Nov. 22, 2006
Soccer Overload
What a weekend! Gabo, my 11-year-old played at the Hempfield tournament at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday. At 4 p.m. we had a game between the parents and the players for my son Mario's Under-10 team and then went to one of the player's homes for a season-ending awards ceremony and pizza. The next morning it was back to the Hempfield tournment for another game, and then the final at 3:30 p.m., which Gabo's Lanco United Under-12 boys game won, taking home their first championship. We stopped quickly at McDonald's for dinner and then headed to my 6 p.m. indoor game. The next day as I found myself too exhausted to sleep, I realized it was a little too much. But I enjoyed every minute of it.

Nov. 15, 2006
Indoor Soccer Thrills
After taking four months off because I was too busy with my kids' outdoor soccer schedules, I returned to my beloved indoor soccer team this week. It felt absolutely fantastic to be back on the field. Last night we were playing a really good team with an excellent goalkeeper. Whenever her team was on the attack, she would walk up almost to the midline, confident that she could help on the attack and run back quickly if we got the ball. All through the game we noticed that she was doing this, and we told each other we should knock a ball over her head, but she was pretty good at reading the game and getting back whenever we threatened. Then, with a few minutes to play, a slow ball rolled out to her and she yelled, "keeper." I sprinted to it as fast as I could, kicked it away just as she was reaching for it, and turned and dribbled as fast as I could to the goal. A few more touches and I was able to casually knock it home for the 4 to 1 victory. What a blast!

Nov. 6, 2006
The Crucible
I've always loved the theater, but my husband was not especially crazy about it. He would probably have rather gone to a latin music concert if he had to go out. But his preference was to just stay home. For years I've heard about what a fantastic work of art Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible," is. Our local acting company was presenting it, so I decided to go with my children, who are 9 and 11. I told them that they might not like it, and that they could close their eyes and go to sleep if it was too boring. But they were not allowed to misbehave at all. I had a little bit of trepidation when I walked into the theater and saw that there were no other children there. But the play was so good. My older son, Gabriel, understood a lot and was sort of interested. Poor Mario, who is nine, could not really follow the speedy, high-level dialogue. But he sat quietly and tried to figure out what was happening. I was just thrilled that we all got to see such an American treasure. As we walked out, I said, "Wasn't it interesting the way, little, by little, all the characters saw how wrong hanging the women for witchcraft was, except for the chief judge? Can you think of any current political situations that are similar?"