The 2007 Casserole Olympics

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Pictured above are the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalists from this year's Casserole Olympics, our annual to benifit our local homeless shelter, Hessed House.

The Gold Medalist was none other than our next door neighbor Jeff Scott, who presented Buffalo Chicken and Mac and Cheese Casserole.

The Silver Medalist was neighbor Glenn Rossi, who made pizza in a casserole dish and inexplicably won a medal. (I kid.)

Bronze Medalist Dana Kapadia won with a spicy corn casserole that people are still talking about. (Okay, I am....)

The best part is, Hessed House won most of all, as they received many pans full of casseroles plus loads of canned goods to feed the local homeless.

We feel lucky to be able to host this annual event and we'd all like to thank those who particpated, either as contestants or as judges.

Cody Ambrose - Our Graduate!

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We had a small graduation last weekend, as Cody graduated from pre-school. Yes, it is not exactly Yale, but it was a day worth celebrating, and so we did.

It was Cody's idea to dress up in a shirt and tie, and he got to pick outDaddy's outfit too. (Hence the matching clothes - notice that Cody's tie has baseballs on it, while mine has soccer balls on it.)

There was quite a little performance from the graduates, including a performance piece from Cody as one of the Three Little Pigs that we all remember from childhood stories.

It was a spectacular ceremony for our little fella. We are deeply proud of him, and look forward to his starting kindergarten in a few months.

What a Loon!

No, really, the guy is a loon.

A Great Lakes Loon.

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Pictured above is the great Loons pitcher Joe Jones, who was an excellent ambasador for both his team and for minor league baseball.

We had a great time at our first Kane County Cougars game for 2007. 

A truly great time.

This is just a great picture. So is this one.

(It was a night game.)

The boys had a blast, as they always seem to at Cougars games.

But still, we got a ball from ol' Joe Jones of the Loons, and as often happens, by the end of the game, we were cheering for the visitors. After all, they give us balls, while the Cougars sit far, far away.

Happy Birthday Cody

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Today Cody Ambrose turns five years old.

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We could not be happier our prouder of our little Cody. He is the sweetest little boy any parent could ask for. And yes, he did have two birthday cakes. He is worthy of that. 

For the sake of perspective, here he is five years ago this week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY!

Lollipop Cookies

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Baking cookies has never been one of my culinary specialties. I've always tried to do nice presentations though, and the cookies pictured above are a perfect example of both. The recipe is from Gale Gand, and is one I thought would be both tasty and fun to make. My guess is that if I had done things properly, I would have been right on both accounts. But still....

I made the dough according to the recipe, cut the dough into heart-shaped cookies and then cut a smaller heart-shaped cut-out from each cookie to later fill the hole with lollipop base. 

Everything was fine so far.

Then came the lollipop-making. I've never tried to make hard candy before - my recommendation is to leave it to the experts. (Of which I am definitely not one.)

The cookies, once filled with the lollipops, looked great. The cookies themselves tasted kind of eh, not sweet, not exactly not-sweet, just eh.

The lollipops, however, were bitter and burned, despite following the recipe instructions to the letter. Still, had these been edible, they would have made a nice presentation.

Instead, they made for some nice looking cookies in the garbage can.

From here on out, I'll still with what I know, and candy-making is not on the list.

One more look.

It Was Six Years Ago Today.....

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....that Carolyn and I were heading off to Copley Hospital to welcome young John Bailey to the world. Six years. 2191 days, counting one leap year. This is one of the first pictures we took of him. He was always a very happy baby and was a treasure to have around. This picture is from a little later in 2001, November I think. He was a penguin for his first Halloween in October, 2001. 

Today he turns six years old, and if anything, he's gotten easier and more fun to raise, and he remains a lot of fun to have around. 

This is what our six-year-old looks like today:

If you'd like to see how much Bailey has grown in the past 12 months, click here.

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He's having his birthday party with friends tomorrow - today, the four of us will have a small celebration with the Birthday Boy's requested dinner: Hot dogs and mac and cheese. (Yum, I guess.)

Provided As A Public Service Announcement

This website has several thousand music videos available with a simple click on "play." The videos are sorted alphabetically. 

One could waste hours watching videos here. Hours, I tell you, hours.

I speak from experience.

Just one example (click the arrow to see the video):



"...no I never got over those blue eyes, I see them everywhere...."

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas

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Merry Christmas, dear readers. To family and old friends and new, Merry Christmas.

To those who work today and tonight, and tomorrow, so the rest of us do not have to, Merry Christmas.

To soldiers fighting on our behalf, and especially to their families, who want nothing more than to have their loved ones home, Merry Christmas.

May 2007 bring you all great health, happiness and prosperity.

With warm regards to all, Merry Christmas.

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Happy Halloween!

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Here are our two little heroes, a policeman and a fireman:

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The boys had a great Halloween. It is obviously one of their favorite holidays - all the candy, plus dressing up too! Our neighborhood is filled with kids, all around Baiely's and Cody's age, which made for an interesting afternoon.

Tigger was here, as was a little purple fairy. A NASCAR Pit Crew Chief stopped by to compare radios with the policeman. We had a basketball player stop by, too. And there was a bride. 

Behold, The Children of The Cul De Sac.

We had a terrific halloween, and hope you did too. I got to stay home from work today, and take the boys trick-or-treating. That was a particular treat for me!

Happy Halloween.

Cody And His Two-Wheeler

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We talked a few weeks ago about how Bailey has mastered the art of riding a two-wheeled bike. Today, the boys were outside with Carolyn and Cody asked to have his training wheels removed from his own bike. She took them off, Cody climbed onto his bike, Carolyn gave him a push, and the rest is history. 

This was a summer of great transitions - Bailey started kindergarten, Carolyn did her first triathlon (and has signed up for a longer race next summer), both boys learned to ride two-wheelers, both boyslearned to swim, and we managed to have a new pool put in.

All in all, we've had a great year so far. We hope yours has been great too.

Feeling Guilty - Long Time Between Updates

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I hate it when I get so busy spending time with my family that I neglect to write about what is going on.

We're just coming out of one of those times. We've had boat-loads going on. And there never seems to be enough time to tell everyone about it.

The picture above is Grandma Needham and the two boys. You can't really tell in that picture, but Cody broke his arm. (Here is Mrs. Scott signing his cast.) It was a minor break and the cast is already off. While the cast was on, it scarcely stopped Cody from his daily routine - he still rode his bike, he stillplayed with friends, and enjoyed regular sweets. One might say he really enjoyed them. 

Bailey, meanwhile, started kindergarten last month, as we already talked about. He's doing wonderfully there. He has also mastered the fine art of the two-wheeled bike. It will most likely surprise nobody that Bailey, also, enjoys his sweets. 

Everyone else here is doing great. The weather has remained warm, at least on weekends, so we've kept the pool open and used it when we can, on weekend days. Today was actually in the 80's here so we had the pool open today. Next weekend, though, that will end, and we'll close the pool for the winter.

We hope everyone's fall has been happy and healthy. 

Transitions

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Today, our oldest son, Bailey, went to kindergarten for the first time. It was not the first, official day of classes, but instead was a chance to see his new classroom for the first time, and to meet his new teacher for the first time. 

The school is amazing, brand new, and has only been open for two years - this will be the third year of classes there. 

Both of us are profoundly proud of Bailey. We're sure he'll do great in school, and that he'll enjoy it immensely.

In the meantime, both Carolyn and I are adjusting to being parents of a real, full-time school child.

Yikes.

August - Those Lazy Days Of Summer

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Today dawned a little cloudy, and that was followed by just a little rain. That brought out the famous Bob The Builder umbrellas. 

Later this afternoon, the skies cleared and we all had a chance to spend some time poolside. 

Cody has become quite the little swimmer, but Bailey has gotten really, reallycomfortable in the pool. 

Swim time was followed up with two great friends sharing a towel while slupring down some Scary Pops. (What those are, I've no idea....but the boys seem toenjoy them mightily.) 

Apologies for the less-than-frequent updates lately. We really are in the dog days of summer, which makes updates somewhat less that a high priority.

#1158: Our Triathlete

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Today Carolyn did her first triathlon. 1158 was her number. She did spectacularly, finishing in a much faster time that she expected.

After worrying about the swim portion, she came through that easily, and much more quickly than she thought. Following that, it was simply a bike race, followed by a 5K run, both of which she was well prepared for.

All the humble men in her life are profoundly proud of her.

Carolyn: Triathlete

We're very proud of her.

Father's Day Pool Time

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A certain someone at the office has been complaining that the website is missing summer pool pictures. 

Well, here is a pool time update.

In three words, we love it. Cody loves diving with a noodle and most times come back up for air though he sometimes requires rescuing.

Bailey, on the other hand, prefers his Spiderman kickboard to the noodles. 

Both boys prefer playing in the shallow end, though they've both ventured out into "deeper waters" with their noodles and kickboards. And both love (and I mean LOVE) doing cannonballs, as long as someone is there to catch them.

Meanwhile, Mommy prefers relaxing on the bench in the deep end. That is, when she's not looking smokin' hot poolside.

I'm a lucky man.

Here is what the pool looks like at night, taken from near the house. And here is what it looks like taken from the other side, back towards the house.

C'mon over, why don't ya? The pool is open

Charity/Literacy Project

"Hey, I Donated. How About You?"

So says Scalzi, where we learn of the Dewey Donation System, where Pamela Ribon "has done an annual charity drive wherein she picks a group of libraries who are in need of some timely donations and encourages all her readers (and others) to make a donation of books or cash to the libraries."

You can head over to the donation site and view the libraries' Amazon Wish Lists. Then, when you are ready, choose a book or two and they'll be delivered directly to the libraries.

The beneficiaries of this year's donation drive are libraries in the Gulf Coast that were hit by Hurricane Katrina last year, so, you know, the donations are definitely welcome, and this is a great opportunity to offer up a little more help to some of our fellow citizens who were hit hard last year.

I chose a couple of books on home repairs (plumbing, wiring, and exterior siding) for the Margaret Sherry library in Biloxi, mainly because they are still rebuilding the region, and these books seemed somehow appropriate for that. 

So, as Scalzi said, "Hey, I donated. How about you?"

(You can also help promote the Dewey Donation System by blogging about it.)

Minor League Baseball

Minor league baseball is starting to get its props. For obvious reasons, we think this is a great thing. We've been Kane County Cougars season ticket holders for four or five years now, and we have no intention of abandoning our seats anytime soon.

Recently an article about the Cougars appeared in The Daily Southtownnewspaper's Elite Magazine section.

Regrettably, the article is not available online. However, the journalist who wrote the article, Karen Sorensen (ksorenson@dailysouthtown.com), was gracious enough to allow us to publish the article here on our little family website. The full article is published below, with credit to the author, Karen Sorensen, and to the magazine that published it, Elite Magazine, part of The Daily Southtown Newspaper empire.

By Karen Sorensen

Last Memorial Day weekend, John Needham embarked on what he calls a three-day "baseball trifecta."

On Day 1, he, his wife and their 3- and 5-year-old sons boarded a Metra train for downtown Chicago, took a cab to a CTA station, and then caught the el to Wrigley Field for a Chicago Cubs game. On the second day, it was out to Geneva to watch the Kane County Cougars, the Class A minor league team that plays 20 minutes from their Aurora home. Day 3 found them back in the car for a two-hour drive to U.S. Cellular Field to catch a Chicago White Sox game — the first inning of which they missed because they couldn’t find a parking place.

Hmmm, can you guess which Needham enjoyed the most?

The Cubs game: "Let’s just say it was a long day." The Sox game: "Parking was a nightmare, traffic was a nightmare and it was really crowded." 

As for the Cougars game, well, here’s what he wrote on his www.needhamfamily.net Web page: "It seems to me that going to a Cougars game, or any minor league game for that matter, would be the relative equivalent of going to, say, a Chicago Cubs game (my home team!) roughly 75 to 100 years ago. (And) here is an absolute statement of fact: The food you get at a Cougars game far exceeds anything available at Wrigley Field. That counts for a fair amount in our book!" 

Needham is a walking, talking advertisement for the Cougars, a farm team for the Oakland Athletics. His enthusiasm is so over the top he should be on the team’s payroll . 

"Why would you even drive into the city ... when you’ve got this stadium so close?" said Needham, 45, a computer software company employee who’s had season tickets for the last four or five years. "You can literally park right next to the front gate." 

That’s music to the ears of Jeff Ney, one of two assistant general managers who does everything from scheduling promotions to selling advertising to serving as the company liaison to the players. He’s been with the Cougars for 13 of the team’s 16 years, over which time they went from being a Baltimore Orioles affiliate to being part of the Florida Marlins system to inking a two-year deal with the As. 

The Cougars are owned by local investors who lease Elfstrom Stadium from the Kane County Forest Preserve District. Until a couple of years ago, it was the top-drawing team in the 14-member Midwest League, which includes the Peoria Chiefs (a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate), the Lansing (Mich.) Lugnuts (Cubs) and the Beloit (Wis.) Snappers (Milwaukee Brewers). 

And even though it’s had to cede its top spot to the Dayton (Ohio) Dragons, the Cincinnati Reds affiliate that used to play in Rockford, the team has a firm grasp on the No. 2 slot and was 14th in ticket sales among all minor league teams in the country last year, Ney said. 

In 205, they sold 518,394 tickets — that’s an average of 7,623 people for each of its 70 home games. The single-game attendance record is 14,452, set on Aug. 16, 2003; not bad considering the park has only 7,600 "real seats," according to Ney. The rest of the crowd found places on the lawn or on one of the three party decks that surround the outfield. 

Ney knows the draw is as much entertainment as it is baseball. He says he’s quizzed people after a game, and many couldn’t tell him the final score. 

"We try to create a three-ring circus where there’s plenty of things going on — in a good way," he said. "Our goal is to provide plenty of family fun." 

That can be fireworks after Friday and Saturday night home games; theme events like Scout Night and All Faiths Night, where discounted tickets are available for members of specific groups; and live music from the likes of Coco Loco (who perform on the Jimmy Buffett theme day) and British Import, a Beatles tribute band. "Bark in the Park" is the day on which dogs can attend a game with their owners and participate in contests. 

This is in addition to the standing events take place before the game and between innings, including toddlers racing team mascot Ozzie around the bases, human bowling ball competitions and random drawings for prizes like free rounds of miniature golf. 

From a budgeting standpoint, going to a Cougars is not terribly hard on the wallet. Tickets are $8 to $12 — a far cry from the $14 to $65 you’ll pay at Wrigley Field or the $14 to $55 you’ll drop at Sox park, not including parking. 

There are three other minor league teams in the Chicago suburbs — the Schaumburg Flyers, the Joliet JackHammers and the Windy City Thunderbolts, who play in Crestwood — but none are affiliated with a major league team. Despite the competition, the Cougars have not seen a drop in ticket sales because of them, Ney said. 

"Minor league baseball has become something (that people now know), and the Chicago area is our market," he said. "There are enough people to go around." 

What the Cougars can offer more of than their counterparts are players who may end up at the "show." As of this year, nearly 80 have gone to the major leagues after spending at least some time in Kane County. Some of the best-known include 2003 Rookie of the Year Dontrelle Willis (Marlins), 2003 World Series MVP Josh Beckett (Marlins), All-star shortstop Edgar Renteria (Cardinals) and four-time gold glove catcher and All-star Charles Johnson (a one-time White Sox player who’s also done stints with the Marlins and the Colorado Rockies). 

Most recently, Oakland A’s pitcher Huston Street — who landed in the big leagues after just one season in the minors, including a few months with the Cougars — was named American League Rookie of the Year for 2005. 

One of Ney’s tasks is to help team members — most of whom are in their early 20s — find places to live during the early-April to mid-September season. The majority are placed in the homes of fans who agree to house them in exchange for minimal rent (the players make about $1,000 a month). 

But don’t be fooled, baseball is hard work and the players take it seriously, Ney said. Team members will start practicing at noon for a 7 p.m. game, and they’re expected to sign autographs, make special appearances and do other things for the team as part of the deal. They get one day off a month. There can be anywhere from 20 to 30 scouts watching them on a daily basis, he said. 

And some fans are just as serious as the players. Take David Malamut, a 27-year-old restaurant manager from Darien, who goes to about 100 of the Cougar’s 140 games every year, started a Web site devoted to the team (www.malamut.net) and last year penned a 128-page book, "Kane County Cougars (Images of Baseball Series) (Arcadia Publishing, $19.99). "The players are what make it fun," said Malamut, who’s been following the team for nine years and admits to being a fanatic. "I enjoy watching them move along in their careers. It (provides) a human side to them, besides the side you see on the television." 

And team members get a kick out of it, too, Ney said. 

"They get to play in a park full of people who are pulling for them," he said. 

w/breakout: 

KANE COUNTY COUGARS 

Location: Elfstrom Stadium, 34W002 Cherry Lane, Geneva 

2006 Season: April 6 to Sept. 4 (or Sept. 15, if they make it to the playoffs) 

Ticket cost: Field box seats, $12; box seats, $10; reserved seats, $9; lawn seats, $8 

Information: (630) 232-8811, www.kccougars.com 

Here is a link to an MS Word document with the article. We'll generate a PDF file in the next day or so and put that out here too, for non-Windows readers. Until then, I'd be happy to share the article with any requesters - just use the links above to e-mail us!

The 2006 BRAT Golf Tournament - Memphis, TN

Attention BRAT attendees!

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I have saved 45 low resolution pictures from the BRAT Cocktail reception and from the BRAT Tournament. I also have the same images saved as high resolution images.

Everyone is encouraged to download the ZIP file with the low resolution images. You can print or redistribute these images to your heart's content. (If any of them are published on the internet and/or in books, I request a credit and nothing more. For personal use, these images are available for free distribution.)

The low resolution images HAVE BEEN REMOVED. If you want the ZIP file e-mailed to you, please e-mail us directly using the links above. Thanks!

Additionally, everyone who has a TRULY high-speed internet connection is welcome to download a ZIP file of the high resolution images, which are better for printing/framing. However, I would caution that this is a 27 Meg file and only the very highest speed internet connection will support this, unless, say, you have a week or two to download this. (It took me more than 15 minutes to upload this ZIP file.) I am happy to e-mail high-res images to any requesters if you'll only e-mail me with the image number. Use the e-mail links at the top of this page to find my e-mail address. Thanks. (Again, these images are available for free for personal use. Also free for publication, with credit. Thanks again.)

The high resolution imagesHAVE ALSO BEEN REMOVED to preserve space for more family pictures. If you want the high-resolution images, please e-mail us from the links above. Thanks!

(Editor's note: Because this high-res file is so large, I'm only planning on leaving it out here for a week or so. I'll remove the file around June 1, 2006. If you are reading this after that time frame, please download the low-res images above and choose which images you'd like e-mailed to you. Then e-mail me and I'll send them along right away. Please just put "BRAT 2006" in the subject line of the e-mail and it will get through my SPAM filters. Thanks!)

The 2006 BRAT event was a great time, and I'd like to thank our friends in Memphis for making this available to us! I'd also like to thank everyone that we met at the BRAT Cocktail reception - we had (ahem) more fun than most people have any right to have. We'll see you all next year.

Late Spring / Early Summer Has Arrived

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We had our first Kane County Cougars game today. (Actually, that's not completely true - we had tickets to a game back on April 7th, but game time temperatures were 38 degrees so we wound up staying for one batter and bailing out.) 

Today, the weather was much warmer. And this picture was taken from virtually the same angle as the one in the previous paragraph.

As often happens, one of the boys, in this case Cody, was given a baseball by one of the players in the visitors' bullpen. To assuage Bailey's disappointment thathe did not get a baseball, we bought him a souvenir bat. (Okay, I did.) This led to some typical wheeling and dealing, resulting in Bailey having a new baseball, while Cody got the souvenir bat. 

Like many boys who are baseball fans, getting a ball from a professional baseball player resulted in some switched allegiances. By the middle of the game, they were chanting "Go Wizards" and high-fiving with the Wizards' pitchers.

Here is a picture of a proud father with his two sons at a Cougars game. 

Oh, and Cody managed to snag John Maddens' autograph as well. That's # 18 onyour scorecard, ladies and gentlemen. 

All in all, it was an eventful and excellent weekend. Here's hoping you and yours had a great weekend too.

The Fifth Annual Casserole Olympics

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We had a great time hosting the fifth annual Casserole Olympics yesterday afternoon. Like always, the competition was very fierce, with more than 15 casserole entered in the competition. The theme this year was Hooray For Hollywood, with entries spanning the years of Hollywood movies. The winners are shown above. From left to right are:

Gold Medal winner, new neighbor and first time Olympian Brenda, who made a Cowboy Cornbread Casserole that she called The Brokeback Mountain Casserole.

Silver Medalist Melanee, who made a dessert casserole slathered with chocolate that was called Like Water For Chocolate.

Broze Medal winner and next door neighbor Mike, who made a ham and cheese casserole called, appropriately enough, Ham And Cheese.

The best part of the day was spending a great afternoon with great friend eating a lot more great food than anyone needed. The second best part was dropping off a ton of food at the local homeless shelter, so others can benefit as well.

We'd like to thank everyone who participated and we look forward to many more events like this in the future.