Dinner, Anyone?

Anyone interested in a dinner for five? Menu is undetermined. Probably chicken or beef. You'll be seated in a quaint little dining room along with 2,000 or so other guests. Oh yeah, did I mention it's in Philadelphia, so it's two plus hours away? All this for the incredible price of $270.00! Alright. The truth. The only thing incredible about this deal is how incredibly stupid Pop Warner Football must think we are. That's right. For us to attend Collin's Scholastic All-American Banquet, just the dinner will cost $270.00! Here's the breakdown. $40.00 per plate per kid (including Aaron. He's such a big eater at three years old.) and $75.00/ea. for Linda and I. Are they freakin' kidding?! They must be crazy if they think I'll pay that. The way this whole thing is supposed to work is the awards ceremony is on Friday night and the banquet is on Saturday night. So if we were to go, we would also require a hotel room. Which brings me to my next gripe. Their website says that the Marriott, which is actually attached to the convention center where this is being held, is offering "special" rates for attendees. $149.00/night! I checked out Expedia and found the Hilton (that's the Hilton, mind you) directly across the street for $94.00/night. That's special alright. But wait. It gets better. For everyone to attend the awards ceremony on Friday, we have to pay $5.00/person for that! (Although Collin gets in to that for free.) Oh, and don't forget the Pop Warner jerseys you can buy for only $49.00! So, needless to say, we will not be attending the banquet. Although we will attend the awards ceremony on Friday and drive back home that night. Me thinks something stinks around here, and this time, it ain't me. I think Profit Warner... Oops. sorry. I mean Pop Warner, has lost their way. (or their minds) just a tad. So let's do some simple math and summarize, shall we? Award ceremony - $20.00. Hotel - $149.00. Banquet - $270.00. The satisfaction of teaching our son that there will come times in your life when you have to stand up for what is right, even though it may not be popular, and say "No".... Priceless.

Science Fair Update!!

The Cape Henlopen School District 5th Grade Science Fair was tonight. Collin's "Spud or Dud" project, based on the potato cannon, won fourth place in the "Physical Science" category! Who says blowing up stuff isn't educational?

UPDATE! UPDATE!

A few posts back, I mentioned how Collin was nominated for Scholastic All-American. That puts him in the top one percent of all Pop Warner players nationwide. He would either be chosen 1st team, second team, or honorable mention prior to going to the national banquet in Philthy-delphia in May. We were told that the decisions on who made what teams would not be made public until April 1st, but they came out today. Collin made 2nd team! I put a link to the PopWarner web site page that has his name in it. We are super proud of him! Anyway, that's all for now. We'll keep you updated.

http://www.popwarner.com/scholastics/2010scholars/5thGradeFootball10.htm

Dancin' Fool

In a previous post, I mentioned how Aaron loves dancing to the "Cops" theme. Well, I finally got it on video. We really need to find him a hobby.



P.S. If you want to see something really funny, after the video has played, grab the little doohickey (technical term, you wouldn't understand) and back it up to the beginning of the video. The still shot that it shows is better than the whole video. He reminds me of Lucky the Leprechaun!

You Want Fries With That?

Hey Guys. Check out our new potato cannon. We made it as part of Collin's science fair project. The burning question he's going to answer is "Which type of potato flies farther when shot from a potato gun; russet, sweet, or white?" The first video yielded no conclusive facts. Truthfully, I think our cannon needed some Viagra. It's hard to tell on such a small screen, but the potato flies out of the barrel and goes a whopping 3 feet. Hence the laughter you hear. We made some minor adjustments and in no time, we had spuds a flyin'! The second video shows the potato flying across our yard into our neighbor's yard. At the end of the day, the white potato flew farthest with an average distance of 361 feet. We'll let you know how he does in the science fair. The longest shot we got off was a killer 396 feet! That one actually went past our yard, past our next door neighbor's yard, and landed in the neighbor's yard two houses down! That one sent the boys running. When we were done, we took the left over potatoes and shot them in the opposite direction into the pond behind our other neighbor's house. We're expecting the strongly worded, well organized list of grievances to arrive any day now from the homeowners association. "You might be a redneck if your homeowners association files a complaint against you about firing your potato cannon!" There goes the property values.

P.S. Thank you Karen for the book on how to build the cannon! You should take pride in the fact that you contributed to my children's delinquency.

Bad Boys

Hey all. Just thought I would write a bit and let you in on all the excitement at the Mattia house. Well, not really, but here goes. Aaron has taken a strange liking to the show "Cops". As I write this, we're watching an episode. Lucky for him, it's on TruTv every night. He runs through the house with his handcuffs and his gun (or his shoot gun as he calls it) shouting "GET ON THE GROUND!, GET ON THE GROUND!" Don't even get me started on how funny it is to see him dancing and singing when the "Bad Boys" theme song comes on! That's a video I've got to get. I've spent many a night handcuffed, stuffed behind the recliner (that's jail) waiting to make bail. And now since American Idol has started, and we all saw the audition with the man singing "Pants on the Ground", we run around shouting "PANTS ON THE GROUND!, PANTS ON THE GROUND!" It's a little disturbing. Anyway, baseball has officially started. I'm managing Matthew's team. Try-outs are tomorrow and Sunday. Then we have the draft. It should be great. The pressure is on though. Matthew's team, the Indians, are the minor league champs two years running. Now the team is mine. Yikes. Wish me luck. Collin's team, the Braves, should be pretty good this year. They have a lot of talent (including Collin!) coming back this year as well as some good players moving up from the minors. It should be a good time. Work is picking up. We've ventured into new territory. We built our first entertainment center. I've included a picture of it. It's all from scratch. I even made the raised panel doors myself. Our customer is very happy with it, and it was profitable, so what's not to like? What we would like to do next is make wood patio furniture. I know it sounds crazy, but it could be good. We're still checking it out. I'll keep you posted. Well, that's all for now. I just made bail. Thank God. Bubba started singing "Pants on the Ground!" Talk to you soon.