A big “Thanks” goes out to J, K, and K for such a wonderful weekend, and another “Thanks a Million” to an awesome sister.

It started off with my trip to Dallas to see my Brother, Sister (-in-law), and Niece for a weekend full of fun and family. We went to the park, to Downtown McKinney, to Downtown Dallas, and to a few other various places around town.

Once I got home, I adopted Brutus.

I took Red for many, many excursions around town.

I went camping in June, July, and September, each time at a different Illinois State Park.

I celebrated the birthdays of a few friends.

I went to Chicago a couple of times and Indianapolis once.

I helped J & J repaint the inside of their home.

I started rehearsing with the Philharmonic Chorale again.

Somewhere in there I found time to relandscape an area at the front of my house, but seriously only mowed the lawn about 6 times over the 3 months of summer.

This was probably one of the most exciting summers I’ve had in a REALLY long time, and I loved it. It was fun to be able to see so many friends and relatives in various places. However, I’m also glad that the majority of my travels have come to an end for a few months. There are a few day- and weeekend-trips planned, but nothing too major.

Along with being in town a bit more, I think I might have a bit more time to blog. I am going to try to blog once a week for a while, and then hopefully I can get back to a higher frequency.

Acquaintance: hey there! R u open to making some xtra cash?
Me: That depends. Momma always taught me not to kill people…
A: Lol so much for the fun part! seriously thought r ya interested n the idea?
M: I don’t know yet – what are you proposing?
A: Near a computer?

And that’s where I knew it was going south.

There are quite a few things wrong with the above conversation, and even more-so with the rest of our little chat. First, I hate “txt short-hand”. HATE-HATE-HATE it! Second, I despise leading questions. The one and only reason I began to entertain the conversation is that I am often asked to help people fix their computer problems and I am often offered cash for the help that I provide (although it’s nearly always refused). Thirdly, I am offended by the inference that I might possibly be interested in a Multi-level Marketing “arrangement”. Do I really look that stupid? (hold your tongue, Champ.)

So if that wasn’t offensive enough, it had to come from someone that I really don’t know all that well, which means that this person doesn’t know ME all that well, either. It’s awful to think that someone would pose as a friend and yet want me to get sucked in to something so miserable as an MLM. No friggin’ way!

I’m not going to list any names of companies that are related to this particular scheme, but a very quick, very brief Google search showed me everything that I would have assumed – the company in question has changed names a ga-jillion times to avoid “anti-pyramid scheme” lawsuits, and yet still claims to be wholesome and helpful to those involved. As if that’s not bad enough, the branch of their scheme that has made its way to me flies under the banner of being “Christian”. Awesome. Prey upon the people that put a huge amount of trust into people that claim to be of similar faith and values. Awesome.

While I’m not trying to be offensive to the person that approached me, please note that I am not interested in any MLM arrangement, nor will I ever entertain the idea of participating in such. I hope that those that instigate these stupid things come to a realization of their mistakes before they approach the Pearly Gates.

A couple of friends of mine wanted to go to Chicago to see their Chinese New Year celebration. One of the guys is from Taiwan, and even though it’s not technically China, he seems to be involved in a large portion of that culture anyway.

Since we were going to make the trek to the big city, we decided to make a whole weekend out of it. And since the New Year parade wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, there was plenty of time for us to fill.

We left town on Saturday morning and drove up to Aurora, which is about an hour west of downtown Chicago. There is a gianormous outlet mall there, so we capitalized on the opportunity to get expensive products (mostly clothing) at largely discounted prices. It was quite interesting, though – some stores would have everything marked down with an additional 60-70% off the lowest price on the tag. But then there were name-brand places, like Sony, Nike, and Adidas to name a few, that only had a small selection of clearance items, with everything else marked at a normal (expensive) price. Anyway, I found enough bargains to keep me satisfied and enjoyed all of the people-watching that I was able to do. And when I say there was plenty of people-watching, I mean that there were TONS of interesting things to see and joke about. People are REALLY weird…

We were supposed to only be at the mall for a couple of hours, but that didn’t happen. We got there just before Noon and didn’t end up leaving until about 5pm. From the mall, we raced into downtown to check in to our hotel, but really got stuck in some nasty traffic. We started to get concerned – checking in to a hotel after 6pm is considered “late,” and some hotels will go ahead and give your room to someone else if you don’t make special effort to have them hold onto it for you. PLUS, we had somewhere to be at 8 and need to clean up and eat dinner beforehand.

Needless to say, we eventually made it to the hotel, the Westin Chicago River North (Amazing!), got checked in extremely quickly (Thank you, online reservations!), did a quick costume change, and headed into the Theater district, to the Bank of America Theater, to be exact. We scored discounted tickets to see “Jersey Boys,” an Off-Broadway production that tells the story of the band The Four Seasons.

I could probably post an ENTIRE blog (not just a post, but a whole blog) about this show. It was simply amazing. I want to point out some of the highlights, though, and I will preface my comments by saying that I was extremely disappointed and the way-too-frequent use of the “F-bomb”.

The BOA Theater is a classic-style theater in an old, old building. It’s extremely gilt, with ornate reliefs and woodwork all throughout the theater. The room itself is about 1.5 times taller than it is wide or deep, so it felt like we were sitting on top of the people in front of us. While this helps to ensure that there aren’t any heads blocking your view, it means that the top row(s) of the top balcony are WAY up there. As this is where our cheap seats were located, I was concerned that I might get a nose-bleed. Even though we were in the way-back, I thought that my view/seat was absolutely stellar.

The set design was impeccable. It was very versatile in the ways that they were able to use the same main set to create every scene. With only minor furniture-type items being move on and off set, they were able to create a street corner, a stage, a television studio, a recording studio, a bar/nightclub, an apartment,… and without much verbal explanation it was easily possible to know what the setting was. The ways that they used lights and shadows was dumbfounding. One in particular was a type of background they used a few times – there were two versions, but it was basically the silhouette of a cityscape with an ever-changing sunset illuminating it from behind. But it didn’t look tacky – it REALLY looked like a progressing sunset. Amazing.

I can’t say that I expected anything short of awesome in the acting department, but they definitely didn’t disappoint. These people are professional stage performers, so I anticipated that they would be one-cue and in-character throughout the show, and they were. While I am not familiar with the current line-up of Broadway performers, it seemed like the casting was perfect. The parts were very well done.

The music was extraordinary. There was a live pit, but they weren’t always in a “pit” – they were part of the show at various times, so they were as much of the cast as any others. And when I say the music was amazing, I am 100% including the vocals. I caught the lead off-pitch once. Once. In the whole show. It was a 2.5 hour-long show. Amazing. The Four Seasons was similar to a boy-band in the sense that they performed with four-part harmonies in a large majority of their songs. On stage, these were incredible. You may be familiar with some of their songs – “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”, and the list goes on and on. If you can recall any of these, you may note that the lead singer had a very high-pitched, very distinct voice. Well, the lead on stage was just as distinct and absolutely awesome. His range was out of this world, and it didn’t come across as hokey or “faked” in any way. The other singers were just as amazing, though, and I don’t want to down-play their performances in any way… but the lead really did make the show.

One of my friends grew up with this music, and at intermission he was telling me about how he can remember hearing some of the songs played on the radio as “new” while he sat and talked with his sisters at home when he was in high school. Yes, that dates him rather accurately, but that made the show even better in his eyes. I was SO incredibly glad that I had the chance to see the show – I hesitated when it was first proposed as part of our trip, mainly because I had never heard of it, but I can’t imagine passing it up now that I know how awesome it is. I still cringe when I think about the foul language, but yeah… Wow. Amazing.

Now, the rest of the trip was just as fun, but it really wasn’t as exciting as the first part. We did a LOT of window shopping through various parts of the city, we went to an Asian food market (oh – my – gosh – there is some WEIRD food out there…), we sat and talked for hours over meals, etc. Oh yeah, and there was also the Chinese New Year parade – the whole reason for the trip!

One of the aforementioned meals went a bit long, and then we had to wait for the train, and then we had to walk to the parade route… and so we actually only saw the last minute or two of the parade. We were all a bit disappointed, but by the time we actually got there we knew that we weren’t going to see much. So, since we were in Chinatown, we went ahead and perused that part of the city. This meant more people watching for me, and I did go ahead and snap a few pictures as well. Peoria doesn’t exactly have a lot of Asian-inspired architecture, so I was fascinated by some of the buildings. I’m sure there are more ornate and intricate buildings in Asia itself, but I still enjoyed looking at it.

I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned this before (and it will surely become its own post if it’s not here already…), but I really, really enjoy good conversation. This trip was jam-packed full of good conversation, so there wasn’t really a chance for me to get bored or for me to want to come home. I had an amazing time throughout the weekend, and I’m so glad that I have friends that I don’t get tired of talking to. Thanks a million, guys!

I’ve recently had a few in-depth discussions with friends about various aspects of music, and so it made me stop and wonder – why do I listen to music?

I listen to music for different reasons at different times. In the car, I listen to music to be entertained while I drive or sometimes to release some extra stress after a long day (or morning over my lunch break). At home, I sometimes listen to music to occupy my mind while I clean or otherwise work around the house. Other times, I listen to music to experience new sounds and thoughts and for sheer enjoyment. At work, I often listen to music to keep myself motivated.

On top of that, I typically listen to music for the musical part of it. One of my friends tends to listen to music for the words so she can memorize them and sing along. Another friend tends to listen to mostly instrumental music because he gets distracted by the lyrics. I like to listen to music to see how all of the sounds come together to make the song. Sometimes I’ll play a certain type of music to relax or chill out. Other times I’ll put on some “heavy” music to blow off some steam. Sometimes I’ll listen to dance-type music to enjoy the beat, and other times I’ll listen to something that is more vocal-centric to appreciate the amazing talents that are out there.

There are times when I will re-listen to a CD ten times in one day, each time finding different nuances within each song. This sometimes makes be enjoy the music more than I did before, and other times it can be disappointing. I’ve found many CDs that end up being quite lame when it comes to complexity and musicality. There are some discs that have been great “sellers” on the market, but really lack in many aspects.

I don’t consider myself to be a music snob, however. I will sit through songs from all genres and from all artists, and then, perhaps after hearing it a time or two, I will form an opinion about the song. Some things are difficult for me to tolerate – excessive vulgarity (as found in most rap music) and an emphasis on the “twang” of country music can both be difficult to sit through, but there are rap songs and country songs that I really enjoy. I like classical, new age, techno/electronica/dance, rock, heavy metal, soft rock, indie, emo, oldies, classic rock, opera, show tunes, chamber, orchestral, a capella, folk, and pop, with a little bit of country sprinkled around the edges. There is SO much good music out there that I can’t seem to get enough of it.

I’ve shared my ever-growing love for Pandora Radio with many of my friends, although I wonder how many of them have actually checked it out for themselves. Pandora allows you to create your own internet-based radio station(s), based on your musical tastes, for free. You can create an account and then enter the name of a song or an artist that suits your fancy at that particular moment. Pandora will then begin to play songs that are similar, in some way, to the song or artist that you first entered. As it plays, you have the ability to “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” the song, which helps your radio station become “tuned in” to the stuff that you really like to hear. You can also add additional references to a station, either to make it more selective or varied. Then, once you’ve created a station you like, you can allow it to play from your computer while you sit at your desk, work around the house, or where ever you listen to music from a computer. They have also created means by which to play your stations from many cell phones and have worked with some manufactures to create home stereo components that allow your music to stream through your in-place hi-fi setup. It is really one of the neatest things I’ve ever seen. Now if they would just finish the application for the Blackberry so I can listen on-the-go…

That’s more than enough of my babbling. It’s your turn to reply. Why do YOU listen to music? How do you listen to music? Where do you do it? What do you enjoy the most about music? (C’mon, peeps – don’t make me beat it out of you )

Christmas has always  been family time for me. There have only been two Christmas days that I didn’t get to spend with my parents and most of my siblings. However, as we’ve all grown older, our “typical” celebration has evolved a bit. On Christmas Eve, we have a candle-lit lasagna dinner that my mom always pulls off impeccably. This meal is preceded and followed with chit-chat, laughter, games, and nacho dip. Us boys rally around the crock pot to prepare our post-lasagna feast with excitement and then settle in for the evening with a bag of chips and many bowls of dip. Christmas morning used to be VERY early, but now we casually have a delicious breakfast of Mom’s homemade biscuits and gravy and the most amazing cinamon rolls in the world. After we’re filled to the brim, we move on to the presents and more laughter/chit chat. The rest of Christmas day is very relaxed – if there are friends to visit, we split off to make our rounds; if there is extended family in town, they may stop by for a visit; otherwise, we just sit around in our PJs all day and do whatever the heck we want.

This year, for me at least, had a few new twists. While I would normally just spend the night at Mom and Dad’s on Christmas Eve, I decided to attend a Christmas Eve worship service with some friends, one of which was singing as part of the service. This program began at the early hour of 11pm and lasted until about midnight. While it was VERY different that the types of services that I normally attend, it was very neat to participate in that type of formal activity on Christmas Eve. Instead of just being lazy and having fun with my siblings, I was focusing on a different meaning of the holiday. But that wasn’t the part that was the most profound. Aside from my family, there are a handful of people that may as well be adopted into my family, as far as I’m concerned. But since they “have their own families”, or some other such nonsense, I don’t normally get to actually SHARE these holidays with them. Well, three of these folks were in attendance at this service, and I got to ring in the first few minutes of Christmas with them. I didn’t realize how much I would deeply enjoy that experience, and I would never have anticipated it, but I truly enjoyed being able to lean over to some of my closest friends and just say “Merry Christmas.” It was really special.

And while that was even a bit sappy for my taste, there was still one more heart-warming event that fits right in. First, some history: I have never really known my dad to have “friends”. He doesn’t “hang out” with anyone other than family, he doesn’t go to the ball games or bars or clubs, and, heck, he doesn’t even go out very frequently with Mom. He goes to work, wears himself out entirely, and then comes home and relaxes for the evening. This evening, though, his side of the family was over for our typical extended family feast, and then he all-of-a-sudden had to leave to “go pick up a friend”. But that’s all that was said as he walked out the door. About an hour later, well after the food had been consumed, I cornered Mom and asked her where Dad had really gone. She then quietly explained that Dad had received a phone call from an old friend from grade school who was having a tough time. He was recently released from jail, but had no place to go on the day after Christmas. He was in downtown Peoria and had nothing. At all. On the day after Christmas. So, without hesitation, Dad had left to go get this guy to bring him into OUR place for heat, warm food, and celebration. I was absolutely impressed at the way that Dad brought the guy into his home, introduced him to everyone, fixed him a plate of food, and then made absolutely certain that the guy felt welcome and loved by all. I’ve never, ever, witnessed that type of outreach, and it has really left an impression on me.

Now that I’ve rambled on and on waaay more than intended, I’ll stop. But, I’ll always remember how much better Christmas is when it is shared. I’ve always made it a point to spend it with family, but, while I don’t want that part to change, I want to be sure to share it with as many people as possible. I have been given SOO much and have enjoyed that for myself – it’s my turn to share.

We live about 3.5 hours from Six Flags, so we don’t get there too frequently. It’s probably been three years since I had been there, so I was pretty excited to go back.

In the fall, most theme parks are only open on the weekend, and this park was no exception. So, instead of going up on Halloween itself, we ended up going on the day after.

Six Flags hosts “FrightFest” each year, and I think they do it at each of their fifteen parks. As part of this, they decorate the park all spooky-like, they rename rides and attractions with creepy names, and after dark they have people, dressed in freakish costumes, lurk in the darker areas to jump out and startle people. It’s quite interesting, really.

And while that may sound really awesome to some, I was more interested in riding roller coasters and getting exhilaration in that way. We actually avoided a lot of the Halloween festivities by spending the daytime there, but I think we all had a really fun time.

I’m really glad to have good friends that put up with my nonsense, craziness, and erratic driving so that I can enjoy a day of their company.

-We purchased season passes for next year, which means you’ll have to sift through many more posts about theme parks when spring/summer comes. Or, if you’d rather, you’ll just have to plan to come along! Either one works for me .

I was retrieved from my abode about 20 minutes later, and we were off – to Chicago! Okay, okay, so we didn’t actually go to Chicago itself, but to a suburb called Naperville. However Naperville is just about as far away as Chi-town (2.5-3 hours of driving each way), and I’ve been to the same pizza joint in downtown Chicago, too.

The place is called Lou Malnati’s, and it’s got to be my favorite deep-dish pizza. It’s not your average pizza – this is really a pie made from/with pizza ingredients. It is absolutely amazing. I would defintely suggest that any of you readers try to make it to Lou’s if you’re in Chicago. And, if it’s possible, I’ll come with you .

Thanks go out to the Lingles for crazy ideas, crazy times, and crazy-good pie! It was a long evening, but it was absolutely worth it!

Farmington, Illinois, is just what its name implies – a tiny farming community about 40 miles west of Peoria, which isn’t too bit itself. Farmington must have been originally founded by Itialians, ’cause they now have an annual festival celebrating that heritage. I’m okay with that, but I draw the line when some “small town hicks” get up on the flat-bed-truck-turned-stage and start singing Motown classics. Seriously – it was a whole group of caucasian farmers up on the platform singing songs by The Supremes, Arethra Franklin, and the like. “How’d y’all like to hear sum ‘Rethra?” The music was performed well, but it just didn’t jive with me.

The saving grace to the afternoon – well, besides the BEAUTIFUL weather – was this dude.

Apparently his name is Seth, and he was there with his family, who were seated next to us on the lawn. Seth is a Dancing Fool! Allow me to narrate the following pics:

Seth swingin’ the hips.

Oh darn, the song ended. But at least he was clapping!

With a dejected look on his face, Seth returned to his family while the Hicks introduced the next song. I think they (the band) were actually trying to tell a joke during this break, but I was too busy trying to snap decent pictures of Seth so I didn’t pay attention.

YES! Another song begins.

The hips were swingin’ again.

Twistin’ around, back and forth.

He was really gettin’ into it when the stranger approached.

Uh oh!

Run awaaAAAAAY!

She TOTALLY killed his jive.

After the strange lady left, he danced through the rest of the song. Then he collapsed in blissful exhaustion.

Like I said, Seth made a strange afternoon all better. Aren’t little tikes so cool?!

PS – I thought that White Guys had no rythm. Well, Seth puts all of us “whities” to shame, ’cause Little Dude TOTALLY had rythm.

Yesterday was the day that I got to experience Cedar Point. Amazing.

It takes about two hours to drive from Columbus to Sandusky, and we rented a 15-passenger van to get our group up to the park. There were actually 19 of us, so there was another car in the caravan for the trip. I was in the party bus, as we called it, and there were plenty of laughs to go around. There were two girls sitting right behind me that had SO much energy that they kept the rest of us fully entertained for the whole drive, and then still for the rest of the day and the drive home. I laughed really hard almost the entire way to and from the park.

So once we got to the park, we took a group picture and headed off to the rollercoasters. The Millenium Force was the first on our list, as it is one of the rides that gives Cedar Point its popularity. Millenium Force was a fun ride, but it’s not exactly the type of ride that I gets me excited. It’s made of steel, but it doesn’t have any flips. But, it does start off with a 310-foot drop at 80-degrees. Quite impressive.

Next up was a series of rides, which included the Mantis (fun!) and the Magnum XL-200 (way fun!). The Mantis has lots of flips and corkscrews, which is TOTALLY my cup o’ tea, and the Magnum is WAY more exciting than it looks from the ground. And, in fact, when I got into the car for the Magnum, I totally expected it to be a really tame ride. Boy, I was (pleasantly) suprised!

For some reason, we got bored of riding all of the rides that started with “m,” so we made our way over to the Gemini, a wooden rollercoaster with some attitude. Again, the up-and-down rides aren’t so exciting to me, so the Gemini was just okay. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly my favorite.

After relaxing on a few of the tamer rides, the Iron Dragon and Whiches’ Wheel, we started to hit-up all of the really exciting rides. I don’t recall the order, but here are the three:

Raptor: TONS of fun. It’s similar to the Batman rides at Six Flags, so you sit in a seat with a harness over your shoulders, but your feet get to dangle throughout the ride. It spins, flips, winds, drops, and races through it’s course. I loved it!

Top Thrill Dragster: Not exactly my favorite, but I don’t know that I’ll ever again go 140+ miles per hour in such a short period of time. And by “short,” I mean that I hit that in just a couple seconds at the beginning of this ride. It’s supposed to give riders the experience of drag racing, but then they take go ahead and make the track go straight up and then straight back down before slowing to a stop. It was definitely something that I won’t forget any time soon.

Maverick: This ride won an award for the best rollercoaster in the year 2007. It was incredible. I don’t even know how to begin describing it ’cause I’m still excited about it. It was SOOO much fun.

So, overall, the trip was a complete sucess. The park rocks, and the people wer tons of fun. Now if I can only get past this stupid sunburn…

For your viewing pleasure, here are a couple of videos from Cedar Point. You can watch these and other similar vids from the Cedar Point website, which is where the above links will take you.

Maverick:
 

 

Top Thrill: