It's dance time...

The Greatest Gift Of All

A biblical adaptation of the Nutcracker with an entirely new twist

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Riggs HS Theatre

Pierre

3 p.m.

&

7 p.m.

Admission: free will offering

Oh My




angels costume

  Can it be? Only 8 weeks until Christmas dance recital - The Greatest Gift of All (a variation of the Nutcracker ballet). Lots of choreography to learn still.

It's kinda neat having a site for the studio now... can post newsletters, pics, schedules & even links to dancewear. http://mainstdance.blogspot.com/
name change & new site to match: hosannadance.blogspot.com

Pointe:

Eventually I may even show a picture of me wearing my new pointe shoes. Maybe. Had a good class last night. My feet got pretty tired but they didn't hurt at all. 

Main Street Dance

Main Street Dance
Fort Pierre, SD

test


Other posts for Main Street Dance 

The Visitor

While kennel sitting I had an uninvited visitor...

It was going to be very hot Saturday and by 10:00 I had already taken each set of dogs (3 sets of 2) on a walk. (It's a lot easier walking up a hill when you have two hardy young labs walking you... hardly takes any effort at all... just pick up your feet and you'll find yourself moving forward.)

Well, back inside I heard a meadowlark singing outside and thought I'd try for a picture, but looking out the window to see where it was, my eye caught what looked like a rope lying on the ground.

The rope didn't want its picture taken...

It decided to hang out with some rakes (it does rhyme with snakes)...

...but as soon as some snake tongs arrived on the premises it promptly decided to head for cover... a nice big pile of old paint cans on the other side of that fence. (There has been a lot of cleaning up of piles and there's still more to come... at least that's not something I have to worry about... the owners are working hard to make this a great kennel (and home).)

I never did get to use those tongs... our friend left them in my care... just in case it came back out.

This guy did give a demo of his latest song The Sound of the Rattle... very nice

I'm kennel sitting again in a week and a half, but the outside portion will be completely different by then. No more scooping poo out of gravel... welcome to hosing down nicely slanted cement... and will eventually have some sort of drainage channel to a kind of doggie septic tank system. And putting gates at the end of each kennel/run will be nice too... no more weird going through one run to get to the next.

PAWS

Had fun my first day of kennel sitting... playing with the dogs & kittens, enjoying the country. I'm watching 4 dogs (2 are the owners, 2 are boarders) and 3 kittens. There'll be another 2 dogs over the weekend. All is going great! We'll see how the first day of poo scooping goes...

Calculus & Origami

WatchKnow has indexed and organized 18,485 online educational videos as of today. Site organizers aim to increase that total to 50,000 (into a directory of over 3,000 categories) by the end of 2010. All videos have been organized by category and sub-category. For example, the 2,512 videos listed under mathematics have been sub-divided into 16 categories that range from “Number Sense” to “Calculus” and “Math in the Real World”. The some of the categroies under literature include "Authors'/Poets' Biographical Information" and children's and young adult literature, authors & illustrators. There's even a Life Skills section ( sub-category Library Skills has 2 videos and the 1st one looks a little dated).

From the Hobbies Crafts section
origami book


"Suppose, instead of the dull, solemn letters on a board or a card you have a little play going on that the smallest youngster can understand." - Thomas Edison, 1911, on the film projector

old library days musings

Sometimes I sure miss "my" old library,

what with all their online resources...  tons of databases (should see all the databases just for music, art and dance), and website guides, tons of cool programing, and of course the tons and tons of books, videos and such so handy. (I say tons is the word of the day.) And, a lot has changed since I lived and worked there.

Now there's this neat looking Library-To-Go setup (an automated system away from the library branches), ...

...library by mail, downloadable audiobooks and videos....

They even have an author's podcast now... (though my branch's manager had started with newspaper topic articles and had even began radio interviews while I was still there)

Wow, they have even taken the summer reading program online with links, lists, reading log and the kids can write book reviews to share. ...

Every once in a while I have to check out their website just to see what might be new.

Aw, and I never got to see the new genealogy center...

 maybe someday if I make it back to Independence/KCMO for a visit.

It's only been, what... 6 years.

MCPL The Mid-Continent Public Library consists of 30 branches serving Clay, Jackson, and Platte Counties in Western Missouri. It was established in 1965 (though its roots go back further to 1892) and is now one of the largest library systems in the United States.

Hmmm... I wonder how the old libraries in Illinois are doing? Elgin's Gail Borden (that I barely remember since I was so young) and Springfield's Lincoln Library.

Flag Day

50-Star Flag Designs

In 1958 two U.S. territories, Alaska and Hawaii, were poised to become America's 49th and 50th states. A federal law dating from 1818 required that a star be added to the U.S. flag on the Fourth of July following a new state's admission. However, the law failed to describe how a new pattern for the stars should be configured. As the probability of Alaska's and Hawaii's admission to the Union increased, thousands of citizens, especially school children, sent their suggestions for a new flag design to the White House. In response to this interest, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed a committee to advise on the new design. After examining many creative and fanciful submissions, the committee recommended a design similar to the existing 48-star flag.

It would contain seven rows of seven stars in a slightly staggered arrangement. On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower issued an Executive order changing the design of the flag. When, a few months later, Hawaii became a state, the committee recommended a similar layout, and President Eisenhower issued another order describing that design. This exhibit contains two flag designs selected from the many designs submitted for consideration.

 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/designs_for_democracy/designs_for_a_new_century/articles/american_flag_with_50_stars_2.html

Marian the Cybrarian from the Chronicle of Higher Education

Windy Day

Took a picture of the flags up the hill at the Cultural Visitor Center.


Some day are definately good braid/pony tail days.

101_0017
Originally uploaded by piano player1

Trees

Get Growing! It's the Diversity


Wednesday, May 5
Community Room - Pierre Area Chamber of Commerce
800 W. Dakota Ave.
7:00 p.m.
tom.farnsworth@ci.pieree.sd.us

Diversifying our landscapes with many different varieties of trees helps to create a sustainable ecosystem.

Dr. John Ball, SDSU Extension Forestry Specialist, will discuss under utilized plants that can be grown in the area.

The makeup

The stage makeup was a little hard to get used to.

Hadassah: A Story of Esther pictures

This is the way to start any production - with prayer

Hadassah: A Story of Esther, April 25, 2010, @ Riggs High School Theatre, Pierre

~  ~  ~

The village is happy

The King & Queen are happy,

but then...

the queen won't come when the King summons

... the search for a new queen begins

(I am resisting)

Esther's preparation

I'm not actually trying to punch her,... I must be teaching her some self defense (could be useful information in the Persian court) but my lessons must bore her.

 

the King chooses ...

and we have Queen Esther

(there's bad old Haman - my dad)

 oh no!

something's afoot

The Prayer - Mordecai (oh yah, my brother) & Esther

for such a time as this...

surounded by angels

Esther & her guardian angel (me)

Esther is on her way to the king, guardian angel and all.

what... you want us to come to a banquet ?

ok...

Haman looks a little worried...

bye, bye Haman

celebration time!

Josh & I are off the ground (back two)!

~  ~  ~

Josh likes to give an impressive curtain call :-)

Look at more pictures from:

Sunday 1:00 pm dress rehearsal
View Album


Sunday 7:00 pm performance
View Album

there were more dances than what is shown above, including...

Previous posts: click on labels below

Luxury Libraries in Europe

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Thinking about getting a new clock...

There it goes again... Previous Post about this: What time is it? I'm behind -- Or am I ahead

Daylight Saving Time (DST) rules changed in 2007 for the first time in more than 20 years. ...

...Your radio controlled clock should automatically implement the DST rules. The WWVB broadcast contains information that tells your clock whether DST or ST is currently in effect... [However,] Some clocks have the old date rule programmed in and do not use the part of the time code which designates whether or not Daylight Saving Time is in effect. These clocks will switch on the wrong date. The time zone or DST ON/OFF function might need to be switched temporarily so the the clock shows the correct hour for the period between the transition dates according to the old rules and the new rules.

...There are a large number of non-radio controlled clocks, marketed under names like "AUTOSET" or "SMARTSET" that have internal firmware that automatically changes the time by one hour on the transition days to and from DST. These clocks do not connect to a NIST time service, and some of them will no longer work properly due to the DST rule change. For example, clocks manufactured prior to the rule change will probably not switch to DST in March, but will wait until April in accordance with the old rule....

What is Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight Saving Time, or DST, is the period of the year when clocks are moved one hour ahead. In the United States, this has the effect of creating more sunlit hours in the evening during months when the weather is the warmest. We advance our clocks ahead one hour at the beginning of DST, and move them back one hour ("spring forward, fall back") when we return to Standard Time (ST). The transition from ST to DST has the effect of moving one hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. The transition from DST to ST effectively moves one hour of daylight from the evening to the morning.

DST was formally introduced in the United States in 1918. Today, most of the country and its territories observe DST. However, DST is not observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the state of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Indian Reservation, which does observe DST).

Daylight Saving Time and time zones are regulated by the U. S. Department of Transportation, not by NIST. However, as an official timekeeper for the United States, NIST observes all rules regarding DST when it distributes time-of-day information to the public.
http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/dst.cfm

Keeping Up With Blogs - Tips

from Richard's Blog Tips

Tip #1 - Use an aggregator

Blogs are much easier to read when using an aggregator, such as Bloglines or Google Reader. These free services allow you to read all of your feeds in one location (instead of having to visit each blog every day to find the new postings).

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Tip #2 - Read unrelated blogs
Subscribe to blogs that expose you to ideas that you would not normally be exposed to otherwise. If you're in Higher Education, subscribe to a k-12 blog. If you live in the US, subscribe to some Australian blogs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tip #3 - Be Skeptical

After signing up for a number of blogs I decided I didn't want to invest the time necessary to keep up with the additional reading. I went to delete my aggregator account but decided to read the entries that had come in first. I found several ideas that were so helpful that I decided not to delete the account at that time. I returned about two weeks later once again to delete the - the same thing happened. Now every time I login to read my blogs I decide that I will delete my account if I don't find anything useful that day. I would invite you to do the same. 6 years later I still have my account.

Librarians are important to student success

Young Learners Need Librarians, Not Just Google The ubiquity and ease of Google searches could make kids' minds go soft without the ability to critique or contextualize the answers.
from Forbes by Mark Moran

Johnny Appleseed Day

When : March 11th and/or September 26th (birthday).

Which day should it be? His birth date is undisputed. His birthday coincides with the season of the apple harvest. A birth is a more positive day than a death. The birthday seems like a more logical day to celebrate. But,....

Celebrate today with an apple rich menu. Include fresh apples for snacks, and some applesauce or apple pie for dessert. And, make plans to plant an apple tree.

A Little Red Apple

A little red apple

Hung high in a tree.

I looked up at it,

And it looked down at me.

"Come down, please," I called.

And what do you suppose?

That little red apple

Dropped right on my nose!

Johnny Appleseed Day honors one of America's great legends. John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) was born in Massachusetts on September 26, 1774 (this date is undisputed).  John Chapman was among the American settlers who were captivated by the movement west across the continent. (The "West" was places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.) He was a nurseryman (was apprenticed in an orchard) and as Johnny Appleseed travelled west, he planted apple trees along the way, and sold trees to settlers (though he rarely accepted money and often donated any money he received). With every apple tree that was planted, the legend grew. John Chapman was a deeply religious person. He was known to preach during his travels. According to legend, Johny Appleseed led a simple life and wanted little. 



The actual date of his death was not formally recorded and the date is disputed. It is believed that he died on March 11, 1845, from what was referred to as the "winter plague".  Harper's New Monthly Magazine of November, 1871 (which is taken by many as the primary source of information about John Chapman) says he died in the summer of 1847.[8] The Fort Wayne Sentinel, however, printed his obituary on March 22, 1845, saying that he died on March 18.

 

Johnny Appleseed Word Search

Johnny Appleseed Crossword

Apple Tic-Tac-Toe Page

Apple Tree Coloring Page

Apple Facts

Apple Crafts

Apple Activities

Ohio Pioneer Apple Cake

Johnny Appleseed Festival 

Johnny Appleseed Heritage Center

Apples General Information and Links