back home after spending the day at HersheyPark. The kids had a great time. Both rode the Comet for the first time! I'm very tired now.

watching "Harold and Kumar Escape From Gitmo". As raunchy and foul as I hoped it would be. The airplane scenes were awesome.

Watching Hurricane Gustav

We're big weather watchers at home and we're anxiously watching the progress of Hurricane Gustav. I don't wish ill on anyone else, but I really hope it doesn't hit New Orleans. It seems almost a kick in the teeth that three years after Katrina (almost to the day) they're looking down the barrel of another big one.

I've only been to New Orleans once, but it's always stuck in my head as one of the best trips I ever took. When Katrina hit I hoped that the city was not a goner, but I figured it would be wiped off the map. It's been sad that so far, New Orleans has not bounced back like it should have.

And so I hope Gustav...implodes, or stalls, or turns back where it came.

I'd like to take my children there some day, and not on an underwater tour.

getting ready to go to Giant and do some shopping. taking the kids along. I hope they're going to behave. I'm tired of yelling.

We've watched the end of "Step Up 2" so many times that my son's walking around singing "She ain't got no money in the bank". I'm so proud.

blogging about Gov. Palin. so much to say, I'm having a hard time sorting it all out.

Someone Take My Kids Please

I feel like a failure as a parent today.  We went bowling with friends we haven't seen in a while, so the kids were excited, and it bubbled up in some really bad behavior.  The kids were all over the lanes, pushing each other, dropping bowling balls, laying down in front of other people's lanes, yelling.  It was horrible, and embarrassing in a big way.  

My kids are always a little rambunctious and energetic.  They are spirited, and sometimes they have a really bad attitude, but today it was like watching an episode of "Nanny 911".  People kept glancing at me as I kept yelling at them to move, to sit down, to stop misbehaving.  What I should have done was removed them from the bowling alley and not let them play anymore.  But I didn't honestly think about that then.  I don't know why.

The more distance I get from it, the more upset and embarrassed I get.  And I hate feeling like this.

raining still, but I'm going to make my soccer team go out and practice anyway. I told the parents "We play and practice in the rain".

Still running with two blogs

I'm still running with two blogs for now.  It's not like I have a bunch more things to say, I just think that I want to split out the personal stuff to here and focus more on the commentary, politics, etc, the more serious pieces on my official site.

I would certainly love to parlay my writing there to something more serious and get more time in writing.  That's the plan, anyway.

Soccer Practice Yesterday!

I ran my first soccer practice yesterday.  It went very well.  I've got 9 kids on my team, including my two, and we played a lot of games.  I made it clear to the parents that my goal is not to win the World Cup, or even to pressure the kids into winning their games, but rather to teach them the fundamentals of playing soccer and having fun.  One of the things I said clearly was "Even if we lose every single game we play I will consider this season a success if the kids come back for the spring season".

I truly mean that.

And the great thing with coaching at this level (U-6) is that I get to be a big kid.

Rethinking Blogging Options

So I have a blog at MauriceReeves.com but I've been rethinking blogging options. I honestly don't get that much traffic, and I'm wondering if it continues to make sense to pay $10/month for website that not many people read. I might just end up pointing my domain name to this blog. But I'm not sure. Maybe this blog will end up a more personal journal and I'll use that blog for longer writings.

It's all about the options and where I want to focus my time.