I dont know who this is either

I don't know who this is either.

I Don't Know Who This Is

This is a copy of a picture found in my grandmother's (maternal) collection. I do not know who this man is. It's possible his surname could have been Fisher, Logan, Speakman, Rutherford, Stone, Williams, Willington, Allsman, or anything else for that matter. He is very likely a relative of mine. Any ideas?

A Busy Weekend

Flew to St. Louis Saturday morning. Hung out at the family home in Collinsville for awhile with my sister Patti, her friend Kathy, Mom, and Dad. Imo's pizza for lunch! Then onto a demo session in Fairview Heights with Steve Koritta. He is awesome. Checked into my hotel, then off to Mike and Judy's before following them up to Kelly and Pam's place in Grafton for the 26th annual Surfin' Monkey convention. Todd G was along with me for the ride. Convention was cool. Good to see Wayne and Neva, Gary, Zam, and Steve K and wife. Jonah was there too. It was a good time. Sunday went to mass-got to speak briefly with my old friend Father John who was shoveling snow. Oh yeah, guess I forgot to mention that. It snowed. Weird. Not used to that anymore. Then back to the family house. Got to see my brother Robert before he went to work. Cousin Jim stopped by, then back to the airport for the flight home. Now here I am. It's time for bed!

PS-Meanwhile back in New Orleans, Lauren ran a half marathon!

pic 1-Me and Steve Koritta
pic 2-Surfin Monkey group shot. I am next to Billy Bob Teeth CEO Jonah White.
pic 3-Collinsville High buddies-Me, Zam, Gary,Todd G, Mike, Kelly
pic 4-Rockouts reunited for a picture!Steve Knecht, Me, Mike

Going Home

Saturday morning I'm flying to St. Louis for a quick weekend visit home. Most of my time Saturday will be spent hanging out with my Mom, but I do have a little time blocked out for a guitar jam/songwriter session with my friend Steve. In the evening I will be attending the 26th Convention of the Sons of the Surfin' Monkey. I could try to explain it, but it just wouldn't make any sense, so I won't. I will say the convention in the past has been a primer in the misuse of Shakespearean language, money ill-spent on limousines, wigs, and instituting shadow governments in foreign lands. I last attended the year after moving to Louisiana, so I will be seeing some friends I have not seen in a long time. Sunday I'll be attending mass at my old church, SS Peter and Paul in Collinsville, and hanging out with Mom, Dad, my brother, and sister and maybe a few cousins. Then fly back home Sunday evening.

Random

My favorite super hero is Batman.
I like ice cream, but I'm not really supposed to eat it.
I wish I had tickets to the upcoming Wilco show in New Orleans.
The last movie I watched was "Reunion In France" with Joan Crawford and John Wayne.
I miss having a bicycle. I think I need to get one.

Sarah Catherine Williams Stone

This is a picture of my 3rd great grandmother, Sarah Catherine Williams Stone, 1844-1935. It is one of my favorite pictures. It belonged to my grandmother, and now, my mom. I had some copies made of it a few years ago. Her husband, my 3rd great grandfather, Joel C. Stone, was a Union soldier during the war between the states. Family legend is that he went awol one year during harvest, then returned to his regiment. Not sure if that is true, but it is true that he was captured by Confederate forces and was a prisoner at the infamous Andersonville. While there, he became ill, and was released as part of a prisoner exchange. He went home, married Sarah, and had 7 children. Unfortunately, he never fully recovered from the illness he contracted at Andersonville, and died in 1878, at the age of about 39.

Lauren the Runner

Lauren is a runner. Sometimes she says she is going for a little run, then runs 12 miles. I guess she really likes it. Last year she started running in 5K races, and doing really well, usually either winning among the women or finishing first in her age group. She has also run in a few 10 K races. Today was here first race this year--the 10 K at the Elmwood Classic in Harahan. It was almost an hour drive to get there and the sky was cloudy. I hung out with the kids near the finish line. During the race, it started to rain, so we had to find an overhang to keep dry. I was a little concerned about how the weather would affect her, but she did fine, finishing 3rd with a time of 45:30. The picture is of Lauren (on the right), with the 1st and 2nd place finishers.

Happy Spring Training Day!

Today is Valentines day. People will be celebrating by scurrying in a panic to buy those last minute cards and gifts. We did all our exchanges here at home this morning before the kids went to school.

Today is also the first day of spring training for the St. Louis Cardinals, my favorite baseball team. Hope springs eternal, even though they still have a few holes to fill, but hey, if they can make it to the playoffs, and the pitchers hit a hot streak, you never know what may happen. Look at what happened in '06--a world series championship!

Anyway, pitchers and catchers report today down in Jupiter, Florida. That makes it a good day.

Oh yeah, and Happy Valentines Day. Hallmark and FTD love you.

Konstantz, Baden

I've been working on my genealogy for many years. Any time a new discovery is made, I get excited about it. On my list of places to visit are places where my ancestors lived. The list includes some well known cities such as Bern, Switzerland and Waterford,Ireland, but also some not so well known places such as Coshocton, Ohio, London Grove, Pennyslvania, Barren County, Kentucky, Rutherfordton, North Carolina,and Reading, Berkshire. Of course, most people think I'm just nuts. The birthplace of one of my 4th great grandfathers, John Baptiste Troll, was a mystery until recently when a cousin of mine discovered it to be in Konstantz, Baden, on the Deutschland-Switzerland border (Yeah I know--you are wondering why I, as an American, am referring to Germany as Deutschland--but that is the subject of a future blog). So now I want to take a trip to Konstantz. While I am there, I want to take a side trip to another town in Baden, called Baden-Baden. I'm not sure if any ancestors lived there, but I just think it would be cool to go to place called Baden-Baden, Baden. Say it with me....Baden-Baden, Baden. Yeah, I definitely have to go there.
Speaking of genealogy, my wife's 3rd cousins, the Michot Brothers of the Lost Bayou Ramblers, were nominated for a Grammy. They didn't win, but that is still a cool thing.

Why I am blogging

You may wonder why I am blogging. Easy. Because I like it. After being diagnosed with diabetes last summer, I decided there were some things missing in my life that I needed to do. One was to start writing music again, playing my guitar, and to record another album. I'm working on that now. Another thing was to work on some writing projects, possibly a book. Writing for me is a lost calling that I have rediscovered. In blogging, I am hopeful it will instill a bit of daily discipline in writing and stir up some creativity to boot. So, ....here I am!

Avec

I'm an American. I speak English. I know some French and some Spanish. I like the French word avec. I prefer saying avec instead of the English word with or the Spanish word con. I just think it sounds cool. Say it with me--avec. Now say with. Now say con. See what I mean?

Coffee

I'm 45 years old, and have never been much of a coffee drinker, until about a month ago. Now I like it and have to have it every morning. I don't know why, it just happened. I think maybe it coincided with me buying a 40 song Tom T Hall album off of i-tunes. You know, he likes coffee a whole bunch. Yep, I think it's his fault. I'm going to blame Tom T Hall. Can I have another cup please?

Mardi Gras Postscript

Some letters to the editor have been written to the Houma Courier complaining about krewe members throwing bags of beads off the floats. I couldn't agree more. Every year one of us gets hits by a bag we didn't see coming. Bernadette got hit this year. It was an accident and the krewe member expressed remorse, but it needs to stop. Everybody I talk to tells me the same thing. Stop the madness. Stop throwing bags of beads. The parish councils need to get involved and pass some kind of resolution.

My Drummers

Bernadette, our 5 year old, received a set of drums for Christmas. She had talked about it for months. Her favorite Beatle is Ringo, and thats why she wanted a set. Last week Ringo was on Larry King, promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8". Lauren taped the segment for me, so the three of us watched it. When Ringo started singing, Bernadette started crying. We asked her what was wrong and she just pointed to the television saying "I love Ringo!"
Tonight me and Lauren were in the living room. She was practicing her guitar and I was reading something about pentatonic scales when we heard the drums in the other room. Lauren said it sounded like Frederick, so I went in there, and sure enough, he's standing there banging away. I helped him onto the seat and he kept playing. I clapped and he looked up, smiled, and kept playing without stopping. I run to get my camera and start snapping away. By this time, our 4 year old, Bridget comes in, and asks if she can play so she can get her picture taken too. I tell her yes, as soon as Frederick stops. He stops about a minute later, throwing the sticks down and running off to his next adventure.
Bridget starts playing, and I take some pictures. Naturally, Bernadette comes in and has to have a turn too. After all, they are her drums. In a matter of minutes, the session ends.
My experience has always been it is most difficult to find and keep drummers. Look at all the trouble Spinal Tap has had. How nice it would be to have 3 in the family. Of course, I probably need a sizable supply of earplugs, but it might be worth it.

Mardi Gras

We celebrated Mardi Gras here in Houma. We set up on Main Street, near Hollywood Road. Lauren's parents, Allen and Colette joined us. The crowd was mostly families, as opposed to Endymion, which was a lot of college aged people. The Krewe of Houmas parade was first. We got a lot of beads and stuffed animals. My 5 year old godson, Joey, who was staying with us for a few days, even got a skateboard. I took turns holding my daughters Colette and Bernadette to help them get some beads. Bridget didn't want to be held. Frederick fell asleep. Uncle Steve was on one of the floats and even though we were yelling at the top of our lungs, he didn't see us. I was happy to see the Budweiser Clydesdales. They remind me of home. Although, I must admit, I was happy to be in the warm, breezy 80 degree weather as opposed to the snow they experienced during their "Mardi Gras" parade in Soulard, St. Louis, which was actually held on Samedi Gras (Saturday). The Krewe of Kajuns, aka "the truck parade" was next and went pretty quickly. Little Colette was excited to see her friend on one of the floats. None of the floats in the Houma parades play Mardi Gras music though, its all hard rock or hip hop. I'm not quite sure what Boston's "More Than A Feeling" has to do with traditional Louisiana culture, but, c'est la vie--it's carnival time!

La Vita

After the Endymion parade we went to my in-laws second home on Esplanade where we were staying for the night. We put the kids to bed, and my in-laws were kind enough to suggest that me and Lauren go out for awhile. We walked to a nearby restaurant, La Vita. We had hoped my high school mate, Todd, could meet us. His wife was out of town for a few days and thought he might enjoy the company, but unfortunately, he had an obligation to attend to, so had to take a rain check.
La Vita is a small restaurant, but was quite busy, and seemed to be understaffed. Then again, it's carnival season, so maybe it's to be expected. long story short, we were slow to get our food, but the waiter and manager were quite apologetic, and provided us with an extra appetizer and extra drinks free of charge for the inconvenience. The wait for the main course was worth it. I had a chicken parmesan and I must say it was quite tasty. I hope we have a chance to eat there again soon. It was good to go on a date with Lauren. Life is good.

Endymion

Went to the Endymion Parade on Fat Saturday in New Orleans. My sister in law Amy and her boyfriend Chris had a spot staked out on Orleans Avenue near Hennessey. A lot of college kids were around. Cousin Colin was about a block away with his LSU bandmates. Anyway, Chris and Amy rented a portable outhouse with a combination lock, so we had it all to ourselves. There was an enterprising young lad near us with his outhouse, a stamper and some ink--charging $5 for the day. He had a line going over there, and I'm sure he made plenty of dough. My friend Todd, who I went to high school with in Illinois, lives down here now, on Magazine Street, came and hung out with us. If somebody had told us 29 years ago when we first met that we would be here we wouldn't have believed it. The weather was warm as the parade started a little after 4 pm, but cooled after the sun went down. The parade was long, lasting about 4 hours. Kevin Costner, The Go-Go's, and the Doobie Brothers were the star attractions. Colette, Bernadette, and Bridget caught a lot of beads. Frederick just wanted to run around. I caught 2 footballs with one handed grabs. Me and Lauren smiled at each other a lot. It was a good time, but it kind of wore me out.