I won’t lie - I am not a big basketball fan and neither is anyone else in our house. Still, with greater Boston celebrating another championship from a local sports, you can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. Last night, the Boston Celtics crushed the Los Angeles Lakers, 131-92, to win the team’s 17th NBA championship, the most in league history (the Lakers are second with 14). Paul Pierce won the championship MVP as he, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, with a collective 35 All-Star appearances, each won his first NBA title. What is probably more amazing is that the team went from having the second-worst record last season and, with some bad bounces by the ping-pong balls, losing out on the top two picks in last year’s draft to NBA glory, the biggest single-season turn-around in league history.

So that makes two championships (counting the Red Sox 2007 World Series title) and two missed opportunities for championships (Patriots and Revolution) in the past eight months. Do you think we are getting our fill around here?

At home, Jakob has made leaps and bounds in his development. Everyone - his teachers, his therapists, and his doctors as well as his parents - is impressed with how far he has come in the past year. Best of all, he’s off to kindergarten this fall! Lea will be starting school then, too, and we’re pretty sure that she will have no trouble making the transition.

For us, after making improvements inside, our focus is now shifting to outside the house. Last summer, I tore down the old shed behind our garage and had a new one installed in late April. No longer will I have to keep my truck parked outside and store my lawn mower, snow blower, and other items in its garage bay. Right now, I’m in the midst of a deck project in the backyard that’s near completion. It’s an island deck, meaning that it sits less than a foot off the ground and isn’t tied to the house. We’ve had every intention of building one for the past few years but I finally took the initiative recently after my mother passed along some simple plans that she found in a woodworking magazine. I even added some built-in bench seats and it should be a great place for an outdoor dinner or just to relax. After this, we will be turning to the gardens as Tiffany wants to spruce up some neglected beds and bring a little more color to the yard - green grass is nice, but…

One final note: Tiffany and I will celebrate ten years of marriage on 27 June. Hooray for us! Take care, everyone.

Categories: Family, General News
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ISOTOPES WIN! ISOTOPES WIN! ISOTOPES WIN!

Finally, after 14 straight defeats over one-plus season, the day finally came when my company softball team could celebrate a victory! Last night, we managed not only to end up on the winning end of the final score but played well enough to dominate the other team, scoring 13 runs and allowing just one run on defense. Happy day! Of course, we are still 1-6 this season with little hope of making a run at the playoffs, but it feels so good to get the monkey off our backs. “Coach” (that’s me) even treated his players to a round of grog at the Lowell Brewery after all was said and done, so I suspect that there may be new incentive to win a few more before the end of the season.

Plus, the Red Sox at the All-Star break are 10 games ahead of the second-place Blue Jays and Yankees for the AL East Division lead, so all is well as we settle back into our routine after taking a week off from work with the holiday. We enjoyed a lovely wedding down on the Cape the past Saturday (07-07-07), with my best friend since grade school, Alex, getting married. Jakob had the honor of being the ring bearer for the ceremony and, besides the lovely couple, was the highlight of the proceedings, as he ran down the aisle, gave the groom the rings, and then raced back to Mommy, providing plenty of chuckles from the attendees. He even walked back down the aisle at the end of the ceremony with the flower girl, although it was more like he was dragging her with him.

We are also having new vinyl siding added to the house and garage to cover the asbestos shingles and to save us from the chore of painting. The crew started yesterday and hopefully will finish by the end of the week. Early last week, I took a few days to dismantle an old shed that was attached to the back of the garage that had pretty much seen better days. Luckily, it came down without too much trouble, though I had the misfortune of stepping on a fat, rusty nail as I was wrapping up the job last Wednesday. Fortunately, I had 72 hours to go and see my doctor, rather than having to sit in the ER on a holiday, and he gave me the necessary tetanus shot as well as some antibiotics to clear up any infection. The good news is that I still have a healthy looking foot almost a week later.

The only other news is that we have now gone high def at home! Verizon finally got permission to offer FiOS TV in our area so we switched last week and are now enjoying the Red Sox in high definition on NESN. Everyone has been pushing for me to go this route but I wanted to wait until someone other than the cable company offered it. The wait was worth it - it’s true what they say about the picture.

That’s about it for now - I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer!

Categories: Family, General News, Red Sox
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I don’t know what we did to deserve a demotion but our Google PageRank just dropped the other day to 4 after holding at 5 for what seemed like forever. Of course, this was at one point our web page design business site, which then morphed into the Moon Family homepage. Either we don’t have enough incoming links from other sites, we don’t update the site often enough to satisfy the ranking algorithm, or… wait! Does it even matter? Really, this is more for fits and giggles so… what-EVER!!!

It seems like the holidays are but a distant memory as January nears to an end and we are less than two months from the official start of spring. We’ve actually had some snowfall in recent days and the weather was terribly cold this past week but it really hasn’t been that bad here. Of course, we’ve been using the new basement room quite a lot - the kids really enjoy having their own space and the adults have been able to reclaim the living room for themselves - well, almost.

Actually, we have a few movie recommendations to pass along to those of you who love to curl up with a good DVD on those cold winter nights. Thanks to the wonder of Netflix, here are some recent films we’ve watched that you should add to your movie queue:

• The Usual Suspects
• Marathon Man
• Vertigo
• The Producers (1968)
• Sideways
• Bend It Like Beckham
• Man On Fire (2004)
• Rocky Balboa

The last one actually is still in theaters but only for another week or two at best. If you only rent one of these in the next six months, our top recommendation is The Usual Suspects. It has to be one of the top films ever made in motion picture history.

…oh, and Grapefruit League action starts for the Red Sox in exactly one month against Minnesota. I can smell the pine tar!

Categories: Family, General News
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Someone sent me a link to this YouTube video recently that features “Weird Al” Yankovic singing White and Nerdy, which is a parody of Ridin’ by Chamillionaire featuring Krayzie Bone - we honestly don’t know who the latter artist is but Weird Al is well-known for presenting an alternate, often satirical view of contemporary culture. We believe that’s John “Bermuda” Schwartz in the background showing off his mad skills on the dance floor and there’s even a quick appearance by Seth Green. You’ll be ROTFLOL after watching this clip - classic!

“Weird Al” Yankovic - White and Nerdy

Would you believe that Christmas is less than three weeks from today? Making a list, checking it twice… The tree is up and decorated in the basement and, of course, the cats and the kids can’t get enough of the sparkling ornaments and lights. Plus, temperatures outside have finally dipped to where we would expect them to be at this time of year. It’s only 27°F right now but on Friday it was about 72°F!

… and we want to give a shout out to our buddies Ben and Alex who were in town visiting from NYC this past weekend; it was great to see you guys! Best of luck to Deron as well who is moving to San Francisco this month.

Categories: Family, General News
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Every year our friend Jim donates his time to a worthy cause and this year he is raising money for breast cancer research. He will also be participating in a two-day walk around Boston in support of this effort. Whether you know him or not, it’s a good cause because it’s hard not to have known someone who was affected by this form of cancer. So, please, support the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and make a donation in Jim’s name - he’s looking to raise $2500 and is already halfway there. Thanks!

Categories: General News
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Funny that the grandhog reportedly saw his shadow today, meaning six more weeks of winter.  Around here, it’s been unusually warm and just raw if nothing else.  We did get snow earlier this week but it’s nearly gone; with rain in the forecast, it will likely be washed away by the weekend.  We had every intention of hitting the slopes a few times this winter as we had before the kids came along but the chances are getter less and less that we will even strap on our bindings before the daffodils pop up this spring.

At least we haven’t had to deal with driving in adverse conditions; not so much that we don’t know how, but that we don’t have to be sharing the road with people around here who see a few snowflakes and suddenly forget how to operate a motor vehicle.  You can divide people around here into three categories: first, there are those who have a clue and just take it easy taking corners, staying well behind vehicles in front of them, and giving themselves plenty of time to come to a stop.  Then you have the people who think that because they have a four-wheel drive vehicle that they can go ten miles over the speed limit and ride your behind like they are trying to read your gages.  Finally, there are those who drive half the speed limit with one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake, and are oblivious to the mile-long caravan of cars behind them. Perhaps the latter two should just follow the groundhog and remain in hibernation, eh?

Categories: General News
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Time to say goodbye to 2005 and ring in 2006. No Red Sox World Series title this year, but we did celebrate the birth of our daughter, Lea, which is worth an infinite number of championship titles. Here’s to another year of life and what comes with it…

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What a game by New England today at Foxboro against the mighty Tampa Bay Bucs. Even with temperatures below 40°C, which historically spells a loss for Tampa in years past, and a chance to clinch the division at home in front of a boistorous crowd, an easy win was not expected. Instead, the Patriots scored a touchdown on their first possession, grabbed two quick TDs before the end of the first half, and kept quarterback Chris Simms and the Bucs’ offense off the scoreboard as they easily dominated play on both sides of the ball and won, 28-0. Tom Brady was near perfect with 3 TD passes, no INTs, and 258 yards in the air - MVP! MVP! MVP!

After a tough loss to KC on Thanksgiving weekend, the Patriots have reeled off three straight wins and are 5-1 after starting 4-4 in the first half of the season. Now its a Monday Night game against the Jets the day after Christmas followed by a season-ender at home against the Fish. Don’t look now, but perhaps reports of a Patriots demise have been greatly exaggerated. As it stands, New England will play Indianapolis at the RCA Dome in the second round of the playoffs, should they get past an opening-round matchup at home against… Jacksonville, perhaps?

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We played around with the site a bit this evening and did update the header so that it rotates between about two dozen choices, including ones with the kids as well as some random shots that we’ve taken over the years. We are still working on adding recent photos to the mix, too, as well as bringing back some of the “classics.” Stay tuned!

Today being Sunday meant football all afternoon on the tube, though we caught just the second half of a game between our beloved Patriots and the Bills, who New England easily beat in the snow to move to 8-5. Now, a win or a Miami loss clinches the AFC East for the third straight season. Making it back-to-back-to-back Super Bowl wins, however, is a different story.

Well, even though the chances of a championship three-peat appear slim at best, you can never count out Bill Belichik and crew, at least not in recent memory. Go Patsies! Tom Brady, the thinking man’s MVP…

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Welcome to the new and improved harbormoon.com but still the virtual home of Jeff, Tiffany, Jakob, and Lea Moon. Of course, we can’t forget the pets, too: Kokopelli, Miko, and the fish. Hopefully this gives us more opportunity to pass along the latest news about us as well as some recent photos. Plus, we still plan to obsess about the Red Sox, too, even in their current state of turmoil just a year removed from their triumphant World Series victory!

Right now, we are using a template that we found online which we think looks pretty nice (more or less) but perhaps in the near future when we have time (yeah, right!), we’ll spruce things up a bit more.

Categories: General News
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