The holiday break

Alaina's basketball team hit the holiday break at 5-1, its best record in several years at this point. After losing its first game 46-41 to Carroll, one of the better teams in the state, Northwest won its next five. Its last game before break, against another Catholic school, was its best so far. Kapaun played man-to-man, which was a change from most of the zones Northwest has seen. Alaina had 15 points and didn't play in the fourth quarter. I felt bad for the girl guarding her, who was just a freshman. Alaina kept calling for the ball and taking it to the basket. The girl got two fouls in the first quarter and was in foul trouble the rest of the game.
All five starters from last season are back. The key will be developing some depth off the bench. They are three or so deep on the bench, but need to get more quality minutes from that group. After break, Northwest plays the worst team in the league and then plays the No. 1 team in the state, Wichita Heights. That will be a good barometer for where they stand.
Alaina is averaging between 11 and 12 points a game and between eight and nine rebounds. She likes her new coach a lot better than the one from last year. Her new coach, Jim Mernagh, is from Portage, and despite the fact he's a Notre Dame fan, he's a good guy. Very positive, upbeat, encouraging. Her coach the last two years was a screamer and the girls didn't respond well to that. He is now coaching a nearby rival suburban school. They came to Northwest for a game earlier this season and the girls really wanted to win. Alaina had 17 points in that one.
Laura, meanwhile, is preparing for her first volleyball tournament. She is playing club volleyball for the first time. She is starting to grow a bit and judging by the length of her legs, probably isn't done yet. She is doing well and her coach, a guy, has played a lot of volleyball and does a good job of explaining the game. Her first tournament is Jan. 16 in Wichita. Most of her tournaments will be here with one of them out of town. This should help her next year when she tries out again for the middle school team.

A sad day in Tulsa

As many of you have heard, our nephew Kyle Herren was killed the other week in a motorcycle accident near Tulsa. Sharon spent much of last week in Tulsa with her sister, Lisa, and her husband, Kent. She went down a week ago Sunday with her sister, Donna, and sister-in-law, Julie.
Kyle was 22 and had just graduated from OU last May with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was working in Tulsa and starting to look for his own house. He was just starting to enter that next phase of his life when he died.
The girls and I went down to Tulsa last Tuesday for a viewing at the funeral home. The funeral was Wednesday morning. All of Sharon's brothers and sisters and most of the Kyle's cousins were able to make it (Conor could not). It was a tough service. Kent spoke, as did Kyle's girlfriend and his younger brother Zach, who is a sophomore at OU. They were pretty close and hung out together at OU last year when Zach was a freshman.
Lisa and Kent have a lot of good friends down there, who took a lot of the Bohn family in Tuesday night. We spent the night at the house of a woman who it turns out grew up in Windsor (I asked her whether she was Canadian when she kept telling her dog to get "oot" of the kitchen while we were eating breakfast). She is a big Red Wings fan and knew where Stoney Point is. Like all Canadians, she was very gracious.
Please keep Kyle and his family in your prayers.

Feels It, Fires It, Fills It

On Nov. 12, I attended the annual Philanthropy Day Dinner at the Dearborn Hyatt to hand out the Neal Shine Media Award for Commitment in Philanthropy. This year's winner was the voice of the Detroit Pistons, George Blaha. He has raised nearly $1 million for a women's shelter, and also works with a few local basketball-related groups in and around the city. He was very nice and had kind words to say about Dad. So did some of the other honorees (Art Van and former GM chair Lloyd Reuss) as well as emcee Mary Kramer of Crain's Detroit. (FYI - Members of the Pistons dance team, Automotion, did not accept the award with George).

"9-1-1. What's your emergency?"

While Kim was trying to get an email sent out, she let Maeve play with the phone. A minute later she could hear this faint voice saying "Hello? Hello?" She thought Maeve had hit redial and it was me on the phone. When she picked it up and said hello, the woman said, "This is 911. What's your emergency?" Kim quickly explained what happened but the police are still required to answer the call. Sure enough, there was a knock on the door a moment later. When the cop was satisfied with Kim's explanation, he called off the other two cars that were speeding to our home. Bad, but perhaps not as bad as when Juliana hit the 911 button on the cottage phone and the poor OPP cop had to drive out to the cottage from Belle River to make sure all was OK.

Tigers black eye

Thought I'd share mine and Mark's Halloween costumes this year.  People who got it loved them, people who don't follow the news or sports mostly asked if we go beat up.  Sigh.

And in action:

State of despair

The Northwest volleyball team's trip to the state tournament was short but sweet. Northwest lost all three of its matches and didn't advance to bracket play. Alaina had a good time, even though she was playing on an infected pinkie toe. The team got to play in an arena that holds about 8,000 people, which was cool (there were plenty of empty seats.)
Northwest lost in two games to Olathe South, 25-19 both times. The other team had a 6-foot girl who was just a stud. Whenever it needed a point, she got the set, either in front or the back row. Against No. 2 Manhattan, Northwest led 22-20 but lost 25-22. It lost the second game 25-23. Manhattan wound up finishing third in the tournament. In the final match, Northwest won the first game against Blue Valley North 25-22. In the second game, it trailed 17-15 when Alaina made a service error (her only one of the day). It came at a bad time and Northwest sort of unraveled after that, losing 25-16. The team looked tired in the third game and got pounded 25-11. Of course, the fact that it was 10:30 p.m. might have had something to do with. Tom, Sharon and Aunt Donna didn't get back to Wichita until 1 a.m. Alaina and the team spent the night. Laura spent the night at her friend Hannah's house so she would be well rested for her soccer game the next day (it must have worked; her team is now 6-0-1 this fall). Alaina will take a day or two off and then start basketball conditioning. That season begins Friday, Dec. 4, against rival Bishop Carroll.
The photo is from last year, but Alaina likes it because it shows off her guns.

Going to state

Alaina's volleyball team qualified for the state tournament over the weekend. It is, we think, only the school's second trip to state since it was formed in 1978. Her team was seeded fourth going into substate and had to win two matches to qualify. Her team beat the host team, Campus High School (think Roseville only with more employment), in straight sets in the first match. Campus was pretty good blocking (three 6-footers) but not good in the back or on offense.
In the second match, they played Goddard, a suburban district near west Wichita. Goddard was the No. 1 seed and 30-6 coming in. Alaina has played basketball with a couple of the players on their team over the years. Northwest thumped them pretty good in the first game and then scored the last three points in the second game to win 26-24. The girls were pretty excited. Laura was, too, when she realized she might get a free celebratory meal out of it. Tom got a little verklempt.
Next is the state tournament Friday and Saturday in beautiful Topeka. Northwest is the No. 6 seed out of eight teams. The tournament is two, four-team pools, which play a straight round-robin on Friday. Top two from each pool advance to Saturday's semifinals. Northwest will play Manhattan (No. 2), Olathe South (No. 3) and Blue Valley North (No. 7). The last two schools are from suburban Kansas City, which tends to dominate this tournament.

Gift of Reading

Kudos to Ted for picking up the "Gift of Reading" column mantle from his uncles Dan and Tom (previous GoR columnists). His column on Grandpa Neal and the importance of supporting the Gift of Reading program ran in the Sunday, Oct. 25 edition of the Free Press. He was a little bummed that the Freep ran an old (2007) photo of him even though they took a new one of him at the Shining Light breakfast earlier in the month. Just another lesson to Ted that the newspaper business can drive you crazy. Read Ted's column here: http://www.freep.com/article/20091025/OPINION05/910250432/

Nice win for Northwest

Alaina's team ended the regular season with a nice victory over Bishop Carroll, which was the first-place team and ranked No. 3 in the state. Northwest got drilled in the first game and was down 13-4 in the second before rallying to win. The team finished 25-13 overall and 13-3 in league play, which tied them for second. It was 8-0 in the second round-robin of league play. Up next is sub-state play on Saturday. Her team has to win twice to advance to state. Each of the last two years, it has won the first game and then lost in the sub-state finals. We'll see what happens this year. We kept waiting for Alaina after the game, wondering where she was at. Turns out she was doing some media appearances. I think she looks like Sara in the video, only with bigger dimples. If you want to see some bad video of both matches Tuesday, go to this link. Videos are on the right. Alaina is No. 9. She has some nice kills off of some slide plays.

Caitlin's wide world of sports

Caitlin came to Kansas for a nice visit the weekend of Sept. 17 and immediately was treated to about 11 hours of sports excitement. Alaina had a volleyball tournament in Maize, which started at 9 a.m. After watching her first two matches, Caitlin, Tom and Sharon drove east for Laura's soccer game at noon. Laura had a nice assist at midfield on the first goal and then tossed a shutout in goal during the second half (OK, one ball hit the post but it didn't go in). She is playing 11-on-11 for the first time this year. She would prefer not to play goal but her mean coach (Tom) volunteered her for the assignment.
Then it was back to volleyball. Alaina's team went undefeated in its pool but lost in the winner's bracket semifinals. They had to settle for third place (They finished second in a 10-team tournament this past weekend and are now 14-5 on the season). We finally got home about 8 p.m. We had a nice brunch the next morning to celebrate Caitlin and Tom's birthdays, and we even got to watch the Lions lose to Minnesota. Our nephew, Chad, and his fiancee, Jenny, who were in town for a wedding, also came, as did Tessa (another niece), her husband, Brandon, and Aunt Donna. It was a fun morning, except for the Lions.
It was great fun to have Caitlin visit. Alaina and Laura particularly enjoy hanging out with her. We wish Fort Worth was a couple of hours closer.

Maura's birthday invite

I found a cool site, smilebox.com, to send out electronic birthday invites complete with photos and soundtrack. Check it out.

Make a Smilebox invite

on the road again

Looks like I will be doing some traveling for the month of September...will be out promoting a huge new dealer program on behalf of GM. No word yet on where I will be sent but I'm listing Wichita, Fort Worth, Miami, San Diego, Boston and Knoxville! Stay tuned in the event I get to go any of those places...my boss said I'll probably be in Waco, TX or something. Neat.

Back in the saddle

Unlike the lucky kids in Michigan, school started this week in Kansas. Alaina and Laura both started Monday, as did Sharon, who will work about 35 hours a week at our elementary school as a para-educator and a lunchroom aide ("Hey, take that Cheetoh out of your nose!").
Alaina actually had to start a day early because she was part of the school's Link Crew, which helps the freshmen get oriented. She also has started volleyball practice. They had tryouts earlier this week and play an alumni game this Saturday. First league contest is Sept. 1 against the East High Aces (think aviation, not gambling). Her team should contend for a league title.
Laura is taking both band and jazz band this year. My guess is that in about eight years, she can start playing Shine weddings. She already does a mean version of Gary Glitter's "History of Rock and Roll." She plans to try out for volleyball next month.
I drove Conor back to Minnesota earlier in the month. He wanted to get back early to hang out awhile before classes start on Sept. 8. The good thing is I got to fly back because we we left his car with him. Even better thing is I don't have to help him move to a new apartment on Sept. 1. He will work about 15 hours a week at the St. Paul Pioneer-Press as part of a class. He gets three hours of credit and he gets paid. Talk about a win-win. We had lunch with my friend Tom Webb who is a business writer for the Pi-Press. We also talked with Dan and Kim's friend Tom Fladung, who is the editor. We walked around the new on-campus football stadium, which is really pretty. Michigan State plays a night game there on Oct. 31. Conor says Chris Gibney has tickets for you Spartan fans.

Save The Date - Alison Is Turning 70

Our favorite wacky aunt from Miami is turning 70 this year and wants to come celebrate with us. As she told Peg, all the people she'd want to be at her party are in Detroit so why not have the party there? We'll have brunch Sunday, Oct. 11 at Peg's. Exact time will be determined later. Mark it on your calendars. And the last word is from Alison: "I am so delighted that you all are enthusiastic - you all mean so much to me."

Ahem!

Family, in the great tradition of all Shines before us...we are slacking on these posts. Is that because we are all on facebook peeking in on each other? Or because, like true journalists, we operate better under deadlines?

Sharon turns 50

Sharon turns 50 on May 16, so she was really surprised when we held a surprise birthday party for her on May 9. Saturday's party continues the tradition of holding one every 10 years for Sharon, whether she wants a party or not. We had the first when she turned 30 at the Wichita River Festival offices and her 40th at the River Festival as well. Alaina is still mad that I did not tell her about that one until it started. At age 6, she was still considered a security risk.
We had last Saturday's party at our house. Alaina, Laura, our niece, Tessa, her husband, Brandon, Tessa's parents Jerry and Julie, Sharon's friend, Brenda, and her sister, Donna, helped pull this one off. Tessa and Julie took Sharon to get her hair cut and to lunch as an early birthday present. The rest of us started setting up for the party. We managed to get it all put together before guests started arriving. Sharon arrived wearing a new outfit that Julie had insisted she wear home after she bought it. She was very surprised, mostly because I had bought everything for the party using cash, knowing that Sharon checks the checking account and Visa bill almost daily. We used this photo of Sharon, taken by me on our honeymoon, on the invitation. I'll upload some party pics when I get them.
If you want to mark your calendars, her 60th party will be May 16, 2019.

Bling-Bling Photos

It was great to be a part of the crowd when the newly-engaged couple arrived in Royal Oak. Our thanks to Mark for organizing the surprise party and for inviting us. It was fun knowing the news a couple of weeks  before Sara, though it was sometimes nerve wracking for fear of letting the news slip. Judy, Jack, Ken, Peg, Sue, Kim, Maeve and I were there, and Larry arrived shortly before Mark and Sara (prompting false alarms that the happy couple had arrived). 

We are all looking forward to the wedding. With so much time to plan,  I hope Mark and Sara can come up with something to top this. Regardless of how much planning time they have, I'm still bringing my videocamera - just in case.

Bling-bling!

Pre-engagement:Mark decided that we need to have a “date night” every week so for the past few weeks we’ve been dining out around Metro Detroit, having picnics and what not. I was starting to think to myself, “self, if we go to all these places and do all these cute things where will Mark have left to propose!?”

Friday 4/3:Earlier in the week Mark insisted we do our date night on Friday, I was excited and said I wanted him to keep the restaurant a surprise. That lasted 4 days--on Friday he broke down and decided to tell me where we were going. This is an integral part of the story, Mark is NOT (to my prior knowledge) that great at keeping things a surprise/secret. In fact, for Christmas he went online and pulled up a picture of the bracelet he bought me to gauge whether I liked it. The exact bracelet!

OK, back to the story: We drove downtown to Coach Insignia, a restaurant on top of the Renaissance Center with sweeping views of Lake St Clair, Windsor and, of course, Detroit (http://www.mattprenticerg.com/urc/coach.asp). We had some amazing food, lots of laughs and a great view of the water. As we were talking the owner/partner/manager/someone with clout, stopped at the table to pour our wine (this was not something Mark had planned) and since the two of us are so charming and good-looking the mystery man said he wanted to give us, “dessert on the house.” We quickly agreed and marveled at how cool this was. Since our waiter had mentioned before that there were some really neat private booths up in the bar area Mark thought this would be a good place to get our dessert. While I was in the powder room Mark clued in the waiter and made sure we had a booth available to us after dinner.I kept telling Mark we could just have dessert at the table but he was insistent we go up to bar area. The waiter led us back to this amazing, semi-enclosed suede booth; we ordered dessert and sat chatting, after a few minutes Mark asked me if I really thought I’d like to spend the rest of my life with him. Since I almost always fail to keep my sarcasm inside and literally had NO IDEA this was a set-up to the proposal I mockingly took a dramatic sigh and said, “I meannnnnnnnn, I guess so.” One look at his face and I back peddled and said I sure did and wasn’t sure why he would even ask such a thing. He said he was just checking and then said, “Really? You’re sure? You’d be the ‘Ninja Missionary’s’ wife?” (Side note: when Mark was a youngster he wanted to grow up and go around from church to church doing karate and other Ninja things while telling Bible stories to the people). I replied that I was already the Ninja Missionary’s girlfriend and that was working out. Next thing I know he’s down on one knee with a ring box. I was so taken aback that I am unable to retell anything he said from this point on except, “will you marry me?” to which I replied through tears, “yes of course!” Some hugging and ring placement later our dessert showed up and we were too excited to eat it! I had to cram a few bites of the chocolate caramel deliciousness in and he shoveled in some cheesecake before we left in a giddy mood.

Prior to dinner Mark had casually mentioned that his friend Vanessa called to see if we would meet her out at Good Night Gracie’s that night and since she is so radical I agreed right away. We figured rather than call with the news we’d show up and have a great story to tell her. Then, I thought how perfect it was my friends Courtney and Ami were out in Royal Oak too and preceded to try to trick them into joining us there so I could share in person. They texted that they were already back on the East Side. I said, “you should REALLY turnaround,” they declined. I said, no really. They declined, again. I called my parents, they didn’t answer. I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to find ANYONE to share the story with that night. Since we had now arrived and were walking up to the bar Mark said he wanted to cut through D’Amatos to use the restroom. I said, “Gracie’s is only 5 more feet,” (you’d think by now I’d be catching on, I wasn’t). Reluctantly I went into D’Amatos (www.damatos.com) only to be blinded by camera flashes and then saw glimpses of Mark’s family, my great friends and then the ultimate shock: my parents, brother and aunts & uncles were all there!

It was a beautiful, celebratory evening and I feel so lucky to have Mark and am excited to not only join his family but to have him a permanent part of mine!

And the award goes to . . .

Alaina's basketball season came to an end at a team banquet (OK, it wasn't really a banquet; we had desserts and Gatorade). Alaina was named defensive player of the year, rebounding champion (9.1 per game) and winner of the Grizzly Heart award, given to the player who plays and practices with the most heart. Think Alaina was most excited about that one. She also was named second-team All-City by the league's coaches.
Laura, meanwhile, scored her first goal of the season in our first soccer game earlier this month. Then she had four teeth pulled as part of her orthodontics work. One of the teeth had not come down yet and was in the roof of her mouth, so the oral surgeon had to go get it. The one side of her face was swollen and bruised for several days, like she was the loser in a bar fight. She had to sit out our next game and our game last Saturday was snowed out (we got about 7 inches). I'm penciling her in for this week's game.
Conor will be coming back to Wichita this summer. He landed a reporting internship at The Eagle for eight weeks (and we're even paying him). The "favor in hell" doctrine was not a factor in the decision. I normally pick the interns, but I had another editor do it for me. His work at the Minnesota paper helped him land the job.

So close, yet . . .

Alaina's team lost a tough game in the sub-state final 46-45 to Garden City. That means Garden City goes to Emporia for the state tournament and gets to play the No. 1 team in the state. We didn't play very well, but Alaina made a nice layin with 23 seconds to go to give us a 45-44 lead. We stole the ball back with 12 seconds to go. But on the ensuing inbounds play, our point guard got called for a charge (good call, bad decision). Then, when Garden City inbounded the ball with 7 seconds to play, we fouled them 90 feet from the basket. Oy! A girl who was 1 for 11 from the foul line in their last game made both ends of a one-and-one for a 46-45 lead. We had one last shot -- an open look from the elbow -- but it rimmed off at the horn. It was pretty tough.

Garden City had a 6-3 girl (perhaps the tallest Hispanic girl in the world) and another girl who was 6-2. We had trouble with them lobbing over the top to the 6-3 girl (poor weakside help). She scored nearly half their points. She really killed us when Alaina was out for a rest. Alaina had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Here's a link to some video of the game. The good news is that our top six players all return next year. We need to develop some quality depth, so if Neala wants to transfer here, we have an extra bedroom for her. The photo of Alaina, by the way, was taken at the start of the game, which was delayed because the tornado sirens were going off. Spring in Kansas.

Up next on our sports cavalcade is Laura's soccer season. We had our first practice today (it was 62 here today; it was 85 last Thursday) and play our first game on Saturday. We'll try to get some art of Laura on the site in her nifty pink uniform (our team is the Pink Ladies).

One down, one to go

Alaina's team won its sub-state opener against Maize. Northwest plays Garden City on Saturday night with the winner going to the state tournament. Worth noting that there are 32 teams in the biggest class in Kansas and eight of them go to state. So, it's not an overwhelming task to get there. Still, Northwest has not gone since 1999, so it would be nice.
Alaina had 20 points and 10 rebounds, but was more nervous about her postgame media interview (her first). The Eagle did a nice story on the game. She was a pretty good quote, too. There also is some video from a local station.
Our friend Brenda came to the game as did Aunt Donna, who sort of fills the role of Aunt Allison at sporting events. She leaped to her feet twice and yelled, "That's bull!" -- just bull, not the rest -- when Alaina got called for fouls. I think a judge would find her in contempt if she did that in court. She plans to attend a basketball game in Manhattan Saturday afternoon and then drive the 2 1/2 hours back to Wichita for Alaina's game. She is a true fan. I think Jerry and Julie also are driving in from Pratt.
We'll let you know how it goes.

Kentucky for vegetarians

What do you get when you combine Cracker Barrel, auto bingo and a states and capitols show down? ROAD TRIP!

Mark and I took a long weekend with Taylor and his mom to spend some time with his grandparents down in Owensboro, Kentucky. We played a lot of cards with Mamaw (his paternal grandmother) and heard lots of stories from Granddad Jim (his maternal grandfather). Oh yes and we ate and ate and ate. The best part is southerners don’t really know how to respond to the phrase, “I’m a vegetarian” with anything other than a confused look. Mark refused to order me a cheeseburger without meat at the local greasy spoon drive thru—he was not only embarrassed but also concerned they would wrap the beef patty up as a separate package in their disbelief that someone wouldn’t want it. I settled for a fried on the griddle, yes I said fried, tuna sandwich with “Dipper gems” known to the rest of the free world as tater tots. The running starts on Tuesday.

One afternoon we visited the Owensboro Science and History museum which featured some cool hands on activities like building a bridge, operating a crane, manufacturing cars on the assembly line (soon to be replace with learning Chinese-ha!). Plus you had the chance to sit in real race cars from all the pro drivers who were born and raised in town or broadcast the local news as the station’s meteorologist.

In all it was a great trip and even included a quick visit to celebrate one of his nephew’s birthdays in North Baltimore, Ohio on our return trip. It was here I got to play my first non Guitar Hero Wii game: bowling. Turns out I’m amazing at that…and so is everyone else who can swing their arm up and down. I see why it’s so popular with video game nerds now. They can pretend they are good at sports.

On to the postseason

Alaina's team ended its regular season Thursday night by beating East 53-39. Northwest finished 12-8 overall and 10-6 in the league. That's the team's best records since the 1999-2000 season. Alaina has played better lately. She has 44 points, 22 rebounds and five blocks in her last two games. I'm sure the East coach was wondering who the hell she was because she missed the first game between the two teams for Mom's funeral.
In Kansas, there are 32 teams in Class 6A, the classification for the largest schools. The teams are broken down into eight, four-team substates. Each substate winner advances to the state tournament. Alaina's team will be the top seed in its substate, so it has a chance to advance to state. Northwest plays Thursday, probably against a neighboring suburban school we barely beat earlier in the year. So say a prayer for her Thursday morning.

Alaina's team wins in upset

Alaina's team had a nice win Tuesday night against Kapaun Mount Carmel, one of the Catholic schools in town. Northwest won 64-41 over Kapaun, which was ranked ninth in our poll. Alaina had 13 points and nine rebounds in limited minutes because of foul trouble. She made two big baskets in a row in the third quarter after Kapaun cut the lead to seven. The euphoria ends Friday when she has to play the No. 2 team in the state, which beat them 68-34 earlier this season. Still, Northwest will have its first winning record since the 1999-2000 season. Just two games to play followed by the state playoffs. A photographer at the game gave me a link to his web site, which includes a lot nice shots of Alaina. She tends to make a lot of funny faces when she plays. I think she gets that from her Aunt Peggy.

Focus:HOPE Honors Dad

Focus:HOPE is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a black tie affair March 7 at the Detroit Marriott (RenCen). They are honoring a group of folks for their service to Focus:HOPE, including Dad, Fr. Cunningham, Eleanor, Carl Levin and a couple other folks. Eleanor asked me to accept Dad's award. Not sure anyone wants to drop $250 for a ticket, but just in case here's a link to more info. If not, I'll report back with details of the evening.

Mae talk draws a crowd

There was a nice turnout at the Rochester Hills Public Library for my Life with Mae talk Feb. 10. There were probably 50-60 people there - mostly over the age of 70. As Dad used to say about the Depends-dependent crowds he drew for his talks, "There wasn't a dry seat in the house." Francis Cook, who used to sit next to us at the Lions game at the Dome, was there. So was the woman whom Dad lent his letter sweater to in high school when she lost a button on her blouse. Phylly, not surprisingly, was not pleased. Dad later wrote a column about it. I signed a book for this woman a year ago and Mom still scrunched her nose at the mention of her name (and they talked about Dad holding grudges). Sold 19 books, which was nice. Javan Kienzle is going to write to more libraries and groups to see if they'll come have me speak. Maybe I'll start using the honorariums for the cottage beer fund. The $100 last night went to Gift of Reading.

Link to Minnesota Daily

If you are interested in reading what Conor is writing for his school newspaper, here's a link to the Minnesota Daily. Do a search on Conor Shine and his stories will come up. Conor is covering the St. Paul campus, which is the ag campus -- see his story on the guy trying to figure out of the turkey genome sequence -- as well as environmental issues. That's a good beat because Minneapolis is a big tree-hugging state (when the trees aren't buried in snow). The Daily is student-run and one of the largest college papers in the country.

Life with Mae talk

For anyone who happens to be cruising in the vicinity of Rochester on Tuesday, Feb. 10, I will be giving a talk on Life with Mae at the Rochester Hills Public Library. Time is 7 p.m. It's located at 500 Olde Towne in Rochester. I'm buying a case of books from WSU Press to sell afterwards. I'm sure I'll have a few leftover in case anybody wants to buy a few from me to have around to give out to friends, etc. I'm hoping it will go better than my talk at the Dearborn Library in the fall where the median age was 78 and some audience members were sleeping before I even opened my mouth.

Happy Birthday to you

PLEASE send me your family birthdays this week so I can update the calendar found WAY at the bottom of the blog. As you can see the most important birthday is already listed for February.

News from Royal Oak:

My apartment is almost put together thanks to Mark sharing his furniture. The last thing is to empty a few (or 5) Rubbermaid bins filled with summer clothes. Fortunately I now have room to store all of it. Oh, and I need a butter dish but I figure a plate works for now.

2009 marks the last year I can say I'm in my twenties. My friends and I are going to go to Lucky Strike in Novi (21+ arcade/bowling/disco) on Saturday to celebrate. Someone at work today asked if I was taking that Monday off and I laughed and said, "No, I will be in. I'm not turning 21." The smart response would've been and incredulous, "You're not!?" Oh well.

Alaina basketball in Topeka

Alaina spent the weekend playing basketball in the Thunderbird Invitational (sounds like a bowling tournament) in Topeka. In Kansas, both the boys and girls take a week off to play in a mid-season tournament.
Her team beat the host team, Shawnee Heights, in the opener. Heights was ranked No. 4 in its class, so it was a pretty good win. Northwest played another ranked team from Kansas City in the second round and got drilled pretty good. In the third-place game, her team lost 59-58 on two free throws with 4.6 seconds to play. Kind of a marginal call on the play.
Overall her team played pretty well. She averaged 12.0 points and 10.3 rebounds for the tournament. Odd fact: Not only was the host team called the Thunderbirds, but they had the same color scheme -- red, turquoisy blue and white -- as Lima Catholic Central.
I have links to some video from WIBW in Topeka from the first two games. On the second one, scroll down to T-Bird Invite Thursday. Nice shot of Alaina scoring on a baby hook that her mother taught her.

Rodger

Update on Rodger. He is recovering well from his surgery. The doctors are saying he is ready to come home this weekend. He's been up walking and today had real food (if you call hospital food real).

Greetings from the Great Plains

This is a test to see if I can actually post now. I preferred our old way of sharing news where everyone faxed me their information, I retyped it and then sent it out in the mail. It was very efficient, until they discontinued the Pony Express. I think we can get everyone to contribute, like those who have other social sites do now.

Here we go...

Please email me if you have a sibling/child/spouse that wants to be able to publish information on this and I will get it set up. Dan, Caitlin and I have been testing this but I'm still a newbie! We can try to do something similar to the original newsletter and have people post something on a more regular cadence, maybe the end of each month?

Use the comment section to reply to a specific post (click the little pencil to do this). Having multiple posts makes the site difficult to navigate.

-Sara (sara.heuvelman@gmail.com)