There was a cah Pahked in Hahvid yahd

     Okay, I will admit to being the goofiest person around, but you have to admit that when you go to Harvard Yard and see a car parked inside, you have to take notice.  We were in Cambridge for the New England Championships and we went into Harvard Square because we had a little time to waste while Laura did her warmups.  Of course this is what most people who are not from this area ask us to repeat when they hear us speak...you know, I PARKED MY CAR IN HARVARD YARD....so when you get into Harvard Yard you have to make the most of it.......

Erp,hayr, hoot, woop, woop, woop,yep yep, whistle hep hep, doop doop

If you've. Never been to a swim meet before, get ready for some loud lunacy,.  I guess one of the oddest thing a newcomer to this sport  that catches your attention is the middle aged chubby males, their coaching noises and overall noises, tactics and otherwise pure lunacy that comes with it.  A lot of them look like cousin bubbah.  You will see one of them running alongside of the swimming lane with a rolled up piece of paper held above their head as they make this ungodly hooting noise...and what's even worse is the whistlers...

     Here are a couple of the bubbah's mixed in...whoop, whoop, blop, blop, yeeeep, yeeep...I'm not exaggerating, I swear

Pluta

My psycho-catcher was at her best the other night.  She is a very intense catcher for her team and...is very good at that too.  At one point during the game she had to make a throw to third to peg a runner and the throw hit the runner...in the foot.  Drama ensued and by the miracles of life, the runner was able to get up and shake it off.  A mother in the crowd behind home plate called Laura a BITCH.  Why o why would she want to wake the evil inside of this girl.  When you encounter such a competitor as Laura, you don't want to taunt her, she will only beat you more.  Thankfully she is still a lady and did not respond with any verbal actions......Lyn made sure she was able to get out of the park without any further problems and she encounter two coaches from the other team on her way out who wanted Laura to play on their club team....they said all of this in front of mommy bitch talker.....Its good to be asked but she's a swimmer first but you can just smile and move on.....anyway, I was talking to Laura and she was not fazed by what happened.  I told her that I couldn't mock her during the game like I usually do with the name the lady called her....I usually call her Hippie, or psycho and she smiles at me.....but its not like I can yell out GO GET EM YOU BITCH....no, not so nice.....so she told me that a bitch is a female dog...I then asked her, what about Mickey Mouses dog...Pluto....nope, she said Pluto is a he...so, its now decided we will take the feminine of Pluto....I will now call her PLUTA.....oh, this has to be the silliest blog post ever

1st in tourney

     Atta boy Jackie.  He continued on with his great play as did his team and they turned out a tournament championship in Cambridge this weekend.  He did very good.  It was very serious business out there on the field.  Its very fun to watch him play and to see how serious he takes it.  I sit in the outfield when i got to these games, far away from the action and I think i could just sit there and watch him play all day and night.  Its a great feeling just to watch him, and any of the kids for that matter.  They are all so cool and to watch them growing makes me happy.

The coach

Here is Laura’s coach, Mr. Ring.  She just adores the man and his inspirational talks that he has with her.  For a large part of his life he competed in Speed skating and traveled to do such.  He had different strategies that he used to keep on top of his health and his game and those are the things that he passes along to Laura.  He loves the competitor that she has become and never misses an opportunity to spend some time with her.  He went with us to Harvard this past weekend to see her swim in the Bay State games.  He loved to see all the races and got excited to see the closer ones.  He’s a fun guy and gets around better than a lot of people 50 years his junior.    Here, Laura is showing mr Ring her silver medal after her softball game.

Right back at it with Swimmin meets

     Back to another meet.  This meet Emily, Laura, Erin, Catherine and Jack all got to compete and swim it up.  Laura and Emily are the queens in the summer league as there is very rarely much competition for either one of them, except when they swim against each other, which they did twice yesterday.  Emily is the mad breast stroke gal and Laura loves the butterfly.  Catherine was very good in her back stroke, winning the event and Jack did very, very good in both the butterfly and free style.  They all seem to enjoy it quite a bit.  It really is so fun to see them in their little social circles and how they interact.  Laura always has little Rosie following her around and both are the first to greet the other after they get out of the pool from racing.  Rosie is a six year old that has taken to Laura, and vice versa.  

Erin getting ready for her heat

Laura and Emily facing off in the back stroke.

Kitty cat looking to destroy the competition

Sweetest girl I know

Bay State Games...at Harvard University

     The Bay State games!!!  Such an honor to actually make it and the girls made a lot of events.  Laura ended up with a silver medal and Emily had a bronze.  They were exhausted with all that swimming.  they had a meet on Friday night and woke up early on Saturday, swam all day till the early evening and did it all over again on Sunday.  Such good kids and they love swimming.  Laura and Mr Ring have this special relationship where he absolutely loves her work ethic and competitive drive.  He's a former champion speed racer on the ice and he loves to talk training with her.  He had told her some of his secrets of training through the years and one of them was to drink honey before competitive racing.  Now Laura has a shot of honey before every race.  All the kids on her team get a big kick out of that...and the one thing about Laura that I absolutely love is she don't give a shit!!!  The fact that Mr Ring said it is good enough for her.  Funny funny funny gal she is.

Fourth of July 2016

     Ahhh, the fourth of July festivities.  Annually, just an all around fun time for all.  The kids start by running the two mile race, then the parade, over to the swim club and then we finish it all with the fireworks. 

     gooooooo Jackie....he ran with uncle Jamie this week.  Jeez, just a couple of years ago he spent the whole race on my shoulders and now he is kicking butt through the course

Catherine is an unbelievable runner now.  Of course they got near the finish line and Laura told her she had to stop for some reason.  Catherine, being the sweet sister that she is, stopped to see if Laura needed some help.  Laura then bolted off towards the finish line so she could finish ahead of her....ohhhh, that was such a Jimmy move.
     Speaking of Jimmy, there are limited picutres of him running because once again he kicked butt during the race and was way ahead of everyone.  I'm hoping Kara got a picture of him running....but the last two races he's done he's been very fast.

Here is Laura with her friend Rachel.  Rachel is so funny its hard not to like her.  She's such a nice kid and is always smiling and laughing.  If Laura isnt with her, he's texting and snapchatting, instagramming or whatever the kids do these days.  But its so heartening to see what a great time these two have together.  Laura told me she's so happy that Raquel and Emma are now closer friends because she now has both of her best friends together and it forms like a circle of friends for her...my words, not hers....

now if i would have taken this picture i would have been accused of something....its kara's picture

Hillary dabbing

Jack has recently announced to the world that during this presidential election, he is all for Hillary.  He says he heard about the wall and he doesnt want anyone building a wall.   This mask was wayyyy too awesome to just leave at the store so its his.  Now of course Hillary dabbing is another thing.  I'm  still trying to perfect my dabbing abilities, or lack thereof.

Red Sox with young James

Jimmy had asked me to go to the Red Sox and of course i obliged.  Off to StubHub i went and tickets were had easily.  After some talk it was decided that we were going to sit in the bleachers.  We ran into Uncle Jerry and Yvette who had gone there with Cassie......the final score...well, who pays attention to the game anyhow, but the final score was for the bad guys at 21-2 but its been a while since i paid attention to the score when i bring one of the kids to the game.  Jimmy and I have our traditions when it comes to the red sox games, and of course, they involve food.  We have to get the hot dogs and hamburgers before the game.  A ton of pizza boxes and of course, the sixth inning ice cream helmet.  Oh when he was a little bit younger i would bring him home and inevitably it would end up that he would have an upset stomach.....now its my stomach that gets upset at me.