The wurster, the better

We went to my nephew Andrew’s graduation party on Sunday. I had a great time and got a chance to see some of our neighbors whom I haven’t seen in 20 or more years. They were really my brothers friends (Howe, Dennis and Cindy). They looked somewhat the same except with a little aging on top. It was nice to see them again. I only wished my Mom was well enough to come and see them.

Dee the puppy was there and kept all the children happy and occupied, as well as the older children and adults. Kids and puppies seem to fit like pbnj.

Here is the link to the pictures I took.

Tabitha and Luke got there after spending the morning in Manayunk watching the bicycle races. And they didn’t get lost (this time because I had the right directions this time). Donna was there and shared stories of her trip to China. They were fascinating.

The graduate (Andrew) will be heading to Bonaroo in Tennessee in a few weeks and then moving on out to Santa Clara where he begins working with Cisco. Now we will have a super network technical support person in the family we can all ask questions of for help.

Alicia had a good time but was pretty quiet. Alicia “you’re beautiful, it’s true”.

When we got home after 9:00, I was surprised to see the Doo-Wop special program on PBS for the fundraiser. It was pretty cool to hear and remember those songs of the 50′s and 60′s. They were great songs.

It’s our local PBS stations membership drive. At this time they have a lot of interesting programs to attract viewers like you. I watched a couple of the weekend. One was about the British music invasion on the 1960s. I was singing along to songs like “Ferry cross the Mercy”, “Do wa didi didi”, “A lighter shade of pale”, “Downtown”, and so on. It was fun. I made a list of some of the British groups:

• Manfred Mann
• Gerry and the Pacemakers
• Eric Burden and the Animals
• Peter and Gordon
• Chad and Jeremy
• Lulu
• Tom Jones
• Dusty Springfield
• The Hollies
• Procol Harum
• The Moody Blues
• Herman’s Hermits
• The Seekers
• The Troggs
• The Zombies
• Petula Clark
• The Mindbenders
• The Kinks
• The Easybeats
• Donovan
• The Spencer Davis Group

Also on was a concert by Loreena McKennitt called Nights from The Alhambra. I wanted to see this since I won’t be able to see her when she comes to the Academy of Music in April. It’s hard to describe her and her works. Let’s just say that it’s Celtic music with blending of music from the middle east and other countries. She has found many connections between different country’s music and her stories of her travels and research are amazing.

My interests in music run the gammit from what my youngest daughter listens to (Disney Radio) to what my oldest daughter listens to (The Decembrists) and everything in between. I really should update my music list page I have on this site. I grew up in the 60′s, the time of Flower Power. The radio station I listen to and support (WXPN) has introduced me to a lot of new music. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon a band called Leaves Eyes, but I did. They are a Gothic band from Europe. Maybe I liked the lead singer’s voice which reminded me of Annie Haslam of Renaissance and Amy Lee of Evanescence. You should check them out.

I just got a link to Yorick I assume from a member of the Leaves Eyes mailing list. In any case, they are Gothic but yet the lead singer sings jazz. Check it out.

The concert was really great. However, I don’t think Maria shared my enthusiasm. I think I got into it as the rest of the crowd did, standing through the entire show. Most of the audience was my daughter’s age (22) and older because a lot of people were drinking which is something I still haven’t gotten used to at concerts.

Everybody was really into the songs and rocking along. I wondered what I had in common with them because of the same taste in music. I thought my daughter and I are very much alike in many ways (not all good). I realized how very different my wife’s likes and dislikes are from mine.

One comical thing I noticed was how the young women dressed. This young woman in front of me had on the hip-hugger jeans that rode down every time she stood up exposing her underwear (thong-style) with her pulling up her jeans. What is a person to think when they see that? What should the person who is wearing those clothes think? I try not to think too much but just accept what that generation does and try very much to understand it. After all, they are what we will be leaving our world to.

My sister-in-law and I were talking before my wife and I went to the concert. We were catching up on things and she wanted to know about how things were going with Alicia. I started to tell her about our quest for a lawyer to help us get our wills set up, get a special needs trust set up and get power of attorney for our daughter. Jeannie asked about how Alicia would be taken care of as she gets older, especially after Maria and I are gone. In my heart, I knew that the steps we were taking would take care of Alicia, but I couldn’t explain it well to Jeannie. So, I will have to be more attentive to the attorney and to DELARC which will play a part in all of this.

As it turned out (with many thanks to my sister-in-law), we will be able to see Death Cab for Cutie tonight at the Tower. We appreciate the opportunity to get out. Thank you.

It looks like our daughter will be going to music therapy each week now. And another round of a 10-day intensive tomatis therapy will begin in a week or so. And our psychiatrist recommended a procedure for our daughter which we will look into. She has been getting better but slowly in some of her actions and behaviors and still remains pretty withdrawn and un-talkative.

She does react well to atypical communications. That is, she reacts well to silliness, loud talking, laughing, singing, along with certain types of physical prompts (jumping up and down, shaking her hand and arm, etc.).

After reading the latest ZDNet News I get every day, I decided to download and install 2 antivirus type programs. One was called RemoveIt Pro XT2c-SE and the other was Microsoft’s Windows Defender. They both installed easily. I ran them both and each found different things. RemoveIt for Win32.Trojan.Zlob.lj virus and Sys32.kwv2 virus. I fixed them. Defender found Bearshare and WhenU.SaveNow and I removed them.

My theory is you can never have too many detection programs. I use McAfee, Ad-Aware SE Professional, Spybot, Spyware Blaster and now these two new programs.