What ever happened to those other two days?

My coloring project showing The Twelve Days Of Christmas got sidetracked by other Christmas activities and the major job of mucking through the snow to pack the motorhome for our trip to Florida. To the many people who were following my work through the first ten days and were eagerly awaiting days 11 and 12, I offer my sincere apology. I hope that your holiday was not dampened too greatly by my shortcomings. I'll try again next year. LOL

Here is a cartoon that was shared with me by Bonnie Cooper, who works for Gulfstream Coach, the company that made our motorhome. I thought that my lovely daughter, in particular, might enjoy it.

Cookies!!

Our task of getting all the necessary items loaded into the motorhome continues. But we took time out to make some Christmas cookies. Sue made snickerdoodles and I made the red and green sugar cookies. Tomorrow, we may make a few more.


Here is day 10 of the 12 day countdown.

Christmas Past

Here is a link to some old-time Christmas catalogs that may bring back memories for some of us and be a history lesson for the younger folk. Just click on the link that is in the Hot Links section at the top of the right-hand column of this blog. Note: The pages may be bigger than will fit on the screen, so use the up-down and left-right arrows to move to the part of the page that you want to look at.

And here are the next two in the 12 days of Christmas coloring project. I missed yesterday because we went to visit my Mom. I've got my priorities straight!

One more day closer to Christmas

We are working at the process of packing the motorhome for the trip south. I wish that the weather would get a little milder, but the forecast doesn't sound too promising. This little swan seems to be having fun in the water at some warmer location. I am jealous.

Catchin' Up

I was away from the computer a lot yesterday, so I didn't post the 5th day of Christmas picture. So today, I'll include both day 5 and day 6 (plus a song by Joe Diffie).

Christmas Is A' Comin'-Day 4

Here are Bing Crosby and David Bowie to set the mood for the Holiday season.

Just a little more snow.

Yes, we got more snow today, but compared to the past couple of days, this was much more manageable. I would guess that the cars had 3 inches of snow on them when I cleaned them off today. Tomorrow and Friday are not supposed to be snowy at all, and that is good news. Maybe with some sun, we can reduce the size of the snow mounds. In a little more than a week, we have to get the motorhome out of the driveway. I'd just as soon not have to shovel it out.

And in conclusion,

Continued Snow Report

We thought that the snow accumulation yesterday was enough to last for a while. Then we got up this morning and saw that another 7 inches or more of the white stuff had fallen since midnight. The car was clear of snow at noon yesterday and the picture below shows what it looked like this morning.


The City of Kent sent a small snowplow to finally plow our circle today at about noon. They did not clear the circle yesterday at all. I can understand that it was not a priority. We didn't have to go anywhere, so we could just wait it out. The driveway was a mess again. I shoveled it enough that we could get the car out if we wanted to. Here is a view of the end result. That's my "snow blower" leaning against the back of the car. I inherited it from my Dad. It's probably older than either Mike or Kris.


I posted a picture of the snow covered Adirondack chair yesterday. Here is what it looks like today.


To wrap up, here is the latest installment in "The 12 Days of Christmas". I should get through the next 10, if the crayons hold out.

Here We Go Again

Well, the warmer weather that came at the end of last week had succeeded in clearing the roads and sidewalks of snow. We also lost the last three giant icicle growths that were clinging to the roof edge at the back of our house. So now, we get dumped on again. The snow that you see in the pictures arrived mostly in the last 24 hours. I estimate that we have close to a foot of the white stuff. The weather forecast says that some areas may get another foot by this time tomorrow. Enough already. If this is intended to give us a reminder of why we go south in the winter,

We Get The Point!!

The driveway is shoveled, the car is uncovered, I've finished the library book that I have been reading, and there are no good sports shows on TV at this time. So I guess it's time to break out the crayons and create some holiday decorations.

Alison Balsom

For the record, I am a happily married man, and have been for more than 40 years. That having been said, the spirit of the high school trumpet player that lives in me thinks that this woman is hot, both musically and otherwise.

Why Shih-Tzus Don't Do Well As Sled Dogs.

Here is our 14 year old Shih-Tzu, Wickett, making his way through last night's snowfall.

Ukelele Ike

Here is a clip of Cliff Edwards, aka "Ukelele Ike", doing "Singing In The Rain", which was a big hit for him. Be sure to look at this video first. Does that voice sound familiar? Scroll down and the take a look at the second video. That should clear up the mystery.






















(11 years later, from Walt Disney's "Pinocchio")

"Goldilocks" Planet

New Planet Discovered 2010, Earth like Planet Gliese 581G

The Goldilocks reference is because it is just the right size and the right distance from its sun to support life. And it is only 20 light years from our solar system.

Watch for a Starbucks opening announcement soon.

Schirrhein Football

This article talks about the big upset victory that Schirrhein had in 2009 in the Coupe de France football tournament (soccer to us Yankees). It's old news, but I just found out about it.

Schirrhein Boss

Hails

Coupe De France

Giant Killing

Rank outsiders in the Coupe de France, seventh division side Schirrhein, progressed to the last 32 of the competition with a fairytale win over Ligue 2 side Clermont Foot.

Jan 4, 2009 10:23:18 AM

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Languishing in the seventh tier of French football, the Excellence league of the Alsace region, few had given Schirrhein a hope when they faced off against Ligue 2 stalwarts Clermont Foot in the Coupe de France.

At half time the match appeared to be going by the form book as the minnows trailed 2-0, but, in a Hollywood-style ending, the Alsatians scored an incredible four times in the final 26 minutes to power through to the last 32.

“There are always some surprises in the Coupe de France but, when you’re trailing 2-0 at half time against a team that’s fully five divisions above you, it’s unbelievable,” smiled a delighted Hervé Strum, coach of Schirrhein, to the press at full time.

“Legs Of Madness”

Even trailing by two goals at half time, Strum felt his side still had a fighting chance in the match.

“In the first half, Clermont only had three chances but they were able to put the ball in the net twice so I was able to convey a message of hope,” he explained.

“In the second half, I felt our opponents were feverish and that we could put them in difficulty. We reduced the score and then our players got legs of madness.

“This result is not due to chance, there are strong foundations at this club and the players have done a lot of work for three weeks.”

“This is incredible,” exclaimed president Pierre Dillinger. “This was our Mont Blanc, now we must conquer Mount Everest!”

Robin Bairner, Goal.com

Buzzkill-I think they lost 8-0 in their next match.

Also, "LEGS OF MADNESS" is a great name for a band.

A Barbershop Joke

Pleasant. That's The Point

We spent last Thursday through Sunday camping with The Cardinal Gulfstreamers, the RV club that Sue and I belong to. All the members have RV's that are manufactured by Gulfstream Coach and the Cardinal reference is because the club is based in Ohio and the cardinal is our state bird.

We were camped at Krodell Park, close to the town of Point Pleasant, WV. We also spent time across the Ohio River in Gallipolis, OH. ("City of the Gauls" because it was settled by people from France).

We were quite busy and the weather was just great. Sunny, not too hot and no rain at all. We toured a tavern in Gallipolis that was visited by The Marquis de Lafayette, Louis Phillippe (before he was King of France) and Jenny Lind, The Swedish Nightingale, among others. Other activities included a wine tasting party and pasta dinner at The Merry Family Winery, a tour of a replica of Fort Randolph, which was actually on the grounds of Krodell Park where we were camped, and a visit to this year's Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant. The Mothman Festival has been held for more than 40 years and attracts some very "interesting" people (not counting the members of our club). I have included a link in the "Check Out These Blogs" column for those who might want to find out more about "Mothman". The flood wall along the river in Point Pleasant is in the process of being decorated with murals showing the history of the area. You will see some of the murals in the slideshow.

Here are a few pictures

Fire Pit and Browns

Seeing the pictures of the fire pit that Mark built inspired me. Ours is not as massive as the one in Cincinnati, but it makes use of the metal outdoor fireplace that the kids gave us when we had Christmas in San Antonio a few years ago.

In the picture below, you can tell that Joshua Cribbs, Browns star (#16, former Kent State quarterback) is entranced by our rendition of The National Anthem.

Johanny Cash??

This video was posted on Facebook by my FB friend, and likely relative, Jean Claude Halter. The singing is in German, with French subtitles. But I think that you will recognize the tune and then you can figure out the lyrics in English.

Note to Mark: If you need an opening band when you play the Hofbrau House, these guys are a natural.

Update on the Halters in France

It turns out that Jean Claude Halter, who is 58 years old, may be a closer relative than we thought. He tells me that his father was born in 1896 in the village of Schirrhein. Schirrhein is a dual village with Schirrhoffen and that is where the Halters lived who came to Ohio and from whom we are descended. I plan to ask some more questions and give him some info about the Ohio Halters (without being a pest).

On a different note, I think that I may have caused Jean Claude to start playing FarmVille. Yes, I feel guilty. He did not show any connections to FV when I first became his FB friend, but now he is at level 5 and he sent me a mystery gift today. I feel like a drug dealer.

Here is a video posted by Jean Claude on FB. No, it's not porn, despite what it looks like in the picture. It's just rap in French with a rugby theme. I think I understood more of this than I do when I listen to rap in English.

Relatives from France?

Here are some photographs that were posted on FB by my new FB friend Jean Claude Halter, who lives in the same Alsace-Lorraine area that my Halter ancestors left when they came to the U.S. in the 1830's. They were German, but today that region is French. Jean Claude has made a couple of FB comments in German, however most of his posts are in French. Thank goodness for the online translator. The two young men are Brice and Johan. I know that Brice's last name is Halter, but I'm not sure about Johan. It appears that at least some of the French Halters are still in the farming business.



















The young man facing forward below is Brice and the one looking back is Johan.

OK, I Admit That I'm Easily Entertained. Are You?

Original Video of Pug singing "Batman"




Batman TV Theme

Want To Read Other People's Stuff?

I found this item on the website called Found Magazine. People send in things that they have found abandoned and this site posts them for us to read as the "Find of the Day". This is just a sample. If you are curious and want to read more, it's

http://www.foundmagazine.com


I have a major problem with the first rule (very happily so), but overall, I think I've done ok with the others.

Welcome To Pandora

This tree is sometimes called The Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta to its friends).

I don't know where this next picture was taken but Walt Disney had to have visited there at least once.

Music Map

Here is a site that I found using "Stumbleupon". (www.stumbleupon.com) Knowing that many who read this blog are into music a little more than the average person, I thought that you might enjoy playing with it. Click on the "Featured Site" in my Check Out These Blogs list.

Clear Choice On The Road

We sang for The Canton City Women's Club Ice Cream Social earlier this summer. They had arranged to have this 1929 Rolls Royce on hand to add to the "old time " feeling. We got the opportunity to have our picture taken in this beautiful car, and we took advantage of it.

Update:That Player Down South

Fathead, the company that makes large stick-on wall murals of sports stars and cartoon characters is owned by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Who knew? LeBron James murals that normally sold for about $100 have been discounted. That is not surprising. The interesting thing is the discount price of $17.41. Why such an unusual number? Well, 1741 happens to be the birth year of Benedict Arnold. At least Mr. Gilbert hasn't lost his sense of humor.

Philadelphia (BHS Convention)

Here are some pictures that we have taken when we got away from the Convention Center where all the barbershop related activities are going on. I plan to add captions to many of these at a later time, but I have been too busy.

What We Did Last Weekend

Here are a few pictures of the anniversaries, birthday, Father's Day celebration and all around getaway weekend in Hocking Hills, south of Columbus. We had a great time and are already planning a similar experience for next summer. We were celebrating anniversaries (40 for Sue and I, 3 for Mike and Kim and 1 for Kris and Mark), my birthday (64) and Father's Day.

After clicking the lower left window that includes "by Bill",
use the right arrow if you want to view the pictures at your own pace.

What Are We Teaching Our Kids?

You might want to click on the image to enlarge it.

Clear Choice Performs on Humane Society Telethon

Here is a video that we recorded that was shown as part of the Summit County Humane Society Telethon last year. It's a well known fact that dogs and cats love barbershop singing. They can hear chords ringing that humans can't.

I thought that this was worth sharing.

There is no particular statement or point that I am trying to make here. If anyone thinks that they have a good caption for this picture, leave a comment.

Real Farming, Small Scale

We have just about finished with the addition of flowers and vegetables for this year. There might be a few more flowers coming in the front yard and we want to start a couple of different varieties of sunflowers in the back yard but that's about it.

I took the rust off the post from the old satellite dish, painted it and added a couple of brackets. Now it is a support for two hanging baskets. I also transplanted some daylilies from the bunch at the back of the yard to the base of this post. Those daylilies originally came from Sue's father's house in Erie. A few years ago, I transplanted some to surround the base of our mailbox. Last year I put some along the garage side of the house in between hosta. The original plot just keeps replacing the plants that I take out. You can see that starter area in the rear right in the picture below. Anybody want some daylilies from Grandpa's house? We might be able to provide lilacs that came from Grandma Halter's house too.



The garden has 10 tomato plants, plus some peppers, carrots and butternut squash. We planted everything last week, but yesterday we added an automated slow soaking watering system and a fence to keep Wickett and the rabbits from wandering through the garden. The soaker comes on every 12 hours(about 6am and 6pm) and runs for 30 minutes. This is a new wrinkle for us so we'll see how it works out.


Another new venture is the small wildflower patch. We had some seeds that we got at a wildflower farm in Texas. I've been keeping them damp, so we should know soon if they are going to come up.

FarmVille, what the hell?

Last night, I had 400 plots of land on my "farm" and they were all planted with pumpkins. This morning, there were 19 plots on my farm and nothing was planted in any of them. All of my trees, buildings, animals, decorations, etc are there and all the harvesting, plowing, sowing functions work. Still my farm is almost all green grass.

I blame The Smoke Monster.







Well, at least it's a nice day and I will find something to do in the real outdoors.






Update: The "Farm" is back, sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 this afternoon. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Just A Short Rant

There are two news stories that have been occupying our TV coverage lately. The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the debate over what LeBron James will do when he becomes a free agent.

The oil spill is, of course of national importance. The LeBron story seems to headed that way.

Here are my "brief" rants

(1) The oil spill should have never happened. Corners were cut and safeguards ignored that led to this mess. The government, that means both Republicans and Democrats, need to improve oversight that would not allow profit to push safety and concerns for the environment aside. Remember, people died on that oil rig. If you want to dig a little, do some searching about the closed-door meetings between Dick Cheney and guys from Halliburton during the previous administration in Washington. I heard Sarah Palin on TV yesterday suggesting that this situation would have been handled better if Republicans had been in charge. Is she aware of the Katrina fiasco? Well, of course not. She only reads what is written on her hand.

(2) LeBron won't be a free agent for over a month from now. The TV news will beat this to death until then and it will be like trying to endure political ads and praying that election day comes soon. For a 25 year-old whose every move is under scrutiny, he seems to be handling it all well. No indication of drugs, concealed weapons, bar fights, etc. I hadn't paid much attention to NBA basketball since the Cavs moved to downtown Cleveland. I began to follow the team a little when they won the right to draft LeBron and then became more of a fan when Dan Gilbert started bringing in some better players. But, LeBron James will play next year with the team of his choice. If that's not in Cleveland, then the sun will still rise and life will go on. Wouldn't it be nice if the general population of NE Ohio was as passionate about The Cleveland Clinic as they are about a basketball player. Believe it or not, The Clinic has an even better world-wide reputation than does Mr. James.

End of rant. I feel better. I think that I'll watch PBS tonight from 6:00-7:00.

I'm A Tribe Fan

I will always be a fan of the Cleveland Indians. They can be up, down, whatever and I will support them. This year, expectations were not too high. The pitching was suspect and the offense was supposed to be the strong point. So far, the pitchers, especially the starters, have overachieved and the hitters have struggled. Their record is 15-24, after losing two straight to Kansas City. There are a lot of new faces, but I enjoy watching this combination of veterans and kids. As long as I can tune in to a game and see Sandy Alomar standing in the first base coach's box, I will be content.

Of course, a record above .500 would be nice too.

Facebook Is Bad For My Blog

As you may have noticed, my last post here was in March while we were still in Florida. Blame FarmVille and Restaurant City mostly, plus RV trips and general slothfulness. I am going to try to get back in the habit of posting on a regular basis.

Last Saturday, The Akron Derbytown Chorus of barbershop singers sang the National Anthem before the Indians-Tigers baseball game at Progressive Field in Cleveland. This is the third year in a row that we have done this. Mike and I are both members of this chorus.

It was cold, windy and sometimes rainy. We got the singing in ok and stayed through the fourth inning. Then Kim, Mike, Sue and myself went to Quaker Steak and Lube in Valley View for some lunch and watched the game on TV. It was much warmer there.

Here is a video that Sue took despite the wind and other nasty conditions. She's a trooper.
With all due modesty, I think that we sound dang good.




How about another video. This is the chorus warming up (both our voices and the rest of our bodies) before we went onto the field.

Mustang Sally

Here is a small sample of the music from our gig at the ice cream social on 3/5. We did about 15 songs and the folks seemed to like the rock and roll.

Note: Mustang Sally is the only song on this clip (about 4 min. 30 sec.). There is a lot of space at the end that is from a longer movie that I made. I thought that I had trimmed it down, but that space is still there.

Swamps and Art

Last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon taking a 2.5 mile walk through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. This area is under the supervision of The Audubon Society. There is a very nice boardwalk system that allows you to get up close and personal to flora and fauna. Sometimes too close (see water moccasin picture later). We saw a couple of alligators, a deer, a hawk, an owl and a great variety of other birds. This area is a gathering place for those who actually know about birds. We saw many people with giant lenses on their cameras taking pictures and identifying the birds.

On Sunday, we attended the Bonita Springs Art Festival. This is the second festival. They held another one in January, but we missed that one. We were surprised by both the number of artists and the number of visitors. Many of the artists were from Florida, but some came from the New England area, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, etc. It was a beautiful day to be outdoors. We finished the afternoon by having dinner at The Silver Spoon, a nearby bistro.



You can pause this slideshow and use the arrows to go at your own speed.

It will be a busy musical week for me. Tomorrow, rehearsal for Friday's IBE show. I'm sing with the choir for four songs, doing two with the barbershop quartet and two more with the guitar trio that came from our jam sessions. Wednesday is the regular jam session. On Thursday, Sue and I travel to Upriver RV Resort, where we stayed during the 2008 and 2009 winters. My friend Gator asked me to play and sing again with their musicians for the afternoon "Upheaval" picnic. On Friday is the "Choir and Friends show here at IBE. It will feature the choir and eight others acts. Finally, the choir is singing two songs at the Sunday evening church service. It's no problem to keep my singing voice in shape for when we get home.

Speaking of home, we plan to start back to Ohio on Monday, April 5th. We will stop in Cincinnati on 4/9 to spend the weekend with Kris and Mark, and then go back to Kent on Monday, 4/12. My quartet has a gig on 4/15. We are singing The National Anthem at the home opener of the Akron Aeros baseball team (Indian's AA affiliate).

Updates from Bonita Springs

It's finally showing signs of getting back to normal, weather-wise, down here in FL. The forecasters say that by the end of this week we should be done with the string of cold, windy days that have been filling the spaces between our sunny days. We are ready for that.

These pictures show the little park that is at one end of IBE, along the Imperial River. It is a nice spot to watch turtles, otters and of course manatees. The orange shapes in one of these pictures are manatees with the sun reflecting off them. The squirrels at this park have become used to humans, so they don't really run away anymore.



























































Both Sue and I have been continuing our activities. The pictures below show the two finished baskets that Sue made. Her other projects were shown in the last post but the baskets were not finished at that time.

































The barbershop quartet that we formed here at IBE sang a song at the church service last night. We get together at least once a week to work on songs. We are scheduled to sing a couple of songs at the "end of the season" show on March 19.

There are two other guys who play guitar and sing that have joined me on a regular basis for the Wednesday jam sessions. We are providing the entertainment for an ice cream social this Friday (3/5). It could be our big break. Should we call ourselves "The Oneders"? I saw that movie and the name was too confusing. One name suggestion was "The G-strings". I am going to suggest "Three Sheets To The Wind", since there are three of us. This group is also booked to do two songs at the show on the 19th. Ah, show biz!

In conclusion, Wickett is also enjoying the winter. He is at Petsmart getting more handsome this afternoon. Below, he is shown hogging the little ceramic heater that we used on some of our cooler evenings. Tough life being a dog.

Here is what he looks like after a trip to the groomer. Ignore the satanic eyes. I used the flash.

That Sue Is A Crafty One

Sue has been going to craft making sessions down at the rec hall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is not one to brag, but I convinced her to let me show you what she has been working on.

1) The first project was a pair of earrings.



















2) The next project was a knit hat suitable for Ohio winters.



















3.) Next, the art of Oragami, particularly the "iris" technique, was used to produce these two greeting cards.





































4) Project number four was a "microwave hottie". You put this under a container that you are heating in the microwave. When it's time to remove the item, you just grab the ends of the hottie and lift it out. No need to resort to those dangerous individual hot pads.

































5) The current project, which is not finished yet, is a casserole carrier basket.