I can’t believe we officially have a teenager in the house! 13 years ago today, our lives changed for the better in so many ways, and it was all thanks to the arrival of Miss Ava Pellegrini. She is such a sweet kid with an outgoing personality, a huge heart, and a level of commitment that you don’t see in many people. While today is her actual birthday, we have been celebrating with her for the past few days. After all, you only become a teenager once.
We held Ava’s first surprise party on Friday night at a local roller skating rink. Several of her softball teammates and their families joined us and Ava had a blast. She had no idea it was coming and was so surprised when she walked in and saw everyone. The following day, one of her friends came over for a sleepover. Jessica dropped them off at the movie theater to see “Red One”, which was a big deal because she had never gone to a movie without an adult before. Yesterday was her softball team’s end-of-season party at a local bowling alley. We hung out with everyone for a couple of hours and had a nice time.
Last night we all watched Grandpa Rick and Debbie’s wedding ceremony on YouTube. We were sorry not to be able to attend it in person but were thankful to be able to watch it online. It looked like a nice event and we’re very happy for both of them.
Today started with Ava opening some presents before school. She wished she didn’t have to go to school on her birthday, but what she didn’t realize was that Jessica had been planning all along to take the day off and pull her out of school early for a special day. I thought about joining them but decided not to because I get a lot more one-on-one time with Ava than Jessica does, so I wanted them to have this memorable time together.
After pulling her out of school, they stopped home for a minute, and as luck would have it, the custom softball glove that we ordered for her a month ago arrived in the mail. The timing couldn’t have been better! She has always used my 40-year-old Little League glove for softball, which is very sweet, but it was time for her to get something bigger and better. The glove was initially designed by her when I showed her the website, but I think she forgot about it. It’s her color scheme with an Italian flag, and it even has her nickname “Lightweight” embroidered on it, which was given to her by her beloved hitting coach, Bill Madlock.
Tonight, we’re all going out with a family friend to see the new movie “Wicked”, then tomorrow Auntie Dana and Uncle Brad will be arriving from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with us. I have a special meal planned for us on Wednesday night, then we’re all going to decorate the house and Christmas tree afterward. Thursday will be spent at Devin’s house, which is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition for us, and then on Monday, I’ll be starting my new job as a Senior Software Engineer with Old Republic Title! I’m so thankful to have the job search behind me and don’t have to wait until the new year to land something.
As is the case every year, we have so much to be thankful for. Everyone is happy, healthy, and living their best lives. My brief unemployment stint caused a little bump in the road, but we used that as a teachable moment for the kids. Overall, things couldn’t be better, and we’re all excited for the holiday season. Above all, I hope this was an excellent birthday for Ava and that she never forgets it. She brings more joy to everyone than she realizes and we’re so lucky to be able to call her our daughter.
Happy 13th birthday sweetheart. Here are some recent photos and videos celebrating Miss Ava.
Opening presents on the morning of her birthdayShe loves her new bag from Uncle Jim and Aunt BrendaShe loves all things “Demon Slayer”Ready for school
Here she is opening her new softball glove
Getting ready for her first softball game in the 14U age divisionAfter winning her first Defensive MVP awardAfter winning her first Offensive MVP awardShe won Offensive MVP for the championship games because she got on base during every at-bat
This was her first at-bat of the first championship game
Halloween is always a special day for our family. Not only is it my Mom’s birthday, but it’s all three of our kids’ favorite holiday. If it wasn’t their favorite holiday before moving to Henderson it certainly was after, as our neighborhood goes big on the decorations and trick-or-treating every year. This is an especially big birthday for my Mom, as she begins a new decade, and I can’t even begin to thank her enough for everything she does. Jessica, the kids, and I all feel very lucky to have her as a regular part of our lives and we wish her the happiest of birthdays!
While we won’t get a chance to see her today, we will get to spend the next few days with her at our house, which everyone is looking forward to. She will be coming over to our house tomorrow afternoon and staying until Sunday. I’ve got a nice birthday meal planned for Friday night, consisting of plant-based tenderloins and ribs from Juicy Marbles, baked potatoes, vegetables, and pumpkin pie (Mom’s favorite) for dessert. We don’t have specific plans during the day on Saturday but that evening Ava has another softball game and she is very excited that Nana will be there to watch her play. I know Mom always talks about what a difference it made in her life when we moved from Washington to Nevada, but it definitely goes both ways. Having her nearby has changed our lives for the better and I’m so thankful for all the memories the kids are making with her.
Tonight we’re looking forward to trick-or-treating in our neighborhood with friends. Tiko and Tina are bringing their girls over, and I’m sure we’ll gang up with a bunch of the neighbors. This is arguably the biggest night of the year for the kids and it’s always a blast watching them live their best lives as they run from door to door, then come home to sort through the night’s treasure. As far as costumes go, Elise was a cheetah today at school, but tonight she is dressing up as Gru from the Minions movies. Ava, who is a huge fan of the Japanese anime series Demon Slayer, dressed up as Mitsuri Kanroji, and Enzo has a hilarious blow up costume of a sumo wrestler. Jessica decided to honor her childhood by dressing up as one of her all-time favorite characters, Mary Poppins. I hate to be a stick in the mud, but I don’t have a costume this year. It’s just me and the cats at home all day so there wasn’t much of a reason for me to put together a costume. However, my Los Angeles Dodgers did win the World Series last night, so maybe I’ll replicate last year’s costume by wearing my Dodgers uniform.
Outside of the Halloween and birthday festivities, things are going well. Jessica is continuing to crush it in her masters program at UNLV. She is getting excellent scores on all of her tests, assignments, and group projects, so she’s feeling good about how the year is shaping up. The first quarter of school recently wrapped up for the kids and each one of them had all A’s and B’s, which we were very proud of. Enzo just finished his rock climbing class and is looking forward to signing up again as soon as possible. Elise continues to enjoy her Saturday morning boxing classes and Ava is doing better than ever in softball. She was asked to play third base in one of our recent games because our normal third baseman was going to be away, and ended up getting our team’s defensive player of the game award! I was so proud of her commitment and preparation for the opportunity. We were showing up early to practice and staying late after practice so we could drill grounders at third and the throw across the diamond to first base.
On my end of things, I’m still in the middle of a job search, as the opportunity I mentioned in last month’s post didn’t work out. That was a tough pill to swallow, mainly because I made it all the way to the final interview before they decided to go with someone else. I was feeling a bit down about it for a couple of days but eventually shook it off and started focusing on new opportunities. I was thinking about something we tell the girls all the time in softball, which is to focus on the two things that are in your control: attitude and effort.
On the attitude side, I had to remind myself that I have a skillset and resume that plenty of companies are looking for. It’s just difficult timing because we’re nearing the end of the year, and we’re in the late stages of a presidential election cycle, both of which have an effect on hiring and spending for many businesses. On the effort side, every day is a “work” day for me. I’m constantly applying for jobs, sending out my resume, talking with recruiters, and scheduling interviews. Based on all of this market research, I have a good idea of exactly what skills employers are looking for, so I purchased three different web development / computer science courses on Udemy and spend hours each day going through them.
In addition to all this job search stuff, I’m also staying busy by working on a freelance project, and doing daily work on the Cappers web application. October is a busy sports month because the NHL and NBA seasons get started, then you have college basketball starting in the first week of November. Devin is doing his best to find investors for Cappers, and if that comes through, it will be a dream come true, but in the meantime, I will continue with this headstrong job hunt approach. I’ve got plenty of irons in the fire at this point and I’m hopeful that it won’t be very long before something comes through. I had an interview yesterday and another one today, both of which went very well, so hopefully I’ll be invited for the next round of interviews in the next few days. I honestly feel like the busiest unemployed person in the world.
Earlier this month we were paid a visit by Grandma and Grandpa Martin, who spent a long weekend with us. They took the kids to a show on the strip, came to one of Ava’s softball games, and the 7 of us attended the NASCAR race that was in town that weekend. They also took us out to an outstanding sushi meal at one of our new favorite restaurants. It was a great visit and we hope to see them again soon.
November will be a big month for us, mostly because Ava will be turning 13 years old on the 25th. Jessica and I can’t believe we’re about to be parents of a teenager, but Ava is a great kid and tends to make things pretty easy on us. Additionally, Auntie Dana and Uncle Brad are coming to stay with us for Thanksgiving, so we’re looking forward to spending that long weekend with them. Another holiday season is upon us, which is crazy, but things are good and we all love this time of year.
That’s about it for now. Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday Nana!!!
I never begin a family blog post with an update about myself, but I just need to get my news out of the way this month. Three weeks ago I was laid off from my job in the sports betting industry. This came as a big surprise, especially considering there was no indication leading up to it that something like this might happen. I thought everything was going well, and as much as I would like to explain things in detail, part of my severance agreement was that I keep my mouth shut, so I intend to keep my word. All I can say is that I’m sorry things didn’t work out, I wish them the best, and I have plenty else to focus on.
The good news is that I have already passed two interviews for a role as a senior software engineer with a major company. The third and final interview is this Tuesday, so hopefully, it goes well and things get back to normal for me very soon. In the meantime, I have been working a lot on Cappers, and in all honesty, my daily routine hasn’t changed at all. I still get up at the same time and head downstairs to my office, but I’m getting to spend my days working on something I love. Our subscriber base has been growing consistently since football season began and we’re starting to look for opportunities to raise investments in the company. Devin and I are more bullish than ever about our business and I hope to have more positive news to share about Cappers in the coming months.
One positive life lesson I want to share about getting laid off is related to how I began my search for a new job. A few years ago when we were still living in the Seattle area, I used to receive constant messages from recruiters on LinkedIn about various job opportunities. Most software engineers don’t even bother to respond to these messages but I always made it a point to spend a few seconds sending a polite response. Many of these recruiters would reply back thanking me for at least acknowledging their message and telling me to reach out if I was ever looking for new opportunities. Well, that’s exactly what I did after getting laid off. I started messaging these recruiters letting them know that I was available, and within minutes I started receiving job descriptions. Perhaps they still would have responded to me even if I hadn’t replied to their original message, but the fact that I was polite to them when I didn’t need to be certainly didn’t hurt.
So, that’s all for now on that front. Hopefully, I will have some positive job-related news to share in next month’s post. In the meantime, I’m staying focused on job preparation and adding more features to the Cappers application.
In other family news, Jessica is crushing it at UNLV for her master’s program. She got an A in her first class and passed another exam with flying colors. Her dedication to the work is beyond impressive and it’s clearly leaving a positive impression on our kids. They’re seeing first-hand what hard work and dedication, in the context of school specifically, will result in. No one appreciates what she’s doing more than me, and considering my current situation, I’m doing my best to make it easier on her in any way I can.
School is also going well for each of the kids. Elise is thriving in her first year of middle school and her teachers all love her. She is playing the violin in the school’s orchestra and seems to mention new musical things she is learning each day. Ava’s grades have never been better and she continues to love playing the trumpet in the school’s band. Obviously, their engagement in music brings me a lot of joy and I hope they both stick with it long-term. Enzo has all A’s and B’s in his 4th grade class and recently received advanced level scores in a national math exam. Jessica and I are so proud of each of them in terms of their scholastic progress and extra-curricular involvement.
On the activities side of things, each of the kids has something to keep them busy. Elise is back in a boxing class, which she attends every Saturday morning. There’s no doubt that she is the strongest one of our children, and she always enjoys the classes, so this seems to be a good fit for her. So far, it’s all about physical conditioning and technique, meaning the kids aren’t actually punching each other. I can’t help but wonder if the love of boxing will live on once she starts sparring with other kids, but only time will tell. For now, I’m just glad she is enjoying herself while building strength and self-confidence.
Enzo recently got back into a rock climbing class, which he attends on Monday evenings at the local rec center. He did the same class last year and is loving it so far this year. I hope he sticks with it because it’s building not just strength but problem-solving skills as well. It was a bit more difficult to get him to commit to something because he’s not interested in team sports, but this seems to be a good fit.
Ava has been staying busy with softball, which means I too am busy with softball. She has practices two days per week, plus batting cage sessions on Sunday mornings. The weather is still surprisingly hot here so our Saturday afternoon practices have not been easy, but we’re making progress. Being out there in 105-degree heat while doing drills is not easy for anyone but I frequently tell the girls how proud I am of their dedication and resiliency. Our first game is next weekend and this is our first season in the 14U age division, so it will be a new challenge for us.
This weekend Grandpa Rick and his fiance Debbie are visiting us from Iowa. Rick has a work conference in Las Vegas this week so they came out a couple of days early to visit. Last night we all attended the Triple-A baseball championship at the Las Vegas ballpark. Later today they will be checking into their hotel on the strip but it was nice to get some time with them.
I think it’s fair to say we’re all looking forward to October for our own reasons. The kids love Halloween, especially in this neighborhood, and my Mom has a major birthday coming up that we’re excited to celebrate. We made it through the hottest Summer in Las Vegas history and are now ready for the lovely Fall weather. As a sports fan, this is my favorite time of year, and it’s also the beginning of my “cooking season.” That’s all for now; I’m looking forward to sharing some good news in the next post. Here are a few recent family photos.
Ava and Elise heading out for schoolJessica and Enzo on Sports Day at schoolElise decorating the house for HalloweenFamily movie night with takeout
Wrapping up the 23-24 school year, celebrating Mom, and preparing for another trip to Colorado.
May has been an exciting month for us on multiple levels. Earlier this month, Elise graduated from elementary school, and like her sister a year before, she had the pleasure of giving a speech during the ceremony about her 5th-grade teacher. She worked hard on this speech, and although she later said she was nervous while delivering it, you couldn’t tell while listening. Elise has been attending acting classes for the past few months and they seem to have paid off. We’re so proud of her, not only for having the courage to get up there and deliver this speech but also for all the work that went into it. She is now officially done with elementary school and will be joining Ava in middle school next year.
In addition to wrapping up her first year of middle school, this has been an exciting month for Ava due to the fact that her softball team, the Henderson Hawks, won their second consecutive championship in the 12U age group. After starting the season 1-1 during a double-header, they never lost another game all season long, including the playoffs. Ava’s improvement this season has been such a joy to witness and I felt lucky to be a part of the team as an assistant coach. We’re already looking forward to our next season in the Fall and Ava is determined to improve this offseason just like she did during the last one.
Another thing the girls have been working on that I’m very proud of is that they have both done more than 60 consecutive days of foreign language lessons on Duolingo! Ava is doing Japanese lessons while Elise is studying Italian, and they’re both obsessed with making sure they always do their daily lesson. I can relate, as it was only a few years ago that I finished all of the Italian lessons on Duolingo. I never missed a day in over 3 years, so it makes me proud to see them both doing the same thing on their own accord.
Enzo is now finished with 3rd grade and is excited to be on Summer break. It’s hard to believe that he is our only child who still attends elementary school. Although he hasn’t been as busy as his sisters with activities, he still loves to shoot hoops at home, go swimming, ride bikes, and play catch. He did very well in school this year and is excited for 4th grade, just not too soon.
Jessica recently made a big decision that we’re all very proud of. During the next school year, she will continue working as an assistant in her school’s special education classroom, but she will also be taking classes to get her teaching certificate. She plans on taking over a class of her own the following year! This transition has been on her mind for a while but she recently decided that the time is right. This summer she will be preparing for the entrance exam and looks forward to starting her classes in the fall.
Monday was also an exciting day for Jessica because we went out shopping together as a family and got her a nice new bicycle at REI. Ava has outgrown her old mountain bike and has recently started riding Jessica’s bike, then Enzo moved up from his old racing BMX bike to Ava’s old mountain bike. This left Jessica without a bike so we decided to check out REI’s Memorial Day sale. We ended up finding the perfect bike for her and are excited to do more family bike rides this summer.
Earlier this month we celebrated Mom by getting out for a Mother’s Day hike at Red Rocks. It was Jessica’s idea, which was a big deal for her because she hadn’t been hiking since her accident last fall. We started early to avoid the heat and enjoyed all the beautiful scenery. Elise and Enzo got to sit in a bright green Lamborghini at one of the rest stops, and we even got to see some ancient petroglyphs painted on one of the rock walls.
On my end of things, I’m now in my 3rd week working at Unabated Sports and I love it. I still can’t believe I’m working in the sports betting industry and I have to chuckle when I think about my Dad working as a bookie for my entire childhood. I like to joke that he was the original “work from home” and now here I am working from home in the same industry. At least I don’t have to worry about getting arrested though.
After one day of onboarding, they threw me into the deep end with a complicated task on my second day which took a couple weeks to complete. Our CEO later told me that it was the most complicated first task anyone had ever received at Unabated, which made me feel good because it wasn’t easy. More importantly, it’s an awesome company to work at and I’m excited to start work each day.
At my last job, I had a daily meeting at 7:00 am Pacific time, so I’d wake up by 6:40 and hop online just in time. Now, I wake up at 5:30 am to work out, do some Cappers work, clean up, and then still be online for my day job by 7:00. I love having those early mornings to myself and feel like I have already accomplished something before my actual workday even begins. I’m learning a lot about sports betting and also becoming a strong engineer from this role, so I have already started applying some of these new things to Cappers. It’s an exciting time for me.
This weekend we will be driving up to Colorado to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. We were originally going to leave on Saturday but Ava’s softball team is holding their end-of-season party that day so we decided to push our travel plans out by one day. The weather should be pretty good so I’m looking forward to taking one of their Harley’s out for a spin. Camping in the Rocky Mountain National Forest should be a lot of fun, so I expect next month’s update to be a bit longer than this one.
We’ve got a lot of good stuff to look forward to this summer, and I’m so proud of Jessica for the commitment she has made. See you next month with an update about our latest trip to Colorado!
Jessica’s birthday weekend, family activities, and a new job for Dad.
Yesterday was Jessica’s birthday and we were able to make a fun weekend out of it. On Saturday morning she ran a 5k with Elise and Enzo as part of the school running club that Elise has been involved in this year. Unfortunately, Ava and I weren’t able to be there to cheer them on because her softball team had a double-header in Pahrump that morning, which is about an hour away, but they had a great time. Here’s a photo from their race.
On Saturday, Jessica wanted to check out a hibachi restaurant near our house. We thought it would be a fun experience and that the kids would enjoy the show. It turned out to be a great time and is something we plan on doing again soon. Elise had been to a hibachi restaurant one time with her friend’s family, but Ava and Enzo had never experienced anything like this before. There was a guy seated across from us who was very friendly and offered Enzo $5 if he could catch a shrimp from the chef in his mouth. He was given three tries and this is how it turned out.
Afterward, the chef gave everyone a chance to catch a piece of shrimp in their mouth. Jessica and I both caught ours on the first try but let’s just say that wasn’t the case for everyone else. Overall it was a fun and new experience with delicious food, and the whole table sang “Happy Birthday” to Jessica.
We slept in on Sunday morning, then later I got to work on a crab cake benedict for her birthday brunch. I had offered to skip my baseball game but she told me not to, so it was important to me that I make her a nice meal. The kids had never eaten eggs benedict before but they all liked it, especially the homemade hollandaise sauce.
After brunch we went to the park to play frisbee for a bit and enjoy the beautiful weather, then I had to get ready for my game. While I was away, Jessica and the kids went out for ice cream, and by the time I got home, everyone was relaxing for the evening. Another exciting thing to come out of Jessica’s birthday was that we finalized our dates for the Colorado trip in June. As it turns out, we’re going to be gone for 11 days, which is more than originally expected but it made the most sense based on everything we want to do with Grandma and Grandpa Martin. I’ll be working for several of those days, but will still be taking a few days off as well. The plan is to leave Nevada on Saturday, June 1st, and return on Tuesday, June 11th. I look forward to writing a big update about it in June!
I hope Jessica had a great birthday, and most importantly, how much we all love and appreciate her!
In addition to Jessica’s birthday, we also recently attended a school awards ceremony at the South Point Hotel and Casino. She was nominated for support staff of the year, and although she didn’t win, it was still a great honor and clear validation that she is doing the right thing. She received an engraved plaque and we enjoyed the ceremony with friends, so it was a fun and memorable night all around.
Softball and Baseball Update
While my baseball season is just getting going, Ava’s softball season is cruising right along toward the playoffs. Her team is 7-1 and we just beat the 1st-place team in both games of a double-header on Saturday. Her improvement this season has been so fun to watch and I’m proud of how committed she is. She never turns down an opportunity to practice and never misses a team event. Sometimes it gets tricky due to other family commitments, and we have had to ask other families for help getting her to or from practice more than once, but it always works out.
It’s been a pleasure for me to help the team this season as an assistant coach and I know Ava loves having me out there. We only have two more weeks until the playoffs begin, so her season will be over before we know it, but we’re doing our best to repeat as league champions, and no matter what, we will definitely be back for the next season this Fall.
On the baseball side, I’m having a blast getting out there with the guys every Sunday. I can handle all the bumps and bruises, as well as waking up sore on Monday mornings because I love the whole experience. I’m making friends, playing better than expected, and best of all, getting to share this experience with Enzo, who is our team’s batboy.
So far, our team has played 4 games and we have a record of 1-3, which isn’t great, but it’s a brand new team and we’re still finding our way. You never know who is going to make it each weekend due to other schedules and conflicts, but it’s always a good time. I currently have a batting average of .500, which is much better than I expected to start off at. I haven’t struck out more than once in a game and yesterday’s game was the first one where I didn’t strike out at all. I’ve had a few really nice hits, including a blast over the center fielder’s head in game 3 that resulted in a standup double. The best part was reaching second base and hearing Enzo yell “Father of the Year!!!”
I have already had a scary moment as well, which was in my first at-bat of the second game. The first pitch I saw was a fastball coming right at my head. I later learned that I should have ducked away but I have never practiced this type of situation before and the ball was coming in very fast, so my natural instinct was to pull back. The ball clipped my left wrist and then hit me right in the face! I could tell no serious damage was done but it was scary for everyone, not just me. I hated the fact that Enzo had to see this happen to me in my first at-bat since he had joined the team, but it was memorable.
As expected, the guys on the team love having Enzo around and it seems clear that Enzo loves it just as much, if not more. Our team’s manager insisted on paying for Enzo’s jersey due to all the help he provides, and as I told him recently, we’re creating memories for a lifetime. Even if he never plays ball himself, he will always remember being the batboy for his dad’s team. I would have loved to do this sort of thing with my own dad but I’m glad to be doing my part to make it happen now. I’m not getting any younger, and am already one of the oldest guys out there, but I love it and want to continue playing as long as possible.
My New Job in the Sports Betting Industry
To close things off, I’m excited to announce that I have accepted a new job as a Senior Software Engineer with Unabated Sports; an industry leader in sports betting analytics! I wasn’t even looking for a new job because my plan was to continue working at my current day job until my own company, Cappers.ai, was successful enough for me to work there full-time, but this opportunity with Unabated popped up and was too good for me not to pursue.
I stumbled upon Unabated on Twitter a few weeks ago and was immediately impressed with their business model. I even sent their link to my partner Devin saying that this is exactly how I would like to see our company evolve. Later on, I noticed on their Twitter feed that they were hiring software engineers and were looking for someone with experience in C# and relational databases. As it just so happens, this is exactly what I used to build the Cappers application, so I figured I had nothing to lose by applying.
I sent them an email with my resume and talked about my experience with Cappers, then about 90 minutes later I had an email from their CEO asking if we could chat. We had a few meetings over the next two weeks and ultimately they made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. I made sure to verify with them that Cappers wasn’t going to be a conflict of interest and they were fine with it.
I’m so excited to get started two weeks from today. I know I’m going to learn a ton and can’t wait to dive head-first into their platform. I’m particularly proud of this new role because it’s a product of the initiative and hard work that went into building the Cappers site. I built that thing from scratch, have learned a ton along the way, and continue to put countless hours into it. While I haven’t been unhappy working at my current day job, which is in the healthcare industry, having the opportunity to work in the world of sports betting, which is something that I love and am good at, is very exciting. I can’t help but think that my dad would be proud. He always told me when I was a kid not to follow in his footsteps, but to me this feels like the best of both worlds.
Regardless of how things turn out with Cappers, this is a great opportunity with Unabated. Several of their founders were founders of the Action Network, which is the biggest platform out there for sports bettors, and I’m getting in as one of the first 30 employees. They are consistently beating their revenue targets and growing fast. My family has been so supportive throughout this process and I know Jessica is very happy for me to be able to take this on. I look forward to providing more updates about it in the near future.
That’s about it for now. It’s crazy that the school year is about to come to an end, and we’re excited for Elise because she will be giving a speech at her elementary school graduation ceremony, just like Ava did a year ago. We don’t have a whole lot planned in May, but June should be a lot of fun due to our Colorado trip, then Grandpa Rudd will be visiting for the 4th of July. Shortly after that will be our weekend in Phoenix, and then as soon as we get back from that our good friends the Palmers will be coming down for their annual visit.
Here are a few more recent photos. See you next month!
Visiting with old friends from SeattleI got to speak to Elise’s 5th-grade class about being a software engineer for Career DayJessica’s birthday dinnerHeading to the park on Mom’s birthday
2024 is about to get very busy for us! Here’s an update on school activities, sports, Superbowl events, and more.
Winter is wrapping up quickly here in the desert and we suddenly find ourselves as busy as ever with events and activities. It looks like Tuesday will be our busiest day for the next few months, especially for Elise who has choir before school, Girls On The Run immediately after school, and then acting class after that! I am an assistant coach on Ava’s softball team and we have practices on Tuesday night as well, so our whole family will be running around on those days. In addition to the Tuesday night practices, we have practice or games on Saturdays, batting cage sessions on Sunday mornings, and we will eventually be playing games on Thursday evenings as well. For myself, baseball season is just getting started and I will soon be playing games on Sundays, so it’s safe to say I’ll be spending a ton of time around a baseball field this Spring.
Regarding school activities, Elise and Enzo recently completed their annual APEX fun run. They had a blast doing it last year and were even more successful with their fundraising this year. Elise’s teacher set a very high goal for the classroom and said that there would be no more homework for the rest of the school year if they achieved this goal. Apparently, that was the right kind of motivation because they totally did achieve it! Enzo set a goal for himself on the day of the run to complete 100 obstacle courses and he ended up finishing just shy with 96. For comparison, the average number of completed courses for a kid was about 65.
With the girls being as busy as they are it means that Mr. Enzo will be running around a lot with Jessica and me from one activity to another. We’re trying to get him involved in something but haven’t had any luck so far. He loves playing football and basketball at school with his friends, plus we frequently shoot hoops at home in the backyard, but whenever we suggest getting onto a team he is totally against it. We’re not sure why he isn’t willing to put himself out there but it’s something we need to work on, otherwise he’s going to start missing out on too many things. He has already set a goal for himself to make it into the Middle School jazz band, which means he will follow Ava’s footsteps by joining the beginning band program during his first year, but that’s still a few years away so we need to focus on the nearer term for now.
Superbowl Activities
Since the Superbowl was in Las Vegas this month, we decided to take advantage as much as possible by attending some related activities. As mentioned in last month’s post, I wanted to keep up the tradition of taking Enzo to a sporting event for his birthday, so this year we attended the Superbowl’s Celebrity Flag Football game, which was held near our house at the Dollar Loan Center. Before the game, Enzo and I had dinner at Tacotarian, and he now insists that their plant-based fish tacos are one of his all-time favorite foods.
We arrived early and had fun checking out the items in the silent auction, then we ran into a couple of his buddies from school. We decided to get some candy at a concession stand and found ourselves standing next to Snooki from Jersey Shore, who was being followed by a camera crew. During the game, Enzo and his friends were standing along the railing next to the field. One of the referees kept coming over to talk to them and introduce them to various celebrities. One of the highlights of the night for Enzo was when he got to meet former NBA all-star Tracy McGrady, who was a captain of one of the teams playing that night. His other big moment that night came after the game when he got to take a picture with UFC star Justin Gaethje.
Enzo and Dad before the Celebrity Flag Football gameEnzo and Justin Gaethje
On the day before the Superbowl, I took the kids to the NFL Play Football event, which was being held at a local high school. Tickets were free if you knew how to get them, and luckily for us, Jessica was able to score four through the school district. It was a fun event filled with complimentary swag and food, plus we got to meet players, and cheerleaders from the Raiders, Chiefs, and 49ers. The cheerleaders performed and the kids got to run through some football obstacle courses. They enjoyed one of them so much that they each did it three or four times. We also got to try on some authentic NFL helmets! It was a really fun event that we were thankful to be able to attend.
The kids with a pair of Raiders cheerleadersElise and Ava with a pair of Chiefs cheerleadersElise with a pair of 49ers cheerleadersEnjoying our complimentary lunch at the NFL Play Football event
Spring Break is coming fast
In addition to all these activities, we’re also getting ready for our trip to Colorado, which is only a couple of weeks away. The plan is to head out early on the morning of Friday, March 8, and drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s house up in the mountains. We will stay the night with them, then drive down to Denver on Saturday morning. We have a hotel reserved in Downtown Denver, just a couple blocks from the concert venue. We will spend the weekend in Denver, then head back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house on Monday morning. The kids love playing in the snow at their house so our plan is to stay with them on Monday and Tuesday, then drive back to Henderson on Wednesday. We’re really excited to see Moon Taxi play live, especially in such a small venue, so I look forward to writing about it in next month’s post.
A few weeks after that, Jessica will be heading back to Iowa to spend some time with her Grandma. It’s been a few years since she has seen her and she doesn’t want to take anything for granted. The kids and I always miss her when she’s gone but it looks like my Mom will be coming over to stay with us for the weekend to help out. It will be the weekend of our 14th anniversary that she’s gone so we’ll have to find another time to celebrate. It’s all good though; I’m glad she is able to get back there and spend some quality time with Sherry.
Vegas Showbiz and Cappers Update
I forgot to mention this in last month’s post, but early in January Vegas Showbiz finally reached 1,000 subscribers on YouTube! This was a goal I had been chasing for nearly two years so it felt great to finally achieve it. This meant that the channel made it to the next tier of the YouTube Partner Program, allowing it to profit from advertisements that run before and during videos. The channel is still small, and based on our average number of daily views, it only makes about $2 per day, but it’s something and it can only go up from here.
There are other perks that come with the channel though, for instance, Jessica and I recently had the pleasure of attending the Grand Reopening of the Jersey Boys show at The Orleans. Jersey Boys used to play in Vegas between 2008 and 2016, and it was a very popular show during that time, but it’s been gone since then. The Orleans has never done a show this big before and we loved it. Before the show we got to attend a cocktail party, then we were seated in the front row for the show! We were cracking up because they were clearly giving us the VIP YouTuber treatment even though our channel isn’t big at all. These are exactly the kinds of things I was hoping would happen when creating the channel two years ago, so it felt great to be able to have them come true. We very much enjoyed the show and gave it a nice review a couple of days later.
Ready for Jersey Boys to begin!
Regarding Cappers, things have definitely picked up over the past two months. One major contributor to that has been the addition of our daily sports betting analysis video, which we post on YouTube Shorts and TikTok. It’s one minute or less and we simply highlight a play that looks attractive on the site. It’s normally a screen recording of the site with either Devin or myself talking about why we selected this particular play. We only get about 40 views per day on YouTube, but we average anywhere from 200 to 700 views per day on TikTok! This has been driving a lot more traffic to our site, resulting in more free trials and more paid subscriptions.
Recently we even got our first annual subscriber, which came from a guy in Ireland, of all places. It’s great to see that we are reaching an international audience, and it comes as no surprise that when we review our viewer analytics on TikTok, we can see that about 96% of our viewers are male, and the majority of them are between the ages of 18 and 25. Sports betting is extremely popular with young men these days, especially since new states are constantly legalizing it. While there are plenty of services out there for sports bettors, most of them are known as Touts, and they simply tell you who to bet on. These services are much more expensive than our site, so it makes sense that a younger generation of sports bettors is attracted to our platform, which focuses more on presenting relevant information for them to make their own decisions with. I am constantly working on adding new features to the site which add value for our users and I firmly believe that it’s only a matter of time before this thing really takes off.
One feature I’m really proud of is the Expected Value dashboard, which compares odds on every game from a lot of different sports books and identifies games where you can get good value by betting on a specific game at a specific sports book. One thing that makes the sports financial market much different from the stock market is the fact that the odds for games are often different from one book to another. The same kind of thing doesn’t exist in the stock market, meaning the price of a stock is the same regardless of which brokerage firm you use. When I find value in a game at a particular book, I run it through variants of the Kelly Criterion formula to determine the optimal bet size, as a percentage of your total bankroll. In many cases, no bet is recommended, but when enough value is there we display the optimal bet size and it’s doing very well. I’m always tracking the performance of our dashboards and systems, and I’m confident that our users are turning a profit if they follow along.
Another feature I recently built that I’m very proud of is related to NBA player prop bets. If you’re not familiar with prop bets, it’s like betting that a certain player will score more or less than a certain amount of points in a game. It goes well beyond points though. In the case of basketball, you can use Cappers to research how many rebounds, assists, and three-pointers they will have. Each day our site analyzes every prop bet available for every player, then examines their stats from every game of the season to determine how likely they are to go over or under the given line. We graph all of this out for the user, then compare their recent performance to how well the opposing team does at stopping players in these categories. For example, if a player has been rebounding well recently and they’re playing against a team that is at the bottom of the league in rebounding, we highlight that to the users.
We frequently recommend these types of plays in our daily videos and have been very successful in doing so. I find these types of plays much easier to beat consistently than betting on the outcome of an entire game. They’re known in the gambling world as “soft markets” while betting on games are considered “hard markets.” Not only do these types of plays appeal to sports bettors, but they also appeal to fantasy sports players, which opens up a much larger audience to us. I’m already working on adding the same type of feature for the upcoming baseball season, then will do the same thing for the next football season as well.
In order to continue building our knowledge, Devin and I are always reading books and watching videos about sports betting. Whenever we learn valuable new things, we work on adding them to Cappers. This was how Cappers originated, with me reading books about NBA betting and transferring those learnings into a website, so that trend continues to this day. Sorry for being so long-winded about Cappers but you can probably tell that it goes beyond work for me. It has become a passion that I have invested myself heavily into. I can’t wait for the day that this is my only job, but in the meantime, I’m willing to continue grinding along with two jobs as long as necessary. Again, it’s only a matter of time.
I guess that’s about it for now. It’s great to be busy again, and although it’s been a mild winter for us, it’s nice to have it already warming up. We’re going to be outside a lot this Spring, and I’m excited for everything the kids have going on. Elise and Ava have school performances coming up soon, I’m excited to be out at the baseball field regularly, and can’t wait to get to Colorado. Other than holidays, I haven’t had a day off since starting my new day job last April, so this getaway is going to be nice. Here are a few more recent family photos.
Elise looking adorable at schoolDinner at our new favorite Chinese restaurant, ShangHai Taste.Enzo and his buddies at the APEX Fun RunElise and Mom at the APEX Fun Run
Our 2023 Christmas break was centered around home this year, with frequent dining out, family movie nights, batting cage visits and ice skating, ample video game sessions, and a delightful visit from Grandma and Grandpa Martin.
In contrast to last year’s trip to Colorado, our family opted for a low-key December at home this time. It’s been a lively and eventful month filled with shopping, dining out, video games, batting cage fun, ice skating, and cozy family movie nights. The kids eagerly anticipated their school holiday break and while they may not be fully prepared to go back next week, it’s clear that everyone has relished their time off.
After Ava’s softball season ended, we decided to start frequenting a local batting cage with her teammates during the off-season. We found it so enjoyable that I opted for a monthly membership, granting us unrestricted access to the facility. Our visits often include Ava’s teammates and their families, but we also go on our own at times. I’ve even introduced Jessica and other friends to the experience, and they all seem to love it as well. Even if you’re not into baseball or softball, using the batting cage is an excellent way to stay active and improve hand-eye coordination. Our goal is to keep going throughout the off-season so that both Ava and I are fully prepared for our upcoming seasons starting in March.
Ava’s Christmas this year had a strong softball theme, with her receiving a new gear bag and stylish batting gloves. She also got a variety of new clothes and an extensive book series from her favorite Anime, Demon Slayer. One of the most thrilling gifts was a trip to a tattoo shop to get her ears pierced a few days after Christmas. We made sure to go to a specialized shop instead of getting it done at the mall. Since then, she has been fixated on them, worrying that they might fall out, but she is delighted with how they look and happy to have them.
Elise’s Christmas revolved around fashion and skincare products. Lately, she has been very interested in taking care of her skin, regularly using various masks and creams. She has also started wearing a bit of makeup and is very passionate about keeping up with the latest fashion trends. It’s amusing to see that one of her beauty products is an anti-aging cream, even though she’s only 10! I don’t think she needs to be concerned about aging at this age. It’s been delightful to witness her growth into a remarkable young lady.
Enzo was thrilled with his Christmas gifts, especially the two new pairs of shoes. One of them stood out as the most vibrant and colorful tennis shoes I had ever seen! In addition to the footwear, he received a collection of clothes, a new football, wide receiver gloves, and an assortment of toys to keep him entertained. Jessica and I couldn’t help but laugh at his confident demeanor when he’s wearing something he loves.
Jessica and I are big fans of the TV show Survivor, and one thing that always stands out to us is the contestants’ signature accessory called a Buff, which is essentially a type of neck gaiter. When we threw Enzo’s Survivor-themed birthday party a couple of years ago, we gave everyone in our family custom-printed Buffs featuring designs from season 41 of the show. While I still regularly wear mine, Jessica doesn’t wear hers as much because she finds the print too bold. This Christmas, I decided to surprise her with a merino wool Buff in her favorite color, teal, so she could enjoy wearing it more often. Along with that, I also got her a sleek Yeti travel mug and a Henderson Hawks t-shirt for her to wear at Ava’s softball games. In return, Jessica gifted me a set of wooden chopsticks and something I’m really excited about: she signed me up for a beginner’s sushi-making class in January!
Even though we continue to consume plant-based foods regularly, sushi has significantly impacted our lives in recent months. Jessica and I found that it was the one thing we truly missed after eliminating meat and fish from our diets in 2020. Luckily, there is a fantastic sushi restaurant just down the street from our house that we all love to visit, and the kids also enjoy going to a few revolving sushi restaurants around town.
Last Saturday, we took my Mom out to watch the new Willy Wonka movie, which was fantastic. After the movie, we enjoyed an amazing sushi dinner at a relatively new restaurant called Taru. It was the best sushi meal we’ve had in a while and we can’t wait to go back. I’m really excited for the beginner’s sushi-making class in January, where I’ll learn to make sushi rice, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, and vegetable hand rolls. I’m already looking forward to taking the advanced class later on. I’m sure the kids will be delighted to have homemade sushi for dinner at home soon.
Apart from the various gifts we received for Christmas, I upheld our yearly custom of gifting electronics by buying a PlayStation 5 for the family. Both the kids and I had been eager to have one, and after being hard to come by at first, I managed to snag a great deal on Black Friday this year. Additionally, I bought five games and customized PS5 controllers for each of the kids.
This year, as Christmas Eve coincided with a Sunday, Jessica and I decided to let the kids unwrap all of their PS5-related presents early in the morning. We then dedicated the entire day to playing video games. Additionally, I surprised them with the new Super Mario Wonder game for the Nintendo Switch and set up an extra TV in the family room, making our gaming session even more exciting! Our gaming marathon extended into Christmas Day as well.
After Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Martin made the trip from Colorado to visit us for a few days. It worked out perfectly because we visited them last Christmas, and this year they came to us. They took the kids shopping for Christmas gifts and even went to the Las Vegas strip one afternoon. Ava got some new shelves for her bedroom, which Grandpa Tom installed, making it look incredibly organized. Elise found more skincare products while shopping with Grandma, and Enzo got some new clothes, including a couple of Boston Celtics hats. One evening, we took them to dinner at our favorite local sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, today is their last full day with us before they drive back to Colorado tomorrow.
Jessica and I decided to give the kids a special gift that we’ve all been eagerly anticipating. After brainstorming ideas for Spring Break 2024, we realized that we all share a love for attending concerts. So, we made plans for a road trip to Denver to see one of our favorite bands, Moon Taxi, perform on the first Saturday of Spring Break. We quickly secured tickets and are excitedly looking forward to the drive in March. Their music is a staple in our car rides, and although it’s a long journey, we’ve made it before and are now planning other enjoyable activities in Denver during our stay. While we’re no strangers to Colorado, most of our time has been spent in the mountains, so spending a few days in Denver will be a refreshing change of scenery.
The Christmas break for this year is almost over. We’re excited to visit Devin’s house on New Year’s Eve, and shortly after that, Jessica and the kids will be back in school. I’ve been working throughout the break, but I enjoy having everyone at home with me all day. It’s been a wonderful break, but returning to our usual schedule is also beneficial. Below are some of our cherished family photos from this holiday season. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Getting ready for Halloween and keeping busy with lots of activities!
Halloween is always a big deal for our family. Not only is it Nan’s birthday, but it’s easily one of our favorite holidays. Elise will tell you without hesitation that Halloween is her favorite holiday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Ava and Enzo said the same thing. Jessica is really into it as well; she’s the reigning costume champion at the school she works at and is hoping to repeat this year. Last year she killed it with her pinata costume and this year she has put together an amazing outfit to dress up as Willy Wonka.
As far as the kids’ costumes go, Ava is dressing up as one of her favorite anime characters, Elise is a Pokemon character, and Enzo has a blowup chicken suit with bright rainbow colors. I’m taking the easy route and just dressing up as a baseball player, but in all honesty, Halloween isn’t as big of a thing for me simply because I work from home, so I don’t have anywhere to go in a costume besides trick or treating with the kids.
Speaking of trick or treating, I feel like Halloween has gotten even better for us since moving to Nevada because of the neighborhood we live in. I’ve never seen anything like it. It might even be fair to say that houses in our neighborhood are more decorated for Halloween than Christmas. There’s a house that builds a haunted house in their backyard each year, plus houses that give out full-sized candy bars. There’s even one house that has a cotton candy machine and spins it individually for each kid! It’s such a fun experience for everyone and we always look forward to it each year.
To make our evening even better, my Mom is coming over to have dinner and spend her birthday evening with us. She’ll also be working the front door to hand out candy while we’re out in the neighborhood. I’m looking forward to making a nice birthday dinner for her and getting some quality time. The kids haven’t been able to spend as much time with her recently due to activities and social events, so it will be great having her over.
A Big Night For Elise and Jessica
About six weeks ago Elise was supposed to go to the Ed Sheeran concert at Allegiant Stadium with one of her best friends. They got all the way to the stadium before finding out that the concert had to be postponed due to safety issues while setting things up. The concert was rescheduled for Saturday, October 28, which was last night. As it turned out, Elise’s friend’s Dad wasn’t able to make it, so they had an extra ticket and were kind enough to offer it to Jessica. She was thrilled to be able to go and of course, they had a great time. Jessica took a bunch of videos for me so I’ll be making a Vegas Showbiz video out of it very soon.
Since Elise and Jessica were having a special night, I wanted to do something fun with Ava and Enzo to keep them from getting jealous. We went to the mall and then decided to go to our favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Enzo asked if we could take the long way so I decided to cruise all the way down the Las Vegas strip. I figured it would be fun because it was Saturday night, but it turned out much better than expected. First of all, the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix is only a couple of weeks away, and they’re going to be racing on the strip, so we got to see all the grandstands and other race infrastructure. I love Formula One racing and it was so cool to be driving down the same street that my favorite drivers will soon be racing on. I can’t believe they’re going to be driving 200 mph on that road and can’t wait to see it.
To make our drive even more fun and memorable, we were sitting at the front of an intersection near MGM Grand waiting for a green light, and suddenly about 15 motorcycles came up around us to get in front of me. They were ¾ size stunt bikes and the riders were doing all kinds of cool tricks while waiting for the light to change. We had no idea what was going on but they were waving to us and the kids loved it. They had their bikes up on the back wheel spinning around, then as soon as the light changed they were doing wheelies through the intersection, and some were riding while standing on their seat.
It was 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night, so it was prime time to be cruising the strip. I’m used to seeing classic cars cruising the strip on a Saturday night, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Ava was filming it the whole time on her phone and we were talking about it all night.
Activities Galore
As mentioned earlier, the kids have been staying busy with activities lately, so Jessica and I are constantly running them around. Elise and Enzo are back in their Saturday morning boxing class, and Ava has been loving her new softball team. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the fields and batting cages lately, which I love. Her team won their first nine games before losing one yesterday, so they’re off to an excellent start. The Fall season is shorter than Spring, so there are only a few games left, but I think it’s a guarantee that Ava will be playing again next Spring. She has made a ton of improvement over the past couple of months and we plan on working hard during the offseason.
I’ve enjoyed being back around baseball so much that I too am joining a team in January. I’ve been wanting to get back into some type of team sport or activity because I spend so much time at home working. While I do get plenty of exercise at home via the rowing machine and weights, it’s not the same as getting out there with people.
I thought about joining a hockey team but here’s the problem; hockey is very popular here (like it is in Seattle) but there are only a handful of ice rinks to play at. Kids teams always get preferential ice time, so if you’re on an adult team it’s not uncommon for games to start at 11:00 p.m. or later. I simply can’t make that work with my schedule, but that same problem doesn’t exist for baseball. Not only are there fields everywhere, but the weather here is conducive to playing all year long. I always loved playing baseball as a kid and wish I wouldn’t have quit, so I’m excited to get back into it. I did some research and found the Nevada Adult Baseball Association (NABA), which is a hardball league that looks really fun. I went to one of their games last Sunday and felt like I could definitely keep up. I’m planning on playing catcher and have started training for the season. Luckily, I’ve become friends with a guy who used to be a catcher in the Phillies system, so he’s going to work with me. I’ve also been watching a ton of videos on YouTube and regularly get out to practice with the kids. It’s important for me to stay active and I can’t wait to get back into a team sports environment.
Vegas Showbiz and Cappers Update
Our subscribers for the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel are continuing to grow quickly and we’re now up over 850. Getting to 1,000 has been a goal for me since day one and I think we’ll be there in the next two or three months at most. On the Cappers side of things, I’ve been working on it for exactly a year, and we now finally have some paid subscribers! We’ve obviously still got a long way to go, but our growth is totally organic without any type of paid advertising, so it feels great to see it gaining momentum.
It’s doing well from a performance perspective as well, especially with NHL recommendations. We’re only a few weeks into the new hockey season and if you were to bet one unit on every NHL betting system recommendation our site makes, you’d already be up over 50 units! 50x on your money is insane, and there are certainly no guarantees that it will stay that way for the entire season, but there is no question that we have tapped into some successful systems and methods. I wish we could get that type of performance with football betting, but there’s too much action and the lines are too sharp to make that kind of money. The real profit, when it comes to betting on the major U.S. sports, is with hockey and baseball.
Hopefully, we can continue spreading the word and growing the business. Devin and I are both extremely bullish on our business model and feel like it’s only a matter of time before it blows up. Just gotta keep grinding in the meantime.
That’s about it for now. We’re looking forward to a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Rudd in a couple of weeks. It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is already here. I don’t have too many recent photos to share, but here are a few. See you next month!
At the 2023 Las Vegas Pride ParadeEnzo and one of his best friendsOff to another softball game!Elise and Jessica before the Ed Sheeran concertHaving fun at the “Marriage Can Be Murder” dinner showRevolving Sushi with Ava and Enzo
An update on a very busy February, 2023 for the Pellegrini family.
Between school, sports, and various family outings, February 2023 has been a busy month for our family. I’d say the activity keeping us the busiest this month has been preparing and raising funds for the “Apex Fun Run” at school. To everyone who helped them out with a donation, thank you so much for your support; they surpassed their goals and ended up raising a total of $600 for their school! Today the kids will be working on thank you notes and pictures, so you can expect to receive those sometime soon.
The final step in their fundraising efforts took place on President’s Day when we set up a family lemonade stand at the park across the street from our neighborhood. They had done the same thing last year for a school fundraiser and did quite well, so we decided to give it another shot. We were all off that day for the holiday, so I decided to help out. We offered cookies and glasses of lemonade for $1 each.
The first hour was slow, but things picked up between noon and 1:00. Several neighbors stopped by, and we were even lucky enough to be paid a visit by 3 Henderson motorcycle police officers. I couldn’t believe the generosity of these officers; they each had a cookie and a glass of lemonade, but the first one gave us a $5 bill and said to keep the change, then the next one gave us a $10, and the final one gave us a $20! None of them would accept any change, and they were so friendly. We thanked them not only for their donations but for everything they do to keep us safe. In fact, I just saw this week that Henderson once again ranked as one of the top five safest cities in the United States. The only cities ranked ahead of us were Virginia Beach and Honolulu. I like to think of us as the safest non-beach city in the country 🙂
Again, thank you to everyone for your support. Whether you donated or not, the fact that you’re reading this indicates that you probably care about our family, and we thank you for that! Each of the kids ran around 30 laps, and even though the laps were about half the length of a standard lap on a track, they still got a lot of activity and exercise that day. They were all very proud of their fundraising achievements, and I have to admit it was a lot of fun helping out with the lemonade stand. We were all holding up signs and waving at cars. It felt good to help them out, and I was really impressed with how much they raised. I never came anywhere close to that for my own fundraisers as a kid. Here are a few photos from the whole experience.
In addition to our lemonade stand, President’s Day weekend was really fun and busy for us. That Friday night, we took the kids to the theater to see the new Ant-Man movie, then on Saturday morning, Ava had her softball tryouts. She was nervous but did great, especially in her batting evaluation. You get five pitches, and she hit solid line drives on the first four. She missed the fifth one, but it was a terrible pitch. She also did really well when fielding grounders and left excited for the upcoming season.
After that, we all headed down to the Bellagio to check out this year’s Lunar New Year display. As usual, it was beautiful and so intricately laid out. I made a video of it for the Vegas Showbiz YouTube channel, which you can see below.
After the Bellagio, we checked out a new vegan restaurant, then went on a little appliance shopping spree. Several of the appliances at our house are pretty old (perhaps even original), so we decided to upgrade our washing machine and dishwasher with brand-new, top-of-the-line G.E. appliances. Eventually, we would like to replace others as well, but these two were the most in need of a replacement for now.
As a homeowner, there are always new projects in mind, but the biggest one I’m looking at next is a cool pool deck surface out back. Currently, it’s all concrete which is painted dark brown, and it gets insanely hot during the Summer. It’s way too hot to walk around without shoes or sandals. I’ve been to people’s houses who had an epoxy pool decking surface applied, and the difference is incredible. It reduces the temperature by about 35 degrees, making it no problem to walk around barefoot. As swimming season approaches, I’m hoping to have someone out for an estimate sometime soon.
For now, however, the water is still freezing, and it feels like swimming season is a ways off. February tends to be our coldest month of the year here in Southern Nevada, but I’ll refrain from complaining because I know almost everyone else has it way worse during the winter. Our house gets really cold during the daytime, but I don’t turn on the furnace until Jessica and the kids are about to get home from school. It doesn’t make sense for me to heat the whole house, or even the whole first floor, when I’m spending almost the entire day in the office. My Mom gave me a heat lamp a few months ago, so I just have that thing pointing at me all day. The cats have fallen in love with it, and it seems like one or both of them is always lying on my lap while I’m working.
I can barely reach the keyboard with both cats in my lap!
The most extreme type of weather we get during the Winter and Spring is wind. Most people don’t realize how windy it gets here. Earlier this week, we were getting warnings on our phones about 70mph winds, and it was no joke. I thought our house was going to blow away! The next morning I came out to the backyard to assess the damage, and it looked like someone had taken a wheelbarrow full of dirt and leaves and dumped it all into our pool. As you can imagine, getting it cleaned up was not fun, but welcome to life as an outdoor pool owner.
Earlier this month, we had a fun little house guest for the weekend. Jessica’s classroom was due for a new class pet, so we went and picked up a cute fancy-tailed Gecko named Mochi. I have wanted a pet lizard since our first year of marriage, but it was always a hard no for Jessica. She’s not into reptiles and couldn’t stand the thought of feeding them live insects. I totally get it and haven’t pushed the issue, but to my surprise, she really gravitated toward Mochi. Spencer was somewhat interested, but it didn’t last long. Peach, on the other hand, was totally infatuated with Mochi and sat next to the tank staring at her for at least two hours. It sounds like Mochi will be coming back to stay with us during school breaks, and I have regained hope that maybe someday I’ll finally get my bearded dragon.
Spencer and Mochi getting acquainted.Peach enjoying some rare backyard time.
On the night before the Superbowl, Jessica and I met up with friends for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, then we all went to the Black Crowes concert at the Palms. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time but didn’t think I’d ever get the chance to see them live due to their breakup many years ago. Luckily, the Robinson brothers seem to have worked out their issues and started touring again last year. The show was outstanding, and the video I made for Vegas Showbiz was our quickest to reach 2,000 views.
Speaking of Vegas Showbiz, we are now just shy of 500 subscribers. The only remaining requirement for us to qualify for the YouTube partner program is to have 1,000 subscribers. I never thought it would be so difficult to get 1,000 subscribers, but the good news is that our videos are getting plenty of views and hours watched. The channel turned a year old earlier this month, and during that time, our videos have gotten over 5,600 hours of view time!
You only need 4,000 hours of view time during the previous 12 months to qualify for the partner program, so we’re looking good on that end. I’m hoping it won’t take another year to get to 1,000 subscribers, but even if it does, I’m fine with it because I know we will get there eventually, and there’s a market for the content we produce. Once we get into the partner program, we will finally be able to start profiting from our videos. At this point, I have a good idea of what’s going to get views and what won’t, so I look forward to using the money we make from the channel to go out and do more fun stuff to document.
Regarding school, the kids have all been staying busy. Ava and Elise have been especially busy, however; they’re still doing choir before school every Tuesday morning, and now they’re both involved in the sign language club. “Girls on the Run” is about to get started for the second time this school year, which they’re excited about, and Elise is enjoying being a part of the school drama club. I always loved doing school drama as a kid, so it makes me proud and excited to see her doing the same thing.
As I write this, it’s the final weekend of February, and it’s a relatively quiet one for us. The main highlight was yesterday when I took the kids to the women’s UNLV basketball game versus San Diego State. It’s funny because we used to live less than 10 minutes from the SDSU campus when Ava was a baby, and now we’re so close to UNLV. It was the first time Ava or Elise attended a basketball game, and we all had a nice time. Jessica was able to get four free tickets through the school district, and this was the final home game of the season. UNLV ended up winning by 6 points, and everyone left happy. I’m hoping to take the kids to see our WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces play this season, as well as check out the NBA Summer Hoops, which happens every Summer here in Vegas. We still love hockey, but watching and going to basketball games has been a nice addition for us this year. Here’s a photo of the kids at the game.
Go Lady Rebels!
I guess that’s about it for now. As you can tell, February has been a busy month for us. Combine that with the fact that everyone in our house except Enzo has had a cold this month. It seems like there’s always something going on or something to deal with. Spring Break is coming up next month, and we’ve talked about making a trip to the Grand Canyon, but so far, no planning has taken place, so I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out. I’m sure we’ll do something one way or the other.
As always, thanks for checking in on us! If anyone wants to make a visit this Spring or Summer and soak up some hot weather and sunshine, just let us know. I’ll have the pool ready for you 😉
