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March 29, 2005
Easter in the Woodlands
It's always great getting most all the family together, which we do at Easter. The kids especially like meeting up with all their cousins and seem to disappear for the time we're there.
The big event is always the softball game. This year the teams weren't quite as big as years past but the competition was still quite spirited. Kate and Claire really showed the results of their tennis and morning workouts by pounding the ball around the field.
I was pleased the morning workouts paid off for me as well. After a lame popup to brother Bob, came a home run and triple. It was even good when Bob and Dan Carter thought I still had wheels motoring around the bases. Chalk another one up for us forty-somethings!
The grilling was great for warmth if not tasty burgers... hopefully another grillmaster will emerge!
Easter Day was as it always is, a logistical challenge to hook the family up. Maybe Mom's right that we should try this all as a summer get together when we don't have people trying to get home for school, crowds at Sunday mass to contend with, and everything else.
It was great even to sneak in a Texas Hold 'em matchup. Congratulations to Tara for taking care of us Cahill boys, Uncle Al, and Donna. I rode my luck as far as it could carry me, but not enough for the piles of chips and straights Tara threw at me.
It was great seeing everyone and thanks to Pat and Donna for hosting our family!
Posted by Jim at 7:18 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
March 21, 2005
A Cahill's Pub Blowout!
Kudos to Pat and Donna for another outstanding Cahill's Pub party! You may have seen the Austin Cahills and other members of the family proudly sporting our Cahill's Pub apparel and accessories. This party is whole reason for it's existence!
After a layoff of a couple of years (2001-2003) the party resumed last year. This year was my first year back to this shindig since 2000, due to Spring Break trips.
Despite a torrential downpour which put parts of the Woodlands underwater for a few hours, the party went on last Saturday night. The aroma of Pappasito's fajitas greeted me upon my arrival. I found Pat in the garage making sure the beer and margaritas were cold, tasty and ready. And the tunes were definitely that 70s vintage classic rock stuff.
The dart boards were lined up and ready for an evening of fierce competition. My game is not like a fine wine, it definitely is not improving with age! The Mike Jones' dominated the competition ("Houston" Jones and "San Antonio" Jones.)
My participation in the party lasted until 1:30pm or so, not quite as late as years past, but not too bad.
I'm thinking that with the Cahill brothers strategically placed in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Chicago that we need to launch the real Cahill's Pubs pretty soon.
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Tara, Jim, Bob, Mark, Pat, Karen |
Thanks Pat and Donna for such grand Irish blowout!
Posted by Jim at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
March 16, 2005
Spring Break Camping Adventure
Meg, Scott, and I decided to do an overnight camping adventure while Kate and Claire did a Spring Break Tennis Camp at ATA.
We left on Monday, while the weather was still reasonably warm and dry and went to Krause Springs, which is know for it's camping and summer, spring fed pool.
We made sure we were loaded on firewood and charcoal because we knew it would be getting cooler and we'd get hungry a time or two.
We arrived late Monday morning a found a spot to break camp, not too far from Lake Travis where we could fish, but had all the amenities of a flat spot to pitch our tent, a picnic table, and a place to make our campfire. Who needs electricity and all that fluffy stuff!
After pitching our tent and eating sandwiches, we headed down to the lake for some serious fishing. Mostly we managed to feed our worms to the fish, catch sticks and lakeweed, and get our lines tangled and stuck on things, like trees and stuff.
Then, Meg had a break through and landed a couple ounce perch. Not quite dinner, but a start. A few minutes later, "Fishslayer Meg" landed another perch... this one approached a third of a pound. Again one to turn loose for another day. Scott and I could not get a bite we did get good at hooking the night crawlers on our hooks after losing them time after time.
We came back and built a campfire which would prove to be valuable as the temperature dropped and winds picked up. Meg and Scott treated me to recreations of famous battle scenes, I'm not sure if Revolutionary War, or Battle for Texas Independence period...
After battling hamburgers for dinner with nothing more than coat hangers for a grill we were sufficiently fed again and ready for camp fire stories.
The reviews on my stories of the Texas Range wars were decidely mixed if not outright panned.
We cashed it early to get to the ghost stories and some early morning fishing when we hoped we encounter some starving fishies.
Scott and Meg regaled us in jokes and ghost stories, and Scott was no longer anxious for any more of my stories. It was still fairly early when we fell asleep. If not for the college kids nearby having a Spring Break celebration into the wee hours, we'd have gotten quite a bit of sleep. I had to think back somewhat to my college days and camping trips to Hamilton's Pool to appreciate this wee hour stuff.
A cold, windy morning greeted us at 6am when we were ready to have breakfast and go fish. I felt a sense of payback as we rattled around fixing breakfast. Also there was some good learning. Some types of plastics do not handle hot coffee too well. I need to get the run down on plastics thermal properties from Dad. I do know that of the two types of cups we had, one worked.
The morning fishing proved too windy and two cold. By unanimous consent we bailed after about 15 minutes. We made it a point to build up that camp fire and use up our remaining wood. Check out this camp fire!
Overall, we're ready to do it again, and the remaining night crawlers sit in our fridge awaiting the next fishing expedition or someone mistaking them for leftovers!
Posted by Jim at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
March 12, 2005
The Zenmaster of skipping stones
Here's how you skip a stone on Lake Austin...
Posted by Jim at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
Spring has sprung!
It's unmistakable--the peach trees are in full bloom.
Now if we can just wait until May when the juicy hill country peaches from our backyard will be ready!
Please, please, please, no late season freezes...
Posted by Jim at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
March 8, 2005
San Antonio ZAT tournament report
Unfortunately, I couldn't be in two places at the same time. As you've read earlier, Claire was playing in an Austin/Georgetown Champ tournament, while I was with Kate and Meg in San Antonio. Let me say that Kate's first round match was pro style. Let me set the stage by saying that Kate had lost to this same player in the first round of the last ZAT tournament. This time was a different story. Kate came out swinging from the warm-up. She was in command of the match. The opponent ran Kate from side to side to no avail. Kate beat the #1 seed 6-1 6-3 - ouch! Kate was very consistent, but hit some impressive winners as well. Her serve had some major pop factor. Her coach simply said Kate played "brilliant" [add a British/Scottish accent] and "perfect." The opponent didn't know what hit her.
Meg had a good match against a scrappy player. After Meg's 112 ball inside-out forehand rally against Coach Newman last week, I was not surprised that Meg could be consistent. She did a great job, but lost 8-3. However, actually I thought she was ahead the whole time. After all, I'm her mom.
Too bad the tournament was rained out. I'm confident Kate would have won the main draw and Meg would have been consi champion. After all, I'm their mom.
Posted by Deb at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
Homage to Grandma June a.k.a. Beauty Queen
I must post an ode to my mother, Grandma June. This past weekend, at the impressive age of 82, she won a beauty pageant in Corpus Christi. The judges rewarded June's amazing outward beauty as well as her obvious inner beauty. I've been told that the judges were particularly impressed by her service in the Navy in WWII, teaching Navy pilots.
They marveled at her talent in her youth of ballet in toe shoes as well as tap dancing in toe shoes. Grandma June still has her keen sense of humor, as evidenced by her conversation with Kate and Meg on our recent visit to Corpus Christi. Kate and Meg said something to the effect of "we think you'll win the contest" and she said with her famous dry humor "everyone thinks their Grandma will win."
We also enjoyed her favorite attendant, who she calls "Ray" even thought that is not his name. Anyway, I close this homage to Grandma June by saying that we all marvel at her hearty constitution and her joie de vivre. We love you Grandma June!
Grandma June and sister Dee Dee
Posted by Deb at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
It all started with a corn...
So one day...when I learned I had a corn on my toe...my dad showed off his artistic talent Woo Hoo...He's pretty good...
OOOh and GREAT JOB GRANDMA JUNE for winning the beauty pageant...I got ALLL my good looks from her...oh and of course my dad too since he's probably the only one thats gunna read this so I gotta say something nice right?? mhmm...
Posted by Claire at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
March 6, 2005
HEE-HEE
:-D....enough said
Oh and...I love my iPod.
Posted by Claire at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
Pure Motivation
Scott's second podcast on motivation.
For those using Ipodder or Doppler software to download podcasts to an Ipod or MP3 player, you can add our RSS feed to get Scott's pearls of wisdom delivered to you when his creative genius strikes!
Here's a quick video demo of the Podcast Tools guy setting up his cheapie Muvo MP3 player to receive podcasts.
Posted by Jim at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack
Competition Saturday
The Cahill family was in full competition mode Saturday with Claire playing in the Champ tournament in Georgetown, Kate and Meg in San Antonio, and Scott with his opening Soccer game in North Austin.
Deb is with Kate and Meg, while I took Claire and Scott around. Logistics looked like they could work until damp courts delayed Claire's 8am start time to 10:30. Scott's soccer match was at 12:45pm, so it was going to be interesting.
Claire might have a different take on her performance, but here's mine.
She had a dramatic first round match against a tough, quick lefty player (a. k. a. "Lefty".) Lefty got off to a very quick start, going up 5-2 in the first set. That's when Claire seemed to reach deep and kick it up two or three levels.
I was sitting next to Claire's primary coach Jonas, when we saw how she began to start bouncing on her toes as she readied for return of serve. She began absolutely hitting out on her shots making Lefty slug it out, and then varying the pace which caused Lefty to dump shots into the net and hit long. Before we knew it, Claire had the match back at 5-5. It went to 6-6 which meant tie-break time.
Eyeing my watch, it was now 11:45am, now one hour before Scott's match, and we had a 30-40 minute drive ahead of us to get to his game.
Of course the tie break was the same kind of slugfest that the prior games had been. The score worked it's way up to 6-6, before Claire forced Lefty into an error by bringing her in on a short ball which she dumped in the net. On set point they slugged away until Claire ultimately prevailed.
Now 45 minutes before Scott's match we had to bail. Jonas watched the rest of the match, and Claire went on to take the second set 6-4, with as much dramatic flair and determination as the first set, I'm told.
The amount of progress I saw since the December Austin tournament was amazing. Even Coach Jonas commented how he'd not seen Claire play at this level before.
The win, gave her an opportunity to play the number one seed, a girl who was getting ready to "age up" to the 15-16s. Claire slugged it out with her, but did not ultimately prevail, although the first set was very close at 6-4, and could have gone the other way. We were lucky to just made it back in time from Scott's soccer game to see the whole match.
I think this tournament has given Claire confidence as she is freshly competing with the 13-14 year olds, that she can play with any of them. Especially if she can attain that level she kicked it into when down 5-2 of that first round match I saw.
Scott's match was a lot of fun to watch. They really battled the other team falling behind early, then storming back. There is some controversy whether they caught the other team at 5-5, which Scott will tell you was the result, or 5-4 which is the mainstream belief of the final score. What really matters is that the kids really played well together as a team and Scott proved a force as he broke the ball free out of the scrum on many occasions when the kids were all bunched together, showing off his strength.
Kate and Meg will have to give the full report from San Antonio. Unfortunately rain today, cause the tournament to be cancelled, stopping Kate's bid to win the whole tournament, and Meg's bid to repeat as Consolation bracket champion, as she did in her first tournament last month in Corpus Christi.
Posted by Jim at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBack