3 to win the State Championship.

Jessica is going to Central Washington State University next year. I hope she will continue with water polo at college. I really want to see her compete again!  In two short seasons I went from not knowing water polo to having it be a part of my life, a huge part the last few weeks. I miss it already.

Picts to follow.

Senior Night at Water Polo April 29

It was a hard fought game, the girls gave it their best, but Mercer Island won.  But who cares, tonight we are honoring the Seniors who just competed for the last time of their careers at Bainbridge Aquatic Center!

Low tide April 27

It's probably not the lowest tide since we have lived on Alki, but it was the first one I got to check out up close.

An old Mosquito fleet dock perhaps?

Denver April 23-26

I took a trip to Denver to visit the CenturyLink clients.

I tried to stay at Embassy Suites, but the CTL rate rooms were full. They offered me the Hitlon Homewood Suites. Is that downtown? Where? I have never seen that in downtown. Turns out, it is brand new!  The cab driver didn't even know where it was!

I stayed in room 1023, from here on known as the Peterson Suite. I was the first guest to stay in that room! Its a cool thing to know everything is new. The room was nice, it had a full kitchen! I didnt use it .

On the first night, I went to the Pepsi Center to see the Nuggets V Warriors in the first round of playoffs. Denver lost.

I ate every am at Sams #3 for breakfast every day of course. It was as  good as it always is.

I discovered a great late happy hour at the Paramount cafe. 2 for 1 drafts after 10. The food sucked, but the beer was cold and cheap!  Of course I visited Alia at the Tarantula bar. They are celebrating 10 years! I have been going there for at least 7 or 8 years.  But this time I didn't spend too much time there.

Denver has good food trucks on 16th Street. Like everything in this city, it is the opposite of how Seattle does it.   These trucks are small, compact and some open air!  They offer cheap eats.  I really wanted to try a vegetarian Lumpia, one thing I miss since I stopped eating meat. They were out! Doh. Well, I have something to look forward to next time!

Also, note to self.  Arrive before 6:30 at DIA or no downtown shuttle.

Bronwens family April 20-21

I don't do much with Bs family, mainly because they live far away and B goes to visit them on her days off, which aren't the same as mine.

This weekend, B used vacation days so we could see the family and spread her sisters ashes under her tree.

We left Saturday am and drove to Longview. We went out for Indian food, which wasn't bad. Then we went to the Three Rivers Mall to see her niece Olivia in a play, Camelot. It was a long play, but it was fun.

After the play, we drove to Randle to Bronwens moms house. We stayed the night. In the AM we prepared food for the rest of the family. Everyone came around noon and we waited for a rain break to go out into the yard and spread the ashes. The family shared stories of Jerri. I only met her one time many years ago.

Her friend Sharon told me after the event that Jerri and her would draw pictures together. She made one of her family and when she got to Bronwen, she included me in the drawing!  That was nice of Sharon to share with me. 

Fifth Saturday Statewide emergency Drill 3-30-13

I volunteered to work with my Red Cross chapter to participate in the state emergency drill.  We met at the Shoreline RC storage unit and extracted the radio kits. We then went to the Shoreline Fire Department and set up the antena and radio, made contact with Red Cross base and broadcasted a series of simulated requests. 

It was an interesting experience.  We had no real idea what was going on, we were pretty removed. After it was over we heard what the drill was. It was a simulated Meteor strike, hitting 1-5 at 85th Street. 

After we signed off and broke down the equipment, the Red Cross staffers came by and said hi. Bruce Swee and dang, can't remember, Gayle something?  Then the Shoreline radio team came over and gave us a tour of their communications van.  Every single type of radio made! It was impressive, but it must take some practice to monitor so many different frequencies.

Jim, one of our team members in the exercise, deployed to Sandy.  He told us some great stories.  One day they took the ERV to Coney Island to deliver hot meals. He told me many seniors were stuck in upper level apartments, unable to use the stairs and that the other residents would bring supplies. Imagine one day you live in a big tower, maybe saying hi to people in elevators, the next day, you are caring for seniors in your own building, working as a team with people you never really knew. 

On this particular day on Coney Island, they opened the back to find an entire truck of Pork meals. It was a Jewish neighborhood. They apologized, and took it to a different neighborhood! oops.

Another story he shared, he met a homeless  man who lived by the warehouse, the man had a low income place, but it flooded and he was on the street. He said he got his revenge on Sandy though, a container washed up on the beach, he and his buddies broke it open... HEINEKEN! A whole container of it!  They partied for days!  Of all the containers to wash up... ha!

My Honda got to play too! We installed the antennae on the roof.