I made chicken for dinner and thought that it would taste good with some salsa on it. It did, but I put on a bit much. Now I’m paying for it. Up late at night waiting for antacids to kick in. You can’t put it back in the jar after it hits partially cooked chicken. And it was the good stuff too, lots of heat.

Ahh, the joys of aging. I still like all the spicy stuff, but it doesn’t like me as much as it used to. The cast iron stomach seems to have some rust.

On another note, I miss my laptop. Even though I got the tower up and running again, it was so easy to have the laptop with me wherever I wanted to be. I have an old machine going, but it is very, very, very slow. I think it is slower than my internet connection. I do have it loaded with a full version of Unbuntu Linux at this time, maybe that is pushing it a bit. I wonder if it would work with the netbook version of that OS. I may have to try it and find out. I need to get a list of USB or other wireless cards that work with Unbuntu or Puppy Linux. I have two old laptops that I have installed Linux on and only 1 wireless card that works. The newer of the two laptops has an internal wireless, but Linux doesn’t like that one either. I even tried a backdoor way that was supposed to allow the use of the windows drivers. No go. I guess for now I share. I really can’t use two laptops at once can I?

Okay then, here is the first of a round of posts based on the yearbooks I have sitting around.  Let’s start with some kids of whom I actually have memories beyond just their names.  It has been quite awhile since my junior high years so unfortunately my memory won’t take us as far as I’d like…

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The guy above would be none other than my best friend in my intermediate years.  Sorry C, but I hadn’t met you yet and beside, you were still a tyke in 2nd or 3rd grade at this time.  J and I were practically inseparable.  Unfortunately after 7th grade he moved to live with his dad.  I never met his dad, but I was jealous to hear how he had an Atari with a ton of games.  Well, I had an Atari too, but not so many games.  One time our boy scout troop was away at camp and we were trying to live Indian style (hey, political correctness was not the behemoth it is today so we didn’t use the friendly Native-American term).  Anyway, most of us wore breechcloths- no I don’t know what tribe(s) used breechcloths instead of pants.  While most wore them over shorts, J and I didn’t! 😯

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This guy started off disliking me in 6th grade for some reason.  He would call me something then run away, and I would chase after him.  Eventually we became friends.  We used to hang out at the teen center through this time and in high school.

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This is someone else who started of as sort of an enemy in elementary school.  As in the last photo though, T and I became friends.  He lived in an apartment by the railroad tracks with his mom.  There was one time I invited him over, then went into my back yard to climb a tree.  That was the time I fell down 12 feet to the ground from a lower branch.  My bones must have been made of rubber because I broke not a single one, though I was dazed when he arrived.

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Someone likes striped shirts… These two weren’t friends with me, but were best friends themselves.  They belonged to a different boy scout troop, one that met at a nearby church instead of the junior high.  At least their troop didn’t fold like ours…  The first one above told me at one time in 4th or 5th grade that he could be friends with anyone.  Then I asked if we could do something at his or my house sometime.  He was “busy” on each day I proposed.  I guess I wasn’t a part of “anyone.”  Together, the two of them shared the names of an famous cartoon duo.

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He wasn’t a friend of mine either, but for some reason I wanted to imitate this guy in 8th grade- I have no idea why.  He must have been new to the school for 8th grade, as he isn’t in the other two yearbooks.

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I wrote something rude on this guy’s 8th-grade photo, though I don’t remember crossing paths with him.  I do know we were in the same music class in 8th grade, and one of the assignments was to take a rock song, find the lyrics and discuss them after playing the song in class.  I chose a song by The Police.  He chose one by Iron Maiden.  After that Iron Maiden was my favorite band.

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This one was in cub scouts with me I think- I’m pretty sure it wasn’t boy scouts.  He was someone with a similar personality to mine, which is to say introverted.  However, we didn’t become good friends though I’m sure we did hang out together occasionally around this time period.  A few years ago I subbed for his mom in near-urban district.  I remember picking up a book in her room and thinking, “hey- this is the book we used in 7th grade language arts with all the stupid sentence diagramming.”  I opened the cover and there was his name.  I just have to wonder why he never turned the book in at the end of the year…

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I do not have fond memories of this guy.  He lived in the house behind ours and a couple over.  I wrote something rude about him in my 8th grade yearbook, but not on one of the main photos.

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This is another one of whom I have less than happy memories.  In fact, I guess he was sort of my nemesis.  He came up with a creative unpleasant nickname for me based on an incident at shower time after gym class.  Not one of those “you’re growing up and your body is changing” incidents, but nonetheless, I am not going to share…  He ticked me off enough that a couple of times I had him on the ground punching his face.  He is the only one I ever had a fist fight with.  Thankfully I never saw him again after junior high.  Oh, I wrote something rude on his 8th-grade photo too (smart-***).  I guess I was just mean that year. :/

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The only girl this time around, she lived about a block from the school.  She makes my memory list for this reason- one time my friend J and I decided to walk to an arcade in the next town over, about four miles away.  Afterward, we walked back and we had an amazingly stupid idea to hitch a ride back.  Her mom was the one who picked us up- J knew it but I didn’t.  Oddly enough, she did not report this back to our parents.

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Well, that’s it for now.  I’ll see what other memories I can dig up for all of you for future posts. 🙂

As March comes to a close, I need to reflect or dream about the first part of April and the coming Major League Baseball season. While I have followed the spring exploits of my favorite team, I can’t really get excited about spring training. Until this last week of spring training, we hardly ever see a complete starting lineup. There are a variety of minor league prospects, players past their prime and those with little or nothing to offer all trying to get the the 25 player roster. Those that have it made are just getting loose for the coming season. Some good ball is played, but as it is often said, it doesn’t count.

Next week the real games start. I will be following every score. Grumbling at losses or poor play. Feeling aggravated when a star player is hurt or not doing well. Cheering for every win.

So if you follow baseball, this is the time of year you’ve been waiting for. If you don’t, your time will come. 😉

My promise to myself. I’m going to go to at least 1 major league game this season. I don’t know when or even where, but I will do it.

And to my fellow old-time tangenteers, Good luck to your teams, until they play my favorite team. 😉

Go Tigers.

Well, I received an email last Friday. It was a request for my ‘acting’ ability. I have been on a self imposed hiatus from theater, so I didn’t think I would be doing any sort of acting in the near future. I was wrong. I will be the understudy for one of the actors. He can’t do all of the performances, so I will do the one he will miss. I’m just lucky it is a small role with very easy dialog. I get to be a love struck honeymooner. I’ve done that role once in real life, I think I can handle it. I played that role for 20 years.

This will be a little different. It is a dinner theater with audience participation. I’m looking forward to it. The audience will be sitting around and in the middle of our acting. Should be fun. The character I have doesn’t have too much interaction with the audience, but I do have to be aware of where they are located during my various scenes.

I will have to get some information as to the cost of the performances. Should be interesting.

I recently came across this neat story in an article about volunteerism:

There is a story about a man walking along a beach.  He notices that the starfish have washed ashore and will soon die in the baking sun.  Then the man sees a young child picking up the starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the ocean.  Noticing the hundreds of starfish and the small size of the child, the man says, “Son, you will never be able to save them all.  What you are doing will not make any difference.”  The little fella looks at the man, picks up yet another starfish, and tosses it back into its saltwater haven.  “Matters to that one.”

I think this is a cute story that very effectively describes the fears that many people have about volunteering – their heart may be in the right place when they want to help, but then they begin to have doubts, like “I’m just one person, what could I possibly do to help?”  or  “I don’t have a lot of time, so I probably just shouldn’t bother committing to anything.”  The bottom line is, if you have any extra time at all, as little as one hour a week, and you’d like to help others, there is a place in your community that could use and be grateful for your volunteer work.  So if it’s something you’ve been thinking about doing, let go of your insecurities, find someone to answer your questions, and find a place that suits your interests where you can pitch in and lend a helping hand at the same time.  Your calling might be at a food pantry, nursing home, animal shelter, community theater, hospital, senior center, community service agency, delivering for Meals on Wheels, etc – the list goes on and on.  If you really want to take the time to help others and give back to your community, don’t let excuses run your life –  just do it!!  If you really can’t find anywhere to volunteer in your community, try contacting your local churches to see if they have any community programs for which you could volunteer, or perhaps a family in need of some helping hands; you never know what you may find!

I’m making sure that the internet access and printer are hooked up for my youngest at college. If this posts, I know everything works.

So the drive was very damp as rain fell during the entire trip. It is sometimes fun to drive on the expressways when the rain falls. The trip today was uneventful.

Yesterday’s trip to and from Toledo were not as uneventful. I saw two semis driving erratically. One on the way in and one on the way home. The one on the way home bothered me enough that I pulled into the rest stop to let him get farther ahead.

Well, I made it home so that may have been a good decision.

Or at least 8-10 actors on stage and some behind the scenes performers.  My review of The Village Players opening show of the 2010 season will be brief so as to not give away to those who have yet to see it.  And if you have not then definitely try to make the final performance tomorrow afternoon!  Most asuredly an ensemble piece led by the hilarious Mary as Mrs. Savage.

I have to say that another actress on stage (who I take full credit for) also was fabulous.  Courtney, who played Mr. Potter’s little seen secretary in It’s a Wonderful Life, amazed me as Mrs. Savage’s greedy daughter.

A real life father/daughter duo whom I have worked with before also had fine chemistry especially in one bit!  I saw a lot of built up emotion in that ironic moment 😉

A fine job by all that I got to share with my brother and his kids!

Also fun was a survey the audience was asked to fill out.

• Is this your first time seeing a VP show? (No, but I’ve been in more than I have seen).
• How did you hear about the show… check all that apply.  (An X on each line including “Other”… cast members forced me to come… HAHA!)
• Finally, the shows you would like to see on the stage… (No less than 10, two provided by Joshua.  Our Town and Twelfth Night both of which he has read in his 7th grade gifted class.  The rest were 8 that I have wanted to be in.  Including one that will probably be tossed.  But if another group can attempt to persuade their board to do a show full of blood and gore then why can’t another do a show based on real people that actually has some intelligence behind it? Just a suggestion…)

A good way to kick off the season and a chance to sit back and be entertained.  But not too long… three months is too long to be off stage 😉

Today was a big day indeed! It began at 6AM… about an hour and a half earlier than necessary, but I woke up and could not go back to sleep… UGH!  The family hit the road for  Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral for Joshua and Shelby’s confirmation.  The cathedral is a marvel of architectural design and was the model for my own parish’s church.  A gorgeous place to worship… not in the safest of locations in the city but beautiful nonetheless.  If you ever have the chance to visit it… the pictures on the website do not do it justice.

Upon arriving at the church, I was surprised to see one of the youngest members of our game nighters.  Since I know he is in high school, I had to ask… “Aren’t you a little old?”  To which he replied… “Oh, no… this is all for me!”  On the contrary, he and his sister are members of our twin parish and she was being confirmed and sat a few rows in front of Joshua and I.

I found Bishop Blair’s homily to be quite timely and very well delivered.  Aimed chiefly at the confirmands, he stated that they were about to state on their own that they were ready to become part of the larger Christian community.  And like Father Flanagan (founder of Boys’ Town whose motto is the title of this post) must be tolerant and compassionate to all who are part of that community.

I have been teasing my godson a bit throughout his preparation.  If he goofed in front of the bishop, he would be slapped… HARD!  I dunno where I heard this but I remember the same as I began preparing for my day.  However, he did just fine as he stood in front of the bishop with me behind him with my hand on his shoulder.  So happy to stand behind him as he took a major step on his Christian journey.

I forgot to grab my camera this morning.  I had it in my hand, ready to go.  Then, my brother came to the house and asked if I had a shirt he could borrow.  I went, grabbed one, and we then went out the door with the camera on the desk.  So… here is a picture taken of Joshua and his sister and little brother in what looks like a criminal line up.  AH, well… next time he’ll think before his mug is shot.

I still say with his new glasses, he looks like a famous boy wizard.  Especially with that mane of unruly hair!  In total, 120 young men and women from 6 parishes in the diocese were confirmed.

Whew. Okay, I have now gone through my junior high yearbooks and will soon have a post or two on that topic. Several memories, some forgotten mysteries, and general strangeness. More on that to come. I still have four high school band yearbooks (yes, the band had its own yearbook) and my one surviving yearbrickbook from my freshman year, but I won’t wait on those books- they will be a post or two all by themselves.

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So what have I been up to?  More of the same, really.  A couple days a week are dedicated to just looking at and fixing photos online, usually adjusting the color when they are too blue or brightening dim or dark photos.  I also report photo problems I cannot fix like photos taken at bad angles or ones so dark (or bright) that they can’t be properly fixed.  The other days I am still out in the field taking pictures at my own stores (soon to be given away so I can be free to fly out at any time) or helping another photographer who has been inundated as of late.  Just Tuesday, she did over 50 cars with the assistance of the co-owner.  She wants to give up some of the stores, but the owners like her too much apparently- for good reason as she is a very good photographer.

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Besides that I have been rehearsing for Easter choir.  I finally got the music I need to practice at home.  For some reason they thought it would be a great idea to distribute the private link to the music over facebook instead of just emailing it to everyone, so when I realized an email was not forthcoming, I had to finally ask someone in the choir for the music.  No, not everyone uses facebook and I have no intentions of ever signing up, especially after hearing about what’s happening with Myspace and a company called Infochimps right now.

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As for now, it’s a weekend of rest.  Two days off from work, no choir until next week, and no 4th/5th grade ministry.  I do enjoy what I do most of the time (even if fixing photos is a bit tedious), but it’s nice to have a rest now and then.

Another year gone, and the Williams County Maple Syrup day is over. We ate more pancakes, sausage and real fresh from the tree maple syrup. I’m still not sure when we started doing this, but as ia family we’ve been doing it for years. Another ride out to the sugar shack, where they make the syrup and tap the trees. The family seemed to enjoy themselves.

This year additional family friends showed up. My children went off on there own to be with their friends. I had many pancakes, sausages and cups of coffee. Yum. Of course I purchased some syrup to have the rest of the year and some maple sugar candy to have a bit later.

This day of course reminds me of days gone by. We spent many days like this with family and friends. It was a time to celebrate good food, good friends and good family. These days, from maple syrup days to days at the fair, were days to bask in our lives together. The family we had, the friends we made were the good things in life.

And who says there is nothing going on in the boondocks. 😉