November 2006

What would you do with 1 Million Dollars?

A few weeks ago, the R.B.C. Centurion Bank held a essay contest at Southside Elementary School, and Natalie entered. The topic was, "If you had one million dollars, what would you do with it?" Here is what she wrote:

If you had one million dollars, what would you do with it? Well, I would donate some to the homeless and I would save some for when I go to college.

Donating money to the homeless is a great way to show your kindness, I'd buy clothes and gifts on Christmas for their families. Once when I went to summer camp, our camp leader had a surprise for us. He took us to a place where homeless people live. He told us to get any old shoes or new shoes and bring them in a bag. We gave shoes to the younger kids, the older kids, and the adults. We also bought some food and knocked on every door and we surprised them with some nice good food. We made them so happy they all hugged us. It feels so good to help the homeless!

When I have some money left, I'll save it for when I get older and get into a good college. I plan to go to Harvard or Princeton, but I know they're hard to get in, so I'm trying to work hard in all the schools I go to, to get straight A's which so far I'm successful with. When I get into college, I need to buy my books, pencils, and a backpack. I would also buy some of the latest technology, like the latest laptop. I plan to get a very suitable room for my roommate and I.

In conclusion I would like to say that giving money to the homeless and saving some money for college are the best choices to chose if I had one million dollars!

Natalie Hegwein Mrs. Howard's Class

Well, today, Natalie came home with the first prize, an Ipod Shuffle! Her entry was judged by Centurion Bank executives as best exemplifyng the concepts of savings, planned expediture, and charity. My only hope is that Natalie does make it to either Harvard or Princeton, and becomes...a banker!

Congratulations, Natalie!

Longhorns Team Photo...ATAWAYTOGO!

Thanks to a team dad, the 2006 Westfield Girls 5/6 grade Soccer Champs will live on!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

"Turkey Meet" redux

Dear Karl and Natalie!

Your Dad covered in illustrating detail the unusual happenings at the Turkey Meet last weekend. The facts were all well presented. Looking at the CIRCUMSTANCES however, are quite helpful in order to arrive at a fair picture of events.

Karl - you did very well in all disciplines and you can be very proud. If you would have been a race-car driver, you would have moved the starting blocks a few feet - so fast was your speed!

Natalie - we sympathize with you. Being still sick when approaching the meet caused you not to be in your usual top speed. Do not give up. Nobody is always in perfect shape at all times. Just think about Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, who are not always winning. The tennis star Maria Scharapova, on top of the list the last half year, fell unceremoniously to Hardenne. Consider your sport to climbing a steep mountain. Some stretches are just wonderful and you look at the beautiful flowers left and right. Then suddenly comes a long climb and you wish you would be in the valley eating ice cream. Just keep plugging away, like you did hitherto now, and in a short time, you will be back on top of the list. We still think that you did rather well among the many contestants. So, forget last weekend and march on.

Oma, Thomas and I admire your willpower to attend all training sessions so religiously. Your efforts will be paying off in due time. We all will see you Thanksgiving at the usual time.

Opa, Oma & Thomas. Nov. 21, MMVI...

2006 Sharks "Turkey" Meet Results!

If there was ever a time for everything to go wrong during a major swim meet, this was that time. It all began on Friday night; I was working the timing consoles when the scoreboard began to fail, displaying results at random across both pools (we were running two 8-lane pools at the same time). Then the starter/strobe gun on the boys pool failed, forcing us to go to double-manual stopwatches and manual computer entry. At the same time in the scoring computer room, all hell broke loose. The initial deck-seeded entries for the 400IM's, 1000 and 1650yd free's had become corrupted, and we lost all seed times. I worked with our computer scorer until 10pm, reentering seeds, manual times, and attempting to get out the scoring results to all the coaches. I left, hoping that everything would be fixed by Saturday, as we had 800 athletes scheduled for competition.

Arriving at 10am ahead of the kids, it was still somewhat chaotic, but at least the starter was back online, as was the scoreboard. The weather was pleasant; sunny and 70 degrees, but projected to drop to 50 by 6pm, the start of Finals. Natalie got things started with the 200IM, and the result was a 3:07.64, more than 8 seconds worse than her previous best. She looked and acted fine, but in reality was still in recovery from the flu. All of her swims were off. Needless to say, she was devastated and was not her usual spunky self the rest of the weekend. Even in relative sickness, she still placed 12th out of 52 in the 50 Breaststroke, and 16th out of 42 in the 100!

Over in the boys pool, Karl had an outstanding meet. He dropped significant time in all his events, particularly in the 200yd Free, where he shed 7.48sec to finish in 2:38.95, despite mis-counting laps and stopping for 5 sec at the 150yd mark! He made Finals in 4 events; the 50 and 100yd Breaststroke, 50 Back and 50 Fly, and finished in 6th, 6th, 4th and 8th place, respectively. He moved evermore closer to Junior Olympic time standards, within 2 seconds for all of the above!

Natalie in "Flight!"

You want "Flide Lice?" Ahhh, soooo!

All in all, it was an exhausting, stressful meet, and that is why we are skipping the next one in Gainsville; we need the rest!

The Westfield Longhorns Win!!

What a team. What a night. What a terrific game!

Last night at 8:30 PM in 45 degree weather, our Longhorn soccer team played under the lights in the final Westfield Girls 5/6 grade Championship soccer game.

In the 9 years I have coached girls soccer; I have never been in such and exciting game. Everyone on this team never gave up and each girl gave their best effort of the season. Being down a goal with just six minutes left, we keep pressure on the Panda's. After taking many shots on goal, we created a free goal kick. Emily took the shot, and the ball flew into the net. The game was tied. In the remaining minutes, everyone continued to play their best and forced a shoot out.

I will always remember the last few minutes of the shoot out. The pressure was on everyone. Michaela was our goalie. Megan, Brittany, Charlotte, Sarah and Emily were our shooters. All our shooters made terrific shots on goal. Charlotte and Emily blew their balls into the back net. The Panda's blew one shot in the back of our net. Then they missed the goal twice. With two shooters left Michaela played tough and made two great saves. It was over and we WON, 2 goals to 1.

I want to thank all the parents for their support. And I am especially grateful to Charlie, Jim and Chuck for their coaching help and support. It was truly a team effort. I want to thank every member of this team for your hard work and effort in being true champions. I know I will never forget these players and this great game. I hope you feel the same way.

One more time. ATTAWAYTOGO!

Coach John Cavanagh

The Decline of Germany...Its People

News from various reputable German papers have alerted us to the fact that the population of Germany is rapidly shrinking. Unfortunately, the trend can not be easily halted. They missed the bus! The average birthrate per female is a meager 1.4 children, whereas the rate should be at least 2.1 like in the USA and elsewhere. Germany is not alone in Europe with this low birthrate, but it has continued for the last thirty years. According to experts in these matters, Germany will sink to 70 mil by the year 2050, down from 82.4 in 2006. To make matters worse, many Germans are seeking their future elsewhere. On top of the official emigration list is Switzerland with 14,409, followed by the USA with 13,569, Austria 9,314, Poland 9,229, England 9,012, Spain 7,317, France 7,316, Canada 3,029, Italy 3,435, and the Netherlands 3,404.

Ironically, many English settle in "lovely Germany", particularly in - MUNICH! 96,000 are already settled there. Munich's High-Tech orientation attracts many Brits, besides the atmosphere, beer and Gemutlichkeit. I thought you needed to know that...

Opa.

Hunter's Birthday Party: Another View!

SIESTA KEY SITUATION ROOM - The absolute latest in NEWS!

One never experienced such a select crowd of family members and guests, and such an entertaining 90 minutes than at HUNTER KEATING'S First Birthday Party. The well-wishers competed fiercely in getting nearest to the birthday-child in order to view him up close and also get a superb photo shot. Hunter, the MAN IN THE CENTER, remained cool as befitting a host and only once allowed a sign of hunger when he attacked the official birthday cake with manly gusto. As could be expected, he showed total absorption in entertaining his guests. He payed particular attention to the youngest visitors and his eyes oscillated from Natalie (and later Karl) to the many appropriate gifts he received. Mother and Father outdid themselves with a nice spread of wholesome food and diet drinks. It certainly was a nice party and not soonforgotten.

While I am in the computer seat, a quick information about SLIDES. We have 3,900 slides, dating back to 1955, when Oma and I decided to get married in Stockholm. In nine cases are nice shots about everything from assorted births to landscapes, family birthdays, Christmas celebrations and many more absolutely fascinating pictures, captured at their precise moment by yours truly. The slide show ends in 1980. There are of course intriguing views of Peter, Thomas and Jennifer; and newly acquired family members, like Cynthia and Bobby. Karl and Natalie, besides Hunter, might be particularly interested in viewing the older generations...YOU ALL will be glad you viewed the 3,900 glimpses of the past.

Opa, Sunday morning.

Hunter Turns 1! Entire Neighborhood Celebrates!

Hunter Keating Byrne has turned 1! A large phalanx of party-animals, well-wishers, and hangers-on attended the big soirée at the Byrne abode, complete with barbecue, vegetarian quesadillas, and diet root beer! Hunter managed to con all the relatives into purchasing vitally needed gifts, such as an MP3 player, radio-controlled car, and piggy bank (empty???). Of course, no birthday celebration would be complete without the ubiquitous "Eat-Cake-With-Face" routine, and we are thrilled to report Hunter did so with aplomb. Later, Mom reported finding cake remnants and icing behind Hunter's ear, inside Bobby's computer, and on the cap of a bottle of beer...

Here is a picture of Hunter with his Mom and Dad!

Hunter's next adventure will be to the barber; perhaps a #3 at Supercuts?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNTER!

No Weather

The White House announced today that there will be NO WEATHER between November 7 and Thanksgiving. Since the President recently claimed all air space above our heads and around the world for the United States due to our long history of exploring space, it became obvious that a closer examination of the vast field is necessary. During the above indicated time slot, NASA will conduct extensive maneouvres among the blinking stars to gather more data in case of visits by European nations and Russia. These nations revealed that they too will seek some space in space.

Herr Bush does not believe that Angela Merkel (CDU) will dispatch some Wernher von Braun designed V-1 & V-2 missiles, as was done on June 13, 1944, equipped with a 1,870 pound and 2,000 pound payload, respectively. American weather forecasters will be meeting next week in Washington to discuss any further disruptions in WEATHER.

Opa.