Good morning to you all on a gorgeous if somewhat chilly weekend. It\u2019s bright and sunny, the sky is clear and shockingly blue but the temperature is suggesting that Autumn may not be too far away. No frost yet but there is that decidedly cool feeling which makes one take notice. The heating went on yesterday and there may be a fire in the lounge wood burner before too much longer. Hopefully, we\u2019ll get a few more weeks of relatively moderate temperatures before it really starts to turn but I have to say, this seems ominously early for my liking.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a hectic and busy week, so busy that I\u2019ve even had to work for a couple of days. Some mistake surely! When I say \u201cbusy\u201d of course I mean that it\u2019s been a struggle to get all the sports in. Not only do we have the baseball season to conclude (shame about the Dodgers and the Red Sox but just wait \u2018til next year), but there\u2019s also the start of the football season, both the NFL and college. I\u2019m telling you, it\u2019s a challenging task to get through it all (and, I don\u2019t even record everything that\u2019s on).<\/p>\n
Speaking of baseball, we just heard the good news from our friend and neighbour Pete that the book of his adventures is to be published! You will all remember, I\u2019m sure, how he set out to see a baseball game in every major league baseball stadium and at least one game in each of the fifty states; indeed, many of you hosted him on his travels. Yesterday morning he came over to share the news with us, clutching the contract which the publishers have asked him to sign and return to them. The title is still somewhat undecided and I\u2019m not sure it will be out in time for the Christmas rush but when we have further details I\u2019ll let you all know. Part of the condition of the contract is that the Diary of his journey has to be removed from the web so, if you want to have a brief reminder of what it\u2019s all about go to Heaven or Iowa<\/a> before the diary is replaced by a page advertising the availability of his book.<\/p>\n As if that wasn\u2019t exciting enough, some of the more regular visitors to Stragnell.com will already have discovered that there are now some short video clips of some<\/strong> of the performances from the Royal Command Variety Performance in the Stragapalooza section. Many apologies in the first instance \u2013 the quality is not great (I shot these clips on a Flip camera I had which is of a similar quality to what you might shoot on your mobile phone) and, worst of all, several of the performances did not get recorded at all. I know that I missed the first few performances because (a) I forgot that I had brought the camera to the lake and then (b) when I went looking for it I had trouble finding it. So, my \u201ctoast\u201d to absent members, Grandpa\u2019s introductory remarks and Sallie, Rod, Amelie and Ash\u2019s performance of the Incy Wincy Spider regrettably didn\u2019t get recorded. Also, for some reason which I cannot remember, Sandy and Carol\u2019s \u201cSix Suckers on the Line\u201d skit is missing as is the grand finale (although I\u2019ve put the words and music online so you can perform it for yourself). So, after that caveat, knock yourselves out! You\u2019ll find it on the Stragapalooza<\/a> page.<\/p>\n