What A Character!

When you go to Disney World, you will probably have a chance to meet a couple of the characters out on the street. There are also a couple of places where they have character greetings setup, but that usually requires standing in a very long line for a very long time to get to see three characters. Well, when you have a magic Give Kids The World button and a red Disney Guest Assistance pass, your chances greatly increase and the waiting completely disappears. I've repeated a couple pics here from yesterday's post, but I wanted you to see whole collection. Most of these were at Disney World, but a few were very special visits we received at the Give Kids The World Village. Here they are, in no particular order:

Minnie and Mickey (at GKTW Village)

Belle (at GKTW Village)

Santa (at GKTW Village)
Baby Bop, Barney, & B.J. (at GKTW Village)
Quincy

AnnieLeo and Annie

Handy Manny Give Kids The World's Mayor Clayton - visiting our villa at bedtime

Mary Clayton (the Mayor's Wife)

Pluto (at WDW)

Pluto (at GKTW Village) Stitch
WALL.E

(okay, not exactly a character, but a very good two-dimensional representation)
Jo Jo and Goliath Goofy

Pleakley Donald

and of course, Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible

WOW.

Make-A-Wish

WOW. Yes, it was incredible.

Wow.

Monday, June 30, 2008

We weren't sure what this was when it pulled up, but driver Dave took good care of us.

One excited family.

Julie and I in the back of our Limo "Bus"

Ready to board.
Meeting the Captain
Andy and James in the Cockpit
WOW.

Our villa and car at Give Kids The World Village

Andy and James meet a statue of Mayor Clayton

One of Andy's true highlights of the trip was riding this big horse on Wednesday morning at Give Kids The World Village.

Tuesday morning at Disney's Magic Kindom, this was our first time being in the special line that bypassed a hundred or so people to get into an attraction first (this one was the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor). It was an awesome way to get around the Disney parks, and we understood how special and priveleged it was every time--very humbling, yet, very cool.

Here I met my all-time favorite Disney character, Goofy.

James met his favorite Disney Character, Stitch.

Okay, it's not Disney, but Julie met her favorite cartoon character, Barney.

And then, of course, Andy and all of us got to meet everyone's favorite Disney characters.

So, here's the thing. . . . . Julie, James and I each had cameras, and each took a hundred pictures or so, so we have a LOT more we can show you of this incredible week. There's even more to tell you, and I'll try to get a little more of the story out over the next few days.

One Day 'Til The Big Trip

Tomorrow, we start a six day Make-A-Wish trip to Orlando, Florida, for Andy (but we all get to go)! But that's tomorrow......today, it was baseball at the Kalamazoo Kings. Today was the first Kid's Club day where kids that are registered can get in an hour early and spend about a half hour with some of the players learning how to throw, field, and run. Andy and James are both in it this year, and they were able to team up on some of the drills.

Here are all the kids for today.

Learning to throw. Learning to run.
Learning to field grounders.
Playing catch.
And after that, the game. . . . . . where Andy figured out a way to keep his ball from getting lost.

(Check his hat very closely.)

We left in the bottom of the seventh, with the Kings up 16-3. It was a great game and a great day, and a great way to start a great week. I'll try to post some pics from Orlando. We'll be staying at Give Kids The World Village for the five nights, which could be an extreme vacation on its own (check out http://www.gktw.org/ ), but we get a three-day pass to Disney World, a two-day pass to Universal Studios, and a one-day pass to Sea World! Six days of excitement to squeeze into four days. It will be .......let me see, what's the word.........GREAT!

What's all this about a new shell?

Here is a picture of the new "full" shell at Chenery Auditorium, where I work. Its installation was accepted as complete on Wednesday, April 9. We invited the WMU orchestra in to test the sound. We also tested it with the Kalamazoo Singers, a 40-voice adult choir, in the "intermediate"--or two-thirds--setup, and had a violin soloist, a cello soloist, and a piano soloist also try out the "short" shell.
What's the big deal? What's the difference? Well, the bigest difference is in the sound, but even the look is impressive. The picture on the left is the old "full" shell (meaning full stage size). On the right is the new shell set up in the modified "short" shell, which has been chosen as the appropriate setup for a solo piano.

The biggest difference you can see is the height of the new one--it is nine feet taller than the old one, and really makes the stage feel more like part of the room than the shorter one does. What you can't see from the pictures is that the new shell is about three time the weight of the old one, with walls 2-1/2 inches thick, compared to the old one with walls just 1/4 inch thick. The back wall of the new shell weighs over 9,000 pounds, compared to 2,800 pounds of the old one.

The weight and density provide noticeably greater reflection of sound over the entire spectum, but especially of the bass range. The fewer, wider curves of the new walls and ceiling also reduce multiple reflections, and therefore make the sound crisper and more intelligible.

Tomorrow (4/12) will be the first public perfomance in the new shell, being debuted by the Kalamazoo Concert Band.

Isn't this just so exciting?

Need: Prayer For A Friend

I learned today that a friend and business associate of mine, Kevin Brown, was seriously injured yesterday (Monday) while painting his loft apartment. Kevin owns a commercial recording studio in town and has made numerous live recordings at Chenery Auditorium for both local and national artists. He is also a strong Christian and often serves as a worship leader at Kalamazoo Community Church. This is the report on Kevin:

Kevin was seriously hurt Monday afternoon while he and his wife Debbie were painting inside their apartment. He was standing on top of a platform approximately 9 feet high when somehow he lost his footing and fell onto the concrete floor.

Debbie immediately called 911 and within moments he was in the hands of professionals both in the ambulance and at Bronson Hospital. We would soon learn that he had sustained multiple injuries: a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain (hematoma), broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

Because of the severity of his injuries, Kevin was put into a coma-like state as well as on a ventilator. Later in the evening, doctors removed the fractured areas of his skull as well as successfully stopping the bleeding (in 3 different areas of his brain).

The next few weeks will be critical as doctors monitor the swelling in his brain, hoping that more surgery can be avoided. The situation is indeed grave.

The Brown family has created a CaringBridge site at: caringbridge.org/visit/kevinbrown if you would like more information or would care to write a note of encouragement to Debbie.
-Ray

Wow, am I good at blogging, or what? Oh, I'm supposed to write something now and then? What can I say? Life has been busy. After I got home from Phoenix, March seemed to fly by. The first half of March was busy with auditorium programs, especially due to the Kalamazoo Symphony's week of Youth Concerts for school kids.

On March 15, we had a "classical" concert of Bach music--all by about 200 elementary students. Different school groups did different things; some sang, some danced, some beat on PVC pipes cut to tuned lengths with thong sandals. What was really fun about this was that James was in it with a group of other 5th graders from his school, and they played a Bach tune on recorders. All the students wore white shirts with black pants and long white socks, with the pants rolled up to just below the knee to look like knickers, and to top it off (literally), they all wore white wigs. If I was a good, experienced blogger, or even a normal dad, I'd be showing you a picture of James all dressed up like Bach. Oh, well.

The next day, March 16, we had an afternoon choral concert. Immediately after the concert, we tore apart (okay, "dismantled") our old acoustical shell (old as in, installed in 1992). We're replacing it with one bigger and better, and of course, much more expensive. This, along with air conditioning the auditorium for the first time, is the first phase of a $7.4 million renovation that will continue through this year. So, the last three weeks have been tied up with contractors installing the new shell. They are still working on it, and it should be complete by Monday morning (4/7). Its first use will be Saturday, 4/12.

Right now I need to get to James' school conference. See you later.