2012 Seattle Seahawks Draft Rating

Here's what a few national columnists said about Seattle's 2012 NFL draft class: 

2012 NFL Draft Grades: Full Draft Results Report Card 
By Matt Miller , NFL Draft Lead Writer 
Apr 28, 2012 

 Draft Picks Round 1: DE/OLB Bruce Irvin (West Virginia) 
 Round 2: ILB Bobby Wagner (Utah State) 
 Round 3: QB Russell Wilson (Wisconsin) 
 Round 4: RB Robert Turbin (Utah State), DT Jaye Howard (Florida) 
 Round 5: ILB Korey Toomer (Idaho) Round 
6: CB Jeremy Lane (Northwestern State), DB Winston Guy (Kentucky) Round 
7: DE J.R. Sweezy (North Carolina State), DE Greg Scruggs (Louisville) 

Grade: D Summary 
The Seahawks received our lowest Round 1 grade for their reach to grab Bruce Irvin at No. 15 overall. They messed up again in Round 3 with Russell Wilson after having signed Matt Flynn this offseason. Neither pick makes much sense to us. Bobby Wagner and Robert Turbin saved the Seattle draft, but two of its first three picks were just bad. 

And here's another....

Ranking NFL teams' 2012 drafts 1-32

By Nate Davis, USA TODAY

Updated 4/30/2012 11:08 AM

26. Seattle Seahawks: GM John Schneider has made an early living mining gold in the mid-to-late rounds and free agency, and his choice of RB Robert Turbin in Round 4 looks like a score. Yet Schneider's first three picks — Round 1 DE Bruce Irvin, Round 2 LB Bobby Wagner and Round QB Russell Wilson — have exposed him to immediate criticism .

And yet another...

2012 NFC draft grades: Defensive-minded Eagles, Packers earn high marks

 

By Jason ColeApril 30, 2012 2:21 AMYahoo Sports

Seattle Seahawks
Picks: OLB Bruce Irvin, ILB Bobby Wagner, QB Russell Wilson, RB Robert Turbin, DT Jaye Howard, LB Korey Toomer, CB Jeremy Lane, SS Winston Guy Jr., DT J.R. Sweezy, DE Greg Scruggs
Grade: D-
Analysis: I have a great deal of respect for the work of John Schneider, but I don't understand this draft. Of eight teams (five of which drafted after the Seahawks) that were surveyed, none graded Irvin as a first-round pick. Yes, he has talent, and he could become great. He also might be a guy who burns out in two years because there are plenty of people who question his dedication. After that, the Seahawks spent a third-round pick on Wilson even though the history of QBs under 6-foot is poor, to say the least. You don't spend a third-round pick on a guy who'll be lucky to be Seneca Wallace. You also don't do that after signing Matt Flynn as a free agent. The Seahawks are no closer to solving the QB situation now than they were before 2011.

Shall I continue to pile on?????

NFL draft grades: Bengals, Cowboys immediate winners

PUBLISHED Saturday, Apr 28, 2012 at 10:52 pm EDT

Vinnie Iyer Sporting News

Seattle Seahawks (D)
Key picks: DE Bruce Irvin, ILB Bobby Wagner.

They went for defensive head-scratchers when more reliable prospects were on the board.

I especially like this next one because it refers to "hardly mindboggling as Mel Kiper's (ESPN's self professed draft expert) hair has claimed."

EVAN SILVA

NFL DRAFT GRADES

  Select Another Column  Draft 2013: AFC Draft Grades  Draft 2013: NFC Draft Grades  Draft 2012: NFC Grades  Draft 2012: AFC Grades  AFC Draft Grades  Team Needs & Roster Rankings  Matchups: Why Seattle Will Win  Silva's Post-Season Top 200  Cut & Restructure Candidates  Conference Title Week Matchups 

  

Draft 2012: NFC Grades

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Grade: C+

Seattle Seahawks

15. Bruce Irvin, defensive end, West Virginia.
47. Bobby Wagner, linebacker, Utah State.
75. Russell Wilson, quarterback, Wisconsin.
106. Robert Turbin, running back, Utah State.
114. Jaye Howard, defensive tackle, Florida.
154. Korey Toomer, linebacker, Idaho.
172. Jeremy Lane, cornerback, Northwestern State.
181. Winston Guy, safety, Kentucky.
225. J.R. Sweezy, guard, N.C. State.
232. Greg Scruggs, defensive end, Louisville.

Overview: It's popular to pan the Seahawks' draft. While we're not giving them an "A," the 2012 Seattle picks are largely understandable and hardly "mindboggling" as Mel Kiper's hair has claimed. No. 15 is early for a situational pass rusher, but no defender in this class has a quicker first step than Irvin. Wagner is a thumper and addresses a need. Wilson is going to make Tarvaris Jackson expendable. Turbin adds physicality to a backfield lacking it behind Marshawn Lynch. Howard, Toomer, and Guy can be year-one role players. Lane, Sweezy, and Scruggs are under-the-radar picks. Realistically, the Seahawks didn't overdraft anyone on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and they consistently kept in mind need. It's a better group than people are saying. 

Now we know why these Seahawks continue to play with a chip on their shoulders...

The following is an article summarizing grades from a wide variety of pundits.  Out of 32 teams, the Seahawks got the 30th ranked grading when looking at all the grades.  I'm guessing that many of these experts would be asking for a "re-do" now.

02 May 2012

2012 NFL Draft Report Card Report

Guest column by Mike Ridley

Is there anything more enjoyable than assessing the folly of kneejerk reactions? The NFL draft concluded less than a week ago, yet the internet is already filled with draft report cards. As per tradition atFootball Outsiders, we’ve gathered data from the most prestigious of those who dare to judge so quickly (Previous NFL Draft Report Card Reports may be viewed by clicking here: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008,2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004.). We’ve compiled and analyzed this data to find out who passed (and failed) the eye test of those analysts, who will undoubtedly issue re-writes of their draft grades in the spring of 2015.

For those looking for what Football Outsiders has to say about the draft, check back sometime in March, 2018. We believe that to accurately judge a draft class, six years of data needs to be in to assess things properly. To paraphrase Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, issuing verdicts this early would be like handing out grades on the first day of class.

This year, we pulled the grades from nine NFL writers and draft analysts:

• Mel Kiper, ESPN Insider
• Rob Rang, NFLDraftScout.com (AFC) & (NFC)
• Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
• Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News
• John Czarnecki, Fox Sports
• Chris Wessling and Evan Silva, RotoWorld (AFC) & (NFC)
• Chris Burke, Sports Illustrated
• Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports (AFC) & (NFC)
• Nate Davis, USA Today

Note that for Nate Davis’ "report card," he actually ranked the teams 1-32 rather than assigning letter grades (A, B, C, etc). To turn these rankings into letter grades for our exercise, I found the average of the eight other analysts total grades (approximately a "B-"), then found out what grades would make this average (10 of every grade "A+" through "D+" and two "D" grades), then assigned them to Davis’ rankings. Is this an imperfect science? Yes, but it should work for what we’re trying to accomplish.

30. Seattle Seahawks
GPA: 1.89
Highest Grade: B (Czarnecki)
Lowest Grade: D- (Cole)
Comments: Although referring to the picks as shockers, Czarnecki didn’t have a problem with the Bruce Irvin/Bobby Wagner/Russell Wilson trifecta, as he sees talent in all of them. Cole was much less optimistic about Irvin and Wilson. He thinks Irvin, although having vast potential, is too much of a risk and was reached for too high in the draft, noting that several GMs didn’t have a first-round grade on him. As for Wilson, he essentially said he’ll be lucky to be Seneca Wallace. Enough said.

The Ultimate "Cube-y" Photo Bomb!

While Bill Walton continues to talk some inane nonsense (probably) - I wasn't paying attention - Cal fan solves Rubik's cube in near record time.

Seahawks - Super Bowl Champions!!!!!

What a great weekend! The Cal Bears knock off the number ranked Arizona Wildcats men's basketball team and we are there to witness the game on Saturday. Then in the main event, the Seahawks run off with the Super Bowl. Of course, championships to Seattle fan are a new shiny toy. Do we run? Do we stop and wait for the WALK sign? Check out this video.



Although Malcolm Smith (7th round draft pick out of USC in 2011) won the MVP award, my MVP from the defensive side of the ball would've been Kam Chancellor (5th round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2010), he of the vicious intimidating hits throughout the game. I think his hits and play set the tone for the game and caused Denver to look shell shocked. If I were going to pick an offensive player for the MVP award, I would've gone with Russell Wilson or Percy Harvin.

 Seahawks  43 
 Broncos     8

Finally, I got out my old Seahawks cap that I wore when I was in high school. Here is Ethan wearing the well-worn cap.

Finally, a tip of the old cap has to go to the 12th Man, aka Seahawk Fan. Who would've thought that the noise at MetLife Stadium (a supposedly neutral site) would've caused a miscue only 12 seconds into the game - turnover leading to a safety for the Seahawks. The Broncos were not prepared for the noise at the game.  That initial miscue set the stage for the remainder of the game - the Broncos would not recover and the Seahawks' star would continue to rise.

Ethan, Happy Birthday and Go Bears!!

Ethan landed a sweet, late addition to his birthday gifts. Not only did he get to have six of his best friends over Friday night for a sleepover game night, he was also able to attend the history making Cal Bears game against the top ranked Arizona Wildcats that unfolded as a toe-to-toe basketball slugfest from beginning to end.

Arriving at the game, we found yellow T-shirts at our seats so we put them on and happily ate our sandwiches from Bongo Burger (a Berkeley institution for many Cal students that deserves a bow on the Food Networks' "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show if not a higher level of recognition) and waited for the start of the game. Sightings at the game included Lute Olson (former Arizona coach and all-time Pac-12 winningest coach), the Pac-12 broadcast crew including Dan Belluomini (a familiar voice to die-hard Cal basketball fans), a stadium fully festooned in yellow with T-shirts at all seats in the Haas, Cal Bears jacked-up in warm-ups with Bears trying all kinds of crazy dunks, and although not spotted by us, others in attendance included Bob Melvin (former Cal Bear and current Oakland A's manager) and over 20 scouts from 14 NBA teams. The atmosphere was electric, quite appropriate for a Super Bowl weekend.

The game did not disappoint as the Cal and Arizona sections (yes, Arizona fans travel well and they were at the Haas in large number) went back and forth with full-throat cheers, jeers, chants and yelling. As soon as chants of "U of A" would go up, they would get swallowed up by chants of "Cal-i-fornia" or "Go Bears." And so the night would go on in this manner over the top of a well-played game.

At the time of the game, we did not realize how much the Bears relied on one player: Justin Cobbs. He apparently scored the final 12 points of the game for the Bears: with game at 48-42 Bears, Cobbs makes two free throws; with the game at 50-48 Bears, Cobbs makes two free throws again; with the score 52-50 Bears, Cobbs scores on a lay-up; with score 54-56 Arizona, Cobbs makes a jumper; with the sore 56-58 Arizona, Cobbs makes another pair on a one-and-one; and finally with the score netted at 58, Cobbs hits the game winner with 0.9 left on the clock to all but decide the game.

The end of the game was really chaotic. The student section stormed the court twice. The first time was when we all thought the game was over, but the refs apparently wanted to check to see if there was time left on the clock so they had stopped the game. Coach Montgomery had to take the court to try to help escort a few hundred delirious Cal fans off the court. Not an easy task, but somehow order was restored. After the video review, they put 0.9 seconds back on the clock and Arizona ran one final futile play after both sides were able to adjust and prepare for the play. Then the students got to storm the court for real. We stayed to soak up the atmosphere for a little bit. It was crazy. Richard Solomon was still walking around with the game ball in his mitts as if he were Smeagal clutching the ring.

The game was history making not because of what the announcer said at the end of the game: first time for a Cal team to knock off a number one ranked team. This actually was incorrect. This was the first time for a Cal team to knock off a number one ranked team at home at Haas. Cal has done this twice before. >br />
Here's Ethan at the game.

What's not to like about the usual serious Coach Monty doing the "Nae Nae." Check out the end of the video below. Although it's not easy to see the coach, you can see him in the middle of the Bears' mosh pit with arms flailing doing his version of the "Nae Nae."

One More Week...

Sequoia Middle School Jazz Band

Here's the other song that the band played. it's kind of hard to see Ethan but he plays first trumpet.

Sequoia Middle School Jazz Band

This is one of the two songs that the band that Ethan is in played at a recent concert. You have to click on the logo below to go to YouTube to see the video.

You Just Never Know...

The following are some interesting facts about Russell Wilson being drafted by the Seahawks in 2012:

Here's a quote from a talking head expert on NFL.com about Seattle's third round pick Russell Wilson: Mayock's take: "I can't tell you how much I like this kid. ... Not only can he be a competent backup and change-of-pace quarterback, but I think someday he can be a starting-quality player." Little did they know that Wilson would become the first quarterback from the highly touted 2012 crop of QBs that included Andrew Luck of Stanford to play his way to a Super Bowl in only his second year in the NFL.

Russell Wilson is taken in the third round as the 6th QB taken following Luck taken by the Colts at 1(1), Griffin III taken by the Redskins at 1(2), Tannehill by the Dolphins at 1(8), Weeden by the Browns at 1(22), and Osweiler by the Broncos at 2(25). Except perhaps the Colts selection of Luck with the overall number one pick, the other teams probably would take Wilson if they were able to redraft.

Russell Wilson is the 8th ranked QB in the class after the above five QBs and also Cousins and Noles who would be drafted after Wilson.

Wilson is the 75th player drafted in the entire draft. Even the Seahawks take Wilson as their third player.

Wilson finishes up his college career at the University of Wisconsin. The home state Packers have three chances to take Wilson before he is snagged in the third round by the 'Hawks, but fail to do so.

The knock against him is that he is too short to play QB in the NFL, measuring out at "only" 5'11" in height. Of the 74 picks before him, only 9 are shorter than his listed height. Of the 11 QBs drafted in the entire draft, the next shortest QB is 6'2."



Often, you can learn about a person, by learning about the other person in that person's life. Salted caramels, a little more refined than Skittles?

Can't Hold the Seahawks Back

Two Seattle originals...Macklemore and the Seahawks...

Go 'Hawks!

Is this the year for Seattle? Seattle that lovable loser has done nothing in terms of sports championships since 1979. Okay, so maybe the record is not as futile as that of the ultimate lovable loser in sports, the Cubs, but it's just as painful especially if you consider Seattle's recent history.

That team that last brought a major sport championship to the Sound, the Supersonics, left town in a very inglorious manner that has made David Stern, the outgoing NBA commissioner, public enemy number one for most Seattle-ites. At Red Mill Burgers, a well-known Seattle burger joint that has been voted best burgers in Seattle for 10 years running and has been cited in GQ magazine and on the Oprah Show, there's even a Wanted Poster with a photo of David Stern.

In addition, the original MLB team brought to Seattle back in 1969, the Seattle Pilots, lasted all of one solitary season before being bought by a group headed by Bud Selig, the current MLB Commissioner. Luckily, Seattle has been able to get a new MLB team since, the Mariners, although this team too has not had much success on the field. The team holds the record for the MLB to win the most number of games during the regular season and not win the World Series.

So we now have the Seahawks going to their second Super Bowl and possibly their first championship in their history. So hope reigns.

2013-14 Christmas and New Years Slide Show

Here's a slide show of our Christmas and New Year's.

Highlights include: kids learning to play pinochle, lots of great food, salmon and chips, trip to Snoqualmie Falls, trip to Bainbridge Island to visit good friends, white elephant gift exchange (steals?), funny eyes glasses (who ended up with these?), Diane getting her first digital camera (welcome to the 21st century!), ziplining at at Seattle public park, visiting other parks, ozouni on New Year's Day, shirogumi winning again ( think that the odds are stacked against akagumi), Space Needle fireworks at the stroke of midnight on 12/31/13, and finally spending quality time with family and friends.

Lose Yourself to Dance

Family Photo 2013

Last Day of 2013

We are down to the last day of 2013.  It is a Tuesday.  We will get to try my mom's ozouni tomorrow.  Ozouni is Japanese New Year's mochi soup.  It usually has vegetables like spinach.  Sometimes oyster too.

This was a light blogging year.  Not enough time for blogging and our "family" joined the legions of Facebookers last year.

So what did we learn in 2013.  Ryan loves to shop.  We always knew this, but what little kid likes to go check out antique shops?  His latest find was a Bedford Falls train set from 1994.  Not quite an antique, but well used.

Ethan likes to wear hats.  We always knew this too, but what young boy will wear top hats in this day and age?  He has baseball caps and a plaid pattern fedora as well.

Naomi like to sleep in whenever she can.  We knew this, but she's taken sleeping in to new heights.  Maybe it's because we told her that you do your best growing when sleeping.

Tomorrow is a new year.  A fresh start for new experiences and adventures.  I wonder what we will learn or confirm in 2014?

John's Birthday Today...

Happy birthday John.  You didn't miss much this year with football. Basketball is going a little better but the competition will be greater than last year. Bay Bridge new span opened this year and your Mustang was one of the first to make the crossing.

Christmas 2013

Here are a few sights from Christmas this year.  Had a clear flight to Seattle that offered spectacular views of all the peaks. Ryan scored a train set after Christmas and captured it in a picture frame with Uncle Tatsu. On the way to a geocache, we came across two sets of Four Daughters.  What would be a family gathering without electronic devices. How about a family photo?  Of course, there was plenty of food. The highlight of the white elephant gift exchange was the giant Snickers bar opened by Ojiichan.

Lack of Recent Posts

Although we have not had too many recent posts here, you can check us out at the site for our cub scout pack:  Pack 380

From Vet Visit to Flight Day to Festival

The day in the life for our family for today, August 10.

The day started with a vet visit for our Hazel.  Hazel is cured for now was the good news!  Now we need to decide if we will get a friend for her.

Next, Ryan attend flight day with scouts at the Martinez Marina.  We've attended this in the past and getting out kite to reach for the skies has always been a challenge, but today the winds were with us.  That's Ryan below with his kite flying high!

Then this evening we went to the Diablo Japanese American Summer Festival to take in the sounds of San Jose Taiko, play games, and most importantly eat.

Look It's a Bass Player!

Mumford & Sons at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. Looks like an incredible concert venue.

So Long Opal and Ninja Warriors

We dropped off Opal the Octopus and the Ninja Warriors (referred to in the world of geocaching as travel bugs) that we picked up at the Geocaching.com headquarters in Seattle.  Happy travels to the two!

The place where we dropped the two off is the oldest continuous cache in San Francisco.   It's located in a community garden in Fort Mason.

Although you wouldn't know if from the picture, it was a typical breezy, cool day in the city.  Check out the next picture of our drive in.  The fog was already pouring into the Bay.

Here's where we placed the two travel bugs.  It was a metal can right in the community garden.

After this we headed to Japantown for some food and browsing in the Kinokuniya bookstore.  By the time that we were headed home, fog had reached the Oakland hills.

When I'm Gone...

This is a fitting song for what we learned today. We learned that Ryan has a spot at Sequoia Elementary School this fall that we are going to take. It will be sad to be leaving the only elementary school that we have known, but this is the best situation for us.

It may both help and make more difficult our commute at the same time. The school is right next to the middle school that Ethan attends so we're thinking that both will be picked up together, but since he will be new at the school we are probably going to be driving him to the school on his own at least at the beginning. We'll play it by ear and see what happens.
 

Ethan Returns from Camp Chawanakee

Seems that Camp Chawanakee was a resounding good time once again.  The scouts returned to the Scout Shack at about 2pm following a drive that started some time before 9am and included a 45-minute stop for lunch along the way.  It was difficult to tell if the scouts had gotten slightly tanned (the camp is at about one mile in elevation on the shores of Shaver Lake with day time temperatures this time of the year in the 80s) or if it was just a layer of what is affectionately called Chawanadust.

A main way in which the troops at camp get recognized for their overall performance at camp is at evening flags where what is called the "thumbstick" is awarded to the best troops in camp.  The troops are recognized for a long list of accomplishments such as: how the camp site is arranged, neatness of the tents, cleanliness of the camp site, presentation of important information on the camp site bulletin board, the gadgets that have been added to improve the camp site (such improvements have included a four-hole golf course, archway into the site, a compass rose, an equipment rack, a wash basin, a medic station, a towel rack, and a weather rock to name a few items), and overall scout spirit (behavior of the scouts, quietness after taps, cooperation, etc.).  Each day of camp, one troop from each the groups of troops is awarded the thumbstick for that group and is required to do something to improve the thumbstick.  One the last day of camp, an overall winner is announced for each group and that troop is able to retain permanent possession of the thumbstick and take it home with them.  Last year, we were one of the thumbstick winners.  You can see last year's thumbstick below.

I don't have a picture of this year's thumbstick just yet, but they were winners again this year.  It's a little bit larger and pink - covered in pink duct tape!

This year, not only are they thumbstick winners, but they won the Spirit Arrow given to the top overall troop for the entire camp.  This is camp that has as many as 20 or more boy scout troops from all over California, some as far away as San Diego.  So winning the Spirit Arrow is a significant achievement.  Below is a photo of the score sheet from the middle of the week.

In the score sheet, you can see that a perfect score each day would be 100, but the commissioner responsible for inspecting the camp site and monitoring the behavior of the troops has the ability to award extra points to troops that go beyond the usual level.  In the above sheet, you can see where Ethan's troop got scores significantly above 100 for three of the days.  Ethan says that on Friday they got a score of 165.  I guess this is like acing your AP classes and having a GPA higher than 4.0.

The other significant aspect of this achievement is that they did this with a larger troop size than what our troop usually has at Chawanakee.  There are pluses and minuses with the larger troop size.  A larger troop size means that the troop can accomplish more things but a larger troop size also means that there are more items that need to be kept in order.  Two years ago there were something like 8 scouts that attended camp, last year there were 12 scouts and this year the count was up to 22.  See below for photo of the group that attended this year.

So although the scouts have many fun activities, the camp also emphasizes the development of character, teamwork, good citizenship, and other sought after traits.  The fun activities include sailboating, canoeing, row boating, swimming, polar bear plunge (6am plunge into the lake - okay, not nearly as bad as water on the Bering Sea), mile swim (one of our scouts broke the all-time record for the mile swim this year by swimming it using the butterfly stroke and then broke his own camp record swimming it free style), five-mile hike, archery range, rifle range where you can shoot 22s and shot guns (and on the last full day, adults are able try black powder shooting), horseback riding, and many different classes for boy scout merit badges.  There are also evening campfires attended by all troops at camp.

The last day of camp they have this competition called Chawanadayze which is a campwide competition of leadership.  This year there were seven stations with a variety of competitions.  The scouts break into their patrols for this competition.  Each troop could have several patrols of six to eight boys.  Ethan's troop had three patrols this year with Ethan being the patrol leader for a patrol named the Forks.  The Forks managed to win third place at two of the seven stations (first aid/stretcher relay and tomahawk throwing).

Ethan is ready to go back next year for his third year at Chawanakee.  The year after that will be Ryan's first opportunity.

Can't Hold Us

Seattle rapper Macklemore who is a big fan of all sports Seattle. Video has great shots of Seattle, but supposedly was shot in 16 days on six continents. One shot even looks like it was taken on SF Bay.

Jogasaki Sushi Burrito

Something to track down the next time we are down south... Jogasaki Sushi Burrito

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

Ryan's Imaginary Friend

Since he was about four years old, Ryan has had an imaginary friend named Bubby. He shows up from time to time, but is always only visible to Ryan. He often is in Seattle.  This evening we learned two more new facts about Bubby. Sometimes Bubby takes the form of a spatula and he owns all of the blue houses in San Francisco.

Hazel and Mochi

Clover passed onto the Great Lettuce Patch, but we have two new members of our family.  Here's the full story.

On May 12 which was a couple of days after Clover had passed on, Dorothy took the kids to check out what the pet store had in terms of guinea pigs.  They had two female ones that were in a cage together, but said that they could only sell one of them to us since the other one was going to be undergoing treatment for a respiratory infection.  They said that we would be able to bring the other one home when she was doing better.

So we brought Hazel home with us.

However a few days after Hazel was with us, she also came down with the same respiratory infection and we had to return her to the store so they could take her to the vet also.

Yesterday, we were able to pick up the other guinea pig which we named Mochi.

Mochi is definitely the less shy one of the two and has already taken to her new home.  Hazel had a little more difficulty, but we're hoping that since Mochi will be here this time Hazel will more easily adjust.

Bridge Collapse and George Washington

A bridge over I-5 collapsed this week just north of Seattle.  I was showing our kids a video clip taken from a nearby security camera that actually caught the bridge collapse.  The news story listed Mount Vernon as the location of the story.

Me:  Obaachan worked with someone who is from Mount Vernon.

Ryan:  Was it George Washington?  That would be really cool.

Me:  That's funny Ryan.  How old do you think Obaachan is anyway?

Ryan:  No, I just thought it would be really cool.

Of course, he was thinking about Mount Vernon, Virginia which was George Washington's home.  Nevertheless, I was impressed that Ryan remembered this.

I'm Coming Home

Klondike Derby

Ethan attended the Klondike Derby in February with his boy scout troop at the camp that his troop attends for summer camp.  The camp is located east of Fresno at an elevation of about one mile on the shores of Shaver Lake.

The scouts camped out in tents and generally tried to keep warm.  Activities that they participated in included: sled race (Ethan was the payload), tug-of-war on snow and ice, morse code deciphering, two-man sawing, snowball fights, igloo making, and campfires just to name a few.

Ethan is ready to go back next year if his troop attends.

Naomi's Art at Zachary's Pizza

Naomi entered a painting with a friend in an art contest by Zachary's Pizza to decorate the walls of their new restaurant in Pleasant Hill.  Her painting was selected for the restaurant.  The painting is called "Precious as a Pearl."  Go check it out and the other new paintings at the restaurant.

Bears Win Big Over Buffs

Here's a game highlight: