The Abe Martin Lodge

I took this last week before school off to have a little vacation with the boys. Monday, we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Tuesday, we were going to go to Conner Prairie, but it rained a lot the night before (and it was raining that morning), and I thought it would be too muddy.

This morning (Wednesday), we got on the road at about 11:00 and drove down to brown County State Park and checked into the Abe Martin Lodge, which is where I'm writing this post.

We had come here with Grandma for Easter dinner back in the Spring. At that point, they were in the process of creating a little indoor waterpark (which they laughingly call and "aquatic center"). Now the waterpark is done, so it seemed like the perfect place for a vacation. When we get tired of the waterpark, we're in the middle of Brown County State Park, where we can go hiking, or find a playground, or even leave the grounds and go over to nearby Nashville, Indiana.

So we checked in a little before 2:00. I discovered when I got here that the normal check-in time is 4:00, which I thought was really weird. Luckily, they had a room ready for us anyway.

We spent about an hour in the waterpark after we unloaded our stuff. It's a neat little place: one water slide, a little water volleyball "court," a splash area with all sorts of falling and shooting water, and a hot tub that isn't too hot for kids. The deepest part of the pool is the water volleyball "court," at 5 feet. The majority of the pool is 3.5 feet, including at the bottom of the slide, which means Hollandbeck the Elder has a full run of the pool (he even went down the slide a dozen times, after I talked him into it), and Hollandbeck the Younger has a lot of room to splash around in and have fun.

I have heard that the residents of Nashville are a little pissed off about the waterpark because it isn't open to the public; only registered guests can use it. After being in there, I see why that is a wise choice. If you've ever gone to a public waterpark during the summer, you probably remember how crowded it was — lines for the water slides, people running into each other underwater, all the chairs taken. A waterpark of this size just couldn't handle that many people. You could certainly cram that many people into it, but very few people would have a lot of fun there.

Anyway, it's a nice little place. The rooms are nice, and they're done up in a rustic look. The beds have quilts instead of comforters, and the pillows have quilted covers with a picture of (in our room, at least) big owls on them. The entertainment center, tables, chairs, and headboards are all woodsy, with a lot of bark still on the wood.

Oh, and they have free WiFi. But no free breakfast.

Oral Topography

Talk about a horrible day . . .

 

About a month ago, I discovered a big gap between a couple of molars. I thought one of my old fillings had broken, creating the gap. I let it go because it was just a nuisance at the time.

A couple days ago, it really started to hurt, and the pain expanded through the whole right side of my jaw and up to my ear. It got to be so bad that I left work early and drove over to the Immediadent clinic at Castleton Mall. This was the bad news:

I had a cavity eating its way under an old filling. The sudden gap was most likely caused by a chunk of my tooth falling out and the filling shifting a little into the space left by the cavity. The pain started when the cavity ate its way down to the nerves in the tooth.

I had two options:

• A root canal, which would cost nearly $2,000 and involve a minimum of two visits to the dentist.
  
• I could have it pulled for $288.
  

I mulled it over for a while. It was a tough decision. I hope I made the right one. I had it pulled.

I got to see the tooth after it was pulled. (I wanted to keep it, but apparently the law doesn't allow it.) Teeth are apparently like trees: there's more below the gums than there is above. It seemed like it was huge!

I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I've done well. I went 33 years without requiring any stithces — at least that I can remember. Still . . .

 

Talk about a horrible day . . .

Heather B and Bad Prom Night Memories

[Written on July 10, but posted late.]

I wasn't always the well-adjusted, polite, thoughtful megalomaniac that you know and love today.

Wednesday night, after rehearsal, I stopped in at Starbuck's for a cuppa and ran into Heather B, who was working there part-time. I went to high school with Heather B, and very nearly went to the senior prom with her. In fact, I asked her to go, even though I really didn't want to at the time. But time was running out, and in my teenage mind, getting to the senior prom was a very important thing to do. And there it was, the week before prom, and I didn't have a date.

I found out that Heather didn't have a date yet and asked her. I found out soon after that Stephanie, the German foreign exchange student, didn't have a date either. So I snuffed Heather and asked Stephanie. Now, I don't remember the order in which things happened, but Heather actually said yes to my offer, which means I basically dumped her, leaving her dateless the week before the prom, to take Stephanie.

I felt bad about it at the time, but, if it's possible, I feel worse about it now. It was a really idiotic, selfish, small-minded thing to do. But I think I paid for it. Stephanie was carrying a torch for one of the Schatts twins — maybe even the one who was, at the time, dating my future ex-wife. She (Stephanie) had no interest in me (well, I had no real interest in her, either). I was little more than a way for her to get to the prom without going stag. (Do women go stag? Or do they go doe?)

On top of that, I went with a group that included my own ex-girlfriend, for whom I had mixed feelings. I was definitely the odd man out in this group.

So, Heather B, if by some stretch of the imagination you stumble across this blog post, I apologize for how I treated you during this whole senior prom process. I was a real dick. If it's any consolation, I had a horrible, expensive time, and I'm sure I would have had a better time with you.

Moldy Peaches

I finally saw the movie Juno this weekend. I liked it so much that I watched it again.

"Anyone Else but You" by the Moldy Peaches is my new favorite song. It's the song that Ellen Page and Michael Cera ended the movie with, and I think it captures well what love ought to feel like.

But maybe I'm just a touch too romantic. And maybe I've watched too many movies with happy endings.

Four Fours

I stumbled upon this little brain teaser a few months ago. Since then, I've kept a sheet of paper near my computer that I've added to when something strikes me, and I think I've finally completed it. Here's the puzzle:

1. Start with four fours: 4 4 4 4


2. Add mathematical operators between and around these four fours so that you end up with equations that equal the numbers 1 through 20.

Hint: You'll have to use six different operators, as well as parentheses, to accomplish this.

Here are my answers. Some of these (the first one, is a good example) have more than one possible answer. I went with the one that involves the fewest HTML codes. (And, yes, some of the parentheses are redundant because of the order of operations, but I think they're also easier to read.)

See if you can figure it out, and then click the link below to see my answers.

1. (4 + 4) ÷ (4 + 4)


2. 4 × (4 ÷ (4 + 4))


3. (4 + 4 + 4) ÷ 4


4. (√4 + √4) × (4 ÷ 4)


5. ((4 × 4) + 4) ÷ 4


6. √4 + 4 × (4 ÷ 4)


7. (4 + 4) – (4 ÷ 4)


8. 4 + 4 + 4 – 4


9. 4 + 4 + (4 ÷ 4)


10. 4 + 4 + 4 – √4


11. (4! ÷ √4) – (4 ÷ 4)


12. (√4 + √4 + √4) × √4


13. (4! ÷ √4) + (4 ÷ 4)


14. 4 + 4 + 4 + √4


15. (4 × 4) – (4 ÷ 4)


16. 4 + 4 + 4 + 4


17. (4 × 4) + (4 ÷ 4)


18. 4! – (√4 + √4 + √4)


19. 4! – 4 – (4 ÷ 4)


20. (4 × 4) + (√4 × √4)

Meeting notes

I was pretty tired today because back pain kept me tossing and turning last night. In an afternoon meeting, I even started counting sheep. Here are my notes from the meeting:
Okay, so one of them is really a wolf in sheep's clothing. Either way, it didn't help me fall asleep this afternoon.

FAIL

One of my new favorite blogs: FAIL Blog.

Some happy shots from that blog:

IWS Season Ender

I think that our final concert went well. I got very lucky with the PowerPoint presentation — especially considering that the conductor unknowingly started the second movement before I had even pulled it up on the screen. I've got nothing but compliments about it.

The silent auction, though, was pitiful. We didn't even have two dozen items up for auction. (Last year, we had over 30. But we also had a larger audience.) Last year we made about $1,000; this year we didn't even break $400.

I just don't know what to do to get people in the band to put in some extra work. I know I need to help create a sense of ownership among the band-members, get them invested, so that they will stop just expecting things to happen the way they're supposed to. Most of the people just come and play, and the behind-the-scenes machinations that keep the ensemble going are just SEP: somebody else's problem.

I think we need some measurable goals to work toward. We need both monetary and musical goals, and some way to report how close we are to achieving those goals. That way, it won't just be a string of individual concerts, but a single continuing season. But how do we do that?

Final IWS Concert of the Season

The final concert of the 2007–08 regular season for the Indiana Wind Symphony is this Sunday, June 1. This is the concert that ends up taking up so much of my time, and that isn't even for practicing.

We have some traditions at our final concert. We give out the James B. Calvert Award for the Outstanding Indiana Music Educator. We also give out the Bob Day award to the outstanding member of the group. I don't have much to do with that.

But we also have our annual silent auction at our final concert. Once again, it has fallen to me to hold on to the auction items that people bring in (though, to be honest, the only auction items I have are the ones donated by my parents). I also print up auction sheets by creating a spreadsheet and doing a mail merge in Word.

Another tradition, and this is only the third year for it, is for the final piece of the concert to be something big and to include a visual presentation (using PowerPoint). Guess who puts that together. It just happens to be the guy who copy edited the original Cutting Edge PowerPoint For Dummies. This year, the piece is James Barnes' Fourth Symphony, "Yellowstone Portraits." It's about 22 minutes long, and I'm having a hard time finding enough pictures to put it together...or at least enough pictures to make it interesting. I do have a couple of videos to include this year. And it's taking up so much of my time.

As if that weren't enough, I also have to assemble the program, which runs 16 or 20 pages. This year we even have an advertiser.

All this, and I have to play most of the concert, too. I'm even taking Friday off of work to make sure everything gets done on time. And I have two freelance copy editing assignments smoldering on the back burner while I do all this. (sigh)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing these things -- well, except for the auction stuff, which is just a pain. But I think next year, I'll just sit out for the playing part of the concert and concentrate on the other creative stuff. Or maybe I can get started on the PowerPoint presentation in, say, January (or next week), so I can have it finished before we even start rehearsals for that concert. (Like that'll happen. I thrive on deadlines a little too much.)

After all this, I just hope the concert is a success.

Cyber-Stalking?

An update on the never-ending search for intellectual and emotional connection.

Last night on Match.com, I found a local musician that, for the most part, looks on paper to be just the kind of woman I'm looking for. She's a violist with a Master's degree in performance, and she teaches viola and violin in the area. All of our other stats line up well except that she posted that she was looking for someone who had never been married and didn't have any kids. I'm hoping she will overlook that, at least for now. I wrote to her last night and have been crossing my fingers that she'll write back (which makes it difficult to type).

This morning, though, I couldn't help myself. I started Googling around. It only took me about 20 minutes to find some more, real information about this woman, including her real name, where she works, and even her home address and phone number. Is this considered cyber-stalking? I hope not. I don't plan on doing anything untoward with that information -- except maybe to point out that there are a lot better pictures of her out there than the ones she has posted at Match.com.

But did I break "the rules" by searching her out online? For all I know, she could be doing the same. There is certainly enough information in my Match.com profile for someone to find me, if they really wanted to. It might lead someone directly to this blog. Hey, she could be reading this right now!

Hey! IndyViolaBelle! Drop me a line! I really am a nice guy, and my children are wonderful and gifted. I hope to hear from you soon!

(Sigh. I think that's the last of my optimism for the day.)