Those who took in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” this past Saturday night at Fountain Hills Theater got an extra bonus with their admission fee.
That’s right – I spent virtually all of Act I up on stage hamming it up.
Hopefully not too many folks asked for a refund.
During each performance they recruit four “volunteers” from the audience to participate in the spelling bee.
You know the fix is in when my first word was “cow,” but with my Wisconsin upbringing I was able to survive round one.
I tried to use my cell phone to call a friend during what proved to be my final round, but they said that was cheating and confiscated it.
Luckily I didn’t have to sing, but I did have to do some dancing and be serenaded by Alex Gonzalez before I exited stage right. Doing some “chorus line” kicks in cargo shorts and flip-flops isn’t the easiest thing to do, but hopefully the audience was entertained by my enthusiasm (certainly not my theatrical skills).
It was all in good fun. And the play – as always – was top-notch. Only four more performances remain of this musical. Catch it this weekend if you’re not leaving town.
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May is National Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month.
Who knew?
I ride a motorcycle and I didn’t know that.
It’s no surprise that with the nicer summer weather around the country that 62 percent of motorcycle fatalities occur between May and September. It’s also no surprise that a majority of motorcycle accidents are caused when a vehicle motorist fails to detect and recognize the motorcyclist.
Obviously motorcycles are smaller than automobiles and sometimes can be difficult to see, but most drivers could do a better job of checking their blind spots, allowing more “follow distance” (say three to four seconds) and giving a motorcycle the full width of a lane at all times.
Of course drivers should never drive distracted or impaired – and that applies to bike riders as well.
Let’s all have a safe summer out there. Maybe some good advice would also be to stay away from Waco, Texas for a while…
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My wife and I were dinner guests of Bob Ditta at FireRock Country Club last week (thanks, Bob!), and we also owe a special thanks to Executive Chef Graham Zanow.
Brenda and I had our wedding reception at FireRock more than 11 years ago, and they made a yummy carrot cake at the time for our wedding cake.
We inquired of Chef Graham if carrot cake was still on the menu in 2015, and alas it is not.
But in a super sweet gesture, Chef Graham offered to bake us our very own mini wedding cake that we could pick up the next day.
The carrot cake was delicious – and the frosting in particular was to die for…
It was fun eating the cake and reminiscing about our 2004 wedding. Thanks for the memories, Chef Graham, and thanks for the scrumptious cake. It could definitely be a menu item anytime at FireRock!
