(Image from Poetrysync)

“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual,”
– Mark Twain

As I sit here in our reading room, faux fireplace creating a toasty atmosphere, fireworks announce the start of 2014 and I am perplexed: surely I just experienced all of this to announce 2013. True, I have a head full of memories of largely good experiences for 2013…but a year cannot physically pass that quickly, can it? I don’t understand, yet here we are, welcoming a new year. Happy New Year to you all.

Continue reading Out with the Old, in with the New →

(The image featured is from the cover of the January 1956 issue of Galaxy magazine.)

Each year for the Virtual Advent Blog Tour, Kailana and I agree to share Christmas Eve. We do our best to do something creative, with varying degrees of success. Kailana reminded me that back in 2008 we wrote a story together and this year we decided to revisit that idea. Consider it your early Christmas present…or perhaps the coal in your stocking.

Conventional wisdom tells us that Santa Claus’ bag of toys is an Object of Power, a relic of the days when the Fae walked openly among us. How else could a rotund, bearded man deliver precisely what is asked for to houses the world over, all in one night, if not for a sack powered by fairy dust? It is a nearly flawless system of wish fulfillment…nearly. Here we see one of the rare, unintended consequences of bringing something magical into the home of the mundane.

I’ll Have a Blu-ray Christmas, Because of You

The Smith family’s wishes were fairly simple, nothing complicated for the Big Guy to conjure up as payment for Mrs. Smith’s delectable homemade cookies. Bobby Smith wanted a selection of Christmas movies to nurture his obsession with the season of Yule; Susie Smith was a budding science fiction fan and had a list of old and new science fiction films that she had asked for when writing to Santa. The presents delivered under the tree as promised, ol’ Saint Nick was just polishing off the last of the ginger snaps when he turned to head up the chimney and knocked over both stacks of movies with his magic bag, scattering blu-ray cases and unseen fairy dust everywhere. With a shake of his bearded head and an exasperated sigh, he hurriedly replaced the films under the tree and shot off up the chimney to continue his once-a-year rounds.

All was right with the world.

Continue reading Virtual Advent Day 24: A Christmas Story for You! →

One of my favorite every-few-year traditions that has grown over our years living in Kansas City is partaking of seasonally appropriate live theater in October. And my absolute favorite place for this to happen is at The Coterie. The intimate setting of this family theatre makes their shows and experience and this one was no exception. When I saw that this month’s offering was Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker there was no chance I was missing it. Especially when it advertises that it adheres closely to the original novel by Bram Stoker.

I’ve often complained of adaptations of this, my favorite novel, though I should expect such. When does any novel adapted to other media satisfy the passionate fan? When the lights went down on today’s performance and the audience expressed its pleasure, my enthusiastic applause was for the performance and the faithfulness of this play to Bram Stoker’s most famous work.

Continue reading Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker →

It was such a wonderful evening. God answered our prayers and the rain moved out in the early afternoon leaving a partly cloudy, autumnal day where pictures could be taken in the beautiful natural outdoor light. Tori was lovely, Grant handsome, and the rest of us cleaned up pretty good too. The ceremony was intimate and the reception a time of visiting with friends and relatives that went by all too quickly.

And now our baby is truly all grown up and is a married woman. While it sometimes seems unreal, we could not be more happy for Grant and Tori. We love them both dearly.

Thank you to everyone who made the weekend so fantastic. To the McCarty family for an amazing rehearsal dinner. To the Dibben family for helping set up, direct guests, handle the gifts and especially to James for taking the Director role for the ceremony itself and the table dismissal for the meal. To Pastor Larry for a joyful, intimate wedding ceremony. To the Anderson family for helping to set up table decor and especially to Dawn for lovely, creative flower arrangements. To all the ushers and groomsman and bridesmaids…you all looked lovely/debonair (pick the appropriate adjective) and you made Grant and Tori’s special weekend even more special.

Thank you to the caterers, Two Sisters, who made a delicious meal. To the event venue, Studio 2131, for making everything run smoothy, for helping us decorate on Friday night, and for help cleaning up.

Thank you to everyone who helped pick up and load up and who helped out in any way whatsoever. I’m just the father-of-the-bride and am no doubt in the dark about much of the efforts that went into making this such a wonderful wedding. So thank you.

What follows is a collage of just a handful of the pictures I took. The professional ones will hopefully soon follow. Continue reading The Day That Was →

Today marks the ending of a big chapter in our lives and turns the page to the beginning of another. This day, Friday September 27th 2013, is the last day that our daughter Tori will be living in our home*…it is also the last day that she will share our surname.

Tomorrow Tori and Grant become husband and wife.

Today will be filled with last minute wedding planning followed by the rehearsal and a wonderful rehearsal dinner at the McCarty’s. Really looking forward to that, especially as they have been hard at work expanding their back porch to create a really nice space to entertain.

I’ve been very scarce on both this site and others over the past month and this is in large part why. Pictures and a wedding report will follow.

Mary and I are looking forward to the new roles we will be playing as in-laws and are excited about watching Grant and Tori take this new step in their lives as husband and wife.
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*It better be! 🙂

(Image Credit)