The Producers / Thursday the 13th

From the opening note of the overture to the Nazi saluting pigeons, to the little old lady land dancers with their gleaming silver walkers the entire experience at CY Stephens Auditorium was delightful this evening. You can visit the web site to see more pictures and explore it here,

Our Worshipful Master had made arrangements for Arcadia Lodge to attend the Theater. Unfortunately most of the Brothers did not take advantage of this event. Their loss. Brother Wade Sheeler drove up from Newton to attend and my nephew Jonathan and I attended and sat in Lodge 25. Jeremy was there also but he had been invited to sit the the 28 members of Acacia Fraternity who attended in a group. I am sure they enjoyed it as much as we did.

Live theater is very special. Having seats where we did was just a little hard on my vertigo but I got in and seated and I was all right. It was a great place to see the dances. The action was non-stop and the actors were excellent. I could see ghosts of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in Austin Owen and Jason Simon. Beth Ann Baker was perfect as the Swedish Secretary/receptionist. The only mar on the evening was the person who sat behind me who forgot her theater manners at home and thought that this was a place to carry on a conversation. Not cool lady.

In other news of the day I went to Des Moines for
lunch with Matt and Don today. I had to wait for them because
the Senate was having a vote on the bill to limit smoking in Iowa. The House had voted to allow smoking in some more places and weakened the bill a lot. The Senate voted to turn down the House changes and now it will have to go to a conference committee to see if they can work it out. I didn't mind waiting. It was a nice day and I have a good book I am reading.

Then I went out to Costco and bought a new cameral It is a Panasonic Lumix. I have had so much trouble with my Kodak Camera that I decided that there is something majorly wrong with it. I have had to carry a gross of batteries with it (well all right maybe not a gross but a whole lot of them) and I could take three or four pictures before I ran the battery down and had to change them. So as much as I depend on the camera I decided to upgrade. It takes great pictures as you can see below.


Jon took this one of Cassie and the daffodils. I got them from the American Cancer Society and they really are a nice addition to the living room.

The box on the table contans my gavel which mother got me when I was Master of the Lodge and I also used it when I was Grand High Priest. I think of it am my own little Ark. It was made by a friend of ours who did beautiful woodwork.


I ran into a parent (of a former student) at the theater tonight. I did not recognize her until she said "Hello Jay". Then I did and asked her about Abdul. As soon as she told me his name I remembered him and told her my Abdul story. When he moved on to seventh grade I asked him to write a letter to my sixth graders telling them what they would need to do to be successful in seventh grade. He wrote a beautiful letter and there was one line in it that was perfect. He said, "You need to ask the teachers for help when you don't understand something. There is one teacher named Mrs. _______. She won't help you but ask her anyway." I had heard about this teacher. My nephew called her the "worst teacher in Ames." I left the line in when I shared Abdul's letter. I figured that the kids needed to know those things. It was nice to see her and visit with her.

So I am over the hurt from yesterday (sort of) I really had some good thing happen today and it was a great to go to the theater with Jon and Wade. Plus the temperature was such that I did not need to wear a coat. I hope all of you have a great day tomorrow, ARTYAL Hugs j

Thought for today (and everyday) - It is nice to be important, but it is so much more important to be nice. There was a guy on the radio station I listened to when I was in Cedar Rapids who used that as his tag line. I have been thinking about it in light of things that happened, Good advice.