Highlight of my work week? Getting up at 4 a.m. to drive to Memphis, spend all day poring over 46 banker's boxes filled with documents, and driving back to get home at 9:30 p.m., skipping dinner.
Glamorous life, huh?
On the "good news" front, I was selected by Birmingham Magazine as one of Birmingham's Top Attorneys for 2009. Page 104, top of the page, you'll find my name as the first name listed under the category of "Tax" attorneys.
Err, that is, spelled "Darell." Yup, they misspelled it. At least they spelled the last name right, and the name of the firm correctly.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
A good day of sports
Rachel's team played at 9, and won again easily, 17-4. She played some point guard as well as forward (her usual position), so she was excited about that.
Collin's team (the one I coach) had an easy time today, winning 30-6. I'm a big believer in sportsmanship, and having had a child play on the opposite end of more than one lopsided score, it's a difficult thing for me to see even being on the other side. Today we played everybody, kept our "star" players out more than half the game, inverted our guards and forwards and centers so they were all playing different positions, asked our main scoring threats to pass the ball to others who had not scored so they could shoot--and we still won by 24. We had six different players score, and it could have been all nine pretty easily, as the other three had multiple shots that just did not go in.
Didn't like the way the schedule lined up--next week we play the undefeated team who has not played a close game all year--except one. We lost to them in overtime by 2. I'm sure they'll be looking for revenge, believing we caught them off guard. We'll see. We've had no practices in two weeks now due to gym conflict, and have 1/2 court on Thursday for an hour, so there will be little-to-no preparation for the game. We'll still show up. We'd like to win.
Then saw my beloved Wildcats whip our hated rivals, the Tennessee Vols, by 19 on a CBS telecast. Always enjoy that.
Collin and I shot baskets at halftime, and he's shooting again. That boy loves basketball.
Collin's team (the one I coach) had an easy time today, winning 30-6. I'm a big believer in sportsmanship, and having had a child play on the opposite end of more than one lopsided score, it's a difficult thing for me to see even being on the other side. Today we played everybody, kept our "star" players out more than half the game, inverted our guards and forwards and centers so they were all playing different positions, asked our main scoring threats to pass the ball to others who had not scored so they could shoot--and we still won by 24. We had six different players score, and it could have been all nine pretty easily, as the other three had multiple shots that just did not go in.
Didn't like the way the schedule lined up--next week we play the undefeated team who has not played a close game all year--except one. We lost to them in overtime by 2. I'm sure they'll be looking for revenge, believing we caught them off guard. We'll see. We've had no practices in two weeks now due to gym conflict, and have 1/2 court on Thursday for an hour, so there will be little-to-no preparation for the game. We'll still show up. We'd like to win.
Then saw my beloved Wildcats whip our hated rivals, the Tennessee Vols, by 19 on a CBS telecast. Always enjoy that.
Collin and I shot baskets at halftime, and he's shooting again. That boy loves basketball.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Ahh, young hope and audition time
It's time for the elementary school spring musical, and Rachel is excited. She has decided she will sing "Good Morning, Baltimore" for her audition piece and asked me to print the lyrics for her tonight so she can begin memorizing them.
The plays this Spring will be something that the school has never done before. Instead of one play, they are splitting them up into two One Act musical comedies. The first one, "Dear Edwina," will feature only children from 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The second one, "How to Eat Like a Child," will be just for children from 1st through 5th grades, so Rachel is excited about having an opportunity for a bigger role than "normal." She's a good little actress, expressive, dedicated, and with a sweet voice, but you never know. Wish her luck.
Collin--well, who knows if he'll try or not. Basketball season is coming to an end, and soccer is about to start, and that may be enough for him. We'll see.
The plays this Spring will be something that the school has never done before. Instead of one play, they are splitting them up into two One Act musical comedies. The first one, "Dear Edwina," will feature only children from 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The second one, "How to Eat Like a Child," will be just for children from 1st through 5th grades, so Rachel is excited about having an opportunity for a bigger role than "normal." She's a good little actress, expressive, dedicated, and with a sweet voice, but you never know. Wish her luck.
Collin--well, who knows if he'll try or not. Basketball season is coming to an end, and soccer is about to start, and that may be enough for him. We'll see.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
It's Thursday, and plans "mostly" set
"Chanter," the women's show choir, is going to Opelika Friday because they perform so early Saturday morning. We, on the other hand, will stay in Birmingham Saturday morning to watch Collin and Rachel run the Kid's Mercedes Marathon. We should be done by 11, and then we'll hop down to Opelika and get there by 1-1:30 or so (depending on if we drop off kids at home or not).
"Con Brio" performs at 2:40, so we should be fine for arriving before then. So we will miss Sarah in Chanter, but see her in Con Brio.
We will not be making a late night out of it, but may hang around a little longer to see how things are going. I think they have a "top five" groups that perform later, and if Chanter or Con Brio make it, Sarah would perform again--but we'll likely miss that, since we wouldn't know if they were performing until we will probably be back in Birmingham.
Will be busy, a lot of camera and video work, and about 250 miles, I figure--probably on an Enterprise rental car. Let's see....where else can we go Sunday to maximize that car?
"Con Brio" performs at 2:40, so we should be fine for arriving before then. So we will miss Sarah in Chanter, but see her in Con Brio.
We will not be making a late night out of it, but may hang around a little longer to see how things are going. I think they have a "top five" groups that perform later, and if Chanter or Con Brio make it, Sarah would perform again--but we'll likely miss that, since we wouldn't know if they were performing until we will probably be back in Birmingham.
Will be busy, a lot of camera and video work, and about 250 miles, I figure--probably on an Enterprise rental car. Let's see....where else can we go Sunday to maximize that car?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
It's Tuesday..time to plan for the weekend
That's sort of a misnomer. Planning would be something you do and stick to it. That's not often our modus operandi.
This weekend should be a "down" weekend for us. Neither Rachel nor Collin have a basketball game. Both are running in the kids version of the "Mercedes Marathon" Saturday morning and we're trying to work out the time (they are different for different ages, but they will allow you to switch times if you need).
Sarah is completing the 3rd and final "public competition" for show choir this weekend. Three weeks ago she was in Montgomery, and after a weekend off, was in Auburn last weekend. This weekend she's in Opelika. We were toying with the idea that we may skip it--rumor has it they may be competing as early as 8 a.m., and Opelika is a 2-hour drive--but she may be doing more with the mixed group than she normally does, and if so, we'd like to see it. So we're waiting on the schedule to be revealed (hopefully she'll know when she gets home today) to see if we can work it out.
Our ideal situation would be if they compete in the afternoon, so we could watch Collin and Rachel run and then go to Opelika. If Sarah has that "enhanced" role, at least I will go and tape it, but I've never seen the Mercedes Marathon, and hopefully can fit it all in.
Sunday should be a down day. That'll be nice.
This weekend should be a "down" weekend for us. Neither Rachel nor Collin have a basketball game. Both are running in the kids version of the "Mercedes Marathon" Saturday morning and we're trying to work out the time (they are different for different ages, but they will allow you to switch times if you need).
Sarah is completing the 3rd and final "public competition" for show choir this weekend. Three weeks ago she was in Montgomery, and after a weekend off, was in Auburn last weekend. This weekend she's in Opelika. We were toying with the idea that we may skip it--rumor has it they may be competing as early as 8 a.m., and Opelika is a 2-hour drive--but she may be doing more with the mixed group than she normally does, and if so, we'd like to see it. So we're waiting on the schedule to be revealed (hopefully she'll know when she gets home today) to see if we can work it out.
Our ideal situation would be if they compete in the afternoon, so we could watch Collin and Rachel run and then go to Opelika. If Sarah has that "enhanced" role, at least I will go and tape it, but I've never seen the Mercedes Marathon, and hopefully can fit it all in.
Sunday should be a down day. That'll be nice.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
A typical busy weekend...and thanks to Enterprise
Sitting here relaxing with a cup of coffee, watching Collin eat his cheerios and drink his chocolate milk I made, reading about the Kentucky Wildcats, and posting a couple of stories from my favorite UK writer, Larry Vaught doesn't sound like "busy." It's just the calm after/before the storm.
Everybody else at the house is still sleeping in, after we arrived back home around midnight last night. Yesterday Rachel had a basketball game at 11 a.m., and Sarah was competing in the Auburn Show Choir festival. Sarah's groups performed at 3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., so we had time to go to Rachel's game across town--or at least part of it.
Spoke to her coach and asked if we could take her out early. She said, "NO!," just kidding. So I told her we wouldn't leave unless we had a 10-point lead.
Rachel scored the first bucket of the game on a rebound and offensive putback--for being one of the shorter players, I'm always excited to see a rebound--and we were off. But the whole team was "off," and we struggled to a 9-4 halftime lead. So we stayed for the 3rd quarter. Rachel scored another basket in the 3rd quarter, and the team broke out of its funk to outscore their opponent 12-2 in the quarter, and we left as the 4th quarter began with us scoring again for a 23-6 lead.
We zipped down to Auburn in a little Chevy Aveo rental car from Enterprise. We have three older cars, and when we go out of town--almost always, surrounding a weekend--we get a rental car from the good people at Enterprise. Their 50% weekend rates are very good and hard to turn down for anybody, much less people with cars with odometers all in the 6 figures, as we have. For $15 a day for two days (picked it up Sat a.m. at 9 a.m.), it's hard to beat. Also figured we're getting well in excess of 30 mpg, which is probably close to double the mpg we'd be getting with the van, so our fuel costs are being cut in half.
Caitlin came down from Tuscaloosa for the weekend so she could go to the Festival as well, and visit with Auburn friends from high school. She spent the night in Auburn with a friend and will be coming back to B'ham today. Michael gave her a ride to B'ham, but we will take her back this afternoon--after Collin's 4:00 basketball game, and maybe after Rachel's 5:00 basketball practice. (Oh yeah--we'll be using the rental car again. Did I say we maximize the use of those cars? I'll put over 400 miles on it this weekend, all for $30. Better their cars than mine).
We had a good time at the Festival yesterday, but none of the OMHS show choirs placed, a very disappointing result. Last week we were in Montgomery at a larger competition--and the women's show choir finished 1st, the men's show choir finished 1st, and the mixed show choir finished 2nd. So you never know what judges are thinking.
Next week ends what I call their "spectator competition season," as they travel to Opelika for the Southern Showcase. After that, they will have some different types of regional/state competition that are during school hours, and not meant for spectators. Sarah has been an alternate this year with the mixed group--she does two of their five or six songs in competition--but next week she is supposed to do all six (of course, in addition to performing all the songs with the women's show choir). So if at all possible, we'll try to make it to Opelika next week, too. (Enterprise, keep a car back for me, willya?)
Off to get ready for church.
Everybody else at the house is still sleeping in, after we arrived back home around midnight last night. Yesterday Rachel had a basketball game at 11 a.m., and Sarah was competing in the Auburn Show Choir festival. Sarah's groups performed at 3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., so we had time to go to Rachel's game across town--or at least part of it.
Spoke to her coach and asked if we could take her out early. She said, "NO!," just kidding. So I told her we wouldn't leave unless we had a 10-point lead.
Rachel scored the first bucket of the game on a rebound and offensive putback--for being one of the shorter players, I'm always excited to see a rebound--and we were off. But the whole team was "off," and we struggled to a 9-4 halftime lead. So we stayed for the 3rd quarter. Rachel scored another basket in the 3rd quarter, and the team broke out of its funk to outscore their opponent 12-2 in the quarter, and we left as the 4th quarter began with us scoring again for a 23-6 lead.
We zipped down to Auburn in a little Chevy Aveo rental car from Enterprise. We have three older cars, and when we go out of town--almost always, surrounding a weekend--we get a rental car from the good people at Enterprise. Their 50% weekend rates are very good and hard to turn down for anybody, much less people with cars with odometers all in the 6 figures, as we have. For $15 a day for two days (picked it up Sat a.m. at 9 a.m.), it's hard to beat. Also figured we're getting well in excess of 30 mpg, which is probably close to double the mpg we'd be getting with the van, so our fuel costs are being cut in half.
Caitlin came down from Tuscaloosa for the weekend so she could go to the Festival as well, and visit with Auburn friends from high school. She spent the night in Auburn with a friend and will be coming back to B'ham today. Michael gave her a ride to B'ham, but we will take her back this afternoon--after Collin's 4:00 basketball game, and maybe after Rachel's 5:00 basketball practice. (Oh yeah--we'll be using the rental car again. Did I say we maximize the use of those cars? I'll put over 400 miles on it this weekend, all for $30. Better their cars than mine).
We had a good time at the Festival yesterday, but none of the OMHS show choirs placed, a very disappointing result. Last week we were in Montgomery at a larger competition--and the women's show choir finished 1st, the men's show choir finished 1st, and the mixed show choir finished 2nd. So you never know what judges are thinking.
Next week ends what I call their "spectator competition season," as they travel to Opelika for the Southern Showcase. After that, they will have some different types of regional/state competition that are during school hours, and not meant for spectators. Sarah has been an alternate this year with the mixed group--she does two of their five or six songs in competition--but next week she is supposed to do all six (of course, in addition to performing all the songs with the women's show choir). So if at all possible, we'll try to make it to Opelika next week, too. (Enterprise, keep a car back for me, willya?)
Off to get ready for church.
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