Seawolves win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

According to Wikipedia, a Sea Wolf (Anarhichas lupus), also known as the Atlantic wolffish, Atlantic catfish, wolf eel, or sea cat, is a marine fish, the largest of the family Anarhichadidae.


It's also the name of our Little League team - the Hanover Seawolves. We took the name from the minor league team, the Erie Seawolves. I say "our" Little League team since DH Hugh coaches it and DS Sam is a key player. What a season!!! We finished the season with a record of 21-2 and won two tournaments. We're the newly crowned winner of the Connecticut Valley Little League and we also won the Lebanon Three Pitch tournament in May.

What a championship game it was - a come behind victory in the next to last inning!

I love this picture! It was taken by a fellow Seawolves parent - Jim. It's at the start of the game with Hugh giving "high fives" to the team after introductions.


This is the team - note all the trophies! Each kid and coach on the team got their own trophies, we received a larger trophy for winning the Connecticut Valley Little League South championship, the large trophy is for winning the Connecticut Valley Little League championship.


We played the very tall Newberry Knights who were undefeated going into this game. As a reference, note two of their players standing next to Sam - amazing, no?!


And here's Hugh with his three "clutch" hitters - Ryan, Jamison, and David.


Coach Joe (anesthesiologist extraordinaire) gave out "awards" to all the kids after the game. Sam got the coveted "head hunter" award - as the pitcher who hit the most batters during the season! Joe said that Sam was the most feared pitcher in the CVLLS.


Here's Hugh's write-up of the game that appeared in the local newspaper:

In the peptalk before the game, Coach Hugh Mellert quoted the infamous Yogi Berra...."It ain't over til it's over" Yogi-ism.....telling the team that the season was not over until the Championship game was over.

Six Innings later.....The Hanover Seawolves won the Conn. Valley Little League Championship with a come from behind 7-5 victory over the undefeated Newbury (Vt.) Knights. The Knights jumped to an early lead with one run in the first inning, one run in the second inning, and a 2 run homer in the 3rd inning. It felt like it would be a Newbury runaway at that point in the game. But solid pitching by Hanover's ace, Joe Crevero (11 K's in the game) and flawless infield play (6 infield outs in the game), Hanover got the side in order in the 4th and 5th innings.

With the pressure on and the top of the Hanover order coming to bat in the 5th inning and the Newbury starting pitcher off the mound having used up his 85 pitchcount, the Seawolves mounted a 2 out comeback with patient at bats (6 walks in the game) and clutch hits (7 singles in the game - no extra base hits). All 9 batters came to the plate. With the bases loaded after a walk by Nate Choukas and Joe Cravero and a hard hit ground ball by the shortstop from Sam Mellert.....Ryan O'Rourke (#5 hitter) hit a rocket-shot down the line past the third baseman scoring 2 runs. Seawolves down now 4-3. The bases were loaded again  with a walk by Chris Washington and the Knights got the second out of the inning on a force play at home off of a slow grounder back to the pitcher by Chris  Mueller. Down to the final out of the inning and with the bases loaded and two strikes on the count, Jamison Jodoin (#8 batter) hit a fly that cleared the infield and dropped scoring 2 runs. Seawolves up 5-4. The Seawolves ninth batter, David White, came to the plate and with two outs and two strikes hit the ball over the second baseman's head to drive in 2 runs and ended the inning trying to stretch the single into a double. Seawolves up 7-4. Nine batters....six runs....4 of them with 2 outs!!! Clutch hits and smart base running!!!

In the sixth inning, Newbury scored one run on errors by the Seawolves but the first out came on a  groundout to the pitcher,a popup hit high in the air over the head of shortstop Sam Mellert, who ran back and leaped into the air only to have the ball be 2 inches past his glove....out of leftfield came a charging Jamison Jodoin who snagged the ball for the second out as Sam Mellert rolled to the ground.....a Top Ten Play in anyone's book. Joe Cravero struck out the last batter on 6 pitches ending the game with 84 of his 85 pitchcount used up.

Coach Hugh Mellert got a Gatorade Bath and the celebration began as the Seawolves finished the season 21-2. (12-2 in League Play....6-0 in Lebanon 3-Pitch Tournament....3-0 in Conn. Valley Championship Run.)

Like Yogi said....."It ain't over til it's over"

Middle School graduation

Soooooooooo much has been going on this month! Tom had his graduation ceremony from middle school and prior to that, his 8th grade trip; we've had tons of baseball (which is another post all to itself), it's the start of a new term at the college - busy, busy.

The ceremony was very nice - each kid was introduced by homeroom. They had a lovely slide show that captured the entire school year. Tom was the first picture! Then the power went out - it was very hot in the gym, let me tell you. Instead of diplomas, the kids got t-shirts. My camera wasn't behaving that night but hopefully this captures the shirts (this was taken at the reception after the ceremony).


As always, it was a bittersweet evening. The long-time principal of the middle school is retiring - she's such a wonderful person and has done so much for the school. In keeping with the way she is, she wanted to ceremony to be about the kids and not about her. I wish she'd have waited two years and retired with Sam!

There is always a post-graduation party at the local bowling alley. I helped chaperone - I think my hearing and voice is nearly back to normal now. It was a fun evening. Lots of prizes - and of course bowling is never a bad thing!

During the course of middle school, Tom's become very active in Playback theater. Playback theater was what Tom chose as his volunteer project - it's interactive theater. They visited day care centers, a couple of retirement community and their old elementary school. He's also been involved in drama and an improv group he formed with some friends. Their improv group is called "Not Gum" (don't ask me!) and they're amazingly funny. The most wonderful thing is the group of kids he's gotten to know and become friends with.

Here are a few pictures from Playback Theater:

this is Ethan, who is funny, nice, brilliant AND amazingly talented:


And a couple of group shots:



There were several going away parties for Mike, who's moving to L.A. by way of Russia:




Here's to high school!

June Projects

It's been awhile since I posted - what a busy month it's been! I'll write more on that in another post. But I wanted to bring you up to date on knitting projects. I knitted a couple of pairs of socks for Tom and Sam's learning specialists. They're the folks who pull together all the nuts and bolts of their accomodations - technology, captions, acoustics. We truly couldn't do it without them. Tom's learning specialist this year was Patti, Sam's was Pat. For Patti, I made these socks:


This is the May SOTM (Sock of the Month Club) offering from The Knitter. The yarn is Tofutsies and the pattern was VERY complicated! I frogged it a couple of times.

I made yet another pair of Monkey socks for Pat. I LOVE this pattern! It's so pretty and knits up fast. It looks complicated but isn't but the pattern is complicated enough to keep it interesting. The yarn is a cotton Sockotta yarn - one I've not knitted with before but liked a bunch.


I finished my Lilac socks! I think these are the best pair of socks I've knitted to date. I knitted these on size 0 needles (2.0 mm) using the Panda Wool yarn I won in a contest on Adrienne's blog. Panda Wool is a lovely yarn but the skeins are shorter yardage-wise than some I've knitted with. I had about 3 feet left over when I finished each sock - that's a little close for comfort! Luckily I have small feet.


I have a couple of works in progress. First is Judy's luxury Sock of the Month kit (also from the Knitter). Isn't this gorgeous? The pattern was designed by Judy, herself, and is so pretty but easy to memorize. There's a little cable every fourth row. The yarn is Lorna's Laces Chocolate Raspberry Swirl - I hope my camera catches it!


And this is THIS month's sock of the month club offering. It's called Betsy and is designed by Adrienne Fong - my favorite sock designer! The yarn is Regia - I need to hurry and finish these socks by Wednesday for the fourth of July.


Sam made the allstar team and we're going to a Fisher Cats game this evening so I should get lots of good knitting time -oops, I mean, baseball time - in this weekend!

Knitting Projects

I've had a productive few weeks knitting. I haven't made any more progress on the Very Boring Vest but I have three pairs of socks OTN (on the needle) and I finished a pair as well.

Tah dah! The pair I finished are the Rainbow socks pattern by Adrienne Fong using Fortissima Colori 1776 colorway. Isn't it fun the way the yarn makes the stars and stripes pattern? Just in time for July 4.


I have two SOTM club offerings from theknitter.com going at the same time. This pattern is called Dayflowers. The lacework is more complicated than many I've done - you sure can't watch the Redsox AND knit this pattern! It's very pretty - knitted using Tofutsies yarn. I'm really liking Tofutsies. It's very soft and easy to knit with.


This sock of the month offering is theknitter.com's "luxury" SOTM club. How could I resist? This is knit using Lorna's Laces shepherd sock yarn Chocolate Raspberry Truffle which is a custom color for this sock club. The pattern is called Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Shadow Socks and it's designed by Judy Alexander, who owns theknitter.com. It's a cable pattern and very easy but very elegant. It's a bit hard to see the pattern in this picture - as I get closer to finishing, I'll snap a shot outside so you can see the pattern.


I'm also continuing the Lilac socks on two needles.

I had to laugh - when I open my knitting bag everything is pink/maroon/purple colors which is actually unusual for me. I've always leaned towards blue/green/aquas. Change is good!

Big Boy Ears

It's hard to believe it's already June. My older son finishes middle school in another week and a half and goes on his 8th grade trip. There's a fair amount to be done by him between now and then so keeping his nose to the grindstone all the while enduring "senioritis" is quite challenging. The principal at the boys' school is retiring this year - we really wish she'd stay another two years to get Sam through graduation. It's a time of many changes, hellos and goodbyes. One of my older son's best friends is leaving our town. He's Russian and his mother is a visiting faculty member here so they're moving on to Los Angeles. Mike was accepted at the School of the Arts. He's a very talented actor. So while we're sad to see them go it's going to be a wonderful opportunity - and someone to visit when we're in L.A.!

The biggest news this week was our visit by friends who now feel like old friends. Jim, Joelle, and Jonah who are from Pennsylvania. We met through an internet listserve for parents who have kids with cochlear implants. Like my boys, Jonah has two CIs - his "new ear" is actually brand new to him. He's been activated for about a week. Jonah is three and has the most amazing speech and language. When he met Tom for the first time, he checked out Tom's implants and said "You have big boy ears!". That still makes me smile. Tom and I met them for breakfast and then went to Sam's ballgame so they could meet Sam and Hugh. What a wonderful time! Luckily, we'll see them all at a conference next month.

"big boy ears" *grin*

Here's Tom and Jonah - I'm not sure who's happier that they're together. And check out Tom's knees. He earned them! Jonah is a toy car lover - his favorite is Lightning McQueen. Lightning - as we fondly call him - got thrown into every mud puddle at the ballfield that day. And Tom would retrieve him for Jonah.

Here are Jim, Tom, Jonah, and Joelle. It's so very neat to meet people for the first time and feel you've known them all your life. I'm sure we have programming jobs that would be interesting to you, Jim up here.

It's been a "hearing related"kind of week or two. Tom was asked to be part of the grand opening of the new pediatric perioperative services area at our local hospital. Tom was the ideal person to be at the opening since his first cochlear implant surgery was in the adult unit before the pediatric unit existed; his second surgery was in the pediatric area. He was so articulate talking about his experiences in each place and why for a kid/young adult the pediatric area was so much better. He really liked that he got to play with a PSP to pass the time before the second operation! Thanks to David Mc. for these pictures.

Here's Tom talking with Dr. Joe, the director of the unit. He took care of both boys' anesthesia when they had their surgeries. And Dr. Modlin, who's the chair of pediatrics. Dr. Joe is also Coach Joe - he co-coaches Sam's Little League team.

Coach Joe is introducing Tom who did an excellent job speaking. In the background is David, one of the wonderful nurses who took care of the boys during their surgeries.


And here's Tom cutting the ribbon for the new unit! He got to keep the ribbon.


On Sunday, our support group for parents who have kids with hearing loss had a get-together at the local science museum. The boys had a wonderful time and it was fun to see some old friends and to see how big their kids have gotten!

This is Toni, who's the most organized person I've ever met. She coordinates the group, as well as a frillion other things. She also does a mean face plant while sledding.


Oh - we had great food too!

And this is the wonderful Pamela, who is deaf and has been an amazing mentor to my boys. She feels like my daughter (along with Liz). Pamela and Liz both are graduating on Sunday. I know whatever they end up doing, they will do a fabulous job. We'll miss them both so much.


Oh - check out Tom's short hair! Nothing like a hot Saturday to make short hair an attractive thing to have.

Sunday evening, we had dinner at Uncle Steve's house to celebrate his promotion! Tom made him a sailboat in Woodworking. Steve is a griller extraordinaire and actually grilled buffalo! It did NOT taste like chicken, however. Congratulations, Uncle Steve - it's so well deserved.


Since not everyone gets excited about knitting projects (which I don't understand at all!), I'm creating a separate post for them.