Hale's on Fire Part III

Well the boy did it again. Last night was his playoff game. Single elimination - you lose, you go home. Elliott came out ready to play. They played the team they last beat (when his team only had 4 players on the floor versus their 5) but this time, both teams were at full strength. Elliott not only scored the first basket of the night, he scored the second as well, and 8 of the first 10 points for his team!!!! He had 5 rebounds and was the 'garbage man' - he went in for offensive rebounds and just did little put-backs for the scores! He shot 44% from the floor and really set the pace for his team. He was getting right into it - wrestling for rebounds and tying up the ball for jump balls (alternating possessions). The second quarter was a defensive battle and his team lead 14-10 at the half. Elliott had to sit out the third quarter and it was 28-24 at the beginning of the fourth. His team actually got behind by at least 2 points for a few seconds until they hit some key shots and went on to win 40-34!!! Now they are in the championship game Monday night.

Now on to the mundane:

After my interview on Monday, I was sick, sick, sick. Fever, chills, hot, cold, coughing, etc. Just miserable. Fortunately I had nowhere to go so I laid low and ate soup and hung out.

I managed to get my taxes done and found that not only did my old company put on my W-2 that they paid my state taxes to the state of NJ, they actually didn't pay any state taxes at all (on my deferred compensation money - separate from my regular salary). So now I owe DE $1,200 in state tax! After I get a corrected W-2. I called the tax department at my old job and they said the law doesn't require them to withhold so they don't. I guess that would be too considerate. At least they are consistent...

I have been spending a lot of time editing video either of Elliott's games, Ashleigh's play, or the cruise footage. I was aiming to cut the cruise footage down from a little over 2 hours to 1 hour but that is not going to work out. I have a lot of video of dodge ball games, rock wall climbing, driving in St. Maarten, etc. So I am trimming that down and it will probably be about an hour and a half long. But it is coming out fine and I am enjoying reliving the trip. Lots of laughs.

Elliott had one of the strap pins on his watch come out on the cruise. So I went MacGyver and used one of Katie's hair clips to get it back in. The band is thick rubber so it was some hard work. Earlier this week, the dang thing popped out again. We all took turns trying to fix it. Finally, Lucie dug out the receipt and we took it back to Kohl's. Two minutes later we had a brand new watch. Very good.

Verizon finally made it to our street to run the new FIOS. So yesterday they dug a big hole in the front yard and had a giant cable layer/pusher thing out there driving the cables underground along the street. They managed to break one of my driveway reflector thingys so they will replace that - which is good as that is the one Lucie broke and I had fixed it once.

I went to church and played basketball after Elliott's game last night. We had 10 out but I got there late so I didn't get to play a lot before people started leaving. But I played a little which was enough since I had been sick. I haven't been on the elliptical much since we got back.

Today is a snow day for the kids. First one of the winter. Very icy out. Lucie is not feeling well but made it to church to work on the annual budget report which will be presented this Monday night. Lots of PowerPoint stuff and tables. She hopes to just collect a lot of it and come home with her tea and do it from here. The roads are rough but it should warm up. I will hunker down and watch a Netflix movie we have had for a while (Resident Evil 3 - no judging please...) and work on the cruise DVD.

Finally, I hoped to hear about my interview results today but I think the bad weather is going to postpone that for the weekend. I am really excited about this and am ready to go!!