Steamrolling Into Christmas

Last night Bill, Grace, my brother Jim and I went to see Mannheim Steamroller

perform at Dayton's beautiful Schuster Center.

Most of you know about my affection for this building and how

I love to attend performances here.

 We have never been disappointed at an event here and last night was no exception!

It was wonderful! It was the first time any of us had seem them perform live and wow!

The musicians signed autographs for everyone after the show and their PR

photographer asked for some shots of our Grace with the guys. I was able to take some too!

Hmmm...I have wrapping and some more baking to do. I think I will pop in their

25th Anniversary CD while I work! What could be better than that!

Hoping your week is going well and that you are ready, or almost so, for the holidays!

Our Prettty Snowflake

Grace's Middle School had their Holiday Concert yesterday and what a treat! Talented young people showcasing their musical abilities! Grace plays violin and really enjoys it.

The audience was serenaded by the choir and orchestra and it was all just delightful!

I saw these snowflake creations just outside the auditorium and thought we could get a few photos of our little virtuoso!

It sure is a magical time of year!

Stomping With The Stumps

The Stumps are something of a rock and roll legend in the Dayton area. Formed in 1963, the band was quite popular for years, opening concerts by groups such as Buffalo Springfield,

Mitch Ryder, Steppenwolf, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, B.J. Thomas, Archie Bell

and the Drells and many others. They even went on tour with Buffalo Springfield when many of The Stumps were just in their teens. In 2008, the band was invited to reunite to play at the Kettering Fairmont West High School's 40th reunion. Subsequent invitations to play at The Fraze Pavilion and local clubs came pouring in. It has been an exciting year of music for the band

and their followers. Featuring original members Mark Fraze and Jim Daily, the band also features Kenny Collins on lead guitar, Gary Marcum on drums and John Deboer on keyboards and flute.

On August 12th the band returned again to The Fraze for another rocking concert. On this special night, other original members reunited with the band on stage. Tom Davis, Jim Wagner and Michael Chaffee flew in just for this event!

And just in case you are wondering, yes. Mark Fraze, The Stumps founder and bass player, is the son of the man for whom The Fraze Pavilion was named. Ernie Fraze was a brilliant local businessman and inventor. He

is responsible for your soda can's pop tab!

The band plays the classic hits of the 60s and 70s, when rock and roll was truly "rock and roll"!

Music from bands like Jethro Tull, The Beatles, Steppenwolf, The Moody Blues, Neil Diamond,

Bob Seger, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Lovin Spoonful, The Turtles, The Kinks

and many others.

A concert DVD was filmed...good news for all of us who love their music!

You can just see me...that big blue blob in the front row, near the center.

Melissa took a photo of me taking a photo...

Smile pretty Gary!

Kenny, who plays lead guitar, his son Andrew and daughter in law Betsy

Grace with Kara and Kailen. Aren't they all purty? Their dad Gary is The Stumps drummer. Gary and I went to High School together and it is always such fun when lots of us from HS get together to hear one of the band's shows!

Betsy is a Stumps Groupie! Heck! We ALL are but she has the cool shirt!

John and Jim's pictures arerecent but Mark's is from the early 70s and Gary's and kenny's are their High Schoo senior pictures! This shirt was VERY popular at the concert! Everyone wanted to take a peek!

Even Mark!!

Old Susie Q with her beautiful friend Jean. Some of my friends who attended are not keen on being on blog but I want them to know their photos were gorgeous! THEY are gorgeous! I love them all...and they know who they are!

My two favorite concert goers...

Sweet Melissa rockin' away!

Encore! Encore!

Melissa and her husband Dave. They will soon be new home owners!

One of my favorite pictures of the night...Gary and Kara.

It is always fun to attend a Stumps concert and share

it with friends and family and about 500 other happy folks!

I hope you enjoyed sharing it along with us...

Have a sweet weekend.

I send you all love and many hugs.

Susie Q

I Am Feelin' Blue...

It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses...

Uh huh...Bill, Grace, my brother Jim and I will be feeling blue tonight. We are heading over to The Fraze Pavilion, an open air live music spot, to see Jake and Elwood's Blues Revue. From Orlando, this duo are affiliated with Universal Studios and are the only Dan Ackroyd/Belushi Family sanctioned Blues Brothers tribute band. They have a rhythm and horn section and pretty darned lively and lots of fun! The Fraze offers lots of these events during the Summer...the tickets are inexpensive and you can't beat it for a sweet evening of entertainment!

2 weeks ago Bill and I went to The Fraze to see Nancy Cartwright do her one woman stand up show, "My Life As A 10 Year old Boy". Nancy is the voice of Bart Simpson (and other Simpson characters as well) and hails from our area. Her father sat right behind us and was such a nice man...we saw where she got her sense of humor!

We have tickets for other Summer events at The Fraze and always enjoy ourselves...it is just another reason I am proud to be from the Dayton area.

Hope your week is treating you well...and that you have lots of reasons to smile!

Love and Hugs,

Susie Q

What A Wonderful World...

...what a wonderful weekend! And now I am officially exhausted! Whew.

I hope all of you are beginning your week with smiles and feeling good...Spring was definitely out in force last weekend. Today? Not so much! It is rainy and cold. But I can just look back and feel warm...so. Just what were we up to? Let's take a peek...

...and as always, most pictures may be clicked on for a larger view.

We took a drive through the St. Anne's Hill and the Oregon District neighborhoods of Dayton. We always love the old houses, the cottages being a huge favorite.

Don't you love the front door here? This pretty place in just across the street from a great seafood spot, Jay's. We love this house, especially the front stoop. Here is a closeup of it...the purple door and the stainless steel accessories! LOVE that. LOVE this red house...

...and this side garden.

This is our favorite place...a sweet cottage that I would

LOVE to see inside. Maybe someday...

Here is the cottage's side courtyard.

I love this house and look at their wonderful front yard and porch.

Still all decked out for Easter.

Then we drove past a few of downtown Dayton's churches...

this one, Holy Trinity, was built in 1860 and has always been one of my favorites.

Friday night found us out with several of my high school friends. We met at a local spot to hear

The Stumps. The Stumps are something of a legend in the Dayton area and have been together since the 1960s. What great music! They play mostly songs from the 60s and 70s and what's not to love about that? The drummer is their newest member and just happens to be a friend from our high school days! We all wanted to be there to support him, the band and have a good time listening to classic rock and roll.

Saturday was busy...at 10 am, a group of us from church met to

clean up the city bike and hike trail. It was a delight to see how well it had been cared for and how little trash was there. Good work Dayton! Then it was time for a treat...Kipper decided that it had been too long since we had taken him to Ritter's, sooooo....

Okay Dudes. Here is where *I* take over the story. What the old lady t'ain't tellin' you is this. They said it was too cold to go to the last Dog Night at Ritter's. Come on dudes. It was ONLY 20 degrees and a little icy. Gee whiz. So I figured they owed me ya know?

Whoo Hoo! Here we are!!

T'ain't it beautiful dudes? It just glows in the sun. *sigh*

There were only a few peeps there but this little dudette really had it bad for the Kipster.

So's I gave her a tumble and smooched her nose...

Dad had to hold my cuppa so's it didn't get away...I have one mean slurp ya know!

Oh wait dudes!! A little help here...hello? STOP laughin'!

Whoa...help a little dude out?

If they would stop laughin' for one second and help me I could get this off my face...my mom better NOT be takin' my picture...

Aw gee dudes...the 'scream is all gone and so's my story is ended.

Don't I look sad? *sniff* Till next time!

After Ritter's we headed over to Woodland Cemetery. It is truly one of Dayton's gems and such a lovely, historic and peaceful place. The geese and ducks were all enjoying a warm Spring day...

This is the gravesite for the Wright family...

You might recognize two of these names...

Then we drove around some of our favorite parks to take in more Spring beauty...

Late afternoon arrived and so did softball practice.

Grace seems ready to catch those grounders...

Grace at bat...

Grace and her BFF, Miss K. You should see Miss K pitch! This girl has quite the arm!

Then it was dinner out for our little athlete. She chose her favorite

Chinese restaurant and her favorite dish. We met our good buddy, T, and had a lovely time. As we headed home, this was the sunset that greeted us.

Talk about a perfect ending to a sweet day!

Sunday was a little rainy but we still enjoyed our day. After church, Mom, Bill, Grace and I headed to a favorite spot for brunch. Afternoon was spent at the movies with Grace and our friend, Z. Z and Grace wanted to see 17 Again.

Is that Zac Efron downright adorable or what? And no. I am NOT robbin' any cradles here. I would still prefer my beloved Brian Dennehy but I am just sayin'...

That evening we met our dear friends T and C at a benefit dinner. The Robyn's Nest is an animal rescue organization that does some awesome things. We had spaghetti, salad, bread and dessert and enjoyed seeing all the fur babies up for adoption.

This was Charlie Brown...such a sweet boy...

And this is Hannah. She was rescued just a few weeks ago and is looking for a new home.

Okay. Truth time. I fell in love with her and oh how I want to bring her home with us. I have yet to convince Bill that we need another pet but oh how I love her. She is such a small girl...won't get any bigger...and a sweetie. Even if it isn't here, I pray she will find a new home soon.

I send each one of you lots of love and many hugs. Enjoy your week and savor each day.

Life is SO good...

Love and Hugs,

Susie Q