Beacon's Mikado at the Sheldon

On the evening of New Years Day, Anne and I returned to the Sheldon Theater, site of the previous night’s, First Night performances of Brian Owens and Kim Massie. The occasion this time, was a performance of “The Mikado”, to benefit the Saint Louis Beacon, an online newspaper. I got the tickets for Anne, who is the real Gilbert and Sullivan fan, as a Christmas present. The Sheldon is a nice hall, but it has a tiny stage. The previous night it was easily filled with the Owens quartet and then the Massy quintet. Taking our seats, I had no idea of how they planned to stage “The Mikado” on it. Well first the performance was not the full operetta, but a concert performance of just the principal songs. Even so, it was a tight fit squeezing all thirty performers onto the stage. Anne knew one of the performers. Matt Pentecost sang the role of Pish Tush, a nobleman. Mr. Pentecost is a music teacher by day, at the MRH school district’s ECC. Anne sometimes teaches there.

Dad at the Beach

Chris sent along the photograph of Dad at the beach. I think the photo was taken in Carmel? Chris and I have been Facetime phoning each other. Adding the video really enhances these calls. Not only can we see each other, but we can also show each other the things that we talk about.

Red-tailed Hawk at Powder Valley

Winter came screaming in from Canada last night. So, we elected to walk instead of bicycle on Monday. We drove out to Powder Valley. When the kids were young, Powder Valley was a popular destination. Its nature trails wind to and fro, but more importantly up and down. They are perfect for sending kids running pell-mell down the hill and then huffing and puffing up the next one. Yesterday, the hills helped to cut the wind for us. The visitor’s center was closed for the day, so the park was nearly empty when we arrived. We saw lots of birds, including a Red-tailed Hawk (pictured), Eastern Bluebirds, Flickers, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpeckers and Nuthatches. We only hiked two miles, but with all of the ups and downs, it wasn’t too long, before Anne began to sing:

Oh, The noble Duke of York,
He had ten thousand men;
He marched them up to the top of the hill,
And he marched them down again.

And when they were up, they were up,
And when they were down, they were down,
And when they were only half-way up,
They were neither up nor down.

We came home to watch the Spartans win and then finished the day off with a family dinner, at out. Tomorrow is a work day, at least for me, and the start of another year. Prognosticators have been predicting 2012 to be a year of doom and gloom. I predict that 2012 will be the year of the three Ls, Leap year, the ‘Lympics and the ‘Lection. I’ll let the readers decide for themselves whether these three Ls bode well for this new year or not. I’ll just toddle off to work, with a song in my heart, if not on my breath:

Hi ho, Hi ho
It’s off to work I go
I owe, I owe
So, it’s off to work I go