Well tonight for Shrove Tuesday, Ben’s Pizza Kitchen was open yet again, and he worked hard to make his mom a couple (as he only eats one kind) of pizzas and some calzones.  I just handle the hot stuff and he does the rest, including how much of what to put in.  It was spectacular!

He however, wanted to make his mom dessert tonight so we decided to bake a cake.  To my knowledge he had not ever done that before, at least alone, so I measured out all the stuff, he mixed it together, and wala…..Shrove Tuesday Chocolate on Chocolate Cake.  And, as you can see from the picture next to this, he “marked it with a B,” and he put it in the oven for mommy and BEN, as I am not the object of his affections for such things.  He frosted and then frosted the big B as well.  It looked pretty spectacular.

Of course six year olds have their limitations, which usually mean that their parents set some sort of boundaries.  No normal six year old would do so for his or herself.  So we all ate pizza and it was good, and we all also enjoyed a piece of his delicious chocolate cake.  He liked baking it, and he liked decorating it, but he didn’t want to eat the B, nor did he seem dissatisfied about being limited to one piece.

But I had to run to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and when I left the cake was out on the counter, and, it was perfectly in tact.  At 10 years old our dog Viper tends to not swipe stuff anymore, especially when someone is home, so I didn’t worry about him.  And our cat is not even interested in tuna or catnip let alone cake.  This all reinforced my belief that the cake would be safe for the 30 minutes or so I would be gone.  But on my arrival back home, the second picture is what I discovered. And it has the definite MO of someone who is six.

Certainly it could have been his mom who was just trying to frame him, but she is too OCD to eat all that frosting without some sort of discernible pattern.  The dog and cat are also not suspects as there would have been nose prints or paw prints as well as a tumbled pan if they were.  This all clearly indicates that the chef was downstairs without supervision, quite possibly with a professional frosting gauge, as you can see from the picture this cake has been mined.

But I am giving him a pass as it is Shrove Tuesday.  He normally eats a ton of pancakes, so a little frosting addiction seems quite innocuous.  After all, we also call it Fat Tuesday, and he did make us dinner to boot.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

As a guy, I have never been too fond of Matthew McConaughey.  As most of us guys know, women seem to just fawn over him all the time, and who wants to go out to the movies and PAY to have your wife or girlfriend (if you are not married of course) be all transfixed upon him rather than you……after all guys, it’s all about us, right?  But in all truth, in all the time I have been alive ANY conversation I have heard about him when there has been a woman involved has ALWAYS included some sort of reference to how “dreamy” he is (to use a reference from my grandma’s time rather than a modern one, as we guys really tire of that sort of thing).

So since I have not ever had to, I have not watched anything with him in it.  It has not been a very intentional protest like my insistence to not watch anything with Kathy Griffin or a few others, but I just have not made the time for it.  After all, I graduated from high school in 1979, so paying to relive a life I have already lived by watching “Dazed and Confused” just seemed redundant and a waste of cash, but as I said, I was not really committed to the avoidance cause.  I really do not watch much at all anyway.

But I do read a lot online, and I of course post this blog.  Every morning I log on and wish people a happy birthday (if it is their birthday) and every night I write and post.  And today, after logging on to do the birthday thing this morning, I read a few things and one was about Matthew McConaughey and his acceptance speech.

Yes, before I clicked on the link to the video I did look around to make sure that there were no other husbands or men around as I didn’t really want to turn in my man card or have some group of women suddenly show up in my office, while I incidentally was in my really great looking Chicago Cubs pajamas, and be all drooly over him. But seeing none, I opened the link, and what I witnessed amazed me.

You see, one of the reasons that men aren’t fond of Matthew McConaughey is that he makes us feel a bit insecure.  You see the very sight of him raises women’s blood pressure and captures their attention like we used to do, and still think we do, but only in our minds.  But here was a man who I judged wrongly, very wrongly in fact, and I am here willing to admit that proudly.  Sure, he is good looking, and sure he is a successful movie star and all, but where I was wrong was to see him as that and only that, through the eyes of a man, which color that with a slight tinge of disdain. But as I said, I was wrong, very wrong in fact about him, and I am glad to admit that too.

Oddly enough, stereotypes really bother me and to find myself
mired on the wrong side of one is only troublesome to me if I don’t correct it.  So let me say I watched the clip of his acceptance speech, not once, but many times. He was honest, faithful, charming, and unapologetic for being who he was.  And that meant a lot to me as it truly convicted me about him, and how my beliefs about him were wrong.

Matthew McConaughey thanked God in his speech and people hardly clapped, I noticed that right away, but what I noticed more was him…..it didn’t bother him at all.  It wasn’t about what they believed or thought, it was about what he did.  And I gained not just a lot of respect for the man at that point, but a lot of admiration too.

It is not about doing battle, it is about heart and about what you believe.  It always has been and it always will be.  And in the end, it is who you are that matters not who you hang with or what you have achieved.  He won an Academy Award for best actor, yet despite that achievement, the highest in his field, it was clear that he knew he would not be taken it with him when he leaves this earth.  He put, and puts, first things first.

All this is to say, I think I am going to endure a few movie nights with my wife.  He, in one small glimpse of not a character, but him as a man, has inspired me to be a better one myself.  Thanks Matthew!

Goodnight and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, this is a picture of Ben and his sister Steph, and three of his additional girlfriends attending “happy hour” last night at our hotel in Missouri. Yes, we went to another game, as this one was against the #1 team in the country, but unlike many morons, we do not post when and where we travel, even when we have people at our house in our absence, which we really always do.  (And an additional yes for burglars, sometimes these people who stay are MARINES…..so go ahead if you really want to be humiliated in the news by that sort of thing.)

But anyway, all our kids are close, and Ben and Steph in particular enjoy these visits with her team. The girls all treat him like a king, and even the head coach gave him some cigars yesterday, but appropriately bubble gum ones.  And like last year, he attended the autograph session after the game where all the players signed this year’s poster over their pictures.  Steph is finally a senior and the seniors are featured every year on it too.  But Ben ALSO has them sign his arms.  So yes, (to use another one) Ben will attend Lapel Elementary tomorrow all tatted up as this is done with indelible marker.  But they love him and he loves them as well.  They are all very top notch athletes with even bigger hearts.  And I will miss them when this experience is over, but probably not as much as Ben. He was a just a little goober when Steph started college, but now these are very real relationships to him.  I am just hoping that like the girls Steph grew up with, they keep connected and come to see us.  A lot of them are like family to us all.

But we are home and left and drove straight through a lot of treacherous weather.  Yes, there were vehicles off the roads everywhere, but the roads were really typical of what I grew up in in winter, and the display of abandoned accidents and slide offs, indicated the lack of understanding of driving on ice, and snow complicated by speed and wind.  I really don’t care if you have a heavy vehicle and 4 wheel drive, even a Zamboni would loose control at those speed.  And time is also unimportant here and showing up to wherever you are going is far more difficult if you are seriously injured or die.  Plenty of people were risking both.

I however and exhausted yet it was a great trip.  Being there to get to watch her play college is why I “retired” (temporarily) from coaching women’s lacrosse.  He time as a player is coming to an end, as is my hiatus from head coaching.  I am not looking forword to the first, but I am the latter.  I just want to see Lindenwood make a run at the National title, and in all honesty, they are still in the hunt.

You see, happy hour, is all about perspective.  And I was certainly happy about the entire day.  I am on a break from coaching and a long period since being a player (although ice hockey) BUT there is a hell of a big difference between skill and heart.  And heart is what I witnessed yesterday, and it almost defeated the #1 team in the country.

It’s still there, and I hope they can see and feel it.  Skill issues are always correctable on the surface with coaching, while heart, with motivation, comes from deep within each individual.  It transforms players into what they never imagined they could be.  And as a player and a coach, it is the Holy Grail of what happens when a team gets it.  I saw it coming and I see it in many of them, the challenge will be those who focus on a 2 point loss, one of an open goal shot (no goalie in the next) and the other by a pretty poorly called yellow card in a crucial and tight game.

I told Steph today however before we left that it was a blessing they got beat.  Being #1 early can lead to cockiness, and cockiness can lead to carelessness.  Good coaches, and I am one, will tell you EVERY game is important, and in every game you play it like it is the MOST important one.  They all start 0-0 and the team and attitude you bring to each game needs to be the one you want to take all the way.  Nothing is insignificant.

I played (ice hockey) and I have coached for close to 25-30 years.  I have never had any team go undefeated.  But I have been a part of ruining that experience, and sometimes quite handily, of undefeated teams.  Heart is the most important.  It trumps skill as it always reflects drive and character.

I am excited to see where this all leads.  But it blessed me very much, as I am there for both my daughter and her team…..but just likes the girls, but that too is heart and skill.

And hopefully by the end of May we will all be happier than we all have ever been before.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

As most of you know, particularly regular readers, my daughter Stephanie is a lacrosse player and play for the the 15th ranked (NCAA Division II) Lindenwood Lions, and today they played the 1st ranked Adelphi Panthers in St. Charles, Missouri.

In the lacrosse college lacrosse community, I believe many people were expecting a blowout. Lindenwood is only in its third year of NCAA II lacrosse, but had been for years prior dominant in the ranks below. Adelphi on the other hand is a seasoned program that is primarily an east coast recruiter and a dominant force in D2 lacrosse.

But the game was very competitive and very close, 13 to 11 in fact.  And although Adelphi may retain their ranking, as a former coach (for just the time being) I believe the game hurt them more than the Lions.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find the Lions move up in rank from the game too.  The scales only tipped away in the final few minutes when a referee made a call resulting in a “yellow card” for a Lindenwood player.  It was a VERY questionable call as the game was important and close.  It was indeed a foul, but it was not severe enough to warrant a card and take the Lions down a player.  A ref really decided a game of that importance with a questionable call.  And it is something that drives you wild as a coach whether you are on the sidelines or not.  It was irresponsible and unfortunate.  Yet, as a former athlete and coach, it is ALWAYS a part of the game.  And you have to play around it sometimes to win.

But the loss for the girls was hard on them, and now the challenge really begins.  They are 2-1 in a long and IMPORTANT season with a lot to go.  Now the challenge is to keep their heads in the game, as they will need it.  They have 2 other top 15 teams to face yet, and most others are no slackers either.

But there is nothing to ever be ashamed of.  The Lions almost took out the top team in the country!  I am excited for them, as everyone else will have heard of this game and will now fear who they are!  Way to go Lions!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!


Tommy+

I’ve seen a lot of amazing things over the course of my lifetime, but never really had anything as weird as some of the things I have seen happen to me, that is until today.  I was up early, about 5am, but not totally by my choice.  I had a cortisone shot in my right shoulder about a week and a half ago, and although it is a bit better, it is still quite sore.  Amanda was sleeping and was apparently having some sort of dream.  She put her arm across my chest, which woke me up, but it was nothing that I could not fall back asleep from.  But then, although I didn’t ask her specifically, she must have been playing Family Feud, and the button that she was quickly and sternly pushing was located, you guessed it, on the sore part of my right shoulder.

Now I should say that I conducted a bit of an experiment from that point on, as once someone pushes on an injury like that the amount of adrenaline coursing through your veins is enough to keep you awake for days.  But my wife gets in dreams and they are kind of interesting to watch.  Sometimes she talks, and will even ask me questions.  Yes they are weird and make no sense, but she is asleep.  It is pretty funny.  Other times she moves around and does things, like today……pushing on a button.  And as I spent the next 15 minutes or so in bed, she probably did it 5 more times.  I just hope she won the final round.

But after I decided I had enough I went down to the kitchen and poured a coffee (it is on a timer) and just like always I spilled a bit over the edge.  But I had to laugh, and it is tonight’s picture…….it looks just like my grandma’s old gray long haired cat Lollipop!

Now anyone in my family with any memory can tell you that the general opinion was that Lollipop did not like me, and it is widely speculated that it had something to do with me covering her with Vicks when I was three.  She always seemed to hiss at me, at least publicly, and I teased her a lot with my Uncle Dave, but in all honesty I loved that cat, and I really think that she loved me.  I looked all over for a picture I have of her somewhere and had hoped to post it with this one as it was her hissing.  But if the truth be known, I think it was just a show, as that cat could have taken me any time she wanted.  I was always there and it would have taken little effort on her part.  The could have just discovered me in the morning dead on the davenport where I used to sleep.  I am sure no one would have suspected a thing.

But she never did, nor was she ever the aggressor with me.  In her final years she would even grace me with permission to pat her, and it quite honestly meant a lot.  You see, the Vicks thing to me was just a story, I have no recollection about it at all.  I just knew a cat that my grandma loved and wondered why I couldn’t get on her good side. (most in my family would say that it was because she didn’t have one, but I know better)

Anyway, my coffee spill reminded me of her instantly, and I immediately just laughed and forgot about my sore old shoulder, and missed my (alleged) adversary.  I normally don’t leave spills on the counter, but I left it there, and even took this picture, and showed the original spill to both Amanda and Ben before I wiped it up. (Ben thought it was America with a tail…..he needs some work)  But I couldn’t recreate that if I tried.  It is not exactly Jesus appearing on a piece of toast, but it is about as zany as I have ever gotten.

And I will take it too, and without judgement.  It wasn’t an accident, as I spill coffee like that every morning, but it was no miracle either.  I am just thankful for the memory of that angry old cat that I loved.  I just wish I had a do-over button to push to do it all again, as I would in a heartbeat, but this time sans the Vicks.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+