Happy Valley Heroes

Not resting on my laurels, I present the latest addition to my blogging empire.

Happy Valley Heroes – a site dedicated to athletic accomplishments of past and present Nittany Lion athletes, teams, alumni, and coaches.

I’m still tweaking this somewhat but I consider it at least ready for a public beta. I use each one of these sites as a learning opportunity to pick up a few more skills. With this one, I easily got further down into the site and template code than I ever have before. I had to do a fair amount of tweaking to get the site navigation as dynamic as it is. For someone that basically knows very little about php coding, I’m pretty proud of the way things have worked out.

I still need to add more content before I’ll be happy enough for a total public release. I want to make sure that there’s at least something there for every PSU sport so I’m going to go back through the season for each of them and pull out a highlight or two.

Lex at Red Sox v Yankees

Lex and I went to the first of a 4-game series Thurs night. Lex’s first night game and first Red Sox game (he learned some new swear words.) We were both really pumped for the evening. Got there very early, in time to watch all of batting practice. Went to the outfield wall to try to catch a ball. Didn’t, altho a ball nearly caught us. Drank soda, ate Cracker Jack, Foot-Long Hot Dogs, Cotton Candy and Lemonade Sherbet. Priceless.

One problem, the Yankees never showed up: 7-0.

Waiting on \"The Short Porch\"

View from my seats THIS YEAR.

GrandMar Breaks Blake’s Leg!

It happened on Monday at the park. I took Reid and Blake for a walk. I had decided the week before that I can’t handle Blake at the park while trying to keep an eye on Reid, so we walked in the opposite direction than we normally do. After a few blocks, Blake started pointing and saying “this, this” (meaning he wanted me to turn this way. Thinking I was no where near the park, I followed his directions. Well, before long, Blake had directed me to another park. It was much smaller, only a few kids. I thought, OK I can handle this and still keep Reid in sight while he sits in his stroller. Unfortunately, within two minutes Blake was bored with the baby swings and slides (keep in mind he’s only 20 months old). After picking him up four times and carrying him away from the older kids’ slides, I decided he could go down one of the slides as long as he sat on GrandMar’s lap. Big mistake! Halfway down, Blake stuck his foot out. Obviously our momentum coupled with my weight didn’t stop us and his tiny little leg just snapped. I won’t go into any more details, but it was pretty traumatic…for me as well as Blake. He’s OK now, with a cast from the tip of his toes to the middle of his thigh.

Gary, his recovery reminds me of you as a child after surgery…how we had to find ways to occupy you on your tummy. It’s amazing how resilient children are. You never seemed frustrated and neither does Blake.  I haven’t taken any pictures yet…maybe I’ll get one this weekend when Uncle Gary visits!

25 Years and we’re still having fun…

…in the sun! Yes, it will be 25 years of wedded bliss on Wednesday. To celebrate, we went to Key West, with good friends of ours, Ed & Mary Kipp. They are celebrating 30 years the day before us (and they’re younger than us!).

Here are a few pictures:  1) Sunset on the pier 2) Lobster dinner at an outdoor cafe 3) Poolside at our B&B

Next week we’re off to Orlando with Dawn, Chris & the “K-boys”. That should be interesting!  We’ll post more pictures upon our return!

Bonjour…Buon giorno!

Finally uploaded pictures from vacation. Loved Paris…most impressed with Notre Dame (although indoor pictures of most buildings we took on vacation did not turn out).  Also got to see Mona and Venus at the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triumph.  We definitely wished we had more time, three days is not enough (especially when we had very bad rain one evening).

Geneva was more relaxed. Steve’s class (on cultural relationships) was a week long. It gave me time to go out and about on my own. We know a couple from HSBC who live there, so the wife showed me around one day. I know Geneva’s public transportation system better than Chicago’s. One evening I was the tour guide for a group of Steve’s co-workers.

Than, three days in Italy. Much too short! We took the train from Geneva to Milan, then Milan to Genoa. We stayed in Genoa, at the Hotel Bristol Palace. The spiral staircase is rumored to be the inspiration to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”. We crammed in Pisa and then two days visiting Cinque Terre (fives lands). The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the surrounding “Field of Miracles” was fascinating (again though, several of my pictures did not turn out). There is a domed Baptistery with amazing acoustics. You can hear an echo for ten seconds…enabling a person to harmonize with himself. A security guard sings every half hour to demonstrate. It’s pretty neat!

Cinque Terre was the best. We decided to go there on the recommendation of a friend of Shannon. There are five adorable villages built on the cliffs of the Italian Riviera. They’re connected by hiking paths through the cliffs (trust me, we took the simple trails). We hiked from the first to the fourth village. Unfortunately our train was 1 1/2 hours late, so our schedule got a little fouled up. We got to the fourth village at 8PM and decided not to attempt the fifth in the dark. We then sat outside along a bay and had a wonderful Italian dinner.

Castle on Lake Geneva, Switz

Florida Vacation

We’ve been back for a week-plus (hit the ground running on our return) from spring-break vacation to St. Augustine, Disney World & Jacksonville. Two pix here are obvious, the 3rd is from the pool at our friends’ house in Jacksonville.

Au Revoir … Arrivederci!

Goodbye …goodbye!

Steve and I leave tomorrow morning for a two week vacation in Europe…sort of. Steve has a business trip to Switzerland and I’m tagging along (finally taking advantage of retirement).  We’re going to spend a few days in Paris first, go to Geneva for his business trip, then wrap up with a few days in Italy.  Hopefully I’ll figure out how to post a gallery of pictures when I return…I’ve never been able to do more than two at a time.

We’ll be out of the country for Lex and Natalie’s birthdays, so I’m mailing my cards early (I’m sure they won’t mind early birthday wishes).  And yes, Shannon, I’ll get yours out also!

More to follow upon our return…

 

 

 

 

Â