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Thursday, February 22, 2024
29 Years Ago Today
Tuesday, October 25, 2022
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Beatles: Love at the The Mirage in Las Vegas
To cap off the day we walked over to the Mirage to see Cirque de Soleil's The Beatles: Love. It's a combination of acrobatics, dance, and theatre set to the music of the Fab Four. I'll be honest, a lot of the time I didn't know what the heck was going on, because some of it is as trippy as a '60's student art film. I *do* know this: it was gorgeous, creative, and sometimes jaw dropping. We were in the second row, section 108, close enough to interact with a performer that came off the stage before the show, and to literally be enveloped by a fabric prop near the end of the performance. Our seats also put us next to a theatre tech on 3 occasions as they secured rigging, and allowed us an expansive look at the catwalks (?) above the stage; both were of interest because two of our kids were stage techs in high school, and one has chosen theatre as her life's work. In short, the show was very good, and well worth a ticket. If you visit Vegas, go see it!
Hell's Kitchen - Las Vegas
To celebrate the 27th anniversary of meeting each other, we had a late lunch/ early dinner at Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. The lobster risotto was sinful, no pun intended, but the scallops aren't something we'd order again. As an entree, beef wellington for me, and jidori chicken scallopini for Lisa followed by sticky pudding for dessert and a celebratory glass of champagne. A wonderful experience.
Hell's Kitchen
To celebrate the 27th anniversary of meeting each other, we had a late lunch/ early dinner at Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. The lobster risotto was sinful, no pun intended, but the scallops aren't something we'd order again. As an entree, beef wellington for me, and jidori chicken scallopini for Lisa followed by sticky pudding for dessert and a celebratory glass of champagne. A wonderful experience.
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Happy Golden Anniversary!
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Our 20th Wedding Anniversary
Our 20th Wedding Anniversary
Monday, June 11, 2012
Happy Anniversary
Friday, January 28, 2011
25 Years Ago Today
25 yrs since the Challenger exploded. I didn't see it happen live on TV, but they rolled a TV into our 6th grade classroom and the rest of that day was spent watching the news.
You'd think the anniversary would get more ink, but the nat'l tragedies of the last quarter century - waco, OK city, columbine, 9/11 - seem to make it less impactful on our collective memory.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Happy Anniversary to my Parents
[Image not available]
Yeah, it's not the prettiest graphic, but you try searching for 37th anniversary pics . .
Anyhow, today is the 37th Wedding Anniversary of my parents (congrats to them)!
As simple math'll tell you, they were married on this date in 1970 (the day of the Marshall football team airline crash) and remain together to this day.
Seems like just yesterday the whole family celebrated their 25th anniversary . . an event easily remembered since the entire family had food poisoning the day of the event, complete with stomach pain and vomitting, and my Dad couldn't even make it to the dinner . . my sister, who was to host the event, was worse off then I was and so I picked up the duty, cracking a joke to the crowd about how my Dad finally got cold feet, a quarter century too late . . probably wasn't as funny in person as I remember it, given that 12 years ago I was a shy, ill-spoken young man.
Anyhow . .
I must say since my Mom went into the hospital their love is pretty apparent, as Dad visited her every day without fail . .
So Congrats to them and a sincere wish for 37 more years together!
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My Mom is home, btw, and yesterday she and I went for a walk. She made it to the far end of the block and back and I was very happy with her effort . . plus she wanted to show off how much weight she had lost (~60 pounds) since the ordeal started. Without meaning to sound mean, the eight loss is very evident. She has the makings of a 'normal' figure, whereas before she was bloated and often draped herself in nightgowns for convience sake, giving the appearance of no form at all.
Odd I never noticed, but my Mom is very petite. Not a large woman in frame or height. It is a wonder of science that a 6'3" very large framed man (regardless of weight) could come from her and a 5'11" medium build father . . go figure.
Good thing I have the same behind-the-left calf birthmark as my Mom, and the same ears as my Dad or I'd wonder . . . j/k
:)
Thursday, October 26, 2006
My 10th Anniversary
I didn't have the greatest anniversary.
About half an hour after I went to bed, at about 1:30, our phone started ringing.
We argued for a second about who would get up, and my wife lost and went to answer it. It was work.
"This had better be important," my wife told the caller.
It was.
"Dan, this is X. We were just robbed at gunpoint. They took everything," my good friend and co-worker of 8 years said.
15 minutes later I was at work. The robbery had been quick and bold, two gun-toting men leading him into an employee area, grabbing the cash, and leaving in no more than a few minutes.
It was so fast I missed it the first time I reviewed the security tapes.
Like I said, this employee is a good friend of mine, someone I worked alongside for 6 1/2 years while earning my stripes on 3rd shift. Just two days before I'd mentioned to him that it might be a good idea to move on: "You've got ten years in. Sooner or later your luck's going to run out".
Thankfully, when it did no one was hurt.
I worked in his place for the remainder of the night, and by the time I returned the kids were nearly ready for school. I got to sleep around 9:30 and slept away most of my anniversary.
The big highlight of the day: a trip to Wal-Mart with my wife in the evening, and a couple hours of TV doubling as white noise while we cleaned the house.
* * * * * *
In other news, I'm waiting on some pics from LuLu's teacher before I do a post on her trip to the pumpkin farm, and the related carving of the jack-o-lanterns.
I've also primed to do my first political post in quite a long time as I find myself mystified by the appeal of our corrupt and two-faced Governor Doyle, and the self-serving and exploitive stem-cell ads Michael J. Fox is appearing in here on his behalf.
In addition, once I get a chance to watch it, I'll do a post on the new Lost episode, and possibly one on the very entertaining World Series.
I'm also going to try and update the dated pic of me in the 'about me' section, as I'm sick of looking at it.
Consider yourself warned.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Regrets, of a Sort
This week Friday is my wife's 30th birthday, next Monday is YaYa's 5th, and two days later my wife and I will celebrate our 10th anniversary.
In mid November the whole family - minus Parker - will be taking a 10 day Disney Cruise down to the Bahamas. That, technically, is to celebrate all of those events. And YaYa has the obligitory birthday shing-ding this weekend.
Even so, I feel like a failure.
I would have liked to have thrown a big bash for the annivesary, and a nice one for my wife's birthday as well. After all, on my 30th she threw a huge surprise party for me.
I pictured a church ceremony where we at least acknowledged our vows, and possibly renewed them. And then a dinner afterwards where we took everyone that shafted us on a wedding gift with the notion that it'd last six months and rub their nose in it.
It's also high time I upgraded my wife's ring. Funny how it looked magnificent when I was 22 and she was 20 - and tiny and cheap now.
Alas, we're broke.
Every last dime is going to make sure we have enough spending $ for the trip and the excursions. In addition, we're perilously close to purchasing a house. And there's tuition, WI heating bills, Netflix, the gym membership,etc etc to pay out of every check.
But here's my vow: sometime next year, probably on the heels of our tax return, I'm going to do it.
It might not be full scale; we might just have 30 folks share a dinner with us one night. And maybe we'll just have the priest mention us at mass.
But we will have a public celebration of ten (mainly) wonderful years together, and we will do something for her [belated] birthday too.
We might even work on that ring. . . .
I put this on the site a) as a reminder and b) so that there's some social pressure to live up to my promises.
Maybe you'll even get an invitation :)
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Random goo
Kind of a random post today . . .
Tonight was my parent's 35th wedding anniversary, a shinding my sister Katie put together pretty much on her lonesome. It was held at the Safehouse/Milwaukee Press Club. Despite a very crowded venue, and the fact that my wife had three kids under 5 to keep quiet for three hours, it was a lot of fun.
I say 'my wife' had to keep them quiet because more and more it seems I'm either busy with work or trying to unwind. It's become a sore spot between us. Be careful what you wish for I guess . . .
The food was great, and for the first time in memory, my Dad's side of the family joined the festivites. I've never been quite sure of the reason for the attendance gulf between my Mom and Dad's families, but it was nice to get reaquainted.
Maybe I'll post pics of the event later. Maybe not.
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I'm surprised my Pearl Harbor post didn't garner more comments. Guess I did lose my audience over the summer. Sh**ty.
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Also over the summer, some of the links on my favorites fell prey to the temporary nature of the net. The 'No One's Child' link now jumps to a dumpy little sex site, and Tom's Astronomy Blog - one of my everyday reads - has experienced hosting problems and will be moving on to another site.
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Speaking of unintended side effects, I'm woefully behind on my reading. Part of it is the time crunch, part is because of a nasty $35 fine I owe the library for some children's books that were overdue. Nazi's.
Anyhow, here's a list of what I'd like to read, if/when I get the chance. Oh, and some big ticket items I'd like to own sometime before I'm fifty:
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Laptop
telescope
Electric Guitar
one of them fancy memory sticks that carry info from computer to computer
Amazon.com: School Days (Spenser): Books: Robert B. Parker
Amazon.com: Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, Book 11): Books: Robert Jordan
Amazon.com: Fiddlers : A Novel of the 87th Precinct (87th Precinct Mysteries (Hardcover)): Books
Amazon.com: The Closers: Books
Amazon.com: Drive to the East (Settling Accounts Trilogy, Book 2): Books
Amazon.com: Return Engagement (Settling Accounts Trilogy, Book 1): Books: Harry Turtledove
Click here: Amazon.com: I Am Legend: Books
Click here: Amazon.com: Private Wars: Books: Greg Rucka .
Amazon.com: Creepers: Books: David Morrell
Amazon.com: The Pale Horseman: Books
Amazon.com: The Planets: Books
Amazon.com: Sea Change (Jesse Stone Novels (Hardcover)): Books: Robert B. Parker
Amazon.com: Sharpe's Escape: Books: Bernard Cornwell
Amazon.com: The Fallen Angels: Books: Bernard Cornwell
Amazon.com: Never Have Your Dog Stuffed : And Other Things I've Learned: Books: Alan Alda
Click here: Amazon.com: The Historian: Books: Elizabeth Kostova Click here: Amazon.com: Broken Prey (Lucas Davenport Mysteries): Books
Click here: Amazon.com: One Shot (Jack Reacher Novels (Hardcover)): Books