Sunday, September 27, 2009

Lego House In The UK

This is Matthew in 30 years. He could probably build something approximating that house with the Legos we have in our basement.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

We're "Swim Parents" Now

I'm getting a somewhat mild taste of what my parents experienced when I was growing up. Stephen has finished his first week of practice on the Morris Center YMCA Swim Team, and Lisa and I have finished our first week as "swim parents"! Stephen will be swimming all winter and through early Spring on this team. This week, he practiced four times. On Sundays they allow parents on the deck to watch practice (not so on the other days, which I think is great). I sat through the practice today, and was really impressed in how much progress Stephen has made in just one week. I guess I should not be surprised, given that he had never swum on a team before when, out of the blue, he came to Lisa and me and said he wanted to try out for the Y team.

Anyway, Stephen is having a great time so far - hopefully that will continue. Looking forward to the intrasquad meet in two weeks!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Football Is Here!

Today is the official opening day of the NFL season. Of course, that means four long months that inevitably will culminate in my beloved Saints disappointing me in some incredibly excruciating way that cannot now even be imagined.

But on a more positive note, it also means the return of the weekly "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" column on espn.com, by one of my favorite writers, Gregg Easterbrook. Longtime State of Nature readers have seen my posts in the past singing his praises. This week's column is particularly entertaining, and a great example of what Easterbrook brings every week. It's a rollicking combination of riffs weaving together football, current events, technology, history, science and even haiku! Really great stuff.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Ocean City 2009


Literally minutes after the Regatta wrapped up (see below), we loaded up the van for our annual expedition to Ocean City. We had a really terrific week. The weather was pretty much perfect all week, with only a little rain toward the end. And mighty Hurricane Bill passed by the East Coast at the optimal distance, such that it did not disturb our weather at all, but did generate some very large surf. The body surfing was some of the best I've ever experienced.

The kids had lots of fun on the beach, of course, but we also made our traditional mini-golf outing, and even added a day at a water park this year.

The photo above shows Stephen heading into the surf on one of the calmer days we had. Lots more pictures here.

Sailing

So our major new activity this Summer was sailing. There is a long tradition in Mountain Lakes of kids learning to sail on the lake. The vessel of choice is the Sunfish. There is an extremely devoted group of men and women in town who organize and run a six-week sailing camp each Summer to teach the kids the ropes. And on Saturday mornings, a guy who grew up in town, but now lives in New York City, comes out to Mountain Lakes to give free racing lessons to any kids who are interested. This year, both Nina and David went to the sailing camp, and had a fantastic time while learning a great deal. Lisa spend a significant amount of time repairing boats -- first our boat, and then several of those belonging to the sailing club.

In late August, David capped off his first year of sailing by competing in the Sailing Association of North Jersey Lakes (SANJL) Sunfish Championship Regatta, right here on our own Mountain Lake. The competition involved five races, and the sailors earned points based on their placing in each race. It was David's first regatta, and he came through with a very impressive second-place finish in the 13-under division.

Here are the sailors lining up for the first race of the day (David is in there somewhere):

All in all, sailing was a great experience for the kids. We will surely be back for more next year . . . although Lisa might look to decrease her boat repair workload somewhat.