One Dad's Life

"Kids Say the Darndest Things" Quote of the Day

While in the car last week, my wife, Dianne, was discussing the fact that she was a twin with one of our neighbor's kids.  My daughter, Rachel, had comments to make:

Neighbor's Kid (NK): You're a twin!?   Are you an identical twin?

Rachel: (excitedly piping in): NO!  My mom is not identical, she is a "turtle" twin!

Dianne: (not sure that she heard things correctly) A "turtle" twin?

Rachel: Yeah, that's right.  A "turtle" twin!

After some discussion, it would seem that what Rachel meant by "turtle" was "fraternal."   Apparently, she had heard the term "fraternal"  some time ago and remembered, although just a little off, all this time.

(Title is a nod to Art Linkletter's long running segment)

Photo of the Day - Once Upon a Tree

This is a picture of Pontius Pilate from our production of "Once Upon a Tree" this weeked.   A bit of trivia, the medalion he is wearing says "Caesar's Palace"   Go ahead and laugh, that is actually funny!

If you are reading this on Sunday, you still have time to come see the show.  Go down a couple of posts for details.  Showtime is 2:00PM at Christ Memorial Lutheran Church.  FREE seats are available! 

Address of the church is 5252 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in St. Louis.  It is the old target buidling next to Ronnie's Theater.

Photo credit: Larry

Once Upon a Tree (final update - I hope!)

Thankfully, we did not get the freezing rain in the area that was forecast so I can say with great gladness that "Once Upon a Tree" is ON!   That's right.  All systems are a "go."   

This means three more days of frenzied activity for our cast and crew and a fabulous musical of the Easter Story for the rest of St. Louis!

Come and see it!  I'm not going to tell you again.   Scroll down a couple of posts for the details.   Full orchestra and choir, tickets are $7.50, $5.00, and FREE - yes, FREE!  How much better can you get?

Times are 7:30 tonight (Friday), 7:30 on Saturday, and 2:00 on Sunday.  Now, it's time for me to go.  Come say "hi" if you come.  I'll be the guy mixing the orchestra, choir and soloists.  Ask for Gregg!

Once Upon a Tree update

The performance of "Once Upon a Tree" has been canceled for this evening (Thursday).  This was a difficult decision to make, but in the end the weather (and roads!) do not seem to be improving, and with over a hundred people involved in the production, it seemed likely that some percentage would not make the show.

Based on the weather, and the desire to only deliver a top notch performance and production (requiring full cast, orchestra and crew!), we have canceled Thursday's show.  Tickets for Thursday's performance will be exchanged for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday's performance.  Check this space, or the show's website (in previous post) for any updates.

Once Upon a Tree

My whole family is just a bit swamped this week, putting the finishing touches on our church's spring production.   This is a reprise, with revisions, from last Easter season.  Both of my daughters are acting in the production, my wife is the producer, and I am doing tech stuff and mixing the orchestra and singers for the shows.

There is a full orchestra, plus choir and actors for this production.  Come and see it, you'll be glad you did!  Tickets are 7.50, 5.00 and there is even a large FREE seating area!  Don't miss it.  BTW, despite the ad mentioning a "Holy Week Drama", it doesn't actually take place during Holy Week...it is this week.   

Chills

People who know me know that I have a virtually insatiable appetite for new music.  Both music that is new to the world (new release Tuesday is one of my favorite days) or just new to me.   Now and then, though, when I listen to older music, I just get chills for certain songs. 

Sometimes these are songs that were overplayed on the radio, sometimes these are completely unknown songs.

I'm having one of those moments right at this time...triggering an unprecedented two posts within a couple of hours!  The album I'm listening to is "Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland."   I just got to the end of the album where there is the back-to-back juggernaut of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and " Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."   

Chills.

Jimi Hendrix is one of those amazing musicians I wish was still alive and creating music.  He commonly played in a club in New York until early morning and then went directly to a recording studio since he would just be exploding with new ideas to try.  Can you imagine what he'd have accomplished had he lived through the 60's? 

Anyway, I've got to go.  There are chills to attend to.

War and Peace

So, I started reading War and Peace a couple of days ago.  (Yeah, I know, it's been on my list for a while!)

In any case, famous books often have famous first lines, or paragraphs.  For those that don't know, War and Peace was originally written in Russian by Tolstoy.  The reason it was written in Russian is because Tolstoy is Russian.  This makes sense, even to me.   I'm reading a new English translation.  It's the edition listed to the right.   I assumed the famous first lines would therefor be in English, or at worst, Russian.

I was wrong.

The first paragraph is in FRENCH!   So, in case you are keeping score, I am reading a Russian book, translated to English, that has a large amount of FRENCH in it.  A large amount.  Like, a lot of the dialog.

I don't know French.  Fortunately, there are translations at the bottom of the pages.  In fact, some percentage of the French makes sense because I know bits and pieces of Spanish and there is some similarity.  This is not good enough, though, so today I purchased a French-English dictionary.

You know, in case the translation doesn't do it justice.  That's just the way I am.

The book, however, is incredible.  I've read just 15 pages, and I'm hooked.  Tolstoy was a genius.  I can already tell this book is worth its place at the top of the literary heap.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This past weekend, our daughter's school held a Valentines Dance.  I didn't go.  If you've read "A Dad's Dream Come True: Part 1" you'll know that I didn't particularly miss this event.   I know that some of you will say that I will miss these events once the kids are grown up, but I don't think so.

However, I will miss the little arts and crafts projects the kids make that they totally pour their hearts into and when they give them to you, it means more than any amount of money spent on a store-bought gift. 

My youngest daughter created the two hearts displayed in this photo at the dance.  She is six years old. I'm told she spent a large amount of time working on these two hearts and I believe it.  She is the kind of kid that thinks carefully about any art project she creates.  There is a reason for everything she does.  However, she shows a degree of maturity in that if the exact perfect thing she is looking for isn't available, she'll change her plans and make the most of the available resources.

One morning she came jumping into our bedroom and was SO excited about these hearts.  One was for us, and one was for herself, or someone else.  I don't remember all the details.   However, she wanted to display the heart in a prominent spot.   She pulled out a bench and climbed to the top of our dresser.  Looking for a way to hold up the hearts, she couldn't quite find what she was looking for and so improvised, propping one of the hearts up against a decorative bottle we have.

She also explained why she designed each heart the way she did.  Again, I don't remember the details, only that she put so much thought into each project.

I think this shows a little bit of what she's going to be like when she is grown up.  Maybe I won't have to miss this when she is grown!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

There's a New Website in Town!

There is a brand new website, just three days old, called Blessings Galore.

This website has different types of blessings for each day of the week.  The best part is that YOU can submit your own!  That's right, instead of just leaving a comment, you can send pictures and the whole post content to the author and have your post included.

The whole point is to bring focus to the amazing blessings we receive each day - rather than what we wish was "better!"

Wednesday's topic is called "Wednesday's Wonders" and is geared towards photos of the wonders God has given us.  I submitted a photo from a trip to India I took a little while back.

Check it out! Click the link above, or in my list on the left.

Photo of the Day: Grandma and Granddaughter

This is a shot of my Mom and my oldest daughter, Rebecca, at my nephew's birthday.

All together now......"Awwwwwww."

Yep.  They are snuggling! 

Rebecca, of course, has her nose in a book.  This one is a Mercedes Lackey book that my wife gave her to read.   Rebecca is always reading.  Tonight when I picked her up from a dance class, she was even trying to read in the car.   It was very dark.

Of course, this is how I was at her age, too, so maybe it's genetic!