A Little Family Time

The kids were off school this week, so we’ve been enjoying some family time. Wednesday we decided to do an overnight stay about an hour away. We had no schedule, a few ideas of where to go, and time together.

When we arrived in town, we were about an hour early for check-in. We decided to park and walk the downtown area. We saw a cute bookstore and we went in and checked it out. They had a huge selection of kid books, and we ended up walking out with $100+ worth of books.

We checked into the hotel and the kids wanted to head to the pool. We had the entire pool to ourselves.

We stayed at the pool for a bit before we grabbed a bite to eat. There was a coney place across the road from our hotel. After dinner the kids got dessert.

We took another dip in the pool before heading to bed. Sam and I both had trouble sleeping. I’m not sure if it was the fluctuating temperature in the room or just an uncomfortable bed, but neither one of us woke up rested.

There was a STEM museum close by that we thought about heading to, but changed our minds. We had a nice breakfast and went to a play place/bounce house/laser tag place. The kids made friends and ran around most of the afternoon.

They went through a few bucks at the arcade, bounced, and and more!

After lunch we stopped by the Brighton library. I was blown away at this place. It was built in 1906 and the inside makes you wonder if it’s a library at all.

There was plenty of stuff for them to do.

They were busy for well over an hour and didn’t want to leave. They probably could have spent the whole day there.

We still have the weekend together and I’m looking forward to a few more days before going back to work.

Going For The Gold

The 2026 Winter Olympics have been very exciting to watch. My home state of Michigan has been well represented.

A great example of this is Megan Keller. She scored on a backhand 4:07 into overtime, giving the United States a 2-1 victory against Canada. She’s from Farmington Hills, MI. Kirstin Simms was also on that team and she is from Plymouth/Livonia.

Iron Mountain, Michigan was represented by Nick Baumgartner who won a gold medal in the snowboarding mixed team event. Elizabeth Lemley also has a Michigan connection and she won gold in women’s freestyle skiing.

What you may not know is that because the Olympics are in Italy, some of the events might be a tad bit different. Not to worry though, I have trained, competed and did extremely well.

I took the gold in the downhill lasagna run. It’s not easy skiing on ricotta…

Of course, because the games are in Italy, curling wasn’t as difficult as I thought. You just gotta get used to the change in weight…

Ice Hockey is also a little different, and messy. It’s important to use a frozen meatball!

USA! USA!!

Just One More Thing

On this day in 1968, Peter Falk brought Columbo to life on television for the first time. The debut episode was called Prescription Murder. Gene Barry was the guest murderer.

A few years ago I participated in a “TV Show Draft” and one of my choices was Columbo. In honor of the anniversary, you can read that blog here:

TV Show Draft – Round 4 – Columbo

“Let Me Cut Your Mop”

Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville debuted on this day in the 1816 in Rome. The debut, however, was a disappointment. During the performance the audience hissed and jeered throughout, and to make matters worse, several on-stage accidents occurred. Today, the piece is considered to be one of the great masterpieces of comedy within music.

The piece is one of many that was introduced to kids on an average Saturday morning thanks to a rascally rabbit – Bugs Bunny. In 1950, The Rabbit of Seville was released and the action of the cartoon is in synch with Rossini’s music.

I cannot listen to the actual music because I will always picture Bugs.

People often joke about getting their classical music knowledge from cartoons. It’s no joke. Whether it was Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, that’s how I was introduced to many classical pieces.

How about you??

Book Recommendation – The Impossible Fortune

I have said in the past that I try to steer away from book series that focus on the same character. However, The Marlow Murders, The Anthony Horowitz books, and the Thursday Murder Club books all have some great characters who I don’t mind following book to book.

I finished Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune recently, the latest in the Thursday Murder Club series.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are back with another murder to solve. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Who’s got time to think about murder when there’s a wedding to plan?

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.

But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who’s in trouble, kidnapping and death are hot on their heels once more. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code, and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into action once more, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

I feel like with each book, we get a deeper look at the characters. Each seem to be dealing with their own issues, and in amongst those, there is a murder to solve. These characters all have distinct personalities and they are so real to me. They’ve become friends in a way. Not just the main characters, but their family members that are in the book as well.

Osman does such a good job in balancing all that is going on within the story. Sometimes I get caught up in a character’s story and forget there is a murder that they are working on.

Another good mystery that is worth the read.

4 out of 5 stars

Not The Crown I Am Waiting For

The Apostle Paul states in 2 Timothy 4:8 (KJV):

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

I would rather have that crown than the one I got yesterday.

I suppose I have been putting it off for over a year now. Every time I get my teeth cleaned that talk about this tooth. It was filled years ago, so it had that silver stuff in it. Apparently that doesn’t last. They have been telling me that we need to get that filling out and put a crown on it.

Up until recently, I always spent a ton of cash at the dentist. I always had to pay something. So I kept avoiding it. This year, however, I have a secondary insurance and all I owed for the crown was $25. That was for the nitrous oxide.

My lips were still numb at 2:30pm. As soon as they started to get feeling, my tooth started throbbing. I popped ibuprofen, but it took forever for it to kick in.

My appointment was at 10am and I didn’t get out until after noon. I left with a temporary crown until the permanent one goes in a week or so from now.

I am off work this week, so I’m hoping that the pain doesn’t put a damper on the time with the family.

Tune Tuesday

The great Gene Pitney was born on this day in 1940. In total, he charted 16 Top 40 hits in the US. His hits include, “Love My Life Away”, “Only Love Can Break a Heart”, “It Hurts To Be In Love”, “24 Hours from Tulsa”, “Mecca”, and my favorite, “Town Without Pity”.

“Town Without Pity” was Gene Pitney’s first hit. Its success was partly due to it being from the movie of the same name. It starred Kirk Douglas. The song won the very first Golden Globe award for best original song, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song. Because of the nomination, Gene Pitney became the first pop singer to perform at the Oscars in 1962.

Author Al Kooper (who was also with the group Blood, Sweat and Tears) reminisces his first encounter with Pitney in his book, Backstage Passes and Backstabbing Bastards: “…this guy walks in wearing a salt and pepper jacket, heavily greased-down DA (“duck’s ass”) hairdo, and white bucks. Three dressing schools tied together; very strange. The creature was quickly ushered in, sat down at the piano, and proceeded to mesmerize us for two uninterrupted hours with his incredible songs and bizarre voice.” Kooper heartily recommended signing him when producer Aaron Schroeder asked for his opinion.

Kooper goes on to say of Pitney that he was strongly influenced by him, assimilating aspects of his style into his own work. Randy Newman’s song “Just One Smile,” included on the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album, was originally done by Pitney; Kooper cites this as an example of the longevity of Pitney’s inspiration.

In the US, Town Without Pity went to #13 on the Hot 100.

Town Without Pity would be the final song he performed at his final show at Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall in April of 2006, before his death from heart disease.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Gene Pitney.

Sources: songfacts.com, wiki

Movie Music Monday – Buck Privates

It is no secret to those who know me that I love classic comedy. I have written about the Three Stooges, The Little Rascals, and Laurel and Hardy. While I have mentioned them separately at times, I am not sure I ever wrote about the team of Abbott and Costello.

Growing up on Sunday mornings, there would always be an Abbott and Costello movie on TV. Their films were not as slap-sticky as the Stooges, but funny all the same. Now that I am older, I appreciate their humor even more. Especially their bits involving word play, like Who’s On First?

For Movie Music Monday, we dig into the 1941 soundtrack of Buck Privates.

The Hollywood brass weren’t really sure that the boys would be able to carry a movie. Director Arthur Lubin remembered, “The studio was a little uncertain about how they were going to be accepted. But at the first preview the audience just died. Buck Privates was a very, very funny show. And, actually, I must say it was very little credit to the director. It consisted mainly of fabulous gags that these two wonderful guys knew from years and years of being in burlesque.”

Fun Fact: Japan used this film as propaganda to demonstrate to its own troops the “incompetence” of the United States Army.

Abbott and Costello were teamed with The Andrews Sisters for the film. Patty Andrews was born on this day in 1918. The Andrews Sisters perform four songs in the film: “You’re a Lucky Fellow, Mr. Smith”, “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “Bounce Me Brother, With a Solid Four”, and “(I’ll Be With You) In Apple Blossom Time”. The composers of the first three of these songs, Don Raye amd Hughie Prince, appear in the film as new recruits alongside Abbott and Costello.

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy is a jump-blues number about a trumpeter from Chicago who’s drafted into the army during World War II and shakes up Reveille as the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B. Believe it or not, the song was originally intended for Lou Costello to perform. As fate would have it, the song was reworked for The Andrews Sisters, who introduced it in the film. The trio also released the tune as a single that same year, and it peaked at #6.

Fun Fact: “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” was nominated for an Academy Award.

Patty Andrews of The Andrews Sisters performed this with Lucille Ball, Lucie Arnaz, and Desi Arnaz Jr. on the 1969 Here’s Lucy episode “Lucy And The Andrews Sisters.”

Bette Midler brought this back to the charts in 1972 when she recorded it for her debut album, The Divine Miss M. Her version, produced by Barry Manilow, peaked at #8 on the Hot 100. It was also reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Thanks to the hit cover, The Andrews Sisters experienced a career resurgence that included a successful Broadway debut for two of the sisters, Patty and Maxene, in 1974.

In total, the Andrews Sisters have recorded at least four different versions on different labels. The Original on Decca Records in 1941, V-Disc in 1944, Capitol Records in 1956, and Dot Records in 1962.

Happy Heavenly Birthday to Patty Andrews!

Book Recommendation – The Prophet and the Idiot

It had been awhile since I had read a Jonas Jonasson book. The Prophet and the Idiot has been on my “to read” list for some time. It has probably been on my list since I read The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. As soon as I started reading it, I wondered why I had waited so long.

Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

The brand-new, hilarious, feel-good adventure from the internationally bestselling author of The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

Sweden, late summer of 2011. Self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse on the 21st of September that year, around 21:20 to be more precise, bringing about the end of times.

Armed with this terrible knowledge, Petra, a doomsday prophet, meets Johan and Agnes, a widow of 75 who has made bank living a double life on social media as a young influencer. Together, the trio race through Europe as they plan to make the most out of the time they have left, in more ways than one.

But of course, things rarely go to plan, even the end of the world…

Jonasson once again had my laughing out loud with this book. His characters are unique and weird (in a good way). The scenarios are sometimes so ridiculous and take things to an extreme that as unbelievable as it is, it is totally believable.

Johan’s brother is not very nice to him. Instead of leaving him their 12 bedroom home that their father left to them, his brother sells it so he can go to Italy to be an Ambassador. He doesn’t leave Johan homeless, though, as he buys him a spiffy RV to live in. When Johan decides to take the RV out that he finds Petra and then Agnes.

The three go out to set things right with things from their personal lives before the world ends. This takes them on a jaunt to a few different countries and along the way experience some crazy situations. These three truly had me laughing and hoping that there is a sequel.

4.5 out of 5 stars