So, following Broadway Cabaret night at the Little Theatre, Megan decided to take me up on my pizza/DVD night at the house while I am still alone (one more week… and it is still standing).  I suggested venturing to Wal-Mart to check out the redbox kiosk…. rent a movie for $1 per night, return when you are done or after 25 days it is yours.  After going to Electronics, I met Megan at the box and we made our choice of two movies… more on those in a bit.

We then travelled to casa Shaffer where I gave her the grand tour, upstairs, downstairs, beauty shop.  Did I show C&L the shop the other night?  My memory fails me.  So, after the pizza was baked, we put in the first movie.  He’s Just Not that Into You is just what you would expect: a chick flick.  While it was no Pretty Woman it was not all that bad and Megan wanted to see it and I  gentlemanly let her pick one.

However, I chose a movie which taylhis has posted about and a friend recommended the other day.  Megan had already seen The Haunting in Connecticut (for some reason, I thought it was A Haunting, but no big deal) and it scared the xrap out of her.  I must say that I enjoyed it very, VERY much and it did give me a good jump or 5.  Even more so knowing that it was based on a true story.  I will have to check out the frog site thingamajig to get the lowdown on how much accuracy is involved.  If you like a good horror film with lotas of thrills and chills, check it out.

However there was a downside to the DVD: it was badly scratched and about half way through it began to skip.  UGH!  Way to almost ruin a great movie!  I did send an email to the customer service dep of redbox to request a free rental or refund.  Megan asked me to watch out for the minister and see if I could recognize him.  I must admit that I was unable to.  Elias Koteas is the same actor who played Casey Jones in the ORIGINAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.  Never would have guessed since it has been years since I have seen it.

All in all, another fun night of music, friendship, pizza, movies, and great times!

maybe not for fightin’ but good times.  I wanted to go to church at 4 at one of our sister churches.  However, I had forgotten that the 4 o’clock mass is no longer in existence after the recent twining (or tripling since it involves three churches).  I wanted to attend the Weekender this to show my support of one of my former castmates: Andrew who was in Idol Night and School House Rock with me.  Tonight’s offering was a mixed bag of Broadway tunes performed by a group of young adults.  Pretty good for their age.  I must say that Andrew has improved much in the past 2 years… a very deep bass which is developing very nicely.  His rendition of “I Am I Don Quioxte” was one of my favorite numbers of the evening.  He also sang “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music. At first, I thought… oh great.  Not that I am not a big fan of the song (I think it is one of Sondheim’s masterpieces) but I have heard it so many times.  However, when was the last time I heard it sung by a guy?  Not often.

When the group of performers took the stage, I asked Megan…”Where’s Andrew?”  I did not recognize him at all!  Gone was the beard and longish hair I had become accustomed to.  He looked that different!

The rest of the performances were good as well.  A very strange arrangement of “Someone Like You” from Jekyll and Hyde.  A choral performance of “Bui Doi” from Miss Saigon (good but Mr. Whatever’s rendition was better… not biased here, Chris’s performance just brought chills both times) and a few songs from Songs from a New World, a show I am not very familiar with  And the Little Theatre was just packed… hopefully, the free will brought in a few dollars.

Once again… great job Adam, Jason, McKenzie, Preston, Andrew, and Jessi.  Plus, Patti’s job as accompanist was no small feat.  Some of those songs had to be killers to play!

One more post from the evening later… stay tuned.  Different Bat Time, Same Bat Site.

where are the flags?

WOW!  A Saturday off is ALWAYS nice!!!  One in which there is plenty to do is even better! This weekend is our annual hometown fest known as the Festival of Flags (how the name switched from One River Festival as it was known for about 3 years when I was in high school is beyond me). The name has always escaped me.  In all the years the fest has been named such, I see very few flags aside from the ones adorning our main street.  Yesterday, was the big parade going south on North Michigan Avenue which is great since we have prime seats right outside our front door. I am pleased to say that this year’s parade was not the 20 minute ho-hum of the past.  It lasted nearly an hour.  Of course, there was the fire, rescue, and police units from the area, the pageant contestants, and several entries from E-town businesses, churches, etc.  There used to be a parade of pets that was on a separate day but it seems to have been integrated with the main event as there were several adorable pooches being lead on the route.  One new entry was the Frank Talk convertible.  Frank Talk is a weekly tri-state paper which is written mainly by members of the Frank family from the chief editor all the way down to the young grandkids who are able to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard whichever the case may be.

I always am interested to see and hear the high school band.  Once again, the group is under the leadership of a new director.  The position seems to be yet another swinging door.  I can’t tell you how many directors it has gone through in the past 17 years, but it is quite a few.  Too many start out here fresh and discover better opportunities elsewhere which leads to the band’s suffering.  Of course, many times you are happy to see the leader vacate… like the one from last year…. EEK!  Definitely could find better.  I thought the twenty member band did quite well.  I wonder where Edon’s band was.  In my day, we always played each other’s parade.  Possibly because the directors were such good friends

My favorite part had to be the ADULT kids at the curb scavenging for candy.  Christi was out there gatering goodies for her two girls who will be returning from a visit to their father’s (don’t ask… don’t tell) relatives.  Chad got up a few times to run out (WHAT A SIGHT!)  Cousin Kim was also there to watch and she made her way to the street from time to time.  Honestly, this might have been my favorite part of the parade.  Much like the adult Easter Egg Hunt.  I sat back and watched so that my chair did not get stolen.

Actually a very enjoyable event compared with parades of the past.

Because he’s a boy.

The other day, I  was sitting in the living room when some action in the area of my son’s walker (the thing the baby stands in that has wheels on it, allowing them to walk easier) caught my peripheral vision.  I silently watched as he turned around and proceeded to climb up and out of his walker, backed down the front of it, and quietly sat on the floor like nothing had happened.  Then it dawned on me that I hadn’t even put him IN the walker in the first place!  I checked with my husband, and he hadn’t put him in there either, and later that evening it was verified as we watched him do it again – my son had put himself in his walker in the first place before he climbed back out again.  He acted like a pro, so who knows how many times he’s done this, but needless to say, the walker has been packed away before he even used it to help himself walk.  But that leads me to my point – we’ve had 3 girls and now a boy, and we are starting to see the major differences between little boys and little girls;  the most noticeable at this point being that boys climb EVERYTHING! My son can climb before he can walk.  He’s been climbing stairs for awhile already, and the other day he climbed the table in the laundry room, and he can almost climb up onto the couch.  I can’t imagine what it will be like when he CAN walk, YIKES!!!

Our town holds the distinction of having Ohio’s oldest city band – it’s over 150 years old.  Remarkably, this city band has had only 3 directors since 1888 – the current director has conducted the band for 48 years!  But at the age of 96, this was his last year with the band – and last Wednesday’s concert was his last.  The turnout was incredible – for a small rural town, an audience of 1,000 was beyond expectations, I think.  Usually, we can hear the band concerts from our backyard, but there was a threat of rain for this last concert of the season, so they moved it across town where they could have it under a roof.  We drove over for just a little bit, and even though we stayed in the car in the parking lot (sleeping kids), it was very enjoyable to listen to the band in the night air.

I would have liked to play for the band under this band director, just to meet him and be a part of town history, but my schedule does not allow for this as a hobby right now.  I guess I’ll have to wait until my kids are grown and I can play under the direction of the city band’s 4th conductor since the 1800’s – providing I still have the skills to play in a band, that is –  I am quite rusty even now, let alone years from now!  But as I was saying, the city band as we know it is about to change…

More on the title later.  My parents’ trip to Alaska began Saturday when they were to fly out of Detroit early that morning.  However, there were mechanical mishaps on the plane which lead to the cancellation of the flight.  Around 3PM, a flight was arranged that would carry them non-stop to their destination.  Some good there since they were to have a 2 hour layover in Seattle.  They arrived in Alaska around 10:30PM EST.  However, their luggage did not arrive until 11:30PM Sunday night.

Yes, even with the parents being thousands of miles away at Fort Richardson near Anchorage, I still was able to stir up some mishaps.  It seems that my sister wanted to get into the house Tuesday night.  Thinking I was doing a good thing, I made sure that I locked the house before going to work.  When Christi could not get into the house, she did what any normal 32 year old would do: called Mommy and Daddy and interrupted their trip.  This could have been avoided simply by driving the half block to the grocery store and seeing that I was at work and asked for the key. My car was parked at the house… surely logic would dictate that I was nearby somewhere. Instead, I get a phone call from Alaska asking why I would lock the door.  Well… needless to say, that will not be happening again.  Who would break into a house in little E-town?  And don’t get any ideas.  AAAAHHHH, sisters.  But I was more upset that she bothered the parents.  I mean, what are they going to do, use the remote control door unlocker?  Oh, well such as life.

It began with $3 cash being enclosed in a letter – we had been selected to be a Nielsen family.  You know the Nielsen company – basically, they gather information about how many people are watching what on tv in order to determine how much commercials should cost.  So anyway, they sent $3 cast, and I have to admit, that piqued my interest.  They called with a short phone survey, and a few weeks later, we received a large envelope with 4 booklets (tv diaries), and $30(!) cash.  There were instructions; all we had to do was record what we watched on which tv for a week.  But it turned out to be easier said than done…

Recording what is watched on all of the tv sets (what year were those diaries  printed – who says “tv sets”?) in our household turned out to be quite a challenge!  First of all, we have a parrot in the laundry room, and his tv is on all the time.  I don’t always know what is playing, but I do know that the bird loves The Price Is Right.  So I made a little note in our tv diary for that tv and mentioned that it’s on all the time for the pet parrot and that he especially likes The Price Is Right.  I made sure to notate that I don’t know if he prefers Bob Barker or Drew Carrey, though…

And then there is the kids’ tv, which is in their room.  I know they watch a whole lot of the Disney channel, but I don’t know what’s always on it.  Because it’s summer, we didn’t watch much tv in the living room; we mostly use that tv for movies on DVD.  It was challenging to remember to write down details every time a tv was watched, and if we forgot, it was hard to remember what was watched.  So at times the task was daunting, but we had already accepted the payment, so I felt that we had to follow through with the project.  Overall, it was a neat experience, and if they value our input, there will be a lot more of The Price Is Right, The Office, and hopefully Cubs baseball on tv 🙂

Just for the heck of it, I took a picture of one of the tv diaries and the envelope:

Overall, a fun experience, but next time I might have to decline depending on how old the kids are when our names come up again.  It was very difficult for me to have to complete “homework” with 4 small children underfoot – hard to say if it would be worth the $30 again…  maybe if the kids are older and can fill out their own diaries…

While reading my daily geek.com, I came across this article they blogged about.  For those of us in our middle years it is really quite interesting.  To get you started, I have reprinted two or three from each section, but to read them all you will have to click the title or end of the article to go to the source.  What really makes me feel old is the inclusion of 90s things like the Playstation… 😮

Oh, be sure to click the link at the source about the young teen trying out a Walkman for a week, the MP3 player of the 80s.

UPDATE: I just visited Worthy Christian Forums, and apparently someone posted this same article, but with 37 more things (plus more in the replies)!  At a glance, I could see they weren’t just tacked on to the end and I’m too lazy to figure out which are new, so CLICK HERE TO GO TO READ ALL 137 THINGS

Audio-Visual Entertainment:

1. Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.

8. 8-track cartridges.

Computers and Videogaming:

19. The scream of a modem connecting.

22. Using jumpers to set IRQs.

33. Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.

The Internet:

38. Using a road atlas to get from A to B.

44. Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.

56. When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.

Gadgets:

58. Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?

69. Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.

Everything Else:

70. Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.

81. Han shoots first.

86. Finding books in a card catalog at the library.

(beginning of actual article follows below)

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

By Nathan Barry
July 22, 2009
8:00 am

There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks.

That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias …

[CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE ON WIRED.COM]

So… now that I have the house all to myself for the next two weeks while the parents are in Alaska, I have found that I am not at a lack of things to do.  Of course, there are the hours I must spend at work.  Friday night, I did something I have never done before:  Monster Jam at the Toledo Speedway.  Megan, Carol , and I drove and met admin and family.  It was really a fun night even if Superman got jipped (not biased, even if I was decked out in my Man of Steel Cap… maybe I should have worn one of my t-shirts) in the freestyle portion of the evening.  I think obvious local favorite, Gravedigger was at only a slight advantage as I found his performance less than thrilling.  I have seen ads for the show in the past and remember Gravedigger announced prominantly.  Very fun and Vera got the three of us to and from the event quite nicely  And we did not have to make any pit stops along the way 😉 Plus in the 4 wheeler event, the Ohio team was beaten by the Michigan team (BOOOOO!!!!)  I have a feeling a bit of proximity favoritism was in evidence.

Sunday… short work day, cleaned the beauty shop, ran to B-town to pick up a few things.  Then, I did something I have not done for years.  I brought the X-Box downstairs, had my 9 year-old niece and another friend come over and play.  And play we did! We started at about 5 and it got darker and darker and by the time I knew what time it was, it was midnight.  HOLY COW! About 2AM, we decided to call it a night.  Elizabeth was asleep in the chair, anyway.

Monday… great fun day.  I had some friends over for a pizza/movie night.  We started at Munchkin Junction.  Later, I had Elizabeth stay to play with the kids while the adults watched the totally captivating movie, The Island.  I don’t know why, but I kept thinking  The Beach with Leonardo DiCrapio (never seen that one either) but I am SOOO glad it was not.  This was a somewhat typical but nottoo typical Michael Bay production with lots of action.  I REALLY liked it… futuristic sci-fi with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsen (whom I just learned will be in Iron Man 2… scheduled for release next summer).

Soo… the start of my two week adventure has been fun.  More to come.  And yes, the house is still standing.

I found this little brief to funny not to share.  Click the title to see the picture:

THE COOLEST MUTT IN THE EAST

COOL canine Fei Fei left other dogs in the shade after his owner bought him a pair of sunglasses as a joke.

But now the fashion mad mutt refuses to leave owner Bo Lee’s home in Chongqing, central China, without being given his wraparound shades!

“I think he likes all the attention he gets on the street,” said Lee.

“I bought them to protect his eyes but now if I try to leave the apartment without them he howls the place down,” he told the Austrian Times.