Moritz Life

We picked our country for Christmas. After much voting we decided to celebrate in the Greek tradition this year. Keep watching for information on what kinds of dishes I'll be cooking and some of the activities we'll be trying.

It was a roadtrip to two meetings this week for me. We left Monday after school to go to Bakersfield for a testing workshop on Tuesday. Then it was off to Burbank (L.A.) for a meeting put on by the California Department of Education (CDE) on Wednesday. We left after the meeting to go home and actually made great time. We were home by about 6:30 pm. And was it ever nice to get back home!

In Bakersfield we went to Buck Owens' Crystal Palace www.buckowens.com and had a great time watching Monday Night Football. It's a very interesting place with a stage and several levels of seating to watch shows. It also is a museum and has a lot of country music memorabalia including a car Buck won from Elvis in a poker game in Vegas.

Band Boosters are parents of band members who help out with the many, many jobs it takes to get a band to and from an event, feed them and keep them out of trouble. I've helped out with Andrew's band the last 3 weekends. The first was feeding them pizza before they played at our football game, the 2nd was a 2 hour stint selling food at the Hanford Band Review and the 3rd and by far the most taxing was chaperoning a field trip. We had two buses, two trucks pulling trailers, one of them with a "Gator" on board. The kids met at the school at 7:30 am for a brief practice and then the loading of the equipment. The buses were ready to roll by about 9:05 am and we headed off to Fresno State for the Sierra Cup Classic - a competition of 37 bands from around California. We arrived at 10:15 or so and the kids got ready and went to practice. They were supposed to eat their lunches on the bus. They had a snack around 12:15 and then got into full gear and went to the practice field to warm up. This is where we put their plumes in their hats (shakos). They warmed up and when it was time to head to the stadium they marched over. We took off to try and get into the stands before they actually performed. Once up in the stands we got to see another school perform just before Hanford High. The performance was great and in their class "AA" there were 5 other bands competing (Class depends on how many students are in the band). We left after their performance, back to the buses to get them some water a (it was a very warm 80 degrees). They performed about 1:30 pm. By 3:00 pm we had loaded everything back up and the kids got back on the bus - where we took them to John's Incredible Pizza for 3 hours of food and fun. http://www.johnspizza.com/home. Then it was back on the buses to go back to the stadium and watch the rest of the performance. We got back just before 7:00 pm and there were about 9 bands left. Once they had finished performing, Fresno State's Marching band and colorguard performed for us - what a fabulous show. They even have a baton twirler. She twirled two batons most of the time, once they were lit on fire - both ends! After that the awards were given out - Hanford High School won first place in their division and they won the award for Best Percussion - of which Andrew is a part! Congratulations HHS Band! Once the ceremonies were over, we headed back to the buses, again and it was off to Hanford. We unloaded got the kids off and it was time to go home and crawl into bed, just after midnight! Wow, am I tired, but it sure was fun.

I pulled out my cleaning bucket from under the sink in the bathroom the other day (usually I just grab the bottle I need) and lo and behold I found a little creature in my bucket. At first I wasn't sure if it was alive or dead, but on closer inspection (and the fact that it wasn't moving) I realized it was in fact, dead. Thank Goodness! Whew..........

So this is another post I have been promising for a long time. The following videos include one with me after I shaved my head and one when I had my chest waxed so I could paint my chest at the football game.


(Click picture to watch video - 10mb)


(Click picture to watch video - 27mb)

Alright, so I promised this a long time ago, and I have finally got the chance to get this up online. Click HERE to see the video of the fountain that we built and gave my parents for their anniversary. (The video file is 6.9mb, so I would suggest only downloading it if you have a fairly fast connection, unless you want to wait a long time.)


(You can also click on the picture)

Our marching band had a competition this weekend, and our band recieved second place in our category, and our drumline recieved first place. Just something I thought you all might like to know.

We had a workday at our church yesterday and I cut back the roses for the winter. Some of those critters had more thorns on than you could shake a stick at and I have the wounds to prove it. I also picked up the palm fronds that Lloyd trimmed and one of them caught on the back of my leg and cut me up too. All in all it was a fun time. It's always a great feeling to work!

Thanksgiving is coming up in a week - I just hope that Savemart has a turkey for sale so I can cook it next weekend!