High water

Hello everyone. Tom and I just returned from a weekend in Kulm visiting Randy, and then going to Jamestown for a concert. The JC choir and band performed Karl Orff's "Carmina Burana", a very entertaining and exciting work. You would all recognize parts of it that have become famous through commercials and soundtracks. They did a fantastic job with the piece; we were very impressed. Austin was in a nice color photo on the front page of the Collegian, taken during a rehearsal. After the concert he got to pose for some other photos with Korean students - you'll have to ask him about that!

It was a very cold and windy day, but we had to check out all the high water around Jamestown. It's like nothing I've ever seen. Never thought I'd see water flowing into the "Glory Hole" but here it is. We talked about how Dad would have been so interested in monitoring and photographing this whole high water scenario, and how glad we are that he wanted to build their house on a hillside, where Mom is high and dry!
A quick trip out to the lake gave us a view of water, water, and more water. The ice is all gone, and the level seems no higher than when Mom took pictures on Tuesday, but it must still be flowing in. Our spring is very active and there are still some snowbanks around. Had to drive through some water on the road when you turn north.

Things seem to be okay around the cabin. When you stand on the front deck and look straight down, there is about a foot of ground before the water starts. But the trees are still out of the water. The burn pile is mostly underwater. A loon was swimming right out in front.

Looking forward t0 fun with all of you this summer at the original Prentice Landing!

it is saturday

Here is a class project I did from the video Jeff posted in December when my dad looks like Jeff. I took a screenshot of it and then used a drawing technique to transfer oil pastel onto a new sheet of paper (what you see). Kind of looks like a poorly printed poster or something but I thought it was interesting.

I have 2 weeks, count them, 14 days until I graduate on May 9! I am very thrilled to not have to do homework. Summer plans are still TBD but I will be in Minnesota at home for at least the first month. I will also be planning a wedding.

In good news, it was 81 degrees and sunny here in Chicago yesterday!!!! Hooray for summer!

Flooded with stories and such

Hi to all,

I feel like this post is really really overdue, but I figure now is a good time to post. To begin, many if not all of you knew of my recent choir tour during spring break, where we sang at several churches on our way to the Big Apple. I've been to New York before but being there again was pretty cool, because I felt like I knew where I was going without getting lost :). It was fun to hear our improvement as our tour went along and I'm glad to have joined choir here at JC. One of the highlights of the trip was singing in St. John the Divine Cathedral in NYC (the biggest cathedral in the world). We were able to sing one of our songs while we were there and it was AMAZING!! The echo was about 5 seconds and the whole experience was once-in-a-lifetime! The entire trip was exhausting, yet totally worthwhile.

Fast forward a bit..........it is now April with all the snow gone (despite the small fall today), the grass growing, the sun shining for the most part, and smiles seen just about anywhere on campus because of the warmer weather that has already and is yet to come. :)

In bigger news, Valley City is completely evacuated because of the flooding situation and Jamestown is in a little bit of trouble as well. I don't know if any of you have heard details of the flooding but the water is very close to overflowing what they call "the Glory Hole" (the big cement contraption which is opposite the dam), so as of now, Jamestown is fine but it could be in trouble if it rains a whole bunch this weekend. I think pictures of the flood and the glory hole can be seen online, if you are interested. These have definitely been some crazy times because of all the sandbagging that has been going the past month and the fact that school has been cancelled on separate occasions to help those efforts. One of those occasions being the first time in 15 years!!

Many other stories and pics will be shared this summer at Spiritwood of the choir tour, sandbagging and other recent adventures!!

Here are some of the pics. Enjoy!

Times Square

Madison Square Garden (right across the street from our hotel, Hotel Pennsylvania)

A church in Albany, NY (across the street from the one we sang at)

Apparently this is how they park in NYC (called Unparalled Parking)

Our version of the Arc de Triumph (small scale)

the Statue of Liberty from behind the World Financial Center

Here is my favorite picture of the choir trip, taken with my phone.

Niagra Falls

Love ya, AKLand

Here's to Dad!

Here's to Dad.
He's really not that bad!
In fact I'd say he's great,
the best Dad to date.
Maybe it was fate.
Or maybe his mate.
Either way, I like who he is today.
I mean, look, I've turned out okay.
The times that we argue sure stink,
but in the end, they've built character...
good... I think.
He's strong-willed, loud and outspoken oft,
but he keeps his heart soft.
People say how good his boys are
and he really left us no choice.
We had to listen to Dad's voice!
If there was one thing in this time of uncertainty
that I wish and hope I can be,
it is to be like my Dad
and raise a family like he.



Love you Dad,
Joel

SENIOR SHOW

It was great to be at North Park for Laura's senior show reception. Many friends, relatives and students crowded the gallery Thursday evening, with a special appearance by Kelly and Jodi who brought nine of the kids from the Bethel Church/Humbolt Park neighborhood. They were very excited to see the artwork. I cried a little bit.

SMOKE ON THE WATER

The mighty Kennedy Eagles had their Conference Swim Meet three weeks ago and took 2nd place as a team. An amazing effort as they had not won a dual meet against any of these teams all through the regular season. Darren had some awesome swims both in Prelims on Thurs night and then again at Finals on Sat.

Darren's 200 Individual medley relay (Darren swam the breast length) got 4th overall. 1:53.83 prelim 1:50.74 final.



In the 200 freestyle he was 10th place (out of 32 varsity swimmers) in prelims at 1:58.90 then dropped more time and held onto 10th of 16 swimmers in finals on Sat. for 1:57.94

In the 500 freestyle he was 4th place (out of 32) in the prelims at 5:17.46 and again held while dropping another 3 seconds in finals for a 4th place medal at 5:14.63. He has dropped 25 SECONDS in the 500 this season!

Hot DAM 2

Here are some more pics to supplement Michael's itinerary. Mike didn't say much about our rock climbing adventure which included scrambling, bush whacking and route finding. We created a new and improved hike, circumnavigating the 1st Flat Iron by way of climbing the top of the 2nd Flat Iron. A critical landmark is the Copenhagen lid.

Here's Michael and Tim doing street ball right...with a
fo' shiz nasty reverse loop underlay

hot DAM

I'm sorry if the subject of this entry offended anyone. It's the motto of the D.A.M. (the Denver art museum).

Laura and I have just returned to our respective knowledge coves after a fabulous time in Denver. The weather was pretty awesome too.

Highlights:

• We watched almost all of the Planet Earth series.
• We ate an inordinate amount of dessert.
• Dave and Julie have a cool church with a decent Steinway piano that I practiced on.
• Jamming street style in the church parking lot (playing basketball)
• Dave please post a photo or two
  
• Seeing Keenan improve his mad english skillz.
• Having Dave and Julie and their Pastor try to set me up with this girl.
• Chilling at Confluence Park (see photos)

• Eating Maggie’s delicious fajitas

• Getting a haircut from Laura

• Hiking with Dave and finding a rock bench (see photos)

• 

• DAM with Laura

• Lasagna blast at Macy and Ben’s

• also watching Dave play guitar hero. Look for How I Learned to Rock by Dave Prentice in bookstores soon.
  

• Thrift shopping: two pair of jeans = SCORE.

• Hanging out with Dave and Julie’s friends Jeff and Amy (Amy, I know you look at this blog).

Chattin' it up with Keegan

Cruise Report

This is sort of a belated post about our Caribbean cruise. We got back three weeks ago, but I guess it's just been busy. We had a wonderful week aboard the Carnival Triumph - warm weather, fun ports, gorgeous blue Caribbean seas, relaxing days where our biggest decision was when and what to eat! We visited Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel - all places we had never been. This photo was taken on our shore excursion at Cozumel on a large catamaran that took us snorkeling and to a private beach.

The ship was huge. We explored a lot, but I'm sure we didn't see all of it. 893 feet long, with 3,000 guests from all over the world and an international crew of 1,000. We had great dinners every night. Even I finally maxed out on shrimp! And even after we were stuffed, we had to sample the fancy desserts! Then we went to a show every night - singing, dancing, comedian, illusionist. They were all really fun.

One of our favorite things was having a balcony room. Even though we booked late, our room and the Lesters' were side by side on the back of the ship. We sat on our balcony a lot, enjoying sunrises, sunsets, coffee in the morning, a glass of wine at night, and always the relaxing view of the sea.

We've lost the few pounds we gained, our tans are fading, but the memories will last forever! :)

show choir saturday

Surprise, this blog isn't from one of the Prentices. Joel and I spent all day Saturday at a show choir competition at Belmont University in Nashville. We were getting paid to play in the band for an area high school show choir. The program was classics: Will It Go Round in Circles, September, Dust in the Wind, Best of My Love (girl's song), Takin' Care of Business (guy's song), and a 70s medley to end it. Only two costume changes, nothing super elaborate, just a solid all around act, and they ended up taking 3rd behind two super elaborate and much larger choirs. So they really did well.

Unfortunately, we had to leave at 6:15, and we didn't get back until 4am. We had down time during the day, but I was sick and throwing up, so that wasn't too much fun. It was interesting to get a sense of the show choir world. Lots of super-crazed, high energy kids packed into a hall is insane. That was the main lesson learned. Jeff and Darren, I'm glad you guys aren't totally crazy like that.

Black History Month

As a part of Black History Month, we are had two traditional African American worship services on campus during our regular Wednesday morning chapel. Part of this included a traditional gospel heritage choir that I was a part of. The choir had about 40 students, we practiced a few times and performed twice, directed by Rollo Dilworth. It was incredible to be a part of such a rich tradition of soulful music. I'm in the upper left in green. There is a regular non-audition gospel choir with about 200 students, 95% of which are white. We made about twice as much sound today. It was a blast.

flu and film

Sorry for my long absence. Things are warming up in TN and I'm finally feeling better after fighting the flu this last week.

I hope you've all been able to check out the podcast, which is linked from Joel's post. You may remember a post I had last semester that had photos from a German cyclist film. Well the university had its film festival this weekend, and Heinrich was 1st place out of five different short films critiqued by a panel of three school faculty. The theme of the festival was "courage." It was exciting to play a part in making this movie. Our roommate, Rocco, was director, producer and editor, and his brother back in NJ wrote the script. Once the script was finished, I did a rough translation of it into German and then sent it back to NJ where some native German speakers fine tuned it. Then, just last weekend, I did the narration, and then Rocco was up super late editing it all in and creating subtitles. The finished product was pretty satisfying. You can watch it here.

In other news, we finally got a sweet couch for the apartment.

4 Generations

The time in Indiana was good, my dad turned 85, as you can see he is still a good looking guy! He really enjoyed Keegan, but was ready to have a quiet house back to himself after a couple of days............heah, two year olds are noisy!

A Hive of Badgers.

Dearly Beloved,

We are gathered here on this blog, to speak, show and tell about all things in our life. With things ranging from weather to broken limbs.

So, somewhere in between those two is my next post. But, before I get to that... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGGIE!


Item One: I NOW HAVE A BED! What a blessing. Michael found a bed (mattress, frame, and boxspring) on craigslist.chattanooga and it happened to be selling for $40 in Cleveland. So, I emailed saying I was interested. I got a call a few nights later and I went over to the seller's house with Rocco and his truck.

We arrived and opened the door to 2 girls sitting on the couch, a cat to the side and a movie playing in the background. They were both laden with tattoos and smoking most likely their 3rd or 4th pack of cigarettes. In the middle of the room was the mattress and a low-lying frame. The one girl said, "Do you still want it?" I wasn't sure what to say. I asked "Where is the boxspring?" She said, "Oh I thought that was it (pointing to the frame.)" Seeing that I may not buy it, she continued to say "You know, just take it for $10."

So I did.

It smelled of smoke so I left it outside for 24 hours. Then, I completely soaked it with FeBreeze. It smells nice now :)

Notice the bike bottle holder.



PRE-MATTRESS



Item Two: The Badger Hive

Michael, Rocco and I have started a podcast. We hope to record every Sat. morning and then Rocco will have it edited and primed for listening by the end of the weekend. So, if you have some spare time, check it out (and let us know what you think.)

By the way, Laura, we talked about the Super Bowl and how there are a bunch of Poser fans on Super Bowl night only. So, thanks for not being part of that statistic.

The Badger Hive

It is named after the Honey Badger, which happens to be the most ferocious animal on the surface of Earth.

love,
Joel