Swim team awards banquet

The Southridge High School swim team had a pasta dinner tonight and handed out letters and awards. Andrew, Eric, and Rian all got letters, and when they announced their new award for Freshman swimmer of the year I almost fell out of my chair when they announced Andrew won. Andrew said he was horrified since they called his name out first. The obvious winner was Taylor, who almost won a couple events at the state swim meet and set several school records this year. Happily, the award applies to each gender, so now Andrew is on a plaque with Taylor for the first year of the award, pictured below. It will hang in a case in the school's main entryway.

The team captains handed out silly awards to their respective genders and the opposite captain(s). Andrew and Eric were called up together by their captain and got the "amazing alternate" award, since they went to the state meet as alternates for the relays, and went to all the practices for it. Rian got the "Time Bomb" award because she dropped so much time with each meet. We thought she would get most improved from the coach, but she was beat out by a girl who could barely swim at the start of the season and ended up doing fairly well.

Susy, Mali, and I sat at a table with Eric's family, next to the one with Rian's parents, and in clear view of Eric, Rian, and Andrew, who were of course sitting together. Behind us was the loud table, with Cherise and Kyle - Kyle of course being Andrew and Mali's coach on the Murray Hill swim team last year.

Poker Saturday

Rian and her mom, Terri, threw a Texas Hold'em poker party Saturday night. Andrew and Mali were very excited - for entirely different reasons. Andrew is quite keen on poker, and Mali thinks Rian is her wonderful new big sister. There were four adults: Terri, Joan (Eric's mom), and Susy and I; and 7 kids: Rian, D, Tiana, Eric, Aaron, Andrew, Mali. Kyle was supposedly coming late, but never showed up. Food was an assortment of chips, candy, and pop until the pizza showed up.
We played on two tables and mixed them up a couple of times. I only got to play with Andrew and Susy once. We all made money except Mali, who, after losing her $2 initial stake and buying in twice more at $2 apiece, ended up coming back strong to only lose 90 cents of her $6. I was the big winner, ending with $5.31. This was difficult as I lost a lot early playing next to Joan, who'd never played before, so of course was ridiculously lucky.
All in all it was a great time, though a bit noisy with all the kids. It was very nice to get to know Terri a little bit. We will probably try to have a similar party here soon.