And In Sports News

In case all you are watching these days is basketball:

Haley made it back from Louisiana without much incident, although I am not clear on whether her gymnastics team is welcome back at the hotel where they stayed. She had another meet on Friday, missing three days of school in a single week, all for gymnastics meets (bad parents, letting her miss school). Sandy took her to that meet, which was within driving distance, and enjoyed seeing her compete, particularly since we couldn't see her at LSU a week earlier.

After a shoulder injury during her last swim meet, and a week off from practice to heal, Hannah returned to the pool this past weekend. Fortunately, there are no swim meets until later in April when the long course season begins. Just hours of practices, watching that black line...

And lots of lacrosse! Practices for Towsontowne Lacrosse are in full swing, and games will begin in about two weeks. Both Hannah and Haley are very excited for this season and love the girls on their team. Their coaches rock, too. Joanna- you are the best "teaching coach" I have ever worked with and I am looking forward to the season, too!

Sandy is really looking forward to seeing the girls play together this Spring. We both love what they get out of the sport and are grateful that we won't be managing two different fields simultaneously again. Most importantly, they love it.

And in other sports...

Miami of Ohio advances to the CCHA semi finals on Friday (hockey, silly), taking 2 straight from Bowling Green in a best of three series over the weekend. Thanks to Tom for emailing pics during the game. The winner of the CCHA, arguably the strongest conference in college hockey, gets an automatic birth in the NCAAs.

Speaking of quests for national championships: Northwestern continued their roll to 7-0 with a 18-2 rout of U. Mass. yesterday! Hannah's FAVORITE player, Hannah Neilsen, garnered Player of the Week honors last week for her play against Duquesne and Ohio State. Hannah and Haley are already planning their purple attire for the NCAA championships in Baltimore at the end of May. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to see a couple of games before then, too.

Oh Yeah! Sandy continues to improve. She is not out running down a lacrosse field (yet) or swimming mile after mile, or doing bar routines in a gym, but she is gaining more energy, her color is looking better, and her appetite is decent. We even made it out to a St. Patrick's Day party on Friday night. Fortunately, it was in the neighborhood and was an easy walk home (for me)...at 2:30am.

We hope you're having fun, wherever you are and whatever it is you are doing.

Another Weekend Update

The symptoms from radiation continued to get much worse until about mid-week, but have definitely eased some over the last few days. Food seems to be a little easier to deal with and the nausea is a little better. That is encouraging and makes Sandy feel like things are improving. It certainly makes the day go a little better.

Haley is in Louisiana this weekend...and--surprise!--we have not heard much from her. She mentioned something about winning "a bunch of mardi gras beads" when we talked to her briefly last night. We did not send her with bail money and I hear that the LSU campus police are pretty tough. I guess we'll see if that is true. All we can do is assume that she'll make it to her own competition today and will be on the plane Monday night when it lands. It sounds like she is having a ball!

Hannah, Sandy and I attended the bat mitzfah celebration of one of her Sky Walkers team mates last night. Allison did an incredible job during the service, which, if you know Allison, is not at all surprising. I cannot imagine the amount of work that goes into preparing for that.

The party was a lot of fun for everyone. The kids had music, professional dancers to lead them, and games like ping pong, pop a shot, foosball, and a lacrosse goal. Allison is a goalie, and her dad Doug placed a blown up picture of her in the goal for some "free shooting" on Allison. The Sky Walkers all loved that.

Some of you may have heard that this was the party for which I took Hannah shopping to find a dress. I think dad did okay on the dress. Maybe it was Hannah who did okay, and I did a good job paying for it. Either way, Sandy was able to help her get ready and she looked beautiful.

One Week Post Radiation

Well, don’t I just look like the perfect ass? Not only was the radiation more difficult on her than we all expected, but the symptoms have continued to progress for the entire week following treatment. Radiation has agitated her esophagus severely, making swallowing very difficult. Sandy chokes down each individual pill that she takes, gagging on each one. She paces them to make sure that they won’t come up when she hurls. The good news is that this should resolve itself. The hiccups appear to be gone, so that is one annoyance that seems to be over. Now if only we could get rid of the nausea, too. The doctors suggested that it could take a couple or few weeks for the symptoms to resolve completely.

What else is going on?

On a happier note, Hannah just swam in the Maryland State All Star meet last weekend. This is a four day meet at the US Naval Academy that requires qualifying times to participate, so she was excited to go. This is an impressive meet. There were a number of US national records that were broken, and Olympian Katie Hoff swam, as well. Hannah had a great meet, despite straining her shoulder during her first event (500yd freestyle). She went on to record personal best times in all but one event, including that 500 free. Most impressively, she never once complained about the shoulder. As one great swim coach once told her (George), the secret to swimming is, “Just keep getting faster.”

Haley leaves on Friday for a gymnastics meet on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I don’t ask why they have to go to Baton Rouge to compete…I just write the checks. She is so excited about the trip—four days away from home with no parents doing what she loves with a bunch of kids that she loves. They will be bunking up in hotel suites on campus. They will compete for a couple of days, go on a swamp tour by boat, and will also see the LSU gymnastics team host a meet of their own. And no parents to badger them about getting to bed early! Gee, I wonder how much sleep they will get?

We’ve just started lacrosse season here. Baltimore comes alive in the spring with lacrosse. Hannah and Haley are on the same team this year, a rare treat and a great achievement for Haley, given their age difference. And, it sure makes things a lot more convenient for us. This is a rec(reation) league team in the local Towsontowne program. I am coaching this team along with two other coaches. I have not coached Hannah in a couple of years, which is fine, but I will enjoy this. They are truly best friends and are very supportive of one another on the field. It helps that Haley plays in goal and Hannah in the field…I’m sure it makes it a lot easier to be supportive when you are not in direct competition against your sister.

Sandy will enjoy watching them play together this year, for sure.