Still sleeping

Now with a better flashlight, but still sleeping.

Tim Draeger

Smooth Landing

I guess I made at smooth landing in the Cessna. my back seat passengers never even woke up. The photo has a blue hue because my night cockpit flashlight is colored blue to improve night vision in the cockpit. It was the only flashlight I could find at the moment.

Tim Draeger

Vacation

At the Indian gifts store in Houghton Lake, MI on vacation last week. Libby tries on a headdress.

Tim Draeger

Melody Does Locks for Love - BEFORE

Here is a picture of Melody before she got her hair cut off.

Melody Does Locks for Love - AFTER

She did it! Melody got her hair cut off today for Locks for Love! She is very excited and thinks it makes her look more grown up.

Camping at Holly State Recreation Area

Our first camping trip of 2006, we decided to go to Holly State Recreation Area. You can't beat having a state park only 15 minutes from your house that has a very popular and wooded campground with a great lake and beach. The best part of the 15 minute thing is that if you forget something critical or if it starts to rain heavy, you just pack up and drive home.

Here's some shots of smore night, which was actually every night.

More pics from Comerica Park

I guess they had a good time this night, don't you?

The Girls' First Tiger Game

Pictures from Comerica Park, on fireworks night.

Cool thing about this pic; Melody had just used her own savings to buy a new American Girl doll named Kit. She is holding it in the picture. You see, Kit looks a lot like Melody with blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles, but there was one exception - Kit has short hair. But, Melody liked how Kit's hair looked. It just so happens that today, Melody is getting her hair cut off and donating it to Locks of Love. Then, the stylist will cut Melody's hair just like Kits. But, the cool thing was on this night was that Kit's standard costume was a Cincinnati Reds uniform since the fictional Kit grew up a baseball fan in the Cincinnati area. And, as fate would have it, the Tigers were playing an interleague game that night against none other than the Cincinnati Reds.

What I did last Saturday night

Last Saturday night, the girls and I went to their Girl Scout troop's Daddy/Daughter Dance. It was a great time. Here is the portrait we had taken when we came in . We had a great time! I was one of two lucky dad's that had three dates for the dance. Trying to dance with three little girls was...wonderful.

Each had a corsage on their wrists and they had fun with their girlfriends, too.

Notice Libby's "can't show my teeth" smile. She has so many gaps in her smile from missing teeth that she has practiced the closed mouth smile. Katherine on the other hand lost her first front tooth a couple days before the dance. She was proud to show off the hole in her smile.

Testing a new toy
well - let's see if this Treo software works.
Sent by Tim via Treo

The Sad State of Spartan Hockey

What a complete drag. Tonight was the last Alumni Spartan Brass gig for the Christmas Holiday at MSU. It was a hockey game, Wayne State vs. MSU. Of course, I went to play. Good thing, too, as I was the only tuba in attendance. If you haven't been to a Spartan Hockey game in a while, then you wouldn't recognize it. Now, I know that the students are out, so the crowd could be expected to be a little bit quiet. And, there were almost as many empty seats as there was full seats. But, man, it was more like a morgue in there tonight! The 6 students that were there were doing their best and having a good time doing it, but there was no cheering for good plays, very few people actually even stood to clap to the Fight Song when we played. And there was no Go Green/Go White except for that which was initiated and done by the Brass and the 6 students in front of us.

Now, you can say "so what's the big deal?" Well, I'll tell you its not just that I remember Munn being a sold-out raucous place to watch a college hockey game, full of die-hard Spartans wild about their hockey team. While those days were fun, they seem to be long gone. Yes, this year's team is not winning as many games, but they were ranked in the Top 10 at the beginning of the season, so it can't be complete apathy. No, I think the hockey team is experiencing what the rest of men's sports at MSU (with the possible short term exception of the men's basketball team) will see in the next few years if something is not done soon. What's happening is the price of tickets are becoming so ridiculously outrageous that only well-heeled boosters can ever afford them now. And, with concessions and parking continuing to go north, too, it's no wonder that the good old fans that came out every week no longer make it out. Those that have the means to afford it will buy tickets, but they are not the ones that come out to root for their team regularly. They're just there for the "big games," the Michigan, Ohio State, and Notre Dame variety. They could care less about showing up to root on the Spartans against the likes of Wayne State or Podunk U. And, since this season's hockey team is struggling to find wins, they're even less inclined to bother. The football team began to see the same thing near the end of the season, too.

Now, I know the U needs to make money, and many of the sports programs feed some of the non-revenue sports. But, let the donors who want prime seats or boxes pay those costs. I can't afford to take my family to regular Spartan games anymore. Every one of my daughters has been able to sing the Fight Song since they were 2. Their voices are not being heard at games, and sadly enough, they aren't being replaced by someone who's too busy or apathetic to go watch Wayne State.

I LOVE Spanking Meechigan

I just LOVE it when any Spartan team SPANKS the (%@& out of Meechigan!

Today the Spartan women's basketball team took the stinkin' wolverines out to the woodshed at the Breslin, mopping up the floor with a 77-44 win. Even when meechigan led 11-10 early in the first quarter, this thing was never really in doubt. By the end of the first half, our shooting percentage of 33% was only one point better than meechigans, but State had 42 field goal attempts to meechigan's 21! Part of that came because we were KILLIN' them on the offensive glass and our full-court pressure absolutely shut them down. meechigan turned the ball over 17 times in the first 20 minutes as State took a 36-23 lead at halftime.

The Spartans scored 11 straight points and 16 of the first 18 to open the second half. The lead grew to 35 points with 5:41 left. (Read more at: http://msuspartans.collegesports.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/010106aab.html)

Today was Alumni Band Spartan Brass since the student's were all gone for winter break. I got to play tuba in the Brass for the game and Melody and Libby came along for fun. Katherine decided she didn't want to go so she tagged along with Rachel to pick up the dog from Aunt Carrie's house.

Here's a picture from today's game. Libby (l) and Melody with their buddy, Sparty.