Team Saturdazzle: The One with Bits and Pieces.

Today's Team Saturdazzle is just a quick compilation of stories, clips and jokes.

Like many days when I was a kid it starts with Sesamee Strret and it ends with a snack,

One of the things I liked about Sesamee Street from an early age was the guest appearances.  One of the ealriest I remember probably since I like puns so much is when the cast of Bonanza came on the show.  They were on a lot of season 2 and did segments where they counted or recited the alphabet or demonstrated math problems like the video below.  

 

In the episode I remember they do a play on the Ernie and Bert banana in my ear sketch (original sketch below) except instead of saying banana in my ear they actually say Bonanza in my ear. Epic!

Sesamee Street has continued with their guest appearances.  I just discovered this gem with Billy Joel and Marlee Matlin (CODA, West Wing, Children of a Lesser God) . I'm a big Billy Joel fan and also love writing new lyrics to old songs and Joel does this by tweaking one of his standards and adapting it to Oscar The Grouch.  

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Yesterday I had one of my days where I was out of the house at 6:30 and not back for good until after midnight. I was home for about 90 minutes in the afternoon.  My wife and daughter were preparing for  an impromptu game night, where they had invited several people a day or less before the party was slated to begin.  A few people did manage to come, but when I was home the only people they had heard from were unable to attend.  This gave me an idea for a wry observation which I shared on my personal FB page:

A lot of times when people can't make it to an event youv'e asked them to attend, they will respond something like that sounds great, but I'm busy that day. Just once can't they say that sounds like an awful time, but I'm not doing anything see ya at 7?

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This morning, Amy and I were judging another speech tournament.  This time it was at held at Lucy's old high school.  When you walk in the hallowed halls of a high school there are pictures of accomplished student athletes and plaques with the names of students who received accolades, awards, accomplishments, and some words that don't start with A like scholarships. None of those halls in any of those schools contain my picture.  I wasn't that kind of athlete, and I was not that kind of student.  However the apple must have fallen far from the tree because my daughter class of 2024 is pictured at least twice and her name is engraved on a plaque as a recipient of a scholarship for mastery in Language Arts.  

Ending the day with a snack

My college friend Angela Rumbold's birthday was earlier this week.  We had many fine times over the years.  When she first moved from Illinois to Georgia, I had occasion to visit her there and she introduced me to boiled peanuts.  It was love at first soggy bite.  years later when I lived in South Carolina for 2 years the boiled peanut became my go to snack as there was a street vendor outside our local Walmart.  I generally did not go more than a fortnight without grabbing me a bag.  

When I ventured back to Illinois in '97 to forsake all others and marry my best friend, I also  ending up forsaking regular visits with my favorite boiled legume.  This +25 year absence of a boiled peanut routine ended about 2 years ago when I discovered inside A BP in Frankfort, Illinois where my sister in law  lives, a boiled peanut station.  So now 4 or 5 times a year on visits to her family I get the fruits of Jimmy Carter's first job (Boiled Peanut deliverer).

Tonight was one of those nights.  My Niece Gracie was in a production of Finding Nemo Jr.  Which is not it turns out a quest to find Nemo's progeny but a children's adaptation of the musical Finding Nemo.  I was glad to attend, but everyone in my family knew there was a boiled peanut quid pro quo in my attendance.  

By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferwoodardmaderazo/3563681031/, CC BY 2.0, Link

Well that's all the Team Saturdazzle I have for you today.  We learned some math, heard some jokes, watched some videos, I shared some stories and  even had a snack.  It's not exactly 3 points and a poem, but it will have to do.  

Illinois coach Bret Bielema taunts Shane Beamer and he loses his mind

Footage from Tuesdays Citrus Bowl which Illinois beat South Carolina

Facing The Unknown - Weekly Writers Workshop

 

This weeks prompts for Weekly Writers Workshop hosted by the inimitable (I should know, I try to imitit him all the time, and I am not able) John Holton on his blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, are:  write a post on the word medications,  write a post in exactly 12 sentences, write about what would induce you to give up life as you know it and face the unknown, tell us the story of your personal experience with rejection, write about a bad habit you'd like to eliminate from your life, and write about a time you had to let go of someone you cared for.  I'm sure you have deciphered by the enormity of the first sentence, and the title of this post which prompts I have chosen.  

There have been at least 5 times in my adult life that I have given up life as I knew it and faced the unknown: moving across the state at the age of 22 to attend university,  moving across the world to serve 2 years as a Southern Baptist missionary in Far East Russia in 1992 a few months after the country had  opened it's doors to Western missionaries, moving across the U.S. to attend seminary, moving across the country again back to my native Illinois to court the woman who would become my wife, and finally moving against the grain by staying at home for 6 years and homeschooling my children. In each of these cases I gave up life as I knew it and faced the unknown; in the first 4 I also had to let people go that I cared for (the 6th prompt).  

What motivated me those 5 times varied by degree but they all had to do with a path I have tried to follow since becoming a follower of Jesus more than 40 years ago and that path has been putting the needs of others before my own.  I am not perfect, so I haven't  been perfectly motivated and I sure haven't perfectly followed this path but the path has certainly led many times to leaving life as I then knew it. 

My first three travels were all based on what I thought would be the life of a missionary.  When I left South Carolina where I had attended seminary for a year to pursue marriage with Amy, I had already become uncertain of a career as a missionary, but one of the myriad reasons I had fallen in love with her was because I had seen in our 7 years of friendship that she was also on the path to putting others needs before her own.  So I envisioned that we would attempt to meet those needs together, which we have for 26 years and continue to do so however imperfectly. 

The needs of my wife and children motivated me as a home educator, they also prepared me for my current job as a substitute teacher. With all our children out of high school, there may come a day when Amy and I, as a couple give up life as we know it and face the unknown. I am certain  that the same motivations that directed in the past would lead us into any new unknown. 

I know would like to lead you back to the known, which is a variety pack of other submissions that can be found in the comments section of  this weeks edition of the Weekly Writer's Workshop. 

60 Years In Sixty Days:1997

 1997: She Said Sure 

1997 was a year of great change for me. I started the year miserable and lonely.  Which is a line from the movie Marty.  But I  had not yet seen the movie Marty, which is a pretty good reason to be miserable, but I had others. 

I was living in a different state than I am now.  A state of  habitual sin.  A state of unfulfilled desire. A state of deep regret.  A state of hopelessness.  I mean South Carolinas not the bad, you can play tennis year round but I wasn't nearly the man I wanted to be and I was doing nothing to change.

A friend sought me out and offered me the hope of real change.  As I started to work through my issues and allow God to change me from the inside out.  I discovered something.  I discovered someone.

I had a friend in a different state.  She was in a state of healing.  A state of awareness.  A state of discovery,  She was changing in Illinois while I was changing in South Carolina.

W e had been friend for going on 7 years.  Everyone else noticed that we were meant for each other.  But we were oblivious.  Why would I date her? I would ask, she's my best friend.  Then one Day I said I should court her, she's my best friend.

She flew down for Spring Break and it was clear that courting was like friendship with help.  By the time Spring Break was over I knew and put an emerald engagement ring on layaway.  

In July I moved back to Illinois with marriage on my mind.   .  When I earned enough to pay for the ring I asked her parent for permission to marry their daughter. They said yes and I made reservations at a fancy restaurant for the proposal.

After Spring Break I had written lyrics for a proposal  and gave it to a friend who had written music for other songs I had written.  About the same time I got the ring paid off,  he sent me the  cassette with the song on it.  I asked a H.S. senior from our youth group to accompany me at a fancy restaurant.  On the big night, he chickened out.  So instead of bringing an accompanist  ala Breaking Away.  I brought in a cassette player ala Say Anything.

I was so nervous.  I could hardly eat dinner.  Because I knew I was going to propose. I turned on the tape player and began to sing:

It's A beautiful night

Your a beautiful girl

I thank God for the day 

That you brightened my world

The song continued and when I ended with the title question Will You Marry Me My Darling?, Amy was unsure of what just happened.

/I had a  habit and still do of showing all my poems, songs and writings to Amy to see if they are any good.  She must have thought that's what I was doing.  

"Is that what you are going to sing when you propose?" She inquired.

"This is me, proposing," I replied.

So she said, sure.

After which, she took out a piece of paper from her purse of all the ways she had known that I was going to propose that night.  It turns out that since I had telegraphed my intentions, that she also was very nervous and didn't eat much of her dinner either.  So our first official act as an engaged couple was to go to Denny's and have another dinner.

We got engaged 26 years ago this month.  We have been through many changes since then but I'll always remember 1997 as the year God changed two people and led them to the path of being one couple.
"

                                             

23 23 Aziz Ansari

Today is the 23rd of February. It is also the year 2023. Starting on January 23 (Actually, I started today read more about that by clicking here.)    I began making posts about people born on the 23rd of the current month.

Today I am featuring Aziz Ansari who played Tom Haverford on the NBC comedy Parks & Rec.

                  A Typical Tom Haverford Pose

Ansari was Born on February 23rd, 1983 in Columbia, South Carolina.  I was born on the23rd of September in 1964.  I graduuated from High School in 1983, and I lived in Columbia for 2 years from 1996 to 1998.  If you are not familiar with Park & Rec, the  scene below  is a really good intro to the Tom Haverford character,

The # 1 song in the United Kingdom on February 23rd, 1983 was Too Shy by Kajagoogoo. 

P is for Prokofiev

Last year in my A to Z challenge on my blog Random Acts of Roller. My theme was State Capitals.  I stated in my introduction ...

My Theme will be Capitals. Due to the random nature of my blog, and specifically my mind, each entry may only be somewhat related to the capital mentioned. For example, it is entirely possible that Friday April third's entry will feature the Krispy Kreme themed love song I wrote in 1995 because I wrote it while living in Columbia, South Carolina where I encountered my first  Krispy Kreme.

I mention that here. because today's post about Sergei Prokofiev will tell you probably a lot more about me than Prokofiev. But let's at least start with Prokofiev.

Sergei Prokofiev

Years lived before 1921: Thirty

Years lived after 1921: Thirty Two

Sergei Sergyevich Prokofiev was born in April of 1891 in the Ukraine. . Sergei and I have something in commo that we both share the first name of our father but not our grandfather.  The way you can tell this with Prokofiev is that according to his Wikipedia page his father's name is Sergei Alexeyevich  Prokofiev. In Russian the 2nd name is the patronymic name which means it is derived from the father's name.  Boys names end in -ovich or -evich  and girls  patronyms  end in -ovna or -evna.  So Prokofiev's Dad's name was Sergei and  his paternal grandfathers name was Alexei. The way you can tell it with me, is cause I'm telling you. You'll have to take my word for it, as I don't have a Wikipedia page. 

I first became aware of the music of Prokofiev was when I was a kid watching the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf. It is narrated by actor Sterling Holloway best known as the original voice of Winnie The Pooh. Different instruments play different characters in the folk tale.

                                                    Sterling Holloway

                                                    Years lived before 1921: Fifteen

                                                    Years lived after 1921: Seventy-one

                                                    Winnie The Pooh aka Edward Bear

                                                    Years lived before 1921: zero

                                                    Years lived after 1921:100+

My family watched a lot of Disney, but we also listened to a lot of Alan Sherman also to a lot of the Boston Pop's conducted by Arthur Fiedler. In 1964 Sherman, Fiedler and the Pops produced an Album called Peter and the Commissar which is a parody of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.  This was a family favorite and I was overjoyed to see it available on Spotify.  

The next time I encountered Prokofiev was in the early 1990's I was living in Russia as a Southern Baptist missionary.  My job was to teach English classes and help start a student ministry.  In that capacity I got a lot of invitations from my students to experience traditional Russian culture.  I got invited to a a concert one afternoon and it was some sort of adaptation of Rome and Juliet.  As I watched the performance I realized that the instruments were kind of telling the story not exactly like Peter and the Wolf but there were some similarities.  At the break I looked again at the program and read in Russian that the composer had also writeen something called Peotr y Volk which in English is Peter and the Wolf.  

Here is the London Symphony Orchestra playing a famous selection from Romeo and Juliet ...

Well that was a more random look at Prokofiev.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Tomorrow we'll have to mind our p's and q's as we are dealing with royalty.  For more of the A to Z challenge click here.  

What Republicans need to know if they want my vote in November

Six Word Saturday

My Six:



I'll never vote for Donald Trump.


Let me bullet point it for you.

•  Back in August of last year I ranked the 17 republican candidates for president. the Donald came in 17th.  
• The only reason why he comes in 6th now is that 11 of the candidates have since dropped out of the race.One of the 16 other candidates was a pro choice republican.  I am on the record of stating that I would never again vote for a pro-choice republican.  I would be hundreds of times more likely to vote for that candidate than Trump

• I don't hate Trump.  I just don't trust him.
• I don't trust anyones whose go to answer is I'll be great at it.
• I don't hate Trump.  I just don't respect him.
• I cant respect anyone whose answer to those who disagree with him is to deride them.
• I get very upset when any of the other candidates when trying to frame the discussion back to Republican versus Democrat state that any republican candidate would be better than Obama, Sanders or Clinton.
• It only takes watching 1 debate (and I have watched all but 1 of them) to see that Trump does not have the character to lead this country.
• When he is booed which is often. He assumes  The people booing are wrong.
• In the last debate he took a pot shot at Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina who had been out of the race for some time.  When booed he attributed it to donors who back Jeb Bush.  The truth is he was attacking Graham in a debate in South Carolina, a week before the primary there.  
• I feel there are many people like me who will never vote for Trump.  
• But I am afraid there are more people who are willing to go along with who ever secures the nomination.
• I will not be among them.

For more six word saturday click here.



Also posted at YBD #YBD=HSD

If the NFC playoffs were today 10/5/15

Now that 4 weeks are in the books in the AFC (the Monday nigh game is 2 NFC rivals) I can tell you what would happen in the AFC if the playoffs began today.

Division Champions

NFC East Dallas Cowboys (winner of 3 team tiebreaker) (2-2)

Week 4 result Lost to New Orleans (1-3) 26-20

Week  5 opponent New England 3-0

NFC North Green Bay Packers (4-0)

Week 4 Result: Beat San Francisco (1-3) 17-3

Week  5 opponent St. Louis* (2-2)

NFC South Carolina Panthers (winner of 2 team tiebreaker)(4-0)

 

Week 4 result Beat Tampa Bay)37-23

Week  5 Bye

NFC West Arizona Cardinals (3-1)

Week 4 result Lost to St. Louis (2-2) 24-22

Week  5 opponent @Detroit (0-4)

Wild Card

Atlanta Falcons (4-0)

Week 4 result Beat Houston(1-3) 48-21
Week % opponent Washington 2-2

St. Louis Rams 2-2 (winner of 5 team tiebreaker)

Week 4 result Beat Arizona (3-1) 24-22

Week  5 opponent @Green Bay (4-0)

FAST FACT Each current nfc playoff bound team takes on an opponent with either 0 , 2 or 4 losses.   

 

E is For Elgin (Place)

Today I want to tell you quickly how my associations with the city of Elgin , Illinois have changed in the almost 40 years I have been travelling there.

It started when I needed braces when I was kid.  My orthodontist was in a town some 30 minutes away from where I lived called Elgin.  I didn't have any relatives in that town and to the best of my knowledge I had never visited it.  My orthodontist was in the tower building which is now on the national registry of historic buildings.

Tower Building, Elgin, Illinois.

After my adventures in orthodontia were over, I visited Elgin all of 3 times from the early eighties to 1997.  These were for 1) a lunch date with a Judson student, 2) A wedding (The reception was in the Laird Funeral Home of all places), and a camp reunion.

Then in 1997, I moved from South Carolina back to Illinois to court Amy.  I got a temp to perm job in Elgin and was there from July to October.  Shortly after that I got a job at a mortgage company and was there for almost 10 years.  While I was there I was given a 6 week assignment at one of our other facilities in Elgin.

In 2001,  We move to our current house which is between 10 and 15 minutes from Elgin.  We began to do more regular things there.  We visited churches, we visited their  library, our pediatrician's office was there.  But it wasn't until the past 5 or 6 years that we have become Elginated.  These days, I work in Elgin, our home school co-op meets in Elgin, we go to church in Elgin.  Last week I was at Elgin every day for work and then drove back there after dinner for the Imago film fest at Judson.  I spend more waking hours a week in Elgin than I do in my home town.  In a few weeks I will begin to spend more time on the bike paths and many of those are in Elgin.  

One thing we have not done is frequent restaurants in Elgin especially in the down town as they mostly open during business hours.  Elgin has a blue box cafe which has a Dr. Who motif that I want to take the kids too sometime soon.  

FOR MORE A TO Z BLOGGING CLICK HERE

To see what I blogged about alphabetically on 4-6-12 click here.

A is for Allen Levi (Person)

Today is the end of Blogging from A to Z 2015 26 posts in 30 days. Wow! I have had so much fun.

APRIL FOOLS!

Today is actually the first day of Blogging A to Z. My theme this year is nouns. So evaryday in April excluding Sundays you will get a blog about a person place or thing.

Today we start with a hero of mine, Allen Levi. I first met Allen in 1995 at a concert at my church in South Carolina. I have only seen him 4 times in the past 21 years. Each time at one of his concerts. The last time he and I met us was in 2004 at my surprise 4oth birthday party. He provided the music. Allen was an attorney and left his practice to become a full-time musician. Here is footage of him in his former habitat a concert.



I say former natural habitat because he recently did another career change and became a judge. Here is a video explaining the job change.





For More A to Z Blogging click here.

I participated in A to Z blogging back in 2012. To see what I wrote April 1st 2012 click here.

WSCR: Sometime's not listening is best way to speak up

I am a big time fan of sports radio.  I have been listening to WSCR  (The Score) since they went on the air back in 1992. besides the years I lived in Russia from December of 1992 to December of 1994 and South Carolina from 1995 to 1997   I have been a regular listener to sports radio in Chicago,  primarily WSCR as they did the WKRP theme thing and moved up and down the dial until finally landing on 670 where WMAQ had promised to make me rich when I was a kid.

As a Christian,  I try to watch what words I listen to and what things I say.  To that end, I could never get behind show titles like S&M in the morning (The  initials referring to show hosts Tom Shaer and Jim Memelo) nor could I participate in the signature segment on the show based on an Old Mike Ditka rant.  The segment has nothing to do with the c-list swear word for producing feces but has everything to do with tagging someone out when you find them off base.  Still,  I could never bring myself to call up and say a word on the radio that I wouldn't say in public.

My point in all this is to say that there were some goings on at WSCR that I didn't want to listen to and when they came on like the commercials for strip clubs, I just turned them off, sometimes for days and weeks at a time.  I did this because sometimes not listening is the beset way to speak up.

Over the years some of the hosts I really liked and some I did not much care for.  I liked all the Dan's (McNeil, Jiggets and later Bernstein) I was 50/50 on the Mikes, Loved Murphy, didn't care much for North.

I didn't care much for North's shtick.  The whole who needs High school, self made man thing never' really resonated me.  But it wasn't until September 12, 2001 that he really got under my skin.  As you may recall, September 11th 2001, was kind of a big deal,  and even the day after,  sports radio was not talking about sports.  When I got into my car after work that day, Secretary of State Colin Powell was making a speech about U.S. response to the tragedy.  Half way through the speech, North turns off the feed and starts discounting what Powell was saying and giving his own "insight" to what had to be done.  Now this was nearly 14 years ago, so I don't remember the particulars, but that was the last time I listened to Mike North.  I just had it with him.  Had it with how on one hand, he could brag about being a high school drop out and then on the other,  have enough hubris in the wake of a national tragedy, to  purport that he knew more about global politics than a decorated general and current secretary of state.

At the time, North was the face of the score, he was on 1/2 the commercials,  even when not in his time slot.  Anytime since 9-12-01 that his voice came on the score, I switched the channel. Now was I being petty or vindictive?  I don't think so.  This is the first time in nearly 14 years I am going public with it.  I only do so to illustrate a need to turn a score personality off again.

I mentioned earlier that I liked Dan Bernstein.  He is the host of the afternoon show at WSCR.  He and his partner Terry Boers also run the segment, I referred to earlier.  I remember when Bernstein was first starting at the score  covering things like the NBA draft.  Over the last 15 years Bernstein, has become as Lawrence Holmes said recently, the face of the score.  I have found Bernstein to be very insightful and analytical over his run at WSCR.  I have also found him at times boorish, sophomoric and ill tempered.  There are days that he shows a real disdain for the opinions and thoughts for the callers on his show.  Still in all, he hadn't done anything to make me pull the plug on him.  That is until this week.

In  1992  and even in 2001 Social media was essentially non existent.  So disdain for an on air personality came usually from what they said or from a column they would put in a newspaper or website.  Twitter , Facebook and the like have changed that in a big way.

Bernstein tweeted this week in a very unprofessional manner about a female journalist.  After publicly and correctly standing up for women this week who have been abused by men, Bernstein objectified women by using a crass word, to describe part if the female journalists anatomy.  So it's channel switching time for me again at WSCR.  Stopping listening to North was a personality thing.  I couldn't stand his personality.  For Bernstein it's simply a matter of not wanting to listen to someone who defends women and objectifies them within the course of a week. 

I will still listen to the White Sox and to Lawrence Holmes. as he is a class act and in my opinion should be the face of WSCR. But when Bernstein comes on the air to sell wine, or promote the tournament of bad, or just to do his show, I will have switched channels, because sometime not listening is the best way to speak up.

Carnival of Homeschooling Out Loud

Carnival of Homeschooling # 336

Presents . . .

 Me

I am Dave.  My main blog is Home School Dad.

Last week's carnival  was at The Informed Parent.

Melanie Grant presents Top 10 Things I can't live without in my homeschooling day posted at Mel's Mouthful on Mothering.

Barbara Frank Online presents Don't be Intimidated by Homeschooling for High School Part I

Tamara chimes in with Summer Fun Activities at Tales of a Pee Dee Mama.  Before you head over to PeeDeepedia, the Pee Dee is a region in the northeastern corner of South Carolina.

Speaking of summer, It is a great time to nurture family relationships and make learning a pleasurable experience. So says Susan of At Home and School in Family summer fun: 10 ways to learn and connect. 

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer.  Jeff of Do It Yourself High School  says:  "While most families spend Memorial Day weekend at the beach, we go on a hike and learn little known, yet interesting, information."  Jeff shares some of that info in  Homeschoolers hike Indiana Dunes State Park.

Mindy of Den School asks Television -helpful or harmful?

Liz E presents Homeschooling Failures posted at Homeschooling in Buffalo.


What to Teach in Homeschool at Letters From Nebby

Julie who hosts the Homeschooled Kids Blog Carnival at  Homeschooling-ideas  asks the excellent question, Whose homeschool is it anyway?

Resources for Shakespeare's Hamlet presented by Annie Kate of Tea Time with Annie Kate.

Beveryly Hernandez is pleased to announce that the 14th annual Summer Reading Club is being hosted at Homeschool Journeys.  She invites us to Join the Homeschool Summer Reading Club.

Here's Erin  of Nirvana Homeschooling with   Free Homeschooling Curriculum, Textbooks and Resources.

Alasandra of Alasandra's Homeschool Blog wants us to Remember the Raisin all 1,812 of them.

Lincoln & Latin is a summary of Jen's week  in Forever, For Alawys, No Matter What.

Speaking of Puppy,  Over at Home School Dad, I present Tired of School.

Pamela Jorrick presents Less Screen Time and More Conversations posted at Blah, Blah, Blog.


Laura Grace Weldon  explains the Benefits of Special Interest Groups

Want a shock? Try Grade Shock  by Christine from Our Curious Home

Misty Z invites us to have a ball at Homeschool Bytes by Learning Geography with Games and a Beach Ball.

Katherine presents School Choice  at No Fighting No Biting


Abrianna's take on Vouchers  can be found at Cowgirl Yankee. 

What If? as presented by Linda Dobson of Parent at the Helm.

Travel is an important part of education.  So says Cristina of Home Spun Juggling in An Education one (Foot)step at a Time.

Henry Cate of  Why Homeschool announces We are losing our first homeschooler.

Andrea Hermitt presents Last Day at Notes from A Homeschooled Mom


Christine MM of The Thinking Mother has a plan, A halfday homeschool plan for the last two weeks of the  year. 

Next Week's Carnival is at

CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED

Submissions are due to: CarnivalOfHomeschooling@gmail.com by 6:00 PM (PST) on the Monday evening of the week. It will be greatly appreciated if the submissions come in earlier. Please send the following information:

Title of Post
URL of Post
Name of Blog
URL of Blog
Brief summary of the post
(With "carnival" or "submission" in the subject field of the email.)


You can also send in a submission via Blog Carnival by going here.

I'll be back in a day or two with some Carnival outtakes. 

State Quarter Give-A-Way

 AS IN ILLINOIS

Yes, to celebrate I day on A to Z Blogging, I am giving away a quarter from my home state of Illinois. 

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

In order to be fair, I will also be giving away the state quarters of Indiana, Iowa, and Idaho.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!

I will also give away all the state quarters that have the letter i in their name.  Such as Maine, South Carolina, and California. 

AND AS IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH. . . .

To give the winner an idea of how majestic the letter I is when it appears in the name of states a little perspective is required.  I will also give away quarters from every state not fortunate to carry the letter I in their name such as New York, North Dakota and Delaware.

THAT'S 50 QUARTERS!

3 years ago I gave away 50 state quarters here and it turned out to be one of my most popular endeavors.  I have been wanting to give away some more for awhile and was waiting for the right opportunity.  I am actually going to be giving away

NOT ONE BUT TWO

sets of state quarters.  That's right two sets.

Set one will be given away in the traditional way.  At the end of the contest, I will draw a name from all the entries and choose the quarter winner.

5 entries will be given for every comment on this post.  One entry will be given for each comment on my A through H posts and my upcoming J through R posts. If you blog, tweet or post on FB about this contest just leave a comment for an extra entry.

 And A week from tomorrow on April 18th (Q day) I will announce a winner from all the entries.

In an effort to bring my followers up to 100 and beyond.  I am having a follower only give away for the second set of state quarters.  If you are already a follower of this site you automatically get 5 entries to the second drawing.  If you sign up now you will get 10 entries and if you are the lucky 100th follower you will get 100 entries and 10  state quarters (If you don't snag the set of 50). When I get 100 followers all previous followers will get an additional 5 entries.  All followers after 100 will get 20 entries.  On April 18th or when I reach 100 followers, whichever comes later, I will do a second drawing for the remaining set,

Excited?  You know I am.

Please pass on the info on this incredible contest.   

Alzheimers: The tale of two Robertsons

As a rule, I don't pay a lot of attention to Evangelist/Talk Show Host/Politician Pat Robertson. This week, however, he got my attention when he answered this question from a viewer . . .



Robertson's comments are the beginning of a slippery slope of ethical issues that can confront a marriage. People change in marriage even when there is not a physical cause for the change. I am a much different person than I was 13 years ago and possibly not the man Amy thought I would become. When I got married, I thought I would be at the company I was working at until I retired, much like my Dad did before me. But 5 years ago I lost that job which led to the journey I am now as the primary home educator of the family.


His phrase Alzheimer's is a kind of death is a chilling one. You could replace Alzheimer's with mental illness, Lou Gehrig's disease, cancer and even joblessness if you wanted. While all of these change a marriage and often not for the better, they are not a reason for divorce.


A different perspective comes from the example of Robertson McQuilkin who was president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary (Now Columbia International University, which I attended in 1995). In 1981 his wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

His decision was to retire from public life including his president ship of CIU in order to care for his wife. Listen to his resignation speech. It is a rebuttal to Pat Robertson's response. Except it was delivered 2 decades before Robertson. It is the Godly response of a man who so obviously loved his wife.





Mcquikin gave that speech in 1990 and took care of his wife from then until her death in 2003.


His phrase "it's not I have to, but I get to" is such a different thought than Pat Robertson's response. What if the Robertson from Virgina answered the viewers question by citing the response of the Robertson from South Carolina? He certainly wouldn't be the subject of ABC news reports and hundreds of comments on the 700 club FB page, but he would be much better grounded biblically. Which presumably, is what his 700 club viewers are tuning in for.


On a more personal note, about the same time Mcquilkin was dealing with his wife's Alzheimer's, my grandfather passed away of a disease that for 2 years masked itself as Alzheimer's. Before that most people in my family figured my robust grandfather would outlive my frail grandmother .


But in the 2 years that my grandmother took care of my grandpa a transformation took place in her. She was put in a situation that tore her apart but in the end made her a stronger and more vital person. My grandfather died in 1989 and this "frail" woman he left behind lived 16 more years remaining active in the lives of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. In 1989, I did not know my grandmother very well; being 1 of 30 grandchildren will do that to you. But in the last act of her life, we spent much more time together. My older two children spent much time with her. During the last few weeks of her life she would come in and out of consciousness. One night my wife overheard her having a conversation with God. She was telling Him that she could not go yet because there were still great grandchildren she had not met. One of those great grand children she was referring to was Puppy who was born a few months after Grandma died. I believe the experience of caring for her husband was at least partially instrumental in her strong finish in the last act of her life.




McQuilkin wrote an excellent book in 1998 about 20 years into Muriel's illness, about his wife and his decision to care for her. A Promise Kept is not only the name of the book, but it also defines what McQuikin, my grandmother, and so many others did through the years. Pat Robertson shrugs off those vows in the video while so many others have embraced them.

In Praise of Allen Levi

Two weeks left until school starts.

Summer has many great traditions and events. From outdoor movies (which sadly we did not partake of this year) to weekend getaways, our summers are filled with some great activities. Some are relatively new, like home school baseball on Thursday nights and some have been going on for years, like my sister and her kids' annual visit from D.C. to the old homestead. Last year a new summer tradition started which starts again today. Allen Levi will release a new song on his blog today (http://www.allenlevi.wordpress.com/) and continue to release a new song each day until Sunday. Yep 7 songs in 7 days. You can also link to the blog from his web site http://www.allenlevi.com/.

Now wait just a minute, you might be saying who is Allen Levi and what kind of music does he perform?

This video may begin to answer those questions.

I am not sure if I have posted about Allen before. I know I have periodically put up links to his website and blog before. I met Allen about 15 years ago when I was living in South Carolina. He performed concerts at the church I was attending 2 years in a row. He was in the early years of his transition from full time lawyer to full time singer.

Allen quickly became of my favorite musicians. He is a prolific song writer/story teller who at both of those concerts sang songs he had written only hours earlier. Unlike Bebo Norman who is featured with Allen in the above video, Allen has not become a Contemporary Christian Music star. I am not sure this was his intention.

A good # of Allen's concerts are played at Young Life (A Christian parachurch youth ministry) camps and training events. He also plays churches like the concert I saw him at. He also has performed at many more intimate venues. He told me once he even plays at birthday parties. I found this out first hand in 2004 when Amy flew him from Georgia to Illinois for my surprise 40th birthday party.

I reviewed all of the songs Allen played last August in preparation for this week. I thought I would link one up here to give you an idea of his music. The problem is they were all awesome and I had hard time deciding which one to choose. You can find them all by clicking here.

If I had to choose one I would choose Proposal (A Love Song). I chose this one because a) I like the premise of a proposal song following the advice Elisabeth Elliot's father had for her brothers: Never tell a girl you love her until you are ready to propose. and b) because I once told a girl I loved her in a song and then proposed in the same song. (She said "sure" btw.)

The indecision in picking 1 song is understandable as I vacillate easily when trying to determine which of Allen's songs is my favorite. Yesterday it was A Frazier Fir in Florida from that album I bought 15 years ago. Today it's back to Love to Give Away, a beautiful song about his singleness. I am sure after this week I will (and hopefully you too) will have some new gems to choose from.

I could probably go on and on about Allen, but instead I will let his music speak for himself. Not only is he my featured blog this week, he is also listed in my blog roll. Give him a listen, and a read, as his song explanations are often as poignant as the songs themselves. Who knows? maybe he will play at your surprise birthday party as well.

Next Time: A night at the races.

I forgot all about Amnesia

I was looking through some of my older writings as I wanted to share a poem I wrote about the transition from winter to spring when I lived in Russia.

I discovered some song lyrics I wrote a few years after that when I was attending seminary in Columbia, South Carolina.

I gave the lyrics to my friend who put them to music and performed the song at a chapel service. We had been studying the prophets in one of our classes, and I decided to write a song summarizing one of the theme's of the prophets the cycle of rebellion of Israel. In the second part of the song I transitioned from Old Testament Israel to modern day America. This was written and performed in 1996 so the references are dated.

Looking it over 14 years later, I am not quite sure how I feel about the song. Thought I'd give it a spin here.

Amnesia

Word by David Roller

Music by Jeff Six

Israel, oh Israel those who bear my name

Why do you act like other gods and I are just the same

Israel oh Israel what's it going to be?

What do I have to do before you'll turn to me?

You were my chosen people in my promised place

Made to be a blessing, you trampled on my grace.

Israel oh Israel I cry over you

Why do you keep forgetting what you're supposed to do

Israel oh Israel what's it going to be

What do I have to do before you'll turn to me?

Israel oh Israel I still wait for you

I am your God and Father worship what is true

Israel oh Israel it's time to make your choice

Serve your own desires or listen to my voice

Israel never returned, I sent them away

They serve as a witness, even to this day

America, America land of the free

Free to do just as you please, you walk away from me

America, America what's it going to be?

What do I have to do before you'll turn to me?

Did I give you freedom just to gain your wealth?

You were free to worship, you exalt yourself.

America, America, I cry over you

Why do you keep forgetting what you're supposed to do?

America, America what's it going to be?

What do I have to do before you'll turn to Me?

You've had riots and you've had wars but you would not turn

AIDS and Oklahoma City. Will you ever learn?

America, America, I still wait for you.

Remember your God and Father. Worship what is true.

America, America it's time to make your choice.

Serve your own desires or listen to My voice

Remember Israel!

Next Time: April Fool

I'm biking on purpose, for a purpose.

I love bicycling. Ever since I was a kid I have spent most of my free time bicycling. Our town's library was right across from our house and I used to spend hours biking around in it when the library was closed. When the library was open I would bike around town.


When I got into high school I became an even more avid cyclist. My youth group went on two cycling trips a year. We would bike 3-5 days riding 60 miles a day. In addition to that I would often bike 10-25 miles (one way) to visit various friends. Once I was there we would often go cycling.

When I graduated high school I volunteered for 3 years at my youth group and continued my biking frenzy. But in the past 22 years I have mostly rested on my biking laurels. I would occasionally go on a 30-40 mile trek but those treks became few and far between. When I moved to South Carolina in 1995 I went through great pains to bring my bike with me and then rode it a grand total of twice in 2 years. When I got married in 1998, I made great pains to make sure my bike fit into our apartments and rode it a grand total of zero times in three years.


Last year when I lost my job in July I started cycling again with some regularity. This year we made sure the whole family had working bikes. While the rest of the family has been doing most of their biking in a church parking lot on our block, I have been hitting the roads and bike trails of Kane and McHenry county. 10-15 miles at a time is now a grand accomplishment but I am finding that I still enjoy cycling as much as I did in those days of youth.


A little more than a month ago I was told by a facebook friend of mine about a bike ride that International Teams (IT) was putting together. IT is a missions organization that I was somewhat involved with back in the eighties. I say somewhat because my involvement was to train 3 months for a two year missions trip that I ended up not going on. My facebook friend trained with me and went on the missions trip. IT is very involved in sharing the Gospel in refugee camps throughout the world. They are really in the forefront of refugee ministry.


Their annual bike ride benefits refugees and refugee ministry and is aptly titled the RIDE FOR REFUGEES. The ride is being held in 3 countries over 2 continents. Bikers will ride 5-60 miles and will raise funds as well. The day I heard about the ride I had just completed my goal of biking over 100 miles this summer. Back in the day I would do that in the week, but 100 miles in 2 months is much better than zero miles in three years.




I decided I would do the ride this year. On October 3rd I am going to bike 30 miles which is 10 more than I've bike at one time in a decade. To prepare for the ride I've put on 100 more miles and have raised $260.00. My goal is $300 and anyone wanting to donate can contact me or donate on line by clicking HERE.


So to sum up, biking again after many long years away works, but making that biking count for others really works for me. To see what else is working head on over to WE ARE THAT FAMILY.





Next Time: Three Things Thursday.

Four Weddings and a Funeral Part II

My brother passed away earlier this year. He was not yet 39. He was the youngest boy and second youngest child. Yet he got married before either of his brothers.

Lynn (my brother's bride) had gotten a winter wedding dress on sale. Now a hint for you June Brides: Don't get a winter wedding dress! She looked lovely, even when she fainted during the wedding!

It was the last wedding my Grandpa Friedrichs would attend. Keith's middle name was Bertram just like my Grandpa's first name. I remember him dancing at the wedding and Amy and I driving my grandparents home after the wedding. My Grandpa passed away later that year.

I was finishing my second year of living in South Carolina when Keith got married. I came in for the wedding and also to land a job as I had decided that I was going to come back to Illinois and court Amy. I got the job, so after the wedding I went back to South Carolina for a few weeks to tie up loose ends before I started.

When Keith got married 3 of my grandparents were still living. They have all since passed. At the wedding I knew that their time was closing to an end. However I never expected that I would be eulogizing my brother in the same church he was married in less than 12 years later.

I wanted to write this post to commemorate Keith's anniversary back in June. I just couldn't find the words then. Even now the somberness of his death makes it hard to recount the great joy of his wedding.

I have sat for about 20 minutes since writing the last paragraph. Not with writers block, just going over in my mind the events preceding Keith's wedding and those following it. He and Lynn took a Disney Cruise for their Honeymoon. I remember what a great uncle Keith was to my children and how much he loved his own kids. Our families spent a lot of time together over the years. Kid's birthdays, scouting and church events, carnivals and cookouts. Tomorrow we will head over there for his daughter's sixth birthday party.

As much as I miss Keith, I continue to celebrate his wedding and his life by spending time with his family and reminding his children what a great Dad they had.



Next Time: Boys are from Idaho or Albuquerque

Wall of Glaze

Krispy Kreme Donuts, like many businesses in this economy, are encountering tumultuous times. In 1995 I encountered my first Krispy Kreme when I was living in South Carolina. It proved to be quite the haunt for the students at the Seminary I attended. Besides the yumalicious donuts, the most amazing thing about visiting a Krispy Kreme is watching the donuts being made. There is a giant assembly line that you watch through a window. The donut is cut and fried before your eyes and then it travels under a waterfall of glaze which I dubbed the "wall of glaze." In fact I began referring to Krispy Kreme itself as The Wall of Glaze (i.e., meet me at The Wall of Glaze at 4:30, k?)

A few months after my first Krispy Kreme experience I was driving around. As I was driving I was singing. When I sing I sometime sing songs I know and sometimes I just make up new ones. The ones I make up are usually "1 use" songs as I generally don't write them down or remember them. Sometimes a song comes to me that I especially like and I remember it. I liked this song because it describes the cycle of a romantic relationship and it centers that relationship at one place: The Wall of Glaze. Now, I don't sing well. The truth is that a song doesn't sound the same to others as it does to me. So when I want my lyrics turned into music, I just give them to music writers and let them come up with a tune. I gave these lyrics to my friend Jeff who gave it a Fifties sound and performed it as such at a seminary talent show. When I sang it that night in my car it had a more Bob Seger 70's a-m ballad feel to it. However you slice it (and most people usually don't slice donuts) here is the blog debut of The Wall of Glaze:

It was our first date
On a Friday night
She got a blueberry donut and a medium Sprite
She looked so good and I stood amazed
That I could lose my heart at the wall of glaze.

At the Krispy Kreme
At the Wall of Glaze
Just a memory of my younger days
Of how she looked so good
And how I stood amazed
That I could lose my heart
At The Wall of Glaze

End of senior year
Going separate ways
I was off to the army
Her to the college days
We promised to write every week
It would be like we never went away
How we cried and cried at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
At The Wall of Glaze
Just a memory of my younger days
Of how we promised to write every week
Like we never went away
But the tears fell like rain
At The Wall of Glaze

Well you know the story
Left a boy came back a man
And I wrote her in my letters
Things I still don't understand
Oh my love for her just grew and grew
I was longing for that day
When I'd ask for her hand at The Wall of Glaze

So on a Friday night
Got down on my knees
Put a ring on her finger
Said will you marry me please
She said I'm sorry
But you were just a passing phase
And she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
At The Wall of Glaze
It's the end of the story
Not the starting page
I put a ring on her finger
She said "Boy, you're just a phase"
And she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

Now I sit alone
On a Friday night
With a blueberry donut
And it don't feel right
I know I shouldn't be here
But I feel trapped in a cage
Since she broke my heart at The Wall of Glaze

At the Krispy Kreme
Called The Wall of Glaze
Just a memory
Of my younger days
I know I shouldn't be here
I feel trapped in a cage
since I lost my heart, since she broke my heart, now that we're apart
At The Wall of Glaze.

Next Time: The Goalie on the Bench.

Our Last Meal

THREE THINGS THIS THURSDAY

If you read Michelle's blog you know she's had a lot on her plate lately. So she has asked me to host 3TTT for the next few weeks and I have glady agreed. It's all in my long term goal of taking over the internet.

I thought we'd go into the not so way back machine today and give you some snippets from my No Junk Food June experience: You may first want to look at my post from yesterday to get some context.

1. 5/31/2009

Dropped my friend Marina off at the airport today. She came in from Russia for an Amway convention in Grand Rapids. I got her and some of her travelling companions to the airport so they can catch a bus. I had about a half hour to kill on my way to church, so I punched Taco Bell into the GPS and got a quick bite before service. Yes it was 10:30 in the morning, but this was my last shot at Taco Bell until July.

Tonight I took the kids to CiCis to use a coupon we got in the newspaper. Not sure if a pizza buffet counts as junk food or not. The multiple sugary sodas and desserts sure would qualify though. Indulging myself on this last day of fast food availability may not be the most prudent of decisions, we shall see.

2. 6/9/09

Dropped off Marina at the airport today. After her conference ended in Grand Rapids last week she and some other Russian tourists drove from Illinois to New York to see Niagara Falls. It must have been a National Lampoon's Vacation length stop because by Monday night she was back in Chicago where she stayed with our family. I took her to the airport where she was flying to Charleston, South Carolina to spend a few days.

She wasn't the only one doing any travelling, though. After we dropped her off at the airport, it was off to Springfield to spend a few days with our friend Matthew who is recovering from a minor surgery.

We actually have a bit of travelling we are doing this month. So I told the kids at the onset of No Junk Food that it does not pertain to them while travelling. Had a minor mishap when getting gas on the way to Springfield. I picked up a 20 oz Mountain Dew rather than it's diet equivalent. Didn't notice until I drank from the bottle a few miles down the road. Believe me if you haven't had sugary drinks for a while, you immediately know the difference! Charlie lucked out and I let him drink about 1/2 of it before throwing the rest away at our next stop which was Wendy's. Charlie and Emma had Bacon Cheeseburgers, Lucy had Chicken Nuggets, and I drank water (Amy had to work and was unable to make the trip if I hadn't mentioned this already).

When we got to Springfield, we visited with Matthew and then went swimming at our motel. We then took Matthew out for dinner at Golden Corral. I did get the buffet but drank water and did not get any desserts. Of the three temptations I had today, the temptation to hit the dessert buffet was much stronger than those to drink Mountain Dew or eat at Wendy's.

When we got back to the motel we swam for a while in their outdoor pool even though it was below 70 and raining. Tomorrow it's breakfast at Cracker Barrel then a visit with Matthew to the Lincoln Museum and then back home to the lovely Amy.

3. 6/15/09

Dropped off Marina at the airport today. We actually picked her up at 1 airport and then drove her to another. She had a great time in Charleston and flew from there on Saturday to St. Louis to visit our friends the Hendricks. She flew Southwest on Monday from St. Louis to Chicago, Southwest flies into Midway and she was flying back to Russia from O'Hare. So it was me and the kids picking her up at Midway, eating sandwiches while we waited for her luggage, and then seeing her off at O'hare. She certainly had a jam packed visit to the states and we were glad to spend sometime with her on her travels.

So that's three things for this Thursday. Before I bounce you back to Michelle, What is a trip to the Capitol of the Land of Lincoln without the man himself? The family caught up with him just outside of his Museum . . .

It's your turn now. Do you have three things that you would like to share? Recipes, ideas of what's brewing for Gilligan and company on Lost, or other random thoughts? Use Mr. Linky below and be sure to send Micheele an encouraging word and myself any creative constructive ideas as I host 3TTT for the next few weeks.

Next Time: The Wall of Glaze