North Mississippi Allstars, More School Awards

First, the show last night at the Handlebar was really fun. Man, those NMA have some kind of energy. They came out with two of my favorites back to back: "Ship Comes In" and "Stompin" . It was like I requested them or something :-) They played a solid 2 hours of straight up hill country boogie. I felt like I got my money's worth at the end of the show and then some. My neighbor, Barry Batson and I had a blast and enjoying talking about music all night. Our wifes are glad that we are neighbors so we can go without them and not make them listen to what Tricia sometimes describes as "that loud guitar noise". It was that! My recording using the hypercardioids turned out really good and I hope to have it posted before we head out to Dupont State Forest for some camping and hiking with the boys tomorrow afternoon.

Today was also the awards day at Crestview for 1st grade. So, Dylan got to receive and Tricia was able to award all the soon-to-be second graders in her class for a job well done.

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Here's another You Tube video from the awards, this one shows Dylan getting a little overzealous with receiving his certificate from Mrs. Young. He got it right with some guidance and then showed how proud he was of his certificate. The 1st grader teachers did it right and did the year end awards with the 4th quarter awards. That way, I didn't get confused and try to leave early again.

By the way, if you don't like the video streaming quality of these embedded videos, you can click on the image and go to YouTube to watch in higher quality.

Another softball game tonight, this one was a lot shorter but Miles and Dylan did get to see me bat and field for a little while tonight. Dylan was impressed with my uniform as usual. Miles wanted to know the score every 5 minutes. Somethings never change!

Well, time for bed. We reserved a camping site near Dupont State Forest in North Carolina for tomorrow and plan to check out some short hikes and waterfalls while we are up in the hills. Only 3 more 1/2 days of school to go!

See ya!

Thursday with Miles and the NMA

Tons of things going on today. On top of work being at hyper speed due to the MUSE conference, Miles and Dylan have award ceremonies at school and the North Mississippi Allstars are in town.

Here's some video from Crestview showing Miles getting his 4th quarter awards. Silly me, I thought that was the end and left to go back to work. I was later informed that was just for the quarter and the end of the year awards followed. Not the most organized ceremony but it was fun while I was there and Miles was glad to see me. Stay tuned for Dylan's tomorrow.





Here's my gallery from the North Mississippi Allstars at The Bohemian for their free show before their Handlebar set tonight.

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Mocha Club

I started a Mocha Club team this past weekend and you may have received an email from me about it. It's a cool way to give up just a small amount of money ($7, the cost of 2 Mochas or 1 big one at Starbucks) each month to help African projects. My team project work will be towards HIV/AIDS recovery and prevention in Africa. A friend of mine told me about a musician who talked about the club in his show. It's something we can all do and the sacrifice is so small compared to what that money can do in Africa in the right hands. So, if you got an email from me, open it and thanks for joining me on the team.

Speaking of team, our softball team had a late game last night, started at 930pm. We played a great game but lost 22-21. Yes, that's how church softball scores l@@k. I had a couple of hits and scored but the most fun for me was playing catcher. I didn't do too bad but the funniest moment was when a player hit a pop fly and it almost hit me and the ump in the head as we both stood there. We both thought it had gone behind the backstop. It had to look funny to the crowd. But, it wasn't as funny as a certain youth minister we all know plowing over first base and tumbling down the line (and he was out). We had a lot of fun last night even if we didn't win. The other team has evidently struggled as much as we have in this league of big power-hitting teams because at the end of the game, one of the other players said "we should play ya'll every night!". I couldn't have agreed more. It was the first game that I have played in all season that didn't get called because of the score. You can figure out the rest :-)

Only a few more days of school for the family. Miles and Dylan will be out after next Wednesday at 12pm. My sister, Amy, will be here in Greenville taking her RN boards and plans to take the boys back to Sumter after they are done. That will give Tricia and I some time to recover and celebrate the end of the school year. On a school note... Keller is doing so good in training. I think he has "Down" pretty good, as long as he knows you have a treat and he is making great progress with "Stay". Shadow still doesn't see the big deal...

See ya!

We Can't Complain

We owe them our honor and respect today and every day.

Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom Losses

Just an update on the ice cream

No ice cream party tonight as Tricia is still feeling zapped from her illness this week. We decided to postpone until later this summer. I did yard work and washed Keller. We are headed back for another lesson at doggie school tomorrow afternoon and he needed a bath. He is growing so fast. I plan to take some pictures tomorrow to post. Ok, hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend. Remember to take just a minute to remember those who gave it all on the battlefield for our freedom. We all take it for granted too easily these days.

See ya!

How Cool is That?

I want to write about a few cool things in my life that have put a big smile on my face:

1. Dylan got to run on the field with the Greenville Drive last night as part of the end of the season banquet. Although the Drive lost to the Charleston Riverdogs, we had a lot of fun on Family night. We even ran into Brian and Kelly, who had great seats right behind home plate (see pictures).

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Here's the video on Youtube of Dylan running on the field:


2. Our Keurig one cup coffee maker. The boys and I got Tricia a one cup coffee maker for Mother's Day. I got it for her because she likes to drink a cup or tea or decaf or regular coffee (just anything not cold) at night. She was wasting more than she was drinking at night; so, a one cup seemed like a great idea. She loves it and I do too. It's great for a quick cup when you are on the run or only want 1 cup. It's easy and no mess. Miles' orthodontist had one in his office so I kinda had an idea but this is really cool!

3. Ice Cream. We stopped for Cold Stone Creamery last night on the way home and I think we found a new place to get ice cream. We had overlooked this place (right next to Target and Panera on Wade Hampton) since moving here. We started looking for Marble Slab or Cold Stone via the GPS on the way home from the Drive game and viola- there is was right on the way home. Now, we will be tempted by Dillard's (still my favorite), Brewster's and Cold Stone Creamery. Speaking of ice cream, we are having some friends over tonight for ice cream and Trivial Pursuit fun. I can eat ice cream everyday and that's what makes life so COOL!

See ya!

Fishin' in Sparkleberry

Today marks 1 year since my Dad, Cecil Heyward Johnson, Jr, departed this life. My favorite memories of childhood and teenage years are of fishin' in Sparkleberry Swamp with my Dad and brother or sisters or just me and Dad. I made a video for him of a fishing trip with some good music soundtrack after he could no longer get in a boat due to poor health. He told me it meant a great deal to him and we had a blast watching and listening to it.

Here's a link: Sparkleberry Swamp

I enjoyed watching it again today. Thank you Dad for those memories and for teaching me about the swamp, the farm, trees and everything else. We all miss you. I thought about you today when I was walking with Keller. I remembered how much we laughed when I called you from Giants Stadium on Father's Day in 1991. I was at a Grateful Dead/Little Feat concert and had been on the road for a few weeks with the Dead. I said "Happy Birthday Dad" when he answered. Of course, it was Father's Day. He understood and was glad to hear I was alive and doing mighty fine thank you very much...

The reason I thought about that incident was I was thinking about what I would say to him today and I immediately thought "Happy Birthday Dad". It seemed kinda funny until I thought more about it and walked on down the road with Keller. Your death is like a birth, the way out is the way in. So, Happy Birthday Dad!

Here's the tune we played when we put Dad's ashes in the ground. It's Sierra Leone from Derek Trucks Band 3rd CD. It always reminds me of 2 worlds: the hot and dry dirt roads of the South and Africa and at the same time, some other perfect place of peace.

Derek was gracious enough to play this for me in Charlotte the week my Dad passed. They never play this tune and I haven't heard it since.
It was in the Rastaman Chant instrumental that started the 2nd set: 5-26-7dtb

See ya!

Cecil Heyward Johnson, Jr