Update from Italy ....

I spoke with Tika on Tuesday. She is doing very well in Italy. She said she was still sore from competing on Sunday and I am not surprised since she competed in five events over a VERY long day. She said they started early in the AM and did not finish until almost 11 PM. She did phenomenally well winning a Silver Medal in Short Weapons and a Bronze in Kumite. She also placed in the top 5 in Kata, Mandatory Kata and long weapons. I had a message from Sensei Liz, one of Tika's instructors, and she said that Tika had very tough competition from some girls that came in from the US West Coast and also from Italy and Spain.

So now Tika is enjoying Italy. Monday she was hiking near the area where they are staying. Tuesday was spent at the Vatican. Tika of course was enthralled with the artwork - the sculptures, paintings, tapestries as well as the architecture. She could not stop talking about it - which was great. Yesterday they were to your the Colosseum. She has 3 more days in Italy and I know she will enjoy them. I am anxious for her to get back so I can hear all about the trip and the competition.

.... cu

Good Grades and Good Luck .....

The girls got their report cards this week ---- they did very well as usual. Sam had 2 A+'s, 3 A's and 3 B+'s. Kris had 3 A+'s, 3 A's and a B+. Tika is following her Dad with with her worst grade in English, a C, but outside of that an A+, 4 A's and a B (in French - also not one of my strongest subjects). Now I will say that a C in Loudoun County is an 80. I was very proud of all of them especially since all of them are doing at least 2 and in most cases 3 advanced or honor courses. Kris was thrilled to see a current year GPA of over 4.

On the "Good Luck" side --- Tika leaves tomorrow afternoon for Italy. She will be there until next Sunday. This weekend she will be competing in an International Karate tournament. "Good Luck" really does not do her justice as she has trained hard to get ready for this and after this years National title I am confident she will be a tough competitor. This will be the first time she has travelled overseas without me so I am anxious about that - but I know she has good people with her. I know she will have fun and will come back with lots of stories and pictures and I expect a medal.

I will post info and pics as soon as I get any

cu .....

West Virginia Karate Tournament ......

Yesterday Sam and Tika traveled to St. Albans, West Virginia for a NKF (National Karate-do Federation) Tournament. It was quite a drive for them, almost 360 miles. They left VERY early Saturday morning, 4 AM, and did not get back home until 2:30 this morning. Neither of them felt that the tournament was run very well (Sam's quote - "It was horrible") but they did well none the less. Sam placed 2nd Kobudo and 4th in Kata. Tika placed 1st in Kata.
Now Tika is getting ready to leave for her tournament in Italy. She leaves Thursday for 10 days. Of course I am very proud of her but nervous to send her to Italy without being there. I know she will do well though. I will post updates as I get them.

Have a great weekend - btw it is 65 degrees here now :-)

.... cu

2009 ....

It is a couple of weeks into 2009, well I guess technically 3, and I just thought about the fact that I have not posted anything on want I want to do in '09.

The year is already shaping up to be an interesting one:

• Martika is busy training for her trip to Italy in mid February to compete and she is also working on her art to do everything she can to make it into the residential Governor's School
• Kris is doing great in her first year in High School and is now in the midst of her first High School midterm exams.
• Sam is now 13, going on 20, and thinking about a possible trip to Las Vegas to compete over Spring Break.
• I have already signed up for two races, both running events: The Cherry Blossom Ten Miler and the LAWS Half Marathon in Leesburg. Now it just needs to get warm enough for me to get out and run.

I missed sign up for a couple of triathlons that I would have liked to do so I will jump into some local sprints and maybe an olympic distance if I get more comfortable with my swimming. In the meantime some road races and maybe a duathlon.

Work looks like it has the potential to be a lot of fun with interest from a few groups to look at how I can help advise them on securing parts of the US National Infrastructure - more on this as it becomes more solid.

I expect 2009 will also be an interesting year for my personal life. I have been seeing someone for the last 3 months and things have been going well. So well in fact that Kris joined myself and Laura for coffee. Well Kris actually had a Chai Tea Latte - I had coffee.

So it is looking like in a year of a new President and a changing world environment things may also be very full for myself and my girls. I am looking forward to all teh positive things that 2009 will bring.

I hope to see you all in '09

.... cu

Governor's School Update

Last weekend Tika had her interview/adjudication for the 2008/2009 Virginia Governor's School for Humanities. The program is a 4 week residential program at Christopher Newport University. You can find out all about the program at their website. On Saturday she brought some of her portfolio, including sketches, paintings and sculptures to have them looked at by the people running the program. It was an early morning, she had to be in Winchester by 7:30 for her 8:00 AM appointment.

She was a bit nervous, well actually very nervous, but she handled herself very well. The process involves a timed session where they sketch for 15 minutes. Then they have the adjudicators review that sketch and the rest of their work that they brought. Her work is very good, as you can see in this sketch of Edgar Alan Poe that she did. She will not find out the results for quite a few weeks yet, mid-April, so she will be anxious about it for some time. Having spoken with the people involved in the program it turns out that about 1 in 4 people that make it through their county selection get into the program that Tika is working towards.

We will be keeping our fingers crossed that they see the potential and talent in her that we do.

.... cu

YIKES - Happy Birthday Sam!

The "YIKES" is not that this is a day behind her birthday - but is for the fact that now I truly do have 3 teenage daughters. Sam's 13th birthday was yesterday. Tuesday her and Kris were over for some homework and supper and I surprised her with her gifts and a cake. She loved all of it. She took the left over cake to Karate class and shared it with everyone there. Saturday is her "real" party with all of her friends. She is looking forward to that of course.

So this is also my first posting since before Christmas - so a Happy New Year to all! It was a great holiday season - not too busy but busy enough. A couple of get-togethers at work and then celebrating with close friends and with the girls of course. Myself and all the girls had a great Christmas Eve lunch and then opened presents at the house on Christmas day. I spent the rest of Christmas Day with friends, having a nice turkey breast dinner. New Years was pretty much the same - except for the GREAT bottle of Champagne that was opened at midnight and a wonderful chateau briand roast for New Year's dinner. It truly was a great holiday season with family, good friends and a special someone.

I hope your year has also started out wonderfully and continues to be a great one.

---- cu

Happy Hanukkah

Sunday evening the phone rang and it was my nephews calling to thank me for their Hanukkah gifts. It was very nice to hear that they had already started celebrating and that everything arrived in time for the holidays.

The girls are all excited about Christmas of course. They are off from school for 2 weeks and are spending time with their friends and getting everything ready for Thursday. We will be doing a Christmas Eve lunch which will be a nice new tradition.

I am also looking forward to the holidays. We decorated the Christmas tree Sunday, Sam finished wrapping some gifts and we did some baking. We also cracked into Mom's fruit cake - delicious as usual. Now all we need is a bit of snow to make it look more like Christmas.

Before I go I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season. Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah or something else I hope it is happy and safe for everyone.

---- cu