What's This Noise?

 

Working at home is somewhat of a blessing and also somewhat of a curse sometimes.  One September morning, I am just working at my little desk in our living room and I start to hear this tap, tap, tap coming from somewhere.  I was thinking, "What is this noise?".  It almost sounded like an animal was crawling on our roof or something.  I figured maybe a squirrel got up there or something and it just continued and continued.  So, I had to go out to investigate, and this is what I was greeted with.  

How in the world are five or six birds just choosing my roof to hang out on?  And to make matters worse, they were not just walking around, they were pecking at the sunroof window like it was something to eat.  I really couldn't believe it.  I looked around and nobody else had birds on their roof.  How was this possible?  Why my roof?

So, when Tara gets home, I start talking to her about it and she mentions that the new next-door neighbors (who also have their parents living with them), have racing pigeons and this might just be them!!  Even if that proves out, why would the just be chilling on my roof?  Why not there's or someone else's?  The most important question, though, is how can we get them to stop? Perhaps I should hang a hawk or an owl figurine up there to get them to stop.  Do you talk to your neighbor and see if they can get their racing pigeons off of your house?  Wild!

Dinner at the Garlic Factory

 

This is actually one of my favorite restaurants in Boulder, though Tara isn't quite a huge fan.  She refers to this place as the "Garlic Factory", but it's true name is Pasta J's and is a Boulder classic.  Pasta J goes way back as a staple in the downtown dining scene and is also a huge CU Buffaloes fan and provides a huge sponsorship to the team every year.  You really can't beat the lasagna here and the garlic break is well...garlicky!  Every once and a while I can get away with taking the family here, so thanks for supporting the location choice for a nice fall evening out!  

Pentatonix Concert

It has been a hot minute since I have been to a concert, but our friends Malia and James invited us to go to the Pentatonix concert at Fiddlers Green down near them.  We had to take them up on the offer.  We first met them at their house near Washington Park and got a nice tour of their newly remodeled and in-process remodel work on the back side of their house.  After a bit there, we jumped in "Tessie", their new Tesla car and parked at the concert venue.  We had great seats a bit off to the side, but nice and close up to the front.  The opening act was Loren Allred, who was actually the singer of the song Never Enough from the Greatest Showman.  She was outstanding and a great start to the concert.

 A bit later and we got into the main act with Pentatonix.  This is our second time seeing them in concert, with an earlier concert being at the Broomfield Pavilion (I believe) several years back.  They were just as good and are really fun to watch.  By now, they have so much music out that you certainly miss some old favorites but get a good taste of what is more current from them.  Thanks for the invite Malia and James!

Gavin's 17th Birthday

 

Happy Birthday Gavin!  Each and every year that goes by seems to just fly by and we wonder how it all could be moving so quickly.  Each trip around the sun brings so much growth.  We have certainly seen that this year with Gavin.  He continues to be someone that takes strong pride in his academics and athletics.  He has an expansive friend network and he always eager to get out to experience the world with all it has to offer.

He usually like to pass on a big party at our house and often opts for a nice dinner with the family and then some low-key hang out with his friends.  It just seems to always work out.  Happy Birthday, buddy! 

Matchy Matchy

We continue to have a great time riding outside with Tara's new bike.  We got this new Zoot Aloha kit that just matches perfect with the colors and designs on her bike.  She certainly looks legit out there!  I am not sure I would race her!

PT More

 

Gavin continues to work on some strength and flexibility imbalance issues that pull on his back and his hips a bit.  Here he is working through some special squats with Larry.  I can't say enough about how good Larry at BUILD is with his diagnosis of underlying issues that are likely the root cause of issues rather than just treating the direct symptoms or direct complaint.  He also does a great job at explaining the chain of events or contributing factors with anatomy charts and/or skeleton models.  He also cracks up with all the stories my guys have...it really makes for a fun time at PT.

Soccer JV/Varsity

 

Today also turned out to be an interesting soccer day.  The first fun part was getting to play at Boulder High School (my alma mater) and the second was Gage once again got called up to play with the JV team.  At least with JV and above, you get to play on nice fields.  This is a beautiful field in the middle of Boulder at Boulder High School.

JV team ended up losing a close game 3-1, but both Gage and Gavin played well.  Here is Gavin after the game talking to some of the lady team managers.

After the JV game, Gage was asked to stay as a backup for the Varsity game as well due to an injury of the backup keeper.  This was definitely a first for him, but he jumped right in... despite having almost never practicing or playing with the team.  What's funny is that he's still the tallest person out there even just being a freshman.  This is the team circle up before the game.

Gage has also never done the lineup before and didn't know where to go so he actually lined up at the wrong side (over on the right) and we got a good chuckle out of it when we talked to him later.  He was supposed to be lined up next to the starting keeper (Noah) who is in the teal goalie kit.

Welp, this game went downhill pretty quick.  Boulder was absolutely stacked this year and was led by a D1 Clemson commit up top as a forward.  They looked better than us at almost every position on the field, though.  They scored a couple quick goals on Noah early in the first half and then just kept on pounding away.  By the end of the first half Legacy was down something like 0-6.  I've almost never seen anything like it.  The second half started just as bad and after one more goal against us, we saw some quick commotion on the bench that made my stomach drop.  They started to warm up Gage...but there was like 35 minutes left in the game.  I was thinking to myself, "Are they really going to put him in to get shelled in this blood bath?"  Apparently, they were.  A few more minutes later and Gage was taking over for the final 30 minutes of the game.  Here he is, a young 14-year-old playing against full grown men with some of them being 18+ in a game they are already down 0-7.  I guess that's the way it goes.  I was so nervous for him, and you could tell he was a bit intimidated as well.

I am so proud of him, though!  Here he is coming out through a ball and a defender on a 1v1 with one of the Boulder strikers.  He made a big early save here to get some confidence.  They did get two goals on him, though. But that was quite a good outcome considering the rest of the game.  He had one that got through on a corner kick from a back post shot that he couldn't really do much about.  The second was kind of a weird one where the referee said a redirection back to him was actually a "pass back" that he picked up so they awarded a free kick right outside the box.  He made an initial save on the free kick, but they got a rebound shot that went in.  All in all, it was pretty crazy to watch, and he stepped up big time.  Tough night, though, as the team lost 0-9.  Awesome individual job by Gage, though!