The Fourth Annual Helfen Christmas Letter

Well this is actually after Christmas, but as you can notice I haven't exactly been blogging like crazy lately, it is possible that I may not have even done one of these last year, but anyway on to the letter. This was a pretty good year for the old Helfen clan. We took a big trip to Florida in July to visit Disney World and Universal Studios, which was pretty much the highlight of the year. We had decided last year that we were going to take the kids and just go and have a really good time and that is exactly what we did. We hit all the Disney Parks and Universal Islands of Adventure, it was a lot of walking to do in 5 days.

We also made an addition to the family, no not like that, we added a little four-legged member named Brownie. We got her in February when she was just a little pup, now she is a slightly larger pup, but she has been doing better lately. She may eventually be a good dog even if Sophie threatens to get rid of her at least once a week.

On the kid front, Sampson played baseball, football and basketball this year. Last year was his first for basketball and that sport is probably his favorite. This year he started again right before Christmas and dropped 20 in his first game. Peach had her second recital, in which she did very good. She didn't have a broken arm this year so that was a plus. She also started pre-school this year and had her first program earlier this month. She was a little lamb and did a very good job singing and reciting a bible verse.

On a professional front the year was good as well. Instead of a severing or shutting down production, we actually are restarting two of our idled pot lines. So it has been a little more busy at work at the end of the year, but that is a good thing. I also got to go to Seattle for a conference in February, which was very interesting. It was my first trip to North West and it was very pretty country, but city life is a little too crowded for my taste. I did get to go in the Space Needle for all of about 10 minutes, because it was just so busy out there.

Oh also I won this year's addition of fantasy baseball, for the second year in a row.

Well here is hoping that you have had a great year too, and wishing you the best for 2011.

Love,

The Helfens

The Bucks Win!!

Sampson's team won their first game today. Way to go boys!! 18-12 I think. The got to play on the big field this year, artificial turf and what not. I think next week I will help coach so I can go down on the field.

Fantasy "Real Deal" Pitchers for 2011

As the 2010 fantasy baseball season er "real" baseball season winds to a close there are a couple of things I wanted to get down to kind of be ready for the draft next season. Basically I don't care for Yahoo! rankings of players and I think their system is seriously messed up when it comes to pitchers. According to the old Y! there are 30 starters and 12 relievers that are in the top 100, but when you start looking at who can give you more in a head-to-head one-week-battle pitchers offer far less than there positional counter parts who on a good week can contribute in 5 categories on 6 days. For starting pitchers you get a max of 4 categories and usually only 1 start per week, although sometimes you get the magic 2 start week (rarely), but you can also get really hosed before and after the all-star break. For these reasons I don't feel any of the top 50 picks should go to pitchers and as I have stated before I won't risk a 4th rounder on a starter again, but should any of the following 10 guys show up around the 50th pick or so they are definitely worth a look as I would consider them proven "real deal" pitchers for the upcoming year. You know, baring injury or trades and stuff in the off season. These are in no particular order.

King Felix Hernandez - I didn't realize how good this guy was but he is way up there in innings (which actually could be a liability for next season), K's, and his ERA and WHIP are pretty stellar. Wins are a little harder to come by in Seattle.

Cliff Lee - Yeah former Cy Young winner innings eater and future pin stripe wearer (most likely), still one of the top guy and worth it if he falls to 50 or so. Lefties aren't a bad choice in NY.

CC Sabathia - Yeah former Cy Young winner innings eater and present pin stripe wearer (unfortunately), still one of the top guy and worth it if he falls to 50 or so. Lefties aren't a bad choice in NY.

David Price - Lefties that can throw high 90's wins 18, K 180 plus and have an ERA less than 3.00 in the AL East are pretty nice. Well worth a 5th or 6th round pick.

Jon Lester - Lefties that can throw high 90's wins 19, K 220 plus and have an ERA less than 3.00 in the AL East are pretty nice. Well worth a 5th or 6th round pick. At first I wasn't sure of how good this guy was, I mean he was a nice story about coming back from cancer, but this guy is a top 5 pitching talent. Definitely the Real Deal.

Roy Halladay - 200+ innings - 20 wins, 200+ K's, ERA of around 2.50 and a WHIP under 1.10. And he pitched a perfecto this year. Two Words - Real Deal.

Josh Johnson - Over 1k per inning and he pitched over 180 innings . . . before September. Which is a little cause for concern next season that he didn't pitch an entire month, but he was by far one of the best pitchers April - August. Hopefully his stock drops because without even playing month he is still in the top 30 according to Y!.

The Cardinal Tandem of Wainwright and Carpenter - Wainwright is the top rated Y! pitcher of the season 20/213 K's/2.42/1.05, just slightly ahead of Roy. Carpenter checks in around 15/175/3.42/1.20.

Tim Lincecum - He was a little off this year and well under performed his preseason Y! rank of 9, but he is a former Cy Young winner and I look for him to bounce back. He is probably at the bottom of my list and he checks in with 15 W's/220 K's/3.51/1.27. The last two categories are a little high, and that is what will get you in fantasy head-to-head, not worth a top 6 pick in my opinion, but someone will take him.

I figure a couple of these guys will be around after the fifth round as Yahoo! is sure to screw up the preseason rankings, and when they are I might even draft one. . . might.

Frogs Sprinting Down the Stretch

The fantasy baseball season is quickly coming to an end and the old Ungiggable Frogs have found themselves atop the standings as the last week of action commences. It has been a long battle back as I have never been more than 10 games out of first, but I was as low as 7th during the season. Anyway I still have one more week after trouncing Stevie 8-0-2 last week. The guy I'm playing this week has been inactive for like a month, but I think he has decided to play this, oh well. We'll see if the old frogs can't bring home another title. Since the season is almost over I just wanted to get some thoughts down to remind myself of things for next season. One is trust my gut and not Yahoo! rankings. I felt like Adam Wainwright was the best pitcher available with my 4th pick, but instead I went with Dan Haren because Chris Carpenter was still on the board and Yahoo! had him ranked ahead of Wainwright and it just didn't make sense to pick Wainwright over Carpenter cause they are on the same team. Anyway that was wrong because even though Carpenter is ranked like 15 or something Wainwright is #6, meanwhile Haren is around 150 or so. Not terrible and certainly not worth dropping, but well under where I drafted him. Anyway the lesson for next year is to ignore Yahoo! cause the basically don't know what they are talking about. I don't think I'll draft a pitcher in the top 100 next year, my other pick was Beckett for Boston and he was flat out horrible. I did end up dropping him, but I mean what is the use there are tons of pitchers available during the season that do awesome. The only two starters I have kept all season are Haren and David Price. Picking up Price at around the 200th pick kind of makes up for Haren. Billy Butler is another who has disappointed, but at least been consistent. I read an article before the season of Butler vs. Morales, kind of a fantasy shake down comparison. Anyway the consensus was Morales was more ready and as luck would have I actually ended up with both out of the draft. Morales was definitely the better talent, until he broke his leg . . . in like May. I think he stayed in the top 100 for about another month, but he was sorely missed in the old frog's lineup. If I had him for the full season it is quite possible that this season wouldn't even be in doubt. As it was I managed to pick up Russell Branyan who has performed decently given he didn't even play the first month. Kind of like the anti-Morales or Bizaro-Morales. Either way he filled in nicely, but was a step below what I had. It is just very hard to replace top 50 talent during the season. If I do manage to win I think the MVP will be Troy Tulowitzki, who pretty much sealed the last week for me with 9 runs 6 HRs and 17 rbi's with a BA of .346. That might be the most incredible week of stats I have seen by one player. Well as long he continues to do that I shouldn't have a problem, lol. Did I mention he was my number one pick. Alright 2 more weeks and we'll see how it all shakes out. . .

The Greatest Moment in OU football History . . .

. . . well you know not counting MAC Championships, which I don't. The Bobcats put the old smack down on one of the other large state universities this past weekend. Well at least the mascot "Rufus" put a beating on the other school's mascot "Brutus". Here is the video just in case you missed it.




The only bad thing is Ohio actually apologized for this. Why? No apology needed for something this awesome. Way to go Rufus, even if you picked up a lifetime ban for this. . . still totally worth it.

Totally unrelated, but Sampson will be playing for the Bucks this year in flag football. I guess I'll keep an eye for any Bobcats that come along, but there shouldn't be any problems as his team doesn't have a mascot.

Disney Vacation

Oh yes we did get to go to Disney World. As part of the lucarative winnings of the fishing derby was an all expenses paid trip to Disney World. You just won the Beallsville First Christian Church Fishing Derby what are you going to do next - I'm going to Disney World. Ok that isn't how it happened, although expenses paid would have been an awesome way to go, we actually paid our own way and the trip was completely unassociated with the fishing derby. Anyway it was the kids' first trip to Disney, second for me, and 3rd for Sophie. You see me and Sophie went to Disney on our honeymoon, but that was pre-blog. Sophie's Mom went with us too, to help with the kids and carry all of our stuff and take our pictures and what not, just kidding although she did get to do all of that too plus ride roller coasters with me. We went at the end of July, week of the 18th to be exact, and surprising Florida is quite warm that time of year. Ok it is down right hot, but the kids did excellent at the parks. We didn't even have to get a stroller. I think the excitement kind of kept them going, plus Sophie had started them on a training regiment early in the summer getting them used to walking by taking them to the track, which turned out to be a very good idea. We did 5 parks in 5 days, which by the end of the vacation I needed another vacation, and it was very fast paced. We stayed off site at Fantasy World Club Villas, and they were very nice. I would recommend them to anyone, as they were a 2 story villa with 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, 2 baths and a washer/dryer. Plus where we were at was right next to the pool so that was neat. The only bad thing is there is no close stores for food, but we did take a suitcase full of food so we would have snacks for the parks and pop-tarts in the morning :D. Oh and the water sucked (insert mr. yuck symbol here). So the schedule we planned on doing was 2 days at Disney 1 day at Universal and 2 more days at Disney. By staying at an off-site hotel we could go to different parks, which in a nice advantage, the bad thing is Disney was the only park worth going to. If we had it to do over again I would say we stay at Disney and just do the last day at either Magic Kingdom or Epcot. I'll tidy this up in a bit, I have to relinquish control of the computer to the girl for now.

Fishing Derby of Aught 10

This year was special because it was the first time that Peach got a trophy. She was kind of upset when Sampson got another trophy and she thought she wasn't going to get one, but when she found out she won she had the biggest smile on her face. Sampson fished with Uncle Bo and got the "Most Fish" trophy while Peach and I pulled in the one for "Smallest Fish". What? She could have won a trophy for anything and it wouldn't of mattered as long as she got one. And she actually did bring it in. Old dad was busy trying to bring the biggest fish, but my line got tangled on a old rope (which I estimate the rope's length at about 30' which would have one for longest catch, you know if there was a category for that) and it ended up costing me about 5 minutes out of our 15. If that wouldn't have happened we might have ended up with the most too. But I'm not greedy, I'm just glad Peach finally got a trophy to put on her wall. Check out how excited my little girl was. Also Nippert (from the famous sheriff election of aught 8 or so) got the win for biggest fish. See he is money at making the big catch, too bad you didn't elect him sheriff so he could be "catching" criminals instead.

Oops what happened to August

Holy cow I forgot to blog in August. . . well "forgot". Sometimes I go through periods where I don't blog for a while, I mean come on how was I going to set the record between blog posts of over 2 years. Well on this "labor" day I've decided to "work" on the old blog and catch some stuff up from over the summer. Wow, I seem to be using the old "quotes" a little bit too much.

Happy 4th Everyone

We had a pretty busy day on the 3rd, and just kind of took it easy around the house on the 4th. My mom did just send me an e-mail though and I thought the image was pretty powerful as it kind of puts into perspective all of the freedoms we do have and the cost with which they have been paid for. 234 years ago some very brave people were willing to give everything they had to start a new nation even if it meant giving their life. Unfortunately that kind of sacrifice is still needed, and still greatly appreciated.

Peach's 2nd Recital

We have a pretty jam packed weekend coming up, with Peach's second recital and the Fishing Derby. This year Peach is in 3 classes, so she will get a little more face time at the recital, unfortunately not until the 3rd and 4th act though. Also me and Sampson get to defend our title of most fish at the fishing derby. Can't Wait...check in for the results.

Oh also we have avoided (well at least through today) any broken apendages that may effect the dance recital. . . .

Baseball Season is Over - Well Rays Pinto Season

Well today the Pinto Rays finished their season a respectable 6-4-1. We started out like gang busters, but dropped 4 of the last 5. It seemed like we were a lot better than some of the teams to start the season, but we just didn't improve as much. Either that or the hot weather got to us. I think we got a little out of sorts when we were off for 10 days and didn't really play. Oh I kept working with Sampson on the weekends and I think he really did do better as the season went on, but some of the situations we ended up in were really difficult to prepare for. Just different scenarios with runners on and where the forces were at, stuff like that. Sampson did have all 3 out unassisted in one game at Bridgeport though. He played 3rd base all season and the other team happened to get runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and the next 3 people lined the ball right to him and he just grabbed it and stepped on the base. Sometimes he really impresses me with what he does and just surprises me. I'm really proud of the way he played this year, we even had what I would call our first real game of catch in May at Maw's house. Well the season did end on kind of a sour note, with out team getting mercy-ruled by 10 runs in the last 2 games. This last left me Really upset, not because I thought we could come back and win, but in the bottom of the fifth inning after we had gotten on of the kids out at first the first baseman went to through the ball back to the circle and he threw it to the opposing coach. Well "Coach Super Bad Sport" (as he will be referred to for infinity) ducked, wait did you catch that he DUCKED out of the way so that the ball would go out of bounds and they would get another base on the over throw. Well the kid was awarded 3rd base and then scored on the next play which was a fielders choice from the short stop which would have held the runner at second with 2 outs and we would have had a chance to get to the 6th. I just thought it was really poor from a sportsmanship standpoint to do something like that to 7 and 8 year-olds. The bad things is that since it was a continuation of a game we had already started, Sampson didn't even get to bat tonight. So that is all for this season since we won't have enough kids to compete in next weeks playoffs, eh I was ready to be done, just a little disappointed in the way it ended.

My biggest gripe may be the stupid rule about the circle. We never had the circle growing up and in my opinion it is stupid. That blunt enough for you. It teaches terrible fundamentals, in my opinion was the ball is secured in the infield by any of the infielders the base runners can't advance, period. When they get to high school someone isn't going to make the turn to third when the second baseman has the ball, it just teaches horrible base running habits. I don't like it and I think it ought to be changed. That circle is just bad and you don't need the thing, get rid of it.

Ok now for some happy pictures of the season, well after this weekend maybe. Oh did I mention I kept book for the team. It was pretty hectic keeping up with the kids, I only made one mistake all season. And if you believe that . . . Well I will say this the other coaches on the team said that they had no doubt that someone wasn't going to pencil whip us. And they wouldn't have.

Survivor Finale

Just watched the worst suvivor finale ever. I had such high hope and then they were dashed when Sandra the worst player ever won again - by default. Please Survivor no more 3 person finals, just go an extra day or so and go all the way down to two.

Mailing One In

Well time is tight right now around the old Helfen Household.  We got baseball 3 days a week and dance one night.  Soon dance will go to two days a week, so I wanted to practice the old mail in the posts and see what that looked like since I might have to start mailing them in.  

New Fantasy Season

Well we drafted about two weeks ago and the "Ungiggable Frogs" have emerged as the early leaders in the new fantasy season. Well actually I think I'm tied for fourth or so, but we are coming on strong. I ended up drafting 14th, which didn't end up being as bad as I thought it would be. I picked up a SS Troy Tulowitzki and 3B David Wright with my first 2 picks and they are both in the low 200's right now. Wow, way to go guys, what did you do check to see if I drafted you. Anyway I would have taken Reynolds then, but I didn't want to reach to the 15th spot on him, I thought that was too early, we'll see. Anyway I kept with the Frog theme, since it has worked so far, the ungiggable part came from the pass word for the league which was something like "letsgofroggigging". Stevie has gone the revenge route with "Coalminer's Revenge". You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after last year's "Revenge of the Frogs", but unfortunately in fantasy baseball imitation can only get you to second place. My draft started to fall apart in the last 7 picks or so. I ended up with Eric Bedard who won't play until the second half and my back-up second baseman doesn't even start. Oh well, just have to pick some people up and make a go of it. At least I got Kurt Suzuki with my 12th pick, now I don't have to worry about catcher. Sure he isn't great, but catchers are notoriously bad fantasy players and I have found not worth the moves to try and find a diamond in the rough.

Well a new twist this season, I have branched into the 'B' category of fantasy players. I have 3 teams, but I still manage them with an 'A' type personality, checking the waivers, and free agents constantly. I haven't completely annoyed Sophie yet . . .yet. Anyway one of the teams is in a league with Mom. She wanted to play. Well I'm pretty sure she did after the constant badgering that me and Stevie give her. We also got Bo to play, so it should be fun. Probably not too much smack talk in that league, well very little. Ok probably A LOT. Anyway good luck everyone in all leagues, have fun fighting for second.

A New Poem (It's the Bomb, trust me)

Well in honor of Big Chief Red Metal's recent run-in with the law and his penchant for telling stories in the poetic style, I have constructed the following poem. Hopefully it will illustrate the hilarity (oh yes hil-ar-ity) of the whole bomb episode.

The time had come, oh yes it had
For all to leave, times had gotten bad

Well old Chief Red Metal stayed to help
"No problem Dale", he said with a yelp

He'd check the plant day after day
But one item eluded his vision's stray

When Consol had bought the place
Shock and Aw did fill their face

For in the Big Chief's office did they find
One big detail he had left behind

It was not a mess or ISO files on his desk
It was the fake bomb he made for that safety test

His pride and joy it was
But that darn Consol had called the fuzz

They came with lights and the sirens blared
They even shut down Route 2 to show they cared

Consol did not want their new plant blown apart
So they began their search for the owner of that car in the parking lot

All signs pointed back to the Chief
"It's a fake" he said but to no relief

They couldn't figure why he left it out
It's all Dean's fault he began to shout

It must have been that spider bite
That left him not thinking right

But he stayed right there he would not run
"I'll blow this place to kingdom come"

Oh wait, no it really was a fake
Being a prison bride he could not take

He got off for now, the police did not arrest
But I'm sure he'll land on the no-fly list

Ok, well this is just getting to be ridiculously long now, so I'll just revert back to the prose I'm more used to. Anyway I don't think he got arrested, but I suppose he is still at risk, and probably up for the no-fly list and what not. Oh man, I forgot I really wanted to come up with a rhyme for no-fly list . . . Well I changed the last line of the poem to reflect it now, but I'm too lazy to erase what I've already typed. Actually I'm not even sure that arrest and list rhyme, but that's the best I got. Hope you enjoyed it.

New Robin Hood

You'll always be the gladiator to me Russell Crowe, always.

Sampson's New Team

Sampson got on the Rays!!! Once a schedule and stuff comes out I'll be sure to let you know.



Also in honor of the new baseball season a little something to get you in the mood for baseball . . . or not.

It's Peanutbutter Jelly Time !!!! (better late than never)

Ooops, forgot the video. Well here you go.

Let's Go Bobcats!!!!!

Watching the Bobcats play G-Town in the Tourney. Up by 12 at the half, LET'S GO CATS!!!!

Changing Seasons

No not the weather - sports. I haven't been keeping up with the old blog too well lately *cough games*, but Sampson finished basketball at the end of January. He did very well, he even poured in 16 points one game, old dad has the video footage too. Last week we signed up for baseball. It should be pretty exciting this year as they keep scores and outs and what not. I think it is coaches pitch, which is essentially what they did during instructional league so that shouldn't be too bad. I'll have to get him out and work some of the rust off if it would ever not snow or rain. Well hopefully I'll do better keeping track of the new season. Oh also his team was undefeated in basketball, even though they didn't keep score for two full games, but that is mostly do to the fact they were blowing the other team out. I think he really enjoyed it. I can still take him though. At least in his room on the little rim he got for the back of his door at Christmas.

Sampson Trades Rooms for Magic Beans

Well not quite magic beans, but 2 packs of Marvel figures. Of course that is what Sophie thought he traded for, turns out Sampson thought the deal was Super Hero Squad bed sheets, a new paint job in the room AND the two marvel packs. Well that is what he started telling everyone else he traded the room for, so in all likelihood Sophie is going to have to throw in the stuff now too. The sweetheart part of the deal for him though is that he thinks he traded for a bigger room too. Unfortunately buddy you didn't, but after we started moving all of Peach's stuff into Sampson's old room and his stuff into Peach's old room, it did look like Peach's old room was bigger. Well I know for sure that the closet is smaller and that will be big for her later, trust me. Anyway the whole reason that came about is because I broke the piece of crap computer chair that we had in the kitchen. Sophie says I can have a nice big chair fully capable of supporting me if we can move the computer and stuff down stairs, but in order to do that we needed to move the doll house upstairs, which required a larger room for Peach, which means Sampson needed to switch rooms with her, which meant that Sophie needed to bargain with him to do it, which she did for 2 Marvel Packs. And apparently some other stuff, but really he could have asked for the kitchen sink and probably got it. So buddy someday you'll realize you gave up your room to your sister and there it is. Hope it works out, I know it will for me, I'm getting a new chair!!!

USA WINS!!!!

The US Hockey team just beat the Canadian team 5-3, in Canada even. Yeah, take that Canada, now that victory over our women's curling team isn't quite as sweet is it? That was the first time we had beat them since 1960, so you know I have been waiting for this opportunity for a while. Well not really, but it sure was convenient. Anyway Congrats U.S. Team and keep up the good work. I forgot it was on until there was 5 minutes left and the US let the Canadians score with 6 seconds left in a power play late in the third period. Then the goalie Miller saved about 20 shots in 2 minutes and one of the defensemen added an empty netter. Pretty awesome win for the US.

Jimmie "wins" 5th Championship

Well he hasn't yet, but judging by the first real race of the season HESCAR hasn't done anything to slow him down, plus they conveniently bend the rules for him so he can get back out front after late cautions when he is on pit road. Plus HESCAR left all the chase tracks the same, so it is only a matter of time before Jimmie gets number 5. I don't know if I can watch anymore of the season, I'm so disgusted right now.

New Dog

Well Peach is finally going to get herself a new dog. You see she has been begging and begging for a puppy ever since, well I think since she could talk pretty much. And at first we told her we would get one if she potty trained, but then we didn't want to get one when the weather was going to be bad. Then the timing just never really worked out until recently and one of Sophie's Mom's friends had some pups she was giving away. So since the price of free is always in my ballpark and the pup was a beagle mix we decided that we should go ahead and get one. Sophie and Peach went to look at them yesterday and Peach was in love. The only problem was she thought she was going to get to bring it home, but the pup isn't weened yet. Anyway I guess she threw the fit of all fits when she had to leave the puppy, but Sophie got her calmed down a little by promising her a DVD or something. Ghesh, you promise a kid a dog, then you got to bribe 'em on top of that. Can't wait until she is ready for a car or something then maybe we'll have to bribe her with a laptop or jewellery. Anyway here are some picks of our new dog Brownie. Named for the Browns of course. I can't tell who is more excited Sophie or Peach.

Quick Fact

Did you know India consumes about 46% of the total butter produced worldwide? Well that may have been before the USA got Peach, cause that girl likes her butter. Watch out India here we come.

Surviving Sophie

I imagine if our fish had a blog that is what the title of this post would be. Either that or 'The Adventures of Mac and Cheese' cause that is their names. Anyway last night I had just laid down in bed and Sophie started yelling for me to come into Peach's room because she needed help and the light was off in her room. So I came running in there and here Sophie had started to feed the fish and the lid had fallen off into the fish tank along with about half the can of fish food. So she is standing there trying to get the pump unplugged and I just imagine the fish are swimming in there going "Hallelujah". The fish tank was pretty well filled with food at this point and Sophie was in pure panic mode as she hustled the tank down stairs and did the fastest tank cleaning job she had ever done. As she was pulling the fish out of the tank with the little net it was impossible to not get some food in with them, so they were setting in the little temporary bowl with food still floating around. I wish I would have gotten a picture, but given the circumstances that it was already past midnight and Sophie's head was hurting a little it probably wouldn't have been a very good idea. Old Kirk could have ended up "sleeping with the fishes" if you know what I mean. Anyway Sophie cleaned all the rocks and stuff off as best she could and I cleaned the fish food lid off and the filter stone and carried the clean tank back up stairs. It was definitely something unexpected, but hey now it will be a while before the tank needs cleaned again . . . hopefully.

Happy New Year!!!

Well happy new year everyone. Hope 2010 is a great year for you!!!