TREVOR's Blog
June 2008
New entries are at the bottom.
Professional appearances are in bold.
All photo ©2008 Nancy F. Little unless otherwise noted.
Monday, June 2, 2008
This morning was the regular monthly meeting of The Hats Off Performers Guild. What a bunch of goofballs! I love these guys!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tonight, more than 20 people gathered for Amar Fuller's Live Foods Potluck at her home in Leverett MA. The food was awesome — especially Mary's No-Cook Fudge. And the people were a very eclectic and interesting bunch. As far as I can recall, this is the biggest crowd we've ever had... and I've been attending for at least 20 years (I think). What a lot of people! It was great.
Afterwards, as she sometimes does, Amar and her wonderful daughter Jai asked if I would lead some games, and so of course I said, "No way! I hate playing games," and went home.
NOT!
We played Who's the Leader?, May I Borrow Your Cat, Instant Replay, King Chair, and
Everybody's It (a extremely fast game of freeze tag!)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Tonight we had a New Church gathering in our home. Dinner was potluck, so there was lots of variety on the table, including pasta, eggplant parm., some tasty whole wheat pita chips and hummus.
It was great so see my nephew Mike and his fiancee Beth and their 364-day old son Riley. 
That guy is getting big! He was definitely the life of the party. (And we kept him up way past his bedtime, too.)
Nancy and I were also very pleased that our delightful (& funny) friend Kelsey Flynn → was there, too. She definitely added a lot of great flavor to the group. I liked her drawings of her spiritual life so far. Mine just had one ↠little stick figure of a guy with a halo, but hers was all ideo-graphic. Wha-hoo!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Once again, this morning I got to play with the "olders" at Khalsa Childcare in Leverett MA. This was the second of six visits. It was very gratifying to see all the children happy to see me when I arrived.
Then, this evening, I drove to Attleboro MA for the ABACUS BBQ at the Peter Thatcher Elementary School. ABACUS is an acronym for the Attleboro after school program. I'm not sure exactly what all the letters stand for, but I know that the "A" is for Attleboro.
Unfortunately, it was raining there, so we were rained in. And unfortunately, the gym floor was just too slippery for me to wear my stilts. But fortunately, we all had a great time indoors! There were lots of activity booths and lots of food. I did walk-around for half an hour without the stilts — I don't get to do that very often... it's much more up-close and personal. Then we played parachute games in the middle of the gym for the second half hour. And finally, it was Project: Ribbon Dancer for the final half hour (that turned out to be most of an hour because kids kept on coming over just before leaving saying, "I didn't get one yet.")
And the people who hired me were kind enough to give me a gift: an ABACUS travel mug! Yay! Thanks!!
Friday, June 6, 2008
What a busy, busy day! First, it was the Westfield YMCA Preschool Picnic at Stanley Park in Westfield MA. It started raining on the way, so by the time I got there everything not under the pavilion was pretty wet. But the big pavilion at Stanley Park is HUGE, so there was plenty of room for a big show followed by parachute games. And a good time was had by all.
Next, I was off to Farmington CT for the Noah Wallace School Field Day. I did two shows, one for the K, 1, and 2; and the other for the 3rd and 4th graders. There were about 160 kids and 30+ staff at each show. The kids were all well behaved and the staff was quite helpful. It was great to be at their school and put a big grand finale on their field day.
And then I had an hour-long meeting at my house with our new pastor. I was hoping it would take about half as long, but we got the job done.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Nancy wanted to see flowers today. We talked about going to the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne MA, but it was so stinking hot we just went to Smith College's Lyman Plant 
House and sat on a bench ↑ outside in the shade and looked at all the gorgeous flowers ↑ their staff has so expertly set out.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Another crazy busy day!
First, my 5th or 6th time at the First Congregational Church of Chicopee Children's Day in Chicopee MA. They have a special service followed by a meal in the church basement, and then a do a show for the kids. Like last year, this year I was delighted that the teens joined in on the fun.
Then I drove up into the Hilltowns of Western MA for the Northampton Survival Center's Open House at the Hilltown Food Pantry in Goshen. Two great live bands, some info booths, ↠corn on the cob and a tomato waving to passing cars (the carrot had to go home before I got there), and me.
I was planning on wearing my stilts, but one of my stilt feet gave out on me. I had them all on and was getting ready to stand up when my right leg got all scary and twisty on me. I spent at least half an hour trying to do a field repair, but it didn't take. So I did my Aerial Delights Show without the height followed my parachute games with a small but enthusiastic group under the shade of a huge tree right in the center of Goshen on the other side of the parking lot next to the library.
And then, I was off to the Somers Recreation Area for Kate O'Brien's 7th Birthday Party in Somers CT. Now this was a party to remember. When I crossed the state line into Connecticut, it started to rain a little. I'm thinking in my head, "Oh good, now I don't have to worry about them being disappointed that I won't be able to wear my stilts." Little did I know what was going to happen next!
So, the party was set up under a small pavilion that held six picnic tables. So I gathered the kids together in front of me and began my show. But ten minutes in, the wind began to blow and the rain started coming down harder. Sudddenly, when I was right in the middle of a trick, one of the dad's yelled, "Everybody into the van!" All ten kids raced across the grass and packed into a gray van at the edge of the parking lot.
Mom told me that it wasn't the rain, but the lightening was kind of unsafe. I did a quick assessment and told her that I'd performed in a closet once so I could certainly continue the show in the van! She was a bit surprised, but liked that the party wasn't going to just end like that.
So I climbed into the van, closed the door behind me, and kneeling in the little space between the door and the seats, entertained 10 kids and 1 adult inside a van in a parking lot in the middle of a thunderstorm! There's one for the record book!!
But wait, there's more! Five minutes later, two more kids showed up. Things in the van suddenly got quite a bit tighter!
Shortly after that, there was a knock on the window. The rain was letting up, but there was still a lot of thunder and lightening going on out there. The two adults at the window were the birthday girl's parents. They announced that they had decided to move the party to there house just a few miles away. So we all packed into six vehicles and drove five or ten minutes down the road to their place where the party continued uninterrupted.
Whew!
Monday, June 9, 2008
And this morning was my third visit to Khalsa Childcare in Leverett MA. It was 92° out when I got up this morning. And by the time I got there at 11:00 a.m., it had gone up 5 or 6 more degrees. So we played inside. I had brought some big wooden blocks, so for the first 10 minutes, we built several different types of "roads" and walked on top of them in several different ways. Then we did some simple games with a bandana. The children really needed to run around, so I made sure there was plenty of high-activity activities during the final 20 minutes.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tucked in a corner of Methuen MA is St. Ann's Home & School. Originally started as an orphanage in the 1920's, St. Ann's Home has kept pace with the times and serves a wider purpose now: emotionally and behaviorally challenged children ages 6-16. They've just put up 
↠a brand-new building with a big gym in it, but everything's not quite ready yet... so I had to perform in the "old" gym — which was really nice! It was big enough for full-court basketball, a stage with a sound system at one end, great lighting that's plenty bright without being overpowering, and a built-in mat flooring — a non-skid surface is very important for a stiltwalker! What more could an entertainer ask for more?
So, I had about 160 kids ages 6-16 (with more in the older range) on the floor of this cool, 3rd floor gym of this pretty neat, old brick residential school facility. I was loving it! And so were they! They really got into my show: Giants & Giraffes * Dragons & Detectives. Sometimes some of the teens are just too cool to have any fun, but this group sure seemed to be all having a blast all the way through! Afterwards, I got lots of raves from both the students and the staff. YAY!
And then, for the fifth time this month, I was at my dear friend Amar Fuller's house, this time for another of her amazing Live Foods Potlucks. Once again, there was a pretty big crowd there. This time we had a special guest, a young woman in her early twenties who has been on a pretty much strictly live foods diet since she was 8. She and her younger brother have already written three books and made a couple of movies about their lifestyle. She was here to document Amar's live foods daycare for posterity. Khalsa Childcare in Leverett may be the only day care in the world where pre-school children routinely practice yoga, use Waldorf principles of education, stay mellow with Sikh sensibilities, and eat exclusively live foods. WOW! I think that's worth documenting, don't you?
Thursday, June 12, 2008
For the third time this week, I'm at Amar's.... this time for my Weekly Games Clinic at Khalsa Childcare. This time, we played a couple old favorites: our now traditional opening clapping improvs and Crazy Hats, a game I made up with this very group the first day I worked with them! The staff person, Corinne (whom I sort-of recognized but didn't have any idea who it was), immediately said with surprise, "Oh! So that's where they got that game. They've been playing it constantly for two weeks!" I'm just so delighted that the children are taking to these everybody-wins games! (Glow!) :|)>
Turns out, this staff person I sort-of recognized is someone who's 8th birthday party I did right there in Leverett 18 years ago! That is just so cool. She also said that my visit to her birthday party has made a similar lifelong impression. WOW! Kudos from the kids and from the former kids at the same event! Now I'm having a good day.
Friday, June 13, 2008
It was a total blast to be at the Bay Path College Preschool Picnic in Longmeadow MA today! Kara Upperton has booked me for each of her two sons' birthday parties, her country club, and now at her work! That's awesome. BPCP is in a cute little white house on the main drag through Longmeadow. They had it so festively decorated that it was obvious that that was the right place. It's amazing what some people can do with balloons and crepe paper.
I wish I had a picture of this, but Kara had cordoned off an area on the lawn for me to use. She knew that not only would I be walking on stilts, but that after that we'd be playing parachute games. (Yes, it's my Outdoor Special, folks!) And since she'd already seen me perform this show several times, she knew how much space we'd need. And since all the families were going to be spreading out picnic blankets on the lawn inside the play yard there, she knew she had better stake me out a good-sized spot on the grass ahead of time or there just plain wouldn't be enough room.
And stake it out she did! Kara made a huge circle with a big X through it out of bright orange crepe paper... which she "stapled" to the lawn with clear, plastic picnic forks! I just absolutely loved it just because it was so great!
Anyways, I was putting on my stilts right next to the entry gate as some of the families were arriving. I love the looks from both the kids and the adults! There were lots of families that weren't there yet by the time my show was supposed to start (as usual), so I did a lot of high fives with the kids in small groups while we waited.
People were kind of spread out, so I had to be REALLY LOUD throughout the entire show. In fact, I also had to be LOUD during the parachute games, too, but that was just because the kids were all having such a rollicking good time!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The Forbes Library in Northampton MA does some very fun, wonderful, and sometimes unusual fundraisers. My favorite is their annual Garden Tour. For $10 bucks ($15 at the door), you get to informally tour 7-10 people's flower gardens at their homes throughout the day. It's always delightful. My lovely wife has gone to every single one since we got married 10 years ago, that's how good they are! And only my work has prevented me from going each year myself.
The Forbes Library does an excellent job organizing this community event. Every year it's different gardens. My lovely wife says there have been no repeats in 10 years. They always have a map with addresses and directions as well as a brief paragraph about each garden in the packet they give you when you buy your ticket — which is a sticker for your shirt so the people at the sites know you've bought a ticket already (what a great idea!). Each site also has a hand-out for you with details about their particular garden, including how long they've been working on it, any underlying themes, the various flowers and shrubs and trees, other special features, and so on. And the resident gardeners and several volunteers are there to answer your questions and help you around if you'd like.
This year, there were 7 gardens. I was especially impressed with Jim Dozmati's garden. Jim is the owner of Green Street Caf�© next to Smith College in Northampton MA. He has fruit trees, berry bushes, and a large vegetable garden near his house that supply fresh fruits and veggies to his restaurant on a daily basis when they're in season. That's pretty impressive in itself, but I must admit, I didn't look at Jim's vegetable garden. I was too impressed with the flowers, shrubs, trees, rocks ---> and other natural elements Jim has worked into his yard.
First of all, get this: his underlying theme is the Fibonacci Sequence! For those of you not into playing with numbers, the Fibonacci Sequence is a series of numbers that the next number is always the sum of the previous two numbers: so you start with 0 and 1 and it goes 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc. So Jim's garden's stairs are all in sets of 2, 3, or 5. 
Yew bushes are cut 8-sided. He has 13 hydrangeas and 13 hollyhock bushes, and so on. You wouldn't notice a thing like that without being told, but it sure enhanced the experience for me.
He's also got two ginko trees — a male and a female, so they can reproduce — and a young stand of bamboo! A couple of the coolest trees around. Plus flowering quince, lilacs, peonies, holly, various groundcovers, and a rock garden shaped as a dragon. All the stones are from on site. He and my lovely wife (the one with the geology degree) had a great talk about several of the great rocks.
I had to miss the last two gardens (but my lovely wife didn't!), because I had to go to work. I was off to Worcester MA for a rare pleasure. Five years ago, I did twins Jaime & Jessica Poske's 11 birthday and their brother Bobby's 8th birthday. Well, recently their dad Bob Poske called me again. Neither of us remembered the other. But when he mentioned his daughter's names and his last name, something clicked in my brain and I said, "Didn't I do your kids' party like 10 years ago in the basement of the Polish Club?" And suddenly it clicked for him, too! It was a pretty fun moment. And a built-in recommendation, too! Turns out it was only 5 years, but....
So this afternoon, I performed for Jaimie & Jessica Poske's "Sweet 16" birthday party in their home in Worcester MA. When I got there, of course (of course!) all the teens weren't there yet. But the twins and their younger brother all remembered me and how much fun we had together last time, so I was already in from the start. Plus it was good to see them again.
They went through a bit a a rigmarole to get the missing teens (who only lived around the corner!) there. But eventually we got started with The Party Game Show, an hour of interactive, social, everybody-wins, party games for adults and/or teens. I actually gave the twins the option of playing active strategy games outside, but it was pretty hot, so they wisely chose the indoor, air conditioned option. So for actually well over an hour, a dozen teenagers and I had a blast playing games in a livingroom in Worcester. These kids were great. They were both having fun and being very respectful to everyone. How's that for great teens?!
So we played Who's the Leader?, Amateur Detective, Famous Characters, Quick Draw, Switcheroo, Sit Down Stand Up, People to People, Geography, Buzz Fizz, Smaug's Jewels, Ghost Chair, Pile Up, and Everybody's It. And they liked them all... they all were obviously having a good time all the way through. So like you say when you achieve your objective in Quick Draw: Yah-HOO!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Happy Father's Day! Both my kids called me today. (Good kids.) I got to speak briefly with my son Jason just before supper time, but my daughter Myrrh called while we were eating supper out on our front porch so I only got to hear her on my answering machine. I love them both so much. It was wonderful to hear from them both on the same day.
My lovely wife and I got to spend the day together today. Actually, Nancy did a bunch of work before I got up, but that's okay because I'm doing this after she's gone to bed.
So this morning, after finally getting up, we went to the Whately Diner (officially "the Fillin' Station"). ------> I got breakfast and she got lunch. The food's not way totally awesome, dude, but it's a diner. We had two satisfying meals for less than $20, including a nice tip.
Then we drove to Ashfield MA to Chapel Brook, a Trustees of the Reservations property that includes a terrific 4-tiered waterfall (#3 ↓) on one side of the road,
and an awesome outlook ↓ up a really
easy ¼- mile trail on the other side of the road. We last went there toge- ther 5 years ago. And I've been there alone lots of other times, too, just because it's so cool.
While we were there, I told my lovely wife Nancy about the first time I took my kids there and how much they liked it. So this evening when Jason called and I told him that's where we went, he immediately remembered everything about the place. So there's proof that it's pretty impressive because that particular visit was probably 15-20 years ago!
Monday, June 16, 2008
When I walked into the upstairs room at Wilmington Memorial Library ↓ in Wilmington
MA, children's librarian Susan MacDonald leapt to her feet with a big smile on her face and came trotting over to greet me! And that set the level of enthusiasm for the entire event. It's the Trickle Down Theory of spreading enthusiasm. Actually, it should be called the Oozing Out Of Every Pore Theory, because that describes Susan MacDonald to a T. She's cheerful, enthusiastic, sweet and kind, as well as charmingly nice. No wonder she's a children's librarian. I'll bet all the kids just adore her.
So Susan showed me to the room where I was to perform. While I was setting up, she popped back in a few times. (So she's helpful, too.) But then for the last 15 minutes before the show was to begin, nothing. I'm sitting there in my stilts hoping that someone, anyone, will show up soon. Finally the clock on the wall reads 7:00 and there's still no-one there. She had told me they gave out a boodle of free tickets ahead of time, so I knew someone had to show up, but it was showtime and I was the only one in the room. Oooo, the suspense!
Suddenly, Susan pops her head in the door and says, "Are you ready?" "I sure am," I responded. And she went and got everyone. She'd been holding them back and not allowing them into the performance room! There were at least 75 people behind her the next time she walked through the door! Yipee!!
And it was an enthusiastic (of course!) and cheerful audience for the entire show!
So special thanks to Susan MacDonald for setting the tone and drumming up enthusiasm... but not for keeping me in suspense right up until show time!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
My fifth visit to Amar Fuller's Khalsa Childcare was ↠Hula Hoop Day! I brought 9 hula hoops for the kids' enjoyment today. They were a big hit.
First, I just let the kids play with them to see what they would do. Several of them already knew what they were designed for, but these 3-5 year olds just plain weren't big enough to actually twirl a hula hoop on their hips. That didn't seem to bother them. They did what they could and had a blast just trying to spin them around their waist as well as a whole bunch of other creative and silly things.
I also showed them how to "jump rope" with a hula hoop. A few of them could do it in slow motion! A good and useful skill to learn, I might add.
Then we did some hoop rolling, some hoop sharing, some hoop cramming, a great game of tag called Squirrel in a Tree that can be played well with hula hoops, some group hoop running, some hoop roaring (!), some jumping through hoops, ... we even took a few brief hoop naps, each of us curled up tight inside of our very own hula hoop.
And a good time was had by all.
Friday, June 20, 2008
At 10:35 p.m., I picked up my son Jason and his partner Kelly after Dance Spree downtown and brought them back here to spend the night. Tomorrow, they're travelling with my lovely wife to our life-long friend Beki's wedding. So J&K came a day early so they could go to Dance Spree, an event Jason's been going to for a quite a while. It was great to see him and his girlfriend. I was really glad when they hung out with me for an hour or so in the kitchen before they went up to bed.
So what if we just read picture books together!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
What a simply wonderful day!
After waking up to another fabulous day with my lovely wife (What a babe!), we went our separate ways after breakfast time, traveling roughly 2 hours in opposite directions: she to Beki Phinney's wedding in N. Kingston RI; me to the northern Berkshires of Western MA.
First, I drove west on Rte 2 all the way to the western edge of North Adams MA where I pulled up a little side street, drove to the end, parked on the side of the road, and then hiked 20 minutes through the woods to A the Cascade, a 100+ foot waterfall. The path was basically wet clay, so it was slippery all the way. And when the falls come into view, you can't just walk up the streambed to the base of the falls. You have to go up a really steep (remember wet and slippery?) part of the trail, and then scrabble down the side of the cliff walls over rocks and leaves and other wet, slippery stuff to get to the base of the falls.
But man-o-man was it worth it. This falls is definitely not a "cascade". It's got two main drops with some cascade action in between. I wrote into my Waterfalls of Massachusetts book: "Rough trail but oh so worth it!!"
Then I drove the roughly 10 minutes to B Western Gateway Heritage State Park to entertain for the second year in a row at the QuitLinks Carnival Day — a "Quit Smoking" fair put on by the Reach Community Health Foundation. The park is a small, little wedge of land urban state park tucked in a little corner just off the main drag in North Adams. It's so "tucked in" that parts of it are actually under the elevated highway trestles.
The fair is a delightful little event with info and entertainment booths, lots of give-aways, face painting, ballons, dunk tank, Bowie the Clown, and me. Bowie is the Berkshire's premier children's entertainer. (I can't think of any other full-time performers that live in Berkshire County.) Bowie set up his little pavilion at one end and began churning out really cool, intricate balloon animals, hats, etc for the kids.
I put on my stilts and began doing "walk-around". Bowie did a show at noon, and then went back to the balloon twisting. I did two hours of stiltwalking and then gathered a crowd at 1:00 for my Aerial Delights show, followed by half an hour of parachute games (my Outdoor Special). And then the fair was over. I ran a little overtime, so by the time I was done all the booths were either packed up and gone or nearly so.
So I packed up my stuff and managed to get out of there in about half an hour. North Adams actually has 4 good-sized waterfalls in or nearby. I was planning on visiting them all today! I got there way early, so I went to the first one before my show. But when I tried to go to the other three — which are all in the Mount Greylock Reservation — I discovered that all the access roads to Mt Greylock are closed! And they won't be re-opening until 2009, so I had to rework my plans.
Fortunately, there's three of four others in towns just south and east of there (towards home!), so next I drove so to Adams MA and after only a little bit of trouble found C Peck Brook Lower Falls less than 100 yards from the road down a really easy path. This waterfall is really cool! It has eroded a 40 drop through what is now a small gorge. In the waterfall book, I wrote "Fabulous!" in the margin.
From there, it was only 10 minutes through some sleepy neighborhoods to D Bellevue Falls.
The access to Bellevue Falls is through Bellevue Cemetery! I passed two places where there was a line of cars parked on the side of the road. One of them was a funeral, and the other was even more cars parked at the top of the 1-minute trail down to falls. I didn't have any trouble finding it because all those cars had brought a boodle of loud teenagers to the local swimming hole at the base of the falls. The falls themselves were a pretty unimpressive 6-8 foot slide down a rock face. But the teens were having a blast sitting in the falls, jumping off the rocks into the 50' pond, sunbathing, and being pretty loud. I didn't stay. It was loud. I go to the woods and waterfalls for quite interaction with nature. I took in the scene for about a minute before going right back to my vehicle.
From there, it was about a half-hour drive to E Twin Cascades in Florida MA. This was the most magnificent one of all!!! First of all, the trail head is right next to the Florida end of the Hoosic railroad tunnel. Just seeing that huge, black opening in the side of the mountain was pretty impressive in and of itself.
Then, after scrambling over the remains of an old dam and spillway, the little rills in the stream begin. Some are just 1 and 2 foot drops, some 3-5 feet or so. Then about 10 minutes down the path there's a beautiful 10 footer. Then just another couple of minutes of the trail, you start to hear the roar! And suddenly there's a huge 50' multi-falls on your right that falls over a series of angular ledges with the water constantly changing direction because of the angle of the next ledge.
But wait, there's more. Lots more. As you get nearer to the base of the falls, you discover that there's another falls coming in just to the left of the first one. And this one is at least 80' tall with a huge drop way up at the top followed by a series of shorter drops coming straight down the mountain towards you. I stood at the confluence of these two amazingly different falls and just soaked in their beauty and spray for most of 45 minutes. I would have stayed longer, but the sun was beginning to go behind the edges of the mountainous cleft that cradles these two behemoths. So I reluctantly trekked the 15 minutes back to the parking area.
In the guidebook, I wrote, "Absolutely Awesome!!"
By this time, it was past time for supper, so I set out to look for food. Since I was going to be driving through Shelburne MA, I thought it would be cool to check out the new and improved McCusker's Market in Shelburne Falls. Green Fields Market (the food coop in Greenfield MA) recently bought this popular local grocery store and did a few capital improvements that I was looking forward to seeing because all the comments I've heard about it from regular patrons have been very positive.
Unfortunately, the store was closed by the time I got there.
But fortunately, Shelburne Falls is also the home of that one-of-a-kind delightful attraction brought to you by the Shelburne Falls Women's Club: E The Bridge of Flowers. It's an old, abandoned, cement trolley bridge jam packed from one end to the other with beautiful flora. The trolley company went out of business in 1928. And in 1929, the Women's Club raised funds to plant the entire length of the bridge with flowers and flowering vines & shrubs. 400 feet of gorgeousness with blooms from April through October. It's simply wonderful. It's free. It's a great place to take your mother.
So I walked up one side and down the other, stoopped to smell a lot of flowers, and just loved it as much as I always do, before continuing on my Quest For Food.
I was planning on buzzing over to Green Fields Market just because it's the next nearest store that has prepared foods I'll eat. But when I got to the rotary at Rte 2 and Rte 91, they had repainted the lines on the access roads to make traveling the rotary more effficient. I was so intrigued, I was on autopilot and followed the arrows and words in my lane onto Rte 91 south (the way home). I was halfway up the ramp before I realized that this little exploration meant that I wouldn't find out today if GFM was open after 7:30 on Saturdays.
So I just went to River Valley Market, bought some tasty vegan split pea soup and some It's Soy Delicious brand very appropriately named Awesome Chocolate vegan ice cream and a few other sundry items and went home.
My lovely wife (the hot babe!) wasn't home from Beki's wedding yet. 10 minutes later she called to say they were just leaving the reception and would be home in a couple hours. So I got some desk work done, put all my equipment away, and amused myself until Nancy, Jason & Kelly got back.
Nancy usually goes to bed between 9:00 and 10:00, so getting home at 11:15 is kind of tough on her. She pretty much went straight to bed when they got back. Kelly got a cup of tea and headed upstairs. And Jason and I talked for 5 or 10 minutes before he, too, turned in. So I began writing this.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Got up early to go to work again.
First, to Ludlow MA for Corey Pafumi's 5th birthday party. It was a pool party, and I was the pre-pool entertainment for a dozen or so kids mostly ages 4-6 sitting on the front lawn and their parents sitting in lawn chairs in a semicircle behind them. I always like it when the parents participate... or at least watch the show. (It beats having them standing nearby blabbing loudly while I'm trying to amuse the children.)
Actually, the parents were rather helpful from the get-go, so that was really nice, too.
Corey and I hit it off instantly. He remembered me from a party I was at last year, and recognized me and called me by name when I first arrived. I got there before his guests, so he and I were able to have some fun 1-on-1time while I was getting my equipment ready.
Lately, my shows have been running a bit long and therefore cutting game time a bit short (I've only got an hour to fit it all in), so today I did a really fast show so we'd have more time for the parachute games. I think it worked really well. I could... and have... stretched the show out to an entire hour when it's appropriate — there's just so much fun stuff to entertain an audience with! But everyone (myself included!) really likes the games a lot, too, so I like to keep them about half and half.
And it succeeded quite well, thank you. We had a lot of laughs in the show, and then had plenty of time for everyone's favorite parachute games. For this party, there was also a third half hour: Project: Ribbon Dancer. The boys (and the few token girls) had a great time decorating and playing with their very own ribbon dancers.
And Corey was especially appreciative when I gave him a Wind Whistler Twirling Tube as a birthday present, too.
Then I was off to Worcester MA to do the same stuff for Katarina Krusas's 4th birthday party. Katarina and her family saw me last year at the Worcester JCC pre-school picnic: so she, too, had seen me before and recognized me and addressed me by name when I arrived.
It's just so much FUN and feels so good to be so joyfully recognized by both children and adults!!
So I was scheduled to do the exact same stuff at this one as at the morning party, but while I was getting my stuff ready, it began to seriously cloud up with dark, looming clouds. Sitting on my truck workbox putting on my stilts, I had gotten one leg fully attached when I felt the first raindrop. I had acquired quite a crowd already, including the birthday girl's mom. She was disappointed that we probably wouldn't be able to be outside. But she visibly brightened when I told her that I only needed a 10' clearance because they just happened to have a living room with a vaulted ceiling! So I walked up the back stairs directly into their living room and performed on stilts inside their house! It doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's always FUN.
This party had a more mixed age range, with some 3-year-olds as well as some older boys roughly 7-9 or 10, plus plenty of parents standing and watching from the doorway. So when it came to be game time, I did some stuff specifically for the younger set, some stuff for the older set, and some stuff that I usually do with all ages. It was an eclectic mixture that I think all ages enjoyed from beginning to end.
Afterwards, I drove to Living Earth and bought the biggest to-go container they've got of their awesome vegan chocolate mousse. It's soooooooo good! I make a special effort to get some every time I'm in Worcester for any reason. That's how much I like this stuff!
Monday, June 23, 2008
My wife and I spent some quality time together today. After waking up together fairly early, I went back to sleep while she made pancakes. Afterwards, we went to see Get Smart ↓ in the
theaters, then we went to Sally's Boutique (Salvation Army) where she got a new top and I got two pairs of jeans and some movies, then we went food shopping at River Valley Market, then she made dinner while I ran a couple errands, followed by a delicious dinner at the picnic table on our spacious front porch, then I did the dishes while she did some computer stuff, then we sat on the the couch on our still spacious front porch and talked and had a cup of tea, and then we went to bed together to end her day. After she fell asleep, I was suddenly starving hungry so I got up and ate some food and watched a movie and then finally crawled back in bed with my lovely wife and fell asleep next to her. A top quality day!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Today is Quebec National Day. And the only reason I'm mentioning it is because I have probably at least a million Quebec provincial flag stickers (pictured left), thanks to the kind and aware owner of Acme Surplus in the basement of Thorne's Marketplace in Northampton MA. He's noticed how many stickers I've bought from him over the years. (I LOVE STICKERS!) So, one day when I was rifling through his wide assortment of surplus stickers looking for ones that are appropriate to my business, he made me an extremely generous clear-them-out offer: All the 9" and 6" rolls he had in stock for $20. They were priced at $20 for the 9" rolls and $10 for the 6" rolls, so it was a terrific deal! The only stipulation was that I had to take them all. So among other things, I now own three 9" rolls of Quebec flag stickers.
Someone somewhere probably has a formula for figuring out how many 2" perforated panels are on a 9" roll wrapped around a 3" core... but I'm guesstimating that with all three rolls, I've got at least a million Quebec flags. And if it's only 500,000, it's still a mighty lot of flags.
For those who are interested, I also got a couple 9" rolls of Puerto Rico flags, seven 9" rolls of two different kinds of Christmas stickers, two 9" rolls of computer stickers, two 9" rolls of trolls, and one 9" of kites and other flying things, five 6" rolls of Happy St. Patrick's Day stickers, four of Halloween cats (oooh, scary!), three of iridescent rainbow bunnies, and one more that I don't remember because I used it up quickly.
I've also already used most of the rainbow bunnies: just ½" left on the roll. But EVERYBODY I mail something to gets a Quebec flag, a Puerto Rico flag, and a computer sticker on their envelope or postcard. Even so, it's probably going to take 3-6 years to use them all! The holiday stickers, however, are going to take way longer. I can probably get away with sticky the scary cats and the St. Pat's stickers on mailings, but the Christmas stickers are probably going to last decades! Unless I come up with a much faster way of getting rid of them besides giving them out at all my December shows, there will probably still be some of those left when I die.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
My lovely wife and I got up early (well... she got up at her regular time, and I got up early) and did the 2-hour drive to Rocky Neck State Park in East Lyme CT. My lovely wife is a trained geologist who's into sedimentary petrology. (That means she really into sand.) She also grew up near the ocean and spent a lot of time around salt water as a kid. Now we're an hour and a quarter inland, so she really misses the ocean.
This was our first time to Rocky Neck. It was terrific! Actually, the closest public ocean beach is only 1¼ hours due south near New Haven CT, but neither of us liked that one at all. The next nearest is Hammonasett State Park in Madison CT; only 1½ hours away. It's a fine state park with some wonderful features, but Nancy is dissatisfied with the sand there. We've been going there for several years, but this time we finally decided to try a different
beach. (And next time, we're going to try another one that's south of New Haven.)
This was a very fine beach. And Nancy says the sand is terrific. We spent five hours there. I did some serious work on my tan; and Nancy (the white girl) got only a little red. The water was great. The beach was great. It was crowded but not packed. The nature trails were nice. And they've got campsites, too.
We had to leave around 3:00 because right after supper I had a River Valley Market Outreach Committee meeting.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
It was my last of six visit to our dear friend Amar Fuller's Khalsa Childcare. And today was 
↠Wind Whistlers day. The kids in the photo are from a party a did at least 15 years ago, but those elephant noses are Wind Whistlers. Commercially they're called "5-tone twirling pipes", but as names for toys go that one kind of sucks. So I call them Wind Whistlers because when you swing them in the wind, they whistle! And you can actually get more than 5 notes out of them if you try really hard, so....
Anyways, the kids and I at Khalsa Childcare had a blast with them with a lot a creativity, several gross motor skills activities, a few actual "games", and a whole lot of silliness: Besides elephants, we did a lot of other animals, several musical instruments, a campfire, lots of food, several body parts ("Look, TREVOR, I've got three arms!"), and a whole bunch of other very imaginative creations. I showed the kids just a few of the things they could do with them, and they just took off on the idea. I had originally planned to only do that for the first half, but these kids were having such a blast thinking up different things to do with them that it lasted the entire time!
And that was a very fitting and satisfying end to my Weekly Games Clinic at Khalsa Childcare. Thanks for having me, Amar. It was a deep pleasure.
And then, after a brief stop-over at home, I drove to Spencer Early Learning Center in Spencer MA where I was scheduled to do an outside show. Unfortunately, it started raining just before I got there, so I got to work inside in the upstairs "classroom". There were about 60 kids roughly ages 4-9 plus staff tightly packed into their carpeted area.
I taped off a small area on the floor to be my stage: I really like to be close to the audience. At the beginning, I was getting a few weird looks from a couple of the older boys, but as soon as I got a little flip with them, I was suddenly alright.
This was a very fun-loving group: they laughed easily, clapped often, and although they were a bit noisy they well all pretty well-behaved. In short, a great group of kids. And the staff was helpful from the moment I arrived until it was time for me to go, too. Oh, and they really enjoyed the show, too, laughing all the way through right along with the kids. I'd really like to go back here again!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
It was "Batter Up With Wally Day" Red Sox Family Fun Day at the Holyoke Merry-Go- Round in Holyoke Heritage State Park today. There was a huge line of fans waiting 
to meet ↠Wally — the Red Sox mascot — and get an autograph and have their picture taken with him. The Merry-Go-Round was open, and anyone wearing Red Sox regalia got to ride for only 50 cents a ride! There was Ed Popielarczk twisting balloons while his awesome bubble machine spewed out millions of soap bubbles downwind. I was doing walk-around on stilts, entertaining everyone while they waited in line for various activities. Plus there was face painting, hot dogs (of course!), popcorn, free ice cream, and a mighty lot of happy Red Sox fans.
And then a couple hours into the event, there was an even huger line of people queued up to view the two Red Sox Champion trophies ↓.
By the time the trophies arrived, there were already at least 200 people in line! The line did move right along once it got started, but more and more eager fans kept joining the back of the line. What a lot of excitement!
Kudos to Maureen Costello, operations manager & event planner at the Merry-Go-Round for organizing this extremely popular event. Like I wrote to her in my thank you note this morning: "I've never seen so many excited grown men in Holyoke Heritage State Park before as there were waiting in line to see the Red Sox trophies!" GO RED SOX!