A Saturday With Friends…

Shot pool this afternoon at a local bar while watching American football.  Dinner with six friends tonight with an outdoor fire on the back porch and Costa Rica vs. Uruguay via the internet inside.  A nice Saturday indeed!

Building Community

Last week I started a “First Saturday” event for my current golf team members, alumni of our program, and I’m sure it will be open to kids that are thinking about trying out for our team in the future.  Anyway, we had a nice warm morning hitting balls on the range and getting “back into the swing of things!”

On The Bus

We love being a one-car family. My day off work today, Veterans’ Day, begins with me taking the bus over to Chapel Hill to pick up our car (repairs/inspection). Getting a little wet by the non-stop rain of the dying tropical storm is but a small price to pay for the benefits of one vehicle!

My Brother’s Wedding…

At the end of the past summer, my brother got married on the shore of Lake Michigan.  A beautiful day!

First Tee Program

Last Saturday I volunteered to help with a golf clinic for high school/college students put on by the First Tee Program, a charitable arm of the PGA Tour.  This group has a great curriculum of activities that introduce students to golf while emphasizing core values that can help kids in their daily lives.  We had a good time!

Fall Crops

Ellen and I still have the gardening bug.  Here’s part of the fall garden: garlic, radishes, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, brussell sprouts, spinach, and sugar snap peas.  Now we HAVEN’T eaten any of this yet, but with the delayed “first frost” of the season (it’s more than a week overdue), we’ve got a chance of getting some edibles out.

The Next Big Venuture…

Here is my group of students who will spend this school year inventing a green roof system for residential houses.  You can read about it here.  Thanks to the Lemelson-MIT program!!!

A Year Ago…

A year ago I was walking the streets of the military barracks at Sulur Air Force Base in Tamil Nadu, India.  These three guys were my guides (from left Brijesh, Abhishek, Shrikant).  It was great to see kids celebrating the holiday of lights in India and to learn the many versions of the Hindu epics that lead to the holiday being celebrated today.  Thank you to all of my Indian students who sent me Diwali (Dip-wali) wishes via the internet.  And thanks to my current student, Sidhartha, who shared some of his mom’s sweets with me this week!  To all of my friends in India: I hope you had a wonderful holiday!  ~Matt  (another pic below from Diwali 2008)

A New “American” Experience

Ever since Ellen and I arrived in NC in 2002 we’ve been saying, “we need to go to a Nascar race at least once.”  Friday night we fulfilled that dream(?).  Thanks to my mother who graciously entered us into a sweepstakes, we had four tickets and spending money to attend the Dollar General 300-the 300 mile (200 laps) race before the “big one” on Saturday.  So what’s a Nascar event like?  Hmmmm…  Fast.  Amazingly fast.  Loud.  Amazingly loud.  And many of the mental images we’ve had for years about a Nascar race and its regular fans were validated.  We’ll leave it there.  Thanks mom!  And if I had to say I was a fan of one driver in particular, I’d pick Kyle (Rowdy) Busch…he won that night. I had to get the “camo” hat!

28 for 30…(or 25)

Many of you know that I’m from St. Louis, Missouri.  Our baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, lost in the playoffs tonight to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round.  Ugly baseball on behalf of the Redbirds.  I donned the jersey, I shaved my head (like with a razor), and slapped on the extra big magnetic bumper sticker to the hood of the car.  It didn’t work…  So, another 12 months before we get the chance at another run to the World Series Championship.  The title of this post: 28 of 30.  I’ve been alive for 30 World Series and the Cardinals have not won the thing in 28 of 30 years.  1982 (too young to remember) and 2006 (yeah…it was great) were our years with 1985, 1987, and 2004 being the years we made the Series, but didn’t win.  To the Cubs fans: I know, every word is just me rubbing it in….I’ve got it so good….second only to the Yankees in titles…  I love the Cardinals, the Redbirds, the birds on the bat….and today’s the end of the season.  We’ll see you in late March!  Spring training’s only three months away…