LPS Blogs

Ramblin' Man by Dan Sousa

About: LPS Editor Dan Sousa always has a lot to say ... just ask his poor wife and children. They have requested he start this blog and leave them alone! And now he is bothering his advertisers as he chronicles his "Quest for Fitness"  by joining Velocity Sports Performance of Ashburn (soon to be a new reality show if the writer's strike continues) on the MLC channel (Mid-Life Crisis TV) ... Read on, if you dare ...

Blog archive: June 2008 - February 2008

june 20, 2008

Celebrating Summer Solstice, a Merger with DigitalSports.com, Three Loudoun State Titles, Ongoing Construction at the LPS World Headquarters and the First Ever LPS Monkey Garage Sale!

Has it really been over two months since my last post?!?

Wow ... and so much has happened! Today we are celebrating Summer Solstice at the LPS World Headquarters located in Ashburn Farm ... the LPS Monkey is out in the front yard in his little deck chair soaking up the sun (spf #87) ... So, grab some lotion and soak in all the news I have failed to report in this space the past two months:

Merger with DigitalSports: The biggest question in your minds I'm sure is this: just who gets custody of the LPS Monkey! The good news is that while DigitalSports might not totally understand the LPS Monkey (or my off-the-beaten-path sense of humor sometimes) they are keeping the LoudounPrepSports.com name in this merger and thus the Monkey Lives!

We first spoke with DigitalSports exec Rich Toland in December 2005 after our very first column ever criticized DigitalSports for a lot of promise but not a lot of delivery on coverage. Rich, who started his own LPS-like site in New Jersey before joining DigitalSports, actually said we were right on the money with our critique.

Since that phone call, DigitalSports (way, way back they started out as SportsCombine here locally) has progressed into an impressive company with top-notch journalists delivering first-rate prep sports coverage. That has been our goal here in Loudoun from Day One.

In 2006, DigitalSports came with a merger proposal but we had just planted the seeds to LPS and really wanted to watch the thing grow. In 2007, DigitalSports came with a new merger proposal but we weren't ready to let the reigns go free. (Yes, I'm a Control Freak!).

Several months ago, DigitalSports and LPS started talks again and this time ... we felt that a merger would benefit both and in the end help expand coverage for high school sports in Loudoun.

I really think this will be the best of both worlds for our coverage as Alysia Deem and myself will continue to provide the Loudoun content that you have come to know and now we will have access to the cool "bells and whistles" that the DigitalSports site provides. The standings will improve. Rosters will be up for each team. Players will now have individual pages. Teams will now have the ability to go in and actually post items and update pages if they choose ... schools can take advantage of DigitalSports services such as schedule makers and school stores if they choose ... but at the end of the day, we will still be running the shop and making sure all the information is up-to-date and complete.

Schedules. Scores. Standings. And a whole lot more!

Plus we are now going to add the Cedar Run District to our coverage area which means better reporting on Loudoun Valley this coming year and then for Heritage when they make the move to the CR in 2009-10. We will also be able to draw on resources within DigitalSports to cover teams when they venture to Richmond and even into Maryland.

Bottom line is that I will now be free from the business end of things and I can concentrate on what I love to do which is cover high school sports. The honest truth is that my business sense is more Jim Rockford than John D. Rockefeller ... only I don't keep a gun in the cookie jar but a digital tape recorder ... fans of 1970s TV will understand this (kids: ask your parents!).

Three Loudoun State Titles: Girrrrrrrrl Power! Really, what is it about the female sports in Loudoun ... they rock! Three state titles in the spring: Park View track and field, Broad Run softball and girls soccer to go with the Loudoun County girls volleyball title in the fall.

Here is my theory: About 10 years ago Loudoun experienced this tremendous growth and a wave of very active (think Type-A personality!) parents moved into the area. They were former high school and college athletes and still playing (just look at the growth of adult leagues in this area!) and they wanted their kids to achieve the most they could on the sports field.

Girls or boys ... that didn't matter.

This was one group that didn't tell their daughters to put down that baseball and pick up the Barbie. They encouraged their girls to play hard and they armed them with the best training and resources that an area with Loudoun's wealth could provide.

In other parts of Virginia, girls may have not been getting the same encouragement to excel on the playing fields, especially at such a young age. We start them young here in Loudoun.

For example, when my son started soccer, age six was the youngest you could be but then mini-soccer was added for ages four and five and then it expanded to allow 3-year-olds. With my second child, we were able to sign him up for short training programs at age two. There is even now a "Mommy-and-Me" soccer program in Loudoun that allows children still in the womb to play ... there is a waiting list nine months long to get in this program ... yes, the "Mommy-and-Me" thing is a joke but you get the point. We are serious about sports in Loudoun!

These girls don't just win. They expect to win! More power to them.

Broad Run seems to have hit the Mother Lode of great athletic girls. The Spartans went through a rough stretch back in the late 1990s as they were tossed into the AAA mix with a growing student body, only to lose many athletes to the opening of Potomac Falls. Safely back in AA in 2000, BR had to suffer again as Stone Bridge opened and siphoned off more talent. Now BR can probably claim in the last two or three years, its greatest athletic run in school history or at least equal to its early 1990s good run.

Construction at the LPS World Headquarters: When we lived (briefly) in New York on Long Island we had the most wonderful backyard but here in Ashburn at the LPS World Headquarters we traded life on the cul-de-sac for a tiny backyard which 90 percent of the year has the feel of a swamp as the street above us drains down through our backyard on its way to the Chesapeake Bay.

After a year of planning we are putting in a patio (good-bye builder-grade deck!) with a cabana and fireplace plus an "outdoor kitchen" ... construction started a week ago so it is quite chaotic here ... one of the downsides of having your home and office be the same!

Plus we have summer break so in addition to jackhammers and Bobcats dropping loads of gravel we also have second graders spilling fruit punch on the carpet in the basement, playing soccer in the living room ("dad, can you get the soccer ball, it is stuck in the lamp!") and feeling the need to ask a question anytime the phone is near my ear.

The poor DigitalSports guys ... hearing the background noise (Generators! Children's Screams! Spanish! Guitar Hero! Chainsaws!) keep asking me: "Uhmm, is this a good time for you to talk?"
Sure ... it is always a good time to talk at the LPS World Headquarters!

First Ever LPS "Garage Sale"... OK, we were going to have a Garage Sale to clean out the basement (kids items! Kids clothes! Other Junk ... er, priceless relics!) and I thought ... why not toss out my collection of sports media guides (lots of soccer from the 1990s) and sports memorabilia on the lawn (does anybody collect baseball cards anymore? We have unopened boxes from 1992!) and see if any sports fans come by.

We have to have a good cause if we are selling sports stuff so any profit from the old sports stuff will go to the Broad Run girls soccer and softball teams which are currently seeking donations to help pay for their state title rings.

And to make it fun ... mention the LPS Monkey to us and we will give you some free Chick-fil-A stuff which is sitting in the back of the LPS Prize Van ...

The LPS Garage Sell is Saturday June 21 from 9 a.m. (sure, I put 9 but you will show up at 8 a.m. if you are seriously collecting!) until we get tired or the blender starts up in the kitchen ...

LPS World Headquarters: 20747 Steamside Place (it is off of Wintergrove which runs between Hay Road and Claiborne Parkway!)

April 8, 2008

Life at the Bachelor Pad ... "Mean Haircuts" ... Soggy Spring ... Late Starts ... A Word on Randy "All Weather" May ... And More!

It has been 13 days since my last entry here and that can mean only one thing: I have a lot to get off my chest!

First of all, after 22 years of marriage my wife has left me ... OK, so it's just a series of business trips ... but she just left yesterday for Arizona for a 12-day trip (she terms it "training", we picture her by the pool on "holiday"!) and that follows after back-to-back week-long trips to Texas ... so in a four week period we will see her for about two weekends.

When she leaves it does leave the three "Sousa men" in winter storm crisis mode ... I think we are already low on milk and TP and we need to hold a manly summit tonight to figure out exactly where those items can be purchased.

The real danger is my wife is my Alarm Clock ... with her gone to the Lone Star State last week, I overslept twice and missed Velocity and the other day I skipped due to some bothersome dental work (hello nut; good-bye tooth).

An entire week ... which I should say, I partly skipped because the last time I was at Velocity Sports Performace, I practically killed a woman ... seriously, we were doing this exercise where one person held an elastic band tied around the other person's waist and they were going over small hurdles while working against the resistance (not pleasant ... the last resistance I actually liked was the French Resistance) ... They had a band to wrap the cord around your wrist while the other person worked the hurdles but safety, schmafety .. I just hold onto the cord freely when, with my arms a bit tired, I lost a grip on it and the band shot straight at my partner ... just missing her head about 10 yards away ... yikes! OK, maybe it might not have resulted in death ... but every time that poor woman came to Velocity and people asked about the "eye patch" all she would have been able to do is mutter "Sousa".

Luckily, no harm, no foul ... but it was safer to skip a week in case she was gunnin' for me.

Then I show up Monday and Geoff Mapp ... my fearless trainer ... greets me with the "Hey, who is the New Guy" line. Ha!

And he also greeted me with a buzz cut right out of my youth. My mom thought a "Burr No. 2" cut was the way to go for all children. I didn't know my hair was curly until high school and then I refused to cut it for four years ... graduating with a nearly beehive hairdo ... proudly capped by what I thought was a cool-looking beret ... like I said, I'm a fan of the French Resistance ...

Geoff was in quite the mood Monday (Mrs. Mapp: phone me!) and I blamed it on his "haircut" as my experience is that all kids get a little testy right after a haircut ... though, Geoff is kind of old to be a "kid" but since I'm 45 ... well, he looks like a kid!

I was surprised that right after my first workout in over a week ... no pain! Then the following happened:

10 a.m. Three hours after workout ... soreness settling in

noon Stiffness ...

4 p.m. Trouble walking ...

8 p.m. Starting to feel like a character in Saw VI ... must free self from device ...

You get the point ... no more skipping a week ...

So we have the Bachelor Pad thing going ... note to neighbors: all pasta dishes accepted freely ... I'm thinking over the next week or so, a whole lot of fish sticks and pizza are in our culinary plans ... plus the good old standbye high school stadium hot dog.

Before my wife left town, we headed out for a dinner on Sunday with the family ... the adults won the "restaurant wars" and we went to the new Bertucci's (hello: potential advertiser ... call me! Love the food!) which left my second grader in tears as Bertucci's is next to Fuddruckers AND IHOP ... when he was younger we had him convinced that IHOP stood for International House of Parrots ... we do these things for fun in our family. Ryder loves the "Funny Face" pancake ... but at Bertucci's he staged a hunger strike that would have made a hardened IRA convict proud.

Mom: "Ryder, what would you like to eat ..."
Ryder: (quivering lip): "Nothing ..."
Mom: "You aren't going to eat anything for dinner ..."
Ryder (melodramatic pitch): "No ... I'm just going to sit here ... and starve to death!"

Stone Bridge drama department: Save a spot for my son ... just seven years away from the lead in a drama!"

Of course with this soggy spring: there hasn't been much to cover with all the rainouts which have not just become sog-outs as the ground is so damp and some of the fields don't drain too well (who designed some of these fields for the County: Jacque Cousteau? At Broad Run's baseball field ... forget sliding pants for the baseball players, just put swim fins on them!)

Last Thursday, however, I did get a lovely evening in the freezing rain ... oh heck, what I am saying ... it wasn't raining ... it was sleeting! Little cubes of ice were falling out of the sky.

It was a night suited for curling and ice fishing and Stone Bridge High School boys varsity soccer. Yes, thanks to Randy "All Weather" May ... not only did I watch my son play in the JV game but then I had drawn the short straw that night and it was my turn to take tickets for the varsity game.

Almost the entire region called off events that night but at Stone Bridge we gamely went on. Here are a few stats: temperature at the start of the game was 38 degrees with a wind of about 50 knotts and a wind chill of 56 below zero ... total fans in the visitor stands making the trek from Marshall: two. Total tickets I took: 11.

Now I would have been drenched except for the quick thinking of the Shaban family for providing a tent over the "ticket booth" ... ahem, I mean table and chairs ... (side note: Randy "All Weather" May will try and take some credit here for suggesting this idea ... Ha! Like I'm going let him off the hook ... if he cancels the game ... I'm home dry and warm and watching America's Next Top Model) ...

Look the guy's name is  May ... of course he is going to think Spring-like thoughts ...

I'm happy to report that I lost only two digits to frostbite that night ... and Stone Bridge Assistant AD Jerry Smith relieved me of the money box at halftime (reminding me, as he always does, that it is not "one for Stone Bridge", "two for the LPS Monkey" when I take the tickets) ...

I may have exagerated some of that ...

So the NCAA powers-that-be ... get my second grader all hyped up on the March Madness and then schedule the title game for 9:20 p.m. start on a school night ... heck, I fell asleep in the second half ... only Cooper "Night Owl" Sousa stayed up ... though I did revive in time for the OT ... but seriously, how un-family friendly can you be with that start time! 

wed. march 26, 2008

McCowat's Encore for Record-Setting Strikeout Performance: Three Days in the Hospital with Painful Bout of Cellulitis

Dominion High School senior pitcher Geoff McCowat was sitting on top of the world a week ago, having struck out 20 (!) batters in 7-inning victory against Gar-Field. Only 21 strikeouts, folks, can top that performance and his name will be in the VHSL record book -- once the paperwork is taken care of -- for a long, long time.

Then life threw McCowat a curve  ball ... a painful slider at that.

McCowat developed some blisters in his feet that turned into a nasty bout of cellulitis that landed the gifted athlete in the hospital for three days! I can testify as somebody who has had cellulitis before, that this isn't something to play around with.

While McCowat was released from the hospital Monday morning, after a weekend of IV antibotics, he won't be able to pitch until cleared by doctors and that won't come until at least next Monday which rules him out of the Titans AA Dulles District opener at Freedom on Friday.

I spoke with McCowat's father Walter today and he is just glad that Geoff is back on his feet. I have to say that Walter has been a follower of LoudounPrepSports since the early, early days ... back when the site was run on a Microsoft Publisher template (kids: don't try that at home) and the look and color scheme changed daily.

Walter said that the problem with Geoff's feet started Monday, the day before his command performance at Gar-Field in Woodbridge which included two home runs, a double and five RBIs as well in the 7-0 victory.

The day before, Geoff attended a funeral and wore a new pair of dress shoes that gave his feet blisters. The next day while pitching, the blisters got worse and then the infection developed.

The McCowat's were in the Boston area on a college visit on Wednesday when the problem got even worse.

"His feet were starting to discolor," said Walter.

The next day Geoff went to the doctor locally and got two shots to fight the infection. When he went back for a check-up on Friday, the doctors decided that a visit to Loudoun hospital for some big-time antibiotics would be the safest course.

If you don't know about cellulitis ... ouch, is all I can say.

A couple of years ago I fussed with a blemish on my knee and nicked it open. Not a problem. A day later, the knee was really sore to the touch. I thought maybe the blemish had been a spider bite, but I had actually infected it by touching it. That night, I woke up with a fever and a knee starting to grow to the size of a basketball.

I hobbled to the emergency room and they diagnosed the cellulitis and gave me some antibiotics. They actually take a marker and draw an outline around the infection, and that way they can track if it is growing. My instructions were: if it started going North of the magic marker line, toward my heart, dial 9-1-1! Luckily it didn't come to that ... but it was rather tender for the next week or so as my knee returned to normal.

By the way, I now never fuss with blemishes!

Here is wishing McCowat a speedy recovery as we want to see how he fares against district competition after that great outing over Spring Break.

Time for Very Random Thoughts ...

Worst drink ever: As I write ... I am drinking a can of Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry Chocolate cola ... Limited Edition I might add. Please, this is the foulest tasting drink ever. I bought a sleeve of it. My family has made fun of me so rather than agreeing with them. I sit here, determined to drink every darn last one of them. What was I thinking? I said, "hey, it's Limited Editon". My son Cooper said: "no kidding, dad, who else would buy it, but you."

Worse weather ever: Last night and every night it seems in the early spring sports season. People, no games should ever be played whent he wind chill is below 20 degrees. I have a new rule here at the LoudounPrepSports world headquarters in Ashburn ... I check the thermometer and if it is under 50 ... no coverage for games that night! Hey, I'm from California.

When second graders stump their parents: My son in second grade is reading a book on the Civil War. He wanted to know who won the war and who were "we rooting for". Which brought up the concept of  slavery. He pointed out that George Washington owned slaves and that he treated them well. I countered with how the entire concept of owning another person is just wrong. He then said: "But you own me." ... OK ... well, time to play outside kid ... daddy is stumped.

Lacrosse Sticks: I never see soccer players dribbling soccer balls to school or baseball players walking with their mitts but everywhere I look I see lacrosse players with their sticks. Cradling. Cradling. Cradling. Everywhere ... in the library and at the grocery store and in church ... OK, I made up the last three but you get the point.

Wishing for the Old Days: Remember when the preseason was really a "season". Time to practice and hone your skills and get to know your teammates and coaches. Here in Virginia. It goes 1-2-3 tryout days. Two days later, a first scrimmage and week later it's Game Time! That isn't a pre"season" ... that is a pre"moment" ... I'd love to see the VHSl trim one or two games off the schedule and give the kids an extra week of practice and let the darn weather get better before we have to don our parka coats, ski caps and wool mittens to sit on metal bleachers ... the temperature of dry ice I might add. OK, now I do sound like the "old man" who used to yell at the neighborhood kids to "get off my lawn"! 

Sat. march 15, 2008 @ 8:30 p.m.

I Told My Wife She Lied to Me ... But of Course I was Lying

I had to call my wife at work on Friday and tell her she "had lied"!

Seems she had told me at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, as I was trying to weasel my way out of going to my Velocity workout (it just seems sooooo cold and dark!), that "I would feel so much better" for going.

Ha. At 9 a.m. and I couldn't lift my arms to make a phone call (hello: triceps workout) ... I didn't share that opinion ... so I called her and said: "honey, you lied!"

But, truth be told, I always feel better after do the workouts. I have a lot more energy ...

And speaking of energy, I'm going to need it as the spring sports season started officially on Wednesday.

10 high schools and 10 sports in the spring equals 100 teams to cover here in Loudoun (really, I did that math all by myself).

Every year the same things happen. I tell myself at the start of the season that I will stay in (where it's warm!) and not cover a lot of events early in the season. Sit back and collect the results. Get organized!

Never happens. Opening night there was Loudoun Valley at Loudoun County in boys soccer. Rule of thumb: when a game pits two teams with Loudoun in the name and your website is called LoudounPrepSports ... well, cover it Bubba!

So there I was amid very cold temperatures up in a LC press box that was nearly empty save for some very unlucky flies that had been trapped in the structure the last time the windows must have been opened ... maybe four months earlier. If there is an outbreak of the Asian Fly Flu ... I'm in trouble.

(I must digress and say that I once had a room in my fraternity that collected so many flies, as it was above the kitchen, that my roommate and I became some of the world's foremost experts on catching flies in our hands ... we were good ... very good ... we could catch a fly and keep it alive in our hands and then bounce it off an unsuspecting frat brothers forehead ... this, parents, is why you are saving so much money ... so your kids can have these type of college experiences!)

Where was I? Oh, the soccer game ... I got to watch two players that previously were on my son's travel club back in the day ... Connor Winemiller of Loudoun County and Daniel Nesbit of Loudoun Valley. Great kids. Great families. Part of the joy of my job is now getting to cover athletes I have seen in the youth ranks.

One game surely is enough to cover ... but on Thursday there was a Stone Bridge home softball opener ... with new coach Mike Skinner making his debut. Against Loudoun Valley no less.

OK, gotta go to that ... with my son playing JV soccer that night at Stone Bridge it was a family affair. I was at the softball and my wife and mother-in-law with my second grader were at the soccer. Somehow my second grader worked some sort of scam, going back and forth, begging for money for the snack bar.

End result: (this is not a lie ... social services will be contacting me Monday) he consumed at the snack bar ... three slices of pizza ... three bags of chips ... two waters ... two Reese's ... and a bag of popcorn.

Did I mention he is 8 and growing?!?

The Bulldog-Viking softball game was fun to watch. A lot of runs and extra innings. Skinner has taught Natalie Driskill to slap hit and she went 5-for-5 in the game. He loves the slap hitters and says he will be introducing the art to other players, but one at a time ... expect to see several slap hitters in the SB line-up by playoff time.

Back-to-back nights ... enough, already but on Friday evening ... it was Loudoun Valley girls soccer at Broad Run. I really wanted to drop in on that and did so, light rain and all.

Claire Collins, BR girls soccer coach, always has some sort of motivational thing she does with her team for each season. It will involve a motivational word or number and will serve as a rallying cry for the team. They kinda of keep it under wraps ... I spent part of my spring in 2007 trying to unravel that mystery.

This year, Claire tells me it is a number ... a number that represents something. Hmmm. My first guess of 11 was off.

Now I'm thinking ... something to do with the number of games needed to make a state title game, 25. And if you add up the characters in "VHSL 2008 State Championship" ... it comes out to 25 ... I'll have to see if I'm right!

Rae-Ann Taylor, the Stone Bridge High School girls soccer coach, was at the game as both of her daughters are now varsity players for Collins ... imagine Mickey Thompson's sons playing at Broad Run! Mike Burnett would have no argument.

Rae-Ann is an original early morning Velocity workout person and she said she might go back since I'm doing it ... on one condition: she says I can't blog about her.

OK ... Rae-Ann ... here's to not blogging about you ... oops.

I probably am already in trouble with my class at Velocity anyway as my instructor Geoff made a big point of telling everybody last week to read this blog ... and at least one person gave me one of those ... "what the heck are you writing about us" looks!

And I ran into one of my Velocity "workmates" at the boys lacrosse game at Broad Run Saturday ... sure, four days of the spring season and I've already logged four events ... so much for my master plan.

This Last Words ... Promise

Some people are happy that the Broad Run baseball field finally has lights... but not I. I kind of liked having the "Wrigley Field" of local baseball. Those 5 p.m. starts were super as I could hop over then catch the softball games. But as a parent, who struggles to make 5:30 JV soccer starts, making a 5 p.m. start just stinks for parents ...

Out of any sport ... lacrosse seems to have the most hardcore need to decorate one's car with stickers, logos and other LAX jargon... check it out in the parking lot at the next game ...

The next person that even thinks about stopping for bikers on the bike trail at Belmont Ridge Road... I promise you, I will pull a Jack Nicholson on their car (remember that wild swinging golf clubs can damage a vehicle) ... seriously people ... the car has THE RIGHT OF WAY! You think you are being a Good Samaritan but you are only endangering the lives of the bikers and other motorists ... somebody will get seriously hurt if this continues ... here is my advice, drivers continue on ... the bikers will make it across in good time ... and if they were really in a hurry ... man, they would be in a car!

Last word: the world's most dangerous intersection is currently on Claiborne Parkway just north of Stone Bridge High School where they are putting in lights. Some bright-brained transportation official got the crosswalks painted way too early and the cross traffic assumes that the Claiborne Parkway traffic must stop ... and they are going 40 mph-plus and they aren't stopping ... I had a near miss at this intersection the other day and I'm guessing I'm not the first person.

wed. mar. 5, 2008 @ 11:30 a.m.

I Was a Fugitive From A Velocity Workout Gang ... plus Tales of Tango, Shopping IS a headache and "Three Words" to Die(t) For

Well .. somehow it has been a month since my last entry and I think we can blame several things: the winter playoffs kept me busy as can be, who has time to write when you are spending most of the day answering the door and paying for Girl Scouts Cookies and the pressure of knowing that Mrs. Geoff Mapp is reading!

Yes, my Velocity Sports Performance fitness guru (OK, instructor but doesn't guru sound cool) Geoff Mapp informed me after the last post that his wife had stumbled onto the blog (I assume most of you have stumbled here rather than by design, but welcome!) and she wanted to know one thing:

Who the heck is this Dan Sousa guy and why is he writing about you?!?!

So now every time I sit down to write ... in the back of my mind, I know that Geoff's wife is out there in cyberspace, reading and wondering ... who the heck is this guy!

Ha! I finally found a solution ...

(warning: this next section will either be funny to Geoff and his wife ... or, well, this may be my last entry as Geoff will surely work me to exhaustion, which ain't hard people, as punishment)

Mrs. Mapp ... I'm the guy who feels your pain. That's right ... Sure, Geoff comes off as a super-nice guy, even a bit of Norman Rockwell-esque, square-jawed All-American in him but ... man, oh, man ... the guy can be a perfectionist.

A workout at Velocity doesn't go by that I don't hear a bit of the following:

"Dan, why don't you keep your feet on the ground when doing that exercise ..."

"Dan, good work but try, extending your arms on those presses ..."

"Dan, this time, why don't you try actually jumping when doing the jump rope ..."

OK ... I made up the last one but Geoff does a great job of encouraging but always correcting when we in our class (that is the royal we as it usually is me with the bad form) don't do the exercise just right ... an usually his correction ... makes it HARDER! My reaction is usually something like this ...

"But, yes, Geoff ... that makes my stomach muscles hurt when I do that ..."

or

"Geoff, if I really do jump ... hey, I'll get tired ..."

So Mrs. Mapp ... I feel your pain as I just know Geoff at home is very "helpful" and I can imagine him saying this during the week ...

"Honey, thanks for putting away the dishes ... but if you do it this way, they will stack faster."

"When mopping the floor ... why don't you try moving the mop this direction first ..."

"Great bedtime story ... but you might want to try this book next time ..."

So, I do feel your pain ...

OK ... even if Geoff thought that last bit was a wee bit funny ... he is gonna get me tomorrow (yes, I'm coming in on a Thursday!) ... as I am ...

A Fugitive from a Velocity Workout Gang ...

I missed this morning ... rolling out of bed at 6 a.m. when class starts at 6 a.m. ... Without the use of teleporting powers ... I couldn't make the class ... This is the second time this has happened and both times, I get to blame my wife ... who was going in early and shut down the alarm in advance ...

I need the alarm to go off at least for five minutes before I wake up ... usually I will be having a great dream and then a fire alarm will go off in the dream and after about five minutes, I will realize it is the dang alarm and wake up ... sigh.

Of course, this was a bad day to miss as on Monday, for a lark, I told Geoff that I "hoped Wednesday's workout was going to be much harder as today's was too easy".

Geoff felt challenged and I could already see him turning to his Marquis de Sade exercise handbook for Wednesday's challenge ...

Several members of my class threatened to harm me ... I think they were joking. And now that I didn't show today ... well, they will harm me ...

Seduced by "Other Women"

I just felt like that last subhead would get somebody's attention ... I keep getting asked if I'm "getting in shape" and/or "losing weight" ...

With my Velocity workouts the answer to the first question is a big "YES" ... the second part is harder as we are building muscle, but also my diet took a hit for two big reasons the last several weeks.

One, boils down to three little words: Girl ... Scouts ... Cookies ....

This time of the year is worse for me than Thanksgiving and Christmas ... thin mints, indeed ... seems they don't keep you thin, despite the name ... class action (fat) suit to follow ...

Second reason, well, my wife went to Houston on business all of last week and I am ashamed to admit that I spent some time with two other women: hello "Wendy" ... hello "Anita" ... I believe my first recollection in life is waiting in the drive-thru lane at Der Wienerschnitzel ... chili cheese dogs were a staple food group in my upbringing (we use to say that my mom's favorite cooking appliance was the car) ... and my weakness for great Mexican or Tex-Mex food is legendary ... Now that Anita's has two locations in Loudoun ... I'm always driving by one and it is very easy to do a little takeout ...

Not good for the diet ...

It Takes Two to Tango ...

Wow! Did you follow all of that "Tango" business with the Loudoun Schools ... I wanted to stay out of it but then I woke up last week and found the LPS Monkey with a teeny, tiny picket ("Save Tango") and he wanted to march on the school district headquarters ... luckily, I convinced him to have breakfast at IHOP in stead (Smily Face pancake!) ...

But it got me to thinking about the influence of this "children's books" on our youth ... and I have made a shocking discovery (sort of shocking in that "gambling at Rick's" was shocking in Casablanca) ... there is a book in the schools that encourages all of the following (and more!):

*Reckless driving by teens

*Driving too fast and without seatbelts

*Massive parties that appear to be out of control and have no adult supervision

*Wearing of very bad hats

Yes, I am speaking of "Go, Dog, Go" by P.D. Eastman ... like, I said, shocking!

 Shopping is a Heachache ...

Did you see that an Ashburn man was injured when somebody dropped something on his head from the second floor at the Dulles Town Center ... the guy had to be treated at the hospital for the injury and we hope they catch the idiots that are tossing stuff down at people ... but it does illustrate a point that I have tried to tell my wife over the years ...

Shopping gives me a headache ... honest! I find that even an hour of shopping can sap my strength and lay me up for hours ... only watching an NFL game or two or a full NASCAR race can bring me back to full health ...

Last Word ... for real:

 I read that the creator of the "Dungeons and Dragons" game died ...

Police put out an APB for two orcs and a half-elf ...

Seriously, I played this game in the 1970s after it first came out and it was a blast and quite interesting as to how you could learns some insights to your friends by role playing. (Scott Fritz: if you are reading, I still haven't forgiven you for stealing that pouch of gold!).

Really, today's role playing games do so much work for the players, whether on XBox or the computer, and the old D&D left most of it up to your imagination which I think is a good thing.

When I told my 16-year-old about my old D&D experience ... he wasn't surprised:

"Dad, you were a geek in high school ..."

Ouch ... that felt worse than getting hit on the head at the mall ... 

sat. feb. 2, 2008 @ 1 p.m.

Blame Us if You Must for Yesterday's "Ice Storm"

That's right ... my second grader and I ... we are the culprits  that "iced out" the prep schedule yesterday. I know it was only raining in Sterling and just a little icy in Ashburn that means out west it was probably dicey.

My second grader came home from school with the following news: if you wore your PJ's inside out, ran around the table screaming at 8 p.m. and ... flushed ice down the toliet. Well, then, ice storm and "no school" guaranteed.

I'm not making this up ... flushing ice down the toliet. That was the directive.

Of course it worked! Now we will be faced with this conversation at our household every time they forecast a possible ice storm:

"Honey, is the icemaker working? There isn't any ice in it ..."

"Dear, it is all in the bathroom ..."

Of course, two weeks ago I showed up to Velocity Sports Performance in dreadful conditions at 6 a.m. for my workout only to find that schools had delayed and thus class was kaput.

All of sudden at bedtime Thursday ... there I was, turning my PJ's inside out ... ice=school delay=no workout ...

I woke up like little kid at 5:30 a.m. Friday ... flicked on the TV ... wait for it, wait for it, Culpeper ... Fairfax ... here it comes ...

Loudoun Public Schools - 2 Hour Delayed

Yes! It worked ... my second grader was dancing around the room ... I was dancing around the room ... I get to roll back into bed ... Yes!

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't just trying to duck my workout but I was trying to get through a dodgy hamstring that I tweaked a bit in Wednesday's workout.

In the early phases of this workout, at the very end of the warm-up, I got a little too self-confident and tried to really finish hard on the last 25-yard sprint ... at about 23 yards ... tweak!

Not enough to sideline me, but enough to make the rest of class a true grind.

The good news from Wednesday is I have now dropped six pounds since starting my workout classes at Velocity Sports Performance in Ashburn three weeks ago. That is a good two pounds a week average, especially since I'm truly adding muscle and toning up muscles that last saw action when the A-Team reigned surpeme on TV and "Who Shot J.R." was a big question.

... speaking of TV: when did Friday Night Lights become Friday Night Spikes ... the Dillon Panthers volleyball team is getting a lot more action than the football team, which takes the field about as often as Haley's Comet ...

I watched part of the Moment of Truth ... it was the Moment of ... zzzzzzzzz .... sorry, I drifted off ... Moment of Boredom ... (That answer is ... ... ... ... ... True) ...

My second grader "makes me" watch American Idol. Here is my breakdown of each audition episode:

20 minutes commericals
5 minutes actual good singing (they must save it for Hollywood)
5 minutes of actual feel-good storyline
10 minutes of actual truly sad storyline as in these people are sad, sad humans
5 minutes of Ryan in the hallway acting like he has better places to be
10 minutes of wacky acts, including the judges behavior (really, what is the difference between this and the Gong Show?)
5 minutes of roving camera shots of the masses ... yes, we get it, you are a popular show!

Saw it on TiVo ... so should you:

The movie "We are Marshall" ... nice family PG move "Wild America" ... old series on Sundance called "Office Tigers" that follows an American company that opens an outsourcing business in India ... Late Night with David Letterman (Len Easton of the California Highway Patrol makes me watch it) ...

Finally, the "ice storm" dance had its downside as Loudoun Schools were closed and events cancelled ... and then not only did I have a bunch of houseguests in my home office (dad: I'm hungry ... I'm bored ... my brother hit me ... so on, so on) but my second grader decides to get sick, like much of Ashburn I might add ...

The day and age of the "sick bell" we had for my oldest son are gone. That was cute, when he would ring the little Statue of Liberty Bell we picked up in New York and ask for something from his sick bed. My youngest? He has a cell phone (blame the parents ... oh, that's me)somehow and figured out he can call our home number and reach me downstairs ...

"I'm hungry" ... "I'm thirsty" ... "My throat hurts" ... "I'm cold" ... "I'm hot" ... "My stuffed animals (bulldozer the bulldog, LPS cheeky monkey, poker the pug and Benji the dog) need your attention" ...

So all day I'm fielding calls from a second grader upstairs in my bed ... After 50 trips up and down the stairs I felt my legs begin to burn that Velocity Sports Performance burn ... this was not a "day off" as advertised at 5:30 a.m. ...

Simply put, I'm banning anymore ice anywhere near a toliet in my household ...

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