An April Wedding

Today I was lucky enough to witness the beautiful ceremony of Anthony Nunzio and Valentina Vitale. It was Tony n' Tina's Wedding. One of the girls I work with, Lisa, had access to free tickets and asked me to go with her. I couldn't resist! I have now seen this audience-interactive play once before but it was a smaller venue. That one was funny and this one (which had approximately 520 spectators!) was as good if not better! Read below for a complete list of characters. (click on the program for easier viewing)

Every character was perfectly suited to each actor. The whole concept is that they all mingle with the audience and talk to everyone as if they have known you forever. The bride's mother is a widower and the groom's father has never been married. So he brings a girlfriend to the big event. The maid of honor is very pregnant, the brides brother is gay and has a relationship going with the videographer, the caterers have a daughter that works with them and buses table whilst trying to hide her bag of "pot"! It actually showed up on our table for awhile. We tried to hide it from her but she had her eye on it and managed to get it back!

Meanwhile, the Father is drinking himself into oblivion, the bride and groom end up fighting during the reception and the bride's ex-boyfriend has arrived and is sorely depressed about the entire celebration! The groom's father is calling the bride's mother names, the bride's aunt, who is a nun, has recently joined the convent and is trying to act proper. However, the caterers daughter, whom has dressed herself in the look of goth, has persuaded her to wear some makeup in hopes that it will make her come out of her shell, if you will! I told her that she should just take off her habit and relax. She wouldn't. During this entire evening, the characters are roaming around and finding audience members to dance. I myself was asked by the videographer to show him how to line dance. Very interesting to say the least! At one point while dancing, one of the bridesmaids, whom was dancing on my right side, told me not to listen to anything the nun told me because it was all lies! At the same time, the nun, whom was dancing on my left side, told me that the bridesmaid was a slut and she was full of lies as well! I was laughing so hard!
Throughout the entire wedding and reception, we were served a salad, chicken Parmesan over a bed of pasta, and fried zucchini with a dinner roll. Dessert was obviously, wedding cake! We were each given a half-glass of champagne for the toast to the couple as well.

Rose Domenico, Aunt of the bride, saying hi to some people at my table. Rose

Father Mark

The wedding ceremony.

Father Mark, performing the ceremony. Notice the very pregnant maid of honor? And all the bridesmaids are carrying plastic bouquets of flowers...each a different color!

The lighting of the unity light bulb, courtesy of Council Bluffs electric company! On the bottom left, the man wearing a hat is the wedding photographer, Sal Antonucci.

Wedding party group photo.

Donny Dulce, the wedding singer.

Donny Dulce

Donny....again.

Line dancing...

I'm out on the floor (orange shirt) giving it a try. Rich DeMarco (in the snakeskin dinner jacket) wanted me to show him how to line dance!

The groom's father on the right, Anthony Nunzio, Sr.

Sister Maria, the videographer, Rich Demarco (whom happens to be gay!) and the bride's gay brother, Joseph Vitale.

I'm barely showing up in the photo...

My back to the camera.

Several cast members along with a couple of people from the audience doing the YMCA dance.

Tony n' Tina dancing.

Sister Albert Maria, cousin of the bride and Madeline Monroe, girlfriend of the grooms' father. The Sister is getting into the spirit. Her dress is going higher and she now has makeup on!

Sister Maria showing off the new facial makeup that Madeline applied for her in hopes that she will have a little more confidence!

Nikki Black, daughter of the caterer.

If you haven't witnessed this chaotic comedy, you're missing out on great entertainment! Hilarious would be another perfect verb to describe the off-broadway hit, Tony n' Tina's Wedding.

An Evening At "Uncle Phil's Diner"

Last week I was invited by a gal that I work with, Patti, to attend a function at her church, which was last night.

Westside Church in Omaha was host to a wonderful rendition of Uncle Phil's Diner. It was an interactive dinner theater set back in the 1950's; a fun-filled 2 hours of entertainment complete with a full meal (see menu below), singing of memorable songs from the '50's era, dancing anywhere you looked, games and acting amongst the audience; including a few unsuspecting volunteers from random tables. (Click on the menu to read it better)

The room was decorated with vinyl records both real and paper, some of which were on each table as part of the centerpiece. There were diner tables and chairs....remember the stools that had red vinyl seats and chrome legs? All the actors were dressed in the appropriate attire to match the character they played. Poodle skirts, high-water pants, large rimmed glasses with black frames and tape over the bridge piece, rolled up sleeves on t-shirts with Lucky Strike cigarettes in the pockets, bee hive hairdos, slicked back hair with the duck tail look in the back, etc. Everywhere your eyes looked was something else that made you feel as though you were watching an episode of Happy Days.

The main story is that the diner has hired a band to play live music. Throughout the course of the show, the phone in the diner rings several times . Uncle Phil always answers the calls. It's ultimately the band calling to say they have gotten lost en route to the diner. So at this particular show, they were ending up at different towns near Omaha. For instance; Gretna, Lincoln, Mead and Grand Island. So in between calls, while waiting for the entertainment to show up, the diner employees are always coming up with different things for the patrons to do to keep them busy and happy. I.E. ...games. One such game was "This is your life." Another was bingo. They also had singing by each of the employees of the diner. They all had superb voices and sang such songs as Johnny Be Good, Splish Splash, Born to Hand Jive and Tammy, just to name a few.

After all the phone calls of being lost, Uncle Phil finally decides that it's getting too late for the band to even bother....even if they do find the place! Flodene remembers that the kitchen staff practices each night after closing. "Why don't we have them come out and play?", she says. So Uncle Phil agrees. They introduced the staff as "The Kitchen Band" which sounded very good!

The main stage of Uncle Phil's Diner

At my table sat Bill from California who flew in to surprise his friend Gloria, one of the actresses, here as LaVonna

The centerpiece at my table. It's simple yet clever!

Daniel, also at my table from Westside Church. He dressed up!
Gertie, one of the main characters
Wally, another main character
The "Kitchen Band". They had to fill in at the last minute for the band that had been booked and got lost looking for the diner!

Gertie dancing and singing "Splish Splash" (see the little bubbles in the air?)
Bubble gum bubble blowing contest of audience members
Wally is trying to win over the heart of Gertie


Flodene, another main character
They played "This is Your Life" with Bill from my table while waiting for the band to show up!

Bill's friend Gloria in character as his dentist from years back.
Uncle Phil making sure that Daniel knew he can't smoke (his fake cigarette!) in the diner, with Tony (a diner employee) looking on.

This was a very fun evening. I especially enjoyed the dessert. They had 3 kinds of pies, fruit, 3 kinds of cookies, chocolate cake, german chocolate cake and cream puffs. You could load up as much as you wanted to eat! Very tasteful. All the food from the menu was catered by one of our local grocery stores, Hy-Vee. I recommend to anyone that has a chance to see these types of shows, to attend if at all possible. If you enjoy music, this is something that would put a smile on your face!

Now You See Them, Now You Don't!

Yesterday, I had one of my co-workers come over with his super duty pickup and a couple of chains. The job? Remove the bushes and a tree, of sorts, from the front of my porch. Why remove all of them? I'm glad you asked.
One of my next projects ( I know, I never have anything in the works!), is an outdoor improvement project. I am going to have a landscape company, Jay Moore Landscaping, beautify my front yard. I would like my porch to show from the street. Plus I don't really like having a place for potential intruders to hide whilst peering into my floor-to-ceiling windows!

I might remind you that I planned on moving on to the outside and give myself a break from the inside of the house. I thought I would be having a new deck built before this work began. However, the weather hasn't exactly been cooperative of late. It was far to cold and wet from all the rain we've been getting. Coupled with that, my builders have other things going on over the next couple of weeks so the deck project is on the back burner for now.
But the last couple of days have been a vast improvement. With temperatures in the upper 60's and 70's, I was able to get out into the yard. That being said, Kurt, along with the aide of his 5 year old, Hunter, arrived with chains and we began the not-so-easy job of removing landscape items. A total of 1 tree and 3 bushes were coming out. Well, that was the plan anyway.
First, I'll show you just which bushes I'm referring to. See below.

Ugly bushes that cover my little porch.
Ugly tree serving virtually no purpose.

We managed to get the ugly tree out without much of a struggle. Then we moved on to the bushes. The first one was a little stubborn but we persevered. We got to the bush right in the center and had a bit more difficulty. Long story short, a small portion of the bush is still, well, standing?, or maybe laying, I guess. Anyway, we'll get back to that bush another day with a different tool. With any luck, it will be tomorrow. Only if the weather holds. It's been raining here since 5 AM., and it's not supposed to quit until mid-day tomorrow. But we did get the last bush out without further delay.

If you recall this from last summer, this project actually started soon after I moved in. All the rest of this work will be the finishing touch. I will be raking all the little rocks together and getting them out as well. We took all the landscape edging out and made a small pile on my driveway. Kurt will take the trash to a dump for me in his pickup when we get the last of the bushes removed.

I would have let the landscape professionals do the removal. However, I'm saving myself roughly $300 by doing it myself! 'Nuf said!

The debris.
The holes and mud left behind mixed with rocks.
See the lone little bush?

Here is where the tree stood.

The finishing touches won't be done for about a week or so. There will be new plants, new mulch, more top soil, new edging and river rock to top it off. This will be the look in front of my house until Jay Moore and company arrive to make it inviting! Stay tuned!

Sheesh!

A Perfect Match!

I finally found one! The search for a shower curtain to go in the bathroom I just painted; to go with the hard-to-match colors that I originally thought to be more blue; to go in the bathroom that I thought would never get done! I actually found one!

I searched at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Linens 'N Things, JC Penney and finally Kohl's. Here is the one I found.



It's called Shimmer Purple. Next week I'll go back and pick up a couple of the accessories that match that as well. The best part was that all of the bathroom items were on sale for 50% off. So it was better than this particular ad shows.

There was actually one that I found at Linens 'N Things. However, after I brought it home alongside the curtain from Kohl's, there was no contest. It had a lot of gold tones in it. But looking at it with all the brushed nickel accents made my decision very easy. Especially after seeing the 2ND one from Kohl's next to the walls of um, well, purple!

I thought that I wasn't going to find anything. There truly wasn't a very big selection that had the right shade of purple/blue. So I feel good about having found the one I did. I'm pretty sure it was fate. After all, it was the last one on the shelf!

Now tell me, which style do you prefer? This one or the one as seen above?

Youth With Too Much Power

I receive, from my home town church back in N.D., the newsletter that is mailed out each month. In it this time was a very cute short story. I felt compelled to include it in my blog for you. It really gives you something to ponder.
In today's society, our children have more power than they should. Threatening their own parents, who try to discipline them, by simply saying they will call Social Services, is one example. There is a terrible lack of respect by the youngsters we see now. It seems they get to do anything they want to. I'm appalled, sometimes, by how parents think that by just scolding their children verbally is enough. When I grew up, (my siblings can attest to this!) a good strong wooden spoon on the backside definitely made you remember not to misbehave. Sometimes it took more than one occasion to get it into our brains! ;) But it is a memory to this day. I wish today's parents would use the same type of discipline on their own children. It would surely make a difference on how they behave!
Here is the excerpt.

Different Drug Problem
---------------------------
The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a Methamphetamine Lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county. So he asked me a rhetorical question, "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"
I replied, "I had a "drug" problem when I was young. I was "drug" to church on Sunday morning. I was "drug" to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was "drug" by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also "drug" to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me. I was "drug" to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was "drug" out to pull weeds in Mom's garden and flowerbeds and cockle burs out of Dad's fields. I was "drug" to the homes of family, friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood, and, if my Mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have "drug" me back to the woodshed."

Those "drugs" are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroine; and, if today's children had this kind of "drug" problem, we might all be better off.

God bless the parents who "drugged" us!

Author unknown

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