Kekoa Getting Funky!

Our Son Kekoa, truly getting down...



Go Kekoa Go!

The Nobel Prize in Physics

On October 21, 1833, Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He wanted to be a poet, but his father insisted he study engineering. Nobel would eventually go on to develop ways to use nitroglycerine as an explosive, leading to the creation of dynamite. It made him a very rich man. It also explains why you never screw with a poet.

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, donating the largest share of his fortune to charity to create a series of prizes - what are today known as the Nobel Prizes. One of those prizes was dedicated to "the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics."

On April 24, 2010, our middle son, Kekoa Bicoy, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Well, at least according to his brothers and sisters.

In the eyes of his siblings, Kekoa earned this accolade for his incredible work constructing the world's first umbrella and snow sled fort.

Here is Kekoa, in the green sweatshirt, directing the fort's construction based on his theories...



And here's the finished product...



It was so exciting that his big sister Alyssa captured the construction crew singing the praises of Kekoa's design...



Congratulations Kekoa!

David the Juggler

Two videos of our teenage son David juggling at his grandparent's house...

And here's the big finale...

The New Easter Look: Bicoy Style 2010

I have to admit it. My girls are trendsetters.

They have a style unlike anyone else, and they're not afraid to show it.

Just consider their "Easter Look" for this year.

Here's Alyssa either showing us the trendiest head slap...



Or she's trying to cover a pimple on her forehead.

Nalani is always there with a smile...



What a happy girl!

For some reason, in our home the Easter Bunny thinks he's Santa Claus Lite. That's the only explanation for his insisting on bringing our children presents.

For Alyssa, her style revolved around receiving the "best pens ever..."



And Nalani was excited to get a new notebook, which she quickly marked as hers in her own unique and stylish way...



But of all the styles this Easter morning, none got quite into the groove as our little Miss Malia...



You go girl!



Happy Easter from the Bicoys.

A Birthday Feast to Begin Middle Age!

One of the best things about birthdays in our family is that when your big day rolls around you get to pick your favorite meal for dinner. For my 40th birthday, I wanted it to be something truly memorable.

Maybe it's middle age setting in, but I honestly couldn't decide on what to have for my birthday dinner this year.

Thankfully, my six terrific kids took it upon themselves to work with their mother and come up with a dinner I'd like.

Here's our son Bret Jr. working hard in the kitchen...

Our boy David put on his beret today, so I was sure he was whipping up something French for dinner...

Nalani got right to work and started off quite neatly...

But that eventually turned into her typical mess...

Our son Kekoa loves to cook...

But I think that's because he likes the free samples while cooking...

Alyssa almost put her book down long enough to do her part...

While Malia thought her contribution could be simply to roll around on the floor...

So here it is, the birthday feast on my 40th birthday...

From front to back that's a coffee cake (recipe courtesy of Jen Bevins), chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, blueberry muffins, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies without nuts, three different kinds of ice cream, lime jello with pineapple - and a basket of fruit to round it all off.

For dinner.

Thanks kids...

Malia declared this the greatest dinner she's ever had...

Look at her plate and it's easy to see why!

Happy 40th birthday to me. Thanks kids.

Meat Jun and Ice

There is nothing in this world I'd rather eat that a big plate of meat jun from Soon's Kal-bi. Without question, it is the greatest food on the planet.

This poses multiple problems for a guy living in Wisconsin.

Meat jun is considered Korean food in Hawaii, but it really is "local" Hawaiian Korean food. Koreans from outside Hawaii consider meat jun Korean food to the same degree that Japanese think Spam Musubi is authentic Japanese food. In other words, not at all.

And thus while there are Korean restaurants in Wisconsin, they serve only authentic Korean food - not the stuff we Hawaii folks love.

That is problem one.

Problem two is that if you are a true meat jun aficionado, you know that the version from Soon's is truly unique. It is crispier, thicker, and comes with a spicy sauce that is, quite simply, perfect.

So even if you should happen to find a restaurant in the Midwest that serves a Hawaiianized version of Korean food, and meat jun is on their menu, it will probably be too soft, too eggy, and too sweet. Even in Hawaii, Soon's meat jun is different than that which you will find at all other Korean restaurants.

In other words, living in Wisconsin, I'm pretty much screwed when it comes to finding my most favorite meal in the universe.

So over the last few weeks I've been toying with ideas to come up with my own version of Soon's meat jun. And here is the product...

I put a business card in the picture because Cari thought that no one would believe that I actually made this!

Here are my food models, Alyssa and Nalani, displaying my best approximation of Soon's meat jun...

It was really, really good.

I will admit, though, that I got a bit carried away. Even after our stuffing ourselves, we still had all this left over...

My recipe for Soon's meat jun is perfect, but my version of the sauce still needs work. And the sauce is the most perfect part of the meal at Soon's.

Oh well, the quest continues.

While a lack of meat jun is a major problem of living in Wisconsin, snow sculpting is one of the "cool" things. This is how they celebrate Valentine's Day in Door County - with snow sculptures...

Yes, those are made completely of snow.

David's favorite was the pointy eared Spock...

It wasn't until I got home and downloaded the pictures from my camera did I notice what was going on in this picture of Spock...

That's Nalani on the left side of the picture sticking her hand in Spock's ear.

She said she was cleaning his ear out.

I guess that makes Nalani a giant Q-tip.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Call me Papa...

Not Tatinek. Call me papa.

So went one of my lines as Mr. Shimerda in Scott Schwartz's play adaptation of Willa Cather's classic novel, My Antonia. We performed last week to a full house in Ephraim.

While I've spoken to rooms of just a handful of people and convention halls of more than a thousand, I've never been as uncomfortable as I was last week. I think it's because in a play, your wedded to someone else's words - and goodness knows that I like using my own. When I speak to a crowd about charitable giving, I am in absolute control. The ideas are mine, the words I choose are entirely my own - and if a lady in the back of the room isn't connecting to what I'm saying, I can feel it. And I can change accordingly until I have her as well.

In a play, you have to place your trust in a playwright, in a director, and in the others who are on stage with you. You have to be faithful to the words on the page because the other performers are expecting you to. Interestingly, the way I overcame my discomfort was to completely ignore the audience because they're really irrelevant - which is exactly the opposite of what I do when I'm giving a speech.

I will admit, however, that I think most of the audience would be real pleased if I'd go back to giving speeches about philanthropy.

As for our daughter Alyssa, on the other hand, everyone kept telling me how terrific she was.

I was Mr. Shimerda, but Alyssa played my daughter Antonia Shimerda - as in the namesake character of Willa Cather's My Antonia.

Here's the playbill from our little production...

Immediately after the play, and for days afterward, I had people coming up to me or calling me to say how impressed they were with Alyssa (and they politely said little of my performance). For someone so softspoken, she blossomed on stage.

Here is a short video of Alyssa at the music rehearsal where we were working our cues to the music for the first time (note that this video was taken on my phone so you have to turn the volume way up)...



And a little more of Alyssa...



Here we are the night of the performance taking our final bow. Alyssa is in the middle of the picture and I'm in the brown sweater two to her right (blocked by the lady in the green sweater)...

And here we are walking off stage...

Oh, and the wildest part is that I had to speak with a think Bohemian accent. I have no idea what Bohemians sound like so my accent consisted of half a Filipino accent and an elongated Russian accent.

Basically I just imagined what my Filipino Grandpa would sound like if he were drunk on vodka.

New Year's Eve and a Homecoming!

We're already a few weeks into 2010, but our little girls insisted that we mention the "fabulous" party they attended on New Year's Eve. It started with a round of beers (of the "root" variety) for everyone...



Then Malia and Nalani partied hard with all the folks in Times Square in the background...



At midnight we raised our glasses in a toast to the new year using the finest vintage of sparkling apple cider...



Earlier that evening, the kids also celebrated the new year by baking me a cake.

But this it wasn't just any cake, it was a cake "signed" by each of the kids to honor the House Champion of the Bicoy Football League 2009 fantasy football season...



And, yes, I am that champion.

Unfortunately, no one in our house won the actual championship of the Bicoy Football League, but we ran a house playoff series for just the "owners" in our house. Namely, the Door County Jumbos (my team), Mommy Rocks (Cari's team), Girlz Rule (Nalani & Malia's team), and the Bicoy Boys (Bretty & Kekoa's team).

And while there is no trophy for the House Champion, all are required to kneel and bow down before him...

It's good to be the champion.

Speaking of games, Bret Jr. continues to play basketball.

One of the interesting things about 5th grade basketball, you pretty much have to mug a person before they'll call a foul. Last week Bret was mugged in a game for the very first time.

And thus we witnessed our middle son's first attempt at a free throw. Here is the entire series of pictures from the moment the ball leaves his hands...

...as it arches through the air...

...and disappears from the frame of the picture and Bret drops his arms to his side...

...and then for some reason Bret proceeds to swing his arms behind him while still waiting for the ball...

...and finally, down comes the ball, right at the basket, to complete a perfect swoosh...

Cari and I absolutely exploded in sound with excitement!

This next picture is from another game and I'm not sure what's more striking.

First, there's Bret as the only member of his team fighting with three other players for the ball...

Or second, look in the background of the picture above. Ya gotta love how the referee positioned himself to watch the action.

Last week also marked what had to be an absolute first in the history of Sturgeon Bay Clippers basketball. For a few minutes during the game, the Clippers had three Filipinos in the lineup at the same time...

Okay, Bret Jr. on the right is only 1/4th Filipino. But his friend in the middle was adopted from the Philippines (and happens to be the best player on the team), and the kid on the left looks Filipino - so close enough.

Hey, this is Wisconsin, we need to claim all the Filipinos we can get.

But the most exciting part of the month (according to our kids) was the return of our oldest daughter Alyssa.

Alyssa graduated from high school last summer but decided not to go to college this year. She had a job in Green Bay but we moved to Door County in July. Thus Alyssa moved in with Cari's parents so she could continue to with her job in Green Bay. Unfortunately, that wasn't working for her, so last week Alyssa moved home with us in Door County...

Alyssa's brothers and sisters were really excited to have her home. Her room is upstairs so Kekoa's way of welcoming her home was to carry all her luggage up the stairs...

David was so excited to see her that he even took his hat off and showed her his mop head of hair...

But to Cari and I, there was one aspect of Alyssa's return that most excited us.

We were just giddy that she walked in the door wearing pink!

Pretty in pink!

And she even likes shopping in thrift stores.

Now if I can just convince Cari not to leave me.

(If the last few lines made no sense, you are obviously woefully uninformed about cheesy 1980s Molly Ringwald movies).