Hannah-JH One Acts/Ryan-1st Swim Meet

Here is Hannah in her role (which she played to perfection) as Ms. Kobe, a science teacher who enjoys listening to her students' excuses as to why they need extensions on their homework and then denying them extra time for their projects in the one-act play "Homework Eats Dog and Other Woeful Tales." She really did a great job. I realize the above is not the best picture, but I shouldn't have taken it in the first place (flash photography is a no-no during a performance). But, since she tries her hardest not to let me take photos (see examples below), I had to do what I could. She has an uncanny knack for knowing when I'm trying to sneak a picture and she'll raise her hand...or as she did at her last concert, duck behind her music stand. Proof:

OK, enough of that. Now moving on to Ryan...Ryan participated in his first swim meet today! I, sadly, have no photos of him as I forgot my camera, but as Glen and I helped with timing the heats today, I would not have had a chance to get a photo of him swimming anyway.

Glen and I and a friend I met in my old Saturday scrapbooking group, Anne, were the timers for one of the swim lanes. We didn't get to time Ryan, but we did get to time his cousin Brent once...when Brent was swimming in the 50 yard freestyle with Ryan in the next lane. Since this was Ryan's first meet, he didn't have a past time to compare it to, but the coach told him to try and get under 50 seconds and Ryan did it in 34...of course Brent, who used to be on the Fallon community swim team, the Barracudas, years ago, swam it in 28 seconds, I believe. But Ryan was pleased and so were we. The coach, Steve Davis, really emphasizes trying to beat your last time and not worrying about anyone else in the heat, so it makes it a fun activity without too much stress.

Glen and I were a bit nervous about being timers, but it was great. You watch the start strobe light/buzzer and hit the start button of your stopwatch when the light flashes. Then when the swimmer is coming in on their last length, you lean over the edge of the pool to get a clear view of the wall and you hit "stop" when you see them first make contact with the wall. They average the 3 scores from that lane and that is the official time for that swimmer or relay team.

Ryan doesn't have a meet next Saturday, but he does for the following 5 Saturdays in a row, and also one Friday afternoon. There's one more meet in Fallon on May 1st (and Glen will be in San Francisco with Eric for the choir singing the National Anthem at a Giants baseball game, so he won't be with me). The other meets are in Carson.

And, for those of you interested, Glen lost 2 pounds in the HS's Biggest Loser competition this week. He held steady for so many weeks, that this is really nice. He's lost a total of 14 pounds now.