school

Jessica has secured an additional scholarship toward her first year of college. She applied to the Royal Brougham Foundation and has been granted a $1,500 scholarship for her education expenses next year. Many sports fans know "Royal Brougham" today as the road that separates Seattle's baseball and football stadiums. However, Royal Brougham was actually a sport columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper for nearly 70 years. According to the P-I, "In 1962, Brougham inherited the estate of former P-I sports editor Portus Baxter, nearly $300,000, with his good fortune widely publicized. For more than four decades, Brougham had kept his former boss on a weekly $5 retainer, against the newspaper's wishes. He regularly cut Baxter's hair and drove him around on short trips. He preserved a lifeline to an otherwise lonely old man. Baxter put Brougham in his will. By '66, most of the money would be given away by Brougham, turned into a $250,000 charitable foundation that provided scholarships for underprivileged youth, creating more headlines. The fund still exists today, with Crista Ministries in Shoreline annually doling out funds in the journalist's name, drawing from resources that have grown in excess of $1 million." Crista Ministries was selected to manage the foundation because of Brougham's strong Christian beliefs.

Jessica received word last week that she is on the wait-list for Pepperdine University - Yes, the Pepperdine University. The school only accepts about 10 percent of their undergraduate applicants; to achieve wait-list status is pretty amazing. The freshman class should be finalized by the first week of June. While Pepperdine is a very cool opportunity, Jessica is mighty excited about her second choice - Trinity Christian, outside Chicago. For now, she plows head-long into her final semester at Kings and waits for the phone to ring...

The Senior Class of 2008 at Kings High School produced Arthur Miller's, "The Crucible", this weekend. They did a great job of staying true to Miller's intent, even including a prologue to capture some of the struggles people faced in 1952 with The House Un-American Activities Committee. Many of the cast, including Jessica, handled multiple parts. Several of the seniors commented that this production was the high point in the their high school drama activities. Having had the opportunity to be involved with several dramas, I understand how much work it takes to provide such a solid performance. Bravo!

Kings High School had their annual Homecoming Celebration tonight. Unlike most schools, they used skits (one for each grade) to tell a themed story that culminates in the crowning of the king and queen for the year. The theme was "Mystery" for the homecoming; the senior's skit had a James Bond theme - Jessica was a Bond girl! If you look closely on the left side of the photo, in the red dress, you'll see Jessica rushing to touch James Bond... Anne has instructed Jessica that this must stop!

The Buckeyes came to town and we were there! Anne is a graduate from Ohio State, so this game meant a bunch to us. It was the first visit by the Ohio State Buckeyes since 2003, when they handled the Huskies 28-9. A business associate of Anne's is a Tyee Club Member at the University of Washington. He was unable to attend the game, so he gifted his amazing club tickets to us.
You could tell we were in "enemy territory" when Brutus led the squad onto the field. The Husky fans were none too pleased with the Buckeyes appearance, and let them know!
In the ocean of purple shirts and doggie stadium seats, our Ohio State garb really stood out. While there were thousands of OSU fans at the game, not many were sitting in the UW Tyee Club seats! Although the UW fans gave rowdy calls out to OSU, they treated us with curious kindness.
The first half was a defensive tour de force, as each team stymied the other from scoring. The UW freshman quarterback, Locker, was a joy to watch; some of us were a bit nervous heading into the half at 0-3. Soon after the second half began, OSU gained their rhythm and UW lost their way. UW turn-overs led to OSU touchdowns and the Buckeyes took charge of the game.
The second half of the game kept Brutus pretty busy, as OSU scored 33 points. By the fourth quarter, head coach Jim Tressel looked somewhat less tense as he began to insert more junior players into the game.
In the end, OSU won the battle 33-14. I think that the Huskies have a great freshman quarterback - Jake Locker - who may lead them to some impressive victories over the next few years. The Big Ten is turning into an interesting conference this year - we'll see how it shakes out... looks like Michigan finally won a game today...

Jessica left yesterday with a group from her school for a Spanish study trip... in Nicaragua! She'll be gone for two weeks, attending classes in the morning and visiting local attractions in the afternoon. She's taken a camera with her; with any luck, we'll have more to share in a couple of weeks! The picture attached to this blog entry was taken at the airport, the morning of the group's departure. I bet when she returns she'll be able to say, "Dad, just stop talking," in two languages!