First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Madison Kimrey, on stage

This month I'm looking forward to marching in Raleigh on February 8th and appearing in Les Miserables opening at the Paramount Theater in Burlington on February 21st. Last month I gave a speech at Girls World Expo to encourage other girls to get involved with the issues that are important to them:

Susan C. Price, in the kitchen

I have made this chocolate cake before. It was going swell. I did all the blending i was supposed to do. Why in the name of all that is...(dare i say it?) holy...do i see white blobs here and there? Hope it tastes good. Yeah, it is kinda weird for a gal who is always desperately annoyed at her aging body's willingness to add pounds, rather than lose them...to have BAKING as a hobby. Oh well.
    How did it taste? Oh, for XXXX sake,..it seems to taste ok...i think the blobs might be the baking powder...which would also explain why the cakes are so shallow...sigh!

    ...but none of this was visible when i mixed the cake (or licked the bowl)...i plan to cover it all with a nice butter, egg yolk, powdered sugar frosting...so it might not matter...all the "what's wrong with my cake" sites give multiple reasons why stuff happens...i might just stick with cookies and cinnamon raisin buns

Allen Crowder, in victory
Allen Crowder (1-0) won by SUB[mission] over Gil Isabel (0-2)
[3:15] - 0:15 Round 2 - guillotine choke

Atlantic city was great! Me, my dad, and my girlfriend drove up Tuesday. It snowed the whole way. Didn't get out of the casino much. My room and food were paid for, and also food for my dad and my girl. My gas was also paid for, to and from Atlantic City.
    I was a little nervous as Friday approached—not about getting hurt, but it was my first pro fight in at huge venue in front of huge crowd of people. Losing was not an option. My opponent, Gil Isabel, was coming in with one pro fight, but he'd lost it.
    At weigh-in with Isabel we shook hands and told each other good luck. Of course, it was also an opportunity to ham it up for a photo.

    During the first round, Isabel landed a good kick. Then he tried to take me down to the mat. I got a guillotine choke on him but lost it. He took me on down and landed a couple of good shots. But I finished the round and came out ready to get with a knockout, but Isabel tried to take me down again and immediately I got him into a guillotine. This time he submitted at 15 seconds into the round.
    I felt we were on an even playing field in terms of strength. He's a better wrestler, but I'm better standing up. He seemed like a nice guy, and pretty cool. He had held the door for my dad a couple of times. But I try not to think about whether my opponent is a nice guy or not. I just want everyone to know when we step into the ring that I am the better fighter.
    He and I both received $500 for showing up, and I got an additional $500 for winning. The more you win the more you get paid....

Geoffrey Dean, in music & art

It wasn’t until the last week of January that it really felt like winter in Bulgaria. Except for a light covering on distant mountain tops, we hadn’t seen snow at all this season until we traveled to Gabrovo in north-central Bulgaria, where we ended up in foot of snow on Saturday, Jan. 25.
    We had traveled to the previous day to meet an American violinist who had recently moved there. Heather Broadbent discovered me because my name was on some sheet music she had bought in Bulgaria before deciding to relocate from the US.

I’m glad my name was on that music! (It was there because I had done the arrangement.) Heather is a delightful person and an inspired online violin teacher whose many instruction videos will lead you easily through the basics of violin playing.
    In January we also finished the first round of applications for the VIVAPIANO competition, but it’s not too late for amateur pianists of all ages and nationalities to apply to participate.
    With the Sofia Quartet we have started a three-concert series featuring the Beethoven Op. 18 quartets and three more recent quartets by Bulgarian composer Mihail Pekov, who wrote these works for us during the period 2001-2006.
    With the Ardenza Trio we are preparing a series of concerts at the National Museum of Bulgarian Visual Art, housed in the former palace of the last Bulgarian king. Called ARTdenza, this series plays on connections between the music and paintings from the museum’s permanent collection.

Kyle Garza, in debate

For my new MA in apologetics class, I've already read two books by C.S. Lewis and a number of his essays. We're mostly focusing on Lewis's views of epistemology for the first three weeks, specifically trying to figure out how he differentiates between enjoyment and contemplation, as well as between myth and allegory. I have so much fun just thinking about epistemology models! But then I suppose that makes me an odd breed....
    As for my teaching world, I'll be headed to the county finals for the National Shakespeare Competition on February 22nd. We'll see if my sophomore can make it to the state competition after that. I get to go with her to every competition as "coach." I never would have thought "Shakespearean coach" would make it to my resume!
    As for my personal life, I'm very enthused to watch Tuesday (February 4)'s debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham on creationism and evolution. Right now in life I sit very ambiguously in my opinions of the earth's age and evolution. I certainly need to do more reading on the matter, and I really need to find sources that don't confuse the daylights out of me. The whole debate frustrates me because I've yet to read with understanding and clarity one of those highly acclaimed "peer-reviewed articles" that "leaves no room for doubt" in the theory of evolution. I hope tomorrow's rhetoric will spur me in the direction of some good reading!
    That's all I have for now. I have my first paper to write this week for my MA class. I still remember the days when 3-4k words was intimidating. I'll send that along to you once I've finished it!

Sharon Stoner, under the weather

Have been ill for last 7 days, still not over it. Only thing I have to say is WHOEVER IS PRAYING FOR SNOW AND COLD WEATHER, STOP IT! RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!! :)

The Neumanns, on land

The Pineapple people have been landlubbers lately and don't have any exciting boating adventures to share. Not because it is "winter" or the "off season". Unlike boaters in other parts of the country and world, boaters in the San Francisco Bay area and California Delta have wonderful boating weather year round and have no need to "winterize" or shrink wrap their boats for the winter. No, the Pineapple's are in the process of moving from their condo to a house and that has robbed them of their boating weekends, at least for the time being. They look forward to sharing more boating adventures with you in the coming months.

Chuck Smythe, on the slopes

Nothing much to report lately. Let’s see...
    The jet stream is setting out of Hawaii, and the powder is dumping on the Continental Divide. Friday I joined what seemed like half of Colorado at the Mary Jane ski area to celebrate two feet of new. In mid-afternoon I crawled painfully off the mountain, ancient legs utterly done for.
    Speaking of Mary Jane, there are reputed to be pot shops already open in Denver, one about to open in Nederland (of course). Boulder won’t have any dope for sale for another month or two, while the politicians wring their hands over whether they’ve imposed enough red tape and taxes on the industry. To my astonishment, Aspen—where the hip meet to trip—is apparently going to outlaw weed shops.
    Thanks for the link to Pete Seeger’s confrontation with the HUAC. I hadn’t seen that before. I hope I’d have that much courage.

The Rogers, soon en Español

Hello from Costa Rica,
    I started this month with only one large event, starting Spanish classes. After being here a year and a half, I thought it might be nice to know what people were saying to me. But I have found that reading Spanish is easier than speaking it. And why have the letter “e” sound like long “a,” or “:j” like “h” and “I” like long “e,” and so on? “Jaco” becomes “haco,” for example. Oh well, when in Rome….
    However, life added a few more large events.
    I went to the store and coming home, as I pulled into my drive, I see two men running around with a red fire extinguisher and a trail of smoke coming from under the roof. Where the main electrical line comes into the house, the wire had overheated and caught fire. The kind men who came to help my wife sprayed yellow powder over everything with the extinguisher. I went out to the road and pulled the main fuse. With the power off, I hit it with a little water and that was that. Other than the wire, the only damage was where I pulled some boards off to spray the water.
    Then I was sitting on my porch the other day when I heard a strange noise. Suddenly a two-wooden-wheel cart pulled by two bulls rolled past. They were heading down the mountain and I have no idea where they came from. What is odd about this is you never see these carts except in parades. They came back up the mountain two hours later with a load of something in the cart. I told Janie, “You don’t see that every day.”

    And that’s what counts as large events down here.
                            Pura Vida, from Ed & Janie

Overlooking Dubbo from West Dubbo

Vic Midyett, in a heat wave

This evening is the first time I've been able to get on my lap top. We've been traveling. We are now in a town in New South Wales called Dubbo. We are also in a heat wave. The temp is around 100°F and very dry in this inland part of the country. The North part of Queensland, where we were is now in flood conditions and this area hasn't had any rain in 3.5 months. We're about 2,000 miles south of where we were.
    By Tuesday we will hang a left and head for the coast road South of Sydney, popping out from the Blue Mountains at Woolungong. We plan to continue the coast road South to Victoria. It's the only coast line we haven't seen in the past 2.5 years of traveling.

Siegfried, at the Spa

_______________
Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean

Comment box is located below