Joshua in his soccer gear

Many moons ago, I was interested in playing pee-wee football, but as soon as my folks found out that practices & games were Sunday mornings, football was off the table. Why? We’d have to miss church. Ah well, begin the sour grapes — I probably wouldn’t have been any good at football at that age.

Fast forward to July/August 2010, and my wife and I are debating what type of sports or gym classes we should put Joshua in. In the past, we’d enrolled him in Saturday morning gym classes, but wanted something different to keep him interested, and to further develop his motor skills. My wife discovered that our local Police Athletic League (PAL) runs a number of sports activities, such as soccer and baseball.

Neither of us are actually soccer fans, but sometimes you gotta sacrifice for the kids. Wait a minute, sacrifice sometimes? Try 90% of the time! Regardless, we signed him up for soccer practices on most weekends. He’s on a specific team, he needs gear, but no away-type games at this age. It’s all about learning the skills. There was a short-lived concern — they didn’t have enough coaches for all the teams. Luckily, we have coaches for all the teams now.

Fast forward to last Thursday. We made an evening trip to our local Dick’s Sporting Goods in Freehold to buy supplies. Shorts, shin guards, socks, and cleats.

Joshua's first soccer practice

Fast forward to now. I’m sitting here in my outdoor folding chair, watching Josh’s 2nd practice. They had a practice yesterday — 30 mins of lessons and practicing, then one team plays another team in a 30 min game. Most parents bring a folding lawn chair for the hour.

So far, he likes soccer. That’s good.

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Progress toward building a 9/11 memorial in New York has endured years of battles and negotiations. The president and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum expects it to open in a year’s time. I think it’s ridiculous how long the site remained idle while all these factions argued.

We survived Joshua’s first week in kindergarten, although I think it should be marked with an asterisk in the record books, due to the short week. Monday was Labor Day. He had school Tuesday and Wednesday, but school was closed Thursday & Friday for Rosh Hashanah. A two day school week? Nothing to brag about. Sadly, we completely forgot about the Jewish holidays. Isn’t Yom Kippur coming up too? We better get on the ball with the school calendar. Also, when do we get a school calendar?

We were a little worried, as it’s a big step in his life, but he was excited. We stayed excited, noting to him the positive elements of going to a new, big school. It’s a bit mind-boggling how fast the first five years of his life went by. Now, we’re sending him off to elementary school. How time flies. I feel like a cliche. Don’t all parents remark the same sentiments? We’re now experiencing it firsthand.

In addition to the new clothes we bought him to accomodate his recent growth spurt, my wife ordered a new LL Bean backpack, a Star Wars lunchbox, and a therrmos container for his lunches. My wife took on Tues, and I walked him to/from school on Wednesday. It was certainly a surreal feeling to look behind me, and watch my son walking with me with his backpack on, heading to school.

Next week, no holidays, no vacation days. A full five day school week (and work week) for everyone. To compensate for the multiple drop offs and pickups, my wife and I altered our schedules, so we’re doing our best to prep lunches and their outfits the night before. There’s an evolving chaos in our life, and all we can do is manage it.

Speaking of evolving chaos, there’s always a monkey wrench. This week, it was day care closings, Rosh Hashanah, and JFK. This week, Lily’s day care and the elementary school were closed individually and simultaneously, depending on the day. On Thursday & Friday, both were closed. We ended up using two options with each kid — either they went to school/day care as normal, stayed with my wife’s family for the day, or came with me to the office (we have an excellent backup childcare center on campus.)

On Friday, it was even more complicated. My folks were returning from a trip to India to visit relatives, and I was leaving early from work to pick them up from JFK. Lily stayed with my mother-in-law, and Josh came with me to the office and later, the airport. By the time he and I dropped off my folks to their house, had dinner, and came home, it was 10pm. A long day, and a long week.

Can’t wait for next week.

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One of the nice benefits of FiOS and/or watching the HD channels is I’m watching some very cool and heady science shows. For the past two months, I’ve recently been watching two fantastic shows in particular:

• Through the Wormhole on the Science Channel
• The Universe on the History Channel

I’m currently watching an episode of The Universe on the History Channel in high definition about alternate universes, the unified theory, and all that jazz. These are available in SD, but watching them in HD is beauty on a whole different level. It’s been interesting that Albert Einstein touched upon many of these topics in the early-to-mid 20th century — that man was truly a genius.

The shows use lots of computer graphics and interviews with scientists to help explain the topics, but the science is mind-boggling, I often rewind once or twice to try to understand a particular concept. And I’m sure these topics have been dumbed down or “laymanized” for the every man who is watching.

Have I mentioned that electronics tend to grumble to dust in my hands? I’m sure I’ve made note of that fact. Specifically, I stated back in February 2010 that our nearly two-year old Uniden phones phones were slowly failing. Since I couldn’t find a standout phone / answering machine, we certainly didn’t want to outlay over a $100 for phones that nobody can seemingly agree to like. Furthermore, here I am on Verizon’s FiOS fiber optic network, it’s 2010, and home phones are still boring. If you compare the technology in the smartphones and home phones, they are decades apart. For home phone technology that lasts me two years (much like the life expectancy of cell phones), why can’t they make better home phones?

If I were to hypothesize, it’s probably the cost factor. Cell phones are subsidized by the telecom operators, expecting to recoup their expenses through the exorbitant voice and data plans monthly fees. I just wish we could see some home phones with color screens, Bluetooth (so I could use a headset), VOIP, and maybe an ability to import or sync an addressbook. Wouldn’t that be something?

Enough ranting and daydreaming. We were down to 1.5 working home phones, so while at BJ’s Wholesale Club, we purchased the 2010 Panasonic KX-TG6545. What exciting details can I tell you about it? There are a number of features that are supposed to be exciting like this “Eco” power-saving mode, but I think the best part is that there is a common phonebook that is shared among the handsets. If you add/modify/delete an entry on one handset, it’s reflected on all. Other than that, not the most exciting. If that’s the most noticeable “Pro”, I’ve already noted one “Con.” While there are many options, you have to dig deep through the menu options to perform those activities. For example, if you wish to quickly intercom someone in another room, or dial someone in the phonebook, you have to dig down at least four (4) menu options to do that. That’s annoying. The package comes with five handsets and a base, but we only needed four handsets. I’m keeping the extra handset in storage, in case another child decides to toss a phone into a filled bathtub.

Panasonic KX-TG6545

See you all in two years when I replace this phone with a ferret/pigeon-based phone system with answering machine. The pigeon would be used for calls outside the house, and I would use a trained ferret for intercom calls within the house.

Friday night, I watched our next film in the queue, 3:10 to Yuma. It’s a 2007 Western starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, which is also a remake of a 1957 film starring Glenn Ford (and not to be confused with Ernie Ford.) Both of these films are based on the 1953 Western short story by Elmore Leonard. The basic premise is that Bale plays an impoverished cattle rancher named Dan Evans, and Crowe plays Ben Wade, the leader of a bank/stagecoach-robbin’ gang of killers. At one point, Crowe is captured, and Bale is one of the men who sign up to escort Crowe to the town of Contention. Once there, they will put Crowe on the 3:10pm train to Yuma Territorial Prison. Of course, Crowe’s gang will stop at nothing to free their leader, and Crowe himself will do what he can to escape.

I’m personally not a fan of the Western genre. That was very popular for many decades, but I believe it lost its allure when the space race began in the late 1950′s and into the 1960′s. I once worked with a fellow who was very much a fan of the Clint Eastwood westerns of the 1960′s, but I’ve never seen any of them. I’ve always been a sci-fi or fantasy type of fellow. I’ve never seen a spaghetti western, or even seen Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Unforgiven.

So what did I think of this movie? I thought it was good. The story itself is not mind-altering or genre-busting. It’s a western. What made this film stand out was the interplay between Bale and Crowe. Russell Crowe especially plays a very nuanced villain, and Bale portrayed a realistic protagonist that was NOT an action star performing fantastical stunts. No one spouted one-liners, and the villain didn’t have a wacky evil plot. I didn’t see one giant mechanical spider terrorizing the Arizona desert. Themes of greed and corruption permeated the story, and experiencing the interaction between the characters was the most enjoyable facet of this movie.

Note #1 – It was good to see Russell Crowe perform some good acting in a film. After Gladiator, he’s had a string of misses, so it was nice to see him play an intriguing vcharacter, albeit a villain, but intriguing nonetheless.

Note #2 – Out of all the actors, I was oddly surprised to see former “It Girl” Gretchen Mol in a small role as Christian Bale’s wife. Still beautiful, but what has she been working on all these years? Actually, upon further review of her IMDB profile, she’s been working steadily, so good for her.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Did I mention that Labor Day weekend is almost here? Just two more days to go in the week. It’s been a long few weeks for both of us, so I think it’s safe to say that we’re looking forward to the three days off. There are no major plans this weekend. Some housecleaning, a 1st birthday party on Sunday, last weekend at the pool, and probably last-minute shopping for school supplies.

I also have to Netflix movies to watch this weekend — 3:10 to Yuma and Avatar. Yeah, I’ve already seen Avatar in 3D at the theater back in Jan ’10, but I want to see how it looks on my HDTV. Shut up, you haters.