Tonight was the first Wednesday night home game for the Grand Rapids Griffins, and boy oh boy was it a game. Over the years we have won our share of prizes and gifts from the Griffins. I think tonight was only second to the meet and greet with Steve Yzerman.
Before the game even started we were selected to get the “Uncle Bob’s Self Storage Upgrade.” So following a member of the staff we left our upper bowl seats and headed down to four nice lower bowl seats. The view is very different and I don’t think I would buy season tickets down there, but as a treat it was fabulous. This upgrade came with those nice canvas bags, t-shirts, and a little video board time.
The Griffins played well tonight and were rewarded with a home win. The team has struggled at home and it was nice to see the group play together and have a good time. With this win everyone gets a free ticket for next Wednesday’s game. So, including my parent’s tickets next week, we’ll have 12 tickets to the game. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble filling those seats.
During the third period came the biggest surprise of the night. Theresa’s name was drawn to win a game used stick! Tonight marked the 1000th game for Brad Thompson, the Griffins equipment manager. After the game Theresa and Drake headed down to the equipment room to meet Brad and pick and random card which had one of the players numbers on it. By some stretch of luck or something Drake drew #19. Drake was super excited. Number 19 happens to be Drake’s favorite player, Greg Amadio, it’s even been autographed!
I don’t think anyone is going to be able to top this at his birthday party this weekend.
A few photos of Drake and his new hockey memorabilia, click to enlarge.
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I am saddened to say that I was almost beat by a 3 year old at Wii Sports bowling. I must have been having an off night, because the alternative of Drake being that good is just horrible to think about. I really thought that it would take much longer for the kid to become as good as the parent.
My score of 155 is low for me. Just last week I bowled a 213, but I average 175-185. Drake’s score of 131 is his highest yet; he bowled a 121 the very next game.
The single most impressive thing about this game happened in the 8th frame. Drake was faced with a 4 – 6 split and managed to pull it off. I would love to say that it was a happy accident, but for all I know he is a master. He managed to hit the 4 just left of center which sent it to the back wall. The pin then shot back forward and took out the 6 pin. My jaw dropped; I couldn’t believe what I just saw.
The first frame of the game was my worst in a long time. With only knocking down 8 pins I almost restarted, and had I been playing with Theresa I probably would have. My skill points drop from this single game was heartbreaking.
Overall Drake played a great game getting 2 strikes and picking up 3 spares. He gets so excited with he gets a strike or spare, jumping up and and down shouting “I did it!”
With summer moving closer and closer to the end I figured it was time to put together a picture video of June and July’s photos. In this episode we visit the Grand Rapids Art Museum during Festival of the Arts for some silly hat making. Founders Brewing Company was a blast with some big band music. We also had another visit to the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum and Camp Concordia. Take a look and enjoy. Remember, if you are interested in creating your own Animoto videos use my referral link to save some money.
The Heart of Summer via Animoto
This video is viewable on it’s animoto page for browsers that do not support flash. All of my photos can be viewed on flickr; videos are on animoto and YouTube.
May has finished and now it’s time to put together the monthly slide show of pictures. May even has a couple of videos thrown in there for good measure.
Our May was filled with visiting Great Grandma and Grandpa Holzhausen, the beach at Millennium Park, camping with Grandma and Grandpa Klein, and Drake running around with my camera. I’ll let you guess which photos are his.
All of my past Animoto videos can be found on my Videos page, or on my YouTube channel. One thing that does bother me about Animoto is that there is no public page that displays all of my creations.
If you are interested in creating your own video slide shows visit animoto.com, were you can create free short 30 second videos. For full length videos you can get a discount of $5 off the yearly cost by using my animoto referral link. You’ll be able to get the All-Access pass for $25 per year for the life of your account.
Phineas and Ferb ©Disney Channel
“I know what we are going to do today.”
Drake has managed to get me watching Disney’s Phineas and Ferb. The basics of the show are two kids on summer vacation that create and do crazy things in their back yard . Like… building a rocket, fighting a mummy, climbing up the Eiffel Tower, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, surfing tidal waves, or creating nanobots.
Drake’s love of all things Phineas and Ferb has gotten to the point where he calls members of his family names of the characters. He is Phineas, Theresa is Ferb, I am Perry (the platypus), and Garrett is baby Perry; occasionally grandma gets referred to as Candice . It’s odd that Garrett is baby Perry as there is not a baby Perry on the show, but there are plenty of other characters.
If you don’t know the show, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz is an evil doctor and 
Perry is a secret agent that is charged with stopping his plans. This is one of the subplots that goes on in every episode. No on knows that Perry is a secret agent, unless he puts his hat on.
Now that I’ve been watching the show for weeks and there are plenty of episodes saved on the TiVo, I do have grown to like it. I’ve gotten the show so stuck in my head I have now changed some notification tones on my phone. Perry has a one liner that gets played in the background whenever he is found out by Doofenshmirtz. The 
Perry line plays on my phone whenever I get an email. The other tone is for txt messages, Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated.
If you have kids and let them watch TV, I would have to recommend giving Phineas and Ferb a look. Disney Channel has some episodes right online for sampling. 
Phineas an Ferb on Disney Channel
