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Friday, May 16th, 2003 Last Saturday, Christina performed on stage at Shea's Theatre, as part of the cast of high school production of "The Music Man". Their troupe did a review of the musical with no sets or costumes, and received the Kenny award for best lighting and special effects. Sid (the new landlord, son of the old landlord) made it clear to me that I was in charge instead of just a manager by name. It's an interesting position, as I both like and dislike being in charge -- I don't want to be anyone's boss, but want the ability (authority) to properly take on the responsibility of the apartment complex. A couple of weeks ago, I planted trees and bushes around the complex as planned, and it is slowly giving me a different time-sense knowing that the trees wont be fully grown until after we leave years from now. It's a subtle act of selflessness if you think about it. Anyway, back to bang my head against the screen! I'm fighting with both a PHP database and MovableType on WNYPolonia.Com, and the site debuts Sunday! Monday, May 19th, 2003
And out of the mouth of babes, as I took candid pictures of Christina talking on the phone in her room, she called me the Paparazzi! ("Papa-razzi" -- get it?) And she started working more and more by herself on her web site. She's getting the hang of FrontPage -- I'm actually a little surprised. She understands it better than some so-called web-designers I've seen. {More ... see next entry} Saturday, May 24th There was so much last weekend, I forgot to write it all down! Before the Hellenic Festival, I stopped in with Christina at the Buffalo Karpeles Museum for a presentation, "Of My Blood", about the Colosseum, by the artist (and friend of mine) Ralph Sirianni. It's about time I got to see one of his shows. The museum used to be an abandoned church almost right next to D'Youville. I actually had dreams of buying it when I was a student. It's an amazing full-block of buildings, church and rectory. While trying to find somewhere to grab a bite to eat, I noticed how much the West Side has changed. Ted's hotdogs -- closed. The pizzeria on Porter by the church -- closed. We grabbed a snack from a corner store in the end, watching a parade of schools coming to and from Kleinhans Music Hall for graduations, including D'Youville. I can believe it's been 12 years since I walked the sidewalk to and from D'Youville and Kleinhans. Last Sunday, Father Ed from Brazil visited our parish. I heard him speak once before, at St. Catherine of Sienna about four years ago. His inter-denominational approach and admission of wasted band-aid efforts on the part of most charity gives me new hope for the Church and the world. Merry and I have been cleaning and getting things ready for Sid's visit this Sunday. It's a strange sort of excitement, sort of like the King coming home from war to meet with his prime minister. Okay, maybe I'm taking it a bit too far! Well, back to cleaning, organizing, and then off to choir practice and Bruce & Jill's Memorial Day party! Sunday, June 1st
It's been raining almost non-stop and we missed any window to go camping, which Merry and I are both itching to do. In the meantime, I've been occupying myself with a board game I dreamt up at 5:30 in the morning a couple of weeks ago. I call it "Total War" and we made a prototype from an old Trivial Pursuit we bought from AMVETS. Merry's Dad cut the tiles from wood pieces I got from Home Depot, and I wood-burned the markings and stained them myself. Now it's a matter of finishing the rulebook and having people test-trial it!
I'm also starting to get orders outside the US and the UK for my Bush World Tour T-shirts. Sunday, June 8th Friday was Christina's recital. She was in a hula number in the first act, and was in the beginning and finale, as was everyone. A ploy to keep parents captive, no doubt. Halfway through the first act (after Chrissie's number), I took a walk and did some Tai Chi in Delaware Park. Beautiful, except for the incessant traffic noise near the lake. I caught a lot of the second act when I returned. There was some really good ballet this year, and a couple of nice solos, but like every year, there were one or more numbers that were like watching an unavoidable accident in slow motion -- but faster and longer. I actually didn't take any pictures, which worked out okay since I couldn't find Chrissie in the first or last numbers (she was way off the side behind the curtain in the last one). I was a bit far away, anyway. Yesterday, I returned to Seven Hills to teach Tai Chi (and Self-Defense this year) to the annual Girl Scout leader's conference. An intermittent warm rain made it seem like heaven. It is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in God's creation, and everyone welcomed me warmly as "Tai Chi Ken." We caught out tiniest cat, Lydia, on EBay today. She was using the help menu when we shoed her off Merry's new (used) laptop. Usually she just types pages of consonants in MS Word, and she instant messaged Amy one time, but we need to find away to curb her privileges a bit before she starts using our credit cards!
A couple of weeks ago, Merry and I went to the Strawberry Festival at Merritt Estates (Wine Cellars). Jazz band, clowns making incredible balloon hats, chocolate covered strawberries, and even some free strawberry shortcake (a coupon off their site, which gave me the idea to take Merry). The Rotweiler pictured on the site was there, and really liked sniffing Merry. What a cutie! And Merry even let me take a few pictures of her in a cute balloon hat of grapes and a big bee. Afterward, we went to Dunkirk to check on the family graves, and grabbed some veggies and gas on the reservation on the way back home.
This came in handy when I went to work on a farm Thursday for the first time in my life. It was cool, a little rainy, hard work at times, and lots of getting dirty. Another first-timer said I looked as if I had done it all my life, and it sort of felt that way. Sure, I didn't know Spinach from Arugula, but nothing I did seemed foreign to me. It was an hour drive each way to and from East Otto where the co-op Buffalo Organics' farm was, "Native Offerings", and I brought home with me my a full share ("work share" in this case) of greens and spices. Looks like a lot of salad this week! Christina's birthday is coming up, and we already celebrated a little when I took her to Media Play to buy any CD (appropriate, of course) that she wanted. She chose the pop compilation called "Now 12". Monday, June 30th I went to Michelle and her mom's graduation party the Saturday before last -- they both graduated from different colleges the same semester. It was great getting back in touch with here finally. I also got to actually talk at length with Lance, her soon-to-be fiancée. I hadn't been around Michelle much since I was her Confirmation sponsor (and teacher) years ago, so I wasn't sure what to get. When I handed her mom some flowers, and her a dozen green-tipped peach-ish roses in a vase and explained this, she enthusiastically said "THAT'S ALL RIGHT!" I went to my BNI meeting in pajamas Friday morning, as I was giving a presentation on my business. It wasn't laziness (primarily), but an illustration of how you would want customers to be able to build a relationship with your company at any time of day or night. I got great reviews, and they loved the handouts, which I will have to put on the Kentropolis site.
Monday, July 14th, 2003 I spent the 4th of July with Merry at the get-together of The North Ridge (local chapter of the Star Wars fan club) as invited by Larry & Janice. I caught some of the fireworks (as seen over the houses, at Cheektowaga Town Park) on my camera, but the timing delay and low battery made it almost impossible. I also heard that sparklers are illegal -- I always thought they were the only things that weren't! The first issue of Martial Talk Magazine was published this month by a friend and business associate of mine, Rob Hubbard. It contained the first of a six-article series I wrote, called "The Reality of Chi." The next installment is almost done, and I intend on writing many more articles which will be eventually published as a book. I've played a little Minesweeper lately and made some good records, including NINE SECONDS on easy. My all time record for "Easy" used to be 11 or 12 seconds. Not the Nobel Prize or anything, and nowhere near the world records, but I've always been proud of being at least relatively good at such things. When I picked up Christina from her friend Brianna's house out near Arcade, I offered to make walking sticks for them both. Brianna took me up on it, but I couldn't finish it sitting there, so I took it home. The next day, it came out nice. This weekend I was at Blockbuster Video (can you believe no one had "Keys of the Kingdom" with Gregory Peck available to rent?) and a young lady came up to me with a cell phone saying there was someone who wanted to talk to me. I felt like I was in the Matrix, or on Candid Camera, so of course I felt right at home and took the call. I found out the young lady and her friend were asking me if I could come back to Mount Mercy Academy (High School) to teach/demonstrate tai chi again. The funny part is that just hours before, I came across the picture of these girls with me at the Erie County Fair last year -- I didn't even know I had it. I love being a Teacher-Celebrity! Gemma & Michelle, and various others who showed up ended up watching "O Brother, Where Art Thou" with Merry and I. Christina was bored and stayed on the phone. Monday, July 21st Christina and her friend Ashley are asleep after a sleepover last night. Mer is working most of the week, so it's me and Christina exploring the world on our own, except for the fact that there's Fisher Park business to take care of here and there. I hope that doesn't rain on our parade. She just got back from Camp Turner, and had a great time as usual, even under new management. During the week, I made my own greeting card with Morris Pie (our orange cat she loves so much) on it -- it came out really nice. maybe another hare-brained scheme -- downloading printable cards at $1 apiece? I took a lot of pictures of the farm this Thursday, and maybe they'll use some of them on their website. I also got out to Dunkirk this Saturday to work with the Convoy Of Care people. Took some nice pics by the water -- the Margaret Ann was in dry-dock, and the Mary S II was in the water. Tuesday, July 29th This last week wasn't much of a vacation. Christina and I had to stick around with a lot of window and carpet installations, etc., but we got to watch some movies at home and she had friends over a couple of times. Her and Lizzy saw "The Exorcist" -- I realize now that as a child I saw the "edited for television" version! She said it was the scariest movie she ever saw. Things are busy here at Fisher Park -- everyone's getting fire extinguishers, and there's lots of repairs of all sizes recently. There's also concern about security, and a reward is now posted for any information leading to the arrest of anyone for vandalism or theft on the property. I don't think it will become an issue, just a precaution. |
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I busted my hump and got everything ready for the kickoff of
Saturday,
June 20th
