First day of school, orange people, and female domination

Good morning! Summer is over and the first day of school has arrived. The kids could not be more excited and all are ready to get back to school to see their friends. School begins today at 8:30 sharp. However, in an effort to protect our children's gentle psyches and to disrupt any hope of parents getting any work done at the office, they have limited the school day to a half day. Yep, they will be getting out at 11:15 AM. So, for those of you doing the higher math, we will be driving them to school to drop them off at 8:30. Of course, their will be pictures and hugs and all of that good kind of stuff. None the less at 8:30 we will be ushered out. We will then make our 30 minute drive to the office. (9:00 AM) We will work exactly 1 hour and 45 minutes before we have to drive 30 minutes back to school to pick up our hooligans. At which point, we will need to begin watching them for the remainder of the day. Half days drive me insane!

I know, I know, come on Mark. You crotchety old work-a-holic. It is the first day of school.

Yes, I know and I would not be nearly as disturbed if this was not going to be the exact same thing that is supposed to happen tomorrow morning. Yep, you've got it. Two days in a row of half days. It drives me nuts and, once again, I want to take a stand. Either have the kids in school or out of school, but this half day thing is ridiculous.

Stop it!!

Okay, now back to happy days and cuddly bear feelings. Today is the first day of school and the kids can't wait. Can you believe it? Sydney is in 3rd grade, Graham in 1st, and Ainsley is in kindergarten. Time sure flies. My kids are growing up. I want to enjoy every minute before these incredible years disappear.

On another note, Graham and Sydney both competed at the Texas Throwdown at Dallas Convention Center on Saturday. The tournament was thrown in conjunction with several other events including body building, basketball, a car show and something called grapplequest which Lynley described as "wizard" wrestling. The event was huge and I could dedicate an entire entry to all that we saw. My children where shocked by the muscle bound orange men and women that were walking around the event. There is no doubt that this was the spray on tan mecca of the universe. There was enough spray on tan at this one event to supply the coloring for every basketball made for 50 years. It was amazing... and orange. I just don't get it.

None the less, the kiddos fought better that I have ever seen them in competition. Both dominated their matches. Graham won his match 18 to 3 and Sydney's went about the same. In all due honesty, I missed Sydney's final match as she was brought back from the medal stand for a rematch after we had left to work the scoring computer at one of the other rings. Apparently, they put her up against one of the other girls from our team for the gold medal. She lost a close match to Rachel, one of the girls that she spars with on a regular basis. Rachel is a great little sparrer. She is a challenge for Sydney because she is taller and has much longer legs. That is a significant advantage in Tae Kwon Do and Sydney just hasn't figured out how to get around that. None the less, although she was sad about getting the silver medal we were very proud with what we saw. Graham took home the gold medal easily. I probably should not tell you that he fought a girl for his gold medal match. That may make it seem that it was somewhat less deserved. However, you should also know that she was about twice his size, both in height and girth and she was 4 belts higher that he. Most importantly, his technique was right on. I think the mental side of the game might finally be leaking into his brain. He did a stellar job of managing his opponent. I hope he enjoyed it. It will probably be the first and last time he will master the female brain. After all, that is an achievement his father has never accomplished.

Well, I had best be off.

The first day of school awaits. Let the purpose unfold.