Thursday, March 16, 2006

An offer you cant refuse


An offer you can’t refuse.

Several years ago, I subscribed to Audible.Com. I discovered several years ago that I didn’t like to read fiction. However, listening to novels while I exercise or while I’m driving is another story altogether.

Recently, I downloaded The Godfather Returns. The unabridged version has over twenty-one hours of listening. The story chronicles the “missing” periods from the Godfather novel and movies. I’m still not through the book, but I absolutely love it. It details what happens after the death of the heads of the five families at the end of Godfather I through the start of Godfather II and the death of Carmella Corleone.

One thing I found really interesting was the back story on Fredo Corleone. It really goes into much greater detail on why Fredo betrayed Michael and why Fredo was so tortured. The revelation that Fredo was gay was a bit of a surprise, though.

There’s more back story on Tom Hagan and his brief tenure in the U.S. House. There’s back story on how Pete Clemenza died. Johnny Fonataine (AKA “Frank Sinatra”) is better explored and we are introduced to the Shea family. Shea was an Irish ambassador who worked with Corleone as a bootlegger and was set on making his war hero son president. Sound like Massachusetts family? There was follow-up on Sonny Corleone’s twin daughters. Some of the most interesting back story though is the story of young Michael and the family before 1946. I just started listening to that part and really can’t say much.

The book itself is not really written very imaginatively. In fact, it is almost written in a boring way. But the story is great!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

"I caught you a delicious bass."


“I caught you a delicious bass.”

This is one of my favorite lines from Napoleon Dynamite. I need to take time to reflect on Napoleon Dynamite sometime. I absolutely love this movie.

The point of this posting is my gradual reacquaintance with fishing. I used to go fishing a lot with my grandmother and great-aunt. We used a lot of live bait (like crickets and worms) and caught a lot of bluegill and crappie.

As I grew older, got busier, I lost time for fishing. Recently, my father-in-law started inviting me to fish on his farm. Last summer, we caught some catfish. This was my first attempt at stream fishing. Today, he took me fishing at one of his ponds and I caught my first bass. The first one I caught today was a pretty good size fish. It was a nice fight, but clearly stacked in my favor. I caught several other, much smaller fish and released them. I had a really nice time.


What I discovered last year, and today, was that the worst day of fishing is typically better than the best day of just about anything else. I really like standing near the water, casting, hearing birds (and cows on the farm) and enjoying nature. Honestly, I could do that for an afternoon without catching a single thing.

So, I have my two bass filets in my freezer and a great day of relaxation.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

My day as a model


My day as a model.

Last week, a company we work with notified us that they wished to profile us in their upcoming annual report. As part of the profile, they decided that they wanted a picture of one of the library staff. Since the Director and Assistant Director were out of town, I got the job. What I discovered was that the company intended on sending a professional photographer from Cleveland. He would fly in during the morning, take the pictures, and then fly out when the job was done. I was surprised that they were willing to send someone this far, and with this sort of expense just to take my picture. Now I guess I understand how our business partner spends money! Rather than having the photographer come all the way to our office, and having nothing much more impressive than a traditional Board Room or my office, I asked if he would want to meet at one of our libraries near the airport.

When he arrived, we decided on a few places that might serve as a good back drop. He took pictures of me surrounded by books, holding books, and standing in the book stacks. He started snapping and snapping. And then snapping some more. Before I knew it, he told me that he had taken over 100 shots. It was sort of fun, but really very boring after the first hour. I know this is nothing like being a real model, but I think that the “hard work” that models talk about is mostly a combat against boredom. I spent the rest of my day investigating the construction on our Platte City location, meeting with one of our trustees, and scouting greenspace for new libraries. This really is more to my liking and more my speed.

The photographer promised to send copies of the useful images to me. I’ll post them online sometime.