Bill Roper's Journal

K is officially a high school graduate. It was a nice ceremony, given the limitations of having to hand out diplomas to nearly 500 students while finishing in two hours. :) (All of the Maine schools were using the same facility, so the ceremonies were on a tight schedule to finish in one day.)

Afterwards, we all went out to a late lunch with a number of K's friends and their parents and relatives at a Korean BBQ, which was quite an experience. And the conversation was good.

I always like good conversation.

In and around the three loads of laundry I did today, I was able to duck into the studio and use Cubase's pitch shift function to capo 2 the scratch vocals and guitar. The vocals did not at all appreciate this treatment, but they and the guitar are going to be replaced shortly and only need to be there now to assist me in timing everything correctly to Sally's drum track. They will do for this purpose.

K is off on the high school's "all night" sojourn to Six Flags. It is not actually "all night", but they'll be getting back around 3:30 AM and I'll need to go rescue her and one of her friends. I offered K my car, but she cleverly declined, as she expects to be in no shape to drive at that time.

I will be snoring away waiting for my wake up call...

The annual drama department awards were today. K was voted Most Dedicated by the folks in her drama classes and won the Top Thespian award for her four years of work in the program. I was so proud to hear her fellow students chanting her name.

The drama teacher had wonderful things to say about her turn as student director on the winter musical, noting that she was fixing problems before he even had a chance to become aware of them.

I'm glad that she was a drama kid.

It was actually a party, but it was a meetup with K and a number of her friends from the drama department at our house this afternoon. The living room was beaten into submission and the teen activity took place there. Ruby so badly wanted to play with the visitors, but enough of them were allergic that she was exiled to the back yard. When I finished work, I went out to throw the ball for her for a bit, which made her much happier. Not as happy as she would have been getting attention from all the visitors, but...

I then defied my normal practice (having tripped over it by accident) and spent the evening watching the Blues vs. Jets hockey game. The Blues chased the Jets' goalie for the third Blues home game in a row, won game six, and have forced game seven back in Winnipeg. Each team has won its home games so far, so I'm going to have to hope that the pattern breaks.

I have a great many things that I need to do this weekend (*cough* laundry *cough* at a minimum), but none of them are on a tight schedule. I have hopes. :)

Today was the recital for the kids who are taking individual voice lessons over at Maine West. I got to hear a lot of good singing, including some from K and Julie. (K and Julie's was pre-recorded and didn't play due to a glitch, but I got to see it at home tonight on the big TV, so that worked out ok. :) )

I saw this coming.

Actually, I saw it coming after seeing the fine Cubs vs. Dodgers game on Wednesday down at Wrigley Field. I was planning to go to the Cubs vs. Phillies night game today. And then I realized that I was going to see K's show at Maine West on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

This is too much entertainment.

So I listed the Cubs tickets and stayed home today, which was one of my better choices. :)

Some cleaning was done, which was good. More cleaning will follow soon.

And I finished setting some lyrics that Gretchen had asked me to look at to a tune. (Because tunes are free, right? :) )

Tomorrow, it's back to work. So rest was good...

I went back over to Maine West to see K's next to last stage show there. The show went well. There was a moment of low pitched feedback when they turned on a mic at one point, but the sound crew managed to quell it without too much problem.

K's off to the after-party now. I picked up a pizza from Malnati's on the way home (because I ordered it from my cellphone when the show ended) and Gretchen and I had a nice dinner while watching the season finale of "The Floor".

And now we'll wait up for K. :)

Today was the Maine West show for all the kids in the video production classes to show off their best work. It was fun to see what they had been up to. :)

Today was Opening Day of the baseball season (not counting the out-of-country opener in Japan). There was much rejoicing. There was especially rejoicing, because the Cardinals are currently alone in first place in the NL Central, a position that they might not spend a lot of time in this year. But they are in first place for now and that is worth a small celebration.

In other news, K wanted to watch "Back to the Future". I would have sworn that I bought a boxed set of the DVDs some time back, but they were nowhere to be found, so I ordered a new boxed set of the three movies yesterday and it arrived today. K is now heading downstairs to watch one or more movies, which is the advantage of being on Spring Break.

And now it is time to go look at box scores, because the annual baseball draft is on Saturday and I should see who is actually playing... :)

It was time to catch up on laundry today. Four loads of mostly parental laundry later, we are caught up -- although three loads still need to be put away. But I managed to hump those three laundry baskets up to the second floor in a single trip, so I am suitably impressed.

The kids continue to have fun in New York. So far, they have seen "Six", the "Back to the Future" showing accompanied by a symphony orchestra, and have gone on a Hudson River dinner cruise tonight. I am told there are pictures. They'll be back late tomorrow, if all goes according to plan. They have a week off from school. I have plans for cleaning. :)

In other news, Gretchen introduced me to the "Cheese Tax" song today. Ouch! What a cute little earworm!