29 October 2008

Quick trip with Mom

Last weekend, Mom and I made a quick trip to Northern California. (More about the reason for the trip and what we did in Cali on a later post.) Here I just want to share some of the incredible scenery we enjoyed along the way. Not sure exactly where these pics & vids were taken. But we followed US 101 from Newport, OR to Eureka, CA. Went down on Sat, 25 Oct, and returned the next day. Beautiful weather to enjoy gorgeous scenery.
Somewhere on the south Oregon coast...


Same place as above vid...
This was the home of a lumber tycoon in Eureka.

On the return trip, back in Oregon...






Mom and I enjoyed the trip very much! As she commented, it is rare anymore when we get uninterrupted time together. Enjoyed some excellent conversations, discussions and "letting our ears rest!"
ttfn

27 October 2008

Air Guitar

Hood River Valley High School, where BW teaches, held homecoming week last week. Those of us from "previous generations" might not be prepared with how homecoming is celebrated here. All month long through October, students and faculty alike are planning various events and competitions. But this post is about one of those in particular: The Air Guitar competition and show held on Thursday of homecoming week. Each year the faculty has asked BW to participate and this year she finally relented. So I attended and took videos. Unfortunately most of the pics and vids were too dark to appreciate. :( But I have a few showing the faculty's portion of the show.
Remember: The people you see in these next 4 videos are faculty at Hood River Valley High School!



No, BW is not in these first 2. They are here just to give a feel for the atmosphere.




The next shows a line of 9 (?) faculty members. Each will do a very brief dance, each of a different style of dance. BW was asked to do a "Robot dance." (Personally I never heard of it.) Maybe you will be able to guess which one in the following vid is BW!



For the Robot dance, she wanted to hide her identity, because she did not want her students to recognize her. Well, I was sitting on the floor surrounded by a bunch of students. When she lined up as seen above, immediately one boy in front of me said, "That's Mrs. Culbertson!"

So a little while after the "Robot" dance, all the faculty who had practiced (and a few who had not) came onto the floor to re-enact the "Thriller" video. Unfortunately, BW was kind of buried in the crowd. But if you look closely you can see her in an Orange Jumpsuit!


They were trying to do a take-off on the video from a few months ago that showed several hundred prison inmates doing the Thriller video. Since those inmates were Filipinos, one person obtained a prison jumpsuit and BW agreed to wear it.

In this last vid, you can see her a bit more clearly.

Last but not least, a couple still shots from the day's event:

Below is a shot of some of the Senior students. I tried several times to get a good shot of the guy in orange & black, but this was the best I could get. The costumes were part of the performances each class presented to the student body.

And last, returning to the "Thriller" production, somehow I got a decent still of the male teacher dressed as a girl. His outfit was leftover from an earlier section of the faculty's portion of the show.

High school was never like this when I was there! :)

ttfn