Athletic Pizza

On Wednesday evening we had the athletic banquet for Santa Maria del Popolo. We had pizza, it was on the informal side.

They gave out letters to the eighth graders. Now we'll have to buy Star a sweater to sew her letter onto.

They also gave out pins to put on your letters. I guess Orchid will have to wait a couple of years to pin hers on.

Saturday 5 Jan 08

I am writing this to you, dear reader on one of my Christmas gifts, a folding keyboard for my PDA.

Well, we had our first basketball game of the new year and we won, 27 to 8.

This must be starting to seem like a blog only about basketball. For that I apologize, but basketball is a nicely packaged topic. Also, I happen to be sitting at the 8th grade boys' game (right after our 8th grade girls' game) while writing this.

We also have two science projects going on. Star has been monopolizing our kitchen with her project on natural dyes. I don't think her hypothisis that artificial dyes are more effective is going to prove true.

Orchid is working on a project with water rockets. She is going to try to show that bottle rockets with water and air are more effective than water or air alone. She is going to shoot the rockets at a 45 degree angle and measure the time and distance. We are sort of waiting for the weather to get warm enough to do it.

Will write more later. Don't forget to participate in the poll.

Christmas Stuff and Basketball Less Taken

On Monday we went caroling at the Greek American Rehabilitation Center in Wheeling. It was very nice. All five of us went with the JOY (Junior Orthodox Youth) and GOYA (Greek Orthodox Youth of America) from our church (Ascension of Our Lord Greek Orthodox Church). We walked up and down the halls singing and Star made a couple of new friends. We even sang one Greek song (well, I didn’t sing it as I don’t know the words or tune).

Tuesday everything was Ice Stormed out. No school, no band concert and no Greek school.

I used our brand new Cannon ZR800. Tulip’s Christmas concert was Wednesday morning and I got the whole thing on tape. She was very cute and really got into the movements for the songs. First graders can be so funny; they don’t have all the inhibitions in place yet.

Star’s basketball season is on hold until after the new year because of some scheduling conflicts. Wednesday night they didn’t do too well, losing 29 to 8. Star played pretty well and I managed to video tape some of the game. I ran out of battery at about half time because I hadn’t recharged it after Tulip’s concert.

Wednesday was Uncle Sweet Pea’s 40th birthday. Happy birthday Uncle Sweet Pea, and congratulations again to Granny Begonia (I always say that the mother does all the work and deserves all the credit for a birthday, since the baby is just along for the ride).

On Friday we had Girl Scouts and we made pretzels.

BBall Record 3 and 3

Ah, I remember it like it was yesterday: they wore blue, we wore white, we were at home, we scored a lot, they didn't.

You can see by the scoreboard that it was a blow out. They actually only made two baskets, the other point was from a free throw.

Our Stargazer Lily got fouled and had to shoot two free throws. From her reaction you'd've guessed that she committed the foul. She made one of the two. She got at least one other basket, several rebounds and several blocks.

It was a fun game. It was the game the scoreboard is from (note Star's number on the board, 50).

On Tuesday I had to take Tulip to Greek School so I couldn't make the game. We played the same school, but at their home gym. We won again, except it was 30-something to 20-something today. I'm glad, it would have been sad if we had beaten them as badly again.

On the way to Greek School, Tulip and I were listening to the School Of Rock CD in the Flowermobile. When it got to the line about "until the stars are falling," she asked if they meant asteroids.

I told her that it meant, "the end of time." She said, "but the circle of life goes on forever." I asked if we could please just listen to the song. She said, "Continue."

On the way home I offered to play an audio book. She said, "Yes, that will get some English into me."

Six year olds are so funny.

Basketball Record 1 and 3

Star and her team had another disheartening loss Sunday. It was a wild, brutal and strange game that ended 33-22.

The team they played really manhandled our girls and were thoroughly thrashing them in the first half. They mugged our team in every way except to take their money and rarely got called for it.

There was shouting from our parents and it looked like the refs didn't know the rules about "pressing" when one team is ahead by a certain number of points. They looked it up at half time and found that the margin has to be 15. The other team was over that margin.

I saw when girls were hit in the face and a foul was called against them (on both sides).

The odd reffing (I won't say "bad" because I don't know the game well enough to tell) wasn't the only thing. Midway through the third quarter the other team suddenly stopped being able to make baskets, even when they had unopposed breakaway layups. Also there suddenly were full court passes going both ways. It looked like a Rugby game (for those readers who know the European style of kicking for field advantage).

Finally, our Stargazer Lily tried to make a basket at the buzzer and was fouled. The refs didn't let her take her two free throws. Our head coach yelled at the ref, the ref bumped into our coach and threatened to call the police. In the end I found out that that ref has refused to do anymore of our games.

A Basketball Game Won

Yesterday Star had the second basketball game of the season. She is the tallest girl on the team by far. She is also the tallest of the two teams they have played so far.

As the tallest girl she is indispensable and her long arms block shots and passes like nobody's business. It is great to see her get aggressive out there (makes her Prop father proud).

Last year she was the first girl ever from her school to foul out. The coaches are fine with that. They say, "they give you the fouls, use them."

She is even better this year, she had no fouls in the first game and only two yesterday.

Enough of roughhousing, what was the score? Well, the intensity level was unbelievable from these girls. They usually are SO NICE that they almost seem apologetic when they win, like they offended the other team. But, yesterday they went out there and took the game.

They kept the other team from scoring a single basket through most of the first two quarters. At half time the other team had only made one 3 point basket, the score was 15 to 3. We parents were so excited that I took a photo of the scoreboard (it didn't turn out).

We ended the game with our Star getting 2 points, a bunch of blocks and a few rebounds.

The final score was 24-13! Hooray!!