Opening Day for Brea Bengals

This is great! Six or seven different sizes of Brea Bengals, football players and cheerleaders take the field for OPENING DAY, along with motivating rock music. Later, Holden's team will scrimmage Anaheim. Holden says they will CRUSH them!

DJ Completes Junior Sailing Program

After more than 24 hours of instruction spread across 6 weekend days, DJ completed the Junior Sailing program at the Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach, California. His team also won the final race, with DJ as the Skipper.

I don't have any pictures of DJ sailing, but if you look closely at the sailboat on the certificate, you can see DJ.

This first course qualifies DJ to be a crewmember. The next step is an intermediate course which would qualify DJ to do more and I believe the class after that qualifies him to be the captain of a sailboat. Let's hope he sticks with it! I wouldn't mind sailing somewhere with DJ in charge!

Wee Man!

My friend Kurt and I were having dinner at this Italian restaurant hidden in the industrial center of Gardena called Eatalian when I recognized Wee Man from the Jackass movies. His real name is Jason, I think.
I used to see celebrities all the time when I worked in West LA but I rarely approached them. This time Wee Man said hi to me when he saw that I recognized him, plus I knew DJ would love a picture, so I went over after we ate and introduced myself.
He said "Nice to see you again!" and we chatted about the food and the housemade gelato for a while.  I got this picture for DJ and sent it to him immediately. Like many 12 year old boys, DJ is a big fan of the Jackass movies. I am too.
Dustin

Holden's First Football Practice

Holden didn't know what to expect for his first practice in the Tiny Mites division of the Brea Bengals. The entire field was covered with football players of various ages, all with the same helmets of the Brea Bengals.

Holden brought his helmet as instructed but didn't get to wear it because a teammember didn't bring his and the Bengals do everything as a team. The coaches are great. They introduced competition immediately as players tried to outdo each other during the conditioning exercises. Even at 6 and 7 years old, this is real tackle football.

Practices are every weeknight from 6 to 8:30 and they are pretty much nonstop with a few 2 minute water breaks. Holden did very well following instructions and he never got tired. He will.

The first few practices are conditioning and then they can start contact with helmets, pads and a cup. I can't tell yet if Holden is going to enjoy the contact or not. He is strong but he might tend to get out of someone's way rather than hold the line. We'll see....

Dustin

Holden and I did Magic Mountain

Yes, it was hot and crowded but we did it. Not too many gangsters and illegal aliens (just enough) but I still didn't stop anyone from cutting in line. They make knives and guns out of plastic now ya know.
This was Holden's first time to Magic Mountain and his first time going upside down on a ride.
Everyone asks if we are having a Six Flags Day. If they mean did we pay 4.25 for a bottle of water then yes we had a Six Flags Day.

Double Rainbow

Many of you have seen this already, but this is still the funniest YouTube I have ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI&feature=youtube_gdata
Dustin

Queen Mary with Holden and Riley

DJ just started sailing lessons at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach as a result of a scholarship from the Shoreline Yacht Club. Lessons are every Saturday and Sunday for four hours, so I needed to find something to do for four hours with the kids in Long Beach.
For the first Saturday, we had lunch on the Queen Mary and were joined by newlyweds an good friends Ryan and Maria Leylund. Ryan and Maria chose a new last name for themselves by combining their former last names with mine. I feel special.
Sunday we went to the Leylunds house in Bemlont Shores for swimming in the Los Alamitos Bay. The kids loved it and I did too.
I don't know what else we can do next time, but there is an all ages drag show called The Brunchettes that sounds hilarious. Diversity!
Whatever we decide, I hope the Leylunds can join the Borklunds again.
Dustin