Another weekend is in the books, so how was yours?
Because my wife “no ballroom” for two weeks instructions from the doctor, we stayed home on our normal dance night to open a bottle of good wine and watch a movie. Saturday was full with a funeral visitation, a contractor at the house, handbell rehearsal, and the church’s 50th anniversary celebration event, Saturday flew by.
The handbell piece premier was only acceptable – mainly because we played in a big room that is acoustically dead – a real sound killer! However, we had three good rings Sunday morning!
In this past post featuring a fall-colors walk in my neighborhood, many 
commented about our fiery Japanese Maple. It’s transition is in progress, so this image is from Saturday when we could see the transition with hints of green, deep maroons, and brilliant reds. (But this pic didn’t capture it as I hoped.) Interestingly, we could see more change on Sunday.
Many thanks for the testimonials. I hope to publish the new subpage sometime this week. Many thanks … and for others, I’m still taking them here.
Upcoming celebration notes for your calendar
- (Week) Split Pea Soup Week, Fig Week
- (Mon) Candy Day, Job Action Day, Chicken Lady Day, Traffic Directors Day, Use Your Common Sense Day (sadly, that has to be promoted)
- (Tues) Doughnut Day
- (Wed) Nachos Day, Saxophone Day, Marooned without a Compass Day
- (Thurs) Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day, Gin Day, Men Make Dinner Day, Hug a Bear Day, Magazine Day
My favorite pro hockey team is the St. Louis Blues. Many of you also realize there is also a song of that name. Plus, it is also fitting as the city’s baseball Cardinals caused fans to sing the blues for losing the World Series. For your Monday Morning Entertainment, enjoy the St. Louis Blues – but done in a quirky way. Have a good week.
A Frank Angle 
I attended my organizations fundraiser Italianfest. Perfect 80 degree weather in November. Sunday was playing with my sweetie lab and house chores
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Kellie,
A fundraising Italianfest seems like a winner to me. Hope it went well!!!! Cheers to your lab!
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“Doughnut Day”—Oh, now that just sounds dangerous…
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Carrie,
I have an special note for Tuesday on my calendar.
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Nom nom nom.
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yum yum yum
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So glad the hand bell ringing was good on Sunday morning. Pity about the poor acoustics for the premier. 😦 Gorgeous colours on that Japanese Maple tree. Can’t wait until Thursday for my bittersweet chocolate with almonds. 🙂
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Sylvia,
As a musician I know you understand the effect that room acoustics can have. This place soaked up sound like a sponge! When that maple drops its leaves, it happens fast. Meanwhile, I’ll join you on Thursday.
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St. Louis Blues………thanks for the smile.
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Hudson,
Professor Gizmo can easily deliver smiles!
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Professor Gizmo was incredible! Thanks for that, Frank. I had a sushi lunch with my husband this weekend. That was fun. Other than that, just housework!
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Bumble,
It seems the sushi lunch was without the kids! 🙂
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Sounds like you made it through the weekend with a broad mix of activities. We did, as well. Thursday we hid in the basement and watched about half of “Slumdog Millionaire” while the kids paraded through the neighborhood. Friday we enjoyed the fund-raiser dinner our daughter helped organize. Saturday we finished the movie, and this evening we had lasagna at the blood center’s donor appreciation dinner. And slotted in all that was an all-day meeting for Jim, quilting time for me, a couple of good walks, and a couple of good naps.
For the coming week I’ll look forward to Saxophone Day, and raise a toast to Son in IA, aka Lt. Son in OK. It’s been a while since he had time to play, but all his musical instruments await.
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Melanie,
The two of you seem to stay busy with a variety of activities. Cheers to the fundraiser … and I thought Slumdog Millionaire was a wonderful movie!
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Speaking of acoustics…the fundraiser Friday night dinner was in a new machine shed style building at a new local winery. It was large, rectangular, with no ceiling tiles. You could see up to the sloping metal roof. It was very hard to hear. Last night’s blood donor dinner was in a large oval shaped ‘barn’. The structure was new. The interior was lined with planks cut from old lumber. Beautiful, but not very good acoustically. Praise be to places with good sound quality. 🙂
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Good examples of how structure makes so much of a difference (and I know you know that). Our place was relatively new (15 years?), carpet floor, ceiling tiles, walls were’t smooth, cloth chairs, plus 315 people …. all deadening the sound. … but I also don’t like eating at places to are very noisy!
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Holy Cow as Mom would say. Reviewing that list made me tired. We need to back off.
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When?
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Jim … you were busy!
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Doughnut day falls on Election Day! Fun video of a multitasking musician. Milton and I went to the theater and I finally saw “12 Years a Slave”. I’m not a big Academy Awards prognosticator, but I think hands down, that film owns Best Picture.
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Lame,
That’s it … I will get doughnuts on the way to the polls! … Thanks for the recommendation, but did Milton also approve?
Off topic, what is the name of the goat cheese you like and can eat?
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Milton highly approves of 12 Years. He expects it to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress, Best Music, almost the best of everything. But he thinks Jared Leto will win Best Supporting Actor for Dallas Buyers Club. I think it should go to Michael Fassbender who plays a cruel plantation owner in 12 Years but I have yet to see DBC. I also thought Oprah Winfrey was excellent in The Butler and I could see her winning her second Best Supporting Actress Oscar. He and I both agree that Cate Blanchett should own the Best Actress Oscar for her spot on performance in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.
Drunken Goat, a goat cheese from Spain, is probably my favorite. Coco likes it a lot, too.
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Milton’s Seal of Approval is quite the honor! Thanks for all the movie scoop … and Drunken Goat!
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Watch, all of Milton’s predictions will be wrong and a hunk of space junk like Gravity will score big. Milton HATED Gravity. He kept impersonating Sandra Bullock’s panicking while we were waiting for a screening to start at the New York Film Festival. Yes, we’re out very own comedy act wherever we go.
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If the Academy does go along with Milton, isn’t that grounds for fraud?
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I would think that would show that the Academy voters are showing signs of intelligence. They so rarely ever get it right.
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Time to produce The Milties.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! Good one, Frank!
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… or would like The MIltonians better?
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I like the Milties.
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… ask him what he thinks of the idea!
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He’ll get a kick out of it, that’s guaranteed.
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Just looking for his seal of approval for Milties.
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Chicken Lady Day?
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GFB,
This day honors a motivation speaker who known for working for chicken restaurant …. http://motivationaltrainingcenter.com/about-tina-dupree/ …. see my comment to fellow UK resident TBM for more info.
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yeah, I’m confused about Chicken Lady day as well.
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TBM,
Maybe you are confusing this with Chicken Boy Day, Fried Chicken Day, or Dance Like a Chicken Day ….. which none of these apply to Chicken Lady Day … see fellow UK resident Gingerfightback for more info.
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Now I know what it means – good luck to her!
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I just try to follow your lead to be informative.
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We are all here to serve Frank
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It was beautiful here. (I know you are glad to hear this after the dozens of rainy days). This autumn has been dry and the leaves spectacular. But the time change was a killer, always is.
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Renee,
Cheers to some good weather for you … and horray for the leaf color!
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Japanese Maples are gorgeous trees in the fall. We have two regular maples in our backyard, but they don’t give us much of a colour display.
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Good Morning Catherine.
The yellow in the pic is a Sugar Maple … colorful, but nothing close to its neighbor. So what did you do this weekend?
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My husband and I enjoyed a lazy weekend together, it was wonderful. We watched old movies, and window shopped, I dislike shipping whereas he loves it, go figure.
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Cheers to your lazy weekend!
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First off I am sure the acoustics were not that great but I bet you still sounded wonderful!
I am so envious of Fig Week! I have never had a fresh fig and I see recipes all over the internet and can’t wait till i get my hands on some fresh figs for all kinds of dishes I have been eyeballing over the last few months!
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Jasmine,
Go for it on Fig Week … so you now have a goal for the week!
Given a big room and its deadness, many couple barely hear the piece. Heck, it even sounded dead inside the choir! But at least the Sunday rings we good and well received.
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(I’m sure your performance was nothing less than stellar)
I went to the lake and enjoyed all the fall colors – it was nice to get away. Now, I’m jamming with Gizmo and enjoying a day off. 🙂
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Hood,
Hooray for the day off .. .so I hope Chuckie makes up for lost time tomorrow! Glad to hear the fall colors arrived in your state!
If the video comes through, I will link it in a future post. After all, it’s only been played by one choir and only heard by 500 (or less) different people. But once published, both numbers will grow … yet only one choir got to play it first.
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A full weekend for you indeed.
Buuu…on your wife not doing well. Hope she gets better soon & your back in the ballroom in nno time.
•(Mon) Candy Day <—No problem. I've been digging into the trick-or-treat candy since before Halloween (bwahahahaha!)
Use Your Common Sense Day (sadly, that has to be promoted) <—I totally agree that this sadly has to be promoted.
•(Tues) Doughnut Day <— Don't hav to tell me twice – Boston Cream Donought it is!
My favorite hockey team is the one my daughters' play on 😉
Happy Monday – Happy New Week!
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RoSy,
That a way … glad to see that you’ve noted some important celebrations! … and cheers to your daughter playing hockey!
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First thing’s first… happy new week, Frank!
I’m sure the handbell piece premier wasn’t just acceptable, even though I know about bad acoustics! Thank you for a Monday kick off with Gizmo! 🙂
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Marina,
As a musician, I’m sure you’ve been in venues that are too dead and others that are like playing inside a trash can with all the reverb. Have a good week ahead!
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Truth is that once you’ve played in a place with good acoustics, it’s not easy facing the dryness of another. I only had that once in my life, singing an aria at this amazing theater were I had an awkward and overwhelming feeling. I couldn’t hear my voice as it came out yet I could feel it spreading wide filling magically every inch of the auditorium! (nothing to do with my voice, this happened with all singers). You should always be playing in churches. The acoustics in there are out of this world.
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Great example. I wasn’t easy hearing my own bell … and those on each side of me … and the further away from me, the less I would hear them … except for the high shrills. But at least Sunday we were in a familiar place … and I hope a video comes through from someone.
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There is also a song called “Union City Blues” but I can’t find a link because I am driving. Being a good American and exercising my free will to text and drive at the same time. But its not really texting because I have a speech to text feature in the phone. So I can babble on all day, and the phone will translate it, hopefully accurately. There have been times when it did not translate accurately and I looked police. There’s an example now. That word police was supposed to be foolish. And the phone ruined my joke because I was going to say, “… I look foolish. Okay, more foolish than usual.” But the timing was thrown having to stop for the word police. Another drawback is punctuation. For example, I say the word. To produce a. In the sentence. As you can see there are two periods in the middle of that sentence. That’s because saying the word. Produces an actual. This last part might be very tricky to read because it is all about periods Of punctuation mark Being used when I want to use the actual word instead. Another drawback to the text to speech feature is it is very difficult to scroll back up and see what was typed. It usually forces me to just leave it as it is and hope for the best.
I think I have wasted enough of everyone’s time. Oh, one other thing about speech to text. My phone occasionally puts the word “not” in all caps. I thought perhaps it did that only if I pronounce the word loudly. Turns out it is just random. And I can really make me look like I am angry at someone.
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Rich,
This is priceless. Heck, I suggest copy/paste this to form a blog post around it.
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will leave that for you to play with. can’t wait to find an open mic night and try out my stand-up stuff.
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Hmmmmm ….
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Also, Union City Blues is a song by the band Blondie
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Here ya go … it’s just Blue (no s) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGBhog95MY
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thanks. btw – never said it was a great song. just that it was a song. blondie was a local band that grew, thanks to a pretty enough blonde at the mic. many of their songs are about local flavor and didn’t translate well nationally, except a few like “call me” from the movie “american gigolo” with richard gere.
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I didn’t know that Blondie was a local band for you … but its interesting when local ties make it!
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they were part of the 70’s new york/north jersey music scene in which small bands did not have the benefit of youtube and homemade CD’s, and they had to make a name for themselves in small clubs. whatever it took to get attention, that’s what they had to do. the ramones were the same. talking heads too, but they were a boston area band. the B-52’s had new jersey ties also. you needed something to be different and get noticed. a bleach blonde with a better than average voice didn’t hurt.
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Good conclusion … and thanks for the scoop.
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Also, not a fan of the St Louis Blues hockey team. Nothing against them, but I am a long time Boston Bruins fan.
I wonder if this offer to copy and paste will work.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=webhp&tbm=isch&source=hp&ei=cOx3UsrGGIHisAS8xIHYAw&q=bobby+orr+goal+photo&oq=bobby+orr+goal&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.1.3.0j0i24l4.2912.9116.0.12297.15.11.0.4.4.0.315.2086.0j9j1j1.11.0….0…1c.1.30.mobile-gws-hp..0.15.2288.cNU7QYc2B-A#biv=i%7C0%3Bd%7Cmh2WESJRJToKZM%3A
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Rich,
That is a classic pic. I was in HS at the time, it was a heartbreaker. I knew the Bruins swept the series, but i think all games were by a goal. … but I haven’t checked it out.
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yes, sweep, but that last game went to OT.
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I just saw the scores …. Bruins had three convincing wins.
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Ah Frank, that red maple brought me back. My mother planted one by our back door when I was very young . . . visited the old homestead a few years ago and that tree, in its fall glory, was thrilling. Large, exuberant and healthy.
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Moe,
Glad the pic took you back in time to a good place. Hope you followed the link to the walk post because the tree was a brilliant red!
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Candy day followed by donut day? I can feel my waistline expanding.
Glad that the problems with the bells stemmed from the room and that you weren’t trying to play at Frank angle!
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Elyse,
Good Doughnut Day morning to you … and I’ll be getting at least one on my way to the polls. … and absolutely the room, thus not my angle!
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Wow! You really had a very busy weekend, Frank. I’m sorry the acoustics didn’t deliver for your handbell premiere, but that will be remedied in the future, I’m sure. I will be on the road quite a bit on Wednesday, so I hope I don’t need to celebrate “Marooned Without a Compass” Day. That’s got to the the strangest yet! 🙂
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Debra,
The dead nature of the room probably caught us by surprise .. but on the plus side, the came through on Sunday in our own space. … For your travel on Wednesday, consider a compass app! 🙂
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