Tag Archives: quality family time

August 13, 2012 · 10:31 pm

A little R&R

Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.
-Ralph Marston

We had a terrific vacation. Camped at the BEAUTIFUL Wilderness State Park, on Lake Michigan.

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More than just yearly rituals in which we connect with friends and family, vacations are also exercises in self-definition. In affording time away from the demands of everyday life, vacations disclose what people choose to do rather than are required to do.
-Cindy Sondik Aron

A day trip to Mackinac Island for fudge, biking around the island and sightseeing was perfect.

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Your family and your love must be cultivated like a garden.Time, effort, and imagination must be summoned constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing.
-Jim Rohn

The loves of my life. :)

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Laughter is an instant vacation.
-Milton Berle

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June 7, 2012 · 1:24 am

Pic Post Wednesday: New Shows, New Games, Family Time!

A good, busy week!

Production meetings for the next show at Williamston Theatre, Red, White and Tuna, directed by John Lepard. Here’s a picture or two of the set model – Janine Woods Thoma is the Set Designer. This pic was right before they had a couple of great ideas and Janine tore the model apart to experiment!

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In other theatre news, I’m beginning work on the next show I’m directing, boom, which I LOVE!

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Had a great time with Max this evening. After Maggie and I grilled an awesome dinner (salmon, chicken, pork medallions, veggies), she and Jeanne went out dress shopping, so Max and I got some Dad/Son time: first, ice cream from Twisters.

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Yes, they’re both huge, and yes his has 3 candy eyeballs on the front of it. These things happen…

Next, we wanted to play some games, and we had a new pack of expansion cards…

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So we played some Munchkin!

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Seriously, could that kid be any cuter?

We also played a game of Ticket To Ride with the whole family, and then the kids were off to bed!

Lastly, Maggie and I saw this bumper sticker when we went grocery shopping, and it made us laugh… and then we spent the next 20 minutes rhyming things with “peanut”…

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Have a great week, folks!

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April 18, 2012 · 9:59 pm

Wednesday Pic Post:


A ballpark is a magical place, don’t you think? It stops time. It’s a place where a father and son can sit together on a lazy afternoon enjoying the game and decades later, in those same seats, that son can sit with his son, and it’s as if nothing’s changed. Time moves differently inside a ballpark.
-Ernie Harwell, from Ernie by Mitch Albom

Today…
…we had a press conference for Ernie, and our Stage Manager Megan took this shot from the booth! Press Conferences are odd things, and I don’t do them often, so it was fun.

Speaking of baseball…
Last night we played some catch in the yard! Awesome.


Speaking of awesome things, The Town Pump has awesome fried pickles, and lunch today was pretty darned great.

Also…
We start rehearsal for this show next week, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a long time since I’ve been onstage, and I’m anxious to work out those muscles again!

So, challenges, opportunities, quality family time… a week full of reminders that all of those are important. Thanks, Universe.

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April 8, 2012 · 9:25 pm

Pic Post Sunday: Celebrating Life!

Random pics from a Dad, director, baseball fan, celebrating some good things on this beautiful Sunday!

Today, we had a great Easter! The kids had a great time hunting baskets and eggs this morning, the Easter Bunny did a nice job hiding things this year!
 


Speaking of Easter – Maggie and I spent Easter afternoon at the ballpark! :)
 

And… speaking of baseball…


I’m happy to be in rehearsals for the remount of Ernie at the City Theatre in Detroit.

This weekend, we had a great time visiting our friends Crystal and Steve, and I had to take a picture of these desserts that we made. Crystal did all the prep, making the mousse and homemade whipped cream and slicing the fruit, but Steve and I were given the task of putting them together – and this is what they looked like! Chocolate coffee mousse, lots of fresh fruit, shaved chocolate… oh man, now I want another one. Or 7.

Lastly… I worked with a great stage manager, Sam, this weekend on a project in NYC, and she came in with this shirt that made us all laugh, and I had to share it. (Warning – yes, this is a little risque. Skip it if that’s not your thing, but this type of humor is exactly my thing… and I suppose if you’re a regular reader of this journal, you already know that!)

Have a great week, folks, and whatever you’re doing this week, have fun doing it.

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March 14, 2012 · 11:48 am

Best way to celebrate Pi Day!

The best way to celebrate Pi Day? Pi for breakfast with my son!

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February 22, 2012 · 10:32 pm

Pic Post Wednesday

First, since it’s Ash Wednesday, I’ll start with a couple of fun things relating to that:

This made me laugh.  (In a related note, THIS IS HERE ALSO.)

 

I made this on the fun iPad app Skitch, because, well, it also made me laugh!

 

Last night was first rehearsal for The Usual, at Williamston Theatre.  This isn’t a great pic, but I forgot to take more!  You can see, in the theatre seats, a couple of our Production Assistants (who will also appear as chorus in this show) – Carolyne and Brandon.  Also Dana Brazil the choreographer, Alex our apprentice, and Chris Purchis (WT Managing Director.)  Onstage left to right are Stef Din (Stage Manager) and the cast: Joe Zettelmaier, Emily Sutton-Smith and Leslie Hull.

 

I mentioned a while back that Max was building a trebuchet for Science Olympiad.   His regional meet has come and gone, and today we did some modifications to the trebuchet, and he’ll start charting the distances and weights again!  Here we are in the school gym experimenting this evening before dinner!

And, because it’s fun, here’s a video of the first test fire where, thanks to the improvements we made, it works even better than we predicted!

Darn, now that I’ve listened to the video, it’s hard to hear Max explain it.  He says “Okay, this is a 2 kilogram counterweight and a 38 gram projectile on an awesomely modified trebuchet!  3-2-1 Launch!”

And another Wednesday has passed!

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January 24, 2012 · 5:31 am

One More Time Around the Sun!

It’s my birthday!

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
-William Shakespeare, “Merchant of Venice”

As I write this, it’s just after midnight, so officially it’s the 24th, and I’m now officially 43! And I couldn’t be happier. 42 was great, 43 should be, as they all have been, the best one yet! :)

Today was a great “Birthday Eve”, as my son kept calling it – some work at the theatre, some quality family time, A NAP!!, and just wrapped up recording a podcast with a good friend. (More on that in a day or two!)

So – here’s to 43! Let’s do this!

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