It has been a beautiful week. It was hot playing golf on Monday. I am glad Bruce last the scorecard. The weather continued until today. It was rainy, but cleared up in time.
Tuesday K had his first boy scout meeting. T took him to it, because I took B to a meeting about taking an on-line class. She scored high enough on her achievement test in Social Studies to be offered this class. She will have the rest of the year to complete 27 assignments. We are happy she is getting this chance to take part in this pilot program.
Wednesday was Open House at MHS. I think I had 8 parents come and visit my classroom.
I have been spending more time with my brother lately. He has mowed the grass and did some other work in the yard. I am happy to be spending this time with him, but hate the reason why I get to spend the time with him.
The Bayou Steelers are 2-1 after beating the Donut Holes last week. I still am not sure how we did it, but we did. The Mogadore Wildcats are 4-1. The Cats play at Woodridge this week. Ohio State is getting better and better each week.
The Indians will not know who they play in the playoff til this weekend. It looks like the Yankees will be the Wildcard and play Cleveland. The Bronx Bombers are 6-0 against the tribe this year. But I think I will take the Indians in a short series with CC and Fausto going in 4 games.

Bayou Out

Flag Football Pictures

K was the center on the play above, but then received a shovel pass from the qb. He would have scored the extra point but his friend Anthony tackled him. Below, K had pass coverage on Anthony.

The picture below was from action earlier this year against the Bengals.

K scored a safety against the Bengals.

K's team has not won yet, but are so close to winning. But it is fun watching the boys play.

What a beautiful weekend. It all started with a fun night Friday. Aunt Helen came to town for her high school reunion. So, she was able to see Jeff and I march with the first ever Perry Alumni Band. We played pre-game before Perry beat Austintown Fitch. Saturday, we headed down to the camper after J's football practice. It was a sunny, cloudless day in the low 80's. Today, we left the camper early and had a campfire here. The family came over and we had pie iron sandwiches for dinner as we listened to the Brown lose a close one in Oakland. I hope the weather is this nice next weekend for T's birthday.
CONGRATULATIONS to the Cleveland Indians on winning the AL Central Division!

First of all, I forgot to wish Jeff "The Pimp" a Happy Birthday the other day. We had a gathering at mom and dad's.

I don't think the tribe will be calling me anytime soon. The tribe's magic number is 3 after sweeping the Tigers. Maybe it is our turn to go and win the World Series.

Hang on! This pumpkin is growing through our fence. This picture was taking about 10 days ago. The pumpkin is getting bigger and bigger. It will not have a normal pumpkin shape. It will be more oval shape.

This will be the back of our yearbook staff t-shirts. The kids really liked it. I think the front design looks good as well.
The Bayou Steelers are 1-1 after getting pounded by the Pimpin' Pioneers.

If you have time, check out this article in the Massillon paper. http://www.massillonindependent.com/index.php?ID=20107&r=0&Category=8

It will be the first time in 20 years I have marched on the field at Perry Stadium. It was neat to play the Alma Mater and fight song again. I am glad Jeff is playing in the band as well. It would have been great if Dawn and Kerri would have joined us.

Til next time,

Bayou

So you are wondering why my name is on the scoreboard at the Jake. Well, it all started with a simple on-line auction on continental.com. They were auctioning off a one day fantasy camp. Well I bid, never thinking I would win, but guess what? I did. I invited Jared to come down and take part in this as well. We went through pitching, fielding and batting. It was an unbelievable time. We both made it through with just minor aches and pains.

I did a pretty good job in the batting cages. I am not sure what the speed was of the pitches, but they were moving pretty fast. I think I will head to the batting cages just for fun.

We got to see almost all the parts of Jacobs Field. Here I am calling the bullpen asking for Borowski to get ready. After the clinic we had lunch and autograph session with Jensen Lewis. It was well worth the 14,000+ it cost me. Jared and I then went back to the hotel and rested until the Tribe-KC game. The tribe won 6-0. Their magic number is 9.

CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER WILLIAM RUTH
KILLED ON 9/11 DURING ATTACK ON PENTAGON
SERVED AS MARINE HELICOPTER PILOT IN SOUTH VIETNAM.
SERVED AS A NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIER IN THE PERSIAN GULF.
TAUGHT SCHOOL IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD. FOR 23 YEARS.
WAS COMMANDER OF MT. AIRY VFW.
News paper article:
"William R. Ruth, 57, Army Chief Warrant Officer
A memorial service for William R. Ruth, an Army Chief Warrant Officer who died in the Pentagon terrorist attack, was held at 3 p.m. at the Calvary United Methodist Church, 305 S. Main St., Mount Airy. He was 57 and lived in Mount Airy.
He was a helicopter pilot in the Marines during the Vietnam War. He retrieved the wounded and the dead on combat missions. A member of the Army Reserve, he was called up to serve in the Persian Gulf War.
On the evening of Sept. 10, the night before the terrorist attack he led his first meeting as the newly installed commander of the Mount Airy Veterans of Foreign Wars. That night he awarded a Bronze Star to a post member.
An amateur astronomer and ham radio operator, he also fished on the Crowe River in Ontario, Canada, where he had a cottage.
Born in Knoxville, Tenn., he was a graduate of Bowling Green University in Bowling Green, Ohio. He had also studied at Ohio State University.
He taught social studies for nearly 30 years in the Montgomery County School system. He last taught at John T. Baker Middle School in Damascus. In 1997, he took the Army job at the Pentagon.
He is survived by a son, Sean Ruth of Mount Airy; his mother, Jane Ruth, his brother, David Ruth, and a sister, Martha Ruth, all of Alliance, Ohio. A son Chad Ruth, died in 1999.

William Ruth was my mom's second cousin. She remember playing with him at family function while she was growing up. My mom, for years, had gone to cousins lunch in Alliance and she would have lunch with Jane Ruth and other cousins. Although, I am not sure I ever met him, but it bring home the events of today. When we were in DC 2 years ago for Labor Day, we went to the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and saw his name on it.

God Bless all who have fallen in the line of duty and the innocent live lost 6 years ago today.

Picture Time

In this day and age of Homeland Security, how secure is CAK? This is a picture from the rental car location. If you can scale a 8 foot fence, you can get onto the tarmac. By the way, that is not the SUV we had for the weekend in NYC.

This picture is from our seats at Yankee Stadium. They weren't too bad, except for costing $40 per seat. The weather was beautiful for the entire weekend.

B is modeling our gameday shirts. I made up the design and Ritchies printed them. I thought it would be a neat idea for all 8 of us to wearing the same shirt for the game. Even, Jared had one on.

WE WILL NEVER FORGET. Hopefully, that still rings true. Sometimes I wonder. Six years ago we were attacked. Thousands lost their lives that day and the days following. Now, we are losing soldiers everyday. We need to get the job done. I doubt this will happen with the Democrats in control of the House and Senate. They want to be done with this war. Yet, if we leave now, we will be open to future attacks. I guess I hope I'm not in New York, Chicago, or LA when the next wave of attacks happen. We knew Osama bombed the WTC in 1993 and President Clinton did basically nothing to stop these attacks.

Kudos to MSNBC for replaying, in real time, the events of Sept. 11, 2001. It was bone chilling to watch the events unfold again. We went into the PATH station located in the WTC site and you could not help but feel like you were on hallowed grounds. Being there last weekend, brought a new sense of what happened 6 years ago. Please, President Bush and congress get the job done right the first time.

Til next time,

Bayou

Today was the first day of school. This is the first day in the new building. There are minor things to be completed, but the building looks nice. I have a new schedule for the first time in 7 years. I have 2 junior high class to start the day. There is no longer rotation class, but full semester junior high technology education. I still have yearbook, photo and high school technology education class, but at different times than last year.
New York Trip review.
This was the 13th Labor Day trip. We returned to the Bronx, mainly for my sons. They needed to see a game in Yankee Stadium, before it becomes the "old" Yankee Stadium. I picked up our rental SUV (Durango) on my way home from school. The kids loved it. T and I loved it. It has 3rd row seating, which our kids love. It took about 8 hours to drive to Piscataway, NJ. The Drive was peaceful. The kids had plenty to do during the drive. We stayed at the Radisson.
Saturday we slept in. Jared and his family arrived at the hotel about 10. We drove over to Staten Island. We took the ferry into New York. The kids saw the Statue of Liberty as we sailed by. We walked to the WTC center. It was moving to say the least. We then headed to Coney Island for a Nathan's hot dog. We could have stayed there and watched a minor league game, but we headed back into the city. We went and found a statue to Balto. B read a story on Balto last year and wanted to see the statue in Center Park. Jared spotted Abe Vigoda walking just outside Center Park.
Sunday morning we left early for Yankee Stadium. We were able to get into Monument Park. It was like walking into a baseball history book. The game was a blow out for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The won 8-2. The Rays are K's second favorite team right now. We saw them play last year on the cruise.
Monday we let the kids swim before heading home. We only made one stop near State College. The kids slept most of the first part of the trip so I kept on driving. We arrive back around 7pm. All in all, it was a fun trip. It is now time to start planning next year's trip.

Labor Day Trip 2007! We just got back from our annual baseball trip. It was a full group this year, 8 in all. I don't think we will take the kids again next year. It was a handful with them. Normally, it is an adults only trip.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Something is missing. It was difficult to look at the NYC skyline without the WTC buildings standing over Manhattan. We did walk to Ground Zero. It was an unreal site even 6 years after the attacks. We went to the church that withstood the attacks. It has a very small sample of stuff left at the site in the days and months after Sept. 11, 2001. This was my first trip to NYC since 1999 and seeing a big hole brought back memories of that day.

After we visited Ground Zero, we hoped an a subway and went to Coney Island. Jared thought it would be neat to at Nathan's Original stand. We picked the wrong day. There was a ton of people eating hot dogs. BTW, the hot dogs were pretty good.
Sports news today: Michigan lost to Appalachian State (1AA). It is the first time a 1AA school beat a ranked 1A school. Ohio State beat YSU handily 38-6. Mogadore won 42-0 over New Middleton Springfield Friday night.

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. It is really a history of baseball. One day I will be able to tell my sons about some of the people honored there. I thought of my uncle while I walked around the park. I am not sure he ever visited it, but it would be a place he would have enjoyed. I always seem to forget his birthday was Sept.1 I am always on a baseball trip on his birthday. He really got me started on visited baseball stadiums in 1991 with a trip to Chicago. I think we went to 2 games at Wrigley, 1 game at the new Comisky, and a basketball playoff game at the old Chicago stadium. I still miss him. I will post a couple of more pictures later and a full trip recap as well.

Bayou Out!