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!

Today was painting day. We bought all the paint and stuff yesterday and we finished 2 coats today. We will trim all the wood in white. The shed is painted to match our house. We hope to have it finished next week.

This has been the summer of detours. First of all the bridge over Perry has been closed for 90 days. This little detour forced us to use Nave Rd to Genoa Rd. That was until Genoa was closed at the school or the other side of Lincoln Way. At different times this summer Perry was down to one way while they repaved it. Jackson was closed for most of the year. I hope we don't run into any detours this weekend.

I forgot to report the final score of the Mogadore-NL South Range game. The Cats dug a hole in the first half. SR had a 12-0 at halftime. But, the Cats clawed back to a 15-12 lead. The lead did not last. The Raiders won 26-22.

Also, the MNFFL held its draft this past weekend. The league welcomed Full Throttle as a new member. We are going on line this year. It will be easier for all of us. The Bayou Steelers are looking to repeat as champions this year. We did win the first two MNFFL Super Bowls and our the only team to repeat as champions. I will post the Steelers roster later.

Til Next Time---See you Down By the Bayou

Here is the birthday boy.

This is the backyard where Rich's party was held.

Today was the first day of school for the kids. B is in the 4th grade and K in the first. I went to Mogadore for a CPR class. Then it was off to Price Park for some picture taking of my nephew, Nick. The pictures turn out great. Kerri loved them.

K had flag football practice again tonight. I need to work with him on throwing and catching. It was about 90 degree during practice. Thankfully it only lasts an hour.

Football time!

I met up with Keith Moore tonight at the Canton South game. It was good to see him. We need to get together soon with them. I missed having them at Atwood.

SORRY!!!!!!!!!

I am sorry it has been 2 weeks since I lost blogged. I will try to update you on what has happened since Aug. 8.

August 11. We had a 70th party for my dad today. It was held at Dawn's. We made a shirt with hand prints for dad. We had all 10 grandkids put one hand each and my siblings and I put our hands on as well. There are a total of 70 fingers on the shirts. I will add a picture later.

August 13. I traded the Saturn in on a Focus. Actually, we are driving the Focus as a rental until the Ion is done in the shop.

August 14. Happy B-Day, Kerri. My sister is 31 today. We drove to Uniontown, PA to see Amana. We stayed at the Hampton Inn. Amana took us to Red Lobster for dinner.

August 15. We had lunch at Amana's and dinner at Bob Evan's. The last thing we do when we visit her is go hungry. We had a great time visiting her. She loves seeing the kids and watching them play. B and K tried to show her their Webkinz, but she was lost. We did manage to take J's pictures in her front tree. They look great. I will add them later as well.

We went to the camper Aug 17-20. The weather limited us on what we could do. It was cool and rainy on Sunday. But, it is so nice to go there for a few days. WE went to Rich Anderson's 50th b-day party on Saturday. It has been at least 5 or more years since we saw some of the old friends. I hope we can go out and visit with them again.

Today was K's dentist appt. He did wonderful. I hope this is the last time any of my kids have that much work done. We went to meet the teacher at school. It looks like the kids have wonderful teachers. Speaking of school, Mogadore will not start until after Labor Day.

T is on her way home. She should be home while the next 2 hours. It has been a long 5 days. I am thankful to my mom for taking B and my in-laws for taking K for a couple of days.

Yesterday, I went to Mogadore. I was able to set up my room. It is not even close to being done, but the basic layout is done. I still have 20 or so box to go through, OK maybe 30.

Last night I was watching ESPN with my 2 sons when Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run. While I was glad to watch history with them, but I cant help but think about him cheating to get the record. Someday, K and J will ask about Bonds and I will tell them I think he is a cheater.

I was glad to have a couple of days with just J. I never get to spend alone time with him. As the kids get older, I will want to spend quality alone time with each one of them. I had a blast with B at Geauga Lake last month and going to a ball game with K in June. I think that is the hardest part of fatherhood is spending quality with all your children.

Changing gears to MNFFL.

The 742 Ho's have left the league and Full Throttle has taken their place. FT is owned by a fraternity brother in Michigan. We will draft teams later this month and the Bayou Steelers will draft last because we are the current MNFFL Champions!
There is one big change to the league this year, we are going to yahoo.com for their online fantasy football. It is about time we move the league online. I will be glad I don't have to add up scores after the games. I always felt bad if I missed something.

Til later--

See you Down by the Bayou

Today was Hall of Fame Day in Canton. The Dallas Cowboys have another player in the HOF. Micheal Irvin will be presented by Owner Jerry Jones tonight. I am blogging while the ceremonies are going on at Fawcett. I took the kids with Mom to the parade. We left about halfway through, after Micheal and the Perry Band.
On a side note, Teresa left today for her CM convention. It will be a long 5 days. She better get her business going or she should give it up. She has not done much in business this year or done much scrapbooking at all this year. I think she just stay on as a consultant to go to convention. There is more to a business than a big party every year.
If you get a chance, read this blog: tiffanyandjason.blogspot.com
I saw an article in the Rep today and checked out the site. It is a heart warming story.

Bayou Out!

It cost $45 to put a Happy Birthday greeting on the scoreboard during the game, but you can text in a message before the game. Unfortunately no one else from my family saw it at the game.
14 years ago, T and I went to Oshkosh with dad. On the way back, we stopped in Chicago and saw a Cubs game on his 56th birthday. The traffic was bad and not everyone got to there seats to see all of the game. The Tribe beat the Rangers 5-0!
After the game, we ended up at Nana and Papa's for a "everyone bring your own dinner" night. Most of us went swimming. I cant remember that many people in the pool at one time. Even, Papa got into the 86 degree water.

Were to start?

Team Ohio did not win the Kieb Golf Outing in Michigan. We were 5 off the winner. Jeff and I drove up together Saturday July 21. We meet Rick and Gary just inside the Michigan line. We left close to 5 shots on the course and could have won it with a little luck. OK, we needed alot of luck. Jeff did ok since he has not golfed in 2 years.
We talked about his domestic troubles. It is sad when a family is going to split apart. I hope and prayer something will happen and they can find away to stay together. However, I doubt it.
When I got back from Michigan, I headed to Atwood. T took the kids down earlier. We spent a wonderful week fishing, boating, biking, etc.... The weather was like in San Diego, 70s and mostly sunny. B did have swelling on her hands again. Dr. Maki put her on claratin and prednazone (sp?). He would like her to take claratin before we go to Atwood next time.
We went to the Akron Aeros game on Saturday July 28. It was PHBA night. K and I got to parade around the track. We took Anthony Tolin back to the camper. We had a good time with him on Sunday.
The van took a crap on us Sunday afternoon. A camper looked at the van and said it could be the fuel pump. I was able to get it started on Monday and drive it home. Zeigler is going to fix it. I hope we are not throwing away $$$$ on this vehicle. I would rather trade it in on a new van.

The full moon rises over Atwood Lake.

It is nice to know my child is not the only one that get their legs stuck in something.

WSOP Pictures.

Jared is enjoying his free Milwaukee's Best Light!

Ryan Elson is all smiles after winning a pot. That is Gus Hanson in the white shirt.

Humerto Brenes is leaving the poker room after busting out of the Main Event. He was at the feature table when he was eliminated.

Scotty Wynn (not the correct spelling) signs a shirt before the dinner break on Saturday.

These pictures where taking with my camera phone. No flash photography is allowed in the poker room. I was at the WSOP on Saturday July 14.

Vegas trip review:

Friday. I flew to CLT from CAK. I had a nice long layover before my flight to Vegas. I was in first class. I beat Jared to Vegas by about 45 minutes. We got to the Stratosphere, but Jared's host did not make his reservation. It was about 30 minutes before we could get into a room.

Saturday. We both were up early. We did some video poker before we headed to the Sahara for the morning poker tournament. I did really well at video poker. For a short time, I was 4 of a kind guy. I played really well for about 3 hours at the tournament. I called an all-in with pocket aces. The all-in had pocket fours. She hit a four in the flop and I was out.
After lunch we headed out to the Rio and see the World Series of Poker. B's second grade teacher's husband was in the field of 6,000+. He was still playing when we got there. Jared and I wondered around making to the seats by the ESPN feature table and the Milwaukee's Best Lounge. Watching hold'em is nothing like on TV. There is little action most of the time. Even when there is action, ESPN's camera swarm the table so the fans can't see what is going on. When we where there we saw Huck Seed, Scotty Wynn (not the correct spelling), Humberto Brenes and Gus Hanson. Gus was at Ryan Elson's table. Maybe we will be a back round shot or something when ESPN airs the WSOP. Ryan went out in 24th place and earned over $330,000.

Sunday. More video poker. I was planning on heading to the Rio to watch Ryan, but never made it. He busted out today in 24th place. Jared and I went to Marino's for dinner. It is the restaurant in Hooters. They have good food and spirits. I did some wandering around saving my last few dollars for tomorrow.

Monday. We ended up downtown at the Golden Nugget and Binions. My good video poker luck did not follow me downtown. When I made it to the airport, my reservation had been changed. I ended up flying to Denver on Ted(United) then transferring to Frontier to CAK. Kerri met me and I was home by 12:30am this morning.

I did better gambling this time than last year, but being with Jared is always a good time.

Quote of the trip: A group young 20 something get out of a car with really loud music playing, to which I saw " I don't care how loud the music is, you're still driving a KIA."

VEGAS TIME

Jared and I stay here most of our trips to Vegas.

We did spend one night here.

T and I have stayed here twice.

We might stay here with the kids. This is the new pool at the Golden Nugget. There is a fish tank in the middle of the pool. There is a waterslide that goes through the fish tank, which has sharks.

PICTURE TIME

The front of the new Mogadore Jr/Sr High School.

It was rather windy on the bridge to the waterpark from Geauga Lake.

Rachel Scava enjoys a swing with Kent at her graduation party.

This was the funnel cake deluxe I had for dinner last night.

This is post 100!

We have been camping at Atwood since July 1st. We were only going to stay til Thursday, but we had so much fun, we stayed til today. However, we made more than the planned number of trips home.

We planned on driving home on Thursday, but I took B to Aultman North with water bumps on her hands on July 4. Then T took to ER on the evening of July 5. The bump swelled all her fingers. By Sunday, most of them either "popped" or the swelling went down. Today we saw Dr. Smith and she did not have any new resasons on what could cause the swelling or bumps.

On July 1, Christie and family can down for a picnic. Of course, Kent and Briley found new friends to play with. We made friends with Zoe and Kyle and their mom Bobbie. Then Bobbie's BIL's family came in from WV. They had kids to play with as well. We shared a fire with them last night. It would be nice if the Moores were their, but I like having Tim and Sharon to talk with.

B and I leave tomorrow for our overnight. She got all her clues and is looking forward to going to Geauga Lake on Wednesday.