Queen Anne's Lace and Lilacs

Bethany in Old Sacramento

Bethany's senior photos were taken in Old Sacramento.  It's quite awesome there with the river, old architecture, a cool bridge.  I was pretty happy with that location.  I didn't know how Bethany would do, considering she isn't particularly thrilled when I'm taking pictures.  (I don't what happened with my kids - they were so happy and cooperative when picture taking back in the day.)  It turns out, she quite loved it.  She especially loved the attention she received from the passersby.  It was a Sunday afternoon/evening, so there were a lot of people out and about.

Tim and I had a couple of hours to kill, so we drove around and took our own pictures.  At one point, we decided we needed a map to get to a particular location I thought would make for good photos.  We drove around for over a half hour, not able to get out of neighborhood areas and/or to just find a gas station!!!  Finally, we found one - luckily, we weren't actually needing gasoline. 

I waited in the RV while Tim went inside.  I was listening to the great selection of music on my iPod, when it occurred to me that I had listened to several songs.  Which was weird, because there was only one other vehicle there.  I looked through the window, and there was Tim and several other dudes, just standing there, arms draped over shelves, displays, etc., shooting the breeze, drinking pop.  I don't know.  I swear, the man doesn't know a stranger. 

We were one our way, again, but for some reason, we forgot about getting to the place for which we had gone to buy the map.  We headed back to where Bethany was, with about an hour to spare.  We continued taking pictures.  I thought it strange that in all that driving around Old Sac, we never saw Bethany and her little crew.  Finally, the two hours were up.  It was almost sunset.  We were able to find a place to park now that Old Sac was clearing out.  We sat, listened to music, and watched people.  The sun went down.  No Bethany.  We called her phone, no answer.  Sent her a text.  No response.  Old Sac was emptying out.  It was dark. 

Not being one to freak out (!!!), I admit I was getting a little panicky.  More calls, more texts - to no avail.  Bethany was 45 minutes late.  I knew we had to call the cops!  However, I had no information for them.  I didn't know the name of the person(s) she was with, the person(s) phone number, what kind of vehicle they were driving, or where they might be.  We called White Window Photography, but it was Sunday night, so no one was answering.  I was so angry! 

In the midst of trying to tell myself that nothing horrible had happened, they were just running late (but, that's what EVERYbody tells themselves, and then the cops show up, or whatever), I had noticed that, with the darkness, the freaks of Sacramento were now showing up en masse to Old Sac.  I was so angry!

Just an hour and a half late, Bethany called.  They were walking to the RV.  I told Tim, "Oh, no.  This is going to be one of those times when she's all happy and everything, and I'm GOING TO HAVE TO YELL AT HER."  I was so angry!

Tim hopped out of that RV like it was on fire and ran to greet the girls.  By the time they got to me, I was pretty calmed down, knowing that everything was okay.  I didn't yell at anybody! I was no longer angry!

Bethany had the time of her life.  Who knew?! 

They all did apologize for not having their cell phones - they had left them in the photographer's car.  Also, apparently, we had driven past them about 50 times towards the end, so Bethany had assumed that was my way of keeping an eye on everything.  I was like, "No!  I didn't see you!"  Also, they all thought we knew there would be sunset photos.  People, keep me informed, please.

We ended the evening having dinner at Olive Garden.

As for the senior pictures, they're fantastic, and I heartily recommend White Window Photography.  In fact, we're thinking of getting a photo of the kids for over the fireplace.  Maybe we'll go to Coloma for that one.

Here are just a sample of the photos Tim and I took whilst driving around:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Holding a Hammer" May Get You into Trouble

So, a guy writes this song on his own time on his personal computer.  He then emails it to everyone of his contacts.  Now, he happens to be a teacher/coach at a Tennessee middle school, and a fair number of his contacts are parents of his students.  Well, guess what.  Somebody doesn't like the un-pc-ness of the song.  And instead of telling the teacher not to email them any other personal/political items, they complain to the principal, who calls the head coach, who fires the teacher lickety split.

I'm sure it goes without saying that those making the school children sing, "mmmm mmmm mmmm Barack Hussein Obama mmmm mmmm mmmm...." (barf barf barf) weren't fired.  And I'm sure when those educators said their nasty things about Bush (43, or the other one, for that matter), they didn't face the unemployment line.  

I don't know why this guy sent this out to everybody.  Most people should have noticed by now that conservatives, Christians, Republicans, people on the right do not have quite the freedom of speech as those other people do.  Therefore, I would have been careful about mailing this out.  I like the song well enough, considering it's country (kinda makes me shudder, but, whatever), and I totally agree with the lyrics.  I do hope the teacher finds a  new job.  It would be nice if he would get his old job back.  Oh, and you can purchase the song at iTunes, Zune, and CD Baby.

h/t to Ace of Spades

What HE Said

Oh! the Humanity!

I'm watching the new Ghost Hunters episode, "Hindenburg Crash Site."  As soon as I read the title, my mind immediately flashed back to the event it always flashes back to whenever I read or hear "Hindenburg."  I realize this is a few weeks late for Thanksgiving, but I just had to share it. I remember the first time I saw this on TV, I was nearly crying from laughing so hard.

Happy Thanksgiving - WKRP Turkey Drop - kewego
http://www.sharkhost.com Happy Thanksgiving from Sharkhost.com! This is a blast from the past, WKRP in Cincinnati Famous Turkey Drop. Sharkhost does not own any copyright to this material. Web host, web design, marketing and promotion.

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Sarah Palin on The Tonight Show

Fun with Facebook

Several months ago (or more, probably), I obtained a Facebook page.  I did this mostly to check up on Evan's and Brett's pages.  Oh, wait...  So, yeah, this started years ago when they were mere teenagers, and not months ago.  Anyway, they knew what I was doing, same as when I joined over at MySpace, as I informed them I would be popping in from time to time to make sure all was well, if you know what I mean.  (By the way, Brett still hasn't added me as his friend.  I don't think he ever will, either.)

Other than checking on the kids every once in a while, I rarely even thought about Facebook (or MySpace, for that matter). I think Evan was my only friend for a long time.  Eventually, I had some of my own actual friends join up over there, we became friends, which brought me up to about five or six friends (I've got 23 now...woo hoo!  23 isn't very many, fyi) - but still, I just didn't think too often about Facebook.  And when I did, I'd get over there and think, "Which page am I supposed to be dealing with, 'home' or 'profile'!  It drove me crazy!  It still does.  I've asked the kids, any of their friends who stop by, and a few perfect strangers, and they just laugh.  So, I don't know.  I just drop in on both pages, they have similar info, I don't know.  Sometimes, if I didn't have my "Pieces of Flair" to play with, I don't know what I'd do.

What's happened lately, though, is that I've discovered some of my Continentals people.  That has been quite wonderful!  One of them is Cher, Cam Floria's (the guy who started Continentals) wife at the time.  I loved Cher.  She was - and is - so pretty!  She knew everyone's name at rehearsal camp.  There were probably 400 - 500 people there, and she was greeting everyone by name when they walked by.  (I didn't even know the names of all 40 people on my own tour by the end of rehearsal camp, two weeks later.)

So, Cher's at Facebook and, today, has a link to a pretty cool video.  If you like listening to choirs, this is quite good.  The best part is the first few minutes.  I think even Evan (orchestra boy) will like it!

"Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

(click photo for a larger view)

One of the advantages of having an ex-baseball player for a dad is that you end up knowing a lot about baseball - even if you're a girl (what am I saying!  I'm more athletic than either of my brothers!).  Now, my boys may take issue with that because, for the last few decades I haven't watched a lot of baseball - except for them, when they were in Little League - and they think I'm clueless.  But if they could have known me when I was growing up, they would discover I knew just as much as them about, not only the rules of the game, but about who was playing and how they were doing.  With just the one TV, all we watched on the weekend was sports - and any other time of the week that they were on.  I was familiar with basketball and football, too, but since my dad specialized in baseball, that's what we played just about every day after supper, in good weather. 

As an aside, I don't know if Evan and Brett remember, but I was the assistant coach one year for their baseball team.  Their dad was the coach.  He didn't know diddly about baseball, but with my instruction and guidance, he learned quite a bit - as did those kids he coached.  :)

Each summer, my family embarked on a vacation.  Many of these vacations included a major league baseball game.  (They also often included visiting Indian places, i.e., Anadarko, because Jerry Mark was into that.  I don't think we ever took a vacation based solely on my interests, but I wasn't one to complain.)  During our Haysville era, we went to quite a few Wichita Aeros games (AAA).  I loved those games.  Every night, I listened to the Aeros game on the radio.  If I got in trouble, one of the punishments was grounding me from listening to the game.  Torture!!   

It was in Haysville that the Kansas City Royals acquired George Brett and Hal McRae.  I loved these guys.  (In fact, Brett is named for George Brett.)  We often watched/listened to the Royals games, so, with Brett and McRae, they became my official team.  I also liked the Pirates and the A's. 

After Haysville, we moved to Norfolk, NE.  My dad bought the APBA baseball game.  Each player selects a major league team to manage.  Mine was the Royals, of course.  My dad's was the Phillies, of course.  Timmy also had the Royals, Jerry Mark the Dodgers, and my mother, the Rangers (although, she rarely played, and why she picked the Rangers, I have no idea).  Because I don't remember having trouble with this game, I purchased the game myself a couple of years ago.  Well.....there are so many rules!!!!  And playing with Tim!  Bless his heart.  He's not just a few decades behind - he never did baseball.  Oops.  I'm sorry.  He saw the Senators play back in the 1800s when just a wee lad.  That's about it.

So, I'm still the Royals.  I don't know a single one of the players.  I've been told they've had terrible teams the past few years.  Tim's the Phillies.  Now, we do know a little about some of them - we did watch the World Series last year.  But, you know, I have to explain the infield fly rule, errors, pass balls, home plate, etc.  We're trying to finish our first game.  I can't wait for Evan to get out here to deal with all of this.  We've gone three innings in a week.  And, I curse myself for not learning how to do the scoring back in the day.

You know, nothing unusual stands out in my mind about those games we used to attend.  I do seem to remember some drunk guys a couple of times.  More recently, Tim took Bethany, Erica (Tim's daughter) and me to a Dodgers game.  The people sitting above us were seeming to be dropping an excessive amount of debris down on us.  At first, it was just popcorn and trash.  Erica (27 at the time) had never been to a ballgame before. She wasn't appreciating this.  I was a bit surprised, myself.  I had to explain this wasn't normal.  Indeed,  it wasn't happening anywhere else.  Erica took her place turned backwards in her seat, looking up, warning us as things fell down.  As time went by, she began to get a bit upset. 

If you know Erica, you know this is not good.  For example, when I get upset with strangers, I complain to my family.  When Erica gets upset with strangers, she takes it to them.  Well, when the ice and liquid started flowing down, I knew I would not be able to keep her in her seat.  Sure enough, the next time - there goes Erica!  Meek and mild Tim was right behind her!  Little Bethany (6 at the time) and I are sitting there like, "Now, what do we do."  We finally grabbed the purses - after another drenching - and went to find Tim and Erica.  Come to find out, you can't go to a level unless you have a ticket for that level.  That was probably a good thing.  The stadium workers did get an earful!  For some reason, I'm seeing Erica swinging the little souvenir bat around.  Could that be right?  

The reason for all of these meandering reminiscences about baseball is this You Tube video of Bernie Williams that I saw today at The Riddleblog:

Dream On

A week or so ago, it was "Do Re Mi" being sung in a train station.  This week, it's Susan Boyle, from Scotland, auditioning for the UK version of American Idol:  Britain's Got Talent.  If you haven't seen this yet, you should!  They aren't allowing embedding, so I'll have to send you on over to You Tube to experience Ms. Boyle's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.  Hurry!  You'll be glad you did.

He's Alive!

The gates and doors were barred and all the windows fastened down;
I spent the night in sleeplessness and rose at every sound
Half in hopeless sorrow and half in fear the day
Would find the soldiers breakin' thru to drag us all away

And just before the sunrise I heard something at the wall
The gate began to rattle and a voice began to call;
I hurried to the window and looked down into the street
Expecting swords and torches and the sounds of soldier's feet

There was no one there but Mary so I went down to let her in;
John stood there beside me as she'd told us where she'd been.
She said "They moved Him in the night and none of us knows where;
The stone's been rolled away and now His body isn't there!"

We both ran t'ward the garden, then John ran on ahead;
We found the stone and empty tomb just the way that Mary said.
But the winding sheet they wrapped Him in was just an empty shell;
And how or where they'd taken Him was more than I could tell.

Well, something strange had happened there,
but just what I didn't know;
John believed a miracle but I just turned to go.
Circumstance and speculation couldn't lift me very high
'Cause I'd seen them crucify Him, then I saw Him die.

Back inside the house again the guilt and anguish came;
Everything I'd promised Him just added to my shame.
When at last it came to choices, I denied I knew His name;
And even if He was alive, it wouldn't be the same

But suddenly the air was filled with a strange and sweet perfume;
Light that came from everywhere drove shadows from the room.
Jesus stood before me with His arms held open wide;
And I fell down on my knees, and just clung to Him and cried.

He raised me to my feet and as I looked into His eyes,
Love was shining out from Him like sunlight from the skies
Guilt and my confusion disappeared in sweet release
And every fear I'd ever had just melted into peace

CHORUS
He's alive! He's alive! He's alive and I'm forgiven!
Heaven's gates are open wide:
He's alive, He's alive, He's alive and I'm forgiven
Heaven's gates are open wide
He's alive, He's alive, hallelujah He's alive

Were You There...

when they crucified my Lord?