Labores Luna

For anyone that missed it, there was a phenominal lunar eclipse last night. I snuck out of rehearsal for a couple minutes to check out out when it was at it's peak. Lunar eclipses happen much more frequently than solar eclipses, but that doesn't make them any less spectacular.



In other solar news, it was recently discovered that the Milky Way galaxy that our solar system spins within is twice as thick as previously thought. They now believe the galaxy to be 12,000 light years thick rather than 6,000 light years previously thought. That's huge! I love astronomy.

New Bat-time, Same Bat-channel

Next week I start my new hours at work; 6:00am-2:30pm. Yes, that's AM as in Ante Meridium, morning, daybreak, foreday, really really early. I can't complain too much since I sort of volunteered for the shift. It was either that or the 11:30-8:00 shift and there's no way that was happening. That's the meat of the day! So instead I'll find myself getting up earlier than I ever have. I used to have to work at 7am occasionally during college, but most of the time I lived on campus so I just had to walk there. Now, with my train ride factored in, I'm going to need to leave my apartment at shortly after 5:00. I'll have to play around a little bit and I might be able to make a faster trip if I drive to the Lake Street station and park there. It's just a matter if I want my car sitting on Lake Street all day...bleh.

Early to bed
Early to rise
Makes a man healthy
Wealthy
And wise

"God made me blind and unable to walk. Big deal!"

Tonight I somehow found myself watching Extreme Home Makeover, a show which I'd never really seen and found myself completely inspired. They were in Louisville, TN with the family of Patrick Henry Hughes, who is wheelchair-bound and blind. Other than being an extremely talented musician, he is also a very positive minded person. He considers himself, and rightly so, just a normal guy living his life the best he can with the hand he's been dealt. I can relate to Patrick in a sense. Although his is a more extreme case, we have medically the same joint issue.



Now although Patrick himself is an amazing person, almost equally amazing is his father. He works the graveyard shift and sacrifices his sleep so he can spend the day with his son at class and even doing marching band with him. If you watch the video above you can see what I mean.

After watching that video I was reminded of another father son story which is absolutely amazing. It's the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt. Rather than explaining the whole thing to you, just watch that video too....I hope I can be that type of father one day.

It's as easy as 1 2 3

Happy V Day!

I totally forgot it was Valentines Day until just now! You know, as a bachelor for every Valentines Day of my life, it's really lost it's luster since the elementary school days. We'd spend an entire day making our mailboxes for Valentines Day and you'd pass out those little GI Joe valentines or whatever was hip at the time. You knew someone really liked you if there was a piece of candy in your tiny envelope.

Cat Fancy

Imagine if you will, it's Sunday morning and upon opening your eyes for the first time that day, you're immediately assaulted by a hyperactive cat charging at your face, only you don't own a cat and you're in a strange house. Scary right? Well that's what happened to me this morning. I stayed at my friends Scott and Noelle's place this weekend down by Blue Earth to visit them and hang out. They have two cats and one extremely chicken dog. So this morning I wake up and before my brain could comprehend where I was or what was happening I had this evil little cat charging and pouncing on my face like I was it's prey! I yelled in pure terror as my adrenaline filled ninja reflexes allowed me to turn away and flip the cat off the end of the bed. I'm lying there all content with my skills when the little demon leaps up from the floor at my head again! Unable to react fast enough the second time I'm met with a face full of fur and biting. I think he knew the long-term assault he was doing with my cat allergies. I've been sniffling and sneezing all day. Stupid cats.

Boo clothes

What is it about the folding and putting away process of doing laundry that's so miserable and hated? For some reason I can't stand it! I often find myself doing a load of laundry and then letting it sit in the clothes basket, while I take out the items I need on a daily basis. Eventually the basket it empty and you get to start the process over again. I don't do that very often, but it's been known to happen. Last night I did 3 loads of launrdy and they're now in a massive pile on my couch, just waiting to be dealt with. I try to pile the clothes in a place that makes them visible, but that doesn't always help.

I hate laundry.

My night at the orchestra

This Friday I ventured as close to the sci-fi nerd hive as I've ever been. Was I at a Trekkie convention you ask? No. I was at Star Trek / Star Wars themed orchestra performance. And with George Takei as the narrator! If you don't know who he is, he was Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek show and has been in a few other shows. Most recently he was Hiro's dad in the show Heroes.

After work I found a nice quiet corner, curled up by an extremely fake fireplace (It didn't even give off heat!) and read a book for a good 2 hours before hiking down Nicollet and grabbing some dinner at Panera Bread. Yum! I had some really good chicken wild rice soup in a bread bowl.

From there it was a few short blocks to orchestra hall. I'll admit, expectations were high. A few months back I came to the orchestra for a performance of Lord of the Rings music and like Friday, there was a costume contest. For LoTR there were fantasy nerds everywhere. Dwarves, elves, hobbits and wizards. Even some people who weren't "dressed up" for the contest were wearing capes and had staffs. So like I said, the bar was set high. I wasn't completely disappointed.
Here are a few pictures of contestants. I apologize for the blurriness but it was poorly lit and my camera isn't friendly. Unfortunately most of them didn't turn out.


This kid was the clear winner in my mind. He was some droid from Star Wars. It was funny, he almost rolled down the stairs on his way off the stage.



Some people who decided that tin foil on their heads was good enough for a costume contest. I was embarrassed for them.


A little storm trooper kid

After the costume contest, I walked around and ran into a couple former acquaintances from high school, Jeff and Allison. I hadn't seen them in maybe 11 years or so. They were there celebrating Jeff's 30th birthday. I talked to them for awhile and then took my seat before the performance. These movie themed shows are much more casual than a typical orchestra performance. They have a popcorn cart set up in the lobby and are selling candy and other treats and you get to bring them in with you can munch on popcorn during the performance. So I grabbed a box of Dots and took my seat wayyyy in the back and on the end of the row. Next to me was a small girl, maybe 4, then her father and another child to his left maybe 7. I was pretty impressed that she stayed quiet through the entire show. She was a little squirmy, but I didn't mind. I talked to the dad during intermission and told him how cool I thought it was, him taking his kids to the orchestra at their age. I know they'll remember it. When I was younger, from about age 5 until well into high school, my parents took me to the UofM marching band indoor concert. Especially at a younger age, I was captivated. It's not that they were very good, although I thought they were, but my parents spending the time and money to take me to an event like that was great.

Anyways, here's a few more pictures I took during the show.



Creepy? Yep. Can you guess where I took this?