A Visit from The Sage

Sage presiding at the 25th Annual Lange Open

My oldest brother, Jim, aka 'The Sage' arrives in Seattle tonight for a long weekend.  Been looking forward to this for weeks.

Tim (my nephew, Jim's youngest) and I have a tentative slate of activities, starting with a stop at the gym on the way back from the airport to catch Thursday Night Basketball (a weekly tradition for the last 15 years) and the obligatory post-basketball stop at one of my favorite spots, the Beveridge Place Pub (also a tradition). We're planning to squeeze in a round of golf, some sight-seeing, some great northwest seafood on the barbecue, maybe a few manhattans, and at least one 'Tribal Council'.

Tribal Councils are a Lange family tradition in which the siblings and extended family gather (typically around a fire pit - favorite adult beverage in-hand) and discuss weighty issues like 'Why did the Indians collapse in the 2nd half this season?', or 'Should we ban jello salad from next year's Lange Open?'.  They usually happen during Lange Open weekend or on family vacations, but may be held anytime a quorum is present and manhattans are flowing. It's a advisable never to miss a Tribal Council - otherwise you run the risk of being the subject of the above-mentioned 'weighty' discussion.

It's going to be a fun weekend.  Welcome to Seattle, Sage!

Back to school?

Karri and I attended 'Back to School' night this evening at Thomas' high school, Seattle Prep.  We got a modified copy of his schedule and walked through his classes, getting 10 minutes with each teacher and 5 minutes between bells.  It was a little stressful trying to get to the next classroom before the bell!

This is our first year at Prep and we've been very impressed.  Thomas is off to a great start - enjoying his classes and making lots of new friends (he's playing freshman football too - a topic for another post).  It was nice to get a glimpse into his daily routine, meet his teachers, and get a better feel for the curriculum.  We love the integrated curriculum, especially 'Collegio', which combines English (literature & composition), Social Studies (history, ancient civilizations) and Religion (scripture, church history, world religions).  I'm sure its not for everyone, but this format would have made my high school experience a little more interesting.

We're excited for Thomas.  It feels like he made a great choice in schools.

It's about time

I created this blog 5 years ago and this is my first real post (not counting the obligatory 'hello world!' and a couple work-related tests that I subsequently deleted). Obviously I've been thinking about blogging for some time. I finally found inspiration to do something about it.

A couple months ago, my brother Bob tipped me off that two of my cousins have been blogging. I checked out their blogs and immediately got hooked. I read them almost daily now. Reading their blogs got me motivated to start my own. But a post I read today gave me the smack-upside-the-head I needed to make it happen (Thanks Ellen! And here you don't even know I've been reading your blog!).

I'm tempted to write down some ideas and goals about what I'll blog about and how frequently I'll post. But I don't know where this is going to go (and kind of like it that way) and setting goals seems risky given my track record with blogging. So, instead, I'm just going to wing it.