Orel Family

Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe it's me. I mean, I'm sentimental and all, but I just don't get why someone would take their most intimate moment and put it on display for hundreds or even thousands of people. But that's what I've seen now, 3 times in the past half year: Men taking time out from the middle of a concert -- twice on stage and once from the audience -- to propose marriage. The first time was last September 10, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I was there for the weekend, for the Springsteen symposium . The first night, I went with a few friends on a pilgrimmage to the Stone Pony to see Joe Grushecky . I'm not much of a Grushecky fan, really, and his following is rather modest -- though perhaps it's a bit more down on the shore, where his Springsteen connection helps. Here are my notes from the show: "Got to the Pony about 11pm, just in time for Grushecky. He was...Grushecky. Eventually Mary and I headed out to the outside area, I t

We've arrived! Yes, we now have our very own link from Wikipedia . I have to admit, it never really occurred to me to list our own pages in Wikipedia, but I noticed yesterday that the site has had some incoming hits from there. Backtracking, I discovered that the Wikipedia reference for the song "Atlantic City" links to my discography. So there we are. I flipped through Wikipedia, finding its discography . It's pretty detailed with the chart information -- more of it than on mine, actually. But then I saw that a lot of the dates for album releases were wrong. They got the date for Born to Run wrong. So I made my first-ever edit in Wikipedia, to straighten out the dates. Now, my question for myself is: Do I add links to the discography and charities pages? My inuition is yes, but I'll think it over a bit first.

Aaron had an offday from school yesterday; Elianna still had her pre-school. Perfect opportunity. I took a vacation day, and Lori and I took Aaron skiing. It was windy and the temperature had dropped 35 degrees overnight, but Mt. Holly is open (mount! 380 feet and they call it a mount). Aaron isn't much for sports, he despises team sports. But the solo sports -- skiing and biking, he loves those. He's been taking lessons, they pick up on Sunday mornings half a block from the house, so we figured to see what he's learned. We took the video camera. We'd capture this occasion. Lori was excited. She'd skied there as a kid, but that was... a while ago. Aaron was excited. Mt. Holly has a quad detachable lift, only one in souther Michigan, and he really likes it. The website said the lift was open. The phone message said the lift was open today. We got there, the lift wasn't open. Too windy. First run of the day... First run! Aaron guns down the hill.

The Renaissance Center is home this week to the NFL Media Center, ESPN, and pretty much every sports radio station around. As the week has gone along, more and more people have been streaming in the lower levels of the building, buying souvenirs or hoping for a moment with any of the celebrities passing through. Up in the offices, it's been quiet and getting quieter. As the mall becomes ever more crowded, the offices have emptied out. People working from home or from different locations. It's not this quiet the last day before the winter holiday. In the mall, three main areas have been converted. The GM World area has become the Media Center. Where cars were on display in a sort of mini-museum/advertising area, there are many areas set up for the hosts and their interviewees. Everyone from ex-football heroes to bikini-clad women have been spotted. The two levels above the GM World area have circular rings where people walk; there are now so many people crowding th