It's June and I'm been busy busy busy.  May was also a busy month as we were very involved with our Wolf Pack Motorcycle Rally.  I was in charge of the games and it was very successful.  We had nearly 150 attend and that is our largest attendance to date.  It was well run, great food and plenty of fantastic prizes.  John was a big help working on the road and giving away cards that won tickets for prizes.  Sean, his son helped him and they had a great time together.  I really appreciated everyone stepping up and making this such a great day.

 One of the games being played was Roulette and here Brenda and Sherrie show Jerry how to get the biggest bang for his buck.

 Another of our games that people really enjoyed was Dart Poker.  Thanks to Jim Moody for making the boards.  We also had Dice Poker, 3-Card Monte, Black Jack and the Penny Pitch. 

 Here are just a few of the motorcycles that were at the rally.  Gold Wings primarily, but it was open to all riders.

  The end of the school year always has it's ups and downs and this year is no different.  The biggest down side is my director has accepted a position on the other side of the county.  I'm so happy for him, but it will be a big transition going into this coming season of marching band.  Right now I'm working through the changes and just approach it as we always have done.  New director or not here we go.

The best thing to happen to me is the recent graduation of my son Bryan for Warrant Officer Candidate School.  He began back in early May and graduated on June 2, 2011.  Five hard weeks of training for this new officer.

 The graduation was held at Ft. Rucker, Alabama in the Aviation Museum.  Here Hannah and Bryan enjoy an embrace following the ceremony.

 Bryan attended a reception for all the graduates and their families.  This was the evening before the actual graduation.

 Warrant Officer Bauer was at Ft. Rucker when Bryan and Hannah arrived in summer of 2010.  He has since gone on to work at the Warrant Officer school.  Bryan appreciated him coming to support his promotion.

 After the WOC graduation we traveled to Little Creek and the School of Music in Norfolk, VA.  Bryan will send the next couple of months there learning what will be needed to be a good Executive Officer and Warrant Office in the band field.  Once he has complete this training he will be going on to Ft Sam Houston in San Antonio.  This is an exciting time of change for him and his wife Hannah.  They just need to get through the next couple of months and they will return to some normality in their routine. 

Hannah will be attending nursing school in Texas and moving away for the music.  She still plans to fill in where she can, but her main focus will be to complete her nursing degree.  We do plan to visit them in Texas as soon as we can work it out. 

April where did it go?

I can't believe I did a whole blog and forgot to save it.  Yikes, lets do this again.

Starting April
We began the month with lots of work.  On April 1we held the annual High School Invitational Concert Band festival.  A full day of visiting high school bands in concert run by the band council.  As the weekend continued we held our Collegiate band festival the next two days.  My job is mainly on the High School fest, but I do help organize the second part.

Then we were working on both the Percussion and Color Guard scholarship auditions.  Held on the second and third Saturday of the month.  Fantastic turn out, great talent for the coming year.  It just is going to be an exciting year I think. 

Spring Break also began the 3rd weekend.  I like the time when the students are away from school and I have some alone time.  I did take off a couple of the days during the week and it was really nice.  Didn't go where as is the case when I take time off, but it was cool and I enjoyed my time off.  As Easter approached I went and did a little shopping for our visit with Princess and Jane in Stockton.  Ed, Jane's son along with John and me made for a wonderful Easter Dinner celebration.

End of the month
April has a special meaning me to me.  It was my grand mothers birthday, April 22, 2011.  Happy 121st birthday Angelina Orlandi.  I discovered this while working on my genealogy.  After remembering my Nana the month continued. 

Bryan has entered the Warrant Officer candidate training school the end of April.  This is a 5-week course with him graduating June 1 or 2nd.  I am just so proud of him and all of his accomplishments.  He has wanted to become a band director as long as he has been involved with music.  His dream, his desire, his goals are all coming true.  I did have a hand in his many successes but for the past 7 years I think it is all him.  He is focused and will achieve.  I don't know how long I will live to see all the things he will do, but I am happy to be here now to attend this important graduation in his life.   Then off to music school for officers and his own band by September.  I am amazed and completely in awe of him and couldn't be prouder. 

May is here and I'll be back to share the CA2W motorcycle rally on May 21 and wrap up the semester. 

What's Up

Well time just get's away sometimes.  Been busy with work, a mini vacation to Vegas and a brief layoff due to injury.  So where do I begin?

The month of February was filled with music.  We had auditions for all those incoming students.  Good turnout with a little twist.  The Department Chair wanted to add all musicians interested in Fresno State, not just the band type people.  So we had vocalist, string and piano players plus our usual group also auditioned for the department if they were planning to be a music major.  It went fairly well and we'll just improve on what we did this year for next year.

John and I took a great trip to Las Vegas in mid March.  We were planning on meeting up with his cousin John and his wife Fran from New York.  It was great we spent time with them, John and John got a chance to really catch up.  John and his cousin were very familiar when they were growing up as John's mom was from New York and McCaffery was her family name, so the Mullers and the McCaffery's and McGuire's were all pretty close.

The second part of this vacation was to meet up with my son, Bryan.  He had gone to Vegas early so he could play with our band at the WAC Tournament.  It was great, we won the Woman's division and he was there for then entire experience.  He said he had a great time and all my band students really enjoyed getting a chance to talk with this amazing young man.  Bryan shared his experience as a Fresno State graduate, his life now as a soon to be Warrant Officer in the US Army.  But it was great having so much time with him was nice for me.  We talked, we ate and we gambled together.  I'm looking forward to going to his graduation in early June to see him become a Warrant Officer.

At work my computer was changed out.  I now have a really up to date Mac.  Well it does take some getting used to.  Anyway I over worked my right arm, so I called to have my work station evaluated and there were all kinds of thing wrong.  My desk was to tall, my monitor should be straight on, not to the side.  Need a better chair, an ergonomic friendly work station is what I needed.  Well, by the end of late week my arm was killing me so I reported it.  Went to the workers comp doctor and now I'm on limited use of my right arm with a follow-up appointment next week.  They took x-rays and blood test.  He did 't seem to think it is work related, but I feel work does aggravate it.

Now back to the my main work, our family genealogy.  It's a lot of work and I haven't even requested the back up documents.  I've been putting in a lot of time into Hannah's family lines.  I've also joined Find A Grave and am beginning to locate where people are buried.  That has become very interesting working with all these Grave hunters.  Check out the site before you judge.  Time to run.