The Terrible Catsafterme

After Jimmy and Ellen’s wedding ceremony on the afternoon of Saturday, May 1, 2010, the party moved on to the Renaissance Long Beach Hotel for the reception. While Jimmy and Ellen were off getting some pictures taken with the wedding party, everyone settled in to tastefully decorated banquet room. There were plenty of great hors d’oeuvres and even better, an open bar with plenty of wine. We had a nice big table with Bob, Kathy, John & Melinda, Lois & Cassidy, Rick & Patty, and Erin & me. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first moved from Fairbrook to Ankeney in the Fall of 1984, our former arch rivals from Valley Elementary were converging into the same junior high. Therefore I had a whole new set of faces and potential friends and enemies. The smart kids now had more competition, the pretty girls now had more competition, and the popular kids now had more competition if they were going to be running as class officers. My friend Eric Welch attempted his bid for the 7th grade presidency, but it was not to be. There was a new regime of smart pretty girls who were taking over. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the many cool things about the Hollywood Show in Burbank being held on Saturday, April 24, 2010, was the fact that they were having a great Mouseketeer reunion of kids from The Mickey Mouse Club. Two of those present were Cubby O’Brien and Tommy Kirk who I had met before (as you can see by clicking on their names). And although they weren’t technically Mouseketeers, Tim Considine and David Stollery, who portrayed Spin and Marty in serial installments on the Mickey Mouse Club were also present (and I’ve covered them in a Spin and Marty posting). In addition to these four were five more of the original Mouseketeers, three of who will be covered here, the remaining two in the next posting. Read the rest of this entry »

Erin, Nate, Chloe, and I left Seaside after lunch and headed eastward through northern Florida on Monday, July 5, 2010. The first destination of the day was to stop in Tallahassee to see the Florida State Capitol building. Since it was the Monday after the holiday weekend, the capitol was closing an early at 4pm. Our journey from Seaside was going to take about two-and-a-half hours, so I knew we would be getting there a little too late to tour the capitol. When we arrived, the town was nearly abandoned. We parked in a free parking garage and walked a couple of blocks to the high rise building that was the Capitol. Read the rest of this entry »

Lisa Baker and I went through all 13 years of school together…from the lowly kindergarten class at Fairbrook Elementary to graduation day at Beavercreek High School. Along the way, we shared moments of both disdain and awkward crushes – but I always considered her to be a constant friend. We first shared the same classroom during second grade in Mrs. Deets’ class (her picture from that year seen at left), and then again the following year in Mrs. Corn’s third grade class. There were times when we got along fine and then there were others when I can remember her eyes shooting daggers at me during Mrs. Owens music class. And I have no doubt it stemmed for some display of obnoxiousness from me like, oh say, tapping my cowboy boot to the music.  Read the rest of this entry »