Drivin along in my automobile...

hahahah...
I crack myself up!
I put some items on Craigslist recently, sold em both the first day! Nice.
One of the items is an old captains bed we have.
My son Eric slept on it and then Katie too.
Since we built Katie the hanging bed, it had to go.
A young woman in Magnolia emailed me wanting it.
Well, that is a 35 mile trip one way, so I charged her $25 more. She loved it.
The snow was deep in Seattle, not on the freeways but the side streets.
I amazed myself by attempting and conquering this street that seemed to go straight up for about a half mile. It is Dravus street. I really had no choice because I map quested the directions and, well, I saw no other way. There was a sign in the middle of the road stating the road was closed!
Well, I put the Tahoe in four wheel low and started climbing. About halfway up this monster hill I was really wondering, but I kept on drivin'.
I cannot believe I made it. I stopped at the top and looked back down the hill. WOW! There were several man made snow ramps on the hill. I avoided them all.
Gotta love four whell drive and decent tires!
I delivered the bed to a budding actress, Donnabelle Montrel. The bed is for her 18 year old brother.
I did some magic for them and really spooked her and her sister with the Biddle trick!
That trick has been a wonder lately!

Things I like to do

Snow time is fun time!
Gotta love it!
I like BBQing all year around, but for some reason I derive a perverse pleasure BBQing when it is cold, and snow is on the ground. Maybe I think all the neighbors can smell the wonderful aroma and I get to tantalize Em! Make Em envious! Ha...
Maybe I just love BBQed meat!
Well that's true too! :)
I like hot tubbin in the snow too.

It's like you're gettin' away with something!

I like Christmas music, and one of my favorites is, "Let It Snow!"
My favorite line is about sitting by the fire with my loved one!
Just like this!

I like driving heavy equipment at work in the snow too! Like a little child playing with trucks in a sand box!

Hairy Scary

Got a call last evening from my younger sister.
She has been having problems in her life handling life.
Not liking getting older. Missing the joy of freedoms enjoyed when we were young.
Not enjoying motherhood and being a wife, not liking being tied down financially, or responsibility wise either.
I know the feeling.
I got call last morning while at work to pick her up from a hospital in Everett. That was at about 1:30 A.M.
Snow was everywhere. Whatcha gonna do?!
I went.
About 10 miles into the trip, I notice red flares on the freeway, a jack knifed semi.
Asked the officers if they needed any help. Nope, they got it under control, no injuries. Slight detour.
I'm travelling about 45-55 MPH on thick, compact snow. Hardly anyone else on the highway.
Later, near Everett I notice an SUV passing me on my right, I am doing 55, the vehicle passes me and comes upon vehicle in his lane, decides to come back into my lane and immediately loses it, swerves back in front of the car he just passed, missing by inches, travelling about 60 MPH and right thru the barrier on the right and into a snow covered embankment! WILD!
I notified an officer about the accident about an eighth of mile down the road. Wild!
Picked my sister up and got home about 5:30 in the morning.
Thankful for safety!

Let it Snow!

Yeah Baby!
haven't seen snow like this in years!
It's a blast right now. All fresh and pretty!
Thick and deep!
The Seahawks beat the Jets today in Seattle, in the snow. That was fun to watch, beating Brett Farve and the New York Jets!
Driving the Tahoe in 4 wheel drive. Gets around great!
Saturday we drove to our friends Dale and Jean's and enjoyed some Christmas cheer! Great food and entertainment! I was the entertainment! Many of the folks have seen my act, but there were several new people to perform for!
It was great to see smiles, and laughter, and hear clapping!
Our daughter enjoyed the show in a different manner. I spoke with her afterward, assuming she would have been bored to tears... but she told me she enjoyed knowing what was coming, and watching the reactions people were having!
I hadn't planned on doing my platform show, Dale and I hadn't discussed it, but I came prepared anyway. A woman at the party asked if I would do some magic after dinner, well I don't need much prompting!
The children went sledding for bit, so I did some walk around card magic for everyone first. It was a nice way to ease into the "big" stuff, as they called it.
I started the set with the Biddle trick and promptly culled the wrong card but got lucky and announced the right card when I actually wanted to miss. So, I repeated the trick for the woman's husband, hey, they had no idea what was coming so I freaked them out with his selection vanishing and reappearing in his deck. It wowed em! Went into the Tricky Wallet routine. I don't do this very often because you need three spectators, so it was a treat for me, and this floored them too! Just for fun I performed one of my favorites, Marked for life! Nailed it, and then I ended the set with Sympathetic cards. When the backs were all different colors, there was actual shock!
That's magic!
Hope you're having a wonderful Christmas holiday! These are the most exciting times since the dawn of creation but does that mean we should stop doing what we love to do?

Not me!

The world needs what magic can give: Wonder, amazement, astonishment, hope and a growing awareness of limitless possibilities all around us.

It's like this: If not us, then who? If not now, then when? Let's go make some magic!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Eric!
22 today! That's amazing! So are you!
This is the third birthday in a row that you have not been home to celebrate!
You joined the Marines three years ago and are now spending your 2nd Christmas in Iraq.
We are very proud of you, and we miss you.
There is snow on the ground here at home. You always enjoyed the snow. We like the way it makes everything look clean and new!
I did a lot of reminiscing today in my mind!
A lot of great times fishing, playing baseball and wrestling.
Your awesome sense of humor!
Stay safe! You are in our prayers!

Picture posting

Received some pics from the birthday party I performed at last month.
I, being somewhat narcissistic like the one of me with the needle thru the balloon.
(Click on picture to enlarge)

The two picturers with the birthday girl are at the end of my show. She is making a magic cake from scratch! See the light from the flames as the the cake begins to cook!? And voila, her cake is magically produced!Also in this third picture you get to see the nice magic table that I occasionally get to use that was built by my good friend Jose!
It was nice to use a lighter table. Easier to carry and set up.
She is now four.
Happy Birthday!

Joshua Jay Lecture

Wednesday night at the Round Table Pizza in Federal Way.
Joshua Jay, renowned magician and all around good guy, age 27 and single...
Gave a wonderful magic lecture to about 40 of us.
Pizza was served along with soft drinks!
Joshua started out simply performing some great card tricks for everyone, kind of a warm up he called it!
Warm up he did! If by warm one means, FRIED! Haha!
I was surprised to notice that three of the effects are in my repertoire!
He just does them a little different!
Anniversary Waltz by Doc Eason, Among the Discards by Simon Aronson and another cool effect that is supposedly "self working" but uses a special deck!
He has nice touches and fluid "patter" for each effect!
He is a smooth operator!
Joshua shared with us several wonderful effects using cards, coins, and... more coins!
A fantastic, smooth effect using three Chinese coins threaded onto a ribbon, one by one he removed them magically from the ribbon, the last one he re threaded onto the ribbon by tossing the coin into the air and catching it on the ribbon. Fantastic!
Seattle is the last stop on his book tour. That's right, 27 years old and already signing autographs in his own book. I purchased one of his books and am already half way thru it! It is a beautifully designed and illustrated manuscript on... you guessed it, Magic! The book comes complete with an instructional dvd. All for $25!
That is too low of a price!
Color photographs, yes, color, not line drawings! I am proud to own this book!

After the lecture, several of us spent some time at Denny's with Mr. Jay. I was hoping to "session" with him as I'm sure several of the guys were, but it didn't happen that way. It was comical to me, but we talked a bit about politics! (I didn't start it!) I guess when you live, eat and breath magic for instance, you don't always want to talk about it!
I think the evening was a great positive for everyone in attendance!

Geesh, the guy must be 6'2". I wonder if he plays hoops! :)

Futon Look

Here is the futon we purchased in it's new home under Katie's "hanging" bed!
She caught the dog on it yesterday morning, I told her that he must learn to stay off it. She agreed. We'll see how it goes.
We purchased the futon so her friends would have a decent place to sleep when they spend the night. The floor is a bit hard as it is concrete under the carpet!

BigFeet

We had a great time Monday night at the home of Julie (Beep Beep)Terry!

Good food, good people, good singing! Good clowning, and good magic!

Sean Melicher regaled us all with a song in solo! Wow! What guts that takes, a lesson for us all!

Donald Cormier did a side splitting reading from, well I'm not sure, but I would think it was Red Skelton! Well done!

Tim Flynn performed a couple of nice, baffling magical rope effects. You shoulda seen the look on your face!

O.k. so you weren't there, well bad on you! :) We missed you and you missed out!
Please, don't let it happen again!

We had a fun gift exchange too!
The party broke up around 9pm with a few hangers on til about 9:30.

I gotta admit, I really enjoy performing!
It's been two weeks since I last performed magic and just doing two effects at the Bigfoot alley meeting was great!
I often wonder why this is... I mean, think about it. In school, getting up in front of your classmates to give a report was a day of dread, sweating bullets, knowing that sometime during the day, your time would come... yet here I am, wanting to entertain people. Getting a "high" from it once it is over, and often during too, when you mesh with your audience, there is a high that happens. A wonderful give and take of feelings and emotions.
Maybe it is the praise afterward from someone that says, "I really enjoyed your magic, or someone might say that was really good, or you're really good at magic."
I really can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the joy you can bring to others and thereby, joy to yourself?
I performed the cut and restored rope and lassoing a card the other night. The looks of astonishment, the mouth in a big "0" and the quizzical looks on people's faces is pretty cool.
But it never seems to be enough. I know all magicians are looking for that "one" effect that blows them away! And yet, the stuff already in my repertoire, blows 'em away! And since every audience is "new" why not be satisfied with the "six" tricks I can do really well???
What? What is it? Something elusive, just out of reach?

Andy Williams Christmas

Haven't felt like posting lately...
Dunno why?
Last Monday I golfed at Elk Run with my friend Mike, the fog was thick.
We had a good time, I shot an 82 on a course that is a par 71. I stunk up the front nine with a 46, two bad holes did me in... but miracle of miracles, I lit up the back nine with a 36, two birdies helped. I have never broke 80. Almost did this day and didn't even know it!
What I liked most was that I shot the 82 legitimately, no foot wedges! No Tiger rule invocations and no use of the leaf rule! Ha!Haven't had any magical gigs of late, kind of bummed not performing. I am kind of lazy, not getting after it when I got on a nice roll during our Boeing strike!
I have been reading volume 1 of Card college and watching some magic dvd's.
Just keep polishing baby! Someday you'll look in the mirror and be good!

Recently on PBS they aired a program about Andy Williams and his Christmas shows. What a great time watching that! Brought back some great memories.They wanted 60 bucks donation and you get a cd for that. I went on line and bought the dvd for twenty!

His Christmas show ran from 1962 to 1971, and then for a few years more!
They were always a treat to enjoy and were somewhat spontaneous events on the set.
It got me in the mood to enjoy Christmas this year! My wife decorated some plants in the front yard and things are looking bright!
I remember the Osmond brothers were on the show often. He also reunited with his brothers every year too!
Picked out a tree last night, also picked up a nice futon for under Katies bed. Now she can have her friends spend the night and they don't have to sleep on the floor!

Eric is in Iraq. We haven't heard from him in a couple of weeks. He is out on a mission.
We pray for him all the time.

Ryan got a call from a church in Denver, they want him to send a resume for their Campus Ministry Leader.
That is pretty exciting!