Thursday, August 12, 2010

Recovering from a Birthday....

So yesterday was my birthday. It was my number swap birthday, where the digits in my age are the opposite of my birth year.

My parents came down and even though it was really hot we went to the Racine Zoo to try and see the new Lion Cubs. They were smarter than us, sleeping in the shade inside their den.

For dinner we went to Olde Madrid for Tapas and Paella where my wife and I went for Valentine's Day in 2009. This time we tried the Gazpacho, Seville Crab Cakes, Roasted Chicken and Cherries, Almond Crusted Cod, Empanadas, Baked Goat Cheese, Spanish Meatballs, Don Quixote Paella "A legendary combination of garlic, sautéed chicken, and pork tenderloin, baked in a garlic lemon broth." We ended with the Plantana al Carmaleo "Sautéed banana with caramel sauce and ice cream."

I have not been that full in a long time :)

Today I got up early and checked the Weather Channel, more hot and muggy weather all week so went out started mowing the lawn **again**. I wish it would quit raining so the grass would go to sleep! I have two cordless electric lawnmowers which are nice and quiet but one of them stopped working - the ignition switch broke so it's a trip to the repair shop. But that's not the worst thing! "Me Ole Bamboo" from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang got stuck in my head! So here it is because the best way to get rid of an "Ear Worm" is to share it!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Caravan by Juan Tizol

One of the number we are playing at Thursday's nights Shorewood Concert Band concert is Juan Tizol's Caravan.
Here he is with the Duke Ellington Orchestra taking the solo on his valve Trombone:

"Big Band Salute"

This Thursday is the fourth and final free concert of the year for the Shorewood Concert Band.
7 pm in Atwater Park, where Capital Drive meets Lake Drive in Shorewood Wisconsin!

"The Shorewood Concert Band Presents: Big Band Salute" will feature these numbers and possibly some surprises:

Welcome March
High Society
La Virgen De La Macarena
Boogie-Woogie Band
L’Inglesina
Waltzes from Sari
Elmer Bernstein’s Jazz Selections
Progress March
Ballin’ The Jack
Caravan

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

A Star Spangled Band

The third concert of the 2009 Season is coming tomorrow July 4th at 6:30 pm at Atwater Park.

National Emblem - EE Bagley
You're A Grand Old Flag - George M Cohan
Bucky Badger - arranged by Wayne Becker
This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
I Am The Guard - Arthur Fields
The Star and Stripes Forever - John Philip Sousa
Washington Grays - Claudio S Grafulla
Independentia - RB Hall
Semper Fidelis - John Philip Sousa
Armed Forces - The Pride of Americ - arranged by Larry Clark & Greg Gilpan
Beer Barrel Polka - L. Brown, WA Timm, V Zeman and J Vejvoda

Our last concert of the year will be Thursday July 15th at 7 pm.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Shorewood Concert Band - second concert tomorrow night!

Tomorrow Night June 24th, 2010!
7 pm!!
Atwater Park, Shorewood Wisconsin!!!
Free!!!!

"The Shorewood Concert Band Presents: Movie Magic" will feature these numbers and possibly some surprises:
Noble Men - Henry Fillmore
Ewok Celebration - John Williams
Highlights from South Pacific - Richard Rodgers
I've Made My Plans for the Summer - John Philip Sousa
Highlights from The Pink Panther - Hanry Mancini
Under The Double Eagle - JF Wagner
Hollywood Serenade - Albert Oliver Davis

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Shorewood Concert Band - First concert this Saturday!

It's time to kick of the 2010 Shorewood Concert Band Season this Saturday at 12:30 pm in Atwater Park in Shorewood Wisconsin.

"The Shorewood Concert Band On Broadway" will feature these numbers and possibly some surprises:
"Highlights from West Side Story" Leonard Bernstein; arr. Ted Ingram
"Manhattan Beach" John Philip Sousa
"Danny" Edwin Franko Goldman; arr. Erik Leidzen
"Rubber Ducky" Jeffrey Moss; arr. Paul Yoder
"Colonel Bogey" Kenneth J. Alford
"The Phantom of the Opera Medley" Andrew Lloyd Weber; arr. Jonnie Vinson
"Brighton Beach" William P. Latham
"The Klaxon" Henry Fillmore; arr. Frederick Fennell
"Die Fledermaus" Johann Strauss; arr. Charles Carter
"The Hustle" Van McCoy; arr. Andrew Balent
"A Festival Prelude" Alfred Reed

Order and pieces might change depending on instrumentation of the band.
In case of inclement weather the concerts will be cancelled - although the Shorewood Men's Club Chicken Bar-B-Que will continue so please still stop by and pick some up!

Hope to see you there!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Shorewood Concert Band 2010 Schedule

It's summer so once again it's time for the Shorewood Concert Band!

This all-volunteer band plays a series of four concerts in June and July in Atwater Park in Shorewood, Wisconsin.

2010 marks our 30th year!

This year's concerts:
Saturday June 12th 12:30 pm <- note new time, we are starting this year's entertainment for Shorewwod Men's Club Chicken BBQ
Thursday June 24th 7:00 pm
Sunday July 4th 6:30 pm
Thursday July 15th 7:00 pm

If you would like to join the band please email me - shorewoodcncrtband [AT] sbcglobal.net.
We have 4 practices, June 10, June 17, July 1 and July 8 from 7pm to 9pm in one of the school district's band rooms.
You are welcome to play even if you can only make it for some of the concerts.

Monday, March 29, 2010

It's Kitten Season!

A quick foster kitten update:

Rosamunde who we had living in our bedroom for over a year is no longer with us.
She had gotten *very* attached to me, meowing constantly as soon as I walked in the door from work.
Trish, another Kindred Kitties volunteer was in the same situation with Little Bear and Oochie Smoochie, 2 girls that were adopted but were returned because they were so shy.
We swapped cats and after a week and a half the girls are coming out from under the bed and will allow us to pet them little, but it will be several more weeks of socialization before we try to adopt them out again.

Walker is an 8 year old cat who was hanging out on Milwaukee's East Side after having been dumped. He was very skinny but is very friendly. He has some dental problems and will require special care in the future so we might have him long-term. He is staying in our Computer Room, but does come out and mingles with our 5 permanent cats for a couple of hours at a time.

Banu (Perisan for Princess) was found in a parking structure on 3 Mile Road in Racine and was picked up by a nice woman and dropped off with us. A Silver Tabby she was at our house only a couple of days before moving to another foster's. She was adopted from Petco two weeks later!

Tonight we are getting four new 8 week old kittens who will be in a kitty kondo until we determine they are all healthy and we go up for adoption in a month or so.
Time to pick more names.....

Pictures to follow!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

2009 Book List Part 2

Here are the audiobooks I listened to in 2009:

The Sword of Truth Book 10: Phantom
The Sword of Truth Book 11: Confessor
Pontoon (Lake Wobegon Novels)
Service With a Smile (A Blandings story) - PG Wodehouse
"A" is for Alibi
"B" is for Burglar
"C" is for Corpse
"D" is for Deadbeat
"E" is for Evidence
"F" is for Fugitive
"G" is for Gumshoe
"H" is for Homicide
Anansi Boys
Catch Me If You Can
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Anglo Files - A Field Guide to the British
Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution
Wikipedia Revolution, The: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
The Monkey's Raincoat
Three Cups of Tea - One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time
Calendar Quest, A 5,000 Year Trek through Western History with Father Time
Orbit

I'll remember this year as the year I discovered non-fiction on audio disc.
After several years of long-format fantasy, [The Wheel of Time (well worth a listen), the Magic Kingdom of Landover (a classic comedy fantasy series) and The Sword of Truth (some interesting ideas but there were long parts of books 6 and on that I was bored stiff during)] I wanted a change. I dabbled in thriller/mysteries - the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series, The Monkey's Raincoat and also in Sci Fi - Orbit, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but for some reason the non-fiction portions of my library's web page kept calling me, and I'm glad I answered.

Non-fiction Highlights for the year:
Patriot Pirates about the war at sea during the American Revolution
The Wikipedia Revolution about the founding of Wikipedia
Three Cups of Tea, the story of a mountain climber and how he created a foundation to build girl's schools in Afghanistan and Iraq.
XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX - the audio book I finished today so I won't talk about it until next year's round-up

Fiction highlight of the year:
Anansi Boys a book by Neil Gaiman, read by Lenny Henry of Chef

Friday, January 1, 2010

2009 Book List Part 1

So last Jan 1st, 2008 I decided to keep track of all the books I read or listened to using my LibraryThing profile. You can see the 2008 list here.

The big news this year on my reading situation was the arrival of my Kindle DX in June.

Books I have finished in 2009:
Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep Book 1: Blackstaff Tower
Ed Greenwood Presents Waterdeep Book 2: Mistshore
The Citadels Book 4: Sentinelspire
The Dark Disciple Book 3: Amber and Blood
Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons
Adventurer's Vault
The Empryean Odyssey Book 2: The Fractured Sky
Small Gods [library]
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 1 [library]
Opening Atlantis [library]
Dragon Magic
The Immortal Iron Fist, Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story [library]
Abolethic Sovereignty Book 1: Plague of Spells
The United States of Atlantis [library]
The Lanternlight Files Book 1: The Left Hand of Death
Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, Vol. 3 [library]
Ravenloft: Shadowborn
The Haunted Lands Book 3: Unholy
Thorn of Breland Book 01: The Queen of Stone
Martial Power
Cairo, A Graphic Novel [library]
The Complete Persepolis [library]
Flight Volume 5 [library]
The Savage Sword Of Conan, Vol. 5
Kong, King of Skull Island
The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island
Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead
Dungeon Delve
The Making of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited
Grantsville Gazette II
1634: The Ram Rebellion
Ruled Britannia
The Wilds Book 01: The Fanged Crown
Red Sands
Player's Handbook 2
The Little Nugget
Book: The Sequel
Bill The Conqueror
Money In The Bank
***June 15th Kindle DX arrived***
The Adventures of Sally [Kindle]
1632 [Kindle]
1633 [Kindle]
The Ring of Fire [Kindle]
Grantsville Gazette I [Kindle]
The Clicking of Cuthbert [Kindle]
For Love of Mother-Not [Kindle]
Pride and Prejudice [Kindle]
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem[Kindle]
A Princess of Mars [Kindle]
The Gods of Mars [Kindle]
The Warlord of Mars [Kindle]
Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom [Kindle]
Thuvia, Maid of Mars [Kindle]
The Chessmen of Mars [Kindle]
Eberron Player's Guide
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [Kindle]
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe [Kindle]
Life, the Universe and Everything [Kindle]
The Briar King [Kindle]
The Charnel Prince [Kindle]
The Blood Knight [Kindle]
Monster Manual 2
The Lost Symbol [Kindle]
Divine Power
The Savage Sword Of Conan, Vol. 6
Revenge of the Giants
The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) [Kindle]
Thorn of Breland Book 2: Son of Khyber
Wheel of Time Book 12: The Gathering Storm
Barmy In Wonderland
The Draconic Prophecies Book 1: Storm Dragon
The Draconic Prophecies Book 2: Dragon Forge
City of Ember
The Fall of Highwatch
Urusei Yatsura Volumes 1-15
Arcane Power
Eberron Campaign Guide
The Plane Below: Secrets of the Elemental Chaos
James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora - An Activist Survival Guide - finished Dec 31st.

Just like last year, a lot of fantasy, D&D books and graphic novels.
But new this year were some classics - Jane Austin, more Sci Fi - Alan Dean Foster, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Douglas Adams, and some mainstream fiction - Dan Brown, James Patterson, JK Rowling.

This year's new to me PG Wodehouse's novel was "Barmy In Wonderland".

Highlights for the year were "Book: The Sequel", "Pride and Prejudice", "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", and "The Gathering Storm" - Book 12 in the Wheel of Time and the first published since Robert Jordan's death which Brandon Sanderson helped finish.

Most Disappointing goes to Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" which is very similar to the other books and since it takes place in Washington DC and deals with the Free Masons felt an awful lot like the novelization of the movie "National Treasure 3".

Looking at the list today I noticed I have stopped going to the library since June. I can check out audio books through my library website and I have a NetFlix subscription so I'm not going for movies or TV shows. Since Amazon offers 10-15 free books every month for download to the Kindle I am getting eBooks faster than I can read them.

My 2009 audio book list tomorrow!