Rule Rock Band

Barbara and I put the kids to bed and then ended up staying awake
until after midnight rocking out to Rock Band.

Guess who nailed a PERFECT 100% score on HARD doing lead vocals? Das
right BABY, Mr Man Daniels. The song you ask that yielded my perfect
vocal score? .... Ummm.... Well, it was "Heart of Glass" by Blondie.

Should that affect my masculinity?

Nah, I didn't think so either.

- ERIC

Lunch

For lunch... I ate a McRib.

Yes, that McRib.

Nothing in November...

I'm sure you noticed that last month, in November, the BLOG was more dormant than my St Augustine grass in... ummm... November.  And I'm also 100% sure that you asked yourself daily (or at least weekly), "why hasn't Eric updated the BLOG?  I need... I need... I'm doing my part, I'm babystepping, I'm checking the BLOG... Why?"

Well, I let my wife use my computer.  She said, innocuously enough, "I just need to copy a file.  It shouldn't take more than a few minutes... "  Me being the Good Husband, of course I said, "Sure.  Here you go, take your time I'm in no hurry.  No hurry at all.  It's not like the fate of the free world hangs on every word that appears on our BLOG."

Twenty minutes later, this is what I see on my screen-

Now you know the mystery... the file copy took "23,679 Days and 25 hours."  Yep, that's enough to chew up anybody's November.

Jessica's Holocaust Theatrical Performance

Before going any further, I should probably come clean and be honest with you - the reader/experience-er.  I pulled the video I took for Jessica's class performance of Kids of the Holocaust.  Whoops... there's another lie - I don't really know the name of the play they did, but it was about Jewish kids trying to survive the Holocaust.  It was based on actual diaries and journals found at the concentration camps.  As you can imagine, there weren't very many laughs to be found in this performance.  It was VERY EMOTIONAL... just ask my wife or her sister as both were crying when the curtain came down at the end of the show.

As I was saying... I pulled the video from the performance and realized that I managed to record the entire play in a "single take."  For those of you not in the Movie Industry, "single take," means the entire 20-min play was done without ever stopping the recording.  My cinematography exponentially adds to the emotional intensity of the play... But there's a price for that intensity.  The price is a 100GB MPG file, a size that appears far too daunting for this free BLOG to handle.

So, despite the title, this entry won't have, "Jessica's Holocaust Theatrical Performance."  Instead, I've pulled from the Daniels Family video archive a take of Stephanie getting ready for her 3rd grade, "Fairy Tale Recreation," play.  Here you go... feel free to comment on her costume being the CUTEST EVER.  Also, as expected, Jacob played the role of the Prince.

Yup, very cute.

Kids and their communication with Santa

It wasn't all that long ago that initiating communications with Santa was a real challenge.  Kids were faced with basically two options for getting their wants, desires and needs to the big man.  They either trapsed down to the mall, stood in-line tolerating the elves, and then faced the anxiety of climbing up on Santa's lap to discuss things mano y mano... OR, you invested 5cents in a stamp and trusted the US Postal Service to hand deliver your hand-written Christmas list to the North Pole in a timely fashion.

Things have changed a bit, now that it's the 21st Century... kids today have cellphones, twitter, facebook, blogs and text messages... my eldest son has been the first child to figure out that there are now some much more technological advanced techniques for getting in communicado with Santa (the girls are still in the stone age... )... Or, Jacob is more motivated by GREED than are my oh so innocent girls...

Without further blather, Jacob would like to submit his Christmas list for the perusal of one Mr. Claus.  I, as his father, will vouch for his relativey naughty-free character-

Coming Soon

Jessica and her theatrics
  . Two plays in one month... 8th grade DRAMA and school "A Christmas Carol" production
Stephanie & her travel soccer tournament
Jacob and his awesomeness

Volleyball... Champions

I thought about writing this really dramatic account of the volleyball tournament my daughter (whose name is Jessica, for those of you who don't regularly follow the Daniels Family BLOG) played in this past weekend.  It was going to be really, really dramatic with a surprise ending, but then I remembered what I titled this little beauty... it's hard to be dramatic and have a surprise ending when it's titled, "Volleyball... Champions."

Instead, I'll get right to the point.  Jessica's 7th and 8th grade girls volleyball team played in the BIGGEST Volleyball tournament in the state... No, the country!  The biggest tournament in all the land.  They competed against all forms of competition, in three different "pool" games.

Pool game: A game that cannot result in your team's elimination from the tournament, but instead is used to "seed" all the teams when the tournament begins.  Win 'em all and your seeded #1... Lose 'em all and your seeded LAST.

The Summit Christian Academy 7th and 8th grade girls volleyball team won two of their three pool games and were seeded THIRD overall.  Summit won the first tournament match two games to none (each match is best of three).  They then played Hill Country (the #2 seed)... and emerged victorious, again winning the first two games in the match.

Summit then moved on to the Championship game where they locked horns with the #1 seeded team, the feared and dreaded girls of Round Rock Chapel.  Most of Round Rock's Junior High girls are taller than Goliath.  They are fiercer than Ray Lewis and even more cunning than a unicorn.  You heard me.

I won't draw it out any longer.  Jessica and the Summit Christian Academy Junior High girls (but mostly Jessica) Volleyball team TOTALLY wiped the floor with at least two of the Round Rock girls... winning the first match, losing the second match, but then winning the third and deciding match 17-15.  The game should only have been played to 15, but in serious volleyball, you have to win by at least two points... which means the deciding, Championship game went into volleyball's equivalent of SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME.  Thankfully, Jessica was not killed, and no animals were harmed in the dramatic ending.

Below is a picture of the VICTORS, the Summit Christian Academy Junior High girls volleyball team: