Current Activities
2006
October 2006
Kinsey has been competing on the North High School Freshmen Volleyball team. The season just finished up and they did very well.Jay has changed jobs and is getting more hours and more dollars per hour. His 1973 El Camino SS is still not up and running. Four new tires, headers, new gas tank lines, new heater hoses, removing the factory air conditioning hardware (100 pounds of brackets, hoses and stuff) and we thought we were ready to roll. A new carb and intake is in now in place, but the dual fuel lines feeding the carb leak like lawn sprinklers and after trying two different parts from Mr. Gasket, we're going to fabricate something custom to get it going.
Anna, Elaine and Morgan at the 4th grade vocal concert.Anna has played on yet another volleyball team at the YMCA and this team did very well during the short season. School is also going well and her class musical was very enjoyable - a Japanese folk tune was universally appreciated.
Coach Don Vaughn (left) and the girls.
Anna is lower right and Eric is back right.September 2006
Lee Robinson passed away in his sleep on the 8th. No sickness or pain - he just went to sleep and didn't wake up. Mom arranged a very nice memorial service in Stafford. It was great to see Lee's sons' - Robbie and Gary and their families. The memorial was an emotional time for all and it went pretty well until Jay stood up and shared a simple experience when he and Grandpa were playing basketball years ago. Jay had missed several baskets and in frustration kicked the ball way off court. Lee calmly walked out in the schoolyard and retrieved the ball and let Jay know without saying a word that patience and control was what he needed most. That pulled the tears from everyone there...There were so many friends there and even the entire Stafford High School football team showed up. Lee was a great supporter of the team for the last 15 years, driving back forth between Wichita and Stafford on Friday nights.
Super Jay and Molly, his damsel in distress.
July 2006
School's been out for a while now. After a business trip to Dallas, we all went to the White Water Bay Water Park in Oklahoma City on the way home. We dropped of Kinsey so that she could watch the NCAA Softball World Cup with the neighbors.
Jay qualified for the state wrestling finals (one of only two on the school team) in the 140 pound class, but a last-minute elbow injury kept him from placing. He could have easily pinned his opponent in the first match. He's been working this summer staying out of trouble, mostly. We finally got the El Camino's leaking radiator replaced and then the back tire went flat and the gas lines are leaking. If it's not one thing it's another...
Kinsey is so excited to be out of Middle School and headed to North High. She's been going to volleyball practice over the summer.
That's not grease, it's butter - a great family birthday tradition
(usually wiped on the nose not all over the face. Now about that 'doo...
Anna has been traveling around. She went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City with Chesney. She went to summer camp with Chesney too. They're quite the pair.
January 2006
The holidays are over and it's back to school and work. Anna played in the recorder concert last month with her 3rd grade class. Jay just took 3rd Place in the 140 pound class at the North High Invitational wrestling match, pinning 3 of four competitors. Kinsey has been honing her vocal skills in choir.
2005
August 2005
Summer is nearly over. Summer band camp has started and the funk of accumulating school supplies and clothes shopping has settled on Rancho Dahlinger. Jay, now 16 years old, is driving the 1973 El Camino SS after a flurry of get-ready activities ranging from the merely cosmetic to purely functional.Mildred Thye (scroll down a bit) passed away only weeks from her 92nd birthday, but got to celebrate her 70th wedding anniversary!
April 2005
The Spring has been busy here. Kinsey and Anna are on volleyball teams at the YMCA. Jay is on the track team now - pole vaulting. Kinsey is running track - relays. Anna's grade school had its Open House - inside the wonderful new building addition. Jay and Anna have both had school band concerts. Nancy and Eric volunteered at North High School for the area music performance contest.
Kinsey "assisted" Anna with makeup. Ouch!
2004
December 2004
Nancy turned, well, older. We celebrated and then had dinner out. Shirley and Lee came along and Lee got a taste of "real food", not that "fish heads and rice" stuff he's used to. Jay appears to have just bit into a Fear Factor worm in his taco...
I just don't know what it will take to get Anna to smile - HA!Kinsey had a school band concert. She blows a mean alto sax.
Kinsey transitioned from violin to alto saxophone easily.
Kinsey and parents after the concert, with Kinsey receiving well-deserved accolades.Jay is busy with basketball band, wrestling and church. In the first all-day wrestling match [only his second match ever] Jay won two out of three contests at 135 pounds and took home the 2nd Place medal.
Jay is at the scoring table, pleased with pinning his opponent. Jay has the head tied up and is 'shooting the leg' for a takedown. Textbook move with highlight reel form.
One of Jay's favorite moves is the "head grind."
This poor guy must have felt like he was hit with a
135 pound Brillo pad after match was over.Eric drove to Chicago for work the Sunday after Christmas. Had a great time training a new customer. Missed the big snow storm that hammered Indiana.
November 2004
Kinsey had yet another semester of perfect 'A' grades. Anna too had another outstanding academic year. Jay has a class or two that need extra attention, but continues to do well.
Kinsey's volleyball career has begun as Manager. She suited up several times and played in a couple of games.
Now that football season is over for Jay, he is off to wrestling.
Anna got some cool new pink pajamas for her birthday, among other things. She had a few friends over for movie watching and a sleep-over. Dad got her nose with a large hunk of butter, in the Dahlinger birthday tradition. She shared her cake with grandpa Lee as their birthdays are so close together.
Nancy finally replaced her aging Dodge Caravan with a new Chrysler Town & Country minivan. Finally, a sound system that plays CDs and has some power - even the kids like it. Of course, Eric gets to wash the brake dust off the wheels every weekend. The mock tears shed by the girls over the lack of a DVD player go unnoticed by mom and dad.
Another of the young men that were in Eric's former Boy Scout Troop 721 has become an Eagle Scout. Congratulations Scott Spriggs! Scott joins Jordan, Tim and Sam who charged up the ladder to the Eagle rank despite my input!October 2004
Kinsey is in the middle of volleyball tryouts at Hadley Middle School. She's been working in the intermurals after school and hopes to make the team.
Jay is juggling varsity football, junior varsity football and marching band. Anna is, well, hounding mom and dad for more french fries from Burger King. She's nothing if not persistent. Speaking of persistent, the heat has finally broken and you can walk around the block without losing five pounds of water through perspiration.
We had a Daddy/Daughter campout last month with others from church. After unloading the firewood and pitching the tent, we cooked our foil dinners. They were excellent! S'mores followed. The next morning Eric, Anna and Kinsey hiked around the lake and Kinsey caught a spider web in the face. Upsetting as it was, she managed to press onward and we returned to the camp in time for biscuits and gravy.
Nancy started a another job, working with Occupational Therapy students, placing them in work environments in south Kansas. SKAHP is South Kansas Allied Health Program.
Eric was in Florida for 10 days on work. Spent time in Jacksonville mostly, but also was in Gainesville and Daytona Beach. Tough work that! Got a little time on the beach, and even did a little body surfing. I finally saw three dolphins in the surf. I did some underground utility locating and even found an underground water pipe using a simple bent rod. It was Bike-tober in Florida and the Harleys were as thick as the humidity. Of course everyone was jealous of my Buick LaSabre Custom rental car in primer gray. Had grouper almost every day. Clark's Fish Camp in Mandarin Florida has the best - "Grouper Medley". Saw a intimidating Banana Spider in a seven-foot web.
Eric, Tom Anderson and Mark Smith returned to Winfield, Kansas and saw jazz trumpet legend, Maynard Ferguson. This was a 30-year anniversary for them - as we were there when Maynard came through back then. Maynard plays a little less, but not an ounce less power or enthusiasm. What fun. Trombonist Reggie Watkins, one of my favorite current slidemen, was selling his new CD: Maynard Ferguson Presents Reggie Watkins A-List on KPasta Records, and he did a great warm-up number before the MF band hit the stage. My first Maynard concert in Winfield was on the basketball court of the High School. We traveled from Wichita as a band class and took in Maynard's clinic in the afternoon, later we had dinner and then attended the evening concert.
Stan Mark [L, behind the bell of Noday's horn] and Dennis Noday [R] at the Winfield concert those many years ago.
Maynard explaining air pressure, not horn-to-lip pressure for hitting the high notes.
Hangin' with the guys at the clinic. Stan Mark, trumpet [L] and Randy Purcell, trombone [R] in background.
In some of my other photos from this concert, you understand very quickly why Maynard doesn't button up his shirt any tighter around the neck. When he's hitting the double-C, his neck fills the shirt opening to it's limit.
August 2004
Jay is back from two weeks hiking and camping at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch in New Mexico. They saw a bear, tied flies and went fly fishing, shaped metal in blacksmithing, fired black powder rifles, rock climbing and rappelling. Only 85 miles of walking with a 40-pound backpack eating MRE meals and rain almost every day. NO BLISTERS wearing the brand new boots. Thank You to Cassi for loaning Jay her backpack. North High School Band Boosters had a car wash fund raiser and who should show up but one of the award-winning GrassCats in her Honda Element!July 2004
Kinsey, Katie and Alexi made a couple of video 'newscasts' - complete with news, weather and sports. The weather story featured a shot of Alexi in the front yard inside a storm created by our shop-vac and a bunch of stuffed animals flying around. The best part of this remote severe weather story was the perfectly blue clear sky behind the reporter!Jay has begun weight training for high school football - Go Redskins! He'll be off to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico later this month for a ten-day wilderness hike.
June 2004
The Chicago vacation trip was a blast! We spent an entire day at Six Flags Great America amusement park. Jay talked Nancy into riding a roller coaster that Eric took one look at and passed. She got off the ride shaking. Jay had to ride it again however. That didn't keep Eric and Jay from riding the other coasters [Superman, Batman, Raging Bull, etc] most of the day. Anna liked the Big Easy Balloons ride and the Looney Tune World ball pit with air cannons. While Anna distracted Eric, Kinsey crept up to higher ground and pelted him with auto-cannon fire - repeatedly hitting him squarely in the back. Nice touch - very sneaky. The spinning teas cups just about made Eric sick, although Kinsey and Anna could have ridden them all day. We tried to get Kinsey to ride the beginning roller coaster, but she just wasn't up to the task yet. We shared the park with about 30 school buses of children - but they were all gone by about 3:00.
Navy Pier was also enjoyable. Anna designed her own teddy bear. Jay had a ball cap custom made. We ducked in out of the rain and shopped for a while, before riding the free trolley to Soldier Field and then going inside the Field Museum. Shedd Aquarium was also great fun. The new starfish exhibit allowed us to touch sea urchins and starfish. Eric was able to direct a desperate mom and her son to the tank with 'Nemo' - the clownfish. The dolphins were fun to watch in the large glass tank. We went to the top of the Sears Tower and saw all of Chicagoland. We went to Brookfield Zoo as well. Lots of smells that were new to the kids...
The hotel was great and next door to the IKEA store in Schaumburg. There were several things that each of us just couldn't live without at IKEA. We ate at Bob Chin's Crab House in Wheeling and also downtown at Ed Debevic's. We got together with some of Nancy's coworkers and had pizza. We also got to see Barb and her husband Doc - Barb used to watch Jay when he was a baby. Now, Jay is nearly 15 and too much to hold up to the ceiling fan switch and let him flip on and off...
We also stopped in Nauvoo Illinois on the way back. The Mormon temple there was beautiful. At the Visitors Center we were admiring a statue of two men on horseback when we met the couple who owned the horses used to model in creating the statue.Anna's baseball team had a wonderful season. Everyone on the team improved in hitting, fielding and learning the overall game. They didn't win all their games, but hitting and throwing were areas of huge skill gains. Anna had a dry spell one game and so she said we should go home after the game to practice. She struggled to hit the ball. Then Eric pulled out the code word "french fries" and suddenly she hit the ball out of the yard 5 times in a row - one ball went three houses down the street! The team's season ended with a watermelon feast and seed spitting.
May 2004
Eric's family is off to Chicago at the end of the month. A week of Windy City sites and food. Stay tuned...Anna has joined a baseball team of first graders. They are getting to the point where you don't have to yell RUN after they hit the ball.
Kinsey is on the girls volleyball league at the YMCA. Our neighbor, Randy Thackery, is the coach, his daughter Alexi plays, and Eric is the assistant coach [that means ball chaser]. The team has improved lots since the start of the season. Practice is on Thursday evenings and games are midday Saturdays. The season ended with much improvement for almost everyone on the team. Good job!
It's River Festival time in Wichita, Kansas. A week and a half of outdoor music, fun and food. Cassi's AWARD-WINNING bluegrass group the GrassCats played on the "West Bank Stage" to an appreciative audience. All girls, all bluegrass, all fun.
Here's the GrassCats warming up before they go on stage.
They're not even performin' for real and they're smiling!
That's Cassi on banjo.
Shirley Robinson, Anna and that's Krista's Bill in the white T-shirt.
You can almost see Krista behind Shirley, holding Cassi's camera.
Anna had already had a Funnel Cake, Coke and an ice cream by the end of the 2nd tune...
There they are, playing and singing on the West Bank Stage.
That's the west bank of the Arkansas River [pronounced r-KANSAS, not R-kan-saw].
One of the GrassCats vocal features.
At the RiverFest Toyota truck display, Anna found a new 4 wheel drive
Tundra V8 truck that we "just gotta have!"
Eric and Anna got their picture taken and overlayed on a color print of a
Sports Illustrated cover as Baseball's Best, in the Canon booth .
The wind in her hair, flip flops and ice cream stains on her cheeks.
April 2004
We spent a weekend in Kansas City. Stayed at the Doubletree Hotel in Overland Park - very nice with an indoor pool, sauna and workout room. We all got plenty of pool time. The "Dubtree" Hotel as Anna called it.
Anna liked the room best - especially the "rich glasses". Those ordinary drinking glasses found in most hotel rooms. Anna would run to the ice machine, fill the bucket and then pour her Dr. Pepper into a rich glass and sip it while putting her feet up on the chair next to the bed. How regal! We went to Crown Center downtown and shopped. Eric almost never got out of The Pen Shop. They have everything in writing instruments. We ate at a couple of interesting places: Joe's Crab Shack and at Gates Bar BQ. At Joe's, the servers dance, sing and generally act silly. The kids didn't know what to think. They did seem to get used to throwing their crab leg shells into the bucket pretty quickly though. Eric's blackened Grouper was excellent and Jay's seemingly endless supply of crab legs were dripping with butter. Gates has some of the best BBQ available anywhere and the Hot Sauce is stout and a guaranteed sinus clearer. Jay did a couple of backflips off of Eric's shoulders in the pool. Eric and Jay baked for a few minutes in the dry sauna before opting for the hot tub instead.February 2004
Eric's employment changed slightly. He now works as a Account Specialist for the software development firm CSS Group. These guys are great. They have developed utility ticket management technology (Translore) that handles as many locate tickets as any One Call Call Center can generate for pennies per ticket. The work is rewarding and our customers are the best.
Kinsey brought home a 'straight A' report card! Jay is in Honors classes and is finding that they can be tough. Anna is reading everything that is not nailed down. Her impersonation of select television commercials is both spot on and hilarious. The five inches of snow we've had for the last few weeks is finally melting. Nancy's mom and dad have been in to stay with us overnight while his cochlear implant is adjusted every few weeks.
Another of Eric's Boy Scouts has earned his Eagle rank. Sam Jossie will now sit in the Eagle's Nest at upcoming Scout activities. Only 4 percent of Boy Scouts nationwide ever get that far. Congratulations Sam!
January 2004
Eric and Jay missed the Boy Scout campout known as Trapper's Rendezvous. This annual freeze out is a mainstay for about 5,000 Scouts from six states. Sure it can be cold, but the food is great! Make rope, throw tomahawks, watch trappers skin deer and beaver, drink hot Apple cider, use the two-man saw to cut a cedar tree trunk slice and then brand it with the TR logo and year. Did we mention the good food - buffalo for dinner? The weather was rainy AND cold. Golly, what a deal!
2003
December 2003
Cassi had a wonderful show of her beads - they sold quite well. She makes handmade lampworked beads, jewelry as well as individual instruction.
Eric's family was able to visit all the grandparents for Christmas - so the kids got to enjoy Christmas several times. Shirley and Lee Robinson brought the traditional holiday BBQ beef to Eric's house and Krista and Cassi/Johnny came up from Mulvane. It's been fairly warm for December and Anna and Eric spent the night on the trampoline in the back yard just for fun. Time off from school has been a welcome reprieve from homework, school lunches and set schedules.
Eric and neighbor Randy were able to cut the top 1/3 off of the backyard pine tree. Now it may become a totem pole, after we hack off the remaining branches.
The Boy Scouts planned a camping trip to Kanopolis Reservoir, but 5 inches of snow kept us from going. However Eric's family did have fun sledding behind the pickup truck - that is until one of our neighbors called the police. Fortunately we were inside taking a lunch break at the time.September 2003
School is back in session and the kids are doing well. Jay started high school and is in the marching band. Kinsey has left the violin for the alto sax and is playing volleyball in the YMCA league. Anna is cruising through 1st grade and reading Dr. Seuss books by the armload. Eric is working with the Boy Scouts on the Rifle Shooting merit badge. They shot a few targets with ketchup packets taped to them (for effect)t using BB guns. Shooting paper can be so pedestrian. Eric is also working with neighbor Randy to cut down the dead pine tree in the backyard. Eric hates heights and being 30 feet up in a tree with a chain saw is not much fun.
Nancy, Eric, Kinsey and Anna went to Lindsborg on the 20th. We rented the 4-place bicycle and peddled around town. There was a tractor parade through downtown that afternoon. We shopped for a while and then headed over to Scott's IGA for some great pastries. Kinsey picked up some volleyball knee pads and Eric selected a Ballograf Rondo pen (with rubberized barrel and archive-quality ink). Then we traveled to Coronado Heights and checked out the castle. Last year, we saw a wild turkey and a fox just below the castle hill. This time, there were no wildlife to be seen (too many people up there with us). Our next family trip to this area will be to go camping at Kanopolis Reservoir. As Anna so aptly summarized our camping trip - "bacon and biscuits!"
Krista's musical performance duet partner, Janet Mullen, passed away due to a brain aneurysm. They were the locally famous Chautauqua Wallflowers.
Cassi is ramping up her glass bead production for another season of shows.July 2003
Jay turned 14 and celebrated with a new XBox game machine. School is out, swimming is in. After a week of solid fireworks, peace returns to the neighborhood. Kinsey and Anna went to Garden City to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ellis for a week. Three of our neighbor girls went with them. Kinsey went to Texas for a week with neighbor Lauren to visit her grandparents.
May 2003
Jay is in the All-City 8th grade track finals. Kinsey played in the school Samba band in the Wichita River Fest parade. Anna is excited about joining the YMCA and going swimming - a lot. Eric and Jay went camping at Camp Kanza just before Mother's Day. They had a great time and only got a little wet from the fierce storm that passed over during the night. Nancy is working with her Occupational Therapy students at Newman University, finishing up the formal school year and placing students in field work sites for the summer.
April, 2003
Jay is enjoying playing trombone in band and running cross-country in 8th grade this Spring.
Kinsey is caring for her animals: two hamsters and a cat; while finishing 5th grade. One of the hamsters got out of its cage (more than once) and surprised Eric when it ran across his foot while he was in the bathroom. The other one got out and was finally retrieved from the heater duct work after four days.
Anna is learning to read, write and do math - in kindergarten. She no longer wants mom and dad to read her stories, as she can read most of them by herself. She prefers the classics like the "Stinky Cheese Man."Mary (Dahlinger) Springall and her two grandchildren, Sarah and Lauren Davis, came to Wichita Kansas from their Texas home. A trip to McPherson was planned for a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Mary and her two grand daughters; Krista and Cassi Dahlinger; Eric Dahlinger's family: Nancy, Jay, Kinsey and Anna
We had a great time visiting George and Mildred (Dahlinger) Thye in McPherson. We also were able to see two of their children, Max and Barbara. We spent a few warm minutes in Barbara's lush green back yard squinting into the sun while many photos were taken.
back row L to R: Shirley Robinson, Cassi Dahlinger, Eric Dahlinger, Nancy (Ellis) Dahlinger, Krista Dahlinger and Mary (Dahlinger) Springall
seated L to R: Lauren Davis, Kinsey Dahlinger, Jay Dahlinger, George Thye, Mildred (Dahlinger) Thye
kneeling front L to R: Sarah Davis and Anna Dahlinger
Sarah Davis, Mary Springall (grandma) and Lauren Davis
L to R: Mary Springall, Barbara (Thye) Thyr, Max Thye, George and Mildred Thye
We toured McPherson to see the homes where the Dahlinger and Thye families have lived over the years. We visited the cemetery and found the gravesites of Jacob and Jessie Dahlinger. We had lunch at the Pear Tree restaurant in the remodeled Warren Hotel - where Arnold Dahlinger had his barber shop for many years.
Barbara had located a photo of Jacob Dahlinger's security product: the Simplex alarm system, now housed in a McPherson museum. As George Thye explained it, one version of the Simplex was basically a large wooden box that housed a battery, car horn and a circuit that was completed using a wire strung throughout a building or room. When the wire was disturbed, the circuit was broken and the alarm sounded - with plenty of volume!Eric Dahlinger began a new job in marketing with Computer Services as well as Translore. A big THANK YOU to local racing legend Hank Carr for prodding me into action to ask about working here.
March, 2003
Gerald "Jerry" Dahlinger passed away March 4, 2003 in Wichita, Kansas. His memorial service was March 11th and was attended by family, friends and coworkers. Father to Eric, Krista and Cassi. His sister Mary lives with her husband Walt in Texas. Mary's two sons Bill and Gary Davis also live in Texas.
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