Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Blog Number 407

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

We received a phone call around 5 Saturday night.  The wife was just getting ready to boil some water for dinner (pasta) but that was interrupted by the call.  It was an (last minute) invite to a cookout.  I say last minute as the reply to the question, "What time?" was, "Now."  10 miuntes later we were pulling up to our friend's house.  The first think I noticed was this bush with honkin' big flowers...


Now my hand is about 8" long and this flower's diameter was every bit that length if not more.  This house is a recent (< 1 year) purchase so the owner's did not have the family / genus / species of this flowering plant.  Pretty though, eh?  Anyway, we hung out, ate burgers and dogs from the grill and just had a good time in general.  I even got to play with one of those small netbooks that (I used to think that) I wanted.  The keyboard is mercilessly small for my hands (did I mention they are 8"?).  I suppose I could get used to the keyboard if needed.  I had planned on practicing my solo for church the next day but we arrived home close to 9 so that was out of the question.  Based on the response after the service the next day, I did not need the extra practice.  It is a great feeling not to mess a song up.  It is an even greater feeling to pick the right song (and one in your range) and be able to touch people's lives with song.  I had more positive responses than for any other song that I have performed.  I truly proud moment.

Since yesterday was my birthday, we did our traditional birthday dinner whereby the birthday person picks the restaurant and receives the only menu and gets to pick everyone's food.  Since my son is on a gluton free diet, I decided on a Thai restaurant so we did not call attention to his gluton-free-ness.  Rice does not contain gluton so Pud Thai and Pineapple Fried Rice were my choices along with some egg rolls.  Even though I only ordered 2 adult entrees, it was more than enough food for everyone to get their fill and for the wife and I both to have nice sized portions for lunch today.  Incredible the portion sizes these days!  I did make a slight miscalculation on what "medium" spicy might mean to a Thai person (hint, it is NOT what an American would call medium).  The kids are not that into spicy foods but they did OK.  The leftovers were great today.

I went back and forth on continuing to journal my weight daily.  I knew that I would but up this morning since I also had lunch with my mother yesterday (Red Lobster).  I did not overeat really for either meal but my body is just not used to restaurant food any more.  Perhaps another day I will share my weight from this morning but I did want to share with you proof that I really did make it to 182 as the below pic is from the morning of my birthday.


I don't think I ever mentioned that I weigh myself sans clothing (e.g. nude, naked, bare skinned, au naturel, unclad, free from the fetters of clothing, in my birthday suit, etc).  Mercifully, my hands were steady and all you see is my feet and ankles.
  • Copying Beethoven: I think I have mentioned that I like historical films.  Through in a familiar character with a few made up (non historical) roles and you just about can't go wrong.  This movie from 2006 stars Ed Harris (who I have seen in Needful Things, Apollo 13, National Treasure II, etc) and Diane Kruger (National Treasure I and II).  The main character is the music however and takes a back seat to no one.  There is one long scene in the middle that is really dramatic where Beethoven (by then, deaf) directs the orchestra with the help from the Diane Kruger character who guides him while hiding in the pit with the orchestra.  It is very moving when the performance is over and Beethoven has to be turned around to "see" the ovation he receives.  The ending was kind of weird but could not have topped that middle scene anyway.  Recommended to anyone.
We just started December Boys but only got about 20 minutes in before the wife begged off and fell asleep in the chair.  I made note of the time of the movie and then proceeded to blog.  Earlier tonight however the son and I booked our hotel for our Decatur, IL trip to see Stellar Kart in concert.  For some reason he is really into hotels now.  He likes to read the reviews on places like hotels.com and also to look at the pictures of the rooms, pool area, breakfast area, etc.  He is over the top with this but booking the room was euphoric for him and he was still talking about it as I tucked him in tonight.  I spent the extra money and got a nice hotel (as opposed to the cheap dives I spent tons of weekends at when I was attempting to make it on the Pro Bowler's Tour).  We will probably be there early on our check in day and stay late on our check out day so an indoor pool was a must.  I am really looking forward to this, we have not taken many trips alone together and Stellar Kart is like is most favorite band in the world.  I am sure the hotel booking will make tomorrow's blog on his site.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

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