Fun in the Sun

Good morning everyone. Normally, I would have wrote last night, but after the 8+ hours of busting tail for our cleaning inspection, I got home late and had no energy. It was a busy week and it feels like April is almost over already. Wednesday after school, Mia and her BFF Olivia made plans to go to the zoo. The weather wasn't the best, but the girls had a lot of fun and there was just about 10 people there so they had the whole place to run. I've never been to the zoo where there was so little people there. The girls especially enjoyed the gorillas and bonobos. They were sort of interacting with the kids. It was pretty cute.

The weather gradually improved throughout the week and by Friday, Mia was able to play all morning before I had to go to work. She experimented with spray chalk (which she absolutely loved), cruised in her Mustang and picked flowers. Later, I made some modifications to the Torrent Tom. I knew that I needed a marching strap to be more mobile at the games but I didn't want to shell out the cash for one (they're about $20) so I got creative and used two duffel bag straps and you know what? It totally works. After I went to work, Mia spent the rest of the day outside with Grandma and Grandpa.

Saturday, she got up excited for her longtime good friend Hannah's birthday party. Every day that week, she was hoping was the party date. "No sweetie, it's only Tuesday". Such painful words to udder to a small child...or an adult. Anyways, She picked out a dress to wear, and later in the morning, she went to Hannah's house for the party. About 12-13 kids total, PLUS they had a familiar magician entertain the kids. We saw him at the Hales Corner library last summer and she loved it. He did an amazing job and was very impressive. Mia got a lion balloon he made for her as well. Hannah was adorable as his little assistant for some of the tricks. Mia enjoyed the cupcakes and pizza and soon we were on our way home. My old pal Steve was at our house installing a door he started about 3 years ago. It was a long time coming, but it turned out gorgeous. I can't thank him enough.

While we were gone, Jill went to the early Just Between Friends sale in search of shorts for Mia. She ended up with some shorts, skirts and a gymnast outfit. Looks like we're signing up the diva for gymnastics this summer. Mia's really excited. Later, we made the most amazing barbecue chicken tacos for dinner. Absolutely tasty. While at the party, I missed the Chelsea vs Man City game. Luckily I did miss it because they blew yet, another game 0-3.

Sunday, we spent the morning outside again enjoying every bit of nice weather before I had to go to work. Mia played with the neighbor boy the entire time. Later, I heard she went to the beach and played in the sand.

This week, I'm super busy. I'm off today, but will be in Milwaukee later photographing and videoing the Torrent's first training session. That means I've got a lot of editing to do tonight after. I need to start the salon logo as well. Mia's got a field trip Thursday with Jill's Dad to Sendiks and Texas Roadhouse.  Saturday is the first Torrent game I'll get to attend. Thursday is their VERY first game but I can't make it. That's all for now, thanks for reading!

The Good, The Bad, and the Depressing

Greetings. I'm just going to dive into the recent happenings and events, alright? Okay then. Last Friday evening post-work, we packed the car and headed down to Illinois for a weekend with the in-laws (and Jill's pals) Mia was super excited, in fact she was so excited, she crashed before we even got to Lake Geneva. Good. A nice quiet drive is always preferred when we're making the late-night road trip. Arrived at 1:15am, and got right to sleep since Jill had to be up early for her plans with her friends in the morning. Saturday, she met up with her longtime friends to celebrate one of the friends' birthday, so we didn't see her the rest of the day. Mia and I enjoyed our time with Jill's parents. We even got to watch the Penguins/Blue Jackets game. It was a great win for the Pens. Sunday, I got up at 8am to watch the big Chelsea vs Liverpool game. It was quite enjoyable to see our team, with most of our usual starting men out and injured, beat an otherwise healthy Liverpool. Even during breakfast, Mia quietly asked me in my ear "Daddy, I'm done eating, can I go watch the Chelsea game now?" Love it.

This week's game against Atletico Madrid was far more nerve wrecking. The anticipation to today, was intense and with last week's leg drawing at 0-0, anything could happen today. We had a few of the injured playing with high hopes of going on to the final against Real Madrid. Fernando Torres had a great goal that had me thinking "Okay, maybe we can pull this off, just need a few more
goals to finish the game" but Atletico responded with an equalizer. Bummer.

2nd half, the game only got more intense with Atletico getting stronger in the back, and muscling our forwards to ground. I can't remember a time when Eden Hazard wasn't getting shoved. I still don't get how they didn't call a foul on the heavy shove to Andres Schurrle. However, Eto'o's challenge in the box gave our possible new striker come Summer time (it's still in the talks of course) Diego Costa a PK. The turkey did get yellow carded for taking way too long to set up for his strike, but when we finally settled on his ball placement, he fired in the 2nd goal for AM. Crap...

A lazy move by Hazard let them finish us off with their 3rd goal. It was a tough match, especially at the end. Perhaps we shouldn't have been playing some of our injured guys, or maybe we were just making too many mistakes, regardless, it wasn't enjoyable. Mia even said "Daddy, I'm sad Chelsea lost too"

The week has been quite overcast and rainy, so me and Miss Mia have not been able to do anything outside. I did however see some sun this morning on my daily early walk with the dog. New art coming hopefully soon. Not sure what we're doing this weekend. Jill's got to work Saturday, and I've got a 7-3pm shift. That's all for now. Thanks for reading!