Goodbye 2013!

This will be the last Hollywood Four blog post for 2013 ... our sixth year of family blogging. The video below contains some picture memories from this past month, including Christmas time with Grandma Carole in Big Rapids, MI, and Christmas time with the entire Ott family in Brighton, MI. Please check back on January 1, 2014 for a fresh, newly designed hollywood-four.blogspot.com website ... oh, and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cougar Extravaganza Tournament

This weekend Andrew and the Medina Bees JV Hockey Team played in the Cougar Extravaganza Tournament in Mentor, OH. Sporting their new, official jerseys (or sweaters for you old schoolers), the Bees won 2 games and lost 2 to finish in third place out of six teams. The team continues to develop its chemistry and they finished strong, beating Rockey River 3-2 in their final game. Andrew (#97) had a solid tournament, contributing quality ice time and assisting at least 1 goal. Here a few miscellaneous clips I took while watching the games.

Poker Fest #26 Recap

Just closing the loop with a few video clips from the Poker Fest #26 tournament which I previewed a couple months ago. We ended up with 16 players at the November 2 tournament. Gentleman Jim was the eventual "official" winner (albeit, with some controversy at the end). Nonetheless, congratulations Jim.

Andrew's First High School Hockey Goal

Andrew (wearing #15 since jerseys are in yet) and the Medina Hockey JV Bees played in their fist tournament of the season (their first real games other than two scrimmages earlier in November). The Bees played four games total in the tournament. We won only one of the four games, but played very competitively despite being the only JV team in the tournament (all other teams were Varsity). The highlight, however, was in game three when Andrew scored his first career High School hockey goal! One of the dad's is video taping the games again this year, so I was able to hack a few clips off his DVD of the game. Here it is.

Andrew's Salvation

I just noticed it's been nearly two months since I posted something new here (I've been too busy with work, work blogging and other stuff). So here's something new. For a school assignment, Andrew and a few of his buds had to ring the Salvation Army bell in front of the Wal-Mart store this past week. He also had to report on it to his class. In Hollywood Four fashion, here is the report he created.

Homecoming Dance

This was the Medina Homecoming weekend. This year, we had two high schoolers who went to the Homecoming Dance: one a freshman, the other a senior. Both went with a group of their friends rather than with a specific date. Abby looked absolutely beautiful, and Andrew looked very dapper. Here are some of the many pictures that were taken before the dance.

Cabin 2013 Photo Book

Karen has made another photo book, this one showing highlights from her - and the kids' - annual trek up north to the "Ott Cabin" this past summer.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Summer 2013 Photo Book

The past several years, Karen normally makes a "photo book" with picture highlights from our summer vacation. Here is an online version of the photo book she created recapping our Summer 2013 vacation in and around the Adirondacks region.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Poker Fest #26

This November we will have our 26th Poker Fest tournament. It all started in the fall of 1994 with six original players, and the tradition continues today on almost bi-annually basis. This fall's tournament will be special since it marks "the return of Herscher" (aka, M.I.A.) to the tournament. That means this will the first tournament in over 14 years in which "The Original Six" will all be present. As I often do, here is my "teaser trailer" for the upcoming tournament ...

Take The Floor - Dublin

Last night Abby had her first Take The Floor performance at the Helix in Dublin, Ireland. They actually streamed the performance live over the Internet which was cool for those of us who couldn't make it all the way over to Ireland. Here are a few clips we video taped from the computer monitor as the performance was streaming live (hopefully they'll stream their next two performances as well in Limerick and Derry). The quality wasn't the greatest, and we missed a couple great segments where Abby danced, including one dance where she did the splits at the very end! I believe she appeared in about 8 dances, but it's hard to tell from this footage where she is at on the stage. Hopefully they'll post a replay on YouTube later. In the meantime, here is part of what we watched.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Today our baby boy turns 14 and he enters High School this fall. My how time flies (and my how big he has grown). Not sure what we'll be doing for his birthday this evening, but here is a short video I created in 2008 that includes some of his baby/kid pictures growing up (click link below to go to video).

 Andrew Birthday 2009 Video

For his birthday, mom and dad took Andrew to Tres Portillos Mexican restaurant. We promised not tell them it was his birthday (but our fingers were crossed).

Summer Vacation

As is tradition, the Hollywood Four enjoyed a family summer vacation a week ago. As has been the theme the past few years, hiking in the mountains was the focal point of our vacation. This year we started off by spending two nights in Buffalo, NY where we visited Niagara Falls, Canada; and then went to a Buffalo Bisons baseball game. Then we traveled to Lake Placid, NY where we enjoyed a variety of activities over 5 days and four nights, including wine-tasting, dining, swimming, and hiking four Adirondack mountain trails: Baker Mt., Pitchoff Mt., Whiteface Mt., and Cascade Mt. We also hiked a nice waterfall trail called Stag Brook Falls. After that, we traveled to Lake George where we spent the day at Six Flags The Great Escape park;  as well as more swimming, wining and dining. Then we traveled to Skaneateles (part of Finger Lakes regions) where we stayed in a nice lodge-style hotel, and enjoyed some shopping, wining and dining. Our last evening was spent with the McEuen's in Painted Post, NY. Then on the way home we took in a Jamestown Jammers game. The five  videos below contain both still and moving picture highlights from this year's vacation.

Cuyahoga Falls Riverfront Irish Festival

This post is a little overdue, but here are some clips of Abby dancing at the Cuyahoga Falls Riverfront Irish Festival a couple weekends ago.

A Weekend in Louisville

This weekend we traveled to Louisville, KY so that Abby could dance in the 17th Annual Louisville Feis competition; and for some family "Father's Day" fun. On the way down on Friday, we stopped at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Jefferson, OH. After that, we proceeded to our hotel in downtown Louisville where we then walked to a cool restaurant located adjacent to the minor league baseball stadium for dinner. On the way back we enjoyed the tail-end (no pun intended) of the annual Gay Pride parade in Louisville. After that, dad enjoyed a quick shot of moonshine at Hillbilly Tea cafe. On Saturday, while Abby and mom waited for the dance competition to start, dad and Andrew went to the Barton 1792 bourbon distillery for a quick tour (and some samples for dad). We even made it back in time to watch Abby dance to a 2nd place finish in her competition. That evening we spent at the Churchill Downs race tracks (we didn't win much), but had a great time nonetheless. On the home on Sunday we stopped a crazy marketplace in Cincinnati called Jungle Jim's International Market - which is more than 200,000 square feet of shopping space and has over 150,000 food and beverage products from around the world. The highlight reel below contains some pictures and a video clips from our weekend.

TMSA Conference

As I wrote about on The PartnerShip Connection Blog last week, I again attended the Transportation Marketing & Sales Association (TMSA) Annual Conference & Expo. This year it was held in Ponte Verda Beach, FL. The weather was hot and the conference was insightful. However, one of the highlights was a networking event on the first day held at TPC Sawgrass - location of this year's PGA Championship. The short video clip below shows a few highlights from the event, including my tee shot -- which landed a couple feet from the hole -- on the notorious par-3, 17th hole, which features an island green.

Andrew Graduates 8th Grade

Today Andrew officially graduated from middle school and will be heading for high school as a freshman. He will also be joining his senior sister - meaning both Andrew and Abby will be attending the same school again for the first time since 2005. Here are a few pictures of Andrew and some of his fellow graduates; and a video clip of Andrew crossing over to high school.

Sam & Audrey Get Married

This past Memorial Day weekend the Hollywood Four traveled to High Point, NC to celebrate Sam & Audrey's wedding day. Along the way, we stopped in Charleston, WV for a West Virginia Power minor league baseball game; and then dad went to a Greensboro Grasshoppers minor league baseball game the next night. Of course, the highlight of the weekend was the wedding on Sunday. Here are some photographic highlights from the weekend's festivities.

O'Hare Year-End Dance Revue

I am little tardy posting this, but here is some footage of the O'Hare School of Irish Dance - Ohio year-end dance revue that took place a couple weeks ago (footage from Karen).

Abby Going to Ireland?

This past week I was surprised to learn that Abby, on her own and unbeknownst to me or Karen, submitted an application and video reel to an Ireland-based dance camp/musical show production called "Take The Floor." Take The Floor, in association with Riverdance, is a dance show that brings together 60 Irish dancers from across the world, a popular traditional band called Beoga, and a creative dance/choreography team for 10 days of intense show rehearsal, and 5 days of live show performances at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland. Anyways, Abby told us about her application because she, and two of her dancing friends, received acceptance to the school/show (one of them did it last year). Apparently there were 500 applicants this year from around the world (and at least one of her dancing friends was not accepted, unfortunately). We still need to look into the program a bit more, and check on flight costs, but it seems like an opportunity for a great, lifetime experience for Abby. Here is a short trailer for last year's show, as well as clip below it of the actual performance.

2013 World Irish Dance Championships

Here are some pictures and brief video clips of Abby's trip to the 2013 World Irish Dance Championships in Boston, MA. Unfortunately, Abby came down with the flu and felt horrible most of the weekend. Although she barely had the strength, she pushed herself to dance in the Ceili competition so as to not let her fellow teammates down. Although they didn't "recall," Abby and Mom seemed to have nice day of bonding and shopping on their last day in Boston.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Today Abby turned 17 years old! Wow! As I have done in the past, here is an updated, quick walk down "Abby Road" ...

New PartnerShip Overview Video

Check out this new video I produced for PartnerShip as a multi-purpose company overview. We debuted this at our CAMEX 2103 tradeshow a month ago, but I needed to make a few final edits (thanks to FedEx) before I could release it publicly online. The changes have been made and we will be promoting the video starting next week (in addition to being on YouTube, we'll also embed it into our company website). Anyways, I am very pleased with the overall quality and message. Enjoy.

Minute To Win It at PartnerShip

Here is a fun activity we did at work last week (yes, I am recycling my PartnerShip blog post here as well). Last week Thursday the PartnerShip employees at our Westlake, Ohio office participated in a fun, team-building activity. The event was organized by Brad Alflen, director of sales and customer service for PartnerShip. As part of the event, eight four-person teams competed in six "Minute To Win It" challenges. Each team was awarded one point for every team member that successfully completed a challenge. In the end, two teams tied with 10 points each and had to square off in a sudden-death elimination challenge. Here are the video highlights that I edited together after the event was done.

Irish Dancing for Old Folks

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, Abby and the O'Hare Irish Dance School performs all across the Northeast Ohio area. One group that Abby is especially fond of performing for are the "old folks" because it always makes them so happy. So, this weekend Abby performed both Saturday and Sunday at two "old folks homes." Here are some of the highlights as videotaped by Mom.

Mustangs 2012-13 Season Recap

The 2012-13 Season is official over for Andrew (#97) and the Strongsville Mustangs. The only thing we have left is a year-end party for the kids sometime in the next few weeks. Using all of the video footage that was taken throughout the year by Mr. Finch (one of the other parents), I put together the following four segments that recap the entire season. The first segment introduces the team; the second recaps the preseason, the third is just a fun, fictional speech, and the last segment recaps the regular season and tournament play. I plan on burning this onto DVDs (along with all of the other footage I edited together throughout the season) for each of the players. Andrew will be playing some more casual Spring/Summer hockey in preparation for the Fall/Winter again (possibly with the Medina HS Club).

CAMEX 2013 Tradeshow

This past weekend I was in Kansas City, MO (yes, in between blizzards) for the biggest tradeshow (CAMEX 2013) that my company attends each year. There are always many of our customers and prospects at the show, and we always have a big presence. This year, we had a fun "spin the wheel" opening night activity where customers could win some cool prizes. During the tradeshow, we had a large booth setup where we served complimentary coffees, lattes, espressos, tea, and cookies. We also showcased the new "company video" that I produced, and our new PartnerShip.com website that we launched a few weeks ago. We also threw a happy hour at the end of the first day. Here are some pictures and images from the show that I edited and posted to the PartnerShip YouTube channel.

Mustangs Finish Season with Tournament Title

Last weekend, the 2012-13 hockey season came to an end for Andrew (#97) and Strongsville Mustangs. It was a very difficult season, but the Mustangs found a way to finish it on a very high note by winning the Killer B Tournament in Shaker Heights, OH. After a narrow 0-1 loss to Shaker Heights in the opening game, the Mustangs bounced back to defeat our nemesis Rocky River 3-1. The next game we defeated our arch enemy Geauga 2-1 setting a up a rematch with Geauga for the tournament championship game. The Mustangs buckled down and won that game 3-1 for a nice, walk-off championship title to end the year!

Mustangs Final Two Regular Season Games

I'm still catching up with video editing. Here are two of the Strongsville Mustangs final two games of the season. These are both against the Shaker Heights Raiders. We lost the first one 1-3, but won the second one 3-2 (to knock Shaker Heights out of the playoffs). It was a long, losing season, but nothing stays the same ... Mustangs finish strong!

Mustangs Parry with the Pirates

I am a bit behind with hockey game video editing; but a couple weekends ago Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs had two brutal games against the Rocky River Pirates. In the first game, which was away, we had 12 penalties in the first two periods, the head coach got thrown out of the game, and the Rocky River police showed up to provide "crowd control." The latter was a little bit overkill, but clearly our parents were upset about the horrendous officiating. We lost that game 0-6. In the rematch, a home game, the officiating didn't get much better. We had one collision where a Rocky River kids had to get carried off the ice. That resulted in a penalty on us, and one of our best players being suspended a game. There was a second collision in the game where one of our players got carrier off the ice - the other team didn't even get a penalty! We lost that game 2-5 (Andrew had a nice assist).

I'm in the Top 5% on LinkedIn

This is kind of cool. I received an email today from LinkedIn telling me that I have one of the top 5% most viewed professional profiles on the LinkedIn network. To prove it, I have included the email letter below. Just goes to show that good, professional networking has its rewards. If you'd like, you can check out my profile here: www.linkedin.com/in/sgfrederick/

RIP Rico

This week we lost a family member. Andrew's little buddy Rico passed away. The memorial service was held on Thursday. We will all miss little Rico. Here is a short tribute in memory of our furry family member.

Festival of Nations

As she has done in a number of the past years, Abby and the O'Hare Irish Dance girls performed at the Akron Civic Theatre as part of the 2013Akron Festival of Nations. Dad wasn't able to attend, but Mom shot the following highlight footage ...

New PartnerShip Website Launched Today!

It's been a while since I posted a Hollywood "Marketing" message to the blog. So here's something that's a pretty big deal. Today, we launched a new website at PartnerShip. I have been working with my team for over six months on the design, development, testing and, finally, the launch of this new website (things take a little while to get done at small companies). Before the launch, I had the opportunity to deliver a fun, kick-off presentation to all employees last week Thursday. I used some images, music and sound bites from the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey to poke fun at the "journey" it took to get the website completed. But the journey finally came to an end today (or at least a stop in the road). The new website will be a great foundation for the company to realize its strategy going forward. You can check it out at www.PartnerShip.com

MLHA Classic Tournament

This weekend, Andrew and the Strongville Mustangs participated in the MLHA Classic Tournament in Pittsburgh, PA. The Mustangs played some good hockey, and every match was very competitive. In the opener, we skated to a 1-1 tie with North Pittsburgh. In the second game, we lost 2-4 to Southpointe.We almost tied our final game 3-3 against the tournament champs, the MLHA Hornets; however, our coach rolled the dice with a little less than two minutes remaining and pulled our goalie to see if we could get the win (which backfired, leading to a 3-4 loss). Still, it was one of our best all-around games of the year. Dunlay did outstanding in his goalie debut for the Mustangs in games 1 and 3. Here are some highlights:

Mustangs Versus Raiders in a Shootout

This past Sunday, Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs took to the road to play their seventh regular season game of the season against the Shaker Heights Raiders. After falling behind 1-4, the Mustangs stormed back to take the lead 5-4 with only a few minutes left in the third period. Unfortunately, the Raiders snuck in two late goals past our goalie to win the game 6-5. Still, the team played hard and outshot the Raiders 33-22. Goals were scored by Keane (#31), Frederick (#97), Kanzig (#13), Treible (#51), and Dunlay (#15). Here are the highlights.

Mustangs Versus Pirates

This past Saturday, the Strongsville Mustangs resumed regular season league play in an away game against the Rock River Pirates. Overall, the Mustangs played pretty well, generating a lot of scoring chances. However, in the end, we let in more goals than the opposing team allowed. The final score was 1-8. Here are some good highlights of the many scoring chances we had, including the one goal scored by Kanzig (#13) that was assisted by Frederick (#97) and Vandenbusche (#91)

Motown Cup Recap

Over the weekend before New Year's Day, the Strongsville Mustangs played in the Motown Cup Tournament Series in Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI. As it turned out, all three of our games were played at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor, MI which was very cool (despite the fact that this is the home to the U of M Wolverines). It was a tough series, and one of the teams very good and clearly "misplaced" in the tournament. Nonetheless, the kids played hard for the most part. Andrew (#97) had a pretty good series assisting one of our only two goals, laying down a few nice hits, and ending up with a descent plus/minus score (despite the team giving up 14 goals in the tournament). Here are a few of the highlights.

Mustangs Exhibition Versus Fremont

A couple weeks ago, Andrew (#97) and the Strongsville Mustangs played an exhibition game against the Fremont Ice Wolves in Fremont, OH. The Fremont team was not allowed into the Cleveland Suburban Hockey League because they couldn't field a full team with kids at the proper ages. So, their team is made up of kids with birth years '99, '98, and '97 (older kids). Although they cannot participate in the league, they can still scrimmage other teams. Our agreement to scrimmage them was that their older kids would "take it easy" on our younger kids. In the end, they reneged on that agreement and the game got out of hand. In any event, here are the highlights, including two goals scored by our own Eisnaugle (#12) and a nice penalty shot stop by our goalie, Crossman (making one of his first starts between the pipes).

Mustangs Versus Cyclones x3

I am a little behind with my hockey highlight editing. Since my last hockey posting, Andrew (aka, "Freddie" wearing number 97) and the Strongsville Mustangs have played three regular season games, one exhibition game and three tournament games. Here are highlights for our last three regular season games - all played consecutively against the league leading Tri-County Cyclones. Unfortunately, our Mustangs lost all three games. However, we played a close game the third time around as our defense and goal-tending has improved.

First Night Akron 2013

As has been the Hollywood Four tradition the past few years, Abby and the O'Hare School of Irish Dance Ohio performed at the First Night Akron celebration New Year's Eve night. Afterwards, we had our normal Hollywood Four New Year's Eve party at home with hors-d'oeuvres, games, television and sleeping in our basement. The video below contains some pictures and video clips that mom took at First Night Akron.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to The Hollywood Four 2013 blog! This is our 6th year of family blogging and - as we have done each of the past four years - this year's blog comes with a fresh new design. Last year we went with the Detroit Lions theme and that didn't work out so well. So this year, we're going to try a Detroit Red Wings theme and hope for some NHL hockey this year. If not, we'll still have plenty of Andrew's hockey highlights to post this year. We'll also post Abby's Irish dancing highlights as usual as well. If you'd like to view any of our previous year blogs, simply click the links in the lower right of this webpage under the heading RERUNS. You can also view our YELP! REVIEWS in the bottom lower right section. Looking ahead to the coming year ... Abby will start her senior year of high school ... Andrew will become a freshman in high school ... Mom will be taking lots of photographs to share ... and Dad will probably post some work and Poker stuff. There will also be lots of our standard fare such as vacation highlights, family events, Irish dancing and hockey. So here is to a safe and prosperous 2013. To all of our family and friends ... enjoy and God bless!