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The Griego family celebrated Christmas morning with the usual early riser (Gracie), coming into the bedroom to ask if we’re ready to get up yet!  So, we rolled on out of bed, and began the gift opening.  We’ve been blessed this year with so many things.  Good health.  Kids did well in sports.  Both kids getting on the honor roll with straight A’s.  We are so fortunate.  I’m so thankful that we are doing as okay, even in a very tough economy.

Joey enjoyed all of his gifts, and he’s showing off his Jozy Altidore offical Hull City FC jersey here.  You can click on any of the photos to see the full album of photos.  His “big” gift was a new TV that he can use in his room to play his Wii.

Gracie’s “big” gift this year was an iPod nano.  She really enjoys the video camera, and spent all morning recording herself doing silly things.  Hopefully she’ll take good care of it, since it wasn’t cheap!

Even Mochi got in on the action.  She got an edible Christmas card, and a chew toy that was shaped like a Christmas star on a stick.  She ate that one right up.

So, it’s off to finish Christmas dinner.  I’m making duck, which I’ve never done before.  I hope it turns out okay.  It’s quite fatty, so I’m hoping it’ll still turn out ok.  We’ll see.  Feel free to click on any of the photos to visit the online album of pics.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Joe, Karen, Joey & Gracie Griego

Last Sunday, Gracie performed “The Advent Song” for First United Methodist Church in Bishop, CA. Of course, I may be biased, but I thought she sang quite well. She’s even getting a little vibrato in her voice. I know *I* couldn’t stand in front of so many people and sing, especially at her age!

Share and enjoy:

Gracie Sings “The Advent Song” on YouTube

This year’s AYSO season went quite well for both Gracie and Joey.  It ended, as it traditionally does here in Bishop, with the Kit Carson Shootout All-Star Tournament.  It took place over weekend of November 7th-8th, and for the first time, both Joey and Gracie were selected as all-stars.

Gracie was selected to play on the U10 Girls “B” team.  Bishop sends two all-star teams, an “A” team (generally the bigger, stronger, or faster players), and  a “B” team of the talented, but generally smaller players.  Gracie played very well, as did the rest of the “B” team players.  Her team was: Lauren Simpson, Molly Foster, Sara Stone, Emily Ball, Kori Boxley, Tatiana Sinkinson, Grace Griego, Ivy Mendiburu, and Evelyn Lopez.  They lost their first game (against North Lake Tahoe, who fielded their only team, an “A” team, in the “B” division…sigh), then came back to win against Carson Valley 3-1, then lost their last game to Incline 3-1.  Gracie did some wonderful dribbling, and passed quite well.  I’m biased, of course, but it was nice to hear from the North Lake Tahoe coach that she was a “wonderful” player, and he even told Gracie directly, which she really enjoyed hearing.

Joey’s U14 team has never beaten their rivals, the Mammoth Flames, at Kit Carson.  The Bishop U14 boys lost to Mammoth in last year’s championship game in kicks from the mark (Joey didn’t play in U14 last year), so they were hoping for redemption this year.  Bishop U14 won all three of their group games, and so advanced to the championship game again this year.  Mammoth won all of their group games (they tied South Lake Tahoe, but won on kicks from the mark), and also advanced to the championship, so the big rematch was ON!

The Championship game definitely lived up to the rivalry.  Mammoth opened the scoring with a beautiful shot that beat Bishop keeper Chris Gonzales.  There followed another full half of beautiful soccer that included one yellow card for a hard challenge on Bishop midfielder Angel Flores, several shots ringing off the post, just over the crossbar, and a fantastic chance for Joey on a great run into the area, and saved by the Mammoth keeper.

It all came down to the final few minutes of regulation time.  The last minute heroics were provided by Bishop High freshman Wesley Hart, who made a lightning run from midfield onto a great through ball from Tristan Sinkinson.  Wes hit a great left-footer that came across the goal to beat the Mammoth keeper, and equalize at 1-1 in the final minute of regulation time.

The game was then forced into two five-minute overtime periods.  The first period went scoreless, despite some frightening attacking play from Mammoth.  The second period was equally fierce, with desperate defending from both Bishop and Mammoth.  With two minutes to go, Bishop won a free kick about twenty-five yards from goal.  Wesley Hart fired a great, arcing free kick to the far post, and Chris Gonzales came blazing in to head it on-frame and score to put Bishop ahead 2-1.  The final two minutes were very tense, with Mammoth putting in shots in the Bishop goal area, and Bishop keeper Steven Santana desperately saving several times to keep Bishop ahead.  The game ended on a final corner kick from Mammoth.  A Mammoth player missed the corner kick, hit it off his shoulder, and Angel Flores cleared it out of the area, as the referee blew the whistle for full time.  Bishop U14 boys won the Kit Carson championship for the first time in five years with this dramatic come-from-behind victory, 2-1.  Wesley Hart was the player of the match on this day, and all of the boys played tremendously.

Bishop as a town also fared quite well.  Bishop U14 boys, Bishop U14 girls, and Bishop U10 girls (Sierra division) all won in their divisions.  Bishop U12 girls also made the championship final, but lost 2-1.  Bishop U19 coed made the championship final, but lost 3-1 to Mammoth.

Click on any of the photos above to view the entire gallery of photos from the tournament weekend.

Joe Griego, Bishop, CA

In yesterday’s football game, Joey scored three touchdowns for Round Valley Elementary, in a cross-town rivalry match versus Bishop’s Home Street Middle School. They beat Bishop by eight points, and Cammy Alexander contributed with several two-point conversions. Joey said that they are primarily a running team, and all three touchdowns were from running plays from the backfield.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch this game (darn work!), and we don’t have any pictures. But, Joey really had a great game, and I hope to post some photos from a few of the other football games later in the season.

Revenge is a dish best served with musical accompaniment:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say no to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I promise.

We celebrated Joey’s 12th birthday by taking two of his friends to Magic Mountain last weekend.  They all had a fantastic time, and we took a few pictures, too.  Click on any of the photos to see the gallery.

At first, we were worried about waiting too long in line – they were all about 30 minutes to an hour long – so we decided to drop the cash on a flash pass, that allows you to schedule a place in line.  With the flash pass, you just arrive at the ride at your scheduled time or later, and you jump to the final part of any ride queue, where they load up.  It was totally worth it – we went on every ride that was open, except for the X2, which was an hour wait, and didn’t accept the flash pass…

I also took a short video of all of us riding The Goliath, a huge roller coaster that dwarfs the Colossus (the biggest coaster at Magic Mountain when I was a kid).  You can briefly see the Colossus  off to the left, far below the Goliath as we’re climbing the first hill.  Yikes.  Anyway, enjoy the pics and video.  We had a wonderful time, and I know the boys really enjoyed their stay at Magic Mountain.

Joe Griego

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Joey’s U12 boys team from Bishop competed in the 9v9 division of the Comstock Shootout soccer tournament this weekend, where they lost in the semi-final match against the Davis Demons.  They began their tournament with a tough loss against the Davis Voodoo, 4-3.  Bishop had many chances, but their defense was a bit leaky, and  conceded far too many opportunities for a good team like Davis.

Our next round was a must-win against the PHMSA Adrenaline (from Pleasant Hill/Martinez in the San Francisco bay area).  The Adrenaline had already beaten the team Bishop had just lost to (the Davis Voodoo) by 3-1, so Bishop had their work cut out.  But, the Bishop boys really stepped up the pressure, and scored on every opportunity.  I must say, the PHMSA coaches were a bit smug to the Bishop coaches before the game, perhaps thinking Bishop would be a walkover since they had beaten the Davis Demons, and they knew we lost to Davis earlier in the day.  But Bishop’s defense cleared very well, and Elijah Alexander and Jose Mendez were standouts in the midfield, winning just about every ball.  Joey Griego and Chris Molina both scored easily, with amazing footwork and through balls from the midfield.  The final score was 6-1, in favor of Bishop.  So, Bishop advanced to the semi-final match on points, having beaten PHMSA Adrenaline by more goals than the Adrenaline had beaten the Davis Voodoo.

The semi-final match was at 1:30 on Sunday against another Davis team (the Davis Demons), and Bishop played quite well.  Joey scored early, and by halftime, Bishop was winning the match 3-0.  That’s when the Bishop defense began to falter.  Our midfield play collapsed, and the Demons capitalized on our mistakes.  In fact, they brought the score even early in the 4th quarter of play.  Down 4-3 late in the match, Chris Molina brought Bishop back from the brink by scoring in the final minute of the match to equalize, 4-4.

The game was then decided on penalty kicks.  Our keeper, Daniel Martinez, kicked first, and scored.  Then came Elijah Alexander, who scored, then Nathaniel Pratt, who missed, Chris Molina, who missed, and then it was Joey’s turn.  Daniel had saved one of the kicks from Davis, so Joey had to score in order to keep Bishop in the round.  He kicked, and made it!  But, he didn’t wait for the referee to whistle first, so he had to take it again.  He kicked it *again* and missed, but hadn’t waited for the whistle again, so it was called back.  On the third try, he waited for the whistle, but missed his shot, and Davis Demons advanced to the final, against another Davis team (the Davis Rebels).

However, it was a great tournament for our boys.  They played very well, and had to overcome some adversity, and showed real character to make it to the semi-final match after the tough loss in the first round.  Joey scored a ton of goals (I lost count – 5 or 6?), and got compliments from the parents of every team we faced.  It was a little embarrassing, as many parents had comments like, “Wow, who is *that* kid?  He’s amazing!”  He’s been working on his foot skill to get past defenders, and it showed.  He didn’t face a single defender that he couldn’t get past easily.

I took a lot of sequence pictures, so click on the photos to view the full gallery of pics from the tournament.  Unfortunately, I had to leave to refereee another semi-final, so I actually missed the tying final goal, and the subsequent penalty kick shootout, so there are no pictures of that.

Joe Griego

Playhouse 395’s production of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” just finished its three-week run at the Dorothy Joseph auditorium in Bishop, and it was a wonderful success.  Gracie was in it, of course, and the production itself was the most professional, with the best performances yet put on stage by the company.

It was a magnificent show, with great dancing, fantastic singing, and all kinds of surprising technical effects.  It’s truly amazing how much local talent there is right here in Bishop to put on such a show.  The music was played live by Dan Daugherty and a talented pool of musicians.

The lead was played by none other than one of Joey’s soccer coaches and high school teacher Jeff Pratt.  Gracie was in the twenty-five person children’s choir.  The songs were so catchy I keep humming them in my head, and I can’t stop!  Go Go Joe!

Anyway, it was the best production they’ve done, and I hope they continue to put on great shows and encourage the arts right here in Bishop, California.  Congratulations to Gracie, and *everyone* who volunteered for Playhouse 395.  It was just the best.  Thank you!

Joe Griego

The Bishop U12 boys AYSO select team traveled to the Lancaster National Soccer Center in Lancaster, CA for the Quartz Hill Shootout soccer tournament over the weekend. We weren’t sure what to expect, as we haven’t played any big teams from Southern California before.

It turned out that we had the most difficult draw in the tournament!  The first team we played was from San Fernando Valley.  We lost that one 2-1, but played quite well.  Jerrod Dossey scored in that one from an excellent strike fed by Elijah Alexander.  The second match was against Downey, and we lost 3-1.  We conceded two goals in the last quarter, having been beaten by fast breaks.  Joey scored in that one from a great strike outside the penalty area that caught the keeper by surprise.  The last qualifying match was against Valencia, and we tied 1-1, on a penalty kick by Elijah Alexander in the final minute of the match.  Every other team in our flight failed to win a match, so we advanced to the medal round on goal difference.

We met Valencia again in the 3rd place medal match.  This time, we played much better, defeating Valencia 2-1 to capture 3rd place in our division.  So guess who the 1st and 2nd place teams were?  San Fernando Valley and Downey – the two teams we had to play in qualifying.  So our qualifications were the toughest draw, but it was a good experience for our boys.

None of the teams we played exhibited the tactical skill and touch of the Bishop boys.  Of course, I’m biased, but every team we saw only played the long-ball strategy – that is, they sent their biggest, fastest boys up front and kept booting the ball forward hoping to catch our defenders off guard.  This will work at the youth level, but without teaching the touch and foot skills that they’ll need at higher levels of play, they will never get better.  I was gratified to see that as our boys grow and catch up size-wise to other regions, they will have superior foot skill and tactical ability.  It was a good experience which validated the strategy of Bishop soccer to develop players, rather than concentrate solely on winning matches.  Bishop boys play better tactical soccer than any teams we saw at Quartz Hill, so that was fun to see.

Click on the photo above to see the photo gallery from the Quartz Hill Shootout tournament.

Joe Griego

Gracie is nine years old today. It hardly seems that long ago. She had a fairy-themed birthday party on Saturday, and you can click on the photo to view the whole gallery. We had a house full of fairy girls, and while it was chaotic, it was also pretty fun. The girls created their own fairy masks, played pin-the-wings-on-the-fairy, ate cake and ice cream, and ran around the house squealing. Mochi *loved* chasing after the girls, and nipping at their fairy dresses.

Our little baby Gracie will be old enough to drive in seven years, can vote in nine more years, and will graduate high school in 2018. Hard to imagine, huh? Anyway, enjoy the photos.

Joe Griego