Thanksgiving Family

For Thanksgiving, three members of my family came out. My cousin, Jared, my aunt, Susie, and my grandma all flew out Tuesday afternoon and we picked them up at the Mesa airport. On Wednesday, we went to the Sonoran Desert Museum and spent much of the day there. Then, the next day we took them down on the U of A campus so they could see where I want to go to college and we also showed them my high school. We went to lunch at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Pancho's, which recently switched owners and now is called La Botana. They have amazing grilled shrimp tacos. Another restaurant that we love is called HiFylutin, which is a Texan/cowboy food based restaurant. My favorite food there is a grilled sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce, feta cheese, and avocado. We also took them to the de Grazia gallery and the San Javier mission. The de Grazia gallery was built by an artist in the 20's-50's who used all recycled materials to create his own art. Here are some pictures from the week:

Doggie Play Date

Last weekend, our neighbors Barbie and John invited us to a get-together at their house. They live on the next street over and their dog, Butzie, is good friends with Izzy. So we walked over and several friends of theirs were also there with their dogs. There was Connie and Piper, who is Butzie's half-brother and who is a good three times as big as her. Butzie is a a little black and white dog (on the far left in the picture) and Piper is the one on the right, in the arms of the blond woman in the purple shirt. There was another little dog the same kind as Butzie, several little white dogs, a white and creme colored dog, Chino, who ran over the coverings on the pool (Barbie says that he likes to "walk on water"). Then there was Izzy, the oldest of the bunch by a good four years. We had a lot of fun getting to know everyone including Frank who used to work for the Globe and now helps to put together something called the Tucson Book Fair in March. It features all sorts of famous authors and poets. They've even had Barbara Kingsolver a few times from when she used to live in the area. We also got to see John's private office, where he teaches computer classes, usually dealing with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and other Adobe programs. We're so excited to know more people than just the kids I know through swim team and their families.

2009 State Meet Champions!

WE WON! This weekend we had the 2009 High School State Swim Meet and Catalina WON! For both the boys' and girls' teams! Its the tenth year in a row that the boys have won. The girls won eight years in a row, then we got second place last year. Now, we've won again. Our boys team actually won by over 200 points and the 400 freestyle relay was a second off the State Record. A few of our girls won their events, such as Brianna and Karima, who are both sprinters. Only a few of our kids didn't make it to the finals (the top 16 for each event) and two of those kids were a girl, Sarah, who is on our DD (Dominating Distance Team) and one of my closest friends, Nick. However, Sarah dropped a lot of time in her 500 freestyle and Nick now has a 24.4 in his 50 free. Thankfully, they both have next year to make it to finals since he is a junior and she is a freshman.

I got 14th for the 500 free and 14th I think for the 100 backstroke. After the meet was over, we followed our usual custom for the state meet and got into a huddle. The girls form a ring in the center with the guys around us. We all throw our arms over each others shoulders and rock back and forth, waiting for the announcer to tell us the results. It was girls' results first and when we found out that we won for our division, we were so excited. RJ, our coach, was so happy because the Arizona Daily Star (the state newspaper) said that our girls' team wouldn't even win at our Regional Meet. Well, we won Regionals and we also won at State! What also was awesome was that our rival, Sabino Canyon, got third in the division. CDO (Canyon del Oro), the next nearest high school to us, got second, which we were all surprised by because Sabino is the only team who got close to beating us in the dual meets.

So it was just an amazing weekend. We stayed at a Hyatt for two nights (Thursday and Friday), dressed up for Holloween night while we ate a pasta dinner, and I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends. I also got to meet new friends. Because of how our team is set up, the kids who practice with the high school team don't often interact with the kids who practice with their club team. This means that the high school kids and the club teams don't know each other very well. So this meet gave me a chance to meet a lot more of the swimmers and became even closer friend with the ones I already knew.

Regionals

This weekend we had our Regional meet where all of the Tucson high school swim teams compete to see which kids will qualify to make it to the state meet next week. I competed in the 500 freestyle, the longest event we have in the high school season, and the 100 backstroke. We weren't going to find out the results from the meet until Sunday because they had to compare the Tucson times with the times of the kids in Phoenix. Then on Sunday, Mum and I went out to walk Izzy. It was about six pm and when we were coming back up our street, we saw a sign in our yard. Mum thought it was a 'For Sale' sign or something until I saw the words 500 freestyle written on it. It was a sign that was congratulating me for making the state team in BOTH of my events. I'm super excited. A bunch of my friends, including the other three girls of the DD (Dominating Distance team as we call it) and one of my new guy friends, are also going. Its going to be SO much fun. The meet is this weekend in Mesa, which is a city about two hours north of here.

Wedding Bells For... "Justine"

Today, Saturday, October 10th, 2009, my older cousin Justin (jokingly called "Justine" by his family), is getting married. He is the youngest of the three Balousek boys and the last to be married out of the three (though he is the fourth out of all of the kids in our generation, ahead of my cousins Mary Lee, Joe and me). We're staying at this AMAZING mansion in Sharron, Pennsylvania, called the Buhl Mansion. The original owner was the owner of a steel mill I think and very wealthy. It has a ton of the original decor including gold designs on the ceiling in the front parlors, marble floors, and the original staircase. I'll post pictures of it in my next post. However, one of the most amazing things is the paintings and art that is featured throughout the house. Monet, Manet, Degas, and Renoir are some of the biggest names and each painting is gorgeous.

The reason we're staying here is because Justin is actually getting married here. The wedding it to be outdoors (which is nice since all of the trees are starting to change and its one of the almost completely clear days you get in the north), and the reception will be in the gatehouse. I can't wait to see April's dress. She is Justin's fiance. I'll post a picture of that too later.

I can almost here Pachabell's Canon in D Major playing (in my head of course). Its going to be so much fun tonight.

First Swim Meet Is Approaching

This Saturday, we have our first meet as the Catalina Foothills Falcons. Even though it is just an intersquad meet, its a very important one. RJ, our head coach, will be using the times from this meet to plan out our events and relays for the first official meet. I'm hoping that my 500 time will be fast enough. Wish me luck!

First Week of School

This past Thursday was our first day of school at Catalina Foothills. Our school is a huge campus basically, with five buildings, about 16 tennis courts, a huge football/track field, and probably four or five softball/baseball diamonds. Our schedules are much more complicated than back in Madison because we only have 7 class periods in a day, plus lunch, so we don't have one of our classes each day. However, the campus is absolutly gorgeous. I'll hopefully post a picture of it soon. You can see the mountains from every side of the school and there are some amazing views of the city from the main courtyard that is situated between the buildings.

First period: Spanish with my hilarious, little teacher Mrs. Everist
Second: Chemistry
Third: Geometry
Fourth: I don't have a class this hour
Fifth: Honors English 10 with Mrs. Hedwig Dennis (her actual name is Hedwig) and she is very much into philosophy
Sixth: Photo Imaging where you learn to use both film and digital cameras
Seventh: Western Civilization (aka History)

AP US History Exam Results...

An AP Exam basically measures the achievement you would have in a college-level course and it can be used for recommendations for colleges. I took the US History Exam this past spring in Madison and was the only freshman. Normally, freshmen don't take the AP Exams unless they're trying to test out of Biology and for my exam, there were only 14 other people there. The grading system is from 1 to 5; 1 being no recommendation, 2 being possibly qualified, 3 being qualified, 4 being well qualified, and 5 being extremly well qualified.

I didn't do as well on the test as I had hoped. I only scored a 2 and they don't let you see the actual test after it has been graded so I have no idea what I did wrong. It's kind of depressing.

Picking Classes

Mum, Dad, and I went to meet with my councilor, Mrs. Lynn, yesterday to pick out my classes. Two seniors, Colin and Leah, gave us a tour of the school and told us what classes where in which building. There are a total of six buildings on the campus, surrounding a central courtyard.

I am going to take Spanish, Geometry, Chemistry, Honors Western Civilization, Photography, and Honors English 10. Because of the difference in how the History class systems are set up, next year, I won't have to take the same class as the other juniors. As a junior at Catalina, you take US History, which I already had this past year as a freshman, so I'll be taking an Honors European History class to build on my knowledge from 8th grade World History.

First Week of Practice... Over

This week I started to practice with Ford Aquatics Club, a team that practices at the University of Arizona campus. It is basically a huge stadium as Dad likes to say. There are four pools: one is a 50 meter long-course pool where we practice three times a week, two 25 meter pools, one that we practice in two days a week and the other is for lessons. Then there is a smaller pool that is also used for lessons.

We have a lot of coaches, all guys. The head coach is Roric, and the assistants are Scott, Chris, and Nathan. The team won their Summer State meet this year, making them the top team in Arizona. Our practices are almost three hours long with fourty-five minutes of dryland (push-ups, sit-ups, things like that) and two hours of swimming.

Killer Mountain View!

Hey guys,

Well, I'm finally starting to put my room together. I got a new desk and bookshelves :) Its very exciting. Here is the view from my room:
Killer no? That is the Catalina Mountains my friends, the first of two ranges that surrounds Tucson, including the Tucson Mountains (which are obviously named).

A Lot of News

Since I have not been able to post lately, there is tons of news to relay to everyone back in old Wisconsin. First of all, we made it here fine. Even the pets were content with 26 hours of riding in the car, though it was uneventful and boring (especially Kansas and Oklahoma).

Anyway, we stayed at a very nice hotel here in Tucson. $89/night, a 5 star resort! They also let Momo and Izzy stay there. It has a HUGE improvement over the hotel we stayed in when we were in Wichita... especially since that one had a "No Handguns Allowed" sign on the front door.

Anyway, on Friday we got all of our stuff moved in, and much of it is still in boxes. We don't even have a mattress for my bed yet... I'm sleeping in our guestroom downstairs until Wednesday, when my mattress is delivered. As well, we had the most hilarious movers ever. The head mover's name is Peter (pronounced Peh-ter). He brought along his son on their cross-country adventure, but he got sick and had to stay in the van with the air conditioning turned on full blast. Also, there were two other guys, Martin and Guse (pronounced Gooze, for those of you who remember Guse from Hamilton). Guze was a tiny guy who could lift my entire dresser (which was packed full of clothes) and carry it up the stairs. Apparently, his nickname is "LittleBigMan" after the Dustin Hoffman movie. His partner in crime, Martin, was deffinely the Alpha of the two. He would shout at Guze all the time, but it was obvious that it was playful banter.

During this whole escapade of stress and loud, funny movers, Izzy and Momo were locked up in the upstairs bathroom (which happens to be mine). And Momo found a very interesting spot to sleep:



And today we got our internet set up by this weird Bush-And-Glen-Beck-Loving cable guy. For those who do not know who Glen Beck is, look him up on YouTube and witness the horror. He is a wack job comentator for Fox News *shudder* and he is worse than Rush Limbaugh (Right-Wing Idiot Extrordinaire), Sean Hannity (Fox News Maniac), and Ann Coulter (Idiot-Right-Wing-Woman-Who-Told-the-9/11-Widows-to-"take the money and shut up").

So yeah... life sure has taken an interesting turn... Oh and I'm getting Mum's Mac!