Justin Bieber Fever

We learned today that 40 minutes of new footage
is being added to "Never Say Never" this weekend.

On My Refrigerator

Wasn't this thoughtful?

Team Photo

We took our team picture before today's game.
Before today, only two games remained in the regular season for my 7th/8th grade girls basketball team. We have been working all season to peak for the tournament, so it's been a focused week at practice. We even brought in the 7th grade boys team to scrimmage against us two nights.

Today's game was against St. Benedict, which has been up-and-down this season. Our game plan was two-fold: 1) stop them in transition; and 2) crush their spirits with a strong start. We did both, running out to a 14-0 lead on the way to a 39-10 win.

It was Neil's birthday. So we had cupcakes afterwards.

Telling Sarah to catch, turn and look before shooting.

There's a lot of questions I could ask looking at this photo.

Lauren caught me in a "coaching moment."

Girls' Visit: A Look Back

Sometimes we're so busy living, we don't stop to realize what's transpiring around us.

Such is often the case with the girls' lives. They come over to my apartment every Tuesday afternoon after school and spend the late afternoon doing homework, relaxing and eating dinner with me. It's so much a part of the routine, it is often pretty forgettable.

But this week, I decided to take a few photos to document the time together. Here's a sample.

Some girls still in uniforms, some not.

Julia, having fun with the camera.

Tour of Qatar

Greg Van Avermaet breaks a spoke on Stage 5.
I've been waking up in the wee hours of the morning to cover the Tour of Qatar. The nice thing about this race is that it's early, which means getting the race report finished earlier in the day. The bad thing is, next week's Tour of Oman is not on TV.

Omaha World-Herald Mention

Mike Kelly mentioned me in his column.
(Click to enlarge.)

Spelling Bee

Lauren advanced to the St. Mary's 6th/7th/8th grade spelling bee after winning the 3rd/4th/5th grade spelling bee a couple years back. She was pretty confident heading into the contest and even had the say-the-word, spell-the-word, say-the-word drill down.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as well this time around. After smoothly making it through her first two words (see the video), she stumbled on ravioli. In a bizarre coincidence, that was the same thing she had for lunch. If she's anything like her dad (who was runner-up in the school spelling bee as an eighth-grader), she won't soon forget that she missed that word.

Check out the "Murderer's Row" for the finalists.

Lauren receives her certificate.

And now she knows how to spell, "ravioli."

Fun With Glasses

Veronica (left) and her sisters had some fun with glasses.
There was a lot of craziness going on at Grandma and Grandpa Weide's house over the weekend. Some of it was captured on camera – both still and moving pictures. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are two videos of the shenanigans.

Miscellaneous Weekend Photos

Sometimes there are some unusual photos that show up on my camera, Blackberry or Flipcam. More than half the time they're photos of a TV program or some inanimate object in my apartment. Back in the day, had I done the same thing, my parents would have yelled at me for "wasting film." But nowadays, it's a matter of simply deleting the strange photos – like the one of the Dutch apple pie the girls baked (at right).

But before they are disposed of in the electronic trash can, here's a sampling of the ones from this weekend.


Some nice coloring pages, via Veronica.

Olivia's "sudden motion" ruined this photo at
Grandma and Grandpa Weide's house.

This is Julia, I believe, imitating Lauren. Not sure.

Veronica, watching TV in Grandma Weide's office.

Here's the finished product. Stay tuned for the work-in-progress.

I think Veronica took this shot of Grandma Weide...

...and this shot of me.

Here is Julia's creation on the computer.

District Free Throw Contest

Julia shows off her certificate.
Julia made nine of 15 free throws last month at the Knights of Columbus free throw shooting to earn a trip to the District contest. I was really impressed with her performance because Emily (the basketball player in the family) made two of 15. Two.

So after Emily won her game this morning and we celebrated with pizza at Lansky's, we headed over to the decrepit dungeon that is the gymnasium at St. Agnes and watched Julia compete. She did really well in warm-ups, but had trouble hitting her stride during her 25 attempts. She made nine – yes, the same number that she made in 10 fewer attempts in the school contest. Still, it was enough to earn her third place. The winner earned the right to drive all the way to Hastings to compete in the state free throw shooting contest. Good luck with that.

Checking Out Dad's New Gear

I love this photo of Emily and Lauren.


Emily (left) and Lauren got a kick out of my new
gear from the BMC Racing Team.

Fun With The Flipcam

I came across this Flipcam video from Lauren. Pretty cute.

All About The Brain

Lauren tells you everything you ever needed to know
about the power of the human brain.

St. Mary's Science Fair

Emily (center) at her demonstrative booth.
The St. Mary's science fair was bustling with activity tonight and Lauren and Emily were smack dab in the middle of it. Both girls had informative and educational presentations to the parents and children who showed up to learn about all kinds of things. Here's a recap, in photos.

Jon poses with Lauren as Bridget captures the moment.

Lauren shows off her exhibit.

Jon and Lauren – again.

There were more people than Jon who visited Lauren. Really.

Veronica got some face time with Bridget.

Driving In The Snow

The drive after picking up the girls today.