Gabby vs. Australia

Tonight Gabrielle (or Gabby as she is known to her teammates) played in a school basketball game against a team from the Australian state of South Australia. Because Century High School couldn't have this game count as one of its' 25 'allowed games', it was a JV contest. The regular Century varsity starters didn't play, but Gabrielle, who 'swings' between varsity and JV got to play a lot. For the game she made one free throw and gathered five rebounds. Century ended up losing the game 43-32, but not because of Gabrielle. The team had a tough night getting the ball to go through the hoop.

The team from Australia is at the beginning of a 3 1/2 week stay in the Portland area. Tonight was the first game for the team from down under. When the games are all finished, they will spend some time touring California and Hawaii. Gabrielle said that the girls on the team were very friendly, as were the two coaches I talked to. Before the game, the Australian girls presented our girls with a little, stuffed Koala Bear and an Australian beanie.

Above are some photos from the game. Gabrielle wears number 12.

Happy New Year 2008!

Happy New Year! We are going to kick-off 2008 with the creation of 'the Lofti blog' for the family of Jeff and Theresia Loftus. This is a new year and a new experience. We have noticed the great work that our oldest daughter, Marseille Stephenson, has done on her blog so we have decided to give it a try too.

We had a very nice New Year's Eve last night filled with immediate family and tradition. One change for this year though was that Theresia had to work. She didn't get home from the dental office until about 5:30 p.m., but we had the fesitivities well under way by then. This is how New Year's Eve works at the home of the Lofti:

We rent and watch movies. This year we started off at around 3:00 p.m. (after the Oregon Ducks had there Sun Bowl victory clinched) with our traditional showing of the original Swiss Family Robinson movie. While the kids were watching the movie I (dad) was down in the kitchen preparing the veggies for our first course of eating. We had carrots and celery and olives as well as crackers and french bread and cheese (including the traditional mini-wheel of Brie, sharp white cheddar, medium cheddar, and Tillamook roasted garlic cheddar.) We also drank A & W rootbeer and other sodas. The kids would sometimes take a quick break from the movie, up in the family room, to run down stairs to eat some food.

The second movie was Disney's animation Meet the Robinsons. Very well done. After that movie Theresia was home and we fixed our next course which consisted of a variety of Chinese type food like orange chicken, egg rolls, white rice, and pot stickers, from Costco. We also had some salads - Couscous and dried tomato, black bean, and roasted corn - from the New Season's Deli.

After that dinner break Cambrai left for a party with her friends and we watched our next movie, Disney's Ratatouille. Another movie that was very well done. The fourth movie was the newly released The Singles 2nd Ward. We purchased that one earlier in the day from Deseret Book.

By the time our fourth movie was finished it was close to midnight so I poured the sparkling cider and we watched the ball drop at Times Square in New York City to usher in the New Year. We also shot off some 'poppers' (or whatever they are called), wished each other a Happy New Year and sent most people off to bed.

Gabrielle and I stayed up (joined by Cambrai when she got home) and watched our fifth movie of the celebration, The Bourne Ultimatum. That was another good movie, although I might have enjoyed it more if it wasn't so late at night.

By the time we finished with a couple of the bonus features it was off to bed at 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, January 1, 2008!