This past Saturday, April 10, 2010, marked 11 years of marriage for my husband and I.  Since it was a weekend, and we treasure that as family time, we didn’t think about calling the babysitter to get some alone time.  A generous friend stepped up and offered to watch the little ones for a few hours for Hubby and I to have some alone time, and we contemplated our options that morning.  I love the zoo, but it seemed like too big of an endeavor to travel all the way to Toledo after staying up until 3 the night before for game night.  We had an awesome time Friday night, but note to self – no more game nights the day before our anniversary!  Boy, were we tired on Saturday!  So anyway, we ditched the Toledo idea, and we thought about just staying home since Zambrano was scheduled to pitch for the Cubs, and he is always entertaining.  Finally, my husband came up with a great idea – we’d go to Buffalo Wild Wings, and our friend could take the kids across the street to Menards to play while we sat and watched the Cubs game at Wild Wings.  Before you think I’m nuts, I should mention that Menards (at least our location, anyway) has a hugely awesome indoor play area for the kids – they have many of their playground sets, play houses, and sandboxes on display for people to see and for kids to play in while parents shop – our kids love it and always have a blast, plus it’s free!

So Hubby and I sat at Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the entire Cubs game on Saturday!  And, as a special Anniversary present to us, Zambrano led them to victory!  They started out playing terribly, but turned themselves around (which is rare for the Cubs!), and actually looked pretty good by the end of the game – I’m talking diving catches, great plays, homeruns, and most importantly, turning a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 victory!  YES!!

And I have to add that Buffalo Wild Wings was actually a great, albeit non-traditional place to celebrate an anniversary.  Not only did they not mind us sitting there for hours watching the game, but they were happy to accomodate us in letting us choose which channel we wanted, AND they gave us a hat with 4 balloons attached to take home for our four children.  AND a free anniversary dessert!

After watching the Cubs win, we got the kids and took them over for some go-carting.  Always fun, and this is the first time in a long time no one had to sit out with a baby!  Our son is old enough to ride this year, and although he was apprehensive at first, it only took him until the first turn when he began squealing with joy!  First time he rode with Dad (because everything is less scary with Dad), and I was able to snap this pic before we took off:

Then I got to take him on the second time, and he was such a wonderful little passenger; he had so much fun!  As I was riding in the beautiful weather with my little guy next to me, I had the thought, “It doesn’t get much better than this!”

Happy Anniversary, Honey, it was a great one, as always!  And thank you for eleven wonderful years of marriage and for four beautiful children!  I love you!

at Wrigley Field, anyway.  For Cubs fans the game was not the greatest eve the best of the season to date, and for me anyway there was a pretty cool piece of pre-game entertainment featured on WGN News.  The song may be familiar but the delivery is awesome.  An obvious plug for their new album which drops tomorrow:  SNC With a Twist.  The video was not available on youtube so you have to follow the linkage to the site.  Of course, you can check out other videos as well.  So, when will they be performing at a Yankee game?  It seems only fair.

IMMEDIATE RETRACTION:

OR AS SOON AS I GOT THE COMMENT.  Doesn’t happen often, but I must apologize to taylhis and all the Cubs fans out there.  I dunno what possessed me to think that the game was the first played at Wrigley last week when I knew perfectly well that it was played at Turner Field in Atlanta.  I will take full responsibility if the Cubbies are defeated by the Brewers today and will accept the wrath of said fans.  I know not what I do.

What would happen if characters in fairy tale land (or Disney animation land) joined real-world New York City?  That is what Princess Giselle of Andalasia learns when she is banished on her wedding day by the Evil Queen Narissa.  The Queen sends her son’s intended off to the land where “happily ever after” doesn’t exist.

Upon arriving in the Big Apple, Giselle meets Robert, a cynical divorce lawyer, and his daughter Morgan who believes that a real princess has stepped out of a book.  Of course, her father has forbidden her to read such make believe drivel.

But not to fear, Prince Charming and Giselle’s chipmunk friend, Pip, come to the rescue!  BUT… the Queen’s vile spy, Nathaniel, has been sent to put an end to Giselle for good.

I found Enchanted to be a really cute musical comedy if a bit cliched with all the ties to past classic animated features.  I really liked the nod to the past with the opening and closing of the book and the narration (provided by Julie Andrews, herself).  The name of a restaurant brought a chuckle.  I thought the leads were all well cast.  Notice Timothy Spall who played Nathaniel.  He played another “rat” in a little well-known film franchise… he just has that face and persona about him.  And if you think that a bunch of people singing and dancing around Bethesda Fountain is strange… just imagine how many out-of-work performers there are in New York City alone!  But I imagine that it would look rather ridiculous if it were not being done for a Disney movie 😀   Actually, it was one of my favorite parts of the movie… being accompanied musically by a street corner reggae group around Central Park (in the daylight, of course).  Wonder how much money Robert really put in their box.

The climax might be a little much for the very young, but overall I think Enchanted would delight any young princess 6 and over.  Cute movie.

Well not quite yet, but maybe a new category if I keep reading at the rate I have been. Since this is an Ebook review, there will be some things about the books that you will only get from the ebooks I’ve been reading. Almost all of the books have been copied from original text and had OCR software run on them. I’ve notice in a few places the character recognition software just wasn’t up to the task. I will have to note where I got the copy, how it was translated to digital text and the edition year it was copied from.

I’m thinking this will be a lot of fun for me, but my readers may be a bit bored by my reading selection. Oh well, you get what you pay for. I’m reading free books, and you are reading a free blog.

This week I finished 3 ebooks, so I have a choice as to which title to review. Decisions, decisions. Life sometimes complicates these things. 😉

I may not always serve the Lord as I would wish too.  In fact I quite often find myself serving yours truly.  But the last weekend had me at my church for drama, singing, and leading.  It started Wednesday night with choir rehearsal when the director announced they were looking for a few people to be a part of a drama for Good Friday.  I thought about it and sent an email back saying I could, but for only three of the four services as I had to work for at least part of the day.

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The Good Friday service was made up of a few parts, starting with singing and followed by a short announcement.  For a half hour then everyone could walk around the worship center (95% of the chairs had been removed) visiting different areas.  One area had the text of the last days before the Crucifixion projected on walls for people to read.  Another had a giant cross people could sign.  There was a section with artwork portraying these days and an area with a looping video about a medical perspective on the Crucifixion.  There was also an area with replicas of a Roman flagrum, a spear such as used to pierce the sides of the victims to test for death as they did with Jesus, a crown of thorns, and others.  So following this time was another brief message followed by more songs.  The drama was during the half-hour tour time.  Like everyone who heeded our pastor’s wishes, we were dressed in black.  We would walk around and at various points break into one of two skits.  There were two main characters in one, the scene where Peter denied being a follower of Jesus three times, and one main character in the other, the scene in front of Pilate.  The rest of us were people in the crowd whispering or shouting out on cue- “crucify him!” or “yes, he is one of them” or similar.  The interesting part of the drama was it just happening right in the middle of everyone, and then we would be done, fading back into the wave of people- and boy, were there a lot of people, especially during the final service.  One could barely move at times.

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So Friday I was there from about 3:30 to about 8:00.  Then Saturday, I had to be back again at 1:00 for choir rehearsal, dressed and ready to sing.  We warmed up on our own then joined the worship band in the worship center, put back together from the day before.  I tell you, we sang for what had to be two straight hours on the entire worship package including our three songs and the five that the congregation sang together.  Since the majority of the guys sang tenor, I decided to sing bass.  Okay, let me not kid myself.  Some of that music, if it could talk would say, “first tenors only- second tenors need not apply.”  Following rehearsal we had a short break before lining up for the real deal.  I took this time to visit the 4th and 5th grade room.  I talked to some of the other leaders and kids before I had to go.  I would miss their worship time and craft time where they made crosses out of nails, but would be back during teaching time.  The singing went well, and so did the 4th and 5th grade small group time.  The teaching went well too, but it wasn’t me teaching.  In fact, due to choir I relinquished my own Sunday teaching time to someone else.  Following two choir times, who knew how my voice would be?

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Sunday we had to be back at 7AM, when we tried to watch a video from the night before.  It was either a bad disc or a bad player, but most of the video was a rapid, silent fast-forward.  Oh, well- that’s technology for you.  We had a short warmup and practiced a few of the songs, but not the entire set this time.  We performed, then breakfast was waiting for us.  Ahh…  There’s the real reason I serve.  Kidding aside (we did have to donate for the food if we were able!) both Sunday services went great as well.  I was back in the 4th and 5th grade room after the second service where we ended up merging 4th grade small groups which was fine.

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I went right to lunch from there, meeting my brother, nephew, mother, grandmother, and uncle for an Easter lunch (not brunch).  We ate, we chatted and bantered, and afterward we went to my house for some pie and chatted and bantered some more.  I’m tired of typing so I’ll skip the detail here.  As a bonus though, here are links to videos of most of the songs we did including the video shown at the start of our service with us singing.  I couldn’t include one song because it is an original from the musicians at my church and no one has made a youtube video with it.  Most of these are not us, just videos pulled from youtube.  Most.  Oh, and let me wrap up with this- in case you did not return to the comments of my last post, I mentioned that I updated some of the pictures by adding larger versions, so check them out- it may be easier to ID me now. 😉

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So anyway, the videos:

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/10678741 [/vimeo]

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/10677420 [/vimeo]

I like a lot of movies. I have a lot of movies. So all is well with the world in that respect. I have been on a classic movie kick recently. Ok, more than just recently. Last year, just before Christmas, I borrowed the movie Nosferatu from a friend. Wonderful silent ‘Vampire’ movie. I think that movie still holds its own against some of the newer movies. After that I just had to watch all of the classic Horror movies I own. Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy and The Invisible Man were jut like I remembered them. I would love to have those movies on some ‘newer’ media. I have them on tape, and never felt the need (until now) to get them on DVD or Blu-Ray. Good Movies.

Just this past weekend and tonight I watched another couple of movies that just don’t get old for me. I watched Casablanca with my youngest over the weekend. She may or may not comment on it. I really enjoyed it. It has been a few years since I last saw it. I just finished watching The Maltese Falcon this evening. Another movie I haven’t seen in years, but the story still works today.

Finally there is one other movie I’ve been thinking about watching. It is a bit strange that I don’t have it in my collection of movies. Another Bogart film that I saw many times from 1984 to 2003. And we were not watching it for Bogart. My lovely bride loved the acting of Katharine Hepburn, we watched a number of her movies more than once. I just don’t understand why we never purchased any. After looking through all of the movie I own, I don’t recall any movies with her in my collection. I may have to do something about that. Anyway, I really want to see The African Queen in the near future. I heard is was just released to DVD.

The point of all of this? Not much really. I just like to watch some of these old classics over again from time to time.

Excitement abounded the last few days in Etown.  Last night, I got the happy privilege of calling the boys in blue following an accident in the parking lot of the store.  No injuries, thankfully.  From what we could determine, once again, a young woman had been talking on (guess what) her cell phone and backed out without seeing another car.  She was still on her phone as she and the other party entered the store.  About an hour later, I was taking some trash out in the deluge only to find the police car still sitting in the lot with the young lady inside.  Perhaps, he was illustrating the evils of cell phone driving.

Later, the victim (a frequent shopper) returned to the store.  I tried to lighten the mood by making sure he thought it was safe to come back.  He has apparently not had the best of luck with his vehicle.  He previously hit a deer with the same car. I thought he had been having a REALLY bad day, but both accidents did not happen yesterday.

This morning when I told my co-workers about the incident, they thought I was talking about another altercation.  Our faaaaaaavorite customer was arrested earlier this week for indecent exposure.  I had to ask if it happened at the store.  I’m sure that everyone (regardless if you have ever worked in retail or not) knows the type.  He quite frequently comes into the store and tries to get everything he can for as little as he can.  He even attempts to bring back meat that he has opened, used, and tries to freeze.  This would not be so bad if it had not expired three months ago (yes, he even had the label on it).  To top it all off, he usually comes into the store reeking of alcohol.  He has been banned from the convenience store in town for running scams…. buying a case of his favorite beverage, and returning it 5 minutes later because one of the cans had a hole in it?

AH… life in small town USA!

I’m involved with another theatrical production, as I’ve stated earlier. I’ve only been to a few rehearsals, and I’m tired of it. I don’t think it is the show, or the actors in the show. I have a good time when I am there, but before I get there and after I leave I experience a feeling numbness. I’m just tired of the whole thing. I really wish I would have stayed on my theater break. I don’t want to study lines, learn blocking or any of the other things needed for this show. I have other things I feel like doing instead.

I wonder how long this feeling will last. I need to learn how to say no. I need to focus on projects I am really interested in and ignore the ones that I have just a passing interest in.

Oh well, the show must go on, and I will soldier through.

As I have said before, although I do not comment, I tend to read most of your blogs.  I just don’t comment because, well, once I comment on one I have to comment on all and suddenly my work will take a big hit…

Speaking of my work, I thought it would be fun to take a look back and some of my first websites.  (Thanks to Derek’s Way Back for getting my mind going)

Here is the link:
https://christopheravell.com/2010/04/07/a-blast-from-the-past-my-beginnings/

It is on my personal blog because, well, that is work — this is play!  So, any comments please leave there.

Yesterday, I received an email from one of my fellow actors from The Odd Couple.  He organizes a comedy/magic show for an animal safari park in the area.  He sent out a mass email looking for anyone interested in spending the summer at the park performing in the show… 7 days a week/ 7 times a day… $80 a day and the possibility of housing being arranged.  I seriously considered it but I am already committed to Miracles at the end of May which surely would conflict with rehearsals and the opening of the park.

I even got an email from another recipient who thought that I would be interested.  Interested, definitely… so why not tell the original sender that I was interested.  So I sent an email explaining my situation and that, unfortunately, I would be unable to involve myself.  I was not got going to bail!  I did however ask him to keep me in mind next year.  To which he replied:

You would have been perfect for this one!!!  I have gotten a few candadites (how it appeared in th email) we will see, thanks for the reply.

WOW!  What a compliment!  Not looking back on it but what an opportunity… to perform in front of an even broader audience from who knows where… statewide, countrywide, or dare I say… worldwide?