Tonight was an evening of celebration. I had a wonderful time with a bunch of friends celebrating a very special occasion. I’m sure someone else’s blog will give a complete rundown of the events, so I won’t here. But I did enjoy myself. This post is not about that joy and celebration, but more a feeling of loss, when later events happened.

For the past few years, I’ve always had a few bittersweet feelings at wedding and anniversary celebrations. These were events that would remind me of what I lost. This was the very first such event in the past five years that I did not have the deep feeling of loss. Two of my daughters were married and those events nearly knocked me flat emotionally.

It has been over 5 years since I last held my wife in my arms. 5 years when the wedding vows were fulfilled. You never really think about that clause “until death do us part”. At least not until it happens. Today at the celebration, I did not think about the loss I had, only the joy being shared. A good evening.

But then it happened. I was waiting for my youngest daughter to finish up a game, so I did some shopping at the 24 hour place. I ran into a man who I knew and, I haven’t seen him in over 5 years. He did not know of my wife’s death. The question “How is your wife?” blew me out of the water. I wasn’t expecting to have to tell that to anyone in this area. I live in a small community, I really thought everyone knew.

The comfortable day took a drastic turn with one short question. Emotions filled my every thought. I hesitated on the answer. It was like a punch in the gut. We then shared a few memories and parted. Slowly, the flood of feelings calmed. This is the way of life and death. The memories of our past can warm us as well as send chills down our spines. Those we loved live on through us, and in the stories we tell. In that I found some peace

I have officially decided which show I will be auditioning for this summer.  While I loved my experience in the melodrama a few summers ago, I have to go with the big musical extravaganza of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Nothing beats a big, fun, and energetic musical.  Plays are fun to do but for the past well… forever, if a musical is being done, I am all for it.  Now… which role to try out for….

• the Elvis channeling Pharoah?  I am an Elvis fan, but not the best Elvis channeler.
• Potiphar… never cared for the role.  I can’t recall but I think that he was double cast in another role in productions I have been involved with.
• The baker or butler could be fun, but limited roles… possibility.
• There are a few of the 11 brothers (good men and true) I could see myself as and if anyone knows the show and myself well enough they should be able to take a stab at at least one of my choices.
• Jacob… well, I did just finish playing Grandpa Prophater.
• Joseph, himself?  I dunno… how old was Donnie Osmond when he stepped into the part in the 90s?

Well, I have a few weeks to narrow my choices unless I decide to say give my anything and sing everything from the show.

With the return of warmer weather comes the return of our locally famous wagon o’ cuties:

Except what’s that in the wagon, a little red elf?  Now I might be biased here, but that is the cutest elf I’ve ever seen!  This is the first time I put that little sweatshirt on my son.  I wish I had found it in time for Christmas last year – I don’t think it’ll still fit him by December for next Christmas.  And it seems the kids are starting to overflow the wagon…  Might be time to make our oldest walk or ride her bike…

I haven’t written much about baseball this year, but the 2009 season starts very soon. Teams are wrapping up spring training, and the final rosters for the start of the year are being set.

At this time of year, every team has a chance to make it to the world series, everyone starts out in the same place. I am rooting for the Tigers for the 46 year. I will say 46, since I don’t remember really thinking much about pro ball until the year of my 4th birthday. I went to a game before that, but it could have been any game, any time. I was told it was in Detroit and against Cleveland. I don’t even remember who won. I do remember being upset that Detroit traded away Rocky Colavito, I think I was 5 then. I knew Colavito hit home runs, I liked home runs. Funny thing to remember. But I have been a Tiger fan for all the life I can remember. I’m hoping they do well this year. Last year was a bit of a disappointment, but after sticking through some of the years they’ve had, it wasn’t really too bad.

I’m also going to root for the Cubs, unless they happen to play Detroit in inter-league ball, or maybe the Series. I never really had a National League team I liked. I have good friends who like the Cubs, so I will be a transplanted Cubs fan. I hope they do well this year too.

I have another friend who roots for the Yankees. Well, I can’t say much there. I was taught “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.” Well, I guess I hope the Yankees do well when ever they play a Central Division Team that isn’t Detroit. That is really hard for me to say, since I was always had two favorite teams (The Tigers, and whoever is playing the Yankees). 😉

Another friend of mine roots for the Cleveland Indians. I would like them to do well (they are in my home state after all), just not as good as the Tigers. Something has to be said for state pride. Ohio should produce at least 1 .500 team. There are two pro teams in the State, at least one of them should do well. I don’t know any Cincinnati fans off the top of my head.

So check your local listing, schedules and root for the team of your choice. It is a long season, I hope there is some excitement in October.

… but she thinks she is!  We used to have a cat, but she passed away last year.  We got our dog as a puppy just 4 months after we got the cat as a kitten, and they lived together for 10 years, so it’s no wonder my dog thinks she’s a cat.  Despite her old age, she will jump on the furniture, and even walk on the top of the couch – very cat-like behavior.  She is also more independent like a cat, and she’ll only come when called to snuggle if she wants to, like a cat.

The other day, she decided she was done waiting for the kids to eat their lunch.  We had left it out because the kids hadn’t eaten well, and we thought they could come back later and have a bite – WRONG!  Our dog Charity (the cat in disguise) took it upon herself to climb UP ON the dining room table and get their lunches.  She is our spoiled rotten baby; what were we going to do, yell at the old lady?  So we took a picture instead, note how she uses her feet to tip up the plates and hold them in place so they don’t slide away while she’s licking:

And Charity has such a personality; she hates being laughed at, so I think she learned her lesson.  Besides, once the motivation to get the food was gone (eaten), she was stuck up on the table.  We wrestled with the decision to help her down; she is 11 years old and I didn’t want her breaking bones or worse, but in the end she got herself down successfully.  First she kind of growled and grunted around up there while we giggled at her from the living room, then she used her new vantage point as a barking stool, but just as I got sick of it and went to help her down, she got down herself.  She is such a jerk but what a personality that dog has…  We love you Charity!

And now you need to see how cute she really is, one blue eye and all.  So here is one of my favorite pictures of her in a Chicago Cubs shirt – opening day is on Monday, so GO CUBBIES!!!

Seems that the group here on tangents was the subject of an April Fools Joke. Trying to get in to add a post this afternoon, I found that the site was up for sale. Good joke. My own jokes didn’t make it to fruition today. I was unable to get a hold of the intended victims. Maybe they were avoiding calls from their father today. One never knows.

Good joke on us Admin.. 😉 But will you admit my first email did say something about it being on April 1st?

What a fun April 1st it has been!!! Tangents was visited once again by the Mad Hacker (sounds like a forgotten villain of comic book stories).  Like many of my fellow tangenteers, I too have been doing a bit of light (or not so light reading) in my spare time.  I recently checked out a collection of stories featuring the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes (sorry Caped Crusader).

To me, going back and re-reading something you were assigned to read in school is much more entertaining the second time.  I am finding myself thoroughly enjoying reading adventures that gave me headaches the first time around and reading many others for the first time.  I enjoyed reading one story featuring “the woman” Irene Adler (A Scandal in Bohemia).

My favorite, thusfar, has been The Five Orange Pips that finds Holmes and Dr. Watson up against members of the Ku Klux Klan.  I learned something new in this story:  the name for the organization takes its name from the sound a rifle makes as it is being cocked.  The story itself fascinated me because Holmes is (in some ways) less than successful in solving the case.  The reader sees, through Watson’s eyes, the detective’s reaction.  A good way to develop character in showing not only triumphs but personal failings as well.

As many of you may have found out the hard way, today is April Fool’s Day.  Thankfully, I was the victim of only two pranks, and one I kind of figured out…  But the other one came out of left field and went something like this: my 9-year-old daughter comes up to me and says, “Mom, Christopher (her 8-month-old brother) is bleeding!”  She said it nonchalantly, but come on, something like that would just strike an instinctual panic button in any parent!  So I dropped what I was doing and ran into the living room, and she let me off the hook – April Fool’s!

Obviously this type of prank is not cool, and my daughter and I had a little chat about the inappropriateness of jokes involving injury  (I did tell her it was a good one though, since she didn’t know anything about prank etiquette when she thought of it).

But for future reference, I don’t make a very good prank victim anyway.  I tend to be gullible in the first place, so I’m easy to get.  And when I’m not being gullible, I’m cynical, so I might be paranoid I’m getting “got” or at least lied to.  And most importantly, if you do get me, depending on the severity of the prank, I might get mad at you – I guess I don’t like to be fooled…   So consider this your warning, and catch me on April Fool’s Day next year – at your own risk!

Ok… I’m not sure, but when I attempted to access my tangents site the normal way, I came across a message that stated that the domain name tangents.org is for sale.  After some trial and error, I was able to make my way here to post on the weirdness of the day.

It started this morning when I watched the April Fools Day episode of The Price is Right featuring a very special surprise guest and gags galore.

While walking to work at 11:55AM, I noticed that the clock at the bank read 12:55PM… funny.

While at work, the manager called and asked me if I would come in an hour early tomorrow as the truck was going to be early.  Why would I come in an hour early on Wednesday I said.?  She actually took me seriously and thought that it really was Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  HAHA!

Later, an apparent wrong number called and asked to speak with Monica.  I replied that I am  Monica and we carried on a two minute conversation until I could not come up with any more believable conversation.  Thank goodness the caller was good hearted and played along.

That was all until I got home and found out that our domain was for sale.  I guess we will see what happens tomorrow.  I can post, but can my readers find my posts?

Or an April Fools’ joke. You be the judge

Sick Sea Turtle Checks into Animal Hospital

I really liked the story, and I would think turtles have some intelligence. If this turtle had been treated there before, it knew enough to go back. But today is April Fools’ Day. I tend to take every Odd news or too good to be true news with a skeptics eye today. I didn’t see the regular April fool notes in the story, but there was mention of some other famous turtles. Hmm, it has me thinking.

I also saw a site for a Helicopter Hotel. The link may be gone now, because it was an honest April Fools’ Joke.

I haven’t seen much else. But I am keeping my eyes open today.