Another year and eleven minutes older…o maybe not exactly, I’ll have to find out what time I actually entered the world.  Well… yesterday, I had to run to the big city and get my picture snapped.  I abhor having my mug shot for my little piece of plastic for three years.  Look at the little smiley sticker, drop your jaw, now move slightly to the right.  UGH!  A fashioned model has it easier and they get paid for it!

Then, I endured a long nine hour work day.  Better yesterday than today especially when I get three days off in a row!  I don’t have to be back until TUESDAY!  Today, I have to go to an audition for Hound of the Baskervilles. I believe that I have stated that I will not be auditioning for either Holmes or Watson.  I think my talents are better served in a return to a more character driven role this time.  And I do not believe that the detective or the good doctor had facial hair… Watson, perhaps.

Tonight, mass at 6 is being given in memory of Aunt Carol.  After that, the sky’s the limit.  Spontaneity on your birthday is always fun!

Well… 22 minutes into another year. Tired, maybe I’ll get some sleep.

For the last two days, it seems the nation has been in the thralls of LeBron fever once again.  Holding out on his free agency decision until a live, hour-long press conference.  I say…. “Who cares?!”  Who does he think he is… Tiger Woods?

I did however, enjoy a sports related movie totally unrelated to basketball.  I enjoyed the 2004 movie, Million Dollar Baby starring Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, and Morgan Freeman.  I must say that Clint has sure made an impression on me with his more dramatic films instead of the macho, big gun shoot fests.  The last few films I have seen have been poignant and emotional.  He plays the curmudgeonly roles quite well.  Accomplished not only as an actor/director but as a musician as well along with his son, Kyle.

I was hoping that Million Dollar Baby was not going to be the typical boxer/trainer situation and I was not disappointed.  The movie was an intelligent, profound piece following the lives of a young female wannabe boxer and the very hesitant veteran trainer/manager.  It’s more about Maggie, the 31 year old’s dream of beating the odds, rising from her “trailer trash” roots, and becoming a contendah in the prize ring.  I know, been done countless times in countless ways.

Eastwood’s character is well-defined as well.  Not the typical one-dimensional trainer but so much more.  Why is Frankie so hardened?  Why does he play it safe with every fighter he manages when he knows they are worthy of their “one shot?”

Not so surprising but a very good movie which won Oscars for Best Actress, Supporting Actor, Direction, and Best Movie of 2004.  And so much more entertaining than the question that seems to have been on the minds of tens of people.

My new phone (the droid with no name), chirps whenever I get weather updates. For the past few days, it has been trying to chirp its speaker off. There have been quite a few “Heat advisories”. I’m very curious about what makes it a heat advisory. Do they have these in places that normally get hot? Do the deserts in the SW have one every day of the Summer?

I realize that the heat can be dangerous. If you don’t get enough water, or if you push yourself too hard, heat related illness can be deadly. But I know people survived many years without air conditioning, without ice water and other cooling refrigerated beverages. How did they do that? (heavy sarcasm…)

Me, myself and I slow myself down on days like today. It may take me twice as long to do something. No need to push myself on the hot days. Days like today are mad for sitting in the shade waiting for that next breeze.

Hot summer days, and warm summer nights. Savor them, you will want them in January.

A little something about the up front games.  They were based on a TV show apparently- Minute to Win it.  On one rainy morning the worship and teaching times were held inside and so we even got to see the blueprint for the game, chocolate unicorn:

If I recall, my team actually won that one though nobody completed “the task”, even with the required number being reduced to six.  Another up front game involved bouncing quarters into a bin that my cabin had happily colored for Miss Lisa, another leader of our church’s kid’s ministry.  No pie-in-face surprises that I know of like last year happened.

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One of the biggest changes from last year was the elimination of the morning competition in favor of a longer instructional time.  In some cases this new, longer instructional was two normal related instructionals tied together in the longer time, such as archery/riflery and wacky water games (actually two competition games from last year that didn’t count for points this year).  There were some new instructionals too.  On Tuesday was one of them- outdoor survival.  This was actually a combo of an older instructional, fishing, with a survival extension to it.  The first thing that happened was Jim, a leader in my cabin from last year, caught a bass which the first group cooked up while my group fished.  He later caught a trout for our group just before we switched.  For outdoor survival the instructor demonstrated cutting the fish, hopefully dead of lack of air by that time, and then taught how to start a fire with a magnesium block (with a flint strip on one side), a little paper and more natural fuel like leaves and twigs, and a pocket knife.  It looks like I failed this course as I was unable to help one of my 5th graders start and maintain a fire.

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A night event turned instructional was a hay ride.  Well, there was hay in a stack elsewhere in camp but not on the trailers.  One trailer was pulled by a 40s-era tractor, and ours (the “boys” trailer) was pulled by something a bit more recent- a little bulldozer like one of those Bobcats, but somewhat larger.  This was in one of the longer morning timeslots so this was a lazy time with a couple of stops, one at a big sand pit.

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We later returned to sand pit in the afternoon bike/hike instructional, though the kids didn’t get play time there this time around, being a shorter instructional.  We had the first day so the assigned instructors were still working out a few bugs such as taking the smaller group biking first, which would have been fine except we were to meet the hiking group along the way instead of back at the tent so there were not enough bikes for the second group- some of us had to run back to the tent and retrieve extra bikes.  I hope my advice of taking the larger group first was followed the rest of the week.  For the hike we walked through the woods for a time, off the literal beaten path.  And mostly downhill.  Did I mention the bike/hike met at the top of a very steep hill?  Well, at least we ended up back near the boys cabin area, so we were able to easily get ready on time for the flag-lowering.  Well, as much as my cabin was able to be on time anyway.  I learned quickly that I needed to organize their bathroom and changing time better.  Not that I did said organization in a timely fashion mind you, just that I learned it needed to be done. 😉

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In any event, this post is getting kind of long, so… more to come.

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PS- A couple sand fort pics! Note: Click on any of the pics for larger versions.

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Quite an enjoyable Independence Day Weekend for us.. made even longer by most everyone having Monday off, as well!  Sunday, I work from 8-noon… four hours at time-and-a-half, pretty quick and the extra will come in handy.  After work, I came home to see the All-Star picks for the game on July 13:  Captain Jeter and Robinson Cano will be starting for the Bombers.  After the selections, we watched a thrilling 6-7 Yanks win over the Blue Jays with Marcus Thames (just of the DL) driving the winning run in during the bottom of the 10th.  Ace catcher Jorge Posada is day-by-day as he received a finger sprain as the result of a foul tip.

Later on the 4th, we commented that we were all hungry for some hot dogs cooked over a fire but no where to build the fire.  So, my oldest brother ran to WalMart to pick up a firepit.  That night, we enjoyed hot dogs, toasted marshmallows nearly falling off the stick, and s’mores.  Then the kids enjoyed throwing some poppers (ok, I did too) and sparklers that must have been duds because most of them would not light.  And we were entertained by the approach of a bullfrog that some thought was a bird.  Have we never heard the sound of a bullfrog?  There was another sound that can only be described as a laughing monkey or some crazed woman laughing hysterically.

To conclude the evening, I returned home and watched a few episodes of The Greatest American Hero on Syfy’s (yes, the SciFi channel changed its identity about a year ago.  I believe, Derek pointed that out) day long marathon. An interesting tidbit about the name of the high school teacher turned questionable superhero.  Click the link above to discover the link between Ralph and a would-be presidential assassin.

Monday afternoon to beat the heat, two of my siblings and their families and I went to the area pool. Jeff  has a pool at home but decided against opening it this year.  The public pool was very fun especially watching Chad jump off the diving board and getting stuck coming down the water slide.  He did, eventually manage to boost himself along.

Monday night, I watched RV starring Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, and Kristin Chenoweth.  I thought Vacation in recreation vehicles.  Suburban dysfunctional family takes a summer vacation to “become closer.”  May have been cliched but it still had lots of laughs.

I hope all my fellow tangenteers had a fun holiday weekend!

Those who know my family are aware that we have a son named Beeber, pronounced the same as the last name of that popular young male singer, Justin Bieber.  But my son got his cute little nickname from his big sister, who was not even 2 years old when he was born – she could not say his real name, Christopher, and so “Beeber” stuck.  That was way before Justin Bieber became so popular, I might add…

So now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I can share the following story, which has nothing to do with my son Beeber and everything to do with Justin Bieber.  A few weeks ago, someone spotted Justin Bieber drinking beer at a bar, so they called the cops to report underage drinking because apparently Mr. Bieber is just a teenager.  But when the cops showed up and ID’d Mr. Bieber, they found that the “underage drinker” was a 27-year-old woman named Katie.  Given the pic below, honest mistake, don’t you think?  That would be Katie on the left and Justin on the right.

(Thanks to tmz.com for the story and picture)

Not a post about Major League Sports, but of girls fast pitch softball and a coach I knew.

We started helping out because our girls were on teams. For my last few years of coaching girls softball I was his assistant. We tried to instill some knowledge of the game, but our biggest task was to get young teen and pre-teen girls to have some fun playing ball.

We had many good players, but sometimes their interests headed away from the ball field. We took this in stride and hoped that the girls had some fun. Funny I can’t seem to remember how many years I coached with this man, but I think it was 3. They were good summers.

Through the following years, we failed to keep in touch, even though my youngest was friends with one of his step-daughters. When we did see each other, it did bring back some of the those good memories. For years he walked in the “Walk for Life” to remember my dear wife. He will no longer walk that walk, he lost his own battle to the very opponent he walked against. I will miss the occasional meetings at Wally World or Taco Bell. I will miss a friend. Children will miss a father. A wife will miss her husband. And Cancer takes one more…

Sunday morning.  Most of my things were packed the night before, so I thought I would make it on time without a problem.  Big mistake.  The few things left still occupied enough time to make me about 20 minutes late.  There were no worries of course about missing the bus as leaders were scheduled to be there before dropoff time, so instead I got there in the midst of things.  Good thing I was only assigned to help load gear onto the bus.  At about 9AM everyone was checked in and we were off on our four-hour bus ride to Michigan.  The kids watched videos all the way there, but I later learned that our friends from Iowa only got to watch one video- on the way home.  In case you missed it, they are from Iowa and therefore had a trip time over double ours.  That means a lot of time remained for social activities, to put it mildly.  Anyway, we arrived at about 1PM (time zone change, you know) and were welcomed by big banners held by a cheering staff.  After unloading and moving into our cabins- I had a group of six plus a junior leader- we headed to the swim front for swimming tests and a fort-building competition.  Note the non-mention of lunch.  The kids brought their own lunches, and I even remembered my own this year (it was last year or the year before that I had left it sitting on the freezer at home).  This year I was a representative for the army team, moving out of the air force from the last two military themes prior two and four years ago.

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Starting a new paragraph just because I can, the fort contest began while various cabins two-by-two (or one by one in the case of a few very large girl cabins) took their swim tests.  The sand forts (remember- this is a swim front so there was a beach) generally had moats around them because digging in the sand was probably the easiest thing for the kids, but there were buckets for making buildings like garages for tanks and whatnot.  No air strip this year, though I suppose they could have done a helipad had one of us had thought of it.  The Iowa team, the marines once again, was not present for much of this but they did arrive in time to take 2nd place.  Army ended up 3rd, the highest we would ever get this week outside of the upfront games.  As for the swim tests, just about every cabin has its non-swimmer.  Mine had three, half the kids.  Well, it doesn’t mean quite as much for this age group as water activities are limited anyway.

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Since this along with cabin check-in and welcome/rules took up most of the afternoon, we can move on to after dinner.  Throughout the week post-dinner would mean the daily game competition, but for Sunday we just moved on to the teaching time.  It was here the theme for the week, the armor of God in Ephesians 6, was introduced.  Each day would focus on a different part of the armor but not until Monday.  the format was typical of a weekend service, but longer.  Game activity time (the competition game in the case of this week, gym or crafts in the case of weekends) followed by worship, teaching, and small groups.  Mornings would replace the field game with an up front game- unfortunately I missed most of these as I took this time to put in my contact lenses while the Nico, my junior leader, stayed with the kids.  This first small group time was a great way to really start to know the kids, most of whom I already knew through small group time over the weekends.  This year they tried to keep small groups from the weekend when possible- a matter simplified by there being three service times plus Iowa to make the four teams, each team then being divided into 4th/5th grades and boys/girls. four cabins per team.  Since I stuck with my 4th-graders from last year, my cabin was all 5th grade.

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Finally, there was free time on the courts where kids could play tetherball, nuke-em (played on a volleyball court where any number can play catch with the ball- dropping or missing causes an “explosion” so someone is out), four-square, trampoline basketball, regular basketball, or just hang around and talk or play in the sand.  They also had the opportunity to buy treats at the canteen.  I was disappointed to see that they doubled the price on pop this year, though I think they also lowered ice cream a bit though I didn’t buy any.  They told me that the higher price on drinks balances with the loss they take on ice cream, and keeping most things at $1 just makes managing the accounts that much easier.  I can’t argue with that, but I did make sure to stick with the one 20-oz offering all week- Dr. Pepper.  Everything else was in cans.  Of course, being right before bed, many kids chose Mt. Dew…  Speaking of bed, it was a little difficult getting my six to sleep that night. I could blame the Dew, but it was really mostly the excitement of being there.  Unfortunately Steve, the man in charge and two cabins away, had to visit our cabin not once but twice that evening.  Oops…

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more to come.

and so I did. Back before the beginning of Baseball season I made a promise to myself to go to at least 1 Major League game. That promise has been kept. The Tigers played the Mariners and won 7-1. There were fireworks after the game. Not a bad way to start the 4th of July weekend.

Comerica Park is a gem, a great place to watch a ballgame. The food was expensive, but very good, of course nothing else tastes like a hotdog at the ballpark. Wide selection of vendors, and most had TVs so you wouldn’t miss much game action.

Then there was the game. I’ve said before that I don’t usually care for blowouts, even when my team it winning. That is still the case, but the game seemed close until the later innings. It was 4-1 until the 5th, and then 7-1 after 7 innings. Even with that, the best play of the game came in the 9th inning with a double play off a fly ball deep to left center. Little Bits and I had a fun time at the ‘old ball game’.

A couple of pictures from the Ballpark will be added soon.

Over 7o years and still as beautiful as ever.  I may have seen Wicked on Easter Sunday.  I may have enjoyed it… even appreciated it but there is not even a remote chance that I will ever LOVE it as much as the original 1939 masterpiece The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz.  I remember watching it as a young boy on CBS once a year on a Friday night pre-empting The Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas (heartbreaking that my mother would miss a week of J.R.).  I was one of those kids who held a cassette recorder up to the television every time a song came on.  I memorized where every commercial break would be.  Tonight, Turner Classic Movies had its first of two trips down the Yellow Brick Road over the holiday weekend (tomorrow at 8PM is the final showing this time around).

Why is the movie so beloved?  I don’t think any two people has the same reason.  For me, there are many reasons why I watch it year in and year out.  The theatricality for one.  The set looks like it was created on a huge stage.  Painted backdrops.  You can tell that the land of Oz is created artificially and that is part of the movie’s charm.

The casting is brilliant.  Even at 17, Judy Garland portrayed a magnificent young Kansas farm girl.  She won a special miniature Oscar for the role in Best Performance by an Adolescent (I believe the official award was).  To generate the on-screen chemistry between Dorothy and Toto, the dog Terry lived with Garland for a time prior to filming.  The actress became so enamored with the dog that she asked the owner for permission to adopt female canine.  The trainer knew what a gold mine he had as he turned to offer down.

As has been reported quite frequently, the classic “Over the Rainbow” was actually cut from initial screenings of the film.  The song was thought to have slowed the action of the film.  However, level heads soon prevailed and who can imagine the film without it.  1939 is considered to be the year of the classic movie.  More classics were made during that year than any other in history.  Another little film, Gone with the Wind, also premiered and was the odds on and run away winner at the Academy Awards.  Oz was a cinematic hit from the start but it took a few years and re-issues before MGM felt that it was a financial success.

Of course my favorite part of the masterpiece, is one of my favorite character roles… The Cowardly Lion.  But to carry around an 80+ pound costume must have needed a large amount of physicality.  I could do it, though!

Who wouldn’t ming getting up at 12; starting to work at one; taking at hour for lunch; and then at 2 be done?  Or being clever as a gizzard?  Wait a minute, clever as a gizzard?  Unless there is a reference to something other than a bird’s internal organs.