For this weekend only, the Paseo Arts Festival was going on, and we wanted to be sure to attend, given it's practically around the corner. But we were pretty busy earlier in the weekend, leaving today to attend. We did drive by yesterday and noticed parking was ridiculous, and that we would have had to walk a ways from parking to the festival. So, we just walked from home instead. It was about a mile from here to there, and the girls weren't too keen on the idea at first, but it only took us about 19 minutes. The festival was quite enjoyable. We definitely would have stayed much longer than the couple hours we did, but it was rather hot and the girls were getting antsy to leave.
To cool off before the walk back, we got some Italian Ices. They were yummy, but nothing like Rita's back home in Philly. But they sufficed for a more comfortable walk home.
The girls' reward for being good sports about the two mile walk (not to mention all the walking around at the festival) was getting to go swimming when we got home. Noticed in the elevator on the way down to the pool that Shelby might have some sunburn on her face. Her lips are still purple from her ice in this picture.
Today we saw off some friends from out of town that made a REALLY short trip through town for the long weekend. In addition to quick drive-bys of various places, we stopped at Pops and the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
We had lunch with our friends at Iguana Grill before they hit the road.
Once our out of town friends were gone, we took quick naps (well, I did anyway) and then went to a cookout at the nearby Mesta Park, where there was plenty of food, fun, and volleyball.
The day started with a short-ish three hour trip to the OKC Zoo, the primary driver of which was seeing the newly-opened Children's Zoo. It's a very nice addition, and boy did they get it done quick! When we were at the zoo in January, I only recall seeing red clay, a few partial concrete structures, and that's it really. Yet they had it open by March, and now in May, it seems like it has been here for years. I'm impressed. I didn't take very many generic pictures of the new addition because it was VERY crowded and we were moving right along. But it is equipped with the expected petting zoo and climbing areas, as well as an aviary, and the best part, the waterfall/stream where the kids can take off their shoes and walk in the water. Ideal on such a hot day. There are other components as well, but you can read about those on the zoo website. Suffice it to say I think they did an excellent job and we'll be going back to enjoy it further in the future.
After the zoo trip we grabbed lunch, and the girls went to hang out with some friends while I attended a church young adult's group BBQ. I barely make the cut for the definition of "young", and I was definitely one of, if not the, oldest there (most were in their 20s), but it was a good time. There was plenty of food and snacks, a rock band (video game) contest, and other games as well. Knew a few people already, but met a lot of new ones. Think I'll go again next month.
As seems to have become customary, Shelby and I had entirely too much fun at the optometrist today. Strangely enough, her vision actually improved. I thought that was odd, but I'll take it. Though I'm annoyed at myself because I didn't take a picture of her with the new frames she selected. Oh well, I'll get one up here next week when they come in with the lenses installed (no, we don't use a one-hour chain to get our glasses).
While Shelby was waiting for her eyes to dilate, she would stare at her own eyes in the mirror to watch her pupils grow. She thought her eyes looked like puss-n-boots from Shrek. And then once she put on those roll-up shades, in combination with her new-ish short hair, I thought she bore a striking resemblance to Arnold from the original Terminator. What do you think?
And then I couldn't resist having her record a video saying "I'll be back". Lame, sure, but we were having fun with it (this was like, take 3).
After the optometrist, Darby had a softball game. The team played hard but couldn't keep up with the undefeated team they were up against. Which, incidentally, remains undefeated. Darby struck out once, looking (that pitcher was FAST!), and had what should have been a solid hit to shallow right/deep first. She was called out at the bag, but she REALLY looked safe. Also, when I asked her, she said she was safe, and she's usually pretty honest with me about that kind of thing. Defensively she played third base for the second night in a row instead of her customary shortstop. Coach is shaking things up a little.
The girls and I traveled to the Tulsa area this weekend to visit a few old friends. Saturday consisted of a birthday party, followed by dinner, and then a viewing of the newly released Shrek 4.
The girls had a blast at BounceU (formerly Pump It Up), where the birthday party was. You just try telling them it was a party for 5-year olds and that they shouldn't have had quite so much fun and see what they have to say about it. I think the pictures say it all.
Shrek 4 was decent. At least as good as the third movie. Probably not as good as the first two. I'm not sure it was necessary to make this movie, but it did have a decent message (you don't know what you've got until it's gone). And heck, the kids liked it, so that's probably all that matters. The part that sticks with me most, unfortunately, is the annoying kid with the creepy voice that asks Shrek to "do the roar". It's giving me nightmares. Ugh.
On Sunday we got up (way too early for a Sunday) to attend mass at an area church. Unfortunately, the more memorable event of the mass was an altar server passing out and putting a stop to the service for several minutes. Poor kid. We're assured he is okay. Afterward we had brunch with more friends, followed by several hours of swimming for the girls.
We hit the road back, following far too large a dinner preceding a road trip, concluding our thirty-one hour weekend excursion. Only trouble with such excursions is that the weekend is now gone and I didn't get anything done. And catching up with the laundry during the week is never fun. As I'm folding socks I'll be doing the roar. Or at least the grumble.
Tonight, Darby graduated from middle school, and so she is henceforth a high school student, who's sole mission is to impress upon my psyche the distinct feeling of encroaching oldness.
Technically, since her school goes from 6th grade through 12th, they call it "Bridging" rather than graduation, and in the video below there is a symbolic bridge they cross, but "Graduation" will do just fine here.
Darby didn't mention that she was performing a piano solo at graduation. That seems like an important thing to mention to your parents. There were only three or four performances by graduates, and she was the only piano major playing. I wish she would have informed me, because I would have made her practice more. She hadn't played that piece for a large audience in over a month, because she was working on the piece she played at state. That lack of practice shows in several mistakes tonight. She did well. It was just clear she hadn't practiced.
They played a slide show with baby pictures and current pictures of each student. Here's a short video of Darby's slide. It's very dark because, well, the lights were off.
And here's a video of her "bridging", where she crosses over the bridge in symbolic transition from middle school to high school.
Lastly, here's a picture of Darby and I after graduation.
Next up, the after party. As it is chaperoned by the school staff, I'm trying to be a good dad by staying away as requested. I pick her up in a couple hours.
Darby had a game tonight. She reached base on a walk, stole her way around the bases, and attempted to steal home on a passed ball but was tagged out. Her next plate appearance was a ground out, but only by about a step. She's been in a slump at the plate for several games, so hopefully the solid contact tonight will shake that off. Overall the team played a solid game, beating an upper division team 7-2.
Today, upon arriving home from school, Darby decided to spray pepper spray in a confined space. Specifically, in a building elevator while heading upstairs. She realized very quickly that that was a terrible idea. What she didn't realize was the problem it would cause for the other building residents. While she was home and thinking nothing further of it, building maintenance, after getting complaints, had shut down the elevator to ventilate it.
In her infinite wisdom, she posted what she had done on Facebook. And as she is Facebook friends with the building manager, a short time later I got a call from the management. Needless to say I was on the phone with her shortly thereafter.
Earlier in the week I noted there was a tweet-up to kick-off an ongoing tornado victims disaster relief effort, inspired by the experience of its founder, who had lost everything but the clothes on her back in a tornado back in May 1999. Along with many others (it was a very successful event), I attended that tweet-up on Thursday, and put in about three hours volunteering at the donation center at 25 Northwest 9th Street in downtown Oklahoma City. Today I returned to the donation center with the kids, intending to put another few hours in. However, due to an unexpected shortage of volunteers (we had some commitments from a couple groups that were not met), after a few hours had come and gone, my kids and I made up more than half of the volunteers on-site. Thus, we ended up putting in a full day of work, nearly eight hours, which we were happy to do. But the experience inspired Shelby to make a sign, and stand outside, attempting to recruit more volunteers. It was cute, but unsuccessful.
While we were happy to put in the full-day at the center, we think it's unfair for others to have to do the same. And so I ask, if you have a couple hours to spare, please take a trip down to the donation center to help. It's very easy. Mostly you are there to take in the donations people are dropping off (i.e. help unload cars and trucks), and organize them in preparation to be received by those in need. If just a handful of people did this a few times a day, that would be plenty. We're not asking for armies of people (although that would be great). Feel free to bring your chore-starved kids (like I did) to put them to work and give them an appreciation for volunteering. Please see the Facebook Page for the latest info (in case the schedules change), but as of this writing, the donation center will be open from 12-6 tomorrow (Sunday), and 11-7 next week (weekdays).
As you can see from the below photos, we have received a very generous supply (thank you OKC!) of clothing and shoes in mens, womens, and childrens sizes. We have some furniture and household items as well (sorry I didn't take a picture of those), including couches, dressers, beds, toys, bedding, TVs, vacuum cleaners, etc. What we are very short on is volunteers and needy families. I've already made my case for more volunteers. But if you know ANYONE that was adversely impacted by the tornadoes of May 10th, 2010, please send them down to the donation center so they can go away with whatever they need that we have. In the very least, please have them contact us (Twitter #OKdonations is the most effective way, via @thealphafemme and @lofolulu). My understanding is that local emergency management teams have been giving out info about our relief efforts, but please help us further spread the word.
Darby participated in the State Achievement auditions for piano today. I was not able to be there with her, but her mom took her and reported back to me the results. She scored a 1 (The best-to-worst scale is 1+, 1, 1-, 2, 3, 4). I don't have a picture to post yet, but hope to soon.
Update
Here's a picture of Darby with her trophy and certificate:
Her performance critique sheet reads as follows:
"Nice tempo! Well maintained. Nice, even 16ths both rhythmically and tonally. I couldn't hear tone change when the RH and LH were playing the 16ths!
A few suggestions/comments:
- Check notes, measure 8
- Counting, measure 22
- Follow dynamic suggestions more carefully or have some of your own phrase shapes and contrast
Good work on this piece! You are a talented pianist."
Today marked the conclusion of the 13th year of employment with my company. While it was certainly rocky at times, it turned out to be a lucky year, rather than unlucky, as I thought it might be for awhile there.
A year ago, I'd wrapped up my 12th year with the same company, with the same customer, and things were looking better than ever in terms of our workload and the outlook for our product. Sure, we were nearing the end of our contract, but we had high hopes yet another contract victory, and of being able to keep on doing what we'd been doing for years (and very well I might add... 10/10 customer ratings year over year). Then the worse possible thing happened. We lost our contract for, in my opinion, purely politically-correct reasons. After all, the customer loved us, and wanted to continue to give us a fair and open opportunity to compete for the work we'd done for years. But the bean counters were requiring nearly every contract at that time to be awarded to a small business, meaning our company couldn't compete directly for our own work, simply so the government could meet a quota. That stance ended an era of twenty-four years of continuous service (in various capacities) to that customer by our company. Sure, I was given the opportunity to go work for the winning company, a small business. But my company had been pretty good to me over the years, and I felt that I should stay the course, even through uncertain times.
For four months I worked at the corporate office, doing various projects, but with increasing concern as time passed. After all, I was burning overhead, not generating it. Surely it was only a matter of time before I corroded the bottom out of the bottom line, leaving them no choice but to cut me loose in a proverbial needs-of-the-many-outweigh-the-needs-of-the-one scenario. But just when I was most worried, a new contract opportunity had come to light, and subsequently worked out in my favor, thank goodness. As such, for the last five and a half months, I've been enjoying new (work) life, and have even already traveled twice, with at least another year or two before having to worry about a contract again.
Last year I expected to be doing something entirely different right about now (or, as it were, the same thing I was doing last year). Six months ago I thought I may be on the street by now. Turns out I was wrong on both counts. And who knew it would be so fortuitous to have been wrong about such an important aspect of my life.
What can I say. I'm just lucky to (still) be here.
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I get a lot of questions about what my company does. I never have a particularly good answer, aside from the official response. Well, the company has recently started making TV and radio commercials, something we hadn't traditionally done in our forty years of existence. Maybe the commercial will serve as a better answer, so thought I'd share that today, considering the occasion.
For friends and family in other parts of the country that may see the story on the national news, yes, unfortunately, there was an outbreak of about a dozen tornadoes in Oklahoma that damaged or destroyed about a hundred homes and killed at least five people, while knocking out power to about 30,000. The girls and I are fine. We were never ourselves in the path of the more dangerous part of the storms. There was a brief scare for the girls when they were home for about an hour on their own between school being over and me getting home from work when the tornado sirens were sounding. They did the right thing and proceeded to the basement.
Here's a map of the paths from the weather service (we live where the "OKC" is, and so they went on either side of us) and a video from the local news:
For friends and family that are in Oklahoma that are not on "the twitters" and may want to help, my good friend Carrie, a survivor of the 1999 tornadoes, is organizing a local relief effort. If you're on Twitter, use the below links to get info (i.e. use the #OKdonationtweetup hash tag). If not, and you want to help, I can put you in touch with her.
UPDATE
Event: Oklahoma Donation Tweet-Up Kick-Off
What: Fundraiser
When: Thursday, 13 May, 5pm-8pm
Where: 25 Northwest 9th (9th and Broadway, former Mel's Towing building, next to Iguana Grill)
RSVP: Via the Facebook Event page
It was a rough night for Darby's team. ROUGH. We got down by a lot early and due to many mental errors were not able to recover. Darby played both shortstop and catcher in the game, and actually had a better time at catcher, due in part to the sun being in her eyes while she was at short (I offered to go to the car to get my sunglasses for her). Also, she seems to be much more aggressive when she plays catcher. She takes more risks with the ball and with her body. Maybe it's that extra padding? Gives her more confidence?
Darby only got one at-bat, which was a walk (I know, not technically an at-bat), but that turned into several stolen bases, including a steal of home on a passed ball. So, Darby scored one third of our runs this evening. I was able to snap a video of her slide into home, although the umpire's behind obscured the view as she crossed the plate.
At work, I sit in one of the worst imaginable places. Next to "the galley". There is a refrigerator, two coffee pots, and two microwaves. It sucks to sit here (and it's karma coming back at me, though I'll not explain that now). Not that there aren't worse places to sit, so I am at least grateful for only being NEAR the bottom and not actually
AT the bottom.
All day long I smell food being cooked -- and I do mean ALL. DAY. LONG. I can't believe how non-stop people eat around here -- coffee being made, "water cooler chatter", and the worse thing... miscellaneous food and liquids being BURNED. You may get to walk away from it, bub, but I am mired in its lingering effects. New rule... you MUST take your smelly, burning, former food-product with you. You CANNOT just throw it in the galley trash. Good thing I have absolutely no authority here whatsoever. That'll show them.
Anyway, last week one of the two microwaves went out. You would think this would be a minor inconvenience. But my goodness gracious it has been the talk of the office. SO many complaints. AND, I'm pretty sure the world nearly ended a time or two. We were right there upon death's door I tell you. Missed it by "that" much.
Well, today, we have been blessed by the arrival of a new microwave. We are saved! The world shall endure! Balance has been restored to the force!
(can you hear my grumbling undertones?)
So what does it matter? Why am I not as overjoyed as the others? Because, aside from the fact that the various smells around here have been restored to normal capacity, just this morning I learned of the awesomeness that is Insight Creative Group's Office Ball-pit. Why could we not have gotten a ball-pit instead of a second microwave? My seating quality would suddenly go from (near) worst to first. And I GUARANTEE a ball-pit would bring much more joy to the starving faces in this office than any microwave could ever do, not to mention the waistlines (no offense, just saying). Who do I need to talk to in order to get a ball-pit around here?
(holding breath)
For the lazy ones that don't want to click through, here's a picture of the Insight Ball-pit via their site (hope they don't mind):
My first embedded Tweet thanks to Blackbird Pie. I chose the below tweet to embed because, well, um... let's see, cute girl that likes baseball, and is rather famous, not to mention an icon of my youth... but also, it's useful, with many links to sports tweeps.
Darby and Shelby had a choir performance at school tonight. Hard to believe Darby has been in choir for the duration of middle school, and that this was her last such performance before high school!
Here's Shelby's sixth grade choir. She is pretty much dead center, with the tie on. Hey she dressed herself.
And here's Darby's eighth grade choir. She's on the top row, right of center.
So, each choir performed several pieces on their own, and then they all got together for a "farewell" number. I had planned to use Darby's choir's Beatles medley, but that posed a number of problems. First, I'd then have to post a number from Shelby's choir as well. Second, while I thought the seven minutes I had left on my memory card was plenty to capture the Beatles medley (I had an empty extra card even), the tune turned out to be a whopping eight minutes (and thus, I didn't get the ending)! Not that it wasn't splendid. Lastly, the file size was more than double that of the finale. The one issue with the final number is that the combined choir is so large and I'm sitting so close that I can't quite get everybody in. Oh well, it's pretty much the best video I've got... enjoy!
Lost. Dr. Knight. This morning was his memorial service. It was an excellent service. I think he would have been pleased. Not only for the content of his admirer's remarks, but for the quantity of those that showed up to see him off. Additional chairs had to be brought out, and a couple overflow rooms with closed-circuit TV had to be leveraged before we could get started. While he wouldn't have wanted such a fuss for himself, he would have been honored for the gesture.
Found. Old friends, while at Dr. Knight's service. Sure, we're Facebook friends, but I hadn't SEEN them in years. And it was great to see them. We also had some old friends come down from Tulsa to spend the day with us.
Lost. Old North. It has been uninhabited for ten years, and now it's all torn up for renovation and an addition. As much time as I had spent in that place, it pains me to see it this way. I don't remember it being quite so torn up the last time I passed through.
Found. Old North's future? At the service, it was announced that Old North's renovation would be moved to the top of the capital projects list. I sure hope they follow through with this promise. The face of the university deserves better than what it has received the last ten years.
Lost. A cute puppy. It's a long story, of which I only have partial facts, but the bottom line is, we ended up with this otherwise unwanted puppy. As we cannot have pets where we live without an unacceptably high cost, we began looking for a good home for it.
Found. A new home for the puppy! After failing initially to find someone willing to take him, we planned to take him to the shelter in the morning to hand him off to our friends at the Central Oklahoma Humane Society (Darby volunteers at the adoption center) so that he could be adopted next week. We went to the nearest Petsmart to get a crate for him to stay the night in, but were immediately swarmed by people wanting to pet him when we walked into the store. In very short order, before we could make it anywhere near the crates, there was someone willing to take him. We talked to them for a bit about it to make sure intentions were honorable, and then said our good-byes.
Also found... a new friend. Well, kind of. While I've been tweeting with Dan Gordon for some time, and though we have a few real-world friends in common, I finally got to meet him today. He helped me out with something for an old, close friend. Thanks, man!
