Tina and I took a vacation for our 2nd anniversary. We started by going up to International Falls and crossed the border into Candaa where we met two couples who are cousins of my good friend, Michael Callaghan. They took us to an island one of them owned on Rainy Lake and we spent a wonderfully pleasant day with them. Good conversation and good food and good views. They were fun to be with and excellent hosts.
We came back across the border and then visited Voyager's National Park, a National Bear Museum near Ely and then drove 25 miles down a dirt road (a detour due to flooding) to the North Shore of Lake Superior where we stopped at the Lemon Wolf cafe in Beaver Bay, one of our favorite eating places in MN. We spent a night in Duluth and then headed west for our cabin in Randall, MN. We spent most of the week there. Tina busied herself with a lot of projects around the place, enlisting my help as needed. For some reason, she finds projects relaxing. I worked on and finished two talks in my series of talks that I have been doing the last few years. We both read a fair amount. The deer flies were out in force so that limited the amount of time spent outdoors near the water.
We took one day and drove up to Itasca State Park which is where the headwaters of the Mississippi River are. I remember taking our little kids there 25 years ago and it is memorable because you can actually walk across the Mississippi River at that point because it is so shallow as it starts its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. We also took in an annual butterfly walk where I was surprised to see so many species of butterflies. We caught the first half of a free folk concert before heading back that night.
I spent a Saturday over at the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office recording 3 talks. I now have ten talks I am selling. I have sold over 700 copies of these talks in the last couple of years. Some people seem to really like them but most of those who listen never let me know what they think so I don't assume that people are being amazed by them, but rather they are going ho-hum. My two most challenging talks are still in the future.
We have continued to work on Park House. The kitchen is pretty much done. A working dishwasher, new counter tops, new floor, some additional cupboards, new sink, etc. Quite a difference from the run down kitchen it used to be. Still have a lot of work to do on the house.
The Sorianos moved out of our St. Anthony house last week. Very sad to see them go, but they now are the proud owners of their own house again. They bought a nice house in West St. Paul which is much closer to where both of them work. We went to mass with them at their new parish and there were a number of people we knew who attend that parish. It is way too quiet around our house now. We miss them all.
I just finished up 3 conferences in 3 weeks, including one out of town in Peoria, IL. We are both exhausted and looking forward to a trip to Salt Lake City to see Erin, Steve and Isobel this coming week.
Tina's knee has been bothering her for quite a while and she is facing knee replacement surgery at some point in her future. However, she recently found out that she is eligible for a partial knee replacement which will work out much better for her.
My prostate cancer is still around in my body, but not causing too much in the way of problems. We had a brief scare when some counts in my liver were elevated and my new primary doctor wanted a CT scan done to make sure the cancer had not spread to the liver. We got the results this morning and my liver is fine. The oncologist thinks the elevated numbers might be due to having gallstones, which I never knew about before. He said that at some point I should have my gall bladder removed, but it is not urgent. My PSA is up a bit but still under 1 so he is not worried about that.
Tina and I are enjoying life together a LOT. The Lord has been very good to us.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Kentucky Derby
I just returned from attending the Kentucky Derby for the first time in my life. I have been a fan of horse racing since my uncle Earl took me to Hollywood Park in Los Angeles in the early 60's on a family vacation. My love of horse racing was fueled by the fact that for 70 years, the only major undefeated racehorse was named Colin. In the last 20 years, several other horses have retired undefeated.
I attended the Kentucky Derby with my son, Caleb, who flew in from Europe for the occasion. The tickets to the Derby were a gift from him. We had a wonderful time together talking about all sorts of topics. He has thoughtful opinions, some of which we share.
We attended the Kentucky Oaks (for fillies) on Friday and the Derby on Saturday so we spent two full days at the track. On Friday, unbeknownst to us, they were having a breast cancer awareness day so the crowd was overwhelmingly PINK. Imagine over 100,000 people wearing some kind of pink. Pink ties, pink shirts, pink shoes, pink dresses, pink hats, pink shawls, you name it. Even the horse riders that accompany the jockeys on their horses were wearing pink jackets. And fancy hats were everywhere for both days. We did not wear pink, but we did get somewhat sunburnt.
One of my observations in having conversations with a number of people there was that 80% or more of those in attendance both days had not come because of some interest in horse racing, but were there to participate in a fancy social gathering. The level of knowledge about horse racing was quite minimal, but they were all having a good time. Alcohol was flowing freely. Since neither Caleb nor I drink alcohol, we did not try a mint julip, the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby. There was also something called a "lily" which was featured on Oaks Day, presumably some more feminine version of alcohol? Since alcohol and good judgment do not go hand in hand, I assume the track found many creative ways to encourage drinking so that one might bet more than one would otherwise do if one was in full control of one's senses. The track doesn't care who you bet on, just that you bet and because they take a fixed percentage of the overall betting pool, the more you bet the more they like it. Of course, since even a bottle of water was $4 a pop, they were going to make money one way or another.
Speaking of money, I bet almost every race and even though I only won 8 of my 20 bets, I came out ahead by $46. I even won money on the Derby, even though my horse came in 2nd.
Our tickets gave us a free pass to something called the Infield Club but we didn't know that until Saturday. That was a big tent in the infield that offered free food and respite from the sun. So we went over there a couple of times and watched a few races on the big screen TV there, but it is more fun to see the races live. Our seats at the track were only about 5 feet from the actual track so as the horses came charging down the stretch, we could see them very well. It was quite exciting.
We stayed in Lexington (about 80 miles away) all 3 nights with our friends, Rich & Connie Jirak. They were gracious hosts and we had a delightful time with them. On Thursday evening, two of their kids (Joel and Rachel) came over for dinner with their families and we had a great time talking and playing around. On Friday night, Steve and Patricia Humble, drove up from a small town about 45 minutes away to catch up on what's going on in our lives. Steve & Patricia used to live in Minneapolis also and were part of our community (as were the Jiraks).
On Sunday morning, I went to mass at the nearby Catholic church, which is in a fairly new facility. Designed by some Scandinavian architect, both Rich Jirak and I agreed that it looks a lot more like an airplane hanger than a church! It also had that same feel from the inside. The "Stations of the Cross" were all so modern artsy that I would not have been able to guess which station they were unless I had previous knowledge of them. No permanent cross in the front of the church and with 80+ windows letting the sunshine in, no traditional stained glass windows either. I know that the real church is the people and they were nice, and I am not a liturgical traditionalist, but there seemed to be little about this structure that would have re-enforced the spirit of worship of the living God.
When I realized that I would be drving from Minneapolis to Kentucky, I saw that my route would go through Indianapolis, where my community, the People of Praise, has a branch. I sent out an email to see if anyone needed anything delivered or needed a ride, one way or back. I ended up taking some furniture and boxes down with me to Indy and on the trip back picked up a different set of boxes for delivery to Minnesota. However, along with the boxes on the return trip, I was able to give David Gruber, a 20 year old, a ride back to his family in MN. He was a most intelligent and articulate young man and at least for my part, I thoroughly enjoyed having him with me. I'm not sure what he thought of having to listen to a much older man drone on and on about stuff since he was somewhat of a captive audience. He was polite about it all, however. I even made him listen to one of my recorded talks (on being charismatic without being weird) to see what he thought. He gave me some good feedback about it.
I spent the night in Chicago with Tom and Nancy Doran on the way down. I had left my cancer medication there so I stopped back on my return trip and ran into their daughter, Carol, and her two lively boys. I turned down the kind offer of a Lego Werewolf from one of them.
I was glad to get back home to Tina and everyone and am now getting ready to drive with Tina to Indiana for a conference. We leave on Thursday afternoon. So we will travel down much of the same highway that I just traveled, but that's ok. I bought an audiobook about the Civil War so we will listen to that on the way there and back.
I attended the Kentucky Derby with my son, Caleb, who flew in from Europe for the occasion. The tickets to the Derby were a gift from him. We had a wonderful time together talking about all sorts of topics. He has thoughtful opinions, some of which we share.
We attended the Kentucky Oaks (for fillies) on Friday and the Derby on Saturday so we spent two full days at the track. On Friday, unbeknownst to us, they were having a breast cancer awareness day so the crowd was overwhelmingly PINK. Imagine over 100,000 people wearing some kind of pink. Pink ties, pink shirts, pink shoes, pink dresses, pink hats, pink shawls, you name it. Even the horse riders that accompany the jockeys on their horses were wearing pink jackets. And fancy hats were everywhere for both days. We did not wear pink, but we did get somewhat sunburnt.
One of my observations in having conversations with a number of people there was that 80% or more of those in attendance both days had not come because of some interest in horse racing, but were there to participate in a fancy social gathering. The level of knowledge about horse racing was quite minimal, but they were all having a good time. Alcohol was flowing freely. Since neither Caleb nor I drink alcohol, we did not try a mint julip, the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby. There was also something called a "lily" which was featured on Oaks Day, presumably some more feminine version of alcohol? Since alcohol and good judgment do not go hand in hand, I assume the track found many creative ways to encourage drinking so that one might bet more than one would otherwise do if one was in full control of one's senses. The track doesn't care who you bet on, just that you bet and because they take a fixed percentage of the overall betting pool, the more you bet the more they like it. Of course, since even a bottle of water was $4 a pop, they were going to make money one way or another.
Speaking of money, I bet almost every race and even though I only won 8 of my 20 bets, I came out ahead by $46. I even won money on the Derby, even though my horse came in 2nd.
Our tickets gave us a free pass to something called the Infield Club but we didn't know that until Saturday. That was a big tent in the infield that offered free food and respite from the sun. So we went over there a couple of times and watched a few races on the big screen TV there, but it is more fun to see the races live. Our seats at the track were only about 5 feet from the actual track so as the horses came charging down the stretch, we could see them very well. It was quite exciting.
We stayed in Lexington (about 80 miles away) all 3 nights with our friends, Rich & Connie Jirak. They were gracious hosts and we had a delightful time with them. On Thursday evening, two of their kids (Joel and Rachel) came over for dinner with their families and we had a great time talking and playing around. On Friday night, Steve and Patricia Humble, drove up from a small town about 45 minutes away to catch up on what's going on in our lives. Steve & Patricia used to live in Minneapolis also and were part of our community (as were the Jiraks).
On Sunday morning, I went to mass at the nearby Catholic church, which is in a fairly new facility. Designed by some Scandinavian architect, both Rich Jirak and I agreed that it looks a lot more like an airplane hanger than a church! It also had that same feel from the inside. The "Stations of the Cross" were all so modern artsy that I would not have been able to guess which station they were unless I had previous knowledge of them. No permanent cross in the front of the church and with 80+ windows letting the sunshine in, no traditional stained glass windows either. I know that the real church is the people and they were nice, and I am not a liturgical traditionalist, but there seemed to be little about this structure that would have re-enforced the spirit of worship of the living God.
When I realized that I would be drving from Minneapolis to Kentucky, I saw that my route would go through Indianapolis, where my community, the People of Praise, has a branch. I sent out an email to see if anyone needed anything delivered or needed a ride, one way or back. I ended up taking some furniture and boxes down with me to Indy and on the trip back picked up a different set of boxes for delivery to Minnesota. However, along with the boxes on the return trip, I was able to give David Gruber, a 20 year old, a ride back to his family in MN. He was a most intelligent and articulate young man and at least for my part, I thoroughly enjoyed having him with me. I'm not sure what he thought of having to listen to a much older man drone on and on about stuff since he was somewhat of a captive audience. He was polite about it all, however. I even made him listen to one of my recorded talks (on being charismatic without being weird) to see what he thought. He gave me some good feedback about it.
I spent the night in Chicago with Tom and Nancy Doran on the way down. I had left my cancer medication there so I stopped back on my return trip and ran into their daughter, Carol, and her two lively boys. I turned down the kind offer of a Lego Werewolf from one of them.
I was glad to get back home to Tina and everyone and am now getting ready to drive with Tina to Indiana for a conference. We leave on Thursday afternoon. So we will travel down much of the same highway that I just traveled, but that's ok. I bought an audiobook about the Civil War so we will listen to that on the way there and back.
Friday, March 30, 2012
A joke I liked
A woman is walking along the street and stops to give some money to a homeless man. He thanks her and tells her that he appreciates her help. "I wasn't always like this, you know." The woman asks him what does he mean by that. He says "I used to have millions of dollars in bank accounts all around the world." The woman says "Oh my, what happened to you?" He lowered his head and sadly replied "I forgot my mother's maiden name."
Houses, houses, houses
On Wednesday, the Sorianos closed on the house they sold. They have been living with us since May while they tried to sell their house. Having to pick up after 4 kids every time before a showing seemed like too much to do so they moved in with us. Having 6 or 7 (sometimes Bing, the father in law is here also) extra people around the house has mostly been enjoyable. We have all gotten along quite well.
They have an offer in on a house (a short sale) in West St. Paul. That would be closer to where both of them work. Their offer was accepted by the couple so now it is a matter of waiting for the bank to approve the sale and that could take anywhere from a week or two to several months.
In the meantime, we have begun work on Park House in earnest. A crew of 9 friends came over on Saturday and we pulled down the ceiling in Daniel's old bedroom, repaired the hole in the kitchen floor, dug up and removed the jungle gym that had been competing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for most acute angle while still standing, removed the (for 15 years) non-working dishwasher, removed several old screen doors, pulled down the wallpaper in the kitchen, primed the front entryway and hauled 21 contractor bags of debris and old insulation out to the back yard. The metal from the screen doors and the jungle gym disappeared rather quickly as it sat by the alley in the backyard.
Tina lost her cellphone and it took quite a while to locate it in one of the bags of insulation. The insulation muffled the ring tone. We had almost given up when we tried one last time to hear it.
We still have a TON of work to do. A carpenter friend came over yesterday and gave us some advice about what we need to do to prepare Daniel's ceiling to put in a suspended ceiling. A stone mason stopped by in the afternoon and gave us some advice about repairing the crumbling foundation in the laundry room for a lot less than what we had thought it would cost. He said stone masons are a dying breed as houses are no longer built with limestone foundations.
Monday night some other friends came over and helped paint the entry way and did more work on the kitchen walls.
We are blessed to have such good friends.
They have an offer in on a house (a short sale) in West St. Paul. That would be closer to where both of them work. Their offer was accepted by the couple so now it is a matter of waiting for the bank to approve the sale and that could take anywhere from a week or two to several months.
In the meantime, we have begun work on Park House in earnest. A crew of 9 friends came over on Saturday and we pulled down the ceiling in Daniel's old bedroom, repaired the hole in the kitchen floor, dug up and removed the jungle gym that had been competing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for most acute angle while still standing, removed the (for 15 years) non-working dishwasher, removed several old screen doors, pulled down the wallpaper in the kitchen, primed the front entryway and hauled 21 contractor bags of debris and old insulation out to the back yard. The metal from the screen doors and the jungle gym disappeared rather quickly as it sat by the alley in the backyard.
Tina lost her cellphone and it took quite a while to locate it in one of the bags of insulation. The insulation muffled the ring tone. We had almost given up when we tried one last time to hear it.
We still have a TON of work to do. A carpenter friend came over yesterday and gave us some advice about what we need to do to prepare Daniel's ceiling to put in a suspended ceiling. A stone mason stopped by in the afternoon and gave us some advice about repairing the crumbling foundation in the laundry room for a lot less than what we had thought it would cost. He said stone masons are a dying breed as houses are no longer built with limestone foundations.
Monday night some other friends came over and helped paint the entry way and did more work on the kitchen walls.
We are blessed to have such good friends.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ancient of Days
The Park House has hot water heat so it has a boiler, rather than a furnace. Saturday, the heat would not turn off so CenterPoint Energy had to come and turn it off. It was 81 degrees in the house. The problem was that the boiler was dirty, the soot made the flame explode out of the front of the combustion chamber and burned a couple of wires that controlled the turning off function. So we were without heat at Park House for a few days. The weather was in the high 30's most of the time so it wasn't a huge problem. The inside temperature dropped only to 54 with the addition of some free space heaters provided by CenterPoint.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Online At Last
This week, my business's web site, ResurrectionC.com, went live with online ordering for the first time. Customers will now be able to download MP3's of the talks I record at conferences as well as place orders online for CDs or DVDs to be shipped to them. Up until now, if a customer wanted to place an order, they either had to call me with their credit card information or mail in an order form with their check. They still have those two options, but now have 2 additional options (download MP3, place CD/DVD orders online 24/7). I have already received my first order for 4 MP3s.
This has been a long process that includes Winston, my web designer, my daughter, Cathy, who has been creating MP3s from hundreds of past conference CDs and myself trying hard to figure out the best way to do this that is both simple and clear.
Now I have the daunting task of putting all the talks online, going back 20 years. Once I do this, however, I won't have to do anything more but add the new conferences I am recording. But adding the past conferences will take me 6 months, if I am able to do at least one conference a day. Today, I have both of the 2012 conferences and my best-selling 2011 conference online. I will work my way back through 2011, and then 2010, etc.
Today I received an order in the old-fashioned mail that included conferences from 2011, 2010 and 2006 plus all 6 of my CD's. It was over $500, one of the largest mail orders I have ever received. That comes from posting all my past order forms online.
Cathy has also been working on updating my past order forms so that they will be accurate when I re-post them online. I had made a decision a few months ago to no longer sell audiotapes and VHS videotapes. I was still getting occasional orders for them but they were getting fewer and fewer. So I gave away most of my analog recording and duplicating gear. I still have lots of blank audiotapes to get rid of. I still have some more equipment to get rid of also. But that meant changing all my past order forms that included the option of ordering audiotapes and VHS videotapes. So Cathy has been going through all of those old order forms and updating them to CD, DVD and MP3. As I get to those conferences, working my way back through the years, I will be posting these corrected versions.
So I feel like a HUGE leap forward has happened and while it has taken thousands of dollars and many, many hours (and will continue to take many, many hours), it is a very satisfying feeling to have made this step in the direction of being able to serve my customers better.
This has been a long process that includes Winston, my web designer, my daughter, Cathy, who has been creating MP3s from hundreds of past conference CDs and myself trying hard to figure out the best way to do this that is both simple and clear.
Now I have the daunting task of putting all the talks online, going back 20 years. Once I do this, however, I won't have to do anything more but add the new conferences I am recording. But adding the past conferences will take me 6 months, if I am able to do at least one conference a day. Today, I have both of the 2012 conferences and my best-selling 2011 conference online. I will work my way back through 2011, and then 2010, etc.
Today I received an order in the old-fashioned mail that included conferences from 2011, 2010 and 2006 plus all 6 of my CD's. It was over $500, one of the largest mail orders I have ever received. That comes from posting all my past order forms online.
Cathy has also been working on updating my past order forms so that they will be accurate when I re-post them online. I had made a decision a few months ago to no longer sell audiotapes and VHS videotapes. I was still getting occasional orders for them but they were getting fewer and fewer. So I gave away most of my analog recording and duplicating gear. I still have lots of blank audiotapes to get rid of. I still have some more equipment to get rid of also. But that meant changing all my past order forms that included the option of ordering audiotapes and VHS videotapes. So Cathy has been going through all of those old order forms and updating them to CD, DVD and MP3. As I get to those conferences, working my way back through the years, I will be posting these corrected versions.
So I feel like a HUGE leap forward has happened and while it has taken thousands of dollars and many, many hours (and will continue to take many, many hours), it is a very satisfying feeling to have made this step in the direction of being able to serve my customers better.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Extremely Dirty and Incredibly Close
Tina and I worked at the Park House on Saturday. She bagged up 15 bags of moldy clothes from under the basement stairs, food from the basement freezer with 2004 expiration dates and many other treasures that would have amazed many a pack rat. The dust was so bad she ended up using a face mask. I hauled the stuff upstairs and Luke hauled it out and put it in the back of the trailer. This week, we will take the trailer to the dump and unload all of its precious cargo.
Then we went out to dinner and a movie. As you can guess from the title of this post, we saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. A well made movie with good acting from most of the major parts. A young boy with Aspergers is trying to find something he thinks his father, (who died in the WTC on 9/11) has left him. A couple of interesting plot twists made the film extra interesting.
Then we went out to dinner and a movie. As you can guess from the title of this post, we saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. A well made movie with good acting from most of the major parts. A young boy with Aspergers is trying to find something he thinks his father, (who died in the WTC on 9/11) has left him. A couple of interesting plot twists made the film extra interesting.
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