The Greatest Day in Sports

Ok - so today was the best day of sports that I can remember. Here was our day today:

Wake-up - rub eyes with Terrible Towel - get out of bed.

Get all 5 kids dressed in their Steeler's Gear.

Go to the Flea Market down the street where EVERYONE asks, "Are they ALL your kids?" Response: "Yes - one for each Ring - how many kids do you have?"

Come home & watch the Mets blow it on the computer while watching the Phillies win the division on the TV, completing the best comeback season I've ever seen (good thing we weren't wearing Pirate's clothes.)

Go to Grandma & Grandpap's house and watch the Steelers (lose).

Put kids to bed.

Blog while watching Roberto Clemente special on ESPN.

Watch the Eagle's Game.

Go to bed.

Next week - Divisional Series.

Letter of the Week - Ella

Dear Ella,

You were my angel today. While everyone was throwing fits because they didn't want to leave McDonald's playland, you just sat there - getting your shoes and socks on just like we had asked. In the whirlwind of raising five kids, I don't say it often enough, but you are incredibly special to me because I rarely have to ask you twice to do something. Usually we ask - and you do, which is wonderful! Mind you - you don't ALWAYS do what you are told, but at least you don't mess around if you don't want to do it, which I adore. I know that there are never any games with you and that you'll speak the truth about what you want. You shoot from the hip - just like your mother. You're as cute as can be and are constantly making me smile. Thank you for being the calm in the middle of our storm today (and everyday). I love you!

Love,
Daddy

Gear from 'da Burg.

We were going through the fall clothes from last year in an attempt to find some stuff that still fits the kids. Turns out they've grown a lot in the past year and hardly anything is gonna fit. Bummer...

We did strike (black &) gold, though. We found a bunch of old Steeler's Gear. It was pretty cool going through that stuff... If you are a Steeler Fan in the Drexel Hill area - PAY ATTENTION - there will be some significant Black & Gold to be sold at the MOM sale in October in the 18 to 24 month range. We did find ONE set of Steeler outfits that still fit the girls. They are the cheerleader uniforms that every team makes for the young girly fans - Anna & Ella will be wearing them every Sunday from now until January. For the boys - we have one Steeler's sweatshirt that used to be Sammy's and one Hines Ward jersey that used to be Sammy's so we'll be able to get through the season. We also found a Brian Dawkin's jersey that fits the boys... but somehow it found it's way into the "for sale" box... don't ask me how.

The Blame Game

The boys have learned how to blame each other for the bad stuff that they do. For example - when asked the question, "Who pulled out every single toy from the closet and dumped them all over the floor?" James' response will always be, "Robby." Likewise - Robby's response - "James." What to do? This is one of the quandries of having multiples. With one - we knew who to blame, it was only Sammy. I've tried interrogating them separately - attempting to have them turn on each other Law & Order style, but that doesn't seem to work with them. I guess Ice T is a much more intimidating figure than dear ol' Dad... who knew?

We don't leave them alone that often, but we do have to leave them on their own (occasionally) so that we can cook dinner, make lunch, unclog the potty, etc. The girl's are a good source of information but I don't want to turn them into NARCS or have them start blaming things on the boys because they have learned that it's okay to do that. They are definitely not as bad as the boys, but innocent - they are not. (I went into their room last night and Ella was in Anna's bed. We just moved the girls to big girl beds the other day).

The ripping out of toys, or the perpetual bad behavior doesn't bother me as much as the not telling the truth thing. Wow - I'm becoming a parent. Watching kids grow up is so much fun... even the bad stuff.

Whif...fle Ball

This kid is amazing! I wouldn't be able to touch his stuff...

5 ADDITIONAL Reasons Why I Hate the Yankees

I took the day on Saturday to travel north, with my father, to The Bronx and watched the Yankees play the Blue Jays. Mind you - I've never had any love for the Yankees. I hate them because they have the most money. I hate them because their fans are, generally, unintelligent and obnoxious. I hate them because they win year - after year - after year - after year - after year... while the Pirates lose year - after year - after year - after... you get the point. But my recent trip has given me five additional reasons to despise the Evil Empire. Those are:

1. The lack of signage outside the stadium. Approaching the stadium from the subway, you have no idea where to go. We had tickets that said enter at gate 4. Well - we came up to gate 2 and there were NO signs as to which way to travel to get to gate 4. It's as if the ONLY people that come to this ballpark are Yankee Fans and how dare anyone come to our building who doesn't know where to go. (Never mind the fact that they play in the biggest tourist destination on the planet). I was asked by, at least, five people where a specific gate was. Clearly, we weren't the only newcomers to the stadium. The occasional sign offering assistance would be helpful, Mr. Steinbrenner. Please understand that, not everyone mindlessly worships the Yankees and not everyone knows where they are going when they come to visit your historic stadium. We finally asked a security guard and he said that Gate 4 was all the way on the other side of the stadium, but that we could enter at Gate 2 if we wanted to. "Excuse me - but my ticket says, 'ENTER AT GATE 4?'" The security guards response, "Yeah - you don't have to pay attention to that." WHAT? Do I have to pay attention to the other stuff on my ticket... like where my seats are... or can I ignore that, too? Stupid.

2. Lack of signage inside the stadium directing me to my seats. Now - I'm a veteran of ballparks (and I've actually been to Yankee Stadium before) but the numbering scheme at Yankee Stadium is dumb. The even sections are on the 3B side and the odd on the 1st base side. That's wierd to me - but I'll accept it. What is wierd is that we had tickets in section 631, but the section directly behind us (higher seats) was section 15. HUH? Also - the signs were not very clear telling me to go down or up, so we mistakenly sat up in section 15 (before being shooed down to our real seats). When we were shooed to our seats (RowE, seats 13 & 14) we walked into row E and the seats went ...10, 11, 12... and stopped at 12. HUH? Well - the row behind Row E was ALSO row E and seats 13 and 14 were in that row. Dumb.

3. Now this isn't directly related to the Yankees, but because I experienced it during a trip to see the Yankees, I'll put it on them. NJ Transit really needs to work on how it gets the people from the track into the station and vice versa. Hundreds of people on the train from Trenton got off at NY PENN station and there was ONE escalator to get up into the actual station from the platform. After getting off the train, it took 20 minutes just to get from the platform into the station. The same thing happened on our way home when we were going from the station onto the platform. Ridiculous.

4. The weather was listed on ALL major websites and weather authorities labeled the weather forcast as "Partly Sunny". Well - the game was delayed by rain for 92 minutes and started at 2:30 instead of 1:05. Not only was the game delayed - I didn't see the sun all day - not even part of it. Couple that with the fact that the game lasted well over 5 hours, forcing us to leave early so that we didn't miss the last train of the day (in Trenton) to get back to Philadelphia. I blame Joe Torre. Yankees Suck.

5. We sat next to an obnoxious, racist, loud mouth student from The University of Pennsylvania on the train ride back from NY. I'm convinced that this girl is George's granddaughter or at least related to him in some distant way.

Ok - so only 2 of these things are directly controlled by the Yankees but it doesn't change my opinion of them. I still hate them. That being said - I'd sacrifice signs and clarity at PNC Park for a playoff appearance any day of the week. It goes to show you that fans will put up with ANYTHING if your team is winning. Signs - don't need 'em... rain - who cares... unneeded delays to get to the game - doesn't matter... WE ARE WINNERS! Maybe the Pirates should try that...

L-E-T-T-E-R-S to the kids.

I've been reading a lot of "Daddy" blogs recently and I have to say - I've been inspired! Something clicked in my head as I was reading some of these blogs which makes a lot of sense to me - BB&B will eventually be an archive of words and experiences and thoughts that my kids can read at an older age. Imagine that - at 18 years old, a door is opened into your past containing words, comments, and letters from your Dad for almost your entire existence. That seems pretty cool to me.

One particular post by Baby Daddy was particularly inspiring to me and has made me decide to add a weekly "Letter to the Kids" on Fridays. My plan is to write a letter to one of the kids each Friday. I'll plan to rotate kids, but I want this letter to be to a single child, rather than to the group. The individual time that I get to spend with each one is pretty important to me (and them), so I'd like to make this an individual thing, rather than a group thing. Anyway - here's the first letter...

Dear James,

You started school the other day, buddy! I'm so proud of you. You have no idea what it is like to come home from work and hear you talk about Mrs. Tomasetti and Mrs. Brown without me even asking. It's awesome! I'm extra proud of you because I see how much you love going to school, and how much you look forward to it since you've set foot in the classroom on the orientation day. Your little eyes light up like Christmas bulbs (the big ones, not the small ones) and your words move at a mile a minute when you talk about your first two days. Keep it up, man. School can be lots of fun but eventually it will become work, too. My advice - master the fun stuff 'cause it's not gonna last forever. Paint the bear, investigate the toy kitchen, kick the ball... there is always time for work later. I'm proud of you, kiddo! I love you.

Love,

Daddy

Even Kindergarten is Tough

I think Sammy's having a tough time with school. He's been complaining about his belly hurting for the past week and he's woken up in the middle of the night for the past three nights. This is extremely bizarre because he's always been that happy go lucky kid who loves everything and everyone around him. It's tough when you are a parent and you feel so helpless. I've felt helpless before with the kids (the first time I held them), but never to this extent. I wish there was something that this Wise Old Father could do or say that would snap him out of it but really - I'm just dumbfounded.

We have some ideas about why he may be upset, but we don't really know for sure. It may be the transition to Kindergarten, or because his best friend has gone to another school, but we tend to think that he is getting picked on by several of the kids in the class. He keeps talking about a couple of the kids in his class and how he doesn't like them. We have not told the teacher yet but that's probably the next step. Sometimes - Robby and James gang up on him at home and he has always had an issue with people pushing him around or putting him down (who doesn't?). He won't share what's going on at school with us, though, so we don't really know. We're also trying to NOT push him too hard to tell us in hopes that he'll open up on his own. Who knows the right approach...

I think that I feel so much more helpless this time because I sympathize with him so closely. I mean - I'm only one year removed from being sick every morning because I hated going to my job. My solution was simple - find another job... but he doesn't have that option. I remember being a kid and getting my ears flicked because they stuck so far out from my head. I remember how cruel kids can be at a very young age. I'm sure that there were kids that took more shit than I, but to this day I don't deal well with confrontation or with bullies.

It's sad to watch him go through this. Right now - all I can give is love. He's a strong kid and this to shall pass, I'm sure. I don't know what I would have done at 2 years old if, all of a sudden, I had 4 little brothers and sisters to deal with.

Fake Money

This football season I've decided to start betting on 4 or 5 games a week. Mind you - we have no money and we also have seven mouths to feed on a single salary... needless to say - I had to be responsible (and creative).

The plan: I came up with a spreadsheet showing all of the games for any given week, along with the point spread and the odds taken from www.covers.com. The spreadsheet calculates how much I win based on the fake money that I wager. I know... I know... this may seem pathetic to some - but for me it quells my competitive urges while guaranteeing that I keep food on the table for the wife and kids. See - when it comes to sports betting, I'm not motivated by $$, I'm motivated by being able to be more successful than my friend Bill (who I have convinced him to participate in this ridiculousness with me). Like every other fantasy sports endeavor that we embark upon, I'm bound to kick his ass.

We each started the season with a bankroll of $1000, and I'm trying, as best I can, to wager with this "money" as if it were real cash (although I was tempted to throw $500 on the Bengals (-6) in Week 2 over the Browns (-Frye) good thing I didn't do it). Week one I went 2-3 and lost about $30. Week 2 I went 2-2-1 and pretty much broke even. I have yet to have that big week, but this week is it... I'm sure. This week I'm taking the following 2 games as definite locks:

Detroit vs. Philadelphia (-6.5) at -110 odds:
I've had the opportunity to watch the Eagles for two games and their offense looks PATHETIC. The Eagles, again, have no legitimate WR threat. Everytime they throw to Curtis, he's covered like muslim woman. Their special teams suck and McNabb has clearly lost a step. The defense looks solid, but doesn't make up for what they lack on offense and special teams. Detroit has gone 2-0 and are looking really good in the first 2 weeks under offensive coordinator, Mike Martz. The Lions are looking to make a statement by coming into Philadelphia and winning against a "top" opponent. This is one of those games, I think, that the line is completely flipped if this game were to be played in week 14. Detroit 17, Iggles 10.

San Diego vs. Green Bay (+3.5) at -110 odds:
I'll take the home dog on this one. San Diego's offense has yet to get it going. Granted they've played the best two defenses in the league, but I think they are playing the 3rd best this week. Green Bay's defense has given up just 13 PPG after 2 weeks. San Diego is coming off of a short week as well and Philip Rivers can't seem to clear his head. Give me the Packers at Lambeau. Packers 24, Chargers 21.

I won't bother wasting your time with my picks from the past two weeks, but I'll post my results on Monday for this week's games. Please take pleasure in seeing how much I suck at this...

Falling Apart

Everything in our home is broken... no lie. A quick list of things that have broken within the past two weeks in the Morris home.

Car
*check (battery died)

Van
*check - (I backed into a sign.)

Video Camera
*check - (It fell off of the table)

Laptop
*check - (the . key has decided to unattach itself making the simplest websites impossible to get to)

Grill
*check - (for some reason (probably grease) the middle rack got A LOT hotter than the right or left and the knob melted off)

Toilet
*check - (it started running incessently and we had to replace the entire inside)

What really sucks is that NONE of this stuff is cheap. Why can't our $12 alarm clock break? Or why can't something that we NEVER use break - like the romba. I just don't get it. I'm starting to get nervous about taking the kids out of the house for fear they may come back with 9 fingers or something. Then again - all of these things broke IN our house, so perhaps getting them as far away from Mommy & Daddy as possible is the ideal thing to do.

1st Day of School

Another monumental day here at the Morris household. Today was the quads first day of nursery school. One moment from this morning
sticks out in my mind above all others. It's sad in a way... and every parent was guilty. The moment that sticks out was the moment when all of the children had gone into the school, hung up their coats and bags, migrated into the class room and sat down. At that point, the parents were forced to leave and go back out to the school yard... alone... not knowing what to do with themselves... I took a quick glance around to the other mom's and dad's and all of them had the same sad, longing for the past, look in their eyes. Perhaps they were thinking of their kid's first steps, or maybe when their little one said, "Daddy" for the first time. I'm not sure, but we all had the same look. It seemed to say, "Man - our kids have grown up. What do we do now?"

Don't get me wrong - this is a moment to be enjoyed by everyone but it also is a crossroads in our little one's lives. (It seems like we come across these crossroads on a weekly basis at this age, doesn't it?) Anna and Ella were visibly nervous as they ventured into Mrs. Tommasetti's classroom. Robby and James, as expected, just barged right in without an ounce of fear. But I think that Sammy had the toughest morning of all. He seemed to be pretty upset because school had always been HIS thing and now the quads were getting to share in this special aspect of life. It's ironic in a way - they always seem to find a way to take his stuff, and now they were taking this, too.

But have no fear - Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters - we will all get over this school thing and in 15 short years we'll be saying the same thing that we did today as we pack up to head for college. Where did the time go? Can you believe that they are so grown up? Do you remember that first day of school in Mrs. Tommasetti's classroom at St. Andrew's School? Savor these moments... every single one.

New Quadcast Episode - #10

I just uploaded a new episode of The Quadcast. If you have not listened recently, please check it out at www.quadcast.podshow.com - or you can listen at www.morrisquads.com.

I talk a little bit about it in the podcast, but this weather is awesome. Does anyone else feel like going outside and playing football? Sammy and I threw around the old "nerf skin" this weekend. Let me tell you - it was a blast. Then we went to Grandma & Grandpap's house to watch the Steelers play. It really took me back to the old days when I would go to Gram's house for football with my parents. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the Steelers, or maybe it's me watching Sammy grow up, I'm not really sure - but I had the best weekend that I can remember. It was actually the first time that we've gone outside and threw around a football. We've played baseball, but never football and he was a natural. You can tell he's from da 'burgh.

I'm not trying to jump forward or anything in saying this, but I can't wait for the quads to be old enough to come out and play with us. WE COULD PLAY AN ACTUAL GAME!! How awesome is that going to be??? I've joked about it since they were born, but I'm starting to see it be a legitimate possibility in the next year or so. That's gonna be SWEET!

Ok - Geana just got home and needs the laptop. Posting to this site is so much easier than updating our site for every blog.

Tomorrow... 1st day of school for the babies! EXCITING!!!

The Old Stuff

Here is a link to the old BB&B posts from the Morrisquads website. Bigger and better things are sure to come!

Welcome to my new home

I've decided to move my blog to this site in order to attempt to gain more traffic. We'll see if I'm successful. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of my old posts from the family website - but I may migrate them here as well. Stay tuned!