Every once in a while I need to bump a book on my “To be read” list up. This happens for various reasons. Sometimes the audiobook becomes available sooner than expected. Other times it is because I really have waited to read the book. This one – well, it was the book my wife got me for my birthday. It was Paranoia from James Patterson and James O. Born.
My wife had been out shopping and saw the title and cover. She read the back of the book and thought it might be something I’d enjoy, so she picked it up for me.
I was a bit worried about reading it because I found out that this is actually the 17th book featuring the character of Michael Bennett. There have been a lot of “series” that I stopped reading because the books were often half recaps of previous books and half new story. I didn’t know what to expect. My hope was that it would read well as a stand alone story. Thankfully, it did.
Thinking back on it now, I can see where some of the things that were briefly mentioned might be familiar to readers of the series. As a new reader, I took those things as something used to further the story.
Here is the Goodreads Synopsis:
NYPD Detective Michael Bennett will stop at nothing to protect family: his wife, his kids—and his fellow officers—in the latest psychological thriller from bestselling author James Patterson.
At every death scene, Bennett says a prayer over the victim. But recently, too many of the departed have been fellow cops. “I want you to look at these deaths on special assignment,” NYPD Inspector Celeste Cantor says. “Report only to me.” Bennett excels as a solo investigator. But he’s chasing a killer who feeds on isolation… and paranoia.
The synopsis doesn’t really say much. So I will expand just a bit, which may make it more intriguing to you.
Deaths tied to drugs and gangs are commonplace in New York City. They are nothing out of the ordinary. Strange and multiple deaths of retired police officers, however, raise a red flag. As the deaths pile up, it becomes clear that the dead police officers and the dead drug/gang members have something in common – an interest case from the past.
When Bennett is approached by Inspector Cantor to “look into the matter,” he does so. The more he investigates, the more complex and odd the case becomes.
The book was actually quite good. I had my suspicions about characters who may or may not be involved in the murders throughout the first half of the book. My pick changed a bit throughout the story, but I was able to figure it out. The fact that I did, didn’t make the rest of the story a bad read.
Will I go out and pick up another Michael Bennett book? Maybe. It was good, but it wasn’t necessarily a character that I was like, “I gotta read more about that guy!”
37 years ago this week I graduated from high school. I was such a band nerd in high school. Band was my life in high school. It was a place where you were accepted, you worked together, and core memories were made.
I remember my sophomore and junior years playing music before the commencement ceremony began. The entire band played together until a couple minutes before the senior class walked out and to their seats. The seniors from band would get up shortly before then and take their place in line. After one more song, the remaining lower classmen would play Pomp and Circumstance as the seniors walked in.
I have posted pictures on this blog before of me conducting the band at graduation. That is a memory that will not fade any time soon. It was such an amazing moment. After the number I conducted, another senior (our drum major) got his turn to conduct the band. I can’t recall the number we played before we had to leave the band and get in line, but I remember the sadness that overwhelmed me as our group of seniors got up.
Our band director, Tom Shaner, was such a mentor and friend to me. That remained the case long after high school. When he passed away, I wrote about him. You can read that here.
As we walked to join our class, my friend Joe (who is in at the right of the photo) and I took a detour and walked past Mr. Shaner. There was no way I was walking by without hugging him. I was so grateful that my parents caught this moment on camera. I’m not sure, but I was probably crying. LOL
One thing that I never really noticed in the picture is that my friend Mary (who went on to teach) is actually snapping a picture of the moment, too. Next to her is my friend Theresa whose left leg is in a pink cast. If memory serves me right, she had broke it just a couple weeks before dancing at our band banquet.
If I go back and compare this photo to the one of me conducting, I could probably tell you who is next to Theresa. I don’t recognize the legs or shoes in this picture. LOL
I cannot even believe that it has been 37 years. What I wouldn’t give to be able to experience sitting in band class again. What I wouldn’t give to have one more chat with Mr. Shaner.
I’m not sure kids today realize just how special those high school years are. Good high school experiences will stay with you for a lifetime. The bad experiences will too. I pray that kindness, encouragement, and friendships overcome bullying, hatred, and the cruelty that is found in so many schools today.
I’m glad that I can look back fondly at mostly good memories from high school.
Life just never seems to slow down. sometimes I get to the end of the week and even after doing all kinds of things, I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing.
The last two weeks have been really messed up for me. I took Thursday and Friday off last week for Ella’s surgery. The week before that I took Thursday and Friday off for what I thought would be my son’s graduation and Ella’s dance recital. Honestly, I still don’t know what day it is…
A week out, and Ella is recovering quite well from her tonsil surgery. I think the hardest part about surgery days for me is having to be the one to go back to put the mask for anesthesia on my child. Granted, Ella did really well this time. But there were a couple times when I was back with Andrew that just broke my heart to see how scared he was
She thought it was great that we both had matching hats. I will tell you this, though, that little bunny suit that they make the parent get in before going to the ER that is supposed to fit everybody… It don’t. I know I’m a big guy, but that thing makes me feel like I’m extra large trying to get into a small.
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As I said earlier, my daughter had her dance recital about 2 weeks ago. The one thing that they all have to have for the recital is their hair up in a bun. To do that her hair has to be long.
Towards the end of school she was saying how her hair was bugging her and that she wanted to get a haircut. We told her that she had to wait until after the recital to get it done.
So after the recital and just before her surgery, she was able to get her haircut the way she wanted it. I think it looks cute, Even though it makes her look older than she is.
I’m really not sure what my son is angry about behind her in that picture, but it makes me laugh.
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Last weekend was the final weekend of soccer for my son. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier about that. You may remember I got suckered into coaching.
I don’t know diddly squat about soccer. I told them that when I was asked to coach. I had another guy who was coaching with me who was in the same boat. Luckily, we had a coach who was able to work with the two of us so that the kids at least learned something. I have to tell you though, I really felt pretty useless out on the soccer field.
The team that he played on wasn’t really playing games against another team. It was a lot of basic stuff like kicking the ball, rolling the ball back, passing the ball to another player, and throwing the ball in for play. Those things were accomplished with games like Simon says and stuff like that.
The coolest thing for all of the kids was that they each got a medal with their names engraved on it. He couldn’t have been more proud.
I was pretty proud of him, too.
As for next year, I’m hanging up my coach’s whistle!
This is sort of a continuation of the Music of My Life feature. It focused on music from 1970-2025. It featured tunes that have special meaning to me, brought back a certain memory or a tune that I just really like. I found that with the first three decades, there were songs that I didn’t feature. So I sat down with my original lists and selected some songs that “bubbled under,” so to speak.
I figured a good way to present them was to focus on a decade. 10 years = 1 song per year = 10 songs. Two weeks ago we finished looking at the 90’s. This we we’ll move to the 2000’s. So, let’s check out a few “Decade Extras.”
2000
I’m not sure why, but the more I listened to Barenaked Ladies The more I liked their stuff. It always seemed like they were having a good time and always like to have some tongue in cheek kind of lyrics. Pinch Me is no exception.
According to Songfacts, this song is one of the many that the band often change the lyrics to during live performances for comedic effect. Lyrics that are often changed include “And run through with my gym short on” replaced with “no clothing on,” “And change in to drier clothes” to “changing to my sister’s clothes.” When they were on tour with Alanis Morissette, the line was often changed to “change into Alanis’ clothes.”
In the third verse there is a classic schoolyard joke: “I could hide out under there – I just made you say underwear.” This caused a fan trend of throwing underwear on stage during live performances. When this happens, Robertson changes the line to “I just made you throw underwear.”
Bandmember Ed Robertson came up with the concept for the Philip Harder-directed music video, where he plays a fast food worker who daydreams an exciting life with restaurant patrons dancing all around him. One customer is played by Will & Grace actor Eric McCormack, a friend of the band who did the cameo free of charge. The story hit close to home for Robertson, who really did work at a Wendy’s back in the ’80s.
Pinch Me
2001
I suppose this is another one of those great Friday at 5 songs. I don’t know that I ever used it as one on my radio show, but it certainly could work. The song was previously recorded by The Ranch, a short-lived Country trio founded by Keith Urban. It was the Dixie Chicks, however, who would have a hit with Some Days You Gotta Dance.
Urban played guitar on their rendition, but according to Songfacts he kept the female trio waiting. The Australian country star recalled to Rolling Stone: “I got on a bit of a three-day bender and couldn’t come to the session and had to call them and tell them I’m going to be a bit late. Then I would call them and say I’m going to be a bit later. And then I would call them and be a bit later. And I completely missed the session. I lived like a street away. It was ridiculous. I could have walked there with my guitar in hand and I couldn’t make it. I remember just feeling so ashamed and disgusted at myself. I finally [showed up] the next day.”
“I think they brought in another guitarist that ghosted my playing, so I think there are two players on there,” Urban added. “I’m not sure how much of mine actually ended up on there.”
What amazes me about this song is that it was the eighth and final single from their Fly album! That is truly unheard of. At most, usually there are only four singles released from an album. I don’t deny that the album itself was one of the best released that year, but eight singles?!
The song peaked at #7 on the Country chart and #55 on the Hot 100. Is hard not to want to dance to this one.
Some Days You Gotta Dance
2002
As a radio DJ, you get a lot of requests. A lot of times it’s because someone loves a song, sometimes they want to dedicate a song, and sometimes they want to play it in remembrance of someone. It’s hard to believe today, but at one time the DJ was a friend who made their listener feel good with the songs that they played.
That is kind of the sentiment of Van Morrison in a song that not many people know. ‘Hey, Mr. DJ” is a song written by Van Morrison and recorded on his 2002 album, Down The Road. In the song, he pleads with the DJ to play a song that will “Make everything all right.” It was released as a single in the United Kingdom and charted at number fifty-eight.
The Rolling Stone reviewer, David Fricke said, “‘Hey Mr. DJ’ is a requiem for the one-on-one electricity of pre-Clear Channel radio, swinging with sweet brass and the iconic echo of Sam Cooke’s ‘Havin’ A Party.’
The song was originally recorded in 2000 with Linda Gail Lewis, intended for an album entitled Choppin’ Wood. Before the release of the album, Lewis’ contributions to the song were removed and string and vocal overdubs were added.
Hey Mr. DJ
2003
I remember the first time I played Clocks by Coldplay on the adult contemporary station I worked at. I was really hooked from that opening piano and even long after my shift I can remember that piano playing in my head as sort of an earworm.
According to Songfacts, lead singer Chris Martin wrote the lyrics and the piano riff for “Clocks” in 15 minutes in a studio in Liverpool, shortly before Coldplay released the album. Since they didn’t have much time, they put it aside and planned to work on it for their next album. When the band’s manager, Phil Harvey, heard the demo, he convinced them to do whatever was necessary to record it for A Rush Of Blood To The Head, especially since the song deals with the importance of time. Consequently, Coldplay delayed the release of the album by two months to finish “Clocks.”
The song was a favorite of many other musicians. U2’s Bono included “Clocks” on his “60 Songs That Saved My Life” list, compiled to coincide with him turning 60. “I chose ‘Clocks’ because I can hold onto it tighter than time,” he wrote in a “fan letter” to Coldplay. “‘Clocks’ arrived in the nick of time with its Phillip Glass-type arpeggiation and ecstatic exhortation… I just punched the air in a manly, but not aggressive way. ‘They are not a rock band,’ I thought out loud to myself, ‘there is something much more interesting going on… they’re like The Isley Brothers or something.'”
“Clocks” won the Grammy for 2003 Record Of The Year.
Clocks
2004
One of the hardest things about scheduling music on a country station is creating a balance of up-tempo to mid-tempo songs in comparison with slow ballads. Country music certainly has a lot of ballads and a lot of times those ballads are hits at the same time which makes it very difficult to schedule the music so there’s not too many slow songs in a row. I remember that being the problem when Brad Paisley released Whiskey Lullaby.
The subject matter of the song itself is not very happy. As a matter of fact it is a very sad song about a man who gets his heart broken so bad, he drinks himself to death. His ex blames herself for his death and also starts drinking, eventually killing herself with the whiskey as well.
I still remember the line of the song that made me want to add it to our playlist. Songfacts even mentions it: The key line in the song is “He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger,” a striking metaphor for what happens when drinking away one’s sorrows will no longer work, and it becomes a method of suicide.
The song is a duet with Alison Krauss, who sings the second verse in the role of the woman and also plays viola on the track.
Despite earning the 2005 CMA for Song Of The Year and also taking Video Of The Year at both the CMAs and ACMs. It was not a #1 Country hit. The way that a song becomes number one is by the amount of plays it gets on the radio. Because of the songs sad and depressing nature, it just didn’t get played as much. What’s interesting is it was never expected to be a single.
The Dixie Chicks were the first act to put the song on hold, but they didn’t record it. Then Brad Paisley heard the tune and spotted its potential as a duet. Country legend Bill Anderson co-wrote the song and recalled:
“Brad called me one day on the phone, and said, ‘I’ve been listening to this ‘Whiskey Lullaby,’ what would you think if I brought a girl to sing on that second verse?’ And I said, ‘I’ve never thought of that. Who do you have in mind?’ And he said, ‘Well, I think there’s only two people who could do it, and I would like to have one of those: Alison Krauss or Dolly Parton.’ And I told him, ‘Well, you don’t have to ask my permission to do that, because I love them both!’ So next thing I knew, they worked out all the contract stuff with Alison and everything fell into place.”
The song is extremely sad, but hauntingly beautiful at the same time.
Whiskey Lullaby
2005
I suppose I don’t remember too much about this year’s particular season of American Idol. But I must have watched it on and off occasionally because I remember when Katherine McPhee sang it. I was really impressed with not only her singing but I kind of like the song too. I’m talking about KT Tunstall’s Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.
From Songfacts:
In The Guardian newspaper of February 24, 2006, Tunstall explained: “One summer, I was traveling in Greece on a little moped and this massive black horse had broken free in an olive grove and was going nuts. It looked apocalyptic: a seed was sown. I wrote the song years later in a tiny studio in Shepherd’s Bush. I was about to tour Scottish coffee shops and was worried about coming across like Phoebe from Friends. At the same time I saw a brilliant guy called Son of Dave who looked like a ginger nylon 1980s’ Elvis: really raw blues with just voice and effects. I got a pedal and one of my techie friends helped me put myself and my guitar through it. It’s probably the most scientific I’ve been, but the song was written in a 10-minute burst. The lyrics where my ‘Heart stops dead’ refer to a heart murmur I had as a baby. I got into this fantasy that my heart felt betrayed and had decided to stop working. The song is about having to dig incredibly deep to find out who you wanna be.”
KT Tunstall says in You magazine November 4, 2007 about granting Katharine McPhee permission to cover her song on American Idol:
“It was a bit of a quandary for me, because I don’t like reality pop shows at all. They’re great TV, but they’re not good for music. When Katharine chose ‘Black Horse,’ she demonstrated a bit of personality in what’s otherwise a puppet show, and that appearance did me a lot of favors.”
Black Horse and The Cherry Tree
2006
I do realize that this is the second song from Brad Paisley on this list. He impressed me from the first time I saw him playing a little local club at a show we hosted.
He is an absolutely amazing guitar player. I was really impressed with the fact that he played every guitar on this particular song. Brad is also one of those tongue-in-cheek kind of artists, and this song is a good example. The World.
It was released on March 13, 2006, as the third single from Paisley’s 2005 album Time Well Wasted. It reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and also peaked at number 45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The music video was directed by Scott Scovill. It features a little girl whose older sister finds one of her CDs in the former’s room and yells at her for it. The little girl then opens a little chest that reveals a Brad Paisley concert. She magically appears at the concert, and Brad Paisley gives her his hat. Then when the little girl is in her room again, her older sister comes in to apologize for being mean and permit her to listen to her CDs anytime. The little girl then shows her older sister what’s in the magic chest. The concert shows earth balls rolling around on top of the audience, which has been done at some of Brad Paisley’s concerts. The video peaked at #1 on CMT’s Top 20 Countdown in 2006.
The World
2007
Every once in a while, I will come across a song that I like, just because of the sound of it. That’s why James Blunt’s 1973 wasn’t on my original 2007 list, but is here.
I Like Music asked James Blunt what 1973 meant to him personally. He replied:
“Well I was born in 1978. So I wrote it about a girl called Simona in a song about a nostalgic moment – it’s a celebration of something we did last year in Ibiza. And Pacha originally opened in 1973, but 1973 was also a great year for music, so many fantastic albums came out at that time.”
According to Blunt, the girl “Simona” mentioned several times in the lyrics was based on a real woman whom he met at a club.
I’m not sure why, but I like the sound of this one.
1973
2008
The Fray always seemed to have a song that hit me with deep lyrics. I felt that way with You Found Me.
The starting point for this song was back in 2006 when frontman Isaac Slade found himself pondering why bad things happen to good people after witnessing various crises among people close to the singer. The lyrics for this tune came from these deliberations. Slade said on The Fray’s website that this was a tough song for him to write. He explained:
“Its about the disappointment, the heart ache, the let down that comes with life. Sometimes you’re let down, sometimes you’re the one who lets someone else down. It gets hard to know who you can trust, who you can count on. This song came out of a tough time, and I’m still right in the thick of it. There’s some difficult circumstances my family and friends have been going through over the past year or so and can be overwhelming. It wears on me. It demands so much of my faith to keep believing, keep hoping in the unseen. Sometimes the tunnel has a light at the end, but usually they just look black as night. This song is about that feeling, and the hope that I still have, buried deep in my chest.”
This song was inspired by a dream. Isaac Slade told The Sun February 6, 2009:
“I dreamt I ran into God on a street corner. He looked like Bruce Springsteen and he was smoking a cigarette. I had it out with him and asked ‘Where were you when all this bad stuff was happening to these very undeserving, good people?'” Slade, whose Christian faith is important to him added: “There were tough times. I was questioning my faith, angry at things that had happened in my life and the lives of my friends. A friend had suffered a miscarriage, I had lost my grandfather. I was angry and the song felt angry and hopeless too. I imagined what I’d say to God, in the face of all the crap my friends have gone through in the last couple of years.”
His description reminds me of the country song A Few Questions by Clay Walker. In that song, he questions God about a lot going on the in the world.
You Found Me
2009
I have said in the past that when Lady Antebellum (now Lady A) first came by the studio, I knew they would be a success. They have proved that in many ways. It took them three songs to get their first chart topper and it took them quite a while to get there.
I Run To You was the first #1 on the Hot Country Songs Chart for the group. The track took 26 weeks to climb to the top.
Co-Producer Paul Worley said on the album’s liner notes: “The song is an expression against hate, prejudice, negativity, running the rat race, but ultimately the redemption of love! And it has an irresistible melody and a head-bobbing groove. What could be better?”
While the trio had had two previous hits they really connected with their audience with this song. “Our fans grasped who we were with ‘I Run to You,’ “Hillary Scott told Billboard magazine. “The message and that song is so much about what we’re about. It was like two puzzle pieces fitting together. Now you know us and we know you.”
This won the 2009 CMA Single of the Year Award. Lady Antebellum also snagged the Vocal Group of the Year award at the same ceremony, ending a six-year run by Rascal Flatts in that race.
I Run To You
That wraps up this week. We’ll go one more week in the early 2000’s before moving to the 2010’s and then putting a bow on this feature for good. I hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading and thanks for listening – see you next week.
I am surprised that as much as I love blues music, I haven’t featured it more. Today, I can do just that as I wish Happy birthday to blues legend Howling Wolf.
He was born Chester Arthur Burnett on this day in 1910. He was one of a few blues singers who took the acoustic Delta Blues and helped turn it into the electric Chicago Blues. His name is right up there with Muddy Waters, Elmore James and John Lee Hooker as one who was a major influence on the blues and blues musicians.
The folks at AllMusic said that he was “a primal, ferocious blues belter with a roster of classics rivaling anyone else, and a sandpaper growl of a voice that has been widely imitated”. Rolling Stone magazine listed him on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time at #54.
His hits include Smokestack Lightning, Spoonful, Wang Dang Doodle, and The Red Rooster. In 1964 he released a song that has been called “one of the defining classics of Chicago electric blues,” Killing Floor. The song was big enough that Led Zeppelin adapted the song into their hit “The Lemon Song.”. They named Howlin’ Wolf as a co-author on the tune.
One of Wolf’s friends and guitar player, Hubert Sumlin, says that the song uses the killing floor “as a metaphor or allegory for male-female relationships: “Down on the killing floor – that means a woman has you down, she went out of her way to try to kill you. She at the peak of doing it, and you got away now … You know people have wished they was dead – you been treated so bad that sometimes you just say, ‘Oh Lord have mercy.’ You’d rather be six feet in the ground.“
Michael J. Fox celebrates his 61st birthday today. He started acting as a child in the 70’s, but his role as Alex Keaton on Family Ties in the 80’s made him a star.
The role of Marty McFly in Back to the Future was first given to actor Eric Stoltz. His performance didn’t fit what they were looking for and he was replaced by Michael J. Fox.
Fox was the original choice to play Marty. Producers gave the script to the producer of Family Ties and asked him to give the script to Fox. They didn’t. After shooting scenes with Stoltz and deciding he was wrong for the part, they approached the Family Ties producer again. This time he told Fox that he was wanted for a role. They also told him he could take it as long as filming didn’t interfere with his work on Family Ties. Fox accepted the role without even reading the script.
Michael would film Family Ties during the day and Back to the Future at night until production ended on Family Ties. This left him exhausted, but according to him “Worth it.”
Huey Lewis was approached to write a song for the movie. He contributed Back In Time and The Power of Love.
My favorite cut on the soundtrack is the version of Johnny B. Goode that Marty sings at the dance in the film. Producers wanted audiences to think that it was Michael singing the song, so they never gave credit to Mark Campbell who is really singing.
Fox was taught how to look like he was playing guitar, as well as mimicking the moves of Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, and Chuck Berry. Berry originally wrote and had a hit with Johnny B. Goode. He waited until the day before filming to give them permission to use the song in the film.
In the movie, Marty kind of goes crazy at the end of the song, leaving the audience and band members wondering just what he was doing. On the soundtrack, we hear a version with bits of the guitar solo from the film, but not the craziness Marty does in the film.
I was between books recently and the ones I was waiting for were still unavailable. So I searched for something quick to tide me over until my next read. As a radio guy, you know that the cover of this one made me stop and check it out.
I’m not sure how many pages the book is, as I listened to the audio book. It was about and hour or an hour and a half audio book. I had never heard of the author – Otis Adelbert Kline – but apparently he’s written quite a few books and short stories.
Here is the short Goodreads synopsis:
A mysterious inheritance. A haunted mansion. To claim her late uncle’s fortune, Greta Van Loan must survive a year in his eerie Highland Park estate. Skeptical of the supernatural, she turns to two psychic investigators when strange and terrifying events threaten to change everything she believes. Can Greta uncover the truth—or will the house’s secrets claim her first?
To me, this worked like an old radio show. It wasn’t anything that I had to think too hard about. It played out like an episode of Sam Spade or Johnny Dollar. I could see this also working as something on Suspense or Lights Out.
There were simple, likable characters and the mystery of a haunted mansion. For whatever reason, I just pictured Scooby-Doo. Yeah, it could be a Scooby-Doo mystery.
It was a good “pass the time” book that you could probably read in one setting. Was it amazing? No, but as a short story that requires not too much thinking, it was good.
Today is the 108th birthday of Dean Martin! Back when this blog was in its infancy, I wrote a birthday salute. I didn’t have many followers then, so I thought I would share it again. Just keep in mind the numbers are from 7 years ago…
I apologize for not giving an update sooner. Thank you for your prayers and well wishes for our daughter. Ella’s surgery went well and she came home Thursday evening.
They wound up not taking the tonsils out completely. They basically shave them down, which leads to an easier recovery. I’m not sure it’s been easy for her though.
It’s important for her to keep drinking throughout the day. She is allowed to eat popsicles and ice cream and other soft, cold things. The hard part is getting her to drink or eat.
Obviously, it hurts to swallow anything, so she’s being very stubborn about eating and drinking. What makes it even more difficult is that she doesn’t want to take Tylenol or Motrin when she has to. It’s a fight to make that happen.
Over all, she has been resting. She did want to go outside yesterday because it was nice. She wound up sitting on the porch most of the time. She did ride the Big Wheel for a little bit, probably because she doesn’t like to sit still.
They say days 3-5 are the most painful. That’s today, tomorrow and Monday. I’m hoping that it isn’t too bad for her. I hate seeing her hurt.
Sam signed her up for summer dance classes. I know she wants to feel better ASAP because she is excited to dance.
Thank you again for thinking about and praying for her. I will keep you posted on her progress.
Wishing my beautiful wife, Sam a very Happy birthday today!! She continues to be the glue that holds us all together. I have no words to express how much she means to me and our family.
This photo is from when we went to a “Golden Girls” show. It was a play where the girls were played by men and it was quite raunchy.
It was a fun night out together. Because Ella is home recovering from her surgery, we won’t be able to go out this weekend, but I’m working on something for us soon.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 