My girlfriend took me on vacation. Unknown to me at the time, to Put in Bay, located in the shallow western end of Lake Erie. We left on Tuesday and stayed until Saturday. It was a wonderful time, a little rain, but when the sun came out it was great! The Put-in-Bay Jet Express ride was smooth, and quick. We ate at the Crescent Tavern and Catering for lunch, very good food, the Tavern had a Victorian look to it, beautiful! For dinner we enjoyed eating at the Boardwalk restaurant, and had the special for only $19.00. Mouth watering sword fish. Very good fresh seafood. We also went to the Mossbacks Island Bar and Grill which is and upscale casual restaurant that has a great view of downtown, Put-in-Bay, the park and Lake Erie. This was such a fun trip, renting the golf cart, our principal method of transporting, was a bit interesting, I was pleasantly surprised at the place we stayed, Aunt Jane’s Victorian Manor, because they are equipped with refrigerator, stove and even pot and pan, not that we were going to cook. But once again it was beautiful. Life is good and we all need time to get away and get refreshed.

I’m not a big classical music fan. If Mozart comes on, I’m as bored as the next person. You wouldn’t think that, because I’m a music teacher. Everyone expects me to like opera, music from the Classical era, and other pretty boring stuff. But Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” is different for me. The first time I heard it, it wasn’t played by instruments. A Sweet Adeline (barbershop) quartet called “Ambiance” sang it. If you know the piece of music, you’ll think, “Wait a minute. That song doesn’t have words.” That’s true. But the arranger, David Wright, had written words to it. They described his first impressions of New York. He used the highs and lows and rhythm of the song brilliantly. The women who were singing it had the skills to reproduce the song exactly the way the arranger envisioned it. It was amazing. Because that was my first exposure to “Rhapsody in Blue”, I learned to appreciate the song more than I would have. Years later, I heard it in a commercial for an airline (instrumentally). Had that been the first time I heard the song, I don’t think I would have liked it. I think the reason some people like certain songs has a lot to do with HOW you get to know it.

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Last night my wife and I recreated one of my favorite Italian dishes. After visiting an Italian food chain I found myself dying for a plate of the miraculous dish they had prepared. How could I get that incredible food without going back to the restaurant; there had to be a way! I was a man on a mission so I fired up my trusty Mac, hopped on the web and found that a culinary mastermind had broken down the recipe and recreated it at home. More than that, he was willing to share it with me (or anyone who visited the site, for that matter). I was set. Using this new information I whipped up a knockout of a knock-off. The sauce was rich, with just a bit of a zing. The chicken was perfect and the whole meal was a success.

I got my dog, a cavalier king Charles, in Virgina four years ago. He is a cute, brown and white dog. We got him for my mothers thirty sixth birthday and she named him Charlie much to my dismay. She could not have come up with a more unoriginal name for him, but my sister and step dad did not mind. We brought him home and showed him his new home. He explored for a bit in and out of the house peeing and pooping a bit outside. He finally settled down on the couch and watched t.v. with us for a couple of hours. At about 10:00 PM my parents went upstairs to show Charlie where he would be sleeping. He looked around, walked around the bed, and settled in. It took him a couple of minuets, but he fell asleep. At about 3 Am he woke up and started barking, he needed to go out to pee. We took him out and he settled back to sleep.

In 1982, singer Tom Keifer and bassist Eric Brittingham founded the rock band Cinderella. Three years later, guitar player Jeff Labar and drummer Fred Coury would round out the band, and in 1986, their first album, “Night Songs,” was released. The album achieved triple platinum status, and included such hits as “Nobody’s Fool,” “Somebody Save Me,” and “Shake Me.” In 1988, their second album was released, titled “Long Cold Winter,” followed in 1990 by the album “Heartbreak Station.” In 1991, lead singer Tom Keifer completely lost his voice due to paresis of the vocal cords. This delayed the album “Still Climbing,” which was finally released in 1994. The album wasn’t met with much fanfare, and the band went on hiatus in 1995. However in 1997, Cinderella released a greatest hits compilation titled, “Once upon a …,” and started to tour again in 1998. The band is still comprised of the same members, and tours across the world to this day.