Cari and Alyssa were talking about who they thought would win the various Oscars during tonight's show.
And then they got an idea.
And when the two of them get an idea, I get out of the way.
They thought, "What if the Bicoys went to the Academy Awards?"
Well, they decided that whole the family was going to dress up and "go" to the Oscars...
Complete with a couple of bottles of the finest sparking grape juice, the pre-Oscar party began.
Bretty took off his football uniform and struck a GQ pose...
Kekoa and Nalani mingled with the crowd...
And David did his best George Clooney imitation...
And when the Oscars began, everyone gathered to partake of the "Hollywood" Hors D'oeuvres, including Thai Chicken, Creamcheese Filled Potstickers, Chocalate Eclairs, and other weird things we would normally never eat...
Oh, and why isn't Daddy in any of the pictures?
'Cause I did the shopping and cooking (well, heating in the oven) so Cari didn't make me change out of my boxer shorts and undershirt. Oscars or no Oscars, I gotta wear a suit every day during the week so I'm not wearing them on Sunday!
Who needs the NFL?
Welcome to NYS Football!
Our son Bretty plays for the Bobcats and has been practicing three days a week for over two hours a day for the last month. On a beautiful, sunny 71 degree day, so began the regular season. And Bretty couldn't wait to run out there...
Here he is on the kickoff return team to start the game...
Bretty was originally going to play offensive guard, but during a recent practice Bretty had a particularly good day laying a hit on someone. Assistant Coach Price pointed at him and said, "defense."
The Bobcats scored and Bretty finally got his chance to line up. The good news is that his favorite color is red so he wore a red long sleeved shirt under his jersey. He was the only one with red sleeves so he's really easy to spot. Here Bretty is in a three-point stance at left tackle...
Look at him drive his man back at the right side of this picture...
And though it's hard to tell, Bretty is the man on the left (number 22, like Emmit Smith) gang tackling the ball carrier.
At halftime they all looked tired but listened intently to the coaches...
While the rest of the Bicoy clan found other ways to occupy themselves...
Malia found David's Archie comic book just too much to ignore...
But then game went on. Just look at Bretty engage his man...
And at the end, the celebration began...
The Bobcats won their first game, 27 to 12.
The coaches told them to enjoy it until Tuesday, but then it's back to work for next Saturday's game.
Who misses the NFL? Well, fantasy football, maybe.
During the last posting a few weeks back, we posited that "we're not THAT old..."
Well, perhaps we are wrong.
Today marks the 15th birthday of our eldest child, Alyssa.
And in the grand tradition of our home, each person selects the "cake" of their choosing with which to begin the celebration.
Alyssa wanted a really big cookie...
Of course, the laptop she received at Christmas from us was also her birthday present (which was part of the deal!), but her brothers and sisters did pitch in to pick her up something...
Sims 2: Nightlife Expansion Pack -- which is an add on to an existing computer simulation she loves. What I can't figure out, of course, is how is it when Alyssa's brothers and sisters pitch in to get her something, the pitching comes out of my wallet.
Well, here is the fabulous cookie and frosting that Cari so lovingly put on for Alyssa...
But apparently it wasn't sweet enough. Alyssa wanted more frosting! I suppose with her sweet sixteenth birthday just one year away, maybe she's trying to sweeten up - so we added a little decorative frosting to her cookie and ice cream...
We have a great picture of Alyssa taking a big bite, but we promised we wouldn't put her face on our website in any picture with her eating.
Hence...
If not the spirit of the law, at least we obey the letter.
Kekoa, however, begged us to take his picture with a cookie in his mouth...
And so it is with another birthday in our home.
Here she is, 6 months away from her driver's permit.Oh boy. I can't wait.
It was 18 years ago that I first walked onto the campus of Tufts University.
That doesn't make me that old, does it?
I'm currently in Arizona for a series of community foundation meetings and I had the opportunity to visit with a very old friend from Tufts...
Matt Goode and his wife Deb.
We were sitting in the lounge after dinner and I noticed Matt was playing with his hands. It then came rushing back to memory that Matt is the guy who taught me to twiddle my thumbs.
As Matt said to me this evening after seeing that I had truly mastered both the forward and backward twiddle, "You have learned well, grasshopper."
My journey to perfect the spiritual and mystic mystery of the twiddling thumb has come to an end.
Seriously, though, I had heard the expression of "twiddling your thumbs," but it wasn't until I saw Matt doing it at lunch one day that I actually understood what that meant. I don't think I told him at the time, though, because I didn't want anyone to know that I was this dink from Hawaii who didn't know anything about big city thumb twiddling.
Needless to say, Matt was a slightly more serious student than I was.
Here's a picture of the two of us in front of the restaurant where we sampled an Archetype Shiraz, a very nice bottle of wine. Maybe not as good as the Marietta Wine Cellars stuff that our friend Jen Bevins liked so much, but hey, ya gotta start somewhere.
This afternoon, our 5th child, Nalani, had an unfortunate run-in with a vacuum cleaner.
We're not exactly sure what happened, but we know Nalani was running down the stairs and across the entryway to our home. Then, accordingly to our little girl, the vacuum jumped up and grabbed her and caused her to fall down (it wasn't that she was running in the house, of course).
The truly unfortunate part is that she must have been biting on her lip when she was running because when she hit the floor, she bit clear through her lower lip. It was so bad you could have put your pinky finger through it.
The poor thing bit clear through the left side of her lower lip. She needed 5 injections to numb the are before they were able to stitch her up. In anticipation of a scream and squiggle fest, the male nurses came in the room to wrap her up in blankets, pin her down, and immobilize her head. The female nurses came in to try to make her smile. (Sexist, maybe, but that's how it happened!).
The doctor was worried because the bite went through the bottom of the lip, but also through the surrounding skin. If she didn't hold still, it might be difficult to stitch her cleanly and avoid the lip healing up unevenly.
But Nalani was so brave. She never cried once and held still the entire time they were injecting her and stitching her up. It was amazing. The doctor asked her questions and she nodded yes or no, but never lost her cool.
The tough part is that they don't stitch up her inner lip -- only the outer. The doctor said that there is so much bateria in her mouth (as is the case with all of us) that you cannot sew it up on both sides or it could lead to an infection inside. So this little girl has a big gash in her mouth that is an open wound, so she cannot drink juices (too acidic) or even go to McDonalds like I had promised (the fries are covered in salt). They even want her to avoid anything but soft bland foods for the next few for fear it could irritate or reopen the wound.
This poor little girl had such a bad experience. But just look at our wonderful ray of sunshine even now, just a few hours after it all began...
What a terrific, amazing little girl!
Yes, the NFL playoffs have arrived and for the remaining teams, the stakes have never been higher.
For millions of rabid fantasy football fans like us, however, the real NFL playoffs are just an annoying reminder that the fantasy football season has come to an end.
Fantasy football can consume you during the season, and so it is the case in our household and those of so many of our friends and family that play with us. Each year, we purchase an online fantasy football league from NFL.com -- the BICOY FOOTBALL LEAGUE! Then we invite others to join us.
This year we finally decided to break down and legitimize our pathetic obsession with pretend football with a championship plaque...
Notice that the biggest names on the plaque are those of the commissioners -- if for no other reason that neither of the commissioner's teams have ever been in the Bicoy Football League Championship Game. We figured that listing us as commissioners might be the only way we'd ever get our name on the plaque.
The plaque itself is displayed appropriately in an upstairs alcove in our home...
Notice the statues appropriately writhing in agony over the idea of anyone so annoyingly enamored with play football games.
And you didn't think we'd send it to the winners of the Bicoy Football League, did you? The Champion is invited to visit our home to see their name!
Ah, but this year we did break down and decided to send the Champion a giant trophy of their own...
Okay, "giant" is a relative term. Maybe it's 4 inches high, but hey, it's better than nothing!
So join us in celebrating this year's Bicoy Football League Champions, my wife's sister and brother-in-law, Chrissy and Brandon Scharer...
Their enthusiasm is overwhelming.
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