Good Times, Good Friends

What a great weekend to get out and enjoy central PA. We spent the Saturday exploring some of the letterboxes along the York Heritage Rail Trail. This 20 mile trail connects to another 20 miles in Maryland.


RGBisMe and I had the opportunity to take our photograph while standing on opposite sides of the Mason Dixon line. I was born in the south of the line so I stood on the rebel side.


After finding our fourth letterbox of the day, the rain started just as we made it back to our car and went to spend the evening with Toolman Luke and Maga11 who were cat sitting for us for the day.


The next morning we set out early to meet up with Janila (read her blog entry here ) and finally meet Dogs With Wings. Cat in tow, we drove back to the same general area but the day was totally different. We enjoyed lovely diffused morning sunlight for all of our morning letterboxing in the York area.


It was a day of walk a bit, drive a bit. Many of the trails were damps and some sloppy so cat hiking was quite limited. He spent most of his time on RGBisMe's back. This allowed us to keep up with our letterboxing friends.



I really enjoyed Nixon Park and the letterboxes there. Birds were in full song and some snakes were slowly making it out into the sun. Dogs With Wings became Snake Wrangler extraordinaire trying to get them to sun in a place they wouldn't get run over.



Around noon we met up with some of the planters of the letterboxes we had been enjoying. The Royal Fish, E-man, and TNT were a real pleasure to meet. Their enthusiasm to exchange and pick everyone's brains about letterboxing was encouraging.

Looking back on the whole day, it was the visiting that was the highlight. Catching up with old friends and making new ones. I had to smile today when pasting stamps into the Crayola Posse logbook, TNT was our 100th exchange. It has been great meeting so many nice folks.

Goodbye My Gould Friends

For the past 14 years we have had Gouldian Finches in our lives. We bred them and learned a lot about them. We used them as a hands on study in genetics in Ravenboy's homeschooling by tracing their recessive and dominant coloring patterns after the chicks had their first molt.

Our very last little finch died this afternoon. As a chick he had caught his foot in the woven nest and twisted his leg very badly. I had a difficult time releasing him from the nest and permanently lost his toenail and was forever lame. He was one of the 4 chicks we named for the Beatles (Paul died as a a chick). We will miss having these sweet colorful little birds in our family.

Therapy Cat in Training

Currently training to be a Delta Society Pet Partner.

Merde Ravenboy!

Ravenboy will be performing his most challenging role in Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room tomorrow in Paris. Think of this dear fellow at about 10:00 AM NYC time (4:00pm in Paris).

Things that Grow

Everything from ideas to fungus has been growing in our lives lately. We have been busy with a couple of huge letterboxing projects. Our Crystals Series will have over 20 theme related letterboxes to find along a pretty trail in our "Keystone Keyhole". We are excited to share it soon and hope it's debut will be well received.


Next month we are hosting a local event, "Huntin' Tupperware®". Concerned, flattered, overwhelmed and stressed about the number of letterboxers who have shown an interest in visiting, we will hope for the best. The tiny back room of Panera is really only suited for about 20 people and 55 have signed up to come. We know weather will be the deciding factor but have still broken the event up into different off-sight locations. So that even locals enjoy the day, we hid 8 new letterboxes with a local theme for everyone to go "Huntin' for".


Toolman Luke gave us a really fun gift for Christmas. It is a mushroom growing kit. We had RGBisMe's favorite Hungarian Mushroom Soup last week made with our own home grown mushrooms. Amazing!


Probably the highlight of the winter, our Christmas Cactus has finally decided to bloom. This plant is the momma plant of many shared cuttings in our family. It lived for years in a bathroom in Hegins, PA. After doing some figuring on how long RGBisme's grandmother had owned it and before that, we know this plant is over 100 years old. It refused to bloom for us after we had transplanted it from it's rusty bucket. This year, it found happiness in a glazed pot.

This Man's Hands

This man's hands joined with his wife's
and they made a life together.

This man's hands served our country
and lead him with integrity.

They carved a home
out of a small piece of paradise.

They helped him choose an industrious vocation
that built a foundation for the region.

This man's hands accepted his new son
then taught him to follow his dream.

They turned over a garden
and harvested his land by hunting and fishing.

This man's hands held his first daughter
and encouraged her natural intelligence.

They crafted his home into a haven
by taking the gifts of nature and creating beauty in utility.

This man's hands received his second daughter
and gave her what she needed to flourish.

They lifted a glass with friends
while roasting pig and corn.

This man's hands cared for his aging parents
by sacrificing the way good sons do.

They remained compassionate
as they stroked the family dogs.

This man's hands held his grandchildren
and taught them to bait a hook.

They supported his smiling chin
and he laughed with them as they grew.

This man's hands were never idle
even as his legs began to tire.

They improved on his original creations
and were ever ready to offer hospitality and advice.

This man's hands celebrated the arrival of
his great grandson.

They appreciated the frailty of new life
and the strength in it's potential.

They touched our lives
through many thoughtful gestures.

This man's hands now rely on us
to continue his good work.


for William Glenn Kinzer

Bravisimo!

The one thing I have gotten used to is the anticipation of steeling myself to read post production reviews of Ravenboy's performances. No mom wants to have her son read that he was reviewed as epicene in a role that was meant to be clearly a dynamic young demigod. It is with shock that I find myself actually missing the critiques of this past weekend's performances. Whatever shall I do? I need to rely on your reviews (add to comments below) if you came to a show!!

10 Years of Nuttiness

Ravenboy and partner, December 1996 in "The Nutcracker"

This is the 10th anniversary of Ravenboy's first performance in "The Nutcracker". His first role was as the Nutcracker who, through the genuine acceptance of a young lady, is transformed back into the handsome young man he was intended to be. This weekend, he has returned to perform as a guest with his home town school. The local newspaper did a short interview which ran today.

The Nutcracker

Come see Ravenboy debut in his role of Drosselmyer next weekend in Ballet Theatre of Central PA's production of The Nutcracker.

He will be performing in Trepak in all 4 shows as well as being featured as Herr Drosselmeyer / Cavalier in the evening productions. I have had a peak at rehearsals (his grand pas de deux with Sugar Plum Fairy)... WOW!

The Many Moods of Thanksgiving

An Oval, a Circle and a Beak

Renowned artist and author David Allen Sibley visited for the weekend at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg, PA. We have carried his guides to birding with us for years and, until recently, that was no easy feat in the field.

Things started off well as Maga11, RGBisMe and I met Tracdc at the nature center. We had each paid our fee of $75.00 a person quite a while ago so our expectations and anticipation had risen to a fevered pitch. We all had our drawing pads, new or freshly sharpened pencils and our brains shifted into bird topography gear.

We found out that the class description had changed since we first signed up. It was now described as an "art lecture" and had been opened up to 30 people as opposed to the 20 it had been originally limited too. Not quite the class we had imagined but we we still eager.



Mr. Sibley started out asking what level of knowledge the class had and what we were interested in. Maga11 and a couple of others piped up, "Details" and "Your secrets". As I wiped my sweaty palms, I was sure that these vocal artists had insured that the level of instruction was probably going to push my ability as a visual artist to it's limit.


The first subject was general bird shape and a quick understanding of the scrawny bird body. He then showed how the feathers filled out the typical song bird shape which could quickly be sketched out with an oval (for the body), a circle (the head), and a triangle as a beak. Then drawing a sparrow shape from the front, feather details were shown with a few basic details on how feathers lie on the bird's body and how a single feather helps to make up an entire pattern.

I knew the pace of theses details would soon pick up so I took a moment to draw the author. From the looks of the sketches around me it seemed I was seated in an area of some of the more remedial artists. I added color to my sketch of Mr. Sibley as they asked a few tedious questions.


One fellow wanted to focus on birds' feet and we took quite a while on the most basic of bird foot shape. After absorbing a very helpful clue about placing legs properly by finding the bird's center of balance, I got bored and drew a bird whose foot was gripping a lighted cigarette. Another lady wanted to know why we weren't drawing two eyes on a bird that was shown in profile. My finger still has red marks from biting it to keep from laughing out loud.

It was time to liven the party up. I threw out a question that sent the instructor into a 20 minute defense and description on Turkeys and their spurs. He was ill at ease with the stuffed turkey, it had spurs.

No, honestly, we then went on to do a brief study on wings and then adding action to bird drawings. I pulled out my bird guides as models and drew 3 or 4 as he carefully sketched out his oval, circle and beak. As the class drew to a close, he made a good tip of how a tilt of the head of raise of the tail could add a little tension and life to a drawing. I jotted those notes down and decided I better quickly draw his example to show what he was referring to. As I did my 30 second sketch of the drawing that took his the past 5 minutes to illustrate, he encouraged the class to do such drawings while watching their bird feeder. He noted that each drawing should only take 15 to 30 seconds, I chuckled inwardly.

We then dutifully lined up to have our books signed by the author. He is a talented artist, a gracious man but was set up to teach an impossible range of students in a limited amount of time. As Tracdc (whose ended up drawing a Sulfur Crested Cockatoo) said, "$75.00 sure is steep for learning to draw an oval, a circle and a beak." We sure are glad the money goes to fund the beautiful nature center.

Cat with Pareidolia

I am not sure if it is a sign of intelligence or stupidity but our cat sees faces in 2 dimensional objects. They are usually cat faces. I think I will start to list the ojects on this post and just add them in as we notice him Seymore:

Emily Strange Posse stuffed cat; Sabbath.
Nittany Lion Shrine (3-D but at least 10' long)
Characters on television
Emily Strange Posse Cat Hat with ears
Decorative life sized cloth cat
Carved Cat face on a Jack-o-lantern

Here's a blog post about another Pareidolic Cat.

Cat Coat

I am super proud of the cat coat I made.

City Center 2006

This was our third year to see ABT perform at City Center on the exact same weekend. That makes our Metropolitan Museum of Art letterbox 3 years old. We were able to also check on our Carnegie Hall letterbox, it is doing well.

Maga11 and Toolman Luke were very generous by underwriting the entire trip to the city. RGBisMe was our driver in and around the city and I helped by navigating us place to place. We made it into the city on the tag end of a major storm. We had plenty of time to check out where we wanted to take Ravenboy for a meal after the show and then made our way into the theater just as the skies opened up again.


The performance opened with Stanton Welch's Clear. Our seats in the mid mezzanine allowed a nice view of the entire stage. I felt so fortunate to be able to see this cast, mostly young men, that featured my favorite principal dancers, Xiomara Reyes and Herman Cornejo. I was shocked that my attention was actually drawn away from them to watch some of the very talented younger dancers. Most impressive to me were Blaine Hoven, Jared Matthews and Arron Scott. Hoven's line, Matthew's whip-like turns and Scott's exact footwork as well as stage presence amazed me. Through their talent and ability to project everything from humor to joy of life with their dancing, we were engaged and diverted.





We made a group decision to leave the theater after the first piece. This gave us extra time to take Ravenboy to lunch and visit with him a while. We walked to whole way down to Rockefeller Plaza to see a terrific sculpture called a Sky Mirror.


We can be seen in it's reflection on the edge of the sidewalk, right by where the word "BUS" in the bus lane is.



It was then time to walk Ravenboy back to the theater because he was in the evening performance of In The Upper Room. This allowed us time to visit with Yugio at the Starbucks where I embarrassed myself last year. I almost had the chance to do it again. I was about a half a block behind my party entering the coffee shop and as I approached the entrance, Angel Corella was exiting. Maga11 and Toolman Luke greeted me with broad grins as they remembered my faux pas from the year before.



The evening performance did not disappoint. The maturity and professionalism of ballet dancers is mind boggling. In The Upper Room requires constant movement and awareness of self and others or serious injuries could occur in the blink of an eye. Stomper Jared Matthews and Ballet Men Arron Scott & Herman Cornejo had shined in the athletic matinee performance of Clear. They continued to excel while being accurate and steady partners in what is becoming one of my favorite ballets. The highlight of my evening brought me to tears. I was able to watch my son dance with, at the same level as the most talented ballet dancers in the world. Seeing him, Herman Cornejo and Paloma Herrera performing a beautiful trio had my eyes welling and heart racing. Seeing one's child achieving their dream can be a most satisfying moment.


Ballet dancers are young athletes with a flare for drama. Living in NYC, the city in it's entirety becomes a stage for them during Hallowe'en. These young ladies and men revel in choosing costumes and personas that they wish to put on as opposed to what is put onto them. Driving through the streets on our way out of the city for the third Hallowe'en weekend in a row had us laughing. Between the actors, dancers, singers and young at heart living in the Chelsea area, it was the third show we had seen in one day. Bravisimo!