Birthday Celebration

Well, last night my wife surprised me with an amazing dinner. We both got dressed up to celebrate my birthday since we did not have time on the actual day. She also changed the lyrics of one of my favorite songs, here it is below. I should let you know that she sang it to me when I came home from Palpazione on my birthday, but I fell asleep in the middle. To say the least, I was excited to hear it last night and stayed awake the whole time.

"When I Think About My Love"
By Mariana & Shane + Shane

When I think about my love,
how he loves me, cares for me
how he make me laugh
with such a joy
how he kisses me with mucho amor

When I think about my love,
how he makes me run
pray and brush
how he grills all day
with a huge smile

And it makes me want to shout
Alleluia we are married
What a blessing
Is being with you
all the nights
and all the days
(Repeat)

When I think about my love
how he picks his nose, it's oh so gross
how he farts and smells
how he snorts and burps
how he makes a rap
that is not so bad

When I think about my love
how he thinks I'm pretty
and calls me shrimpy
how he hugs me much
when he comes home

And it makes me want to shout
Alleluia we are married
What a blessing
Is being with you
all the nights
and all the days
(Repeat)

Thanks babe for a great birthday celebration, I love you!!!

Friends, Boss, + Family Come To Pienza

Howard, Scott, Annabel, Hye Joon, and Kate P. all came to see me play @ Pienza on Saturday. It's a long drive so I'm very grateful that you guys took the time to hang out w/ Palpazione. It was so cool seeing you at the restaurant. Here's a pic of all of us w/ the Palpazione guys.

Since my Church friends were there, I went into Church speak mode. I went up to the person who we were going to sing "Happy Birthday" too and said, "We're going to bless you w/ a birthday song." Oh well.
That same night one of the principal's I work for (I teach @ three schools) celebrated her 39th Anniversary. Her and her husband stayed at the Gaylord on the 14th floor (Since their anniversary is on the 14th she wanted to be on 14th floor.) I sang "L.O.V.E." to them and she started to cry, which I hope is a good thing.
My brother also came to see me play on Saturday night. Since he is my example of how to sing (man, I loved going to see him in musicals and playing drums for him in the Eddie Lounge Show), I was VERY excited for him to check it out and let me know what he thought. He had a great time. Well, that's it for now, I'm thinking the next post will be from a journal entry from June of 2001. If you're reading this, thank you!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Weekend

So I had a b-day on Friday. I start telling myself I'm my new age the second week in May. I started doing this when I turned thirty. It helps, so that when June comes around it's no big deal that I'm a year older. Below you will find a picture update of my birthday weekend. But as usual, before I go into the pic update, I like to put a picture of Mari and myself. This is the two of us at the Pastors College Graduation. Mari came to support me while I played with the Roger Hooper Jazz Trio. You are the best babe!!! (Captions will be below the pics)

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND PICTURES

Mari woke up at 5:00 AM to make me this incredible breakfast before I had to leave for work on Friday morning.

On Saturday, my Mom asked Mari and myself to walk in the Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in DC to honor the memory of our friend Madonna and to celebrate how my sister-in-law has survived breast cancer. Mari, myself, my Mom, and her two friends Adam and Amy participated.

On Saturday night, Mari and my Mom came to see me play w/ Palpazione. They had a great time and this was the first time the people at the restaurant seemed to enjoy what we were doing.

One of the ladies in our Care Group, made me this perfect Conga Cake. Thanks Donna!!!

Tonight I had the privilege again to play some jazz and stuff w/ Roger and John. It was a blast!

Update Bonanza

Where to begin? Life has been packed since I last posted. Palpazione continues to be a dream come true. Last night I was trying to see how high I can jump above the pans rack. My goal is during one of my solos to stay air borne for at least two beats while playing a fun rhythm. It's good to have goals!

Last week included Hershey Park and New Attitude. The day before leaving for Na, I spent 17 hours with 53 choir and instrumental students from one of my schools. We had a blast. The choir, conducted by Chris Fominaya, was the only elementary school choir to perform three part harmonies. And I had my string and winds play a version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" in D major (easy for the strings, very hard for the winds). It was a great experience, next year I hope to take all three of my schools to a music competition in an amusement park.

While all of this was going on, my Mom went to Manchu Pitchu, or however you spell it. Congrats Mom and making one of your dreams come true!

After Hershey Park, I went to New Attitude to be a courtesy ninja. The best part of this was being able to spend the whole weekend with my wife. We had such a good time, and it was neat to see how well we worked together. Below is my baby in her ninja shirt.



Well, enough writing, check out some pics below (Captions are below picture).

Me Conducting the Band @ Central Dauphin High School which is 20 minutes away from Hershey Park.

One cool thing about Hershey, was that my Dad was there to see me conduct the band and than we went on the bumper cars together. It was interesting to see my Dad talking to some of the students parents. They were there to see their children perform and my Dad was there to see me perform.

This is our Care Group playing a secret Ninja game ... Psychiatrist.

I had the chance to play a real djembe. The question is, do I look like this everytime I play? Yikes!

Some people from the Virginia Beach Sovereign Grace Church challenged the ninja's to a game of ultimate frisbee. Of course, the Ninja's won.

PALPAZIONE DATES:
If you would like to see me perform w/ Palpazione, I would suggest either Saturday June 7 or Saturday June 14. Be sure to check the Wilson Bridge situation if you take 495 to the National Harbor.

Oh, one more thing, check out this robot conduction the Detroit Symphony, crazy!

Palpazione

I auditioned and made it into a real junk percussion group. The name of the group is Palpazione and will be performing @ Pienza in the National Harbor. We play junk percussion along w/ pre-recorded tracks. It's a lot of fun. Right now, we are on a trial basis until the middle of June, and if it goes well, we will probably sign a year contract. I'll be posting the dates I am playing soon. Let me know if want to come check it out.

Pienza is in the bottom right of this picture between the trees.

Recipe #1

OK, since cookbook is in the title of my blog, I may as well contribute to the greater cooking community. For the last 3 weeks I've had an idea that could be revolutionary in the cooking world. OK, not at all, but I thought of it myself. Here is the picture and see if you can guess my secret ingredient.

Here's the recipe: put any flavor coffee mate powder on a dish. Put chicken on top of coffee mate powder. Cover chicken w/ powder. Let powdered chicken sit in fridge for a little bit. Take chicken out of fridge and marinate w/ olive oil. Then, grill to perfection. Wala, I call it Hazel Nut Chicken.

Bringing the Hand Drum Back

It's time to bring the "Hand-Drummers" back in "Christian Hand-Drummers Kosher Cookbook: The Blog". On Sunday I had the privilege to play conga's at Covenant Life Church. It was a blast! It has been a long time so I was hoping I'd remember how to play. It is like riding a bike a little bit. One aspect I enjoyed was playing with Ben Koo. He is so passionate about worshiping expressively, that it reminds me that I can worship the Lord because there is joy in knowing I've been forgiven of all my sins. That's good news and Ben's excitement about singing truth is contagious. Another aspect I enjoyed was using the HPD-10. I used a foot pedal to trigger a bass djembe sound. That was fun.

On another musical note, I've been working on a rap called, "Wind Goes". Once I get it copyrighted, I'll post it here. I think it has the possibility of being as popular as the "Soldier Boy" rap. I will be performing it at one of my elementary schools on June 4th. I've been practicing with Mari and some of my 5th & 6th grade students. It has been interesting to see their reactions. If you want me to practice when you're around, let me know.