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Monday, June 25, 2007

My last Grandparent Passes

My grandmother, age, 93, and my last remaining grandparent has passed away. As the obituary reads, she has "returned to our Heavenly Father June 22, 2007". Lilly was born May 17, 1914 to George F. and Rhoda H. (last name omitted)in Ephraim, Utah. She married my grandfather in 1933 in Manti,Utah. She lived in Sandy for the last 65 years. She spent her life in the service of her family and God. She was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served several years as a temple worker in the Jordan River Temple. This picture is from their 60th wedding anniversary.

My grandmother had a beautiful singing voice, sadly I did not inherit that trait, or the musical abilities. She was a wonderful pianist and enjoyed playing in a dance band in her youth. She played for many years in church and for the enjoyment of many people. Music was her passion in life. My grandmother was self-taught on the piano - she could hear a song and play it. It was a true gift, and she loved getting together in her living room, playing and singing with her family. Her family was the most important thing in this life for her.

She will be missed, but we celebrate the great life she lived. She fought and won the battle with cancer twice in her life, the last, breast cancer - she beat while in her early sixties. She was always ready with a smile and had a lovely laugh, she had kind, dancing blue eyes and a fierce energy. She passed in her sleep, quietly and peacefully, certainly a person can't ask for a kinder way to pass this earth. God was good to my grandmother and she lived a life worthy of that goodness.

God bless you Grandma, I'll see you again.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Mnozzany dominoed. One cat morphs into Five

Of course youngest daughter loves the kitties. We've been blessed with 2 gray, 2 black squirming bundles of fluff. Happy, happy joy, joy. (Not.) They're cute when they're small.

This little tigress has been named by my child as Sweetie McWhitePaws. Guess she's of Irish heritage...she came complete with the tips of her paws white, the rest looks like her MomCat. We've always seemed to attract cats with colorful monikers. With cats, if you listen closely, they'll reveal their name. Crazy, possibly but where else do names like SportsFan, he was rowdy and crazy, Cranston Cooch - he was a roundish gentlemanly cat, then we had Mean ol' Mandy, she was indeed her namesake, and little Bitsy whom we bottle fed, I certainly can't forget Bitsy's GrandmamaCat, the regal and lovely white Lexus. (She too came to me fully equipped with a set of kittens.) Bitsy was to be my last cat, but that was then, before the arrival of Menozzany.

Menozzany was born in Alabama, but arrived to Texas via American Airlines. It seems my eldest found a kitten about a year ago and of course never checked her apartment lease... so instead of finding a local home, Menozzany came to live with me. The cat absolutely hated me the first week she was here, tried to attack me every time I looked at her. She'd bare her fangs and run at me. She is a very small cat, only about 3 pounds, but don't tell her that, she figures she ranks with the big cats, black panther style. She had me convinced too, it's all in her attitude. I was approaching her with a butterfly net to ward off attacks that first week. Seriously thought about having to tell my eldest the poor thing had an unfortunate accident, but eventually she stopped trying to attack me. Curiously she accepted my youngest daughter just fine reserving her ire at having to endure the airline hospitality to take out on just me.

She's finally accepted me as well as decided to tolerate my dogs, she was fitting in just fine, although she still tries to eat my bird whenever possible, and I think was responsible for the death of my beta fish - she kept dipping those dirty paws into his water. For weighing all of 3 pounds she has earned a name for herself on our street, everyone knows who she is and a few nice souls have let her in to visit with them. Most have thought she was a cute baby cat because of her small stature. She's been pretty nice to the local folks, but a terror to other cats, except one that she obviously found attractive. Apparently one of our well-meaning neighbors has a tomcat and well, now that's how I have come to have four more cats. By September they'll be old enough to find homes and Menozzany will be spayed before she can grace us with more little furry darlings. Yeah, I know we should have spayed her the moment she left the airline terminal, but life happens.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The Soulman Rocks Hyannis

The Cape Cod Times posts a positive review on Taylor Hicks' concert in Hyannis. The writer, Gwenn Fris leaves the American Idol baggage at the door and checks out Taylor in his 'natural form'.

She writes, "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks showed up on the Melody Tent stage Sunday with gray hair and a gray sports jacket — looking like an accountant or political candidate.

But that image dissipated pretty quickly. This guy may not look like a musician, but — lo and behold — he is.
In Concert

I have to admit this leaner, older-looking, but endlessly energetic performer was a surprise to me. Based on some of the performances on last year's TV singing competition and on his newly released, self-titled CD, I was expecting a little more lounge lizard.

But this Taylor Hicks hit the stage and jumped into the percussion-driven rock and blues like a prodigal musician returning to his roots.

He sang several songs from his new album, including "Just To Feel That Way," "The Deal" and "The Maze," but they didn't sound anything like they do on the CD.

That's generally a good thing.

(read more here)

Groove on Soulman.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sanjaya Malakar Interview with NumbNuts on The Mikey Show

Sanjaya grants a telephone interview with "The Mikey Show" on Rock 105.3 FM in San Diego on June 6th. The DJ's come across as complete asses, deluding themselves as believing they sound humorous, hip and smart. Evidence that they know nothing about what they are talking about - their main man, Mikey, is clueless about the Bill Vendall situation as well as Will Farrell's "Funny or Die" website. (He calls it Funny or Guy...) One member of the ensemble - Eddie - knew about Farrells' site and corrected Mikey. The interview goes even further South when a statement is made by Mikey claiming that Howard Stern was pushing to get the boy off American Idol, when in fact Howard was pushing to keep him in the competition.

Listening to Sanjaya, I picked up that he was trying to be polite to these wanna-be Howard Stern knock-offs. Sanjaya holds back from correcting them - give him a year or two and he'll set fools like this straight from the get-go.

"The Mikey Show" aired for a time in Dallas, Texas and were fired after a relatively brief stint on KEGL. I listened to parts of "The Mikey Show" - not while he was in Dallas, I couldn't stand his show while he was on KEGL, but as a refresher, and it reconfirmed my previous viewpoint of the show's whole schtick - the cast, the ensemble are merely bad versions of Howard Stern copycats. Unlike Howard and his staff who actually research material and make sure they know what they're talking about, these folks just use sarcasm and wisecracks and fake giggles to cover for their ineptitude. The difference between being funny and trying to be funny is all in how the material is handled. Handle it wrong, like in the case of this show and the straining to be funny cast end up sounding more than immature and well, plain stupid.

Whoever is screening whom Sanjaya Malakar is granting interviews with dropped the ball in having him to do a phone-in interview with this group of numbnuts. Just like the interviewers need to do their homework on their subject, so do the folks scheduling the interviews. Sanjaya should not have granted these fools one moment of his time. The folks calling into the show confirmed why "The Mikey Show" is doing well in San Diego - their listening audience sound as idiotic as the program's ensemble.

Check out the interview off this site, reminder, it's the June 6th entry.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Taylor Hicks video, "Sweet Home Chicago"

Taylor Hicks rocking out... soulfully with "Sweet Home Chicago". Keb 'Mo contributes to the vibe like only he can. (picked up off theboogieboards)

So... this is where Taylor picked up the dance moves.

Groove on Soulman.