6 months and 2 days from now

This opens . . .



I can hardly wait!

Off to the races!

It seems like the beginning of January seems to be a rude awakening of activity that we somehow forgot about in all the holiday flurry.

First, we forgot to sign Spider Droid up for spring soccer, which we took care of in the nick of time!

While at the park district signing him up, we remembered to sign up Puppy for ballet...which started yesterday. Got that in just under the wire. Whew!

On top of that, the Lego Robotics state finals is next Friday and Saturday.

And then the homeschool co-op starts up again. Not to mention Awana on Monday nights, in which the two older are working on Bible Quizzing as well. Then after that is over, I am sure that Spider Droid will want to be in the Awana games again. There's always something, you know. Homeschooling doesn't always involve being at home! Homeschool, it's not a place, it's a state of mind. In fact don't think of it as homeschooling, it's more like life.

Pizza

I want to make one thing clear. Chicago is the best place in the world for pizza. People who think New York style pizza is even half as good as what Chicago offers are just, how do I put this diplomatically? Delusional!


So, when I say that Amy makes restaurant quality pizza here in the NW burbs of Chicago, that is high praise indeed.


She can take this . . .


Make it look like this . . .





And eat like this . . .



That's what I call good pizza!

HSD Rewind: Blogoversary edition

It has been exactly 2 years since this blog started. Here is a reprint of our first post from 1/6/2009.

Why We Home School:

Three precious reasons:Princess Puppy, Bunny and Spider Droid!

Meanwhile back in 2011: Thanks for being part and parcel of this crazy look at whatever it is we look at here.

Coming Soon: More of the same and a bit of the unusual.

Hall of Fame 2011 Votes and Picks

It's time to tell you who I would vote for IF I was a voting member of the BBWAA.
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Too bad I don't have time to go into more detail. Like many of these players prospects, maybe next year.

If I had 10 votes, the 10th vote would go to Edgar Martinez (1 down from last year)

If I had 9 votes, the 9th vote would go to Larry Walker. (new on the ballot)

If I had 8 votes the 8th vote would go to Bert Blyt leven (1 up from last year)

If I had 7 votes the 7th vote would go to Dale Murphy (same as last year but not on "official" ballot this time.)

If I had 6 votes the 6th vote would go to Fred McGriff( up 2 from last year.)

Which brings us to my official unofficial ballot. There are 5 candidates who I would vote to for the Hall of Fame if I had the vote. Last year there were 7 I would have sent to Cooperstown. Murphy, I decided was not quite worthy of the honor. Robin Ventura failed to get 5 %of the vote last year and Andre Dawson was elected to the Hall. This leaves 4 from my ballot last year and 1 newcomer.

If I could only have 5 votes, my 5th vote would be for Lee Smith. Smith is up one place on my ballot from last year.

If Icould vote for only 4, my 4th and final would be cast to former Houston star Jeff Bagwell.

If my maximum vote # could only be 3 the third vote would go to Roberto Alomar. This is one spot up from where I placed him last year.

If I was limited to only 2 votes my second vote would be for Harold Baines. This is one up from where I had him a year ago.

If I could only vote for who I thought was the most deserving Hall of Fame candidate this year, my vote would go to Tim Raines. This is also 1 place up from where I had him last year.

That's who I would vote for. But now let me put my prognosticators hat on. I think there will be 2 players elected this year. Alomar and Blyleven. I think 4 first timers will receive 5 % or more of the vote. If I had to guess who I would say Kevin Brown and Rafaeal Palmeiro in addition to Walker and Bagwell. If it's not 4 I believe it will be more not less.

So those are my votes and picks. I can't wait to find out what will happen.