Less Fever, More Cowbell

Good evening. Going to try to get through this quickly. It's been yet another busy week over here as February just about closes (leap day tomorrow). Solid week at school for Mia. I think she's getting things a bit quicker now, and catching on with no problems. She has a field trip this Wednesday to the Milwaukee Public Museum. Normally, I'd go but decided that if possible, Jill would chaperon this one. Sure enough, she can. Should be a fun time. Last Wednesday after school, Mia and Olivia went to Chuck E Cheese. They had a lot of fun, but that damn Chuck E scares her every time he comes out.

The Torrent has kept me real real busy (which is good) but everything is where it needs to be for the time being. The schedule is out, season ticket design was released and I'm already moving on to other projects. Its been nice to have a few days to breath and think about what I'm going to do next. Torrent TV is my latest that I came up with. First off, I've always enjoyed seeing the Chelsea Unseen videos on Youtube which takes fans behind the scenes of the club getting a glimpse of training, signings, pre/post game interviews and photoshoots. I want to do something similar. It gets fans more familiar with the Torrent players, staff and such. I have already designed a logo that will feature on the bottom or top of the screen in iMovie. Last night, I mastered some important techniques that will help polish these videos when I start filming. I'm pretty stoked about this. The song book for The Flood is coming along nicely. Apparently, I have to lead them, so this will be real interesting.

Friday night after work, we started watching Fuller House. Just as I predicted, the series will have lots of feels and caters mostly to the older audience. Mia loves the old episodes and enjoyed the first two of the new ones. Saturday morning, I watched Chelsea narrowly beat Southampton 2-1. Branna and Fabregas got the two goals, and we secured 3 needed points away. I believe they play Norwich on Tuesday. Later after the game, we went to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum. I've never been there before, but I have heard great things about it. Didn't disappoint. The place is totally fun and Mia had a blast doing all the different activities from TV camera operator to roof top gardening, it was a great family day.

Today, Mia wasn't feeling good (from what I understand when I got out of work) and has a fever. Hopefully she feels better in the morning, but most likely will have to stay home from school. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Hello February Goodbye January

Good evening. It's been a busy end of January and I'm quite ready to move on to the next month. Closer to hopefully spring. I was quite busy this week working on some big announcement images for the Milwaukee Torrent. I can't say much yet, but the league info should be out real soon. They've got another community game that was announced, this time against Cardinal Stritch. I think it'll be great for the community to see a professional level of soccer and hopefully it'll be a good turn out.

Mia's been blowing my mind with what she's learning in school. Her math skills are sharp and she's been able to sound out words in front of her almost easily. She seems to be enjoying school more and more, just not the "3-Kers" that harass the girls at recess. I dunno if they still do, but she'll pull out a random story here and there about how they push girls. Oh boys.

I sort of decided to abandon my Jose Mourinho portrait. It wasn't coming out how I hoped and I know I can do better. Jaw lines are tough and I gotta get better at them.  Saturday night, we went out to the movies after Jill worked. Kung Fu Panda 3. I've never seen any of the previous ones, but it was good. Jack Black shines in animated roles as well as Seth Rogan. Mia liked it as well. I think we'll have to watch the previous ones at some point.

Today was soccer day. But first, I had to get Remi out for a walk. While walking the pup where I normally do, I got hit by an SUV. well, less hit, more smacked. Remi and I were walking across the road that this car was had stopped and was planning on turning right. The older woman was focused on the traffic from one side, and didn't notice us walking in front of the car. If I didn't smack the hood of the SUV, they would have drove right into me. The car was right into my side before I let them know they hit me. They didn't role down the window or anything. They turned and went out. On top of that, Remi's leash broke AGAIN so I had to replace that today. Thankfully it was an easy exchange and we said "goodbye" to retractable leashes. Anyways so after that ordeal, I watched Chelsea win 5-1 in the FA cup game on Youtube. First half, Oscar netted his first hat-trick. I missed Hazard's PK and Traore's goal because I had left to go to the pet store during HT. Good to see Chelsea win a game they really shouldn't have had a problem winning. Hazard FINALLY got a goal this season as well.

All was great and wonderful in Chelsea FC, until I read that they were not going to offer John Terry a new deal. All day at work, I was pretty bummed that the player who's given his heart and soul to this club for 20 years would not get offered a new deal. Then, I just looked at Twitter again. Within 5 minutes, I read that they may offer him something...still. I know that players older than 30 don't get more then 1 year extentsions on contracts, but this guy bleeds blue. He IS Chelsea and I hope they can get a deal for him. He doesn't below in the MLS or any other organization except the Premier League. I hope Chelsea can pull their head out of their ass and get this worked out. We signed A former Red Bulls defender Miazga and Corinthians forward Pato. Transfer Window just about complete so we'll see if anything big happens. Ramires left for China, which doesn't surprise me since Mikel has been heavily favored since the returning of GH to the Blues. Luckily, Mikel hasn't been too bad, but Ramires clearly didn't want to hang out on the bench any longer.

This week, more work for the Torrent and Flood, hopefully will do my best to avoid the snow storm we're supposed to get but I gotta work Tuesday and get Mia to school Wednesday. Hopefully it's not too bad. Mia's got a birthday party this Friday evening for her friend Kaylee. Should be fun. that's all for now. Thanks for reading.

House of 1,000 Coughs

Good morning everyone. As you might have guessed from this week's blog title, everyone in the house is sick, or at least, hopefully getting over the sickness. Mid week, we all started to feel pretty lousy. I'm not sure if it was one of my coworkers who came to work for a short while sick that I caught and brought home, or something else, but all I know is, we've all been pretty miserable. Kids are the absolute worst when they're sick. They struggle breathing out of their noses, and can't sleep at night. Luckily, she likes honey, which helps a lot. Over the weekend, Mia and I made a deal that we'd watch the Chelsea vs Southampton game together. Good lord, what a disappointment. I don't know if morale was low from their defeat to Porto for the UCL game on Tuesday, but the game was just a struggle. They fired quickly at 10' and got a goal off a free kick. WOO! The rest of the game, was a disaster. The back line was playing too far up, despite Terry finally starting, it was a rough one. The strikers were pressing hard, and we couldn't stop them. Falcao wasn't getting shots in and Hazard wasn't working the magic. Begovic was solid but needs a better back. Despite the efforts, it wasn't enough. Immediately after the defeat, Mourinho addressed the media as if he was fighting for his job. Honestly, he shouldn't have to. Yes, he's cocky with an ego, but he knows the fault is with his team, and has to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, there's an international break, so hopefully we can straighten things out. I refuse to right off the rest of the season, and hope Chelsea can come back next week better than ever. Costa will be back from his suspension so hopefully he can help motivate this very worn out team.

Later, Jill's former roommate Willa and her her hubby stopped over for a little bit. It was nice catching up and Mia had fun interacting with them. Sunday, Jill and Mia went over to hang with her family and watch the Bears game. Yes, football. Mia wanted to watch her Grandpa's fav team with him. Later, I found out she didn't watch very much, but enjoyed spending time with him. She even sewed some patchwork together. I was pretty impressed considering her age. Today, back to school. We were sort of conflicted on if we should send her or not. She hasn't been sleeping much due to constant coughing through the night. We ended up waking her up and I took her this morning. She didn't sound plugged up anymore, and said she didn't wanna miss school. I was sort of worried that if she missed today and doesn't go on Thursdays (last week) they'd give her a ton of homework to do. Not that she can't do it easily, but I didn't want her to get overwhelmed.

Hopefully this week, we're all 100% better. Being sick sucks. That's all for now. Thanks for reading

Someday Somewhere

Good Morning. Once again, late and with lots to go over with. Tuesday, I took the day off so Jill, myself and Mia could drive down to Illinois for Jill's Grandma's funeral. I'm already not a big fan of them, but taking a 3 year old and having to explain the whole process will be both confusing and a little heart breaking, but in the end, Mia did very well. She didn't go into the actual funeral part because I didn't want her seeing her Great Grandma in the open casket. We hung out with a couple of kids in this other room and colored. She did go to the burial at the cemetery where I did a lot of the explaining. I was glad I was able to get off from work to spend time with Jill and her family to pay our respects to her dearly departed Grandma. She lived a good life and unlike a lot of senior citizens, had every bit of her memory in tact before she went.

We came back to Wisconsin Wednesday evening because both Jill and I worked Thursday. Friday, Mia had school which went well. She was a pain to get moving (per the usual) but had a great day. Her teacher told me "Mia said that she was excited to be in class, but didn't want to get out of bed because it was comfortable" Too funny. She cooked for her class outside using sticks and leaves and seems to be getting along well with all of the kids. We watched the Chelsea vs Aston Villa game Saturday morning. Great 3-0 victory securing 3 well-deserved points. Loved Oscar's goal. Willian picked up one as well as Costa. Costa has 8 goals in 7 games. He was a great pick for the Blues and I hope he can continue his success throughout the season. Champions League game Tuesday so hopefully we can pull off the win.

Friday, I had found out that there was an opening for a spot in a coed indoor soccer league. Great! Except they meet on MONDAYS. DAMMIT. I so wish to play in a league. It's been a frustrating Summer (and now Fall) that I can't get into some sort of league to play. There is a new indoor place in West Allis called Strikers of WI LLC that hasn't been open too long. I asked them if they plan on doing any open times. Sounds like they might start at some point. I just hope it doesn't fall through.

So back to Saturday. We went to the Harvest Fest at the Stare Fair grounds with my brother and his wife and kids. Mia got her hair done like Elsa. Blue with snowflake stencil sprayed on her blonde head. She loved it, but it was a pain to wash out at night. Still, she looked gorgeous and kids throughout the day were complimenting her on it. She also tried pumpkin bowling. Knocked two pints down. Not bad.

Later at night. Jill and my sister-in-law went out for dinner while my bro and myself hung back with the kids. It was fun, and Mia really enjoy herself as well. She made him food while he played guitar for us. I've got to take her to a work meeting this Wednesday. Hopefully it won't be too long and she can make it through.  Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for reading.