It's that time of year again. Simon is pestering me to send out an email about his school Walkathon. He really is genuinely excited about it.

Here he is asking for your support: https://youtu.be/o53H26WRK08

If you can contribute, this is the link to Simon's walkathon page where you can donate: https://go.rallyup.com/pumapride/m/eae027

And per my tradition, I would like to update you on the latest events in my life. We've had a good year.

Simon is 10 and a 5th grader. That means his classroom is one floor higher in the building and he is with the middle schoolers. He is still doing choir with Pro Muisca where you can see him all over the website. https://www.promusicayouthchorus.org/ I recently went with them as a chaperone on their over night retreat to a boy scout camp. It was pretty fun having a group of kids burst into spontaneous five part harmony while waiting in line for paint-ball and archery.

Carmen is 16 and now a Junior. She's playing Club soccer for the Edge soccer club. This means she's not doing club Ice Hockey for the first time in a long time. But she couldn't quite hang up the skates. She now works at Ridgeland Common Recreational Center running kids and adult hockey classes—sign up and learn like I did: https://pdop.org/programs/adult-hockey/ The RAV4 I bought last year is now perpetually set with mirrors and seat to match her height, not mine. I work from home still, so it's not a big deal.

Magaly has been focusing on her singing with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and her Music Therapist role at Lurie's Children's hospital including work with their Cochlear Implant patients. She has also been spending time at the gym and building some very impressive muscles. She's going to be a tough old lady. (How do you phrase that so it doesn't sound wrong?) We both are nursing knee injuries and are both going to PT at Athletico a few blocks from our house. It's funny how many neighbors we see in there regularly. It's like a little social hour.

I'm still playing Ice Hockey every Saturday at Blackhawks Ice Arena every Saturday, and living the beer-league dream. I'm still working at Shure. I'm celebrating my fourth year on social media, but still refuse to join corporate social media, so I'm over on mastodon. https://mastodon.social/@poleguy If you can't find me on facebook, that's why.

Maggie Simon and I went to Lake Geneva recently and stayed at a lovely little rental property. Here's a picture from the lake. Carmen was at a soccer tournament due to a scheduling confusion. But we all had fun, and I remembered to cover my head and not burn.

It's a bit hard to find a photograph of all of us together, and hard to find any photographs of Carmen, because she's always off doing things, but here's one to prove she's not made up. We bought her a nice digital Camera after she took two photography classes at the High School. This year she's taking photos for the school yearbook.

I finished my back-entryway painting project. Simon and I are now working on a secret room... don't tell anyone!

Thank you, Nicholas Dietz