Memorial Day Weekend

I finally watched the season finale of 24 last night. Good one, although I think the fake death was a bit of a stretch.

It did, however, make for an easy comeback next season.

Tonight is my brother’s wedding rehersal. Another good night spent with family. He get’s married tomorrow. That makes 4 out of 5 for my parents (no pressure number 5).

The Next Wednesday…

I flew home on Sunday. It was a good weekend. The concert went well, and on Saturday, I had a chance to go fishing in the Carribean. I caught a Baraccuda, a Red Snapper and not much else (the ‘cuda was cool thought!!).

I now get to spend the next few days welcoming family to town for my brother’s wedding. Tonight is his bachelor party. All that really means in my family, is that we get together with a bunch of guys and do geeky stuff like play Risk.

Wednesday

Today was VERY long. Big hours on Small roads. We drove from Belmopan to Belize City, then spent the day doing many preparations for Friday’s concert. I finally got back to the compound around 9pm (having left at 9am). It was nice to feel busy after a rather laid back Tuesday.

Tomorrow we take the band out fishing and snorkling (tough work, but somebody…).

Although the trip should be fun, I could sure use a long nap.

Sitting in Belize

Here I am, high on a hill near Belmopan, Belize. While I have yet to see the sun (or the rain, fortunately) it is quite beautiful here. This morning I woke up to see the fog rise from the jungle, and the hills.

Today was rather slow paced, as things tend to be here, but tomorrow promises to be much busier. Actually, we only have two items on the schedule for tomorrow, but I have learned that each can take half a day.

I don’t have a digital camera with me, so I can’t post pictures tonight. Others traveling with me do have digitals, so I will try to steal some when I get a chance.

Oh look… there’s a gecko on the wall.

Packing Up

I am getting ready to head to Central America. The girls and I are cleaning up the Basement so Mommy can have a bit of order while I am away (for a day or two at least).

I will try to keep this up to date while I am abroad next week. I have been told I will have ready access to Internet type stuff, and I am sure I will have stories to tell.

Today’s story is about a piece of equipment the locals asked us to bring. The box it came in was not entirely conducive to checked luggage handling. One of our engineers went out and bought a package of diapers to use as bunting for the piece. Apparantly, that is something that is needed by the locals. Certainly makes more sense than waisting the packing peanuts.

Radio News Journal

I was glad to hear news outlets finally get a weekend-long story correct. This weekend, President Bush was in Europe. Here is the headline as I heard it on ABC Radio News:

“President Bush is in the Netherlands today to mark the end of World War 2”

I get a kick out of inaccurate headlines. I get a bigger kick when there are two problems in one headline.

1 – You mean to tell me that it took us 60 years to get around to marking the end of WWII? More accurately, the headline should have read “commemorate” rather than “Mark”.

2 – It was not to mark the end of WWII. It was only the end of the European Theater. There was still a little something brewing on the other side of the world.

This morning, however, all of my issues had been corrected.

Front Yard

One of my favorite features in this house is a big picture window that overlooks my front yard.

It is so nice to sit here on a rainy evening, like this, as the rain falls on the tulips, the vacant tire swing and that darn dead patch of grass next to the sidewalk .

Weekend Listening

Just before walking out the door on Friday, I was given a CD of Student Radio productions to listen to. There is a student radio production competition that I am helping to judge. I know that one of my most loyal readers is also a judge, so I won’t post my individual track opinions here (however, there is one, in particular, that I think is awesome).

I just have a few questions as I judge.

1 – Since so many of them are so good, how picky should I get in my criticism?
2 – How should I reinforce quality production, when the writing is poor?
3 – How should I reinforce qualty writing, when the production is poor?
4 – How do I keep any of these student producers from taking my job?

Quick Note

Quick Note: There are a bunch of posts today, so if you are used to reading one post from me and leaving, today’s posts come in a series of mini-posts.

Read on…

Idol Nod

American Idol just opened with the song Bridge over Troubled Water.

Seacrest just introed the song as a song “Michael W. Smith took to number 28 on the Billboard Music Charts”.

I found that a little humorous. Don’t get me wrong, I have pretty much been a life-long Smitty fan. He did that song very well.

He is just not the first person I think of when I think of think of that song.

Because Didn’t Clay Aitken cut that track too (smile)