This poor blog has seen better days. Days when hundreds of people would stop by to read whatever drivel I had to spew. Not so much anymore. I don't really have a reason for its decline. Life was awfully hectic before that last symphony concert in early May, and then jumping right into the summer concert plans, then road tripping and getting sick in August. I'll use those as my excuses, in spite of the fact that they're pretty lame, excuse-wise. If you'll notice, my football teams are back up on the sidebar, so I'll at least be back once a week!
Speaking of football, you most likely missed last week's score updates. For the first time in at least a decade, ALL THREE TEAMS LOST!! The Griz lost to Appalachian State, which is tolerable. They are two of the most successful programs in the FCS since 2000, so it was bound to be a good game. And they only lost by a late touchdown. But Carroll was BLOWN OUT by Montana Tech, their undisputed most hated opponent, by almost three touchdowns! Hope that was just a one-time thing, since they had played quite well against Portland State in a losing effort the week before. Portland State, who plays 2-3 divisions higher than Carroll (Carroll had a realistic chance of winning, too!). Finally, Capital lost by one in triple overtime, failing to convert a two point conversion to win it all. (I'll be paying a little more attention to this team for the next two years, as my only nephew is playing varsity now. Sort of does everything!) All in all, it was a weird weekend for my teams...
Autumn is scheduled to arrive this weekend. It's going to come in awfully quietly, as the current heat wave here is expected to stick around for at least another couple of weeks. With no precipitation. Bad news for a state that's extremely dry and suffering from a blanket of smoke from fires in Idaho. But honestly, I'll enjoy every 80°+ degree day we have!
I'm working on a political post (EEK!) for sometime soon. My observations, for what they're worth. I've already mentioned on FB about the nastiness that's hit there. Friends unfriending friends, name-calling, etc. And the graphs/gifs/memes/stories from supporters of both parties putting down the other (notice none of them really build themselves up, but knock the others down?). It's going to be a long October at this rate. Be sure to check back!
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Picture heavy...
I've spent the past four days at home, sick. I'll spare you the disgusting details, other than to say I went through about three weeks of toilet paper in that amount of time. So here's (probably too many) pics from my trip (thank God I didn't get sick then!). Be sure to click 'em to big 'em!
Heading through northwest MT and northern ID--some of the prettiest land in the country!
The original reason for my trip--Alison Krauss & Union Station!
Coeur d'Alene Lake - my happy place
Met up with some of my very first students. From 30 years ago.
Mt. Hood - from the north, and from the southwest
Bipolar Diva and Emmy!
Sandy - bestest bud from college!
HNTers from the old days - Audra and Addict (mother & daughter)!
Cannon Beach, OR - GOONIES!
Aberdeen, WA - monstrously tall bridge
crossing the Columbia River into Washington
The beaches from a couple of locations in Washington.
I must move next to a body of water sometime soon.
One of my former college students - Kelly.
Various parts of Washington:
Early morning misty road near Everett (excuse the windshield bugs)
Parts that look like Arizona
Leavenworth - embraced an alpine theme in town years ago
Wenatchee - at the east edge of the Cascades
I didn't get a chance to take pics of Bigfoot's home turf.
Too foggy/misty/cloudy, but damned beautiful!
The rest of Washinton is flat.
Which makes it easy for the cops to catch speeders...
Congrats if you made it this far!!
Heading through northwest MT and northern ID--some of the prettiest land in the country!
The original reason for my trip--Alison Krauss & Union Station!
Coeur d'Alene Lake - my happy place
Met up with some of my very first students. From 30 years ago.
Mt. Hood - from the north, and from the southwest
Bipolar Diva and Emmy!
Sandy - bestest bud from college!
HNTers from the old days - Audra and Addict (mother & daughter)!
Cannon Beach, OR - GOONIES!
Aberdeen, WA - monstrously tall bridge
crossing the Columbia River into Washington
The beaches from a couple of locations in Washington.
I must move next to a body of water sometime soon.
One of my former college students - Kelly.
Various parts of Washington:
Early morning misty road near Everett (excuse the windshield bugs)
Parts that look like Arizona
Leavenworth - embraced an alpine theme in town years ago
Wenatchee - at the east edge of the Cascades
I didn't get a chance to take pics of Bigfoot's home turf.
Too foggy/misty/cloudy, but damned beautiful!
The rest of Washinton is flat.
Which makes it easy for the cops to catch speeders...
Congrats if you made it this far!!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Washingtonians don't trim their bush...
Thoughts and a pic or two from the past week, in no particular order:
- With regard to the title--it was very difficult to read many of the highway signs, either on the interstate or the state highways, as most of them were hidden well behind the roadside greenery.
- Three good things about coming home--my shower's pressure (why can't motels have that same wonderful pressure you could find in your high school locker room?), my own bed (though I might be convinced it's time for a new one), and the best gas prices (easily 40¢ cheaper here than Portland or Seattle).
- Twitter--briefly considered signing up, just to keep my thoughts while on the road. Glad I didn't cave though!
- Old-growth cedar forests--particularly in Oregon. Remember the scene in Field of Dreams where the players walk into the cornfield and simply disappear? The same effect must happen if you were to walk into these forests. So dark and thick...you have no idea what's back there! (keeps things pretty cool, too!)
- Speaking of cool, part of the reason I headed west was to escape the heat of MT. Instead, I ran into the hottest weekend of the summer in Portland, along with all sorts of humidity that we don't get here. Ugh...
- The humidity did provide some interesting mornings. The clouds from the coast stick around almost all morning, and the mist and fog over the lakes and rivers was downright eerie at times.
- I took alternate routes for most of this trip, rather than interstate. I highly recommend it if you don't have a time commitment to keep. One of my routes took me directly through Bigfoot's neck of the woods. Seriously, there's no question that Bigfoot exists and lives somewhere along the U.S. Highway 2 corridor of western Washington.
- Central Washington is ugly. Not South Dakota ugly, but ugly
- Tried lots of beer that I've never heard of, including a very tasty homebrew that Emmy made!
- Rush hour traffic in Portland & Seattle--pfffttt...I'm a Montana driver. No problem! Well, other than getting lost in downtown Seattle at 5:00-ish. Only because of an errant right turn in a construction area. Finally opted for heading to the area I knew best (the waterfront), but still took 45 minutes to get onto the interstate!
- Actually, the worst traffic of all was from Sandpoint to Coeur d'Alene, ID. Two lane highway on the fastest growing corridor in the northwest. Toss in a major amusement park requiring a stop light to enter, and the northbound traffic was backed up for well over three miles. Fortunately, I was headed south, but I could almost hear my father's voice, had he been caught up in that line!
- Coeur d'Alene, ID--I wrote in my FB that, while Montana may be home, CDA is my happy place. Always has been, always will be.
- While in CDA, I met up with a couple of my students from my very first years of teaching. Pizza, beer and stories. I've learned that I have selective amnesia, and that's a very good thing.
- My reason for even setting out on this trip was the Alison Krauss & Union Station concert in Sandpoint. A fantastic concert (as was expected), and I even snuck up to about 4 rows from the stage. Most impressed, though, with the volunteer corps involved at the site. I must figure out how they do it for my concert again next summer.
- Teeth Cleaning--my sister is a dental hygienist. Short story...it's been an obscenely long time since I've had my teeth cleaned (think decades). So she scheduled me for 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. She was mildly pissed off with me. Not because it had been so long, but because I have, as she put it, "remarkably healthy teeth". There's the lesson boys and girls. Pay attention to your oral hygiene!
- Apple Store--I have to admit, I wasn't impressed. The front line workers are as knowledgeable as McDonald's front line workers. And I had to make an appointment to see someone at the Genius Bar?? No thanks. I've got a somewhat serious question regarding the newest OS, but I'll wait to see if it's fixed in the next update.
- I didn't expect to see these, but I suppose they make sense.
- I got a speeding ticket in Washington. Driving 73mph in 60mph zone is much different than driving 80 in a 75. They don't look kindly upon it.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
OsTour '12!
That's right! I'm going on the road again! Seems like the first week of August is the time to tour for me. In 2010, I was on Long Island at BTExpress' pool party. Got to meet up with some others (Shizzle, Veronica, Hubman, Minority Report) on that trip as well. Last year was my trip to see Redneck Eskimo (and the McKnobs and Lola & Jasper) in Wichita.This year, I'm driving out west. My initial reason was to catch Alison Krauss in concert. Then I figured that since I was already on the west side of the mountains, I should just continue on. I'll be meeting up with the officially-documented 50,000th visitor to my site (oh, so long ago!). I'll also be meeting up with a couple of old college friends, maybe a high school friend or two, all of my siblings (in a bizarre twist of fate), and a handful of students from my very first years of teaching! Most of whom I haven't seen in 30 YEARS! If I get a wild hair, I might even visit a foreign country!
I'll hopefully be posting a picture or two per day (no guarantees) on FB, and I'll definitely be adding to the list over there in the sidebar. It's gonna be a great time!
Friday, July 27, 2012
So how did the big concert go...?
The 'short' report--the concert went extremely well. Easily the biggest crowd since we took it over (used to include members from all the orchestras in the state). Probably close to 17K. There wasn't a cloud in the sky all day Saturday--literally. I've never seen it like that. Temps were a bit warm for my liking. Mid-90s or higher. Cooled to upper 70s as the sun went down. Fireworks were timed with the music about as perfectly as possible. I was nex to the pyro guy to cue him. Never been that close to big fireworks before. Actually got to see them in their 3D perfection. And they were directly above us. Sort of a culmination of a 55 y.o. wet dream.
That's the public perception of the concert. Personally, I'd grade it about an 82. The two things I didn't have control over were the weather and the volunteers. The weather was fine. The volunteers were lacking in numbers. Directly due to the girl that was hired to be volunteer coordinator (I had no say in it--she's the daughter of a friend of the conductor). Totally overwhelmed and unprepared. Figured she could get volunteers a week before the concert. Should have been lined up at least a month earlier. To her credit, she worked her bottom off (her volleyball shorts-clad bottom) on Saturday, and we got through it. Not sure if we'll use her again next year or not. Now that she's experienced it once, she might do better the next time. And she does have some assets, but there's also some liabilities with her too. We'll see. On the other hand, I was referred to a girl who just graduated HS to be my assistant for the weekend. No official duties--just to be a gofer, and be at my side at all times to take care of whatever might come up. Lordy, I hit the jackpot! I cannot sing her praises loud enough. She will be hired next year. Added benefit? She's a hottie! :-D
There were some other internal things that were problematic. Things that have been routine for years that went out of whack for whatever reason. Things that you can only shrug your shoulders at and hope that they get caught for next year's planning. But all of these things were things that the anal perfectionist in me didn't want to see. From the public standpoint, it was a fantastic success, and those higher up than me have said that this was the most well-run summer concert ever. So that boosted the ego. I hope they remember that when I demand twice the money next year.
The downside of being in charge is that I didn't have the time to take pictures at all. Which I'm bummed about. I did take my 35mm with me and took a couple of shots, but I still have pics with BFD on there from the first of the month, so I'm not sure when I'll finish the roll. There won't be anything earth-shattering on there anyway. But both the symphony and the college had photographers there, so you can see their pics:
Symphony photographer
College photographer
One of the great successes we had was the partnership we have with Helena Food Share. We started it three years ago when someone suggested that the public bring canned goods to hold down their blankets during the day (blankets start getting laid down 48 hrs before the concert!). The college doesn't allow stakes or rocks anymore, as they get left behind and ruin the mowers, or the stakes have punctured irrigation lines. Then Food Share collects the cans during and after the show. The first year they were totally unprepared, and got about 5,000 pounds of food. But they were happy. This year, they gathered 11,845 pounds!! That's almost SIX TONS!! We are their single largest collection event now. And talk about good PR for us!
Sometimes my spam is interesting...
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That's the public perception of the concert. Personally, I'd grade it about an 82. The two things I didn't have control over were the weather and the volunteers. The weather was fine. The volunteers were lacking in numbers. Directly due to the girl that was hired to be volunteer coordinator (I had no say in it--she's the daughter of a friend of the conductor). Totally overwhelmed and unprepared. Figured she could get volunteers a week before the concert. Should have been lined up at least a month earlier. To her credit, she worked her bottom off (her volleyball shorts-clad bottom) on Saturday, and we got through it. Not sure if we'll use her again next year or not. Now that she's experienced it once, she might do better the next time. And she does have some assets, but there's also some liabilities with her too. We'll see. On the other hand, I was referred to a girl who just graduated HS to be my assistant for the weekend. No official duties--just to be a gofer, and be at my side at all times to take care of whatever might come up. Lordy, I hit the jackpot! I cannot sing her praises loud enough. She will be hired next year. Added benefit? She's a hottie! :-D
There were some other internal things that were problematic. Things that have been routine for years that went out of whack for whatever reason. Things that you can only shrug your shoulders at and hope that they get caught for next year's planning. But all of these things were things that the anal perfectionist in me didn't want to see. From the public standpoint, it was a fantastic success, and those higher up than me have said that this was the most well-run summer concert ever. So that boosted the ego. I hope they remember that when I demand twice the money next year.
The downside of being in charge is that I didn't have the time to take pictures at all. Which I'm bummed about. I did take my 35mm with me and took a couple of shots, but I still have pics with BFD on there from the first of the month, so I'm not sure when I'll finish the roll. There won't be anything earth-shattering on there anyway. But both the symphony and the college had photographers there, so you can see their pics:
Symphony photographer
College photographer
One of the great successes we had was the partnership we have with Helena Food Share. We started it three years ago when someone suggested that the public bring canned goods to hold down their blankets during the day (blankets start getting laid down 48 hrs before the concert!). The college doesn't allow stakes or rocks anymore, as they get left behind and ruin the mowers, or the stakes have punctured irrigation lines. Then Food Share collects the cans during and after the show. The first year they were totally unprepared, and got about 5,000 pounds of food. But they were happy. This year, they gathered 11,845 pounds!! That's almost SIX TONS!! We are their single largest collection event now. And talk about good PR for us!
Sometimes my spam is interesting...
Î Ïόσωπο ήταν που συνδÎεται με Îνα αντι-κυβεÏνητικών διαδηλωτών, αλλά η παÏουσία του Îχει γίνει ΣήμεÏα πεÏαιτÎÏω αντιλαϊκά όπως οι επικÏιτÎÏ‚ κατηγόÏησαν τους ηγÎτες της να βοηθήσουν για . [url=http://raybangreece.weebly.com]ray ban new wayfarer[/url] ÎÎα πεÏισσότεÏα Ï€Ïόσωπο στÏατιωτικοί διοικητÎÏ‚ Îδωσε νομοθετικÎÏ‚ εξουσίες, σωστή νÎα , Ï€Ïος βοήθεια . [url=http://raybangreece.weebly.com]ray ban greece[/url] Για Έχοντας Ï€ÏοεδÏικό διάταγμα του, είπε ο κ. ΜουÏσί αντικατάστασης μποÏεί ενδεχομÎνως να Ï€Ïαγματοποιηθεί 60 ημÎÏες μετά την του κάθε μας από το δημοψήφισμα, το ακÏιβή οÏίζ See more... ει ότι η απόφαση. http://raybangreece.weebly.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Checking in...
Hey! I'm alive!
Concert is Saturday. (don't know if the link works for non-FBers, but go here!)
I literally only have the five minutes available to post this small post.
This has been one of the most rewarding things I've done with the Symphony, and more work than I've ever done for the organization. People are recognizing the effort, and frankly, that feels pretty good. Now if I can just get that translated into some more $$...
Hope to have some pics up next week!
(how the hell did I find the time to do HNT???)
Concert is Saturday. (don't know if the link works for non-FBers, but go here!)
I literally only have the five minutes available to post this small post.
This has been one of the most rewarding things I've done with the Symphony, and more work than I've ever done for the organization. People are recognizing the effort, and frankly, that feels pretty good. Now if I can just get that translated into some more $$...
Hope to have some pics up next week!
(how the hell did I find the time to do HNT???)
Monday, July 9, 2012
#55!
As mentioned last week, I took a little pre-4th road trip to meet up with a friend, former HNTer, and all-around hottie. Not much of a secret now, if you've been to either of our Facebook pages. It was the always lovely BFD! I'm not entirely sure why she's so shy here, but the picture on the map is of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone Park, where we first started the afternoon! Trust me, she looks great! I, on the other hand, hate having to squint...There was hiking, there was sight-seeing, there was driving, there was lots of wind, lots of sun and lots of laughs. Of course, it wasn't just her--the whole family was with her, so I got to meet her hubby and the kids. Took me back to the days of family vacations when I was a kid. Though I think my siblings and I were far less behaved... Anyhoo...it was a great break for me, and hopefully I didn't make too bad of an impression! Thanks, BFD and family!
I'm just over 10 days to the big concert. My only real concerns are getting enough volunteers (which I'm assured will be just fine), vendors (it really shouldn't be this hard to fill my last three spots), and the weather (which I have no control over, so why worry?). The weather should actually be hot and dry, which isn't so bad--just puts the fireworks up in the air (so to speak). If we don't get a few days of cool or rain, we might not get to do them. Fingers are still crossed though. The good part is that someone else makes that call (fire marshal), so I'm off the hook for blame!
The rest of the concert is shaping up to be pretty good. Go check out the FB page if you haven't been there yet!
Wish I had something more exciting to share. This concert prep has literally consumed every waking moment, which is why the trip to see BFD was so wonderful. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll get back into the swing of things!
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