Another brick...

Whoa! Has it been that long since I typed anything? Time sure flies - especially when life revolves around building a brick patio in your backyard. Yeah, it's home project time. Digging, setting stone and sand, then setting bricks. It will look great but, to be honest, it isn't fun. Very tedious if you want to do it right (which I do). I consider myself capable of home projects but some just aren't enjoyable. It will be done soon. If you check Mary's blog she will be having progress pictures. I'm about 1/3 through setting bricks now. But tonight I stop.



"all in all, its just another brick...in the ground"

Born to Wealth

Here is the first music video I ever made from 1985 - back in the days when I was young and stupid. You 'gotta love the 80's styles! For those who have heard of them, we were a lot like the 80's techno band, Missing Persons. Believe it or not, this video was high tech for the common man back in those days. Anyways, check it out for a good laugh. And yes, I did have a perm.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHyORf3dRTY

"put me in coach, I'm ready to play..."

So we played the other 8-1 team in our division that was tied for first place with us, the Bolingbrook Dodgers. We beat them by slaughter rule in the 5th inning, 11-1! The best complete game our team played. They stepped up to the challenge. Most notable was our exceptional defense. I think that if we play good 'D', we are unstoppable. We have the pitching and hitting. So now we have a 10 day break before the brutal stretch in June. It is much needed. We have some kids banged up. Oh yeah, that is another thing. It was classic with some of the hurt ones: "put me in coach, I'm ready to play" was a theme. Well, they all played. And all contributed to a great team effort. This is something that any coach of kids loves to see. It was fun.

9-1 and rolling!

Pokey Hokey

Apparently my You-Tube account doesn't have a direct link to this blog (even though it is supposed to). Anyway, here is one of the two music videos I promised. This one is from 2002 (I think). It is funny and I thought it came out pretty good. We recorded the song (along with others) the year before on a friend of mine's CD called Ready to Snap. Check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3P0NUbMHPM

The 1985 one is coming up - once I get it from VHS to digital. Stay tuned to that one! It is hilarious, if for nothing else but for the styles (very New Wave - Missing Persons-like).

Random Ramblings - 2

Our Romeoville Cubs win 3 in the last two days (8-1); D-Lee cranks a slam and the Chicago Cubs take the first two over the White Sox. Ahhh, a great day. Maybe a sweep today?

I'm working on singing Too Much (Dave Matthews) next weekend at CCC - that is going to be fun. Love singing his stuff - it is so random.

We are starting our summer project at home: a patio in the backyard. I actually 'dig' doing that stuff!

Did anyone who followed Survivor/Fiji like that finale? The guy who won, Earl, was my pick after around the 3rd or 4th episode - although it would have been awesome if the older guy, Yau Man, won. That dude was amazing. A lot of bitter people on that jury and a guy, Dreamz, that fit the Surivor credo on trying to win: lie and cheat your way there. A true low moment of the show but great for entertainment value. Which is what it is: entertainment (a game).

Also upcoming, if I can figure how the technology works to get it converted and uploaded to you-tube, is a link to a music video I was part of in 1985. Another was from around 2002. Stay tuned...

Little bugs can bring the big ones down

How do some of you keep up regularly with blogs? It has been a week. Well, I have actually been out of commission with a sinus infection I contracted on Friday morning. Today I think I am finally getting over it. I tried to function a couple of those days (one of them being Mom's day) but it was really getting ridiculous so yesterday I just had to stop everything and lay low at home. I think that helped. I got this thing from swimming the lap pool at Lifetime Fitness that Friday morning. The sneezing started not 10 minutes after I got out and it was downhill from there. I have been training to do a sprint triathlon for later this summer. Now, I don't know. The swimming has been a good train for me but I am going to be thinking twice about going in there again.

I haven't been sick like this in years. Funny how one can pride themselves on health and trying to do the right things and then, BAM!, along comes some little virus "bug" and everything gets turned around. I can at least be happy that this was battled with no drugs, all natural healing stuff. It has worked. Today I am about 85% and moving up!

Go Romeoville Cubs

5-0! Off to a good start for our baseball team. Our pitching is strong. I have made an observation though in the beginning of this season. The focus at this age (11-12) should not be about winning. That is always stressed in our league. It is about learning and having fun at the game. However, if you as a coach know that you have a group of kids that have good abilities you will win most of the time if all of the following happen:

1. Good sportsmanship: with each person on your team. You work together, no matter how good each kid is. We pick each other up. Good comradarie.
2. Keep your head in the game.
3. Play hard and to the best of your ability.
4. Have fun doing it.
5. Never put down another team's players.

If you do all those, winning will follow. I believe that is what is happening to us - at least so far. Even if your team isn't maybe the most awesome on the field, you will still have fun (rule #4).

Go Romeoville Cubs!

Snakes and Arrows

(Mary, you need not read any further!) :)

I still remember the day when I was 15 I think, when my friend Tom tells me to come over to his house. He picked up an album by this band that I had to hear. When I got there he plays the first song on side one. It was this band called Rush and the album was 2112. Admittedly the first few seconds weren't impressive with all the synth stuff in the beginning. Then the band kicked in and I was hooked!

The other day I just got the new album by them, Snakes and Arrows. Usually I have to listen a few times before I formulate an opinion. I did and this one is definitely a winner! HUGE improvement over the last one (Vapor Trails) and more in line with Test for Echo (one of my favorites). The production quality is much better. The best in a long time. Lyrically, it seems that Neil Peart has finally moved on from the tragedies in his life (losing a wife and daughter in separate incidents). It is definitely a more in depth view on how he sees the world today.

Musically what can one say? They are always great. I think Alex shines much more than he has in a while. He even moves on to some other styles that we don't normally hear from him. He does this acoustic guitar instrumental, Hope, that could almost fit on a soundtrack similar to "O Brother Where Art Thou"! However, the piece transistions nicely between the songs before and after. The one before, The Way the Wind Blows, is one of my favorites. The last song, We Hold On, is the best track on the CD - at least to me. They have 3 instrumenals! That is new for them even. Besides 'Hope' (awesome!), there is The Main Monkey Business (ok) and Malignant Narcissism (great! but say that title 10 times fast!). I think that the stronger tracks are in the middle and end of the CD. Far Cry is their first single and the first song on the CD- I think that one is starting to grow on me - I wasn't wowed the first couple times I heard it. Many of the tracks even venture towards a more bluesy sound. Haven't heard much of that in a while. I think that the only negative I have to say is that Geddy needs to get a little more creative with the vocal melodies. It isn't true on all the tracks, but many of them have predictable vocal lines that resemble many songs from the past few CDs.

However, over all, a very good CD. They do make many moves toward some kind of new direction and this one doesn't disappoint. One great thing about Rush is that they are never influenced to go in any direction. They take it where they feel it needs to go. I am very happy with it. Maybe not quite up there with some of the best (Moving Pictures, Hemispheres, 2112) but definitely up there on the list!

comments fixed

Doh! Blog darn it! I just found out that I had my 'comments' section set for logged in users only! It is now fixed and anyone can respond if they want to.

Pony League update

Hey our Romeoville Cubs Pony League team is now 2.5-0! Today we beat the Darien Astros 6-3 in a great pitching matchup. I think we will be 3-0 when we finish that suspended game from 8 days ago (we were up 14-2 in the 4th). It is great to finally be on a competitive team. We always seemed to end up on struggling teams in years past. Alec is close to ready to being back. He is chomping at the bit to play again. I am not rushing him with that ankle. Our schedule is still fairly light. Our next game isn't until Saturday and I'm still not sure about him going in that one. We need him for the brutal stretches right before Memorial Day weekend and especially in June (6 games in 8 days). Our strength is by far our pitching. We have 4 real good pitchers (Alec is one). We still have to work with our #5 and #6 pitchers just in case. They haven't been called upon yet, but in this game you never know.

Standings and scores are here: http://www.gdpba.org/standings.cfm. (We are Division 2's Romeoville Cubs in the Blue Division-North). Sometimes it takes a day or so for them to update. Incidentally, the team we were destroying in that suspended game is the Darien Giants - the other 'undefeated' team in our division!

Twist(er) of Fate

Here is a humorous note on that twister tale. Told my mom about that story (see the post right below this one). She then says to me "that is the second time in your life that has happened to you!". I vaguely remember it when I was five years old. There was a nasty twister that hit Oak Lawn in 1967. We lived in Bolingbrook at the time but she took me to a doctor appointment on 91st and Western in Chicago. I guess back then Southwest Highway was part of the route home. Somewhere along the route home she got into the wrong turning lane to get to Southwest Highway. So, instead she went straight and decided to visit her parents nearby on Damen. Well, at about that time, the nasty twister was moving right along Southwest Highway! People got killed from that one as well as Oak Lawn HS getting torn to shreds. She could never figure out what made her take that wrong turn - one she corectly made many times before and since!

I also remember the 1991 Lemont tornado. I saw that one from a distance. I then saw it spinning in the clouds above my head in Willowbrook (where I worked at the time).

Maybe it would be wise to check out some real estate in Oz...