Return to the Forbidden Planet

Tonight the spring musical at Central begins: Return to the Forbidden Planet. It's Shakespeare meets Star Trek with 60's rock and roll. I am the piano player in the band. We also have some guitars, drums, and some brass. It's a lot of fun! You can see our set. The band sits in the back. The actors get to climb up to the upper deck, and can slide down the fireman poles.
The band gets to wear costumes as well, although our flight suits aren't as dressed up as the actors. I also get a funky hair cut...I call it the wind-blown space cowboy look. I have a wonderful piano solo in "Great Balls of Fire," and I have to stand up and dance at the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis.

Earthquake!!!

Early this morning I woke up because my bed was shaking, and my walls were rattling a little bit. It only lasted about 5 seconds. I thought maybe a big truck had driven by, but I didn't see anything out my window.

Then on the way to work I heard on NPR that an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scaled had occured in Illinois. They said It could be felt in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago, and all the way to Des Moines. So I was woken up by an earthquake in the Midwest!!

Here's the NPR article about it: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89749491

Working Outside

As you can see, my house really is on the market! You can also see by my clothing that the temperature was actually warm enough to be outside in pants and a t-shirt, and be very comfortable!

Lynn came over with the girls, and they helped around the house a little...well, they played Nintendo and didn't make a mess, then helped sweep the back steps.

This is Rhea sitting in her car seat. I really should go find a picture of Lynn at that age, because I am pretty sure Rhea looks exactly like her.
On Sunday we were at my parents house, and Rhea was a real spaz. She was in the living room roaring like a lion and being very loud. Lynn said to her, "Rhea, no more roaring!" Rhea looked at her, then looked at me and said, "Meow."

Moving Day for the Honns

Jesse and Lindsay Honn are in the process of moving from Washington State to Pennsylvania. Since they are taking I-80 all the way, we planned to meet up somewhere in Des Moines. Last night they ended up staying at the Days Inn in Urbandale--the office where I work is located in the Days Inn parking lot! I came in early this morning and me them for breakfast.We ate at the Iowa Machine Shed restaurant by Living History Farms. We had a great meal and split a GIANT cinnamon roll.
Natalee seemed to enjoy the meal!

Volleyball!

Last weekend the Iowa Region hosted a bunch of volleyball events. On Friday night we had our first High Performance tryout of the season. I worked the check in line, and then was a court evaluator. We had about 100 girls show up for the 3 age groups, which was pretty good. The next tryout will be even bigger! We had some great talents!Then all weekend was our first round of Jr. Regionals. We had about 190 teams signed up, and ran 15 different sites over 2 days. We spent a lot of time in the office getting everything ready, and were up late setting up sites. My sister Lynn and I were the site directors at SE Polk HS, and had a good tournament. We only had a couple injuries (a bloody nose and a dislocated elbow), and had to do a playoff game, but the parents were all very nice and the girls played well. Here is Lynn and Olivia at the site director desk. Olivia was a big hit. :)