“Henotes Island” and a Mauer sighting

Sunday evening was the wrap-up of the latest year of “directing” Sunshine Choir, as the combined Rainbow Choir and my K/1^st graders in Sunshine Choir performed their year-end performance, “Henotes Island”.  The story follows six contestants in a “Survivor”-style game (each contestant having a particular talent) as they eventually learn to work together united in Christ.

The performance went very well, and parents and friends enjoyed it greatly.  Of particular note, “Senator Speaks”, the dapperly-dressed Connor, had an unusual button among the campaign buttons he wore on his suit jacket: 

Hurry back, and God Speed, Joe!

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Friday Random 10 (Soundtrack Edition)

 Friday means logging the first 10 tracks that play on my music player (set on “shuffle”).  This Friday I’ve introduced a variation; I’ve set WMP to only play the “soundtrack” genre.  Here we go:

1. “Main Title” – Andrew Powell “Ladyhawke“
2. “Headclobbers” – John Tesh “Tour de France…The Early Years“
3. “Looking for You (Guiseppe Tornatore Suite: Cinema Paradiso)” – Ennio Morricone “Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone”
4. “Paradise Lost” – Rick Wakeman “Crimes of Passion“
5. “Edge of the World” – John Scott “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes“
6. “The Empath: Vian Lab/The Subjects/Cave Exit/Star Trek Chase” – Fred Steiner “Star Trek, vol. 2“
7. “In a Pile of Its Own Good” – Empire Studios “Age of Mythology”
8. “Will & Penny’s Theme” – Apollo 440 “Lost in Space“
9. “Stars” – Brian Eno “Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks“
10. “Tower Music – Let Us Pray” – Wendy Carlos “Tron“

Now I’m in the mood to see “Earth” this afternoon…

L.A. flashback – “NO BUM”

While still on the baseball card kick, I decided I needed to dig through some of the boxes on the shelves downstairs and bring up some of the binders with more recent cards in them, and inventory which ones I need for my want list.  During my digging, I found this treasure:

Yes, Virginia, that was my CA license plate.  I knew it was squirrelled away somewhere, so it was nice to find it again, and relatively intact, too.  I’ve come a long way (thankfully) from living in a society where cars are like a second home, to telecommuting out of my home.

Also, thankfully, California apparently doesn’t enforce truth-in-advertising laws.

It’s a Girl!

…actually, it’s lots of girls.

Saturday night was K’s prom night, and that means all the to-do; getting hair done up, getting dressed, meeting everyone for photos, the dance, and this time around — the post-dance party and sleepover, which we hosted.

Kay’s hair looked wonderful, and she and Kev made a great couple.  The photo shoot at the Ameristar Hotel lobby was a zoo, with kids from many schools milling the lobby and promenade, but everyone looked dressed to the nines.

Mo got periodic text updates from K (another girl wore her same dress!) while we finished prepping the house.  Later that evening the kids started arriving — we have no idea what the peak occupancy was, but as the boys filed out between 1:30AM – 2AM, we believe the overnight count was 16 girls!  I didn’t have an exact count, because I had to leave by 7:30AM to play trombone and sing at the final McClay campus church service, and the girls were still going strong at 3AM when I finally went to bed.

During the time I was at church, my cocoon hatched!  As previously expected, it was a Polyphemus moth, and a bouncing baby girl, at that.  In the photo here, she was still hanging to allow blood to flow to the wings as they unfolded into shape (here is how she will eventually look).  As the weekend was drizzly and cool, I am waiting until lunchtime today to release her into the wild.  I’m crossing my fingers that she’ll have luck mating before her ~1 week of life is over.  I wouldn’t mind more of these beauties hanging cocoons in the local flora.

Friday Random 10

Friday means logging the first 10 tracks that play on my music player (set on “shuffle”).  Here we go:

1. “Just the Same (live)” from Gentle Giant “Free Hand [35^th Anniversary Edition]”
2. “Main Titles” from John Barry “The Black Hole soundtrack”
3. “Redstone” from Synergy “Metropolitan Suite”
4. “Fall of the House of Usher” from Alan Parsons Project “Tales of Mystery and Imagination”
5. “Time is Time” from Yes “Magnification”
6. “Toccota (An Adaptation of Ginastera’s 1^st Piano Concerto, 4^th Movement)” from Emerson, Lake & Palmer “Brain Salad Surgery”
7. “Forgotten Memories” from Rick Wakeman “1984”
8. “Occam’s Close Shave” from Roger Eno’s “Lost in Translation”
9. “Fetch Me the Pongmaster” from Ozric Tentacle’s “Sliding Gliding Worlds”
10. “You Found Me” from FFH “Ready to Fly”

Well, that will work.

Baseball Card Fever

While creating an offseason series of posts at WGOM featuring Upper Deck’s 2008 Documentary baseball cards, I decided to try and find additional cards with Twins’ ballgames on them. In my search, I stumbled across Matt F’s Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius blog, and over the course of a week we managed to finagle a trade (and I found a good home for several of my ’71 Topps which were just sitting around in a box in the basement). 

Then, Mark over at Baseball Plus had a couple boxes of cards he’d picked up from someone, and in the course of “dumpster diving” through them (which I mentioned in an earlier post), I was able to find several recent cards that I had missed through apathy the last few years.

I think I’ll monitor a few websites to see if there can’t be more trades in the making; in the meantime, you’ll see a “Want List” link at the top of the blog, and I’ve begun a few pages with known cards I’m missing from my Twins collection.  It’s going to take me a long time to flesh it out, but that should keep me out of trouble for quite a while…

 AJ with a (bad) variation of Tony Pena’s catching stance

 first baseman’s glove?!  THIS STORY ONLY ENDS ONE WAY

Potpourri (RIP, Uncle Dunk)

We found out today that Mo’s favorite Uncle, Mack “Dunk” Goree passed away. He asked that no obituaries be posted. He will be greatly missed for his humor and easy-going demeanor (and for pestering his sister Aunt Ruthie). He was single and had no children, other than the menagerie of animals that he cared for. R.I.P, Dunk.

I have certainly dodged a bullet so far this spring (knock on wood) allergy-wise. We should be close to the heart of oak pollen season soon, but the cool drizzles that have cycled through here the past 1-2 weeks have taken the damper off. I’ve only had a couple days where the rims of my eyes were reminding me that I should be using eye drops about now. I’d like for the whole month to go this way, but I do have some yard work to tackle too, though.

The past weekend we took two bids on some concrete work in back; a pad outside the walkout that would tie in with the bottom of the deck stairs, and a “wash” along the entire back side of the house. Also, I plan to frame under the deck with rock and fill with pea gravel, plus cover the underside of the deck with weed block material, to restrain the wasps/spiders/robins from taking up residence under there. Mo also wants to add more flower bed to the back. Sounds like work to me…

BOOM!

Last night, around 9:50 PM, our house was rocked like a car had run into it, with a sound like thunder.  It was too short to be an earthquake; my first thought was a gas explosion somewhere close.  After checking on Mo upstairs, we ran outside, where all the neighbors were also starting to congretate.  “What was that?” was the question most asked.

K was driving home from work, and said she’d seen a bright flash in her rearview mirror, and the boy next door also saw something bright out the back window of the house.  We all wandered back into the house and turned on the TV and monitored the internet, while K hit the text message chain for info, and stood on the deck passing updates back and forth with the neighbors.

When the news finally broke at the end of the 10 PM news, it was disappointingly short; it was a chemical explosion at a St. Charles company.  Eventually, via facebook IM and the local news internet sites, we found out that it was only 1.55 Google Earth miles from us, and blew in windows at one of K’s friend’s home.  An employee at SantoLube had burns over 30% of his body, but apparently no one else was seriously injured, for which we’re really happy. Although chemicals were involved, evacuations were pretty light.