Country Road, Take Me Home

Two years ago, Kyle and I took a few road trips to check out colleges who were interested in recruiting him for lacrosse. Georgian Court University (NJ), Heidelberg University (OH), and the University of Dallas (TX).

Later today, Erik and I will be making our first recruitment stop at Alderson Broaddus University, in Philippi, West Virginia.

The lacrosse coach there was interested in Erik almost immediately. After checking out Erik’s game films and his 74% faceoff win rate – 40% is considered good – he started sending Erik some messages to get him to check out the campus. We were sure Erik would want to stay close to home, so looking at West Virginia was a nice surprise.

The trip should last about six hours, but that’s nothing for a guy who drives down to the Outer Banks every year. Thanks to the Chinese Wuhan Virus, there are no longer overnight visits – where you can get a better feel for the school and the people – but we’ll see how everything goes. Hopefully, he’ll have a good time.

Erik has a few colleges to choose from – fifty-three college coaches followed him – and I learned a lot from Kyle’s experience. I still blame myself for pushing Dallas, especially after Kylee said he wanted to come home. I’ll let Erik make all the decisions, and support him in whatever he chooses.

P.S. – I’ll try to have posts up today and tomorrow – the actual tour is set for tomorrow at 11am – but I’m not sure how often I’ll be online.

Confirmed!

Yesterday was a busy day. Kevin received his Holy Confirmation yesterday morning with his classmates, after the Archdiocese decided confirmation would not be given in sixth grade, but in eighth grade.

It took Kevin a bit to choose a sponsor, but he finally decided to ask Kyle, who immediately said no… because Kyle loves screwing with Kevin.

Kyle agreed moments later, and Kevin needed to choose a confirmation name, named after a saint. Kevin decided on Saint Luke.

The ceremony went off well, and the kids did a nice job before the Bishop. All the kids looked very nice, but some in the audience were, um, less so. A family came in, and one of the girls – likely a teen – wore a skin-tight dress whose hem was slightly below her pink parts. The high heels were a nice touch for church. /eyeroll

Afterward, we ordered out and had lunch at home with my mother-in-law and our friend Bill. It was a busy, but enjoyable day, and now the only ceremony left for Kevin this year is graduation in June.

If Ya Ain’t First, Yer Last

You may remember a post last week, where I mentioned Princess P (the redhead on the right) was invited to a Sciathlon at one of the private high schools outside the city. Julia was chosen for the seventh grade team, along with three of her classmates, to attend the science competition.

On the way home from dance Thursday night, I told her to just go out and have fun. It’s not like this would have affected her grades. Her teammates were also her friends, so I think the stress wasn’t really a factor. The Sciathlon lasted about four hours, with a snack break, and the teams competed on the following topics:

1. Shark identification.
2. A Paper Bridge Challenge.
3. An Atom Carnival Escape Room.

At one point, Mrs. Earp texted she was glad she wasn’t participating, because she only knew a few of the answers to the questions. She also said the all-girls school was really nice…

Princess P Invited To The Nerd Prom

So last week, Julia brought home a flier from her school. Apparently there is an annual Sciathlon at Villa Joseph Marie High School – a private girl’s high school a few miles outside Philadelphia – where representatives from local elementary schools show off their math and science prowess.

Guess who was invited to participate?

The sciathlon is scheduled for Friday, and she seems pretty excited about it. She gets along with the other three girls on the team, and it’ll be a good experience, and something she can add to her resume. I told Princess P to just go out there and have a good time, and win or be jettisoned from the family.

Win or lose, I’m very proud of her.

P.S. – Almost forgot, Kevin is taking another test at Holy Ghost Prep today. This one is for finanical aid. The better he does, the more he receives. Please give him some good thoughts.

It’s A Very Busy Day

So, earlier this week, the Philadelphia Phillies – who I despise – had a home series with the Baltimore Orioles – who I love. Kyle had the opportunity to see the first game, and as an O’s fan, he went with some of his friends. Erik wanted to go, but he has school the next day. I couldn’t take him to the final game, because I had training.

So, being the great father I am, I bought four tickets to the Orioles game in Baltimore this afternoon. I figured I’d go with Kyle, Erik, and Kevin… until Mrs. Earp pulled me aside and said, “You know Kevin has the Neumann Scholarship test today, right?”

She told me this moments after I told Kevin about the game. F**k!

So, after Kyle and Erik literally called me senile, I walked up to Kevin and told him how badly I screwed up. Suffice to say, he wasn’t pleased, and I apologized more times than I could count. It’s cap day, so I told him I would give him my cap when we get home tonight. Hopefully he doesn’t hate me for too long.

In that vein, the Neumann Scholarship test is very important, and if he is one of the winners, Kevin will get a free ride to any Catholic high school in the Philadelphia Archdiocese. The test last four hours. I have every confidence Kevin will do well, and if he doesn’t get win the scholarship, that’s okay, too.

If you could send up some good thoughts for Kevin today, I would appreciate it.

Accepted!

You may remember a post I put up about Kevin being interviewed by the local prep school. While he was nervous at first, he told us afterward that the interview went well.

On Sunday, he was invited to a breakfast gathering at the school, and while I was working, Mrs. Earp went with him for the event. Kevin and Mrs. Earp were seated at a table with other parents and prospective students eating breakfast. Shortly thereafter, the administrators passed out boxes (above) to all the prospective candidates.

Mrs. Earp didn’t know what was going on at first, then she realized what was happening.

Kevin was accepted to Holy Ghost Preparatory School!

Mrs. Earp sent me a text shortly afterward, and I, like her, thought they would mail us the acceptance letter. The letter was inside the box, along with a few other goodies. Kevin was very happy to be accepted, but Kevin being Kevin, he once again said the tuition was very expensive. I told him, again, that if he wants to go there, we’ll make it happen.

Having said that, we’re still going to have him take the Neumann Scholarship test, and if he is lucky enough to be awarded that, he’ll have a free ride through any Philadelphia Archdiocese high school.

I am very happy Kevin was accepted and am extraordinarily proud of him.

Love Roller Coaster

The last day of summer vacation is always the worst day of vacation. I have to go back to work tomorrow, and from what I’ve been hearing, there are worse problems there now than the forced vaccines. Luckily, I couldn’t care less, because we finished my vacation with a two-day trip to Knoebels Amusement Park in Elysburg, PA.

We’ve never been there, but it has been recommended to me by a lot of my friends and coworkers, so we decided to take the two and a half hour trek upstate to see what all the hubbub was about. The first thing we noticed was you can enter the park for free, and like a carnival, you can either purchase tickets for rides you want to see, or buy the arm band and ride everything. We selected the latter.

The weather in the Poconos was foreboding. The weather channel said there was at least a 50% chance of rain for both days, but Tuesday was gorgeous, and Wednesday’s rain didn’t come until 5pm. We lucked out. In the meantime, we hit all three roller coasters multiple times, rode the log flume multiple times, and discovered Julia is a roller coaster addict. When she couldn’t drag her brothers onto a coaster, she went by herself…

Welcome To Birdland

On Saturday night, the boys and I had the distinct pleasure of seeing a Baltimore Orioles game. We’ve been trying to attend at least one game a year – Covid screwed us out of last year’s game – because we’re big O’s fans, and because Camden Yards is one of the best stadiums in baseball.

It also didn’t hurt that there was a bobblehead giveaway (left).

I was apprehensive on the ride down I-95 because there was rain in the forecast. We’ve been lucky in Baltimore with the weather, and while is did eventually rain, it was not hard enough – phrasing – to stop the game. Our seats were in left field, and we had cover from the bleachers above. The seats were pretty great, considering…

The bobbleheads were for fans 15 years and older – which I thought was a dumb idea, so when Kevin got screwed out of one, I gave him mine.

The workers at the gate actually asked how old the kids were, and I was honest about Kevin. Moments later, Kyle and Erik both trashed me. “You should have said he was fifteen, idiot!” They were probably right, but the kids each got a bobblehead, so that’s all that mattered.

The game was great for the first three innings. The Orioles were playing well, and leading the Tampa Bay Rays for a while. Tamps made it 5-3, and the middle innings were fairly uneventful. Late in the game, Tampa hit a grand slam, then another solo homer. The final score was 12-3. Aargh!

While walking to the car, the kids said I lost my game choice privileges. We saw Tampa last time and it was also a rout. Kyle, Erik, and Kevin said I cannot pick the opponent anymore, and Kyle said we’ll find the worst possible team to see next year.

Eh, it was still a good game, and it’s always great going to Camden Yards. The nearly three-hour ride home was tiring, but the experience was totally worth it.

Princess P Paints Pretty Perfectly

So, after twelve years with a pink bedroom, Princess P has decided she wanted to make a change. She was getting tired of the old color, and started getting rid of items she either didn’t want or were “too old” for.

She looked at more than a few colors, ranging from green to blue, but at the last minute she decided to go with gray. This may or may not have something to do with her hard rock, heavy metal music phase she’s embraced.

Considering her affinity for art, she demanded she paint the walls – with the help of Mrs. Earp. Princess P did much of the walls, and while she made a few mistakes – including dropping paint on her comforter – she did a pretty impressive job.

We weren’t going to do the ceiling, because it didn’t look terrible, but Julia put a few small splashes up there, so I’ve decided to paint the ceiling. It’s a real pain to do, but if we’re going to paint the room, we might as well do it right. I’m proud she decided to help paint her room, and I think she did very well.

The Interview

Today will be a very big day for Kevin.

A few months ago, I mentioned Kevin took an entrance exam for a really good prep high school back in March. Unsurprisingly, the boy did exceedingly well for a seventh grader. Today, he is scheduled for a thirty-minute interview with the school; twenty minutes alone, and ten minutes with Mrs. Earp.

Kevin jokes about the interview, but it doesn’t seem like he’s stressing over it. I assume he’ll head to the interview, talk to the interviewer, and simply be himself. I have already told him to just go to the interview, and if they want you, cool, and if not, that’s cool, too.

The boy has already suggested the school is entirely too much money – what thirteen year-old does that? – and maybe he should go somewhere else. I told him what I told Kyle when he went to the University of Dallas: “We’ll make it work.”

So, hopefully, Kevin will have a nice, stress-free interview, and I’ll remind Mrs. Earp to tell the interviewer I coached lacrosse at the school for four years. Can’t hurt to grease the wheels, right?