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Earlier Missives
I'll keep here the old entries from my home page, in
case you're curious...
December 29, 2003 - Okay, well, how about that. Not
much of a blogger am I, eh? Lots happened between the date below and the
date I see above, for sure. I'll try to be quick about it. I'm going to be
a father. Yup. Daddy. Responsible for the life of another human being (in
addition to my wonderful wife, Susan). Heady, heavy stuff, that. Want
proof? There ya go. Still, so much has
happened since June. I'll try to give a quick recap and create links to
photo pages as soon as they're completed.
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Went home to Joplin for the Independence Day holiday to
make the big announcement of impending baby, and also had the happy
opportunity to meet my sister Liz's fiancé! His name is Nathaniel and
he's a great guy. Liz was really excited to tell the story of how they
met, and then we dropped our bombshell on the parents that same day. And
then we got fireworks all over the neighborhood to celebrate! Okay,
everyone ELSE was doing fireworks in the neighborhood. We went out to
sister Melanie's house outside of Seneca, MO, to shoot off our
fireworks. Much safer. My young nephew Drew was a little frightened at
first, but he really got into it later on, and wanted more!
-
Went to Atlanta for the Annual Stone Mountain Highland
Games in October. This time Susan flew out since she was pregnant, and I
drove both ways (in the past she has driven out the week before and I
flew in for the last few days which included the Games). The drive was
exceptionally easy, and I broke it up into two days, with an overnight
stay just outside Jackson, Mississippi, and had my trusty
15 Gb iPod to provide the
tunes.
-
Did lots of singing with the Symphony Chorus - my
highlight would be the two incredible performances of Bernstein's MASS
in late November to commemorate the anniversary of JFK's death 40 years
ago. Very powerful and memorable.
-
Went to Joplin for Thanksgiving - a very relaxing time,
in addition to meeting Nathaniel's parents Charles & Beverly and
brother, Jonathan. We had a great time together, and really enjoyed
getting to know them. We're looking forward to the wedding next May!
-
Christmastime was again a rather hectic time again, with
one notable exception - I sang 8 of the 10 scheduled Chorus Christmas
Concerts, including the one on TV on Dec. 19. One very strange thing
happened near the beginning of the TV telecast - someone flipped the
wrong switch and instead of Jubliant Sykes' dulcet tones singing "Away
in a Manger" the viewing audience heard the "A-wah-yee-oh
ree-Bab-Ba-gbo-Juh-leh" of the chorus soloist warming up in one of the
Meyerson's bathrooms for the men's performance of Betelehemu, later in
the program. It didn't last long, but I'm sure it was confusing to a lot
of people who were watching. If you were watching, that's what happened!
I was fortunate that the camera was kind to me this year, and I got to
be on TV several times (including once with a very precariously perched
Rudolph on my cowboy hat). The whole concert series was very easy to
sing (thanks to the pacing by our director, David R. Davidson), and was
also a lot of fun, not only to sing, but to listen to - the concert was
recorded on CD and sold to patrons. A very easy Christmas gift, indeed!
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As for the exception I mentioned above, Susan and I
chose to stay home this year for Christmas. We finished shopping early
for family and shipped all our gifts to the various destinations in time
for their arrival before Christmas, and got lots of packages from all
points. Our tree looked positively wonderful, and we hung our stockings
from the handles on the TV cabinet. We attended the "Midnight Mass" at
Trinity
Episcopal Church where we are members, and then enjoyed a quiet
Christmas Day opening presents and eating Stollen. The rest of the week
that we had off we watched lots of movies at home, and were also part of
the record-breaking crowds that went to see
The Lord of the Rings: Return
of the King - yes, all 3 hours and 10 minutes worth. Susan was
unimpressed, but I really enjoyed it, and hope to see it again soon with
friends.
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Finally, during the past week we learned that my
youngest sister, Katie, got engaged to her longtime boyfriend (she got a
puppy in the process!), and is to be married later in 2004. AND, here's
the engagement announcement for
my sister, Liz, that was in the hometown newspaper this past weekend.
So, not only will I become a father, but all my sisters
will be married by this time next year. It's going to be quite a year,
2004. I'm looking forward to it! May God's many blessings be upon you in
the coming year!
June 22, 2003 - Wow, it's been another long while
since I posted anything to my website. What's really new is this - a
travelogue of sorts of my recent
38-hour
driving trip to Connecticut to help friends Chris & Casandra Wallace start
the next chapter in their lives as Casandra pursues a career in opera. It
was a great adventure, a lot of fun, and frankly, it went much too quickly
(it's already been more than a week and it seems like a lifetime ago
already). At any rate, I've posted the pictures in my
Photo Pages and I hope you
enjoy looking through them. One of the most essential items when taking a
long driving trip should be an
Apple iPod.
In advance of this trip, I bought a
15Gb iPod with
money I've made from proctoring various tests (SAT, CFA, etc.), and it has
been the very best investment by far this year. It's almost full - which
means I really wish I'd bought the 30 Gb, but having 2500 songs right at
my fingertips on a long trip is plenty - I can listen for more than a
week, 24 hours straight, and never hear the same song twice. How cool is
that? And I'm really looking forward to hearing just how obsolete my new
iBook will become tomorrow when Steve Jobs does his thing at WWDC 2003.
All sorts of rumors out there seem to indicate there will be some
incredible announcements.
February 15, 2003 - I've finally posted pics from
my
Chicago Trip, and removed all the counters from these pages - SMU
doesn't support counters, so I can't keep them accurate if something
happens to corrupt them, so they're gone. Updated my "Favorite
Links" page, too.
February 7, 2003 - Oh, my goodness, where have I
been? Well, for one, playing with my new toy - a
Mac iBook 14.1/640Mb/800Mhz!
I named it "Snowstorm" because I got it for Christmas while I was up in
Missouri with my family and it SNOWED just before Christmas eve - a
whopping 14 inches worth in just under a day - it was a sign! We went to
see "Lord of the Rings - Two Towers" and it was awesome - can't wait to
see it again - and definitely looking forward to "Return of the King" in
December 2003. Also got to play with my sister's children - Claire & Drew
- what a delight! Since I got the new machine, I decided to give the "old"
Beige G3 Desktop - which still has a lot of life left in it - to my
middle-younger sister, Elizabeth, who lives in Kentucky. She got it all
set up and hooked up to the internet with the help of the kind folks at
Earthlink, and I'm convinced she will slowly become a
MacAddict. The
really great thing is that we're talking more on the phone, which is
something I'm definitely enjoying.
It was also a very sad last weekend, in addition to having
a
fun trip to Chicago with friend JD (which I'll post
pictures at some point of the Sailboat show and Chicago in general
- lots of fun at the Art Institute of Chicago!). Here's how I experienced
the Shuttle Columbia disaster that happened on February 1, 2003. I was
sitting in seat 14A of the United Airlines flight 1534 waiting to take off
at D/FW Airport. The pilot came over the icom and said "Folks on the left
side of the plane can see the trail of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it
prepares to return to earth on its way to Florida, where it will be
landing in just a few minutes." I looked up and saw the white cloud trail
and thought at that moment "How cool!" and continued to look at the trail
from horizon to horizon and tried to memorize it so I could tell others
what I'd seen. It wasn't until about an hour into the flight that the
pilot came back on the icom and told us that what we had seen was actually
the trail of the shuttle as it broke up over Texas, pretty much right
above us. Where there was chatter just moments before it got very quiet in
the plane. It was then that I started thinking back about what I had
actually seen - the trail started in the western sky and was somewhat
clear - almost like a smear of white glue - then it abruptly changed to a
puffy white cotton-candy looking streak overhead and seemed to have a
lazy-counter-clockwise spiral at the horizon. At the time I thought it was
normal - that it was the contrail dissipating. I hadn't actually seen the
pieces of the shuttle as many others on the ground had - I only saw the
remaining trail, which didn't have any off-shoots - it was all pretty much
a uniform cloud. My thoughts and prayers also went to all the family
members and the astronauts, knowing they were most certainly lost. I also
remembered reading that there was an Israeli astronaut somewhere in space,
but I wasn't sure if he was on the shuttle or on the space station. We got
off the plane and saw CNN broadcasting the actual footage of the breakup.
Very sad indeed.
November 1, 2002 - Once again, long time between
posts - this little area doesn't really count as a blog, since I update it
so infrequently. Also, don't expect much in the form of opinions or
outrageous political statements in this area, for that very reason - I
just do what I do from time to time and that's that. Not a lot going on
lately - school started at SMU in August and has been blazing by at
breakneck speed - busy enough certainly to keep me from thinking about
updating these pages since my last post... Since the last time I put
anything here I've been to
Stone
Mountain Park, Georgia for the 30th Anniversary of the
Highland Games there with my wife,
who got some much deserved vacation time. I'll put up a new set of
pictures from that weekend, hopefully later today - there aren't many, but
hopefully enough to get a feel for what the games is like, especially when
the massed bands are on the main parade field - you may be thinking that
300 bagpipe players and drums is quite a cacophony of sound - well, you'd
be correct. But it's still pretty cool! Decided I'd change the graphic at
the top of the page again, since it's now FALL. I generally don't like
Fall, since it's just cold - and cold is no fun without SNOW, so that's
what I'm hoping will come sooner rather than later - just my luck to be in
Dallas, where mostly my hopes get dashed. It is fun to watch people
deal with the first icy-road day of the year, whenever that happens...
July 15, 2002 - Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?
I've been quite busy and naturally, haven't really thought about including
updates on this page - then again, who reads this but me? Oh, well.
Looking back at that last posting, I was totally wrong on the basketball
prediction...notice that I need to change the graphic at the top of the
page, for sure, and have since been to NYC and sang at Carnegie hall for
the fourth time. Susan came with me and we had a grand time, walking all
over the city, paying our respects at the WTC site, among other things.
I've also become the webmaster for the
Dallas Symphony Chorus, and there are
pictures that John
Hendry has posted that tell quite a good story of our trip. We're
headed to the biennial Rowland family reunion this coming weekend and hope
to be able to post some pictures from that sometime before the end of the
month - hopefully I'll be motivated enough to do that once we get back.
March 26, 2002 - My alma mater's basketball team
turned some heads, beating Marquette in the first round of the NCAA
Tourney, but then got beaten by a former coach, darn it. I hope Kansas and
Oklahoma play for the National Championship - a repeat of 1988. Can't say
I really care either way, just that that would make a good sports story...
Watched the theatrics of the Oscars on Sunday night, too, which is the
reason for the Comedy/Tragedy graphic on my page - was a little
disappointed that "The Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring" didn't
win in the bigger categories, but hey, there are still two more films -
and they're in the can! At any rate, the biggest thing here is that there
are MORE PICTURES! I've put up a new picture page, with photos I and my
wife took at the Dallas
Symphony Chorus After Party on March 24. We had an incredible concert
series - I and six other guys learned to sing Gregorian Chant as part of
the performance of the Mozart Missa Brevis- a truly wonderful
experience, that - singing up in the rafters of the Meyerson Symphony
Center in the cavernous reverberation chamber. There are quite a number of
massive stone doors and a set of curtains that can open and close
depending on what kind of sound is desired in the hall. The doors stay
mostly open and curtains withdrawn for the symphony concerts. The other
piece we sang on this series was Mendelssohn's Symphony #2 (Lobgesang),
which, once we got it down, had a great time with. The conductor, Klaus
Peter Flor, who joined us at the After Party, appeared pleased with our
efforts and is looking forward to coming back next fall to conduct the
Chorus in Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem. And while the Mendelssohn
was somewhat demanding vocally, it's nothing compared to what we're doing
in May - the Beethoven Missa Solemnis. We had our first rehearsal
for that last night - and it's going to be quite the challenge - but the
Chorus is definitely up to it! We're also in rehearsals for a concert with
OONY (Opera Orchestra of New York) in April that will take us back to
Carnegie Hall (will be my 4th concert). The most exciting part of this
trip will be that I'll get to share it with my wife, and we're making a
mini-vacation of it.
March 6, 2002 - Well, since the last attempt
at winter stayed on the ground in Dallas all of about 10 minutes last
week, it's time to start looking toward Spring! My life is consumed with
Symphony Chorus
rehearsals (concert next week), Bible Studies with a small group of young
adults from the Church we attend (Trinity
Episcopal in Dallas) and trying to keep up with my wife's enthusiasm
about a new hobby/business she's gotten into - stamping. Haven't had much
time to add new pics or even the Java thingy I was hoping to get working,
so I've just replaced the Olympic Rings with a link to my alma mater's
sports webpage... after all, TU did win the
NIT Championship last year, and are hopefully going to sweep through
the
WAC tourney (in Tulsa) on their way to many more wins in the NCAA
tourney this year. Okay, so March Madness may be a bit of a consuming
factor, too...
February 20, 2002 - Tried to add a Java Applet that
would rotate pictures up on the shared border section (where the Olympic
Rings are now), but alas, no luck. I'll keep trying, though!
February 18, 2002 - Well, it's
Winter Olympics time and
I've been watching a lot of it - I'm fascinated by the speed skaters - how
they can keep an edge as they lean to within a few degrees of the ice as
they round the corners. Of course, that makes for some spectacular
crashes, though it's much more exciting when all of the skaters navigate
those turns with precision & grace. Very impressive. Other than that, I've
basically spent the last month working on the
AMmA website
in anticipation of their event in early May, getting things tweaked and
updated. Next on the list will hopefully be to get some pics up from this
last Christmas & a wedding at which I sang with the quartet. Still have to
do some consolidating & reorganizing on the pics pages, too. Oh - and
continue adding captions to the Germany pages - which I've finally
started!
January 8, 2002 - Happy New Year! Have started to
make some updates to the dearth of photos I took while in
Germany - spruced up the
pages a bit and took out some of the redundancies, to save disk space - I
think I'm finally ready to start adding info & details to the individual
picture pages, now that I've done some culling. I was hoping I could put
up a movie or two from the trip, too, but I don't think I'll have enough
space - I may try to compress one in QuickTime and see if it will look
okay - keep your fingers crossed!
December 21, 2001 -
We went to
Germany for our 5th Anniversary! We were there from November 23
until December 8. The digital camera worked like a charm, and having two
rechargeable batteries was a definite plus. I took more than 600 pictures
and then even had space left on the flash memory cards to take a few
silent home movies of the family we stayed with in Berlin. In order to
keep the new pages from exceeding my allotted capacity on the SMU server,
I had to reduce them in size, but the quality is still pretty good. I'll
be adding details and captions and anecdotes as I'm able. Please
take a look!
I also started to separate the various photos on the
Misc. Pics
page and rearranged some of the information on other pages (including
this one) to help save space, too. Next on the agenda is to
consolidate all of the photos of
my niece and
nephew onto one set of pages.
November 9, 2001 -
Posted more pictures -
just a smattering of stuff that I've scanned during the last year or so
and always intended to post - at least they're posted now! Will eventually
get them separated into events or trips or move them to the right place...
November 5, 2001 - Posted
my first set of pictures
today taken with my new camera - went sailing over the weekend with some
friends.
October 19, 2001 - I've bought a new
digital camera! Expect to
see more pictures very soon as I figure out how to transfer them to these
pages.
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