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October 29, 2011: Today we had the earliest snowfall that I can remember. Quinn played soccer in the snow. The only other time I remember snow in October was at Mike and Judy's wedding, and that was up in Massachusetts. I posted some pictures.

September 22, 2011: This 14th Choice video was selected by my brother Jim, and I find it quite worthy. No more of an introduction is necessary, so here's the video.

September 2, 2011: While Irene hit the east coast, we were visiting the west one, in the beautiful state of Oregon. We had a wonderful time visiting with family, both in Scotts Mills at Country Kim's, and at a beach house overlooking the ocean in Newport. We took numerous pictures, but I only posted a small percentage. Thanks to Melody and Kim for hosting us.

August 12, 2011: Camp is over. Jim, Jackie and Scarlet are visiting this weekend, which will be a great time. And on top of all that, this week's 14th Choice video has been selected! This video depicts the New Pornographers performing the song Crash Years on the Jimmy Fallon Show. If you've heard the studio version, you'll find that they stick to that pretty faithfully here, while keeping things fun at the same time. I love the enthusiasm of the band, the cello, the crowd. Here's the video. Turn it up.

August 4, 2011: This week's The 14th Choice music video is by the New York State based Felice Brothers. It is probably my favorite youtube video of any band, from any time. Here they perform Her Eyes Dart Round at the Cornbury Festival in England in 2007. Watch for yourself.

July 25, 2011: I am adding a new feature to the website, a music video of the week, to be called The 14th Choice. That's not to say choices 1-13 are superior. In fact, they are inferior to The 14th Choice. I found this one tonight, when Quinn asked what a wipeout was. Which brought up talk of the song Wipeout, apparently written and first performed by a band called the Surfaris. But I did a search and found a live Ventures version of it. I never knew The Ventures were quite this good, but here they are.

July 19, 2011: Todd invited us down to a met game today to celebrate Jonah's birthday. It was my first look at the beautiful Citi Field. The mets lost, but the game was fun, and Quinn and Nathan got to run the bases with the hoards afterwards.

July 11, 2011: I posted 2 pictures of Quinn and Nathan at camp today.

June 8, 2011: I had lost my camera at bwbb in May, and thanks to Austin, I finally got it back today. So I posted some photos of a disc golf outing at a great state park in Pa.

May 30, 2011: Congratulations to Jonah for finishing high school! His whole family is very proud of him. I feel a little strange about it, but I didn't get any good pictures of Jonah from the weekend. There's one with the back of his head in it. Pretty shabby for somebody who is the guest of honor. And Emma is absent also. Good one of a snapping turtle, though. Todd put some great pictures here.

May 26, 2011: I posted some photos today, from the last couple of months. We are looking forward to Jonah's graduation this weekend. We will miss Mom and Dad, wish they could attend.

May 23, 2011: Random exchange of the day. A lady from a nature center is here at the PCH today showing some animals to the preschool classes. She had a chinchilla out, and said, "This guy only goes out at night and stays in during the day. Does anybody know what that is called?" A little girl answered, "Fertilizer?" To which the lady replied, "No, that's not it. Anybody else?"
My brother Jim selected the Preakness winner, Shaklelford, but didn't collect any cash. So I'm giving him a little credit for it. At 4:29pm on Saturday, May 21st, 2011 (an hour and 45 minutes before the post time), the following text was sent to my cellular phone: Who are you betting? Can u put 10 on shaklfd to win and to show for me? $20 total? I didn't have my phone on, and didn't get the text in time, costing Jim $170.

April 4, 2011: My good friend Zeke, leader of Swahoogie, has been going through his archives and recently posted some Swahoogie videos from the late 1990s on youtube. Check them out if you are so inclined.

March 28, 2011: Happy Birthday Dad! Dad took time out of his birthday celebration to electronically discuss the posting of March 25th with me. We decided that a cow was traded for the beanstalk seeds, not a goose as previously posted.

March 25, 2011: Nate's birthday is a week away, and he received his first gift today, some waterproof spider boots from his Grandmother. He wore them proudly at Jennings Beach. Libby is allowed to run there until March 31st, and then not again until October, so Corina is getting her there as often as possible. Libby wasn't singled out, no dogs are allowed during that time.
Nathan and I planted seeds last Sunday and have them under a grow light. We planted 2 types of tomatoes, eggplant, 2 types of basil, oregano, and cosmos. Surprisingly, the cosmos germinated on Tuesday, just 2 days after planting. They are growing so quickly, we are thinking there is something magical about them. Not to mention I had to trade a cow for them, because the seller wouldn't accept cash or credit cards. So we could be getting a visit from Eli Manning any day.
Using his master origami skills, Quinn constructed what he believes to be the smallest paper fortune teller in the world tonight, just 3/16 of an inch across. We submitted it to the Guinness Book of World Records, and should hear back within 4-6 weeks.

March 13, 2011: Quinn ran in his first road race today, a 1 mile youth race for children 7-11 at Jennings Beach here in town. He finished 12th out of 125 runners in a time of 7:48. He was pretty tired at the end. I posted some photos.

January 27, 2011: Happy Birthday Kathy. Yesterday we got a few more inches of snow, then a break, and then last night 16 more inches. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow here on the ground. I posted 3 pictures in the photos section.

January 12, 2011: Last night we got hit with the biggest snowstorm I've seen in awhile. Looks like at least 2 feet of snow to me, at least on our property. I don't think that much fell, officially, but it sure did find our yard. I posted 3 pictures. Now I have to finish shoveling the driveway.

January 10, 2011: Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Got that in with 10 minutes to spare. December was busy. Melody visited early in the month, and then John's siblings all flew out to Seattle to celebrate his 50th birthday with family and friends. My Mom and Dad, aka Nana and Grandpa, drove up for Christmas. Although their trip was long, both ways, we had a great visit with them. Kathy and family braved the snow and drove down on the 27th. I posted photos. Also, check out Jim's photos by clicking on his link in the link section. Good night.

November 29, 2010: We spent Thanksgiving down in Williamsburg, VA at Nana and Grandpa's. They were great hosts and Mom definitely delivered the goods for Thanksgiving meal. Friday night we went to Busch Gardens for an event called Christmas Town. The whole place was decorated for Christmas, and many of the rides were functioning. On Saturday we visited Jim, Jackie and Scarlet on the way home. The dogs got along, mostly, although Libby tried to act tough with Seneca and almost got shut down.

November 5, 2010: Odie the orange cat just came home! The last time we had seen him was Friday morning, October 22nd. I'm at work, so I haven't seen him yet. He is apparently dirty and skinny but OK. We have no idea where he was. Great news!

November 1, 2010: We had a fun Halloween weekend. Quinn played his last soccer game of the season on Saturday. The team has played together for 2 fall seasons and 1 spring and has really developed. Lots of spreading out, accurate passing, and unselfish play. Quinn and Nathan helped with raking over the weekend, although there are still many more leaves on the trees. I hope the enthusiasm for raking lasts the whole season. Both boys dressed as knights for Halloween. While Corina stayed home and gave out candy to other trick or treaters, I took the boys out into the neighborhood and beyond.

October 17, 2010: I posted some photos from Quinn's birthday party today, even though the party took place over a week ago.

October 6, 2010: Happy birthday to Quinn Thomas Havard, who turns 7 today! Party at the PCH on Saturday.

September 13, 2010: Back in May we caught a tadpole at Brett Woods and kept it in the fishbowl in our kitchen with the fish. That tadpole became the frog now pictured in the photos section. We released him a few weeks ago back to the same pond he came from, and the fishbowl soon turned into a swamp. We realized that the tadpole was instrumental in keeping the bowl clean, so a couple of days later we caught 6 more small tadpoles. They are growing fast and keeping the bowl clean. On a completely unrelated note, here is a video from August of our Libertarian dog.

September 12, 2010: Although summer doesn't officially end until September 21st or something, it feels like fall around here. Quinn and Nathan have both started school and are liking it. Last weekend I took both boys out in the old rowboat on Rye Lake. Now I know why Dad used to try to take us out one at a time. The boys were well-behaved, though, and nobody fell in. We caught 2 small sunnies, but left with the feeling that there are still some very large fish in there. Our vegetable garden is having possibly its best year yet, with a bounty of tomatoes and cascade hops, as well as eggplant, basil and cucumbers. Today we all went to this event on the town green, where we watched an old-time baseball game between the Newtown Sandy Hooks and the Gotham City Baseball Club. Newtown won. Both Quinn and Nathan had a chance to ride ponies and we all had a fun time. Here is a CT Post photo from a "town ball" game that took place in town in August. I like it, mostly because it looks like I'm doing something impressive. And yes, I caught it.

August 1, 2010: There is this open space area in town called Perry's Mill Ponds. Quinn and I fished there yesterday and caught (and released) a few sunnies. Today we went back without the poles, but with Corina, Nathan and our dog Libby. I haven't mentioned Libby on this site yet, but she's a good dog. We've had her for about 7 weeks now. She is an Australian Cattle Dog mix. Today we all hiked around the ponds, and the boys and dog got in the water. Here is a video of Nathan crossing a creek that captures Nathan in his full splendor.

June 2, 2010: The last few weeks have been busy in 14 land. Nathan and I took an Amtrak train down to DC a couple of weeks ago to meet Scarlet and visit Jim and Jackie. Nathan asked if we could ride on every train we saw, and we saw hundreds. The trip was great fun, with plenty of cozing time with Scarlet, walks in the cemetery and Eastern Market, a short visit with Mac, time on the Supreme Court steps, 3 innings of the Nationals/Mets game, the Natural History Museum, and more. Thanks, Jim and Jackie, for hosting us. I posted a few photos, but Jim has many more at his photos site, as well as some more recent pictures of the young girl.

I promised the boys they could get tadpoles in the spring. We hiked to the pond in Brett woods a week and a half ago, but the only tadpoles we saw were huge ones, future bullfrogs. We brought one home, and it is now living with and frightening the White Cloud Mountain Minnows. This past weekend we went to Sasco Beach in Fairfield and caught crabs and snails (all released), waded in the cold water, and did some kite flying with the parachute man attached.

April 29, 2010: Jackie and Jim chose a name for their baby: Scarlet. Scarlet Grace Havard. I thought they might go with Reyes, but I like Scarlet even better. Let's go Mets.

April 28, 2010: Still no name for the baby, but I've got a picture. Melody arrived at our house last night with Jack the dog. Odie climbed up on the island of Sodor this morning in fear.

April 27, 2010: I just got off the phone with Jim and Jackie. Their baby girl was born this morning at around 11:15am, 6 lb. 2 oz. Everybody is healthy and good. The name is pending. Not sure why they chose Pending; must be a family name on Jackie's side or something. Nonetheless, congratulations Jim and Jackie!

April 20, 2010: Melody departed Scotts Mills, OR yesterday and is driving across the country with Jack the dog. She is keeping a journal of her trip here. We just finished a shorter trip ourselves, down to visit Mom and Dad in Williamsburg, and then Jim and Jackie with her bodacious belly in D.C. on the way home. Highlights were many, including a ferry ride across the James river in Virginia, and graveyard walks with Seneca in D.C. We had a great time and very much appreciate our gracious hosts.

February 8, 2010: Corina and I saw an enthralling Felice Brothers concert at Fairfield Theatre Company on Friday night, and I posted a review.

Here's some fun video of Nathan walking the beam.

January 30, 2010: Melody requested photos of the 26 pets, so I posted some stinking photos. Brrrr day today, 11 units of degree.

January 28, 2010: The total number of pets in our household has risen considerably. Before Christmas, we had 4, including a cat and 3 lovebirds. Now we have 26, including 16 ants in a gel ant farm, and our newest pets, 6 White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys albonubes) in a large vase in the kitchen. The fish are very active and fun to watch, I highly recommend them so far. They can live in a bowl or vase without a pump or filter, and they like company, as opposed to beta fish, that eat each other. Put some plants in there, like java moss, exchange 4 cups of water for fresh every day, and they seem to thrive.

January 7, 2010: Happy New Year from the unit14 information service! Melody sent 3 photos taken in December on her Oregon property with a night vision motion sensor camera that she has. I posted them in the photos section. The first is of a bobcat and the 2nd and 3rd are of a mountain lion.

December 30, 2009: Thanks to Mom, by way of Jenny, for this group photo. Christmastime was spent with the Havard family down in Williamsburg this year. There was lots of great food, trespassing through the yards at the top of Sugar Bush to get to the school field, gift opening, and great times. The day after Christmas we all headed north to D.C. to celebrate Jim and Jackie's wedding at the Mansion at O street. The mansion is a huge, wacky house with over 100 rooms, secret passageways behind bookcases and mirrors, eclectic art, artist-signed guitars, and much more. Our shower had many settings, including an overhead rainfall. We again enjoyed great food, we played tunes, were entertained by Mac's baseball memorabilia, and explored the house. Thanks Jim and Jackie for an incredible event, and thanks again Mom and Dad for having us in Virginia. I posted a few photos.

December 6, 2009: Quinn is taking over the posting for today. Here's Quinn. We went to the pancake breakfast. We went to the puppet show. We went to the candy store. We got hooks for our ornaments. I played with my leapster and I finished my game. Oh, we went to the train show and we saw lots of trains. Merry Christmas to everyone, and to all a good night. Thanks, Quinn. I posted photos.

October 4, 2009: Quinn's 6th birthday party was today at the Discovery Museum in Bridgeport with 12 of his friends. The theme of the party was "things that fly" and the boys built and decorated planes, twirly helicopters, hoopsters, and rockets. I posted a couple of pictures.

October 3, 2009: Despite a forecast of rain, Quinn's soccer team, the Golden Tigers, played their 3rd game of the season today. It was a great team effort, and the Tigers played their best game yet. Here is Quinn (#19) scoring a great goal early in the game. Although no one kept score, the tigers romped. I neglected to mention on here that Corina celebrated her 40th birthday 2 days ago.

September 19, 2009: Rock and Roll Saturday Night. I hadn't posted photos in too long, so I just put a bunch from June to present in the photos section. I left out leg wounds and bloody mouths.

September 3, 2009: Summer passed, with little action on this site, but a lot went on. Sometimes I just have to move on and let things go unreported. Quinn starts first grade today; he seems happy about it. Nathan starts his preschool next week. Quinn lost his first tooth last night, and Nathan is happy to have company.

The current "fastest horse in the world", Rachel Alexandra, runs in the Woodward at Saratoga this weekend. A 3 year old filly running against older males in a Grade 1 race like this is pretty much unheard of, and this filly will very likely win. Todd and I will probably be there, despite an angry wife.

August 1, 2009: This is funny. Find out where Todd sat all summer long.

July 2, 2009: Purchase Day Camp has begun, and Quinn is enjoying his time in the Sunnies group. He is quite skilled at stretching a single into a home run in wiffle ball and kickball, a useful talent to have at the PDC. This summer, we have the added pleasure of hosting Jonah at our house. Jonah is a counselor for the Eels and commutes with us to and from camp. Both Quinn and Nate are thrilled to have him around, as are his aunt and uncle. At right is a picture of Quinn and Jonah taken today. Looks like I have to clean my office.

May 30, 2009: I posted some new pictures in the photos section today. Last time Nana visited, she brought up two fun, beautiful, matching gecko quilts for Quinn and Nate's beds that she made herself. I guess we'll have to publish Pieced Together, volume 2 someday. Quinn also had his 3rd soccer practice this morning, and I took a picture at that. Also, Emma placed 2nd in the 100m and 3rd in the 200m at her track sectionals as an 8th grader, running against varsity high schoolers!

May 23, 2009: Columbine flowers are blooming in our backyard. Quinn has started a Saturday soccer class with the town and seems to really like it. Hopefully he will join a first grade town league in the fall. Nathan has learned to pump the swing all by himself, and is very proud. As he should be.

I forgot to mention the BWBB get together at the end of April. Mikey P. did a superb job hosting for the first time at his new home outside of Philadelphia.

Forget what I said about traffic easing on the Merritt. Although I think traffic eased considerably in the winter and early spring compared to previous years, it is currently brutal. I don't know if it's college students home, families don't vacation in May, or what, but this time of year is just terrible on the CT highways.

May 18, 2009: Quinn has provided an extensive video review of some of the LEGO Power Miners that he has built.

April 19, 2009: We returned yesterday from our first trip to Oregon in over 2 years. We had a wonderful time, and appreciate all the hospitality from Melody, Kim, and the whole Ferguson family. Activities were many, so I will make a list. Memorable events included ATV rides, trip to the Lego store, several Great Grandma visits, Easter visit from John, Michele and family, egg hunt, late-night tunes at Kim's office, carrot to horse presentations, lawn mower rides, tractor rides, cat hunts, stop go Jack game, pet treats, indoor swinging, Elianus the bionicle coming to life, great seats and great times at the final Trailblazers game of the season, coffee station break, visits to and from Max, Nicole and family, Kim's birthday, Abiqua Wind winery tour, Kenni prom dress shopping, hula hoop rolling, library trips, passing showers with occasional hail, and fine meals. See more photos in the photos section.

April 3, 2009: Jim and Jackie recently posted some photos from their Panama trip. Looks like a great place to spend some time. Mom and Dad also returned recently from Sedona, Arizona, which also looked like a worthy trip.

I've noticed that rush hour traffic on the Merritt Parkway in the morning and evening has eased significantly. A trip that used to consistently take an hour or much more can now be completed consistently in 45 minutes or less. I wish I had kept better records, but I'd say the change became noticeable during the middle of the autumn of 2008, if not earlier. As for the reason for the change, I can only guess. Unemployment, more Metro-North commuters, a rise (and subsequent fall) in fuel prices, telecommuting and ridesharing might all be factors. The CT unemployment rate was 4.4% in April of 2007, and 2 years later it is at 7.9%. So unemployment alone may have removed 3.5% of the rush hour cars from CT highways, which might be all it takes to keep traffic moving. I'm not praising unemployment, of course, it's just an observation and a guess. And May and June are coming up, which tend to be TERRIBLE months for traffic. So we'll see what happens. Has anybody else noticed a change? Let me know at havard14@optonline.net.

Update: This morning I wrote to CT DOT to ask if they had any data verifying an ease in traffic on the Merritt, and I got this quick reponse from Kevin Nursick of the CT DOT:

Hi Tom -

I don't have any recent data that can be used to verify this. That being said, folks still are turning to mass transit options, despite the fact that gas prices have come down from record highs. We have seen a reduction in the number of cars on the road over the last few years - maybe 5 percent or so in some locations in the state if I had to guess, but that's probably not enough to make up the scenario that you
describe. With the economy turning sour, there is the potential that fewer people are commuting to NY and back to CT - that may be what you are observing.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

April 1, 2009: Nathan celebrated his third birthday with a morning party on a grey day. Here's some video, and I also posted a few photos.

March 23, 2009: I'm way behind. I did want to mention that Nathan visited the preschool he will be attending this coming fall. This was back on March 10th, and he appeared to have a wonderful time. And since I might not get to it, happy birthday Dad, and happy birthday Jim, in Panama, or wherever you are. Whatever happened to visiting the Poconos or a place like Sturbridge Village?

February 22, 2009: Malum now has a friend. Grandma sent Toa Tahu on Friday, and Quinn built him immediately. We're off to see the Sound Tigers today, I won some tickets.

February 14, 2009: Happy Valentine's Day! Quinn built his first bionicle today, a guy named Malum.

February 4, 2009: Not too much news here. The boys are asleep. Corina is tired of the cold weather, but I think it's fine. We are looking forward to a visit from Nana later this month via Amtrak, and also a trip to Oregon in April. I won't disclose the exact dates, for security reasons.

January 18, 2009: With all the cold weather we've been having, the pond in our neighborhood, Butkus Pond, has frozen solid. Yesterday and today, we shoveled the snow off and got in some great skating. Quinn has now been on skates 3 times in his life, and has improved tremendously each time. He is doing extremely well. Snow started falling AGAIN this afternoon as we skated, and is still coming down.

I find this plane crash in the Hudson River event very fascinating. That the pilot had the ability to take such a dangerous situation and land the plane on the water so smoothly on such a short notice amazes me. And the way all the people involved appeared to pull together, including the passengers, ferry crews, and responders is very impressive to me. Not typical unit14 news, and not news at all to anyone by now, but it is a great true story.

January 8, 2009: My Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last Saturday, January 3rd, with a surprise party at the Park Lane Reserve clubhouse, a.k.a. Lake Street School. Many family members and friends were in attendance, and I believe the couple of honor was surprised and pleased with the celebration. Congratulations Mom and Dad!

The day after that party, on January 4th, the family headed to a different old schoolhouse, this time in Wilton, CT, to celebrate the zeroth anniversary of Jim and Jackie. Thanks, J&J, for that delicious brunch.

January 1, 2009: The goose is still alive and still fat. Happy New Year! And - Happy Birthday to Jackie! We hope 2009 is a good year for most individuals.

December 18, 2008: The goose is getting fat. We are very much looking forward to Christmas this year. This past weekend, the boys had 2 meetings with adequate Santas, one for breakfast on Saturday, and one at a Fairfield Theatre Company cheesy yet fun Christmas show on Sunday. Nate is very intrigued with Santa and likes him from a distance. Quinn will sit on his lap no problem. I'll post more photos, I only have this one here at work.

November 21, 2008: Mom visited for 4 days and just left on Wednesday. No photos, but it was great to see Mom, and the boys loved spending some time with their Nana. Aunt Linda and Uncle Al visited on Tuesday but I was working. Kathy also stopped by on Tuesday night for some good times and Nauti Dolphin pizza.

November 20, 2008: Jim and Jackie sent some beautiful pictures from their wedding in St. Lucia. I posted a few, but there are many more to see here.

October 30, 2008: Update from Mom today: Jim and Jackie called last night. They are Married. The ceremony took place yesterday late afternoon on the beach. The weather was spotty yesterday but it did clear and they even had a rainbow. They have had beautiful weather for the most part and have been scuba diving, jungle biking, lunching on the beach and more. They hope to go snorkeling before they leave on Saturday morning. So, congratulations go out to those honeymooners!

October 27, 2008: Jim and Jackie flew off to St. Lucia this past Saturday. When they return to U.S. soil, they will be married! The wedding is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, October 29th.

Last night we attended the first annual jack-o-lantern spectacular at the Maritime Aquarium. Hundreds of lit pumpkins displayed along the shores of the Norwalk River made for a spectacular sight. After the event, we hit the Brewhouse for dinner. I enjoyed a pint of New England Amber, recalling they days when the beer was actually brewed there.

Melody visited in mid-October and brought her motion sensor night vision camera with her. We digitally captured some of suburban Fairfield's nocturnal wildlife, like a raccoon, a deer, and Odie.