Skiing Weekend for Andrew

Not much to share from this weekend's activities. For Andrew, it was a big weekend for skiing. Friday night he had his normal school ski club outing at Boston Mills Brandywine Ski Resort. The weather wasn't the greatest for skiing, but I guess there was enough snow to make a go of it (see picture). On Saturday, Andrew tagged along with some of his old cub scout buddies for an all day (6 am to midnight) ski outing to Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania (no pictures or video). Meanwhile, Dad and Mom took Abby shopping for a dress for the Sweetheart Dance coming up in a couple weeks. Also, Andrew's hockey team lost 2-3 without him. Andrew was able to make this morning's 7 am hockey practice, however (but he wasn't real happy about it after two straight nights of late night skiing).

I'm In the News (sort of)

My new company issued a press release regarding me recently joining their team. At least one major publication - Supply & Demand Chain Executive - picked it up and ran it online (so far). My marketing team also was nice enough to Tweet the link and post it to our company Facebook page as well. Kind of nice to be welcomed, recognized and appreciated again. We'll have to see if any of the local papers pick it up and run it tomorrow in their business sections.

Cleveland Heights Hockey Tournament

Andrew (#97) and the Strongsville Mustangs participated in the 31st Annual Raymond A. Robinson Memorial Youth Hockey Tournament this weekend in Cleveland Heights. The Mustangs beat Cleveland Heights 7-2 in the opening game on Thursday night. Andrew had ski club Friday night, so he missed the second game, but the Mustangs still beat Rocky River 3-1 without him. The third game was Saturday morning, and in that game the Mustangs narrowly defeated Parma 3-2. The three wins earned us the top seed in the final championship game on Sunday (this morning). The championship game ended up being the Mustangs against Rocky River. It was a thrilling game that was tied 2-2 into the late third period (including an assisted goal from Andrew). However, the Mustangs came up with the go-ahead goal and added an empty-netter to seal a 4-2 victory. The kids all celebrated at the end, and each one received a trophy. It was very cool ... they are the champions!

Marketing Update

Well, after tomorrow I will officially be a two-week veteran at my new company. As reported back in December, I accepted an offer to join the PartnerShip LLC team and it has been a whirlwind ever since (in a good way). I have a great boss; a good, small marketing team; I have met lots of great new people; I've learned a lot about the company; and I have started to formulate quite a few of initial ideas around marketing strategy and execution. The company has built a great foundation of business, but we have a lot of marketing opportunities going forward in the areas of branding, business development, process, promotions, social media, web development, tradeshows, market research and analysis. Our fiscal year closes at the end of March right after the big NACS CAMEX tradeshow. Whether fiscal or calendar--it looks to be a very busy and exciting new year!

Mustangs Resume League Play

Andrew and the Strongsville Mustangs resumed league play yesterday taking on the undefeated Mentor Cardinals at home. Andrew's line started the game and it paid off as they scored the first goal of the game (assisted by Andrew). Mentor tied the game at 1-1 in the second period, but Strongsville took the lead again in the third 2-1. Despite a stellar effort from our goalie (who returned after missing two games with a concussion), with less than 30 seconds left in the game, Mentor pulled their goalie and scored the tying goal (immediately after Andrew left the ice for a partial line change). Although the tie still earned us one point in the league standings, the second point sure could have helped the Mustangs, which are now 2-3-3 in league play. After eight games of league play, Andrew now has 4 assists which is tied for first on the team and he is tied for fourth overall in total points. His plus/minus is also tied for second best on the team. Next weekend the Mustangs will play in the Raymond A. Robinson Tournament in Cleveland Heights.

First Night in Akron

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 (our normal video camera is broken, so the clips are short and of poor quality); as well as a couple closing pictures of our home party.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to The Hollywood Four 2012 blog! This is our 5th 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. We hope you like it as you'll be seeing it for the rest of 2012. 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 HOLLYWOOD FOUR RERUNS. You can also view my Yelp! reviews and Twitter feeds in the bottom lower right section. Looking ahead to the coming year ... Dad will be blogging about marketing at his new company ... Abby will celebrate her 16th birthday ... Andrew will start his last year of middle school ... and Mom will be taking lots of photographs to share. 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 2012. To all of our family and friends ... enjoy and God bless! (and don't miss our classic tribute to other famous Hollywood families in the post immediately below)

Famous Hollywood Families

Since the Hollywood Four are becoming ever more famous (or infamous, perhaps), we'd like to honor some of the most famous Hollywood families of all time - Hollywood Four Rerun style, of course.