High School Basketball Begins!

Omaha Central opened its season by playing Omaha South, the defending Class A state champion.

Not too many weeks after the football season came to a close, high school basketball got underway tonight with Omaha Central hosting defending Class A state boys basketball champion Omaha South.
This was also the debut of our Striv.TV regular season basketball broadcasts. Omaha South's girls beat the Eagles in the opener and the Central boys took the Packers to overtime and missed a potential game-winner in the final seconds.

I did myself a favor by buying a small, dry erase board. It worked well in passing along details to the announcers. And it will save on paper, sticky notes and index cards, many of which blew off the top of the press box during football season.

The new shirts for the broadcast crew, by the way, come via Dr. Keith Bigsby. Central's principal emeritus got the Central High Foundation to foot the bill for them. They are nice! And my new threads also gave some students a scare. I was using the restroom at halftime when a bunch of students came in with something not-so-good in mind. But before anything could go down, I heard one of them say to the others, "Guys, there's a teacher in here!"

From left: Julia (camera), Olivia (producer), Isaac (color) and Alec (play-by-play).

I am officially an Eagle now.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Veronica!

Olivia tried to help Veronica cut the frozen cake from Freddy's. Yep, the calendar says it is Nov. 1.

Not Sept. 19.

Veronica says at this rate, we will be celebrating Julia's birthday on Dec. 8.

Yes, we just might.

It's not easy to pay for a $19.99 cake when you are having money difficulties. So I really appreciated Veronica's patience and upbeat attitude.

By the way, the cake was good. And the Styrofoam base that we cut out with the first piece was, well, funny.

Back to the Future: Mid-City Bank

There was plenty of goofiness going on as we shot our second "Back to the Future" location.

The old Mid-City Bank that once sat on the corner of Saddle Creek and Dodge for years was torn down earlier this year.

In its place will be a hotel for Nebraska Medicine patients and family.

We stopped by the site after shooting photos and video of the demolition of the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

We tried to use some existing landmarks to make sure the "after" photo matches.

Apparently, the hotel could be up to six stories tall.

The property has been a dirt lot since May, when the bank was demolished.

Ok, look closely at this one. I didn't see it until after the photo was taken.

The End of the Civic Auditorium

Watch the final 30 seconds of the demolition of the Civic Auditorium.

We rushed from picking up Lauren from art club today to get our "Back to the Future" photo of the Omaha Civic Auditorium. Little did we know, we were under the gun to catch the final parts of the building being demolished.

Unfortunately, Lauren was not a willing participant in the shoot. While she moped and complained about not being able to work on her homework, I hustled the other four girls across the street. Then the fun began.

This was cute.

No Lauren in these photos, unfortunately.

We know there are photos like this from our "before" shoot. We just have to find them.

Check out Emily, trying to scale the fence.

And The Winner Is...

Julia helped tally the NCAA brackets (about two weeks after the title game).

It seemed a "dumpster fire" had broken out on everyone's NCAA Tournament brackets due to a host of first round upsets.

But, as you can see from our scoring system, it is the games near the end that really matter and help you pile up the points:

First round win: 1 point
Second round win: 2 points
Sweet 16 win: 4 points
Elite Eight win: 8 points
Final Four win: 16 points
Correctly picking the champion: 32 points

Julia helped tally up the points today and it was pretty close between Cole, Julia and me. In the end, I won with 165 points, with Julia in second (152), followed by Cole (140. Julia said I only won because, "Dad cheated. He copied off of me!"

Anyway, enjoy these final photos – and this year's "One Shining Moment" video.

Here's the final point totals from each round.

There were more brackets to tally this year.

The winning bracket.

Christmas Is Here!

The girls show off their presents.

Basketball Begins

Julia got some help getting started from former Central High principal, Dr. Keith Bigsby.

Julia continued her help behind the scenes with the Central High athletic teams tonight, assisting on the striv.tv broadcast of the girls basketball game.

She is a bit busier with this sport. In volleyball, she got the broadcast to commercial during timeouts. In basketball, she is still doing this, plus keeping the score and running the clock. It's a lot of work for a freshman, but she is a master multi-tasker and pulled it off with flying colors.

I pitched in to help the broadcast team on the stats. It was a bit of a shock to the system, but after awhile, it all came back to me. I was only wishing I still had my stat forms. (They are probably tucked away in a box somewhere or on a floppy disk!)

Uh Oh.

Julia spotted this. She said she could hear sirens as the buses were pulling away from school.

It Is Almost Time...

Look what is in progress at the YD house...

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Watch the lighting of the tree.
This year's tree lighting ceremony at Shadow Lake Towne Center was a special one.

While I don't believe we have ever attended one at this popular shopping place in Papillion, we had good reason to be there this year. That's because the tree that is on display came from the yard where Jon Brooks grew up. His dad donated it in memory of Patti, who died a few years ago. Because of this, we enjoyed a nice view from the VIP section next to the stage.

We enjoyed pretty moderate weather conditions (though the wind did kick up a bit at the end) and the ceremony itself was very nice. It included a concert by the "Peppermint Elves," as well as several characters from "Frozen" and other Disney movies – plus the entirety of the Papillion-South Titans marching band. That was impressive.

Here are a few photos: 

Santa Claus was there, along with radio personalities Chris and Ricky from Star 104.5.

The tree looked much larger on display than in Jon's front yard.

Julia got her picture taken with the Grinch. Well, kind of.

Olivia (right) and Julia posed in front of the tree.

Lauren was helping out with Neil's children and Emily was in Colorado.

This was a nice sign to help remember Patti.

I felt like I was live tweeting an event...

Here is Santa's arrival.

Julia's Time Lapse

Julia made another nice time-lapse video.

As Seen on Snapchat: Friday the 13th

This is how you know it is Friday the 13th.

Bike Ride With Julia Cut Short

A day off from school for Julia was terrific for a ride – until she flatted.

Away We Go!

With a day off from school, Julia was a front-seat passenger for my drive to school with Veronica.

Happy 15th Birthday Julia!

From left: Julia's first day of school this year, her fifth birthday and her photo at birth.

Julia turns 15 today. That means she can start driving with a learner's permit. Three days ago, she got that permit. Do you think she's a bit excited to be behind the wheel?

Who can forget Julia's "eyeball cake" on her fifth birthday (pictured above)? She certainly has her own way about things, her own style. There is only one Julia!

We have some big plans for her birthday, which will be celebrated on Tuesday). So stay tuned!

Home Attendance Streak (and Julia) on KMTV

Look who made a surprise cameo appearance with Aunt Bridget in KMTV's story tonight.

KMTV reported on Bridget and Jon's home attendance streak for UNO hockey.

Here are a few highlights. (Watch entire story here.)

Not even the couple’s wedding could stop their streak.  Of course UNO hockey played a part in the Brooks’ special day. 

“Here we are with our bride and groom jerseys and I had my veil still on, because of course my hair was still done,” said Bridget Brooks.

Friday's 11th wedding anniversary will be an extra special one for the Brooks.

“How can they not open Baxter Arena on our wedding anniversary?” asked Bridget Brooks. 
 
For the Brooks, Friday’s home opener at Baxter Arena may mean new seats, but they’ll continue the same streak. 

“I’m going to continue the streak until the day that I die,” said Jon Brooks.

Like The Photos? You'll Love The Video!

Behind the scenes at the photo shoot.

Re-enacting the post-game fight song.

They Love Their UNO Hockey

After Lauren bailed on our "Back to the Future at Baxter" shoot, we took a few more photos.

UNO hockey means a lot to the girls. Several of them are season ticket holders, in fact. So when a special salute to the Mavericks' program went up recently at Aksarben Village, we knew we had to get some photos with it.

Celebrating a victory. Well, kind of.

Ready for the face off.

I am not sure what was happening in this photo. Feel free to comment.

Geez, Julia. Talk about strength!

The girls posed in homage to the photos behind them.

Back to the Future: Baxter Arena

Our first "Back to the Future" photo of Baxter Arena, shot more than two years ago.

We are quite proud of our "Back to the Future" series photos, which document the "before" and "after" of buildings in and around the Omaha area. But the Baxter Arena photo project was our most ambitious one yet.

For more than two years, we have been shooting photos from the same spot on the wall across the street from Baxter Arena. Never mind that there is a sign (just out of frame) that says to "keep off this wall." In addition to documenting the building of the arena, we also tried to include a white car in each photo. That's because there was a white car in the first photo we took.

And the final photo, shot a few days before the building's opening.