Weekend Wrap-up

Wow, what a busy weekend.

Friday night I met K at Denny's in Nashua, where I picked up V and M. We drove to my parent's house after I completed a few errands.

Activity started early on Saturday morning as V, M and I got up early in order to be out the door by 8. K and the kids competed in a Tae-Kwon-Do tournament; with K meeting us at Tewksbury High School where the competition took place. They broke the athletes up by age and belt level, with the youngest kids competing at the beginning of the tournament. M and V, both green belts at 7 and 10 were among the first to compete. Both V and M only competed in breaking this time, opting not to do forms or sparring.

Every participant in the tournament medaled for participating. Mike won a bronze medal and V won a silver medal.

V and M wanted to see their mom compete which I had no problem with. The tiring part came with the wait, since the kids were done realtively early. K didn't get in the ring until 2:30ish in the afternoon. She competed in two events, earning a gold medal in forms and a silver medal in breaking.

We didn't get out of there until 3:15 or so; much later than I had anticipated.

Watching this tournament was neat and I have the feeling it won't be the last tournament I'll need to attend. Though one thing I know and it was reinforced while I was watching: I have no desire to take up any form of martial arts. I Advanced to an orange belt in karate as a youth but never carried it any further than that.

Good thing for me I brought a book to read during all of the down time, which made it bearable.

Today the kids and I went to church in the morning and afterwards headed up to K's house for M's birthday party. He'll turn 8 on Wednesday. M had invited six school friends to the party and four showed up. Aside from the standard cake, ice cream and unwrapping presents, all Mike wanted to do after was play with his friends. No cheesy "party games" here.

While I was at K's house, I turned on the Patriots game which had just started the third quarter with the score 42-7 in the Patriots favor. I was kind of surprised at that because the Pats have historically had trouble winning in Miami. Not today. The Patriots are that good and the Dolphins are that bad. QB Tom Brady threw 5 touchdown passes in the first half and had six for the game, eclipsing his personal best set last week and setting a franchise record for a single game in the process. They are now 7-0 and look unbeatable at present.

Boston College moved up to #2 in the Associated Press poll this week even though they were idle, mainly because the previous #2 team lost this past Thursday. If the college football season ended today, BC would play Ohio State for the National Champopnship.

The Red Sox have advanced to the 2007 World Series tonight by dispatching the Cleveland Indians 11-2, breaking the game open late and winning the series 4 games to 3. The opponent will be the Colorado Rockies. The World Series begins on Wednesday night at Fenway Park.