Spring Break film fest

This morning we went down to Stetson and got registered for Homecoming next weekend. Then we stopped by Belly Busters and brought sandwiches home for lunch. I've been eating hot roast beef and cheese sandwiches at Belly Busters since 1983, and it has always been a must-do on any trip home. Sometime in the last year though, the original owners sold to somebody new and things are just . . . different. The roast beef, for one thing, is a lot saltier. We still continue to visit though, but we always talk about how things used to be.

This afternoon and evening we worked our way through a couple of our movies. First we watched the Angela Lansbury play of "Sweeney Todd," and tonight we watched "Edward Scissorhands." Tomorrow night we have a date with Johnny Depp in the film version of "Sweeney Todd." Two nights in a row of Depp with razor sharp hands!

I'm having a great time but I didn't bring my computer (thanks, Mike, for lending me yours). I'm just getting on a couple times a day to check email and toss something up onto the blog. It's actually a very nice break! Don't worry though--I've gotten this far in Blog365, so I'm not going to quit now.

Sunday drive

We spent today in atypical prayerfulness, as Mike drove over 200 miles of our trek from Alabama down to Florida. Actually, he did a very good job, probably better than I did in fact. I am an incurable backseat driver, but I have an excuse--I learned at the knee of the master (hi, Mom!). More news from Florida tomorrow!

Not on my to-do list

If you looked at my to-do list from yesterday and thought, "Wow, Bonnie sure has a lot to do before going to Florida," I would like to you take a moment to consider what is NOT on my to-do list: Run 10 miles. No, that is something that will never pop up on my to-do list, especially not on the day we are leaving for vacation, but it IS on Fred's and Mike's lists. I figure they should be more than halfway through by now. Cross fingers for them that it's not too painful--Mike has a wicked cold or allergies, and it is 35 degrees out there right now with 15 MPH winds.

We hope to be on the road by noon!

UPDATE: They finished! Fred did it in 1:28:48, and Mike did it in 1:25:50. Now they're stuck in traffic though, and it looks like it might take them that long again just to get out of the parking lot. Our hopes of being on the road by noon are fading.

Watch me get ready for Florida

My to-do list, to be updated as I move steadily towards my goal of getting on the road:

1000: Community Grants meeting
PX (lots of last-minute shopping)
Pharmacy
1300: Teach knitting class at high school
Finish laundry
1700: Mike to baseball game (cancelled!)
Key to cat-sitter
Cook supper
Pack (more or less--all that remains are gathering toiletries and the dog's stuff and getting it all in the car)
Homework for next week (don't want to be bothered by it in Florida!) (OK, I wound up having to take one thing, but I don't think it'll take up too much time)

At the movies

One of my favorite parts of the Oscars is when they go through past winners. I sit there and say, "Oh, that was so good and I'd love to see it again," or "Wow, I never got to see that one." This year was no exception, but this year I decided to do something about it, so I signed up for NetFlix. Then I started thinking of how much fun it would be if I could share my movie list here on the blog like I share my book list via LibraryThing.

I started looking around online for widgets and finally found one that I liked a lot, but when I installed it it changed the display of some of the other things in my sidebar. Fortunately the people at AdaptiveBlue could not have been more helpful! We sent a series of emails back and forth and pretty soon I had my template code tidied up and the widget safe and sound on my sidebar. So now you can keep up with what we're watching around here!

For the record, Mike stayed home from school today with a bad cold, and he and I watched "On Golden Pond." Annabelle watched "Edward Scissorhands" yesterday TWICE. And we've been sitting on "West Side Story" for a good 3 weeks. We're taking it to Florida though, so put on your "West Side Story" shoes, Florida peeps! (And your "Vitus" shoes and--on April 1--your "Sweeney Todd" shoes, too.)

Breakfast--it's what's for supper

Fred left for an overnight trip to DC today, and I went out to buy the Cap'n Crunch that has kind of become our "thing" when he's TDY. In the commissary, however, I was suddenly overwhelmed by a craving for the kind of breakfast we enjoyed when the kids and I went to Scotland with my dad several years ago. Standard fare was scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, and baked tomatoes. I added the sliced strawberries just to be different:



Mike's swim practice was cancelled this evening, and it felt so nice to have some time to cook supper for a change. In fact, I even got a jump on tomorrow's supper--stuffed cabbage:

Around the world at Ft. Knox

Tonight was one of my favorite nights here at Knox--International Night! That's when all the international students from the Armor Center set up informational booths at the club about their home countries. We get to wander around and meet people from all over the world and eat their food. What could be better?!

Comic relief

Mike showed me the funniest thing this afternoon that he had found in his latest issue of "Rolling Stone." Meet Garfield Minus Garfield. Basically, it's a series of Garfield cartoons with that lasagna-loving feline removed, which turns it into "a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb." For example:



I haven't had this much fun since the last time I played with the Nietzsche Family Circus, which "pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote." Like this:


We have art in order not to die of the truth.

Comment rescue

We are having a quiet Easter--pancakes for breakfast followed by housecleaning and homework doing. Not a lot to blog about, so I thought I would share a funny story that came to mind when I read this comment from Badger under my post from a few days ago:

HAHAHA! I am so glad to find out those four years of German I took (two in high school, two in college) were good for something. I can now ask for directions to the train station, order a raspberry torte with whipped cream, AND read LOLcats in two languages. Yay, me!

We lived in Hawaii from 1999 to 2001, and somewhere during that time, we were flying back to the mainland for a family visit. It had been years since I had heard or spoken Germany, but I recognized what I thought might be German being spoken among a group of older tourists, one of whom was seated next to me.

Several hours into the flight, a flight attendant with an amazingly shrill voice came around with a basket of foil-wrapped sandwiches. "You want ham or turkey?" she whined to each of us in turn until she came to the gentleman seated next to me.

His face took on a look of mild panic, as he obviously didn't know what she was asking or how he should respond. Her response was to talk even louder: "HAM or TURKEY?"

I reached waaaaaaaaaay down into the bottom of my brain (the part I use for storing information like my phone number from third grade), retrieved a word I thought might work, pointed to the ham sandwich and explained: "Das ist Schinken."

"Ah, ja! Schinken!" he said and gratefully took the sandwich. It turned out that he and the other members of his group were Austrian, which explained why I wasn't entirely sure they were speaking German and not, say, Dutch. We chatted a bit over our sandwiches, as much as my limited German would allow ("Schönes Wetter, nicht?"), and then sat in silence for the remainder of the trip.

I was quite proud of how I had saved my fellow traveler from a sandwichless existence, and I bragged about it upon arriving home in Florida. "Just think," my dad said. "If you knew how to say 'turkey,' he could have had a turkey sandwich."

Bad bunny

I can't remember if it was Mike's first Easter (when he was 8 months old) or his second (when he was 20 months old), but one of those 2 big occasions, Fred and I forgot to do his Easter basket until the next day. Fast forward to tonight, and I almost forgot again! Fred and Mike and I just watched "Pulp Fiction" and I was getting ready to come upstairs and blog and go to bed, when it suddenly dawned on me that Easter is tomorrow.

Fortunately, I had shopped several days ago, so I didn't have to make any midnight Walmart runs. But I can find only one Easter basket! It's driving me crazy because these are those über-expensive Longaberger Easter baskets that I splurged for years ago on the theory that they would be part of a meaningful tradition for years to come. And now one has gone AWOL?!

I'm off to improvise. Happy Easter!

Countdown to Florida

This time next week I will be going crazy, trying to get us packed for our SPRING BREAK TRIP TO FLORIDA! Can you tell I'm excited? I want to see my family and eat my favorite foods, and I want to be warm. I'm so sick of winter.

I'm glad I went yesterday and got a pedicure. Today we hit the mid 60's, and I was able to take my pretty toes out on the town in my favorite sandals. We're back in the 40's for the weekend, so I'm glad I was able to really enjoy today.

There's not an awful lot else going on. Just trying to stay on top of work and school so that I can really kick back on our SPRING BREAK TRIP TO FLORIDA!

Winter reading challenge: the end

I survived winter! It's spring now, and today was actually nice. I celebrated by going to the nail salon and having my nasty winter feet prettified. But about the books and the outcome of the winter reading challenge . . .

When Mike was a baby, I was convinced I was getting dumber by the day. I launched a very short-lived self-improvement project in which I swore that I would read every book that there's a Cliffs Notes for and that I would do so in alphabetical order. I started with Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and then petered out about 50 pages into Virgil's Aenid. So much for that brilliant idea!

A couple of the books that have languished on my reading list (and nightstand) for months now are what I think of as "healthy" books--books that are guaranteed to exercise my brain and make me a better person (even if they have no Cliffs Notes). But really, between school and work and my various projects and hobbies, my brain gets plenty of exercise these days thankyouverymuch. So I have decided to strike Unhooked and The Shia Revival from my list (and nightstand) and focus on reading some fun stuff instead. To that end, I have polished off Third Degree by Greg Iles and Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella in just the past few days:

And now I am reading High School Confidential by Jeremy Iverson. I'm not putting it on my winter reading list, however, because WINTER IS OVER! The final tally:

Beneath the Surface
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
Nicholas and Alexandra
Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book
Remember Me?
Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter
Stupid and Contagious
Third Degree

(I'm still working on those Russian stories bit by bit.)

LOLKatzen?

I have 4 assignments due for school tomorrow night plus a school board meeting that will eat up most of the day. So naturally I killed a good 30 minutes or so this morning looking for LOLcats in German. The great thing about the Internet is that everything is there! I found this really cool site. A couple of my favorites:

Gold Rush AAR

Our Spouses and Community Club hosted its annual fundraiser on Saturday night. As always, it was a lot of fun and the culmination of A LOT of work.

We had dangerous criminals in jail:



And dancing girls, mostly pretty:



But of course for me, it's all about the horses. This was my third year of chairing the Run for the Gold, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. We raised almost $2500 in the horse auction, which goes towards our Community Grants program. That's about what we grossed last year, but last year we had to buy the computer we gave away as a grand prize in the ensuing horse race, so that cut into our profits by several hundred dollars. This year it was donated, so everything we made is profit. Heck, I was excited the first year when we made $1200!

This year's stable was filled with lovely entries:



Fred and I bought "Beauty," the horse that is covered in cosmetics. Alas, Beauty let us down in the first qualifying race, but it was fun to be a part of the race anyway.

One sentimental favorite was "Prints." That's the black horse with the yellow spots. That horse was made by the Junior Red Cross, and those spots are thumbprints of children of soldiers deployed from Knox. Each deployed parent was represented on the base of the horse on tiny yellow ribbons. Prints brought in almost $300!!!

Two years later, and people were still talking about the horse I made our first year here. Jeez, glue a bunch of condoms to a wooden horse, and people never let you forget it. For those of you who missed it, meet "Sure Thing--The Trojan Horse":



Notice how his eye is the Trojan's head. Damn, I'm proud of that horse.

Curtain call

Wow, I can't believe it's over. I figured up in the car last night on the way home that High School Musical took a good 30+ hours of my time last week, either in driving or waiting or (best of all!) playing chaperone backstage. Seeing how much fun Annabelle had with it made every last second totally worthwhile though!

Yesterday when we arrived for the matinee performance, there was a woman sitting in the breakroom knitting, and you know I can't resist chatting up a fellow knitter! It turned out that she was Denise Nolin, the understudy for "Ms. Darbus" and the cast member Annabelle had mentioned the other day as being so friendly and talking to the pep squad kids about her experiences in theater. She was very nice, and it was such fun talking to her!

After the show we stopped at the stage door for more photos and more signatures for her friend's poster:





We had several hours to kill between shows, so we crossed the bridge into Indiana, and I surprised Annabelle with a trip to IHOP. That might sound strange, but IHOP is a really big deal for us, especially since we don't have one anywhere close by. Every time I drive past the new Waffle House in Radcliffe, I give a bitter sigh and demand: "Why couldn't you have been an IHOP?!" We also wandered the mall for a while and then wound up stopping by Target for drinks and magazines, which we enjoyed in the Target parking lot for that final hour of free time.

When we arrived for the final performance, we heard the cast in another room singing the best version of "Happy Birthday" that I've ever heard. The birthday girl turned out to be the new understudy for "Sharpay." She brought cake out to the bleacher creatures and graciously posed for a photo:



At the matinee, Annabelle had been on the bleachers that were on the same side of the stage as my fellow chaperone and I. As a result, I couldn't really see her except for an occasional glimpse. For the closing show, however, she was across the stage from me, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was having the time of her life!

As the cast cleared the stage, I handed jackets, purses, and cell phones back to all the pep squad members. This put me at the tail end of the crowd backstage and separated me from Annabelle. As I was walking down the hall, I ran into Shaullanda Lacombe, who played "Taylor." I explained to her that Annabelle had been collecting autographs all week on a poster for a friend and that hers was one of the few she hadn't been able to get. I pulled out the poster and pen and asked if she would be willing to sign. Her response: "I'm honored to be asked!" and she very neatly signed her name and a personal inscription.

I caught up to Annabelle, who was saying goodbye to Denise, and told her that I had gotten "Taylor" to sign the poster. She was thrilled but pointed out that we still hadn't gotten "James" (of the most epic earthworm imitation ever) to sign. I said something like, "Well, you can't have everything," but Denise said, "You want James?! Stay right here."

She marched over to a nearby door, knocked firmly, announced "Woman coming in!" and went through. She returned and told us that "James" would be right out. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes Dante Russo emerged. He signed her poster and posed for a picture:



As Annabelle's souvenir t-shirt says, we do indeed heart Earthworm!

We loitered at the stage door one last time to say goodbye to everybody. As we were standing there, a little girl from the audience recognized Annabelle from the bleacher scene and asked her to sign her Playbill! I thought Annabelle was going to pass out from the thrill. I sure hope that kid saves that Playbill. It's going to be worth big bucks one day:



On our way to the parking garage, we chatted with a couple of the cast members:



Derek Ferguson, on the right, told Annabelle that he had no voice that day but still had to step up and play "Zeke" when a backstage injury lead to a little last-minute shuffling among castmembers. She assured him that he had been fabulous and that she never would have known if he hadn't said anything.

As always, the drive home was marked by Annabelle's glowing reports. This time was a little bittersweet though, knowing that it was the last time. She said then as she has said a couple times before that when she first found out about this opportunity, her main excitement had been over being able to put this on her resume. As it turns out though, that was a minor part of all the benefits. She knows now what it feels like to be under the lights in front of a really big audience with a group of people who are 100% professional in everything they do.

I get teary-eyed every time I think about how indebted I feel to the castmembers. We did not come across a single prima donna. There was absolutely nobody who was too busy or too important to stop to chat or to pose for a photo. Annabelle just about keeled over when I told her about Ms. Lacombe's response to my request for a signature: "I'm honored to be asked."

"She's honored to be ASKED?!" Annabelle shrieked when I told her in the car. "She's on her SECOND national tour, and SHE is honored to be ASKED to sign my poster?!" That just blew her mind. The entire cast and crew couldn't have provided her with a better experience or been better role models for an aspiring actress, and for that I can't thank them enough.

When we got home, Annabelle added her signature to Diamond's poster and packed it up to take with her to school today:



She said that yesterday was the best day of the best week ever. I count myself as lucky that she didn't try to stow away on the bus to Indianapolis, the tour's next stop. I also have to confess though that if she had, I'd have gone with her. She can sing her heart out on stages across America, and I . . . I shall hold the coats. Anything for show business!

Filler post

Oh, I hate feeling behind, especially when there is so much to talk about! I slept late this morning though and then spent a couple hours doing homework before taking off to L'ville for Annabelle's last day as a "bleacher creature." Today was fabulous, and I promise to post all details and some photos tomorrow!

A day off

A day off from theater, that is. Otherwise today was just as crazy as any other day, since it was Gold Rush, our annual big fundraiser here at Fort Knox. This was my third year managing the horse races, and I was once again pleased with my ponies. We brought in just under $2500, which is not chump change for a dozen plywood horses! I'll post pictures tomorrow. Right now I'm diving into bed!

More HSM

The show was great last night! Annabelle wound up going in with Fred for Act 1, which was fun for her but denied me the evil pleasure of imagining all the HSM moms gathering their wee ones close and shooting dirty looks at the solitary man in row L. Oh, and the theater was great about swapping our seats out for seats more in the middle, so whichever side Annabelle came out on, we would be able to see just fine.

Once again she really looked like she was having a fun time up there! I love hearing all the tales of backstage afterwards. She told me after the first night, "You aren't going to believe this, but there are middle-aged men back there dressed in black with beer guts and beards and they move stuff around on stage, and you never see them because you're not looking for them." Well, I looked last night, and I actually spotted one!

We hung out for more autographs and pictures after the show. We got "Coach Bolton":



(This came with an additional thrill because Ron Bohmer has also played "Phantom!")

Here she is with Ben Thompson, who played "Troy" last night:



And Bobby List as "Ryan":



And Arielle Jacobs as "Gabrielle":



We go back tonight and then for 2 more performances on Sunday. I get to be one of the 2 backstage chaperones, and I can't wait! As Annabelle says, I am indeed "really pumped about holding everybody's stuff." Anything for show business!

The bleacher creatures

As I and the other "pep squad" moms were loitering at the stage door last night, waiting for our kids to come out, a fellow walked by and asked if we were waiting for the "bleacher creatures." I thought that was pretty clever!

Annabelle and I got there ridiculously early last night, but I never know how long the drive will take. We were delighted to find that we could watch Act 1 over the LCD monitors in the lobby, so we hung out there for a while.

Just before intermission we walked around to the side of the theater and went through the stage door. That's where we met the rest of the pep squad and their parents. A stage manager came over to greet us and clue the kids in on what was expected of them. He was very organized and very friendly and made everybody feel at ease. Two parents get to chaperone for each performance (I'm doing tomorrow night and both shows on Sunday), but the rest of us had to leave.

Several other moms and I went back to the lobby to watch the show over the monitors but then our feet started hurting from standing around, so we snuck into the theater and sat down in some empty seats. It was unspeakably cool to see Annabelle come sliding out on bleachers with the other kids, and it KILLS me that I can't get a picture of it. Let me assure you that she sang and clapped and cheered and just looked like she was having the time of her life in general.

After the show, we met the kids at the stage door and took a group shot of the bleacher creatures:



Finally the rest of the cast started coming out, so we got in line for autographs. Annabelle is working on collecting autographs on a poster for a school friend of hers who is a huge HSM fan:



This is the shot though that would turn oodles of pre-teen American girls green with envy. Annabelle with "Troy" (Chase Peacock):



Fred and I have tickets for tonight. The plan is for him to go in on his own for Act 1 ('cause there's nothing creepy about a middle-aged man watching High School Musical all by himself!) while Annabelle and I hang out in the lobby. I'll deliver her to the stage door at intermission and then join Fred inside for Act 2. My only concern is that the pep squad is pretty far off to the sides, and our seats are also pretty far off to one side. If those sides are the same, we're not going to see anything. I'm taking a seating chart with me so that I can show the stage manager where we'll be sitting in hopes that he can place her with the group that will be most visible to us. Oh, wow, it's only been a couple days, and I'm already a pushy stage mother!

Go, Wildcats!

Some things I never expected to say:

1. I saw Disney's High School Musical last night.

2. With Annabelle.

3. It was pretty good!

4. Annabelle liked it, too.

When we went to Louisville to see Sweeney Todd last month, I passed the time before the show torturing Annabelle with the posters for High School Musical. Annabelle has long made clear her disdain for HSM (and its groupies), so it was fun to watch her squirm as I would casually say, "Oh, look, I guess you'll be wanting to see that one, huh?" But then something rather amazing happened . . .

I got a phone call from the director of Annabelle's Broadway Boot Camp program. He had been tasked with putting together a dozen or so local teens to appear in Act 2 of HSM as members of what they call the "Pep Squad," and he was wondering if Annabelle would be interested. I assured him that she would indeed be interested, while silently worrying that she might gag herself to death when I told her. I needn't have worried though--she has standards, but she's not stupid, and she can recognize a great opportunity when one presents itself.

Part of the deal was that all members of the Pep Squad got 2 free tickets to watch opening night from start to finish. So that is how we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the orchestra level last night (best seats I've ever had at the Kentucky Center, and they were free, courtesy of Annabelle!), watching the Wildcats do their thing.

Now, Disney makes a big hairy deal out of the fact that Pep Squad members are NOT performers. If they were performers, I would imagine Disney would have to be paying them union wages and all that, so instead they are members of the audience. Members of the audience who dress in red and white and watch about 10 minutes of Act 2 from movable bleachers onstage. Last night's Pep Squad seemed to be having a pretty good time though, singing and clapping along with the rest of the audience at the appropriate times.

Annabelle will be pep squadding tonight through Friday night and then both shows on Sunday. (Gold Rush is on Saturday, and I'm up to my eyeballs in that, so we took a pass on the Saturday shows.) Fred and I are going Thursday night to watch, and Friday and Sunday I get to be a backstage chaperone. I'm gonna be a stage mom!

Make sure you check Annabelle's blog regularly over the next few days, as I'm sure she'll have lots of exciting stuff to share.

Check back tomorrow

I haven't forgotten you. We've just been busy. Come back tomorrow afternoon. It'll be worth your while.

From the parenting files

A couple weeks ago, I decided to really crack down on getting the kids to rinse their dirty dishes and put them in the dishwasher. It was going pretty well, but I noticed that if--God forbid--I were to leave something in the sink, then they seemed to take that as an open invitation to leave their own stuff as well. Now maybe it's a double standard, but I feel entitled to leave stuff in the sink if I so desire, because at some point I'm going to come back through and clean everything up. So I put up the following notice, and so far it's working pretty well (click the picture to make it bigger):

Wounded knee

I've got the craziest thing going on. For the past couple of days, my right knee has been totally stiff. It feels like somebody stole my joint in the middle of the night, Friday night to be specific. It doesn't really hurt, but it's making me walk funny, and THAT is making other parts of me hurt. I spent this afternoon treating it with alternating heat and ice, but so far I can't tell a difference:



(The dog's legs are all fine. She just welcomes any opportunity to spend the afternoon in bed.)

Again with the dog and the snow?

Hey, she's a cute dog, and this is the most snow we've gotten out of 3 winters in Kentucky!

What kind of mother . . .

. . . sends her children to school dressed like this on a snow day?



On second thought, don't answer that.

Blog365: I've got nothin' for you today

Perhaps you will accept an LOLcat in lieu of real content?

Winter reading challenge: update

Still making my way through the winter reading challenge! I finished Schuyler's Monster and In Defense of Food and thoroughly enjoyed them both. Both books serve up a certain amount of outrage though--Schuyler's story for how the school system can really let kids down and the food book for how our government has allowed our food supply to be turned into an endless supply of crap to the benefit of major food companies. I need some fluff, especially as I am continuing to make my way through the Russian stories book and, just between you and me, Russian stories have very little fluff. So I have officially added Sophie Kinsella's new book, Remember Me?, to my list. I got through the first couple chapters tonight while I was waiting for Mike to teach his swim lessons, and it looks really fun!

Updated list:

• Beneath the Surface
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Nicholas and Alexandra
• Russian Stories: A Dual-Language Book
• Remember Me?
• Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter
• The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future
• Stupid and Contagious
• Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both

This 'n' that

Not much to report on from here. I spent most of this morning in a club meeting and met Fred for lunch when he came to rescue me by putting power steering fluid in my van.

This afternoon I took Annabelle up to Louisville for an audition for some summer musicals. She said she thought it went well--much better than last year's!

Mike started teaching swim lessons last night. Seems like only yesterday that he was the little dude sitting on the side of the pool, waiting for his turn to jump.

Don't forget to vote for Bryce Hollweg today!

Good cause

I got the following in my email the other day:

The contest for the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award For NCAA Division I Hockey is continuing,and unfortunately, Army cadet, Bryce Hollweg, continues to be stuck in a distant #2 position:

1. Marty Mjelleli (St. Cloud State University) 43%
2. Bryce Hollweg (United States Military Academy) 17%

Here's an extract from the initial Lowe's news release about the contest:

"These ten names will be placed on the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award men’s hockey ballot for a nationwide vote beginning February 13 and concluding March 28. Fan balloting, available on the award’s official website, will be combined with votes from coaches, media and sponsors to determine the recipient of the award."

Two main points: the voting will continue until March 28, and the balloting will not be the sole determinant of the winner. However, it does seem that an impressive lead in the voting would be hard to ignore.

Clearly, the St. Cloud students and friends seem energetic and well organized. Considering the voting pool we have to draw on, it will be ignominious, to say the least, if we can't win this one.

Let's rally the troops and get out the vote! Slogan: "A vote a day keeps St. Cloud away!"

Click here to vote!

Joe Gilbreth '49

I've been trying to vote each day, but sometimes it slips my mind. I figured if I put it on the blog though, I would be reminded every day and maybe some of you good folks would like to lend your support as well.

Go Army, beat St. Cloud!

I survived the weekend

Well, we're back from Owensboro, and we're currently enjoying some freakishly nice weather. It's 70 degrees, and we have all the windows open! Don't worry though--it's going to get icky again before too long.

So . . . getting back to yesterday! Annabelle's Broadway Boot Camp finished up. They focused on Phantom of the Opera this time around:



I took my camera and shot a couple video clips. Here is the gang performing "Masquerade" from Phantom (it's easier to keep your eye on Annabelle if you know that for most of the piece, she is paired up with the guy in the red pants):



And here is "Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:



This morning Fred, Mike, and I were up at the crack of dawn and out the door before 7 to go back to Owensboro for the last session of the swim meet. As we were walking in to the pool building, this kid ran by us carrying a folding chair. He didn't look familiar, but his mannerisms reminded me of a boy we knew in Germany. I said to Mike, "Doesn't he remind you of Bryce?" and Mike agreed that yes, he certainly did but what on earth would Bryce be doing here? Well, sure enough, it WAS Bryce! They are living at Fort Campbell now (which I knew, but I still never expected to run into them in Owensboro), and he and his brother were competing at the meet. Mike and Bryce were thrilled to be hanging out and swimming together:



Fred worked as a timer, so I hung out with Bryce's mom, Audrey, and her little ones. It was so nice to see them again!



Fred and Mike were Too Cool today in their finisher shirts from yesterday's 5K:



Mike swam the 4 events he was scheduled to swim and then got drafted at the meet to do the butterfly leg of a 400-yard medley relay. He was happy about that! The picture taking opportunities weren't very good at this venue, so mostly I just sat and worked on my scarf. I couldn't resist snapping one shot of him in the 100 backstroke, as he was in the lane nearest me and looking up:



It was a fun weekend but exhausting. I am actually looking forward to my nice "relaxing" upcoming week, full of meetings and projects and homework.

Miss me?

It felt really weird not to blog yesterday, but this is Blog365, not Blog366, so the 29th was a day of rest and silence. Annabelle and I contemplated blogging anyway but ultimately decided to go along with the game. We're back now though!

The weekend is halfway through, and so far we're all surviving. Mike had fun at his swim meet last night and is looking forward to tomorrow morning's session. He and Fred had fun at their 5K race. And we all enjoyed Annabelle's Broadway Boot Camp final performance. Pictures to come soon! But not tonight.