End Of February Update

First let's just share these two pictures: (Little Girls (8 Months old...get's her first grooming...before and after.) She was so matted from digging all the time that we had to go really short.

Anti Monkey Butt Powder has re-signed with us as sponsors for 2013. Big thanks to them. Please Like their page on Facebook. 

And here is a joke I found funny......

No back to the serious stuff.

Cynthia has been doing indoor track this year and has been fairing well. Her 4X400 team always seems to place in the top but the great news of the week is in Columbus, Ohio she took first in the 500 meters. 

She is considering doing the hepathalon in the last two meets.  She just wants to throw the big metal ball and chuck a spear. 

Miles has been attending practice for outdoor track which starts in March. He is our distance boy.  He, like Cynthia, are active at their church in KY. Miles helps with AWANA out there every week. 

James saw the sign that describes him at the local pizza place this past week. 

With the dry spell of shows over we performed last week at Centerpint Church in Roseville. It was Dad-Daughter night. Candy galore.  

...and cup cakes and ice creme.  We got to participate as well as perform. We even performed our new Lights through performer trick...Victor was the Victim. 

Here is a shot in our house with Mami as the one getting it. 

 Earlier this week I was hit with a stomach bug for 24 hours.  Tator Tot kept me comforted. 

 Don't forget...we are doing a fundraiser to help support our church sending youth down to Mexico over Easter Break to build homes for the needy...if you are in the area......COME ON DOWN. 

The rest of the week has been filled with doing repairs and upgrades to the RV. We've decided to wait a year to get a new one so we are spiffying this one up. 

 Homeschool:

Mami has been doing a great job teaching the kids. Each week they meet with other homeschool groups and have play dates, so to speak. today they even went to the Mosquito abatement place to learn about what they do. Next week the have free tickets to the Monterrey Aquarium .  

This past couple of weeks I have been trying to get more active so my show clothes aren't so snug so I have been biking with Olivia and playing basketball with all of them.  In fact, I just finished a game with them and by does my back hurt. But it is worth it.   In fact, while playing two "elders" from the Mormon church stopped by and asked if the kids were my grand kids.  (They are lucky my guns were put away.) I told them they were the youngest of my seven....and I wasn't even Mormon.  Then I gave them that "gotcha" look. I told the we were evangelicals and sent them on their way.  Why they call teenagers "elders" is the only proof need to know a group isn't right. Rename something to mean something else, who do they think they are? Democrats? 

Well...that's everything in a nutshell...

Getting into Shape for the '13 tour!

After the crazies of 2012 with it's travels taking us all the way to Massachusetts and nine other states in between while dealing with unprecedented fuel and travel cost as well as increases in taxes, regulatory fees, and insurances we really deserved hibernation this winter.  Grant it we didn't really hibernate. We went to conventions, marketed, update and upgrade props and equipment, and did all the thousand little things to get ready for 2013's season.  
One last thing to do before we go into full throttle ...get my gut back down to my show pants size. Yup, time to shed the winter coat.  So recently I have been working out with the kids.  Well, as best as a guy with a tumor in his spinal cord can do. Mostly I have been biking; mostly w/Jim.  But today Princess Olivia and I packed our bikes into the van and after running around on errands we hit the trails that run along the Feather River.   We passed a gaggle of birders with their big binoculars and cannon-sized camera lenses.  A couple of joggers and dog walkers were out enjoying the day too.

We are coming up on what was once a yearly event but we have missed the last two years, Magic for Mexico. My home church sends youth group and sometimes college kids to Mexico over Spring Break to build homes for the needy there. We often donate the use of one of our vans.  But this year we are going back to the old tradition of doing a nice sized show where 100% of proceeds go to the trip for the kids.  It's a character building trip for these kids and it serves the Lord.   I have asked my good magician friends, JC Dunn, Carlos Sawyer, and Bill Jackson to join me.  Jugglin' Jim and  the Kent Kids will also perform.  It will be less a circus style show and mostly a magic show.

If you can make it out please do; you will be helping a great cause.

While we have been enjoying warm days here in NorCal my cousins in CT have had a bit of a rough patch. Below explains what I am talking about. That is my cousin's husband half way down his step shoveling snow the same way Obama shoveled the manure in the State of the Union last night.  Look how high up on their glass door the snow reached.

 Many of you have asked about Cynthia and Miles. They are doing well.  Ky was at the far edge of the big freeze so they fared well. Below are some pictures from Cynthia's Birthday gathering last week.  Miles baked her a cake and they both, joined by friends, had a nice spaghetti dinner.

 Miles, being industrial, went out and booked himself a show back at the college. He Performed a 30 minute show and made some pocket cash ...Below he is swallowing a loooong balloon.

Meanwhile at Home Olivia's Onigiri, and Amelia's Piggy had a tea party celebrating Cynthia's birthday. 

James made the front page of the local paper after doing a very terrific job at reading for kids at a local school as part of a fundraiser.  The publicity resulted in another school wanting to hire him for a regular paid show school assembly for next month. 

More to come on new tricks and stunts in the show. Below is our current Summer tour schedule:

Here is the Summer tour layout so far (still booking shows so this will change as we progress in time forward):
Beech Bend Amusement Park Jun 3-16
Clarksville Fair (TN) June 18-23
Bellevue Festival (OH) June 2 27-29
Willard festival in the Park (OH) July 3-6
Delaware Co Fair (IA) July 9-13
Cherokee Co Fair (IA) July 18-21
Plymouth Co Fair (IA) July 24-28
Breemer Co Fair (IA) One day Aug 1,2 or 3
Mannington Fair (WV) August 5-10
Upper Peninsula State Fair (MI) August 12-18
Mohave Fair (AZ) Sept 12-14
Navajo Fair (AZ) (Robot only) Sept 11-14
More to come and adjustments to any errors I may have made here in dates to come.

Hollywood Pilgrimage 2013

Once a year for the past 5 years on the first weekend in February (for the most part) JC Dunn and more recently Bill Jackson, and I head to Hollywood. More specifically to the Magic Castle. Each year we try to squeeze in as much as we can into two or three days.
This year time seemed to have moved way too fast and we seemed to had done less than any other year. We did get to enjoy a good chunk of the Superbowl in the members only party down in the bowels of the castle and we caught all six performances in the various showrooms on Sunday. On Monday we had a couple of special guest join us. My best friend in high school, the late Paul Simoni's little brother Chester and his model beautiful wife (whose in beautiful matches her outer beauty) joined us. It was wonderful to see the reactions of non-magicians when they see good magic shows close-up and person as we did at the Castle.

Both nights wee ran into a number of famous and not-so-famous, magician friends. We also made a few new friends, like young Siegfried who was on his way down to do his "performance interview" to become a Castle Member. We later found out he did well and was now a member.  

My only regret of the two days is a shame onto myself. I had one too many on Monday night and lost an hour or two of memories. Now, I am not a social drinker. I took up having a shot of bourbon as a muscle relaxer due to a tumor in my spine a couple of years ago. And even then, not every night. As a joke I have a "magician's flask" that seems t never bee empty, but in reality serves less than a 1/4 shot with each pour, with the right glass it looks like more. But that is off the point. In spite of my constant preaching to my kids and others toward temperance I somehow had one glass to many. I am not sure why, how, or when. I suppose I can render a guess as to why: it was the first time since the funeral several years ago that I have had any social interaction with anyone from my dear departed best friend of yor, Paul's, family and my guest that night is his little brother (albeit all grown up).  I think the several hundred memories like when I was sick and missed Paul with a colorful up-chuck by inches, the time we rolled   his truck on the hill behind his house then up-righted it, the target shooting in his back yard, the many times we went cruising or just hanging out,etc., well, I think I let my guard down and bam. Since I come from a family of generational alcoholics (my parents excluded) I must say the whole incident scared and still scares me. To loose ones memory for even a few minutes is scary, but up to two hours. So social drinking has ended for me. With no regrets. You know I don't even remember saying, "good bye" to my friends that night. I am ashamed of myself.

But onward top happier moments. Our walk on the Hollywood walk of fame is always a hoot. Not so much for the touristy things but more for watching the tourists themselves. So much fun to watch. Each year I also try to get my little ones a little souvignier...most are MIC (made in China) and I avoid them but if it is unique and meaningful I will pick them up something. And good ole JC can't be stopped from getting them something as well.  You can't tie that guy down when it comes to stopping him from being generous. I know I've tried. hehehe

Lunch at SoCal's PK Chang's was nice. the food was good but I am still a loyal Tong Fong Low guy. TFL has been around in my hometown for over 100 years. Started by the Chinese show came to Cali to work the railroads and gold mines. PKC's hot and sour soup was not as hot and sour as we liked so I asked the waiter to bring some seasoned rice vinegar and I added it and some spicy garlic sauce to the soup and made it much better. Otherwise the food was very tasty.  And the company of Bill and JC made it even nicer.

Outside of acting the tourist, Chinese food, and the Castle we pretty much didn't do much more this year. Which is odd because we are usually hitting everywhere. Oh well, there is always 2014.

Getting Ready

2013 is shaping up to be a great year.  I grant you January has been bleak, but the rest of the year is really taking shape. 

We will be back at Beech Bend Amusement Park but instead of July we will be there from June 3-16. We then  head to Clarskville, TN for a week followed by two weeks in Northern Ohio. Then we head to the corn field of Iowa with the rest of July at three fairs there.  From there we head back eastward to West Virginia.  We are in talks with several other fairs and I will have a full schedule soon. We will also be back at the Mohave fair in September.  

This week is the last major mailing and email campaign for the 2013 bookings. Believe it or not we start the 2014 booking marketing in late April.  We already have a gig in British Columbia and Minnesota booked for 2014. 

Anti-Monkey Butt Powder will sponsor us for another season. We really enjoy promoting them. This year we will get to attend a few opening of stores that sell the very useful anti-itch powder. see them at www.antimonkeybutt.com or on Facebook. 

We have set the BMT (Big Metal Thing) a.k.a. the trapeze rig set up in our back 40. The kids have begun designing their new routine for 2013. You've already seen the pictures of the kids working out new stuff for their acts in prior posts.  All I can say is they are pretty impressive. The dogs have even started a new routine practice.  Three poodles this year.

The gas prices seem awfully scary this year. Even more so than last year because the prices were what they are now at the beginning of summer last year. Which means there is a good chance this summer will start with even higher prices. Fuel cost has been our biggest enemy these past 4 years. I still remember paying 99cents/gallon in Toledo just six years ago. Oh well. 

This weekend JC, Bill, and I will be heading down to Hollywood to network and press the flesh down at the Magic Castle. Each year we seem to meet people who have been helpful or instructive or have hired us. So I wonder what this year holds for us.   I met Tippy Hedron (The Birds) and Tony Curtis a couple of years back.  I even got to perform for Tippy. We met some other stars as well like the man who played Wyatt Earp in the early TV series and a famous male porn star who is currently in critical condition in an LA hospital. (I wasn't thrilled to meet him, and no, I did not shake his hand.)

I will be performing a birthday party, of all things, tomorrow. I haven't done that in years. But the lad I am doing it for is the son of a man who I performed for when he was a lad. That makes me old! 

I will post pix from Hollywood and anything else that comes about as they come about. 

Cheers. 

Month Update!

It has been 24 days since my last posting. Sorry to all our faithful. I have no excuse. As is our norm we don"t perform a lot in January. We spend most of this month either marketing, going to conventions, repairing or building new tricks and/or props, and developing new skills, tricks, stunts, etc.   The kids work daily on new stunts on the tight rope, the unicycle, hula hoops, Contortionism, etc. A long time ago we removed most of the furniture in our living room and have taken the 27X14 foot space and turned it into a training center/stage where we practice.   Of course the tightrope and trapeze work is done outside when it isn't raining or too cold.
Well, this January has not been boring. California had a special election so Jim and I were asked by the Voter Registrar's office if we would be election officials again. We had the day free so we went for it.  Turn out was very low since there was only one race on the ballot.  At my polling place we have two precincts and the inspector (manager) of the other precinct came down with the flu and couldn't work so I volunteered to be the inspector for both precincts. That meant double the work, which wasn't mush until closing. That's when all the official stuff goes down and everyone is running around like madmen getting the place torn down, ballots counted and sealed, etc.   In spite of the double duty we were out of there by 8:25 and the long 16 hour day was finished.   We slept late that next day.

Like in the presidential election I was at the prettiest polling place. In fact, in the morning and evening we got to watch a family of deer (a buck, two does, and 4 fawn) eat the grass outside our 20 foot high 50 foot half circle window.

The day before the election I had to put Cynthia and Miles on a plane back to Kentucky. Both wanted to stay longer but school duties have since come into play and they are doing well out there.

This month also brought a couple of medical alerts for us. First we heard that a good friend from our church had a mini-stroke.  Now this lady in in her 80s and still rides her bike everywhere. She lives way out in the country up and down a couple of pretty good hills. Yet she rides almost everyday. She's not the type to enjoy a hospital stay.  So when I visited her I found her dressed in her bike-wear and on the edge of her bed literally ready to leave.   She was signed out while I was there.
I was already in the hospital because my mother had gone in the day after our friend went in for the stroke, for an operation.  She would stay for about 4 days and is now at home recovering. It's amazing how just going home can lift a person's spirit.  She is doing well but has had an infection come and go. Keep her in your prayers please.

Here are a couple of fun pictures I have come across. Apparently the prez often runs into fly trouble. Over the last four years he has had three interviews where flies attack.  Proof that what comes out of this man is pure BS????

 The rodents are coming out in support of gun proponents. (credit goes to Facebook for this picture.)

And here is an interesting picture that shows the highest area of gun violence seems to be areas with the strictest gun laws and the most democrats. 

Ok, enough of that talk for now.

Bookings are coming along. Our summer tour has us in TN, OH, IA, WV, AZ, CA, KY, and possibly MI as of right now. We are in talks with a couple of other states.   Quassy Amusement Park had inquired about having us back (they are in CT very close to Newtown).  They didn't like our prices and don't like us selling things to compensate for a lower rate so those talks fell apart.  They are sticking with local acts this year to save some doe.

 Above...Jim at the Iowa Convention in my costume balancing a girl.  Below...bored at the hotel prior to the convention Jim builds a monument.

Jim went to Iowa and was able to get us a very nice Iowa tour that will keep us in the Corn State for the full month of July. As always he was a popular guest at the convention and balanced everything he could find on his face.



My dear friends, JC Dunn and Bill Jackson, will do our yearly pilgrimage to the Magic Castle in Hollywood next week. We always have a good time and it's a great networking and marketing opportunity. And you can't ask for better travel companions.






Well, that's all I have got right now. Talk again soon!

Happy New Year and SF trip

2012 is history. Not our best year.
2013 is already proving to be better with bookings rolling in.
We have spent the eve playing games, watching Dr. Who an the Twilight Zone. The kids had sparkling apple juice.
I am excited about this new year in spite of the excess taxes and dumb new laws.
I can't say 12 was a completely rotten year...business wise it wasn't the best. But the love and kindness of friends (like JC an Bill) and family have made it a blessed year.
I want to share the love of Christ this new year w/all whom I meet.
Be blessed and happy 2013.


I wrote the above New Year's Day. Since then I have booked several shows for the summer tour and sadly had to turn down a fundraiser show in Alabama; they wanted a larger circus show with big animals and a tent.  We're a smidge too small for that.
Cynthia wanted to do her yearly pilgrimage to SF so she, two of her friends and Miles (and me) hit the road 5am on the 2nd for a full day in the City By the Bay. We left early to try and get early bird parking rates. (the rates have gone up from $20 all day to $33 and early bird was changed from 9am to 8am at the lot we usually use. So we drove around and found a 9am early bird lot for $10....oversized $20......We were oversized. Turned out the lot was closer to our starting point (Pier 39) than our old lot so it turned out OK.  (on one more note EVERYTHING in SF is more expensive this year: Parking meters $4.00/hour and no more free after 5pm. no more plastic bags in the city and if you want a paper bag you pay 10 cents....not for the store but as a city fee. Mix that with the already higher sales tax given a 1% boost by the state and balabing balaboom your broke before you know it. High overhead of the city also makes the prices for anything outrageous as well. )
Since we got to the Pier early, and no shops but the coffee shops being open, we watched the workmen load in the boxes and containers for the various shops and restaurants. And then went around their trucks to get a few pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, etc. The sea lions never close so we enjoyed watching them frolic, scratch, stretch,  but mostly lay around barking.  One other note on the wildlife: the seagulls and pigeons are really fat in SF.
Though Cynthia (and James and Mami and the kids) have all gone on my walking tour of SF (I used to live and work there) Miles had never gone; it was his first. It was his first cable car ride too (which is also a dollar more expensive over last year.) The coolest thing about the cable cars is the technology and equipment are all authentic from the early days of SF.

below are the pix of the SF trip.....out of order but I will put captions....first here was our tour....Pier 39 then Fisherman's Wharf, a stop at Boudin Sourdough Bread Factory while I hit the fishmonger row to get my traditional calamari salad, a few stops at stores in the area (including the touristy ones) and then down to Ghiradelli Square for a free sample of chocolate, we enjoy the street performers as we pass and drop a buck in if we like them, we then get in line for the Cable car and ride it to Powell Street near union Square, More shopping,and a quick piece of pizza pie at Blondie's  then we walk through China town up to little Italy and down to the financial district around Telegraph Hill (made the mistake of going over it to visit Coit Tower one year....nearly died), back down to the Embarquadero to the piers and then to the van. We then drive to Japan town for lunch and shop hopping. Then back in the van we head to the Sutro baths, Cliff House, and Ocean Beach for the sunset. On this trip we added a trip to Stoneridge Mall, a shopping mall near SFSU. It sure has gone high class since I went there back in college. Next we drove to my old home of Westlake, Daly City where we shopped and I gave the kids a tour of where their mom and I lived when we first married. Then we added a trip to South SF to go to a great Asian Market where we picked up Japanese food ingredients for Mami. Back to Westlake we drove, passing the hospital where James was born.  Back in Daly City we stopped by the very old but very delicious Joes of Westlake where we ate spaghetti and then went home. The waters at Joes have always looked like mobbed up waiter...the white shirts, bow ties, back apron and accents.

 On the Wharf near Pier 39.

 End of the day waiting for their stable at Joes.

 The submarine you can tour if you want to shell out the cash. It's benind the mechanical games museum....which is free.

 A shot from the cable car.....California street...the very steep California street.

 China Town

 On the Wharf.  I've watched these guys age.

 Ocean Beach...sunset.

 the Wharf

 Port of SF as we arrived.

 Japanese lunch.

 From the mechanical games museum

 Bay bridge and rocket ship as we arrive in the morn.

 Ocean Beach

 Giant Candy at a candy shop on the wharf.

 Sutro Baths

 Photo Bomb....can you see me?

 Friends at the Beach

 Cable car

 TransAmerica Pyramid from the bottom

 Sutro Baths

 Cable car

 Museum.

 Sutro Baths

 I forget where this picture was taken

 Running on the beach?

 Sutro Baths.

 Japan Center

 Pier 39.....she takes a picture with him every year.

 Alcatraz

 OK...somehow Victor with his cardboard-duct tape knight outfit snuck in here.....

 As we came by on the cable car we watched the workers take the tree down in Union Square.

 Pier 39's Tree.

 View looking up from the Sutro Baths.

 Pier 39

 Cynthia found a store that sold one of her favorite childhood snacks.

 China Town

 The top of Lombard (the squiggly street)

On the Cable car.

 While we were SF the other kids worked on their acts. Olvia has taught herself how to draw...in a most interesting way.
Below is our newest artwork almost finished.