Big Toys

Yesterday was the Day of Big Toys in front of my house. Last week, we received a notice from So Cal Edison to expect the electricity to be cut off starting apx 9am on Friday. The reason was 'extraordinary maintenance" that needed to be performed. We were cautioned to safeguard computers and other sensitive electronic equipment, and advised to keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed.

No mention was made of the equipment that would arrive--

About eight the trucks started pulling up right in front of my house. I found out that my driveway would be blocked for the duration, so I had to move my car and park around the corner or be trapped.

I watched as they assembled the crane needed to perform this "maintenence", piece by humongus piece. This included a mammoth crane to put up the crane...

The workers were business like as they assembled the structure -- I noticed the flatbed trailer rise noticibly as parts were lifted, indicitive the incredible weight of each section.


I left the house before they finished, having decided to hit a movie (or two) during our forced return to 19th century technology.

I saw Julie & Julia -- (check out my review over at RTVW) and then did a little illicit theatre hopping and saw G-Force, which was worth the price I paid.

It turns out that they had to replace a telephone pole just outside my back fence (the power lines are very close). They didn't remove the old pole, just added a new, slightly taller one right beside it.

Baseball Trip

No, not a Timothy Leary '60s kind of trip, mind you, but a trip through America's Heartland, the Midwest.

This was my fifth trip with Sports Travel and Tours (sportstravelandtours.com) and every one of them has been fantastic.

We started on Saturday (7/25) in Kansas City. Kauffman Stadium just underwent a major remodeling -- $400 million worth -- and it is a beautiful place to see a game. We were treated to a rare Royals win. Right next door to the home of the NFL Kansas City Chiefs, the complex is easy to get to. I made some points with the group when I told them that the International Space Station & Space Shuttle would be visible almost directly overhead that night. Sure enough, just as we were getting off the bus at the hotel (9:36 pm CDT) there it was.

The next day we had an all-to short visit to the National Negro Baseball League Museum, and then back to Kauffman. Fortunately, our seats were in the shade (granted, the weather was perfect - temps in the mid 80s - but the sun was very bright). Included in our tour group were two couples from Bolonga, Italy (they play in a softball league and are very knowledgeable about our national pastime). One of the men caught a foul ball! After the game, as we were boarding the bus, he proudly displayed his prize walking down the aisle. I told him "You know, you're going to have to declare that in customs." At first he was somewhat baffled, but after everyone started laughing, he caught on.

The next morning we were off on our longest driving leg, a nine hour sojourn to the home of Mary Richards, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mile after mile of Iowa cornfields did little to keep one's eyes open. When we finally reached the larger of the twin cities, we encountered major construction (we had a Minnesota native in our group, and he told me, "there are two seasons in Minnesota; winter and street repair.") We had about 30 min to check-in before hoofing the half mile to the Metrodome. A perfect place to see a game -- that is, of course, providing the game is football. Our seats faced directly to the space between center and right field, so we had to twist about 80 degrees to the right so we could see the pitcher and batter.

After about 15 hours in Minneapolis, we were on the road again, this time heading into Wisconsin (the 37th state I've been in) and a date with the Brewers.

However, before that was my Peep Meet with Dragonflies, and our brief encounter at Milwaukee's Safe House (this was after the photo op with The Fonz).
Miller Park is another great place to see a game. I was surprised (well, maybe not) to see so many beer vendors plying the aisles (Dodger Stadium prohibits the sale of beer in the seating area). Another member of our little troup was Andrew, a 14-year old avid fan of the hapless Washington Nationals. The Nats happened to kick the Brewers butts, so we had a very happy teenager the rest of the trip.
After Milwaukee was a fairly short trip south to the Windy City - Chicago - and our appointment with a game at the Friendly Confines. I've been to 27 major league stadia in my travels, and there are no fans like the fans at Wrigley Field. They're crazy (but in a good way). The fact that the Cubbies won 12-0 did little to discourage normal behavior from the faithful.

The next morning we had a city tour, but it went all too fast (plus the fact that we used our same bus -- I made the suggestion that city tours should use the open top-double decker type bus that most tours have). However, the best part was my second Peep Meet; this time with the lovely Dakota.

Our meeting was disrupted by the World's Rudest Resturant Manager. We were sitting at a table outside of a Subway shop that was next door to some other local bistro. After a couple of minuets this woman yells out from the door "those tables aren't for Subway people!" OK, but there were four empty tables, plus another table occupied by a single diner quietly munching on her Subway six-inch Spicy Italian...
Not wanting to anger her neighbor, Dakota suggested that we retreat to her stoop two doors down, where we finished our chat.

That night we headed over to the home of the White Sox, US Cellular Field. I wanted to see the marker showing the location of home plate for old Comiskey Park. Our tour host directed us to it, in the parking lot near gate 5. I snapped a couple of pictures, in honor of the 50th anniversay of the Dodgers World Series win at that very spot. The evening started out rather gloomy, as we had to sit through a 64 minute rain delay (the only bad weather during the entire trip). However, that was more than made up for when the Pale Hose rallied in the ninth to beat the Yankees 3-2. Oh happy Day! (My baseball philospphy is quite simple: any day the Yankees lose is a good day.)

During our stay in Chicago, the hotel was home to some serious lawyer-in-training torture. The Loyola Law School was conducting interviews for students to enter their Patent Law program. Prospective Patent Lawyers had to sit in chairs placed in the hall outside of rooms -- looking for all the world like miscreant fifth graders waiting to see the Principal. Granted, I'm all for lawyers suffering, but this was close to unconstitutional misery.

The final leg got underway early on Friday morning, as we headed back south, eventually returning to the Show Me State and Busch Stadium, St. Louis. I spotted the Gateway Arch about four miles from the mighty Mississippi River. Our hotel was across the street from the ballpark - a distance of maybe 70 feet wall-to-wall. Cardinal fans are without a doubt the most knowelable and appreciative fans in all of baseball, so I wanted to honor them. I went to the team store about 4 hours before gametime and purchased several items (though I did focus on All Star Game memorabilia). I wore red to the game, another thrilling win for the home team as the Cards beat the Astros 4-3.

My flight home was at 8:40 am, which meant a 6 o'clock shuttle pickup for the airport. I booked my flights through Orbitz, and got a decent first class fare - but had to endure two layovers (St. Louis to Denver; Denver to Salt Lake City; Salt Lake City to L.A.), finally getting home about 5 pm PDT (13 hours after boarding the shuttle).

Vacations are great fun (for the most part) but getting home is the best part.

My 1/60th of a Worhol

I'm a devoted listener to K-EARTH 101, a Los Angeles oldies station. The morning DJ, Gary Bryan has several fun features, including something he calls "Generation Gap".

In "Generation Gap", kids under the age of 18 are invited to call in (with someone over the age of 18 standing by). The 'game' is simple. Gary gives them the name of two rock & roll groups, "one of them is real, the other is bogus" The kid needs to get two of three correct to win.

>>side note -- in the six years or so that Gary has been doing this bit, not a single kid has failed to name two correct groups. If that means the 'challenge' is blatantly easy after the first goof, so be it -- but I digress<<

As part of the intro, Gary will ask the kid who is there with hir. Most of the time it's a parent. Gary will then ask the parent's name.

I've had couple of burning questions for some time, and decided last night to send Gary an email (via the station's web site) with the questions:

1. Have you ever had a kid confused by the word 'bogus'?
2. Has there even been a kid give their parent's name as "Mommy"? (Sometimes the kids are as young as five or six).

So this morning, about 6:30am Gary read my email on the air! He gave my whole name, and even mentioned my email address (not the dot-whatever part, though). I even got a chuckle from the Entertainment editor, because my IRL name is the same as a '60s TV icon (last name has a minor spelling variation).

The answer to both questions was no, but he did say that he's expecting to get the "mommy" response some day.

The whole thing lasted about 10 seconds, but I was walking on air for most of the day (and writing this has brightened my early evening, too!)

More kwazy katz

It seems as if Fido has become a mother.

Well, O'Malley seems to think so...

Kitty love

Fido and O'Malley have become friends.

Thoughts

One of my students had a tough day today.

A little background. This student started in mid-October, about six weeks after the start of the school year. When she showed up in my class, I had to do a double check on the name. Her hair was cut very short, in a simple style and there were no other obvious signs -- at first glace, she looked like a boy.

In the ensuing months, she has changed her appearance, adding some tints/highlights to her hair (still very short). She almost always wears a sweatshirt over her white shirt and blue pants (school uniform).

She's had students give her a hard time about her appearance, some incidents within sexual harassment, imho, (no legal repercussions, sadly), but is a valuable part of our class.

Today, as part of our school-wide Career Day festivities, several classes were part of an assembly with a guest speaker who identified herself as a "magnificent motivational speaker", and she was very good. She called several students up from the audience, asking them about their plans for the future, and encouraging them to start now (these are 7th graders) to make specific plans - not only going to college, but what specific college, and classes needed to achieve a specific career ("Doctor"? Not good enough, one had to tell her what specialty...)

So this student is called up (she volunteered!) and was the last of the four in a group. I could tell she was very nervous, but I was also very proud of her for going up in front of a couple of hundred students. When the speaker got to her, she asked her name, age, and career interest. My student was very quiet, and it was hard to hear her speak. The guest speaker misheard the name, and instead announced a similar sounding boy's name. The interview continued, with my student announcing that she would like to be a police officer. Great. "Detective, Patrol Officer, or Investigator?" Not sure.

The speaker then turned to the audience, and said, "some of you, unfortunately, may have to deal with this young man when he takes into custody..." Huge laughter. The speaker thought the laughter was about the 'arrest', and chastised them for it. My student was shrinking back -- her back literally against the wall (well, the front of the stage). She finally touched the speaker's arm, and told her "I'm a girl"

The speaker didn't apologize for the mistake, but instead went on about "well, nobody said girls couldn't do anything they wanted to!"

My student got back to her seat, and thankfully, was welcomed warmly by (most) of her own classmates.

Later, I got a chance to talk to her about it. I congratulated her on going up, and she told me that "I felt like I was going to throw up." She didn't seem to want to talk about the 'young man' thing, but I did decide to give her the pair of Dodger tickets I had been given as part of a school-wide student incentive program. I'm going to talk to her more on Monday.

Another 'hair' story

As promised--

This happened 19 years ago, when my niece, Angela, was three years old (she's the youngest of my sister's three & the only girl). My sister was coming out of the shower and my niece happened to notice the hair 'down there'. Angela asked why she didn't have hair there. My sister explained to her that "that hair starts to grow when you're about 13 years old."

Angela seemed satisfied.

A couple of days later was my nephew Jason's (my sister's oldest) 13th birthday. That morning, Angela burst into Jason's room and blurted out, "JASON! Check your thing and see if hair went sproing!"

Jason was not amused.

Kids say (well, read) the darndest things

My seventh graders are deep in the "human growth and development" (aka 'puberty') part of their Health course and today, they were doing some vocabulary worksheets that included the term 'pubic hair'.

Of course, several of them, being unfamiliar with that particular word (no, not the word hair) added a letter to make it recognizable.

The letter 'l' slipped in very nicely between the 'b' and 'i'. While making a nice, easy-to-read word, the meaning loses something...

"public hair"

Tomorrow - more body parts, and their functions (monthly that is...)

Wish me luck. (If you must chortle, please do so quietly)

Time to catch up

It has been a long time, I've been busy (and yes, lazy), but I finally decided to update.

O'Malley the kitten has settled in very nicely. At first, Fido was confused, and did give me a bit of a cold shoulder (even though I was very conscientious about giving him some extra attention...). But now the two of them are cuddled up together under the table.

At work, things are very busy. State testing ended last week, and my testing group at least appeared to give their best efforts. There have been other battles with bureaucracy, and even some skirmishes within our own department. I'm caught in the middle on one of them, and will have to use my position as most senior member of the department to get what, 90% of the teachers agree, is what's actually best for the kids.

And then, there's my Dodgers. Despite the Manny news, the guys are doing a pretty good job. I'm off to the game tonight against the Angels.

VOX POPULII

I'm so proud of the kids at school. They've taken another public action to help support the teachers facing lay-offs. This morning, they got LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia to show up at a 7:15 am rally in front of the school.

This is the third rally they've organized. We've had plenty of media coverage (though today's was disappointingly light).

Board President Garcia continued the same-ol-same-ol rhetoric about budget woes (but didn't address the fact that millions of dollars are being hidden in back-door budget lines)
Some of the kids managed to 'stay' on the line past the first bell (and perhaps a teacher or two...) much to the consternation of our own administration (the principal did sneak in a few words with Monica during our rally -- taking her away from the opportunity to answer some crucial questions from students)

Way cool

Sometimes, you're just in the right place at the right time.
Last Thursday, I got an email from the LA Dodgers Booster Club (I've been a member since 1997). The Dodgers were looking for some volunteers to help with rehearsals for their home Opening Day celebrations. Would I like to participate?
You becha!
Friday afternoon I get to the stadium and find a group of people waiting for the rehearsal. Turns out that there are two rehearsal groups - one to fill-in for Dodger players and the other for an on-field display.
I got in with the display group.
We went behind the centerfield wall and national flags from 30 different countries were being handed out. I tried to get Japan first (I went to Tokyo in 2007 and saw three JPL games), but it was given to a woman. I got China (I went to Tokyo via Beijing), but when Scotland came up I swapped (my grandfather was born in Dundee).
We rehearsed our routine -- marching along the warning track; stop; wait for a music cue; march towards the infield and line up along the outer rim; wait for some announcements and the national anthem; march back out along the warning track and through the centerfield gate.
The flags were fairly large (the poles were close to eight feet long) so we had to use harnesses.
We repeated the process two more times (with a couple of tweaks - one significant change had us rimming the inner infield grass).
The next day (Saturday) we had another two hour rehearsal. We were rocking.
Monday morning (Opening Day) I get to Dodger Stadium at 9:30 am - three hours before our performance. We were given plain dark-ash tee shirts and got to hang out as the final touches were put on the stadium.
Shortly after we started our final preps - we were already inside the stadium, Dodger owner Frank McCourt came through the centerfield gate. The person with China took a picture with him (his request), then Norway got a picture. I pushed my way up to him and asked if he'd take "one more, with Scotland" He said, "Well, I wouldn't want to anger my Irish ancestors, but OK.
The actual performance started. While we were waiting along the outfield wall, I found myself five feet away from multiple Cy Young Award winner (and starting picture for the visiting San Francisco Giants) Randy Johnson. He's about 6'7 and weighs in at about 6 lbs (well, maybe a bit more, but he's skinny as a rail).
We continued our routine - I stepped on first base as we went into position - in front of over 57,000 fans. Once our part of the ceremony was over, we headed out (and I stepped on third base!)
My moment in the sun was over. An amazing thrill (even though I've been on the field before - I've done First Pitch three or four times, along with a couple of other special events), this was very different.
When I got home, I checked my TiVO of the pregame show and I got about 1.5 seconds air time. I'm also a minuscule blur on the front page of the Long Beach Press Telegram.
And the kicker -- the Dodger Boosters were supposed to be in the "fill-in" group (no actual game day performance!)

A Page from Pepe

After reading Pepe's blog about the week from H-E-double hockey sticks, I thought I'd add my own.

AKA "It was a long year last week."

Monday we had a tough rehearsal. Still lots of squirreliness (as posted).

Tuesday was supposed to be "get home right away" but I got caught in another meeting with our MESA/Science Bowl team (I'm not a Science Bowl coach, but I happened to walk into the teacher's room after school and got drafted.

Wednesday was a double-dip. After the "dress rehearsal", I had to boogie downtown for a major UTLA House of Reps meeting. I had to miss my sub-committee meeting and just got into the main meeting for the start. We had some major debate on the new contract (the House finally voted to recommend a "no" vote to the general membership). We next had more raucous debate on proposing a one-day strike (illegal) to support the pink-slipped teachers. I finally got home just before 10pm.

Thursday was performance day (see below).

Friday I had to get to school extra early (apx 5:30 am) because I was part of a committee hosting our annual Spring Break breakfast. It was a great event, everyone enjoyed the food and camaraderie, but I was on my feet the whole time. We also had to get 10-week report card grades in before noon. After school was another meeting with the Science Bowl team.

Saturday was another early start for the MESA Day finals at USC. I had to be at school by 6:15 am. About a quarter of the kids hadn't submitted all of the paperwork, so I had to chase them down before they got on the bus, then as we were trundling down the 110 I had to put the paper work in order. Then, when we get to the site, they tell me "you can just hold on to the paperwork." Next, 90% of the restrooms were locked -- not good planning with several hundred middle schoolers on campus (not to mention a certain Advisor). By the time I got to the hospitality room I was ready for a major explosion.

But, we did really good in the competitions, taking about a third of the available medals, including sweeps in Geometry, Algebra, and Craftstick bridges.

And today is the first day of Spring Break; real baseball is on the air and Fido did good when I took him for his nail trim. Maybe I'll make it after all.

Pass the Tony, please

Well, Performance Day has come and gone.

We were supposed to have a full dress rehearsal Wednesday night, but had so many interruptions, restarts and stops for just-plain-foolishness new never got through everything. We had to stop after one squirrel jumped off the stairs backstage (screwing around) and twisted his knee (our star drummer, too).

I was supposed to do my death makeup for the first time, but that didn't happen either.

This morning, again, we were scheduled to have a full run-through/dress rehearsal before the afternoon performance. I finally did get a chance to do some makeup (thank the maker for the two girls who helped!) With less than 30 min before our first audience was to show, things were still very much Squirrel City (but, fortunately, our not-so-flying squirrel drummer was fully recovered).

Then, amazingly enough, magic time.

The backstage area was quiet. Everyone hit their marks (well, came close at least) and we finished just a few minutes over the allotted time.

There were a few gaffs (I had one myself -- I missed by crossover cue (with curtains closed) and had to wait for the next -- this meant my makeup artist had about three min (instead of about 10) to get me ready for death. But she got it done, and the gasps from the students when I appeared well-bloodied and pale were most satisfying.

Our Macbeth pulled off a nifty bit of improv when, just before my ghostly entrance, Banquo was delayed (again, makeup difficulties) Lady M, Macbeth, and some of their new entourage and drinking toasts to celebrate their usurping ... Banquo misses his cue, so Macbeth orders "some refills!" It worked.

The kids in the audience really seemed to enjoy the show... lots of cheers (and oohs! for a throat-slit teacher :-))

The evening performance went even better (I hit my cross-over cue), and, all-in-all, I was very pleased (and also very glad the whole thing is over and done with!)

I'll try to get some pics from parents...

Near the end

We're getting very close (performance day is Thursday). Here's a rehearsal for the murder of Banquo. (Later on, we both get to be ghosts and scare the beejeepers out of Macbeth)

One Week to Go

Rehearsals for The Scottish Play have taken a new aspect. We're actually making progress. The squirrelliness has virtually disappeared, people are hitting their marks, and most of the cast is fully "off book". Just this afternoon, the Thane of Ross, who has a long speech right at the beginning, nailed it.

I've been fitted for my costume, but still haven't seen my makeup. I don't know if my ghost persona will be merely pale or Kabuki-flat white. We have another rehearsal tomorrow, and then a full dress rehearsal on Wednesday before performance on Thursday.

on with the show, this is it!

More Shakespeare

Rehearsals for the Scottish Play continue. We've done most of the blocking, and are working on timing. Most of the kids are good, and dedicated -- but we've got a couple of real squirrels (especially the drummers -- yikes!).

We've also had some issues with dedication -- kids flaking out, not showing for rehearsal, and just being too dang busy. Our director is going quietly nutz.

We're going to have two actual performances, one for the students during school, and another later that evening. I'm being a real trooper (if I do say so myself), since the date is the same as the Dodgers/Angels preseason game at Blue Heaven on Earth (aka Dodger Stadium) - Thursday, April 2.

No more this Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bossom interests. Go, proclaim his present death. And with his former title, greet Macbeth.

(Except our Thane of Cawdor is being played by a girl -- so I'll say 'her')

Fossils

The seventh graders did a quick activity Friday, creating model fossils. They had fun, and some of them even remembered that these were "cast" fossils. I had them write about their experience.

Rehersals

Second week of rehersals for the Scottish play, and things are moving right along. The teacher in charge has done quite a bit of cutting -- we'll only have about 45 minutes to present the whole thing. Some of the kids are really good, but most are not really into it.
My only lines are in Scene 1, but I do have one other major scene (right before my off-stage de-throating). Later I get to haunt the perpetrators in my bloody Royal nightshirt.
A lot of work - but I think it will be cool.