As I was making lunch today, I heard the following fascinating story on the radio, so I had to look it up and read it for myself:

The following article is from baltimoresun.com:
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband’s death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

“I’m numb,” Charlotte Peters, 78, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.

Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.

“I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner,” she said. “I had no idea how much it was.”

She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she’d won $10 million.

Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.

She does not yet know what she will do with the money.

“I’ve always wanted a Corvette, but I don’t think I’ll buy one. I’ll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun,” she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. “I’m going to go home and sit and think.”

The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.

“He’d be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money,” said Brian Peters, one of the couple’s three children. “He’d say, ‘Figures!'”

Even though Mr. Peters was not aware of his “luck”, in effect he paid the ultimate price to win the lottery.  Was it worth it?  Probably not.  Any sane person would rather have his life, health, and loved ones rather than an extremely large windfall if there was a choice.  Since that’s a poll I’d rather not take, here is one about what you would do if you won a huge amount of money in a lottery.

[poll id=”4″]

I’ve always tried out new (free) browsers as they are released since the inception of a browser as a program.  I remember the first Mosaic browser.  Quite a change from text based newsgroups and bulliten boards.  Text and pictures all at once. 

Currently I’m using Windows XP and have Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome loaded to run.  Most of the time I use Chrome, because it is just a bit faster to load.  Firefox follows closely as to what I use most.  I have Explorer just in case something doesn’t work on the other two browsers.    

So of course this lends itself to another poll….

[poll id=4]

In another sign of the weak economy, I received an email from a dinner theatre in Akron, Ohio which has cancelled its 2009 season, putting 150 people out to work.  I attended a production of West Side Story a few years ago and was once again enchanted by the power of live theatre.  The Carousel began in a converted supermarket in 1973 (what a coinkidink) and moved to its current location in 1988).  The theatre has created a buzz in New York as it has recruited talent from the Big Apple.  Each musical was self-produced using equity performers.  Quite a shame to see artistic venues come crashing down during this economic crisis.  I also hear that New York theatre is not doing well, either.

The Carousel Dinner Theatre, LLC has cancelled its 2009 season and closed its doors effective January 4, 2009.

For the past year, the economy has materially affected the theatre’s attendance and its ability to make cost adjustments to keep pace with the decrease in attendance. The final tipping point became the reversal of certain stakeholders’ written or verbal promises that would have had a major impact on the theatre’s continuance for the 2009 season and beyond.

Mr. Joseph E. Palmer accepts full responsibility for this action and regrets the impact on one hundred fifty employees and their families and all others affected by this closure.

If you have made any advance purchases on your credit cards, you should should immediately contact your credit card company to process a full refund.

I recently sat and watched the movie Wall*E with my young nieces after they begged and pleaded to be able to do so.  They however, watched maybe 5 minutes of the movie and were off to other things.  I thought the movie was cute but far from all the praise it has received… even being mentioned as a contender for best picture of the year.

The Disney/Pixar film has similarities to Short Circuit.  The star of the show bears an uncanny resemblance to Number “Johnny” Five.  Wall*E seems to be one of the last remaining, functional objects left on Earth as the planet has been deemed uninhabitable because of the trash content.  He is left on Earth as a trash collector.  However, everything he finds is not discarded.  The robot collects a treasure trove of trinkets to add to his collection.  A Rubik’s Cube, a fish plaque that sings “Dont Worry, Be Happy,”  The most memorable trinket is a VCR that includes a tape of Hello Dolly and always placed at the scene featuring Michael Crawford as Cornelius singing “It Only Takes a Moment.”  Wall*E’s only companion is a cute(?) unnamed cockroach.

But what became of the humans inhabiting the planet?  A sleek, attractive robot named Eva is sent to Earth in order to find any sign of life.  When Wall-E finds a small plant, Eva’s directive is complete and she blasts off to the large spaceship full of human descendants from 700 years in the past.  The human’s are rather robust, lazy people who have to do nothing as robots have become the ultimate servants. Humans do not even need to walk anywhere.  They are transported by motorized recliners. When Eva returns, the robots on board the ship become jealous and mutiny against the human captain and will not allow the ship to return to Earth.  That’s the plot in a nutshell… enough to make those who have never seen it determine if it is for them.

Pixar’s animation continues to be cutting edge and the movie was cute but I don’t think it deserves all the attention it has garnered.[poll id=”7″]

This is sort of a serious poll for me.  As you know, a while ago I started using pictures/graphics to head up my posts.  After a bit of time, I was told they were causing problems for some so I changed the theme template to solve the problem.  However, this still doesn’t answer a question I was wondering about.  Being on a computer with a desktop resolution of 1920×1200 and using a broadband connection to the internet, I personally have no problems at all with the graphics I use.  However, others may not feel the same as lower desktop resolutions such as 1024×768 are far more common, and not everyone is on broadband yet.  So when I ask this question I guess it can be interpreted in two ways.  First, the physical size of the graphics: I try for a width of 600 and a height usually of 250-350.  Does this take up too much screen real estate?  Second, the file size.  I try to stick with jpegs as it is both a standard and has smaller file sizes than bmp or png.  However, they can still be too large and take a long time to load as a result for those not on broadband.

Due to the nature of this poll, I have refrained from adding a header graphic to this post.  Please answer honestly and give explanations if you wish.  While only one of the options actually asks for an explanation, please feel free to explain any of your votes.  Thanks.

[poll id=”2″]

I usually spend Saturday evenings at my oldest daughter’s house.  This is 1 hour away from where I live, so it is a bit of a drive to get home.  We go late into the evening playing all sort of games, the normal game is some sort of ‘role playing’ game.   The games are always fun for me, but that is not the focus of this post.

Nope, the focus is my thoughts on the drive home, and the 45 minutes to an hour I need to spend to ‘unfocus’ from my drive home.  Driving late at night, I push my body awake.  Kind of like a coffee kick without the coffee.  I can just force myself to be alert, unless I’m really very tired.  This comes in very handy on long drives, or other activities that need my full attention.  It is a ‘gift’ I’ve always had.   As with all gifts, there is a downside.  It does take some time to unwind.

Anyway after all this, I was thinking on the drive home about where I am in life.  I am an only parent, but my daughters are  growing up.  Two are married and out of the house, one is engaged to be married soon, the youngest is now a senior in High School, just months from turning 18.  They don’t need their dad as much as they did 5 short years ago.   I’ve been a widower for 5 years, so in most peoples eyes I would be considered single.  I won’t go into the ins and outs of all the differences with this label, but for me, I prefer the widower label to the single label.  I never made the choice to be alone, it was kind of forced on me.  That in and of itself is enough for me.

I now know of some people trying to ‘set me up’.   Dating, while it has crossed my mind, isn’t my main concern.  I’m not out there looking.  If someone falls in my lap, so to speak, I guess I wouldn’t mind.  But looking for someone to be with is not my primary goal right now.  I have good friends, wonderful daughters, somewhat strange, but likable family, and hobbies that keep my mind occupied.  I’ve been busy trying to find out who I am.  For so many years I was part of a well oiled team.  That team got split up, and now I’m a solo act.  I’m just starting to find out what is important to me.  There really hasn’t been any time to spend dating.  I’m not even sure I want to go through the hassle of getting to know someone again.  Never enjoyed that when younger, I’m fairly certain I won’t now.  My wife and I kind of just clicked together.  Not from the first meeting, but within a few dates, it was like we knew each other forever.   Spent 20 years both knowing her and getting to know her better, not a bad way to spend 20 years.   Now, I’m not even sure what I would be looking for, but then again, I wasn’t sure 25+ years ago either.

I was also thinking about my weekly gaming sessions at my daughter’s house.  Does this infringe on the time I should be spending with the two younger daughter still (at least somewhat) in the ‘nest’?   Do they need more of my time, or is this a good use of my time.   I tend to enjoy the gaming, and it does relax me.  Good point in dealing with the day to day troubles/situations my two at home can give me.   I’m thinking I should just talk to the other 2 involved.  Yep, that is the answer there.

Also thinking about how much time I should spend with the theater.  Yes, I’m currently preparing for a show, I’m on the production board, I tend to volunteer for other projects.  Am I spending too much time there?

Do I spend too much time blogging?  Yes, sometimes I do.  (like now)  Could I use time better?  Sure.  Are other interests suffering from this?   You betcha.  But this is the place I clear my head, so I have more room to fit all the other stuff going on.  Doesn’t need to be a daily habit, but the clearing is beneficial.

Yes, all this and more went through my brain on an hour drive.   Now I’ve relaxed and I’m able to get much needed rest.   Read through at the playhouse later this afternoon.

Regular readers of my blog know that I thought The Night Listener was a terrible movie.  It stars Robin Williams as a radio show host who…  you know what, I don’t even remember.  For a plot synopsis, click on the link above.  I was actually surprised that an A-list actor like Robin Williams would do such an awful movie as The Night Listener, but he did.  After sitting through a movie like The Night Listener, my husband and I are weary of Robin Williams.  However, 3 of our friends and fellow tangents.org authors all agreed that August Rush is a good movie, so we checked it out.  And you’ll notice that the title of this post is called, “The Night Listener Returns”, so uh-oh.  But that was more of a joke, and now I’ve explained it, so let’s get on with my review of August Rush.

Not nearly as bad as the Night Listener; I wouldn’t even call August Rush a bad movie.  At the very least, it was really refreshing to see a movie whose target audience was over the age of 18 that was absent any filth whatsoever.  August Rush is a cute story, but I think the movie could have been done a heck of a lot better in some ways.  The tale follows the life of a young orphan, an almost magical boy, named Evan Taylor as he “follows the music” to find his real parents.  There were a few circumstances and events in the movie that weren’t believable in any shape or form, and even if you suspended your disbelief, the cheesiness of other aspects of the movie was annoying.  The storyline is intriguing, and the acting is not bad, but there are a few things that would have to change about August Rush in order for me to consider it a great film.  To name just a couple of those things, I couldn’t get over the fact that this entire love story is based upon a one-night stand.  Tactfully done – as I said, there isn’t any filth in this PG rated movie, but still, knowing it’s true love after just a one-night stand?  Come on!  And, I guess you’ll have to see the movie to appreciate this, but would an abandoned theater really still have its electricity working?  Doubtful.  Like I said, just a few examples of what I perceived to be holes in the plot, but there are other things about the movie that could have easily been changed, improving the film’s quality.  Doing so would add much enjoyment and just plain common sense to this movie.  And Robin Williams was not the shining star in August Rush either; that was left for Freddie Highmore who played Evan – he was also wonderful playing twins in the great movie The Spiderwick Chronicles – another highly recommended flick.  Williams seemed almost annoying in his role as a musical outlaw with his multple piercings and goatee.  I flip-flopped between deciding if his character “Wizard” was a good guy or a bad guy.  Maybe that was the point, I’m not even sure.

The actor who played Buford Benjamin Blue (Bubba) in Forrest Gump played a preacher in August Rush, so I was wondering if the line, “Run August run!”  was a reference to the extremely famous line, “Run Forrest run!” from the Oscar-winning film based upon the Winston Groom novel, one of my favorite movies (one that I highly recommend).  Or maybe it was the filmakers’ way of laughing at us for even thinking of an awesome movie like Forrst Gump during August Rush.  Ok, it wasn’t that bad…  I did appreciate the sentiment.  But my lack of suspension of disbelief just got in the way of me getting swept into the magic of the movie, I guess.

Sorry for those who disagree with me, but I’m still glad you recommended the movie; it was definitely worth a screening – thanks!

No, I’m not talking about the oranges called Cuties.

Have you heard of those?  They’re small oranges especially grown to be kid-friendly: less sour taste, seedless, and easier to peel and smaller than regular oranges.  I’ve been wanting to try them for our family, but when I finally remembered to pick them up at Walmart, the bag I had hastily grabbed contained smashed and rotten fruit.  What else is new – our Walmart always carries terrible produce.  But this is not going to be a Walmart-bashing post.  Tangents aside, I posted pictures of our new pet rat cuties in my previous post, so here are pictures of our real cuties.  Here is our one little guy with his 3 older sisters:

And below are the oldest and the youngest kids in our family – they’re 8.5 years apart.  I wish I had blocked the sun before I took this picture!

After nearly 4 days, I believe Uncle Larry N. Gitis has finally left… THANK YOU SO MUCH 😀 !!!  I tell you, it seems like the four longest days I have had in some time.  Tuesday late afternoon while baking cookies for a New Years gathering, I noticed that my voice was getting scratchy and I was starting to think that I was going to be coming down with a cold.  However, throughout the ordeal I felt fine… just kept getting less and less of a voice which to me is quite frustrating and scary.  There is just so much that I do with my voice… it has long been a my instrument of choice.  I could probably pick up a trumpet or tuba and play and I can play a little piano, but I have always, ALWAYS LOVED to sing.  Even more than the other three instruments.  Makes me wonder (there’s that word again) how people like Julie Andrews and I am sure many other performers endure when they lose their singing voices permantely.  Of course, Ms. Andrews has endured with other projects such as writing children’s books as well as doing the occasional movie.  I’m actually glad that my voice has recovered just in case it needs to be used in a meeting tomorrow evening. [poll id=”6″]

According to Wikipedia.com, James Cagney never actually said the line, “You Dirty Rat“.  The closest he got was saying “Come out and take it, you dirty, yellow-bellied rat, or I’ll give it to you through the door!” in Taxi.  But rats!  That’s not the point of this post.

Seems I couldn’t resist adding to the Food Chain Gang – we’ve added two pet rats to our family, Bobby and Oreo – the kids chose the names.  It was kind of an impulsive activity to do today, pet shopping, but it was not an impulsive decision, the type that should never accompany a new pet.  We’ve been talking about getting a rat for some time now, but if it ended up being the wrong decision for our family, we didn’t want to be like rats leaving a sinking ship and ditch the responsibility. So we’ve been thinking about it a lot, and today just seemed like the right day to do it.

Rats are friendly, intelligent, non-biting rodents who make great pets.  Rat owners compare their companionship to that of dogs, believe it or not, and from what I’ve seen so far, I see what they’re talking about.  I think rats haven’t caught on as pets because many people don’t like the way their tails look, and they still have a negative stigma from a few incidents of centuries past, namely the Black Death outbreak and the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.  I did some research about both of these historical tales – not that they influenced my decision to get the rats as pets; the research was just for fun.  But I found that the Bubonic Plague, aka the Black Death was most likely transmitted by fleas rather than rats.  True the fleas would travel on the rats, but they more commonly preferred larger hosts such as dogs or cats and used rats when larger animals were unavailable.  The Bubonic Plague was attributed to causing the demise of one quarter of the Earth’s population of human beings at that time, it’s hard to blame people for taking it out on rats.  And the Pied Piper story is basically a legend that tries to explain the disappearance of over 100 children from the town of Hamelin in Germany just before the year 1300.  Most likely, the children were recruited to newer European settlements, possibly by a man in “pied” clothing.  In the legend, there is a rat infestation in Hamelin, and the Pied Piper leads the rats out of the town to a body of water where they all drown.  The townspeople neglect to pay the Piper for his rat removal services, and he returns and leads their children out of town.  Some versions claim they went to a cave, some say another village, and there are even a few versions that say the Piper had ill intentions toward the children – in one they meet a fate similar to the rats.  I enjoyed some of the rat research I read and wanted to share it.  If you want to continue the research on your own, I’ve added to the level of the cheesiness (and length) of this post by putting some common sayings involving rats in italics – try looking them up; the origins are interesting.  But anyway, back to our new little friends.

When we were at the pet store, I didn’t want any part of picking out the rat.  I felt like they are only in pet stores to become snake food (which is why I won’t join the rat race and work in a pet store, as much as I’d like to do the other work in the store), and I didn’t want to have to see the ones that wouldn’t get saved.  As it is, I went over there to take a glance, saw little Bobby, who was about to be put back in the snake food tank, and that’s what prompted me to say, “Maybe we should get two.”  The pet store sent the rats home to us like this, a brown bag lunch for snakes, thus proving my point:

The rats my family chose for us are 4 week old brothers.  They are adorable, incredibly tame, and I’ve already really bonded with Bobby.  He cuddles me and sits on me and grooms himself – rats are actually very clean animals.  The entire start-up for this type of pet set us back about $25.
$2.99 per rat + $3 for bedding + $9 cage + $3 food (for about 3 weeks worth) + $2 water bottle + tax.  We are going to be resourceful about toys and use my kids’ toys for the rats – we’ve already found that they like to crawl through these foam tunnel blocks they have.  And we were very resourceful when making their cage as well.  Instead of trying to decide between the $19 glass aquarium and the $24 hamster cage (I was concerned about the heaviness and the breakable glass of the aquarium and worried the rats would escape the cage), we opted for secret option #3 – a large $9 transparent Rubbermaid bin with a lid in which we poked air holes.  Overall, I’m very happy so far with the new pet decision, and my major concerns have not come to fruition which were: 1.  that our Jack (Jerk) Russell Terrier mix would try to hunt the rats, and  2.  that the kids would unwittingly hurt the rats.  But our dog has not even noticed that the rats are here yet (she’s almost 11 and her sense of smell is failing faster than I thought – that makes me a little sad), and we laid down strict rules for the kids about handling the rats.  I was also worried about having yet another chore to do around the house, but I was promised help from both of the enthusiastic new pet owners (there’s a sucker born every minute).  Here are the cuties – Bobby is the beige one and Oreo is the gray and white one: