Benjamin’s been working outside in triple digit temperatures and swelteringly (wasn’t sure if it was a word either, but spell check accepted it) high humidity.
Thanks again to the Fords for letting us use their Mantis tiller-it’s working fantastically well.
Last night we very spontaneously were able to get a couple of free tickets for the theatre so we watched Cars 2. It’s a pretty action packed movie…they have cars in spy movies so why not put spy into Cars?
However, we were disappointed for the very obvious and overbearing environmentalism of the film. Yes, the bad guys of the film were the head of an oil company and all of his henchmen. It was also interesting to see how in the film the World came together to show what alternative fuel could do.
I guess the moral of the story was typical…be who you are no matter what and if other people have a problem with that they need to change.
Will be adding videos from the ball here as they are uploaded. I am saving all of these videos in 1080p so uploading them to YouTube is a long process.
I wasn’t able to get as good of a view of the dancing as I had at the dance lessons, and there are times when all you’ll see are the backs of spectators.
Spanish Circle
Grand March-Fast
The grand march that opened the ball in quick-time (though in reality it is in .wmv) [laughter from geeks]. If you’re real patient take a look at the grand march video below that is in real-time.
Grand March-Realtime
Duke of Kent’s Waltz
Virginia Reel
Will be adding videos from the ball here as they are uploaded. I am saving all of these videos in 1080p so uploading them to YouTube is a long process.
Spanish Circle
Grand March-Fast
The grand march that opened the ball in quick-time (though in reality it is in .wmv) [laughter from geeks]. If you’re real patient take a look at the grand march video below that is in real-time.
This video of the opening grand march of the ball is sped up very, very quickly to just show what kind of patterns we did in the march.
If someone leaves a comment on this post asking for a video in real time or for a different section of the ball I’ll be happy to oblige.
Filmed on June 22, 2011. Dances were called by John M Ramsay.
I have just changed the appearance of this blog to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and this year’s CHEF Conference.
The header picture was taken in our Civil War outfits before a Civil War Ball that we attended in June.
The former design was from our trip to Florida last November:
The conference is held at the St. Charles Convention Center in Missouri, but the hotel that is attached is called the “Embassy Suites.” In this picture you can see the lobby and breakfast area from 6 stories up.
Noah & Mom heading down to breakfast the first morning...
A few of the attendees in the convention center
Eating pizza the evening of the first day
One of the booths at the vendor hall
There were a lot of other young men going to Mr. Potter’s sessions
I’m not sure why but I found this picture of a headless listener very funny.
Photo Shoot before the Ball:
The ladies with their hoop skirts
In a lot of the Civil War-era photos the subjects aren’t smiling so we took a few photos without smiling either
Some filmmakers at the conference were filming a scene with a Civil War dance so we all volunteered for a few hours to be in front of the camera. I’ll post a link to the film on this blog whenever it becomes available.
We got to know the Mays family a lot better at this conference and my brothers and I spent most of our time with their son, Nate.
Eating a fabulous made-to-order breakfast with the Mays family
I sold this clock to Nate, but he only paid me with Confederate money.
During the last evening of the conference there was a Civil War ball (hence all of the lessons we had taken for the past few months.) There were a lot more people there for the ball and also in costume than I had ever imagined. I am not a very good guesser but there were probably 300 dancers on the floor.
The video I got from the ball isn’t as good as the footage I’ve filmed at the dance lessons, but I’ll post a few videos from the ball whenever I have the time.
