Tonight, I was one of two ushers for WCCTs latest production (more on that in a bit).  The theatre was decorated with many Halloweenish spizzerinctum.  We also advertised the cookbook to which many of our resident theatre regulars contributed recipes.  In addition, samples of two of the desserts were distributed.  Tonight featured a Greek dessert called Galatobouriko (a “Cream of Wheat Custard”) and a lemon/pineapple offering… both of which are featured in the cookbook that can be purchased during the run of the current production. I was told that many years ago punch and cookies were furnished in the reception area free of charge.  Not very feasible in today’s economy.  My co-usher and I were given orange, pointy witch’s hats to wear as we passed out programs.

On to the play itself.  First, there was Lucy and Ethel.  Years later came Laverne & Shirley.  Now… brace yourself for Dolly and Isobel, The Kitchen Witches.  The only difference is… Dolly and Isobel detest each other.  The two cooking godesses are thrown together to star in a cable cooking show.  Food and insults are constantly flung which leads to great amounts of hilarity.  I adored the accent Dolly employed in the opening scene as she was filming the last scenes of her own cooking show.  What follows is a madcap mixture of Martha Stewart (or almost any other cooking show you can imagine) and Jerry Springer.  A cameo performer from the audience was pulled for a pivotal scene (not mentioning any names but the initials are C.D.).  When it was good, it was very good.  A few moments of downtime but a fun show.  There is also an uproarious nod to another classic 70s television series that is not to be missed.

Following the performance, I was invited to try a bowl of the director’s chili.  WOW is all I can say.  It actually was not too spicy until AFTER I had finished.  But it was delicious and spicy.  I had heard about Jose’s chili and am pleased to say that I was not disappointed.  So, if you are a fan of cooking shows and mudslinging television talk shows (is that what Mr. Springer’s show is categorized) hop a ride on your broomstick and catch WCCT’s latest offering.

Or should I say it was?

Last Sunday, two of my daughters, 1 son-in-law, and a few friends went to the Apple Butter Festival in Grand Rapids Ohio. It was a wonderful fall day, sunny, warm and the smell of gun powder filled the air.

Gunpowder? Yep, gunpowder. Part of the Apple Butter Festival are various re-enactments. Solders from the Revolution were parading in the street. Civil War solders were shooting across the river. Every so often a Tank would fire off a round. Yes, there was the smell of gunpowder. I was talking to one of the Civil War solders, who kept in character the whole time, about his life and the things he did on a day to day basis. Very interesting stuff. As I was leaving I commented how well he stayed ‘in character’. He kept in character for that too, but I had to remind him that a civil war soldier would not have had a tongue stud. Oops, forgot to remove that one. Hee, Hee!!

Then there was the food. Good food. Brats, buffalo, apple dumplings. I didn’t get to sample all of it. I was looking for one place that last year sold some of the best salsa I’ve tasted. I couldn’t find them. The spot they were in last year was occupied by a person selling stuffed animals. Oh well.

My youngest and I did lose my oldest and her group. We were going to communicate by cell phone, but only one of our phones got decent reception in the town. Stick with the carrier that gives better service where you live. I don’t think the “Can you hear me now” guy was ever in this town.

I imagine a good time was had by all.

I did something to my shoulder to re-aggravate an old injury. For the first three days of this work week, I was unable to lift my left hand over my head without pain. Back to starting the old rehab exercises. Turn my head one way then the next, lifting up that ol’ soup can (1 1b weight to start). Keep stretching and moving…. Not too much weight, you can re-injure that thing. Trouble was I forgot them.

Yep, all that stuff used to be in my head. There was a sheet of exercises that I was supposed to do to keep the shoulder in shape. Me, I stopped doing them when the shoulder felt better. I kept up with a couple of the stretching routines, because they helped with headaches too. I did the ones I remembered, but I know there were another couple on the routine. Oh well, I guess I can try to find the list again. Maybe the rehab place has a website? Or I can just stop in and ask for another sheet…

Anyway with a bit of patience, lots of heat applied, and a few exercises, I was able to function at around 90% today. I was able to pull on a shirt, brush my hair with my left hand, type all day at work. and my shoulder is only starting to complain. I think before dinner, I’ll apply a bit of heat again.

I would say that this is a getting old problem, but mostly it is an out-of-shape problem. I move wrong, or sleep wrong and I put the shoulder out of whack. I am hoping that my trips to the “Y” will help with this, but I haven’t been able to get much exercise in since I joined. Just after I joined, I pulled some leg muscles that kept me from doing a lot there, and now this. I know I can’t push myself on exercise equipment, when it just hurts (like crazy) to move. I can’t say the “Y” did it either, I wasn’t there both times I was injured…. Just plain dumb luck and my body trying to move like it was in better shape than it is….

Maybe next week….

And this was the reason why there hasn’t been a post since the weekend. I have one more post started, but never finished it. I’m not a one handed typist.

Coming to EHS on October 31 is America’s Finest Singing Machine, The Bowling Green State University Men’s Chorus.  I was a four-year member of the group and some of the best times were spent on a Lakefront tour bus traveling to one nighters during our Fall mini tour and our week long Spring recruitment tour.  We would load up the 3 buses (with risers, luggage, garment bags which held our tuxes) at 5am.  Our director, the legendary R.D. Mathey, corralled his “Little Critters” by feeding them Crispy Critters (or as they are more commonly called Krispy Kreme cinnamon buns… I’ve mentioned those in a post previously).  It was on  these excursions that we were treated to “Host Family Horror Stories” every morning on the 8″ television/VCR that each bus was equipped with.  Also, I made the acquaintance of one “Richard Hurts” during roll call.  It was also on the Spring tours that I had my first experiences of Broadway…. not just any Broadway but the theatre district in the heart of Manhattan.

So, anyway, one of the little stops the chorus will make will be at my high school alma mater.  Halloween afternoon at 12:30.  In the past, alumni have been called down to perform the traditional barbershop number “Please, Mr. Columbus” to close the concerts.  Although the group is under the direction of a new leader, I would not be surprised if the tradition did not stand.

Massage the teacher = bad.  Just remember that, m’kay?  In reference to a previous post we learned that while paper passer, messenger, and librarian are good jobs for teachers to give their students, massaging the teacher doesn’t quite fly.  However, apparently not all service jobs are a problem.  From the title I think you can guess what unusual job I ran across today.  Coffee.  That is, making and serving coffee to several teachers in the school.  That’s right, this teacher is training her students up for the type of job they can only hope to achieve should the economy not pick back up.  Another 733 points today- sigh.  There’s more to this story though.  Apparently today was something like clothes mismatch day.  Some students traded a shoe to have mismatched shoes.  One boy had a sandal on one foot, a gym shoe on the other.  Other students turned shirts inside out or wore them backwards.  It was quite funny to see hoodies with the hood in front, like they were made for people who get carsick… 😮

So one student was wearing an apron.  A forest green apron.  I walked up to him in the morning and joked with him, “could I have a grande latte, please?”  I had noticed the coffee job by this time by the way, so it wasn’t coincidence much like I would like to say it was.  There were two girls assigned to this.  As a non-coffee drinker I don’t have much experience making coffee and I guess they didn’t either as we tried to set the older-type coffee maker up.  Guess who did know what he was doing and came over to help?  Mr. forest green apron of course.  That was the coincidence and what I found funny.  I left it to him and the girls and started with the lesson.

Let me tell you that this had to have been the noisiest group I ever worked with.  Sixth grade and social.  This sort of group should have been in a middle school still trying to learn the new system back at the bottom of the food-chain.  Some people disagree and say that sixth graders in elementary school is better for them.  I was in a sixth grade middle school class myself, so I guess it’s just what I’m used to.  When I first got there today I found out they had a sub yesterday.  I read some of the notes she left about their behavior.  Great…  It could have been worse though.  There is bad behavior and annoying behavior, and chatty behavior falls into the latter category.  The ELL class I mentioned several posts ago would be the bad behavior, as would some of the BD classes I have subbed for.  Talking I didn’t mind so much, except when I or someone I have called on is trying to talk of course.  They turned out to be good kids, just chatty.

And I will be with this class again tomorrow (a two-day assignment, yay!), so more on this in another post.

Had my daughter’s 2nd birthday party over the weekend, and it was a blast.  Family and friends came from far and wide, and my daughter recognized the “Happy Birthday” song I’ve been singing to her the past couple of weeks when everyone sang it to her.  On a side note, I have a hint for parents everywhere, including myself the next time I throw a kids’ birthday party:  have something ready to give the kids to occupy them before the party, otherwise excitement and anticipation will get the best of them, ruining moods of kids and parents  My 3 kids were so anxious before the birthday party last weekend that they were running around, fighting, and even tantruming.  I would advise giving the birthday child his or her present early (if they can all play with it without fighting!) or setting aside some kind of toy for all of your kids.  Better yet, line up someone who can take the kids out of the house all together and let them arrive a mere 15 minutes before the rest of the guests – now that would have been bliss.  It’s just impossible to get last minute party preps finished with 3 (or any number, for that matter) wild children running amok.  And forget about keeping the house clean while waiting for the guests to arrive.  Here we are on Saturday, trying to keep the kids sane and serve lunch all while getting things ready for the party.  Then we had to clean up the mess the kids made during lunch really quick before the guests began arriving, after making sure that they actually ate something in their excitement.  The formula added up to one hectic pre-party morning and early afternoon, with the tantrum-thrower losing her voice before the party began.

But overall, it was lots of fun; especially getting to see family who aren’t often able to make the journey to Ohio from Illinois.  I know the birthday girl appreciated it and had lots of fun too, and I want to thank everyone who was a part of her special day.  Thanks for the gifts and thanks most of all for being there to wish Disney a happy 2nd birthday.  Special thanks goes to justj and his family for the very special gifts they bestowed upon our family; as well as Carol and Megan who also were thoughtful about giving each of the girls a present.  This helped alleiviate much fighting later in the day while we were suffering birthday party comedown.  Another special thanks to the family who travelled hundreds of miles to be there for Disney on her special day.  Family and friends are the BEST!

BELOW: Disney eating her birthday cupcake

Well, we’ve now gotten a taste of two new episodes for this season, and I think I can safely say that the Office is back on track and as funny as ever!  It’s always been funny; it’s just that the few episodes that aired after the writer’s strike weren’t the best ones.  But I’m happy to see that so far, this season is a riot and will keep me looking forward to Thursday nights.

Entitled, ‘Business Ethics’, the 2nd Office episode of the season saw Michael and Holly in a major disagreement.  But no need to fret, it was resolved by the end of the show, thank goodness.  Sorry if I spoiled something for you, but you wouldn’t want to be left hanging about that, now would you?  I think I’ll copy n paste the tvguide.com episode sysopsis and comment on it.  That’s an easy way to write a review of the show and share the tvguide.com summary which I always enjoy.  Tvguide.com is in italics, my comments are in BOLD CAPS.

With the exemplary premiere behind us, in which we were treated to Jim and Pam’s engagement, Dwight and Angela’s torrid and super-secret affair, Michael and Holly’s evolving ‘friendship’ and Ryan’s return as Pam’s temporary replacement, does the second episode of the Office continue the momentum? The answer, my friends, is …

Definitely. Maybe. Ummm … Not so much.

It’s hard to follow up near-perfection.  WHILE I AGREE WITH THAT COMMENT, I WILL DISAGREE WITH THIS WRITER TO SAY THAT I THINK THE 2ND EPISODE WAS ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST – THERE’S JUST NO COMPETING BETWEEN AN HOUR OF THE OFFICE AND A HALF-HOUR OF THE OFFICE. “Weight Loss” was a one-hour gem, while “Business Ethics” had some nice moments, particularly during the beginning of the show, but it had some disappointments for me as well. I’ll list out my quibbles with this episode first, and then I’ll get to the funny:

1) The Absence of Pam
After their shocking engagement, Pam is relegated to a disembodied voice on the telephone at the beginning of the show. No doubt there will be plenty of opportunities for her to take center stage as the season develops, and I understand that sending her to school makes it difficult to include her in the office’s day-to-day, but it was jarring to all but ignore the Jim and Pam relationship right after their shocking engagement.  AGREED – I MISSED PAM TOO, BUT IT WAS ONLY ONE EPISODE, AFTER ALL.  IF SHE ISN’T THERE NEXT WEEK, I WILL HAVE A BEEF.
2) Ryan’s ethics
Reflecting back on an episode entitled “Business Ethics” I guess I was surprised that it focused primarily on Michael, Holly and Meredith, and only tangentially referred to the busted and now-humbled Ryan. I was expecting the episode to center more on Ryan somehow (don’t ask me how, I’m just a recapper).  RYAN CAN BE ANNOYING IN LARGE DOSES, SO I’M GLAD HE WAS ONLY ON THIS EPISODE FOR A LITTLE BIT.
3) Holding back the crazy
Creed didn’t say or do anything Creed-like; Andy didn’t sing a capella or punch a wall; even Michael and Holly’s “Let’s Get Ethical” intro was a schtick we’ve seen before. So even in an episode with Dwight peeing into a soda bottle, the usual absurdities of the Office family felt somehow muzzled or restrained.  CREED DID SAY AT LEAST ONE REALLY FUNNY THING – SEE BELOW.

But enough with the criticisms. Let’s get to the kudos. I thought the “personal time” subplot was the highlight of the show, and led to the episode’s two best scenes:

Jim: Hey Andy
Andy: Yo
Jim: By any chance did you see Battlestar Galactica last night?
Andy: No I did not. Is that any good?
Jim: Actually not, it’s really so-so.
Jim: I don’t like all the crazy monsters and stuff, like Klingons and Wookies and all that.
Jim (looking at Dwight): Sorry, is there something you wanted to add Dwight?
Andy: Is that like the original Battlestar Galactica?
Jim: You know what’s weird, it’s practically a shot-for-shot remake

(Dwight crumbles paper in frustration)

Jim: The story is kinda bland, it’s about this guy called “Dumbledore Calrissian” who needs to return the ring to back to Mordor
Andy: That doesn’t sound right …

2) 19:48

It’s easy for Jim to push Dwight’s buttons, and it’s easy for us to laugh at it. Jim’s pranks on Dwight have been the stuff of legend, but this was the first time that Dwight had it over on Jim – and Jim didn’t even know it.

The smugness on Jim’s face when he got Dwight to admit that he took “personal time” paled in comparison to the sidelong glance Dwight gave the camera when he admitted that “Yes, maybe I’m not” ethical. The camera panned over to Angela buttoning up her shirt, and we understood how Dwight spent that 19:48. I loved that the writers gave Dwight this moment over Jim – unexpectedly turning the tables and making Jim’s prank just seem irrelevant.  THAT WAS A NICE MOMENT.

And finally, here are my favorite one-off lines:

“The tall guy got engaged” – Creed  CLASSIC CREED, HILARIOUS!

“I’ve listened to Cookie Monster Sings Chocolate Rain 5,000 times” – Michael. (By the way, I tried like heck to find this video on You Tube, but no luck. But here’s the consolation prize)

“You’ve been cuckolded by a stronger, smarter male” – Dwight

So, what did you guys think?  LOVED IT.  Am I right that this episode – while good – did not live up to the season premiere’s lofty heights?   I THINK YOU’RE WRONG.  IT WASN’T AS GOOD AS THE PREMIERE, BUT PROBABLY ONLY BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY HALF AS LONG AND FOR THE PREMIERE EPISODE, WE WERE SO HAPPY TO HAVE THIS AWESOME SHOW BACK AFTER SUMMER HIATUS!

What an oxymoron this post title presents, doesn’t it?  Silent politicians…  is there such a thing?  The proof was sighted in NW Ohio last weekend – here it is:

That’s Obama on the left and McCain on the right – true to real life politics.  Hillary is in the middle…  the display must have been designed months ago…

During these times of uncertainty I think it appropriate to mention that I have had a couple of lean days in the past week.  How so, you ask?  First of all I am not talking about my diet or any lack of jobs.  What I refer to is the lesson plans.  Twice in the last week I have walked into the classroom to a lesson plan book opened to the appropriate week.  Okay, this gave me the general outline for the day but another teacher had to come in and help me interpret them.  Seeing “10:15-10:30 Student Council Election” doesn’t tell me who is running, for what positions, and how to do the vote.  In this case I was told to skip it by the other teacher so I happily did so.  Things a lesson plan like this doesn’t include is behavior management system, details on what is to be taught, students who can help, and more.  Fortunately as I said the teacher across the hall laid it out for me and I was able to take it from there.  In addition there was a teaching assistant in the room for one of the students.  Both were very helpful.  As well, I had a good class, so all in all today was a good day.  Well, in the spirit of lean-ness this post must come to a close.  Well really because I’m tired and want to go to bed but if it fits the topic then, hey. 😛

Today, I worked from 10am-4pm… not a bad shift at all… not too early and off at a decent hour.  Everything was going well until about 11:30 when the electricity flicked on and off.  It did this three times in about a five minute interval.  THEN, it flicked and did not come back on.  GREAT!!!  How long til we get to call it a day since we could not wait on anyone and could not see very far into the store without a flashlight.  I was more concerned about the meat and frozen foods.  How long do we actually wait until we have to unload that?  At least 3 hours, I was informed.  When the boss arrived at noon, I was instructed to take a flashlight to the meat room to put some chicken in bags for sale and put them in the freezer.  After that, I decided to have a bit of fun.  I took the flashlight and a stocking cap that I found and pointed the light up under my chin, thereby giving my face that extra creepy appearance.  I then waited for the boss to come back that way.  Sure enough, she jumped like 6 feet in the air.  If you can’t have a haunted house then why not make do and create some frights where and when you can.  Unfortunately, the electricity returned at about 1 o’clock.  But, we did get to look out the window at the traffic light and see how many drivers knew what to do when the lights are not working.  There were a couple close calls because some intelligent vehicle operator did not know to stop before crossing the intersection.  Not sure what caused the town-wide outage (or at least on the north side of the railroad tracks) but it made for an interesting hour,