'Annie' 2011 - Pt 2

The show was great. Really. More on the high school end of the musical spectrum than any grade school extravaganza you've seen, and the choreography and vocals on "Hard Knock Life" were WOW. I kid you not, WOW. I loved it.

I suppose it doesn't hurt that Lisa helped choreograph the songs, and did a lot of the costume work too.



I attended the musical with my friend Tre, and picked the one show that Lisa managed to watch from the seats (she was usually busy with costumes/makeup in back)





Man the girls did well!



In the week or so prior to the show Lisa picked up an Annie cross-stich kit and knocked it off as a gift for the director. Another Mom sewed it on a pillow and the cast signed the back.



I'm so proud of the girls. If you ever want to see a cheese grin on my face, put my kids on stage. I can be screaming bloody murder and I'd stop to break a cheek smiling.

Lastly, here's some pictures of the two little one's as I drove home from the play with Tre. Goofballs.

Goodbye Gizmo :(

Our 15 yr old calico Gizmo - or GizzieMo as Junie calls her - passed away a few minutes ago. She had aged dramatically in recent weeks and had been in discomfort all weeked. We were going to take her to be put down at 8 a.m. tomorrow, but instead she passed among family, on her favorite spot on the couch. RIP Gizzy. You were loved.

My Scouts March in the Memorial Day Parade - and Smiley is the grinning flagbearer!

Dinner at Landmark

Radio Bikini

'Radio Bikini', a documentary on the US atom bomb tests in the Marshall Islands, was a disappointing and unsatisfying film. Absent any narrator, you have to search the film itself for cultural and historic context; fine if you have some grounding in the event, but if you're going in blind . . . Only the final scene w/ the American interviewee, when they pull back to reveal him in full, has any emotional impact. C

Game Six by Mark Frost

Game Six by Mark Frost may just be the greatest baseball book I've ever read. Worst case scenario, top three. Easily.

It's the story of the famous sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and the Reds, the game that ended with the iconic home run by Carlton Fisk. The Big Red Machine, chock full of Hall of Famers and seeking a ring, versys the 'cursed' Red Sox looking to bring a championship home to Boston.

The book details the game certainly, but it's so much more.

It uses that night -indeliably burned into the consciousness of sports fans - to extrapolate the ins and outs of that incredible season.

Well written, masterfully crafted, full of drama and emotion. Just an excellent, excellent book. It's so good I couldn't finish another book I picked up about the '75 season - it paled in comparasion to Frost's work.

If you're a baseball fan, you NEED to read this book.


~ read in 2009

@ Landmark rest w/ the family

What. The. ??

Middle aged Woman #1 at bookstore: He was, like, a Wisconsin General in the Civil War or something . . .

 Woman #2 (shocked): WISCONSIN had a Civil War????

The War Game

'The War Game' is a 1965 'documentary' about a nuclear war that devastates Great Britain. It was banned by the BBC for 20 years. It's certainly bleak enough to warrant the ban - food riots, burned children, society in chaos, etc. As an anti-nuke film it makes its point in spades, although you have to wonder who the target audience was - who the heck *didn't* know a nuclear war would be bad?

Mom and Junie

Is shoe-tying a kink?

Long but tolerable day of work, returning home near midnight. Here's an oddity: I was helping an attractive woman in her twenties - in shape, nice chest, tribal tats, etc - when she says "Your shoe is untied". She then *knelt down* to tie it for me. I demurred, & she blushed and apologized. Weird. Hot, in a sub sorta way, but weird.

The Roman Rite Translation

I'm reading the text of the new Mass that will debut this year (the "Roman Rite Translation"). I'm not overly pleased w/ many of the tweaks, but I'm sure it'll grow on me.

My Thoughts

Lamest, most overused parenting expression in the media = a 'teaching moment'. Yes, yes, every moment can inspire a lesson. That doesn't mean you should call it anything other than what it is - a really f*ed up thing your kid shouldn't have heard/seen for another ten years or so . . .

SMH

Lisa is back from the Scout Service Center with a new Tiger uniform for Smiley. Guess what? Official Boy Scouts of America uniforms? Made in China. 

YaYa's Scout trip to Adventure Rock

On Friday May 13th YaYa and her Junior troop took a trip to Adventure Rock, an indoor rock climbing experience. Yes, you read correctly: we sent our oldest daughter rock climbing on Friday the 13th.



Of course, they first had to sit down and listen to a safety seminar.



But then it was on to the wall.



YaYa said she was nervous the first time she climbed the wall . . .







But claims to have then climbed it "maybe 50 times. For real Dad, we were there like three whole hours."





She certainly seems to have enjoyed it, and it was great exercise. Well done YaYa!

Better than Solid Gold dancers anyday!

This was a tough year for dance. After skipping the 2009-10 season because of finances, we sucked it up and enrolled the kids for the '10-11 year. Monday's everyone but LuLu had practice, a three and a quarter hour stretch that often doubled as hel - er, heck. Have you ever tried to keep a three year old content in a dance studio wating from for two hours? It ain't pretty.

Saturdays were LuLu's day to shine, but unfortunately much of the school world revolves around Saturday's, so birthday parties, Scout trips, and the like chewed into her time.

But we did it, and in return the kids did us proud. Here are some gorgeous shots of my Gang (and note that YaYa is now old enough to do participate in two dances at the recital)













Ain't they grand?

The new Nook is so awesome, best one yet. I want one! -Lisa

watching the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance . . . Cue music!

American Idol

Lee wins?! I didn't see it coming but he's got a great commercial voice & should do fine. Congrats! As for the finale as a whole, wow, the average age of the performers was what - 81, 82? Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Michael Bleepin' McDonald? Now I love me some BeeGee's, but overall this skewed far older than the audience they want/need, no? Loved seeing Alanis tho'. We should've named one of our daughters after her.

The 2011 Production of Annie

Let me tell you a little something about the school play at my kids elementary school. It's not the artistic version of a sprint, it's a bleepin' marathon.

For months before the play the kids practice twice a week after school for two hours a pop. In the two weeks preceding opening night ('tech week') the practices are daily, and often surpass three hours.

2011's Annie was YaYa's third play, and LuLu's debut.



YaYa was given the part of the orphan Tessie ("Oh my goodness!")





while Lu scooped up the role of an unnamed but adorable urchin.





You know the storyline: plucky Orphan Annie is set to be adopted by the rich Daddy Warbucks when some shady characters finagle a plan to walk away with the girl and some of Warbucks dough, etc. So I'll skip any further explanation and just let you gaze adoringly at some pictures.















Don't blame me for the lack of LuLu shots. All the pics were done by 'their' photographer, and I had to pay for the privilege of owning the shots.

Anywho, it was great. Really. I'll follow up with a post of pics from the performance day itself (well, one of three performances), and that's where I'll also prattle on about all the work Lisa did to help put on the show.

Til then folks.

~ Dan

A long night of TV, including the AI finale

AMERICAN IDOL SPOILER: Drudge is reporting that souces w/in the show are reporting that Scotty got 2x as many votes as Lauren and will be crowned tonight.

I loved the impromptu interview w/ Paul Ryan on ABC News, including his casual use of Thatcher's "now's not the time to go wobbly". Dems should note how Bill Clinton was caught on camera offering encouraement and telling Ryan to 'call him'.

oved the james/casey/pia skit, and tom jones. 

Not overly fond of gaga's performance. 

Lauren buried by carrie underwood; that's what an idol sounds like.

beyonce (so far) = yawn

the spiderman kid outsang Bono congrats Scotty! Grace and olivia are mad, but oh well lol

Doctor Who: Visitation - The Three Doctors - The Unquiet Dead

Doctor Who: Visitation. I don't much like Davidson's imperial Doctor, and I'm loathe to trust a Time Lord who allows his sonic screwdriver to be destroyed. I do like Teagan's constant distrust/annoyance w/ the Doc. Plus the sight of Nyssa in her velvet pants almost takes away the pain of that stupid celery boutonniere Davidson wears.

I also watched Eccleston's "The Unquiet Dead", which I thought was pretty well done (although the Doctor seemed rather naïve). I could tell it wasn't the rare non- Davies episode, as it didn't feature a single homosexual atheist character. 

I also recently saw "The Three Doctors" . Well done, but the Brit pronunciation of 'omega' as "oh meh gah' got on my nerves ;) I

Oprah's Finale

I rushed home from work in time to catch the final 15 minutes of Oprah's last show. I'm glad it was low-key, and a fine way to end a quarter century on the air. Her last words to her audience? "To God be the Glory". Indeed. Thanks for 25 years of great TV.

45 degrees. Pouring rain. Gray skies. It's either Milwaukee or a Dicken's novel. This sucks

Flashback: LuLu on the Computer 2007

Lisa has enforced a no video games/no gaming system rule in this house since the start of our marriage, and while I once chafed under this Luddite decree, I now see its value. Too many times we've chaperoned an event where the kids were just transfixed by their handheld systems, just brain dead and lacking social grace. Forget that.

We do, however, allow them access to the PC and approved games online, like Club Penguin (where, btw, I am the *best* mine cart surfer EVAH).



It's beginning to backfire on us, as the kids are obsessed with getting comp time, so who knows? Maybe we'll cut that off too in the near future.

At any rate, here's two pictures of little LuLu playing on the computer at her Grandma J's house in 2007 (age 4)