Post from April on new Fitness Ap

So I have started using a new health app, the Samsung health.  It actually isn’t new and apparently I have had it for a while and just never really used it.  You see I had the fitbit alta and I really like it but after about a year and 3 months it kind of took a crap and isn’t holding a charge, so I decide to go all in on Samsung and get one of the fit pro’s.  Well Best Buy had one for $150 as an open box and it seemed like a super good deal.   I think I may have to add the 2 year protection though because I can see battery issues coming with this one too.  Anyway the app allows me to input the calories from every food I eat and it keeps track of them.  The best thing is it has some preloaded foods or pulls from a connected data base and it will save any food and nutrient information you put in.  So every time you eat a similar meal you can find it really easy.  So far I have realized that I was eating a lot more calories than I thought…oops. Well this is correctable, but Sophie is gonna be mad because I really want to limit my calorie intake so I can lose some weight.  Yes it is going to take effort, but I am ok with that.  I am *cough* in my forties *cough* so I want to take a little better care of my self.  I started running / walking about 2 years ago when I can and I am picking up my training this year to try and get to 25 minutes in a 5k.  That essentially means I will run the whole race, no walking.  I have been working my way along the local 5k course, gradually building up the distance so hopefully by the end of June I am doing the full course a couple times a week.  Anyway I think if I can lose about 10-15 pounds that will make the racing easier and hopefully help with the weight loss.  Sophie pretty much hates to hear about anything healthy though and has already threatened divorce just 2 days in.  I don’t think she is serious, but just to be safe I’ll try and keep this on the down low.  Hopefully it works and she will want to do it too.  I think that will make things easier if we do it together.  I’ll wait until the anger dies down a little though to introduce these ideas.  Also the Samsung watch comes with the “MapMyRun App” which I hope to try out today.  I like the fitbit app tracking of runs so we will see how this one works.  I also told Peach that if she got straight A’s we could pick out a fitbit at the end of the year. 

Cemetery First Run

So pretty pscyched for training after the race last week, and am picking it up to make up for that 2 seconds.  Anyway I am using the Map My Run app from Under Armor and am experimenting with the courses and training features.  Basically you can set up your own training program, set the days of the week and kind of what your goal is, plus it uses your past performance to gauge where you need to train.  I used it for my last race, but because my watch wasn't syncing the workout, I needed to run the phone and watch at the same time.  Anyway this lead to having duplicate workouts get logged, and I had to delete the one which was synced to the program.  I could always go back and resync the watch work out, but didn't always do it.  This time I am going to try and do better and logging the workouts so it can put me on the correct path. One other feature of the map my run is that you can create a route and load it to the phone.  Now I tried this with the cemetery loop and it wouldn't map the whole thing because there was no road to the school, so I had to do it in two parts.  Well the loop was about 5 miles and I wanted to step up the old training so I figured it would be a good loop to run up the cemetery hill and then back down all the way to the house.  My muscles said it may not have been a good idea.  See I had run the cemetery before, but I drove to the school, would run down the cemetery and then back up.  The difference on this run is I ran to the bottom of the cemetery, then ran up, then around the school and then down the big hill, back to the house.  I was reasonably pleased with the effort as the old legs were burning during the run, but this is probably the first time that was actually easier to run than walk that I have experienced.  I ran a mid 12 minute pace for the whole run (granted the uphill part was closer to 15/16 minutes) and it took about an hour, so I was really happy about that.  There are some other paths I can take as well to stretch the mileage out a little, plus if I needed to put a lap around the school in that would get me up to whatever mileage I would need.  I figure I can stretch the loop to around 6 and half miles if needed.  There is another loop around the same area that can do 8 pretty easier, but that is aways off.  Overall I don't feel bad after the run, like I thought I would, the weigh in this morning was also a low of 196.6 lbs. so that is good news.  The program I'm on I should take tonight off, and then test tomorrow for 12 minutes at race pace. We'll see how this progresses, but so far so good on the first big jump for me.

skyview app - A review

Downloaded the Skyview app for my Samsung S10 and it is the best star layout app that I have used.  I had trouble with apps in the past, but this one actually shows the stars, planets and constellations.  Pretty neat.  You can use it any time of day as well and snap awesome screen shots of constellations doing crazy things...

You can see Orion just hanging out at the fire...

Or attaching Peach during the day.  I don't think he likes the sun...

WATCH OUT SAMPSON!!!! IT'S CANCER!!!!

Hey Aquarius, stop pouring stuff on me...

Sophie attacking a bear.  This is good stuff.  Anyway there is also some neat astronomy stuff too, and it links to the wiki for information on the constellation, you know if you want to use it outside.

2 seconds

This is what 2 seconds looks like in a 40-49 age group in a 5k coming to the finish line.  I mean if I knew that was my competition I would have stepped it up earlier, but looking at my UA map my run stats I was at about 212 beats per minute on the old ticker coming to the line so that was all I was giving at the end. Plus I ran like 90% of the race at my max heart rate.

Betty Zane 2019

So me and this guy - one won the race, and one got second in his age group.  Probably no reason to go into specifics, but I am proud of this kid for getting his first ever 5k win.  Pretty cool that it is at home and Dad got to be in the race too.  So even though I didn't win (spoiler alert, wait did I do that right? I mean seriously you should be able to tell from the pic) I did set a PR with an official 28:58 clocking.  The temperature was about 82° and sunny, it felt warmer than the 82 for sure.  I modified my race strategy to seeking shade when possible and stretching out the walking periods in the shade.  I'm glad I got a PR by about 30 seconds, but I was hoping for 25 minutes when I started training and trying to get to around 27 as a minimum (wait a tick if I change the minutes to seconds . . .that makes it a 24 minutes and 238 second run, so sub 25 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).  I have done more focused training this year than the past 2 years, but feel this result is a little disappointing.  I'm on the right path though.

Disclaimer: on Sunday I did wreck the riding lawn mower at Mom's house over the bank.  It ended up flipping up on one side, not sure how it didn't keep rolling over the hill, but when it tipped over I landed in some pretty tall weeds and apparently some poison ivy.  I have a pretty decent bruise on my leg and the poison was bad enough that I had to get a shot.  So no excuses, but that is not the best way to finish your training before a race.  I told Sampson this and he said "noted".  Love that kid. I may make a blog post on this event...stay tuned.

Anyway he was actually a little disappointed too.  You see the last 1/2 mile or so of the race is pretty much a straight shot to the finish and Sampson had been leading pretty much the whole race.  Well his buddy from last year, who had the bad race at the end of the XC season, came up to him and started chatting it up during the race.  Well Sampson was about out of breath and so I don't think he responded, but then his buddy went out ahead a little and even though nothing was said, Sampson said that he thought his buddy checked up a little bit and maybe... just maybe let him win.  I didn't see the end of the race, like not the first finishers, I mean I saw the end when I got there about 10 minutes later but... I told him that he should remember last year and how is buddy had his worst race of his senior season at districts and he thought he was done until the team pulled out a qualifier for regional with Sampson running a PR and placing number 8 overall and first for the team.  I told him, maybe he didn't let him win as much as he wanted to square up.  Or maybe he just cramped up or something and he got the dub out right.  Sometimes you can't over think things, I mean be glad you won the race kid.

Anyway back to my race.  So I have been training on the course pretty religiously this summer. I would say I have run the full race at least twice, but run the first mile or so about 20 times.  Last year there was a water table right after the first mile, so I kind of planned on hitting the first mile pretty hard, taking a little break at the water station, to wet the old whistle and then run hard to the rec center.  I would try and catch my breath a little before the hill and run up the hill.  Well there was no water station after the first mile.  This through my race into complete chaos.  Well maybe not complete chaos, but definitely had me thinking more, like were there going to be any water stations, and was I screwed, would I die of the dehydration like Bobby Boucher's Daddy.  Anyway I have been training without drinking water on a run, but it was hot and I was trying harder than normal and my mouth was really dry at this point.  Well the first station ends up being at the top of the rec center hill.  Which is actually a good location because you can take a quick break after the big hill, recover and take off on a pretty straight flat stretch, with a nice little down hill for about a mile.  Well once I broke the seal of stopping then it becomes to easy to stop and I probably stopped about 4 more times.  I ran a practice race on Saturday and finished in 29:58 and I only stopped 3 times, and the last little downhill from total sports I clocked a 6 minute mile for about a tenth of a mile.  This time though I wanted to meet that time goal so every time I ran I tried to run hard and with good form, but the endurance just wasn't there.  I think I have some good technique now, but no aerobic.  Anywho, I am happy with the finish, but I have some unfinished business.  Which is good in a way, because I am still motivated.  I do like running, but I need to figure some more stuff out, and do more speed work. I only trained at a max of 12 miles per week, which is above what I have done in the past, but the results are only sub 29.  I mean a tractor did roll on me 3 days prior so there was that.  But I think I need to run around 20 miles or so a week in order to break that 27 barrier, and if I can get the cardio, I may be able to get sub 25.  I'm not sure that I can or will ever be able to keep a pace of sub 20 starting this late in life running, but that may be wayyyyy out there as a goal.  More likely I will run a half marathon before I break 20, but it may be fun to see what can happen first.  Oh some more motivation, the guy who got first in my age group...beat me by 2 seconds.  But honestly I tried to run as fast as I could that last little bit, and I just couldn't get there.

Anyway it was great to run in a race with my son, who I never actually saw after about the first 1/4 mile until the finish line.  But I have some goals and look forward to meeting them.  I was think about running the Debbie Green race, but Sophie said that was a bad idea to run two 5k's in the same week.  Well it is also a bad idea to roll a lawn mower on you and get poison ivy, so why the heck not run two.  Well she never signed me up, so there's that, but maybe next year...

Valentine's Day Massacre

That title may be a little harsh for 7th grade girls basketball, but it totally fits.  You see yesterday was the final game of the season for Peach's team and the girls had gone undefeated all season.  The closest game was maybe 6 or 8 points (more on that later) but the rest of the games were double digit wins and the game before the finals was a 32 point blow out.  So basically all season the team had played the 10 girls on the team at some point every game and for most of the games the substitutions were quite liberal.  Now my opinion on the subject is that junior high teams and high school teams should sub frequently if they want to win... if you have the players obviously.  It is unlikely that a team has 10 players that are all of an equal level, but honestly there are probably about 2 or 3 that should get more minutes and the next 4 or 5 should be subbed early and often.  Also at this point in a season a coach should have developed a rotation of subs - basically if you have 1 or 2 people that you want to sub infrequently you have found a way to sub them at the end of quarters or at the beginning of quarters to get them some extra rest and the other players can develop some chemistry or a style with the big gun on the bench.  Because if you don't the team is going to get tired and you eventually lose due to attrition, and it takes one heck of a coach to pull the trigger for a sub with 3 minutes left in the game when they haven't subbed much before that, and one heck of a player to step into that situation cold.  The alternative is that you use timeouts to generate rest for the player, both of which Peach's team didn't do and resulted in a 34-31 lose to a very good team.  But a team that didn't play everyone, but did sub frequently with 7 girls.  Peach played for maybe 3 -4 minutes in the game out of 24.  Now let me say one other thing about subbing at the end of the season.  I think a lot of people think that as the season goes on you get more and more conditioned to play, but I think it is the opposite.  In the early season you focus a lot on running and conditioning, but as the season goes on, it becomes about practicing plays or game planning for a team and the practices become much more focused on strategy and most of the running a player will do is in the games.  So if you have played without subbing up to this point all the sudden loading players up with minutes in a game is going to backfire spectacularly.  This is how I envision Sampson's team losing this year in either the sectional or district, because we haven't developed bench players, and there are 2 guys that never get subbed unless they are in foul trouble. Any who, back to the massacre...
So Peach's team hasn't lost all year and most of the wins have been by double digits including one by 60 points.  Her team has probably shot more 3's than Sampson's team in less games.  Now traditionally with junior high teams if they are running the table and throwing up big point totals then they are probably pressing and getting layups, but Peach's team has pressed probably less than 5% of the time and plays almost exclusively man to man.  Most of  the time if a pressing team gets beat it is because the other team can handle the pressure and eventually get a layup on the other end because the pressing team is badly out of position against good ball handling teams, so a team that can dominate in the half court and dissect presses is hard to beat, which is what I would call Peach's team.  They also can go 8 deep, (qualifier here, the top girl is one of the better 7th grader's I have seen, boy or girl after that one girl can shoot, one can handle the ball, and the next two are taller, but the first 3 off the bench are versatile, short but fast and a good rebounder, strongest girl on the team) and have been giving more time to the 9 girl at the end of the year so the team is deep.  For this game though the coach didn't sub any in the first quarter or the last quarter, and only subbed once in the second and third for about 3 or 4 minutes total.  The bottom 3 starters have not experienced this kind of work load and to put them in that situation in a championship game was not well thought out.  If you play a certain way (and most of the time after 4 or 5 minutes it was sub 3 girls out) and win your games you should stay with that style and if you win, then you win playing your game, but if you lose, then you lost playing how you know how to play.  The girls didn't get that chance and when they were up 13 to 6 in the second quarter it really had that feel of "if we don't start subbing we are going to get tired and lose"... and that is exactly what happened.  The other thing that cost them is - if you aren't going to sub, you need to use timeouts to get players rest.  We left with 4 timeouts in our pocket.  Another thing they could have done was play zone.  While her team didn't normally play zone, it could have been very affective against the team they were playing.  They used a lot of screening action and back cuts to score that could have been neutralized, plus I don't know that they were a great shooting team, so packing in a defense and making them score over the top could have been very effective, especially after we had the lead.  A zone also helps your team rest, which if you aren't going to sub is kind of important.  But we didn't play any zone, and at the end of the game the girls were getting turned completely around, and couldn't find the ball on defense.
I felt really bad for Peach, because she is honestly one of the best 5 basketball players on her team, but she isn't fast so she gets over looked, even though she is a good passer, dribbler, and rebounder.  I understand coming in the first day of practice, looking at a team and deciding who the best 5 girls are and those are your starters, but if one person has a good day, or one has a bad day and you are too rigid to change your evaluation, then that limits you as a coach.  There was absolutely no way, that you can go a whole season and not see this.  Time will tell but I guess if Peach ever wants to have a shot, it isn't about basketball, it is about how quick they are.  Dumb.  If a kid has a skill set to a sport (good batter or pitcher in baseball, dribbling/passing/shooting in basketball) being super quick isn't the most important thing.  Good technique can make up for a lack of quickness or height in basketball too, but those have to actually be coached.  One last thing, just a coincidence maybe,  but Sampson's 7th grade team lost in the championship too.  They came back and won it all the next season and only lost one game...  No pressure kid.

2018 XC has reached the Finish Line

Well it was a really successful season.  Both teams ended up taking a ton of hardware to the house and in the end they both made it to Regionals!!! So Sampson had probably his best race at Districts this year and helped pull the team through.  Our senior that had finished first for the team all year, cramped up and finished 7th for the team and everyone thought we were toast and that he had run his last race and it was really sad because he had done so well all season and had probably his worst race of his career on his last race.  It was really similar to how Sampson ran last year, like so similar that their times were within 3 seconds of each other.  Anyway when I saw that he was hurting and fading back I started running around and telling Sampson that he was going to have to pick it up and it was up to him to help the team, well all the boys really if they were going to advance.  And wouldn't you know it, it was crazy the way they picked it up and finished top 4, with the top 6 moving on to regionals!! Sampson actually qualified on his own and the boy who would have been 6th for the team end up finishing like 45th overall and that was plenty to move on.  Our senior got to redeem himself at the regionals and took the top spot back for the team, but no one was able to advance to State :(.  On the bright side we did get experience at regionals, oh and the boys that did score in the district, well they are all sophomores and freshmen so the future looks pretty bright.  Oh and one other thing, Sampson got named to the All T-L team for the news paper.  Anyway here is a link to the end of the season video which was pretty sweet.  Coach's husband made it (Coach is a woman so its cool) and she never lets him hold the trophies and stuff, but like he totally should and it would have been awesome if he snuck a pic of himself with all the trophies at the end, but he didn't.  Just would have been cool.

 

Also here is my view of the Parade.  It was pretty cool and you can see it in the first video, but this is what it looked like when they passed me.

The Tale of the District Race of Aught '17

Well it is almost District race time, so it seems like a good time to recap the race from just last year.  You see it was Sampson's first district race last year and it is really good for a freshman to run as a scorer for a high school team, but it may not be the best thing.  You see (man used that two in row to start a sentence, no worries, I'll fix it next sentence) he ran really well for most of the season.  He was hurt in the first race (which I didn't get to see because I had to go to New York for business, and I actually moved the trip back so I could see him run, but it was too muddy so they moved the race back a day and I ended up missing it.  And then we ended up not doing the project at work anyway so it was a complete loss.  Going off topic a little here) and he set out the next 2 races then scored in the 4/5 spot for the team basically the rest of the season.  So the make-up of the team was 2 seniors, 1 junior and the rest of the scorers were freshman.  Yikes, right?  Well they were pretty good last year even with the inexperience, but the inexperience came out at districts, at least for Sampson.  You see (hey it been a couple sentences so it's cool to go back to the old stand-by) he ran his best race of the year the race right before districts a PR of 17:34 (which stood until this last race, now it is at 17:12) so he was feeling really good.  His prep for races wasn't the best though.  We never got overly involved in the prep side of the races, we just kind of let him do his thing and just tried to make sure he didn't over do it the night before.  Well for the district race we did the same thing and he looked fine when he got there.  He started out well, in about 4th for his team probably somewhere around the top 30 or so (top 24 qualify for regional)  and I'm watching him go up the hill and around the school, so I hustle to the side to see him come around.  I get up there and I see the kids he was with and no Sampson.  So I'm like did I miss him.  Then the other freshman on the team comes through and still no Sampson.  So he would be like 5th for his team.  I keep waiting and waiting and now I start getting a little worried.  I can't remember if the other kid came through or not (also a freshman), but when I finally see Sampson he is like gassed...bad.  He grabs his chest and says his chest is hurting like he is really cramping badly.  So I go around to the front of the school and he is really slowing, Sophie is closer to the finish and she is waiting there and getting worried and she sees a kid collapse.  Well he finally finishes, but he does get passed and finishes 6th for the team a little of 20 minutes and ends up at like 103rd in the race.  Well the team finishes 11th or so and he tells us his prep for the race.  He drank a cup of milk.  For like 18 hours.  That is all he had.  No water, just one cup of milk.  That is not efficient to be at top race form.  So this year he is hydrated regularly, and he is taking his race prep a step further.  He is doing ice baths the night before.  The team is similar to last year, but the seniors are gone, the junior has stepped up to the lead spot, Sampson is probably the number 2 guy (he has finished as low as 4 for the team, but not lately), there is another sophomore that is 3 (and has finished no lower than 3rd for the team), 2 freshman and another sophomore for the next 3 spots.  I don't think the team is as top heavy as last year, but I think as a whole they are much better.  Our 7 and 8 are also a freshman and sophomore.  So the future is bright, but they did win the OVAC and have won about 4 meets this year, so there is a chance they can make it to the regional.  I hope they do, but last year there was only one team from our area that made it, and they have their whole team back this year.  Sampson's team has beaten them this year, but last race they actually tied and it came down to the 6th man.  Which our guy was better.  But one thing I am sure of.  Sampson will be hydrated before this race.  Well I'll try and check-in after the race and let you know if the season continued or not.  Hopefully they do.  Also I'll give you a update on the girls team.  #TheFive.  Totally made for a movie.  Hey maybe I could get a bit part in the movie.  I could be the guy at the race that brings the staff.  You know "Race Staff Guy".  I have the staff already, could be pretty sweet.

The Long Way Home

Pretty much a photo that should be up for some kind of award. I took this while me, Peach and Sampson were out for a run/walk.  Well mostly a walk for me and  Peach.  Sampson took off and left us, so we just kind of looked for cool walking sticks and what not.  Anyway Peach wants to be famous so here goes.  I edited it again, here is that version.

Proof of Slow Motion

Just messing around with some of the google picture features and trying to link to blogger.  I took a video of Peach yesterday and in slow motion it looks half way neat, but at regular speed it is hilarious.

NBA 2018-19

Couple of things I wanted to get down so I could look back and not believe how incredibly wrong I could be in the future.  Well now that the disclaimer is out of the way here we go.

First I think Mo Bamba is going to be a bust.  Just saying.  This guy reminds me of Hasheem Thabeet or however you spell it because man that guy was bad.  Any way, I think he is in the same mold of player and I just don't see all the hype.

Luca Doncic will be ROY.  Book it. 

Grayson Allen will be top 3 in ROY voting or at least make the first team. 

Golden State will win the championship (really went out on a limb there).

Lakers make the playoffs, and so do the Cavs.

Butler will end up in Philly, or not.  Sampson says Toronto (HA!) we'll see.

I'm going to watch a ton of games because we got LEAGUE PASS!!!

Ok that is all for now. 

Warble Watch 2018

Just so everyone knows Sophie has not had any warbles yet.  yet...

'Ol 5 hundo

Just as an update the old blog passed post 500 there a couple of post ago.  Up to 503 now.  Only took about 14 years.  Wow.  Been blogging long?  Yeah about 14 years, I just said that.  Hopefully I can get to 1,000 in a little under 30 years.  Well at the rate I have been going lately it may be more like 50.  Anyway thanks for reading and have a nice day 😁.

Queen of the Court

We are also doing volley ball this fall.  That's right, Peach is taking the court for the first time in competitive volley ball, and it is about the most exciting sport the kids have played.  No seriously.  About every 20-30 seconds someone is scoring a point.  So the if the game is out of hand, no worries it will be over in about 30 minutes.  It's a close competitive game that is going back and forth...well that may take a little longer, but you are guaranteed some suspense.  Kind of like what we got tonight.  The girls dropped a tough one, 28-26, 16-25, 28-26.  Just back and forth the whole game and they were trying to do some higher level stuff and miss hit the ball so you can live with because they are trying to get better and you know at some point that will pay dividends.  Right now they are 5-4 with a revenge game tomorrow.  Hopefully they play well.

Sophie and the Spiders

Ok so Sophie is saying she got bit on the face and the spiders laid eggs in her cheek.  I say she is full of it as spiders won't lay eggs in flesh.  At worst it is fly eggs and she'll have a warble or something.  Guess we'll find out in a few weeks who was right.

Ahhhhh Fall weather, are you ready for some... cross country?

Not what you were expecting huh?  Well I wasn't either, at least not about 5 years ago, but at some point this summer I found myself looking forward to cross country season.  Not for myself, but for Sampson.  You see we did the football thing when he was little and around 5th grade he decided he didn't want to play anymore.  Fine by me that was when all of the head stuff was starting to come out and it really didn't bother me that he didn't want to play even though I think he could have done well.  But I didn't know what would take its place.  Well he decided he would run cross country in 7th grade.  I think some of this came from him running a 5k at the end of basketball season as a 6th grader and he put up a time of 24 minutes, right out of the box.  Me not be experienced in the way of the 5k didn't know if this was good or not.  But after 5 years of racing if an 11/12 year old can run sub 25 with no training, that is pretty darn good.  He is now in the 18 minute range as a sophmore so I was getting excited as the season got closer to watch him run.  You see the great thing about cross country is that you can show up at race time, watch your kid race for about 20 minutes (the less they run the better) and when it is over you can leave if you want or stay and support the rest of the teams, for like another half hour or so.  Or you can go to a "team" sport, sit for 2 or 3 hours waiting to watch your kid play for 5 minutes and then spend the entire post game complaining that your kid should be playing more, but they have the wrong name or the coach is an idiot... but I digress. (I think I used that correctly...yep pretty sure I did)  In cross country you get what you get, if you are good you are in the top 5, if you aren't then you aren't.  There is always the possibility that one of the top guys will have a bad race, and if that happens you could sneak into the top 5, but for the most part it comes down to how well you can run.  Watching Sampson run when he was little, this really wasn't the sport I would have picked for him, but as it turns out I think he has an extremely good natural form for distance running.  Kind of funny how the sport found him, but he has done really well at it and he even met his goal of getting all conference already.  Well there is still a good bit of the season left and hopefully I'll be back on the blog and can tell you how they do.  Also if there is time I'll tell the tale of last years district meet and the cramping situation.  Oh it is a good story.

Only 364 Shopping Days Left

Well another Christmas has come and gone

3rd Annual Christmas Letter, 2009

The first real snow of the year is on the ground so what better time to write the old Christmas Letter. In preparation for writing this year's letter I reviewed some of the previous years' letters. That is one nice thing about the old blog, you can just go back and look at last year's letter anytime, not that i don't keep everyone else's letters too. Anyway 2009 was a little different for the Helfen's. Actually is started out kind of hectic as I was unemployed for about 2 days when the Triple C ranch closed its doors and I went back to the Big O. I wasn't planning on staying there, but things started working out and it ended up being a really good fit for me, so I guess it was kind of a blessing in disguise . . . deep deep cover disguise. Anyway after the initial rough phase of the year things started coming our way. I got Sophie a really nice Sony Camera for her Birthday, actually it was after her birthday because we had to do a lot of shopping for a camera that met all of her needs. Which are a lot for someone who is as particular about her pictures as Sophie is. Sampson played T-ball again for the Pirates and did really well holding down the hot corner for most of the year. It was neat to see how much he had improved since last year. His team even pulled off a legit double play. Football was a little rough this year as the Buckeyes came up short in the playoffs even after scoring more points than the other team, but in the third place game he did score 2 TD's so that was pretty awesome. Now he is playing basketball for the 1st time and doing really well, he even scored in the first game. Peach had a pretty rough year too, like old Dad. She started out getting stitches in February after doing a face plant on a popcorn tin, then she managed to break her arm right before her first ever dance recital. She did really well though, she just didn't get to do her Acro stuff, but we waved and made a big fuss for her and she smiled really big while she was sitting there with the other girls. After the recital, she got flowers and a dancer Barbie. She was very excited. Also me and Sampson won the fishing Derby, which was awesome. We had been trying ever since he could hold a fishing rod, ok even before he could, but this year we won, finally.

After the kids' birthday party in July we headed to Pennsylvania for our vacation. We headed to Lancaster for Dutch Wonderland and a stay at the Howard Johnson and their indoor water park. We detoured through Gettysburg on the way and back, which I thought was really interesting, but Sophie and Sampson didn't enjoy it very much. Peach liked it pretty well I think though. We all enjoyed Dutch Wonderland though. They had a combo amusement park and a water park there and we spent the whole day. We did the sky ride and the roller coasters (the little one once with everyone, I had to ride the big one myself), and the big water slides. It was a very fun trip and slightly educational. The indoor water park was fun too, as it was right in the hotel, then at lunch we went to Chuck E. Cheese and for dinner we went to Friendly's which was neat because they had a balloon guy and he made animals for the kids.

Sophie and the kids also got to go to the Columbus Zoo with her Aunt and her boys this year. That was a long day for them, Dad didn't get to go cause they went in the middle of the week, but Peach is still talking about the trip. Sophie got a lot of neat pics too.

The end of the year seems to be picking up for the Helfen household too. Work is going pretty well, the company stock is up about 1000%, but I don't want to take all the credit for that. I mean I'd like to think I helped. I won Fantasy baseball this year too, so if you see Stevie remind him about that. Also I played a bunch of different online games and met some really neat people. Well here is hoping this finds you happy and healthy, and wishing you a great 2010.

Love,

The Helfens

Kirk, Sophie, Sampson and Peach

CrossRoads ... or not

I'm just at a very difficult part in my professional career as this year winds to a close.  I have been with my current employer for the last 4+ years and have probably done more here than at any place I have worked before.  Not combined for everywhere, but I have been involved in two reactor installs and have been involved in all of the instrumentation and commissioning of every new piece of equipment that has been brought on-line in that period.  So I feel like I have done a lot and I definitely have the knowledge of all these new pieces.  So onto the cross road part.  Well recently my boss got promoted (congrats), but I did not.  That's okay as I don't really have a back up and no one is in a position to do my job if I moved up so I would essentially be stuck doing two full jobs which would be impossible.  But (and there is always a but right?) when the move happened I wasn't involved in any of the talks.  Well that's fine as I'm just a lowly process engineer, but I was told that I would be reporting to the production manager who was going to take over some of the site manager responsibilities.  I said that wouldn't be a problem as that was my gut reaction to be a good little soldier and not a problem maker.  After about a week, December 8th to be exact, it starts to dawn on me that 1) I wasn't consulted in any of the decisions and am the 3rd most tenured person at the plant now, 2) my responsibilities seemed to increase after my boss left with no increase in compensation even though the new manager got a promotion and raise.  Now I'm not one to begrudge someone else but the person that got the promotion was in a similar position on the org chart to me, but now I'm below them.  So this is indirectly a demotion for me.  Now I'm second in tenure at the plant, but aren't being consulted about any decisions related to the plant.   So in the first month of this experiment I've watched us run our most critical chemical level down to a point where we didn't have enough to neutralize our tank, and the level in the tank has dropped off the thermocouple, so we have run the pump in manual for the last 2 weeks because the automated heating and cooling cycles won't work.  We ruined a pump and in haste to neutralize a tank used a chemical that we haven't used before and it corroded the inside of the tank.  To boot the only reason that we didn't have more issue with the chemical tank was because I just happened to realize the cooling system was trying to run, but wasn't working and the tank was heating up by the constant recirculation.  I'm just at a difficult point because I have seen a lot of other plants close and fail, and I don't think we are there, but there has definitely been a change in the last month that isn't a positive.  I don't really want to leave because of all the time and work I have put in, but I question where my ceiling is now.  Clearly I'm not getting the credit, or should I say some other people are extremely good at taking credit, and now if I say something to management it will seem like sour grapes.  Also the people that I work with are slowly starting to grade on my patience and there are about 4 people that I try and avoid at all costs, which is not good for a work environment.  At any rate this is just kind of an exercise to help me think through things and really give myself some perspective.  Every time I have left a job in the past has been out of necessity to stay employed and this would really be the first I have left because of work issues.  I honestly don't see a way out, but it is going to take a while.  All I can do is put my faith in God that he has guided me through things before and done it for a reason.  If my purpose has been served here and it is time to move on then great, but if I'm supposed to persevere to learn something then that is going to be rough.  I know how hard it is to start over and my past is about 4-5 years and hit the reset.  I have about 20 years left and there is no way I'm going to be miserable working for the next 20 years.  Peach said she wants me to be happy, but that is a hard thing sometimes.  What really makes you happy?  Knowledge of what you are doing?  Comfort where you are working?  Not having to start over again?  Feeling that what you are doing matters and getting recognized for it?  Well I know what being miserable is, happiness may just have to wait.  Hears hoping 2018 goes better.  Good luck everyone.

The Big Debate

Well that was disappointing. I think every presidential debate you think the next president will just pop off the screen and then the debate ends up devolving into a series of personal attacks about how the other candidate is sooooo much worse that anyone with any sense would never vote for them.  I was kind of hoping that in the historic nature of the debate that the candidates would recognize that it was going to be one of the most watched debates in history and take the high road a little, but it didn't happen. At all.  One of the worst things to me was the moderator calling out Trump for comments.  Dude, you are the moderator, you want to be in the debate, run for freaking president. Other than that keep your opinions to yourself.  And then when he presented the half truth that the law Trump was talking about was struck down because it was unconstitutional, Trump had to defend himself to the moderator and explain how the judge was taken off the case and the new mayor of New York dropped trying to defend it.  Trump was right, but it was a waste of time and effort.  Looking back I do feel like Trump got a raw deal, and that is the worst thing the democrats could do is make him look like a victim.  For Hillary she acted like the little school girl that knows all the answers and constantly has her hand in the air.  Except she didn't answer questions.  Holt would ask a question, and then she would give a preplanned response based on something similar but not the actual question.  It is bad when Sampson starts yelling at the screen that she isn't answering the questions.  Yikes.  Then Holt asked Trump about the birther conspiracy.  Just let it go man, no one cares.  Obama is 3 months away from completing 8 years as president, no one can do anything now.  The only two people that know where he was actually born are dead, so let's please let that issue die.  But Trump responds in what is probably the second worst way he could, by accusing Hillary of starting it back in 2008 during the primaries.  Just let it go is all he had to do.  Just play it off as a non issue and that no one was talking about it and then he could have spent about a minute and a half blasting Clinton on Whitewater, her foundation, the e-mails, Benghazi anything, but he screwed that up.  Another thing he screwed up was when they asked about the Iraq invasion.  I really don't care what his position was 14 years ago because he was a private citizen.  If you think it was so bad Lester, why don't you ask Hillary why she voted for it.  And why was it bad anyway?  Look at the timing of it, it was still a year or so since 9/11 and we were still looking for "someone's ass to kick" (to borrow a phrase). The problem wasn't the invasion, it wasn't that Saddam was removed from power, it was that there was no exit plan once the objective was complete.  Then when the leader was gone it was like "hey why don't you guys try democracy, it's like super great.  Ok whelp see ya later.  Oh and don't worry about giving us oil or any repayment for you know setting you free, its totally cool."  Then Obama comes in and yanks the troops out, and leaves a giant power vacuum forming ISIS... If someone was legitimately in the middle and that debate swayed them, I feel sorry for them.  Unless it swayed them to the third party candidate in which I totally understand.  I hope the next debate asks some tougher questions to Hillary.  She can't be lobbed softballs all the time, she is going to have to deal with some difficult questions and answer them.  We now turn to Vince Foster for his opinion on the debate... oh wait nvrmnd...

The Drought is Over

In case you were wondering the time was 3.4106776 years between posts, but that is just a rough estimate.  I don't think much happened.  There was a flock of sea gulls and a gas shortage and that's about it.

The Presidential Debate of Aught '16

Ugh ugh cough cough... sorry had to knock the dust off the old blog.  I think this may be the new record, but I'll address that later.  I just wanted to get some thoughts down before the big show down tonight.  No not Falcons vs. Saints, I'm talking about the big debate.  It will be historic as the first woman nominated by a major political party will take place in a presidential debate, so hey its got that right?  But it will also be the first time in about 20 years that a non-politician will get to take the stage in a presidential debate, Ross Perot anyone?  Any how, I was just thinking that since this election is so tight already that I really think tonight will be the deciding factor.  Both of the VP's are pretty noncontroversial (yeah check that word out), but the two candidates themselves couldn't be more polarizing.  I really think tonight will be the one chance that the candidates have to make an impact.  I know there are two more debates, but in this short attention span climate, that first impression goes alongggggg way.  I think Trump can win the election tonight, if he can stay on topic and not go off the rails screaming or making a point of some controversial topic or directly insult Hillary's womanhood.  If he can stay in his lane and be "presidential" (basically not pissing everyone off, like normal) he will make a winning impression.  On the other hand, if Hillary can come off as genuine and honest (good luck) and boil her policies down to understandable, quotable, relatable really not sure where I was going with that, but if she can argue policies and not hyperbole I think she can make the stronger impression. 

Personally I think we really missed the boat with Romney four years ago.  This is at best a train wreck / dumpster fire of an election.  Between the two candidates they have been elected to a major government body, exactly once.  And that was the senate, not even a governor here.  Has anyone seen Tom Tancredo?  I seriously think he was lost in one of those corn field in Iowa back in '08.  Anyway, good for the candidates to make it this far, but unless someone can just blow me away tonight (Clinton reference, #amiright?)  I really feel like we are in trouble.  I really hope someone comes out sounding presidential.  Just to be clear as of right now, I really don't view Hillary as a leader, but I don't know that Trump will have enough support from either party to accomplish anything.  Which hey, maybe that isn't a bad thing.  Well see you on the other side of history.

1st Mustang Game of 2013

Well I feel like the worst parent/Coach on the planet.  Our coach has put me in charge of pitching and as the "Pitching Coach" of which I know only what I have read and looked at on-line and learned from other people I get to be in charge of 5 young kids who all want to pitch every night.  But tonight was the worst case scenario for me to be in that position as Sampson is one of the pitchers.  And he  has done phenomenal in the 2 scrimmages we had and even in fall ball.  Well tonight the first kid pitched 3 scoreless innings with 6 k's, then the second kid pitched one inning of 3 K baseball, then I sent Sampson in to pitch the last 2 innings facing the meat of their order and he walked 6 straight to bring to game to 3-2.  So I had to go out there and pull my son from the game, and he hates me now. Hopefully he will talk to me tomorrow.  The next kid did come in with the bases loaded and struck out 3 and got the other team 1-2-3 in the 6th to preserve the win.  Sampson did come back up after I took him out and he got a hit, and slide into second, and then stole 3rd and got to home on another hit and slide into home.  Two perfect slides.  We ended up winning 6-2, and combined the kids pitched a no-hitter so there is that for the old pitching coach, but right now I feel horrible about taking him out because it upset him sooooo much. He also had an unassisted out at 1st so he played a good game, he was just very dissappointed about the thing he wanted to do the most.  Sorry buddy, I do love you.  Who knows maybe we will laugh about this someday...probably not tomorrow though, I'm just hoping you talk to me by then.

Peach's First Lost Tooth

Well she finally lost that tooth that has been loose since like Thanksgiving. If I think of it and am motivated enough maybe I'll post a pick of her new smile. Anyway she told Sophie "so Mommy here is that tooth". Here she pulled it out herself. Pretty good little girl, but don't get any ideas about ripping the rest of your teeth out. Apparently the tooth fairy is pretty generous when it comes to your first tooth, especially when you pull it out yourself because Peach got a 1 and a 5. She was supposed to split it with old Dad, but she promptly went out and blew it on bigger Lego's. I fear she could become quite expensive . . .

Double Double

Sampson is back playing hoops this winter and he got his first double double last week with 10 points and 10 boards. He followed it up this week with another double-double by getting 10 and 12 rebounds. He was really excited about it, but I told him right after the game he had a double double with points and turn overs, he only had 3 of those though. I sure am glad they aren't keeping score this year. . .

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.