Sunday, July 28, 2019

Cousins Weekend

Greetings. Dead exhausted as I type this, but I'll try to get through it before passing out. The week was a fun one. Spent a lot of time with Mia outside hanging and she did a little art while relaxing in her hammock. Wednesday, Mia proudly showed me some new bass things she's learned at lessons. She's slowly starting to show progression and a bit more confidence which is fantastic. Thursday, Mia picked up a pair of Nike Neymar Hypervenom boots off the Facebook Marketplace. After a few weeks of convincing her cleats were getting too small on her, she finally agreed and we got these for a steal. $10. Not bad for a used pair of pristine boots. Too bad they're Neymar signature but it's all good. Mia digs them and is looking forward to Fall soccer. We drove over to Guitar Center for fun and she played a pricy Fender bass, did some drumming on the E-kit. She somehow has double bass drum techniques down. I've never even explained it to her other than "both feet usually go pretty fast if you want to do blast beats" and she quickly got the hand of it. Later, we went to the studio for some lemonade photos as well as a few fashion pictures for the kid. We even got Remi in on the ad. Never easy getting him to cooperate, but eventually we got the shot. All in all, awesome day with the kid. A little lunch, new cleats, some great photos and later, we put together the ad and published it for the public to advertise Mia's big charity sale.

Friday was mine and my twin sister's birthday. I decided to not take off and work like any other day. Work was pretty busy but the day wasn't too bad. Mia made me a lunch before taking her over to her Grandma and Grandpa Ridenour's house. There, she made me a cute little square piece via sewing machine with a "C" on it for Chelsea. Soo sweet. When I got home from work, she also gave me a cool tropical t-shirt and a soccer ball cake. Awesome.

Saturday, we went to Dave and Busters for lunch. Never been there before but it was a great time. Food was alright, but the games were fantastic. The highlight was the incredibly fun Star Wars pod game. Raced on a speeder bike on Endor shooting at scout troops. Total blast. Cheryl really enjoyed it too. Mia did a fun but difficult plane game, a ring toss one and a few other different games. All in all, great time.

Later, the boys Easton and Camden came over for the weekend. Jill planned a lot of fun activities like  bingo, crafts, Nerf Gun battle, silly string, etc etc etc. The kids woke up today at 5:30am and I think I got about 2 hours of sleep. We went to the park for a few hours and rode around our driveway as well. Later, they were picked up by their Grandma and said their goodbyes. Tonight after work, I discovered my house completely dark with Jill and Mia fast asleep. Clearly, worn out from the weekend. On that note, I think I'm going to crash myself. This week, maybe some art lessons, I've got art to create for our upcoming sale and Mia is heading to Ohio Saturday. I'm going to go to the Torrent match Saturday.

In a few weeks, I'll be getting my tattoo done of a very cool drawing Mia made for me. Can't wait.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Forza Viola a Chicago!

Buona sera a tutti. It's been quite a week with some awesome memories, so let's get right to it. My work week was a bit weird because of my Tuesday off leaving me with working Mon, Wed, Fri. Tuesday, Mia met up at the park with buddy Vida and the girls played for about an hour or so. Weather a bit warm, but they had a great time swinging, playing tic-tac-toe and running around Malone Park. Later, My Dad arrived at my house for our big and exciting trip to Bridgeview for the AFC Fiorentina vs Chivas Guadalajara match. I thought we'd be able to beat any traffic heading into and around the city but man, we certainly got stuck in it. Ugh. Luckily because we left with plenty of time, we arrived with an hour to spare. Phew. We knew immediately upon arriving Fiorentina fans would be outnumbered 10-1 against the Chivas fans. Luckily, the environment was positive and a hell of a lot of fun. 


 I bought tickets specifically in the Fiorentina supporters designated section so I could give my Dad a great experience, but I didn't expect to find so many Chivas fans sitting with us. Then again, the ticket price was super cheap and we were literally on the ground level pitch behind the net. We walked around a bit, checked out some of the overpriced merchandise and made our way to our seats. We got to watch the team warm up right in front of us smashing balls at the keeper. I knew that this was probably the closest I'll get him to a professional football match between to international teams. Anyways, they walked out, we all cheered stuffed on the bleachers with a variety of supporters right in the front row and the match started.

Chivas got a goal off a deflection and the crowd went insane. Drums, horns and cheers filled the crowd as 10,000 of us watched on. Quickly, Simeone from Fiorentina equalized and the Viola fans went crazy. Amazing!! Halftime, and it was 1-1. Some of the fans that were stuffed onto our bench split and surprisingly, some didn't come back. Great. 2nd half started and we had an obnoxious steward standing directly in front of us. Are you kidding me? Luckily after 10 or so minutes, he was gone and moved down. Awesome. The Chivas drums started up again and the match continued. Viola started to pick up possession and it wasn't long before Riccardo Sottil picked up an incredible goal and the Fiorentina fans went crazy. I was even texted by my older brother that he saw me on TV get up and cheer. My Mom mentioned as well that she saw my DSLR camera flash go off a few times. The game ended 2-1 to Fiorentina and we were quite happy. My Dad had a fantastic time. I'm really glad I could take him to what probably will be the only time he'll see Fiorentina again. Not to sound so grim or anything, but Viola doesn't come to the states that often, or even this close to Wisconsin. On the long long drive back, he kept thanking me for taking him and wants to make a drive to Madison to see their USLOne team in action. I was dead exhausted, but made it back home and crashed into my pillow about 1:30am. I went to sleep with this feeling of accomplishment that I was able to take my Dad to something special he's always wanted to do and it was an incredible time.

Wednesday, Mia went to her friend Noelle's house to swim with her and her sister. Mia had a great time and looks forward to coming over again.  Thursday, I had art lessons with Micah and Gigi. We did some fruit water coloring and the kids had a great time. Gianna's really great at getting her shadows in when it comes to painting or drawing and Micah really nailed her apple sketch. I talked her into taking a bite of it to give the piece really fun texture and dimension. Awesome. I always look forward to working with these talented girls. Later, we had sushi and bobba tea from Fusion Cafe. Totally fun trying new places for sushi and we were excited to find a bobba tea place near us. 

Over the weekend, we had some gnarly storms roll in along with a rough heatwave which sadly cancelled the Torrent vs Risers match that Mia was looking forward to going to. We hung out, got her school supplies and made waffles for dinner. Mia played bass and we hit the bed soon after. 

Today, we just hung out and relaxed before I went to work. This week, nothing major planned till my birthday weekend. Maybe art lessons? Who knows, guess we'll find out :) That's all for now, thanks for reading! 

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Soccer Week

Greetings! Man, what a busy week. Mostly for Mia. This week started Mia's very first soccer camp with the Milwaukee Torrent Community Foundation. The owner/coach of the Torrent, Andy Davi hosts an incredible week-long soccer camp that brings in youth coaches from Germany (more specifically, the Bayer Leverkusen club) to teach and instruct kids about the Beautiful Game. Mia had been looking forward to this moment for MONTHS. She was so insanely excited for her first day, she was in her gear hours before we left. Talk about excitement.

Upon arriving, there were certainly a lot of kids from different soccer clubs. Sadly, that sort of made Mia feel like an outsider. Most of the kids signed up for the camp with friends so Mia would have to attempt to make a friend, which didn't work out. She told me throughout the week that "this camp isn't about making friends, it's about me getting really good at football" (yes, she calls soccer football instead) She took this serious. Despite being pretty shy, she really liked the coaches and worked hard to complete the different challenges and Bundasliga tests that Coach Davi had set up. She really liked Coach Anne, the one woman on staff. She was super friendly with the kids, so Mia took an immediate shine to her. I really enjoyed watching for the short while that I could before work because it gave me some really good ideas for drills when Fall soccer starts. Mia enjoyed having me watch as well. 

Wednesday, Mia had soccer camp AND she went to her BFF Cecilia's birthday party. Talk about a busy day following soccer and bass lessons on Tuesday. Thursday I was off, so I attempted to fly my drone to get some sick aerial shots of the camp. It wouldn't fly due to a firmware update. Ugh. Friday was Mia's last day. World Cup day. She was so excited to play a full day of matches. She said she almost got a goal in one of the games. The kids also got to play with Torrent players from the Men's and Women's team. Cool! She even has two new favorite players. Sadly, one is leaving for a Spain team, and the other guy, I don't know who he is yet. She liked his skills and said he was pretty friendly. I finally got my drone up in the air that morning before we went to camp. Even let Mia fly it and she did really well. At the camp, the camera was a bit blown out and on top of that, was having satellite interference issues. Ugh. Such a disappointment. 

My parents picked her up and watched the little end-of-camp ceremony. Mia got her German diploma for completing the tests, a Leverkusen pennant, pin and sticker as well as another Torrent season ticket and a camp ball. We'll be using this to bring in friends and family this season to the Men's matches. Mia had the best time at the camp and I recommend it to any kid wanting to grow their skills. The coaching staff totally enjoy their time with the kids and I know Mia will remember this one for a long time. She kept bringing up this week that she is totally excited she has a t-shirt and soccer ball with logos on it that I created. "THAT MEANS YOU'RE A FASHION DESIGNER DADDY!!" Friday night after I got home from work, Mia was dribbling around the ball showing me some of the useful skills she learned. She even told me that during scrimmages, she'd use her weight and arms to get in front of the opposing players to get the advantage and when she'd dribble, turn her body so they couldn't get it from her. Awesome!! Thanks again everyone involved for making this camp happen and giving Mia the confidence to grow on the field. 

Saturday, Jill worked on some macarons most of the day while I worked on some logo revisions. Later, we had Noodles and went to the NB West production of Mary Poppins. Our friend's son was one of the characters and one of my student's worked backstage. It's always awesome seeing performances like this. The cast and crew work very hard to make these things happen. Jill and I liked it. Mia said it was alright. 3 hours is a long time for a kid to sit through a play. She liked parts of it, and kept getting sleepy through parts of it. When she got home, she polished her soccer ball till looked brand new and once again, dribbling all over the house. When I say my kid loves soccer, she really does. The Torrent Men's team had their first pre-season friendly and won 14-1. Holy crap. Hoping for more of the same this season. 

Today,  Jill worked on more macarons and later we made a quick little trip to the zoo specially to see the river otters. So cute. This week, nothing major planned. Oh, accept my Dad and I are DRIVING TO CHICAGO TO SEE FIORENTINA!! Viola take on Chivas at Seatgeek Field and we've got the closest seats possible and will be sitting with the Fiorentina supporters. Can't. WAIT. This may be my Dad's only opportunity to see two international teams. Maybe art lessons this week? We'll see. Chelsea's on a pre-season tour and after two friendlies in Ireland, they're off to Japan. 

That's all for now thanks for reading! 


Sunday, July 7, 2019

Art Week

Good evening everyone. It was quite a busy week, specifically art-wise. I lead an exciting, fun and intense group of art lessons with some talented kids ranging from 10-14. Some of the new students remembered me from my Art Week over at Orchard Lane. The kids worked in pencil, color pencil, water colour as well as pen. My younger group thrived in water colour. We even had a special guest Mrs Weber, the art teacher from OL stop by. She herself, wanted a quick water colour lesson. Are you KIDDING ME? We did a basic sunset and the kids learned about blending while keeping the paper wet so the sky looked smooth. The kids really liked this lesson and Mrs Weber certainly enjoyed having all these kids here. My older group that day worked in pen and later, a very difficult sketch of Dumbledore. It was my student's idea to work on hair texture so as a group, they weren't too thrilled with their end results. We'll work on hair again. They want to paint next time as well, which will be fun. I personally, would like to do some painting at home as well so I can teach them new stuff. Plus, it'd be nice to do some painting with Mia as well.

This busy week gave me a creative purpose. Work drains my creativity, but when I've got 7 kids looking forward to learning and drawing/painting me, that keeps me motivated. I'm so proud of their skills and what they've learned and I look forward to more art lessons. I've got more kids looking for art lessons in the near future but this week is booked because Mia starts soccer camp.

Thursday, I cut the grass while Jill cooked some food for our first 4th of July gathering. She made Puka dogs, some imitation poke bowls (watermelon instead of raw fish) and other yummy food. There was a water balloon fight between the cousins, which was all kinds of crazy. Mia's good friend Vida stopped by with a little 4th of July gift for the diva. It was a clear jar with a ribbon for collecting things. Would be great for fireflies. Mia even played her bass guitar for everyone and practiced her scales.

Friday, Jill stayed home and worked. Saturday, we went to the zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect so it was pretty busy. Sadly, the red pandas weren't out, but Mia did enjoy checking out the fennec foxes, the baby monkey with their crazy family, the giraffes and flamingos.

Later, we went to see Toy Story 4. All of us were surprised how decent it was. Plenty of funny parts with a bit of darkness as well. After we got home, Mia and I went to the Torrent vs Green Bay Glory match. The last WPSL match for the ladies of the season. We arrived a bit late, but immediately had the crowd chanting. Green Bay had about 20 traveling fans including some young girls hanging by us waving their Glory flag. The match was pretty close and despite the hard work from the Blues, it ended 3-3 FT. There hasn't been this kind of atmosphere at a WPSL match ever, so even though we didn't win, we kept the crowd chanting and excited. Some of the men's team attended as well and from one of our die-hard fans heard from them, they really like our supporters. Great. We guarantee the same noise for you guys when the season starts! One of the highlights of the night was some of the Bayer Leverkusen coaches that flew in for camp met Mia and introduced themselves. She was shy, but when they asked "are you a bit nervous for camp?" She answered "No, not at all".

Sunday, we watched the World Cup final. USA was victorious 2-0. Immediately after the won, there was plenty of "EQUAL PAY" chanted in France. The women's team dominated the tournament and have set the standard for women's soccer on this stage. It's unreal how talented these ladies are. Later, it was time to go to work. Blah. In other news this week, Super Frank was announced as the new manager for Chelsea FC. It's going to be a very interesting season for the Blues and I can't wait to see what he brings to the table as a manager.

This week, Mia's got soccer camp every day 12-2. She's been waiting for this for MONTHS and can't wait to start. She's anticipating making some new friends this week so we'll see how it goes. She may get to see her BFF Cecilia for her birthday (Hopefully) but we'll see what happens. That's all for now, thanks for reading!