HCASC is over, but the work is not done.

Don't let that smile fool you. Although things went very smoothly this year, I was working until nearly 1am every single day I was here, including last night. I'm only smiling in this picture because I was happy to get one last chance for a picture with outgoing Honda exec, Eric Conn.

As it always is with the complicated setup we have, we spent many hours last night working on the show computer to make it do what was needed. My program sends images to the fronts of the desks on stage, and it would be very embarassing for it to fail in the middle of game play, in essence, stopping the game in its tracks. This year, everything went well and worked as expected. Even our audio-visual questions, a source of annual angst, played without problems and really added to the look and feel of these final games.

The winner this year was Oakwood University, a Seventh-Day Adventist school in Huntsville, Alabama. Because of their religious observance of the Sabbath, we change the schedule in their division to allow them to play all 7 of their round-robin games on Friday. They swept all 7 games to win their division, but we had to wait until 8pm Saturday night to play their playoff games. This put me a little behind on my setup for final games, which is one more reason I'm short on sleep.

Just a few more things to do here before I'm done, but no rest for the weary; My ride for the airport leaves tomorrow morning at 5:00am. The sooner I leave, the sooner I get home to rest in my own bed.

Ready to begin

It's Friday morning here in Orlando, and today is arrival day for our participants. We have a crew of 30 people at the airport waiting to greet the almost 400 people arriving from the 64 colleges across the U.S. It will be an exciting day as the hotel fills up with our guests, over half of whom have never attended this event.



Yesterday was volunteer arrival day. Our 70 volunteers are like a family, with many of them having worked this event for 19 years, going back to its inception. Arrival day is a day of hugs, introductions and catching up on the news since we all saw each other last year.



I conducted my training class for the scorekeepers who will be using my program to score the matches in each of the 8 gamerooms. Although 7 of the 8 scorekeepers have worked this job in previous years, there is always some nervousness about not messing it all up; This is something that they do 2 days each year, so it's almost like learning it all over again each year.


In the evening we had our volunteer orientation meeting, followed by the volunteer dinner. This is the last chance for old friends to relax and catch up before the work starts in earnest the next day.

At dinner I sat with Mary Oberembt and Eric Conn. Mary is the producer of this event and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Her creative and organizational skills are unmatched, and this event runs mostly on the brute force of her determination. Eric was the Honda executive who helped to create, oversee and protect the Honda Campus All Star Challenge from its creation to present day. Now, after 19 years Eric has retired and passed the reins to new (and unknown) hands. Eric has much love for this annual event, and has requested to attend in future years as a volunteer. Maybe next year, he'll be among our volunteers on airport duty on arrival day!

Honda Campus All Star Challenge, Day 1

Made it to Orlando with only a few minor adventures along the way. To start, I was stopped by TSA security at LAX when they found the jar of green olives I was carrying in my backpack. I was worried that if I had packed it in my checked suitcase that it would break for sure and all of my clothes would smell like olives, so I brought it in my carry-on instead. Of course, I forgot that you can't bring containers with over 3 1/2 ounces of liquid on the plane. I was ready to drain the liquid from the jar when I mentioned to the TSA officer that the olives were a healthy snack for me because of my diabetes. "You have diabetes?", she asked. "Oh, why didn't you tell me? That changes everything!" A quick visit with her supervisor and my olives and I were passed through security without any further delay.

Unfortunately, I did have futher delay in Las Vegas waiting for my connecting flight. We were delayed 2 1/2 hours while we watched 2 mechanics climb up into the left engine of our plane and bash about for awhile. I finally arrived at my hotel at around 10:30pm, and after a late dinner I worked until about 2:30am.

Today I am setting up the 9 laptops that we will be using for scoring the matches in the game rooms. Still lots of work to do to get everything ready, and as I write this, I'm 24 hours away from conducting my training class for the volunteer scorekeepers. Better get back to work . . . .

Easter

The Easter Bunny arrived right on time, and brought wonderful weather with him.

After breakfasting on strawberry waffles the boys were ready to search the backyard for over 50 eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden. Some of the eggs were even high in the trees, but no eggs went uncollected after Brodie and Nik ran laps around our yard before finding them all.


You may notice in the photo of the boys that Brodie looks a little the worse for wear. Friday morning he lost a tooth, and then Friday afternoon at TaeKwonDo he took a punch to his eye. So now he sports a classic shiner and a big gapped-tooth grin. But as he puts it, "You should see the other guy!"

I'm off for Orlando tomorrow before sunrise, and I hope this trip goes well. I've got about a day and a half less time there than normal, but still the same amount of work. Sounds like a good recipe for stress.

On the road to Orlando

It's just about time for my annual trip to Orlando for the Honda Campus All Star Challenge. This is a annual academic tournament held for the nation's historically black colleges and universities, and Honda flies 64 teams of 5 players plus their coach to the Hilton at the Walt Disney World resort. Many of the Universities' presidents also attend this event, as well as VIPs from Honda and the community.

The event is staffed by a group of about 60 volunteers from around the country who give up this week each year to come work this event. Although they're not paid, there are plenty of perks. The food and entertainment are first-class, and most of this group has been working this event for more than 15 years. It's the one time each year many of these people get to see their old friends.

Although it's a busy week for me, I'll try to make time to post daily while I'm there.

Spring has arrived!

It seems like it has been a long, cold, wet winter, but Marion reminds me that we didn't even turn on our furnace this year until almost Thanksgiving. It seems like we had weeks and weeks of rain and unending cold, but we live in Southern California; how bad can it be?

After the annual rain that we get on February 19th, Brodie's birthday, it has started to gradually warm. These last two weekends have actually been very nice. Last weekend we went hiking at Point Mugu with our friends Rachel and Robert Harrington and their son Jacob. It was supposed to be a simple 1 1/2 hour hike, but the weather was so nice that we just kept on going, and before you knew it we had gone 6 miles and spent 4 hours on the trail. All of the kids, including four-year-old Nik did great and there was no complaints from anyone. Marion and I came home sunburned and ready for a nap.

This weekend all of our fruit trees are starting to bloom. In order, the pictures are of peach blossoms, apricot blossoms and plum blossoms. The pink peach blossoms are the most beautiful, but I'm jealously watching every bloom on the apricot tree, hoping for a huge crop of fruit again this year. I don't know what those things are they sell in the store that look like apricots but taste like glue, but they can't stand-up against the intense, sweet flavor of ripe apricots fresh off of our tree.

A visit from Carol

Marion's former boss at Community Memorial Hospital (and our good friend, too) came to visit us from New Hampshire, and she brought along her daughter Marielle and Marielle's eight month old son, Ezra.

As you might imagine, Brodie and Nik are wildly excited about having a baby in the house, and they have been kept busy bringing all of their favorite toys to Ezra to see if he's entertained by them. To be honest, Marion and I enjoy having a baby in the house again, too. Eight months is such a wonderful age, and Ezra is a very happy baby to start.

Carol is using our house as a home base from which she can travel to visit friends in Ojai, Ventura and other surrounding areas. We're happy to have her stay with us as long as she likes, as she's almost like family to us. Over the years we have shared many a Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas with her family.