Don't burst my Buble'

Do you SEE that hand?

It's not mine. I'm taking the picture. Those beautiful fingers belong to Rinney. Last night we had a night on the town, thanks to my hard work with the nursery school and our getting married March 10th. The man in the picture...

Michael Buble'

Here's how it all went down last night.

When the bank offered to bring me on full time, I had to announce to my class that I was going to retire and some of the parents wnated to get me a gift for being their teacher. They asked what kind of things I like to do, where I like to eat, the type of questions that are needed when getting a gift card for someone.

I talked to Rinney and she suggested I say Mancy's. I did, and after that I recieved two gift cards to Mancy's. That was back in February, so I held on to them for some type of special event.

While working at the bank back in early May the radio announced that tickets would go on sale for Michael Buble'. Rinney likes his style and presentation of music. I thought it would be a good use of some wedding money. When tickets went on sale I bought them. Around $200 for us to sit six rows from the back of the Stranahan Theatre. We had end seats, so at least it we were not going to be bottle necked into our seats.

The tickets arrived in the mail for the show and I could not wait. That was two months ago. Rinney and I planned it so I would not work and we could go out, and go out is what we did. It was a wonderful night.

I called Rinney when she got home and asked her where we should go to dinner, knowing I was already going to be using the gift cards from the families of the nursery school. I rushed home at 5:00 in the rain to get in and get ready. My mom mailed me a shirt so I unwrapped it and wore it out. Rinney wore her classic black and white dress. She curled her hair and we were on our way to dinner at Mancy's.

Dinner lasted for 90 minutes and was a wonderful time to be alone with each other. We even sat in the romantic section. Dinner involved house salads, a french onion soup for the mrs., and some delicious meats. Rinney decided on the 10 oz. Filet Mingon, and I went with the Tornedos Oscar.

We finished at precisely 7:30, and allowing for driving time, we arrived at the Stranahan at 8:02. We parked, be it illegally, and made our way into the theater. An usher took us to our seats and there we saw the warm-up act. A female artist who Rinney remembers from the song titled "Insensetive". She was funny, played well, and was gone as quick as she started.
A brief intermission and we were treated to some wonderful jazz and big band is music.

The man puts on a very good show. he sang wonderfully, the audience was into it, and he was funny. Being from Canada I was not really expecting humor, but he spoofed Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson. He threw out some Brokeback Mountain jokes...which we nothing special, but really funny to hear him make. He also was speaking of something which suprised him, prompting a "Mother F***er" to come out of him mouth. The *** were actually the letters ATH. He was funny and we enjoyed the whole show.

For the end of the show, people from the audience ran down the aisles and crowded the stage. Mr. Buble' was witty with this. He knows that the people in the front paid good money for their seats and all of the people in front of them were from the cheap seats, so he told those who paid good money to get up and shake their fannys. It was funny.

I wanted to go up, but Rinney was not sure. I grabbed her hand and we woked our way to about 10 rows from the front. There we danced to "Save the Last Dance for Me." That was to be our wedding dance song, but we didn't dance at the wedding. I think it worked out well for us, waiting until Michael Buble' did it live for us. We danced the whole song and it was very sweet and romantic. One of those once in a lifetime moments. But it got better...

Rinney and I went up to get a closer look, and we were able to push ourselves onto the right section of the stage. The only thing between us and Buble' was a sub woofer. He came by us three times, and at the end when he said goodbye he shood the hands of those he could reach from the left side of the stage to the right. That's where the picture from the top of the page came from, courtesy of the picture phone we had.

An awesome concert, and good meal, and some wonderful alone time for the two of us. One of the best gifts we have ever gotten!

Who will I turn out to be?

Well...things have changed drastically for the time being. It seems that the little bank that I work for has announced that it will be joining another bank to make a nice sized bank. Republic and Citizens will form Citizen's Republic Bancorp. What does that mean for me?

I have no idea. We will be merging, pending SEC and shareholder approval, and will approach the 250 mark for banks that we can call our own.

Pretty neat.

So I'm not sure what it means for us. It seems to be a good thing because we're the ones being bought. Our stock went up like 10%, and their stock dropped like 8%. So we're making money. It makes sense because they're not buying a non-profitable company. Some of the benefits for Citizen's bank seem to look a bit more diverse than those we currently have. And from a standpoint of location, we're still going to be the only "Citizen's Republic" in the area. My only concern is that the parent company of Citizen's is some Bank of Scotland. Why would I be concerned about that? That same bank of Scotland also owns the Charter One's in the area. So there could be something down the line, like One Citizen's Charter Republic Bank...or something to that.

But I'm taking it a day at a time. This could all fall apart tomorrow. No one knows for sure. Meanwhile I will watch and wait...

L'a chaim

All by myself...
don't wanna be, all by my self...
anymore...


It's a free lunch Tuesday thanks to the good people here at RB. 17th Best place to work for as in Fortune Magazine. Free lunch must be why!

The new kid called in sick today, aparently she has some troubles in the tummy region. A get well goes out to her.

So...it's been a relatively ZZZing day. All of 6 customers, and we're about halfway through the day. Good times!

I've been reading up on the news and would like to observe a moment of silence for a very good friend of mine, one who I've been close to the past three years. He was involved in an accident yesterday. He was riding his motorcycle without his helmet on and was struck by a car. He had to go to the hospital and the doctors had to operate on him. He's in serious condition but the doctors are saying that things are looking quite positive for him.

A moment of silence for Ben Rothelisberger.

Fiddler...how goes it?
So far the idea of throwing together two dances per choerography rehearsal has been really easy. Funny, it's like we're doing the same thing in almost every song. Kind of sad...

The cast seems to be a fun one. A lot of nice people. It should be something to see, not sure if it'll be a masterpiece or a trainwreck just yet. Wait and see?

I'm going to see who has got a deal for lunch.

Quarks? What are those?

Time again...my little friend, to hear the songs of mice and men.

It's been a while. We're now into our third month of marriage and things are going swimmingly. We've been hard at work both at home and at our jobs. Korinne is leaning heavliy towards staying in a dorm down at OSU for the safety and security it provides, plus the controlled enviroment and community the dorms provide. I think it is a great idea. Why have to depend on someone else (roommate) for half of the payments in a month when you can have it all together?
It does not look like I will be moving with Korinne due to the current ties we have here in Toledo. I think that the soonest I would be able to join her would be in the early months of 07', which is an idea I'd like to keep in mind.

I started playing softball again, after a two year hiatius. We played Friday the second and I went 5 for 7, all singles. It was a decent offensive effort. My defense was miniscule, but I did catch the final out of the second game. Not a big deal since we were getting out rear ends handed to us. Oh...here's some news.

After jumping ship from Oklahoma, I've found myself back here in Anatevka.
I'm going to be doing Fiddler in Rossford with the Coming Attraction Players...
Not sure if that's a good thing yet or not.

So, I traded in my overalls for a prayer shaul and another thick and hairy beard.
And the kicker?
I'm the innkeeper.

It must be the role that I was created to play. Three Fiddler shows, three inkeeper roles.
Oi! Such a deal for you all.

Other news... I'm working a bunch for Kroger and keeping my weekends open from transportation to and from Columbus. We're going to be going in a few weeks to check out everything down south and get things going for the little woman.

Oh, no kids either.

At least, not yet.