[We began the month with a fine dining experience and a bad selfie.  Danny was home from a long weekend working at the “harn,” and the supervisor used the beautiful day to tear out thousands of weeds improperly growing in the yard and felt deserving of a taste of the grape.]

[The 4th was the combined birthday party for Shelly Karnis, Marlene Collins, Larry McCoy, and this reporter . . . ]

[We celebrated at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale with at least several other local luminaries . . . ]

[Larry and I not only share a birthday, we share (OK, at different periods of time) the same house in Victoria Heights which maintains the same telephone number it had in 1949 (or whatever year it was when we first moved in).  We thank Deb Trumm for the rapid fire shutter snaps!  😉  ]

[When Shelly arrived, she was greeted by our musical hosts Matt, with Julie, Velline.]

[Though Shelly had long desired to dance with Nureyev, she settled for the next best option . . . and Marlene with the supervisor.]

[The cake never stood a chance.]

[Thanks again to Julie and Matt, who were terrific as usual.  That was the McCoys first venture into SAWA and they loved the place . . . and the music!  😉  ]

[Larry discovered these in the basement of our house when they moved in 47 years ago.  Mom must have thought they were too heavy to move.  They are 3 to 6 album sets of 78 rpm discs.  I’ll have to see if they are still playable . . .]

[Well, it was a birthday.]

[Earlier that afternoon we had a fine dining event with dozens of our close personal friends.  🙂 ]

[As posted on Facebook Saturday:  Just wanted to let you know, your cub reporter will be out and about today providing complete and total coverage of stuff . . . from the girls’ soccer game, to Professor Miltich at the winery, to Dueling Pianos at the Performing Arts Center tonight! It looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day here in Vacationland USA!   ]

[I was late arriving to the soccer game.  An earlier meeting . . . seems like we go to more meetings now than when we worked?  I was surprised the game was not being played on the artificial turf football field?  And since that’s the field you see first driving in, I thought maybe there wasn’t a game at all and I had mis-read the schedule.  Well, I had – in a way.  The boys were playing first, followed by the girls, on the adjoining grass field.  The game was tied at 2 @ the half with Rocori.  I stayed long enough to see the Cards score two 2nd half goals and could tell they had the game well in hand.  We eventually won 7 – 2; and the girls later won their game 7 – 0.  There were no program rosters (that I could find), so I do not know the players.  From the minutes I saw, I thought player numbers 7, 11, and 13 were impressive from an offensive standpoint.  And I thought I got some good action shots presented mostly sans commentary.  I enjoyed the game and would have stayed longer except it was then time for the next event.]

[Midfielder who I thought did a pretty good job controlling play in his area.]

[Card goalie aligning his players on a free kick . . . ]

[I think he got them in order here.]

[It was a beautiful sunny day, temp in the low 70’s, but if you’re a player sitting in the shade of the scoreboard at halftime probably seemed like a good idea.]

[Future star?]

[It’s a header!!]

[Skilled photo-journalist that I am (harummppff), I was able to” capture” the two goals scored while I was there . . . ]

[And here’s the start of the first one by good ole No. 11.  I must have had a premonition . . ]

[His shot hit the upper left hand corner . . . GOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL!]

[Cards up one.  I was surprised by the lack of a celebratory response . . . it was kind of ho-hum, back to midfield?  In volleyball, each point is like the happiest moment in each player’s life!  😉  ]

[Then we had a penalty kick, and good ole No. 7 scored . . . ]

[GOOOAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!]

[Korner-Kick!]

[I follow soccer during the World Cup, otherwise not so much.  Time and weather permitting, hope to catch some more Card games though.]

[And then it was on to the winery for an afternoon with Professor Miltilch.  The regular crowd had already shuffled in . . .]

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. ~  George Carlin]

[The Bergs first exposure to Anthony, Karin buys his CD.  🙂  ]

[That evening, the first performance at the Performing Arts Center.  This was such an important event, Crazy Dave deigned to leave the comfortable confines of Camp Ballentine.  Fortunately, he and Mary loved the high energy performance of Deuces Wild in Dueling Pianos.  And I think all, including the performers, were mightily impress with the facility.  There appeared to be no ban on performance photography, but I abstained because it can be an annoyance.  Looking forward to lots of events here!  🙂  ]

[Lest you ever wondered what happens to all those helium balloons released at various events, found one in our yard Monday. It read: “Schwartzkopf Bat Mitzvah, East Moline, Illinois, April 19, 1987.” Through the magic of the internet, I was subsequently able to track down Ms. Schwartzkopf. She got married, converted to Eastern Orthodox, and moved to Minsk with her husband, who is a smelt salesman.]

One great thing about getting old is that you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you’re too tired.  ~  George Carlin