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.