Andy Smallman

What were you doing in 1982? That’s the year I lived mostly in Alaska, the city of Seward, specifically, and was an AM radio deejay. I’ve mentioned that before. But that year is prominent in my mind because it is when I really started figuring out more of who I was and what I wanted to do. High school hadn’t provided that so I initially bypassed college to “find myself,” although I never would have put it that way at the time.

This picture comes from December 30, 1982, four days after I had returned to Seattle from Seward. That’s me on the right, sitting with my brother, Scott. The occasion is the wedding of our brother, Steve. A pretty nice occasion to reconnect.

But what’s up with that facial hair??

So Melinda and I were at Costco over the weekend picking up some items for our Easter weekend hosting (see yesterday’s post). I spotted this box of Romaine lettuce and, for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, I decided to snap this picture.

I wonder, if you have to say there is an original, does that suggest there are imitations? And if the original was in 1927, it goes to reason that any imitations came after, right?

Me, I came along in 1963. I guess that makes me an imitation.

It’s been a busy day around our house today, what with us hosting two family events and family from out of town. Melinda’s cousin Tracy and her daughter Isabel are staying with us for a couple of days. And with Melinda’s parents out of town, we had Brenda, Greg & Perrin over for an Easter brunch. Later in the day, everyone returned for dinner, supplemented by my parents, and my brother Scott, his partner, Sally, and Scott’s daughter Olivia. That’s 13 for dinner and 8 for brunch.

Today’s photo comes from an Easter egg hunt orchestrated by Isabel and Ella for Perrin. Late last night in the dark, the two older girls went outside and hid eggs for Perrin to find this morning. What fun. Perrin made sure to include her new bunny in the search.

News Flash – France has good food.

In fact, France has really, really good food, the bread, as is generally known, being incredible. Just as we suspected, we returned from France as self-proclaimed bread snobs. We can’t find a decent baguette anywhere (even in the so-called French bakeries of Seattle). I had this explained to me this week as having to do with Europe not allowing genetically motivated wheat, like in the US. Further, I was told, Europeans are coming to the states and experiencing gluten sensitivity.

Interesting.

Anyway, not only is the bread superior in France, so is the butter, at least by our evaluation. But today at Costco we found our favorite French butter. Perhaps things are looking up.

My name is Andy and I’m a hockey fan.

There, I said it. In fact, I grew up saying that “hockey is my favorite sport.” My childhood room always had a hockey motif. I collected hockey cards. I played a year of ice hockey. And I did all of this from the cornfields of Omaha, Nebraska, where I was born and where I lived until just before my 11th birthday.

Let me just say that it’s a hard thing to be both born in Omaha and be a hockey fan. Thank goodness for the Omaha Knights.

The Knights were the chief farm team for the New York Rangers so we got to see some pretty good players come through, the most notable of whom may be André “Moose” Dupont who went on to win a couple of Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers. The coach of those Flyers teams? Fred Shero who, before that, coached the Knights.

Today’s Prompt: What sport(s) do you love / identify with?

A highlight of my Thursdays this term at PSCS is co-facilitating a horse race handicapping with my father for a group of 8 students. The class takes place in the last slot of the day, which enables me to drive my dad home, connect with my mom, and then the three of us having dinner in the dining room of their retirement community. In fact, I’m writing this post from their apartment, having just finished dinner, while watching a hockey game on TV.

Man, this ain’t half bad. Horse racing, dinner, hockey.

In today’s class, one of the students asked about a book that was published some time ago that included some of my dad’s handicapping theories. He couldn’t remember the name, and I’m not sure if it can actually be found. But I did locate this link to a software program based on his work.

Today’s Prompt: Share a way you connect with a parent.

Here’s what’s intended to be a funny post.

That’s my brother Scott in today’s photo, one that is marked as coming from 1986, the year he turned 27. It’s also the year he defined tube socks as a fashion statement, especially when out for a day of fishing. Word has it that fish are more inclined to take the hook of a fisherman wearing tube socks, and those with red stripes on top are even more al”lure”ing (that’s my feeble attempt at a fishing pun).

I’m not sure what it is I have for Scott and fishing, but another post featured him with a fish. Scott, any ideas?

Today’s Prompt: Share the tale of one of YOUR “fashion statements.”

I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was Melinda looking at possible places for us to stay in Nantes when we return this summer. Whatever the reason, I typed “Nantes Tan” in the search box at YouTube and found a handful of videos of my beloved tram in Nantes, including this one below of my Line 2. Laugh at me all you want. Be bored by the fact I’m embedding a video of a tram. But get a little bit of a kick out of the fact that this means so much to me. Yes, I miss Nantes.

Today’s Prompt: What is something you miss about a place where you used to live?

The racehorse in today’s photo is my favorite horse from when I was a kid. His name is Steelenson and I took this picture of him late one summer afternoon in the late 70’s at Longacres. He was a cheap, no-name horse. He wasn’t good enough to run in anything but claiming races. But I loved watching him run.

Why?

Two reasons. One, he had that great running style of starting slow and coming on fast at the end, what is called being a “closer.” And two, my grandmother (I called her Grammy) and I always bet on him ($2 to show). More often than not he came in for us. He typically ran in the last race of the day, sending us home with a great feeling that I can easily conjure up when I think of the two of them, Steelenson and Grammy.

Today’s Prompt: Share a memory of a grandparent.

We had friends over for dinner tonight, Deb & Peter and their daughter, Emma, age 15. This is the family of Alex, Chloe’s longtime boyfriend. Alex graduated from PSCS with Chloe in 2010 and Emma attended PSCS for a couple of years. The point of this is that, basically, our two families are all friends.

Fixing the dinner and sitting down to eat with good conversation got me thinking about Sunday night dinner rituals. Then that got me thinking about Melinda’s and my niece Stephanie, a graduate of the University of Washington. When she was a college student, she’d come over for a home-cooked meal nearly every Sunday and usually brought along a friend (or three). That’s her on the right in today’s photo as a little kid soccer player.

For me growing up, Sunday night dinner was the fanciest meal of the week.

Today’s Prompt: How about you? Got a Sunday night dinner ritual?