Friday, October 5, 2007

Gooooooooooooooooooooooal!

Jared has joined the Sarasota United Soccer League for his first official team sports experience. He's on the inspirationally named "Team Four" of the recreational league, and will be having a soccer game every weekend through mid-December. We're so excited he has this opportunity to play soccer, something he has wanted to do for the last three years. Go, Jared! Last week, we attended a fundraiser for the league, and Jeff videotaped the whole thing. He's now editing all that down into a two or three-minute promo film for the league, pro bono of course. Go, Jeff!

(As always, you can click on the picture to see it larger. Such a handsome team! And at least they didn't get the ugly uniforms. Some of them were, well, shudderable.)

Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Treeman Cometh


Well, we finally had to call the treeman to come and prune the yard when large chunks of our dead cedar started falling off and smashing into the roof. Whoops! In addition to that and massive trimming of all our trees, I'm sorry to say we also had to remove the large water oak growing right next to the house. The new treeman confirmed the message that another treeman gave me five years ago--it was doomed, and the fall of 35 feet of oak would crush the house, if not kill someone. So, we bit the bullet and had it taken out. Looking at the trunk sections, it's quite clear the treemen knew what they were talking about, as it seems to have suffered from something called "heart rot." The entire center of the trunk was black, icky and so soft you could spoon it out. It surely would have broken in any serious storm.

Still, dear funky deformed tree with the crazy crossing branches, I'm so sad we had to cut you down, and I'll miss you and your shading beauty terribly. I know the squirrels will miss you, too. Thank you for being a tree!