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| Nathan made my day with this shot. I think it might be the best I’ve ever taken. |
Last week was fairly eventful, what with my nephew Nathan starring in a college production of “The Music Man” on Saturday night and my father getting hitched Sunday afternoon. I’ll include a few pictures of the latter event with this entry.
Actually, I’ll start things off just by talking about the pictures, which were right up there as one of the highlights of the week. I only took about 70 on Sunday, but when I started going through them Sunday night, I was amazed. 41 of the shots went up on Facebook with just about no editing. Of those that I didn’t post, most were good shots – they just didn’t add anything to the gallery.
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| Slap a cross and some flowers on an antique sewing machine table and bam! Instant wedding chapel |
41 out of 70. Consider this: when I shoot a football game, I’ll take between 700 and 800 pictures. If I’m lucky, 50 of them will be usable. 41 out of 70 is unheard of for me. Made me pretty happy, and you can see/print all 41 of the final shots at this link.
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| I test out my wireless shutter release while Greg and Kara do photos the old-fashioned way |
As for the wedding itself, it went off pretty much without a hitch (no pun intended). Dad and Diane appeared to be pretty happy with their respective mate selections, and I had a nice time getting to know my step-brothers, step-sisters, step-neices and nephews, etc. Also got to see all of my siblings, and Jenny and her father made the trek to SC for the festivities as well.
I believe Dad and his bride will be moving back to her place in Cleveland today. Why anyone would want to leave Greenville for Cleveland is a mystery to me, but that’s the plan. Maybe Dad just wants to see the world or something. I wish them both the best.
Tried out my new Garmin GPS unit on the way up (yeah – I broke down and bought one. I’ve got a couple of long trips coming up in the next few months, and football season this year will also have a few hefty treks). Overall, it’s an acceptable unit. Not as good as the Tom-Tom that I had until last year, but it’ll get me where I’m going. I read an article today saying that GPS units are dinosaurs and using a smart phone is just as good an option. No. It’s not. A dedicated GPS device will always be better than a smartphone that has GPS in it. Trust me on this.
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| Doing that whole “With This Ring” thing |
The amazing Bob – he of the band’s board of directors – has claimed another victim. Betsy quit the board in spectacular fashion yesterday by sending them a resignation letter that pulled no punches, left absolutely no doubt about *why* she was quitting (that’d be BOB, ladies and gentlemen), and ended with the question, “How many more good people have to quit before you’ll take some action [against Bob]?” I loved every word of it – and I believe Betsy will be much happier now that she’s washed her hands of the problem, as both Rich and I did earlier this year. Eventually, I think the board *will* get the message – I just hope the band still exists at that point.
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| Diane checks out the wedding cake. I really like this picture. |
In other board business – the North American brass band kind, I mean – crises are looming as we prepare for our 30th championships, in Grand Rapids, MI, in a couple of weeks. The biggest problem is that the board from a few years ago vastly overestimated their bargaining power and agreed to block 850 rooms in the hotel which is hosting the event. In exchange for the room guarantee, they got free meeting and performance space. Good deal, right? Sure – if they could actually get people to rent the rooms for the contest. Unfortunately, the hotel is one of the most expensive in the city, the city is way off the beaten path for most Amercian brass bands, and no Canadian bands decided to make the 6-hour trip from Toronto to Grand Rapids. End result? Only 13 bands will be competing, only 400 rooms have been sold, and the organization is on the hook for close to $50,000 (at last check, our entire treasury was about half of that). Last I heard, the board’s executive committee made a deal to let the same hotel host the contest again in 2014 in order to avoid lawsuits. If that’s the case, I predict a general outcry from member bands when that decision is announced, and I predict that the 2014 championships will be even less well-attended than the 2011 version.
It also came up in recent board discussions that there has been generally no publicity about the championships in Grand Rapids or the surrounding area. Good planning, huh? Not surprising, considering that our president has been AWOL for most of the last year (he will be removed from that office at our meeting on April 7) and no one else feels empowered to do anything on their own. When I joined that board, I didn’t know I was jumping in to the wheel house of a sinking ship.
Work this week has been good. My project manager has been feeding me jobs that she hasn’t had time for, and I’ve been steadily knocking them out of the park. I don’t feel like I’m working particularly fast, but she warmed the cockles of my heart the other day when she said something like, “I like giving these to you because you get them done so quickly.” So I’ve got that going for me.
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| The happy couple, faces covered in cake frosting, makes out in front of their children. |
Almost forgot to mention that I got a fairly decent bonus at the beginning of the month and made that stupid American Express balance go away. I’m hoping to be able to nuke one of my Visa cards with my tax refund in a few weeks, and then it’s just a matter of time before the other debts go the way of the passenger pigeon. Once I’m down to just having a mortgage payment and utilities, I can start socking away some serious green. I’m actually excited about this, folks.
Felt tired for most of today, so I’m going to finish this up now and get some sleep. Congratulations again, Dad and Diane!
TWD