>> Okay, you just too OLD to have been a soccer player (unless you are the product of some rich prep-school I've always suspected you of being) so this sounds like ... SOCCER DAD!

How are those terrific daughters? <<

Busted! <g> Soccer dad is how it started, although as with many things it has grown to an unforeseen extent. 4 seasons ago the coach of Emily's co-ed team noticed I was always there at practice and asked if I would be his assistant, specifically to help keep some of the rowdy 7 year old boys in line. (Well, down to a dull roar anyway). I enjoyed that so for the next season volunteered to be a full time assistant coach. Again good, so the next season I volunteered to be a head coach. Have done that for two seasons and also became involved with refereeing at the same time. Then when the regional referee administrator moved on I was asked to take over that position. Foolishly forgetting the maxim that all positions with the word "administrator" in them should be avoided, I accepted. So now I have one team of 12 8-10 year old girls and 40 referees to keep track of and am on the regional board. It takes a fair amount of time, especially at the beginning of a season (like now!), but I enjoy it. It's nice to think you had some small part in helping aim a child in the right direction.

The girls are growing up fast and mostly terrific. Allie is 12.5 and pretty much through the Holy Terror stage. (Or more likely between them). Growing up in all sorts of ways. She was a junior camp counselor this summer, for instance. She is allowed to go to a movie theater a mile away on her bike with a friend. (She is now the western world's leading authority on movies with the possible exception of Roger Ebert). You can talk to her almost like an adult. Emily turned 10 on Friday and had a sleepover Saturday night with 8 friends. I doubt they slept 2 hours. About every hour from midnight on I would get up and yell at them and threaten to start taking people home. Whereupon they would look repentant and promise to settle down, then as soon as I hit the top of the stairs they would start in again. Lord! Who knew 9 and 10 year olds had such stamina? Emily was OK yesterday, considering, but it caught up to her this morning. I got her up at 6:15 to get ready for school and it was no way, Jose! Please don't feed the bears! Pure crisis mode until the moment she stepped on the bus. Thank goodness birthdays only come once a year.

Well, I better scoot. Tomorrow is my last day at this job and they actually expect me to finish some things before then. What nerve!

Mike