QHS 16, Alton 7

Nice job by the Blue Devils last night!

Dave Farkas really takes care of us in the press box. An informal poll taken by the scoreboard guys and the geeky PA guy revealed "chicken on a stick" was the No. 1 concession stand item at Flinn Stadium.

Dave does a good job washing dishes, too ....

In regards to the game, it looked a lot like Alton just killed themselves with dumb penalties, and a break here and there helped QHS, but the better team definitely won.

Trying to remember the last time QU, QND and QHS all won season openers in football. Anybody?

Doing the 336 Slide today to see the 6-1 1/2 freshman .... dorm life. Remember that?

Fu Fu Friday

Finally, it's Fu Fu Fu FRIDAY .....

— Bella the Destroyer got out of her kennel this morning and did her bidness at the foot of the upstairs steps. Holy lots of lit candles, Batman. Shey Fey cleaned up runny poo and all I gotta say is better her than me ....

— Perfect Friday afternoon mood music here as the weather tries to break.

— We will see you at Flinn Stadium tonight as the Quincy Blue Devils kick off the 2009 prep football season. Follow QHS all season long right here.

— What do you think about Missouri banning texting while driving if you are 21 or younger? This guy thinks it's kinda silly ...

— Another crazy weekend in Q-Town. Football Friday night, trivia contest Saturday night, Funions gig Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Grove for the BT benefit. More info and stuff about weekend madness here.

BE SAFE!

piano man

The addition of TMO to The Funions is huge. He's played keyboards and harmonica the past two practices and it adds a new dimension to the band. 

We are excited about playing Sunday at The Grove. Latest info is that we play from 3 to 4:30, so hope to see you out there!

Starting Back Up

The Funions have been working on new songs and getting ready for a couple of shows.

We are playing Sunday afternoon at a benefit at The Grove Inn on East Broadway, from 4 p.m. to around 5:30 or so.

Some other stuff in the works, stay tuned!

Frosh

Hard as it is to believe .... the 6-1 freshman started college today.

She likes it. She likes it a lot .... five regular classes, weekly oboe lesson, two small groups, some other stuff. "Enough to keep me busy," she says.

She is on the 17th floor of the dorm surrounded by upperclassman. "Maybe," she said, about surviving a year in the dorms. "The food wasn't that bad, actually."

Oh .... she is actually 6-1.5 now, as well.

Oompha Chicken Dance

So Saturday night we started at the Elks with an outdoor party featuring Hearsay and Raised On Radio. It was great hearing Kathy Brink singing again with Hearsay, and it was a good turnout considering how much stuff yet again was going on in Quincy.

Then we headed to South Park to hear the Heidelberg German Band at Germanfest, and yet again I was a big Chicken. Jeff Schuecking and his guys weren't about to let me get away without doing the infamous Chicken Dance. I think I have it down now. Maybe.

The Heidelberg German band is celebrating 40 years of making merry music. The think I love about them is that they are having such a good time. By the end of the night nobody is too worried about missing a note or two, if you know what I mean. 

Anyway, seeing the Funions sax player rocking away on a picnic table in South Park was worth the price of admission, which was nothing — Germanfest is one of many free Quincy traditions.

Hope Jack, Jeff and the boys can clear the cobwebs enough to make the trip over to Springfield today to play at the Illinois State Fair!

Speaken Ze Engliz

From my Uncle, Peter Hart ....

The European Commission has just announced that English will be the official language of the European Union. German, which was the other possibility, narrowly missed out.

During negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly this will make sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to

reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer pepl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und after zis fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German; lik zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Practice Smells

So The Funions rocked it out pretty hard at Club Vegas last night. TMO is in the band as a keyboard and harmonica player! And backup drummer. And singer! Buh buh buh bad to the bone ....

At the end of practice, somebody cut the cheese hard. I would like to remind my fellow Funions that taking responsibility for your actions will go a long way to promoting peace and harmony in the band. 

Therefore, there will be no more eating of beans before practice by any said members of The Funions.

The need to play

Funions will be practicing this week in the first time in forever. Throwing some new stuff and members into the mix will be fun and it will be good to just get out and play.

Still working on some shows for late summer/early fall.

K of C

Went to the Knights of Columbus BBQ Friday night. For those of you not from Quincy, the BBQ is basically a big air, with carnival rides, food, games, lives music and lots and lots of beer.

This is basically the event signifying the end of summer. It's a popular event with families and friends. It's very well run and the crowds are huge.

The Cheeseburgers played last night and were in excellent form as always. Ran into a few people I knew but not many, had a beer or two, called it good.

We parked over by Recovery  Resources, got in and out with no hassles. 

Hope things go well tonight and tomorrow.

Tight Shoes

So I'm over at the Kingsridge pool last Sunday and everything is hunky dory. Monday I'm taking the dogs for a stroll and my shoes, white New Balances, feel tight on my feet. 

I get two pairs of shoes every year working for Gus Macker. Last year I cleaned out the closet and gave some to the Salvation Army, sold a few more at garage sales and tossed the worn out ones. I've probably had six or seven pairs of New Balances, usually good shoes.

Strange, how this pair looked a little new and didn't quite fit.

Then I get a call from Mark Brei, Funions bass player extraordinaire and Sunday afternoon Kingsridge pool regular.

"Uh, dude, you have my shoes," he said. "You left your other ones at the pool and took mine by mistake."

I just looked my name up on Webster.com and beside it is the apt description: MR. OBLIVIOUS.

At least my feet aren't shrinking.

Slow

Not much going on with The Funions right now .... we may be playing a benefit at the end of the month and perhaps in September, we'll keep you posted.

Canine Quote

Quote of the day ....

"What makes a dog want to roll around IN POOP?"

Thank you.

Ferry, Gus on the beach

In the middle of the two-week vacation, we went to Sheboygan, Wis., to work for Gus.

The tournament takes place at the Harbor Centre right beside a Lake Michigan beach. I'd rank it in the top three of Gus Mackers I've worked. The local staff was great, almost everybody behaved, Dream Court was a blast as usual. I supervised the Gus Busters and almost all of them were awesome.

The history of this place is intriguing. About 20 years ago some progressive city fathers decided to clean up the area and build the harbor. I could think of a town or two which could take a page from this book .... not that the mighty Mississippi is Lake Michigan, but our riverfront in Quincy is sorely underdeveloped.

Anyway, loads of fun. Did you know the water is wetter in Wisconsin and the waves break away from the beach?

On Monday we took the Badger ferry from Manitowoc to Ludington. It is expensive, about $200 for two people and a car, but not dealing with construction-strewn roads or driving through Chicago is worth about a million bucks. The Badger is a huge boat but it still pitched and rolled on the high Lake Michigan water, and after awhile we had to stop looking outside to keep the stomachs from getting too queasy .... when we docked in Ludington, the Badger hit the ramp too hard and knocked it off the entrance ramp, and there was about 20 minutes of panic-stricken repairs before we started unloading.

If you have four hours and don't mind spending a few extra bucks, this is the way to go to get across the lake.

Short Beach

This year the Lake Michigan water is very high. Unfortunately it wiped out my camping on my uncle's beach in Hollatuck (between Holland and Saugatuck). Eleven days earlier when I visited, there were only a few feet of beach.

Compare the above video shot Thursday to the one from Aug. 13, 2008. Same beach, much less sand. 

So it was off to Hoffmaster State Park near Grand Haven for a few days. We also stayed one night at Ludington State Park and it was beautiful. 

The good things about public campgrounds are the bathrooms and showers nearby and electricity. The bad things are the distances to the beaches and all the people. But .... there is something soothing about listening to a baseball game on the radio in front of a campfire, and it is nice and quiet at night.

On Thursday we spent a picture perfect day in Hollatuck. One day isn't enough, but it sufficed.

Two Week Adventure

Holy massive zig zagging across Wisconsin and Michigan, Batman.

An awesome two weeks. From Quincy to Michigan cities of:

Ann Arbor

Hudsonville

Holland

Grand Haven

Jackson

Benton Harbor

Chicago, Ill.

Sheyboygan, Wis.

Manitowoc, Wis.

Ludington

Pontiac

Holland

And finally, home.

The adventure was capped by quite possibly the best Lake Michigan beach day ever Thursday.

Highlights: An awesome Gus Macker on the other side of the lake in Sheybogan, Shey Fey missing her train stop, good family fun in Pontiac and Holland, a massive ferry going up and down in Lake Michigan, adventures in whiffle ball, a lack of beach, camping in state campgrounds, Blue Lake excellence, and way too many miles on the Oldsmobuick of doom.

Much more to come ....