Christmas Eve

Father Joe is with us this year and it has been really wonderful to spend this much time with him. As a catholic priest I doubt he has had an opportunity to relax this much during the Christmas season. As I watched the priests running around just before today's 4 p.m. children's mass, I thought of my brother and how hard he has worked his entire life. I don't think retiring because of his illness was an especially easy thing for him to do, but I believe now that some time has passed he is easing into retirement and starting to enjoy the freedom it has created for him. I know that he still has to be careful about his health, but he looks good and has even stopped smoking, which is something we had all been praying he would do. It is good to be with family anytime, but at Christmas it just seems so much more special. Mom and my sister Judy and her husband will join us tomorrow for a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, which I will cook. That is another one of my favorite traditions.......Dad cooking Christmas Dinner. Or is it my wife's favorite tradition? Hmmmmmm.

Anyway, all the presents are wrapped and the children have just slipped off to bed and I'm getting ready to shut down for the night as well. However, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and I hope that Santa brings good tidings for the New Year.

Good night & God Bless.............

Anger Management

Joe had his fist real fistfight this past week and I'm still fuming about the situation. He was at Scouts and after his den meeting he went outside to play with a few of his friends and came home with a bloody nose and marks of his face that were obviously made with someones fist. The kid who attacked him is much larger than Joe and has a serious issue with anger. He plays for the basketball team that I help to coach and having observed him for several weeks it is clear he gets angry easy and has a vicious temper. While I'm normally in the club that says it is better for the adults to stay out of these things and let the kids sort the issues, I'm having a real problem remaining neutral. Probably because I know the kid's Dad and I would have expected some level of dialogue about the situation. Instead, he basically avoided the issue and did very little to impress upon his son the importance of not beating the crap out of other kids just because he's having a bad moment. It's also kind of sad since Joe was one of this kid's very few friends.....I say was because Joe has decided to take a serious break from the kid and not play with him until at least February, which hopefully will extend further into the year.

To his credit Joe tried to avoid the fight initially, but stood up for himself and by all accounts defended himself very well given he was fighting someone much larger. Why is it that we always remember our first real fight? Mine was with a kid named Joe Butler, whose Father was a boxer in the military and his Dad had taught him how to box quite well. He hit me square on the nose in the first 30 seconds and then while my eyes were watering he beat the living hell out of me. It was embarrassing and painful and I vowed that day that I would learn how to fight properly, which helps to explain my entry into the Marines a few years later.

I watched the Nuggets/Knicks brawl on TV and I think Stern was a tad lenient given the circumstances, especially with the coaches who both need a swift kick in the rear. Joe and I go to see the Hawks pretty regularly and it is bad enough with Josh Smith using the "F" word for all to hear whenever he gets upset, but I sure as hell don't want Joe to see these guys punching each other.........hell, whatever happened to the concept of professional athletes acting as role models for our kids? We pay them millions of dollars and the best we can expect is for them to say "F It" whenever things don't go their way............

Anger is a bad thing and we all need to learn to take a breath, to walk away, to count to ten as my Mom used to tell me when I was a kid......I'm proud of Joe for having defended himself, but I'm sorry his first pugilistic affair had to be with a so called friend............it's confusing when someone turns on you. I suppose it is a good life lesson in some respects, but tough when you are only ten.

Truly Remarkable

This morning I joined Kate and Joe to watch Ellie's performance as Toto in the Wizard of Oz. Produced by the wonderful staff at "Applause for Kids", a local program associated with The Atlanta School of the Performing Arts, it was a truly remarkable performance by twenty great kids. These kids rehearsed for two hours every Saturday for 12 weeks to deliver one wonderful experience for their parents and special guests. Ellie has been attending this program for nearly three years and she consistently improves with each performance. Today was especially challenging because as Toto she had a predominately non-speaking part (aside from a few barks here and there), spent much of the program on padded knees following Dorothy around (played to perfection by Parker Whitlow)and had to try to avoid being kicked as she maneuvered around the various dance routines. She was amazing and everyone said she absolutely stole the show. I of course agree, but then as Ellie's Dad I have little choice but to agree. Jennifer Salberg, the founder of "Applause for Kids" is a professional actor who had a dream about creating a school of performing arts for children and made that dream come true with Applause. She has a powerful personality that projects confidence and enthusiasm and engenders those traits in the the children that attend her programs. She and her very small, but very talented staff create four Broadway shows simultaneously, training 80 children over 12 weeks and delivering four shows over a 24 hours period (one last evening and three over the course of today). In addition, they promote "Curtains Up" a program focused on 45 foster children in Conyers, Georgia. The performances are all being held at the Northwest Presbyterian Church, a lovely venue and great for Jennifer since her school was muscled out of it's Roswell Road location by Ace Hardware earlier this year. Hats off to all the children and Jennifer and her team for a super show.

Sorry For The Recent Absence

Hi Folks: I'm truly sorry for having been absent the past week or so and I'm guessing you are all tired of looking at that poor deer. The truth of the matter is that I've been really busy the past week with all sorts of interesting projects. I have been trying to hook-up two good friends on a potential financial arrangement; i.e.; one is looking for money and the other helps folks find money. I've also been helping with the Georgia Technology Summit, which is progressing quite nicely and we are now entering the sporsorship phase of the event. That is where we put on our fund raising hats and go out and find firms that want to sponsor the Summit. Finally, I managed to get over the Monastery of the Holy Ghost in Conyers, Ga. with my good friends from NeboWeb and we are looking to help the good Brothers there redesign their website. The Monastery was very impressive, especially when you realize that it was built entirely by the Monks who arrived in the mid-40's using the most basic tools coupled with lots of sweat. It is intensely serene as you would expect, with a retail store that sells Catholic books and articles, but also fruit cakes, fudge, and bonsai trees. Visit www.trappist.net and explore the Monastery on line and then jump into the car on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and drive to Conyers to visit. I promise you will not be disappointed. Finally, caught a game the other night and someone asked me just how close my seats were to the action, so I thought I'd take a camera and give you some sense of being on the floor.